25: Scenting The Truth

Chapter 25: Scenting the Truth

When they emerged into the sunshine a few minutes later, Hermione was glad to see both Ron and Harry keep their wands in hand. Though with Harry only days from turning seventeen, she hoped he wouldn't have need to use it in public, as that was just one more headache for them to deal with. Severus seemed to think they would be relatively safe in Bill's company, but Hermione wasn't about to be taken by surprise.

Bill began leading them toward the nearest Apothecary, but Hermione redirected him. "Not there. Burton and Barton, close by your brothers' shop."

"That's a lot further away. Besides, this one has most anything you could need."

Time to hedge. "I've been told not only are Burton and Barton's ingredients superior to this Apothecary, but that their discretion is far better. And since you wouldn't want your mum to find out you took us to a shop to buy some, er, difficult to acquire ingredients. . . ."

Groaning, Bill glowered at her. "Difficult to acquire? You don't mean illegal, do you?"

"There's nothing absolutely illegal about anything I'm getting." It was the truth, but the more she hesitated in telling him the whole truth the fewer questions he was likely to ask...out of self preservation if nothing else. "Just one or two things are more unusual. The Aurors won't haul me off to Azkaban, just question me a bit if they find out. But I'd really rather not go there at all." Hermione finished her whispered discussion.

Bill closed his eye in resignation again. "Now I'm wishing I just let you go shopping on your own. I didn't need to know even that much about your activities. I hope this doesn't blow up in my face." But he led the way down the street toward WWW, and Hermione smiled at the boys, following along.

Harry looked a bit surprised and concerned about her revelations, but Ron only grinned. Part way down the street, Harry leaned in and whispered to her. "You weren't serious about some of the ingredients being dodgy, were you?"

"Dodgy? Who said they were dodgy? No, just more rare. If there were illegal ingredients in here, do you think Slughorn would have waved the vial of elixir in front of the whole class? Honestly." Not that she wouldn't have been willing to get some items that were slightly over the legal line if she needed them, but it was a lot nicer knowing even the Aurors wouldn't bother her over anything she was buying. OK, so maybe Tonks or Kinglsey would since they knew her. Tonks seemed willing to get involved wherever she saw a need.

Another good reason they had lost their trackers for a while.

When they entered Burton and Barton Apothecaries ten minutes later, Bill still hadn't spoken to the trio. Not that Hermione minded. She knew Bill had gotten in over his head, especially as he wasn't being invited into their secrets. She couldn't blame him for being wary considering what little he knew about their activities. In his place she would be more than a little concerned.

The shop smelled like part herbalist, part chemist with the acrid scent of preserved bug and animal bits permeating the dried plant matter. Hermione was excited by it and wished she had time to really browse the shelves. A stooping man with graying hair but an expensive taste in clothes came out of a back room when the bell rang on the door and took a look at the four of them. "Hello, I'm Mr. Barton."

With a smile, Hermione stepped forward and pulled out her parchment. "I have a number of items I need to pick up, if you could assist me." Unrolling the page, she made a couple of quick reductions on amounts and then handed the paper over. She would only buy enough for four batches today, at least when it came to the rarer and more expensive ingredients.

To give him credit, he didn't so much as lift an eyebrow when he saw the list. Lowering her voice, Hermione leaned over the counter, "You came highly recommended by someone who has done a large bulk of shopping here over the years. Not only because your quality and, shall we say, variety, of ingredients is superior to many other shops, but because you are known for discretion."

He met her eye, studied her as if considering her. Then he glanced at her male companions, lingering on both Bill and Harry, and nodded. "Of course, Miss. We take great pride in our superior service. I'll be the soul of discretion. Give me a few minutes, would you?"

Hermione nodded and turned around to face the boys. Bill was determinedly turned away, facing the door, his wand drawn. Harry and Ron alternately watched her, the man collecting ingredients, and the strange items on the shelves. Despite their apparent distraction, neither of them put away their wands.

