Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Link

Go to Chapter Five

Go to Chapter Six

Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Link

Chapter 4- Return to Hogwarts

Ron sniffed appreciatively as he walked into the Great Hall with Harry and Hermione. "I wish we didn't have to watch the sorting before the feast. I'm starving," he complained.

"That is original of you, Ron," laughed Harry, "you only say that every single year."

Hermione cast them a stuffy look as they sat down at the Gryffindor table.

Soon Professor McGonagall entered the room carrying the sorting hat and the three-legged stool. She was followed by a ragged line of nervous first years.

After the hat had finished its song, Professor McGonagall read out the names of first years from, 'Ackerly, Susannah' to 'Vane, Kay'. Professor Dumbledore then stood up to make his speech, "Welcome to Hogwarts. Before we start the feast (groan from Ron), I have a few things to say to you. As usual the forest is out of bounds to all students and the village of Hogsmeade to any students under third year." Here he peered rather closely at a group of Ravenclaw second years who completely gave themselves away by giggling.

"We must also welcome a new member of staff. Professor Harding, Minerva's sister, will be joining us as Defence against the Dark Arts teacher until Christmas."

Professor Harding was a slightly younger version of Professor McGonagall, with a weaker chin. Hermione frowned, "why is she only staying till Christmas?" she whispered to Harry.

Before he had time to answer, Dumbledore continued, "Quidditch trials will start next week. If you wish to play for your house please contact Madame Hooch or your house captain, Harry Potter for Gryffindor; Mandy Brocklehurst for Ravenclaw; Martin Roberts for Hufflepuff and Draco Malfoy for Slytherin."

"WHAT?!" hissed Ron, livid, "Draco Malfoy, captain?!"

"Of course; Malcolm Baddock left last year," replied Harry gloomily, glancing over at the Slytherin table, where Malfoy was looking particularly smug (though he might have looked even happier if his girlfriend Pansy wasn't hanging onto his arm).

Dumbledore finished, "Our head boy is Terry Boot, and our head girl, Hermione Granger. Contact them if you have any queries. I don't think I have anything more to say. Enjoy the feast and the year."

"About time too!" said Ron.

*

Hermione slept badly. In fact she slept so badly that she woke up twice. The second time was at roughly 11 o'clock. She sat up in bed and looked up at the alarm clock on her bedside table. It showed the date as well as the time. How could she have been so forgetful? Hermione realised with a jolt that the next day would be her birthday.

She went back to sleep.

But not to a dreamless sleep. Pictures of what seemed to be her life flashed through her brain, like a video on fast forward. She saw a dark room and hooded figures, then it changed and a single hooded person, who was quite small, was standing facing her. That person raised its wand and shouted unfamiliar words at her. A jet of red light shot out from the wand and the scene changed again. This time the 'video' seemed to have fast-forwarded quite a long way because this time she recognised the scene. She was telling her ordinary muggle parents that she was a witch, seven years ago. How excited she had been! And now she saw the painfully familiar house in Greece, and she saw the guards approaching, and Harry's voice in her mind telling her to watch out, then- nothing.

And suddenly a voice boomed in her head, "THE OLD MAGIC IS AWAKENED. PREPARE YOURSELF." A flash of red light like the one in her dream illuminated her mind. She woke up immediately feeling her skin was melting wax.

She screamed, but no sound came out. Switching on the light she grabbed her mirror, not really knowing what to expect to see. A strange face stared back- a pale face with thin, almost invisible lips and dark shrewd eyes and smooth, straight, oily black hair. The next second it was gone and Hermione Granger, pale faced and frightened stared back at her.

Hermione drank some water and, shuddering slightly, looked around the dormitory at the dark, humps and listened to the regular breathing of Lavender and Parvati. It was clear that they had heard nothing.

If she had been more awake she would have tried to understand what she had seen and heard, as it was, she was terrified and her brain was bemused. Her eyes wondered back to the clock. She had been eighteen for approximately two minutes. She was now, the first one in her class, technically an adult. She was no longer an underage witch.

*

When Hermione awoke the next morning, she had no recollection of the previous night at all. She only felt happy that it was her birthday and the first day of school.

