Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A Tangle of Webs	By : serpentinred Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 10516 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
A/N: So ... this is going to be a short story (not along the amount of chapters that Nerys has for her "short stories" that is). At most four to five chapters.
Inspiration for Tom's "situation" from Shan84's story, Tertius Vita, and also some bits of inspiration from Chelle's "Deceived." Both of those stories are excellent, so if you haven't read it yet, go read them!
~-0-~
Dedicated and written as a birthday gift to my wonderful, wonderful friends and Gutter City sisters, Nerys and Lady Miya.
~-0-~
Chapter 1
December, 2009
Something was terribly wrong.
It had not mattered to her that Apparition did not work for her, since Hermione Granger had been sure that the answer and the remedy would be in the trustworthy books. Even while she took the underground, she tried to convince to herself that this situation was not going to be permanent. Surely she would find something. Even if she didn't, she could still visit St. Mungo's or perhaps alert the Ministry.
No, not the Ministry. Even though the Ministry had become slightly better after Shacklebolt's leadership, she still didn't trust them enough with this kind of information. She did not fancy being locked up and having experiments performed on her.
Nonetheless, as she stood in the middle of the snow-covered street, staring at the area where the Leaky Cauldron should be standing, her heart sank as realization washed over her.
Just like Harry, she had completely lost her magic.
~-0-~
March, 2007
The morning started off as any other normal day would. The sun shone brightly overhead, flanked by fluffy clouds that drifted lazily across the skies. All in all, it was peaceful, and nothing indicated that it would be otherwise.
Until the first owl delivered the latest edition of the Daily Prophet.
It was not the headlines, nor was the whole article written in bold print. Yet, it was enough to surprise some and shock others.
In a cozy, little flat two blocks away from Diagon Alley, Harry Potter sat at his dining table, reading and rereading his copy of the Daily Prophet with a frown etched on his forehead. Giving a squeeze on his shoulder, Ginny placed her husband's favorite mug filled with coffee on the table before sitting down next to him.
"Have you talked to Hermione about this at all? Did she even mention that this was going to happen?" Harry asked, finally looking away from the newspaper.
Ginny shook her head slowly. "She seemed stressed out, but I'd thought that it was because she was tired out by work and didn't think that it could've been because of … well, this."
Harry shook his head and closed his eyes. "You would think that we would've been the first ones to know after they've decided to get a divorce, but we find out through the Daily Prophet out of all things."
"I tried contacting them with the Floo channel, but they're probably not home right now," Ginny said with uncertainty.
"I'm worried about Ron throwing a fit about this," Harry said, frowning. "I can't see him taking all of this calmly—"
"Unless it was by mutual agreement," Ginny suggested.
Harry stared at her. "But … but I thought they …"
He racked through his brain, trying to catch any hints that would help him understand his two best friends' decision to get a divorce.
"Well, we wouldn't know until we get to talk to them," Ginny said as she picked up the newspaper and quickly skimmed over the contents. "I just find it a bit inconsiderate of the Daily Prophet to just announce it without properly researching it. This is just a bunch of speculations of why they might get a divorce. Have you read through their theories?"
Harry snorted. "You mean the one about Hermione returning home and finding Ron with four different witches? Or the one with Ron catching Hermione with another witch in her office snogging?"
"This is beyond ridiculous," Ginny said, scrunching up her nose.
"Well, I'm not too surprised about it," Harry replied darkly, remembering his fifth year at Hogwarts.
"The next thing you know it, they will start saying that Hermione and Ron killed each other somewhere deep inside the Forbidden Forest," Ginny said as she glanced at the newspaper again.
"We know how likely that's going to happen because Hermione just can't wait for camping trips," Harry joked, though his smile was humorless.
Ginny laughed weakly, recalling the many times the bushy-haired witch had displayed her abhorrence towards forest and trees after the year-long Horcrux hunting.
Throughout the day, more and more rumors continued to crop up, but no one had caught a glimpse of either Ron or Hermione yet. Friends and family had contacted Harry and Ginny; apparently, nobody had seen them, let alone talked to them.
And Harry and Ginny couldn't help but worry about how things would turn out.
~-0-~
Hermione let out a long, labored breath as she looked around her surroundings. The sounds of someone coming down the stairs made her turn her head, and her eyes met up with the sky blue ones of Ron.
"Hey," he greeted, giving her a weak smile which she returned. "I've packed all my clothes already and sent them over to George's flat first. I don't think sending them back to the Burrow would be a good idea. I think Mum might greet me with a pan over the head."
He rubbed the back of his head as if Mrs. Weasley had already hit him, which caused Hermione to laugh.
"Yeah, I think George might take the news better than your parents," she conceded.
"I left the keys upstairs on the bedside table along with the spare Gringotts key," he said, his eyes wandering nervously and his hand a firm grip on the railing.
"Okay," she answered, not really knowing what else to say.
What did one say to their ex-husbands?
