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Chapter Text

COT Chapter 1: First Meeting

Just why? Why did she have to pack a minimal travel bag, with no more than one book no less! Why did she have to change into a 'business appropriate' outfit? Why carry her wand when she couldn't use it anyway and why did she have to somehow do it in a half hour?

The phone call her father had gotten had been odd. She'd kept herself from asking about it because, well her parents often told her 'none of your business' and that was infuriating. She wanted to know! Then her dad had issued orders with no backtalk or questions allowed.

Hermione huffed as she looked in her wardrobe. She was a school girl, she didn't really have any business appropriate outfits. Let's see, that white shirt and if she wore the dark skirt she could pinch a jacket from her mom's closet and that would be as close as she could get.

She made it downstairs no more than a minute late, getting a stern look from her father. On a whim she saluted.

"Reporting as ordered sir!"

She was rewarded by a ghost of a smile before he switched to his serious look. "Don't call me sir, I work for a living. It's sergeant or I guess you can use dad.

Though he didn't talk about it she knew her father had been in the military. Being Hermione she connected the dots immediately. Whatever was going on had to do with his time serving. Add in the travel bag and telling her to bring her wand... this could be very bad.

"Dad? What's going on!"

"No idea kitten. We should be getting some visitors in a few minutes and will find out more. I trust the person who called, but if I say to go upstairs and get your things I want you to grab that travel bag, go out using the fire escape, and meet me at that Indian place we go to. If I don't show up in an hour head to the magical world and hide out there."

"What if I sense something about one of them?" She'd always been sensitive to people and, as she discovered later, to magic. Nothing like aura reading or mage sight that some witches were supposed to have but useful sometimes.

"Use 'daddy' if there's a problem and 'daddy dearest' if it's a run fast kind of problem."

"And Mom?"

"I called her. She's making arrangements at the clinic and is going to go visit your aunt for a while."

This really did not sound good. A patterned knock on the door interrupted her questions.

Her dad headed to the door, waving her to the sitting room. "That knock was an 'all clear' signal. A good sign but keep your guard up."

She heard the door open and there was some conversation she couldn't quite make out. Her dad sounded pretty stern but whatever was said seemed to calm him. Eventually her father escorted two men into the sitting room. She stood while looking at them curiously. They both moved smoothly, not at all awkward or stiff. Like Harry moved when he was doing quidditch or practicing spells. They were probably a bit older than her father, so maybe late forties. She had an immediate positive feeling toward the taller of the two and no real reaction to the shorter man.

Her father gave the introductions. "Captain, Mr. Deerfield, this is my daughter Hermione. Hermione, Captain Murphy, who I served with, and a Mr. Deerfield from the government."

Captain Murphy was the shorter man and shook her hand with a strong grip and a nice smile. Despite his friendly look she could tell he wasn't too happy to be here. Mr Deerfield's shake was gentle and his smile polite and professional. His curiosity was so strong she was almost overwhelmed by it. Perhaps a fellow knowledge seeker and bibliophile.

"Please call me David." Mr. Deerfield said.

"Then I hope you'll use Hermione." She shot her father a mock glare. "And I hope my father does as well rather than one of the embarrassing pet names he tends to use when we have company."

Her father smirked back. Not a good sign. "Well kitten, could you please get the tea things while I get these gentlemen situated?"

She gave him a mock glare and headed for the kitchen. There was a kettle hot, so it didn't take long to put everything together. While she worked she thought about the situation. Hermione trusted her feeling of David Deerfield as both nice and trustworthy, but she also had to trust her father's assessment that this could be a bad situation. It had to involve the wizarding world, there was nothing else about her that was special enough to interest someone from the government. Maybe is wasn't about her?Someone she knew? Harry seemed to be an important person, and Neville and Susan were members of important families. Still, they were tied to magic as well. Maybe Justin? His family was important in the normal world.

The small talk over tea was excruciating. The captain hardly spoke at all, and Mr Deerfield kept stopping what he was saying and giving her curious glances. Finally her father seemed to have had enough.

"Perhaps it's time to find out why you seem to be interested in my underage daughter."

David nodded. "Yes, trust me we wouldn't be focusing on students if we had any other choice. Let me tell a story, then I have a very awkward question to ask. If the answer is yes, then we can discuss it in more detail. If not then I'll leave you with my apologies for wasting your time."

He looked around at each of them waiting for some sign of agreement. When he had it he began.

"I apologize for the vagueness of some of what I'm saying as the details are covered by the official secrets act. Shortly before King George's death a palace official, an important historical post, was vacated. Oddly, after the office holder disappeared all signs of the person and even the office disappeared. Documents, quarters, official offices, even the memories of many people were simply gone. The only reason we know that there was ever such a person or position was the memory of the Queen, the Queen Mother, and a few of the older staff.

"Now the reason for the position still existed in a small way. The Prime Minister was receiving regular if infrequent reports on the situation. Later on, while those reports to the prime minister continued, the PM's memory of those reports became very minimal. He knew they happened and a few minor issues but could remember no details."

"We did discover some people who were involved, but for some reason they were unable to tell us anything. Not unwilling but actually unable. They knew the information and seemed willing to disclose it yet could not communicate it in any way. We did get a few hints from them and think that if we can find someone involved in this situation that has not yet completed their education they may not suffer from an inability to discuss it."

"After some research we discovered a pattern. Those who were involved disappeared from the normal school system at eleven and then reappeared at eighteen."

"So we looked for an older student who disappeared from normal educational institutions and who had a parent in the government or military. Her majesty recognized your name Mr. Granger and we decided to approach you and your daughter first."

Well that was an interesting story. Hermione though. She didn't know what this position was but the rest was definitely tied to the magical world. The memory loss was a memory spell of some kind and the documents and such could have been hidden with a ward or even a strong notice-me-not. And just why did the queen recognize her father's name?

David looked at Captain Murphy. "Captain, if you stick around after this point you're going to be stuck with it. You're authorized to know more if you decide to stay but if you want to go back to your civilian life you'd best leave now."

Her father raised his eyebrow at the captain. "Yes, they brought me in just to talk to you. The bastards actually reactivated my commission when I said I didn't want to bother you."

"One of the joys of being an effete officer rather than a working grunt." Her father said.

"I'm afraid I'm out of this now. I'd rather wonder about what's happening while back in my cushy office job than find out and be stuck back in the military. Sorry Dan, I owe you so if it turns out you need me give me a call and I'll let them pull me into this mess. You good with that?"

"All good Captain. I'll buy you a beer some day and tell you what I can."

Her father escorted the captain to the door and came back and sat next to Hermione on the couch.

"Just to satisfy my curiosity how much of that conversation was code words?" David asked her father.

"Some of it."

"Well, if you and the captain get together when this is all over perhaps I can join you. I'll even buy the beer."

David Deerfield sighed and looked at Hermione before continuing. "Now for the hard part. I need to ask you if you're involved in this situation without actually saying what it is. If you are you have to tell me yes without knowing that I have permission to know about it."

There was a moment of silence. Before David could try to form his question Hermione took out her wand and held it up. "Does this make things easier?"

The man relaxed. "Yes, quite a bit. Thank you." He paused a moment then asked. "Can you do magic with that?"

