The Power of Three

 

The Power of Three: Chapter Two

Hermione quickly packed a small bag with a few casual robes and some necessities. She left instructions for her substitute on her desk. Harry met her in the front foyer and took her bag from her.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked quietly.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she answered with a sigh. They began to make their way across the Hogwarts grounds. “I never imagined that we would have to deal with this so soon!”

“Neither did I. I had hoped that after Voldemort’s death and the loss of the rings they would have had a more difficult time regrouping. We’ll just have to deal with it. Hopefully it hasn’t gotten out of hand yet.”

Once they reached Hogsmeade, Harry and Hermione promptly Disapparated. They reapparated on the front yard of a pretty little cottage in Wales. Hermione knocked on the front door and awaited an answer. After a moment, a tall, handsome man opened the door and looked at his guests in surprise.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked as he led them inside. “Don’t you have classes to teach?”

“We have a bit of a problem,” Harry began as he sat next to Hermione on a sofa across from Sirius, who sat perched on the arm of a chair looking at them seriously. “Professor McGonagall called us into her office today to ask for our advice because the Death Eaters are regrouping. She started asking a lot of very difficult questions, like what the rings do.”

“They couldn’t have the rings, right?” Sirius asked darkly.

“No, they’re still locked away in the Gringott’s vault. It has taken both of us by surprise that they’ve started noticeably reorganizing so soon. Anything that you know that might explain it would be extremely helpful.

“Harry,” Hermione asked, “are you absolutely certain that the rings are still in Gringott’s?”

“I don’t know how they could not be, but maybe when Ron gets here we should go look.”

“I think that it’s worth the trip, just in case. I also think that we need to determine how much of a threat this really is, and what we should do about it. Harry, if we’ve underestimated the Death Eaters this could be really bad.”

“I know. Sirius, we may want to call a meeting.”

“Quite a few people are out of the country, you know,” Sirius answered.

“I know, but let’s hold one anyway with the people who are able to come. I think that it’s important. This is almost two years ahead of our earliest estimation of when they might start becoming a problem again. How did we miss this?”

“I’ll call a meeting.”

“Set it for five days from now. Ron will be back by then,” Harry instructed.

“Harry,” Hermione said reasonably, “perhaps we should set it for the day after. We do have to go check on the rings.”

“I forgot about that. Yeah, maybe we should push it back a day. Sirius, on second thought, I think that Hermione’s right.”

“Six days it is then,” Sirius agreed. “I’ll check with the twins in the next day or so to find out what they know about all of this and I’ll let you know by owl post.”

“Alright,” Harry said with a nod. “We are going up to the manor house, so you might be able to catch us with Floo powder as well if you really need us.”

“I hope that I won’t have to get ahold of you that badly, I’d rather not bother you up there.”

“I’m going to see if I can find anything else out, so I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting.”

“Alright. I guess that I’ll see you both later then.” Sirius stood up and led them to the front door. He shook Harry’s hand and gave Hermione a warm hug.

“Thank you so much, Sirius,” Hermione said as she hugged him. “We really appreciate all the help that you’ve been giving us. I honestly don’t know what we would do without you.”

“It’s been my pleasure, Hermione,” he answered. “Goodbye!”

Sirius shut the door behind them and Hermione looked to Harry questioningly.

“So Harry, what is the manor house?”

“Come here and I’ll show you.”

Hermione walked over and took Harry’s hand.

“I’m going to take you just outside of it so that you can see what it looks like before we go inside.”

“Alright.”

“Harry,” Hermione breathed, “it’s beautiful!”

“I knew that you would like it! Would you like to see the inside?”

“Of course!”

Harry opened his hand and a key appeared in it. He walked up the front door, fitted the key into the lock and opened the door. He held it for Hermione as she entered the house.

Hermione gasped as she walked inside the entryway. It was huge. Across from the door was a huge staircase swept up majestically. Above their heads was a beautiful large stained-glass light fixture that cast patches of coloured light around the room. Harry took Hermione’s bag from her and sent it and his suitcase floating up the stairs.

“I don't know about you, but I'm hungry,” he said.

Hermione nodded and took the arm held out for her.

He led her to the large kitchen to look for something to eat. There was very little food, so they tried to create a meal from what was there: a box of breakfast cereal, three apples and a few carrots. Harry transfigured some water into milk as Hermione cut up the apples and carrots.

“I’ve hired some house elves, but since I wasn’t really planning on being here much until the Christmas break, they don’t start until then.”

“It’s alright. We can manage just fine, although we should probably buy some food tomorrow morning.”

“Good idea. I don’t fancy eating the furniture.”

