The Ministry finally took an official stance on the matter of the Pure Adults. Although they wholeheartedly supported the anonymity instituted by the Wizengamot, they strongly believed that in this particular case it was in the best interest of the students in question to reveal themselves. The Ministry was careful to point out that it was a matter of security and safety, as Voldemort was looking for the Pure Adults, too. The Ministry felt confident it could protect them but needed to know who they were in order to do so.
Hermione found the whole thing a little ludicrous; unless the Ministry whisked the two Pure Adults away under Fidelius or put every seventh-year under Auror guard, there was no way it was going to go unnoticed that the Ministry was suddenly protecting two specific people, and that as good as pasted giant targets on their heads. They were much safer in anonymity.
However reluctantly, Hermione did have to concede that it was a rather awkward time for the Ministry to appear to be doing nothing, and since that illustrious institution hadn't had any luck so far in bringing down Voldemort, finding and protecting the Pure Adults would be a particularly timely accomplishment.
As a result of their decision, Ministry officials were coming to Hogwarts on Thursday, thirteenth November, one week after the news of the Pure Adults had been revealed to the public. Since the virginity-testing bit of Blood Magic wasn't legal, these officials only wanted verbal confirmation of virginity or lack thereof.
Scrimgeour's trial was closed to the public, but through Kingsley—who'd been appointed Acting Head of the M.L.E. as well as retaining his position as Head of the Aurors—they had learnt that Scrimgeour was trying to argue that he had simply been trying to find and protect the students in question without tipping off Voldemort.
It was his best line of reasoning, given the situation he was in, but the Blood Magic was a bad business, wiping the records and the memory of Andrew Stebbins with no accountability was worrisome, that bit about framing Voldemort was poorly planned, and not informing Minister Bones of the whole situation looked likely to put the final nail in his coffin; no matter how much Scrimgeour claimed he wanted to keep the situation quiet, unless he was prepared to outright accuse Amelia Bones of being a mole for Voldemort, he should have informed her of his discovery and his intentions.
Like Scrimgeour's unofficial attempt, this official Ministry venture was couched in terms of its being voluntary. The subtext of the "request", however, made it plain that everyone was expected to respond. Hermione thought peer pressure would take care of that; anyone who didn't participate would be assumed to be admitting their guilt—or innocence, in this case, Hermione realized with a smirk, in a very specific definition of the word.
Over lunch on Thursday afternoon, Millicent and Vera were the first two to volunteer the information that they were not virgins. Since there was none of the subterfuge that Scrimgeour had employed, it was only a matter of the seventh-year students having to make this declaration, and it was quickly accomplished.
There was a male and a female Ministry official, neither of whom Hermione knew. They both looked slightly incredulous that it had suddenly become part of their job description to ask Hogwarts students if they were virgins. Hermione found on her turn, at least, that they were virtually waving her on before she could answer in the negative; they were Prophet readers, apparently, and had heard all about her and Harry.
The Ministry officials did not have very accomplished poker faces. It was evident simply from looking at their expressions when they passed the Great Hall on the way out near the end of the lunch hour that they had not received the answer they were looking for. No one seemed to know quite what to make of this. Did this mean Millicent and Vera had lied to the officials?
It was one thing, the consensus ran, not to tell the truth to your peers, but would they really maintain that fiction of lack of virginity with the Ministry? What if the Ministry had other ways of testing and caught them out in a lie? Could this possibly mean everyone had been looking in the wrong direction after all? The student body turned back to examine itself again. But what had they missed?
Obviously, someone could have lied or misled or been misunderstood at some point in this mad rush to uncover the virgins in their midst. Plenty of what they were working with was conjecture. It was more than a bit of a relief for those who had been at the centre of the controversy to find that everyone was back to square one and uncertain how to restart without making the same mistakes.
Remus was set to arrive around ten in the evening, having left a wide window to ensure that he wouldn't run into the Ministry officials once Albus warned him of the impending visit. He came to meet her in Room One, which Remus knew of from their training sessions. It was relatively neutral territory; Severus had not wanted the man to come to his private lab a guaranteed once a month.
Harry and Hermione were the first to arrive. Hermione conjured a table and warded around it to protect the Wolfsbane before she and Harry practiced shielding and cursing one another wandlessly and wordlessly. They kept their spells relatively low-level as it still took them more effort to work wandlessly. They figured only practice would help them improve, and it was an advantage they wanted to have for an emergency; a little bit of shielding had to be better than no shielding at all.
Their bracelets apprised them of Remus's arrival before he made it to their location; by the time he actually entered the room, they had conjured chairs, and Kreacher had brought them tea. Hermione hugged Remus in welcome, pleased when Harry did the same a moment later. Remus looked surprised but happy at this dual embrace.
The last of the Marauders tended not to make many attempts to touch people. She had no doubt that he had had bad experiences with adverse reactions from others, and she therefore made it a bit of a mission to reassure him that there were people out there who weren't the least bit afraid of or disgusted by him. She knew Harry felt the same way, but he was normally not so willing to use physical gestures of affection; the fact that he had kept the openness to touch even as he became more used to the Veritaserum made her very happy.
Remus immediately drank the Wolfsbane she had made, grimacing as always at the horrible taste. The potion had to be consumed at a maximum of twenty-four hours before the full moon and a minimum of one hour before its rise. Remus thought that the potion was slightly more efficacious the closer to the moon it was taken but ever since his year here as a professor, he had been leery of leaving it too late in case events intervened and prevented him from taking it.
They all seated themselves in Hermione's comfy blue armchairs, and she served the tea. The older man liked to drink it as soon as possible after his dosage, and that first cup was always loaded with the sugar he would have liked to have put in the Wolfsbane.
"How you doing, Moony?" Harry asked.
"I'm well, thank you, Harry."