"Yes and no." Hermione answered. "I am able to but cannot here and now due to a restriction on students. And that's as much as I'm willing to say without some proof you should know more."

The man produced nothing short of a royal writ authorizing him to be told any and all information related to the wizarding world.

***

Dan Granger, dentist, ex-sergeant, and bemused father looked in on the pair from the kitchen. They were surrounded by books and were deep in a discussion of something, runes he thought, while writing in spiral notebooks Dan had supplied when they started scribbling on napkins. It was obvious they were alike when it came to curiosity and learning. He knew from snatches of conversation that it wasn't all about magic. His daughter was learning quite a bit about working for the government and David's personal life.

However, this was getting to be a bit much. It was time to shut it down for the day. They could complete their mutual debriefing later. He cleared his throat to try to get their attention. It partially worked as David noticed and looked up while Hermione continued to write in her notebook.

"Mr. Granger! Come here and see this, I think your daughter is about to do something amazing."

"Might as well call me Dan. I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again."

David laughed. "Quite likely. Please call me David. Now watch your daughter, this should be interesting."

Hermione picked up a pencil, which was odd as she preferred a biro or fountain pen, and with a look of concentration used it to draw faintly glowing lines in the air. Afterwards she slumped back.

"Darn. Didn't work."

"But the lines were visible." David said. "Maybe the shape wasn't quite right, try again."

Hermione nodded and after consulting her notebook tried again. This time the glowing lines brightened and then disappeared in a bright flash of light.

"It worked!" Hermione sounded surprised.

"Excellent!" David told her.

"What just happened?" Dan asked.

Hermione started lecturing. "We were going over some basic magic theory and David had some thoughts. This was a test of one of his critiques on standard manifestation limits. That was the rune version of a light spell mediated by the graphite core of the pencil."

"So he had an idea for a neat trick and you gave it a try." Dan translated.

Hermione glared at him but David laughed. "Pretty much, though I still think you could do it with just your finger, or your nose for that matter."

Hermione shrugged. "Maybe, it could be that I'm just conditioned from using a wand. Or it could be that you were wrong about the source of the focus. The important point is I can do some minimal magic without using my wand. No wand, no nasty letters about breaking the rules."

Dan smiled. One of her daughter's biggest frustrations was at least partially fixed. "That's great kitten, but it's getting late. David, do you want to stay for dinner?"

David looked at his watch and groaned. "Sorry, I have a personal meeting this evening. In fact I'm going to be late if I don't move it."

"Hermione, talk to your parents about what we discussed and let me know what you decide."

"Of course, and" Hermione smirked at David. "Good luck with your blind date."

David groaned, waved at Hermione and let Dan escort him to the door.

He went back to the living room and watched his daughter start to tidy up the mess of books and papers. "What do you need to talk to us about, or should we wait until your mother gets back home?"

"Basically I've been offered a job for the summer. Technically as a research intern at an office of MI5, but mostly I'd be digging through old books and documents at the palace."

"Palace. As in Buckingham, where the queen lives?"

"She's often there, yes, though I doubt I'll see her. Speaking of which I was wondering why the queen would recognize your name, have you met her?"

Dan groaned. "Just once, well twice technically, she made an offer that I was forced to turn down."

"Interesting. You'll have to tell me all about it." Hermione's eyes were bright with curiosity.

"Or not." Dan said in a flat voice. "It's not important and not something that you need to know about. If you happen to meet the queen, and she happens to tell you, I'll be glad to give you my side of the story."

"All right, I won't bug you. About the job?" Hermione asked.

"I'll check with your mother but I'm okay with it. It'll be good to have some experience in the real world in case you decide the whole magic thing isn't going to work out."

Hermione grinned. "Yes!"

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 1: Internship

(Mon July 1)

The building was surprisingly boring. Except for the security in the lobby and the crest behind the reception desk it could have been the offices of any large business. When they entered she hung back as her father had told her. Repeatedly. She tried to listen to the exchange, she really did. There were so many distractions here though! The guards were dressed smartly and one of them was quite attractive. The doors looked normal except for the black box mounted on the wall next to them. Everyone had a badge around their neck and they were suspiciously thick. Probably more than just identification...

"Hermione!"

Oops, that's what she got for not paying attention. "Sorry, I was distracted."

Her father looked irritated but resigned. The woman behind the desk grinned at her.

"Come here and get your badge." Her father sounded cross. "Someone is coming to meet you and escort you to David. They don't seem to want me to join you though."

The woman behind the desk spoke up. "Sorry again Mr. Granger. Don't worry though we hardly ever lose our interns, though they do sometimes get lost in the maze of hallways for a few days. If she doesn't make it home just give us a call and we'll send out a search party."

Her dad snorted at that and his irritation dropped off.

Just then a short older man with a nasty scar across one cheek entered the lobby from the door. He nodded at the guards and walked up to her father and offered his hand.

"Sarge, good to see you."

"Josh? Good lord I thought we'd lost you..." he glanced over at his daughter. "Umm...that time. It's damn good to see you."

"We can catch up later. I do security and will be shadowing the young lady."

Her father frowned but he was a lot more relaxed now. "Protecting her or protecting from her?"

"Yes." was the only answer he got.

Her father put his hand on her shoulder. "Hermione, this is Joshua, just Joshua, don't ask about his last name. Josh, this is my daughter Hermione. Now Hermione, behave and listen to Joshua. If he tells you to do something just do it, don't ask questions. And Josh, good luck. I suspect you'll earn your princely salary today. Working with teenage girls should come with hazard pay."

Hermione gave her father a glare and stepped up to Joshua with her hand out. Although his grip was gentle she could feel strength and roughness in his hand. This man was strength and determination with just a hint of the amused observer. He felt a bit like Professor Snape but without the darkness that ran through the Slytherin.

"What now?" Hermione asked.

"Director's office. Deerfield will meet us there."

Well that sounded more than a bit ominous.

* * *

The director, Hermione decided, was one tough lady. She made Professor McGonagall seem laid back. She was someone Hermione could respect but never fully trust. Hermione was glad David was there and didn't seem intimidated by the woman.

"So you can actually do magic?" The director was understandably skeptical.

"Yes, though I can do very little without my wand. Since I'm a student, using a wand while not at school will automatically be detected and I'll be cited and possibly investigated by the magical version of the police."

"Convenient you can't show me anything."

David stepped forward and handed her a pencil. "Try the trick we did yesterday."

Hermione nodded. The light rune hadn't been very impressive, so how about a shrinking rune? For just a moment she was tempted to shrink the woman's jacket. "Is the blue biro on your blotter important to you?"

The woman shook her head.

Hermione drew the glyph slowly to make sure she got it right and pushed as much magic as she could while concentrating on the biro. The rune was much brighter than last night and the pencil started to heat up. As happened earlier the glowing lines in the air vanished with a flash and the biro was suddenly about half its original length. She had been aiming for smaller than that.

The director wasn't looking at the shrunk down writing instrument though, she was staring at Hermione. She glanced back and David was doing the same.

"Umm, is something wrong?"

David shook his head. "The rune was quite impressive as was the way your hair waved around while you were drawing it."

