Casus Belli

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Casus Belli

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Chapter Two: Pilgrim

"Each heart is a pilgrim,
Each one wants to know
The reason why the winds die
And where the stories go."

Pilgrim; Enya

"I cannot believe the nerve of you two!" Hermione snarled, half-awakened by her astonishment at the undertakings of the last hour. "Even after I tell you nicely to leave me alone, you still bring me here! Here of all places! Did your mother teach you nothing about manners and etiquette?"

Fred laughed, slapping her on the back. "Hermione, love, you're not really in a position to be whining, as we two gentlemen are your hand-chosen escorts for the remainder of your stay at the lovely Burrow." He said this with laughter in his eyes, and began walking towards the Weasley's first-floor kitchen.

But, as Hermione rounded the corner and caught the vile perfume of rotting begonias, she realized that a kitchen was not what this Burrow room looked like anymore. What Hermione remembered as a convivial, jovial room (even the sink had seemed almost giddy at times) that Molly Weasley had been notorious for cleaning obsessively was no more. Indeed, that room was long gone, and now was covered by a veil of unmistakable sadness and neglect. Dishes, once cleaned by a spell, lay in their own filth in a mountainous range that ran the length of the sink. Owl feathers rested on the grimy floor, and small footprints that were unquestionably that of a rat left marks in the dust that collected under the pantry.

George, noticing Hermione's befuddled expression, nudged his brother, mouthing "should we tell her?"

Fred widened his green eyes and shook his head, and then proceeded into the kitchen.

Hermione followed, walking cautiously through the remains of the old Weasley kitchen. George pulled back a chair and allowed her to sit down. But Hermione simply stood, looking at the battered mahogany, and pulsed with a newfound anger.

"No," she whispered, fists clenching and eyes burning.

"Bugger," Fred whispered, taking his own seat. "Please tell me that you're kidding."

"Why should I be kidding?" she hissed in reply, pushing the chair back under the table. "Did you honestly expect me not to protest? You bloody kidnapped me from my home! I thought that I made it very clear that I wanted nothing to do with anything relating to magic anymore!"

"You've mentioned it a couple times..." George replied sardonically.

"And I'll keep on doing it until you take me home!"

"Home?" a new voice said softly, half startling Hermione. A pair of footsteps accompanied the voice, and soon Hermione turned on her heel to see a tall man enter the room. "Your home is not really an option right now."

"Professor Lupin?" Hermione questioned cautiously. "Is that... you?" Her hand relaxed slightly from her hold on the chair.

The pepper-haired man took a step towards her, body vaguely tired but striking eyes terribly alert. "Yes, it is most certainly me, Hermione, though I'm not your professor any longer. An informal 'Remus' might be something worth calling me."

Hermione appeared less than amused.

"Right then..." Remus started, but was soon cut off by a loud crash in the next room.

"Lupin, you old bag!" George cried, standing from his position on his chair. A laugh left his lips as he looked at a worried Lupin. "Please, for the love of Merlin and all that is magical, don't tell me you left Tonks all alone in the foyer!"

The older man looked slightly guilty.

The hint of remorse was soon replaced by a grimace as more crashes were heard in the vestibule. "Remus Lupin!" a high-pitched, female voice stormed, followed by more commotion. "How dare you leave me when Hermione gets here! I've been waiting all bloody night to see the girl, and you leave me? What kind of husband are you anyway?"

Hermione put her rant on hiatus as the door to the kitchen was thrown violently open. A short, brown-haired woman with blinding pink robes entered the small kitchen, hands on her hips and eyes alight with anger. The woman scowled with vehemence at Remus, and pounded her foot on the floor.

"Tonks...?" Hermione said slowly, never before having seen the metamorphmagus with brown locks (she was far more used to more florescent shades).

The woman turned on her heel, and, as soon as she saw the twenty-one year old girl, her blue eyes began to water. Her anger apparently depleted, she dropped the rag that was in her hand, and ran towards a much frazzled twenty-one year-old. Her arms rose from her sides, and soon Hermione was encased in a very tight, very... squishy hug.

"Tonks..." Hermione pleaded, taking the shallow breaths that Tonk's hug required. "Tonks, you're going to squish the baby..."

The brown-haired woman stepped back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Oh, sorry dear. I'm just... so... happy...to...see... YOU!"

And then Tonks completely lost it, bursting into tears, and running back into the other room.

"Sorry about that," Remus whispered, taking Hermione's hand as the door closed behind Tonks. "She's in her final trimester. Her ruddy mood swings are going to drive me to drink."

Against her better judgment, Hermione pushed her tirade even farther back. "George and Fred mentioned that you two got married. When did you and Tonks get engaged?"

"About three years ago," Remus replied, taking the seat that Hermione had shoved back under the table. A smile traced his lips as he thought back to the memory. "We'd been dating for half of a year prior to that."