He looked, Hermione thought, as though it were the night before the full moon. His dark robes were plain but not nearly as shabby as the ones they had first seen him wearing in their third year; everything about him was neat, from his golden hair to his serviceable shoes, and yet there was an indefinable air of "wild" about him.
His eyes were edging from their regular brown to something that was closer to the amber of the werewolf. There was far more tension in his frame than normal and he seemed, even in the few minutes he'd been here, restless and slightly ill at ease. In a way, she knew that feeling. He needed earth beneath his feet and open space around him; he needed to let the wolf out, and that option was currently unavailable to him.
It made her feel slightly better that her Weresbane was fully grown and would be ready for initial testing by the next new moon. Now, she wasn't just seeing and sympathizing, she was actively trying to make his life better. Soon, her attempt could begin in earnest.
"And you?" the ageing Gryffindor inquired.
Harry shrugged. "It's been a bit of a zoo here."
Remus smiled. "The Prophet generally manages to make life interesting." He shifted slightly so that he was facing her. "It's been a little difficult not to hear about both of you. How are you holding up?"
Her shrug mirrored Harry's. "If you've been trusting the Prophet for accurate news of my mental state, you're probably grossly misinformed, but otherwise it's been tolerably amusing."
"Oh, I've been taking highly publicised news about the lot of you with a grain of salt for years," Remus responded easily.
They were interrupted by the arrival of Severus … with a goblet of Wolfsbane in his hands. They all exchanged looks.
"What?" Severus demanded shortly, his glower becoming more pronounced. "I'm not here for socializing, I'm here for you to drink your bloody potion and leave, Lupin."
Remus cleared his throat. "I've already had my potion, Severus."
An eyebrow rose. "You've discovered a heretofore deeply, deeply buried talent along with an unexpected capital and started brewing for yourself?"
Remus looked to her, and she shrugged at him to go ahead.
"Hermione made it for me."
Severus's dark gaze focussed sharply on her.
"You made it for him."
She bristled at his tone. "You gave the task over to me in July. You made no indication to the contrary, so I've continued with my duty."
"You don't have anywhere to brew."
She rose to her feet so that she felt less at a disadvantage when facing him.
"Just because you threw me out of your lab does not mean that I have nowhere I can brew."
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "If there was another lab in the castle that you were using, I would be aware of it."
Her lips tightened. Was he going to accuse her of going out and buying an inferior black-market version next?
"You've already offered a suggestion as to where I brew; what makes you think I didn't take you up on it?" she said icily.
His expression grew sterner. "If you're caught without two usable bedrooms, the consequences would be … severe."
"The list of people who can enter without my permission is very small, and there will always be two beds in our rooms."
They stared one another down. Harry and Remus were watching curiously from the sidelines.
"You should have informed me that you would not renege on our agreement," he pronounced.
She drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her nose. It was abysmally worded, but she supposed he did have a point. He had left her, as far as he knew, without a lab, equipment, or the proper ingredients; assuming she was somehow going to continue making the Wolfsbane would have been dangerous.
"I am not in the habit of reassuring people that I will continue with a task that I have no intention of stopping; rest assured that had I felt myself unable to perform any duties you had assigned me, I would have informed you of that fact."
"It was so thoughtful of you to clarify that for me before I went to the trouble of making this Wolfsbane, Miss Granger."
She could sense another furious run in the Forbidden Forest coming out of this conversation.
"I apologize, sir," she said evenly. Maybe if it hadn't been nearly impossible to see him privately and if he wasn't frying her skin to a crisp on those occasions, it would have occurred to her. "It was never my intention to make you waste your time."
But really, it was an added bonus as far as she was concerned, and she didn't regret it nearly as much as he no doubt thought she should. If he were getting some discomfort over what he was putting them through, he deserved it.
Severus was looking at her as though he knew full well what she was thinking, but what he said after a stilted moment of silence was, "I trust you can find a recipient for this, Lupin?"
Remus did a fairly credible job of not looking completely startled at the unexpected generosity.
"Of course, Severus. Thank you."
Severus frowned at him. "The more of you who are drinking it, the less danger the rest of us are in."
Harry stiffened, but Remus looked unoffended and completely serious as he answered, "Quite right."
This straightforward agreement meant that Severus merely marched over to hand Remus the goblet and then turned for the door.
"Would you care to join us?" Remus offered.
"I think not," Severus replied without turning round again. "I told you, I am not here to socialize. Miss Granger, you will continue to make Lupin's potion."
Orders from his back. Charming. "Yes, sir."
And he was gone.
"I know you've said it's unlikely Professor Snape could be passed off as a Pure Adult," Harry said, still staring at the doorway the man had passed through, "but do you think we could just get him laid?"
Remus choked on his tea, and Hermione smiled.
"You work out a list of candidates, Harry, and Remus and I will be there for, er, moral support."
"But you're the one who's so good at research," Harry protested.
Remus smirked into his teacup, and Hermione reflected that they really didn't want to know who she'd put at the top of the list.
"I'm the one with nine N.E.W.T.s. You're on your own for this one."
Harry sighed theatrically. "You're no fun. Moony?"
Remus shook his head. "Much as I love you, Harry, I don't fancy dying a slow and painful death at Severus's wand."
Harry gave in and grinned at them. "It would be amusing, though. I guess you have to get this to someone?" He gestured at the Wolfsbane.
Remus nodded, rising from his chair. "Yes, I shouldn't really delay. I'll try to manage a longer visit next time, all right?"
Harry nodded. "Once the bastard's dead, we'll have more time for social calls. Do what you have to do, Remus."
The werewolf smiled. "As you say."
"Harry, you have somewhere to be," Hermione said cheerfully.
Rolling his eyes, Harry rose. "You're going to have to start coming up with cleverer ploys, Hermione; I'm seeing right through these ones."
She merely smiled at him, and he gave Remus another quick hug before ducking out of the room.
Remus looked at her inquiringly.
"It's a long story. He's getting better at expressing his emotions."
