19: The Word Gets Out

Chapter 19: The Word Gets Out

Hermione arose on the fifth day back from Hogwarts. It had been eight days since the Headmaster had died, an eternity since she had held her soul mate close, felt his breath on her face, touched her lips to his...at least it felt that way.

As had become her habit, the first thing she did after opening her eyes was to reach for her diary. Sometimes she found little more than a couple of lines, sometimes quite a bit more. Every day Severus encouraged her to impress on Harry the importance of working on his Occlumency and silent spell casting. Occasionally, he mentioned meetings he'd attended, but he provided no definite information. With Hermione and Ron in residence, the three of them bent the rules a bit and practiced silent defensive spells every afternoon...but only in the privacy of the tent of course.

This morning was different. When Hermione lifted the book to read over it, there were only a few new lines.

You must get word to the Order, someone, anyone who will listen. There is a large gathering planned at some stadium in London for a football match tonight. The Death Eaters plan to destroy the building. Thousands of Muggles will be in the building at that time. You must stop it if you can.

He continued with specific information about when and where the Death Eaters were planning to meet. The message ended with another plea that she trust him.

Her mind flew over the details. There was a match that night, an early round in the World Cup, and she knew the stadium would be packed. Not only thousands, but tens of thousands would be there.

With this in mind, Hermione flew out of bed and through her morning routine. She spelled her hair back in a braid, willing it out of her face in the least possible amount of time. She stuck her diary in her back pocket, then hurried to the kitchen where Harry was already cooking up bangers. "Hey, I have a few errands to run this morning." She grabbed a banana from a nearby fruit basket. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"What kind of errands?" Ron asked. "Want one of us to go with you?"

Ron had been rather more helpful and gentlemanly than usual over the past few days, but Hermione didn't have time to wonder why...especially when she was fairly sure she already knew and didn't have the strength to deal with it if she were right. "Nope, I shouldn't be too long. Practice silent spell casting while I'm out."

A moment later, she Apparated in a grove of trees in a park near the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. As Hermione had rushed through dressing and dealing with her hair, she had considered whom she should speak with. Harry might not believe her, regardless of whether he knew her source or not, and there was little he could do about it anyway. He wasn't of age yet, couldn't even Apparate for nearly another month. The members of the Order respected him, but they wouldn't take orders from him. Not yet. Frankly, with his history of reacting to events, she wasn't sure they would take him seriously.

Professor McGonagall would want explanations she couldn't give. She had the clout, but not the limitless trust Hermione needed to make this go. Moody would all but torture the source out of her, given half a chance. Hermione had considered each of the Order members in turn and finally concluded there was only one option. Remus Lupin. The others would listen to him, as he was level headed, but he trusted more easily than some and could be trusted to keep a secret. He wouldn't be happy with her choosing to keep her source to herself, but she thought he would believe her anyway.

Now, if he would only be at Headquarters so she could approach him.

After Dumbledore's fall, Mad-Eye Moody had become the leader pro-tem, despite his ability to offend members right and left. The man wasn't known to be forgiving, however. He would never accept Severus back, no matter what happened. He had only tolerated Severus in the first place because Dumbledore insisted he do so. Mad-Eye had the experience of leadership and dealing with dark wizards, of strategizing that the group needed.

Hermione glanced both ways, then crossed the street. She wondered how many members of the Order there really were and how many would be involved in a battle against Voldemort?

A quiet knock on the door, and Nymphadora Tonks was leading Hermione through the familiar, dark entryway. Tonks was the youngest Auror on the squad and once again sported bright pink hair after a year of only her real, mousy brown hair color and face. Hermione smiled when she saw Tonks' bright smile, knowing it meant Tonks and Lupin had worked things out.

Remus sat in the library, a book held open in one large palm while his other hand sifted through the pages. His eyes searched the writing. He glanced up when she stopped inside the door, and surprise showed on his face. "Hermione, it's good to see you. What's brought you here? Are Harry and Ron here too?"