She stood next to the sofa, staring at him carefully. It was completely inappropriate, but she was suddenly reminded of all the moments that they had shared together in this house. Phantom laughter rang loud and clear in her mind, and she almost expected to see Ron's eyes sparkling with mirth when she looked at him. Instead, what she found was a man who seemed to have found himself in the middle of a dilemma. His forehead was creased into a frown and his ears were red, as they usually would be when Ron was under stress.
For the hundredth time that day, Hermione wondered if she had made the right decision to get a divorce with him. Perhaps if they just took some time away from one another, perhaps if they just sat down and talked, everything would go back to the way they were before.
But she knew, deep inside her heart, that that would never happen. Things had changed too much, too long ago.
"Oh, bloody hell," Ron suddenly muttered before he rushed down the remaining steps of the stairs, stalked over to Hermione, and pulled her into an embrace. "We're still friends, aren't we?"
"Of course we are," she replied timidly as tears gathered in her eyes.
She was not going to cry. Nope. Definitely not. It wasn't as if he had dumped her or that she had found him with a different woman as the stupid newspapers had suggested. She had no idea why the news report felt the need to make their divorce public information. Alright, so they were both Harry's friends and were considered war heroes, and she was now in a rather high position in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but she did not see why this would appear on the Daily Prophet.
Perhaps they couldn't find enough things to fill up their pages without Voldemort around to wreak havoc, a snarky voice whispered in her mind but she quickly pushed it away.
That thought shouldn't have even appeared in her mind. It would be dangerous and unfair to Harry. He finally had a peaceful life and a perfect family, and he shouldn't be punished because things weren't going well for her and Ron. Besides, the divorce was a mutual decision, something that they had agreed upon.
They held each other for a while before they pulled away from one another. Alarm flashed over Ron's face when he took in Hermione's appearance.
"Er … you're not going to cry, are you?" he asked, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other.
"No," Hermione immediately said. "No, of course not. It's just … no, I'm not going to cry. Why would I cry about this? I mean … it's just … it's just a divorce and it's not like we hadn't agreed upon this."
"Yeah," Ron replied and nodded his head quickly.
They then fell silent again and glanced off in opposite directions.
"Um … I guess … I better get going. George's going to wonder why boxes of things suddenly appeared in the middle of his living room," Ron said with an uncomfortable smile.
"Right." Hermione nodded. "So …"
"So …" he said at the same time.
They looked at one another and shared a laugh.
"So I'll see you around," Hermione said when she finally got herself under control.
"Yeah, of course. You'll always be welcomed to the Burrow," Ron said.
"Oh, I'm not very sure about that," she said slowly, reminded harshly of the tiny Easter eggs Mrs. Weasley had given her back in fourth year.
"Don't worry about Mum. I'll explain everything to her when things calm down a bit," Ron reassured her.
"Thanks," Hermione said gratefully.
"So … off I go," Ron said with that familiar lopsided smile.
He Disapparated after they've said their good-byes, and Hermione sank down into the sofa, feeling relieved and sad at the same time. She had no idea why she felt sad about this. Perhaps it was because she had hoped that their marriage would've worked out. She had fancied Ron back at Hogwarts, and when he had proposed to her, she had envisioned that they would have a perfect family together. That dream continued to haunt her until a year ago, when she started to understand that it was not going to work out. They had nothing in common at all; there wasn't something there that could've held their marriage in place.
She had no idea when Ron realized this. However, at some point in time, they started to drift further and further apart, until the lack of emotions became glaringly obvious. That was when she finally understood that only their old friendship remained.
She closed her eyes and leaned against the back of the sofa. For a moment, she just wanted to escape from the emptiness that she had once called "home."
~-0-~
The divorce had hurt; she could not deny that, but she knew that that would eventually heal with time. It was definitely nothing compared to the owl she got six month later. The wedding invitation appeared more like a Howler to her, and Hermione Granger finally understood why Ronald Weasley had agreed so easily to a divorce. She had considered not showing up to the wedding of the redhead and Verity, the young witch who worked at Weasleys' Wizards Wheezes. However, in the end, she managed to find the love she'd had for a best friend, went to the wedding, and gave the bride and groom the best of her wishes.
After this whole rollercoaster of a ride, she decided to dedicate her time to work. Wedding and love were obviously overrated, and it wasn't until one and a half year later that her opinion was completely overthrown again. Though she wasn't particularly close with her extended family, they apparently still remembered that they had a relative that went to "boarding school."
The seating arrangement was bizarre. It appeared that Cecilia, her cousin, was marrying into a large family. Though the Grangers had a healthy amount of family members, this was beyond what Hermione could comprehend. The family Cecilia was getting married to—the McQueens—had so many people that just looking at them made Hermione slightly queasy.
"Cecilia's going to have a great time remembering all those names," Hermione's younger sister, Shannon, joked.
Hermione snorted and shook her head. Just then, the chair on the other side of her got pulled out, catching the two girls' attention.
Even though Hermione knew how utterly stupid she looked at the moment and how utterly rude it was to stare, she couldn't stop herself from doing just that.