"So I see. It's a nice change."
"I thought so. You'll be in on the twenty-ninth?"
"Sneaking in under cover of darkness," he agreed, suppressed excitement leaking out. "It reminds me of old times. You said you wanted me here for most of the night?"
"Well, the tests themselves don't take long, but I'll want to keep an eye on you, make sure you don't have any unexpected reactions to this version of the plant."
He had been badly allergic to one of the first batches that she had tested on him, and it had nearly been enough to make her stop trying entirely. He had prodded her on, however, swearing up and down that no bad reaction was worth halting her effort.
"I'm sure we'll manage. Thank you for the potion. I hadn't realized Severus had you making it all on your own."
"Back when we were both using the same lab, it came nearer to being collaborative. That would be a little awkward at this juncture."
"He kicked you out?" Remus asked, the tone of his query making it plain that she could choose not to answer and he wouldn't take offence.
She had no desire to go into the details but felt rather relieved that Remus had gone with this line of questioning rather than asking about her intentions towards his de facto godson. "We … agreed to disagree," she summarized.
"He has never been the easiest person to get along with."
"I'm prepared to make my own arrangements when necessary and wait him out if I have to." She offered Remus a small excuse: "I think this year's events have been making us all a little crazy."
Remus nodded. "I didn't think I'd ever have the chance of meeting a Pure Adult. I still can't really believe there are two in our midst."
"I'm sure they're perfectly normal, as you know because you have to have met them before," Hermione pointed out blandly. "You'll have taught them."
"You're right," he agreed, looking the slightest bit surprised at this realization. "They wouldn't have been Pure when I taught them, though."
"But it's not as though becoming Pure Adults means that they morph into another species and grow horns and fangs. They're still them, they're even still virgins, it's just taken on more significance than it had before."
Remus grinned at her. "Wouldn't that be a surprise if it was one of the details lost to history."
It would certainly have been a shock to her, although the way people were hunting for them, it did make her feel like a rare endangered animal.
She nodded, deadpanning, "At this very moment, we should really be looking for two dragonish goat creatures that suck the blood out of unsuspecting dairy cows."
"I'll keep my eyes peeled."
"Keep safe," she admonished. "And I'll see you in two weeks."
He promised to take care before Disillusioning himself, the door closing behind his difficult-to-see form. She was still aware of his magical core, so she knew for certain when he had actually left the room. Given how widely Disillusionment was used, she sometimes wondered if she oughtn't to be explaining to every Order member how to do it properly. But since it was a skill that Albus knew and wasn't sharing, she'd finally decided that perhaps it was the wiser course of action not to disseminate it widely. She had standing proof, after all, of there being a traitor in every group.
She wanted to go out to see her herd now but knew it was unwise to disappear when Harry was expecting her back from her tête-à-tête with Remus. She sighed. It looked as though she'd be making yet another early morning run instead.
Back in their common room, she convinced Harry that it had been a long day and she was tired. Since she'd been staying up nights—as far as he was concerned—to finish the Wolfsbane, and just today had had two classes, lied to Ministry officials, sparred with Harry, and fought with Severus, Harry didn't doubt her veracity. He let her go after ensuring, without asking for any details, that her talk with Remus had gone okay.
She slept until three, and after double-checking that she wasn't going to run into a suspicious Harry—but no, he'd gone to bed—she sneaked out. Since the moon was nearly full, it made for a glorious light when it peeked from behind the clouds. Cloud cover didn't bother unicorns the way regular obstruction, perhaps because the UV and other invisible rays were still getting through…. Whatever the reason, although it was more enjoyable to actually see the sun and stars, just being outside and knowing that the light was streaming down unhindered by objects manmade or otherwise solid made all the difference.
Her herd was happy to see her, and they gallivanted around the Forest for several hours until she felt rested and happy. It had definitely been a wise choice to come out and reenergize today. Castina preferred that Hermione didn't join them on full moon nights; the herd patrolled to ensure that werewolves weren't encroaching upon the Forest and endangering the students, and for all that Hermione wasn't human in her unicorn form, the herd mare liked her to be safely in the castle.
This reminded Hermione that one day, she was going to have to reveal to Remus that he had been more monitored than he had ever realized while he was at school. If Remus had ever slipped away from the rest of the Marauders on a full moon, as long as he'd been anywhere near the Forbidden Forest—which it was difficult not to be on the Hogwarts grounds—there would have been swift intervention. The herd was well aware that a werewolf had been allowed to transform in the Shrieking Shack, and they always knew when he was roaming the grounds instead.
In Hermione's third year, though, the entire herd had spent their time to the far east of the Forest; when Dumbledore had been forced to host the Dementors, the foul creatures had effectively been given dominion over an area where the unicorns dwelled. Since Dementors were one of the creatures to whom unicorns gave no quarter, Castina had reluctantly agreed to keep her herd away for the duration. Otherwise, Hermione, Harry, and Ron would have had more assistance once Remus transformed and when the Dementors had attacked Harry and Sirius.
In Hermione's fifth year, the herd mare had apparently been just out of sight, ensuring that the situation didn't get out of control with the centaurs. When Hermione learned that, she had bitterly bemoaned the fact that she hadn't known she could run to the unicorns for help; Castina had laughed, telling her that she had done very well on her own, and Umbridge had gotten no more than she deserved being dragged away by the centaurs.
This was not to say that Castina and the herd could be everywhere at once or instantly knew what was going on in all parts of the Forest. They had become more cautious since the Voldemort-possessed Quirrell had caused such damage in Hermione's first year, and Barty Crouch, Jr. had still been able to get away with killing his father and attacking Viktor. Especially in the eaves of the Forest closest to Hogwarts, the unicorns had to be circumspect.
