Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 1: First Meeting

Just why? Why did she have to pack a minimal travel bag, with no more than one book no less! Why did she have to change into a 'business appropriate' outfit? Why carry her wand when she couldn't use it anyway and why did she have to somehow do it in a half hour?

The phone call her father had gotten had been odd. She'd kept herself from asking about it because, well her parents often told her 'none of your business' and that was infuriating. She wanted to know! Then her dad had issued orders with no backtalk or questions allowed.

Hermione huffed as she looked in her wardrobe. She was a school girl, she didn't really have any business appropriate outfits. Let's see, that white shirt and if she wore the dark skirt she could pinch a jacket from her mom's closet and that would be as close as she could get.

She made it downstairs no more than a minute late, getting a stern look from her father. On a whim she saluted.

"Reporting as ordered sir!"

She was rewarded by a ghost of a smile before he switched to his serious look. "Don't call me sir, I work for a living. It's sergeant or I guess you can use dad.

Though he didn't talk about it she knew her father had been in the military. Being Hermione she connected the dots immediately. Whatever was going on had to do with his time serving. Add in the travel bag and telling her to bring her wand... this could be very bad.

"Dad? What's going on!"

"No idea kitten. We should be getting some visitors in a few minutes and will find out more. I trust the person who called, but if I say to go upstairs and get your things I want you to grab that travel bag, go out using the fire escape, and meet me at that Indian place we go to. If I don't show up in an hour head to the magical world and hide out there."

"What if I sense something about one of them?" She'd always been sensitive to people and, as she discovered later, to magic. Nothing like aura reading or mage sight that some witches were supposed to have but useful sometimes.

"Use 'daddy' if there's a problem and 'daddy dearest' if it's a run fast kind of problem."

"And Mom?"

"I called her. She's making arrangements at the clinic and is going to go visit your aunt for a while."

This really did not sound good. A patterned knock on the door interrupted her questions.

Her dad headed to the door, waving her to the sitting room. "That knock was an 'all clear' signal. A good sign but keep your guard up."

She heard the door open and there was some conversation she couldn't quite make out. Her dad sounded pretty stern but whatever was said seemed to calm him. Eventually her father escorted two men into the sitting room. She stood while looking at them curiously. They both moved smoothly, not at all awkward or stiff. Like Harry moved when he was doing quidditch or practicing spells. They were probably a bit older than her father, so maybe late forties. She had an immediate positive feeling toward the taller of the two and no real reaction to the shorter man.

Her father gave the introductions. "Captain, Mr. Deerfield, this is my daughter Hermione. Hermione, Captain Murphy, who I served with, and a Mr. Deerfield from the government."

Captain Murphy was the shorter man and shook her hand with a strong grip and a nice smile. Despite his friendly look she could tell he wasn't too happy to be here. Mr Deerfield's shake was gentle and his smile polite and professional. His curiosity was so strong she was almost overwhelmed by it. Perhaps a fellow knowledge seeker and bibliophile.

"Please call me David." Mr. Deerfield said.

"Then I hope you'll use Hermione." She shot her father a mock glare. "And I hope my father does as well rather than one of the embarrassing pet names he tends to use when we have company."

Her father smirked back. Not a good sign. "Well kitten, could you please get the tea things while I get these gentlemen situated?"

She gave him a mock glare and headed for the kitchen. There was a kettle hot, so it didn't take long to put everything together. While she worked she thought about the situation. Hermione trusted her feeling of David Deerfield as both nice and trustworthy, but she also had to trust her father's assessment that this could be a bad situation. It had to involve the wizarding world, there was nothing else about her that was special enough to interest someone from the government. Maybe is wasn't about her?Someone she knew? Harry seemed to be an important person, and Neville and Susan were members of important families. Still, they were tied to magic as well. Maybe Justin? His family was important in the normal world.

The small talk over tea was excruciating. The captain hardly spoke at all, and Mr Deerfield kept stopping what he was saying and giving her curious glances. Finally her father seemed to have had enough.

"Perhaps it's time to find out why you seem to be interested in my underage daughter."

David nodded. "Yes, trust me we wouldn't be focusing on students if we had any other choice. Let me tell a story, then I have a very awkward question to ask. If the answer is yes, then we can discuss it in more detail. If not then I'll leave you with my apologies for wasting your time."

He looked around at each of them waiting for some sign of agreement. When he had it he began.

"I apologize for the vagueness of some of what I'm saying as the details are covered by the official secrets act. Shortly before King George's death a palace official, an important historical post, was vacated. Oddly, after the office holder disappeared all signs of the person and even the office disappeared. Documents, quarters, official offices, even the memories of many people were simply gone. The only reason we know that there was ever such a person or position was the memory of the Queen, the Queen Mother, and a few of the older staff.

"Now the reason for the position still existed in a small way. The Prime Minister was receiving regular if infrequent reports on the situation. Later on, while those reports to the prime minister continued, the PM's memory of those reports became very minimal. He knew they happened and a few minor issues but could remember no details."

"We did discover some people who were involved, but for some reason they were unable to tell us anything. Not unwilling but actually unable. They knew the information and seemed willing to disclose it yet could not communicate it in any way. We did get a few hints from them and think that if we can find someone involved in this situation that has not yet completed their education they may not suffer from an inability to discuss it."

"After some research we discovered a pattern. Those who were involved disappeared from the normal school system at eleven and then reappeared at eighteen."

"So we looked for an older student who disappeared from normal educational institutions and who had a parent in the government or military. Her majesty recognized your name Mr. Granger and we decided to approach you and your daughter first."

Well that was an interesting story. Hermione though. She didn't know what this position was but the rest was definitely tied to the magical world. The memory loss was a memory spell of some kind and the documents and such could have been hidden with a ward or even a strong notice-me-not. And just why did the queen recognize her father's name?

David looked at Captain Murphy. "Captain, if you stick around after this point you're going to be stuck with it. You're authorized to know more if you decide to stay but if you want to go back to your civilian life you'd best leave now."

Her father raised his eyebrow at the captain. "Yes, they brought me in just to talk to you. The bastards actually reactivated my commission when I said I didn't want to bother you."

"One of the joys of being an effete officer rather than a working grunt." Her father said.

"I'm afraid I'm out of this now. I'd rather wonder about what's happening while back in my cushy office job than find out and be stuck back in the military. Sorry Dan, I owe you so if it turns out you need me give me a call and I'll let them pull me into this mess. You good with that?"

"All good Captain. I'll buy you a beer some day and tell you what I can."

Her father escorted the captain to the door and came back and sat next to Hermione on the couch.

"Just to satisfy my curiosity how much of that conversation was code words?" David asked her father.

"Some of it."

"Well, if you and the captain get together when this is all over perhaps I can join you. I'll even buy the beer."

David Deerfield sighed and looked at Hermione before continuing. "Now for the hard part. I need to ask you if you're involved in this situation without actually saying what it is. If you are you have to tell me yes without knowing that I have permission to know about it."

There was a moment of silence. Before David could try to form his question Hermione took out her wand and held it up. "Does this make things easier?"

The man relaxed. "Yes, quite a bit. Thank you." He paused a moment then asked. "Can you do magic with that?"

"Yes and no." Hermione answered. "I am able to but cannot here and now due to a restriction on students. And that's as much as I'm willing to say without some proof you should know more."

The man produced nothing short of a royal writ authorizing him to be told any and all information related to the wizarding world.

***

Dan Granger, dentist, ex-sergeant, and bemused father looked in on the pair from the kitchen. They were surrounded by books and were deep in a discussion of something, runes he thought, while writing in spiral notebooks Dan had supplied when they started scribbling on napkins. It was obvious they were alike when it came to curiosity and learning. He knew from snatches of conversation that it wasn't all about magic. His daughter was learning quite a bit about working for the government and David's personal life.

However, this was getting to be a bit much. It was time to shut it down for the day. They could complete their mutual debriefing later. He cleared his throat to try to get their attention. It partially worked as David noticed and looked up while Hermione continued to write in her notebook.

"Mr. Granger! Come here and see this, I think your daughter is about to do something amazing."

"Might as well call me Dan. I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again."

David laughed. "Quite likely. Please call me David. Now watch your daughter, this should be interesting."

Hermione picked up a pencil, which was odd as she preferred a biro or fountain pen, and with a look of concentration used it to draw faintly glowing lines in the air. Afterwards she slumped back.

"Darn. Didn't work."

"But the lines were visible." David said. "Maybe the shape wasn't quite right, try again."

Hermione nodded and after consulting her notebook tried again. This time the glowing lines brightened and then disappeared in a bright flash of light.

"It worked!" Hermione sounded surprised.

"Excellent!" David told her.

"What just happened?" Dan asked.

Hermione started lecturing. "We were going over some basic magic theory and David had some thoughts. This was a test of one of his critiques on standard manifestation limits. That was the rune version of a light spell mediated by the graphite core of the pencil."

"So he had an idea for a neat trick and you gave it a try." Dan translated.

Hermione glared at him but David laughed. "Pretty much, though I still think you could do it with just your finger, or your nose for that matter."

Hermione shrugged. "Maybe, it could be that I'm just conditioned from using a wand. Or it could be that you were wrong about the source of the focus. The important point is I can do some minimal magic without using my wand. No wand, no nasty letters about breaking the rules."

Dan smiled. One of her daughter's biggest frustrations was at least partially fixed. "That's great kitten, but it's getting late. David, do you want to stay for dinner?"

David looked at his watch and groaned. "Sorry, I have a personal meeting this evening. In fact I'm going to be late if I don't move it."

"Hermione, talk to your parents about what we discussed and let me know what you decide."

"Of course, and" Hermione smirked at David. "Good luck with your blind date."

David groaned, waved at Hermione and let Dan escort him to the door.

He went back to the living room and watched his daughter start to tidy up the mess of books and papers. "What do you need to talk to us about, or should we wait until your mother gets back home?"

"Basically I've been offered a job for the summer. Technically as a research intern at an office of MI5, but mostly I'd be digging through old books and documents at the palace."

"Palace. As in Buckingham, where the queen lives?"

"She's often there, yes, though I doubt I'll see her. Speaking of which I was wondering why the queen would recognize your name, have you met her?"

Dan groaned. "Just once, well twice technically, she made an offer that I was forced to turn down."

"Interesting. You'll have to tell me all about it." Hermione's eyes were bright with curiosity.

"Or not." Dan said in a flat voice. "It's not important and not something that you need to know about. If you happen to meet the queen, and she happens to tell you, I'll be glad to give you my side of the story."

"All right, I won't bug you. About the job?" Hermione asked.

"I'll check with your mother but I'm okay with it. It'll be good to have some experience in the real world in case you decide the whole magic thing isn't going to work out."

Hermione grinned. "Yes!"

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 1: Internship

(Mon July 1)

The building was surprisingly boring. Except for the security in the lobby and the crest behind the reception desk it could have been the offices of any large business. When they entered she hung back as her father had told her. Repeatedly. She tried to listen to the exchange, she really did. There were so many distractions here though! The guards were dressed smartly and one of them was quite attractive. The doors looked normal except for the black box mounted on the wall next to them. Everyone had a badge around their neck and they were suspiciously thick. Probably more than just identification...

"Hermione!"

Oops, that's what she got for not paying attention. "Sorry, I was distracted."

Her father looked irritated but resigned. The woman behind the desk grinned at her.

"Come here and get your badge." Her father sounded cross. "Someone is coming to meet you and escort you to David. They don't seem to want me to join you though."

The woman behind the desk spoke up. "Sorry again Mr. Granger. Don't worry though we hardly ever lose our interns, though they do sometimes get lost in the maze of hallways for a few days. If she doesn't make it home just give us a call and we'll send out a search party."

Her dad snorted at that and his irritation dropped off.

Just then a short older man with a nasty scar across one cheek entered the lobby from the door. He nodded at the guards and walked up to her father and offered his hand.

"Sarge, good to see you."

"Josh? Good lord I thought we'd lost you..." he glanced over at his daughter. "Umm...that time. It's damn good to see you."

"We can catch up later. I do security and will be shadowing the young lady."

Her father frowned but he was a lot more relaxed now. "Protecting her or protecting from her?"

"Yes." was the only answer he got.

Her father put his hand on her shoulder. "Hermione, this is Joshua, just Joshua, don't ask about his last name. Josh, this is my daughter Hermione. Now Hermione, behave and listen to Joshua. If he tells you to do something just do it, don't ask questions. And Josh, good luck. I suspect you'll earn your princely salary today. Working with teenage girls should come with hazard pay."

Hermione gave her father a glare and stepped up to Joshua with her hand out. Although his grip was gentle she could feel strength and roughness in his hand. This man was strength and determination with just a hint of the amused observer. He felt a bit like Professor Snape but without the darkness that ran through the Slytherin.

"What now?" Hermione asked.

"Director's office. Deerfield will meet us there."

Well that sounded more than a bit ominous.

* * *

The director, Hermione decided, was one tough lady. She made Professor McGonagall seem laid back. She was someone Hermione could respect but never fully trust. Hermione was glad David was there and didn't seem intimidated by the woman.

"So you can actually do magic?" The director was understandably skeptical.

"Yes, though I can do very little without my wand. Since I'm a student, using a wand while not at school will automatically be detected and I'll be cited and possibly investigated by the magical version of the police."

"Convenient you can't show me anything."

David stepped forward and handed her a pencil. "Try the trick we did yesterday."

Hermione nodded. The light rune hadn't been very impressive, so how about a shrinking rune? For just a moment she was tempted to shrink the woman's jacket. "Is the blue biro on your blotter important to you?"

The woman shook her head.

Hermione drew the glyph slowly to make sure she got it right and pushed as much magic as she could while concentrating on the biro. The rune was much brighter than last night and the pencil started to heat up. As happened earlier the glowing lines in the air vanished with a flash and the biro was suddenly about half its original length. She had been aiming for smaller than that.

The director wasn't looking at the shrunk down writing instrument though, she was staring at Hermione. She glanced back and David was doing the same.

"Umm, is something wrong?"

David shook his head. "The rune was quite impressive as was the way your hair waved around while you were drawing it."

Oh drat. That hadn't happened to her since her first week of classes. Now her hair would be a pain to get to behave.

The director had stopped staring at her and picked up the shrunk biro. She carefully clicked the button a few times and tried writing a bit with it. "Is this permanent?"

Hermione thought for a moment. If the rune was etched and powered it would probably last longer than the cheap plastic it was made of. However, "I'm sorry but I'm not certain. What I did was experimental and we don't really know much about it yet. I'd guess it's temporary but I can't say if it'll last a minute or a month."

"Interesting." The directory said, staring at the object. "And possibly very useful. However, that's not what you're here for." The woman carefully put the tiny biro to the side.

"While technically an intern with us you will actually be working with agent Deerfield at the palace. The primary goal is to discover what you can about the position of Royal Wizard. A secondary goal is to provide information about the magic world to those authorized for such information. For now that is limited to myself, agent Deerfield and his team, the PM, Queen and anyone we officially designate. This includes Joshua, but you are not to discuss any of these matters with him unless it directly relates to security."

Hermione just nodded.

"Deerfield, get her to sign the contract and impress on her the gravity of the official secrets act."

David took her arm and directed her out of the office. As they were leaving the director spoke again "Ms. Granger, when you next see your father please tell him I'm sorry I doubted him."

Did everyone but her know a secret about her father?

* * *

After signing the paperwork and a boring lecture about the official secrets act by a bespectacled clerk and a less boring one by David they moved to a small conference room.

"Ready for work or would you rather take a break?"

Finally she could ask questions! "I want to know what's going on. Royal wizard? How are we going to find anything at the palace to help? How did your date go?"

David laughed. "From last to first, my date was an interesting ancient history geek but there was no spark between us. We agreed to hang out and talk about history now and then. We don't know what we might find at the palace yet and I need to ask you some more questions about that. And yes, it seems there was a royal wizard at Buckingham until well into this century."

They spent the rest of the morning talking about ways that the position might have been hidden using magic or more ordinary means. They put together a list of things to check at the palace including the archives, searching for the office or quarters used by the post and talking to some of the older retainers who remembered the last royal wizard. David said they could ask to see the queen as well, though she would have been quite young when the post was actually filled. The queen mother was a better choice for information.

"What about sources in the magical world?" Hermione asked.

David shook his head. "Not unless you can check them without letting anyone there know. Someone or some group in the magical world is hiding information from people on our side of things who have a right to know. It sounds like they're using spells on the PM and possibly other officials and that's a crime. There's no telling what they would do if they found out you were giving us information. For now secrecy is paramount."

"How about a bookstore, maybe a visit to a used book store in the magical world by a known bibliophile"?

"I don't know Hermione. We can't give you security in the magical world, though I'm tempted by the amount of background information that could give us."

"My father could go along, he's ex-military."

David thought about it. "That could work. Let me bring it up with Joshua and the chief and get their input."

Thinking about going into the magical world now that Voldemort's return was known brought up a lot more immediate information she should be giving the muggle government. "Ah, David, I should probably give you a rundown on recent events in the magical world. There are things happening that are affecting you on this side."

"Can it wait? We're due at the palace after lunch."

"Maybe?"

David sighed. "Okay, give me the short version. Five minutes or less."

So she gave him the very short version. The wizarding war that ended fifteen years ago, the uncertainty of you-know-who's demise, the death eaters and what they did and the rebirth and official outing of Voldemort a few weeks earlier.

"Well crap." David said. "Look, you go down to lunch with Joshua, he'll be waiting outside the door. I'll give the director a heads up and meet you in the commissary."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 3: The Archive

(Mon July 1)

They were picked up at the door by a nice looking BMW sedan. Her father would love it.

"Hermione, please meet our driver Angie Johnson. She is one of the team the director mentioned, so you don't have to watch what you say in the car. She'll also be handling most of your transportation, though we may stuff you in a cab from time-to-time."

"Good afternoon. Please call me Angie. What David didn't say was that my real first name is Agnus, which I ask you never use, and that I'm a squib who was dumped into the normal world when I was five."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, though you were probably better off than being a squib in the magical world. Please call me Hermione."

"Off we go Angie, we're running a bit late."

"Sure thing boss."

"We only have a few minutes and I was hoping you could give me some more background on this terrorist that came back to life." David asked.

Angie looked at them in the rear view mirror at that but didn't say anything.

"I thought about it while we were having lunch and couldn't discuss anything sensitive." Hermione began. "My quick description covered all the high points, most of what I know besides that will either be describing the edges of what I know, such as how many followers he has, or require some deeper background on the magic world."

David sighed. "Okay, give me another five minutes of whatever you can think of that might help."

She did. Focusing on what she thought they could actually use immediately including descriptions of the death eaters and what little she knew about how they operated, a description of Peter Pettigrew and his animagus form, dementors and how they might join in with Voldemort again.

At the end she realized there was a way they could get more detailed information. "There's someone who knows more than I do you could contact. A student in my year named Harry Potter. He was there when Voldemort was resurrected and saw his supporters gather. He's muggle raised by his Aunt and Uncle, the Dursleys, and not treated very well by them."

"That could be useful." David said. "Let's find some time this afternoon for you to give me more details on Mr. Potter. For now we're due at the archives in a few minutes. Angie, see if you can find out anything about this Harry Potter and the Dursleys."

"I don't know his address but he's mentioned Privit Drive."

* * *

Security at the palace was obviously expecting them and it didn't take long for them to be passed through. They immediately went down below street level and into a very old section of the palace.

"The archives are one level farther down." David said as he led them down an empty corridor. "This is the level that the queen mother thinks had the residence of the old royal wizard. So I thought we could walk through it and see if you notice anything."

Hermione stopped. She had noticed something. The faint tingle she sometimes got when walking around Hogwarts. She was so used to it that it didn't immediately registered as unusual. "Maybe something about twelve or fifteen steps earlier."

David looked around. "Okay, we'll check it out later. I've noted where we are. For now we're a bit late for our meeting with the Archivist and he can be ornery. The stairs to his lair are just ahead and to the right."

* * *

Hermione should have been in heaven as they toured rooms with shelf after shelf of old tomes and ancient records just waiting to be examined. She didn't mind wearing the cotton gloves the archivist had insisted both she and David wear. She didn't mind the odd smell from the preservatives used on some of the documents. What she did mind was the archivist's constant snarky comments.

It got better after David pulled the old man aside and had a quiet conversation. She couldn't hear what David said but she made out 'unique talent', 'critical intelligence', and 'the queen'. After that the comments stopped and she was able to focus enough to notice a few odd things.

Eventually they'd walked through all of the archive rooms she and David were allowed to enter. They'd make arrangements for the rooms with more sensitive contents if they didn't find anything here.

"Can we go through the rooms labeled 17 and 3 again please?" She asked the archivist.

The old man looked surprised. "How did you know the room designations?"

"It was part of the codes on the books and boxes that had labels. By the way there were several books marked for other rooms in room six."

The archivist snorted. "Some of the researchers get lazy. I'll get it taken care of." He paused. "Please let me know if you see anything else misfiled. My eyes aren't what they used to be and I don't always spot it right away."

"I'm afraid we'll have to check out those rooms tomorrow. We've used up too much of the archivists' time today." David said.

"Can we have a bit of your or one of your staff's time tomorrow around ten o'clock?" He asked the archivist.

