The Potters arrived back in their apartment at Hogwarts and almost literally collapsed from exhaustion. The night had been a long patrol, ending in their final successful goal, but it had taken a lot out of them, especially Harry. Hermione couldn't believe how tired her husband felt now that the adrenaline had fled his body. She put an arm around his waist and led him to their bath, opting rightly for the tub rather than a shower as she stripped him down. As his shirt came off, he grimaced and she gasped at the new bruise that appeared along the line of his old injury.
Harry?
I think I might have pulled something during one of my twists to get away from Nagini.
You think?
I may have to beg my lovely wife to rub some salve into my back.
Hermione shook her head and finished her duties as she lowered him into the water before stripping down and joining him after adding some healing potions to the water. She had to admit it felt quite good to her as well. The battle might have been short, but it had had strained her as well. That was something Tonks had told them early on, the action was usually a few short minutes of terror that left you breathless and trying to remember it all afterwards. As she started to soak, Hermione remembered their friends and reached for her wand to cast a quick patronus toward the Gryffindor dorms to find Ron. The message was a simple reassurance: Returned, all is well, talk tomorrow, pass the news. With the message sent, she refocused on Harry.
They soaked for a good while and even dozed for a few minutes before Hermione helped Harry out and dried them both off. She was more exhausted than what she wanted to admit, but she knew that at that moment she was the stronger of the two of them. During the actual battle, Harry had done what was needed and now it was her turn as she arranged him on the bed on his stomach and began to massage the salve into his back. They were running low and she would need to get more from Madam Pomfrey. That would require an explanation that wouldn't be easy. Oh well, something to be dealt with after a bit of sleep. Once Harry's back was done, she crawled in next to him and they were soon both asleep.
The following morning came all too soon considering it was past midnight when they had finally fallen asleep. Hermione decided to indulge and called Dobby to bring them breakfast. With the late night bath, showers were skipped, meaning they were able to stay in bed until mere minutes before class. Harry was still quite stiff, but with another massage, he insisted he could manage since he wouldn't have Defense class that day. Their friends were all waiting for them outside the apartment before first classes and Hermione decided there was time for a quick, five minute meeting as everyone ducked in.
"Alright everyone, we don't have much time. No questions right now. Harry will give you the synopsis and then we have to run."
"Um, alright. We did the regular patrol as usual and there were a couple of Death Eaters apparently out looking for mushrooms. My snake calling gave them a scare and we decided to do what we did with the other Death Eater and I summoned them, except I messed up and put a bit much force in it to override the outer wards. I also didn't realize that my parseltongue had been heard by Nagini and she was close. So, anyway, I summoned the two Death Eaters, pulling half a hillside of dirt and grass with them. That knocked them out in the process, and then I had the snake coming up behind me that I had to fight. My drills on snake movement saved me and I managed to get out of the way. I wrenched my back, but it worked. I summoned the sword and with Hermione's help to keep Nagini distracted, I took her head off. A black mist came out with a screech and then some green blood as well. It was nasty. Then we dropped the DMLE portkeys on the Death Eaters. Since I tore up the hillside and we also had a mess of a giant snake left around, we decided to start a bit of a forest fire, just standard fire, to cover our tracks and then portkeyed back."
Everyone looked at Harry a bit stunned and then Blaise shook his head and let out a low whistle.
"Well, congrats mate, you don't do it by halves. I imagine that lodge of his is the last place to be right now. Anyway, I'm glad you're back and safe. Time for class then?"
Everyone agreed and filed out of the Potter apartment for yet another surreal experience. After discussing the destruction of another piece of the Dark Lord's soul, they were all back to being schoolchildren once again.
The rest of the day was long for Harry especially, but it at least finished by early afternoon. He had a scheduled Quidditch practice, but Ron ran interference with Katie and told her that he wouldn't be able to fly. She wanted more explanation, but Ron stood his ground in an unusual show of force that was baffling enough that she backed off.
That evening as all of the allies were finishing dinner they noticed the arrival of Tonks, who stood near the door and talked with McGonagall while she waited for them to be done. Seeing her make an unplanned visit caused everyone to finish eating quickly. As soon as they all gathered just outside the hall, she gestured upstairs and they all made their way in near silence toward the Potter apartment. As soon as the entire group was inside and Hermione had the privacy spells cast, Tonks let loose.
"Alright, Lord Potter, care to tell me what the hell happened last night? I seem to remember giving you a hunting license, not a burn permit. We've got a charred hillside, a bunch of angry muggles, loose Death Eaters, and a Dark Lord who is now Merlin knows where thanks to his base, which we spent months locating, being a pile of ash."