She had never seen anyone as handsome as the young man standing next to the chair beside her. "Breathtakingly handsome" was the first description that came to her mind and literally so, since she felt her breath catch the moment her eyes took in his features. Hermione could already imagine that amount of girls that would've followed him around if he had attended Hogwarts.
"I'm sorry. I've forgotten to ask: Is there anyone sitting here?" he asked in a smooth, baritone voice.
His question brought Hermione back to earth and out of her daze, and she quickly shook her head.
"No. No, there's no one sitting here," she answered, thankful that she didn't do something undignified while she was busy staring.
Like drooling.
"Thank you," he said.
With impossibly elegant movements, he slid into the chair.
Did he go to a school or something for that?
That thought came unbidden to Hermione's mind. Not that the rest of the people from the McQueen family were particularly clumsy or unsophisticated, but there was a certain aristocratic air that accompanied this stranger's every motion, so much that it was a bit unnerving.
Well, hopefully, he wasn't a dark-haired version Malfoy, since she had to sit next to him for the entire night.
Hermione cast a glance at her sister and found the latter looking back at her, awestruck.
Oh my God, Shannon mouthed to her, and Hermione could not agree more.
"I assume you're from Cecilia's family," he suddenly asked with a touch of uncertainty to his voice.
Hermione turned her attention back to him again and nodded slowly.
"Yes … she's my cousin," she replied.
"Ah," he murmured with a nod. "No wonder I've never had the pleasure of meeting you before."
Hermione felt her cheeks burn under the intensity of his gaze. She quickly picked up the glass on the table and took a drink out of it, hoping that the ice-cold water would lower the heat of her face.
"I could say the same about you," she said once she swallowed the liquid.
Thankfully, that seemed to work, and she felt more back in control of her features and feelings.
Most importantly, her mind.
According to Ginny, the young Dark Lord had been extremely charming and attractive, something which had made Hermione curious. Even Harry had admitted that Riddle was good-looking. Hermione had thought that she would've finally gotten the chance when she destroyed the cup Horcrux. However, instead of fighting back like all the other Horcruxes had done, it just laid there and splashed water at Ron and her after she stabbed it with the basilisk's fang. Some "precautionary" tactic that was.
Nonetheless, she could only take Harry and Ginny's words for it. After all, the more colorful a snake, the more poisonous it was. Therefore, she always found herself more cautious around handsome men lest they used their looks as a weapon. It was something she would never think about sharing with Harry and Ron, since she felt that they were naturally immune to it, being boys themselves. Not that she didn't like good-looking men or wasn't attracted to them, of course, but there had always been that niggling worry at the back of her mind, warning her to be extra careful around the tall, dark, and handsome types.
This stranger beside her fitted into that category. Seamlessly.
"Thankfully," he said, a mischievous glimmer in his dark eyes.
It caused a small smile to play at the corner of Hermione's lips in spite of herself.
"Oh? And why is that?" she asked, her tone of voice challenging.
"There are always certain … inconveniences when one is related to a beautiful woman."
Unexpectedly, she felt her cheeks turn red again. Hermione was positive that if this had been someone else, someone from Hogwarts for example, she would've scoffed at it or rolled her eyes snorting. However, when he said it, it sounded so bloody sincere.
And she couldn't help but feel flattered.
"Oh?" she replied, reaching for her glass of water again.
"Yes … and how incredibly rude of me for not introducing myself," he said before extending his hand. "Todd Lammor."
"Oh!"
It was Shannon who replied, and when both Hermione and Todd's eyes landed on her, she blushed.
"Erm … we've—the rest of the family and I, that is—heard a lot about you from Cecilia," Shannon explained, looking slightly uncomfortable under the combined gaze of Hermione and Todd. She then quickly added, "Well, she told us a lot about the rest of the McQueens, of course, but … yeah … she said something about you being really successful in your field of work."
Casting a glance at Todd from the corner of her eye, Hermione could fully understand why Cecilia told the family a lot about him, though she doubted it had anything to do with him being successful at all. Cecilia had been known to be extra keen when it came down to spotting good-looking men. Nonetheless, it appeared that Shannon hadn't been lying, since the man in question didn't appear confused or thrown off by that explanation.
"Cecilia is too kind," he said simply, a modest smile on his face.
Unexpectedly, Hermione relaxed; she was more than glad that he was not the boasting type like Malfoy. At least she wouldn't have to sit through the whole night listening to "A Hundred and Ten Ways to Raise Your Own Peacocks."
The rest of the night went by in a blur, and he turned out to be an even more delightful companion than Hermione could have hoped for. Though Hermione had spent most of her time in the wizarding world, she had always made it a point to keep up with news about the Muggle world after leaving Hogwarts, just so that her parents wouldn't feel as if they were losing a daughter. Therefore, though she knew a lot more about magic, she still had a good amount of knowledge in a wide range of Muggle topics. She was pleasantly surprised to find that he was also as studious as she was and shared her love for books. Never once did he appear to be confused by what she was talking about. It was strangely relaxing talking to Todd, and when the night finally came to an end, she found herself wistful about how quickly the time had passed.
