Harry read the note over and over again, he read it aloud to Ron and Ginny, he even tried to interrogate Molly about it, but none of these things got him anywhere. After nearly two hours, everyone spilled out of the fire looking battered, bruised and bloody. Although she hadn’t left with them, Tonks returned. She looked extremely upset and her hair was a deep colour that didn’t match her skin tone very well. Harry was about to start asking questions when Ellie and Tonks blazed straight past him, “Molly, would you come too?” Ellie asked over her shoulder as she sped from the room. Out of sheer curiosity and an uninformed anger, Harry followed her, even in spite of Remus’s best attempts to stop him and his friends from the pursuit. Ellie zoomed along the corridors and up the stairs into A Wing, she stopped abruptly in front of a door that was just to the right of her bedroom, she pointed her wand at the handle and mumbled something unintelligible until the door gave a loud click.
She knocked politely before calling softly, “Hermione, are you decent?”
Harry was about to ask why she thought Hermione would be in there when the door was pulled open by the bushy haired Head Girl who was startled to see so many people standing in the hallway. “What’s wrong?” she asked after seeing the expression on Ellie’s face.
“Sit down, Hermione,” Ellie said as she guided the other girl towards the bed.
“Please, just tell me what happened!” Hermione was getting progressively more alarmed.
“Earlier this morning Voldemort sent Death Eaters to your house, Tonks held them off for a little while but…they overcame her…Hermione, your father…is…is…” Apparently Ellie couldn’t say what Colin Granger was because her sentence came to a stuttering halt.
“I’m so sorry, Hermione, I didn’t stop them. They got to your dad before I could do anything, he’s dead,” Tonks whispered. It suddenly struck Harry that she had bushy brown hair identical to Hermione’s but the grey eyes that were her own were full of tears that threatened to overcome her.
Harry very much doubted that Hermione had been up long, she was still wearing her pyjamas and her hair was even more bushy than normal. She sat on the edge of the bed beside Ellie who had one of her hands wrapped around both of her student’s, and her arm wrapped around her shoulders. Hogwarts’ top young witch was staring into space with her blood shot eyes, her face was pale as the white snow coating the trees that could be seen in the window behind her. Her mouth was hanging open loosely in dumbstruck horror. “My mum, what about my mum?” she suddenly asked.
“She’s in St. Mungo’s, she was hit with a curse that has yet to be determined,” Remus sadly provided.
“I want to go and see her,” she demanded immediately.
“Yes, of course, we’ll leave you to dress and shall go straight away.” Remus began herding people out of the room. “Ginny, why don’t you stay and help?” Ginny nodded and swapped places with Ellie. The rest of them trooped back to the kitchen where Molly began to patch up the light war wounds of the returned combatants.
“What’s going on?” Harry demanded of Ellie. She shot him a furious look before she responded.
“We took Malfoy up on his little tip,” she said angrily to him. “Just before Hermione got off the train Tonks morphed into her and took her place. We then threw an invisibility cloak over Hermione and snuck her out of the station with us, she’s been living in that room ever since. Winky has been taking her meals and bringing her books from the library.”
“That’s why she winked at me, I though it was strange. So she’s been here and Tonks has been at her house?” he asked.
“That’s right,” Tonks spoke up to take the heat off Ellie. “Seven Death Eaters appeared this morning and I got stunned before I could do an awful lot. I think I managed to take one of them with me though. Luckily Dumbledore had set up wards around the house and he was alerted the second that the group arrived. Order members were arriving before they had a chance to kill Mrs. Granger, but that was definitely what was coming.” Tonks just felt so stupid. Here she was, a trained Auror, and she hadn’t been able to do anything to prevent Mr. Granger’s death or the harrowing attack that had been inflicted upon his wife. She felt so useless.
“You did what you could,” Remus told her comfortingly as he wrapped his arms around her. “This isn’t your fault.”
“No, it’s mine,” Harry announced.
“How many times do you have to be told that you’re not responsible for every life that’s taken?” Ellie asked him irritably.
“Are you trying to tell me that if Hermione didn’t know me then her parents wouldn’t still be alive?” he shouted at her.
“No, what I’m telling you is that if you hadn’t told us about Malfoy’s threat then the real Hermione would have been there as well and she would either be dead or sitting in Voldemort’ lair right now, would you rather that?” Ellie shouted right back at him.
“I would,” Hermione answered her from the door to the kitchen where she had just appeared with Ginny’s guidance.
“We all say things like that in times like these, dear,” Molly said as she put her hand on Hermione’s elbow compassionately and directed her to the table. “Would you like some tea or toast before you go?”
“No thank you, I’d rather just go,” Hermione replied. Her voice was empty of any and all emotion; she didn’t appear to be blinking either. She was staring at everyone in disbelief.
