Escape ↣ Harmione

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter 38 - Distraction

The next few days everyone was adjusting to the new information they had discovered in light of Harry's death and resuscitation. No more was mentioned about what their plans would be in light of the information, but it was clear that as a family, they would be reassessing everything at some point when they were ready.

As John had predicted Harry was subjected to a near constant state of supervision. It was subtle, it was unobtrusive, and it was ever present. After two days he had come to twitch under the scrutiny. He tried to rein in his temper and not snap. He had scared everyone, they were reacting this way because they loved him. It would go away on its own, snapping would be cruel and unfair. He had been a Horcrux, he'd died, and his childhood might not have been as cut and dried as he had first thought. It was a lot for them to deal with, it was a lot for him.

In order to bear it, he decided that returning to his project was the best thing to do. If he started on the trials of embedding his spell, that would mean spending time at his desk, and they might relax the observation they had him under. He would do nothing to worry them, and they would stop worrying. Also having something to do might help him ignore them better. So he ate breakfast on the Wednesday morning, smiled at everyone, and excused himself to traipse up to the study he shared with Hermione.

Sat at his desk Harry pulled out the notes he had been working on last week. Reading them over again, he nodded to himself and started rooting out the spare jewellery they had from making the glamour rings. Having worked with Hermione doing this sort of thing before had given him a framework to use so he could organise his thoughts better. Weed out the ideas that might be hidden gems and those that would ultimately lead to frustration. He felt confident that what he wanted to do could be done and he'd addressed the problems he could think of before he started.

Dobby brought his lunch, interrupting a long winded internal mental musing after the first trial hadn't brought about quite what he had been aiming for. Startled, he thanked the elf and looked up. Hermione was sat across from him, also just brought out of her own thought process by the arrival of lunch.

"Hi," he said lamely. "I didn't notice you arrive."

"About fifteen minutes after you did, but you looked engrossed, so I left you to it. So," Hermione said, starting to eat her lunch. "Is this the product of the accident?"

"No, this is what I started last week. I began thinking about it before we left on holiday and this is the first point I've gotten to where I thought it would work. It's interesting work. The costume rings and glamour rings were impressive. I never thought I could do magic like that."

"Oh, it didn't do what you thought?" she said. "Well I'm sure you'll fix it, and I can help if you want? I guess it helps if you've something to take your mind off the scrutiny as well doesn't it?"

"How did you guess?" he asked with a wry smile.

She shrugged one shoulder and munched on a crisp. "You've never liked being the centre of attention and Mrs Weasley's mothering was always a little uncomfortable. We, well I, don't mean to be, intrusive. It's just..."

"I get it. It's fine, it's good to know you all care."

"But it's intrusive?" she said smiling.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But I've not noticed anyone this morning, so maybe you've got a good thing going on here."

She nodded. "How long do you think your project will take?"

"Hmm, maybe a couple of days before I'm sure it's what I want, then a round of testing? It's based on the rings so that bit I understand. It's the spell I want to put into it, I've got a couple of ideas, and I think there are a couple of problems that I'll need to deal with," he said, pushing at a scribble he'd made on a page.