"Well, it was great talking with you," she said as they stood at the entrance of the restaurant.
"Yes," Todd replied, his expression contemplative and hesitant both at the same time.
"Maybe I'll see you around then? Since … well … Cecilia is married to your cousin now, and I suppose … you'll be at the family gatherings," Hermione said.
She mentally winced at what she had said. Granted, she had improved in skills on how to converse with others, but even in her opinion, this was clumsy. She decided to blame it completely on him. It should be illegal to be this handsome, intelligent, clever, and witty. It should be illegal to be this … faultless.
A frown appeared on his face, and he lowered his eyes. "I certainly hope not."
Hermione stared at him, hurt. Only slightly. The hurt was negligible. Definitely negligible.
"Okay. It was nice meeting you," she said in a clipped tone of voice in spite of herself.
As she turned around to leave, his fingers circled around her arm, stopping her from moving away. She narrowed her eyes at the offending hand before slowly moving her eyesight upwards until it was staring directly into his unreadable orbs. Her mind mildly registered how surprisingly strong he was for someone so lean. Not that he was bone-thin, but this wasn't something she had expected.
"I think you might've misunderstood what I meant," he said, his eyes mirthful.
She kept her mouth shut, not trusting herself not to snap if she talked. After all, it was the first time—
Merlin, how did she get herself into this kind of situation? It was the first time she had met this bloke. What exactly was she wishing for? She wasn't the type to be attracted someone upon their first meeting. She always firmly believed that liking someone came with time. At most, he should've only left some kind of impression on her. But here she was, being so … affected by every word he said and every move he made. This was abnormal.
Besides, what happened to her caution against overly good-looking men?
With that thought in mind, she slowly calmed down and she pulled a cool mask over her features.
"What do you mean?" she finally chose to ask.
Every other question made it sound like she had been hurt by his words. And it hadn't hurt that much. Nope, it did not.
"I realized how ambiguous that sentence sounded after it left my mouth, but what I was meaning to say was that …" he faltered in his words. After taking a deep breath, he continued, lowering his eyelids so that she couldn't look into his eyes again, "What I meant to say was that I hoped we could meet some other time … other than at family meetings. If that's alright with you and if you have the time to."
Hermione stared at him, momentarily at a loss of words, and irritation quickly dissolved into awkwardness.
"Oh." She ran her free hand through her hair as heat rapidly traveled up to her cheeks again. "Well … I … um …"
"I understand if you don't have the time, or perhaps if you have a significant other already," he quickly added.
"Oh … no. No, that wasn't what I meant," she replied, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.
She paused, trying to find the right words to say. A part of her, a rather large part, wanted to say "yes" immediately. However, there was this small part that wanted to reject him, regardless of how wonderful he seemed to be. Not that she had something against Muggles. After all, she was Muggle-born. But there were certain inconveniences about dating a Muggle, and she was pretty sure by now that he was a Muggle. Either that or he was a wizard who had been living under a rock for the past ten years.
Then again, perhaps this was what she needed. The fame that accompanied being the best friend of Harry Potter and war heroine had been exciting at the beginning. But as the years gone by, it became tiresome. Perhaps this was the break she needed—being a nobody, just the normal "Muggle" girlfriend of a Muggle man. Even if there were something wrong with him, she was sure that she could pick up the hints along the way. After all, she had fought alongside Harry against Voldemort before, and Ginny had told her quite a bit of what had happened between her and the diary. With those experiences, it would take a lot before an ordinary man could con her.
Therefore, when she looked up again into his eyes, she gave him a brilliant smile along with her answer.
~-0-~
Three months later.
"You're engaged," was the first words that came out of Ginny Weasley's mouth the moment she stormed into Hermione's office.
"Hello to you, too, Ginny," the bushy-haired witch greeted with a raised eyebrow.
"Why didn't you tell us? Why haven't we seen this man before? Who is he?" Ginny demanded.
Hermione held up her hands in mock surrender as a smile appeared on her lips. "Slow down, Ginny."
"I'm not leaving your office until I get answers, Hermione," the redhead said stubbornly.
Hermione sighed. "I didn't say I wouldn't give them to you."
"But why didn't you tell us?" Ginny asked again, sitting down in the chair in front of Hermione's desk. "We haven't even heard about you dating anyone." She then narrowed her eyes. "Harry and I are starting to wonder if you even consider us your friends anymore."
Hermione stared at her in disbelief. "Just because of something like this?"
"Hermione, you're saying it as if it's not something important," Ginny said with a frown. "First of all, you went and got divorced with Ron, and now you're getting married. And where did Harry and I get all the information? From theDaily Prophet out of all things! The only reason Harry isn't here today is because he's in the United States."
"The United States?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows. "What is he doing in the United States."
"Because the United States Ministry of Magic suspects Death Eater activity over in Wisconsin, so they're finally allowing us to Apparate there to investigate."
"Death Eater activity?" Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. She'd thought that the last of them were rounded up two years ago.
Ginny sighed, disgruntled. "It turned out that some of the Death Eaters killed throughout the years might have been decoys."