Being back inside the castle by around five had thus far kept Hermione safe from Severus or anyone else's notice. Sneaking back in through the dungeon entrance, she began to patrol. It was early, sure, but she was an early riser, and it was therefore perfectly logical that she was making sure the castle was safe before everyone else started their morning. It made her feel better, and since she really was getting in an early morning patrol that nobody else wanted to do, it benefited others as well as herself.
Since the news of the Pure Adults had come out, a record number of students had been found outside of the dorms after curfew. They were catching others in the act, trying to memorize other students' habits, seizing the moment to prove their own lack of virginity, and so on. The excuses were myriad, and the Prefects and Harry and Hermione had been forced to get pretty fierce in their removal of points to try to discourage the new trend.
This morning, Hermione had to roust four fifth- and sixth-year Gryffindors who were camped out down the hall from the Gryffindor dorm ready to catch anyone who was sneaking back in after a late night just in case this enabled the "master spies" to work out what no one else had been able to discover.
One of them had fallen asleep, two of them were drowsy, and none of them had seen Hermione coming; it had been quite amusing to make them jump, take away points, and send them back into the dorm with a stern admonishment not to come out again until breakfast time unless they wanted to lose twice as many points and add detention to their punishment.
She could kind of see the kick Severus got out of it.
Over the next several days, Hermione had the opportunity to observe that another trend was not abating; she was seeing even more of Harry now that Harry was seeing less of Ron.
Ron had taken his normal hard-headed attitude and didn't look to be apologizing anytime soon for the aspersions he'd cast on her character and the revelation of their personal business in front of half the school at high volume. Since it would be a cold day in hell before either Hermione or Harry forgave him for that without at least some acknowledgement on his part that what he'd said and done was wrong, it looked as though they wouldn't be speaking to Ron in the near future.
In class, the redhead was sticking with other Gryffindors whenever possible, which meant some configuration of Seamus, Neville, and Dean, depending on the subject. It was only in Potions that the "golden trio" were the only three Gryffindors, and Ron had resolutely taken to sitting with Hufflepuff Christopher Dempster.
Since everyone knew why the three of them were fighting, none of the other seventh-years made much of a fuss about it; public opinion seemed to even out between agreement that Ron had been a prat to lay it out publicly like that and a continued sense of entitlement; everyone had really wanted to know who Harry had slept with. Plus, how could Harry and Hermione have kept it a secret from their best friend?
Hermione wished her hypocritical peers would admit that there were plenty of them who had kept their romantic liaisons a secret. As it was, she supposed she should be grateful that they had at least assigned some of the blame to Ron.
She had been touched that Ginny had taken Hermione and Harry's side of it entirely; she had been more than a little worried that the revelation of her supposed relationship with Harry would wreck her relationship with the youngest Weasley as well as with her brother, but Ginny appeared to be truly over her infatuation with Harry, and she hadn't taken Ron's insults well.
As a result of the break with Ron, Harry's free time was spent almost exclusively with Hermione. He hadn't ducked out or Saturday or Sunday afternoons, and he was in their quarters on Tuesday, Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning. The status of his schoolwork had never been better, but she was a little concerned about his psychological health.
Harry laughed it off. "I'm quite used to whole stretches of time when Ron is being a prat. I'm not going to buy that you think spending more time like you is unhealthy."
Hmm. It was sort of hard to argue when he put it that way. Since she wasn't advocating making up with Ron and could hardly tell Harry to go out and find more hobbies lest she relished being hoisted by her own petard, she let it go.
Really, she reflected, this was so much easier when two of them were mad at the third member of their trio. She remembered quite clearly how she had tried to mediate between Harry and Ron during the Triwizard Tournament and when Harry had tried to do the same for her and Ron when the redhead had thought Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers in third year. It had been miserable and frustrating. Now, however, Ron had managed to alienate both of them, and no one was stuck in the middle.
Severus had yet to institute another training session since the disastrous ending of the one on Wednesday last, so Hermione and Harry were left to their own devices, improving upon their sympathetic shield and working on whatever struck their fancy.
Since they were capable of putting a lot of force behind their spells—especially when they used their wands—it wasn't difficult for them to square off against each other and ensure that they were getting quite a workout even if they rarely threw Skin-burning Hexes at one another. That, Hermione reminded herself sourly, was what Severus was for.
Despite what the man seemed to think of Gryffindor reasoning skills, she and Harry both knew that they would be up against some nasty curses and hexes. It did make sense to be trained against them, but they had also reasoned that no matter how much they learnt, there would always be crazy Dark spells they didn't recognize that some Death Eater was going to throw at them. What they needed to survive were good reflexes, good spells to disable their opponents and keep them down, and good shielding wherever possible. Those were the skills they were trying to instill in one another.
During Herbology on Thursday afternoon, Hermione and Harry were startled by their bracelets announcing a plethora of people arriving at Hogwarts: Minister Bones, Kingsley, four unknown names, and a little more than half a dozen names that she recognized vaguely, suggesting they were probably Aurors. The two of them exchanged glances.
Did they discover Voldemort's set up a base of operation in the Astronomy Tower? Harry asked.
She smiled. It does appear to be momentous; I'm guessing we'll find out in short order.
Such proved to be the case, as Hagrid and two unknowns came to collect not only their entire class but Pomona as well. A quick walk across the grounds and then they were escorted to the waiting room off the Great Hall where they hadn't been since their first year. Hagrid then took Pomona off, saying in a soft rumble that Hermione heard clearly that everyone else was already up in Albus's office.
In the waiting room, she quickly realized, was the rest of their year. Apparently, hiking out to the greenhouses and back had been the longest collection time, beating out the seven students who had to be retrieved from Professor Trelawney's domain and the six students whose free time had been interrupted. Those thirteen already present were all seated and silent, hands in their laps. They were being watched by six adults whose stance and watchful eyes gave them away as the Aurors that Hermione had guessed.
The nineteen Herbology newcomers were instructed to put their bags and wands in one corner of the room and to join their classmates in seating themselves with their hands in their laps. After a stunned moment, almost everyone moved to obey, having taken notice of the pile of their schoolmates' possessions that was already there.
