Coming Out

Harry's suitcase was packed, and he was sitting on it in the middle of his room at the Dursleys'. He was alert despite the late hour, his wand ready. Today, at midnight, he would come of age in the wizarding world and his mother's protection would cease. Harry expected that Voldemort would attack him then. Everybody had been expecting it actually. Order members had been guarding him uneventfully the whole month, and since yesterday they must have secured the whole of Privet Drive. Even Aunt Petunia presented some empathy, but certainly not in her attitude. Her and Uncle Vernon's demeanour had undoubtedly made Harry's last stay in their house as brutally unpleasant as usual. Oh, no, it was more subtle. Aunt Petunia showed Harry her concern by giving him extra-large portions of food. This year Harry's plate did not equal a quarter of Dudley's portion. This year Harry was entitled to eat half as much as Dudley. Since Dudleykins was no longer on a diet, Harry ate at the Dursleys' sufficiently for the first time. He had to smile at the thought.

The doorbell rang viciously.

Harry's small smile vanished in an instant. He jumped up, bracing himself for a fight, but only Uncle Vernon's voice came through the closed door.

"Get out, boy! Get out of my house, and don't return."

It was a minute after midnight. Harry Potter had come of wizarding age. So he levitated Hedwig's cage and his suitcase and sent them unceremoniously past the hovering, impressive figure of Uncle Vernon down the stairs. Uncle Vernon turned an unhealthy crimson colour at the sight of open magic from his nephew, but did not say a word. It was Aunt Petunia who quietly gasped as Harry passed by.

"Good luck against ... You-Know-Who."

Harry opened his eyes in surprise. "Thank you, Aunt Petunia. And good bye."

He turned to go, then changed his mind and added, "I might have to put up a fight here. You'd better hide."

Harry pointed his wand at the front door, vanished it with a non-verbal spell, immediately yelled, "STUPEFY!" and rushed down the stairs in horror.

"I'm sorry, Professor. I apologise. Professor, I'm so sorry..." Harry kept babbling to Mad-Eye Moody, who was again gaining consciousness, thanks to Tonks' prompt efforts. "I thought Death Eaters would be coming to get me. I was so convinced. Professor, I'm sorry."

"Would the Death Eaters ring the bell?" asked Moody from the pavement.

"Er, I suppose ... as a diversion tactic perhaps?"

"No, they wouldn't! Besides, the whole Order has been patrolling the neighbourhood for two days now. There is a major force spread around us at the moment."

Shacklebolt picked up Harry's luggage, Tonks helped Moody on his feet and Diggle replaced the missing door.

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Harry admitted shamefully.

"Then act accordingly." Mad-Eye Moody was still visibly upset when he nevertheless admitted, "But, boy, you are fast. You might have a chance."

The party gathered, Moody seized Harry's elbow and all Disapparated to Harry's house at Grimmauld Place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'No. I will not strip for you tonight, but I might let you strip me if you promise to kiss my whole body while undressing me,' a whitish otter told Ginny. Her eyes first widened in surprise, then narrowed with anger.

"You are transmitting sex arrangements to each other? I can't believe this! I'm supposed to intercept them!"

Hermione and Ron flushed deeply, dropped their shoulders and looked to the floor in embarrassment. They were practising their Patronus Messaging in eager wait for Mr. Weasley and Bill, or at least a Patronus from them for that matter, to bring them news about Harry's retrieval from the Dursleys'. They hoped it would go smoothly. With such a force of Order members protecting him, they were almost relaxed, but still had to know for certain.

"We are sorry, Ginny."

"You couldn't intercept any of our Patronuses the whole day, so we ... I thought ... I took the liberty ... to ask Hermione..."

"We felt this conversation was private. It was a mistake. We were overconfident in our skills at specifying the recipient of the message. We apologise," Hermione managed to squeeze out of herself quietly.

"I'm expected to try to hear your messages! I'm practising to intercept them. You are such jerks." Ginny, however, forgave them, but could not skip an opportunity and changed her tone to Ron. "So, no stripping, eh?"

"Shut up, Ginny," Ron hissed.

"And lots of kissing before the deed? Poor brother, such a disastrous message. You must be devastated."

Ron had had enough. He was far from comfortable with his newly discovered lust for his girlfriend to face his little sister mocking him in his humiliation. All emotions channelled to anger, and he burst out.

"You say one more word, Ginny, and I'll hex..."

"You won't even try, or Mum will be made to know."

"You will not discuss my private life with her. We are both of age, so it's none of her business."

"It's all of her business. This is her house, Ron. You are shagging your girlfriend in your parents' house!"

"You are just jealous because Harry didn't write to you!"