As Mr. Barton added items to the front counter, Hermione checked the ingredients for quality and freshness. Most of the items she approved of, but there were a couple things she set aside to ask him about, and when she finished reviewing everything, she turned to his expectant face. "Don't you have any Welsh Green dragon scales that are fresher than these? They look a bit old, and I wouldn't want to spend so much for items that might have lost some potency, as they are very important to my project. Also the lacewing needs to be in larger pieces than this for the particular potion I'm working on. And I'm not certain what this stuff is," She tipped a tube of white powder toward him, "But it's definitely not ground bicorn horn. Or at least not unadulterated." She pinned him with a glare that would do her husband proud.

To her surprise the man perked up and chuckled. "You do know your way around a cauldron, then." He pulled another tube of white powder, definitely bicorn horn this time, from a coat pocket and placed it on the counter. "I had intended to give you the correct ingredients, but I wondered how easily you could be fooled. The dragon scales will work fine, but they may have lost a bit of potency. With what I expect you intend to create, I suppose that small loss may make a minimal difference."

He moved around, collecting the new scales and larger lacewing pieces for her. When he returned to the counter, Hermione inspected the ingredients and nodded. "I had a very good Potions master, you know, and I'm one of the best in my class."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "So I've heard. Miss Granger, isn't it?"

Hermione blinked. "Er, yeah." She fingered her wand, putting it at ready access. How did he know who she was? Ron appeared at her side, his wand pulled out and at the ready. He didn't lift it threateningly, but its visibility was a low-level threat as it was.

"I do read the Daily Prophet, and I doubt anyone in the wizarding world wouldn't recognize your companion." He nodded to Harry. "Which makes this young man Ron Weasley, right?"

"Yeah," Ron's answer was wary, and he didn't return the store-owner's smile.

"Hermione stayed poised for any attack on his part. Severus said the man was trustworthy, but he may not know everything in this case.

"Looks like we've got company," Bill said from the front door, swearing low. "Do you have a back exit? Or can we use your Floo?"

Hermione turned and saw a gaggle of reporters crowding around the shop doors. This was one of the reasons they hadn't gone out in the wizarding world much. It was bad enough dealing with owls from all of the magazines and newspapers without having to put up with them in person. Perhaps they should have camouflaged themselves before leaving the bank. Too late now.

"Of course. Ward the door until we're through, would you?" Mr. Barton returned to adding up the cost of everything and quoted a price.

Harry turned and stared at Hermione. "I thought you needed more than that?"

"I'm only buying enough for a couple attempts right now. I'll get more in a couple months when I need them. It's best not to let some of the ingredients get too old as they have a short shelf life."

"She's right, of course." The man took the money from Harry and returned their change to him. "There's Floo powder on the mantle. Would you like me to deliver these items, or would you prefer to take them along?"

Hermione considered her options. The bags were fairly bulky, but then she wasn't entirely certain he wouldn't substitute the old dragon scales given half a chance. She cast a charm on the package to turn any bags inside stiff so her lacewings wouldn't be crushed before she could get them home. "We'll take them along. Thank you, and I hope to be returning again soon."

"Any time, young lady." The man patted her on the arm, then motioned toward the Floo. "It's nice to do business with one who knows their potion ingredients.

A moment later Hermione was spat out of the fireplace at the Weasley shop, greatly relieved to be away from the reporters and to have the ingredients in her possession. If the store owner was trustworthy, it might take a while before the reporters found them at the joke store.

"Hermione." Fred pulled her to her feet and cast a cleansing charm to remove the black and gray smudges form her face, hair and clothing. "What are you doing here?"

Harry came through the connection, followed shortly by Ron and Bill before they could explain. "Just decided to go out to do some shopping," Hermione said when everyone had arrived. "We couldn't leave Diagon Alley without visiting your store, though."