Her eyes opened on the familiar scene of the girls' dormitory in September. A ray of autumn sun filtered through the curtains and enabled her to see Parvati sitting bouncing on her four-poster platting her hair, and Lavender applying lip gloss at her dressing table. When they saw that she was awake, they turned around and pulling out parcels cried, "Happy Birthday, Hermione!"

They sat on the edge of her bed and insisted that she opened her presents, which she did. From Parvati she received some pink hairclips and some perfume, which she felt obliged to wear. From Lavender she had a book called, A 100 Magical Tips for Improving your Appearance.

"I thought you'd like a book best," added Lavender.

Hermione felt like laughing and crying at the same time. She felt a sudden affection for her two roommates who she always pretty much ignored and had even scorned in the past. She gave them a sudden hug before descending into the common room where Harry and Ron were waiting.

It seemed that they had got her a joint gift. It looked very like a very thick book.

"We think you'll like it," said Ron, almost jumping up and down with excitement as she opened it.

"It's the very latest edition," added Harry.

It was a shiny, hardback edition of, A Concise History of the Teachers of Hogwarts, Past and Present.

"It's a companion to your favourite book," Harry said, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Which is?"

"Hogwarts, A History!" chorused Harry and Ron at the same time.

Hermione seemed to see the last six years of her life flash by and she was suddenly acutely aware that she had only one year left at Hogwarts.

"You don't know what this means to me," she said in a low voice.

"So you like it?" asked Harry, anxiously.

"Idiot! Of course!"

Ron seemed to be thinking deeply, then said nervously, "Er, Hermione, I want to say something to you."

Hermione's eyes narrowed visibly but she replied, "All right then."

Harry coughed and muttered, "I'll just, er, go then, shall I?"

"No!" cried Ron grabbing his arm, "I want you to be a witness."

"A witness?" asked Hermione.

"Yes. Hermione, I forgive you."

"Forgive me?"

"Yes, for slapping me last year at the ball. You had provocation. I apologise."

"Apologise? I'm the one who should do that; I was hot and irritable. Anyway, I forgive you for kissing me, though you mustn't do it again."

"I won't," sighed Ron.

There was a pause. Then Hermione burst into tears and gave Ron a massive hug.

*

Here the author must fill in spaces in the reader's knowledge. To bring the reader up to date we must now acknowledge that in the summer before her sixth year, Hermione had broken up with Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker. When asked why, she was evasive. Not even Harry or Ron knew the reason. She had visited him twice in Bulgaria and after the second visit she had merely said that they had had, 'a difference of opinion and had broken up by mutual consent.'

Meanwhile Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw in the year above, had been devastated when her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, who she had truly loved, had died at the end of the year before. Harry had had a bit of a crush on her, but had never had the nerve to ask her out.

Eventually it was Cho herself who came to his rescue. She was stuck for a partner for the Seniors' Ball since she did not want a boyfriend after Cedric. However, she liked Harry and asked him to accompany her. Harry had been the only fifth year going, but he had enjoyed it and after a while he began to grow out of his crush for her and to love her in a much more fraternal way. It was the beginning of a life long friendship.

Harry found Cho sensible and intelligent, though bitter about Cedric's death. She was determined to become an Auror and to avenge his death, as well as never marry. He found himself telling her things he had never told anyone else before, including Ron and Hermione; like how the Dursleys' really treated him and how he had blamed himself for Cedric's death. Cho reminded Harry of Hermione a bit.

As Harry spent more time with Cho, he also noticed how little he knew of the lives of Ron and Hermione. When he was playing Quidditch or fighting Voldemort, what were they doing? The more he thought about this, the more he noticed that Ron liked Hermione. He didn't know about Hermione's feelings, but Ron's were very obvious. It occurred to him that they might already be going out behind his back as it were, and Hermione was just better at hiding it. The idea hurt him, but he had to consider it.