Oh drat. That hadn't happened to her since her first week of classes. Now her hair would be a pain to get to behave.

The director had stopped staring at her and picked up the shrunk biro. She carefully clicked the button a few times and tried writing a bit with it. "Is this permanent?"

Hermione thought for a moment. If the rune was etched and powered it would probably last longer than the cheap plastic it was made of. However, "I'm sorry but I'm not certain. What I did was experimental and we don't really know much about it yet. I'd guess it's temporary but I can't say if it'll last a minute or a month."

"Interesting." The directory said, staring at the object. "And possibly very useful. However, that's not what you're here for." The woman carefully put the tiny biro to the side.

"While technically an intern with us you will actually be working with agent Deerfield at the palace. The primary goal is to discover what you can about the position of Royal Wizard. A secondary goal is to provide information about the magic world to those authorized for such information. For now that is limited to myself, agent Deerfield and his team, the PM, Queen and anyone we officially designate. This includes Joshua, but you are not to discuss any of these matters with him unless it directly relates to security."

Hermione just nodded.

"Deerfield, get her to sign the contract and impress on her the gravity of the official secrets act."

David took her arm and directed her out of the office. As they were leaving the director spoke again "Ms. Granger, when you next see your father please tell him I'm sorry I doubted him."

Did everyone but her know a secret about her father?

* * *

After signing the paperwork and a boring lecture about the official secrets act by a bespectacled clerk and a less boring one by David they moved to a small conference room.

"Ready for work or would you rather take a break?"

Finally she could ask questions! "I want to know what's going on. Royal wizard? How are we going to find anything at the palace to help? How did your date go?"

David laughed. "From last to first, my date was an interesting ancient history geek but there was no spark between us. We agreed to hang out and talk about history now and then. We don't know what we might find at the palace yet and I need to ask you some more questions about that. And yes, it seems there was a royal wizard at Buckingham until well into this century."

They spent the rest of the morning talking about ways that the position might have been hidden using magic or more ordinary means. They put together a list of things to check at the palace including the archives, searching for the office or quarters used by the post and talking to some of the older retainers who remembered the last royal wizard. David said they could ask to see the queen as well, though she would have been quite young when the post was actually filled. The queen mother was a better choice for information.

"What about sources in the magical world?" Hermione asked.

David shook his head. "Not unless you can check them without letting anyone there know. Someone or some group in the magical world is hiding information from people on our side of things who have a right to know. It sounds like they're using spells on the PM and possibly other officials and that's a crime. There's no telling what they would do if they found out you were giving us information. For now secrecy is paramount."

"How about a bookstore, maybe a visit to a used book store in the magical world by a known bibliophile"?

"I don't know Hermione. We can't give you security in the magical world, though I'm tempted by the amount of background information that could give us."

"My father could go along, he's ex-military."

David thought about it. "That could work. Let me bring it up with Joshua and the chief and get their input."

Thinking about going into the magical world now that Voldemort's return was known brought up a lot more immediate information she should be giving the muggle government. "Ah, David, I should probably give you a rundown on recent events in the magical world. There are things happening that are affecting you on this side."

"Can it wait? We're due at the palace after lunch."

"Maybe?"

David sighed. "Okay, give me the short version. Five minutes or less."

So she gave him the very short version. The wizarding war that ended fifteen years ago, the uncertainty of you-know-who's demise, the death eaters and what they did and the rebirth and official outing of Voldemort a few weeks earlier.

"Well crap." David said. "Look, you go down to lunch with Joshua, he'll be waiting outside the door. I'll give the director a heads up and meet you in the commissary."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 3: The Archive

(Mon July 1)

They were picked up at the door by a nice looking BMW sedan. Her father would love it.

"Hermione, please meet our driver Angie Johnson. She is one of the team the director mentioned, so you don't have to watch what you say in the car. She'll also be handling most of your transportation, though we may stuff you in a cab from time-to-time."

"Good afternoon. Please call me Angie. What David didn't say was that my real first name is Agnus, which I ask you never use, and that I'm a squib who was dumped into the normal world when I was five."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, though you were probably better off than being a squib in the magical world. Please call me Hermione."

"Off we go Angie, we're running a bit late."

"Sure thing boss."

"We only have a few minutes and I was hoping you could give me some more background on this terrorist that came back to life." David asked.

Angie looked at them in the rear view mirror at that but didn't say anything.

"I thought about it while we were having lunch and couldn't discuss anything sensitive." Hermione began. "My quick description covered all the high points, most of what I know besides that will either be describing the edges of what I know, such as how many followers he has, or require some deeper background on the magic world."

David sighed. "Okay, give me another five minutes of whatever you can think of that might help."

She did. Focusing on what she thought they could actually use immediately including descriptions of the death eaters and what little she knew about how they operated, a description of Peter Pettigrew and his animagus form, dementors and how they might join in with Voldemort again.

At the end she realized there was a way they could get more detailed information. "There's someone who knows more than I do you could contact. A student in my year named Harry Potter. He was there when Voldemort was resurrected and saw his supporters gather. He's muggle raised by his Aunt and Uncle, the Dursleys, and not treated very well by them."

"That could be useful." David said. "Let's find some time this afternoon for you to give me more details on Mr. Potter. For now we're due at the archives in a few minutes. Angie, see if you can find out anything about this Harry Potter and the Dursleys."

"I don't know his address but he's mentioned Privit Drive."

* * *

Security at the palace was obviously expecting them and it didn't take long for them to be passed through. They immediately went down below street level and into a very old section of the palace.

"The archives are one level farther down." David said as he led them down an empty corridor. "This is the level that the queen mother thinks had the residence of the old royal wizard. So I thought we could walk through it and see if you notice anything."

Hermione stopped. She had noticed something. The faint tingle she sometimes got when walking around Hogwarts. She was so used to it that it didn't immediately registered as unusual. "Maybe something about twelve or fifteen steps earlier."

David looked around. "Okay, we'll check it out later. I've noted where we are. For now we're a bit late for our meeting with the Archivist and he can be ornery. The stairs to his lair are just ahead and to the right."

* * *

Hermione should have been in heaven as they toured rooms with shelf after shelf of old tomes and ancient records just waiting to be examined. She didn't mind wearing the cotton gloves the archivist had insisted both she and David wear. She didn't mind the odd smell from the preservatives used on some of the documents. What she did mind was the archivist's constant snarky comments.

It got better after David pulled the old man aside and had a quiet conversation. She couldn't hear what David said but she made out 'unique talent', 'critical intelligence', and 'the queen'. After that the comments stopped and she was able to focus enough to notice a few odd things.

Eventually they'd walked through all of the archive rooms she and David were allowed to enter. They'd make arrangements for the rooms with more sensitive contents if they didn't find anything here.

"Can we go through the rooms labeled 17 and 3 again please?" She asked the archivist.

The old man looked surprised. "How did you know the room designations?"

"It was part of the codes on the books and boxes that had labels. By the way there were several books marked for other rooms in room six."

The archivist snorted. "Some of the researchers get lazy. I'll get it taken care of." He paused. "Please let me know if you see anything else misfiled. My eyes aren't what they used to be and I don't always spot it right away."

