Mist of Shadows
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Hermione and the Watch Part 4
🕑 Added 2018-08-26 02:42:03 +0000 UTCHermione hugged Harry to her chest as she stared at down at the city filled with the lights of motionless cars as they flew toward Sirius’s house, it was really quite beautiful if a bit nerve wracking everytime Harry made an unexpected altitude change or leaned too far one way or another, thankfully it hadn’t taken him long to adjust to having a second person on his broom, otherwise it would have been a worse flight and she wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the sights. “We’re almost here, next street up.”
Harry grinned as he put on a bit of speed, “Okay.”
“Harry!” Hermione squeezed him harder to make sure she didn’t fall of the broom that was going far too quickly for her peace of mind.
Harry smiled as they came to a stop on the sidewalk in front of Sirius’s house. “See, that wasn’t so bad.”
Hermione swung her leg around and hopped off the broom a touch unsteady from the ride and his antics at the end. “At least we’re alive.”
Harry mock pouted, “I’m not Ron, I can actually fly.”
“Let’s get to the porch so we’re covered by the wards,” Hermione replied as she walked toward the door.
Harry grabbed his broom and followed her, glad that he had his invisibility cloak for an excuse even if using it would have been problematic.
Hermione unpaused time then knocked on the door. “Hopefully he’s awake.”
Twenty seconds later Sirius opened the door with his wand pointed at the two teenagers that should be safe and secure at Hogwarts. “Harry? Hermione? Out for a midnight stroll?”
“It’s not midnight,” Harry pointed out with amusement, happy to see his godfather again.
Hermione sighed. “Umbridge is using blood quills and McGonagall blew us off, we need help with some negative reinforcement.”
Sirius scowled as what she’d said sunk in. “Which one? Minerva or Umbridge?”
“At this point I’m not picky though I’m leaning toward Umbridge,” Hermione said with a scowl.
“Minnie pissed you off that much? Well, if she blew you off on an actual crime I can see it,” Sirius said answering his own question. “Come on in and let’s see what this old Marauder can do to help.”
Harry and Hermione walked in so that Sirius could close the door behind them then followed to the drawing room so they’d avoid waking his mother’s portrait.
“Okay, what do you need?”
Hermione said, “We need to figure out how to avoid getting caught, we know about the Prior Incantato but we’re assuming the ministry has other methods of catching people.”
Sirius shrugged. “Not as many as you’d think, veritaserum, legilimency, pensieve for witness testimony… detectors in muggle areas…”
“I know about the truth serum but what are the other three?”
“Basically mind reading, a memory recording device, and they set up magic detectors for muggle borns.”
“Why just muggleborns?” Hermione asked in annoyance.
“The magic detectors aren’t that sensitive, they can’t tell who cast the spell, no point in pointing them at a magical household, they’d never stop going off. Besides the rule was designed to keep the muggles from finding out about magic and there aren’t exactly a lot of muggles peeking in pureblood windows.”
“You’re saying that Ron could have been studying every summer?” Hermione asked, eyes narrowed.
“That would require Mrs. Weasley not to be a control freak but yeah, I know Fred and George took advantage of the summers to practice. Did you really think they made fake wands for no reason? They had to give Molly something.”
Hermione sputtered, “I’m getting really tired of this shit.”
Harry rested his hand on her shoulder. “Another year and month and you’ll be seventeen and won’t have to worry about it.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that the system is unfair and encourages rule breaking!”
“No one sane ever said the wizarding world was remotely fair,” Sirius pointed out.
“Wait a minute, mind reading?” Harry asked.
“It’s a bit more complicated but basically, you’re looking at memories rather than just reading their thoughts but it’s something to be concerned about. You should avoid Dumbledore and Snape’s eyes if you’re planning anything untold.”
“Does slipping a drop of Draught of Peace into Umbridge’s tea so I can leave detention early count?” Hermione asked.
Sirius laughed. “Yeah, we’re going to need to work on your mental defenses. How long until you have to get back?”
“We snuck out and took a floo from Hogsmeade to the Leaky Cauldron then used Harry’s cloak and flew here, we shouldn’t be missed until breakfast.”
“That might be enough for the basics. There should still be a book or three on occlumency in the family library, I’ll grab them before you head back.”
“Is there any defense against veritaserum?” Harry asked.
“There are always rumors about rituals but nothing solid. Occlumency helps you redirect questions, but it isn’t perfect.”
