Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Dislocation	By : LinguaMagus Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 2823 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not own Harry Potter or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Chapter 5:

Tom the barman brought breakfast to their room at half past eight in the morning. Harry had rushed through his morning ablutions, and was sitting up in bed with a small tower of toast and some grey and rubbery eggs. He was fighting to get the side of his fork through one particularly stubborn fried bit when a tawny owl flew through the window towing a book almost as large as she was. Harry slipped it loose and gave her a grateful stroke before she stretched her wings, ruffled her feathers, and took flight again. He unwrapped the cloth cover. It was the catalog from Gringotts. A full inventory of everything in his vault.
Harry laid it down and started thumbing through it. There was the sum total of gold in the account, which was too much to even think about, so he just moved on. After that were some of the things he had expected, the fine china, the vases, the paintings and so on. A list of the books was more interesting, but half of the titles were in unknown languages, so he decided he would have to get Hermione’s help understanding more. He flipped through to the end and realized the book was only half full. They had left several dozen pages blank for him to make future additions. He realized too late that since he had taken the device out of the vault, the goblins wouldn’t have been able to identify it for him.
He hopped out of the bed, almost knocking over Ariana’s porridge in the process, and went to Hermione’s bag to look at the strange thing again. He paused halfway there. It would be rude for him to just start rooting around in her bag, even considering their newfound relationship.
“Hermione, would you mind getting that thing out of your bag for me? The weird thing from my vault?”
She nodded and left off trying to do surgery on a burnt scone and quite a scrawny apple looking for edible bits. She opened the bag and pulled it out, but before she could pass it over, it let out a little puff of smoke and something dark passed from the valve. Then it was over as soon as it started. It was far less dramatic than the previous times they had taken hold of it. She eyed it uncertainly, but held it out to him all the same.
“Harry, I think we should be careful with this thing, whatever it is. I don’t think it’s hurting us, but it’s doing something. Every time I touch it, it feels like it’s taking something out of me. I have to say, though, I do feel quite good.”
Harry stared at her questioningly, then asked “Was it the same as yesterday? Did it heat up and make you feel like you couldn’t let go?”
Hermione shrugged. “It got a bit warm, but by the time I thought to let go, it was already over, so I can’t be sure.”
He reached out and took hold of the device, and once again, it grew very warm in his hands. The beat pulsed through him, and he could feel the humming in his bones. Hermione grabbed at his hands in alarm, but she couldn’t separate his grip. Then it was retreating. Smoke rolled out in a lazy spiral, and another drizzle of dark material poured from the valve. A sliver of light shot suddenly out of the flue, and lanced through the air towards Ariana. Instinctively, Hermione dove in front of it. It pierced her, and she seemed to glow from within for a fraction of a second, then it shot back out and directly into Harry.
Hermione yelped in fear and scrabbled over to Harry to see if he was alright. Setting the device down, he gave himself a quick once over and concluded that he was perfectly fine. In fact, he felt even better than he had a few moments before. Not only that, he felt energized. Something within him was crackling like an arc flash. After the initial jolt, it was settling back down, but the source was still in him. He didn’t know how to describe it. He just felt more magical.
He glanced over at Ariana and found her staring straight back at him. A revelation struck him full in the face. Ariana didn’t have a wand. Had she ever? That was a question that needed answering, but it would have to wait until Hermione did not have both of his ears in her hands.
“Harry! I asked, are you okay?” She was practically shouting at him.
“What? Oh, sorry. Yeah, I’m fine. Great, actually. That’s basically exactly what it did before. Maybe a little less intensely this time.” Harry took her hands and gently lowered them and kissed her on the forehead. He looked to Ariana and she set her porridge down and came to sit next to him with her hand on his arm.
“That was really scary, Harry. When that stuff went into me, it felt like being hit by a lightning bolt, but it didn’t hurt. I need to read more of that book so we can understand what’s going on.” Hermione immediately went back to rooting through her bag.
“What book?” Harry asked.
“Oh my gosh! I forgot to tell you. I was looking through those books I borrowed from the vault, and I found a picture of that device in one of them. I didn’t have time to read more about what it was, though.” Triumphantly, she pulled out a particularly old and especially battered text with the title Caminus Animarum in chipped gilt on the cover.