Harry and Hermione looked at Tonks in stunned silence. The fire wasn't supposed to have gotten that out of control. Harry blew out a long breath and held Hermione close as she leaned into him.
"Wow Tonks, it sounds like it got much further out of control than we planned. Look, the fire was supposed to stay small. It was just to cover some destruction when I pulled the two Death Eaters through the wards. Did you get them by the way? Unfortunately, I summoned half a hillside with them. I was afraid that would be noticed. Nagini did notice it and attacked me. I killed her, but that left another mess, so we decided on fire to clean it up. The area was mostly rock and scrub, so we had planned on just letting it burn itself out."
"Well that's one damn good bit of news at least. Scrub or not, it still burns and there was enough that it spread to a grassy area and then it spread to some trees and so forth. May have taken a while, but it made its way to the lodge. And apparently Voldie's crew was busy running around trying to take care of the surrounding countryside and let the building burn. A few of them just ran. While they were at it they decided to pillage the nearby village. We caught a couple of them there, which is how we know this. It didn't take long for Snakeface to give up on the sorry lot of them, gather his inner circle, and move elsewhere. The problem is that we don't know where that is. So, it's good that he's no longer immortal. Now we just have to find him. Again. We also have a village and a number of farms that are needing obliviating and magic reversal. Needless to say, Amelia is not happy. The one point that might help your case is the two 'arrests' you made. They're Edgar Selwyn and Ursula Avery, junior members of dark aligned families and both on the watch list for minor crimes. We've got enough to put them in Azkaban for a few years and we think they may be willing to talk. They're not marked yet, but they were close to being so and may have some useful information. Also, when we did the intake, we found out Ursula was pregnant. She didn't even know herself. Needless to say, she is even more upset. We're giving them a chance to think things over and then we'll interview them again."
Hermione shook her head. It was hard not to feel sorry for the young woman, who was only a bit older than herself and was now in such a desperate position after having made so many wrong choices. Her thoughts were interrupted by Harry's churning thoughts of guilt over the fire and she had to agree, after all the fire had been her idea.
"Tonks, please apologize to Amelia for us about the fire. We thought it was under control when we left. It was barely burning. We really thought it was the best solution to control the evidence. I know she's upset, but we still would like to be kept updated on any news about Voldemort's whereabouts. We'll keep training as well so that we're ready when the time comes."
"Aye, I'll relay the message, but now is really not the best time."
Harry sighed and nodded. Then the group all left the apartment and went upstairs to the Room of Requirement for another round of grueling training.
The following couple of weeks saw no significant gains in the battle against Voldemort. Unfortunately, questioning Selwyn and Avery yielded the capture of a couple of stockpiles of supplies, but they were too junior of Death Eaters to be privy to major operational information. The DMLE went back through its lists of known properties and ran a number of surveillance operations, but there was no sign of Voldemort. There were fleeting sightings of various high ranking Death Eaters, but they always vanished before a large enough force of Aurors could converge on them.
While they weren't sighted in magical England, the Death Eaters were unfortunately sighted within non-magical England a number of times. Their terror strikes followed their usual manner in which they appeared quickly as if from nowhere, wreaked havoc and death, and then disappeared just as Aurors were responding. In the two weeks after the fire in Wales, there were a total of six attacks attributed to Death Eaters. The attacks killed thirty-two and injured well over a hundred. Both Harry and Hermione felt immense guilt when each news article detailed a new attack. Their friends tried to reassure them that the attacks weren't necessarily retaliation. After all, there had been fourteen near identical attacks before the fire, but it still weighed heavily on the Potters.
With no additional leads from the DMLE about Voldemort's new base, Harry and Hermione were left with nothing else to do except continue to countdown and study for their OWLs. The entire castle was in a state of nervous tension that finally snapped when Blaise and Susan had a massive row in the corridor outside of the Potter apartment during the first week of June. For the most part, all of the Potters' friends who were paired off had only had small arguments, but it was apparent to all who witnessed the final blowout that something had been brewing for quite a while. Susan was beside herself and Hermione had something more important than studying for once to occupy her attention. Luna was closer to Susan though and took the lead as she led the redhead into the Potter apartment. Meanwhile, Harry took off after Blaise while the rest of the guys decided to make their way to the library.
Harry only ran for a few corridors when he realized that Blaise had too much of a head start on him, so he double backed to the apartment. He felt certain that the ladies were at the apartment, but he needed the Marauder's Map. As soon as he stepped in, he saw all the witches huddled around Susan. Hermione had sensed him coming and he quickly informed her of his need.
Sorry love, Blaise is long gone. I need the Map.
Of course. One second.