He wasn't to know just how wrong he had been until the Seniors' Ball in their sixth year. Ron went with Hermione, and Harry had gone with Cho. At the end of a very romantic, slow dance, Cho had drawn Harry's attention to Ron and Hermione. Suddenly Ron had kissed Hermione, not on the cheek, but firmly on the lips! The whole ball had watched as Hermione had drawn back, red in the face, and slapped Ron hard across the face. She had only ever slapped someone before once, and that had been Malfoy. She then left the hall and wasn't seen by anybody until the next day when she wasn't speaking to Ron. Ron seemed happy with this arrangement; they were both furious with each other.

It was their worst fall out yet. They did not speak to each other for the whole Spring term, the Easter holidays and half of the Summer term. In the end, they had called a truce and started speaking again, probably for Harry's sake who was acting as a go-between. Still it seemed that they had not forgiven each other.

Now fortunately, it seemed that they had and life could continue normally for Harry, Ron and Hermione's seventh year. They hoped.

This chapter has now ended.

Go to Chapter Four

Go to Chapter Six

Chapter 5- The Search Begins

Hermione was eager to get to the library and after lessons had finished for the morning, she set off for the above place.

She knew roughly what type of book she wanted, and she only had to find the right chapter in it. Eventually she found it in a thick volume called, Magical Bonds in Detail.

She did not read the chapters entitled 'Wand Twinning' and 'The Power of Love', but stopped at a chapter called, 'The Unbreakable Link.' She closed her eyes a second, then muttered, "All or nothing, I suppose. Oh, well. Here I go."

She read on,

'The Unbreakable Link is some of the oldest magic that exists. In fact, it is sometimes called, 'The Old Magic'. It is very uncommon and is only found once or twice a century.

'The Unbreakable Link has sometimes been called telepathy, but this is incorrect. It goes much deeper than telepathy. It is the ability for two people, who 'have the Link' to communicate in their minds at any distance and in any condition. It is called unbreakable because once the two people have mastered their art, nothing less than death can destroy it.

'It is usual for people who have the Link to be of different gender, but cases have been known where they have not. There have been no examples, however, of any non-pureblood witches or wizards having the Link, but it is probably possible. (See end of chapter for list of all those with the Link).

'In a few cases so far, only three in fact, is was possible for the couple to be able to pass objects between them. This is very rare though.

'The Link does not properly appear until the couple are both of age, though it may show up a little just before this and the communication lines could be very unclear.

'In some cases people with the link have fallen in love and in only one known case, have had a child. This child was Godric Gryffindor.

'If a child is born to a couple with the Link then, while the wand power of their parents is increased if the spell is said at the same time, then the child can do magic without a wand at all, as well as being able to read anybody's mind and resist death. Godric Gryffindor was 'killed' no less than six times, mainly by his cousin Salazar Slytherin, who hated him.'

Hermione stopped reading, "Slytherin was Gryffindor's cousin? That means that Gryffindor must have had both good and bad blood in his veins. Good and evil combined. How strange!"

Next she came upon a list of all the people in history who had had the Link. There were only about twenty pairs. As she skimmed down the list, her eye caught the following entry, right at the bottom:-

'Professor Albus Dumbledore (1930-) and Professor Aïda Thompson (1935-1965)'

Hermione stopped abruptly, "Dumbledore!! No wonder he was the only person Voldemort was scared of. After all, if the linked couple say the same spell at the same moment then the power of the curse is, say, tripled. For all his efforts at immortality, Voldemort would be instantly killed by Dumbledore and this Professor Thompson. She sounds like a teacher. But- oh! She's dead. She was only thirty. Poor thing. Poor Dumbledore. But with a name like Aïda...!"

Here, her reflections were interrupted by the bell.

*

Meanwhile in the Great Hall Harry and Ron were finishing lunch. They had been joined by Ginny Weasley and her friend Pippa.

Harry was just eating his sausage roll, when he suddenly remembered something. His dream! Voldemort had a daughter and she was here at Hogwarts.

He jumped up, almost knocking his chair over, "Hey, Ron, come on!"

"Where?" said Ron.

"Somewhere!" said Harry, grabbing Ron's arm. He didn't want to talk about his dream with Ginny and Pippa. He tried to drag Ron away from the table.