Harry considered it very un-Hermioneish that she had a book with answers which she had not already read through, but given the excitement of the previous day, he supposed he couldn’t really blame her. In any case, it appeared she meant to remedy the situation, as she was already sitting down with it in her lap and looking over the first few pages. He smiled and gave Ariana a quick hug before shuffling the remains of breakfast away.
He stretched out on the bed with Ariana laying across his chest. The light striping through the blinds crept across the ceiling for a while. There was an occasional crisp rustle as Hermione turned page after page of the old book. Suddenly, she sprang up with her face still buried between the pages.
“Harry! I think I’ve found something. Look, …the refractory core furnace differs from the more rudimentary crucibles used in magical purification from ages past by separating and filtering the undesirable material, or ‘slag’, through an attached valve.” Hermione looked up expectantly. Harry just stared at her, mouth agape.
She sighed irritably. “Harry, that must be what the device is. Don’t you see? It’s a refractory core furnace, whatever that is. It must be filtering out unwanted pieces from our core. This is really advanced magic, Harry. I don’t understand all of it, but I don’t think the device is dangerous. I think that’s why we feel better when we use it. It’s sort of cleaning us out.”
Harry gave her a clueless but encouraging smile. “That’s great, Hermione. So what should we do next?”
She chewed on her lower lip. “I’m not sure. I’m going to keep reading for now. Some of what’s in this book talks about soul magic and magical cores, and some really complex charms. If we don’t know more by the time we go back to Hogwarts, we should ask Professor Flitwick for help.”
“Well that sounds good to me. For now, though, I think we really need to go see Sirius,” Harry said, a little too eagerly.
Hermione gave him a curious look, then nodded. “Yes, you’re right. You said before you know where to find him?”
Harry shrugged, “Well, I know where his house is. I’m not the Secret Keeper, though, so I can’t actually tell you.”
“Oh! He’s using the Fidelius Charm? That’s so interesting. I’ve never actually seen a house under that sort of protection before. Did Sirius do the charm himself?”
“Actually, it was… um, Dumbledore,” Harry said.
Ariana perked up. Hermione got contemplative.
“Harry… Do you— do you think maybe you’re the Secret Keeper now?” Hermione asked hesitantly.
Harry was dumbstruck. The possibility hadn’t even occurred to him, but it was possible that she was right. “Number 12, Grimmauld Place.”
“That’s all you have to do? Just say the address? So it worked!” Her face lit up.
“I guess it did. We’ll see when we get there. Come on, let’s go.”
They got dressed and set off. Harry dropped a sickle on the counter for Tom on their way out. The ride to Grimmauld Place took less than twenty minutes. Then they were stepping out onto the bustling street and staring down a shabby black door and grimy windows. Hermione took a few steps towards it before turning and realizing Harry was still standing stock-still and rubbing his hands on his hips.
“Are you okay, Harry?” She put a hand on his arm.
He attempted to smile. “I’m fine. It’s just… been a while.” Ariana took his hand and started to pull him forward. He looked down in shock.
“Come on, Harry. He’s waiting.” She gave his hand a kiss and moved slowly but insistently toward the door.
Harry knocked hard on the door, twice. They huddled together on the stoop and waited, and from inside they heard a stream of vitriol and expletives, then a loud pop. Hermione eyed the door apprehensively, but Harry squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. “It’s just Sirius’s mother. Don’t worry.”
“His mother? But—”
The door swung open. Sirius stared out, first with confusion, then delight. He burst forward and snatched Harry into a hug.
“Harry! We were wondering where you got to. Dung told us you attacked him with a Patronus and then took off.”
Harry was clinging to Sirius and seemed loath to let go. When Sirius finally held him out to get a look at him, his eyes were swimming and he was self-consciously wiping at them with the back of his sleeve.
“Are you okay, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Sirius was suddenly all concern.
Harry smiled weakly. “No, it’s fine. I’m fine. I just — I’ve missed you is all.”
Sirius went blank, then grinned embarrassedly and pulled Harry into another fierce embrace. “I’ve missed you, too. I’m glad you’re here. Your friends the Weasleys are here as well. Want to go say hello?”