“How did you ever afford this house, Harry? It must have cost a fortune!”

“I paid for the house with the money that was given to me, although I have quite a bit of money from my parents as well. Didn’t the ministry pay you some reward money for the defeat of Voldemort?”

“Of course they did, but not nearly as much as you, I guess! I didn’t actually kill him remember? You did that on your own. I just made sure that you stayed alive long enough to do it.”

“You did a lot more than that. Without you I never would have found him or had enough power to kill him. Without you ”

“ you and Ron would still be stuck in that Devil’s Snare at Hogwarts! Harry, you know perfectly well that you would have done just fine without me. You are the one with power coming out of your ears.”

“Hermione, I have lots of power, but you’re the one who knows the best way for it to be used. So don’t ever try to claim that I would have been fine without you. Without you and Ron, I would have died long before we ever got past our fourth year.”

They ate their supper and then Harry led Hermione to the library. It was a huge room with high ceilings and wall-to-wall bookcases, most of which were still empty. There was a fireplace and several overstuffed chairs. The room also had two large tables. On one of the tables was an assortment of maps and pieces of paper covered in scribbled notes. Harry led Hermione over to that table and with a wave of his hand a fire began crackling and popping in the fireplace. He began rifling through the maps looking for one specific one. Finally he pulled out a rather large map of the British Isles. It had different coloured markings scribbled on it. He set it on the top of the pile and opened the drawer under the table. He pulled out a pale purple crystal suspended on a thin gold chain.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Of course,” Hermione replied.

Harry held the chain out so that the crystal hung over the map and Hermione held her hand out over his. They spent almost two hours standing there trying to find out anything that they could about where the Death Eaters met or where their power lay, but came up with no useful information. Hermione sank into one of the chairs by the fireplace and rubbed her temples. Harry came over and turned her head by the chin to look up at him.

“I know that it’s been draining, beautiful,” he said soothingly, “and I’m sorry that nothing came from it this time. I think that we need a break. How does that sound?”

“Harry,” Hermione replied, “a break sounds wonderful. What did you have in mind?”

“Have I shown you the master bedroom yet?”

“I seem to recall it vaguely.”

“Let’s refresh your memory a little bit then.”

~

Hermione awoke the next morning curled up under a down quilt on a beautiful old four-poster bed. She noticed that she was alone in the bed and sat up to see where Harry was. He was sitting with his back to her at a desk under the windows. She summoned her pale blue dressing gown from her suitcase and wrapped it around herself before walking over to stand behind him. She wrapped her arms around Harry’s neck and peered over his shoulder at what he was writing. It appeared to be a letter to Ron (although with Harry’s handwriting, one could never be too sure). She tried to read it, but stopped when her headache started to return.

“I used to wonder,” she said softly, “if maybe you and Ron actually wrote in code, but after watching him struggle with one of your letters I decided that I must be wrong. Or maybe it just isn't a very reliable code.”

“Oh it’s not that bad,” Harry said as he signed his name at the bottom of the page. He turned to face her and gave Hermione a soft good morning kiss. “You are so beautiful, Hermione,” he breathed.

Hermione smiled at him. She didn’t think that she was very attractive at all, but Harry certainly made her feel beautiful. She was so happy when she was with Harry. He just felt so very right. Everything about him meant home and comfort and safety to her. She couldn’t imagine life without him in her wildest dreams.

“Thank you, Harry.”

“I’m going to send this letter off and then we should probably go and buy some food.”

Hermione agreed and went off to shower and dress, leaving Harry to wonder how he got so lucky.

~

That evening, after another fruitless bout of trying to gain some information, Harry and Hermione were sitting by the fireplace quietly. Harry had a stack of papers in his lap written by his students that he was going through. Hermione was balancing two books on her lap and a scroll of parchment was floating next to her. A quill, controlled by her thoughts, scribbled notes on the parchment for her as she worked. Suddenly a familiar snowy owl flew in through the window and dropped two letters into Harry’s lap before perching on the back of his chair. He opened the top one first and read it to himself.

“Sirius says that he hasn’t found anything that we didn’t already know yet,” he announced. “The twins had seen that the Death Eaters were regrouping and had been working on finding any more to tell us about it before they reported it. They will let us know if they find anything else out.”

“Alright,” Hermione said. “At least we have someone who has been watching the situation.”

Harry nodded and opened the other note. After reading a line or two he smiled and started over, reading aloud.

