Shielded

Thunder cracked outside, rattling the windows in their panes, as Hermione cautiously sank down in her sofa. She lowered the stack of books she had been balancing to the coffee table, exhaling with relief when the too-full cup on top only spilled a couple of drops onto the saucer she had placed it on. She hated having to make multiple trips, and had only realized halfway to her lounge that she had forgotten to place a napkin on her pile of evening provisions.

As a flash of lightning foretold the next round of thunder, Hermione tucked a blanket tightly around her legs, making extra sure to wrap her cold feet, and lifted the tea cup off the books with one hand, before using the other to fan out the stack across her table. Taking a slice of apple she had wedged on the saucer to nibble on, she perused the literary offerings she had prepared for herself, trying to decide which would be that best appetizer to a promising weekend of reading in the rain.

As the anticipated thunder prompted the next round of window rattles, Hermione decided that romance was the best direction to start in, and she could ease herself into more serious genres over the next few days. In fact, the stormy weather and rain drops were the perfect setting to start her 42nd reread of Pride and Prejudice – while the forecast predicted rain all weekend, the thunder storms should only last the night, and what more perfect setting was there to be surrounded by as Darcy confessed his inability to deny his yearning for Elizabeth any further?

Sighing to herself contentedly, Hermione sank back in her chair, and thumbed to the first page. Sipping from her tea, she started reading,

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife –

“RING!!!”

Hermione started at the sound of her doorbell with a jolt, sloshing her tea all over the front of her jumper. At the last minute, she had managed to jerk the book she had tucked to her chest away from the offending beverage, so it could have been worse, but with her legs wrapped up as tightly as they were, the lurch of trying to get the book out of the path of her drink upset her balance, making her fall forward off the sofa. It was only last minute, and with more coordination than she believed herself capable of, that she was able to one handedly catch herself on the floor with a thump, leaving her legs wrapped and still in the sofa.

“RING!!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Hermione yelled with exasperation. She placed the book to the side, and using both her hands to walk herself forward, she was finally able to pull her legs off the sofa and stand up. With one final curse, stumble in the blanket, and squeaky push of the coffee table, Hermione managed to disentangle herself enough to pad her bare feet across the lounge to the entrance.

She looked outside the window of her front door only to see, to her alarm, Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt’s face gazing right back at her.

“Oh my goodness, Kingsley, hold on –“ she fumbled at her front door’s lock and pulled the door open, “come in! I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting! I assumed you had to be salespeople or something of the sort, no one in their right mind would be out in this weather. In fact, why you’re traveling by foot rather than by Floo I do not understand, but nevertheless, please –”

She stepped to the side and looked at the minister expectantly, waving her hands with enthusiasm in the general direction of the indoors.

Kingsley kept his morose gaze on her, but made no move inside, and instead cleared his throat.

“Miss Granger, –”

“Oh please, why do you insist on moving back to such formalities, you know you can call me Hermione.”

“– Hermione, then. Before I come in, I need to forewarn you that this is unfortunately not a social call, and rather a matter of great sensitivity and discretion. And urgency. And priority. And…” he raised his hand and vaguely gestured in the air, “well, you get it. But I say this because there is someone else who I must insist be allowed inside, but due to the nature of the issue, I cannot tell you who they are or why they are here until we have fully secured ourselves. In addition,” at this point his shoulders slumped as he took a deep fortifying breath, making Hermione raise her eyebrows, “you may be very, very displeased to see them, and this reaction would be best case scenario. However, for reasons I will soon explain, you are the only person for the task I’m about to introduce you to. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t put you in this position. This, I guarantee you, as both your minister and your friend.”

Kingsley pulled back his shoulders at this final statement, taking on a more authoritative stance again. Hermione just stared at him, completely gobsmacked.

However, she hadn’t survived the war for nothing, and recognized situations which required immediate action, so she quickly shook herself of the shock and merely asked,

“You saying I will be displeased gives me the impression that this… person is someone whom I’ve either had bad experiences with or that I know of giving others bad experiences in some way – can I get your reassurance that I won’t be in any actual danger from this individual?”