“Sure, yeah, that sounds great. Who from the Order is here?” Harry asked, trying to clear the wobble from his voice.
“Right now it’s just me, the Weasleys, and Remus. Mad-eye is supposed to be… Wait a second. How do you know about the Order? And how are you even here? When did Dumbledore give you the address?” The questions came out in a torrent, and Sirius suddenly seemed to spot Ariana. “And who is she? I know Hermione, obviously. Hello there, girl. But I don’t know this other one.”
Harry sighed. “I promise, I’ll explain everything, but it’s going to take a lot of explaining and I’d rather do it all at once, so can we get everyone in one place before I start?”
Sirius stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Sure, let’s go get everybody.”
Ten minutes and every possible permutation of hugging and greeting between everyone later, Harry was sitting at a table with Hermione and Ariana at either side, and around the table were Sirius, Remus Lupin, Molly Weasley, Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George. Ron had a bit of a hurt expression, but everyone else was happy to see Harry and Ron at the house.
George piped up, “So have you got enough of an audience yet, Harry? Or should we go see if there’s some people on the street who want to hear too?”
Fred added, “I think that bloke with one shoe and a beard like a stray cat who keeps trying to balance pigeons on his head looked quite the inquisitive sort. We could invite him in.”
Harry and Ron laughed, and Ron’s expression softened slightly. Harry took a deep breath and Ariana squeezed his hand under the table.
“Okay, I know a lot of this isn’t going to make a lot of sense. Hermione is trying to help me understand some of it, so she might be able to answer some of the questions. But if you don’t mind, a lot has happened, and it’s going to take a while to get it all out, so if you could wait until the end to ask your questions, it would help a lot.”
“Get on with it, Harry.” Harry hadn’t noticed before, but Ginny seemed a bit disgruntled and kept giving Ariana sharp looks.
“Alright. So, let me just start by asking everybody to look at me and tell me if you see anything different about me.” It only took a moment.
“Bloody hell, Harry. Did you lose an eye and have to get a fake like Mad-eye?” Ron blurted out, earning a swat and a “Ron!” from Mrs. Weasley.
“My eye is different, but I didn’t lose my original and this one isn’t a fake. We… well, we think it’s Dumbledore’s eye.”
Lupin snapped up sharply and peered into Harry’s face and his mouth set in a hard, thin line. He glanced over at Sirius, who shrugged and shook his head.
“In a little less than two years, Dumbledore is going to die at the top of the Astronomy tower at Hogwarts. I was there, I watched it happen, and I sort of pulled something into me from him and ended up back here.”
There were no gasps of shock or cries of disbelief. Everyone just stared at Harry without comprehension and waited for him to continue. Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Sirius, the reason I was able to come here, the reason I know about the Order is that I’ve been here before. Except my past is now your present. I— I don’t really understand it. But somehow I’m changing the way things happened before. Two years ago in my time, and two days ago in your time, I had to fight off two dementors who attacked me on Privet Drive. This time, I knew they were coming, so I was able to wait until Dung came back and I could fight them off without alerting the Trace. They were sent by the Ministry, either to silence me or trap me. Last time, it worked. I was brought before the Wizengamot for using magic in front of muggles, and almost had my wand taken away.”
Sirius scowled, but didn’t look surprised. There was a small chorus of mutters from around the table, and Mrs. Weasley looked skeptical.
“I wasn’t going to stick around and wait for them to find a new way to ambush me, so I took off. I met up with Hermione, and we went looking for Professor Dumbledore. We had to go to the Library in Diagon Alley to find out where he lived, but then we went to his house and he wasn’t there. We don’t really understand why, but we think for some reason, whatever piece of him that I brought back with me can’t be in two places at once. So while I’m here with something from Dumbledore inside me, Dumbledore can’t be here too.”
Lupin yelped in alarm, and tried to cut in. “Harry, I’m sure you’re mistaken. Dumbledore can’t be gone.”
“He is, I’m sorry. I don’t know how I know, but I do. We saw his empty house, we saw his abandoned journal, we felt it. He wasn’t there anymore.” Lupin shuffled like he wanted to jump up and start looking himself, but he stayed where he was and brooded.