“If it’s actually effective why doesn’t the ministry dose everyone they catch?” Hermione demanded.
Sirius snorted. “That would open the door to it being used on them and that would be a clear conflict of interest as most of them are corrupt as hell. That and it would cut into their ability to collect bribes.”
Hermione scowled as she thought about Fudge tossing Hagrid in prison so that he could appear to be doing something. “The more I learn about the wizarding world the less I like it.”
“You get used it, try to relax a bit and clear your mind or something while I go get the books we’re going to need to pull this off.”
“Thanks.” Harry was just glad that Sirius had his back. He walked over to the Black family tapestry and studied it while he was waiting for Sirius to get back. “I wonder if the Potters had a family tapestry?”
“We’ll have to ask. We should probably ask if he knows a decent place to get an expanded chest.”
“He might have an extra,” Harry pointed out.
“He might,” Hermione admitted thinking about the collection of weird stuff the Blacks had accumulated.
0o0o0
Hermione looked up from the occlumency book she was reading as she heard indistinct whispers coming from the hallway. ‘Strange, Sirius should be in the library getting another book.’ She reached into her pocket and pushed the button on her watch. “I thought I heard voices.”
“Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices is never a good thing,” Harry replied with amusement as he looked up from the rather dry book on mental defense.
“Funny, I’ll be right back,” Hermione replied as she headed in the direction she’d heard the voices. She frowned as she walked into the hall and saw Kreacher looking up at a collection of severed heads mounted on the wall. “Didn’t sound like Kreacher…” she stared as she realized one of the house elf heads had their mouth open when it should have been closed and their eyes open and focused on Kreacher despite the fact that they’d been closed when she’d walked by earlier. “Harry!”
Harry ran out of the drawing room, wand at the ready then skidded to a stop as he realized that there wasn’t actually a threat or at least not one that he could see. “What?”
“That house elf moved.”
“While time stopped?” Harry asked with concern.
“No, earlier, its eyes and mouth were closed when we walked by.”
Harry looked up at the rather creepy row of elf heads, he’d been avoiding looking at and realized half of them were actually looking at Kreacher. “That’s a little weird.”
“A little?” Hermione asked in disbelief.
Harry shrugged. “We’re in the Black Family house, weird is relative.”
“Can I borrow your cloak for a minute so I can watch Kreacher without him noticing?”
“Knock yourself out,” Harry walked back into the drawing room to grab his cloak.
Hermione studied the house elf heads as she waited for Harry to get back with his cloak. “It’s a bit creepy how happy they look.”
“House elves aren’t exactly human,” Harry pointed out as he walked out with his cloak around his shoulders. “Kreacher is actually looking forward to getting his head cut off and mounted on the wall.”
“That’s because he was brainwashed,” Hermione complained.
Harry walked over and draped his cloak over her as he pulled her closer. “That should do it.”
“3, 2, 1.” Hermione pushed the button, restarting time.
One of the heads whispered, “You could just poison them.”
Harry raised his eyebrows as he stared at the talking head on the wall, amazed his lips and everything were moving as if he were still alive.
“You can’t poison your guests, that’s a breach of hospitality,” one of the other elf heads said in a whisper.
“It’s not a breach of hospitality if you’re just building up their immunity, small doses are the key,” pointed out one of the other house elves in a whisper.
One of the other house elf heads whispered, “That is what counter agents are for.”
“Master ordered Kreacher not to kill them,” Kreacher complained.
“Of course he did, they’re guests, it’s bad form to kill your guests.”
“Unless they’re a Malfoy, then it’s just common sense,” one of the other heads pointed out.
“Mistress Narcissa married a Malfoy, they’re a proper family,” Kreacher defended Narcissa.
Another talking head cut in, “Properly rich you mean, just because you think Lucius likes to visit male brothels doesn’t mean that Narcissa’s long term plans for killing the guy for his money isn’t a perfectly valid life choice.”
“You don’t know that’s what she’s planning,” one of the other heads said.
“She’s a Black, what else could it be?” the house elf asked in disgust at the idea of anyone in the family marrying a Malfoy.
Hermione hit the button on her watch. “How are they still alive?”
“No idea though I wouldn’t really call that alive, they’re more like the shrunken heads from the stories of African witch doctors.”
“Where did you hear about that?” Hermione asked, curious where Harry had ran across that particular piece of knowledge.
