The summer wasn't as bad as Harry and Hermione had originally feared. First she and Harry quickly came up with a general pattern: they alternated where they slept every night. But they had dinner with the grangers in London three out of every four nights.
This was because with the portkeys they could easily spend their day times at Potter manor while allowing Hermione to maximise her time with her parents while they were home from work. Harry missed Sirius a little but he couldn't dismiss the fact that with his grandfather as potions professor he never really got the opportunity to really miss the man.
Ron was able to join them most days as well, even bringing Susan with him about half of the time. They didn't get any opportunity to go anywhere like the beach or visit a theme park. Sirius however did transfigure a pool in the pathed area out the back and the four teens were about to find their own amusement.
That changed the second Wednesday they were home. The Manor had a visitor in the form of curse breakers Williams and Tanaka. Harry was happy to see Tanaka was walking fine and seemed to be managing with her replacement hand just as she had the original. He was proud of the work he had done on the limbs.
Harry had to leave Ron, Hermione, and Susan lounging by the pool as he followed his grandfather as he led the two curse breakers and Sirius into grandfather's office space. Harry was lucky outer robes could be thrown on so quickly as he had only been wearing shorts by the pool.
Tanaka's face split into a grin but Williams was more reserved as he answered "We did it. We have a way to track them now."
Tanaka's face split into a grin but Williams was more reserved as he answered "We did it. We have a way to track them now."
It took a few moments for his words to sink in but as soon as they had a cheer ran around the room. The curse breakers had worked out a way to track all of Voldemort's soul fragments, finally there was an end to the war in sight.
"How soon until you work out where the first one is?" Harry asked, excited by the development.
"Well working out exactly where they are is going to take time. But so far we believe there are multiple pieces of soul in or around London and we also have a signal coming from the Yorkshire area. Unfortunately the farther away the other shard is the less accurate we can be." Williams said.
Harry however had an idea. "I assume you will have to go to each area and set up something more accurate to work out exactly where they are?" Williams and Tanaka both said yes, so Harry continued. "In that case, in Yorkshire I would try looking around Little Hangleton. That is where he kidnapped me to, he took me there because his fathers bones were there. So Voldemort has a connection to the place."
Tanaka nodded. "Not bad, kid. That is as good a place as any to start and you're right, if he has a connection to that area he is more likely to have hidden something there. Not guaranteed but it's in our likely area so even if there is nothing going on there it should give us a direction to look in."
The small war council stayed in the office for over an hour working on ideas. They were at the point now where the conversation switched from how to locate the horcruxes to how they would approach them.
Almost all of them advocated for destroying the things immediately however Harry was advocating for a different idea. "If possible we should capture them instead of destroying them immediately."
"There isn't any point in doing that Harry. You can't interrogate a horcrux, and even if we could get information from one it's likely incredibly out of date." Sirius tried to sound like he was being oh so reasonable.
"I don't want to interrogate them. I want to use them as bait. Imagine what vol, uh, he-whose-name-is-taboo would do if he found out we had all his Horcruxes. We could easily lure him out." Harry said.
"No. The more likely scenario is that if he-who-can't-sneeze thinks that he is done he will take revenge. Going on a murdering rampage that would devastate both the magical population and the mundane population and expose the magical world to everyone. Just imagine what damage he could do just by apparating around the cities casting fiendfyre and just letting it go out of control." Sirius said. "He doesn't do that because he wants power, he wants to rule over everyone and everything. There is no point ruling over corpses and rubble. But if he believed he was doomed and had no chance to live, what better way to be remembered for all of history than to be the one wizard who turns every one of Britain's cities into a smoking crater and reveals the existence of magic to everyone. He would be more famous than God."
That was a sobering thought not least because Harry could see Voldemort doing exactly that if he thought he had nothing left. It wouldn't even be that hard, pick a city a day and just apparate around while casting fiendfyre before apparating back to somewhere hidden, rest up to hit another city the next day. Only the truly insane could ever actually do it but nobody was ever going to claim Voldemort was playing with a full deck, add in enough fear and desperation and you have a recipe for disaster.
Tanaka spoke up next. "Sirius is correct, we are better off destroying the Horcruxes and then fighting when he believes he is immortal and unkillable. While he believes he has Horcruxes he won't fear death. From what I have heard just like when you dueled him in the graveyard he didn't fear your ability to kill him and he charged right at you taking what would have been a killing blow from anyone else just to hit you with a killing curse. If we are going to fight such a powerful and skilled killer we want him making mistakes like that rather than hiding away from every spell that could kill him, drawing out the fight and increasing the number of our people who die."
