What Is Left When All Is Said and Done

Chapter 4

The wedding, of course, was beautiful. Hermione was glad that they had been able to celebrate after all the tragedy that had ensued. Also amusing was watching Gabrielle trying to get Harry's attention throughout the ceremony and reception. She was thoroughly unsuccessful, though, as Harry only had eyes for Ginny. And, it seemed, the same could be said for Ron and herself, respectively.

She had chosen to wear a pale yellow dress, which complemented her creamy skin nicely. Ginny, Fleur, and Gabrielle had helped her fix her hair so that it was half up with the rest falling down her back in glossy ringlets. Fleur herself had tucked a few sprigs of freesia that matched her dress exactly into her hair, saying, "Eet is my wedding day, and I will have every girl looking 'er most beautiful! Zere is no worry that zat anyone will be more beautiful zan me, of course." Hermione caught Ginny rolling her eyes at this, but only smiled in response. It was nice to dress up, and who knows, it might be the last time they would be able to do so. She had caught herself thinking many thoughts like that of late.

She had to admit that Ron looked rather smart himself in his new dress robes, which Mrs. Weasley had bought him with the money from Mr. Weasley's promotion. When he had first seen her right before the ceremony, he had grown very red in the face, and at first, Hermione thought he was going to just stand there. But after a nudging from Harry, he had come over and offered his arm to her and had been treating her as a perfect gentleman ever since.

When the music came on after dinner, she was slightly surprised, but pleasantly so, when he asked her to dance. She gave her assent, and he led her out onto the dance floor. There was an awkward moment when they tried to figure out where to put their hands, but she ended up wrapping hers behind his neck, and he placed his on the small of her back.

"You look very beautiful tonight," he whispered into her ear as they swayed to the music. She blushed and looked down, unable to meet his eyes.

"Thank you, Ron."

"And I wanted to tell you, before we go to Godric's Hollow, before we start this new adventure, that...." He faltered for a second, but Hermione knew what was coming.

"It's okay, Ron. I know."

"But I wanted to say it...."

"I know, but I don't want to hear it from you now. Not when everyone around me is telling each other the same thing because it might be the last time they can. Ron, I need to know that you're going to be there with me on the other side of this, after everything that's going to happen in the next few months. I need to know that you'll be there. And I won't hear those words from you until then." However else Hermione expected Ron to react to her little tirade, she didn't expect him to chuckle.

"That's my Hermione, bossy to the end." He kissed her on her forehead and tucked it beneath his chin as they continued to dance. She held on tight to him, memorizing the feel of his shoulders under her arms, his chest against her cheeks.

When the song ended, she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to find Remus and Tonks.

"Wotcher, Hermione," said Tonks with a wink. She looked better than ever now that Remus had finally acknowledged and was reciprocating his feelings towards her.

"Hello, Tonks."

"Ron, do you mind if I cut in? I simple cannot keep up with Nymphadora and what she calls 'dancing'." Tonks swatted at him playfully.

"Sure, come on, Tonks. Let's show these old fogies how to really boogie."

Remus swept Hermione into his arms and waltzed her gracefully away from the two, who were doing what seemed to be a close imitation of the Tarantallegra spell.

"Thank you for obliging this old man, Hermione."

"It's entirely my pleasure, Remus. And you're not old." Remus' eyebrows lifted.

"Not old? Perhaps it has been to long since I was your Professor," he said with a kind smile. "Or maybe the fact that I don't have any children makes you think that I am 'not old'. But you realize I was the same year as Harry's parents? I'm old enough to be your father."

"Actually, Remus, I had wanted to ask you something about Harry's parents. His mother, to be exact."

"Ah, Lily Potter née Evans. What is it you want to know about her?"

"Well, how well did you know her during Hogwarts?"

"Hmmm, I have to admit I was a bit preoccupied with my little monthly problem and running around with James, Sirius, and Peter to really notice her. That is, until James started noticing her. Then it was 'Lily this' and 'Lily that' and 'Do you think she noticed when I scored so-and-so many times in the last game?'" Hermione giggled at his impression of James Potter. "Why, was there anything in particular you wanted to know?"

"Well...," she paused and gauged her next words carefully. "Do you know how she felt towards Snape?" The way his body suddenly tensed up told her she had stumbled onto something. He quickly recovered, though, and while still keeping with the beat, he cast a quick Muffiato spell so that no one else could hear what they were saying.

"Why would you want to know that?" he asked with an anxious tone. Hermione decided she would need to trust him since he was the only source she currently had.

"Harry had Snape's Potions book all last year, although he didn't know it at the time. I doubt he would have continued to use it if he had known."

"How did he come to realize...?"

"It was the night of the attack. Harry had tried a spell that he had learned from book on him, and he had revealed that he was the Half-Blood Prince."

"The Half-Blood Prince?"

"Yes, inside the book, he had written 'This is the property of the Half-Blood Prince.' Prince was his mother's maiden name. His father was a Muggle. Didn't you know?"

"No...I had just assumed... He was a Slytherin, and they were almost all..." As Remus grappled with this realization, Hermione continued to tell him about the discovery of the invisible ink and the confirmation that it was Lily's handwriting.

"And what had she written?"

"That's why I wanted to ask you about their relationship, because it's quite puzzling, what I found. She had written, 'Why aren't you speaking to me anymore?'"

"I see." Hermione still didn't see, but she let him continue to turn her as he thought it through. After a few more beats, he seemed ready to talk again. "You have to understand, I never mentioned this to James nor anyone else...."