“Certainly, perhaps it would be better if you came, Molly?” Remus suggested. He knew that as soon as Hermione saw her mum she was going to need a motherly figure to comfort her.
“Of course, Remus,” Molly summoned her cloak and the three of them disappeared in to the fire.
“Shouldn’t they be taking a guard with them?” Ginny asked Bill.
“Mad-Eye and Kingsley are already at St. Mungo’s, they’ve been keeping a lookout since Mrs. Granger arrived there,” he replied.
“What happened to her?” Ron was paler than any of them had ever seen him and he looked as though he was on the verge of vomiting. For a second Harry felt sorry for Ron, he really did care about Hermione and at the end of the day they were just having a stupid row, it would pass and they would be back to their normal selves. No matter what Hermione had done to him, Ron would never ever have wished any harm to come to her or the parents that she loved so much.
“A lot of very horrible stuff, they just killed her dad but they put her mum through hell. It was a mess, a terrible, terrible mess,” Bill said sadly.
“That’s enough, Bill, they don’t need to know the details,” Ellie half-heartedly scolded her brother in law.
“They just need to be prepared, Hermione is going to be really upset,” Bill rationalized.
“Her father’s just died, and her mother has been hospitalized, of course she’s going to be upset!” Ellie snapped unintentionally. “I’m sorry, Bill, I didn’t mean to…”
“I understand,” he nodded.
“Eet iz such a terrible zing for one zo young to suffer zo much,” Fleur added.
“Worse is to come, I can feel it,” Ellie said as she stared out the window. She had a horrible feeling down in her gut that things were going to get a lot worse, very soon.
When they returned many hours later Hermione was in hysterics, her body was wracked with sobs, she was unable to stand under her own power and was being supported between Remus and Molly. Her face was puffy and blotched red by her tears and her eyes had never looked so heartbreaking. Ron rose from his seat and attempted to wrap his arms around his ex-girlfriend but she pushed him away fiercely, when he tried to plead with her she snapped at him scathingly. “Don’t you dare try and comfort me! You were the one complaining when I went back to the Muggle world, well congratulations you got your wish, I have no reason to go back now!” she screeched. Ron withdrew, pushed his hand through his long red hair and attempted to salvage something from the wreckage of their relationship.
“Hermione, I would never have wanted this, I know how much you love your parents, I didn’t want this…”
“Like you care about me! Shouldn’t you be off kissing a girl somewhere? I wouldn’t want to interfere with your busy love life!” She wailed and stormed from the room. Molly and Ginny went after her while Ron mumbled something about going for a walk and left the room as well.
“How is Mrs. Granger?” Charlie asked.
“The healers are reasonably confident that she won’t make it to morning, I told Hermione that she can go back to the hospital after she’s had a shower and something to eat,” Remus replied. There was another flash over the table and Fawkes had dropped another letter. Ellie swiped it off the table before anyone else got the chance to.
“There’s going to be an Order meeting here in half an hour,” she said quietly. “Dobby, could you put dinner out as soon as possible?”
“Certainly, miss, Dobby and Winky will do it straight away,” the little elf responded eagerly.
Twenty minutes later everyone had almost finished eating and Dobby and Winky were already clearing up. Everyone at the table nearly jumped out of their skin when Professor Dumbledore materialized in the kitchen without warning. Whether Dumbledore realized the surprise he had caused or not was unclear because he began regardless. “How is Ms. Granger?”
“How do you think?” Ellie asked him sardonically.
“That is only to be expected. Is everyone else all right?”
“They’re all in one piece, which is more than can be said of Hermione,” Ellie addressed her grandfather with a surprisingly sharp tone that bordered on accusatory.
“I see. I shall not stay long, I merely want to recount the events and see if we can uncover any useful information,” he replied without a hint of annoyance at his granddaughters tone.
“Sir, I have a question,” Harry interjected before the exchange became too heated.
“By all means ask it, Harry,” Dumbledore smiled politely at him.
“Why did Malfoy tip us off? Wasn’t that a bit stupid?”
“Yes it was, I can only imagine that Mr. Malfoy assumed that by telling you about the proposed attack you would keep it to yourself and attempt to save Ms. Granger without assistance,” he replied thoughtfully.
“But what would that matter?”
“You would have been very susceptible to attack and it is likely he thought you might get yourself captured, he would then be able to claim the glory that would come from manipulating Harry Potter in to the hands of Lord Voldemort,” he explained. “By telling Elizabeth as soon as possible you ensured that reason was applied to the situation and Ms. Granger was kept safe, it is a great tragedy that we could not afford the same luxury to her parents, despite out best efforts.”
“Where do we go from here?” he asked.
“That is a very good question, Harry, a very good question indeed.”