Kingsley, to her consternation, hesitated at this, but before he could say anything, she heard a scoff from the general region of his right shoulder. Kingsley whipped his head around to glare at that general point in space.

“Is this person here right now??” Hermione gasped. She was, of course, completely aware of the multitude of invisibility options available to witches and wizards, having spent half her childhood under Harry’s invisibility cloak, but she had somehow assumed that Kingsley would have at least approached her alone if he was attempting to get her to allow someone with whom she was on bad terms into her house. She cut her eyes back Kingsley’s accusatorily, and he at least had the decency to wince apologetically at her before saying,

“The circumstances which have me at your door unfortunately necessitated that I brought them along as well with me. Again, I will be able to explain everything fully once we are indoors. But, to answer your initial question, no, you are in no bodily danger from them, and any emotional danger I’m sure you’ll be able to handle.”

“Emotional danger?? Kingsley, that may be the least convincing reassurance I’ve ever heard, and I’ll remind you that I dated Ron, who has the affirmational abilities of a can of tuna.”

“It will all make sense once we’re indoors, I promise, Hermione. Please, just trust me that you’re more than up to the task, and you’re no longer in real danger from this individual.”

Hermione’s jaw dropped for the second time, staring at him in disbelief. Kingsley’s eyes darted around, avoiding eye contact, and glanced down at the watch on his arm.

“We’ve already been exposed for longer than is prudent. Please, let us in.”

At this, he looked her directly in the eye, clearly putting every ounce of sincerity he could into the look. Hermione warily glanced once more at the space over his shoulder, back to Kingsley, and then nodded once curtly, pulling the door wider still. Kingsley lowered his head in thanks, and moved in off the threshold, wiping his feet on the doormat. As soon as he stepped off, he moved out of the way, and Hermione looked down at the floor, knowing from experience that the best tell for any sign of an invisible individual was the person’s steps. True to her prediction, the floormat shuffled once more as the phantom wiped their feet, and then the gentle clicks of dress shoes could be heard crossing deeper into her lounge.

Once she was sure they had cleared the door, she closed it again, making sure to lock it and draw the curtains. She then turned to Kingsley, who had removed his outer robes and hung them up, before she spoke.

“Can I get you anything? Tea, biscuits, some sandwiches? Or you?” Her eyes flitted generally over the area she believed Kingley’s plus one to be.

“Yes, please, that would be wonderful,” Kingsley said. “My companion unfortunately cannot speak until I have secured us fully, lest their identity be compromised, but as we have been making our way to London all day without food, I’m sure they would also appreciate some nourishment. On that note, do you mind if I cast some wards around your home?”

“Go ahead! But if you could please restrict them to the lower level, I have already warded upstairs with specialized protections that don’t interfere with my research, and it doesn’t seem we have the time to weed through the intricacies of each ward’s cumulative impact.”

Kingsley nodded his assent, took out his wand, and began murmuring spells. Hermione went back to her coffee table, which was still askew from her earlier tripping incident, to lift the abandoned blanket off the floor, scoot the table back in place, move the books to a nearby bookshelf, and pull two chairs from the corner around the table. She then smiled wryly in the general vicinity of her invisible guest and said,

“I apologize for the mess, I obviously wasn’t expecting anyone.” At this, she gestured first at herself, with her hair piled on top of her head in a crude bun with escaping tendrils, tea-covered holey jumper from Mrs. Weasley, and ratted sweatpants with additional unknown stains, and extending her gesture to encompass the living room as a whole. “I rarely get the weekends to myself, and was planning on some personal enjoyment before cleaning. Anyway, you don’t care about that, please have a seat. I trust Kingsley would tell me if you have any allergies before I go to get you something to eat..?”

At this she raised her voice somewhat, eyeing Kingsley, who nodded once with his back still turned to her.