"Where the hell are you going, Harry?" he hissed, in a bad mood.

"Dumbledore, it's urgent!" Harry hissed back.

"Oh." Ron allowed himself to be dragged reluctantly away from his sausage roll, chips and baked beans and two astonished girls.

They raced up to Dumbledore's office, Ron still in a state of shock. When they reached the stone gargoyle, however, he asked, "Whatever is going on here?"

"A dream I had, about Voldemort. I forgot it before."

Ron stared at him. Harry, however, said the password to the gargoyle, 'Chocolate Frogs'. Hermione, who was head-girl, had told him.

They climbed onto the moving staircase, Ron opening and shutting his mouth like a fish, his brain obviously still with his lunch. As they reached the top, they heard a voice, a raised voice which belonged to Harry's godfather, Sirius. Having been acquitted of his previous charges when Peter Pettigrew was proved to be alive, he had replaced Hagrid as their Care of Magical Creatures teacher when Hagrid and Madame Maxime had left to go in pursuit of the giants.

Harry and Ron hesitated outside Dumbledore's door.

"I can't understand it, Professor! Why won't you tell me her name! She'll be a fellow teacher, for goodness sake! Minerva knows! Why not me?"

Dumbledore did not reply, but merely opened the door disclosing two guilty eavesdroppers.

"We didn't mean to listen," Harry interposed, before greeting Sirius.

"You wanted to tell me something, Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, it's about a dream I had."

"Oh, yes, I've been thinking-" Dumbledore replied, but Harry interrupted, "Not that one. I had another one."

"Indeed?" Dumbledore and Sirius looked interested and Ron confused.

"It was about Voldemort." Dumbledore looked more alert.

"It was like a flashback. My parents were alive and I was about one year old. Voldemort thought you were their secret keeper and couldn't attack them because he was afraid of you. Then he said he would have to resort to plan B, or something. He then summoned someone he called 'My Lady'. She was a Death Eater and was carrying a baby."

Sirius muttered something, but Harry continued, "The baby was Voldemort and this woman's daughter."

Dumbledore suddenly stood up and said, "What was the woman's name?"

"Estella Green, I think," Harry said, trying to remember.

Dumbledore sat down again, looking thoughtful, "So, Estella Green. Interesting."

The other three looked at him curiously.

"Estella Green was a pupil here many years ago. She was in Slytherin, a few years below Tom Riddle, or Voldemort. Whereas Riddle always paraded his brilliance, she never did. Hardly anyone remembers Estella, I imagine. She was very intelligent. One of the most clever female students ever to come to Hogwarts. She hardly ever got less than 100% in anything. But she didn't have many friends. She kept to herself a lot and never told anyone about her good grades. I have always wondered what happened to her. Of course she would have been a rival for Voldemort, if she hadn't joined his side. Well, Harry, what part in this plan of Voldemort's does his daughter play?"

Harry explained, "Voldemort was going to change her appearance. I can't remember the spell-"

"Transmorphio," said Dumbledore quietly, "Estella excelled in that."

"Yeah, that one. Anyway, she was going to be adopted and brought up by muggles. Then, because she's about my age, she'll be sent to Hogwarts and no-one would know that she was Voldemort's daughter. Through her Voldemort could get to me, and through me, my parents."

"I see. But even though we wouldn't recognise her, she wouldn't know she was his daughter either."

"That was what Estella thought. He replied that she would still have the brain and character of his daughter."

"Indeed."

"So who is she?" asked Sirius, speaking for the first time.

"I don't know," replied Dumbledore, "but we must find out. So far we know that she is roughly Harry's age and she doesn't look like Voldemort. She thinks she is muggle-born. For less concrete facts, I think I can safely say that she will be very intelligent indeed."

Harry suddenly remembered something, "Voldemort mentioned a prophecy, that the son of light and the daughter of dark would together defeat the light, but Estella remembered it differently. She said they would defeat either the light or the dark."

Dumbledore's eyes lit up, "Trelawney's first real prediction. Estella was the one who remembered it right, though. This may throw us some luck. Do you understand, Harry?"

Harry shook his head.