The old man sighed. "Yes, I or Mrs. Heathers will be available. Go to my office first."

"Come on Hermione, we need to talk about your Mr. Potter and then I need to get you home. Getting someone with your father's military record mad at me is not something I plan on doing." David said as he pulled her away from all the wonderful books.

Angie was waiting for them with the car and Hermione had the unusual experience of being peppered with questions faster than she could easily answer them. Questions about the magical world, about Harry, and about the death eaters. She did the best she could answering despite finding it exhausting and annoying. It wasn't until after she'd been dropped off at her house that she realized she asked questions like that regularly and wondered if David had done it on purpose to show her how it felt.

* * *

(Tue July 2)

The next day they were back and the palace archives and the Archivist was back to giving her snarky comments. Hermione thought she found a hidden shelf and needed the old man to let up for a bit so she could concentrate.

"Right, humor me for just a moment." She said, glaring at the old man.

"Very well, but please make it quick, I have other things to do." he said sourly.

"Please count the number of shelves in this case."

The archivist glanced at the ancient bookcase. "Seven."

"Now the one to it's right."

"Eight."

"Now look again. Both units are the same height, and the shelves are the same distance apart. How can they have a different number of shelves?"

"I...I don't know." The old archivist hobbled over to the two shelves, touching each shelf briefly, not noticing when he skipped over the shelf with the notice-me-not on it. "What's going on, this should be impossible."

"The unit where you see seven shelves has eight, but one is... treated so it's very difficult to notice. I can just barely tell it's there due to an unusual talent I have."

David sighed. "Archivist Jenkins, you will either have to be read into the secrets involved or assign one of your staff to be read in. That will involve a background check and an oath.

The old man was silent for a moment, staring at the bookcase he thought had seven shelves. "Do you need a librarian or a researcher?"

David glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, he wanted her to answer. "A researcher, optimally one who knows the early history of this century."

The old man sighed. "I do want to know what's going on, but I don't think I'm the best person for the job. If nothing else I have too many administrative duties these days. I think young Janet will be able to help you and should be excited by a new project."

(Wed July 3 and Thu July 4)

Wednesday morning had been taken up by meeting with Janet, a pleasant mid-thirties woman, and giving her the basics of the situation. Hermione had to give her a demonstration of magic using one of David's many number 2 pencils to get her fully on-board. They managed to spend a few minutes in room 17 where Hermione showed her the bookcase with the hidden shelf. Janet promised to get a workspace set up in the room and try to talk to the queen mother for additional information.

The afternoon they went back to the MI5 building and Hermione spent hours giving background information on the magical world.

Thursday Hermione was finally able to focus on finding the hidden material. Unfortunately that turned out to be an exercise in frustration. It wasn't just the damn shelf that had some kind of persistent notice-me-not magic on it. That was annoying, but she could find the shelf with a bit of effort and blindly grab some of the contents. The problem came when she tried to do anything with whatever she grabbed as it also seemed to have the same type of notice me not charm.

She was fairly sure she hadn't lost any of the books and documents she'd pulled off the shelf due to her usual organized approach. Everything had been placed on the table Janet had reserved for their project. So hopefully it was all there.

She'd tried just about everything. The ending spell with the pencil hadn't done a thing. The equivalent neutralization runes traced in the air with a pencil had worked very briefly, allowing them to observe the parchment and books for a few seconds. She would have to try a more permanent rune-base solution next, which required something to etch the runes on.

Through repeated use of pencil based nullification runes she managed to move things over to one side of the table to leave space for whatever David and Janet found for her to etch on. She'd finished that and had time for a cup of the too-strong tea in the break room when David came in struggling with a thick square of some kind of dark wood while Janet carried a small toolbox. Herminone ran over and helped David position the heavy piece of wood onto the emptied portion of the table.

"You said wood would work if it was hardwood and the older the better. How about a three-hundred year old chunk of English Walnut that used to be part of a banquet table?" David said as he checked his hands for splinters.

"Very nice! Looks like you found some tools as well. Hopefully there's something I can use to do the etching, otherwise I can bring my rune etching kit from home tomorrow." Hermione said, taking the toolbox from Janet.

"Got it from the same place the wood came from. Should have woodworking tools. I also have some powdered crystals. We couldn't find quartz or white sand but we did find some diamond dust the jeweler had that he said wasn't fine enough to use for polishing."

Hermione blinked. "That should work. Good magic conduction and very good heat handling."

Wood was not the optimal medium for carving runes. The grain tended to redirect the engraving pen in ways that distorted the rune. Though if you made a mistake you could often sand it out. Fortunately the old wood was very hard and had a fine grain. She made the runes larger to reduce the effect of the grain. The old carving tools worked a lot better than an etching pen would in this hard wood. She'd have to mention that to Professor Babbling when she returned to Hogwarts.

Carving runes in any organic substance required a small amount of quartz dust embedded in the runes if it had to handle more than a tiny bit of power. Theoretically diamond should work even better. She had enough of the diamond powder to add an enclosing channel connecting the eight sets of nullification runes. That would make charging easier and even out the flow of magic between the rune arrays.

She then used her pencil version of the nullification rune to find and move a document to the center of the rune array. Now to try charging the runes.

That turned out to be a problem. She etched a power collection rune set in an edge of the slab of wood knowing there was not enough ambient magic even at Hogwarts to power this array. Maybe it would help keep it powered once it was up and running. She then burned out two pencils trying to activate the array.

"Problem?" David asked.

"Trying to power this thing enough to get it working." Hermione said. "Nullification runes are hungry beasts. I might be able to start this up with my wand, but given that's not a good idea I'll have to do it the hard way. Better grab a fire extinguisher in case I mess this up."

Janet, who had been sitting in a corner reading while Hermione worked, stood and grabbed the extinguisher that was mounted on the wall near the door.

Hermione used one of the carving tools to prick her thumb and spread the blood on two points of the power channel she'd added, well away from any actual runes. She took a deep breath and placed a hand on the points and *pushed* her magic as hard as she could.

Wandless magic was hard. Not only was it difficult to push magic outside yourself without a mediator, the wand also controlled how much magic could be released. Blood as a mediator connected to a diamond-enhanced rune set had no such controls. The runes flared briefly as the array drank Hermione's magic. The runes brightened and the document in the array became noticeable.

Then Hermione dropped unconscious. David barely managed to stop her from hitting her head.

"Well, crap."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 4: Recruiting Harry

(Thu July 4)

Hermione woke in bed in what looked like a miniature version of the Hogwarts hospital wing. A man in white smock over a suit, presumably a doctor, was leaning over her.

"And how are we feeling now?" The man asked.

Hermione almost said I'm fine before remembering how much she hated it when Harry said that. "I think I'll be okay, it's just exhaustion and a monster headache."

The man nodded to her and turned to where David was sitting next to the bed. "You need to take better care of your interns. I want her to have at least a full day of bed rest and then take it easy for a few more days. You'll have to manage without her for at least two days. I'd prefer three. And drink more water young lady, you're dehydrated."

After the doctor left David sat next to her. "It's Thursday, so let's see if you're up to continuing on Monday. Of course that assumes your father doesn't murder me."

"Okay." While she had seen Harry with cases of magical exhaustion this was the first time she'd suffered it. She didn't like it much. Not that Harry would have passed out from powering her runic array. Which gave her a thought.

"David, if I wasn't able to power that runic array we have another reason to get hold of Harry Potter. He's a lot more powerful than I am. Probably the most powerful student at Hogwarts and likely the second or third most powerful even if you count the staff."

David nodded. "Unfortunately your trick only worked for about an hour. Janet went through that document and took notes. She said it was a letter allocating crown funds for 'the special efforts of her Majesty's magical governor' dated June of 1899." He stood. "Now, let's get you to the car and get you home to rest. I think I'll have Angie drive you back while I look into contacting Mr. Potter and report our progress to the chief."

* * *

The chief played with the tiny pen Hermione had shrunk while she listened to his verbal report.

"So..." the chief said slowly. "It seems that some fairly extensive measures were taken to hide the details of the position of royal wizard and even details of the magical world itself."

David nodded.

"What's your impression of Miss Granger so far?"

"Brilliant. Knowledgeable. Dedicated. A bit reckless. An academic mind but is able to actually get things done."

The chief almost smiled, a rare event. "So a miniature magical version of you."

David snorted. "When I was her age I was jacking cars and skipping out of school. She'll outstrip me in no time."

"What about this Harry Potter. Do you think we should contact him?"

"Absolutely. What little we found out suggests he's a bit of a troublemaker, though a lot of that may be his relatives spreading stories. He does not have a happy home life. However he does have detailed information on the magical terrorists and his power levels should help uncover more information.

"Let's do a bit more checking before I'll approve contacting him. The Finch-Fletchley's are on your list?"

"Yes, they were next. As you requested I haven't asked Hermione if they're part of the magical world."

"Approach them. Carefully. We don't want to alienate anyone with their connections. If their son is part of the magical world, see if you can get information on Miss Granger and Mr. Potter. If their son, Justin I believe, is willing let's get him fully debriefed. He can provide verification of information from Miss Granger. His upbringing is likely to give him a different point of view as well."

"I'll start on that now."

* * *

(Fri July 5)

The visit with Justin Finch-Fletchley had been enlightening. It seems he'd made a very lucky choice in Hermione Granger. Justin said she was the most brilliant student in their year and was often in the middle of whatever was going on, usually supporting Mr. Potter.

His opinion of Mr. Potter was mixed. He seemed a truly heroic figure, and like most such figures was both dangerous and had some flaws. He was also famous in the magical world.

The information that had decided the chief was Mr. Finch-Fletchley's description of Hermione and Harry as a team. He felt they could do much more together than either could separately.

Now he just needed to find out if Hermione was going to be allowed to continue working with them.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he had to admit that Dan Granger made him nervious, he knocked on the Granger's door.

"Mr. Davenport, I've been expecting you." Dan Granger's voice, while formal, wasn't exactly cold. David decided to take that as a good sign.

"How is Herminone?" David asked.

Dan signed. "You better come in and ask her yourself. She wouldn't forgive me if I kicked you to the curb."

"Thank you. And I'd still like you to call me David, even if you don't want your daughter to continue working with us."

"Okay David. Not sure I have a choice about her working with you. As you're likely to find she has a whim of steel."

"I got that impression when she faced down the chief."

Dan paled a bit. "Wait, the chief? The head of MI5? That's surprising."

"You've met her then?"

"Oh, yes. We've had some interactions. Icy bitch. Smart but not exactly a people person."

"Yeah, you've definitely met."

"Alright, lets go check on Hermione.

* * *

Harry was aware of the large car driving up Privit Drive while he trimmed the front rose bushes. Aunt Petunia wanted them perfect at all times so he was out here every day doing the painstakingly precise work. He didn't look up when the car slowed down but his attention shifted. Non-normal things usually meant trouble for him and this car was too fancy to be normal.

Sure enough it stopped in front of the house and a door opened. No point in pretending to work on the roses now and Petunia wouldn't want him to ignore visitors. He turned to face the car in time to see a tall middle aged man get out of the back seat.

"Excuse me young man." The man said with what looked like a genuine smile. "Would you be Harry Potter?"

This did not look good. It was unlikely a pureblood bigot would drive up in a car but one of them might have had a brain wave and hired someone from the muggle world. Best be cautious.

"Yes, I'm Harry Potter. What can I do for you?"

"My name is David Deerfield and I work for the government. I'd like to talk to you for a bit. Oh, and I have a note of introduction from a friend of yours." He held out a folded paper.

Harry looked at it before touching. One of his recurring nightmares was being handed something that turned out to be a portkey and finding himself somewhere extremely unpleasant. It was normal white typewriter paper, not parchment. Supposedly bleached paper didn't hold magic well, so it should be safe.

"Thank you." He said taking the note and unfolding it. It was from Hermione, not a shock as she was the only friend of his that would use normal paper. She had a job with the government for the summer, good for her. Mr Deerfield was "in the know" but he shouldn't make assumptions about anyone with him. The last line said that she wasn't up to any mischief. That and the handwriting convinced him it was from her.

"I see." He said. "Hermione thinks I should listen to you and you, uh, know things. I would like to see some identification though."

Mr. Deerfield reached into his pocket. Harry was pretty sure this was where Petunia would show up. He was positive she was watching them through the window. Her sense for good gossip should have had her watching before the car door opened.

He was looking over the ID. It was indeed for a David Deerfield and the picture matched. He was an intelligence analyst, whatever that meant. It did sound like something Hermione would be involved in.

Right on cue Aunt Petunia opened the door. He was sure she was about to say something scathing but she paused, looked at the car and closed her mouth. When she finally said something it was at least in polite tones. "What has my nephew gotten himself into now?"

Mr. Deerfield looked up at her briefly then returned his gaze to Harry, watching him while he spoke. "We were hoping to borrow him for a while. A friend of his is working for our department and he should be able to help with a critical piece of her work."

"Harry?" his aunt asked. A rare use of his name.

"Mr. Deerfield is from the government and while he did not attend the same school I do, he knows about it." Harry answered carefully.

"Ah. Well go get cleaned up. And hurry it up. Don't keep the gentleman waiting on you."

"Yes Aunt Petunia." Harry hurried inside.

"This may take a few days." Mr. Deerfield called to him. "We'll provide anything you need but please bring anything you can't manage without."

Right, so his wand, his dad's cloak, his photo album and make sure everything else is packed away in his trunk. He decided to grab his money pouch and vault key as well and shoved it all into his book bag. He let Hedwig out, telling her she should take a break and head to Hermione's if he wasn't available. It took no more than fifteen minutes. To his surprise Petunia and Mr. Deerfield were carefully examining the rose bushes and discussing water and fertilizer regimes.

"All ready Mr. Deerfield, Aunt Petunia."

Petunia looked him over. He was wearing his best non-magical-world clothes, which weren't that great. "I guess that'll do. Let me know when you'll be returning."

* * *

Harry sat in the back seat with Mr. Deerfield, which was not the hardship it would be in his uncle's car. There was a driver, a smiling young woman who greeted him before being instructed to go to the next stop by Mr. Deerfield.

"Ms. Johnson here is one of our few agents who knows anything about the magic world, so we can speak freely."

"Agent is saying a bit much, I mostly just drive folks around." The woman said cheerfully. "So is knowing anything. I'm a squib who was brought up in the non-magical world. All I know are things my parents mentioned when I was young."

"Nice to meet you, please call me Harry."

"Of course Harry, and call me Angie".

That name sounded a lot like his teammate Angela Johnson. Not the time to mention it though. "We should talk about our backgrounds later." He said carefully.

"Sounds good. We'll have the opportunity as I'm on call to haul you and Miss Granger around as needed."

"As you can tell, Ms. Johnson is quite chatty." Mr. Deerfield said.

The woman looked at Harry in the rearview mirror and winked. "Also flirty, though I like my men on the older side, right David honey?"

Mr. Deerfield groaned.

This was getting suspicious, it didn't seem like professional behavior for a couple intelligence agents. "So is this banter normal or is it to make me feel more comfortable?"

"Ooo...he's a sharp one." Angie said. "I might have to change my mind about only liking older men."

Mr. Deerfield chuckled. "The proper answer is both. We do act like this when we don't have to be professional but we're allowing ourselves to do it now to keep you from panicking about being dragged from your family by government agents."

"Huh, well it's working."

"That's good, since you'll have to do something horrifying at our next stop." Mr. Deerfield said.

That didn't sound good at all. "Ummm...and what's our next stop?"

"Harrods. You are going to be outfitted in appropriate wear by Ms. Johnson here."

What Harry could see of Angie's face in the rearview mirror took on a predatory look. "Oh...oh crap."

* * *

(Sat July 6)

Harry woke up on the couch in David's flat. It was a lot more comfortable than the old bed at Privit Drive.

After a quick breakfast, cooked by Harry as David wasn't exactly skilled in the kitchen, they headed to a huge office building. Harry was given a long contract to sign and given a lecture about the secrecy act. Then David sat him down and asked some hard questions about his living conditions at the Dursleys.

Harry was sent to lunch with a man named Joshua while David went off to do whatever intelligence analysts do.

After lunch Angie drove them to Buckingham Palace. On the ride over David told him they had a late afternoon meeting at 10 Downing Street where he would have to be their magic expert as the doctor had put Hermione on bed rest for a few days.

At the palace David walked him through the portion of the palace were they stored old records, giving him a summary of what they were trying to do. They stopped in one largish room where David pointed to a table in the middle of the room.

Harry examined a big chunk of wood with runes etched on it. "So what's this?"

David shrugged. "I was hoping you knew. Hermione built it to help us examine the documents hidden on one of the shelves here. Something about nullification of a notice-me-not. She wasn't able to give it enough power to work for long and suggested you might be able to do so."

Harry examined the chunk of wood with the glittering runes carved in it. He touched one of the stained parts and pulled his hand back. "That's her blood."

"That's right. She said she'd do it the hard way, put her hands where the blood is and made the runes glow. Then she passed out."

Harry snorted. "Typical Hermione, doesn't know when to stop once she gets something in her head. Not that I'm in a position to complain. Unfortunately I never took runes. In case you didn't know it, Hermione is the most brilliant witch of our generation. I do okay but I'm not at her level. I can see if I can pump some magic into this thing, otherwise we'll have to wait for her."

David thought about it. "Right, give it a shot. Worst case we'll ask her to recreate her work and try again. Just a second though, let me grab a fire extinguisher."

Harry nodded. That was probably a good idea. This thing was wood after all and the room was filled with parchment and paper. Hermione had him use his wand to power up rune arrays for her before. Without a wand he wasn't too sure how to proceed. He definitely didn't want to use his own blood, particularly if he had to mix it with Hermione's. Mixing blood and magic was dangerous.

"Did she do anything special besides the blood and putting her hands on it? Did she take off any of her clothes or draw anything on her body beforehand?" Using blood made him thing of ritual magic and that often had special conditions.

"No. Her hair did kind of come alive and spark a bit while she was doing it." David said.

Harry snickered. "I haven't see that happen since she was a first year. It's the only thing I know of that will make her use bad language."

"It happened when she did pencil magic one time. She was pretty upset." David said.

"Pencil magic?"

"Right, I haven't mentioned that." David described what they'd discovered that first night and some of the experiments they'd done.

"So just a regular number two pencil? Did you try a carpenter's pencil? Or maybe some of the pencils sketch artists use?"

David shook his head. "No, I admit I didn't think of pencils for sketching, and I have no idea what a carpenter's pencil is. I'll ask Angie to track some down. We have about forty-five minutes before we have to leave for the PM's office. Do you want to try to power up this thing or should we wait for Hermione? She should be back on Monday."

"Let me give it one try, after all you already have the fire extiguiser ready."

Harry placed his hands on the spots with the blood stains and thought about the spell used to charge runes. It took a minute to get into the right mindset. He felt the magic start to flow. The level of magic it was taking was pretty strong, about like holding his patronous. After a few seconds the runes started to glow and a long piece of parcement appeared inside the runic array. He held it until the magic draw dropped off and pulled his hands away.

"I think it's charged up. Not sure how long it will last."

David looked at him oddly. "Are you tired?"

"Not really." He answered, looking at the document but not touching it. He'd been warned not to touch any documents without gloves. "It was pretty tough, but I could do a few more of those before it caused any problems."

David put the fire extiguisher away. "Is that normal? Hermione passed out almost immedately."

"Umm...I guess not. Hermione is a powerful witch, close to the top in our class. Having enough power isn't my problem, knowing what to do with it is. That's where Hermione comes in. She really is brilliant."

* * *

"Harry?" Hermione sat up. She was in her bed and there was no one else there. Yet the unmistakable feel of Harry was all around her. She blushed when she realized how good it felt. The slowly fading headache she'd had since passing out disappeared and her fatigue was dropping off. What was happening?

"Oh." she whispered. The blood she used to connect to the runic array. She hadn't been able to clean it off. Harry was charging up the array probably touching the points with her blood and possibly had added his own blood on top of hers. That meant...she had no idea what that meant. If they'd mixed blood and magic, even remotely it could be a sort of ad-hoc ritual. Or maybe it was just causing some Harry's stupidly large amount of magic to be channelled to her...over tens of miles.

This was one of the things Madam Pomphrey had warned the girls about in second year. Taking in a boy's magic could allow them to influence you. Allowing blood to be involved was dangerous, mostly because its effect were so unpredictable.

She calmed herself. This was Harry, so she couldn't imagine the result being bad for her. In fact it was already a good thing as the symptoms of her magical exhaustion seemed to be gone. In the worst case Harry would know what had happened and would take advantage of her, which didn't sound all that bad.

Okay, so she would simply accept his magic as a gift and take advantage of the extra energy. Anything else that came of it she would deal with as needed. Except a talk with her mum might be a good idea.

* * *

Oh this is so not good, Harry thought "Hey David, hold up a second."

"What's up?"

"Do you know that older guy that just passed us?"

David looked over at him. "He's familiar, someone in revenue I think."

Harry grabbed David's arm and pulled him after the man. "He's got a glassy look in his eyes and didn't even glance at us as he walked by. Maybe that's normal for him but he looks like someone under the mind control curse. That's a favorite trick of death eaters."

"How can we check?" David asked.

"Talk to him. If he's controlled and the person who did the spell isn't an expert at it, he'll be really focused and limited in what he's willing to do and say." Harry replied, glad for the lessons on the unforgivables they'd had in DADA even if it was taught by a death eater.