Hermione's eyes slid over him, noticing how ragged he was beginning to look. The full moon was only a few days away, and without the benefit of the potion Severus used to make for Remus, the werewolf would be going through a painful transformation. "Not this time. I have something I need to talk to you about. Alone." She smiled at Tonks as the older woman waved as if to say 'go ahead then' and headed toward the kitchen. Hermione shut the library door to be certain of their privacy. She locked the door, considered casting an Imperturbable, but decided that was going overboard this time.

"It must be rather serious." Remus marked the book and set it aside. "Please, have a seat. What do you need?"

Besides someone who will believe me and not ask too many questions? Hermione glanced at the seat he had gestured toward, but didn't take it. She didn't think she could sit still. "I have something to talk to you about, but there are parts I can't explain. Things I'm not at liberty to divulge. I need you to understand up front; I can tell you only so much, and no more." She turned back to him and saw him nod in reply.

Grateful he hadn't said anything that would distract her, she continued carefully. "I am in contact with someone who has access to information we need. Information about Voldemort's plans. I can't explain to you where I am getting it. I need you to understand that. I believe the person feeding me this information. At least, I'm quite certain the person is trustworthy." She whirled around and began pacing again.

"How certain are you?"

Biting her lip, Hermione turned to face him. She rubbed her thumb on the inside of her ring, taking courage from the warm metal. "I trust this person with my life, but I'm not sure I would trust them with yours. I believe this is a legitimate warning, however." Taking a deep breath, she told him what she knew about the planned attack. At the end, she slid boneless into one of the chairs.

"And you're sure you can't tell me who it is?" Remus' face bore a serious expression. His fingers steepled before him as he considered her revelation.

"I'm sure. Perhaps someday, but not now." Hermione swallowed, trying to find the courage to say what she had to say next. "I know after what happened," she stumbled over her words; the allusion was painful enough without coming right out and saying what she meant, "it is hard to be sure who to trust."

"It could be a trap."

"Yes, but I don't think so."

He nodded, as though glad she was being honest both with him and herself. "You won't go on this one, if we choose to pursue it. You are not officially a part of the Order yet. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it to Harry either. We don't need him haring off to save the Muggles right now."

She fisted her hands until her short fingernails dug into the palms. "I understand; I haven't mentioned it to anyone besides you."

Remus stood and moved toward the door. "I'll have to discuss this with the others, and we'll decide how to act."

Anxious, Hermione grasped his shirt sleeve, halting him just before he reached the door. "For the time being, can you keep the fact that I provided the information to yourself? You and Tonks, since she'll obviously figure it out. I'm not ready for some of the others to begin an interrogation. In the long run it might be best."

He considered her for a long moment, then nodded. "For the time being. I hope your source is golden."

Remus walked out, and Hermione whispered to herself, "Dark and broody, but golden."

*****

The next day Hermione was eating breakfast with the boys when an owl came to her tent. It landed in front of her and lifted its leg for her to retrieve the letter. It was from Remus.

Thanks for the tip. All went well, six in custody, look for the Prophet this morning.

R

Filled with relief, as Hermione had spent half the previous night lying in bed, wondering if the attack against the Muggles had been thwarted, she tucked the note in her back pocket. She supposed she could have asked the Dursleys if she could come in and watch the evening news with them, but after Harry told her how they had reacted when he had tried to do so a couple summers before, she had decided to wait and watch.

"What was that?" Ron asked, noticing her stash the note.

"Nothing much, just a response to a question I asked. Do we want to work on Occlumency this morning, then do some silent spell casting afterward, or would you rather begin some reading for Charms?" Hermione knew nothing would distract Ron from the topic of her note faster than the threat of study.

Sure enough, he groaned. Harry didn't look much happier when she looked over at him. "Still a little muzzy yet for studying, Hermione. How about we take a few minutes after breakfast to play some Exploding Snap instead?"

After a short bout of eye-rolling, Hermione turned back to her meal. A moment later, an owl came to the tent entrance, and Hermione anxiously reached for her knut. After accepting its pay, dropping off the morning paper, and eating a bite of toast from the counter, the owl screeched its way out of the tent flap. Hermione forced herself to wait a moment before picking up the paper, and Harry got to it first.