"But that's impossible. If they'd used Polyjuice Potion, the effects would've receded within two hours after death."
Hermione immediately started to think through other possibilities, but she came up with no other possible methods. She knew for a fact that extensive tests were ran on each of the corpses that were taken into the Ministry to insure that the identities were correct. It was something the Ministry had, thankfully, added to the procedure after the whole fiasco with Barty Crouch Jr. However, it appeared that there were still holes in their measures.
"They suspect that there's Dark Arts involved," Ginny said.
"That's a possibility," Hermione conceded, "but the Dark Arts Examination Department checked those corpses when they came in. Each identity was confirmed."
Which meant that the Dark Arts involved must have been highly advanced. If this were true …
Hermione felt a cold shiver run up her spine at the thought of another powerful dark wizard lurking around the shadows waiting to take over the place Lord Voldemort had left vacant after his death.
"That's what we thought. But last week, according to our contacts in Russia, someone caught sight of Rabastan Lestrange—"
"But he died three years ago. We saw him die back then," Hermione said.
She remembered that firmly because both Ginny and she were there—as victims. Out of all places, Rabastan Lestrange had attacked them when they were shopping at a Muggle shop. The consequences had been potentially dangerous. Thankfully, the owner of the shop next door was also a wizard and immediately alerted the Ministry. Even then, Rabastan almost escaped but was stopped when one of the Aurors, Paulina Marcus, shot a Killing Curse at the Death Eater and successfully killed him.
"Not according to the witnesses in Russia," Ginny said with a sigh.
"I hope 'witnesses' doesn't imply that other Death Eaters were also seen," Hermione said.
"No, so far, only Rabastan Lestrange. It remains to be seen if the 'Death Eater activities' in the United States have something to do with Lestrange or someone else," Ginny said. She then paused before narrowing her eyes at Hermione. "Oye! Don't think that you're going to get out of explaining yourself by changing the topic. Your fiancé. Harry and I want the details."
Hermione rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Fine, fine. He's … a Muggle."
Ginny's eyes widened. "A Muggle? You're dating a Muggle?" She then quickly added, "Not that there's something wrong with that, but I've always imagined you with someone magical. Aren't there inconveniences though? And … are you sure he's really a Muggle?"
The redhead was obviously worried about her, especially with the growing amounts of Death Eater activities throughout the world. Nonetheless, Hermione couldn't help but feel slightly offended.
"Yes, he's a Muggle," she answered, successfully keeping her tone of voice neutral. "I've done a bit of research on his background. There's not a speck of magic in his family. There hasn't even been a Muggle-born in his family."
The moment she realized that Todd and her "casual meet-ups" had become something more serious, she had started to spend most of their time together trying to find something wrong with him. Someone who was as externally perfect as him had to have some kind of internal flaw, just like Riddle. Perhaps he liked to murder bunnies in his spare time, or maybe he had some kind of weird obsession, like hunting down one-year-old toddlers. She had even had a thorough check of his upbringing, using connections from work to get access to Muggle files about him.
Nobody could really blame her for being extra cautious. If there was anyone at fault, it would be Lord Voldemort. If it hadn't been for him, she could've been like any other young woman and admire handsome blokes without worrying that they would turn into murderous sociopaths any minute.
However, Todd turned out to be everything a witch could want, personality, background, and looks, all in one package. Well, perhaps he had been a bit more on the mischievous side when he was in primary school and had been part of the unruly group in secondary school, but that didn't stop him from getting glowing grades throughout his school years. Besides, who hadn't gone through that rebellious stage when they were going through adolescence?
"Oh! I didn't mean …" An apologetic look appeared on Ginny's face. "Sorry, I really didn't mean to offend you, but … I'm just worried—"
"It's alright, Ginny," Hermione interrupted her with a smile. "I know you're just worried for me."
Ginny sighed out of relief. "Anyway, doesn't it feel a bit restricting to not use magic all the time? Dad's always wondered how Muggles go about with using magic for their everyday lives."
"Yeah, there are certain inconveniences," Hermione admitted before she smiled. "But … it feels so strangely relaxing to be around him."
A teasing grin appeared on Ginny's face. "Ohhh, is our Hermione in love?"
Hermione shot her a good-natured glare. "Well, I do like him an awful lot—"
"Oh, give it a break, Hermione. If you didn't love him, you wouldn't have gotten engaged to him," Ginny said with a roll of her eyes.
Especially after Hermione's divorce with Ron.
That went without saying. It was an open secret, so to speak, amongst people who knew Hermione well enough. She had thought that she had hidden it well enough, but obviously, people could still tell that she had been hurt by the whole event.
"So … when do we get to see this mysterious bloke?" Ginny asked.
"Well, if you don't mind, you can come over for dinner Friday night," Hermione suggested.
"Okay," Ginny said. "So … Muggle. That means no Apparition then, right?"
Hermione snorted. "No, I think I would like my fiancé to be conscious when meeting my best friends." She hesitated before asking, "Do you think I should invite Ron?"
Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Um … I don't really think it's a good idea, Hermione. At least, not yet. I think he still needs some time to reconcile things with himself. It's … well … the news just came out this morning, and … well …"
"He's not taking it kindly," Hermione finished for her.
"No, he's not," Ginny admitted. "But I think he'll come around sooner or later. Just give it some time."
Hermione nodded.
After chatting for little while longer, Ginny left, and Hermione was left to her thoughts about Ron. A small part of her wanted to just tell him to bugger off. After all, he had already gotten married to another woman. It wasn't like she had cheated on him before they'd gotten their divorce. However, a larger part of her still held on to the bits and pieces of the friendship they had shared throughout the years. Now, she could only hope that what Ginny had said was true and that things would work out in the end.
~-0-~
Friday night came quicker than Hermione had anticipated, and strangely enough, she felt anxious as the moment Harry and Ginny would arrive crept closer. She had no idea why. Perhaps she was worried that her best friends would not like Todd. As much as she liked him, her friends were extremely important to her, and her relationship with Todd would be, to say the least, difficult without their support.
Therefore, she was more than relieved when Ginny and Harry seemed to get along with him.
They had decided to set up a table in the backyard, so they could have a good view of the sunset right before nightfall and then the stars as they had dinner.
"—and then you should see the way she slapped Malfoy. Best way to let out a whole year of angst, if you ask me," Harry said with a grin as they dug into the lasagna Hermione had made.
Initially, Harry eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline upon hearing that Hermione had cooked. She was so miffed by his reaction that she took extra care to give him a larger portion than anyone else, much to his horror and Ginny's amusement. However, after taking the first bite, a surprised look flitted over Harry's face and he even asked for seconds after he cleaned off the first plate.
"In other words, I best not irk our Hermione here or else she might kick me out of the house," Todd said, shooting Hermione a teasing glance.
"Oh, trust me, she can do much worse than just kicking someone out of the house," Ginny commented, equally amused as she winked at Hermione.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Make fun of me all you want. Watch me eat the whole lemon meringue pie and leave the lot of you crumbs."
She walked into the house amidst their laughter and went to the kitchen. She was just taking out the pie from the refrigerator when she caught sight of Harry standing at the doorway. A snort left Hermione's lips.
"You're not really checking if I'm eating the whole pie by myself, are you?" she joked as she placed the pie on the kitchen counter.
"Well, it will be an interesting scene, watching the daughter of dentists eating dessert like that," Harry replied, amused.
"True. Mum and Dad would have my head if that were to happen," she answered.
"So … how's life as a Muggle?" Harry asked, sitting down in one of the chairs around the kitchen table.
Hermione thought for a while before replying, "It's surprisingly calming to be away from it all, though of course there are certain inconveniences."
Harry nodded, and it took him a few seconds before he managed to get the next words out. "Ginny had forgotten to ask you this last time, but when do you plan to tell him about our world? Unless you're planning to keep it a secret from him for the rest of your life."
She looked up at him and found him gazing at her with curiosity.
"No … I'm not going to keep that a secret from him. It'll be unfair to him, and I don't want there to be something there that can potentially harm our relationship," she replied. "I just need to find the perfect opportunity, that's all."
"The thing is—" Harry halted in his words, and a look of contemplation fell over his face as he searched for the right words to say. "The thing is, I'm not saying that's how Todd's going to be, but you know that there are some people like Uncle Vernon. Not all of them have a fear of magic to his extent, but … well …"
He trailed off, and it took Hermione a small moment to fully digest what Harry was trying to say. It wasn't that she didn't understand him—his words were clear enough. It was something she had also thought about, but it wasn't exactly something she had thought about confronting on the day she had her friends and Todd meet with one another.
She heaved a sigh. "I know what you're trying to say, Harry. I … Well, I actually did think of it before, but if Todd can't accept something that's literally a part of me, then I really don't see the point of continuing the relationship."
She hoped that it wouldn't end with that kind of drama. It was really the last thing she needed: finding what seemed like a perfect bloke for her and then he turned out to be a close-minded individual like the Dursleys.
"I don't think you need to worry too much just yet, Hermione. He seems like a rather easygoing person. At least, that's the image I've gotten of him from this meeting. Ginny's just overly worried," Harry said reassuringly.
"Yes, I know. Thanks," Hermione said with a smile.
"No problem," Harry replied with a grin. He gazed at the pie that Hermione had placed on the table. "It's kind of strange though, seeing you work around the kitchen without the use of magic."
Hermione laughed. "I don't know about you, but I recall feeling like I've landed on a different planet the first time I walked into Mrs. Weasley's kitchen."
Harry's chuckle was short-lived, and then, his expression turned into one that Hermione could not read.
Placing a hand on his arm, she asked, "What's the matter, Harry?"
Without looking at her, Harry shook his head and grinned at her. "Nothing. Why would anything be wrong?"
Hermione had not been his friend throughout the years for nothing, and she could tell that something was definitely wrong.
"Tell me, Harry," she pressed on.
"No, it's nothing important, Hermione. I'm just … thinking," Harry replied.