“Television, I could hear it from my cupboard and we read about it in school,” Harry replied as he glanced between the heads on the wall and Kreacher.
Hermione scowled as she thought about the Dursleys. “I thought they were just muggle stories. They’re at least as with it as portraits, maybe more considering Mrs. Black.”
Harry glanced at Kreacher. “I’m not sure I really want to eat anything that Kreacher has access to.”
“Sirius ordered him not to poison people…” Hermione trailed off as she realized she didn’t know Kreacher’s exact orders and realized there was a lot of wiggle room in house elf interpretations of orders if Dobby was anything to go by.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Malfoy didn’t want Dobby warning me about his plot,” Harry pointed out.
“He’s just…” Hermione trailed off not quite sure how to justify Kreacher.
“Yeah, he’s a bit warped, doesn’t mean he’s not a threat. Dobby blasted Malfoy across the room, they’re not harmless. We should probably get back to working on making our way through the occlumency book.”
“Yeah, it’s going to take days to figure out but at least we can make some progress.” Hermione slipped out from under Harry’s cloak a touch reluctantly then headed back toward the drawing room where she could unfreeze time.
Sirius walked back in several minutes later with another book on occlumency. “This has a couple of shortcuts, the side effects are a little annoying but short lived, I’d recommend going to sleep after you practice.”
“Side effects?” Hermione asked warily.
“It blurs the boundaries you put up, the lies you tell yourself are washed away, at least for a while. As I said, I’d recommend sleeping, the dreams are interesting,” Sirius replied with amusement as he set the book on the stack of books Hermione wanted to borrow.
“Dreams?” Harry asked warily, not wanting more nightmares.
“Let me put it this way, it’s been years and I still remember a couple of them, large…” he trailed off as he glanced at Hermione. “Just sleep on it, it’s safe enough, compared to most of the books in the library.”
Hermione asked, “Did you know the house elf heads talk to Kreacher when no one is listening?”
Sirius glanced at the door then back at Harry and Hermione. “I haven’t heard them since I got put into Gryffindor, dear old Mum ordered them not to talk to me. Can’t say I’m all that disappointed considering.”
“There should be a book for Muggleborns,” Hermione complained.
Sirius smiled. “I imagine it would take a couple rather large volumes and someone would have to understand the muggle world enough to write them. I suspect Lily would have ended up writing at least a couple if she’d lived. If you want, I’ll let you borrow Elladora Black’s journal, she’s the one that started the tradition of mounting house elf heads on the wall.”
“That would help,” Harry agreed before Hermione could launch into a rant.
“Just remember that house elves aren’t human,” Sirius reminded them.
“They’re people,” Hermione grumbled thinking about how everyone dismissed and took advantage of them.
“I didn’t say they weren’t sentient or people, I said they weren’t human. They don’t have the same outlook as humans. To most of them, working is fun and serving a family makes them happy.”
“Dobby likes being free,” Hermione pointed out.
“From what Harry has said, he’s a very strange house elf and it took a lot of abuse to get him that way. I’m not saying that a lot of families don’t treat them badly, I’m just saying you should try to understand things from their point of view.”
“Shouldn’t you apply that to Kreacher?”
Sirius snorted. “No, I don’t hate him because he’s a house elf or anything, I hate him because he was a monster when I lived in this house.” He glanced at the clock. “On that note, it’s getting late. I’ll grab Elladora’s journal so you can get another perspective then you should probably use the floo and head back to Hogsmeade.”
“You have a working floo?” Hermione asked in disbelief.
“One of Arthur’s friends set it up.”
“How do you keep people from just showing up?”
“With a grate, same as…” Sirius trailed off as he realized no one had actually explained how to lock a floo or much of anything. “Molly didn’t explain how to lock a floo when you stayed at the Burrow?”
Harry shook his head. “Not that I recall.”
“In that case, you should probably talk with Ginny about things that were never explained, she seemed to have a decent head on her shoulders and isn’t clueless about muggles like Ron. I was in prison for twelve years without television and I still understand the world better than he does, it’s a bit disturbing really. I mean I know he’s your friend but he should have taken the muggle studies class.”
“I tried to get him to take it, he didn’t see the point,” Hermione complained.
“Not exactly an uncommon attitude,” Sirius agreed as he looked down at his brother’s school chest. “You should probably get everything put away while I’m looking for the journal.”
“Thanks for letting us borrow it for a bit.”