"And the baby?"

"It's going to be a girl. She's due in a month or so."

"Congratulations," Hermione murmured, still amazed that the fun-loving Tonks was carrying her ex-professor's child. "I knew you two would make a great pair. She always had the biggest crush on you, but I honestly thought she'd never act on it."

Remus chuckled. "You were absolutely right. The girl was so stubborn! She pretended that there was nothing going on for so long... but..." he trailed off momentarily. "But then Ginny died. And I knew that I had to tell Tonks that I loved her, because I knew that things were going to be bad afterward. I couldn't take the chance that I'd lose her without her knowing that I needed her."

He glanced at his hands for a moment. "We're going to call the baby Ginevra," he half-whispered. Hermione's stomach dropped at the simple mention of her childhood friend. "It seems appropriate."

Remus looked up, broken from his trace. "Anyway, what's all this about you going home? You've just gotten here for goodness sake."

Hermione's anger flared, but not as intensely as before. "Remus, I know that you and Harry said you needed me in your letter, but I simply can't stay here. There are too many memories...both bad ones and terribly good ones... too many things broken that I'm can't even begin to mend."

"Can't mend or simply won't mend?"

"A little of both, I reckon. It's been so long since I've been around these people. I left for a damn good reason, Remus, and that reason still holds. And I can't just leave the life I was living to come back and pick up as Hermione Granger, know-it-all-witch extraordinaire. What will people think of me? Not much, I'm willing to bet."

"You're absolutely right," interjected Fred, crossing his arms. All traces of the smile that usually graced his mischievous face were lost. "And that's why it's helpful that most of the magical world thinks you're six feet under."

"...What?" Hermione stammered.

Fred frowned. "You heard me. The lot of the magical world thinks you died five years ago in a car wreck over winter holidays. You even have a goddamn gravestone down in Surrey where Harry works."

"Fred, we discussed this..." growled Remus, sounding irritated to an unhealthy level. "We weren't going to tell her until after she knew the whole story."

"Yeah, but we also said that we needed to keep Hermione here at all costs." The redhead turned to Hermione. "We were going to tell you eventually, anyway. I just figured you'd be more liable to stay if you knew."

"But... I don't understand... how... what...why?"

"Because Dumbledore told us to say so," Remus replied stoically, as if the question should not even have been broached. "And who in their right mind would refuse a command from Dumbledore?"

"But why would Dumbledore want everybody to think I'm dead?"

"Search me," Remus answered a little too quickly.

Hermione looked at her ex-professor suspiciously, and sighed, suddenly exhausted by this latest bit of news. "Fine. I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to sit in that chair..." (she pointed at the chair Fred was currently inhabiting). "...And I'm going to give you five minutes to convince me to stay here. Starting..." (she looked intently at the clock). "...Right now."

"You can't be serious," Fred complained as Hermione pushed him off the seat and placed her own bottom on it. "Hermione, be that rational gal I knew five years ago. The one who wasn't set on pure, unadulterated revenge."

"I assure you that I am being very serious Fred Weasley. And now you have only four and a half minutes left to convince me to stay."

"Okay, okay I get it!" Fred whined, exasperation plastering his face. "Remus old man, take over, will you?"

"Fine. Have it your way, Miss Granger." Remus took the chair next to Hermione, and pulled out his battered wand. Murmuring Latin words that Hermione now found unfamiliar, a map appeared in front of them, and Hermione's attention was drawn to a glowing spot on an island on the lower right hand corner.

"About twenty-five years ago, a discovery was made near the northern coast of New Zealand, about three hours outside of Auckland. It was the remains of an old Maori temple. Now, the Maori people inhabit the two islands of New Zealand to this day, so it seemed at first not to be a big find. In fact, the first group of muggle archeologists left the site almost immediately. But," he continued, pointing to a spot close to Wellington, "a group of magical folk thought there might be something more."

"You see," George proceeded. "The archeologists found a large meeting house about four meters under the ground. Once they got to the base of it, the team thought they had struck the jackpot and left as soon as they came. But every half-witted Maori historian knows that a meeting house is central to a town. A meeting house never stands alone."

"That's when wizards from Wellington came in," continued Remus. "See, it is commonplace knowledge to a New Zealand wizard that the Maori people were some of the first practicing wizards in that part of the world. So when the archeologists picked up and left so soon with little in objects and even less in words, a wizard named Luke Saipani and a crew of workers went to the ruins. What they found there was not only the meeting house, but a dense field of Muggle-repelling spells. Inside that field lay a town, undisturbed for what has been calculated to be a thousand plus years."