Later on in the evening Hermione, Remus and Molly returned to St. Mungos for the night. Ellie stood in the quiet kitchen surveying the dark scene from the window, only three of the house’s occupants remained awake, her, Charlie and Bill. As she stared out into the pitch-black night she felt despair suffusing its way through her veins. An atmosphere of bereavement was once again seeping through the woodwork at Potter Hall, this was a place that had seen death before, and the unmistakable sounds of grief were held within the walls. Ellie closed her eyes to the cold view in the window and a new setting formed before her eyes.
She was trapped; she seemed to be sitting on a soft surface, yet there was a cage around her. She tried desperately to shift her enclosure but it was too heavy. It was then that she realised that the hands before her were not her own, and that the space she was trapped in would be far too small to hold her. She reached out to touch the thing that imprisoned her and found bars, she reached beyond them and felt rough pieces of wood and stone, she caught her finger on a sharp piece of wood and cried out. It wasn’t her voice; it was much younger and very high pitched. Suddenly there was rumbling and a boulder to her left shifted. In the gap that was created she saw a woman’s kind face. “Over here, I think I’ve found her!” the woman called over her shoulder. She was gently pushed out of the way by a man with shoulder length dark hair, a pale face and grey eyes, Sirius.
“Elle Belle?” he called, she cried louder. Ellie felt strong, warm arms wrapping around her and when she snapped her eyes open she was no longer trapped in an up turned cot, she was back in the kitchen with her husband’s loving arms holding her tightly.
“Are you all right?” he asked as he tenderly kissed her earlobe.
“No, I’m half left,” she said emptily. She was inexplicably furious with Charlie; Sirius had been so close to her, she could still smell the musky cologne that he always wore. She wanted to be near him again, she wanted Charlie to let go of her so that she could float away back to Sirius.
“That’s my girl, never lose your sense of humour at any time,” he smiled sadly in to her hair. It smelled like summer, honey and flowers all at the same time. He gently turned her round to face him. “There was nothing you could do, you know,” he whispered to her as he cupped her face with his rough hands.
“No, Charlie, I could have done everything. If I’d insisted that they came here like last year then this wouldn’t have happened, Hermione would still have her parents,” she replied. She was only just able to glance over his shoulder at the happy pictures that adorned the wall. Memories of the perfect family Christmas, yet one of the smiling people was dead and another’s life was hanging by a thread.
“You can’t stop people from doing what they want. The Granger’s wanted a family Christmas and you had no right to deny them it,” Charlie told her unwaveringly.
“And now I can’t deny them anything ever again because all that’s left is Hermione!” she scolded.
“Hermione will get over this, she’s strong and she has everyone here to help her. She’s not going to drift out into the wilderness; we’ll help her through it. She’s not going to be alone in this; we’ll make sure of that.”
“It doesn’t matter what we do, we can’t bring her parents back and we can’t replace them. She isn’t a faulty wall, Charlie; we can’t just plaster over the cracks and get on with things. Losing your parents is something you can’t understand until you’ve lost them, and I pray that never happens to you.” Little salty, pear shaped tears were winding their way from her eyes down the side of her cheeks. He caught them with his thumb and wiped them away.
She closed her eyes to try and push her tears away but instead her mind drifted away again. It drifted to a miserable April night many years ago when she had seen her father’s tall and proud figure collapse on to a flight of stairs next to her mother. She tried to block out the memory of watching helplessly as the little flame died in his eyes and his mouth uttered his last words. “My little angel,” he had whispered. They were the three little words that had rattled around in her head for sixteen years. The words that had haunted her ever since that sad day, the ones that willed her to get up in the morning; the ones that kept her fighting; the ones that made sure she would never give up.
“Is that what happened with you? Did we just plaster over the cracks?” he asked her sorrowfully.
“Yes, and the surface is starting to crumble. My scars aren’t even going to think about healing until Voldemort has paid for every single life that he’s taken,” she said powerfully.
“Well, we’d best make sure that we sort him out soon. Ellie, if you need to cry do it, don’t hold it in, you’ll just make yourself feel worse.” He pulled her into his chest and kissed her head. He knew that Ellie’s suffering was a deep rooted thing, every death reminded her of her parents, every casualty reminded her of how much had been lost and could never be recovered. Silence once again settled through the air as everyone wasted yet more time waiting for the inevitable.
It came at half past two on Boxing Day morning. Remus came out of the fire ashen faced with Hermione and Molly behind him, Molly still had very visible tear tracks. Hermione was a heart breaking sight, her grief was beyond words or feeling, it was mingling with the blood that was coursing through her almost still heart and it was in the suffocating air that she was breathing. Every part of her was lost to misery.
“Jane died half an hour ago.” Although Remus had whispered because of the quiet in the room it sounded like he had shouted.
“Hermione, I promise you…” Ellie began but she knew no words mattered. To Hermione, all that mattered was finding her parents’ killers and making them suffer.
A/N: *tear* This chapter really makes me cry. The next chapter is...Unhappy Birthday.