Hermione went to their study cubicle and the bookcase where the Map was secured in a hidden nook. She returned and handed it to Harry. After a quick kiss, he activated the map and then barely contained a curse as it became apparent from Blaise's position and speed of movement that he was flying. Glad that he hadn't left the apartment yet, Harry tiptoed around to the closet where his broom was stored.
Sorry Hermione, I'll be out of your hair soon. Blaise is heading for the village. He's on his broom.
Alright. Let's not tell Susie. Please be careful and keep me updated. If you two aren't back soon, I'll have to let McGonagall know.
Understood. I'm going to open the wards and get a head start. I'll apparate to the gates and then fly from there. That should put me just about on his tail.
Hermione chuckled mentally, but approved of his plan as Harry immediately did just as he had told her. When he arrived at the gates with broom in hand he could see Blaise just beyond. He swung onto the broom, reared up and over the gates, and then sped up to catch his friend. Barely a minute later he caught up and was alongside him with ease. Blaise looked over with a mixture of fear, anger, and exasperation. Twenty seconds later they reached the village and Harry signaled to land. Nodding, Blaise obliged and soon they were standing outside the Three Broomsticks.
"Alright Blaise, what's going on? You know right now is not a safe time to take off."
"I don't care. I can't do this anymore."
"Do what? School? Be Susie's boyfriend?"
Blaise blew out a long breath and then threw his broom like a javelin. Harry cast a quick accio before it went through a nearby window while Blaise exploded verbally.
"ALL OF IT! WHO AM I? WHAT AM I? WHY DO I CONTINUE? WHAT DOES SHE WANT FROM ME? WHY DO I BOTHER? ARRRRGGGGHHH!"
Blaise looked like he was about to find something else to throw again so Harry wrapped an arm around his shoulder and decided that he needed to talk. He guided his friend into the pub. Normally they didn't drink more than butterbeer or maybe ale, but with exams coming they were both wound tight. Thankfully, the pub was sparsely populated in the mid-afternoon. Madam Rosmerta came over to see them right away.
"Lord Potter, welcome. This is unscheduled."
"Hello Madam. We're having a bit of a crisis and are in need of a gentleman's counseling session. I need a bottle of your best firewhiskey. Not Ogden's . I also need a basket of bottomless chips and some privacy wards."
"The best you say? That's 120 galleons a bottle. I haven't sold one in months. I'll add the chips as a bonus."
Harry pulled out a Gringotts draft slip, applied a drop of blood and handed it over. Two minutes later, the bottle and glasses appeared. Another five minutes saw the first round of perfectly cooked chips. When Harry took the first sip of his drink, he made a vow to never drink the cheap stuff again. Once he and Blaise had each had a couple, his friend had loosened up and began to talk. As Blaise started, he focused for a minute and poured his magic into focusing on Hermione to let her know where he was.
Hermione, I caught up to Blaise. We're at the Broomsticks. We'll be here a bit. He needs to talk.
That far? The connection is quite good. I understand he needs to talk. Try not to get too wasted. Remember we still have more studying tonight.
Harry gave a mental nod and then focused back on the friend in front of him.
"What's to say Harry? I've lost who I am? Even more than just when I lost my name. I love Susie, really, but I need more. When Madam Bones took me in I was grateful and it was easy, so I didn't think much further. I didn't have many clothes with me and Susan went shopping with me. She likes blue on me, fine. She prefers one aftershave over another, alright because I don't much care one way or another. Somewhere I lost me. For a while it was fine, but I started drowning along the way. I guess I swallowed too much water and had enough. Now with exams it just all broke. I know I need to study, but I need a break too. I wanted to go for a fly, just to relax a bit. I miss flying since I'm not on a team anymore. Except that when the group was going to your apartment to study and I was ready to go fly and meet up after, Susie tore into me about it. I finally lost it. Guess I said some pretty nasty stuff about how her doll didn't want to be groomed anymore. Gods I fucked up. I mean, I want her to give me some space, but I do love her."
"I guess I understand. Hermione and I had some of that, if not as bad. We went through it some when we were just friends. I said some stupid stuff to her when we were friends. She was quite forgiving. I had to admit I was wrong, which is never easy. It sounds like you need to tell Susan what you told me. You probably need some time away from each other. As much as I hated my relatives, I think in a way it was good to have some time away during the summers. When I saw Hermione after being away, it made me realize how much I missed her."
"But how, I have no home?"
"Really Blaise? Susan is your only friend?"
"Hmm, true. I could probably find someplace else to spend some time."
"I can guarantee it. Hermione and my summer is a bit unsure yet, but there is the Burrow. Or Longbottom Manor. Or if you want an unusual experience, you can talk to Luna about apprenticing at the Quibbler."