"I'm afraid we'll have to check out those rooms tomorrow. We've used up too much of the archivists' time today." David said.

"Can we have a bit of your or one of your staff's time tomorrow around ten o'clock?" He asked the archivist.

The old man sighed. "Yes, I or Mrs. Heathers will be available. Go to my office first."

"Come on Hermione, we need to talk about your Mr. Potter and then I need to get you home. Getting someone with your father's military record mad at me is not something I plan on doing." David said as he pulled her away from all the wonderful books.

Angie was waiting for them with the car and Hermione had the unusual experience of being peppered with questions faster than she could easily answer them. Questions about the magical world, about Harry, and about the death eaters. She did the best she could answering despite finding it exhausting and annoying. It wasn't until after she'd been dropped off at her house that she realized she asked questions like that regularly and wondered if David had done it on purpose to show her how it felt.

* * *

(Tue July 2)

The next day they were back and the palace archives and the Archivist was back to giving her snarky comments. Hermione thought she found a hidden shelf and needed the old man to let up for a bit so she could concentrate.

"Right, humor me for just a moment." She said, glaring at the old man.

"Very well, but please make it quick, I have other things to do." he said sourly.

"Please count the number of shelves in this case."

The archivist glanced at the ancient bookcase. "Seven."

"Now the one to it's right."

"Eight."

"Now look again. Both units are the same height, and the shelves are the same distance apart. How can they have a different number of shelves?"

"I...I don't know." The old archivist hobbled over to the two shelves, touching each shelf briefly, not noticing when he skipped over the shelf with the notice-me-not on it. "What's going on, this should be impossible."

"The unit where you see seven shelves has eight, but one is... treated so it's very difficult to notice. I can just barely tell it's there due to an unusual talent I have."

David sighed. "Archivist Jenkins, you will either have to be read into the secrets involved or assign one of your staff to be read in. That will involve a background check and an oath.

The old man was silent for a moment, staring at the bookcase he thought had seven shelves. "Do you need a librarian or a researcher?"

David glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, he wanted her to answer. "A researcher, optimally one who knows the early history of this century."

The old man sighed. "I do want to know what's going on, but I don't think I'm the best person for the job. If nothing else I have too many administrative duties these days. I think young Janet will be able to help you and should be excited by a new project."

(Wed July 3 and Thu July 4)

Wednesday morning had been taken up by meeting with Janet, a pleasant mid-thirties woman, and giving her the basics of the situation. Hermione had to give her a demonstration of magic using one of David's many number 2 pencils to get her fully on-board. They managed to spend a few minutes in room 17 where Hermione showed her the bookcase with the hidden shelf. Janet promised to get a workspace set up in the room and try to talk to the queen mother for additional information.

The afternoon they went back to the MI5 building and Hermione spent hours giving background information on the magical world.

Thursday Hermione was finally able to focus on finding the hidden material. Unfortunately that turned out to be an exercise in frustration. It wasn't just the damn shelf that had some kind of persistent notice-me-not magic on it. That was annoying, but she could find the shelf with a bit of effort and blindly grab some of the contents. The problem came when she tried to do anything with whatever she grabbed as it also seemed to have the same type of notice me not charm.

She was fairly sure she hadn't lost any of the books and documents she'd pulled off the shelf due to her usual organized approach. Everything had been placed on the table Janet had reserved for their project. So hopefully it was all there.

She'd tried just about everything. The ending spell with the pencil hadn't done a thing. The equivalent neutralization runes traced in the air with a pencil had worked very briefly, allowing them to observe the parchment and books for a few seconds. She would have to try a more permanent rune-base solution next, which required something to etch the runes on.

Through repeated use of pencil based nullification runes she managed to move things over to one side of the table to leave space for whatever David and Janet found for her to etch on. She'd finished that and had time for a cup of the too-strong tea in the break room when David came in struggling with a thick square of some kind of dark wood while Janet carried a small toolbox. Herminone ran over and helped David position the heavy piece of wood onto the emptied portion of the table.

"You said wood would work if it was hardwood and the older the better. How about a three-hundred year old chunk of English Walnut that used to be part of a banquet table?" David said as he checked his hands for splinters.

"Very nice! Looks like you found some tools as well. Hopefully there's something I can use to do the etching, otherwise I can bring my rune etching kit from home tomorrow." Hermione said, taking the toolbox from Janet.

"Got it from the same place the wood came from. Should have woodworking tools. I also have some powdered crystals. We couldn't find quartz or white sand but we did find some diamond dust the jeweler had that he said wasn't fine enough to use for polishing."

Hermione blinked. "That should work. Good magic conduction and very good heat handling."

Wood was not the optimal medium for carving runes. The grain tended to redirect the engraving pen in ways that distorted the rune. Though if you made a mistake you could often sand it out. Fortunately the old wood was very hard and had a fine grain. She made the runes larger to reduce the effect of the grain. The old carving tools worked a lot better than an etching pen would in this hard wood. She'd have to mention that to Professor Babbling when she returned to Hogwarts.

Carving runes in any organic substance required a small amount of quartz dust embedded in the runes if it had to handle more than a tiny bit of power. Theoretically diamond should work even better. She had enough of the diamond powder to add an enclosing channel connecting the eight sets of nullification runes. That would make charging easier and even out the flow of magic between the rune arrays.

She then used her pencil version of the nullification rune to find and move a document to the center of the rune array. Now to try charging the runes.

That turned out to be a problem. She etched a power collection rune set in an edge of the slab of wood knowing there was not enough ambient magic even at Hogwarts to power this array. Maybe it would help keep it powered once it was up and running. She then burned out two pencils trying to activate the array.

"Problem?" David asked.

"Trying to power this thing enough to get it working." Hermione said. "Nullification runes are hungry beasts. I might be able to start this up with my wand, but given that's not a good idea I'll have to do it the hard way. Better grab a fire extinguisher in case I mess this up."

Janet, who had been sitting in a corner reading while Hermione worked, stood and grabbed the extinguisher that was mounted on the wall near the door.

Hermione used one of the carving tools to prick her thumb and spread the blood on two points of the power channel she'd added, well away from any actual runes. She took a deep breath and placed a hand on the points and *pushed* her magic as hard as she could.

Wandless magic was hard. Not only was it difficult to push magic outside yourself without a mediator, the wand also controlled how much magic could be released. Blood as a mediator connected to a diamond-enhanced rune set had no such controls. The runes flared briefly as the array drank Hermione's magic. The runes brightened and the document in the array became noticeable.

Then Hermione dropped unconscious. David barely managed to stop her from hitting her head.

"Well, crap."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 4: Recruiting Harry

(Thu July 4)

Hermione woke in bed in what looked like a miniature version of the Hogwarts hospital wing. A man in white smock over a suit, presumably a doctor, was leaning over her.

"And how are we feeling now?" The man asked.

Hermione almost said I'm fine before remembering how much she hated it when Harry said that. "I think I'll be okay, it's just exhaustion and a monster headache."

The man nodded to her and turned to where David was sitting next to the bed. "You need to take better care of your interns. I want her to have at least a full day of bed rest and then take it easy for a few more days. You'll have to manage without her for at least two days. I'd prefer three. And drink more water young lady, you're dehydrated."

After the doctor left David sat next to her. "It's Thursday, so let's see if you're up to continuing on Monday. Of course that assumes your father doesn't murder me."

"Okay." While she had seen Harry with cases of magical exhaustion this was the first time she'd suffered it. She didn't like it much. Not that Harry would have passed out from powering her runic array. Which gave her a thought.

"David, if I wasn't able to power that runic array we have another reason to get hold of Harry Potter. He's a lot more powerful than I am. Probably the most powerful student at Hogwarts and likely the second or third most powerful even if you count the staff."

David nodded. "Unfortunately your trick only worked for about an hour. Janet went through that document and took notes. She said it was a letter allocating crown funds for 'the special efforts of her Majesty's magical governor' dated June of 1899." He stood. "Now, let's get you to the car and get you home to rest. I think I'll have Angie drive you back while I look into contacting Mr. Potter and report our progress to the chief."

* * *

The chief played with the tiny pen Hermione had shrunk while she listened to his verbal report.

"So..." the chief said slowly. "It seems that some fairly extensive measures were taken to hide the details of the position of royal wizard and even details of the magical world itself."

David nodded.

"What's your impression of Miss Granger so far?"

"Brilliant. Knowledgeable. Dedicated. A bit reckless. An academic mind but is able to actually get things done."

The chief almost smiled, a rare event. "So a miniature magical version of you."

David snorted. "When I was her age I was jacking cars and skipping out of school. She'll outstrip me in no time."

"What about this Harry Potter. Do you think we should contact him?"

"Absolutely. What little we found out suggests he's a bit of a troublemaker, though a lot of that may be his relatives spreading stories. He does not have a happy home life. However he does have detailed information on the magical terrorists and his power levels should help uncover more information.

"Let's do a bit more checking before I'll approve contacting him. The Finch-Fletchley's are on your list?"

"Yes, they were next. As you requested I haven't asked Hermione if they're part of the magical world."

"Approach them. Carefully. We don't want to alienate anyone with their connections. If their son is part of the magical world, see if you can get information on Miss Granger and Mr. Potter. If their son, Justin I believe, is willing let's get him fully debriefed. He can provide verification of information from Miss Granger. His upbringing is likely to give him a different point of view as well."

"I'll start on that now."

* * *

(Fri July 5)

The visit with Justin Finch-Fletchley had been enlightening. It seems he'd made a very lucky choice in Hermione Granger. Justin said she was the most brilliant student in their year and was often in the middle of whatever was going on, usually supporting Mr. Potter.

His opinion of Mr. Potter was mixed. He seemed a truly heroic figure, and like most such figures was both dangerous and had some flaws. He was also famous in the magical world.

The information that had decided the chief was Mr. Finch-Fletchley's description of Hermione and Harry as a team. He felt they could do much more together than either could separately.

Now he just needed to find out if Hermione was going to be allowed to continue working with them.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he had to admit that Dan Granger made him nervious, he knocked on the Granger's door.

"Mr. Davenport, I've been expecting you." Dan Granger's voice, while formal, wasn't exactly cold. David decided to take that as a good sign.

"How is Herminone?" David asked.

Dan signed. "You better come in and ask her yourself. She wouldn't forgive me if I kicked you to the curb."

"Thank you. And I'd still like you to call me David, even if you don't want your daughter to continue working with us."

"Okay David. Not sure I have a choice about her working with you. As you're likely to find she has a whim of steel."

"I got that impression when she faced down the chief."

Dan paled a bit. "Wait, the chief? The head of MI5? That's surprising."

"You've met her then?"

"Oh, yes. We've had some interactions. Icy bitch. Smart but not exactly a people person."

"Yeah, you've definitely met."

"Alright, lets go check on Hermione.

* * *

Harry was aware of the large car driving up Privit Drive while he trimmed the front rose bushes. Aunt Petunia wanted them perfect at all times so he was out here every day doing the painstakingly precise work. He didn't look up when the car slowed down but his attention shifted. Non-normal things usually meant trouble for him and this car was too fancy to be normal.

Sure enough it stopped in front of the house and a door opened. No point in pretending to work on the roses now and Petunia wouldn't want him to ignore visitors. He turned to face the car in time to see a tall middle aged man get out of the back seat.

"Excuse me young man." The man said with what looked like a genuine smile. "Would you be Harry Potter?"

This did not look good. It was unlikely a pureblood bigot would drive up in a car but one of them might have had a brain wave and hired someone from the muggle world. Best be cautious.

"Yes, I'm Harry Potter. What can I do for you?"

"My name is David Deerfield and I work for the government. I'd like to talk to you for a bit. Oh, and I have a note of introduction from a friend of yours." He held out a folded paper.

Harry looked at it before touching. One of his recurring nightmares was being handed something that turned out to be a portkey and finding himself somewhere extremely unpleasant. It was normal white typewriter paper, not parchment. Supposedly bleached paper didn't hold magic well, so it should be safe.

"Thank you." He said taking the note and unfolding it. It was from Hermione, not a shock as she was the only friend of his that would use normal paper. She had a job with the government for the summer, good for her. Mr Deerfield was "in the know" but he shouldn't make assumptions about anyone with him. The last line said that she wasn't up to any mischief. That and the handwriting convinced him it was from her.

"I see." He said. "Hermione thinks I should listen to you and you, uh, know things. I would like to see some identification though."

Mr. Deerfield reached into his pocket. Harry was pretty sure this was where Petunia would show up. He was positive she was watching them through the window. Her sense for good gossip should have had her watching before the car door opened.

He was looking over the ID. It was indeed for a David Deerfield and the picture matched. He was an intelligence analyst, whatever that meant. It did sound like something Hermione would be involved in.

Right on cue Aunt Petunia opened the door. He was sure she was about to say something scathing but she paused, looked at the car and closed her mouth. When she finally said something it was at least in polite tones. "What has my nephew gotten himself into now?"

Mr. Deerfield looked up at her briefly then returned his gaze to Harry, watching him while he spoke. "We were hoping to borrow him for a while. A friend of his is working for our department and he should be able to help with a critical piece of her work."

"Harry?" his aunt asked. A rare use of his name.

"Mr. Deerfield is from the government and while he did not attend the same school I do, he knows about it." Harry answered carefully.

"Ah. Well go get cleaned up. And hurry it up. Don't keep the gentleman waiting on you."

"Yes Aunt Petunia." Harry hurried inside.

"This may take a few days." Mr. Deerfield called to him. "We'll provide anything you need but please bring anything you can't manage without."

Right, so his wand, his dad's cloak, his photo album and make sure everything else is packed away in his trunk. He decided to grab his money pouch and vault key as well and shoved it all into his book bag. He let Hedwig out, telling her she should take a break and head to Hermione's if he wasn't available. It took no more than fifteen minutes. To his surprise Petunia and Mr. Deerfield were carefully examining the rose bushes and discussing water and fertilizer regimes.

"All ready Mr. Deerfield, Aunt Petunia."

Petunia looked him over. He was wearing his best non-magical-world clothes, which weren't that great. "I guess that'll do. Let me know when you'll be returning."

* * *

Harry sat in the back seat with Mr. Deerfield, which was not the hardship it would be in his uncle's car. There was a driver, a smiling young woman who greeted him before being instructed to go to the next stop by Mr. Deerfield.

"Ms. Johnson here is one of our few agents who knows anything about the magic world, so we can speak freely."

"Agent is saying a bit much, I mostly just drive folks around." The woman said cheerfully. "So is knowing anything. I'm a squib who was brought up in the non-magical world. All I know are things my parents mentioned when I was young."

"Nice to meet you, please call me Harry."

"Of course Harry, and call me Angie".

That name sounded a lot like his teammate Angela Johnson. Not the time to mention it though. "We should talk about our backgrounds later." He said carefully.

"Sounds good. We'll have the opportunity as I'm on call to haul you and Miss Granger around as needed."

"As you can tell, Ms. Johnson is quite chatty." Mr. Deerfield said.

The woman looked at Harry in the rearview mirror and winked. "Also flirty, though I like my men on the older side, right David honey?"

Mr. Deerfield groaned.

This was getting suspicious, it didn't seem like professional behavior for a couple intelligence agents. "So is this banter normal or is it to make me feel more comfortable?"

"Ooo...he's a sharp one." Angie said. "I might have to change my mind about only liking older men."

Mr. Deerfield chuckled. "The proper answer is both. We do act like this when we don't have to be professional but we're allowing ourselves to do it now to keep you from panicking about being dragged from your family by government agents."

"Huh, well it's working."

"That's good, since you'll have to do something horrifying at our next stop." Mr. Deerfield said.

That didn't sound good at all. "Ummm...and what's our next stop?"

"Harrods. You are going to be outfitted in appropriate wear by Ms. Johnson here."

What Harry could see of Angie's face in the rearview mirror took on a predatory look. "Oh...oh crap."

* * *

(Sat July 6)

Harry woke up on the couch in David's flat. It was a lot more comfortable than the old bed at Privit Drive.

After a quick breakfast, cooked by Harry as David wasn't exactly skilled in the kitchen, they headed to a huge office building. Harry was given a long contract to sign and given a lecture about the secrecy act. Then David sat him down and asked some hard questions about his living conditions at the Dursleys.

Harry was sent to lunch with a man named Joshua while David went off to do whatever intelligence analysts do.

After lunch Angie drove them to Buckingham Palace. On the ride over David told him they had a late afternoon meeting at 10 Downing Street where he would have to be their magic expert as the doctor had put Hermione on bed rest for a few days.

At the palace David walked him through the portion of the palace were they stored old records, giving him a summary of what they were trying to do. They stopped in one largish room where David pointed to a table in the middle of the room.

Harry examined a big chunk of wood with runes etched on it. "So what's this?"

David shrugged. "I was hoping you knew. Hermione built it to help us examine the documents hidden on one of the shelves here. Something about nullification of a notice-me-not. She wasn't able to give it enough power to work for long and suggested you might be able to do so."

Harry examined the chunk of wood with the glittering runes carved in it. He touched one of the stained parts and pulled his hand back. "That's her blood."

"That's right. She said she'd do it the hard way, put her hands where the blood is and made the runes glow. Then she passed out."

Harry snorted. "Typical Hermione, doesn't know when to stop once she gets something in her head. Not that I'm in a position to complain. Unfortunately I never took runes. In case you didn't know it, Hermione is the most brilliant witch of our generation. I do okay but I'm not at her level. I can see if I can pump some magic into this thing, otherwise we'll have to wait for her."

David thought about it. "Right, give it a shot. Worst case we'll ask her to recreate her work and try again. Just a second though, let me grab a fire extinguisher."

Harry nodded. That was probably a good idea. This thing was wood after all and the room was filled with parchment and paper. Hermione had him use his wand to power up rune arrays for her before. Without a wand he wasn't too sure how to proceed. He definitely didn't want to use his own blood, particularly if he had to mix it with Hermione's. Mixing blood and magic was dangerous.

"Did she do anything special besides the blood and putting her hands on it? Did she take off any of her clothes or draw anything on her body beforehand?" Using blood made him thing of ritual magic and that often had special conditions.

"No. Her hair did kind of come alive and spark a bit while she was doing it." David said.

Harry snickered. "I haven't see that happen since she was a first year. It's the only thing I know of that will make her use bad language."

"It happened when she did pencil magic one time. She was pretty upset." David said.

"Pencil magic?"

"Right, I haven't mentioned that." David described what they'd discovered that first night and some of the experiments they'd done.

"So just a regular number two pencil? Did you try a carpenter's pencil? Or maybe some of the pencils sketch artists use?"

David shook his head. "No, I admit I didn't think of pencils for sketching, and I have no idea what a carpenter's pencil is. I'll ask Angie to track some down. We have about forty-five minutes before we have to leave for the PM's office. Do you want to try to power up this thing or should we wait for Hermione? She should be back on Monday."

"Let me give it one try, after all you already have the fire extiguiser ready."

Harry placed his hands on the spots with the blood stains and thought about the spell used to charge runes. It took a minute to get into the right mindset. He felt the magic start to flow. The level of magic it was taking was pretty strong, about like holding his patronous. After a few seconds the runes started to glow and a long piece of parcement appeared inside the runic array. He held it until the magic draw dropped off and pulled his hands away.

"I think it's charged up. Not sure how long it will last."

David looked at him oddly. "Are you tired?"

"Not really." He answered, looking at the document but not touching it. He'd been warned not to touch any documents without gloves. "It was pretty tough, but I could do a few more of those before it caused any problems."

David put the fire extiguisher away. "Is that normal? Hermione passed out almost immedately."

"Umm...I guess not. Hermione is a powerful witch, close to the top in our class. Having enough power isn't my problem, knowing what to do with it is. That's where Hermione comes in. She really is brilliant."

* * *

"Harry?" Hermione sat up. She was in her bed and there was no one else there. Yet the unmistakable feel of Harry was all around her. She blushed when she realized how good it felt. The slowly fading headache she'd had since passing out disappeared and her fatigue was dropping off. What was happening?

"Oh." she whispered. The blood she used to connect to the runic array. She hadn't been able to clean it off. Harry was charging up the array probably touching the points with her blood and possibly had added his own blood on top of hers. That meant...she had no idea what that meant. If they'd mixed blood and magic, even remotely it could be a sort of ad-hoc ritual. Or maybe it was just causing some Harry's stupidly large amount of magic to be channelled to her...over tens of miles.

This was one of the things Madam Pomphrey had warned the girls about in second year. Taking in a boy's magic could allow them to influence you. Allowing blood to be involved was dangerous, mostly because its effect were so unpredictable.

She calmed herself. This was Harry, so she couldn't imagine the result being bad for her. In fact it was already a good thing as the symptoms of her magical exhaustion seemed to be gone. In the worst case Harry would know what had happened and would take advantage of her, which didn't sound all that bad.

Okay, so she would simply accept his magic as a gift and take advantage of the extra energy. Anything else that came of it she would deal with as needed. Except a talk with her mum might be a good idea.

* * *

Oh this is so not good, Harry thought "Hey David, hold up a second."

"What's up?"

"Do you know that older guy that just passed us?"

David looked over at him. "He's familiar, someone in revenue I think."

