Chocolate Enchantment

Chapter 19: The Word Gets Out

Chapter 19: The Word Gets Out

Hermione arose on the fifth day back from Hogwarts. It had been eight days since the Headmaster had died, an eternity since she had held her soul mate close, felt his breath on her face, touched her lips to his—at least it felt that way.

As had become her habit, the first thing she did after opening her eyes was to reach for her diary. Sometimes she found little more than a couple of lines, sometimes quite a bit more. Every day Severus encouraged her to impress on Harry the importance of working on his Occlumency and silent spell casting. Occasionally, he mentioned meetings he'd attended, but he provided no definite information. With Hermione and Ron in residence, the three of them bent the rules a bit and practiced silent defensive spells every afternoon—but only in the privacy of the tent of course.

This morning was different. When Hermione lifted the book to read over it, there were only a few new lines.

You must get word to the Order, someone, anyone who will listen. There is a large gathering planned at some stadium in London for a football match tonight. The Death Eaters plan to destroy the building. Thousands of Muggles will be in the building at that time. You must stop it if you can.

He continued with specific information about when and where the Death Eaters were planning to meet. The message ended with another plea that she trust him.

Her mind flew over the details. There was a match that night, an early round in the World Cup, and she knew the stadium would be packed. Not only thousands, but tens of thousands would be there.

With this in mind, Hermione flew out of bed and through her morning routine. She spelled her hair back in a braid, willing it out of her face in the least possible amount of time. She stuck her diary in her back pocket, then hurried to the kitchen where Harry was already cooking up bangers. "Hey, I have a few errands to run this morning." She grabbed a banana from a nearby fruit basket. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"What kind of errands?" Ron asked. "Want one of us to go with you?"

Ron had been rather more helpful and gentlemanly than usual over the past few days, but Hermione didn't have time to wonder why—especially when she was fairly sure she already knew and didn't have the strength to deal with it if she were right. "Nope, I shouldn't be too long. Practice silent spell casting while I'm out."

A moment later, she Apparated in a grove of trees in a park near the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. As Hermione had rushed through dressing and dealing with her hair, she had considered whom she should speak with. Harry might not believe her, regardless of whether he knew her source or not, and there was little he could do about it anyway. He wasn't of age yet, couldn't even Apparate for nearly another month. The members of the Order respected him, but they wouldn't take orders from him. Not yet. Frankly, with his history of reacting to events, she wasn't sure they would take him seriously.

Professor McGonagall would want explanations she couldn't give. She had the clout, but not the limitless trust Hermione needed to make this go. Moody would all but torture the source out of her, given half a chance. Hermione had considered each of the Order members in turn and finally concluded there was only one option. Remus Lupin. The others would listen to him, as he was level headed, but he trusted more easily than some and could be trusted to keep a secret. He wouldn't be happy with her choosing to keep her source to herself, but she thought he would believe her anyway.

Now, if he would only be at Headquarters so she could approach him.

After Dumbledore's fall, Mad-Eye Moody had become the leader pro-tem, despite his ability to offend members right and left. The man wasn't known to be forgiving, however. He would never accept Severus back, no matter what happened. He had only tolerated Severus in the first place because Dumbledore insisted he do so. Mad-Eye had the experience of leadership and dealing with dark wizards, of strategizing that the group needed.