"He's from revenue, how will we tell?" David quibbed.

"Excuse me? Mr. Howard?" Harry called out.

The man kept walking forward, completely ignoring them. Harry jogged forward and tugged on his jacket. "I'm sorry, are you Mr. Howard? You look just like him but I thought he moved to Canada."

The man stopped and slowly turned to look at Harry. "I'm to go see the Queen," he said.

"So you're not Mr. Howard?"

"I must see the Queen." The man droned.

Mind controlled, definitely. Harry stepped in front of the man. "You don't have to listen to the voice. You can do what you want. Why should you listen to it anyway? It's not yours is it?"

The man's brow furrowed. That was a good sign. "I-I have an appointment with the queen." he said in a more normal voice.

Damn, the voice was telling him something he was supposed to do anyway, that would make it harder to break out of it. "And what are you to do once you see the queen?"

At this the man's eyes cleared a bit. He reached into his suit coat pocket, pulling out a stone disk. "I'm to leave this somewhere out of the way?"

David was coming up behind the man with a uniformed guard, Harry hadn't even realized he'd gone for help. "You won't get a chance to see the queen today, so there's no need to listen to the voice."

"I...I agree. The voice isn't mine. Why was I listening to it?" The man said, dropping the disk.

The guard stopped a few feet away, well out of reach. "All right, both of you step away from each other and put your hands behind your heads."

Harry immediately complied. Nodding toward the stone disk now on the floor. "David, he was to put that disk near the queen."

There was a whispered discussion between David and the guard before David replied. "I don't see a disk Harry, it may be hidden like the documents we're working with. Please slowly pick it up." Harry did so and placed it in his left jacket pocket before placing his hands back behind his head.

"Now what?" He asked.

"Now this nice guard escorts you two to a small room where you will be asked many questions." David said. "And you, Harry, learn one of life's most important lessons. No good deed goes unpunished."

"Already know that one." He said sourly.

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 5: Meetings at 10 Downing

(Sat July 6)

Harry managed to get out of most of the interrogation only because he had a meeting with the PM, though he did have to promise to come in Monday morning. Even that wouldn't have worked if David hadn't vouched for him.

The conference room was nice, with comfortable padded chairs and a large wood table. Despite being barely on time they were the only ones there. A rather attractive young lady served David tea and offered him a coke, which he happily accepted.

About ten minutes after the meeting time two men and an older woman entered. David stood when they entered so Harry followed suit. One of the men stood next to the door while the other man and woman sat across from them.

"Agent Davenport, this is Beatrice Withers who will be my aid in regards to these matters." The man said.

"Of course sir." David said. "This is Harry Potter, who is a student at the magical school and has agreed to help us. We have another student, Hermione Granger, who had an accident while trying to aid us in discovering hidden documents and will be unavailable until Monday." David turned to Harry. "Harry, this is John Majors, the Prime Minister."

Harry supposed he should be nervous. Maybe he was getting jaded being so well known in the magical world and regularly interacting with the most powerful members of that world. "It's an honor to meet you sir."

"I have two reasons I wanted to meet you personally." The PM said. "The first is to hear about this terrorist that has come back. I was told he was dead, killed, if I'm not mistaken, by you." Mrs. Withers looked surprised at that. "The other is to discuss the problem I'm having in my meetings with your Minister for Magic."

Harry nodded in understanding, he had his own problems with Fudge. "I've been told I was involved in destroying Voldemort's body." No silly shutters at his name, that was a nice change of pace. "I was fifteen months old, so it's more likely some kind of trap my mother set up. Unfortunately he did something so he survived having his body destroyed. Last year he managed to get another body. Not a completely human one but pretty close."

He described his involvement in Voldemort's resurrection. David interrupted him a few times to redirect his description so he kept to the most important issues and topics. When he finished David described their recent incident with the man from Revenue at the palace.

"Thank you." The PM said. "Mr. Davenport I expect you to keep Mrs. Withers up-to-date on what you find."

"Now, Mr. Potter, I have a problem with Minister Fudge. As required he briefs me on the state of the magical world several times a year. However, my memory of those meetings is very limited. Could he be using magic to limit what I know and to interfere with recordings of those meetings?"

Oh boy, Fudge was messing up big time. "Not only is it possible, but knowing Fudge it's quite likely. There are memory modification charms he could be using on you and I believe his job before he became the minister was working in the department that specialized in using those types of charms to hide the magical world."

"So you know Fudge?" Mrs. Withers asked.

"We've met. I was not impressed." That got a smile from the PM.

"Do you have any suggestions on what I can do about this? Or about the recordings?" The PM asked.

Magic's incompatibility with electronics was not something he new a lot about. "My first suggestion is to ask Hermione, that is Hermione Granger, the same question. She's both smarter and more knowledgeable than I am. Magic tends to cause problems with electronics, I think some electronics are harder to interfere with? Also low tech solutions like someone hidden keeping a written transcript of the discussion should work. Uh...I may have something to help keep someone hidden but it's a family heirloom and one of the few mementos I have of my parents."

"Very well." The PM said. "Beatrice, please look into those possibilities and talk to Miss Granger for additional ideas. I want something in place before my next meeting with Fudge. Also I want some thought put into detecting those that might be affected by this mind control curse Agent Deerfield mentioned."

Everyone stood. The PM shook Harry's hand and hurried out followed by the other man. Mrs. Withers stayed behind. "Mr. Potter, please stay for a bit. Someone from child services will be here momentarily to discuss your living situation. Please do not mention anything related to the magical world."

Harry just stared at her, this was unexpected. "Can David stay as well?"

"If he is agreeable, I think that's acceptable."

David put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay Harry."

Mrs. Withers smiled sympathetically. "While we wait, could you go into more detail on your ideas for recording the meetings with this Fudge character? The meetings are in the PMs office."

Harry gratefully focused on her question rather than having to talk about his relatives. "First you should assume that there's a magical means of watching the PMs office, so anything you do there should be hidden."

Mrs. Withers looked incensed at that. He didn't blame her. "You should also assume that anything electronic that's close to the office will stop working, though it's probably worth trying a device that's designed to be tough against interference."

"The term is hardened. The military often uses hardened electronics." David interrupted.

"Thanks David. I wouldn't depend on it but it's worth seeing if a hardened recording system works. Something simple like a speaking tube to a location five or six meters away from the office may do it. Be careful though, Fudge is an idiot but he may bring an Auror with him, those are roughly like a police detective, and they may spot something if it's not hidden."

"Now, about my cloak..."

* * *

Miss Kidder from child services was quite nice. She was also getting increasingly frustrated by Harry sidestepping questions such as where he went to school and why his records were so minimal.

"Mr. Potter, I think we can easily get a temporary order to remove you from your current situation and have you placed with a couple that will help you adapt to a more normal home relationship. However, I need to know about your schooling and see your records to properly place you."

David had been quiet up to this point, trying to be there for Harry without interfering.

"I'm sorry Miss Kidder but I'm afraid I have to interrupt here." He said. "Mr. Potter is working with my department and there are some pieces of information that are not to be discussed. In addition I would like to suggest some temporary placement options with people who are in the know to reduce the strain on Mr. Potter having to keep secrets from them."

"And just who are you Mr. Deerfield and what department are you with?"

David handed over the ID he'd shown Harry the day before.

"Humph. Mr Potter is far too young to be involved with such things. I'm afraid I have to..."

"Before you continue Miss Kidder." David said in a low voice. "I should mention what Mr. Potter is involved in ties to the security of the Queen directly and the realm as well. The fact that we are meeting at a conference room at 10 Downing should tell you that this is important."

"Well! This is most irregular. My job is to protect children and that is what I propose to do for Mr. Potter."

Harry chuckled, catching the attention of both adults.

"I apologize, I'm just shocked that there are two adults who both want to help me and they're arguing about the best way to do it. Usually I'm expected to be the one to help no matter what it cost me." Harry looked over at the lady from Child Services. "I'm more mature that most not-quite sixteen year olds. I'd like to suggest you listen closely to David, he knows more about my situation than you are allowed to know. His advice is important."

Gosh that was pretty good. Maybe he had picked up a few things hanging around Hermione.

The woman sighed. "I see Mr. Potter. Very well Mr. Davenport, what are your suggestions for placement?"

David smiled at the woman. "You might as well call me David, I expect we'll be working together on Mr. Potter's behalf. One solution is for Mr. Potter to continue staying with me. I am not married and have no experience raising children, but Mr. Potter and I get along quite well. Another is the Grangers. Mr. Granger is a dentist whose daughter is a classmate of Mr. Potter's. He is married though I admit I have not met his wife. Finally the Queen has suggested housing both Mr. Potter and Miss Granger at the palace as that is where they are helping us right now."

The woman looked stunned for a moment before shaking it off. "Please call me Susan. I think we can work with those suggestions. If Mr. Potter will continue to stay with you for a few days I will see what can be set up more officially soon."

"Thank you Susan. Does that meet with your approval Harry?"

"Sure! Hermione's a friend and I've met the Grangers. Staying with you is fine and staying at the palace would be convenient, particularly given what happened earlier today." Harry said.

"What happened? Assuming you can talk about it that is."

David smiled and leaned forward as if to tell a secret. "It happened just before we were scheduled to come here, we were nearly late because of it. No details I'm afraid, but Mr. Potter uncovered a plot to plant a device in the Queen's audience room."

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."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 7: Back at 10 Downing

(Tue July 9)

Harry was drinking a steaming cup of coffee and reading the Times in the small conference room near David's office. He'd ridden the tube in with David that morning rather than waiting around for Angie to pick him up. That would hopefully give Angie time to replenish Harry's supply of carpenter's pencils. They tended to become unstable if he let them overheat more than once or twice. He'd have to have Hermione teach him more runes, tracing those seem work better.

Hermione shuffled into the office clutching a cup of tea. She was followed in by Angie.

Angie pulled out a chair and sat Hermione in it. "Good morning Harry. Hermione is a bit unresponsive this morning."

"Hmm...I'd guess she got interested in some project or book and didn't get enough sleep." Harry said. "Earth to Hermione, come in Hermione."

"Berk."

"Yup, your favorite berk. Now drink your tea and then tell us why you're so out of it."

Angie grabbed the Times Harry had set down, scanning the front page and going through the paper, either looking for an interesting story or reading parts of articles very fast. Harry focused on encouraging Hermione to drink her tea so she'd be aware enough for the meeting.

Eventually Hermione became coherent. She pulled a small strip of metal out of her purse and handed it to Harry.

Harry examine the piece of metal, it was about fifteen centimeters long and less than one wide. "It's covered in runes on this side and part of the other. Half these runes are all the same. What does it do?"

"Not much yet, the repeated runes are used to store magical energy, the ones below those are to capture ambient magic and the other side has the runic equivalent of a light spell and the light extinguishing spell. I'm going to add the equivalent of an ending spell and a shrinking spell and if I have room something useful like a generic repair spell.

"Sort of a specialized wand? How do you use it?"

"That's the hard part. I think it can be controlled with intent by anyone who has a bit of magic. She took it from Harry and pointed to one of the repeated runes, which was glowing slightly.

"You managed to power it up a bit just by holding it. Now let's see if we can make it work." She handed the metal to Angie who had been watching them.

"Think about making the tip of the metal glow and then use some word to trigger it. I suggest 'lumos' which is the usual trigger word for the light spell using a wand. The actual word doesn't matter that much since it's rune based, but using the same word all the time will help control the intent."

Angie shrugged. She held the small strip of metal out and said 'lumos'. Nothing happened. Harry stepped in, knowing Hermione wasn't at her best explaining the basics. "Try imagining the tip of the metal glowing a bit, say about like a lit candle. Get that image in your mind, then do it again while willing the spell word to make it happen."

Angie took a deep breath and stared at the strip of metal then whispered 'lumos'. The tip of the metal flickered then lit up for a moment before going out. "I did it!"

Hermione grinned at her. "It may take a bit of practice to have it work reliably. I was planning on finishing it up and then giving it to you so you could do some useful magic after Harry and I have to head back to school."

"So cool". Angie said.

"It won't take more than a day or two to finish. My dad said he'd put it in a piece of wood to make it look like a wand. If we get you a robe you should be able to enter the magical world without anyone getting suspicious."

"That could be useful." David said from the doorway. "What else can it do?"

Hermione explained what she was planning on doing. "I got the idea from shrinking the chief's biro. She mentioned it could be useful. I thought I'd give one of you the ability to shrink and cancel the spell on items. It'll take some experimentation to see how effective it is."

David seemed impressed. "Very clever and potentially life changing for anyone like Angie. We'll have to have a few other folks like myself give it a try once Angie has it mastered. We may ask you to make a few more."

"Shouldn't be a problem. Worst case I can make them at school and owl them to my parents."

David sat in the remaining chair. "We better get started. Today may be a bit different. It seems the minister for magic scheduled a meeting with the PM for tomorrow afternoon. Mrs. Withers wants to meet all four of us at 10 Downing at eleven this morning. We'll need to leave in a bit over an hour to make it."

"Shouldn't take that long." Angie said.

David grinned at her. "You'll be joining us Angie, that means finding a place to park."

"Damn! I usually manage to get out of that sort of thing."

"Who's Mrs. Withers?" Hermione asked.

David gestured to Harry, which he assumed meant he should answer. "She's on the PMs staff and knows about magic. I talked to her on Saturday about ways to record what happens in meetings. It seems Fudge or someone with him is using memory charms on the PM. Since none of the recording devices work during the meeting the PM has no real idea what happened."

Hermione half rose from her seat in shock. "That's...that's criminal!"

"It is." David answered calmly. "Our job is to give the PM and his staff options so they can decide what to do about it. Now let's go over the suggestions Harry made on Saturday and see if we can improve on them."

* * *

Mrs. Withers and Hermione got along quite well. They discussed the problem of Fudge leaving the PM with no real memory of their meetings and how new meetings were scheduled.

"So no one but the PM knows how the Minister for Magic contacts him?" Hermione asked Mrs. Withers. "It may be important to know."

Mrs. Withers shook her head. "Only he knows and he is unable to discuss it."

"That sounds familiar." David broke in. "Adults who leave the magical world are unable to talk about it as well, which is why we're working with students. By that I mean they cannot communicate with us about it no matter how much they want to."

"That does sound the same. It certainly makes the PM very frustrated. Hermione, do you have any idea what's causing it?" Mrs. Withers asked.

"Nothing specific. Some secrecy spell or maybe an enchantment, those are harder to remove. I think it's only applied to those who leave the magical world. I know at least some people in the ministry, like Fudge and members of the DMLE, need to discuss magical issues with non-magicals. Though they may apply it to everyone who leaves school and then remove it from some of them."

Harry thought the meeting was getting off course. This was important but not critical right now. "We could do an experiment with Moony or Padfoot or just ask Mr. Weasley. It seems less important than making sure this meeting is recorded."

"Agreed." Mrs. Withers said. "Though I do ask that you try to find out what you can and give me any information you have.

"So far we have a hardened recorder that the PM will start before the meeting. That's the only system he knows about. Operational security. We also wired one of the speakers in his sound system directly to the head of an old reel-to-reel recorder that's almost ten meters away from the office. An electronics expert tells us that will produce a recording of sound in his office though it may be low quality."

"What about using my cloak?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked at him sharply. "Is that a good idea?"

Harry shrugged. "I can't think of anything else that would let someone be in the room without being detected."

Mrs. Withers looked curiously at Hermione. "Is there a problem with this cloak?"

"Maybe." Hermione said pensively. "It's not like any other invisibility cloak. It doesn't just make you invisible, it hides you completely. I think it's the Peverell cloak and that means it could be dangerous to anyone except Peverell descendant." Hermione pointed at Harry when he said this.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"I did some research on the cloak when you got it. Over time I realized it wasn't a normal invisibility cloak. I did some more research and, well, I think it's one of the deathly hallows."

Everyone was staring at her. "Look, it sounds like a children's story. In fact it is a children's story in the magical world though it's a story like Robin Hood, with a firm basis in fact. The cloak is not just a magical item it's one of three true artifacts that were lent to the Peverell family, supposedly by Death."

"Death, as in the really thin guy with the scythe?" Angie asked. "Wait, I think I remember this story, there was a wand and something else that let you talk to dead people."

"That's the story. The thing is, the wand and stone aren't held by a member of the Peverell family anymore and reportedly everyone who has the wand dies a violent death and everyone who uses the stone commits suicide or sinks in to irreversible depression. I'm worried that anyone who uses the cloak who isn't a Peverell is in danger of some kind."

Mrs. Withers was frowning. "This sounds like a fairy tale. Is it really something to worry about?"

"Unicorns and dragons seem like fairy tales as well, as do fairies themselves." Hermione said.

Mrs. Withers wrinkled her brow. "Yes they do, what's the point?"

Hermione stared at Mrs. Withers, trying to communicate how serious she was. "The point is I've petted a unicorn. Harry actually fought a dragon. We both had to deal with a group of pixies our second year. Nasty little things."

Mrs. Withers and David were both looking shocked.

"You didn't mention the goblins." Harry said. "You also never mentioned any of this Peverell stuff to me."

Hermione put a hand on his arm. "Sorry Harry, I would have once I had more solid proof. I never imagined you'd let anyone take it that might not give it back."

Angie spoke up at that. "I'm sure Mrs. Withers would return it if she was given a choice. I also know that the chief, the head of MI5, would confiscate it in a second if she heard it was available. Probably not worth taking a chance."

"Very well." Mrs. Withers said. "The cloak is not to be used by anyone but Mr. Potter. Is it safe to have him sitting in the office during the meeting?"

"I'll be glad to sit in. I'm not good at taking notes and certainly can't write down everything that's said."

Hermione poked him. "Use a silencing spell and take a notebook and biro. Write down notes like you would a school lecture. Actually do better notes than you usually take. And no heroics."

"Come on Hermione, you know I only do that stuff when it's absolutely necessary."

Mrs. Withers couldn't hide a smile at the way Hermione rolled her eyes and smacked him on the shoulder.

* * *

(Wed July 10)

At the "come in" Mrs. Wither's opened the door to the PM's office. "Ready for your meeting Minister?"

"Yes, yes. I'll activate the recorder as soon as we're done here. Anything you want to tell me beforehand?"

"Nothing that can't wait. I'll leave the building during the meeting and return as soon as I'm informed it's complete."

"Excellent, I'll see you then. You may go."

"Thank you minister."

During Mrs. Wither's distraction Harry had slipped into the office and found a small space between two bookcases and sat on the floor. Hermione had suggested the floor rather than a chair as there was no telling which chairs might be used during the meeting.

It turned out silencing spells didn't work well using only a pencil. He'd managed to mute his shoes, notebook, and biro. He'd have to be as quiet as possible.

For the next twenty minutes the PM read papers, occasionally noting something down or signing something. Suddenly a painting in a dark corner shifted and the man in it said. "The minister of magic will come though now."

The PM shook his head and muttered something. Standing, he turned to face the fireplace.

Fudge and a red-robed auror came though.

Fudge spoke first. "Good evening Prime Minister. I'm sorry to bother you outside our regularly scheduled meetings."

"I'm guessing it's important. Would you like some tea or shall we get to business?"

Fudge paused a moment, as if considering. If Harry didn't know what a pompous idiot he was he'd almost think he was deeply considering something. "Business I'm afraid. This is Auror Campbell, he's familiar with one of the issues in case you need additional information."

The PM gestured to the seating area. "Very well, let's sit down and get to it."

Despite saying they wanted to get down to business they chatted for a few minutes before Fudge brought up Sirius.

"Prime Minister, I wanted to inform you that we've found additional evidence and exonerated Sirius Black. He's currently in Italy recovering from his incarceration."

The PM frowned. "I thought you had magical ways to ensure a person was innocent or guilty."

The auror spoke up. "We do sir. They aren't quite foolproof and due to legal limits we are unable to use them in some situations. In this case the previous administration didn't apply them as the case seemed open and shut."

Harry just barely kept himself under control at the way they casually discussed throwing Sirius in prison without a trial.

"That's very unfortunate. I assume your own administration will take much better care. I will have to inform the queen that one of her barons was imprisoned without due process."

Fudge purpled at that. Harry didn't know that Sirius was a baron, he'd have to ask him about it later. He used the short pause in the conversation to scribble some notes.

After calming himself Fudge went on to his next point. "We've discovered that one of your government people took a young magical from his home."

Harry was impressed by the studied look of mild interest and concern the PM presented.

"That seems like a matter for your Madam Bones to take up with her contacts at Scotland Yard." The PM said mildly.

"Yes, and I'm sure she will. This young boy is rather special. He's quite famous in our world. Basically a good lad, but rather wild and just a bit dangerous."

The PM nodded. "Any more information that might help?"

The Auror spoke up. "His aunt said it was a Mr. Deerfelt who took him, though she wasn't completely sure about the name. The boy's name is Harry Potter. She described the automobile used as a dark green BMW. He went willingly, supposedly to help out a friend of his. We don't know if the friend was a magical or not."

"Hmm..." The PM sat back. Harry had a good view of his face and it seemed there was a tiny upward twitch on one side of his mouth.

"Harry Potter? Isn't that the boy who took care of that terrorist you were having problems with in the early eighties?"