"He couldn't. It's dangerous. The owls..."

"And he won't even look at you twice when he gets here!"

They were so engrossed in their fight that they did not notice another Patronus approaching The Burrow. Hermione shifted her gaze, wishing to shrink and disappear, and the flying Patronus in the distance caught her eye.

"A Patronus!" she screamed and ran outside, Ron and Ginny rushing after her.

"It's not midnight yet, so it can't be good news. Dad said they would retrieve him only shortly after midnight."

"There is an attack then."

"Oh, my," Hermione realised, "it is Snape's Patronus."

"What is it doing here?"

"Did the Death Eaters win?"

"This is the end."

Hermione surprisingly easily intercepted the Patronus, finding that it was addressed just to whomever in The Burrow and took the message.

'Potter safe. Death Eaters attacking The Burrow at midnight. Run.'

"Death Eaters are coming here. We must escape." She hastened to get inside.

"Are you crazy?" Ron caught her arm in the front room. "This is Snape's message. You cannot believe it. It's a trap. He just wants us to do something stupid like rush to the battle to get us all in one go. Harry is the target, not us."

"He says Harry is safe, but they will be HERE at midnight!"

"We can fight them if it's true. We will be prepared."

"What if there are too many of them? Would you risk the Death Eaters capturing you and endangering Harry with the information You-Know-Who could get out of you?" Hermione refrained from saying the Dark Lord's name.

"We need reinforcements. I'll send a Patronus to Dad."

But Ron could not feel happy about the expected attack. In fact, he could not feel happy enough about anything at the moment to conjure a Patronus at all. Hermione was shaking with fear and Ginny did not even try.

"Maybe we shouldn't request help. They are protecting Harry. What if you are right, Ron, and this is a dodgy tactic to weaken Harry's guards? We should go to Grimmauld Place. That way we can save ourselves if something is truly coming and not jeopardise the Order's mission."

Crack!

Hermione squeaked and jumped.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

"Too many! The fireplace!"

Ginny ran for it, knocked over the jar as she grabbed a handful of Floo powder, jammed it into the fire and was already stepping inside and yelling the Headquarters address when Ron and Hermione caught up with her.

Ron scooped up a bit of powder from the floor, threw it into the flames and gestured to his love.

"Hermione!"

They heard the front door give in to the concentrated assault.

"No time, I'll Apparate. Go!" She pushed him with all her strength into the fireplace and immediately started to concentrate on her Destination, Determination and Deliberation.

The door exploded.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The curse hit her in the chest, but she was already loosely deliberated. Her body resisted as she was pressed through the Apparating sensation. She hit the floor in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place hard.

Hard as a stone.

"Hermione, luckily, you are here too." Ron was just stumbling out of the fireplace. "Hey, you shouldn't have pushed me so hard."

"Ron."

"It must have been a rough Apparition for you too, if you fell. I hope the Death Eaters leave before Dad and Bill return." He regained his balance, turned his back to the girls and started to brush ashes from his clothes.

"Ron."

"We must warn them before they arrive just into the Death Eaters' hands."

"Ron! Would you, please, stop grooming yourself and look here?" Ginny was kneeling beside Hermione and finally caught Ron's attention.

"Hermione! Did you splinch yourself? Or did you hit your head?"

"She looks whole to me. She might have hit her head, but it wouldn't be serious, I think." Ginny was examining Hermione to her best knowledge. Her friend's eyes were vivid with anger and helplessness. "It rather looks like the full Body-Bind to me."

Hermione slowly closed and again opened her eyes to acknowledge Ginny's conclusion.

"She will be her self in a short time again. I'll warn Bill and Dad, and you make her a bit more comfortable," Ginny unnecessarily added when Ron was already lifting Hermione's stiff body in his arms, eager to touch her rather than levitate her form in an attempt to take her over to a couch.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Hermione was unceremoniously dropped back to the floor as Ron and Ginny joined forces to protect her body and sent hexes towards the intruders.

"Protego!" Mad-Eye Moody's shout echoed in the now over-crowded room.

"Incarcerous!" Ropes flew out of Dedalus Diggle's wand and bound Ginny and Ron.

"What do you think you are doing? First Harry, now you? Think before you hex someone." Moody's magical eye was piercing Ginny and Ron.

"The Death Eaters attacked The Burrow while we were all expecting them to march upon Harry, right? That's why you are all jumpy here instead of where you're supposed to be and Hermione is bound," Tonks deduced.

"Yes. There were so many of them! They just kept popping in ..." Ginny shuddered as she remembered. "We must warn Dad!"