Dear Harry and Hermione,

Jesus Christ, can’t you two keep out of trouble for a while? You worry way too much! So what if a bunch of whiny, rich, stuck-up wizards have decided to revive their ‘old boys’ club? They have no power anymore. I mean, we have their rings and the ringleaders and Voldemort’s dead, so what difference does it make? How much damage could they possibly do? I swear, I can’t leave you two alone for a minute and not have you decide that the world is going to fall apart if you don’t run off and save it, and for some reason, which I never figured out, you always insist on dragging me along too! You two need to learn how to relax and enjoy life once in a while. I swear, for Christmas you two are getting a vacation to someplace far from any Death Eaters or Dark Marks where there are no books except for cheep paperback novels and no forms of communication at all! You are both way too eager to save the world. I promise that it won’t fall apart if you leave it alone for a while!

Not that my writing any of this makes any difference since you will run off to be heroes with or without me. I’ll be home in four days and then we can pay a visit to Gringott’s together. After that we can figure out what to do next. I trust that you called a meeting? When this one is all over, though, you both owe me one hell of a drink! And maybe an ice cream sundae too! Just don’t let things fall apart before I get there, alright?

I will be so glad to see you both! I really miss my two best friends! I’ll let you know as soon as I get into London. See you soon!

Your friend,
Ron Weasley

* * * * *

The next afternoon Hermione was standing before her class again lecturing. She was discussing methods of properly identifying the magical properties of plants to an increasingly less interested fifth year class of Gryffindors and Slytherins.

“So tomorrow,” she said, perching on the front of her desk, “I want you to bring your cauldrons and potions kits with you to class. I will have everything else that you will need here waiting for you. And please don’t be late! Now open your 'Herbs and Their Magical Properties' book to page 97 so that we can go over what we will be doing tomorrow.” Hermione reached behind her and grabbed her book. She opened it up and waited until the entire class had their books open before she went on. “You will be in groups of two or three, which I will set up since last time we tried working in groups it didn’t go so well. I am going to give each group a different plant and you will have to find out what its magical properties are and then identify the plant, in that order. The first thing that you will ” Just then a pretty bouquet of wildflowers appeared in her lap. She sighed. “Excuse me a moment. You can begin reading page 97 while you wait.”

* * * * *

After classes were over for the day, Hermione hurried through the corridors to Harry’s classroom. He was waiting for her in the doorway absently playing with the flower she had sent. He had a troubled look on his face. Hermione rushed up to Harry and buried her face in his chest as he wrapped one arm around her. Students walked by them whispering. By now everyone had heard about the presents that had passed between them (which wasn’t unusual) and the reactions each had to them (which was unusual). An owl had dropped a note marked ‘urgent’ onto Harry’s desk as he was lecturing a class of seventh years. He had read it and had suddenly become deathly pale. He had quietly held out a hand and a bouquet of flowers appeared. Harry had scribbled a not to Hermione. Then he had made the flowers and enclosed note disappear. She had received them and also looked upset. Then she had sent a flower and note back, which Harry had been playing with through the rest of his classes. Harry hadn’t noticed his students’ reactions, but Hermione had spent her afternoon assuring her students, and even Poppy Pomfrey, the school nurse, that everything was perfectly fine between her and Harry. Now, standing in the doorway to Harry’s classroom, all of that was forgotten. They were thinking only about the news Harry had received from the Ministry and how it might affect them.

“Harry,” Hermione said after a while, “it’s going to be alright. We’ve faced worse than this! We faced worse before we finished our seventh year at Hogwarts!”

“Did we?” Harry asked skeptically. He pulled Hermione into the classroom and shut the door. He leaned back against the door and let himself slide down to the ground. “Hermione, I don’t know if we can fight this and win.”

“Harry, they can’t beat you,” Hermione said, kneeling down in front of him. “You are the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter!”

“Yes, Hermione, I am, and do you know why I lived?”

Hermione stared at him.

“Harry, you don’t think that this could be that powerful, do you? I mean, it’s powerful, but it can’t be that powerful.”

“Of course it can.”

“Harry, stop it! I won’t have you doubting yourself! Nothing has changed; you are still the most powerful wizard in the world. If you weren’t, Lucius wouldn’t have killed himself to try and give the Death Eaters a prayer of stopping you! Besides, your mother gave herself freely and completely for you. If Lucius Malfoy hadn’t been in Azkaban, he would not have killed himself. There’s the difference. Harry, they are not the same, so don’t give his action more meaning than he did. Harry, you can beat this! And now Ron is coming back, so you will have the full force of the power we were given behind you. The three of us managed to defeat Voldemort when we were seventeen; we can certainly defeat some Death Eaters who don’t even have the rings anymore. We’ve all been through Hogwarts completely now, not to mention all the experience we gained from defeating Voldemort and them before. I know that I, for one, have quite a few new tricks up my sleeve.”