Head Girl? Harry asked.
Head Boy, she agreed.
Harry was frowning mentally. They're making sure we don't have access to something.
I suspect this is the nice version of binding our mouths closed. They don't want us to take anything. Don't mind me. She wordlessly Vanished their Veritaserum capsules just in case this escalated to anyone being searched.
They were now the only ones who hadn't followed the instructions. Hermione was a little surprised that the Slytherins hadn't put up more of a fight, but a moment's more consideration made her realize that being a Slytherin and refusing Ministry instructions was rather unwise without a great deal more provocation. She had no doubt that the Slytherins had known before anybody else in the room that these adults were Aurors.
Rather than following the rest of their classmates, she and Harry had repositioned themselves until they had their backs facing the wall. The door was on their left and their seated classmates on their right. Book bags on their shoulders and arms crossed, they faced off against the half dozen adults.
"You're impeding a Ministry investigation," the stockiest and fiercest-looking man said, his wand suddenly in his hands, and a hard look in his flinty blue eyes. Two of the other five Aurors had followed suit.
Neither Hermione nor Harry made the mistake of going for their own wands, although she was ready with wandless and wordless spells should the occasion call for it, and she didn't doubt the same was true of Harry.
"I don't see how that can possibly be the case," Harry answered calmly.
"As we haven't been informed that a Ministry investigation is taking place," Hermione took over.
"Our cooperation hasn't been requested," Harry pointed out.
"And you haven't identified yourselves as Ministry officials," Hermione added.
"I'm not in the habit of surrendering any of my belongings to random strangers," Harry said coolly. "As these tend to be Death Eaters up to no good."
"We're Ministry Aurors," Flinty-Eyed said gruffly.
"Do you have proof of this?"
There was some shifting amongst the other Aurors. They were continuing to survey their other charges, but it was clear they were listening carefully, as were the other thirty members of Hermione and Harry's year.
The flinty eyes got colder. "We don't take kindly to being played with."
"We're perfectly in earnest, I assure you." She made sure her tone was very reasonable. "Look at it from our point of view. We don't know any of you. None of our professors are here to vouch for you."
Harry nodded in agreement. "It's easy enough for anyone to say they're Aurors."
"Professor Moody," or the person they had thought was Moody, "spent the better part of a year drumming 'Constant Vigilance!' into our heads. Professor Tonks has been doing the same this year. We would therefore like proof of who you are before we start doing what you say."
As a group, the Aurors seemed to be wavering; apparently, she and Harry sounded adequately serious. Without their bracelets, after all, they wouldn't have had any way of knowing that these people had come with Minister Bones and Kingsley. Hermione wasn't sure if the earlier group had gotten a better introduction than they had, but she hoped that some of them learned a lesson as a result of her and Harry's position.
Harry grinned disarmingly. "I want the option of putting 'Maintained constant vigilance' on an Auror application."
That did it. Even Flinty-Eyed's lips quirked, and there were full-fledged smiles on several other faces.
"Do we have a problem here?"
Harry and Hermione were two of the people who didn't startle at Kingsley's deep voice from the doorway.
"No, sir," Flinty-Eyed answered, sounding positively cordial compared to earlier. "I trust you know Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Head of the M.L.E., Mr Potter, Miss Granger?"
She wondered if he'd recognized her from the picture in the Prophet.
"Auror Shacklebolt," they both greeted the man politely.
Kingsley nodded his head at them and then raised an eyebrow in query at Flinty-Eyed.
"They wanted proof we were Aurors before they obeyed us, said they can now put 'constant vigilance' down on their Auror applications."
Kingsley smiled widely. "Moody would be proud. Since the two of you are standing, perhaps you should be first. I'll send Bryant for the next one."
Everyone acquiesced, and Harry and Hermione were led into the Great Hall. The last two Aurors were on either side of the room, one by the door through which she and Harry had just come and a second waiting at the doorway to the chamber Harry had gone into when his name was announced at the beginning of the Triwizard Tournament.
The shimmer of visible wards drew their attention to a smaller table which had replaced the regular Hufflepuff one. Seated at the table were Albus at the head, the four Heads of House down one length, and Minister Bones at the foot. Kingsley brought Hermione and Harry through the wards to stand beside the empty side of the table.
Everyone looked grim, even Filius and Pomona. Minerva's lips were pinched into a clearly disapproving line, and Severus had broken out his Death Eater look of complete dispassion. The twinkle was absent from Albus's eyes.
What do you reckon? Is he upset because they're doing it or because they can get away with it while he can't? she asked.
Or perhaps that they didn't tell him first. Fawkes'd've let us know, right?
Of course he would have, she reassured Harry before adding solely for the phoenix's mind and benefit, He'll get better at directing his Speech eventually.
It made Hermione tempted to take Harry out to meet the herd. There had been nothing like being faced with three-dozen MindSpeakers to teach her how to properly direct her conversation. But she wasn't quite ready for that secret to be revealed. Right now it was hers alone, and she needed that when the castle got to be too much.
The phoenix snorted and replied to her, You'll just have to mind what secrets he shares until then. Have I mentioned that it's a good thing you always plan ahead?
She sent him a mental image of her months-long, colour-coded revision schedule. That would be me.
He laughed and let her go. Oblivious to her other mental discussion, Harry wanted to know, Where are the others who showed up on the Map with these blokes?
Supervising our Heads of House's classes, I imagine, she answered.
Oh, he said, slightly blankly. That was well-planned.
They wanted to accomplish this quickly and quietly; it will get out as soon as they're done, of course, but by then it will be too late.
"This will be administered individually for everyone else, but given the situation … I trust you won't mind going together," Kingsley told them.
Harry smiled and said politely, "Not at all."
Might be nice if he informed us what we agreed to do together, Harry added mentally.