"Well, look at this prediction carefully. What it's saying is that the daughter of dark, who Voldemort, I agree with him here, is his daughter- Does she have a name Voldemort gave her, by the way?"

"Elvira, I think."

"Right. -That Elvira and the son of light, who is you, Harry-"

"Me!?" Harry cried, astonished.

"You, Harry. You're a descendent of Godric Gryffindor. I'm not going into details now, but you are. The prophecy reads that Elvira and Harry will join forces, and will join Voldemort, or defeat him for the last time."

"I'm not joining Voldemort!" cried Harry.

"Excellent, I didn't think you would. That means that Elvira will in all probability join and help us. Either, you see, she's a very good actress and is now communicating with Voldemort as a spy and I haven't noticed, or she has no idea who she is. This could be very lucky. We could have a very intelligent, powerful, cunning and ruthless young witch on our side! Still, first we must find her, and that's not going to be easy..."

*

"What do you mean you don't know who she is?"

Wormtail cowered silently.

"You've been looking for her since I came to power again and you tell me you still don't know her name. Wormtail, how many mudbloods are there in the sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts? How many? Do you even know that?"

"Yes, my Lord," he took a piece of parchment out of his pocket, "there are five muggle born girls in the seventh year and three-"

"I don't want to know the figures, idiot!" interrupted Voldemort.

"But surely, my Lord, you know who she is? She is your daughter!" continued Pettigrew.

"Use your brain, Wormtail. If I knew who she was, I wouldn't be wasting my time doing this, would I?"

"No my Lord."

"The only person who knows who the dratted girl is, is Estella Green, but I haven't seen either her, or my daughter since I told Estella to take the child and take her to be brought up with muggles. In fact, once you have found Elvira, you can find her mother. The girl is the most pressing thing at the moment. We have only until July to get Harry Potter, then he leaves school and is separated from my daughter."

"What shall I do, my Lord?"

"Go and interview the parents of those twenty-two girls."

"In-interview them?"

"What did I just say? Go and see them. I don't care how you get them to talk, just make them tell you about their daughter. What she looks like, what her character is, her date of birth, where she was born, her name, what her parents remember of the birth... that sort of thing. Bring me the results back here in two weeks time."

"Yes, my Lord," Wormtail replied and turned to leave, "What do I do if they don't want to talk?"

"Make them talk," Voldemort replied ominously as Wormtail left the room.

The search was well and truly on.

This chapter has ended.

Go to Chapter Four

Go to Chapter Five

Chapter 6- Aïda Thompson

The next few weeks were very busy for Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry was having Quidditch tryouts most of the time. He needed a new chaser and a new keeper. Eventually he got Ron to try out for keeper, which he did successfully. All he needed now was a faster broom. He tried to get Hermione to become the chaser, but she put her foot down, "Do you really think you'll win the cup with a chaser who can't even get off the ground without help?"

Hermione's interests lay far away from Quidditch. She concentrated on working and researching and, when she had the time, reading for relaxation. One such book she liked to read was her birthday present from Harry and Ron, A Concise History of the Teachers of Hogwarts, Past and Present.

She learned, for instance, that Circe Malediction, who had taught Astronomy in the 19th Century, had regularly turned pupils into pigs for apparently no reason. (She had later been discovered to be mad.) She found that their current Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Harding was McGonagall's sister and that she was separated from her third marriage. Her daughter, Marisa Goldfinger (1st marriage) was Fudge's deputy.

Another thing Hermione unearthed was that Hogwarts had had it's own mystery when Aïda Thompson had disappeared. Hermione had heard of Professor Thompson before. She had been in Magical Bonds in Detail. She had had the Unbreakable Link with Dumbledore. It was for this reason that Hermione read Aïda's panel extremely carefully and with great interest.

There was a picture of Aïda Thompson. She was a small lady with a heart shaped face. She had delicate features and looked fine boned. Her eyes were dark, emerald green and her hair was light gold and tied into a bun. Her expression was serene and peaceful. She looked grave without being miserable. Her eyes contradicted all this, however. There was an intensity and energy about them that frightened Hermione slightly. They hardly ever blinked. Underneath was written the following biography:-

'Aïda Thompson was best known for her disappearance and subsequent murder. However there was far more to Miss Thompson than what The Daily Prophet says.