“Anyway, it was late at that point, so Hermione and I stayed the night at Professor Dumbledore’s house—”
“Not together, surely!” Mrs. Weasley interrupted, scandalized.
“Don’t be ridiculous, mum.” Ginny replied coldly.
Harry didn’t acknowledge the question and continued. “During the night, I went out to the back yard and saw a ghost. I chased it down, and it was Ariana. Everyone, this is Ariana Dumbledore. Professor Dumbledore’s little sister. She died almost 100 years ago.”
Ron spoke up slowly, like you would with a temperamental child or someone mentally unwell. “Harry, mate. I’m not sure how to tell you this. That’s not a ghost.”
Harry rubbed his scar unconsciously. “Trust me, I know. I’m getting there.” Ron looked bewildered, but he went quiet, so Harry continued. “Anyway, Ariana told us about some pretty awful things that happened when she died that I don’t think we have to get into right now. But Hermione and I both agreed that we wanted to do everything we can to help her. Particularly since it seems like whatever happened to her seems like it might be connected to what’s happening with me.”
“Anyway, we wanted to come here and talk to Sirius to see if maybe he knew anything about the spell that killed Ariana and hurt Professor Dumbledore so long ago, but first we needed to stop at Diagon Alley because I needed some gold from my vault. While I was there, the goblins got confused about—” Hermione tapped him on the arm and shook her head. Harry gave her a long, puzzled look, then continued. “Anyway, I got access to the main family vault that my parents left me, which had some really weird stuff in it. Including this thing that we found out is called a… uh… Hermione?”
“A refractory core furnace.” She said tidily.
“Right, that thing. Anyway. When I touched it, it sort of did something to me, and then a thing flew out of it and went into Ariana. And then she came back to life. Or, at least, she seems alive?” Harry shrugged and everyone else looked shell-shocked.
“Harry, there are no spells that bring back the dead.” Lupin said kindly.
“But that’s not strictly true, is it? We know that You-Know-Who was able to return from only a tiny fragment of his soul. How do we know that being a ghost isn’t enough to do the same?” Hermione replied matter-of-factly.
“Look, I don’t understand any of this stuff. I’m just telling you what happened. Ariana was a ghost, and then something flew out of this weird device. Next second, I’m on the floor trying to give her mouth to mouth because she hadn’t taken a breath in a century. You want to say it’s not possible, fine. But it happened anyway.” Harry said a bit testily.
Ariana scooted closer to Harry and ducked behind his shoulder. Harry continued.
“Ariana came back, Hermione found a book that seems to explain some of this stuff, and the next day we came here to try and get help. If you have a way to contact her that’s faster than an owl, we need to talk to Professor McGonagall and let her know that Dumbledore is missing.” Harry took a breath. “Okay, I’ll try and answer your questions now.”
For the next two hours, Harry and Hermione responded to almost every question by saying they didn’t know. There were a few questions about the future that Harry flatly refused to answer. Throughout the process, Mrs. Weasley got huffier until finally she threw her hands in the air and stormed out, shouting “This is all nonsense. I don’t know why we’re taking any of it seriously. Disappearing Dumbledore, breathing ghosts, teenagers living together, I won’t be a part of it!”
Ron scowled, Fred and George exchanged apprehensive looks, and Lupin sighed. He ran his hands through his graying hair and said, “Harry, you have to understand. All of this is very difficult to digest. I do believe you, inasmuch as you’re able to actually explain, but I think there’s a lot of pieces to this that you’re not equipped to help with right now and I hope you’ll appreciate how seriously we have to take this.”
“Profess— I mean, Remus. I do understand. I wish I could explain it, but I can’t. I want to find the answers as much as you all do. In the meantime, all I can do is just tell you what I know, which isn’t a whole lot. I think the first part we need to understand is the spell that hit Ariana. If she explains it, can you and Sirius tell us if you know anything?”
Lupin hesitated, then nodded. Sirius shifted his gaze to Ariana and stared at her intently. Harry stroked her hair and maneuvered her forward. “It’s okay, Ariana. Just explain to them what you explained to me. I trust them, and they’re a lot more experienced than I am about these things.”