She continued. "On a more positive note we think the connection is also tracking You-Know-Who's location. From what we know about the number of Horcruxes and the duality in one of the signals coming from Londonish direction we think we are detecting both him and a horcrux he has in his possession."
Williams cut in, "Which is the bad news, we are sure You-Know-Who is keeping a horcrux on him meaning there is likely to be no chance to destroy it until you have him cornered."
That was a chilling thought. Charlus raised the next question. "What happens if we kill him first then destroy the last horcrux? Will his spirit form just die? Will he be able to survive?"
Williams had the answer but it wasn't a fun one. "If the spirit is floating around it will die but not quickly. It will take probably about three days. If however it possesses anyone or even an animal it won't die. It will be able to, for lack of a better word, heal up while possessing something or someone and will then have another three days to find a new host. If however a host dies while the wraith possesses it it will die with the host."
"Is there a way to attack the wraith itself?" Harry asked.
"If there is nobody knows it." Said Tanaka. "The rules of magic say it's possible but as far as we know nobody has found a way."
Unfortunately that made sense to Harry. Knowing that something was technically possible and finding a way to actually do it were very different things. So they had to make sure that all the Horcruxes were destroyed first.
"What about your tracking? I assume you need the Horcruxes for it to work?" Sirius asked, echoing Harry's thought's.
"Yes, so if we are going to use it to track him we will have to time when they get destroyed carefully. Too soon and we lose track of him, too late and we have to deal with a wraith."
"Hermione and I can take care of that." Said Harry and when people turned to look at him he grinned. "It's not hard guys. We will just put a Protean charm on something and it can be used to send a message when Voldemort is cornered. Whoever receives the message can destroy the Horcruxes and then send back another message telling everyone it's okay to kill him. It's a Newt level charm but I'm sure between Hermione and myself we can pull it off." He actually knew Hermione could already do it; she had found the spell during her reading and had told him all about it.
Charlus sounded thoughtful as he said. "That could work. And with enough preparation we could use fiendfyre to destroy them while whoever goes after the horcrux he is keeping on him could use the sword."
They went over details for a little longer but the first target wasn't Voldemort or anything in London it was Yorkshire and Little Hangleton so it was much longer before the visitors left and Harry after pulling off his outer robe and ditching it in his room went back out by the pool.
Ron was in the water swimming laps while Hermione and Susan soaked up the sun in their swimsuits. Hermione did have a book with her but it lay forgotten next to her as she chatted with Susan about something.
"I'm back." Harry called out to everyone right before he bombed into the water right in front of Ron who had looked his way from the shout. Hary sent water smashing into Ron's face and when Harry surfaced a few seconds later Ron was just shaking the water out of his face and deciding that if Harry was going to pull pranks like that then he deserved a good and through dunking.
Ron chased Harry around the pool for a few minutes shoving Harry under the water every time he managed to catch him. The two teens were having a lot of fun but it was like sprinting while trying to hold your breath. You quickly ran out of energy and the two had to stop.
Harry sat himself on the side of the pool nearest the girls and Ron joined him a few seconds later. It was Hermione who spoke up first. "So what happened that you felt the need to remind yourself that you're still a teenager?"
"Williams and the others have worked out how to find the things they are looking for. It's gonna take a little time to locate exactly where they are but hopefully they could be done before we go back to school." Harry hated having to be careful around Susan but he had promised his grandfather he wasn't going to tell anyone outside of Ron and Hermione. Judging by the look on Susan's face she didn't exactly like it either but she didn't say anything. She may understand the need for security but she didn't need to like it.
The four of them chilled around the pool for most of the day just letting themselves be teenagers. Despite the war going on in the outside world, behind the walls of the Potter Estate they could just relax and forget about everything.
At a little before five the four of them were dressed again and walking down to the gate with Sirius. It was time for Ron and Susan to portkey to their homes and it was time for Harry and Hermione to go to her parents house. Sirius was with them because it meant they had to step off the property to portkey away and he liked to watch them go just to be sure.
They watched Ron go first followed by Susan and then it was Harry and Hermione's turn. Harry hooked his finger under the gold chains around Hermione's neck and she whispered the passphrase to send them spinning across the country to the safe landing spot.