Bill grunted and touched a scrape on his elbow where he must have bumped it in the Floo. "You three stay here until Kingsley arrives to escort you wherever else you're going. Promise me." He held his wand in a semi-threatening manner.

Though Hermione wasn't the least concerned that he would hurt them, she didn't doubt he would tie them up in magical cords until the Aurors could arrive if he thought they wouldn't comply willingly. "We'll stay here. You have my word of honor." She glanced at the boys, who were already too absorbed in the contents of the shelves to have heard the request. "I wouldn't be able to drag them out of here in under thirty minutes anyway."

That, at least, brought a twitch to the side of his mouth. "I'd like to take a good look around myself, but I've already wasted most of my lunch break with you lot, so it'll have to wait. I'm counting on you to be the level-headed one, despite what you said about their bad influence gaining hold on you. Please, be careful."

"I'll do my best. You aren't the only one nagging at me to be vigilant. If I have to put them in a body bind, none of us will leave the premises without our babysitters."

He eyed Ron, and a mischievous light entered his eye. "We've already paid for Ron's dress robes for the wedding, and it would be a shame for them to go to waste if he didn't survive that long." His words may have been cold, but there was a hint of fondness in his voice that belied them. With a nod, Bill headed back for the Floo, grabbed a pinch of powder from the pot and called out, "Gringotts." Then he whirled away in a flash of green flame while Ron protested his brother's comment.

Harry came over after a few minutes, tugging Ron along with him. "I think we need to enlist some help with our search," Harry said when the customer near them moved on to the next aisle. "I've been thinking about this for a while. At the rate we're going it could take us years to figure out what else and where. The way the twins are doing financially, it would be believable if they decided to start collecting things. They might be able to get information we can't...in the interest of Hogwarts antiquities, of course. Anyone who really knows them won't buy it for a second, but if they worked things right, they could learn some useful things."

"We're going to have to start asking discreet questions anyway, and they might be able to get more information than we can without lifting too many eyebrows." Hermione thought it a smashing idea, if anyone could pull it off, it was the twins. And that would be one more bit of responsibility off their own shoulders. Not that they wouldn't continue to search, but knowing they weren't the only ones taking care of this aspect would certainly ease the stress some.

Of course, at the current rate, half the Order would be in on some aspect of their plans before this was all over. But as they individually promised to keep their parts to themselves, their full plans should be safe enough.

"OK, mate. Sounds good. I'd like to get it over with myself," Ron said. "You gonna ask?"

"Let me," Hermione said. "I've already scanned most of the shelves, you two will want at least twenty more minutes, and no one will think it strange if I melt into the background."

"Fine." Harry wandered off again, Ron following behind.

Kingsley didn't arrive alone ten minutes after the trio's arrival–Remus was by his side. They stood by the front door and kept track of everyone coming and going while Harry and Ron continued to inspect the merchandise. Hermione felt and caught Remus's gaze on her several times and noticed he seemed to be glaring at her. Surely he wasn't that mad just because she had spent the night with her soul mate. The others had been a bit shocked, but they didn't continually glower in her direction over it. She hated that he was so disappointed in her, but could hardly change the situation and wouldn't even if she could.

When Fred came within reach of Hermione, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him into the back room. "What? You aren't going to hex me more, are you?" he asked. "I mean, I can live with the spots for a while, when you show us how to do it we can call it advertising for our newest product, but–"

"Oh shut up, will you? I'm not going to hex you again. At least not unless you've been passing out more of those soul mate chocolates." Hermione lifted an eyebrow, and Fred shook his head, clearly frightened of her. "Fine then. We...Harry, Ron and I...wondered if you could put out a few feelers...very subtle feelers...for something we've been looking for. If you can get your hands on it, great, if not, just get us whatever information you can and we'll deal with it from there. We're not sure exactly what we want...something of significance to the Four Founders of Hogwarts. Probably metal, but it wouldn't have to be. Though not much else would have survived after all these years."