“Keep it, it’s just a trunk,” Sirius replied as he turned and headed for the door, knowing that he really needed to look through the library to see what else he could find that would help Harry pull off some interesting pranks. ‘I’ll have to ask Remus what happened to our notes about the map and our best pranks when he gets back.’
Hermione smiled slightly as she watched Sirius walk off with a spring in his step. ‘We’ll have to visit more now that we know we can just floo here.’ She was still a bit annoyed that no one had thought to mention the safety features on the damned things considering they were basically at war with the Death Eaters. She focused on loading her collection of borrowed books into the expanded chest as they waited for Sirius to return.
0o0o0
Harry was a bit surprised how easy the return trip to was, nothing more than putting their hoods up, picking up Regulus’s trunk then tossing a pinch of floo powder into the fireplace. Sure it was a bit disconcerting saying Hogshead then stepping into the green flames and coming out in a seedy bar but it was certainly faster than trying to fly back. Even dealing with the strangely familiar grumpy barkeep wasn’t hard, they’d just handed him a couple of sickles and gotten four butterbeers for the road.
Hermione waited until they were outside the tavern and no one was watching then pushed the button on her watch and froze time. “That was easier than flying.”
Harry smiled as he thought about the flight, with Hermione’s arms wrapped around him as they flew over London. “Not as much fun and you have to admit looking down and seeing all of the lights frozen in place has a certain magic.”
“It was certainly an interesting experience,” Hermione agreed as they headed for the Shrieking Shack. “Let’s stash the trunk and look at the Occlumency book with the shortcuts.” Normally she would have objected to taking shortcuts, but she had a bad feeling she was going to have some uncomfortable attention in the morning from a certain toad for walking out of detention before being dismissed.
Harry shivered as he absently hugged his cloak to his body with the hand that wasn’t holding Regulus’s trunk, he knew it was just in his head but seeing the scattered witches and wizards frozen in time made him feel cold. He knew it was actually warmer without the September wind but that didn’t really change his perception. “I’m not going to object to a decent night’s sleep.”
“We’re going to need something to distract her do you think we can talk Fred and George into pulling something?” Hermione asked as they turned and started walking down the overgrown path to the Shrieking Shack.
Harry laughed. “I’ll do it, they’d smell a rat if you asked them to pull a prank.”
“You’re probably right,” Hermione admitted as they walked over to the door. “Moment of truth, I guess.”
Harry set the trunk down then pulled his wand out of his pocket and conjured a light out of the end of it. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.” He reached down and opened the door with his left hand then cautiously stepped in and looked around, everything looked the same, their books were stacked on the table and there weren’t any footprints other than their own which was a nice surprise. He’d half expected Dumbledore to have monitoring charms on the door to the entrance that alerted them to anyone trespassing. “It doesn’t look like anyone came in here while we were gone.”
Hermione sighed in relief, the largest danger had been tripping a charm because they’d had to leave the door unlocked so they could get back in, it was nice to know there wasn’t a charm on the door or that no one had been around to check it while they were with Sirius. She picked the trunk up and carried it inside, anxious to get started reading the book that might keep her from getting in a lot of trouble for dosing Umbridge with the sleeping draught. She shut the door behind her then walked over to the table and set the trunk down.
Harry glanced at the trunk. “How much do you think we have to read before it starts working?”
“No idea, maybe a chapter or two a night?” Hermione asked as she walked over to the fireplace and worked on conjuring a magical flame to provide some light and take off the chill.
Harry let the light from his wand die as he glanced over the fireplace and saw the softball sized sphere of blue flame that Hermione had managed to conjure. “Nice.” He pointed his wand at the couch and hit it with a scroogify charm. He was a bit impressed with how much dust and dirt the charm removed, it wasn’t perfect but it was certainly better. “It occurs to me, if they really wanted Number 12 cleaned they would have let us use magic.”
“It was summer, Mrs. Weasley is a bit straight laced when it comes to rules, one of the reasons she’s poor.”
“What do you mean?” Harry asked.
“Even a marginal wizard could practice the repair charm enough to make a killing in the muggle world as an antique restorer.”
“I’m fairly sure that’s illegal,” Harry replied.
“If it is, I can’t find it,” Hermione replied as she walked over to the trunk and opened it.
“Really?” Harry asked.
She grabbed the occlumency book with the shortcuts then walked over and sat down on the couch as she explained, “I looked back in third year when I was looking for information to help Hagrid. I needed a distraction because I was driving myself around the bend.”