“What if it’s not enough?”

“Harry, I think we could neutralize any advantage Lucius’ death may have given them over you. I’ve been sort of working on an idea for a spell all afternoon. I want to look into it a little more before I tell you about it, but it might make a difference.”

“Perhaps we could find a way to set the battle on our terms as well.”

“It certainly couldn’t hurt!”

“Maybe you’re right. We can do this.” Harry stood up, pulling Hermione up with him. “By the way,” he asked, holding up the little flower (which was looking a bit worse for wear), “what is this? I don’t think that I’ve ever seen one before.”

“It’s called a Nasturtium flower. It symbolizes conquest and victory in battle. They are wildflowers.”

“Victory. I never would have guessed that of such a frail little flower.”

“No one would have guessed that a baby would be the only one to live through the AK curse either, but it’s true.”

“You amaze me sometimes, Hermione. I have no idea what I would do without you. Thank you for being my friend.”

“You’re pretty amazing yourself. Thank you for being mine.”

* * * * *

The day that Ron got back to Britain Harry and Hermione apparated in to London and went to lunch with him. They spent ten minutes waiting in the Leaky Cauldron before Ron finally apparated in. He walked up to their table with a huge grin on his face. Hermione stood up and shared a warm hug with Ron.

“Welcome back, Ron,” she said warmly. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“I’ve missed you too, Hermione,” he replied. He kissed the top of her head before letting her pull away from him. Then he and Harry shared a hug.

“How was the continent, Ron?” Harry asked.

“Great, but I’m really glad to be home.”

“We’re very glad to have you back,” Hermione assured him. She looked up at her two best friends. Both were very tall and towered over her like giants. She put her hands on her hips. “How did I end up being friends with two bean polls? You are both entirely too tall.”

Harry and Ron laughed. Harry held Hermione’s chair for her and then sat beside her at the table.

“I’m going to go up to the bar and get a drink,” Ron said. “Do either of you want anything?”

“I’ll have another drink,” Harry answered. “Just ask him to make my usual. He’ll know what it is.”

“Hermione?” Ron asked, turning to her. “Do you want anything?”

“A glass of white wine would be nice,” she replied after thinking about it for a minute.

“Got it.”

Ron went off to get their drinks. Hermione leaned back in her chair, deep in thought. Harry watched her. She was always thinking about something. He frequently wondered what she was thinking about, but he had learned by the time that he was twelve that asking did no good. She would simply smile at him and say ‘nothing important’ and only her eyes would suggest that she was lying. As he sat there watching her, Ron returned with their drinks. He also looked at Hermione in wonderment, while she didn’t even notice that he had come back.

“Any idea what she’s thinking about?” Ron whispered to Harry.

“Not a clue. Hermione?” he asked, trying to bring her back to the present. She didn’t respond. He touched her shoulder, but she didn’t notice.

*Hermione?* he asked in her head. She jumped.

*Harry! Don’t do that!* Hermione sent back.

*Sorry. I tried getting your attention out loud, but you didn’t respond. This was the easiest way to get your attention.*

*Alright. So what do you want my attention for so badly?*

*Because I think that we should start telling Ron about the Death Eaters and everything.*

*Yes, we should. I think that doing it telepathically might be a good idea, since we happen to be in a crowded tavern.*

*Good idea.*

*Ron?* Hermione said in both Harry and Ron’s heads at once. *We need to fill you in on the Death Eater situation.*

*I’m all ears. Or whatever.*

The three friends spent the better part of an hour sitting at their little corner table talking silently and eating their meal. By the time their food was gone Ron had been brought fully up to date on everything that had happened concerning the Death Eaters. He had also found out about the romance between Harry and Hermione, and had congratulated them on it. They paid for their meals and left the Leaky Cauldron to go and visit Gringott’s.

It was a Saturday afternoon, so Diagon Alley was bustling. The three of them had gone barely three steps before a middle aged woman exclaimed loudly to her friend, “Look, it’s Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger!” Hermione groaned inwardly and wished that she had Harry’s invisibility cloak handy. As they walked, heads turned to watch them and people pointed them out to their friends. A woman walked up to them in front of Flourish & Blotts. She was about their age with short red hair and very revealing robes. She went right up to Harry with a flirtatious smile on her face.

“Harry, I was wondering if you were interesting in going to dinner and out dancing tonight with me,” she said as she tossed her hair and batted her eyelashes.

*Are you ready to be in the news again, beautiful?* Harry asked Hermione telepathically.