They appeared in Hermione's back garden, Hermione was just fumbling for her key to the back door when it opened. "Afternoon kitten." Her father grinned down at her from the back step "Just got home about a minute before you." Hermione beamed at her dad and gave the man a hug.
"Afternoon Dan." Harry said as Hermione broke her hug. "Need any help with anything today?" Harry had been offering to help every day he was at the Grangers so far this summer. At first Dan had refused but as Harry had argued, with Hermione's encouragement, he wasn't exactly a guest anymore. As Hermione's long term boyfriend who was staying with them for most of the summer he couldn't in good conscience do nothing around the house.
The idea that they should treat him like family staying with them for a bit rather than a guest went unspoken by all of them. However Hermione knew the fact that the conversation she had ended up having with her mother about her and Harry's long term plans wasn't a coincidence.
Neither teen knew that Charlus had already warned them with how magic affects interpersonal relationships, the fact that Harry and Hermione were still together after so long likely meant their relationship was for the long haul. So they let Harry start helping a little. It wasn't anything much, but it was enough to let Harry not feel like he was imposing on them.
"Actually yeah. I was going to clean out the garden shed this evening. I was thinking it was a real shame we haven't had a barbecue so far this year and I want to check over my equipment. I could use a second pair of hands." Dan asked, there was a hesitant quality to his voice like he was worried he had gone too far and the way he glanced at Hermione it was her he thought would object.
Harry, though, honestly thought it was fine. He had had to do stuff like that at the Dursleys often enough and he had had to do it alone. "Sure I don't mind. Especially as there is no way for the Ministry to detect underage magic anymore so there is nothing stopping me using a little magic to help us cheat." Harry added the last bit to remind Hermione that it honestly wasn't that big a job.
They went inside and Emma was in the kitchen making everyone a cup of tea. Harry had learned that Emma liked to have a cup when she got in from work and she couldn't seem to grasp the idea that other people might not want a cup. Still it was good tea and Harry would accept the cup when he was handed one. Before that Hermione had to have a hug off her mum
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Later that evening when Harry and Hermione were relaxing, just laid over her bed cuddling, but with about an hour to kill before going to bed Hermione asked. "Did you have fun helping my dad today?"
Harry shrugged. "It was alright. I had to do a few mending charms on some of the equipment and I saved a trip to a disposal site by vanishing some old paint cans for him. He said he was thinking of inviting grandfather, Sirius, and I over this Sunday to celebrate his equipment getting fixed."
"Yeah that sounds like dad. Normally he hates to cook but as soon as its primitive cooking over charcoal he thinks he is Ainsley Harriott*."
"My uncle was the same. As soon as it was time to cook a few burgers on a cheap disposable grill, cooking was suddenly man's work. Maybe if your dad lets me anywhere near the grill this weekend I will catch the bug as well?" Harry joked
"Probably but it's different. You actually cook all the time at the Manor, so you could probably do better than either of them. And it's great you can cook because it's really not my talent."
Harry pulled her in closer in a reassuring hug. "Hermione, there is nothing wrong with your cooking. I won't lie and say it's amazing, but you haven't really put any effort into learning yet. But what you did last year was good and with the charms you learnt from Mrs Weasley you have a solid foundation to build on whenever you like." He tried to be reassuring but honest with Hermione.
He must have gotten it right because Hermione snuggled into him. "I will get around to it eventually. So what was really going on with Tanaka and Williams this morning?" Hermione switched the subject to what she obviously wanted to talk about. Now without having to worry about what he said Harry told her everything. He told her about having a way to track the horcruxes, he told her about how he had a strong suspicion that one was near the graveyard he had been in after he had been kidnapped. He told her that all the other signals were here in London, he told her all about tracking Voldemort and the issue with timing and he finally with an apology told her about volunteering her to help with a signal and how he thought she could do it with a protean charm.
"I understand if you're not happy about me volunteering you like this and if you don't want to I understand and will work it out myself but I could really use your help." Harry finished.
Hermione had been silent for a while and Harry was starting to worry he crossed a line, when she finally broke the silence she said. "The magic shouldn't be too difficult, the issue is working out the signals. It's got to be something the team fighting can do easily but also something that can't be done accidentally as you don't want anything to happen to the Horcruxes too soon. And the fighting team will need a signal to say that they can go for the kill. That doesn't need to be so robust but it's better if it's discreet." Her silence had been because she was thinking through the problem.