Harry grabbed David's arm and pulled him after the man. "He's got a glassy look in his eyes and didn't even glance at us as he walked by. Maybe that's normal for him but he looks like someone under the mind control curse. That's a favorite trick of death eaters."

"How can we check?" David asked.

"Talk to him. If he's controlled and the person who did the spell isn't an expert at it, he'll be really focused and limited in what he's willing to do and say." Harry replied, glad for the lessons on the unforgivables they'd had in DADA even if it was taught by a death eater.

"He's from revenue, how will we tell?" David quibbed.

"Excuse me? Mr. Howard?" Harry called out.

The man kept walking forward, completely ignoring them. Harry jogged forward and tugged on his jacket. "I'm sorry, are you Mr. Howard? You look just like him but I thought he moved to Canada."

The man stopped and slowly turned to look at Harry. "I'm to go see the Queen," he said.

"So you're not Mr. Howard?"

"I must see the Queen." The man droned.

Mind controlled, definitely. Harry stepped in front of the man. "You don't have to listen to the voice. You can do what you want. Why should you listen to it anyway? It's not yours is it?"

The man's brow furrowed. That was a good sign. "I-I have an appointment with the queen." he said in a more normal voice.

Damn, the voice was telling him something he was supposed to do anyway, that would make it harder to break out of it. "And what are you to do once you see the queen?"

At this the man's eyes cleared a bit. He reached into his suit coat pocket, pulling out a stone disk. "I'm to leave this somewhere out of the way?"

David was coming up behind the man with a uniformed guard, Harry hadn't even realized he'd gone for help. "You won't get a chance to see the queen today, so there's no need to listen to the voice."

"I...I agree. The voice isn't mine. Why was I listening to it?" The man said, dropping the disk.

The guard stopped a few feet away, well out of reach. "All right, both of you step away from each other and put your hands behind your heads."

Harry immediately complied. Nodding toward the stone disk now on the floor. "David, he was to put that disk near the queen."

There was a whispered discussion between David and the guard before David replied. "I don't see a disk Harry, it may be hidden like the documents we're working with. Please slowly pick it up." Harry did so and placed it in his left jacket pocket before placing his hands back behind his head.

"Now what?" He asked.

"Now this nice guard escorts you two to a small room where you will be asked many questions." David said. "And you, Harry, learn one of life's most important lessons. No good deed goes unpunished."

"Already know that one." He said sourly.

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 5: Meetings at 10 Downing

(Sat July 6)

Harry managed to get out of most of the interrogation only because he had a meeting with the PM, though he did have to promise to come in Monday morning. Even that wouldn't have worked if David hadn't vouched for him.

The conference room was nice, with comfortable padded chairs and a large wood table. Despite being barely on time they were the only ones there. A rather attractive young lady served David tea and offered him a coke, which he happily accepted.

About ten minutes after the meeting time two men and an older woman entered. David stood when they entered so Harry followed suit. One of the men stood next to the door while the other man and woman sat across from them.

"Agent Davenport, this is Beatrice Withers who will be my aid in regards to these matters." The man said.

"Of course sir." David said. "This is Harry Potter, who is a student at the magical school and has agreed to help us. We have another student, Hermione Granger, who had an accident while trying to aid us in discovering hidden documents and will be unavailable until Monday." David turned to Harry. "Harry, this is John Majors, the Prime Minister."

Harry supposed he should be nervous. Maybe he was getting jaded being so well known in the magical world and regularly interacting with the most powerful members of that world. "It's an honor to meet you sir."

"I have two reasons I wanted to meet you personally." The PM said. "The first is to hear about this terrorist that has come back. I was told he was dead, killed, if I'm not mistaken, by you." Mrs. Withers looked surprised at that. "The other is to discuss the problem I'm having in my meetings with your Minister for Magic."

Harry nodded in understanding, he had his own problems with Fudge. "I've been told I was involved in destroying Voldemort's body." No silly shutters at his name, that was a nice change of pace. "I was fifteen months old, so it's more likely some kind of trap my mother set up. Unfortunately he did something so he survived having his body destroyed. Last year he managed to get another body. Not a completely human one but pretty close."

He described his involvement in Voldemort's resurrection. David interrupted him a few times to redirect his description so he kept to the most important issues and topics. When he finished David described their recent incident with the man from Revenue at the palace.

"Thank you." The PM said. "Mr. Davenport I expect you to keep Mrs. Withers up-to-date on what you find."

"Now, Mr. Potter, I have a problem with Minister Fudge. As required he briefs me on the state of the magical world several times a year. However, my memory of those meetings is very limited. Could he be using magic to limit what I know and to interfere with recordings of those meetings?"

Oh boy, Fudge was messing up big time. "Not only is it possible, but knowing Fudge it's quite likely. There are memory modification charms he could be using on you and I believe his job before he became the minister was working in the department that specialized in using those types of charms to hide the magical world."

"So you know Fudge?" Mrs. Withers asked.

"We've met. I was not impressed." That got a smile from the PM.

"Do you have any suggestions on what I can do about this? Or about the recordings?" The PM asked.

Magic's incompatibility with electronics was not something he new a lot about. "My first suggestion is to ask Hermione, that is Hermione Granger, the same question. She's both smarter and more knowledgeable than I am. Magic tends to cause problems with electronics, I think some electronics are harder to interfere with? Also low tech solutions like someone hidden keeping a written transcript of the discussion should work. Uh...I may have something to help keep someone hidden but it's a family heirloom and one of the few mementos I have of my parents."

"Very well." The PM said. "Beatrice, please look into those possibilities and talk to Miss Granger for additional ideas. I want something in place before my next meeting with Fudge. Also I want some thought put into detecting those that might be affected by this mind control curse Agent Deerfield mentioned."

Everyone stood. The PM shook Harry's hand and hurried out followed by the other man. Mrs. Withers stayed behind. "Mr. Potter, please stay for a bit. Someone from child services will be here momentarily to discuss your living situation. Please do not mention anything related to the magical world."

Harry just stared at her, this was unexpected. "Can David stay as well?"

"If he is agreeable, I think that's acceptable."

David put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay Harry."

Mrs. Withers smiled sympathetically. "While we wait, could you go into more detail on your ideas for recording the meetings with this Fudge character? The meetings are in the PMs office."

Harry gratefully focused on her question rather than having to talk about his relatives. "First you should assume that there's a magical means of watching the PMs office, so anything you do there should be hidden."

Mrs. Withers looked incensed at that. He didn't blame her. "You should also assume that anything electronic that's close to the office will stop working, though it's probably worth trying a device that's designed to be tough against interference."

"The term is hardened. The military often uses hardened electronics." David interrupted.

"Thanks David. I wouldn't depend on it but it's worth seeing if a hardened recording system works. Something simple like a speaking tube to a location five or six meters away from the office may do it. Be careful though, Fudge is an idiot but he may bring an Auror with him, those are roughly like a police detective, and they may spot something if it's not hidden."

"Now, about my cloak..."

* * *

Miss Kidder from child services was quite nice. She was also getting increasingly frustrated by Harry sidestepping questions such as where he went to school and why his records were so minimal.