Taking this as all the confirmation she needed, she picked up her overturned cup still on the couch, and shuffled toward the kitchen. On her way out, she heard one of the chairs squeak – presumably the mysterious presence seating themselves – and a quiet sigh of exhaustion. Hermione slowed at the entrance to the kitchen to see if there were any other signs of life she could use to try and glean who was here, but when nothing else was forthcoming, she continued on to prepare her guests’ food.

As she came back out with a tray of sandwiches, sliced veggies, and cups of leftover tomato soup from her own dinner floating in front of her, and a tray of tea and biscuits in hand, Hermione noted that Kingsley had finished the warding process, and had seated himself in the further of the two chairs. He was looking at the books on the bookshelf to the left of him in silence, only interrupted by the increasingly gentle peals of thunder as the storm moved away. Hermione presumed the seating arrangement meant the other guest was on the closer chair. True to the fact, as she sidled her way by the empty-looking seat, she felt the graze of what had to be a shoulder along her hip, causing a creak as the inhabitant of the chair moved out of her way.

“Sorry about that,” Hermione said, as in a strange moment of deja vu she carefully lowered the balanced trays to the coffee table while slowly seating herself in the sofa she had been bundled up on half an hour ago. “Please, help yourselves.”

“In a moment,” Kingsley said. “First, I have the second of my three requests of this evening to make, Hermione, and I’m afraid that this one won’t even be the most demanding of the three.”

Hermione looked at him and nodded for him to continue.

“As I alluded to before, I come to you with a task — well, in truth, a mission — that I am hoping you will take on. This mission will be dangerous, and at its essence requires accompanying my companion here to another location, as they are an asset toward a larger cause. But before I can give any further detail, I will need to ask for you to make an Unbreakable Vow against sharing any of what I’m about to tell you with anyone else prior to the completion of the mission. In addition, I will have to ask that while under the Vow, you will prioritize protecting the asset here with me –” at this Kinsley grunted, as it seemed that whoever was next to him had kicked him in the leg. Kingsley glared at the neighboring space as Hermione’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two, and corrected, “I mean, you will do what you can, within reason, to ensure the safe completion of this mission, as long as it does not come to your own detriment, and assuming you accept the mission itself.” To the silence of the chair next to him, he then continued, “Finally, I ask that during and even after completing the mission, you keep the identity of the asset a secret until such a time comes that the asset consents to their identity being revealed in regards to what they offered. I know how much I’m asking of you for making an Unbreakable Vow, but I hope you understand the importance of this meeting as a result.”He was looking at Hermione again now, who was chewing the inside of her mouth, thinking hard before speaking.

“I will agree to an Unspeakable Vow for the first and last points, as these are quantifiable requirements. On the second, however, I must object – how well I do or do not do is very subjective, and I do not want to die because the ambiguity of the terms in the Vow cause me to cross a condition without knowing it. However, since you yourself said you cannot give me more specific details of the task without guaranteeing my secrecy, I will need to request that rather than including it in the Vow itself, I simply give my word that I will do all that I can to protect this person in whatever capacity you ask of me.”

Kingsley cocked his head in thought, before saying,

“Part of the reason I included the second term is because, as I had mentioned, there is potential for some… strain between yourself and this person. As much as you worry for your safety, I am also responsible for theirs, and I need to do all I can to offer that. As you’d be tasked to accompany and guide this person, the nature of the mission would necessitate that I in turn trust you fully to provide this safety for them, not only from others who may try to stop you, but from yourself as well.”

“Me?” asked Hermione with raised eyebrows. “This is someone I could hurt?”

“Can, and have,” said Kingsley, with a sad smile, “as they have you. As I have alluded to, the history between you is complicated, and the continued safety of the world relies on you two not killing each other. This sounds dramatic, but I promise it’s not.”Hermione, who had been at worst curious until this point, felt her stomach twist. This is someone she may want to kill? Or may want to do the same to her? She wracked her brain for even one such person.

“Kingsley, short of a literal Death Eater, and maybe Umbridge, who is basically equivalent, I cannot imagine someone who dislikes me enough to want to kill me, and I certainly cannot think of someone I would in turn want to kill.”