Don't be silly, Harry, it's a surprise, she said facetiously.
He gave a mental smirk. Right. A lovely Ministry surprise. I'm so fond of those.
They reached the table, and Kingsley, thankfully, explained.
"I will be administering the Veritaserum. The headmaster and your Heads of House are here for joint impartiality in ensuring that nothing but the single question is asked. They will not speak or interrupt in any way unless I or someone else attempts to make further inquiries. Minister Bones will be recording the results so you know that the information will go no further. I will then administer the antidote, and you will wait with Smith," he gestured at the Auror on the other side of the room, "until testing is completed for everyone."
Hermione realized that they'd lucked out about when the Ministry had decided to do this. If it had happened early in the morning or right before dinner, she and Harry might have been facing six and three quarter drops of Veritaserum in quick succession. She hadn't considered what would happen if someone as legally endowed as the Ministry forced them to take it at a specific time when they were still in the midst of their tolerance-building, and she was relieved that this had not proved a fatal mistake.
Harry cocked his head. "I'm not aware of having committed any crime that means I should be questioned under Veritaserum."
Minister Bones spoke, her tone no-nonsense. "Mr Potter, the Pure Adults must be found, and you and Miss Granger are two of the possibilities. Voluntary questioning without Veritaserum excluded all of you, leaving us with no choice but to compel an honest response."
Hermione made sure her tone was polite but slightly cool. "I believe what Harry was trying to express, Minister Bones, is that 'compelling an honest response', as you put it, when we are under no suspicion of criminal activities is not legal."
The Minister explained about wartime and the emergency law enacted for this particular situation which gave the Ministry every right to ask this one question to protect its youngest new adults. Overall, Hermione could appreciate the effort that had been made to protect their privacy outside of that one question, but it still rankled.
It was clear, however, that there was nothing they could do about it, so she and Harry consented.
Three drops were administered first to Harry, then to Hermione. Facing Kingsley, they were only aware of their professors from their peripheral vision.
"Mr Potter, are you a virgin?" Kingsley asked.
"No," Harry answered flatly.
"Miss Granger, are you a virgin?"
She made sure to answer the same way Harry had. "No."
By the time their answers were recorded and the antidote administered, their professors were studiously blank-faced.
She and Harry went to wait in the waiting room. Inside, she was jubilant. Her plan had worked. They proceeded to have an external conversation for the watching Auror's benefit while saying what they really wanted internally.
"I'd hate to be one of the people going in there by myself right now," Harry said.
You know there's no doubt that you're the smartest witch of several ages, right?
"I think many of them will be happy not to have to answer in front of their peers, even with the understanding that it's just the one question."
Thank you. I'm just so grateful that it worked like it was supposed to.
"You're probably right," Harry admitted. "I wouldn't have been comfortable with anybody there but you."
Understatement of the century, but I apologize for how that sounded.
The Auror had taken it as appropriately mushy, from the look on his face, and Hermione hoped he wasn't filing the words away for a letter to the editor that would show up in tomorrow's Prophet.
Ditto.
"I feel the same way, Harry," she assured him with a smile.
Do you think this will convince them that the Pure Adults can't be found?
Hermione sighed. I'm not sure anything short of our cold, dead bodies sporting confessions written in blood would convince them of that.
Hannah showed up next, followed by Susan and then Terry, and it became too difficult to keep up an innocuous conversation while talking internally. Hermione found it amusing that they were testing the students alphabetically. So much of what they did at Hogwarts was defined by their Houses that she rarely considered their year as a cohesive whole where she was listed between Gregory Goyle and Daphne Greengrass.
She supposed it wouldn't do for the Ministry to be accused of mistreating one House by making them go first or wait until the end. It also prevented a whole roomful of Gryffindors suddenly being confronted by one Slytherin or vice versa. This way, it kept everyone civil, not to mention the fact that Ron was second from the end, so they didn't have to be stuck in the room with him for an extended period of time.
Minute by minute, more and more students joined them until all thirty-two had made it through the questioning. They had each taken roughly the same amount of time, and there was, of course, no indication that the Pure Adults had been found.
They were finally released back to the other room to retrieve their belongings, and although Ron studiously did not look at Harry and Hermione, a number of their year-mates thanked them for providing the most enjoyment of the whole afternoon. Constant vigilance, it appeared, lived on.
Much as the seventh-years had all wanted to know who the Pure Adults were, many of them resented the invasion of their privacy the official hunt had resulted in.
By dinner time, the Ministry officials were long gone, and their unofficial results had been broadcast throughout the entire school. The general consensus now, Hermione was relieved to hear, was that if the Ministry couldn't attain the answer with Veritaserum, the student body had little chance.
There remained, however, those students who would always believe themselves smarter than the Ministry and who therefore had every intention of making subtle or less-than-subtle inquiries until they got the answer they wanted. Like the Ministry, however, they were unclear what the next step should be. All the seventh-years had declared that they weren't virgins under Veritaserum. Could this mean that it was two graduates after all? Or, despite the belief about the orange-proof scrolls, did it mean that they were seventh-year students but they had lost their virginity since turning seventeen, and the Ministry and the rest of the world was just behind on the news?
It was a question which had no immediate or adequate answer, and the utter madness which had characterized the initial revelation had gone. There was a sharp drop in the number of bets that were being made, although Seamus insisted that no money would be returned and no winners or losers declared until they had a definite answer. There might still be people out there making charts and lists of likely candidates, but they were doing so more unobtrusively now, and people were far less likely to be accosted in the corridors and at mealtimes, for which Harry and Hermione were very grateful.
Sadly, the two of them remained a favourite discussion topic because the revelation of their couple status was, to all appearances, unrelated to the issue of Pure Adulthood. The fact that they were having sex could be talked to death even while the mystery of the Pure Adults was put on the back burner.
Kingsley's taking them in together had only cemented their couple-ness, and they were right back to telling everyone to bugger off and mind their own business when the majority of their impertinent school chums wanted lots of details.
