Chapter Text
COT Chapter 6: Reunion
(Mon July 8)
At Janet's direction, Hermione had emptied the hidden shelf onto a second table they'd co-opted for the project. This was a time consuming process, requiring repeated use of a pencil cast nullification rune to check that she wasn't going to knock the effectively invisible items off the table. She had already had to check for and retrieve a book and a bound sheaf of parchment from the floor.
After Janet finished photographing the letter in the nullification circle Hermione interrupted her. "I think the shelf is empty but it's hard to tell for sure. The table is pretty full, the shelf must be an expanded space as well to hold everything."
Janet looked at the, to her, empty table. "This is going to take some time. Let's pull over another table and do some triage. I don't want to spend hours photographing any more letters to the crown begging for money. Any thoughts on making it possible for me to work with these directly?"
"I've considered two possibilities so far. One is to create a larger nullification rune, maybe for an entire table. The second is a brute force attempt to cancel the spell on everything."
Janet considered that for a moment. "You passed out from powering our current setup. Are either of those a good idea?"
"Not for me. Harry may be able to handle it if he shows up. If we can figure out a way to get a safe wand I may be able to cancel the spells on items one at a time or in small groups."
"Being able to directly see and handle things would certainly be better than what we're doing now." Janet said thoughtfully. "Let me log this letter, then you can take a break while I try to contact David to find out if your Mr. Potter is going to show up."
Hermione wandered into the break room and looked at the tea set with distaste. Besides the tea always being made too strong the pot was badly stained. In fact the whole room was pretty filthy and run down. She pulled out her favorite casting pencil and tried a few cleaning and repair spells. They worked if she was willing to repeat them several times. Ten minutes later the tea things and the room in general more presentable. Deciding it wasn't worth actually getting anything she wandered back to room 17.
The palace maintenance staff would later get a glowing, if confusing, letter of appreciation from the head archivist.
* * *
Janet and Hermione grabbed another table and were busy trying to divide the pile of documents, books, and even a few scrolls into those worth looking at in detail and those that could be put off until later. The process was slow because both of them would get too involved in the more interesting items as they ran across them.
"How's it going?"
Hermione knew that voice. "Harry!" She dashed over and gave him a hug. He felt good, seemed to actually be happy, and she could feel something in him. Affection and interest? She stepped back, ignoring the smirking Joshua standing behind Harry and looked into his eyes. She could sense his feelings more clearly than usual. Maybe a side effect from his pushing magic into the rune array through her blood.
Harry gave her his lopsided grin. "Good to see you too."
"Berk. It is good to see you. Now come and help us, we need your magical muscle to brute force a problem we're having."
Hermione explained the problem with the documents and how she created the nullification rune array.
"What does a nullification rune do anyway?" Harry asked when the lecture had run down.
"It suppresses most kinds of magic. It doesn't work on intrinsic magic and isn't very effective on wards. It also uses a lot of power."
Harry looked searchingly in her eyes. "That's right, you passed out trying to power this thing wandlessly. Using blood. You're supposed to leave the stupidly risky stuff to me."
Hermione grinned at him. "I'm fine. You have to understand that I had to do it so we could read all these lovely books and papers."
"Ah, books were involved. That explains it."
Janet broke in. "I hate to break up your reunion. I'd like to read all these lovely books and papers as well. Can you help us Mr. Potter?"
Harry shook the older woman's hand. "Just Harry please. Calling me Mr. Potter makes me think there's a teacher around."
"I'm Janet. Hermione said you may be able to make everything visible."
Harry looked over to Hermione. "What, just an ending spell?"
Hermione nodded. "That's the easy solution. I'm sure you could do it with your wand. Do you know how to use a pencil instead?"
"David told me about it. I burned out a couple before Angie found some carpenter's pencils." Harry held up one of the thick, flat pencils. "These work if I'm careful."
Hermione walked over to the side of the table containing the documents they wanted to check next and traced the nullification rune. She pointed to the small pile that briefly showed. "Try hitting these first. I've found several lower-powered spells in a row often work and are less likely to cause a fire."
Harry stepped over to the table. "Give me a second, I have to really concentrate to control the power level." Harry closed his eyes a moment, then using the pencil like a wand cast with a murmured 'finite'.
While there was no visible change, Hermione could now sense there was something in that spot and it seemed easier to look at it without her eyes sliding away.
"That did something, try again." Hermione urged.
Harry set the pencil he'd been using down and took another out of an inner jacket pocket. "Need to let that one cool down a bit." He muttered.
It took three more tries and one smoking carpenter's pencil before the small pile of parchment and one worn journal were visible.
"Excellent!" Janet crowed. "Once the smoke clears, try doing the rest. I'm going to take these to my office, its more secure and more comfortable too. Can you bring the rest as you uncover them?"
Hermione nodded at the excited researcher. "Sure, I'll let you know if I think anything needs special handling."
Hermione taught Harry the trick of tracing runes in the air, then taught him the nullification rune. It had taken Hermione hours to learn to air trace runes. It took Harry fifteen minutes. On the other hand she'd learned to draw or etch the nullification rune in ten minutes. That took Harry the better part of an hour.
Harry was able to use the nullification rune to make items noticeable which he immediately followed by an accurately targeted ending spell. Once he got that down it was just a few hours to get everything visible and shuttled to Janet's office. Hermione had Harry do nullification runes on the hidden shelf. She found a small book and a rolled document with a ribbon around it that she'd missed earlier. They shuttled everything to Janet's now over-full office with Joshua silently following them.
Janet thanked them absently. "Hermione, I'll need to sit down with you and go over some points once I've checked out more of these documents. In the meantime it's getting late. David said not to let you stay too late or your dad would murder him."
"You're right, my dad's concerned I'll overdo it." Hermione sounded frustrated.
Harry leaned down and whispered "Hermione Granger, overdoing research? Never." In her ear.
His breath on her skin made her shiver. Her awareness of Harry's interest in her was effecting her hormones.
Joshua spoke for the first time in hours. "Miss Johnson should be waiting. Tomorrow you're to meet at headquarters with Mr. Deerfield. Mr. Potter, I've been told you'll be staying at the same place as yesterday. Other arrangements should be in place in a few days."
"Thank you Joshua." Hermione turned to Harry. "I hope you're staying somewhere safe?"
"Crashing on David's couch for now. It's a comfortable couch. The food is good as well, as long as I do the cooking. David's idea of cooking is heating up leftover pizza."
"That's about my level of cooking too." Hermione admitted. "It's just not something that interests me. I get distracted and things burn."
Joshua gestured out the door with his head. "Come, Miss Johnson awaits."