Fudge flushed for just a moment though Harry couldn't think of any reason for it. "Yes, that's the boy."

The PM nodded decisively. "One of our domestic intelligence agents is what you call a squib. I'll have her look into this immediately. If she finds anything I'll let the gentleman in the painting know. However, we have to accept that it may not have been a true government employee, or at least not one from our government."

That last bit seemed to shock Fudge. Harry scribbled more notes, realizing Fudge's reactions might be important.

The auror took the information in stride. He handed the prime minister a card with a number the agent could call if she needed additional information.

Fudge eventually found his voice. "Speaking of the troubles in the eighties, we've had an upswing of similar events. We have it under control for now. We will let you know immediately if we find it spilling out of the magical world."

That pissed off the PM, or at least he did a good imitation of it. "I do NOT want a repeat of that. Hundreds of people died horribly with nothing we could do about it. I will have to tell the queen. You will likely be summoned to discuss it with her!"

Fudge paled. With surprising speed he pulled his wand and cast the memory erasing spell. "You don't feel the Sirius case is important enough to report to the queen. We only discussed the Potter boy and the Black case."

Fudge put his wand away. The PM stayed glassy-eyed for a few seconds, during which the auror pulled his own wand and cast several spells silently.

"All clear." The auror said.

Fudge started speaking in a normal voice. "Thank you Prime Minister. I'm sorry we had to bother you with these small matters."

The PM's eyes had cleared. "Ah...of course, feel free to schedule additional meetings if needed. You may leave if there's nothing else you'd like to discuss."

They shook hands and Fudge and the Auror left without fanfare.

Harry didn't move. He wanted to cast the ending spell on the PM, which might weaken or remove the memory modification spell if done quickly enough. Mrs. Withers had emphasized not letting the PM know he was watching in case they had to use the technique again. She'd mentioned operational security again, which Harry would have to ask Hermione about.

The PM stared at the fireplace for a long moment then went to his desk and used his phone to call and let someone know his meeting was over. A few minutes later Mrs. Wither's came in, leaving the door ajar. Harry quickly and as quietly as possible got up while Mrs. Withers and the PM check if the hardened recorder had worked.

Harry went to the meeting room he'd been in earlier and went over his notes, making some additions while he still remembered things clearly.

Mrs. Withers came in fifteen minutes later. "I'm afraid the hardened recorder only caught the first five or six minutes of the meeting before there was too much interference. It did seem to actually continue to work, which is an improvement.

"How much did it catch?"

"The part about Black and the start of something about someone from the government taking a magical boy from his home. The PM remembers everything on the recorder and that the boy is you."

Mrs. Withers sat down while Harry, at the woman's prompting, told him everything he remembered. Then they went over his notes.

"Thank you Mr. Potter. Your comments on Fudge's reactions are particularly useful. We'll check the other recording device. If I'm allowed, I'll let you know if that was effective.

"Now, I believe that Miss Johnson volunteered to drive you back after this, she should be waiting for you."

"That's great Mrs. Withers. I'm glad I was able to help. I just wish I could have stopped Fudge from casting that memory modification spell."

"Justice will catch up to him soon enough Mr. Potter. Have a good evening."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 8: Important Meetings

(Thu July 11)

Hermione and Harry spent the next morning helping Janet catalog the documents, books, and scrolls from the hidden shelf and copying what they could. Mostly that meant Harry using a photocopy machine while Janet photographed what couldn't be photocopied. Hermione skimmed through documents and logged them using a computer terminal.

After lunch they were set loose, with Joshua as their babysitter/guard while Janet started going through some of the more important items. They decided to try to find the entrance to the royal wizard's quarters.

"This is the spot?" Harry asked. He knew Hermione was more sensitive to magic than he was.

Hermione just nodded, running her hand over the stone wall. After a minute she stepped back and huffed. "Nothing. I can feel the magic but there doesn't seem to be any places in the wall that feels like a door."

"Right, let me try an ending spell." Harry said, pulling out one of the half dozen carpenter's pencils Angie had found. Joshua stepped away from where he was leaning against the opposite wall and looked on with interest.

"Do we need a fire extinguisher?" He asked.

Harry grinned at him. "Probably not, but you and Hermione should probably step back in case the pencil explodes."

They both took him seriously and moved back several steps. With a muttered 'finite' Harry trickled power into the pencil. There might have been a flicker for just a moment but otherwise the wall looked the same. He repositioned himself in front of the area that had flickered and tried again, pushing power into the thick, flat pencil he tried again...and immediately dropped the smoking pencil with a quiet "ouch".

"Hmmm...still no change." Joshua said.

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks. There was now a solid looking wooden door plainly visible, at least to them.

"Must be a muggle-specific notice-me-not. Those were invented in the thirteen hundreds." Hermione turned to Joshua. "Actually it partially worked. Both Harry and I can see a door, there may be some hiding magic keyed to non-magical people. We'd have to get Angie Johnson in here to see if it's visible to squibs."

Several destroyed pencils later they managed to unlock and open the door. They had to pull Joshua through the door before he could enter and once inside he seemed on edge. They suggested he wait outside the door and he readily agreed.

They had to make do with the light from Hermione's pencil until Harry managed to ignite the old-fashion gas lights. Once they could see it became obvious this was a magical's quarters. Besides being free of dust there was a workbench with wood working tools and several wands on stands including one unfinished one in a clamp. Hermione poked around the workbench while Harry checked the two doors at the back of the room.

"About what you'd expect." Harry called from one of the doors. "A bedroom, pretty small, and a magical-style washroom. There's a window in the bedroom that seems to be at ground level. There's a bush in front of it so I can't see any more than that. The bedroom seems to have some dust in it unlike in here."

"I don't think there are any space expansion charms or wards here. Maybe there isn't enough ambient magic to support it. That could explain the dust too, not enough magic to keep the dust management runes working. It should recharge if we spend enough time here. Yet there's enough to do the notice-me-not... Hermione drifted off into one of her deep thinking poses.

He walked over to the workbench. He want to hear whatever she came up with. Besides, she was damn cute when she was like this. He might as well watch her while he waited. It took several minutes which gave Harry a chance to check out both the workbench and his female friend.

"There are no ley lines here. There are no magicals nearby, yet we know the castle has wards. The notice-me-not or whatever magic was keeping people here from remembering the Royal Wizard is fading, that's why the government is finally looking into it. There isn't enough ambient magic to run everything." Hermione said in a rush. "That's why there was a Royal wizard in the first place! Or at least one of the reasons." She added. "It was to keep the wards charged. Just having a powerful magic user here might be enough, and if they actively recharged the wards it would definitely be enough to keep things running. We need to find the ward stones so you can recharge them!"

"I wouldn't know how, can't you do it?" Harry asked.

"Idiot. You're way more powerful than I am. More powerful than anyone at Hogwarts except maybe the headmaster."

"You're joking."

Hermione sighed. "Harry, I know you don't like to stand out. You're just going to have to accept that you're stupidly powerful. Does running off a hundred dementors with one patronous sound familiar? You know I'm sensitive to magic so trust me on this."

"Umm...okay."

"Now we have to talk to David. Letting the wards drain may well have been the reason there's no royal wizard now. This is beginning to seem like a long-term conspiracy. If I had to guess I'd say those wards would have stopped that mind controlled revenue employee from entering if they were at full strength."

"I thought there wasn't any way to detect the imperious."

Hermione shrugged. "No way that wizards know of now. Binns mentioned the goblins have a way and maybe there was something known when this place was built. Or maybe there's some simple way like a powerful version of the ward to detect mind-tampering. You know how illogical magicals are, they may not have thought of it."

Hermione gestured at the workbench. "Now, since there are what look like wands sitting here that wont have the trace on them, let's see if we can find some that work.

Hermione found two that worked well for her. None of them worked better than a pencil for Harry until be brushed against the unfinished wand and it reacted. It wasn't as good as his phoenix feather wand but it was good enough to be useful.

* * *

After collecting Joshua they headed back to Janet's office to see if they could help. She chased them out saying she needed to concentrate.

As they left Angie and an oddly dressed girl about their age came looking for them. Angie had Harry's things in a duffel bag.

"Miss Granger?" The girl asked.

"I'm Hermione Granger."

"The queen has asked that you come speak with her. This is an informal meeting, your current outfit is fine."

The girl turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter?"

"That's me."

"Please join us. The queen may want to talk with you after speaking with Miss Granger."

Hermione shared a nervous look with Harry. Harry managed to answer first. "Of course."

* * *

David was waiting for Hermione when she left the queen's audience chamber. He offered his arm which she gratefully took, leaning heavily. She barely noticed Harry being led past her to see the queen himself.

"You okay?" David asked as he escorted her toward the exit to the palace and the waiting car.

"More or less. She was very kind, mostly just asked about some things I probably shouldn't talk about. She also asked if I had any questions and...well I now know why she knows my father."

"Anything you can share?" David asked.

"Sorry, no. Not unless Dad says it's okay. You could ask him over beers some time. I know you guys went out drinking at least once."

"I'll have you know that was a working meeting. The department even paid for it." David said in an officious voice.

"I bet that expense report was interesting."

* * *

Harry had been more nervous about meeting the queen that the PM. It didn't help that Hermione looked so frazzled when she left after her audience.

The meeting had been short. That didn't bother him, she was a busy woman. She'd asked questions about his run in with the man from Revenue, his experience observing the meeting between the PM and Fudge, and their recent discovery of the old royal wizard's quarters.

She then told him she had taken on his guardianship with approval from Miss Kidder, Harry couldn't imagine the woman refusing the queen, and assigned an aid named Bethany Clarke to keep an eye on him.

She then named him 'wizard in residence' and suggested he use the old royal wizard's quarters they'd discovered until a true royal wizard was appointed. This included handing him a document and telling him he officially reported to the head of the security for the palace but would mostly be working with Mr. Deerfield and his intern.

Miss Clarke met him as he left the meeting. She gave him some time to recover before going over how they would work together and who in the palace he could talk to about his new position. It wasn't a lot of people. Miss Clarke knew of magic, as did Prince Charles and the Queen Mother, two other staffers Harry hadn't met, the head of security who happened to be Miss Clarke's father, and of course Janet. To everyone else he was a ward of the queen who was working with security to keep him busy and out of trouble.

Rather than using the old Royal Wizard's quarters as the queen suggested, Miss Clarke set him up in one of three small guest suites that didn't see much use. She did warn him he might be moved if they needed those rooms for regular guests. He was perfectly happy either way.

As they walked to the security offices to meet with his titular boss he realized he now had a home away from the Durleys. One that even the headmaster couldn't easily drag him away from.

* * *

Hermione hung up her purse and the dress jacket she'd borrowed from her mother.

Her father was waiting for her in the living room. "You're late kitten. Do I have to have another talk with David?"

Her mother walked in from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. Perfect.

"Oh, I had a last minute meeting." She waited just a moment until her father looked like he was about to speak. "With the queen."

Her father's mouth snapped shut.

Her mother looked amused at the way she'd played her father.

"You said if I met the queen and she told me how she knew you, you'd give me your side of the story."

"Oh, she didn't." Her father said weakly.

"Yup. She's not likely to forget someone who refused a knighthood."

Her father sighed. "I did say I'd give you my side of the story if you found out."

Her mother stepped up. "I want to hear this too. You've never gone into any detail on what happened."

"And I won't now. Much of it is still classified."

Her mother grabbed her father's hand and pulled him into the kitchen. "The stew is ready, so let's sit and eat while you tell us your big secret. Hermione, get washed up and join us."

* * *

"Okay dad, you've eaten. Now spill." Hermione wanted to know and she wouldn't hear 'none of your business' this time!

Her father set down the spoon he'd been playing with. "Fine. No questions until I'm done though."

Hermione nodded. She'd been working on her habit of breaking in with multiple questions.

"You know I was in the army. Just a regular grunt who happened to be good with his hands. An old buddy from training recommended me as his replacement when he was injured and I ended up on a small team that quietly took care of odd jobs. You met Captain Murphy, he was in charge of the team, though he wasn't a captain at the time. For that matter you also met our civilian control, she's in charge of MI5 now.

"Most of what we did wasn't particularly dangerous or secret, just not something that was talked about or could easily be done by civilian agents. We prepared questionable locations for a dignitary's visit, provided extra protection, backed up embassy staff, and so on.

"We had squads, the one I was in had ten people. One of them was your babysitter, Corporal 'do not ask for my last name' Joshua.

"We were given a non-routine mission. No details but it did involve a member of the royal family as well as several other important government people. When we completed the mission I was the only one who was able to walk and my left arm was unusable, I'm sure you've seen the scars. Two other injured had been left in a safe house early on. I only found out Joshua made it a few weeks ago. Everyone else was KIA.

Her father stopped there, staring down at his plate. After a long silence her mother broke in with the question Hermione was about to ask. "Why did you refuse the knighthood?" She asked gently.

"Because I didn't deserve it. The ones who did never made it. I was just...taking care of a task away from the main action. While I did technically complete the mission the hard part had already been done." Her father said quietly.

Hermione wanted to ask a half dozen questions. This was definitely not the time for that. "Thank you for telling me dad. The queen just said you did something heroic that was a great service to the realm. I won't mention it again unless you bring it up."

"Thanks kitten. I didn't imagine telling you would stir me up this much. I think I'm going to walk down to the pub for an hour or two. Can you handle the dishes for me?"

"Sure dad."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 9: Death Eaters and Hedwig

(Mon July 15)

"Harry", Hermione hissed. "Those two men, look at the way they're dressed!"

One of the men was dressed in the height of fashion assuming you were in a 1970's disco. The other was wearing golf pants and a dress jacket. Given how odd some of the folks around the palace were dressed that wasn't quite enough to alarm them. It was the matching deerstalker hats that gave things away. Definitely purebloods who thought they knew how to dress as muggles.

Harry grabbed her hand and tapped her on the head with his new wand. Hermione felt the odd sensation of a disillusionment charm. Harry tapped his own head and became nearly invisible. "Remind me to carry my invisibility cloak from now on." He murmured. "If they do anything dangerous you drop the disco guy and I'll get the other one. Stunners to start with, put them down hard if they retaliate."

"Okay, let's follow for a bit and see if we can figure out what they're up to." Hermione whispered back.

"At the slightest sign they're going to cast a spell, take them down." Harry warned.

No one but Harry and Hermione took any notice of the two men. Probably more muggle notice-me-not charms. Hermione was tempted to hit them with the ending spell to make them visible to everyone. The men would likely react badly though, it would make things more dangerous. The men seemed to have at least a rough idea of where they were going and it wasn't long before they were in parts of the palace they hadn't seen before.

The men kept looking around carefully. Hermione guessed they were either here to gather information or were searching for something in particular. The men stopped and stared down a hallway. They could hear a child's voice happily asking questions and a woman's voice answering.

The two men pulled their wands. "Now!" Harry whispered.

The disco man started looking around, he must have heard Harry. His eyes widened just before Hermione's stunner caught him. The child and woman shouted a few things and were quickly cut off as a door slammed.

Harry ended the disillusionment spell on both of them. "We need to finite them to remove the notice-me-not, then re-stun them to make sure the ending spell doesn't wake them."

Hermione squeezed his hand. "One at a time. I'll finite, you stun."

They managed to take care of that before security arrived. This time Harry didn't get out of the questioning.

* * *

(Fri July 19)

The rest of the week was as routine as things ever got around Harry and Hermione. Harry spent most of his time working with security to figure out ways to spot and handle people who were under the mind control curse. This was complicated by not being able to tell the security people about magic. They ended up explaining it as a drug enhanced hypnosis that Harry happened to have had some experience with. He was pretty sure most of the guards didn't buy the explanation.

Hermione worked with Janet to organize what they'd found in the archives. The two also went through the whole archive again and found a few books and a box full of parchment scrolls in a different room. Having a real wand make handling these a lot easier, though they did have to call in Harry to brute force the ending spell on the scrolls.

Despite being technically in charge of the project, they saw very little of David. When they did it was to answer his questions and help put together material for reports and briefings.

Friday they were both told they were on their own. This was probably due to Hermione pointing out to David that if they didn't find the ward stone soon they might inadvertently recharge it enough to keep people from remembering that wizards existed. They decided to wander around the lower parts of the castle hoping they could spot places where a central ward stone could be hidden.

Even with Hermione's sensitivity to magic they hadn't had any luck. Right now they were wandering the level of the castle below the archives hoping they would spot something to help.

"So where would I be if I were a ward stone in a non-magical palace?" Harry mused.

Hermione slapped his arm. "Brat. It should be touching the ground but other than that it'll just be a chunk of rock with carvings on it."

Harry took her arm and pulled her to a stop. "Hold up a second."

Hermione cocked her head. "Tired already?" She teased.

"No...well, a bit. There are two problems with wandering around like this. It's not working, and I think I'm lost. If we found it right now I'm not sure I'd be able to find it again later on."

Hermione sighed and her shoulder slumped. "Yeah, you're right. I just can't think of anything else."

"Since it could be anywhere and this place is even bigger than it looks, we need to think of a different way to find it. If you were building the palace, where would you put it?"

"I'd hide it so only those who knew where it was could find it." Hermione said.

"Would anyone need to find it?" Harry asked. "If it just sucks up magic and turns it into wards couldn't you just completely block it in?"

Hermione tapped her lip with the tip of her wand. "No, you'd have to allow access to it somehow. Ward stones need to be updated as new ward types are invented and it might need to be recharged or have a rune repaired. There could even be add on ward stones for temporary updates like the noice-me-not wards. Sorry I was babbling on again, I'm trying not to do that."

Harry smiled. "No problem, that was actually pretty useful information. So who would need to access it? Besides us I mean."

Hermione frowned. "I'm not sure, someone they would trust to maintain the wards. Maybe Gringotts warders or the royal wizard if he or she knew enough about wards."

"Assume it's the royal wizard, they'd likely be the one to give any outside expert access."

Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and started pulling him back the way they came. "The obvious place would be somewhere close to the royal wizard's quarters, or more accurately his quarters would have been placed close to the ward stones. We need to search those rooms again and check out the ones near it!"

Harry laughed. "Now we just have to find our way back."

* * *

Despite having to backtrack a few times they quickly found their way to the royal wizard's quarters. Hermione's attempt to unlock the door failed and she had to ask Harry to use his borrowed wand to get it open. The shared a worried look at how much harder it was to open this time before heading in.

"I think one of us better stay here until we're sure the ward stone isn't accessed through here. We may not be able to get in again if that magical lock gets any stronger." Hermione said.

"Agreed. At least there's a bathroom."

"Berk."

After a half an hour of careful searching Hermione noticed a knob in the back of the bedroom's closet that didn't seem to have any purpose. She felt a tingle of magic when she touched it, but pulling on it didn't do anything. A few spells didn't didn't tell her anything more.

"Harry! I might have found it."

Harry stuck his head into the closet next to Hermione. A tight fit forcing them together in a way that neither really minded.

"This knob has some magic associated with it. I've tried pulling, pushing, and turning it with no luck. An unlocking spell didn't seem to have any effect. Any thoughts?"

"Let me try." Harry said.

They twisted around and Harry managed to reach the knob. He tried trickling some magic into it with no luck. He pulled, pushed, and turned as Hermione had done. Finally he tried pushing it up and down. That did it. The back of the closet slid quietly up, leaving a narrow opening. Lights began to shine dimly in the open area, revealing a short landing ending in stairs down. They shared a look and squeezed through the opening.

"I guess one of the requirements to be a royal wizard is being skinny." Harry quibbed.

"Berk".

There was sufficient light to go down the stairs safely, though Hermione would have liked a railing to hold on to. The stairs were straight and went down about twenty feet. At the end was another landing and a wooden door.

"I'm pretty sure we're under the courtyard." Hermione whispered.

"Agreed, unless there's some kind of magic on the stairs to take us somewhere else. It probably doesn't matter." Harry reached forward and pushed the door. It creaked open into a room about three meters on a side. Like the stairs it was dimly lit. Sitting in the middle of the floor was a smooth hemispherical stone covered with runes.

"Bingo." Harry said.

Hermione pushed past Harry and immediately started examining the runes. Harry left her to it and checked the walls and walked around the stone looking for anything odd.

"Hermione?" He asked.

"Hmm?"

"There's two smaller stones up against the ward stone back here. They have runes on them too."

"Just extensions to the standard wards that they didn't want to make permanent." Hermione said absently without looking up from the runes on the main stone.

"Extensions like the notice-me-not and locking spells we're trying to disable?"

Hermione's head shot up. "Oh, yes that seems likely, let me take a look."

Sure enough one of the stones had runes that Hermione was sure was causing the notice-me-nots, though she thought specific places like the shelf in the archive had to have some additional runes to focus the ward. The other stone stumped her, it looked like an anti-ward sequence like that used for a designated apparition point inside a larger ward but covered the entire castle.

"We should remove this stone. I think it'll be safe since the ward is in such a low-power state." Hermione said uncertainly.

"Just pull it away from the larger stone?"

"Yes, though..."

Hermione didn't get a chance to finish as Harry reached out and pulled the stone away. There was a loud crack and Harry was thrown back against the wall, hitting with his left shoulder.

He grabbed that shoulder. "Ouch, that hurt."

