Chapter 9
June 2001
Kingsley was exhausted, his guilt over the state of their world had him working over time, he was trying to understand Narcissa’s plans and trying to be a step ahead of her, but there was nothing rational about her plans.
The prison thing was straightforward, although she had said she wanted to improve conditions and that’s not happening, not even the guards have any information. They haven’t revealed the plan of using the Veil as an execution tool which begs the question of if they were really using it or if they were listening to the complaints and stopping the death sentences altogether. Almost none of the departments have had any assignments, The DMLE has its orders, that is, capture everyone and anyone who has been accused of anything worse than killing flies, that makes a third of the population detained, a third into hiding and the other third in government. The DoM is closed except for the unspeakables in charge of the death room and the soul room; they had forgotten to obliviate him and revoke his clearance of the personnel on the DoM during the change of power. Hermione did keep complaining about the lack of security of the Ministry.
The rest of the departments were acting as they saw fit, that means that most stopped any projects that are not the main tasks. If her goal was to install chaos then she is definitely succeeding.
He took a sip of his second? third? coffee… It feels like the third coffee, and tuned in on the conversation, this time sitting at the table with the rest of the Order and some of the young fighters of the Defence group they had at Hogwarts.
Harry too was stretched thin, he hasn’t stopped, it’s been days since he has seen Hermione, luckily he shares bed with Ginny or he wouldn't see her either, now that Quiddicht, at least the practices, have re-started. She wasn't here tonight, neither was Luna who received an urgent patronus from her father, Headmistress Mcgonagall and Hermione were relieved to hear that the Lovegoods were ok, but you could also see the small smile that they shared when Xenophilous said he couldn’t come.
“I’ve been on rounds around Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and other small magical communities the last couple of weeks. When Robbards noticed I was giving heads up to some of our friends before they got detained he sent me to patrol the streets. Everywhere is deserted, I thought we would never see our world like this again when we see people in groups we either have to disperse them or get attacked”
Indeed Harry was sporting a black eye, split lip and his skin was bruised everywhere, his wounds these past few days haven’t had the time to heal before he gets hexed again.
“People are scared, paranoic, and are attacking without hesitating, the Auror forces are not enough and these guards that they made of the snatchers are only protecting the wives and the Minister”
“We have started a resistance group, several who are here and others who are coordinating operations in other areas. It has been difficult to make people trust each other again, after the tell on thy neighbor plot that Narcissa installed at the beginning. Luckily Things are so bad that some people regret asking for my resignation so they are easy to convince. Hestia Jones and Mme Rosmerta are leading from Hogsmeade. Also Ronald here has been encouraging people to go to these reunions and adapted your signing spell for the DA to not admit people with bad intentions”
“Ron?” Hermione was speechless
“What did we say about the tone of surprise?” everybody chuckled
“‘Mione, Listen, I have learned in all of our years together to trust and to listen to you, I know you need to see the whole picture, that learning someones reasons and solve problems drives you, that's why I haven’t said anything against The Ritual and the Minister’s Platform of the wall. But I don’t need to know the reasons to act against this, I don’t need to see what the three year plan is to know that this is wrong and that they are again menacing your existence in our world” he sniffed and his eyes were glassy. Hermione couldn’t look away, tears were streaming down her face.
“I’m sorry for disappearing on you ‘Mione, but you didn’t need my help with that , you need for the rest of us to cover your back while you decipher this, and I’m bloody pissed off ‘Mione, because I feel like you already accepted that you’re walking through The Veil instead of preventing it, avoiding it, you’re planning to go in there and perhaps,maybe ,come back. I cannot risk you like that you’re my best friend” he walked out of the room “ I need a minute”
“Please give us a minute” Said a crying Hermione followed by Harry out of the kitchen looking after Ron who was sitting on the stairs.
“I’m so sorry” hiccuped Hermione throwing herself in Ron’s arms, Harry’s arms over the both of them.
When the crying stopped and they could breathe easily again Hermione started “ Thank you Ron, you are doing so much and I’ve been so obsessed with this that I didn’t even notice the state of our world. You’re leading a resistance!”
