"I'll take you and Harry both to where you'll be staying, I've got to hurry and get back to the meeting," Molly said in a rushed voice as rest of the adults all went to where it was being held.
Lucifer grabbed Harry's trunk and followed him and Molly down the hall. "I do ask that you both keep your voices down, so as to not stir anything unpleasant."
They passed long, moth-eaten curtains, where Lucifer wondered if it were a door or a portrait. They passed an umbrella stand that was a severed Troll's leg, and some heads mounted on the opposite wall. Upon closer inspection, he saw they were House-Elves, it was not before when he had visited, or maybe Sirius' had removed it by then?
"Here we go, Harry, you're there in that door there with Ron, Lucifer, you're with them," Molly said and hurried away, "I'll let you know when Dinner's ready."
Harry walked over to the door, but Lucifer didn't follow, "Nothing against either of you, but I'm sleeping alone," he said and walked to the next door.
He gave a gentle knock, and when no one answered, he opened, he walked in and there was a bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. Lucifer wasn't going to use either as his stuff stayed in his pouch, but they added to the room at least.
"HARRY!" He heard from somewhere outside his room, "Ron, he's here, Harry's here!"
Lucifer walked to the door and didn't see anyone, but he heard it click and he walked out, "We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how 'are' you? Are you alright? Were you furious with us?" He heard her say from behind the closed door, she was playing the part well, so Ron must've been in there.
'What were they both doing in there?' He thought to himself.
Lucifer knew how Hermione felt about Ron, so he knew he didn't have anything to worry about.
"I know our letters were useless, but we weren't allowed to say anything, Dumbledore wouldn't let us. Oh, we have so much to tell you! But first... where's Lucifer?" She asked and turned to see the door when she heard it open back up.
"I should feel insulted, y'all closing the door on me," he said, smirking.
Hermione turned to see Lucifer leaning against the doorframe, silently watching her. A second passed, where she paused, frozen, convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her, then she ran at him full-tilt, practically tripping over her own feet. She ran up to him and almost flattened him with a tight embrace, "I missed you," she whispered.
Burying her nose in his white shirt, she inhaled, reveling in the smell of him, her arms squeezing him around the waist as tightly as she could.
"Oh my God," she muttered.
Lucifer pressed his nose to her hair and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She was hugging him so hard he thought she was going to crack a rib. He didn't mind.
Her hair smelled like oranges and sunshine, for the 'first' time in days, his head finally felt clear.
She pulled her face from his chest and smiled up at him. It felt as if his stomach wanted to squeeze into the cavity where his heart used to rest, but that was okay since it was currently somewhere near his larynx.
"Kissmekissmekissme," She whispered in an excited breath.
Lucifer pressed his lips to hers. She melted against him, her tongue pressing right past his lips with no attempt to tease him. It was more than welcome, he couldn't get close enough to her, consuming her seemed rational. After a breathless minute, one of the boys cleared his throat, and they both came up for air.
"...I missed you too, Hermione," he whispered, a little out of breath.
She looked up at him with cloudy eyes, "You need a trim... your hair looks shaggy."
"Yeah, I'll ask Mrs. Weasley to do it," Lucifer said and looked at Ron, "Good to see you too, Weasely."
But Ron wasn't looking at him at all, he was noticing how Hermione greeted Lucifer, he narrowed his eyes at her but somehow decided to keep his mouth shut this time, "Likewise," he fake smiled and waved.
"Hedwig!" Harry said, his voice instantly softening as snowy white owl swooped down from wardrobe and came to rest gently on his shoulder, nipping his ear in greeting.
"She's been in a right state, mate. Almost pecked me half to death when she brought your last letters. Look at this," Ron said, holding out his hands to show Harry the faint red scratch marks on his knuckles.
"Oh, yeah... sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know..." Harry said, his tone turning sharp and upset as the brief comfort of his owl vanished.
"We wanted to give them to you, mate," Ron said defensively. "We both did, but Mum read every single letter that left this house, making sure nothing was said in them that could jeopardize everything. Her words, not mine. You know, Dumbledore—"
"He wouldn't let you. Yeah, Hermione just said as much," Harry snapped shortly, cutting him off.
Lucifer stood quietly by the doorway, noticing the immediate shift in the room's atmosphere. The way Harry spoke was completely different now. He was no longer elated to see his friends; the heavy resentment he felt for them, for Dumbledore, for the Order, or for all of the above, had completely replaced his previous relief.
He knew that when Harry inevitably started yelling, the anger wouldn't necessarily be directed at Hermione, but he purposefully chose not to step in if the boy did start shouting at her. This wasn't Malcolm Graham, or Severus Snape, or anyone else whose neck Lucifer wanted to wring on sight. This was Harry, their friend, and Hermione had grown in more ways than just physically over the past four years.