"Idiot!" Hermione stepped over and ran her hands across his shoulder and arm. "I don't think anything is broken."

Harry was familiar with injuries and while this hurt, it didn't feel serious. "I don't think it's a break. Probably a nasty bruise though."

"I was about to say we should use our wands and do it from a distance! You really are an idiot."

Harry carefully stood, rubbing his shoulder. "I'm not in a good position to argue."

Hermione teared up. "Just...just be more careful. If I lost you to some stupid accident I..."

Harry wrapped his non-injured arm around her and pulled her close. "I'll try." He whispered in her ear.

"You better." She whispered back, then she kissed him.

* * *

It was quite a bit later when Hermione found the runes on the door frame that enabled the notice-me-not ward to focus on the door. She carefully disabled the runes. There was a yelp from outside the door as soon as she finished.

Harry carefully opened the door to find Joshua standing outside it, looking at the door in shock.

"Hey Joshua, sorry about that. We, well Hermione really, figured out how to deactivate the magic hiding the door, and should be able to do the same in the archive now."

Joshua gave them a disapproving look. "Good. I hope that's all you two were doing in there. The sarge would not be happy if his little girl got up to anything while hidden behind invisible doors."

Wow, that probably doubled the number of words she'd heard from the taciturn man. Hermione thought. "Mostly." She said cheekily.

"Who's the sarge?" Harry asked.

"My dad." Hermione answered. "They served together. As for my behavior, that's between me and my mum. Dad has very little say in such things."

Joshua snorted. "Hard to believe the sarge is whipped."

Hermione put her hands on her hips. "I take it you haven't met my mother. You'd believe it if you had."

Joshua just gestured. "Janet's office, we're late."

Hermione spent the next hour helping Janet work through some passages in Latin while Harry busied himself straightening the cluttered work table, sweeping, emptying trash, and fetching them tea. He really was quite efficient when it came to cleaning up. That was handy, as the normal cleaning crew wasn't allowed in the office while it was filled with sensitive documents.

Afterward Angie took Hermione home while Harry said he was going to check in with security to explain the new door that suddenly appeared. They managed to hold hands for a moment before she left. She really didn't want to be away from him for the entire weekend. Maybe she could try calling Hedwig and at least write him a letter.

* * *

Hedwig did her trick of anticipating a need and was sitting in the kitchen being pampered by her mother when she got home.

Hermione came over and ran her hands over the owl's neck feathers. "Hedwig! I'm so glad you're here. I wanted to write a note to Harry. Do you think you can get through the wards at the palace to deliver it?"

Hedwig made a number of sounds, ending in an emphatic bark.

"Ah, that makes sense." Hermione responded.

Her mother looked at her oddly. "You understood that?"

"Sure, the wards might slow her down normally but with Harry mostly powering them... she... can..." Hermione trailed off, realizing that she had understood the owl perfectly.

Hermione swallowed. "Hey Hedwig, I understood that just fine, normally I only have a bit of an idea of what you mean. Do you know why?"

Hedwig gave off a couple “preks”.

"Oh, thanks." Hermione said weakly, then collapsed into the chair across from her mum.

"Care to share?" Her mum asked in a tone a drill sergeant would have been proud of.

Hermione pulled herself together. "Uh...so the ideas are from a familiar's point of view, she basically said 'family's share' so from her point of view, from the point of view of a familiar's magic, I'm part of the family in some way.

Hedwig 'preked' her agreement.

Her mum gave her a steady stare. "Did something happen today between you and Harry?"

"Well, yes, we kissed. Uh...a lot. That was all though. This could have to do with the thing I told you about earlier with Harry accidentally giving me some of his magic through my blood. I haven't seen Hedwig since then. I never did ask Harry if he mixed his blood with mine."

Her mother's stare had softened. "Would him mixing blood have made a difference?"

"Yes, though blood magic is so unpredictable that I couldn't tell you exactly what difference. Anything from reducing the impact by diluting my blood to creating a blood bond of some kind."

"Bond like blood brothers, or bond like marriage?" Her mother asked quietly.

Hermione blushed. She sometimes wished her mother wasn't so perceptive. "Probably closer to the second one."

Her mother tilted her head to the side, still staring at her. "Can you find out? Is there a way to check?"

"There are spells to check. I've read about them but don't know how to cast them. I might have one or two of them described in one of my books. I'd have to search."

Her mother signed. "Well, that sounds like a good weekend project. Keep me up to date on what you find. Oh, and best not to tell your father anything yet."

* * *

Hermione's weekend was busy. After writing a note to Harry she searched through her books for the bond checking spell, When that became too frustrating she worked on the runic spell caster for Angie. She might have put off checking the most likely books and spending more time on the rune project that was strictly necessary. Saturday afternoon she handed the strip of metal to her father to fit into a wand-like wood cover she finally steeled herself and dug out her books on rituals.

It was after lunch on Sunday that she found it in a book written in French she'd found in the used book store at the far end of Diagon Alley. An appendix contained spells to aid those using rituals, including an interesting one she had skipped over earlier to track the position of various planets and stars. Detection spells were at the end and included a general one for detecting bonds. It referenced books by M. Durand for more information on the spell and related spells. She scribbled the details of the spell and the other author in her notebook.

Holding her breath she took her trace-free wand and, after a few tries, cast the spell on herself. There was a bright line connecting her to the cat sleeping on the end of her bed. Of course Crookshanks was her familiar so that was one kind of bond. Checking carefully she could see a much dimmer line connecting her to something to the north. That would be London and almost certainly the palace and Harry. Maybe Hedwig as well, it was too faint to tell if there were one or two lines.

"Well Crook", she said to the now awake half-kneazle who was batting at the line connecting them. "Now I just have to figure out if the brightness is the strength of the bond or has to do with the distance. She ended the spell and spent some time playing with Crookshanks while she thought about the possibilities.

Harry had saved her life, that might have caused a bond of obligation to form. There was the blood and sharing magic which could have formed some kind of blood bond. There was their kissing session, which included a lot of heartfelt words whispered to each other and that could have strengthened or even formed a bond depending on what was said and the emotion behind them.

Crookshanks stopped playing, tilted her head, and dashed out of the room. Her mum was probably getting out some food.

She flopped back onto her bed, thinking about those kisses. Did it really matter if they had some kind of bond or not? She was his and he was hers, she was sure of it. If they had a magical bond right now or not didn't change that. Smiling at that thought she relaxed and was soon asleep with a smile on her face.

* * *

She woke to a quiet 'prek'. Sitting up she saw Hedwig nestled in the curve formed by a sleeping Crookshanks. The last time she'd seen them do that was when Hedwig had been injured.

Hedwig let out a series of barks which Hermione understood as “Some damn idiot tried to shoot me down”.

"Hedwig! Are you okay? When did this happen?"

It took a few minutes and some quite colorful language from Hedwig to determine that an invisible or disillusioned broom rider had sent spells at her just outside the palace.

Once she understood and had checked Hedwig's injuries, which were minor, she dashed downstairs and dialed David's home number. He answered after three rings. She immediately explained what had happened in a rush.

"Calm down Hermione. Tell me again, slowly and carefully."

She took a deep breath, then repeated her babbled words, trying to get her urgency across while speaking calmly.

"So there was an invisible broom rider outside the palace and it attached an owl?"

"It attacked Harry's owl, who is very distinctive and well known, so it's likely a death eater or otherwise unfriendly. They're right outside the palace. Maybe they were just watching but it could be an attack. You need to alert Harry. If the queen is there he needs to protect her."

"She's not. I think everyone but Prince Charles and Zara Phillips are at Balmoral. I'll call the security desk, they can get hold of Harry and have him call you to get more information. Stay near the phone."

She hung up and stood staring at the phone. He didn't take her eyes away from it when her dad walked up.

"Kitten? What's up?"

"Possible emergency at Buckingham. David is calling Harry who's staying there now. I'm waiting for more information."

Her father's voice became concerned. "What happened? Assuming you can tell me."

"Hedwig was attacked near the palace by an invisible broom rider. She made it back here and I called David and explained what happened. We don't know why they were there."

Her father put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure it was a broom rider? It could have been an idiot with a hunting rifle or something more normal."

"Hedwig was sure it was an invisible broom rider."

There was a moment of silence. "You talk to owls now?"

The phone rang and Hermione snatched it up. "Hermione Granger speaking."

David's voice came over the phone, sounding less calm than previously. "Security and Harry have been informed. Is your father there?"

"Yes, just a second." She handed the phone to her father. "David wants to talk to you."

Her father listened for a bit then said "No." He listened for a few more seconds then "Acceptable." A bit more and "She'll be ready." and hung up the phone.

"A car will be here in ten minutes. Get changed and dress for guard duty, trousers and long sleeves, pull your hair back. Nice cloths if possible but things you can move around in. You will stay with Joshua at all times when you're there, is that clear?"

Hermione nodded, gave her dad a hug and dashed up stairs to change.

When she came back down her father told her to use the bathroom, which she did, then when he came back he handed her a glass of water and a cheese sandwich. "Drink first, you can eat in the car if needed."

She did as instructed and drained the glass and took a bite out of the sandwich.

"You have your ID, your security badge and your wand, correct?"

She nodded, still chewing. The advantage of wearing trousers is they have pockets so she didn't have to carry a purse.

"Be careful, no heroics. We love you."

She gave him and her mum who was now standing there another hug.

"Wait on the porch. Don't make them waste time coming to the door. You'll be with professional security people, listen to them but don't let them dismiss anything you see or feel out of hand."

She waived, swallowed, gave a "love you too" and headed out.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Guarding and Fallout

(Sun July 21 to early Sat July 22)

Hermione and Joshua were helping guard the prince and his niece Zara.

They been brought directly to join two guards by the head of security who told the guards she was able to "see through the intruder's deception and to listen to her". Also to "forget anything odd" she might do. He then told her that secrecy was less important that guarding the royal family.

She nodded her understanding. Looking around she was in an open area in front of a set of double doors that looked to be reassuringly solid wood.

"Has Harry checked the area they're in now?" She asked before the head of security could leave.

"The team he's on cleared this area, he did suggest you look as well as you're more sensitive than he is. Let's do that now."

He nodded to one of the guards who said something into a microphone, then opened the door. It opened into an elegantly furnished room that contained another guard.

The head of security led Hermione and Joshua through a set of living spaces. Hermione didn't sense anything out of the ordinary. Eventually they came to a door and the head of security knocked.

"Come in, don't bother with formalities." Came a girl's voice.

They entered a study with a girl about her age that Hermione recognized as Zara Phillips sitting with a book in her hands and Prince Charles sitting behind a desk filled with papers.

"Miss Granger, one of our magicals, is here to do a quick check for any problems."

"Of course." The prince said. "Anything to distract me from this dratted paperwork."

Hermione bowed slightly, a curtsy felt odd while wearing trousers, and did a quick walk around the room. She stopped in front of a pair of crossed swords on the wall. One of them had some magic and a closer look showed runes etched along the blade out of which she recognized sequences for protection and sharpness.

"Sir, this blade contains magic, may I examine it?" She said to the head of security.

Before he could answer the prince got up and took down the sword, looking at it carefully. He looked at her. "You're Sergeant Granger's daughter, correct?"

Not sure how to refer to the prince when she'd been told to ignore formalities, she simply answered "Yes, sir."

He handed her the blade handle first. "It seems appropriate that his daughter would be protecting me now."

She took the blade and ran her hand along the runes checking for any damage. Remembering a runes lecture about magical weapons, she allowed the edge to cut her hand. She pushed her magic into the runes, careful this time not to use too much. This caused the runes to start shining and she heard a gasp from behind her.

Using her sleeve to wipe off the blood she handed the sword back to the prince. "If someone or something gets past us, this will protect you better than most weapons."

The prince took the sword, examining the still shining runes. "Amazing." He said quietly. "We should have a talk sometime when things aren't quite so tense."

She grinned at him. "That would be lovely sir."

He waved at the group. "Thank you all for your efforts, we're fine here. I'm sure you'll keep us safe enough not to have to use Miss Granger's gift."

They headed out, checking with the inside guard before opening the double doors to join the outside guards for a very long night of vigilance.

About half four in the morning an all clear was announced. Hermione and Joshua were led to a meeting room which included David, the head of security who Hermione found was called Captain Clarke, another uniformed security guard, Harry, and Angie. As they sat down Mrs. Withers from the PMs office also joined them.

"All right, it looks like we were lucky tonight." Captain Clarke said. "One hostile was eventually spotted and driven off. I'm concerned that we only found out about them by accident, and I want everyone to think about ways to keep this from happening again. Let's start with reports."

They went around the table describing how the night went. Joshua went before Hermione and described the incident with the sword as 'Miss Granger enchanted a sword and gave it to the prince.'

Hermione rolled her eyes at the typically terse description. As she went next she briefly described checking the residence area and the uneventful guard duty before mentioning the sword. "I found a sword with magical enhancements and simply recharged it. Until recently there's been little ambient magic in the palace to keep such things operational. I did give it to the prince in case something got past the guards."

Hermione could see some questioning looks from Captain Clarke, but he simply nodded to the next person who was the uniformed guard.

"My team and Mr. Potter were patrolling the upper portions of the castle, where an airborne enemy might be able to gain access. Just before four AM we spotted a disturbance causing the stars to ripple. Mr. Potter used his wand to make the flyer visible. It was a person in a black robe and white mask flying a broom." The guard paused, waiting for some reaction to that unusual statement. When there was none he continued. "I called the helicopter we had on standby while Mr. Potter and the figure on the broom traded... spells. Before the helicopter could arrive the figure flew off very quickly."

Captain Clarke waved to Harry. Who sat up straighter. "Pretty much as Alfred reported. The rider was using a disillusionment charm, which is close to invisibility when standing still but can be spotted when moving. I ended that spell, making him visible. I sent cutting spells at him, hoping to force him to land. He used a mixture of death spells and piercing hexes in return. I'm afraid there's a bit of damage to the balcony's floor and wall. Once he realized I had the advantage of a stable place to fire from he retreated."

Next was Angie. "I was with the gate guards. We saw no attempts at infiltration and kept the area physically blocked except two expected and known visitors who were questioned before being allowed entry. Please be aware that it has not yet been proven I can spot intruders hidden from normal people like Miss Granger and Mr. Potter."

Captain Clarke spoke next. "The only item I have to add is that I spoke with the helicopter crew just before this meeting. They spotted a weak radar return signal from the intruder as it retreated. Now a few questions."

Each person was asked a few probing questions. Hermione was asked why she thought the sword would serve better than the prince's service revolver. She explained the sword would likely shield from several spells before the shielding collapsed. Harry was asked why he assumed the intruder was male, which he explained in a very technical way as how adult men and women flew slightly differently due the way their bodies moved. Hermione broke in mentioning that Harry was an expert broom flyer himself.

Angie was asked if there was a way to test if she could spot the hidden people like Hermione and Harry. She said she'd need to work with the two known magicals to find out and they would report when she knew.

Finally Captain Clarke asked how they could stop such attacks in the future. There weren't many useful suggestions. Hermione suggested Harry should be moved to the Royal Wizard's quarters, closer to the ward stone, to more quickly recharge the wards. At full power those should keep small magical attacks at bay and dramatically slow down major attacks. Joshua suggested training the nearby radar watch to include spotting brooms, Harry suggested attacking the death eaters to eliminate the threat or keep them too busy to attack here.

Harry, Hermione and Angie were dismissed. Hermione and Harry managed a quick goodbye kiss before she joined Angie who said she'd drive her home before reporting to MI5 for more debriefing.

Hermione got home in time for breakfast before she collapsed into bed with Crookshanks sleeping against her back and Hedwig sleeping perched on the chair by her desk.

* * *

(Mon July 22)

"Hermione?"

"Hmmph."

"Honey, I need to talk to you. Mr. Deerfield called."

That was her mum. Okay, it was Monday. She usually worked afternoons on Monday so it was still morning. "What does David want?"

"Something about a meeting at MI5 this afternoon with a Beatrice Withers and some police and military people. He said Harry could handle it alone if you're not available today."

She blinked. That sounded like something from a bad action movie. With Harry involved that was just about right.

"Okay. I'm sort of awake. Any details?"

"It's currently eleven. That nice Miss Johnson will come by at noon. She will tell you more about the meeting. I'm to call Mr. Deerfield if you won't be able to make it. Oh, and I have to leave in fifteen minutes."

"Thanks mom, I'll get up and get ready."

"I'll want you in bed early tonight." Her mum admonished her. "Before I go I want an update on your weekend project."

"No problem with the early to bed thing. What project...oh." She'd forgotten about the bond thing.

"I found the spell and did it. Seems to be a bond but I don't think it's very strong. Just a second. She reached for her wand, checked it was the one without the trace, and tried the spell. She closed her eyes, not quite awake enough to deal with the results of the spell.

"Can you see the lines?" She asked her mum.

"Yes, bright one toward Crookshanks, medium bright one toward Hedwig, and a dimmer one off north."

Hermione opened her eyes. The one to Hedwig was brighter than the one to Harry, so distance seemed to have an impact.

"I need to try with Harry nearby to see how bright it is." She said, finally sitting up and stretching.

Her mother looked at her critically. "Well, try not to do anything that will make it brighter."

Hermione stuck out her lower lip in a fake pout. "You're no fun. Not to worry, I think we'll be too busy for anything like that today."

Her mum sighed. "I have to go. Just make sure I'm not a grandmother any time soon."

"Madam Pomphrey has all the underage girls take a prophylactic potion to cover the summer. No Grandma Granger for a while."

"I'm sort of relieved. Best get moving and I have to do the same. Be good." Her mother waved and hurried out the door.

Hermione got ready and make herself a cheese sandwich like the one her dad had given her the night before. She wanted tea but didn't really have the time.

Angie was her usual cheerful self. That was actually kind of strange.

"You're way too happy. Did you get any sleep?" Hermione asked.

"Nope. David and I both took stims. I've got six or seven more hours and then I'm going to crash hard. David is made of sterner stuff, he'll probably be fine after a good night's sleep."

Hermione shook her head. Stuff like that wasn't good for you, she didn't even like pepper-up potions and those were supposed to be safe. "My mum said you'd let me know what's going on."

"Not much to tell you. Someone got a bee in their bonnet about last night and wants to see if they can figure out a safe way to take down the death eaters."

"Ouch. That's going to be tough. Just finding intelligence on them is going to be nearly impossible."

Angie laughed. "Well it turns out *someone* captured two death eaters at the palace a while ago. I've been told they provided some information that might help."

Hermione face palmed. "I'd forgotten about that. I didn't even know if they were death eaters, that was just a guess."

"So they want Harry and I there to provide some background on the magical world?"

Angie was silent for a few seconds as she worked around a bit of road work. "I think so. You might want to think about what you'll be saying if they ask for a general background briefing. There'll be people there who don't know anything about the magical world."

Hermione pulled out her notebook and started scribbling points she might want to cover.

* * *

Jacob was waiting for them looking less than chipper. He showed them to a large conference room only a few meters from the lobby. David was there with Captain Clark from the palace, Mrs. Withers, and a familiar figure in an army captain's uniform.

"Captain Murphy?"

The man turned. "Miss Granger, good to see you. As you can see I was co-opted again."

They shook hands. The captain seemed less irritated about the whole thing than than he had at her house a month ago. "Congratulations I guess?" She tried.

He smiled back. "I'm looking forward to finding out what this is all about. All I know is they want me to rebuild the team of misfits I led when I was a wee lieutenant."

"I think David and I will cover that part. You might also want to have a talk with my dad if you have a chance. I know he and David go out to the pub now and then."

Harry wandered in with the woman from the lobby. They were carrying urns and a stack of paper cups. She hurried over to help position everything on a table at the back of the room.

"Come on." Harry whispered to her. "We're technically the interns here, let's get everyone served. Linda will bring in bagels in a few."

Hermione prepared a coffee with a bit of milk for David and tea with lemon on the side for Captain Murphy while Harry handed Joshua a black coffee and asked Mrs. Withers if she wanted anything.

Several more people arrived. A uniformed police officer with a woman in a suit, an air force squadron leader, and the head of MI5 that everyone referred to as 'the chief', who came in with the receptionist and their bagels.

The receptionist dropped off the bagels, thanked Harry and Hermione, said a few words to the chief and closed the door as she left.

Hermione hurried over to her ultimate boss and took her order for tea straight and pumpernickel with butter. She and Harry spent the next five minutes making sure everyone was served.

The chief stood to start the meeting.

"Good afternoon everyone. We're here to discuss a serious threat to the realm and start to organize a response to it. This is covered by the official secrets act as well as a treaty. You are not to discuss the particulars with anyone not in this room. For now if you need to bring someone else in it must be cleared through me personally. Mr. Deerfield, if you could start things off."

David got up. "Miss Granger, the top shelf of the corner filing cabinet should have appropriate notebooks and pens, if you and Mr. Potter would distribute them. Please only use these for any notes you must take."

"Excuse me Mr. Deerfield." The air force officer said. "Should the children be included in this discussion?"

Captain Murphy, who was sitting next to the squadron leader, snorted. She was pretty sure the strangled chuckle came from Mrs. Withers.

The chief spoke up. "While they've been kind enough to serve us they are in fact the only reason we know of the problem. Miss Granger will be giving us a background briefing and Mr. Potter, if what I've heard is true, is the most dangerous person in this room."