A frown appeared on her face. "There's something wrong. I know there is. Don't make me force it out of you, Harry James Potter, because you know I will and I can."
Yet, Harry did not answer her, and that was when Hermione realized that something must be very wrong for him to have this kind of reaction. After what seemed like forever, he heaved a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
"I think it's just me overworking. It's not really a big deal, Hermione—"
"If it's not a big deal, you would've said it already. The fact that you don't even know where to start talking about it makes it obvious that something is wrong. Even when we were in Hogwarts and you had Voldemort on your back, you've never reacted like this," Hermione pointed out. "Tell me, Harry. Perhaps I can help. Two heads are better than one."
He opened his eyes and gave her a weak smile. "You sure it's not two books are better than one?"
She placed her hands on her waist and glared at him threateningly. "Spit it out."
He sighed again. "You promise you're not going to freak out?"
"Harry," she said warningly.
He gazed at her; his expression looked so worn out that he seemed to have abruptly gained twenty years of age within seconds.
"I think I'm losing my magic."
Hermione froze and stared at him. The seconds ticked by, and neither of them spoke. The only sounds that broke the silence were the muffled chat between Todd and Ginny and the low hum coming from the refrigerator.
Suddenly, a whole pile of questions crashed down on her mind, and her body swayed as if she were impacted by a wave. At first, she wondered if he were joking, but the moment she looked at his face again, she realized that he was being serious. After knowing him for so many years, she could almost always tell immediately if he were telling the truth or not.
"What are you talking about, Harry? It's impossible to lose your magic. It's a part of us, something that we're born with," she said.
"Yeah, but it's not exactly something that's set in stone is it?" Harry asked.
"Harry, nobody in history had ever lost their magic before. I've never heard about it happening; I've never read about it happening. If it could happen, it should've been in at least one book that I've read. Are you sure you didn't, I don't know, hit your head on a stone and forgot how to cast certain spells?" Hermione questioned him, running a hand through her hair.
She became even more frustrated when it became entangled with the knots. A hiss of pain escaped her lips when she accidentally pulled out a couple of strands as she pulled her hand out.
"Hermione, I'm not Lockhart," he deadpanned.
"I'm being serious here, Harry."
"So am I," said Harry as he gazed at her.
"It's not that I don't believe you, but … Harry, it's not something that can happen. That's why it was so ludicrous that people were eating up the Death Eaters' propaganda of Muggle-borns stealing magic from witches and wizards," Hermione pointed out.
"But what if there's some kind of dark magic that can make this happen? What if what Voldemort was trying to spread wasn't some kind of fairy tale?" Harry asked.
"If that's true, then he would've easily controlled the whole wizarding world during the first war. All he had to do was pick off each Order member one by one. He would've tried to steal Dumbledore and your magic right from the beginning," Hermione said. "The two of you were literally the only people standing in his way to victory. What was stopping him from stealing the magic from the two of you if there were some kind of dark magic that could let him achieve this? Not to mention the fact that he's not the only dark wizard who had tried to take over the whole wizarding world. Hundreds and thousands of others would've tried."
Harry fell silent, and Hermione allowed him the time to digest the things she had just told him. However, she knew well enough that Harry wasn't the kind of person who would fret over nothing. There must be something wrong with his spell-casting that led him to think that he was losing his magic.
"What, exactly, went wrong that made you think that you're losing your magic?" she asked, breaking the silence.
Harry sighed again before looking at her. "There are times … when I hold on to my wand, and … I don't really know how to describe it. It almost feels as if the connection between my wand and me is slipping away. It's not exactly that I can't cast—well, there are times when I have to try twice before a spell comes out, but other than that, even when I do get a spell out, it feels … different."
"Different? How?" asked Hermione.
"I can't really describe it … sort of like when you're driving a car and then you go over a bump, but not exactly …"
"Have you tried using a different wand?"
Harry nodded. "I've tried casting with Ginny's wand, but I get the same results, and when the spell does work, it feels strange."
He fell silent and the frown reappeared on his forehead again.
This was very strange indeed. Hermione had never heard anything like this. It almost sounded as if there were something blocking his magic, and so she voiced her thoughts out loud.
Harry's frown deepened. "But isn't that along the same lines as losing my magic? I mean, I know I don't completely lose my magic if that's the case and if I can somehow unblock it, I can cast again. But what if there isn't a way to unblock it? Then that's the same thing as losing my magic," Harry pointed out. "Besides, is it possible to block someone's magic? Wouldn't dark wizards have thought of using that to take over the wizarding world, too?"
"Well—" she started to say before stopping herself. In the end, she sighed, too, and nodded. "Yes, they would've thought of using that, too." Then, another thought hit her. "What if it's some kind of illness?"
"Is there some kind of illness that blocks magic?" he questioned her.