She had become far more confident in her own skin, and Lucifer knew she would let Harry fully vent all of his trapped frustration. Because of that trust, he decided to do the same and let him speak.
"He, er—he seemed to think it best that we not tell you anything," Hermione said quietly. She kept her hands folded, though she really, really wanted to go against Dumbledore's orders and tell Harry exactly what had been happening over the past three weeks anyway.
"Right," Harry said, his voice flat.
"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles—" Ron began to explain, trying to smooth things over.
"Yeah?" Harry asked, his eyebrows snapping up in pure disbelief. "Have either of you been targeted and attacked by Dementors this summer?"
"Well, no—but that's exactly why he's had people from the Order tailing you all of July—" Hermione finally got to tell Harry, but she saw the instant she said, that it wasn't something he was excited to hear about.
"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" Harry said, his chest heaving as he obviously tried to keep himself calm. Hermione wasn't sure how much longer his control would last. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"
"I should've been there that day... I wasn't, but I should've been. I'm sorry, Potter," Lucifer apologized, his voice slicing through the rising tension.
"You've got absolutely nothing to be sorry for," Harry said to him. But because he was trying so hard to repress his rage, the words came out much harsher than he intended. Lucifer simply remained calm, accepting the heat without reacting.
"He was so angry," Hermione said, her thoughts turning to the guard who had abandoned his post. She would not forgive Mundungus Fletcher for his negligence. "Dumbledore, we saw him when he found out Mundungus had left his post early to handle some stolen cauldrons. He was scary... not Lucifer-level scary, but still terrifying..."
"You know what? I'm actually glad he left," Harry said coldly, a bitter smile touching his lips. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have had to use the 'Patronus Charm' to defend my life, and Dumbledore would've probably left me rotting at Privet Drive all summer."
Lucifer had qualms Harry knew that wasn't entirely true, but the boy was so deeply angry right now he was saying whatever felt good to say, whether it was factually accurate or not.
"Aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing your case?" Hermione asked him calmly, trying to ground him.
"No," Harry shot back. Lucifer knew he was lying, but with how riled up his emotions were, he wasn't about to admit to anyone that he was terrified of being expelled.
Then walked away from the two of them, pacing the floor and looking around the dark room. He was trying to find something to look at to raise his spirits and calm down, but Lucifer knew that wasn't going to happen. Every single room in this house looked just as uninviting and gloomy as the next.
"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me completely in the dark?" Harry asked, his voice strained as he tried to maintain a casual, conversational tone. "Did you, er, bother to ask him about me at all?"
Hermione and Ron glanced at each other uneasily. She had expected him to act exactly like this, and wanted nothing more than to step forward, embrace him in a tight hug, and tell him how incredibly sorry she was. But the rigid, furious look on his face let her know he wanted everyone to stay far away from him.
"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on, you and Lucifer," Ron said quickly, before Hermione could speak. "We did, mate, but he's really busy now. We've only seen him twice since Hermione got here, and he didn't have any time for idle chatter. He just made us swear on our magic not to tell you important stuff when we wrote. He said the owls might be intercepted by the Ministr---"
"He could've still kept me informed if he'd actually wanted to," Harry interrupted shortly, his eyes flashing. "You're not telling me Albus Dumbledore doesn't know ways to send secure messages without using owls."
"Believe me, Harry," Hermione said, her voice soft but, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "I wanted to tell you everything going on, and I almost did at one point. I had an entire letter written out in a complex code I knew you could easily translate, by giving you a hint at the very end of it to remember to brush up on your Herbology.... But Mrs. Weasley caught me, stopped me, and shredded my letter to pieces. She said Dumbledore didn't want you knowing a single thing."
"Maybe they think I can't be trusted," Harry said, his gaze darting between the both of them, his voice thick with insult.
"Don't be thick, Harry," Ron said, looking highly disconcerted by the accusation.
"Or that I can't take care of myself—"
"I don't think he thinks that at all, Harry," Hermione said, trying desperately to get through his defenses, but she could see her logic wasn't working against his anger.
"So how come I have to stay locked away at the Dursleys' while you two get to join in on absolutely everything that's going on here?" Harry demanded, and it was entirely obvious to Lucifer that his friend was no longer able to stop the floodgates.
"The only one that seems to actually care about me is Lucifer, because he kept me from that dreaded bedroom. My own Godfather sent a letter telling me to stay put—"
"He said he regretted writing that immediately—" Hermione interrupted, defending Sirius.
"But that was only after he felt bad about it, wasn't it?" Harry shouted, his voice finally cracking as the rage took over completely. "Why are you both allowed to know everything that's going on here—"
"We're not!" Ron interrupted loudly, matching his tone. "Mum won't let us anywhere near the kitchen during meetings! She says we're too young!"
That's when Harry started yelling at the top of his lungs, and Lucifer was honestly surprised it had taken this long for him to snap.
xxxxxx
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