Harry, who was refilling tea for the uniformed police officer, gave the squadron leader a toothy grin.

The officer nodded and sat back, though he didn't look convinced.

David started by talking about a society of people with special talents who had mostly separated themselves from British society hundreds of years ago. How elements of that society's government were trying to remove what controls Britain had over them and a terrorist group was flourishing within that society.

"This terrorist group has made at least three attempts to infiltrate Buckingham, including an attempt to kidnap the heir secondary. The last attempt was just a few hours ago." He finished.

"You've been very quiet about this society." Captain Murphy said. "I was there when you recruited Miss Granger but I never did find out the details."

"I'll let Miss Granger answer those questions." David said. "Miss Granger, I know you haven't had much time to prepare, are you ready to give us some background?"

"I'll do my best sir." Hermione answered. She leaned over to Harry and whispered "Be ready to back me up with a demonstration. Keep an eye on the squadron leader."

She opened her notebook to her rough outline and stood holding it. "As Mr. Deerfied said I've had little time to prepare, so I hope you will bear with me. I'd like to start with the hardest part, once we've resolved that I can go into some detail."

Hermione set down her notebook and looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone she thought wasn't in on the secret. "The talent David...Mr. Deerfield referred to is the ability to manipulate magic. The society is a society of witches and wizards who live among those in the normal world but keep themselves hidden."

She expected someone to object and was betting on the air force officer or the uniformed police officer. The squadron leader stood and put on his hat. "I thought this was the beginning of a serious operation. I'm not sure why you all believe this little girl, but I..."

He continued speaking but no sound came out. His eyes furrowed and he seemed to be yelling.

Hermione looked at Harry. "Was that a complete or one way silencing charm?" She asked mildly. Then her eyes widened at the look of furry in Harry's eyes.

He stood and spoke directly to the squadron leader. "That was a simple silencing charm. He said in a flat voice. While you were asleep in your bed last night, this 'little girl' stood guard over Prince Charles while the rest of us patrolled the palace. Now unless you want to experience this meeting as a frog, I suggest you sit down and listen."

The squadron leader seemed to try and shout louder. The chief shook her head. "Sit! I'm going to have to report you to the general as it is, don't make it worse. Just remember I did tell you Mr. Potter was the most dangerous person in the room."

"How long will that spell last Mr. Potter?" The chief asked calmly.

Harry sat down, still glaring at the squadron leader. "Normally about eight hours, though Hermione or I can cancel it at any time."

The chief gave the officer a sour look. "Why don't you leave it in place for now, though I'd appreciate it if you cancelled it before we end the meeting."

Harry nodded. Hermione rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. "Well I guess that counts as our first demonstration that magic is real. Unless someone would like an additional demonstration I'll try to summarize the capabilities and limitations of magic before discussing magical society and the current problems we're experiencing."

Hermione spent a half hour covering the highlights. She did an excellent job describing what magic could and couldn't do. She struggled with magic society, which to be fair neither of them had a lot of experience with. She followed that with a brief rundown on Voldemort, the death eaters and the suspected wider conspiracy against the British government. The group was attentive and didn't interrupt with any questions, thought that might have had to do with Harry staring at everyone, wand in hand.

When she finished the chief asked the first question. "Given your description of this school of yours it seems the population of the magical world is no more than three or four thousand people. Does that seem correct?"

"I don't know the number." Hermione admitted. "Though I think that's low. A fair number of people teach their children at home, there's a small additional school in London, and magicals live quite a bit longer than normal people. I'd guess ten to twelve thousand in the British Isles."

"Do you know why adult magicals are unable to provide us with more information?" Captain Murphy asked.

Hermione shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. I have several tentative hypotheses but have not had an opportunity to test any of them."

David stepped in there and explained to those who hadn't already heard why they were depending on students for aid rather than adult magicals who had returned to the normal world.

Questions continued for another fifteen minutes before David called a halt to them. "If Mr. Potter will allow the squadron leader to speak, I think it's time to discuss what we can do about this."

Harry nodded and silently cast the finishing spell on the squadron leader. The man cleared his throat and said "My apology Miss Granger for doubting you."

Hermione smiled at the man and said "Apology accepted."

* * *

Hermione was staring out the window of the BMW, her left arm stretched out to clasp Harry's hand.

"Well that was a waste." Harry growled.

"Mostly it was." David agreed from the front seat. "Though I liked some of Captain Murphy's ideas for training his new team. Also a lot of those folks were new to the idea of a magical world, give them some time and they'll come up with something."

Hermione turned away from the window. "The squadron leader came around. At least he's going to look into improving the air watch around Buckingham."

"I still don't trust him." Harry said darkly.

Angie muttered something.

"Couldn't make that out." Hermione said cheerfully. Stim's wearing off?"

More muttering.

David snickered. "She agreed with Harry about not trusting, though her language was more colorful. I do think her stims are starting to wear off. Angie, drop us all off at Buckingham. I'll put Hermione in a cab and take the tube home."

"Yes boss." Angie spoke a bit more coherently. "And thanks, I need to sleep pretty soon."

"I think a late start tomorrow is a good idea. Ten at Janet's office? Angie, do you think you can pick up Hermione?"

"No problem."

They split up at the Palace, Angie driving off, Harry heading inside, and David and Hermione walked to the tube station.

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 11: The Contract

(Tue July 23)

Janet's table and desk had been cleared of most of the books, documents, and scrolls they'd found. She was now working with photocopies and photos. There were a few items that, despite Harry's ending spells, where resistant to copying in any form. Hermione thought they had some kind of rune-based protection, though she hadn't found the runes. Janet thought they were likely the most important documents and examined them first.

She'd done a first-pass examination of what they thought were the most important documents and called them in to discuss it.

Janet was sitting at the desk. Hermione, Harry and David were sitting across from her in the admittedly crowded space. Hermione didn't mind being sandwiched between the two men. She had adopted David as a sort of uncle and Harry was Harry.

"Thank you for coming." Janet said, not looking up from the papers and photos in front of her. "I think I've found a key document. A sort of treaty or contract between the crown and the wizarding world from nearly a thousand years ago. It was one of the documents whose photos came out blurred, Fortunately I was able to transcribe it."

Janet handed some photocopied pages to Hermione. "I've translated the main part of the document as best I could into modern English for those who can't handle Latin." She handed Harry and David a single photocopied sheet each. They all took a few minutes to read through it.

Harry reacted first. "Huh. A single magical acting as regent for the queen with a council of representatives of thirteen families and an appointed champion or deputy or something. It doesn't seem anything like the situation now. Is this still valid?"

"Read the other side." David suggested. "There's a bit about the conditions and consequences for breaking the contract."

Harry flipped the sheet over. "Royal wizard required...well that's a problem...oh shit."

"You've seen it." Janet said. "If the reigning monarch declares it, the British wizarding world will be judged and if found wanting will lose their magic. It's a bit more complicated than that of course. The document identifies the isle of Britain but not Ireland. It probably includes the Isle of Man in the 'associated islands' and almost certainly wouldn't include the other commonwealth nations."

David set down his sheet. "It's just paper or parchment or whatever, how would something like that be enforced?"

"By magic." Hermione said, still studying her sheets. "This is a binding magical contract. If it works like contracts between individuals or families, once signed and activated it becomes part of those included in it. This will certainly affect any magical born on the island who still lives here. It may affect those who have moved here and even those who were born here and moved away."

They sat there in silence for a bit, the only sound the rustling of the paper Hermione was still studying.

Harry broke the silence "Would it be so bad? I love magic but let's face it, the magical world was a mess even before Voldemort came back."

Hermione looked up from the papers she held. "Yes, it would be bad. Pretty much every magical over the age of thirty would die if they lost their magic. That's ignoring those who wouldn't be able to function without it. Imagine all the Hogwarts students losing their magic and unable to even see the castle while they were in it. They couldn't access their money at Gringotts or even enter the alley. If nothing else it would be a major refugee disaster."

"So what do we do?" Harry asked.

David answered. "We research to gather more information, we report to the Queen and PM. When asked we help develop plans to deal with the situation. I also report to the chief, she'll likely want to talk to you again Hermione."

Janet held up a hand. "Before that though, we need to discuss the part of the contract that hasn't been translated yet, I need to get that part translated properly for the prime minister's staff and check my translation with Hermione." Janet cautioned. "This has been going on for a long time, a day or two to make sure we're reporting the correct information is reasonable."

"Janet, what is this notation at the end about impressions?" Hermione asked.

"That's how it was signed. They look like signet ring impressions or maybe small signature stamps like the Japanese use. I need someone with some skill at drawing to make copies." Janet shrugged. "I can't draw at all so we have to find someone who can that knows about magic."

"Maybe we can trace them?" Hermione suggested. "A piece of clear plastic or glass to protect the document and then use tracing paper over that?"

"That should work, though I don't trust myself to do even that much, how about you three?"

Hermione answered. "I can do it, and Harry is okay at drawing despite his atrocious handwriting. Why don't we both do it and we'll see which turns out the best?"

Janet seemed satisfied with that. "I'll set that up, you'll have to do it in this office. If that works I'll send them to the College of Arms to see if they can identify them. If not, we'll have to find sources in the magical world."

* * *

David had Angie get a few small sheets of glass and tracing paper. It didn't work very well. The image didn't show up well when the tracing paper wasn't touching the document. The parchment was too thick to try lighting it from below. Harry tried drawing on the glass with a marker and then tracing that, which sort of worked.

Finally he tried drawing them freehand. That worked pretty well once he got the hang of it.

There were thirteen impressions plus a royal seal, probably one from each of the thirteen families that were supposed to be in the council. The thirteen were grouped into two groups, one of five seals and one of eight.

Harry looked up from the small table in the corner of Janet's office, stretching his back which hurt from hunching over the papers for the last few hours.

Janet and Hermione were still sitting behind Janet's desk, going over some papers and murmuring to each other. He had no idea what David was up to, he'd muttered something about Angie and meetings before leaving them to it.

Harry left them to it and wandered out. He needed to find Miss Clarke and talk to her about moving into the royal wizard's quarters to speed up the recharging of the wards. He also had to remember to ask Hermione why she didn't suggest he recharge the wards directly. Also about that term Mrs. Withers used, operational security or something. And...

Right, there was too much going on and Hermione was too busy to help keep him organized. He needed a notebook or something to keep track of everything.

Miss Clarke had already been briefed about the possibility of Harry moving closer to the ward stone. She did insist on helping him move his things and seeing the place he'd been staying. That was actually quite helpful as Angie had dropped off his trunk a few days before, so he carried the trunk while Miss Clarke carried bags with a lot of his new clothes and odds and ends that didn't fit.

After examining the quarters and asking some questions about the magical bathroom, which seemed to fascinate her, Miss Clarke approved his move and left him to unpack his few belongings.

Now for that notebook. The archivist might have a spare, if not he could ask Angie or Hermione to pick one up for him.

* * *

(Tue July 23 to Wed July 24)

Janet collected the drawings of the seals. Carefully looked through Harry and Hermione's work, then passed it off to Angie, claiming her artistic inability seemed to extend to judging drawings. Angie ended up using mostly Harry's freehand drawings rather than Hermione’s attempts to trace through the glass. Angie drove copies over to the College of Arms with a note from Janet about some urgency to identify the families involved.

Wednesday Janet and Hermione completed the translation. That afternoon David and Harry were reading through the translation looking for problems.

Hermione brought tea for Janet, who was nearly falling asleep at her desk. She'd been working nearly nonstop for days, not just on the translation but also trying to check the information she found against other documents in the collection.

David had used the study technique Hermione sometimes used of quickly scanning the translation followed by reading it through slowly and carefully. Harry was at the little table in the corner, scribbling notes on the pages as he read.

Hermione looked over Harry's shoulder, wondering what he could have found that needed that many corrections. She was both relieved and alarmed to see comments in his sloppy writing about the implications of the contract for the current magical world. She'd been so concerned about getting the translation correct she hadn't thought about how it might affect the magicals.

Some of Harry's comments were more than a bit frightening. Rather than peppering Harry with questions she forced herself to step away and ask David if wanted tea as well. He shook his head without looking up.

Hermione went back around the desk to quietly talk to Janet. Trying to both keep her from nodding off and convince her it was time to take a day off and get some rest.

David finished his reading, looked over at Harry, still working through his copy and just leaned back at stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

Ten minutes later Harry put down his biro and looked up. "Ready to talk about it?"

"I'm ready." David said. "First, I want to say I didn't see a single thing wrong with the text. I'm sure you both double checked your translation so it's as accurate as possible, though I think we should send a transcript of the original Latin when we send this to the necessary parties. Hermione, can you talk about how this fits with the current setup in the magical world?"

Hermione shook her head. "I will once I've had a chance to think about it. Janet and I have been too focused on the translation. For now I think Harry has more to say on that."

"Yes, I do." Harry looked very serious. He then went through his concerns, occasionally referring to his notes and mentioning particular parts of the contract. Hermione's stomach sank as he spoke. Why hadn't she realized just how tremendously this would impact the magical world?

The room had descended into a tense silence. Janet was the first to react. "We can't send this to anyone before we get some of those points written up and included with the contract."

David leaned over and held out his hand. "Harry, can I see your notes?" He asked quietly.

Harry handed them over and David started paging through them. "This...this is completely unreadable."

Harry blushed. Hermione snickered. Janet lost it next and the tension in the room evaporated.

* * *

(Thu July 26)

David sat in front of the chief's desk while she read through the report. The cold woman read through the report at incredible speeds, only pausing a few times to absorb something before speeding on.

She finished and slid the report into it's secure folder. "This isn't your style, Miss Granger wrote this?"

David was proud of his intern's work and didn't mind letting the chief know. "She did, in three hours, completely based on her own and Mr. Potter's evaluation of the contract. I expected to rewrite it but other than a few minor edits I left it as is."

"How accurate is it? They are just teenagers."

Trust the chief to cut right to the heart of things. "One of the things I did edit was Miss Granger's disclaimer of knowledge in the background section. While they are teenagers there are two reasons I think their knowledge is more complete than would normally be the case. First, the magical world is small, so it's more knowing what's going on in your town than knowing what's going on in the national government.

"Second and more important, these are not typical teenagers. Mr. Potter has had multiple interactions with their minister, regularly meets with the head of their equivalent to the house of lords, and has direct experience with this Voldemort terrorist. Miss Granger has been involved in many of Mr. Potter's interactions and has studied their laws."

The chief showed a rare moment of weakness, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Recommendations?"

"We need more information. More detail on the social structure, who is actually on this Wizengamot of theirs, maps of their hidden villages, who might be willing to work with us as allies, and a more detailed appreciation of their abilities. In short we need agents that can infiltrate this society and are able and willing to report back to us."

The chief frowned, not a good sign. "Next steps?"

David leaned back and thought about that. The chief didn't want the obvious. The report needed to be distributed with copies of the contract to a few people. She certainly knew how to work with Captain Murphy to help build his team, the two had worked together before.

He pulled a few half formed ideas together. "Tentatively we need to find more people like Angie Johnson, what the magical world calls squibs. They can see through the magic used to hide from normal people and aren't affected by whatever keeps adult magicals from giving us information."

He took a moment before continuing. He really didn't like this next part. "We also need to plan an intelligence gathering trip to their Diagon Alley by Miss Granger, both to aquire books that provide background information and to test Angie Johnson's ability to act as a magical."

That got the chiefs attention. "Sending an intern and a very junior agent into a possibly hostile area where we can't provide backup?"

"Unfortunately yes. Miss Granger suggested it herself and also suggested having her father accompany her would seem normal."

The chief sat silently for a moment, playing with the tiny pen Hermione had shrunk a month ago. "Talk to Sergeant Granger, if he's willing then talk to Captain Murphy to arrange for him to be brought up to speed on appropriate equipment. If he is not willing do NOT pressure him, we'll find some other way than sending in Miss Granger."

David nodded. Dan was nice enough when they were at the pub but the soldier who had completed a disastrous mission while wounded shone through when his daughter was involved. he wasn't going to push the man.

"Work out how we might identify squibs, preferably those in the military, police, or intelligence community. I want something ASAP, next week at the latest. Get moving."

David got up. "Will do chief."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 12: Visit to the Grangers

(Sat July 27)

Captain Clarke gave him permission to visit the Grangers, though he admitted he wouldn't have done so if any of the royal family were in residence. The broom flying death eater still had the security head worried.

Harry didn't want to bother Angie on a weekend so he took the tube and a cab. He wiped the sweat off his hands as he exited the cab, he was nervious about meeting Hermione's parents.

The house was very nice, bigger than his relative's and very well kept. The front yard could use a bit of work, the grass was due for cutting and the bushes were overdue for a trimming. Maybe he and Hermione could spend some time taking care of the yard. He pushed down the image of Hermione in shorts and a tight top kneeling to work on a bush. He didn't need that in his head when he met her dad.

Before he reached the door Hermione came running out and threw her arms around him in one of her hugs. He grinned and hugged her back. How had he taken so long to get closer to this wonderful girl?

Hermione pulled him to the open door by his hand. "Come in Harry and meet my mum. Dad is out until this afternoon, he's doing something with David and Captain Murphy."

The inside of the house was as nice as the outside. Less formal than his relative's place or the living spaces at Buckingham. That was good as far as Harry was concerned, he preferred the relaxed chaos of the Gryffindor common room over formality. He didn't have long to see the living room before being pulled into the kitchen where a woman who had to be Hermione's mother was preparing waffles.

"Good morning Harry." The woman said. "I'm sorry I can't shake hands at the moment, we're having a bit of brunch today, I hope you're hungry."

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Granger." Harry replied. "Do you need a hand with the cooking?"

Before Mrs. Granger could answer, Hermione interrupted. "Don't worry mum, he's a much better cook than I am."

"I should hope so." Mrs. Granger said. "There's nothing you can't burn. Harry, if you want to start the bacon that would be a help. Hermione, get him the large pan. Might as well do the whole package, between the three of us, Crookshanks and Hedwig we'll need it."

"Hedwig?" Harry asked. "She's still here?"

"She is." Mrs. Granger said. "She's being a bit of a drama queen about her injury and being spoiled rotten. Don't worry, she'll be down here as soon as you start the bacon."

Hermione got out the pan and bacon and gave his hand a squeeze. "I'll go let her know you're here and are making bacon for her."

Harry got the pan warmed before adding the bacon, then increased the heat slightly. He picked out a cooking fork and shifted the pieces around to keep them from sticking.

Mrs. Granger spoke from behind him. "You do know something about cooking. Let me start the waffles so we have enough ready by the time the bacon is done. Do you think you can eat three? Never mind, you're a teenage boy, of course you can eat three."

"I had breakfast at the palace, so I should say no." Harry admitted. "But it's waffles, so I'm not going to complain if you make three for me."

Mrs. Granger poured the first waffle into the iron. "Tell me Harry, has Hermione talked to you about the bond?"

"Bond?"

"I guess not. Some magical thing between you, she has a spell to check it. We can discuss it over breakfast. Be sure to pour off the excess grease, we like it crisp. The bacon jar is by the sink."

Harry looked into the pan, yes it was time to pour some off if he wanted the bacon crisp. Grabbing the jar he poured the excess into it and flipped the bacon.

Hermione's voice came from the other room. "Are you sure you're up to it?" There was a few faint barks. "I don't think bacon is a cure-all for owls."

Harry as confused. It sounded like they were talking the way he and Hedwig did.

Mrs. Granger must have noticed his confusion. "She started talking to Hedwig over a week ago, or rather she started understanding what Hedwig was saying. Part of the bond I think. I wonder if you can understand Crookshanks now."

What happened that long ago that would connect them? Magical bonds could be all sorts of things, some of which were rather intimate. They didn't just happen though, it required strong magic and some kind of ritual or some other connecting channel.

Hermione came in with Hedwig on her shoulder and Crookshanks following behind.

"Little miss owl has decided she's ready to start working again and is demanding we use her to send mail to Luna at least. I think she likes hanging out with her."

Hedwig made several sounds that Harry interpreted as "Luna needs company."

Harry walked over and stroked his familiar. "Sure Hedwig. After we eat I can check your injuries and we can talk about it.

Crookshanks pawed his leg and made a ‘mrrr’ sound, which seemed like "She's fine, just needed to rest."

"Thanks Crooks."

He looked at Hermione, who had wide eyes and looked a bit pale. "We can talk over brunch. Maybe you can set the table?" She nodded and encouraged Hedwig to move to the back of a chair. Harry turned back to the bacon, which was almost ready.

This was going to be interesting.

* * *

Harry had finished his second waffle when Mrs. Granger started the conversation. "I asked Harry if he knew about the bond, from his reaction I'd say you haven't discussed it with him yet."

Hermione looked down at her plate, blushing slightly. "Sorry about that mum, Harry. It's not an easy topic to bring up and we didn't have many chances while working. We have been quite busy."

Mrs. Granger gave a 'hmm' sound. "Let me guess, when you have a few private moments you spent then kissing and such?" That got Hermione's blush to intensify and she nodded, still looking down at the plate. "Now seems like a good time, doesn't it?" Mrs. Granger prompted.

Hermione sighed. "Yes, I guess it is." She turned Harry and extended her hand across the table toward Harry. He did the same and they clasped hands. Looking up at him, her cheeks still red from her blush. She looked wonderful.