Ariana blinked at him muzzily. She chewed on her finger for a moment, then wrinkled up her nose. She told Sirius and Remus the story about the fight between the two brothers Dumbledore and Grindelwald, pausing as revelations about their mentor caused the occasional outburst. However, her lack of formal magical training soon made it clear that she couldn’t provide much insight into what happened beyond describing what she saw through fast and panicked eyes.
“Ariana, could you tell if the spell was a curse, or a charm, or some other type of magic?” Lupin asked kindly.
She just smiled uncomfortably and shot a desperate glance at Harry. He thought back to her missing wand, and started to put the pieces together. “Did anyone ever teach you how to control your magic at all? Did your mum or anyone try to train you at home?”
She sank into herself miserably. “I was too stupid to learn magic. Too broken. Mother couldn’t teach me. No one could. I wasn’t allowed to touch a wand because someone could get hurt. But someone got hurt anyway.” Her voice shook and tears welled up in her eyes. Hermione rushed around and pulled her into a fierce hug. Harry kissed the crown of her head.
“Ariana, listen to me. You didn’t do anything wrong. I can’t know what your mum was thinking, but I know that keeping you locked up and not helping you learn wasn’t the right thing to do. Whatever happens next, we can at least help you learn to control the magic inside you.” Harry said fervently.
Ariana sobbed heavily into his shirt, then gave a hiccup and snapped upright. “I remember! I remember what Gellert said when he cast the spell. It was, ehm… Argentum something. Argentum Abiungere! That was it.”
Hermione gave her a big squeeze. “Very good, Ariana. That’s fantastic. Knowing the spell will be a big step towards figuring out how to reverse it.”
Sirius grimaced and traded looks with Lupin. “I’m sorry Harry, Hermione. That’s not a spell either of us know. Grindelwald may have been a monster, but he was still a genius. This is the sort of thing we really need Dumbledore’s help with.”
Harry hung his head in defeat. “It was a long shot. Thanks for trying.”
Lupin was muttering to himself and writing on the table with his finger. He seemed to decide on something. “Abiungere is an instruction to the function of something. Whatever the spell is, it’s some sort of charm or curse. The difference at that point is a bit semantic and based on the intent. Filius may not know the specific spell, but he could probably help us more.”
Hermione brightened up. “That’s an excellent suggestion. Thank you, Professor.”
“Not Professor, Hermione. Just Remus is fine. Lupin, if you must.” He corrected gently.
Then, causing Harry to remember with embarrassment that he was still there, Ron chimed in. “Argentum is something with silver, isn’t it?”
“Ron, you’re right! I didn’t even think about it, but it must have something to do with the aerimantic properties of magical cores. I was reading about it in that book I found, Harry.” Hermione exclaimed with delight. Ron looked lost, but pleased.
“That’s very clever, Hermione. I hadn’t even considered that, but you’re almost certainly correct. We don’t know a great deal about the link between metals and magic cores, but it would have been the sort of thing that would have interested Gellert Grindelwald, to be sure.” Lupin gave Hermione an approving nod and she blushed.
Fred asked, “Can somebody please tell me what you’re on about? I’ve never even heard of airomancy.”
George chuckled and said, “You have plenty of trouble enough with earth-romancy.” They traded punches.
Lupin explained, “Aerimancy, or the aerimantic principle, has to do with an identifiable pattern in magical cores that aligns with known metals and the ways in which they are able to be alloyed. I’m afraid I’m no expert, but in a broad sense, there are three pairs. Silver and Iron, Mercury and Lead, and Copper and Tin. Every witch and wizard has a magic core with belongs to one of those metals, and induces a particular response in its paired metal.”
“Also Gold. Gold stands alone.” Hermione interrupted accidentally. Lupin just looked at her. “I’m sorry, Prof— I mean, sir. It’s just something I read in the book. There’s a seventh metal that doesn’t pair like the rest.”
“Well, regardless, that’s about as much as I know about the subject, and most wizards know far less. I’m frankly amazed that Hermione found a book on it. It’s been a mostly forgotten aspect of magic for centuries. Messing around with magical cores is incredibly dangerous, and you’re much more likely to hurt yourself or someone else than accomplish anything useful.” Lupin finished.