Fred's brow furrowed. "You don't know what it is, just an artifact from one of the Four Founders? Do you care what it is?"

"Yes. It needs to be very significant, it need to be something...well, I better not say that much. It's highly confidential. You can bring George into it, as I can't imagine you keeping a secret from him for anything, and you may need to work together for this. It's part of our quest, but that's all I can tell you, and you have to swear not to bring too much attention to yourselves. No one can know Harry wants this kind of thing. In fact," she went on to explain Harry's idea of the twins pretending an interest in antiquities.

Fred perked up at the idea and got one of those devious looks on his face that were so distinct to the identical Weasleys. "You can count on us, Hermione. The Order mostly has us making protective gear and stuff. We don't get any of the interesting jobs. This could actually be fun."

Hermione nodded, then slipped back into the front of the store. Fred followed a minute later, his arms laden with package. "Oi, Ronnikins, you think I could get a hand over here?"

Ron glowered at the nickname, but headed over. When he spoke, his tone was belligerent. "Yeah, what do you want?"

Hermione headed to the other side of the shop to check out the few shelves she hadn't seen before. Some of the things were truly ingenious, she had to admit to herself. The twins still stocked the Peruvian darkness powder, but now there was a large disclaimer above the shelf saying they reserved the right to refuse sales to anyone, at anytime. She grimaced, remembering how Malfoy had used it against Ron and Ginny at the school.

Finally, the boys were ready to leave, Harry with a few items stuffed in his pockets, Ron with a huge grin on his face. Kingsley Disillusioned the three of them before they stepped out into the street, and they huddled together, elbows bumping so they didn't get too far apart when they couldn't see each other.

In a low voice, Ron spoke to his two friends, his voice bursting with excitement, "So Fred said they need some extra help at the shop and want me to come in sometimes. I'll actually have my own money." Hermione knew if Ron's face could be seen his eyes would be glowing. There was little her friend hated more than not having any money of his own.

The London heat was stifling, so Hermione was glad they had become individually invisible instead of trying to cram all three of them under Harry's invisibility cloak as they had the previous summer when they followed Draco to Borgin and Burke's.

When they reached Flourish and Blotts a few minutes later, Hermione could feel Severus's presence radiating through the building. She couldn't quite summon the strength to be disgusted by the feeling of butterflies pounding against her stomach walls. It hadn't been more than a few days since she had seen him last, how could she feel almost giddy about his presence?

Once Kingsley had made them visible again, she split off from the boys, wandering down the aisles as if she had no specific end point, but heading ever closer to Severus with each move.

Then he came into view, his glamour from their movie date in place. Hermione glanced around her, then stepped into his open arms, planting kisses against his jaw.

He let out a low groan. "I've missed you. I've missed this." Then he took her lips with his and backed into a niche in the wall so they would be less visible to passersby.

Hermione speared her fingers through his hair, wishing it were his own long locks, while his hands made a slow, possessive glide down her back from shoulders to hips, pulling her even closer. She shuddered when his lips left hers and slid down to the underside of her neck. She panted, trying to catch her breath even while his tongue, swirling against the sensitive flesh below her chin, drove all thought from her head. Fervently, she wished they were at the cottage in privacy instead of sequestered in a corner of a public place.

"Back away, Hermione." Remus's voice behind her was little more than a growl.

"Bugger off, Remus," Hermione didn't turn to face him, but she refused to let go of Severus, even if he had tensed up and stopped his ministrations on her neck. She was sick of Remus's attitude since he learned about her soul mate and wasn't about to end her kissing just because he had a bug up his rear end. This was none of his business.

"No way am I letting you continue your relationship with that traitor, Hermione. You might have been duped by him, but it's not going to continue." His voice was thankfully low so as not to attract any attention from those in nearby aisles.

Oh, shite, how did he find out it was Severus?

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Thanks to countrymouse for her beta work, and RobisonRocket for catching the remaining errors.