"You remember when you first went to the palace with David?" Harry nodded. "I was here in bed with a nasty case of magical exhaustion, you know what that's like. Well suddenly I felt you, your magic, all around me and the headache and that feeling like your body is made of lead faded. It was a...very nice feeling."

"Your blood on the runes." Harry said, realizing what had happened.

"What did you do, exactly, to charge the runes?" Hermione asked.

"Umm...well David told me what you had done and we didn't have much time because we had that meeting with the prime minister coming up. I touched the blood and could tell it was yours, so I asked if you'd done anything that might have meant a ritual because, well, blood." Hermione nodded and he continued. "So I did what David said you'd done, I put my hands on the places where your blood was and pushed my magic into it. It took fifteen or twenty seconds before it felt like it was full. It took pretty much magic."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You charged up a hellacious nullification array and pushed enough extra magic that you basically recharged me as well and then you just headed off to a meeting. You, Harry Potter, are a stupidly powerful wizard."

Harry shrugged. "You keep saying that."

"Because it's true. The chief figured it out too, remember the meeting where she said you were the most dangerous person in the room?"

Harry shrugged again. "That was just to get some of the military and police people to respect us."

Mrs. Granger cleared her throat. "This is a fascinating conversation, and I really mean that, I had no idea you two were working with such important people. It is, however, not the topic of the moment."

Hermione let go of his hand. "Eat your waffle before it's completely cold."

Harry grinned at her and poured some of the heated maple syrup onto his last waffle and dug in.

"So just one question before I continue. Did you add your blood on top of mine before charging the ward or could you have had some blood on your hands from an injury?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head. He'd had a few small injuries from working with the rose bushes, but those had healed before he got to the palace.

Hermione locked eyes with Harry. "That's good. If you'd combined our blood and then pushed that much magic through we'd probably be married now, at least in the magical world."

Mrs. Granger sat up straight. "But that didn't happen, did it? You're not married even just in the magical world?"

Hermione didn't look away from Harry, who was frozen with a forkful of waffle halfway to his mouth. "Probably not. If the bond detection spell I use shows a really strong bond then we'll have to find a way to verify it one way or the other. Eat your waffle Harry."

Harry tore his eyes away from Hermione's and looked at his fork before he mechanically resumed eating.

"My guess is we already had a weak bond of some kind, maybe from as early as the troll incident first year. What happened with the rune recharge strengthened it, a lot. Enough so I can understand Hedwig. Can you understand Crookshanks now?"

Crookshanks stuck his head above the table from his position on Hermione's lap, then dropped down to the floor and jumped into Harry's lap. Staring Harry in his eyes he gave a 'merp' sound that seemed to say. 'Give me some waffle.' Harry gave the half-kneazle a piece that didn't have much syrup on it. Crookshanks gobbled it down and settled into Harry's lap.

Hermione nodded. "That looked like a yes, so the bond is two way, not one way. Time to try the detection spell." Hermione pulled out her borrowed wand and cast a spell Harry didn't recognize.

The result was interesting. Harry had a bright connection to Hedwig, a dimmer but still fairly bright connection to Crookshanks and Hermione, finally a dim dark line went from his forehead off to the northwest.

Hermione studied the lines for a moment. "I don't think we're married, while the book only had a short paragraph about different bonds it did say the marriage bond was one of the strongest." She said quietly. "It definitely didn't say anything about dark bond lines. That has to be a connection to Voldemort, doesn't it?"

Harry looked at the dark line. "I, or at least my scar, does seem to have a connection to him. It explains how I can see what he's thinking sometimes. Seeing it like this is...not nice."

"Disturbing, that's for sure." Hermione said as the lines slowly faded as the spell wore off.

Mrs. Granger cleared her throat. "So you're not married. That's good, you're too young for that, so what does the bond between you mean then? Are you engaged or something like that?"

Harry shrugged. "I've no idea except it lets us communicate with each other's familiars, which is pretty handy."

"Sorry mum, I just don't have that information. David was talking about sending me to Diagon Alley to get some books, if so I'll try to find something. Otherwise we'll have to wait until I can use the library at Hogwarts."

Mrs. Granger stood. "I'll take care of these dishes, why don't you two figure out what you're going to do today."

Hedwig barked and flapped her wings.

"Well first we're going to send miss owl here to spend some time with Luna."

* * *

Dan's fingers hadn't forgotten how to handle a pistol. Sending a few dozen rounds down the target course at the base had tightened his aim to where it had been in his service days. Now all he had left to do was the final step of his recertification, disassembling and reassembling the pistol while blindfolded.

He finished well within the time limit and handed the pistol to the corporal who was overseeing his test.

"Very good sir." The young corporal said. "You haven't lost your touch."

"Please don't call me sir."

The corporal grinned at him. "You're not a sergeant anymore sir, I guess I could use Mr. Granger."

Dan smiled back and clasped the young man on the shoulder. Seeing the handful of young soldiers the captain had managed to find already brought back a mixed bag of memories. "That will have to do for now. Thank you for your help."

"No problem. If you're happy with this pistol I'll take it to the armory and get a holster for you. I think we have a couple civilian style for concealed carry. Sometimes those officer types need to wear formal cloths but still feel like they're dangerous."

"Thanks again Corporal Thomas."

Dan walked to the captain's office. He wasn't happy with the idea of allowing Hermione to go to Diagon Alley when the magical world was so unsettled. He was less happy about her going off on her own, which she was likely to do if he didn't allow this trip. He also wasn't happy about the captain's idea of him becoming a military consultant. Emma was going to kill him when he told her she had to handle the dental clinic on her own.

The captain and David were standing in front of a blank whiteboard talking about trying to find magicals in the military to add to the team.

The captain waved him over. "Any problems Dan?"

"No, the nice young corporal thought I did pretty well for an old man. The little jerk even called me 'sir'. Where did you find this bunch anyway?"

"I called an old friend in the SAS, he recommended some who didn't quite make the cut. These were the ones who were interested in joining a special projects team with an unspecified purpose. It's only a half dozen so far. We'll probably lose a few once we tell them when this is all about."

David put down the whiteboard pen he was holding. "We're not getting anywhere on who to recruit. There are some security issues with using adult magicals. We don't know if what keeps them from talking about the magical world will allow them to operate effectively."

That was a definite problem, he'd have to ask Hermione if she had any thoughts on it. "Well I have to get home and see this Harry bloke my daughter is so interested in. I'll swing by and pick up the pistol when I get the paperwork to carry it."

The captain and David shared a look. The captain waved him to a chair. "Before you go we should probably tell you a bit about Harry. You'll probably want to avoid giving him the shovel talk."

* * *

Dan was surprised that the front yard looked so good. The grass was cut and the bushes looked as if they'd been expertly trimmed. He found Emma and Hermione sitting on the back porch drinking lemonade and watching Harry mow the back grass.

"I see you put Harry to work right away." Dan said.

Emma waved him over to a chair. "Have a seat Dan. Harry just took over from Hermione so she could have a rest. You probably saw they did the front as well."

Dan sat next to his wife, admiring the way she looked in her shorts. "It looks great, though I thought I told Hermione that little girls couldn't operate lawn mowers."

"You do know I'm not eight anymore, right?" Hermione drawled.

Harry finished up the last bit of the lawn and wheeled the manual mower to the side. Dan waved him over. "I'll get it cleaned up and put away. You've already saved me most of the work, its the least I can do."

Dan was glad to see the nervous smile Harry gave him. David and the captain had convinced him he was a good kid who happened to be dangerously overpowered. Being nervious at meeting his girlfriend's father was reassuringly normal.

The four sat and drank lemonade. They chatted about the lawn, school, and some of the less sensitive parts of Hermione and Harry's work at the palace. After a bit he and Emma left the two kids alone on the porch. Emma started on a late lunch while he took care of the lawn mower.

After washing up Dan went into the kitchen. "So what have those two been up to? He asked his wife. "And don't tell me you haven't been checking on them."

"Talking and holding hands. I even saw Hermione laugh, she doesn't do that often enough. Do you realize Hermione hasn't even touched a book the whole time Harry's been here?"

"Impressive." Dan said. "I hate to admit it but he seems like a good kid and he's good for Hermione."

Emma stopped working on the sandwiches she was making and gave him a kiss. "Good, I was afraid you'd try to chase him off on general principles."

"Honey? I need to talk to you about something." Dan started.

Emma frowned at him. "Let me guess, they want to drag you back into the army."

Dan gave her a wry smile. "You know me too well. Not quite, they want to hire me as a consultant. I told them I'd think about it."

Emma stopped working on lunch and leaned against the counter. "What about the clinic?"

Dan shrugged. "We have choices. You can try to handle it on your own, we could hire someone, or..."

"Or?"

"We could sell it. I have to admit I'm getting tired of fixing molars and telling people to brush their teeth. We have a good clientele and only have a bit more to pay off before we own the building. We've had some offers in the past."

"How soon do we have to decide?"

"I should tell them my decision about the consulting job in a couple days, say Tuesday."

Emma turned around and started working on lunch. "Let me think about it, we can talk tonight or tomorrow. For now let's get lunch ready before the lovebirds decide to do more than hold hands."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 13: To Balmoral

(Mon July 29 and Tue July 30)

Monday David had worked with Harry and Hermione to come up with a way to identify squibs and others who knew of the magical world. For relatives of muggleborns they expanded the search David had used to find Hermione by having Harry and Hermione list off the name of every muggleborn and half-blood they knew of. Since they were targeting those already in the military it was easy to track them down and have them report to the old military base Captain Murphy's team was using to be interviewed.

Finding squibs in the police and military turned out to be fairly simple. They prepared posters with a message saying to call a particular number if you could see it to be involved in a special project. Harry then hit them with a muggle notice-me-not charm. Since only Hermione, Harry, and Angie could work with them, actually getting them posted was a problem at first. Once they had a few more squibs working with MI-5 or on Captain Murphy's team that would get a lot easier.

Tuesday morning Joshua and Hermione put up some posters at MI5 while Angie and the detective who'd been in the strategy meeting put them up in Scotland Yard and some larger police stations. Tuesday afternoon they were all in another group meeting.

This time the refreshments showed up early enough that people grabbed their own as they entered. Harry and Hermione did refills and took drinks to those who were tied up talking to other participants.

Harry noticed Captain Murphy entering while deep in conversation with someone. "Hermione?"

Hermione didn't look up from whatever she was checking in her notebook. "Hmmm?"

"Captain Murphy just walked in with your dad."

Hermione's head snapped up. "What?"

"Captain Murphy drinks black coffee, what about your dad?"

"Uhhh...the same."

Harry poked her side. "You should take their drinks to them. Maybe your dad will tell you what's going on."

Hermione filled two cups from the coffee urn and hurried over. Harry put some scones and paper napkins on a plate and followed. He wanted to hear this.

Hermione must have recovered from her surprise by the time she got to them. "Black coffee, correct Captain?" The man nodded gravely though it wasn't hard to see the smirk he was trying to hide. "And black coffee for you as well Mr. Granger or is it Sergeant Granger today?"

Her dad winked at Harry over Hermione's shoulder. "Mr. Granger is fine for today Miss Granger. Any other questions will have to wait for a bit."

Hermione hissed something at him that made Mr. Granger chuckle and Hermione flounced back to the refreshment table.

Harry was grinning as he offered the two scones. The captain shook his head but Mr. Granger accepted. "Thanks Harry."

By the time Harry had passed around the rest of his scones David stood to start the meeting. "Thank you for coming on short notice. As you can see a few people couldn't make it. We'll make sure they are kept up to date. We'll switch to regular Wednesday afternoon meetings starting next week."

Harry looked around. The MI5 chief was missing, as was the air force major and the uniformed police constable.

"We have some additions. Miss Johnson is an MI5 agent who is what is called a squib in the magical world. In case you don't recall, that means she cannot use magic but can see through some of the magic used to hide things from the normal world. We also have Mr. Granger who is ex-military and is what magicals refer to as a card-carrying muggle, meaning he is non-magical but has permission from the magical government to know about the magical world."

Mrs. Withers spoke up. "How does one get such permission? Is there an actual card and what advantages does it have?"

David gestured to Mr. Granger to answer. "The cards are given to the immediate family of muggle-born magicals. Before you ask, Miss Granger is my daughter. There is a card." Mr. Granger took his out and passed it to Mrs. Withers. "It keeps them from blanking my memory of any event that exposes their world. I don't think it has any other purpose."

David went on to explain their approach to recruitment and who they were currently looking for. Mrs. Withers again spoke up and said she wanted a chance to interview the squibs to recruit one for the PMs office.

The rest of the meeting was rehashing what they'd discussed previously and finding out if anyone had any additional ideas.

As the meeting broke up the chief came in. "Miss Granger, could you get me some of that tea and a scone if any are left. Captain Clarke and I would like to talk to Mr. Granger and our magicals. That includes you Miss Johnson. Mr. Deerfield, Captain Murphy you might want to stay as well."

As the rest of the group left the chief stepped up to Captain Murphy and shook his hand. "Good to see you again captain, it's been a while." The captain nodded seriously. She then turned to Mr. Granger. "Dan, I'm glad to see you fully recovered."

Mr. Granger shook her hand as well, his face as serious as the captains. "Mabel, you're looking well."

The chief snorted. "I look like hell. This job is tough and I'm no spring chicken."

Captain Murphy checked his watch. "Will this take long? I have yet another meeting I should be at."

"I'm sure everyone has things to do." The chief acknowledged. "I'll get right to the point. I got a call from the queen's staff. She wants Miss Granger and Mr. Potter at Balmoral castle to do a magical security scan. Dan, you've been asked to go along, I think to help explain what's going on to security there. I've been asked to lend Miss Johnson to Captain Clarke to aid in security at Buckingham while you're gone. Captain Clarke will give you travel information."

"When does she want us there?" Mr. Granger asked.

"ASAP, but she understands it may take some time. Tomorrow at the latest."

Captain Clarke cleared his throat. "If I can use a phone to get some details I can see about arranging travel."

The chief and Captain Clarke left to find a secure phone. Captain Murphy spent a few minutes discussing something with Mr. Granger then the Captain and David left, pleading more meetings.

Before they could do more than speculate a bit about what was going on, Captain Clarke hurried back into the meeting room. "They've had an incursion at Balmoral that was likely magical. A huge animal, walking on two feet. Bullets hurt it but didn't penetrate the skin. They managed to kill it with pikes and that sword Miss Granger gave the prince."

Hermione and Harry shared a look. "Troll?" Harry asked.

"Probably. I'll need to see it to be sure." Hermione responded.

Captain Clarke raised his hand. "Speculation can wait. Miss Johnson, can you take the Grangers home to pack and return them here? Harry and I will return to Buckingham so he can do the same. You will leave from here. Dress to work, but grab something nicer as well. Make it as fast as you can."

* * *

Angie was an expert driver and made very good time to and from the Grangers. London traffic meant it was still an hour and a half before they returned to the MI5 offices.

Harry, Captain Clarke, and Joshua were waiting for them. He hurried them up an elevator to the roof where a Royal Marine helicopter was waiting. Joshua handed Hermione's father a package and they had a brief whispered conversation.

The three climbed into the helicopter, were given bulky headsets to wear and strapped in. Joshua and Captain Clarke spoke to the marines and before Hermione could start asking the many questions she had the rotors started and they were in the air.

Once they were airborne one of the marines turned around and spoke to them, his voice coming through the headphones. "Long trip folks. We'll stop halfway for fuel and any needed bathroom breaks. Sergeant, I've been told you're armed but your piece is not loaded. Please leave it that way until you've let the queen's security detail know."

Hermione's father just gave a thumbs up. "Lieutenant, corporal, we're going to discuss the reason for our trip. You probably want to not listen or not pay attention to what we're saying."

"No problem Sergeant, we often ferry folks around who talk about things we shouldn't know about. We've gotten quite good at not hearing."

The trip was long, so they had plenty of time to talk about trolls and other similar magical creatures. It was nearly four hours before they landed on a helipad and were met with more marines who drove them to the castle in a jeep.

A marine corporal took them to a space near the castle entrance and took the tarp off of what was definitely a mountain troll. It had half a dozen stab wounds. The wound that had done it in was a slash across it's neck and part way down it's chest.

"Nasty." Harry said. "I wonder what caused the slash wound. Troll skin is damn tough."

"Probably the sword I found and gave Prince Charles at Buckingham. I think Captain Clarke mentioned they used it." Hermione mused.

"This is what attacked you first year?" Hermione's father said faintly.

Hermione was examining a puncture wound on its leg. "Pretty much. That one was full grown, I think this one is an adolescent. About the same height but not quite as bulky." She said absently.

Not noticing the look of horror on her father's face she turned to the marine. "Corporal, it was probably carrying a large club. Do you know where that is?"

The corporal was giving her an odd look. "Yes miss, right over there." He pointed at another nearby tarp.

Hermione walked over and pulled off the tarp. A roughly shaped oak branch, as big around as her waist at the end and about two meters long. It felt...yes there was a bit of magic on it. That was odd. "Harry?"

Harry walked over. "Take a look at this club... Ah corporal, if you could step back a bit or cover your ears or something please?"

"No problem, we've been told to have selective hearing on this assignment." The corporal said, but he did step back four or five meters.

Once the corporal had stepped away she continued quietly. "There's a trace of magic on the club. Not much, it's not enchanted, I think some kind of spell was cast on it though."

Harry examined the club carefully. "It doesn't have any damage. With some effort he rolled it over. "Nothing on this side either. They must have shot at it. You'd think some of the bullets would have hit the club, and that should have damaged it at least a little bit."

"So an impervious charm or something similar." Hermione said, standing and pulling the tarp back over the club. "No chance this was a wild troll that just happened to wander in on its own. We should double check the club was hit by a bullet or whatever they used to do the puncture wounds."

A uniformed guard ran up as they were pulling the tarp back over the troll's body. "Miss Granger, Mr. Granger, Mr. Potter, Lieutenant Greves is waiting for you in the castle, if you could follow me please?"

As they were walking to the castle Hermione's father jogged up to walk next to the guard. "I expected the head of security to be a captain."

"Captain Mainard is in charge of the castle's security. He's in the infirmary with a broken arm and the worst case of road rash I've ever seen." The guard answered. "Pretty much everyone involved in taking down the creature has scrapes and bruises. Another guard, a man from the prince's personal security team and Miss McAllister from the cleaning staff were bad enough they were sent to hospital."

The arrived in a meeting room with two young men, one in the palace staff's uniform and a marine lieutenant. Neither man looked very happy.

* * *

The meeting room they were shown had two young men, a uniformed guard and a marine. The room was a mess of papers and coffee cups. Neither man looked very happy.

"Good, you're here." The uniformed guard said. "I'm Lieutenant Greves, this is Marine Lieutenant McAllister."

"Daniel Granger, and this is Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. They're our experts, currently our only experts, on these matters."

Lieutenant Greves did not look impressed. Honestly Harry wasn't particularly impressed either. Captain Clarke could be a bit stern at times but he'd certainly been more professional than this man.

"So what can you tell me about this creature?"

Hermione answered. "We did a brief examination so some of this is tentative. I'd definitely like to talk to some of the men who fought it. It's definitely a mountain troll, probably an adolescent..."

Lieutenant Greves stood suddenly and slammed his hand on the table. "I want answers not something from a child's storybook." He shook his fist at Hermione. "This little girl..."

The Lieutenant stopped abruptly when Mr. Granger grabbed his fist and stood slowly, holding the fist tight despite the man's attempts to pull it free.

Harry growled. No one talked to Hermione that way. His wand was in his hand, though he didn't recall pulling it out.

"Gently." Mr. Granger said. "If you did your homework and read my file you'll know I was a sergeant. It was my job to make sure young lieutenants didn't do anything too stupid. You have just come very, very close to doing something terminally stupid. Look at Mr. Potter."

The man looked over at Harry who tried not to snarl at him. "He's very angry at you. Something you should know about Mr. Potter. He saved my daughter's life from a creature just like the one that played merry havoc with your security team. By himself. When he was eleven."

"Actually," Hermione said dryly. "It was a full grown troll, a bit larger than the one we saw outside."

The lieutenant was opening and closing his mouth, with no sound coming out. Mr. Granger let go of his hand. "Now, we were bundled into a helicopter and sent here with little warning. It's late and we haven't eaten and may I point out that Mr. Potter is an teenage boy? Teenage boys can get testy when they don't get fed regularly."

"Indeed, very poor manners." Prince Charles said from the door.

Everyone stood. There were a bunch of "Your Royal Highness". Harry bowed and Hermione attempted a curtsy, which didn't work well as she was wearing trousers.

"Lieutenant Greves, I believe you were told to send our guests to Captain Mainard. I suggest you go home now. I think you should stay there until the captain tells you to return."

"Ah, yes sir."

"I think now would be a good time lieutenant." The prince added mildly. The guard lieutenant left the room quickly. Harry sighed in relief and put his wand away.

"Lieutenant McAllister, isn't it? If you could talk to the guards on duty and get things organized I would appreciate it. If there are questions, have one of the guards contact Captain Mainard."

"Yes sir!" The man saluted and headed out the door.

"Thank you sir." Mr. Granger said.

"Dan, we've discussed this. It's good to see you again."