“All this chatter has got my head swimming. How about you lot go get cleaned up, and I’ll make a late lunch. How’s that sound?” Sirius clapped his hands and rubbed them enthusiastically.
“A shower sounds great, and lunch sounds better. Thanks, Sirius. I’ll show the girls upstairs, and we’ll be back down shortly.” Harry grinned. Sirius gave him a knowing smile and a subtle wink.
Harry choked and coughed. “Uh, uhm. Hey Ron. I’ll bunk with you, if that’s good, and the girls can bunk together.” Ariana looked disappointed, but Hermione just smirked quietly.
Ron raised his eyebrows. “Eh? Sure, mate. Do you, uh, need me to show you the room? No, I guess not, right, you’ve been here before. Too weird.”
Harry showed Hermione and Ariana to an empty room, and then went to deposit a few items in the room he was sharing with Ron. As he ascended another staircase, he heard small feet padding lightly up the lower floors behind him. He walked into the lavatory and got undressed. He felt surprisingly unkempt and was looking forward to getting clean. He pulled a large black towel from the linen closet and hung it from the hook next to the shower, then he stepped in.
The hot water was amazing. He could feel the last few days of running around melting off of him, and between scrubbing bits of himself, he would just stand with his face in the stream and let it beat down on his head. As he was finishing rubbing out his toes, he heard the door of the restroom creak open, and then click closed.
“Ron, that you? Still in here, mate. Give me just a few.” There was no response.
He splashed some more water onto his face, and then turned off the faucet. He pulled back the curtain, and Ginny Weasley was waiting for him. She was slim and hard, with heavily freckled ivory skin and fire-bright hair. She wore nothing but a predatory smile. Her breasts were high and round, with stiff pink nipples. Long legs met at a strip of curly hair the same intense red as her head. Her lower lips protruded a little untidily from the cleft like the tails of an untucked shirt. She was beautiful. But Harry didn’t want her.
She reached out and took his cock in a thin-fingered hand and stroked it. Confidently, she tried to bring it to life. Harry took her hand gently in his own and removed it from his body. He stepped out of the shower and proceeded to dry himself without looking at her.
“I think we won’t say anything more about this, okay?” Harry said, not unkindly.
Ginny looked as if he had struck her. She scowled and spun away from him.
Harry rubbed his scar and left the lavatory. One floor down, he met Hermione approaching from below.
“She cornered you, didn’t she?” Hermione asked directly.
“You knew she was going to? Why didn’t you stop her?” Harry was mildly annoyed.
Hermione shrugged and gave him a calculating look. “It was your decision, not mine. Besides, she wouldn’t have stopped until she got you alone. So, I take it you didn’t accept her offer?”
Harry looked offended. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m with you, not her. Well, and Ariana. But, that’s complicated. Either way, I’m not going to just sleep with other people who throw themselves at me.”
Hermione went up on tip-toes and kissed him. “Not many men would have been able to resist her like that. Ginny is very beautiful. Even when she’s not at her best. I don’t want you to think about things that way, though. What we have is perfect, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I think you’re going to end up in a lot more… complicated situations before this is over. I want you to trust your instincts. I promise it won’t be a betrayal to me for you to open your heart to other women. You have a capacity for empathy that I’ve never seen in anyone else. It’s the thing I love most about you. You’ll never be happy unless you try to save everyone you can. I don’t mind if that means sometimes you share a physical connection with someone. It would take much more than that to break apart our bond.”
Harry took a moment to digest this. “Hermione, I’m not sure I could ever be with anyone else without you there. And does this… does this mean you want to be with other people as well?”
She laughed. “No, Harry. There could never be anyone but you. Women are different. Our physical response is fed from our emotional bond. No other man could please me because no man could love me like you love me. As for you being with someone else. Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
“Then do as I say and just trust your instincts. They won’t lead you astray. You are a good man, and you have a wonderful heart. If you do what you think is right, it will all be okay.” Hermione took two fingers and thumped on his chest. “Now get out of my way, I have to go take a shower.” She smiled and kissed him, and continued up the stairs.
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Dislocation

Chapter 5: