Chapters 191-200

Trolls, Death and Friendship

‘I believe I can ‘elp you,’ Genevieve said. ‘I worked in wand control for ze French government for two years after my apprenticeship. I assisted the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Magique when zey developed a new wand scanner to ascertain zee ownership of wands. Voldemort and ‘is Death Eaters caused security concerns far beyond Great Britain.’

‘She is being overly modest,’ Ollivander said gruffly. ‘The scanner is her invention. Though if a wizard manages to loses his wand, I dare say he doesn’t deserve to be recognised as its owner.’

‘My uncle doesn’t like modern machinery,’ Genevieve commented.

‘Or the French government,’ Ollivander muttered under his breath.

‘Just a moment,’ the young witch said. ‘I’ll go and get ze scanner. We’ve been using it to find zee owners of ze wands in ze collection of lost wands in ze Department of Mysteries. So far we ‘ave matched every single one of zem.’

When she returned, Genevieve carried a sleek metallic apparatus that reminded Hermione of security devices she’d encountered at airports when she travelled with her parents during long ago holidays. The Elder Wand was placed inside the scanner. Then Genevieve propped up a flat rectangle that looked very much like the display of a laptop and inserted her own wand into a few small indentations at the bottom of the screen.

A final flourish with her wand, a murmured‘Dominum Revelio’, and the silvery screen flared to life, presenting an extremely clear picture.

‘I’ll be damned!’ Harry exclaimed.

Hermione just goggled at the sheepish smile of Percy Weasley.

oooOooo

Hermione didn’t return to Hogwarts right away. Instead she went back to Grimmauld Place with Harry.

Kreacher served tea (and scones, and cucumber sandwiches, and assorted tea-cakes, and fresh fruit, and a platter of cheese; and if Harry had allowed it, he’d probably have roasted a whole ox on a spit for them).

They sat in the library and stared in thoughtful silence at the box with the Elder Wand that sat between their plates and tea-cups on the coffee table.

‘Do you have any idea how Percy defeated Umbridge?’ Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. ‘I guess it must have been that chess competition at the Ministry. Percy was playing against Umbridge to give Draco the time to snoop around in her office. Draco didn’t find anything, so I don’t see why the wand would judge this as a defeat in a matter of life and death. You know, wandlore is not only ‘very complex and mysterious’, it’s also bloody annoying.’

Hermione inhaled tea. After coughing until tears were streaming down her cheeks, she limply collapsed against the cushions on the sofa. She dashed at her eyes.

‘More than annoying,’ she agreed. ‘A veritable pain in the arse! First the Sempiternal Solution, now that.’ She shook her head. ‘Harry, what are we supposed to do now? As soon as we tell Severus about this, he’ll want to go and challenge poor Percy to a duel.’

Harry nodded. ‘Yeah, I know.’

He proceeded to heap his plate high with scones and cake, then hid behind the food and his tea-cup.

‘At least we won’t make the same mistake as Dumbledore,’ he finally mumbled. ‘We won’t try to stage this…this take-over with Percy’s consent.’

‘I don’t want Severus to become the Owner of the Elder Wand,’ Hermione blurted. ‘He—’

She stopped, uncertain how she could explain the matter to Harry without breaking Severus’ confidence. Harry put down the piece of cake he was nibbling on and turned to face Hermione.

‘Don’t worry, Hermione. I won’t let that happen. No matter if breaking the curse sends Dumbledore’s soul straight to paradise, sets him to dancing the can-can in Salazar Slytherin’s portrait or…reduces him to Muggle atoms—it won’t be Severus who’ll do it. He’s got enough on his plate.’ Harry grimaced and shoved his plate with the half-eaten cake away.

‘Oh goodness.’ Hermione exhaled shakily. She hadn’t expected Harry to understand so easily. She had to blink her eyes rapidly, as a profound surge of relief brought tears to her eyes. Impatiently she dashed at her cheeks. ‘I don’t know why I’m being such a cry-baby.’

‘Come here.’ Harry reached over and drew her into his arms. ‘It’s okay, ‘mione. It’s okay to be worried and scared. I know that I am. But we’ve made it once, and we’ll make it again. Between you and me, we’ll keep him safe. And the whole bloody wizarding world.’

Awkwardly he patted her shoulder. ‘Hey, don’t cry. It’s nothing new for us, after all. Just same old, same old. Business as usual, really.’

In spite of herself, Hermione had to laugh. They broke apart.

‘You really do have a ‘saving people’ thing, don’t you?’

Harry sighed. ‘I admit that I prefer saving my friends to losing them.’

‘Friends, Harry?’

He grinned abashedly. ‘I don’t think it’s quite the same as it was with us, you know—how you can’t go knocking about mountain-trolls without ending up liking each other. But…well, marching hand in hand into Death and back…that does something to you.’ He grimaced. ‘However, I think it would be much healthier for me if you were to keep real quiet about that.’

Hermione smiled. ‘I won’t breathe a word. He’s really not the type for big public…or even big private declarations of love.’

‘Doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love you,’ Harry said. ‘Blokes are a bit stupid about such stuff sometimes, you know?’

Her smile grew even broader. Harry Potter was trying to reassure her that Severus Snape really loved her? What was the world coming to?

‘So what do we do now?’ she asked.

‘Well,’ Harry said with a wicked smirk. ‘I think I’ll spend the evening at the Burrow and challenge the Weasleys to a rousing game of Quidditch. And I think I just might suggest to the others that they afford Percy the high honour of playing Seeker for the other team.’