Mr. Granger shrugged. "Of course Charles, it's good to see you as well. I think you've met my daughter Hermione. And the young man is Harry Potter."

"We met briefly at Buckingham, good to see you both again." The prince said. "Let's go see the Captain and I'll have someone bring you all something to eat."

* * *

The captain looked pretty bad, though he claimed that, except for his arm, it was just a lot of scraps and bruises.

A member of the staff brought them a big plate of sandwiches, coffee for Mr. Granger, and cokes for Harry and Hermione. They ate while the captain told them the first part of what happened.

The fight against the troll sounded like something from a bad action movie. The guards had tried using their sidearms, which just irritated the troll. The rifles seemed to cause it pain but didn't stop it. The captain didn't know if any of the bullets had hit the club but promised to find out. The troll had broken past most of the guards and the captain had taken a blow from the troll's off hand, sending him skidding down a corridor and into an antique chair, breaking his arm and the chair.

The prince took over and described the rest. The troll had then trotted through the castle until it came across the prince's office. His guard had fired on the troll and been knocked into a wall by a swipe from the club. The prince heard the gunshots and the guard's cries of pain. Grabbing his sidearm and the sword Hermione had given him he'd looked into the corridor. He'd fired on the troll a few times before giving up on the gun.

One of the palace cleaning staff then ran past him with a poleaxe of all things, charging right into the troll, finally doing some serious damage to its leg. She managed one more stab before she was backhanded into the wall next to the prince's guard.

Two castle guards who had been trying to catch up to the troll saw this. One of them found a spear and the other managed to dash in and grab the poleaxe. They started to wear down the troll and kept it busy facing away from the prince.

"And that's where I foolishly stepped up behind it, planning to thrust the sword into it's back." The prince said dryly. "I've been scolded for doing so by the captain here, my mother, and my grandmother. At least my sons thought it was cool."

"What happened sir?" Hermione asked. "The slash was on its front."

"It spun around. It was very fast for something so large. I slashed at it in desperation and got lucky. I also got splashed with a very large amount of troll blood, which I must say smells awful."

"Charles?" Mr. Granger asked. "Is the captain authorized to know?"

"Yes." The prince said. "Just the captain right now."

"Good." Hermione said, pulling out her wand. "Harry, you brief the captain on what we talked about while I see what I can do for his injuries. I can't do anything about the broken arm, but thanks to Harry here I've had lots of practice with scrapes and bruises."

Chapter Text

COT 14: More Balmoral

(Wed July 31)

"I spend too much time wandering around old castles." Hermione muttered.

Her companion and guide grinned at her. "Tell me about it."

Hermione grinned back. There were only a few people at Balmoral that knew about the magic world. Zara Tindell had been brought into the secret after Hermione had handed a glowing sword to Prince Charles while Zara was in the room. To be fair Hermione had been a bit distracted at the time.

Since Zara knew the castle fairly well she was helping Hermione in her search for the ward stone. At first she hadn't been sure the castle had wards. It had taken walking back and forth near the castle's entrance before she could feel them enough to be certain. They were both very weak and simpler than those at Buckingham.

So here they were, wandering around the depths of the castle hoping to spot something that would give them a clue. They were concentrating on the center of the castle which would make sense magically and matched what they found at Buckingham. Unfortunately that was still a lot of space.

"That's odd." Zara said casually as they walked down yet another long dark corridor.

Hermione stopped. She didn't feel anything but something Zara thought was odd was worth checking. "What's odd?"

Zara shrugged. "I thought I saw a something out of the corner of my eye but there's nothing there."

That sounded promising. "Can you point to the spot you thought you saw it?"

Zara pointed to the left and behind them. Her hand shifted back and forth a bit, indicating an area on the wall. Hermione walked slowly along that stretch of wall. She didn't feel anything. She stepped back and sent a series of ending spells along the stretch of wall.

There was a flicker and a heavy wooden door appeared for a moment before disappearing again. Zara gasped.

"This is promising. Let me see if I can overcome whatever magic is hiding the door. If not we'll have to bring in the heavy artillery.

"Heavy artillery?" Zara asked.

"Harry. He's magically very powerful. I can't imagine what his magic will be like when he's older..." Hermione paused at that thought. "Oh, it's the thirty-first today isn't it?"

"Yes, does that make a difference?" Zara asked.

"It does to Harry, today is his sixteenth birthday. Knowing him he hasn't even realized it yet. Sorry, something for later on. Let's see if I can uncover this door."

Hermione managed, after several tries, to make the door visible and open using the boosted version of the ending spell followed by an unlocking spell. She had Zara ready to open the door as soon as she finished and before it was hidden again.

The door led to an empty closet.

"Well that was silly." Zara said. "Unless there's another hidden door or something in here."

Hermione lit her wand to add to Zara's flashlight and they examined the closet. There were runes above the door that hid it. Not anchor runes like those above the royal wizard's quarters these were the runic sequence to generate the notice-me-not and another sequence she thought was some kind of illusion, and of course a power collection sequence. Damn, she was probably making it more powerful just by being here. "Zara, we need to scratch out or at least damage those runes above the door. Just the first two on the far left side."

Zara shined her flashlight above the door. "Cool, magic runes. I think I can reach them if I jump but they look like they're right in the stone. Can you use a spell?"

"Maybe, but those runes collect magic power that let the rest of the runes hide the door. I'm afraid I'll just add a bunch of power to it and make it impossible to find the door without bringing in a professional curse breaker. All we really need to do is damage them slightly.

Zara dug around in the light jacket she was wearing and pulled out a spur. "Maybe this will work."

"You carry around a spur?" Hermione asked.

"I like riding. This one needs some work and I figured I could do that while sitting around the castle. It might do the job." Zara jumped and swung at the runes. She missed but left a visible mark in the stone.

"That should do enough damage if you can hit the runes. Try again." Hermione encouraged her. Three tries later she hit the power rune and there was a bright flash.

"Ouch." Zara said, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, that was painful." Hermione agreed. "Thanks."

They carefully searched the walls, even the ceiling with no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

"Wait." Zara said. "What are we standing on? It doesn't feel like stone." She squatted down and shined her flashlight on the floor. "A rug in a closet?" She yanked at a corner of it. "It's glued down or something."

They stepped out of the closet and Hermione hit the floor with the ending spell. The rug came up with no trouble and carved directly on the closet floor were runes.

"That's a clever way to hide the runes, though this looks like amateur work or maybe a rush job. The runes are carved directly into the castle's stone rather than a separate ward stone and they're relatively simple." Hermione cut off her lecture before she overdid it.

"Now what?" Zara asked.

"I'm going to try to power this up a bit. We'll probably need Harry to get them fully powered. It's a simple set of wards but the area it covers is huge."

* * *

Dan kept his hand on the butt of his gun while Harry scanned the long grass. Honestly it didn't seem necessary, they'd found half a dozen snakes and every one seemed happy to talk. Or at least Harry claimed all the hissing was talking.

Harry straightened up and looked back toward the castle. "We have to go back now."

"Sure. Any particular reason?"

"I think Hermione just did something stupid again. Probably found the ward stone an tried to charge it. I've told her doing stupid things without thinking it through was my job but sometimes she gets too focused."

"I'm familiar with that particular problem. How do you know?" Dan asked.

Harry started walking toward the castle gates. "I think it's the bond. I can feel a bit of my magic feeding into hers."

"Bond? What bond?"

Harry was silent for a moment. "Sorry, I thought Mrs. Granger told you." He said quietly.

"She tells me what she thinks I should know. Now give, this sounds important."

Harry gave him the details, or as much as he knew.

"So you're not married?" Dan asked.

"According to Herminoe almost certainly not and if we were it would just be in the wizarding world. Not that I would mind, Hermione is pretty awesome. Come on, I think I can get her magic level back quickly if I'm near her." Harry sped up, walking about as fast as you can without jogging.

"Just don't make he a grandfather anytime soon." Dan muttered.

* * *

Zara led them down to Hermione, who was leaning against a wall in a corridor.

"That was fast." Hermione said.

"Harry knew you needed help, we were on our way when Miss Tindell found us." Dan said. "I can carry you up to the infirmary."

Hermione waved him off. "I should be okay, this isn't nearly as bad as the nullification array. I just pushed it too hard because the castle really wanted more power. Harry, you should give it some more, try doing it wandlessly, I think you'll feel what I did."

Dan shook his head. "Not a good idea, I can't carry both of you."

Hermione snorted. "Not an issue, if I can get it halfway powered up Harry can probably fill it ten times over."

Harry squatted down next to her. "He's right, let's get you on your feet before I give it a try." He placed his hand on her cheek, his hand glowing slightly in the dark corridor.

Hermione gasped. "Wow! I think that's enough Harry." Harry pulled his hand back and stood up. He held out his hand and Hermione took it and got up, leaning forward and giving Harry a kiss. "Thank you."

Dan had to look away. Damn it, those two looked too good together. He wasn't ready to have his little girl fall in love.

Hermione pulled away from Harry slowly. "We should talk later, for now why don't you finish charging up the runes."

After a minute or so Harry finished charging the runes. "I see what you mean about the castle wanting power. It's like a big puppy. It really loves the people here and wants to protect them. I know Hogwarts has a personality of sorts, now I wonder if Buckingham is the same."

* * *

After a quick lunch Hermione and Zara were sent off to do a walk through of the residential areas of the castle while Harry, Dan, and one of the older guards walked through areas where a broom rider might try to enter the castle. Harry pointed out possible entry points while Dan took notes. The guard mostly looked confused.

Afterward they all met with Captain Mainard to brief him on what they had found and done. Prince Charles sat in on the meeting and after they were done he invited them to dinner with his family, including the queen, Princess Ann and her daughter Zara.

Dinner seemed pretty formal at first. That quickly broke down as Princess Diane thanked them for foiling the kidnapping attempt on Prince Harry and the boy himself thanked them. Zara and Hermione were sitting together and talked quite a bit. The queen spoke with Mr. Granger, calling him "Sergeant Granger". Harry ended up talking mostly to Prince William who was across from him and Princess Anne who he was sitting next to.

Dinner finished with a surprise for Harry. A server brought in a huge cake with lit candles and the boys, Hermione, and Zara sang the happy birthday song for him. He'd completely forgotten it was his birthday.

Prince Harry was practically bouncing out of his seat at the thought of having cake. Harry smiled and thanked everyone, trying to keep himself from tearing up. He'd never had a cake for his birthday before. He blew out the candles and the server cut generous slices for the younger members of the group and somewhat smaller ones for the adults. The server also cut a small slice and took it with her. The queen explained that her mother wasn't feeling up to a big group but had wished him well on his birthday and she definitely wanted some cake! The cake was so large there was more than half of it left.

Once they finished the queen had them join her in an audience room. Harry heard Mr. Granger say "Oh, she wouldn't." to Prince Charles, who chuckled in response.

* * *

Some time later they all filed into Mr. Granger's guest room, which had a sitting area. Harry collapsed onto the couch and Hermione dropped down next to him. Mr. Granger took a chair. A butler stuck his head in the door they'd left open and asked if Mr. Granger needed a bracer.

"Oh, god yes. Please. Scotch if you have it, brandy is fine too. Don't bother knocking when you bring it. Nothing for these two I'm afraid."

They sat in silence until the man returned with the drink. Mr. Granger thanked him and took several sips before speaking to Harry. "Since I didn't get a chance to say it earlier, happy birthday Sir Harry."

Harry shook his head. "That's going to take some getting used to."

Mr. Granger took another sip. "And how are you doing, Dame Hermione?"

"Shocked. Tired. I think I should have refused."

Mr. Granger set down his drink. "No, you shouldn't have. Between the two of you you've stopped an attempted kidnapping of a prince, foiled an attempt at spying on the queen, drove off a broom flying death eater who was trying to get into Buckingham, and provided Prince Charles the sword that might well have saved his life. Oh, that was on top of being key to uncovering what seems to be a conspiracy to commit treason against the crown and updating the security at both Buckingham and Balmoral."

"Umm...I guess when you say it like that it sounds like a lot." Hermione admitted.

"All that was while you were just interns. That seems way beyond your job descriptions." Mr. Granger picked up his drink and started sipping again.

After a few minutes Mr. Granger finished his drink. "Well, I'm heading to bed. You two probably want to talk without me around. I'd appreciate it if you did so here rather than being alone in one of your rooms."

"Thanks Dad."

"Good night Mr. Granger."

An hour later Dan peeked into the sitting room to find the two lying asleep on the sofa, his daughter draped half on top of Harry. Both were, thankfully, fully clothed. Shaking his head he grabbed an extra blanket from the closet and covered the two before heading back to bed.

* * *

(Thu Aug 1)

They left early. Only a haggard looking Captain Mainard, Zara, and Prince Harry were there to see them off. Prince Harry had a big slice of leftover birthday cake for Harry. Hermione was surprised by a hug from Zara, who'd seemed pretty reserved to her. Hermione promised to write to her and warned her that the letters might be carried by owl.

The same helicopter and crew was to take them back and told them they were heading for the landing pad at MI5.

Harry leaned forward and tapped the corporal's shoulder. "I do have an important question."

"What's that Mr. Potter?" The corporal asked.

"Is it okay if I eat my cake in the helicopter?"

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 15: Diagon Alley

(Mon Aug 5)

Dan Granger keyed the microphone. "Hawk, we're going in now. We may lose contact once we enter. I'll leave the mic open."

"Roger that Eagle."

Dan locked the mic and pinned it inside the plain black robe he was wearing. He looked at Angie who gave a thumbs up. Hermione squeezed his hand to show she was ready. They stepped into the Leaky Cauldron on high alert. Hermione let go of Dan's hand as soon as they got past the entrance as he'd asked. He needed both hands free.

Hermione waved to the bartender and led them both to the entrance to Diagon Alley. She pointed to a sequence of bricks on the wall and Angie tapped them with her pseudo-wand. That worked, which completed one of their minor objectives, checking if the rune-based wand would activate wand-tap sensitive magics.

They entered the alley. Dan leaned his head forward, closer to the mic clipped to his robe. "Comm check." He murmured.

"Read you Eagle. Poor reception but better than we expected." Came the crackly voice in his earpiece.

"Heading to Flourish and Blotts now."

Hermione took the lead to the bookstore. Once they entered Dan stayed near the door and Angie stayed with Hermione as they disappeared into the depths of the store.

A tense five minutes later a man approached him. "Good morning sir, can I help you find anything?"

They had a cover story, which was mostly the truth, so he had a ready answer. "I'm just waiting for my daughter. She's collecting some books for a genealogical research project her patron asked her to do."

The man nodded and gave him a sympathetic smile. "Ah, you must be Miss Granger's father. I'm not surprised someone decided to make use of her skills, she's well known here at the store. Who's her patron?"

They hadn't decided who this fictional patron was, so Dan kept things vague. "The family of one of her friends from school. I honestly don't know which one. I'm really just here to provide transportation and carry things."

The man chuckled. "We do have a few chairs if you'd like to sit for a bit."

Dan shook his head, he wanted to stay on his feet in case something happened. "I'm rather restless, do you mind if I pace around?"

"We're quiet today, so it's no problem." The man's face fell. "We're always quiet these days, as you may know things are a bit unsettled."

"Knowing my daughter, your profits for today will be decent." Dan said wryly.

That got a smile from the man, who waved and moved to behind the counter.

Dan continued to keep an eye out. A few customers came in, none of whom looked suspicious. He gave a brief check in with their backup every ten minutes. The connection was poor but usable. Just before the half hour limit they'd set Hermione and Angie came carrying a half dozen books. Dan walked over to the counter, splitting his attention between his daughter and the door.

"Just these today." Hermione told the man at the counter.

"You sound disappointed Miss Granger. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Hermione brightened. "Well, yes. I'm trying to find information on heraldic symbols, coats of arms, signet rings, and some information on the families they're associated with."

The man looked through the books they had brought up. "Well, these three are the best we have for that sort of thing, but they won't have all the information you're looking for. What you really need is a copy of Nature's Nobility. It's a bit pretentious but it's the most comprehensive source. Most of the major families have a copy and I believe there's one in the Hogwarts' library restricted section."

"Oh! That would be useful. Do you know where I can get one?" Hermione asked.

The man frowned in thought. "Well, self updating books have to be ordered directly and are quite expensive. You can inquire at the company, they have an office just past the bank, above the tailor shop."

Hermione smiled brightly at the man. "Thank you Mr. Blott. I suppose it won't hurt to ask about it."

They purchased the books, which the man shrunk and placed in a small bag for her.

They stepped outside and moved away from the door. Dan spoke to the mic. "Hawk, minimal success at Flourish and Blotts we have a lead farther down the alley. Request permission to investigate."

"Hold Eagle." There was a long delay then. "Permission granted with the understanding that we will likely lose the connection. One hour maximum. You are to abort at any sign of trouble."

"Roger Wilco." Dan said. Angie had heard the conversation in her own earpiece but he repeated it for Hermione's sake. She nodded her agreement and started down the alley. When they reached Gringotts a man with greasy dark haired man stepped out from the shadows next to the steps. Dan put his hand on his pistol.

"Miss Granger."

"Oh, Professor Snape! You startled me." Hermione said.

The man glanced at Dan and Angie, his body language suggested he dismissed them as unimportant. "Would you happen to know where Mr. Potter is? The headmaster is concerned that he is no longer staying with his relatives."

"Not exactly." Hermione prevaricated. "I know he was removed from his relatives and his new guardian arranged a place for him to stay. I believe she's up in Scotland right now."

The man moved quickly, pulling a wand and pointing it at Hermione. Dan tightened his grip but didn't pull his gun yet. "Tell me what you know Miss Granger. Now."

Hermione shifted her gaze to the man's wand and stepped back. The man grabbed her arm. Dan pulled his gun but before he could fire the professor let go and dropped his wand, reaching for his throat.

"Grabbing young girls is unacceptable especially for a professor, wouldn't you say so Mr. Snape?" Angie said, holding her rune-wand. The man gasped and pulled at the collar of his shirt.

"Hawk, aborting operation." Dan said into his mic. There was no response.

"He was using legitimacy, pulling information from my mind." Hermione said. "He knows too much."

"Can we safely get him out of here?" Angie asked.

Hermione pulled her wand and used it to summon two wands and a few other small items from the man. "He should be disarmed now, though we need to do a proper search to be completely sure."

Dan held up his pistol. "You know what this is?"

The man, now beginning to turn purple, nodded. "Your only chance to live is to let us take you out of here. I'll be behind you with this and will use it on you at the slightest sign of trouble." He got behind the man and poked him in the back with the gun. "Okay, reverse whatever you did."

The man gasped. "Angie, take his arm like he's escorting you. Hermione, you carry the books and walk on the far side of Angie. "Snape, you're escorting this woman out, act the part. Understand that killing you in front of people is better for us than letting you get away."

"If it should happen," Snape gasped out. "That I am ever your professor again Miss Granger, you are so in detention."

"Fair enough." Hermione replied.

"March." Dan growled. They started toward the Leaky Cauldron at a normal walking speed. Dan kept an eye on the man's free hand. Angie started chatting and flirting with the professor as if they were dating. After a bit Snape started responding. He seemed to be cooperating at least somewhat.

About halfway back Dan heard a static filled "Eagle, please report when you have contact."

"Hawk, we are aborting. We are bringing one magical male prisoner out with us. Please be ready to secure him."

"Rodger Eagle. Can you keep control of your prisoner once you are on the street?"

Dan thought for a bit. Holding a man at gunpoint in a nearly empty area where most people didn't understand guns was one thing. Doing the same on a busy London street was another. "Not for long."

There was silence for a moment. "ETA of the car is six minutes. We'll use the BMW you came in. We'll need you and Mockingbird to help secure the prisoner. Sparrow should proceed to lookout."

"Hermione, give us a reason to stop for two or three minutes."

Hermione stopped and said. "Hey guys, it's the pet shop. Just a second, I want to look at kittens in the window."

They stopped and looked for a bit, Hermione exclaiming about the different kittens and Angie adding a few comments. Snape stayed silent.

"Come on Hermione, time to go." He said when he thought the timing was right.

They walked the rest of the way to the Leaky and through the pub without a hitch. The car was waiting outside. The driver, who Dan didn't know, jumped out and opened the back door, then went around and got in the back on the other side. Angie and Dan forcefully encouraged the professor to get in and move to the center of the back seat. Dan got in next to him. Angie handed the radio she'd carried to Hermione and ran around to the driver's seat.

"Good job Hermione. Go to the lookout." Dan said before closing the door.

Angie pulled out into traffic immediately. Dan poked Snape in the side with his pistol. "Smart move cooperating with us Mr. Snape. Please continue to do so, it's been a long time since I've had to shoot someone up close, it's very messy."

"I understand Mr. Granger." The professor drawled. "I must say I preferred having the young lady trapping my arm."

"You weren't so bad yourself Mr. Snape. I've certainly had worse dates." Angie said cheerfully.

"So what now?" Snape asked.

"Not our decision." The other man, who Angie had addressed as Hall said. "Questioning for sure, likely being held at the queen's pleasure. How long depends on what you've done and how much you cooperate."

Snape was silent for a few minutes while Angie expertly navigated the London traffic. "I would like to speak with Miss Granger or Mr. Potter at some point. I think everyone would find that useful."

"We'll see."