"I won't tell Harry; I promise." He smiled down at her.

"I know. You're very protective of Harry; just as his father was of me." He paused again to let the wave of nostalgia pass. "You know that as a werewolf, I possess a heightened sense of smell and hearing." She nodded. "Well, once when I was serving detention down in the dungeons, I had heard voices in one of the Potions classrooms. I didn't need to see them to know it was Lily and Severus. Of course I was surprised to hear the two of them down there together. It sounded like they were working on a Potions experiment of some kind. And Snape, well, he sounded almost pleasant. Like I said, it was quite a surprise. The next time I saw them interact with each other it was right after the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. James was being his usual obnoxious self and messing around with Severus. Lily tried to defend him, but I guess Severus couldn't handle being saved by a Gryffindor in front of everyone. He called her a 'Mudblood' that day. I don't know if they ever spoke again after that." Hermione digested all this information and quickly found an inconsistency.

"But if you said that happened after your O.W.L.'s, that would've been during your fifth year. This book isn't used until the sixth year." Remus shrugged.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were working on sixth year Potions during their fifth year. Has it ever stopped you?" he inquired with another quirk of his eyebrow. "I seem to remember hearing about a certain feline incident in your second year --" Hermione groaned.

"When am I ever going to live that down? It was an accident!" Remus chuckled.

"I'm just teasing you, my dear Miss Granger. No one underestimates your talent at Potions." But Hermione's mind was already back to the problem at hand.

"It still doesn't make sense, though. If they weren't talking to each other, how would Lily have been able to write that in his textbook?"

"Hermione, you have to let it go. Lily's dead, and Severus will be, if I have anything to do with it. Don't do this, okay? You'll only upset Harry." He had stopped dancing and was looking at her very seriously.

"Is anything wrong, Hermione?" Harry stepped into view.

"No, nothing's wrong," said Remus as he ended the Muffliato spell. Harry continued to look at Hermione, who had yet to say anything. Remus squeezed her hand and gave her a pointed look before letting go.

"Remus is right, Harry. Nothing's the matter. He just stepped on my toes while dancing."

"In that case, you won't mind if I have the next dance?" Remus bowed.

"Of course not. The lady is yours."

After Remus was out of earshot, Harry asked again, "Now what was that really about?"

"It's nothing, Harry. He was just giving me some advice on what to do with Ron," she quickly made up.

"Oh really, now?" Harry cocked his head to one side. "And why would you be needing advice from Remus about that?"

"Harry Potter, you're my best friend and all, but if you think I'm going to tell you --"

"I was just kidding, Hermione. You know you set yourself up for that one."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"So anyway, guess what?" Harry's mood had changed suddenly; she could hear the genuine excitement in his voice.

"What?"

"I think we may have a lead on who R.A.B. is and where one of the Horcruxes is," he said with a broad grin.

"Are you serious?"

"Do you think I would joke about this?"

"No. Go on."

"So I gave my mother's locket to Ginny just now. Thanks again for giving it to me, by the way."

"Of course. Did she like it?" Harry gave her a stare as if to remind her to stay on topic. "Never mind."

"So the twins saw me giving it to her, and, being Fred and George, started teasing us about it. One of them, I can't tell which, asked if it was the locket they had found when cleaning out the cabinet last year in 12 Grimmauld Place. And the other one said, 'The one we couldn't open?' Hermione, do you remember what I'm talking about?"

"Vaguely, but how can you be sure...?"

"Think, Hermione. Whose house was it?"

"Well, it was handed down to Sirius...Black! Sirius Black!" Her mind churned. "And his brother was Regulus Black! R.A.B.!" Harry looked down at her with a smug look on his face. For once he had figured something out before her.
"Harry, do you really think?"

"Well, I remember Sirius saying that his brother had fallen in with the Death Eaters, but then was killed by Voldemort when he realized what he had gotten himself into. It all sort of makes sense, don't you think?"

"Harry, this is great news!"

"I know!"

"So what happened to the locket then?" At this, Harry's face fell.

"I don't know. I remember we threw all those things into the rubbish sack, and then Mrs. Weasley probably just threw it out somewhere."

"Oh." Images of the three of them looking through a magical garbage dump flashed through her head.

"It's still good news though. After Godric's Hollow --"

"You still want to go to Godric's Hollow?"

"Well, yes. I can't explain it, Hermione. I've just got this feeling that I have to go there first, where it all started. I don't know if it's guilt because I've never gone to visit my parent's graves or something else."

"It's okay, Harry. You take the lead, and we'll follow. This is your quest, after all, isn't it?" Harry blushed.

"I don't mean to make you two follow me on a wild goose chase all over England."

"No really, it's okay. That's what we're here for; this is what we've been preparing for the past six years."

"I...thank you."

"There's no need to thank me. Just promise me that you'll never ask about Ron and me again, will you?" Hermione wasn't sure, but she would swear later that The Boy-Who-Lived stuck his tongue out at her. The music stopped then, and the two of them stepped to the side of the dance floor.

"I'm going to find Ron and tell him the good news."

"If you don't mind, I think I'll sit down for a bit. I've just been twirled around for the last fifteen minutes straight." Harry nodded and disappeared into the crowd. As Hermione looked for a seat, she felt someone grab her right hand. She spun around to find herself staring at Neville Longbottom.

"Neville! I didn't see you earlier!"

"Well, hello Mudblood, it's good to see you too," drawled the round-faced boy in a voice amazingly reminiscent of Draco Malfoy's.