Severus was Summoned over the weekend, but fortunately for her state of mind and Severus's health, this was only a fact-gathering meeting. Since Voldemort was amused when Severus informed him that Albus hadn't even been aware of the Ministry's intention to test the seventh-year students, Severus wasn't punished too badly for not being able to inform his master beforehand.
Severus reassured Voldemort of the integrity of the test as he had seen it with his own eyes, and the snake-faced prat didn't immediately announce a diabolical plan to ascertain the same results for himself; so far, he remained content to let others do the searching, seemingly believing that if the Ministry found the Pure Adults, it wouldn't be difficult for him to seize them from that often less-than-competent body. Harry and Hermione both hoped this resolution held for as long as possible.
It took a few days, but the school year finally seemed to settle into some semblance of normalcy. They had their second perfectly safe Hogsmeade visit, although the adults and upper-year students were once again taking extreme care. Voldemort had attacked children in the tragic Halloween attack, but those were unprotected Muggle ones, and the Hogwarts schoolchildren were anything but.
Hermione was glad the day hadn't been cancelled because she wanted life to go on as normally as it could under the circumstances—and she wanted to finish up with her Christmas shopping. She'd mentioned this to Harry, and he'd looked at her as though she were insane, as if a month before Christmas was astonishingly early to be getting gifts.
She had a horrible feeling that he wasn't going to be starting until the trip in December, and she had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from remonstrating with him. She really wanted to point out that they didn't even know if there'd be another Hogsmeade trip, because who knew what Voldemort might do, but she realized this was a low blow. Instead, she merely asked Harry mildly if he'd met her and maybe noticed a trend on her starting tasks early rather than late.
This had resulted in his laughing good-naturedly, and he'd been a perfect gentleman about following her around and letting her pick up gifts in shops that he rarely entered on his own. Given his upbringing, he was nothing like Ron, who was always trying to catch glimpses of the gifts and wondering if they were for him. Harry, by contrast, always seemed perpetually surprised that he was getting gifts at all, never mind what was in them. He was happy to stand a few feet away from her and let her shop in peace.
She was thus able to pick up part of both his and Severus's gifts without awkward questions, and find things for the majority of the Weasleys, Remus, Hagrid, Albus, Minerva, and Tonks, as well as token gifts for her other professors.
She was severely tempted to return the gift she had got Ron on the last trip and replace it with another homework planner, as she knew that would annoy him, but she resisted the urge. If only he knew how thankful he should be that she was an early shopper and had found that book on the history of the Chudley Cannons in October.
In class, they were gearing up into the pre-holiday rush of school work, leaving students busy and stressed. This was a positive occurrence as far as Hermione was concerned because it gave the idiots less time to think about her and Harry's love life. Hannah and Ernie still had trouble looking Hermione and Harry in the eyes, and Ron was still being a prat, but that, too, was beginning to feel like business as usual.
Hermione test-brewed a batch of the final version of her Weresbane, not wanting her first batch to be the one which Remus would be drinking. It matched her equations and the previous trials she had made, but she wasn't taking any chances.
Remus sneaked into the castle at two in the morning a week after the Hogsmeade visit, and Hermione was ready to cancel her announcement spell before the second syllable of his name started. Unfortunately, Harry was not asleep yet.
He appeared in the doorway of his bedroom looking even more messy-haired than usual.
"What's Remus doing here?" he asked sleepily.
"We're having a torrid affair. Go back to bed."
Harry blinked at them in confusion. "Right. Everything okay, then?"
"Just fine," she reassured him and tugged Remus into her bedroom and shut the door.
The sandy-haired Gryffindor was looking back at the door worriedly. "Do you think you should be leaving it like that with Harry?"
She regarded him with faint amusement. "Remus, I'm very fond of you, but Harry is fully aware that I'm not interested in you romantically; we have that level of trust in our relationship."
Remus's stance softened. "I apologize, Hermione. He didn't look worried. It's just that James was the jealous type. I'm glad to see Harry is more like his mother in that regard."
Somehow, she didn't think Harry would be quite so unconcerned about another man joining Draco in the middle of the night.
"It's good to know you care enough about us to make sure we're okay," she answered Remus with a smile.
She led him through the bedroom to the lab, where he was suitably impressed but kindly forbore asking awkward questions about why a fully functional lab was attached to her bedroom when he knew that all the kids didn't have one.
She sat him down on a stool next to the marble counter and indicated the four vials there, one empty, three full.
"The first is for a sample of your blood. I'll mix it with the first vial of Weresbane and check for any indications that you're likely to have a bad reaction again. This isn't the finished potion, which would interfere with your next full moon, just the plant extract."
Remus immediately shrugged out of his robe, rolled up his shirtsleeve, and held out his arm, and Hermione proceeded. She mixed the blood with the potion.
"It'll take a few minutes before I can test for a reaction."
"The other vials?" he asked.
"Assuming we don't get any negative indicators when this test comes up, you'll give drinking the Weresbane a try. The last vial is an antidote in case you have a reaction that your blood doesn't. The chances of this happening are slim, but I'd hate to have to explain why you were dead in my lab."
The near heart attack before she'd administered the antidote to him in Grimmauld Place over the summer had been bad enough.
He nodded, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. "I can see how that would be annoying. Seriously, though, I really appreciate all the care you're taking with this and all the time you're spending on it."
She brushed his praise off. "It hasn't worked yet, but there's no question of my doing everything in my power to help you, Remus."
To their delight, the test went off without a hitch. Remus didn't show the slightest indication of a bad reaction to this version of the plant, but she still insisted that he stay for three hours of observation just in case. He tried to make her sleep, but she refused and was able to get away with it because it was a Sunday, and she promised to have a lie-in if she needed it.
While they waited, they discussed her cure. Remus had heard a number of the details before, but there was no harm in a refresher as they got closer to when he would actually be giving it a try.