Harry shouldn't have been surprised, Hermione always wanted to be more involved. She had been upset that she hadn't been able to go with him when he had charged up the containment around the two Horcruxes. This time Harry had gotten her a job to do, a foot in the door. As long as Harry got to stay out of the fighting it should be enough.
They cuddled together for a while as they talked through ideas of what they were going to make. Together they came up with the idea of hollow rings that had a coil of yarn inside them. The rings would be enchanted so that when the person wearing a ring fed it little magic the yarn would be cut. Thanks to the yarn being linked to another with a protean charm the other would be cut as well. The second string would be in the cottage holding a ball bearing over a cymbal from a drum kit. When the yarn is cut the ball bearing will fall and make a loud sound.
Once the horcruxes were destroyed the curse breakers would cast a charm on a master ring causing all the others to heat up noticeably to anyone wearing it and would inform them that it is time to go for the kill. Hopefully in a way that Voldemort and his minions wouldn't notice until it was too late.
It was going to be a lot of work making so many of the rings. Especially as to make a 'hollow ring' it would need to be two rings that fit together with a hidden space between them but they were sure they could do it. Harry had plenty of practice reshaping silver and that would carry over well to making the rings. As for the enchanting and putting things together, that's what friends were for.
They talked and planned for so long that they fell into a light doze right there on Hermione's bed even though Harry had planned to go to the guest room.
Some time later Harry was roused from his light sleep by Hermione's bedroom door being opened. He opened an eye, a crack and saw the outline of Dan back lit in the doorway. Despite their conversions Dan was still a father, one who deep down wanted his daughter to remain his little girl for longer and he wasn't fully comfortable with Harry sleeping in his daughter's room. Even if the two of them were still fully clothed, and on top of the covers having fallen asleep talking. Actually that was getting to be a pattern with them, he would have to talk to Hermione and see if she wanted to do anything about that.
Dan started to quietly make his way into the room. Harry realised he was going to wake him up and ask him to go to the guest room. That wasn't unfair and Harry started to push himself fully awake.
Dan lunged and Harry saw the flash of a kitchen knife as he was drawing it back ready to strike. Harry didn't think he just acted and kicked the man, sending him stumbling backwards. Harry fumbled for his wand, Hermione woke up with a start and started to panic, Dan lunged a second time, Harry noticed he wasn't coming for Harry at all he was trying to get at Hermione. Harry tried to kick again but Dan jumped back. Hermione started screaming. There was a sound of thundering footsteps on the stairs outside the room. Harry finally had his wand in his hand. "Stupefy!" The red jet shot from Harry's wand and took Dan in the chest.
As Dan crashed to the floor Emma appeared in the doorway. "What the hell is going on up here! Dan! What have you done!" She demanded, seeing the wand in Harry's hand.
Harry suddenly felt a wand pointed into the back of his neck. "Explain. Now." Hermione, it seemed, had gotten over her screaming and was now demanding to know what was going on.
Harry took a deep breath to calm his own nerves and purposely dropped his wand where Hermione could see it. "Dan woke me up as he came in. I thought he was just checking on us but then he pulled a knife and started trying to stab Hermione. I stopped him. He is only stunned." Harry said as he pointed to the knife. It was only now that Harry got a good look at the knife and realised it wasn't a kitchen knife.
"Dad would never do that." Hermione half screamed at Harry pressing her wand into him until it hurt a little.
"I agree Dan wouldn't ever do that. If he was in control of his own actions. Look at the knife." The blade was long and single edged which was why Harry had at first thought it was a kitchen knife but now you could see the handle and the stylised feathers carved into the black handle. "I think he is bewitched. Maybe a compulsion, more likely the Imperius curse. I think this is Narcissa Malfoy's first attempt." Harry felt the wand lower from his back.
"Why would he only attack now and not earlier? Why today and not yesterday?" Hermione asked.
Harry looked over at Emma to see how she would react. "This is just a guess, but he was probably bewitched today and the command was for him to wait until you were asleep and vulnerable."
"That's impossible!" Emma said with strong conviction. "He was with me all day. Nothing happened."
"Unless… it's entirely possible your memories have been modified." Hermione finished the thought herself. "Mum I'm sorry about this but you need to be checked over by professionals before we can trust you haven't got a spell on you as well. Stupefy! " and Emma collapsed to the ground unconscious.