“Just a bit,” Harry replied with amusement.
She set the tome on her lap. “As far as I can tell, it’s technically legal as it doesn’t leave a magical residue. Remember, the goal of most of the laws is to hide magic, not keep wizards from screwing muggles over.”
Harry walked over and sat down next to her so he could see the book. He jumped slightly as his hand brushed the book and it seemed to warm up a touch. He wiggled his fingers and pulled his hand away from the book. “Did you notice that?”
Hermione felt a bit warmer than she should considering the temperature outside but that was probably just being close to Harry. “Notice what?” she asked as she took her hand off the book.
“I swear the book got warm for a second.” He carefully reached out and touched the book again and didn’t notice anything weird. “Never mind, probably just my imagination.” Harry put his left arm around her shoulders so they could share the space a bit better, or at least that was what he told himself.
Hermione leaned into Harry as she started reading out loud, not realizing that the book heated up a couple minutes later when Harry absently reached down with his right hand to turn the page for her.
Harry for his part was far too distracted by Hermione being so close to notice the temperature change of the book as Hermione continued reading. He wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Hermione was reading the book or if it was because he was snuggled against her but he found his thoughts jumping back to seeing her half naked every time he closed his eyes.
Hermione blinked as her shirt vanished between one word and the next reappearing in Harry’s hand. “Harry!”
“What?” Harry asked as he jerked the rest of the way awake.
“You summoned my shirt or teleported it,” Hermione complained, more annoyed that she still wasn’t sure how he did it than the fact that he’d just summoned her shirt.
Harry turned and stared at Hermione’s black bra and creamy white skin. “Not my fault, I was dreaming...” he trailed off as his brain caught up with what his mouth had said. “I mean… yeah, okay, I was daydreaming about seeing you half naked and now you are.”
“Accidental magic my ass,” Hermione muttered as she reached over and grabbed her shirt out of his hand. “Okay, we’re going to figure out how you do that so you can stop.”
“What if I don’t want to stop?” Harry asked with a pout, feeling strangely free of the voice on his shoulder that usually told him to stop before he stepped over the line.
“Sorry, if you want to see me naked, you’re going to have to work for it,” she replied as she set the tome on his lap then stood up and walked a couple feet away.
Harry frowned as she pulled her shirt back on, hoping that he hadn’t hurt her feelings. “Work for it?”
She smiled as she turned around and looked at him. “Yes, if you can consciously summon my clothes without your wand, I’ll keep them off while we’re in here, you have ten minutes.”
“What happens if I can get you naked?”
“Then I’ll have to think of something special do to won’t I?” Hermione asked a with smirk that sent a shiver down Harry’s spine and made the tome sitting on his lap rather uncomfortable. Normally he would have sputtered or asked if she was sure but it was a chance to see Hermione naked, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him. He would have liked to say it took him a snap of the fingers and five seconds to get her naked but it took twenty seconds and an a gesture.
“Eep!” Hermione shrieked as she suddenly found herself naked.
Harry stared in disbelief at the pile of clothes in his lap. “That actually worked?”
“Apparently,” Hermione muttered, resisting the slight urge to cover her crotch or breasts, that quickly faded as she got a naughty idea.
“What do I win?” Harry asked, not wanting to push his luck but strangely calm about the whole thing or at least not near as worried about screwing things up as he should be.
Hermione grinned as she sauntered over, leaned down, reached out and moved the book off his lap. “I don’t know, maybe a kiss.” She straddled him, leaned in and kissed him.
The angel that was normally on Harry’s shoulder seemed to be completely absent as he gleefully returned her kiss. His delima about where to put his hands was solved as Hermione reached down, grabbed his hand and moved it to her butt. He took a breath as they came up for air then let it out. “If this turns out to be a dream, I will be deeply upset.”
Hermione grinned as she gazed into his emerald green eyes. “You’re not the only one. So, how did that summoning clothes thing go?”
“I don’t know, it’s a nice trick,” Harry teased.
“If I don’t get you naked as well, this will be a lot less fun,” Hermione pointed out.
“Point, so concentrate on the objects you want and then sort of push your magic and imagine them appearing in your hand,” Harry explained as best he could. Either he was a better teacher than he thought or Hermione was just that good because it wasn’t long before his clothes started vanishing as she ground herself against him.