What had puzzled her since third year when she had found out about both werewolves and Animagi was why the transformation was so painful for the former and not for the latter; having listened to Remus's screams and having now gone through the second transformation with regularity herself, she knew that the differences between the two were extreme.
Minerva had explained to Hermione that a werewolf's body continued to treat the lycanthropy as a disease. On a fundamental level, the human body did not want to make the unnatural change. The werewolf was being resisted—albeit with a marked lack of success—and this unconscious and uncontrollable internal conflict caused the pain. By contrast, the Animagus transformation was a natural one. The animal came out of the wizard, so the transition between the two forms was smooth and painless.
All the research into improvements to the Wolfsbane that Hermione could find had looked for ways to suppress the transformation of the body as well as the mind, and no successful progress had been made in that direction.
For a brief period, Hermione had thought that the cure could be found based on the fact that Muggles couldn't become werewolves. A Muggle was statistically far more likely to die from werewolf-related injuries than a magical person, but no matter what infected blood or saliva was transferred, they would not turn into a werewolf on the next full moon.
She had come, however, to one inescapable conclusion: Muggles didn't become werewolves because they were non-magical. It was a wizard's magic which made him or her susceptible to lycanthropy, and that meant there was no specific immunity that she could isolate. At best, if she worked this angle, she might discover a cure that robbed wizards of their magic along with the disease, and she wanted to explore every other possible avenue before she considered that one.
Faced with these other failures, Hermione chose to come at the problem from the opposite direction. Rather than fighting the seemingly hopeless battle to get rid of the wolf, she was going to try to convince the human body that the wolf was a natural form.
The hybrid aconite that she was developing was specifically a Were's bane rather than a wolf's. She had magically altered it so that it didn't target all of the werewolf's instincts for suppression, only the human bloodlust. All the normal wolfish traits—from the pack instinct to the keen sense of smell—would remain, and since Animagi functioned with their human and "animal" brains, she believed lycanthropes could as well.
Remus had told her that it always felt as though the werewolf were there inside him, although the form only completely emerged at the full moon. Her Weresbane was to be administered first at the new moon, when the link to the Were desperate for human victims was the weakest. With the Were influences minimized, she believed that using an accelerated timetable she could help the werewolves transform into wolf Animagi.
This transformation would not be linked to the lunar cycle but would instead allow the witch or wizard to transform at will, just as every Animagus could. She suspected they might feel the need to transform periodically, as she did, but they would never again be forced to transform painfully against their will at a specific time.
In the fourteen days between the new moon and the full moon, Hermione would encourage multiple deliberate transformations in order to get the wizard to celebrate the freedom of choice and to embrace the wolf. Hermione had heard stories from Remus of the joy of running through the Forest with the other Marauders under the full moon; wizards who had been bitten didn't hate the wolf, they hated the Were, and she believed they could accept their Animagus form. The wolf and the human could coexist peacefully; they would, in effect, be pack.
On the full moon, she would dose them with the Weresbane again, and she believed that the wolf and the human would fight in concert against the Were and be strong enough to destroy it. If this theory proved true, a perfectly human wolf Animagus would be the result, and she would have her cure for lycanthropy.
Remus was an excellent test subject because of his background with Animagi, although she had reminded him numerous times that he needed to brush up on the topic given how long ago his friends had mastered the transformation and the fact that he had never done it himself. He had professed himself happy to do whatever she wished.
At half five, she finally agreed to let him go, although she pressed the antidote upon him.
"If you experience any unusual symptoms over the next fifteen hours, you take that antidote, and you come back to me." She could see the objections forming, so she continued in deadly earnest, "I don't care what you're doing or what I'm doing, you come back if you have to take that antidote, do you hear me?"
He wisely acquiesced.
"You'll let me know at the next full if you're having any problems?" she pursued.
He agreed to this as well. The impending full moon would also give her the chance to verify with her own eyes that nothing untoward had occurred; she'd performed every conceivable test at every stage of the creation process, but the human factor was always an unpredictable one. She was the only person in the world who understood what he'd ingested, so she was determined to take proper care of him.
Since the next new moon was on the twenty-ninth of December, they'd both agreed to wait until the one in January for the trial, as it was too difficult to guarantee where they would both be over the holidays; she wasn't planning this cure so that Voldemort could mess it up with some holiday attack or skirmish.
This meant that in two months' time, if all went well, Remus would end a night like this one as a natural wolf. She gave him a fierce hug and saw him out.
When she returned, Harry was waiting for her in their common room, seated on the couch with tea.
"You're not leaving me as the only Pure Adult, are you?"
He was ninety-five percent joking, she thought.
"Remus is a lovely man, but as I explained to him when he was worried that he was coming between us, he's not my type. Neither of you are."
"I'm still having a little trouble coming up with your type. Could you not see your way to dropping broader hints?" he asked hopefully.
She helped herself to a mugful of tea and curled up on the cushion next to him, taking a soothing sip of the hot liquid.
"I'm giving you a chance to work it out on your own; it's character building."
He made a face at that notion. "You are going to tell me about you and Remus?"
"Not right now, but yes."
Even if it was a failure, she'd have to inform Harry at least, as he was going to be seeing several more suspicious arrivals on Remus's part.
"And you'd let me know if you got sick of being a Pure Adult?"
"You'll be the first on my list," she promised him. "We're in this together."
"Speaking of, you ready for our morning workout?" He gestured towards the protected half of the room.
"Actually, I'm going to go to bed."
"Oh?" Harry asked pointedly.
She rose, smiling like a Cheshire cat over her tea. "Didn't I mention? Remus and I were up all night."
Harry shook his head, smirking slightly. "You're evil."
She went to bed.
Less than three hours later, for the second time in less than two months, she was roused from sleep by the gargoyle's announcement that Severus had arrived in her and Harry's quarters.