She was born Aïda Maria Thompson to an English father and an Italian mother in 1935 in Cambridge. Her mother was a strict Roman Catholic and Aïda was brought up in that faith which she remained true to until her death. She was sent to Hogwarts when she was eleven in 1946, where she met the hero Albus Dumbledore who was then in his sixth year having just defeated dark wizard Grindelwald the year before. It wasn't until her seventh year that she began to suspect that she had any bond with the young Transfiguration teacher. What she had at first only suspected she soon discovered to be true. She had the Unbreakable Link with Professor Dumbledore.

'She became a teacher in 1956 of Defence against the Dark Arts. It was then that she really got to know Albus Dumbledore. In the latter years of her life they were inseparable.

'In 1961 the dark wizard Voldemort began to collect supporters. However, he could not hope to take control while Dumbledore and Miss Thompson were together, and as they were hardly ever out of each other's sight, to get Aïda on her own would have been impossible. Miss Thompson's powers were nowhere as great as Dumbledore's and on her own she could easily have been killed, but together they would be truly formidable.

'However, on the 2cd of September 1964, Professor Thompson disappeared from Hogwarts, never to return. No teacher or pupil knew where she had gone; if she'd been abducted, or whether she'd left of her own free will. Professor Dumbledore tried contacting her through her mind, but she refused to answer. Search parties failed to find her, and on the 17th of May 1965, almost nine months later, Professor Dumbledore announced that she was dead. He could 'feel' it, he said. Sure enough, the next day the Ministry had been notified by the muggle police force that a woman answering Professor Thompson's description had been found washed up on a beach in Cornwall, as far away from Hogwarts as possible. She had been dead about twenty-four hours. Medi-wizards discovered that she had been killed by the illegal curse, Avada Kedavra. It is believed that the rumour of the jinxed job of Defence against the Dark Arts originated when Professor Thompson disappeared. She was sadly missed.

'Aïda Thompson was mostly remembered for her very idealistic look at life. She was very religious and encouraged religion in her pupils. She was truly a good person. She had ideals and she actually tried to make them come true. She influenced many people. She was a very fair teacher. She was a good listener and she never punished anyone without hearing that person's story first.

'She was not resentful if someone had been wrong. She was determined to be a good Christian and wouldn't let this reputation go.

'She worked without tire with the poor and it was this energy which marked the deeper part of her character which you only saw if you knew her well. She was very passionate about what she believed right. She was extremely impulsive. Her lessons were made up on the spot, and once she had decided upon a certain course of action, she couldn't be put off.

'She was always loved and respected by those who knew her and it is for those who didn't that I am writing this; so all may know of Aïda's excellence.

'By Sarah Brunswick, an ex-pupil of Professor Thompson.'

Hermione was silent after she finished reading it. Eventually she sighed and said softly, "Poor Professor Thompson. She sounds very perfect. Lucky Dumbledore! She sounds a wonderful mother figure. What a pity she did not have any children. If there was such a man alive for me, I would marry him instantly!"

She turned back a page to look at the photo of Aïda. It looked oddly familiar. She frowned a bit- she felt sure she recognised the face, but she was likewise sure that she had never seen the original. What beautiful eyes! Like Harry's!! She was determined to find her likeness of Aïda. She would simply have to look carefully at anyone who looked remotely like her. Starting with Harry...

She returned to the Common Room where Harry was losing splendidly at chess.

"Can I please have a look at the photograph album of your parents please, Harry?" she asked looking into his eyes. They really were very like Aïda's, she thought. She had never really looked before. Harry frowned, and Hermione felt herself blush. Why?

"What do you want to look at my album for?" he asked.

"Just... want to make a... comparison."

"Oh!" said Ron, "You want to see how much you look like Lily Potter!"

"Do I look like your mum, Harry?" Hermione asked in surprise.