Kingsley’s lips narrowed, but he just continued looking at her.

“Fine,” Hermione conceded after a beat. “Rather than keeping the terms vague, can we say that I will not intentionally cause the asset direct bodily harm? I’d hope that this would provide the required protections from me, and I wouldn’t have to keel over if I stepped on their toe or something.”Kingsley opened his mouth to respond, but he received another quick kick to the leg. He looked over, sighed in exasperation, and then stuck his hand in his robes to dig around in them, finally pulling out… an eyeball on a stick? Hermione gasped in recognition,

“That’s an Intrusive Eye! How’d you get one?? I thought George discontinued development after they couldn’t figure out how to keep them from seeing through people’s clothes!”

“Well… yes. It still does that, technically,” Kingsley conceded, “but it was the safest way to travel without compromising on the invisibility aspect. Though I obviously haven’t used it for anything but nonverbal communication required of us,” he reassured, largely toward the neighboring seat.

“I believe they were inspired by Moody’s eye, right?” asked Hermione, now eyeing the contraption with more skepticism.

“Yes, but since the gentleman who developed that died 20 years ago, the Weasleys were forced to essentially reinvent the wheel, and with less success. In fact, the Intrusive Eye is not nearly as good as what Moody’s eye was. All it can really do is look through clothes, and, as it turns out, invisibility protection, like cloaks. Anyway, one moment,” he said, holding the eye like a magnifying glass toward the chair. He was silent for a beat as Hermione heard clothing ruffling against itself as the mystery person moved around, presumably gesticulating. Kingsley raised his eyebrows and inclined his head in assent. He then turned back to Hermione and said,

“They request the same Vow of protection be offered in return as well. This way, everyone can feel safe in the other’s presence.”

“Well, if they request that, they can’t be that bad,” Hermione said, shooting a hopeful smile in the direction of the chair. “Deal.”

“Very well,” responded Kingsley, “I’ll act as witness. Both of you please extend your hands so you can make the first two vows of secrecy, by which point we can remove the cloak for the vows of mutual protection.”

Hermione did as she was asked, holding out her right hand toward the chair. After a beat, a pale, well manicured hand made its appearance from under the cloak. Hermione’s brows furrowed – she’d seen these hands before. She was sure of it. Something about the long fingers’ graceful movements were familiar, but she couldn’t quite place from where. The hand trembled as the fingers slowly, almost tenderly, wrapped themselves around Hermione’s outstretched hand, in the position of a firm handshake. She wondered at the tremble, and then at how soft the hands were – surreally soft. Hermione jokingly wondered to herself if this was an aristocrat. Who even has soft hands these days? Her own were callused and scarred from the war and the 10 years since.

Kingsley reached out his wand and placed the tip to their interlocked hands to begin the Unbreakable Vow.

“Do you, Hermione Granger, vow to withhold sharing any of the information to be disclosed to you tonight about the mission or asset until such a point that the mission is completed?”

“I do.”

A strand of fire wrapped itself around Hermione’s and the stranger’s hand.

“Do you, Hermione Granger, vow to withhold sharing the identity of the asset with regards to their contribution to the mission until such a point that the asset consents to their identity being shared?”

“I do.”

The second strand of fire wrapped itself around their hands, crossing the first.

“Now, for the protection vow. Please take off the cloak before saying ‘I do,’ as eye contact is imperative for the mutual protection to be effective,” Kingsley said to the chair. A second hand became visible at the edge of the cloak exposing the first hand, and began lifting the material. Dirty, but expensive dress shoes, then robes begin showing themselves. She saw a strong, long body slowly uncovered. For some unaccountable reason, Hermione’s heart began thumping, and she was so focused on the reveal that she only caught the tail end of what Kingsley was saying.

“... not intentionally commit any bodily harm against Hermione Granger?”

The cloak was fully flung off. Hermione’s stomach dropped when she saw a pair of very familiar stormy grey eyes lock onto hers.

“I do,” said Draco Malfoy.