“Yeah, I’d never thought I would do that, We are mobilizing, and fast, We are planning to throw a coup by the end of the month, people are angry Hermione, they just need a little push and we’ll have a rebellion in our hands, I’m not allowing anybody to stand aside again, we fought for that, you Hermione gave everything for our world, they owe you this”
“I have been helping Ron and the others from the inside, even when they have me doing rounds I can help them cause some damage. I sent your pamphlet to Azkaban and Lestrange Manor, if you can make more, maybe about the resistance, I can get them in too. and we don’t blame you for being focused on the Grimoires, This just shows that Draco really did talked to his father about you, Lucius apparently knew you cannot ignore a task someone gives you”
They stayed silent after that , understanding passing among them
“Oh, I almost forgot , we visited Creevie’s family to prepare them for the trial, and he had this,” Ron takes a book from his pocket and with an engorgio brings it to its natural size, a book with a photo of Hermione on the cover and the words Bloody Mental that one as a title, he goes to a page near three quarters of the book and shows it to her, a picture of …
“Is that Skeeter?” It was. She was opening a parcel with a mounted beatle, jolting in a silent scream and letting it fall.
“Yup, Dennis was freelancing as a photographer for The Prophet and was witness of this priceless moment, it had to go in the scrapbook”
The scrapbook was a compilation of photos, sketches and journal clippings of Hermione’s most embarrassing and maddest moments
“Here is a photo of us on the dragon over Gringotts, they captured when you casted the reducto, this is a sketch I commissioned Dean of you as a cat in second year. He did this with what I described to him, isn't it brilliant Harry?”
“Uncanny”
Just when Hermione was getting to see Ron as a mature grown man. She took the scrapbook from his hands and hit him on the head with it.
“Oi!!”
“Lets go”, she said chin held high “it’s been more than five minutes” she left the scrapbook over the tea table of the parlor and rejoined the Kitchen
“…. She has been obsessive since she was a child, when we got to Hogwarts she went mad for Lucius, she was a natural brunette like any Black child, she created a potion to render her hair the same shade of Lucius permanently, she literally modified herself to a genetic level , not that she knows what genetics is mind you, to look like him, she didn’t even like potions” Andromeda laughed as if the Black’s penchant for madness wasn't her problem.
“Well .. " answered a wide eyed Mcgonagall.
“ You’re back” said Molly trying to move on from that awkward moment.
“Yes” it’s Hermione’s turn “Sorry for disappointing but we are going to stay on topic now that Andromeda has brought it up. We have confirmed that indeed the goal of Mrs Malfoy and these women working with her is chaos and revenge, they don’t care what comes after, some of them apparently are deflecting because they noticed that none of their political agendas are going to be met, not after they start with the executions”
A breath
“The knowledge that we have is that they want to get revenge, in the case of Mrs Malfoy revenge for the death of Draco, she blames Mr Malfoy for getting their son drafted, she tried to eliminate Goyle, who escaped by the way, for not being next to her son’s side , maybe she blames him for not protecting him during the battle ? not sure, but that was the real reason of his home arrest, buying time to frame him of something or kill him and frame this on someone other they want out of the way, if they are muggle- borns is not a priority but apparently you get extra points for it”
“What makes you say that?” asked Mr Weasley
“Pansy Parkinson is my girlfriend and Goyle told us, before going into hiding, that they had the idea of killing him and framing me. You can Imagine Mrs Parkinson is not happy with her daughter being with a mudblood. Pansy also confirmed that Mr Pruet never did anything wrong, and the accusations are false , but he is in a relationship with Marcus Flint, and Mrs Flint won’t tolerate homosexuals in her family”
“So is also personal, they are just buying their time and creating false evidence” Mr Weasley completed.
“The detail of the Veil is what I think it is, just a detail, and she is a sad and deranged woman who has gone through too much and fixated on this. If she had fixated on the unforgivables or the guillotine she would have taken that route to achieve the same” Hermione concluded
“So”, George started ticking his finger counting the bullet points “ We have a deranged government who is using magical and otherworldly resources to exact their vendetta, a way of maybe yes, maybe not, going in and out of the Veil, that again maybe yes, maybe not would be useful” Hermione flinched, has she been wasting time in this fantasy instead of joining the rebellion? “A rebellion on the making with leaders in different meeting points of magical Britain, trials and executions to stop, and to define a new government. Did I miss something?”