*Go ahead, Harry. Make me famous again,* Hermione answered.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said to the redhead, “but I’m going to have to say no. I’m spoken for. Even if I wasn’t, I don’t date strangers. As it is, I’m taking my girlfriend out to dinner tonight.”

“Who’s the lucky girl?” the woman asked in a hurt tone of voice.

“I am,” Hermione said, taking Harry’s arm, “and I don’t appreciate your asking my boyfriend out when he doesn’t even know your name.”

The woman shrank away from Hermione and mumbled an apology. She hurriedly walked away from them and quickly disappeared into the crowd again.

*Nicely done,* Harry said in Hermione’s head.

*Who wants to bet that news of you two being a couple gets to Gringott’s before we do?* Ron asked his two friends.

They soon reached Gringott’s and were taken into the vaults. They rode far into the caverns with their goblin guide. He finally stopped their cart near a large door. They all climbed out of a cart and Harry noticed a large dragon laying a few doors down. As they approached the door before them, the dragon got up and lumbered over to them. It watched as Harry, Hermione and Ron each held out their right hand and a key appeared in each of their hands. The goblin turned to them.

“First key please,” it said, holding out a hand. Hermione handed it her key, which it fitted into one of the door’s three keyholes. Then it turned back to them. “Second key please.” Ron handed it his key, which was then fit into the second keyhole. Then Harry’s key was fit into the third keyhole. With all three keys in place, the goblin stroked the door and it promptly disappeared. Satisfied that they were not thieves, the dragon walked away. Harry, followed closely by Ron and Hermione, walked into the vault. He looked around at the jumble of things, not seeing what he was looking for.

“I don’t suppose either of you remembers where we put them?” he asked.

“They are in a black, velvet bag,” Hermione answered purposefully. “We put it into the cauldron. So where did we put the cauldron?”

“Well, it was one of the first things we brought in, so it’s probably in the back somewhere.”

Ron groaned.

“Harry, I can’t even see back there with all of this furniture around!” Ron exclaimed.

“Maybe we could hoist Mione over this stuff and have her find it,” Harry suggested.

“You were going to ask me about this first, right?” Hermione asked with her hands on her hips.

“Of course! Do you want to try it?”

“Sure. Why don’t you lift me up onto that table? It should be fairly stable.” She pointed to a table resting on top of a few boxes. Ron spent a few moments testing the table’s stability. Once he was satisfied that it would hold Hermione without collapsing, he nodded to Harry. Hermione stood in front of the table and Harry grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up so that she could sit on the table. She swung her legs up onto the table as she turned around and slid over to the other side of the table. She looked around at the jumble of things. They had brought all of Voldemort’s things here as well as all of the Death Eater power and ceremonial things (robes, wands, rings, etc.) and it made for quite a collection. She looked around for the large black cauldron that they had confiscated from the Death Eaters. There was a silver one that had been Voldemort’s, but she didn’t see the black one Hermione groaned.

“What is it?” Harry asked.

“It’s underneath Voldemort’s cauldron. I’m going to need one of you to help me.”

“Harry,” Ron asked, “are you sure that we can’t just assume that they’re there?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Harry replied. “Mione, can you get down off the table safely?”

“Sure, give me a second,” she said as she carefully climbed down onto a chair. As Hermione worked her way down the stack of furniture and boxes, Ron helped Harry up onto the table. Harry made his way down to Hermione’s side. She stood looking at the cauldrons curiously.

“The markings on Voldemort’s cauldron are interesting,” she stated.

“You said that when we brought it in here too,” Harry replied.

“Well, it’s still true.”

They each took one of the heavy cauldron’s handles and lifted it to one side. They carefully set it down in a spot Hermione had made for it. Harry reached into the black cauldron underneath and pulled out a black velvet bag.

“We should put it somewhere on the other side of the furniture in case we need to get to it again some time,” Hermione suggested.

“Good idea.”

Harry slipped the bag into his pocket and he and Hermione began climbing over the stack of things again. Harry climbed up onto the table first. Ron helped him down and then Hermione slid down into Harry’s waiting arms.

“Let’s make sure that all of the rings are here,” said Harry as he took the bag out of his pocket.

“Sure,” Ron replied. They shook out the rings and began to count them. Each one was a glittering band of pure silver. All of them were there, so they put them back into the bag and hid the bag in a box of ceremonial Death Eater robes. They left the vault and the goblin resealed it and handed them each their key back.

Once they were back in Diagon Alley they decided to do some shopping. The three best friends spent the rest of the day together enjoying each other’s company. Late into the evening they parted to get some sleep before the meeting the next day.