"Naturally, Saipani explored the town, but was devastated to find only what normal Maori towns hold. The ruins were excavated for fifty days before Saipani decided to pack up his things and cut his monetary losses. However, on the fifty-first day, after all of Saipani's crew left the ruins, Saipani stumbled onto a single piece of driftwood covered in red Maori writing. As he was raised in Maori tongue, he immediately read the script, which instructed him to cast various, seemingly insignificant spells such as Lumos!, in a seemingly unsystematic order. Before he knew it, a whole new house appeared before him. Against his better judgment, he entered. Within the humble home Saipani found one thing; a single slab of limestone. Written on that limestone is the reason you are here."

"The limestone was covered in writing that Saipani immediately knew was an elder prophecy. The prophecy was not at all straightforward. Maori people are famous for speaking in metaphors, and sometimes it is hard to tell if they are being absolutely humorous or absolutely serious. Saipani was an archeologist, not an expert at deciphering. So they called in the best person possible to understand the message."

"Dumbledore?" half-guessed Hermione.

"Right in one. So Dumbledore went down to Wellington where Saipani was keeping the stone, and stayed ten days to decipher the meaning. When he came back to London, he called together his four most trusted companions to tell them his findings. What Dumbledore stumbled upon was an ancient prophecy made around the time that the Maori people migrated to New Zealand from Taiwan and other Asian countries. These people greatly feared a single person, known to them as Te-Rago. Te-Rago would supposedly one day descend upon the world and be met by a single human in a final fight for the Universe. The prophecy said that the human would fail, unless supported by the two of the three who complete the four elements."

"You know, last time I checked there were over a hundred elements."

"Not Periodic table elements, but purely magical elements. The Earth element, the Fire element, the Air element, and the Water element. The single human who will fight against Te-Rago is supposedly representative of the Water element. The other two can be any of the remaining three elements."

Hermione appeared bemused. "Who were the other four who were told all of this?"

"Minerva McGonagall, Mr. and Mrs. Flamel, and Rubeus Hagrid. All four were sworn to absolute secrecy."

"Then how come you know about it?" Hermione pushed.

"Mr. and Mrs. Flamel obviously passed on your first year at Hogwarts, and when they did, the information was passed onto Fred and George Weasley."

Seeing the shock on Hermione's face, Fred interpolated. "Dumbledore thought that it would be best to have a younger generation know about the prophecy. Plus, he told us that our family would someday play a pivotal role in the prophecy, and that it was best if we two knew."

Remus continued. "Professor Minerva McGonagall died in the attack on Hogwarts while trying to protect Ginny Weasley. When she died, I became one of the five to know about the prophecy."

Hermione felt her heart plummet to the ground with this new information. How many had lost their lives since she had been away?

Missing Hermione's expression, Lupin went on. "This is where you come in, Hermione. Dumbledore had a thing about fives. Five people always have to know, and now you do. You also undoubtedly know about the prophecy concerning Harry and the Dark Lord that Sybil Trelawney made more than two decades ago. Since that prediction was made, all efforts to defeat the Dark Lord have been centered on it. That is, until twenty-one years ago, when a young, brown-haired girl opened her mouth and said hello to a thin young boy whom she had read about in a book or two."

"I'm not sure that I follow," admitted Hermione, who was no longer watching the Weasley's clock.

"Hermione, nobody, including Dumbledore, suspected that Harry Potter was the subject of the prophecy. Most true Maori prophecies dealt with their own people. Dumbledore himself didn't even figure it out until your second year when you turned into a cat after a Polyjuice mishap. That incident itself was in the prophecy. One of the three is she who turns into a creature of the night without purpose or desire for seven days and eight nights. At that point Dumbledore realized that you were definitely the girl. He already had a thought that it might be you when he first saw your interaction with Harry and Ron."

Hermione looked suspicious. "So you're trying to tell me that my turning into a cat almost ten years ago proves that I'm one of the remaining three Elements? One line that fits is hardly enough to prove that I'm the girl the prophecy is describing."

Lupin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Oh you're one of the three, all right. There are other things in the prophecy that make it clearer that you are."

"Like what?"

If possible, Lupin looked even more uneasy than before. "It's not really important right now. What is important is that you recognize that you are one of the remaining two Elements. I've been instructed to only tell you as much as you need to know at the moment."

"Who was the other element?"

"Ginny Weasley. She represented Air"

Silence screamed in the room for a few seconds.

The brown-eyed girl shook her head, completely weighed down by the new enormity of the situation. After a few moments of tense silence, she raised her eyes to Lupin's own, darker ones. "So, if I'm completely correct which I hope to God and all that is holy that I'm not, you're saying that I'm supposed to leave my perfectly good life behind, come back to a place that I said I was leaving forever, to help two people that I never wanted to see again save the world from something that could destroy the entire Universe if I don't?"

Lupin nodded. "Basically."

Hermione shook her head and moaned loudly, pounding her fists against the table. "I should have had some goddamn coffee this morning."