"Owls flying through my yard!" Vernon Dursley's words filtered from the house, and the three teens looked at each other and laughed. Dudley was due back that afternoon from another year at Smeltings, and Petunia had been in a dither about the three of them staying out of the way, so as not to ruin her first day back with her Dinky Diddy Dums.

When Harry picked up the paper, Ron asked his usual question, "Anyone we know die?" Hearing Harry's quick intake of breath, Ron tore his attention away from the jam-slathered pancakes. Hermione carefully looked up at Harry as well, trying to look curious instead of mad to tear the paper from his hands and read the details herself.

"Death Eater attack foiled at Muggle football stadium," Harry read the headline, then continued on with the story.

"After an anonymous tip to Auror headquarters last night, six known Death Eaters were captured in the act of preparing to raze a Muggle sports stadium with 26,000 Muggles inside. All six men were taken into custody." Harry continued reading aloud, detailing the events of the night and the charges laid against each man. Lucius Malfoy was returned to Azkaban along with a few Death Eaters who had managed to escape capture when their master disappeared sixteen years earlier.

Ron's mouth was hanging open when Hermione turned to gauge his reaction. She was disgusted when she saw the half-masticated pancake in his mouth and reached out to lift his chin, snapping his jaw shut. "Really, Ron, that is so revolting."

"Sorry," He finished chewing and swallowed the food, then began spitting questions at Harry. Since Harry only knew what appeared in the paper, however, he couldn't answer any questions. Even Hermione, who knew more than either of them, couldn't have answered more than the directionless query of who must have tipped off the Ministry.

As soon as breakfast dishes were done, Hermione hurried to her room to check her diary to ask if Severus had heard about the capture. Surely he would have by now. His place in the inner circle was solid since he had taken out Dumbledore. When they wrote the previous night, she had mentioned her meeting with Remus and the fact that the final Marauder was going to discuss it with others. Now, she knew she had succeeded in convincing Remus, and he would be more willing to accept any tips in the future.

There was no new message, but she left a note about the events in the paper, then returned to the living room to start prodding the guys into searching the textbooks she had bought in hopes of finding some spells that might prove useful in their preparations. She pulled out the Half Blood Prince's sixth-year potion book herself. Considering how well Harry did the previous year, there must be some seriously great tips in the margins, and she would need all the help she could get.

*****

Tuesday afternoon arrived, and Hermione arranged with Mrs. Weasley to bring Harry and Ron 'home' for dinner that evening. Harry had grown noticeably anxious over the passing days, and when they held their Occlumency practice that afternoon, he had been worse than ever. Half his memories were of himself and Ginny, despite the fact that such a relatively short percentage of his life had been spent with her.

Hermione held back a smile when she caught a scene of them kissing passionately on the school Quidditch pitch.

Harry had pushed her out of his head pretty quickly after that and was cute enough to blush. She decided to remember to tell Ginny about it someday, but wisely refrained from commenting on it to him.

"That was better," she said, "but you're going to have to do better yet if you're going to go up against Voldemort or Snape. They would both have most of your secrets out of you before you closed them off." She was testing him, pushing him, though she knew it would anger him.

His fingers tightened around his wand, and he took a calming breath, mastering his anger with surprising control. "I don't want to talk about that traitor."

"Me neither, but you have to be honest. At some point you're going to face him. And seriously, Harry, I know all the reasons you hate him, but try and keep your eye on the main issue. If you can avoid confrontation with Snape, do. Just keep your focus on Voldemort. He's public enemy number one here, not Snape."

"How can you say that after..."

"Yes, yes,' Hermione cut him off, then sighed. "He's a surly bastard, full of hatred," incredibly talented with his hands and mouth and tongue, "and I know you'd send him to the devil at the first opportunity. But please try to remember he is secondary in your pursuits. If faced with both Snape and Voldemort, I'm afraid you'd take on the minion instead of the master." And frankly, I'd prefer if you left my husband intact.