It took Harry less than a second to decide upon an answer, "You couldn't look less like my mum if you were trying. I don't what Ron meant. Why would you compare yourself to my mum?"

Why indeed? So why was she turning red?

"I know!" cried Ron suddenly, "let's watch Hermione make a prat of herself by trying to make her look even less like Lily Potter. What spells do you know?"

"Well, there is one, actually. Called Transmorphio-"

"That's what Estella Green did on her daughter!" interrupted Ron.

"Estella Green?" Hermione had never heard the name before.

"Yes of course," Harry said, "Voldemort's mistress."

"Voldemort has a mistress?!"

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Hermione didn't know!

But before either of them could say anything, however, Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, I see. Well, who is she?"

"Who is who?" asked Harry.

Hermione gave him a look, "It doesn't take a genius to work out what's biting you. You say Estella Green was Voldemort's mistress. You say she had a daughter. I'm not stupid, you know. Spit it out."

They spat it out. They repeated everything that was in Harry's dream and everything Dumbledore had said afterwards.

Hermione listened attentively, almost like in a lesson. Harry imagined that she would suddenly start taking notes.

At the end of the recital she stayed silent. Harry and Ron looked at each other nervously, "Well?" said Ron.

Hermione looked up from her hands and said quietly, "Well what?"

Harry sighed. Typical Hermione, "What are going to do?"

"Nothing," shrugged Hermione, "we wait for something to happen. Besides, you interrupted my chain of thought."

The boys rolled their eyes and waited ten minutes for her to finish thinking. At last she said, "Dumbledore said you were related to Godric Gryffindor, didn't he?"

Harry nodded. This did not seem to have any bearing on who Voldemort's daughter.

"But not his heir?" Hermione persisted.

"Dumbledore didn't say I was," replied Harry.

"Ah." She thought a minute then said, "I say, did you know Slytherin and Gryffindor were cousins?"

"Cousins!" cried Harry, "No! How come?"

"I know- it is strange! Slytherin's aunt married Gryffindor's father. How else?"

"I don't know, but isn't it weird that someone like Gryffindor's father would marry someone as evil as a Slytherin?"

Hermione sighed, "How do we know she was evil?"

"Well, it stands to reason doesn't it?" blustered Harry.

Hermione shrugged and replied cryptically, "To your reason perhaps."

Then she leaned forward a bit and said, looking straight at Harry, "Someday perhaps someone will fall in love with Elvira?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Harry.

Hermione seemed embarrassed and didn't look him in the eye, "I was just...warning you." And with that she went up to her dormitory.

*

Hermione was pleased Lavender and Parvati weren't in the dormitory. Digging in her trunk she retrieved a small red muggle notebook. Holding it tight in her hand she retreated to the window, which had little corners of water vapour in the corners because of a light frost. Leaning against the cold pane she looked out. On the quidditch pitch the canary yellow robes of the Hufflepuff quidditch team were visible in the dusk. In the paddock by Hagrid's old hut, Buckbeak was snoozing, his head tucked under a massive wing. Sirius and Professor Sprout were discussing some new landscaping plans on the lawn. Hermione felt rather disattached from her real self. Had she really just said all those things? And why had she blushed at Harry's eyes? Why? Could she possibly be right? What she had worked out was possible, if you had a good imagination but it was still hardly credible. Yet it was the only solution that could fit or even exist. It even made sense in a sort of mathematical way. But perhaps she had been wrong. But what could she do if she was right? Tell Dumbledore? She answered in her own words, "Nothing!" Let Voldemort make the first move, and then they would know how to respond.

In the mean time, she opened the notebook filled with Greek script. She hadn't opened it since she had copied it down in the mansion in Greece. That's when it all started, she thought bitterly. If only the guards hadn't come along and she'd needed the invisibility cloak. Then I would have never known. Her conscience told her she would have found out anyway, if she was right. Heaving a sigh, she began to read the Greek under her breath. There was nothing she could to do to stop it now: she was involved. First she had to familiarise herself with the words, then she could learn it off by heart. Then she could learn to recite it properly, then she could try it with her wand. It was the longest charm she had ever seen. She started to read and slowly began to learn the charm.