"I just did," Professor McGonagall said. She made her way from behind the crowd to tend to Hermione. "I sent him a Patronus that you were all here and safe as soon as I saw you while you were busy fighting Alastor."

"Thank you. I hope it reaches them before they return to The Burrow." Ron sighed, a little embarrassed once again that evening, and helped Hermione to stand up after McGonagall countered her curse.

At that moment a Patronus materialised through a wall. Mundungus Fletcher took the message.

'Dark Mark above The Burrow. Seems empty. Need to search.'

Before Mundungus could refer the message to the awaiting assembly, there sounded yet another double-crack. This time, it went without an attack, although Mr. Weasley and Bill still faced a forest of aimed wands.

"I just got your message. What did you find?" Mundungus asked.

"Nothing. Shortly after I sent off a Patronus, Dad received Professor McGonagall's message. We Apparated directly here. Thank you for the reassurance," Bill addressed McGonagall. "It was quite a sight to see the sign about my old home knowing my little siblings were in there." Bill messed Ron's hair, much to his annoyance.

"Ginny, Ron, Hermione, we are very glad you are all safe." Mr. Weasley embraced the young escapees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Harry, he saved our lives!" Hermione was fuming over Harry's stubbornness.

"Oh, yes? Then how can you explain the fact that you were bound? It could have easily been a Killing Curse that hit you, for all that matters." Harry refused to let go.

"No. Potter's friends would be more valuable to them alive," Ron whispered, not meeting Harry's eyes.

"Even so. Even if they wanted you alive to get to me." The edge in Harry's voice forced Ron to look up. "How far do you think she was from being caught?"

"Close."

"Precisely! Millionth of a second. If she would have been bound before she started to Apparate, she wouldn't have gone anywhere."

"But we hesitated after we got the message. She wanted to go, but I stopped her."

"Clever. Now, what do you think would have happened to her if she were caught?"

"Harry! Drop it, please." Hermione stepped in. "She refuses to hear what could have happened. She can imagine quite vividly without you. Thanks."

"But it's relevant."

"To what?"

"To Snape's deception!"

"Deception?"

"Harry, he saved us!" Ginny backed up Hermione.

"He warned us, so that we could get away."

"No, Ron, he didn't!" Harry raised his voice. "Don't you see that he gave you just such a short notice to ensure that you did get caught? Then, if at least one of you survived and returned to the Order, you would have pledged that Snape is on our side, he would get the spy status back and could continue to supply Voldemort with our intentions."

"If you put it that way ..." Ron lost his resolve.

"See?"

"But what if he did not know before?" Hermione was pondering an alternative. "Your hypothesis assumes that Voldemort filled him in on his plans beforehand. He does not appear a trusting fellow, Harry. I doubt he tells his Death Eaters about his plans in detail."

"Snape might be close to him now that he killed the only wizard Voldemort ever feared. Or he might even have designed the plan." Harry shrugged.

"All right. Voldemort might have entrusted Snape on his tactics, or Snape could have come up with it," Hermione admitted. "But what if Voldemort thought of the idea to target us instead of you last night and did not trust any of his Death Eaters to share it with them? What if Snape learnt of the plan just moments before they were to go and only had time for a quick blind warning? And can you imagine how much danger he put himself in for conjuring a Patronus in front of all those Death Eaters?"

"Then how did he know that you could receive a Patronus message? I can't. Now, Hermione, how could he know?" Harry opposed her.

"He couldn't," Hermione admitted.

A relief of victory flushed over Harry's face.

"But he also couldn't expect that we would be left in The Burrow all by ourselves without any Order member. We never were before."

Harry's victorious feeling sank.

"Hermione is right, Harry. Snape would have expected at least one person here who could receive a Patronus message. The Order was just so sure Voldemort would try to get to you last night. Too sure." Ron's voice sank.

But Harry still stood to his place. "Then he would have also expected at least one person who would fight the Death Eaters back long enough to enable at least one of you to get away to tell others of his 'noble' intentions, but short enough to get at least one of you captured."

Harry had a point. Harry certainly had a point. But so did Hermione.

"Harry, you are paranoid."

"Wouldn't you be, if the most dangerous wizard of our age and his army were after you since you were one?" he shot at her. "And if he and his cronies already managed to kill so many people that were there to protect you?"

"Yes," Hermione's cheeks flushed a little pink, "I guess I would be."

Author's notes: Thanks to KD for beta reading this story and to saschia for pointing out my mistake in the orientation of the tracking cube charts. The concept should work so that the time is recorded on the axis from left to right, the nature of a spell on the axis from front to back and the force of the spell on the vertical axis up and down. Please read and review; plot bunnies feed on reviews, and they need a lot of nourishment.