"Are you telling me I should shake hands with the git and become his best friend if I run into him?" Harry was still defensive. Ron looked as though he agreed with Harry, but didn't want to get in the middle of the argument.

Limited in what she dared say, Hermione rubbed her forehead, feeling a definite headache coming on. "I'm just saying to keep your eye on the prize, and the prize is Voldemort. Snape is only a minion, a follower, not the leader. Not the one who has made it his life's work to kill you and take over the world...both Wizarding and Muggle."

Harry huffed, but the conversation came to an end, along with the Occlumency session. He was far too upset to even attempt any more work that night. Besides, they would need to begin the walk to Mrs. Figg's house to Floo to the Weasleys' soon, and she'd just as soon he had a few minutes to calm down first.

As she whirled into the fireplace at the Burrow twenty minutes later, Hermione wondered how long Harry could hold off before establishing some kind of physical contact with Ginny. She was betting it took fifteen minutes or a little less.

She was wrong. Not three minutes after they arrived, Ginny appeared. After a brief hesitation, Harry brushed an invisible bit of dirt from her arm with forced casualness. Next he brushed the hair from her face, she placed a hand on his chest, and then they were hugging and sharing quick kisses, and Harry didn't seem to be fighting against the sensation of rightness anymore. Though he stepped away from her almost guiltily a few moments later, he and Ginny seemed to gravitate toward each other throughout the evening.

Everyone was home for dinner, and Molly used the evening meal as an opportunity to discuss wedding plans and make assignments among her brood. Fleur put in her two cents worth whenever she could tear her attention away from her intended, but it was clear she had already gone over everything with Molly.

Bill was healing up well and was moving around that night, though he complained it was the first time he had been allowed out of his sick bed. He seemed a bit looped up on pain potions. The scars running across his face were still a bright pink, but with the aid of magic the scabs had already healed up and disappeared. He had come home the previous Saturday afternoon after Hermione picked up the tent from the Weasley home.

"So, Hermione? What's up with Fred and George's freckles, anyway? You gonna tell us why they're multi-colored?" Charlie slid an arm behind her on the chair and turned his whole body toward her from his seat to her left.

Hermione had to admit to herself that had she not already established a relationship with Severus, and her past interest in Ron not withstanding, she would have a terrible crush on the man. He was hot. "I'd just as soon not get into it tonight."

"I know," Bill said with a somewhat loopy grin, and Hermione doubted he had heard her response. "Seems they helped her way to a soul mate with their chocolates, and she's not too happy about it."

"Not Ron or Harry then, huh?" Charlie's smile became a bit forced.

Hermione glanced at where Harry and Ginny sat side by side on the opposite end of the table, their conversation only for each other. "Doesn't look like it, does it?"

Ron sat on the other side of her, his mouth hanging open in shock. "You've, you've got a soul mate? No, it must be a mistake. It can't be." He looked totally crestfallen.

Hermione felt a touch embarrassed when she realized she hadn't been imagining his interest in her lately. She had once thought they might get together some day, but that time was well past now.

"Who is it? Why didn't we know? I never saw you with a guy." It seemed Harry had been paying a bit of attention to the table conversation after all.

Squirming a bit in her seat, Hermione tried to smile. "Well, just because I didn't go around snogging him in front of the entire common room doesn't mean we didn't spend time together."

"That's a ruddy big secret, if you ask me. Kept it from your best friends. We never saw you with anyone." Ron turned to Harry and Ginny for reassurance, and they both looked as blank as he did. "Are you sure it wasn't your imagination?" Ron seemed more angry than hurt now, and Hermione was afraid this would be the cause of one of their famous blow ups. "How long have you known?"

Hermione averted her gaze to the plate before her, not wanting to admit.

It proved unnecessary anyway, as Fred had no trouble recalling the event. "Remember when you were in the hospital wing from that poisoning, Ron? That's when we gave the chocolate to the house-elves to put in the biscuits."

"You did what?" Molly Weasley blew her top, and the attention at the table turned from Hermione, to her great relief. Fred and George frantically tried to back pedal out of trouble.

Charlie's voice beside her brought Hermione's head up. "Didn't tell Harry or Ron? And they never guessed?"