"Well, there might be," Hermione said slowly. "I've never really read about it in any of the books I've borrowed and bought. But I'll check," she quickly added when Harry was about to open his mouth. "I'll go to Flourish and Blotts tomorrow or the day after to check. It's close enough to Knockturn Alley that I can go see if there's anything similar to your condition written in the Dark Arts books. If that doesn't work, I can always question someone for you down in the Department of Mysteries. Paulina Marcus and I had gotten on pretty good terms with one another when she came over to work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She's recently applied for the Department of Mysteries and is now an Unspeakable. I won't tell her it's you though, if you're worried about other people knowing about it. I can just say that it's something I'm wondering about."
"But doesn't her job title say it all? She's an Unspeakable, so she might know about something like this but can't tell us," Harry reasoned.
"But she might be able to give us some pointers about it," said Hermione.
"But—"
"Hm … I'd thought that the two of you had been hiding in the kitchen to finish off the pie, but I see it sitting quite nicely on top of the counter," Todd said as he walked into the kitchen with a teasing smile towards Hermione. "Is it a case of trying to settle who gets the larger portion and who gets the smaller portion?"
"Sorry, it's my fault," Harry said, standing up and hiding his frown behind an apologetic smile. "I had too many questions for Hermione and she was so busy answering them that she hadn't had the chance to finish cutting the pie into pieces."
"Not a problem, Harry," Todd said. "Ginny and I were just wondering if Hermione might've trapped herself inside the fridge."
"Actually, you'll sooner find that happening to Ron than to Hermione," Ginny said as she, too, walked into the kitchen.
Hermione shifted uncomfortably upon the mentioning of the redhead's name, and Ginny stopped in her tracks, obviously catching her slipup. She shot Hermione a horrified look before it dissolved into an apologetic one.
Todd, however, didn't seem the least bit affected by it.
"Oh, you never know with these kinds of things. Perhaps she'd been so deprived of sweets throughout her life that she suddenly breaks down and decides to go on an all-sweets diet," he` jested, glancing at Hermione from the corner of his eye.
"Very funny," Hermione said dryly.
"Thank you, my dear," Todd said with a half-smirk. "So, have we decided to eat this delicious pie in the kitchen or are we going to go back outside?"
~-0-~
Some might see it as a flaw, but Hermione saw her tenacity as a plus. After all, many of the answers she had found came from her unwillingness to give up. Therefore, she'd spent all the free time she had trying to find an answer to Harry's dilemma. Nonetheless, nothing came up. Throughout history, there had never been a case where magic just suddenly slipped out of a wizard or witch.
Unless it was never recorded.
But it would be considered something important to the study of magic, and Hermione could not understand why it would not be recorded. So, she continued to look through books. She'd even gone as far as rereading some of them to make sure she hadn't missed something along the way.
An uncomfortable idea also emerged while she was going through her collection of books: What if Harry only had magic because of the Horcrux in him, and now that the Horcrux was destroyed, he no longer had the ability to do magic? However, that thought quickly got dashed because if that were the case, Harry wouldn't have been able to cast spells after the Horcrux in him got destroyed.
In the end, after being unable to find any hints or theories in books, Hermione decided to ask Paulina if she knew anything about losing one's magic.
"How is that possible?" was the first thing that came out of Paulina's mouth as they sat in Hermione's office.
"Well, I'm not saying that it could definitely happen. It's just something that I've been thinking about," Hermione said slowly. "You do recall when Lord Voldemort—"
Paulina looked slightly uncomfortable but did not flinch here.
"—took over the Ministry and he started to spread the rumor about Muggle-borns getting their magic from witches and wizards and aren't really born with it. I was just wondering if it could happen in reality," Hermione finished, monitoring Paulina's expression carefully.
"Yes, but hadn't the current Ministry already proven that it was untrue and could not happen?" asked Paulina.
"Well, I was wondering if there could be some spell, some Dark spell that was created to make this happen," Hermione replied.
"Not that I know of," answered Paulina. "I've been through the Dark Arts Examination Department's files, and I can tell you for certain that there is nothing recorded there that matches what you're telling me."
"But perhaps there's some things that aren't recorded there," Hermione pointed out.
Paulina shrugged. "That's a possibility, but I don't see how. The Dark Arts Examination Department has the most records about the Dark Arts—well, apart from dark wizards and certain reputable wizards, like Professor Dumbledore."
"Is there any kind of sickness that might cause magic to become momentarily blocked?" Hermione inquired.
"Hm …" said Paulina, her face contemplative. She seemed to have thought of something seconds later and said, "I'm not really sure about it, but maybe Healer Nerys might know more things about it."
"Healer Nerys?" Hermione asked.
Paulina nodded. "She's one of the best Healers in the field. I'm pretty sure if there's anyone who knows about these kinds of weird illnesses, it will be her. I would ask her if I were you."
The look on Paulina's face made it seem as if she thought that Hermione was the one who was having problem with their magic. However, Hermione couldn't be bothered with explaining. Besides, if she did spend time explaining, it would make it seem even more like she was the one with problem. So after finding out from Paulina where Healer Nerys could be found, Hermione left the Department of Mysteries and went back to her office.
It appeared that she would have to pay St. Mungo's a visit.
~-0-~
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A Tangle of Webs