“What are we waiting for this, so-called, rebellion?” asked Mcgonagall
“I was telling Hermione and Harry, people are really waiting for something to happen, they are waiting for a little push”
“A little push?” asked George “what, like Harry playing dead and reviving in front of us kind of push?”
Harry had the decency of looking embarrassed.
“I think, maybe if Hermione could create another pamphlet, outing the Minister’s plans and some of the points George just mentioned, that could be this so called push, we have Ron on the streets strategizing, Harry working from the inside and this would add the last third of the golden trio behind the opposition” Kingsley said , trying to hide his grin at Hermione’s annoyed face for his use of the name they so hate.
“Minerva, Hestia and I are creating a platform with proposals for the next Minister, we don’t know yet who’s going to run for the post, but it’ll be better to hit the ground running and have the people behind the proposals, can you add it too, Hermione?” Andromeda asked.
“Yes, yes of course” Hermione would do whatever they asked, they have been creating a government plan, rallying an insurrection, and she has been in a dark room, drooling over some books chasing after a myth. Merlin ! It was Horcruxes vs deathly hallows all over again and this time she was after the deathly hallows. She shivered
“Great, we need to be prepared, keep your D.A galleons with you, and eyes and ears everywhere. It could be anything that starts people moving, the dates of the executions, a new arrest, the result of a trial, anything. Please take care”. With that, they declared the meeting over.
“Stop it Hermione” said Harry
“What?” asked Hermione and Ron, irritated and scared respectively.
“Are we preparing for another crash?” Asked Ron.
“No” said Harry “ but she’s spiraling, she started mumbling before the end of the meeting and is waiting to be in another room to start pacing”.
“What is it?” asked Ron, alarmed.
“Nothing” answered Hermione, getting more aggressive by the minute.
“Are you hungry?” insisted Ron.
Well that’s it , she’ll explode now.
“She’s feeling guilty” answered Harry, stopping the imminent explosion of a very guilty, very hungry Hermione.
“She’s feeling guilty because she feels that she hasn’t helped to improve the state of things and that she’s after something that might be useless for the cause. But, Hermione, you don’t notice that since Kingsley told us he was quitting all those months ago it was you pushing all of us trying to stop it” Harry and Ron speaked in turns.
“If it weren’t for your chat with Mr Malfoy we wouldn’t be monitoring the muggle-borns”.
“It is your wall, that you organized and structured, that gave us the clues to prevent more people getting caught”.
“Thanks to that we contacted de D.A with the galleons that you created”.
“The D.A answered protecting others and Hannah came with legal help”.
“Got Kingsley out of his ass and now we have a real plan to overthrow those bints and a possible next leader of the magical world”.
Ugh! When did her friends grow up and became so amazing?
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------
“How did you get the goblins to let us in ?”
“I took a page from Lady Malfoy and donated some goblin made pieces from the Black’s Vault, they forgave the three of us, you would think I gave them the philosopher's stone”
“Now that they have it, I guess we’ll never know. Once we’re up there we’ll tell Ron, Bill is going to be happy to not have to do our errands for us anymore”.
“Fleur too. Right, so Mr Malfoy sent you a bracelet”.
“Not any bracelet, Mr Pucey says it’s a token of the Malfoy family, it's supposed to anchor me to this side of the Veil”.
“Well, with the Grimoires he said that the more the merrier so let's do the same with tokens”.
“ I don't think I should enter the Black Vault with you, also there is the anchor in the spiritual plane that is the life debt, and there is no Black alive whom I owe anything either way”
“Well, Sirius owed you for third year, and you owe him for the Department of Mysteries, if he hadn't silenced Dolohov you would have died there”.
“Yes, That’s why I said he's not Alive”.
“Maybe it’s the wording, Mr Malfoy said you owed the Malfoy family not Draco Malfoy, also he gave the pair of your Bracelet to his half brother, I think that’s because he knows he’s going to die”.
“Can you Believe Xenophilous is Lucius Half- brother? That’s why he wasn’t at the meeting, he was with Mr Pucey”.
“Well, I don't know if I’m surprised, that hair can only belong to a Malfoy, even a half of one”
“Even a genetically modified one” finished Hermione. Both cackled like mad after that , holding their stomachs and trying to breathe.They left the Vaults with four bracelets.