"It's all Quidditch with them, and with their own girlfriends and Harry's, um, projects with Dumbledore," Hermione's heart pounded as she realized she nearly told Charlie what was going on, "we've all been awfully busy."

Bill called over to her, "So, are all their freckles multicolored, or just the ones we can see?"

She had to smirk; it was impossible to hold back. "All of them. And they glow in the dark."

Ron stood and stormed out of the kitchen. Hermione's eyes followed him.

"Doesn't look like Ronnikins is too happy about it," Charlie said.

Hermione turned back to Charlie. "Guess I better go have a chat with him." It was one chat she had not been looking forward to. Still, she rose and followed Ron out the door.

She found Ron out by the chicken coop, collecting eggs. She knew he had never really enjoyed the chore, so she had been surprised when she saw the coop door flapping closed behind him. She stood at the entrance to the run around the coop and watched him for a long moment without speaking. She didn't know where to start or what to say anyway.

Finally, he spoke first. "Couldn't tell us the truth, could you? Had to string me along."

"Ron, things were a little complicated at the time, and you were dating someone. And things are even more complicated now. I'm sorry you got your feeling hurt. I didn't realize you felt," her voice faltered, "that way. You dated other girls."

There was a long pause during which Hermione began to worry he was just going to ignore her, as he had in the past when angry with her. But then he spoke, "I guess I always figured it would be me and you someday. You know? We've been together forever, even if it was just as friends." There was a long pause. "So who is he?"

Now came the sticky part. "I can't tell you."

He whirled around, his face as red as his hair and his eye flashing. "What do you mean you can't tell me? Am I one of your best friends or not?"

"You are. I would tell you if I could, but as I said, things are complicated."

"That's a lousy excuse. I can't believe you can't tell me something like that. It's not like I'm going to go looking for him to kill him." But the anger was there in his voice. And the hurt.

Actually, you might. Once you picked yourself up the floor from your dead faint. He's already number two on Harry's short list...maybe he's number two on Harry's short list. "I can't for the same reason I couldn't tell you during the school year. And it's a good thing you don't intend to kill him, as no person affected by Amoriata has survived more than a few years after their soul mate died. And that few years was plagued with madness. A huge madness and growing need for the lost love. This is a war, Ron, and if one of us dies, the other won't be far behind."

His eyes widened as he recognized what that meant and worry filled his face. "It would kill you too?" He set the basket of eggs to the side and leaned against the wall, the anger drained from him. "This is madness. Is he at risk? Is your danger more because of your relationship with him?"

There was no easy way to explain it. She threaded her fingers together behind her back. "Yes and no. We're working to minimize that risk, but there is some extra there."

"No wonder you hexed Fred and George. You have to stay safe, Hermione. And he has to stay safe for you. Who is it? The Order can protect him if you tell them."

She closed her eyes; her chest filled with pain when she thought of the danger Severus faced every day. "The Order can't protect everyone."

He turned away for a long moment, then his voice croaked out. "I just, I love you, Hermione."

"And I love you too, as a friend. If this hadn't happened, you and I might have gotten together this summer, and we might have done OK for a while. But face it, Ron, we fight too much. Our priorities...our personal priorities...are in different places. We'd never have gone long before deciding it wasn't working. And at that point we might have gotten in the middle of a big row and made everything worse for Harry. We both need to be there for him. That means you have to deal with the facts. I'm beyond your reach now. But I'll always be your best friend."

There was a long pause in the conversation. "I need to think about it some. You and Harry head back to the Dursleys'; I'll spend the night and be over in the morning." Ron resumed collecting eggs, and Hermione let out a low breath of air. There was nothing more she could do about it.

_____________

AN: Sorry about the terrible delay on this chapter, RL has been insane lately. Thanks to all my reviewers; you are fabulous people who brighten every day! Also, I'm looking for a new beta, as MaevePotter has grown too busy to help me out. If anyone is especially good with punctuation, I could use your help.

And a huge thanks to Angel Mischa for correcting my frequent punctuation errors.