Blaise snorted and then outright laughed.
"That would definitely be interesting."
"Hey, if you're lucky, maybe Mr. Lovegood will take you along on an expedition to search for the trumpet horned snorkack."
That brought more laughter and another round of drinks, as well as a refill on the chips. The two friends talked more about potential plans for Blaise for the summer and before they realized it, they had passed over two hours and two thirds of the bottle was gone. When they decided to leave, they were a bit wobbly and Madam Rosmerta came over to check on them.
"All okay there lads? I hope you plan to carry those brooms and not ride them?"
"Aye madam. For some reason the ground keeps moving. I don't think I can sight real well right now."
"Hmm, yes, wouldn't know why. Just keep your feet on the ground."
Harry gave a jaunty salute that caused Blaise to laugh while Madam Rosmerta shook her head and the two young men took a long walk back to the castle. By the time they arrived at the Potter apartment, Hermione was waiting in the open doorway, shaking her head. Harry handed her the partial bottle he had brought back with him.
"Careful with that…120 galleons…good stuff."
"I'm sure. Come on, Dobby brought dinner up here. I thought it was preferable to the Great Hall."
The three of them ate a hearty meal that Harry and Blaise barely made it through. Hermione was amazingly tolerant. Realizing she wasn't going to get any studying out of her husband, she took him to their bedroom and stripped him to his trunks before tucking him in bed. When she returned to the dining area, Blaise was asleep with his head on the table. Sighing, she called Dobby for assistance with her burly friend. The elf levitated him to the couch and soon had him tucked in for the night.
Harry woke the next morning and groaned as he tried to pull the pillow over his head, only to hear a chuckle both in his head and through his ears.
Come on love, you got out of studying yesterday afternoon, but we have class in an hour. I have something to help.
Harry pried an eye open and saw a smoky phial of potion being handed to him by his amazingly compassionate, gorgeous, fantastically wonderful wife. He snatched it greedily and downed the hideous tasting concoction like a dying man in a desert. Groaning, he began to feel better immediately.
I already showered, you go ahead and clean up. I'm going to deliver the next potion to Blaise.
Blaise is here?
He didn't make it past our couch. Dobby left him there.
Hermione made her potion delivery and soon Blaise was also praising Hermione, who then called for Dobby and their friend delivered back to his room. With their guest gone, Hermione returned to the bathroom to work on her hair and talk to her husband as he stepped from the shower.
"So, now that you're sober, care to tell me what set Blaise off?"
Harry sighed as he toweled his hair and explained a bit. He wasn't betraying confidences, since Blaise knew that there was no keeping secrets between Harry and Hermione. As Harry dressed, Hermione sighed as the pieces coalesced with what she had gathered from Susan.
"That makes sense from what Susan said. She actually isn't entirely clueless about what she's been doing, but she's found it hard to pull back. Blaise is so under motivated she finds it hard. I think the idea of a bit of separation might be good. I do agree that they need to talk. Anyway, except for passing, they won't have a chance until around eleven this morning."
The Potters finished getting ready, gathered their book bags, and quickly made their way down to breakfast. Most of their group of friends sat together, although Blaise didn't appear at all.
After the first two classes of the day, everyone was back at the Potter apartment, including both Susan and Blaise, who hadn't talked since the previous day. Hermione offered them the privacy of the bedroom so they could talk, but Blaise asked if Harry and Hermione could join them. The rest of the friends stayed out in the living room while the foursome talked through the points that had caused the explosion the previous day. In the end, Blaise and Susan reconciled, but their ardor was cooled and they both agreed to step back a bit. Blaise also planned on looking for alternative lodging over the summer, which upset Susan greatly, but she agreed to with Hermione's support. When the four friends rejoined their larger group, it was with a much quieter and subdued mood.
After the drama with Blaise and Susan, life at Hogwarts pressed on toward OWLs. Everyone continued to watch the newspapers each day, as attacks continued. Tonks visited once a week, but OWLs were close enough that the students were too busy for anything more frequent. Unfortunately, Voldemort had gone to ground quite well and there were no good leads on his new base. Harry was frustrated, but Hermione kept him focused on his schoolwork.
Finally, the third week of June saw the arrival of OWLs. It took four days to finish theoretical and practical exams. By the end of it, Harry was surprised that he wasn't bleeding from his eyes and ears and was beyond even caring what the results were. He was just glad that it was over with. When his wife caught that stray thought, she was aghast with him. Finally, on Friday the 23rd of June, Hogwarts ended and Harry and Hermione completed their fifth year at Hogwarts as they boarded the Express and headed home.