janus ~ hermione granger

lxxvi

"hermione, maddy?" harry spoke up, breaking the silence.

the bushy-haired witch was curled up in one of the saggy armchairs with 'the tales of beedle the bard' while madison was laying on the floor next to her, fidgeting with something harry had managed to get for her anxiety.

"i've been thinking-"

"that's new."

"-and-"

"could you two help me with something?" hermione seemed to not be listening to harry, causing the boy to get slightly annoyed.

maddy noticed and sent him a look, sitting up and laying her head against hermione's thigh as she leaned forward so that harry could see the book.

"look at that symbol," she pointed to a triangular eye, it's pupil crossed with a vertical line.

"neither of us took ancient ruins, hermione," harry gestured between himself and the darker girl.

"i know that, but it isn't a rune and it's not in the syllabary, either. all along i thought it was a picture of an eye, but i don't think it is! it's been inked in, look, somebody's drawn it in there, it really isn't part of the book. think, have either of you ever seen it before?"

"luna's dad," maddy murmured, thinking back to bill and fleur's wedding day. "he was wearing it round his neck."

"then it's grindelwald's mark."

"what?" both girls questioned in unison.

"krum told me," harry continued to inform them of what the quidditch player told him at the wedding, leaving astonished looks on their faces.

"i've never heard that grindelwald had a mark. there's no mention of it in anything i've ever read about him," hermione switched her glance back and forth from the book to harry as she dropped her hand to play with maddy's dark brown locks.

"well, like i say, krum reckoned that symbol was carved on a wall at durmstrang, and grindelwald put it there."

"if it's a symbol of dark magic, then what's it doing in a children's book?" maddy raised an eyebrow, stealing the book from her girlfriend.

"i don't know, it's weird, and you'd think scrimgeour would have recognized it. he was minister, he ought to have been expert on dark stuff."

"i know, perhaps be thought it was an eye, just like i did. all the other stories have little pictures over the titles," the bright girl took the book back from maddy, poring over the strange mark.

"hermione? maddy?"

"hm?"

"i've been thinking. i-i want to go to godric's hollow."

hermione looked up at him, but her eyes seemed unfocused.

"yes. yes, i've been wondering that too. mads and i had a conversation the other day, i really think we'll have to."

"did you hear me right?"

"of course i did. you want to go to godric's hollow. we agree, i think we should. i mean, i can't think of anywhere else it could be, either. it'll be dangerous, but the more i think about it, the more likely it seems it's there."

"er--what's there?" harry questioned.

"well, the sword, harry!" hermione replied as if it were the most obvious thing ever.

well, it kind of was.

"dumbledore must have known you'd want to go back there, and i mean, godric's hollow is godric gryffindor's birthplace-"

"really? gryffindor came from godric's hollow?"

"are you dumb or are you dumb?" maddy facepalmed, smiling at the sound of hermione softly giggling.

the granger girl proceeded to read a page about godric's village from 'a history of magic' to harry.

maddy ended up zoning out, almost falling asleep until she was rudely woken by hermione's loud, dramatic gasp.

"what? what did you do that for? i thought you'd seen a death eater unzipping the tent-"

harry was interrupted by maddy, who jumped up and ran to the flap, unzipping a part of it, before closing it back up and heading back to where she was laying down.

the other two sent her confused looks, and she sighed.

"death eater, unzipping the tent?"

they both rolled their eyes, hiding the hint of a smile appearing on their faces.

"harry, what if bathilda's got the sword? what if dumbledore entrusted it to her?"

"yeah, he might've done. so are we going to godric's hollow?"

"yes, but we'll have to think it through carefully. we'll need to practice disapparating under the invisibility cloak, for a start, and give mads a time slot where she could slip out and do what she usually does. we should perhaps also practice disillusionment charms, which would be sensible, unless you think we should go the whole hog and use polyjuice potion? in that case, we'll need to collect hair from somebody. i actually we'd better do that-"

"mione," maddy chuckled, cutting her off, "let's just go to bed and make a plan tomorrow morning."

𓆉

almost a week later, they set off to godric's hollow, not before transforming themselves into an innocent muggle family.

"all this snow! why didn't we think of snow? after all our precautions, we'll leave prints! well just have to get rid of them-harry, you go in front-"

"let's take off the cloak," harry told a frightened hermione.

"mione, it's alright. we don't look like us and no one's around."

they walked down the lane, admiring the christmas decorations and attempting to not accidentally slip.

"i think it's christmas eve!"

"is it?" harry and maddy asked in unison. they both lost track of time, not being able to get their hands on a newspaper for weeks.

"i'm sure it is. they'll be in there, won't they? your mum and dad? i can see a graveyard behind it," hermione's eyes fell upon the church.

she suddenly grabbed both their hands, dragging them forward but stopped halfway across the square.

"harry, look!"

she was pointing at the war memorial. it transformed as they passed it, changing into a statue of three people, who seemed to be the potter family.

one had untidy hair and glasses, and the other had long hair and a kind, pretty face, with a baby sitting in her arms.

harry drew closer and maddy snuggled closer to hermione, which didn't seem odd to anyone passing by due to them looking like mother and daughter.

"do you think it'll be possible for me to draw a mustache on baby harry?"

word count- 1049
date written- december 4, 2020
short chapter, sorry, i just wanted to get one out there :/