Hermione Granger and the Theft of Magic

Chapter 8: Mucking Great Canines and an Appetite for Human Flesh

[A/N: Thank you to Calamity Owl and Darsynia for beta-reading this chapter!]

Harry awoke to the realisation he was laying in a bed. A comfortingly familiar face he'd not seen for several years greeted him when he opened his eyes, and he had to chuckle. "So I didn't make it?" he asked the visage of Madam Pomfrey. "I'm not surprised my psychopomp looks like you."

Her eyebrows disappeared into her grey bangs. "I'm not sure if I should be honoured or insulted by that," she said. "You're fine, lad, just a case of Magical Exhaustion. However, I have a number of questions for your rebrobate old godfather, starting with how in Morgana's name you know anything about psychopomps."

"Psycho-whats now?" Sirius said from somewhere past his feet.

"That," said a wonderfully familiar Scottish brogue from somewhere near Sirius, "only emphasises how justified Madam Pomfrey's question was."

With more effort than it normally required, Harry leaned his head up from his pillow. He was somehow back in his bedroom upstairs in 12 Grimmauld Place, with Madam Pomfrey sitting in a chair to his right, Remus standing to the left of the bed, and Sirius and Professor...no, Headmistress McGonagall standing at the foot of the bed. Hermione lay to his left, her chest rising and falling with slow, steady breaths.

"He's met a new witch," Remus said.

"I know what ye mean," McGonagall said. "James's grades got a guid deal better in Sixth Year. How's the lassie, Poppy?"

"I've actually never seen anyone as acutely exhausted as she was," Pomfrey said. "Most people collapse as they magically exhaust themselves, but she somehow expelled energy so quickly that she pushed herself past the normal exhaustion threshold. I'd say she would make an interesting case study, but I suspect you don't want me learning too much about whatever you got up to this morning."

"I'm afraid so," Remus said. "Parties unknown bound her core as a child and Obliviated her, and we don't want anyone finding out she's healthy until we know who's after her."

"That's awful!" Pomfrey said.

McGonagall's features tightened into a mask of thunderous rage. "How dare they bind a wee lass like that? Ah'll hunt them doon myself! Where did ye find her?"

"Camden Market," Harry replied.

"Excuse me?" McGonagall said.

"He means," Sirius said, "that she's a local girl. We've found one of your muggle-borns, Minnie."

"Morgana protect us!" McGonagall said, so shocked that she forgot to chastise Sirius. "Someone is hunting doon muggleborns!"

Pomfrey gasped. "Could it be someone at Hogwarts with access to the Book?"

McGonagall shook her head. "The Book of Admittance is only viewable by myself an' Deputy Headmaster Flitwick, and Albus before us. Once a name appears, that name cannae be altered. The only way she wuidnae hev appeared is if she was bound first."

"We'll find out what happened," Sirius said, "and we'll stop it forever."

Hermione groaned. "Where am..." she shot into a sitting position so rapidly that she would have fallen over had Remus not been there to steady her. "Where's Harry?"

"Not quite dead yet," Harry quipped.

She turned around more slowly and carefully this time. "You idiot!" She punched him in the arm with what was clearly meant to be as much strength as she could muster, but fortunately for Harry she was still recovering from Magical Exhaustion and her punch was pretty anaemic. "You could have been killed!"