"Mr. Potter, I think we can easily get a temporary order to remove you from your current situation and have you placed with a couple that will help you adapt to a more normal home relationship. However, I need to know about your schooling and see your records to properly place you."

David had been quiet up to this point, trying to be there for Harry without interfering.

"I'm sorry Miss Kidder but I'm afraid I have to interrupt here." He said. "Mr. Potter is working with my department and there are some pieces of information that are not to be discussed. In addition I would like to suggest some temporary placement options with people who are in the know to reduce the strain on Mr. Potter having to keep secrets from them."

"And just who are you Mr. Deerfield and what department are you with?"

David handed over the ID he'd shown Harry the day before.

"Humph. Mr Potter is far too young to be involved with such things. I'm afraid I have to..."

"Before you continue Miss Kidder." David said in a low voice. "I should mention what Mr. Potter is involved in ties to the security of the Queen directly and the realm as well. The fact that we are meeting at a conference room at 10 Downing should tell you that this is important."

"Well! This is most irregular. My job is to protect children and that is what I propose to do for Mr. Potter."

Harry chuckled, catching the attention of both adults.

"I apologize, I'm just shocked that there are two adults who both want to help me and they're arguing about the best way to do it. Usually I'm expected to be the one to help no matter what it cost me." Harry looked over at the lady from Child Services. "I'm more mature that most not-quite sixteen year olds. I'd like to suggest you listen closely to David, he knows more about my situation than you are allowed to know. His advice is important."

Gosh that was pretty good. Maybe he had picked up a few things hanging around Hermione.

The woman sighed. "I see Mr. Potter. Very well Mr. Davenport, what are your suggestions for placement?"

David smiled at the woman. "You might as well call me David, I expect we'll be working together on Mr. Potter's behalf. One solution is for Mr. Potter to continue staying with me. I am not married and have no experience raising children, but Mr. Potter and I get along quite well. Another is the Grangers. Mr. Granger is a dentist whose daughter is a classmate of Mr. Potter's. He is married though I admit I have not met his wife. Finally the Queen has suggested housing both Mr. Potter and Miss Granger at the palace as that is where they are helping us right now."

The woman looked stunned for a moment before shaking it off. "Please call me Susan. I think we can work with those suggestions. If Mr. Potter will continue to stay with you for a few days I will see what can be set up more officially soon."

"Thank you Susan. Does that meet with your approval Harry?"

"Sure! Hermione's a friend and I've met the Grangers. Staying with you is fine and staying at the palace would be convenient, particularly given what happened earlier today." Harry said.

"What happened? Assuming you can talk about it that is."

David smiled and leaned forward as if to tell a secret. "It happened just before we were scheduled to come here, we were nearly late because of it. No details I'm afraid, but Mr. Potter uncovered a plot to plant a device in the Queen's audience room."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 6: Reunion

(Mon July 8)

At Janet's direction, Hermione had emptied the hidden shelf onto a second table they'd co-opted for the project. This was a time consuming process, requiring repeated use of a pencil cast nullification rune to check that she wasn't going to knock the effectively invisible items off the table. She had already had to check for and retrieve a book and a bound sheaf of parchment from the floor.

After Janet finished photographing the letter in the nullification circle Hermione interrupted her. "I think the shelf is empty but it's hard to tell for sure. The table is pretty full, the shelf must be an expanded space as well to hold everything."

Janet looked at the, to her, empty table. "This is going to take some time. Let's pull over another table and do some triage. I don't want to spend hours photographing any more letters to the crown begging for money. Any thoughts on making it possible for me to work with these directly?"

"I've considered two possibilities so far. One is to create a larger nullification rune, maybe for an entire table. The second is a brute force attempt to cancel the spell on everything."

Janet considered that for a moment. "You passed out from powering our current setup. Are either of those a good idea?"

"Not for me. Harry may be able to handle it if he shows up. If we can figure out a way to get a safe wand I may be able to cancel the spells on items one at a time or in small groups."

"Being able to directly see and handle things would certainly be better than what we're doing now." Janet said thoughtfully. "Let me log this letter, then you can take a break while I try to contact David to find out if your Mr. Potter is going to show up."

Hermione wandered into the break room and looked at the tea set with distaste. Besides the tea always being made too strong the pot was badly stained. In fact the whole room was pretty filthy and run down. She pulled out her favorite casting pencil and tried a few cleaning and repair spells. They worked if she was willing to repeat them several times. Ten minutes later the tea things and the room in general more presentable. Deciding it wasn't worth actually getting anything she wandered back to room 17.

The palace maintenance staff would later get a glowing, if confusing, letter of appreciation from the head archivist.

* * *

Janet and Hermione grabbed another table and were busy trying to divide the pile of documents, books, and even a few scrolls into those worth looking at in detail and those that could be put off until later. The process was slow because both of them would get too involved in the more interesting items as they ran across them.

"How's it going?"

Hermione knew that voice. "Harry!" She dashed over and gave him a hug. He felt good, seemed to actually be happy, and she could feel something in him. Affection and interest? She stepped back, ignoring the smirking Joshua standing behind Harry and looked into his eyes. She could sense his feelings more clearly than usual. Maybe a side effect from his pushing magic into the rune array through her blood.

Harry gave her his lopsided grin. "Good to see you too."

"Berk. It is good to see you. Now come and help us, we need your magical muscle to brute force a problem we're having."

Hermione explained the problem with the documents and how she created the nullification rune array.

"What does a nullification rune do anyway?" Harry asked when the lecture had run down.

"It suppresses most kinds of magic. It doesn't work on intrinsic magic and isn't very effective on wards. It also uses a lot of power."

Harry looked searchingly in her eyes. "That's right, you passed out trying to power this thing wandlessly. Using blood. You're supposed to leave the stupidly risky stuff to me."

Hermione grinned at him. "I'm fine. You have to understand that I had to do it so we could read all these lovely books and papers."

"Ah, books were involved. That explains it."

Janet broke in. "I hate to break up your reunion. I'd like to read all these lovely books and papers as well. Can you help us Mr. Potter?"

Harry shook the older woman's hand. "Just Harry please. Calling me Mr. Potter makes me think there's a teacher around."

"I'm Janet. Hermione said you may be able to make everything visible."

Harry looked over to Hermione. "What, just an ending spell?"

Hermione nodded. "That's the easy solution. I'm sure you could do it with your wand. Do you know how to use a pencil instead?"

"David told me about it. I burned out a couple before Angie found some carpenter's pencils." Harry held up one of the thick, flat pencils. "These work if I'm careful."

Hermione walked over to the side of the table containing the documents they wanted to check next and traced the nullification rune. She pointed to the small pile that briefly showed. "Try hitting these first. I've found several lower-powered spells in a row often work and are less likely to cause a fire."

Harry stepped over to the table. "Give me a second, I have to really concentrate to control the power level." Harry closed his eyes a moment, then using the pencil like a wand cast with a murmured 'finite'.

While there was no visible change, Hermione could now sense there was something in that spot and it seemed easier to look at it without her eyes sliding away.

"That did something, try again." Hermione urged.

Harry set the pencil he'd been using down and took another out of an inner jacket pocket. "Need to let that one cool down a bit." He muttered.

It took three more tries and one smoking carpenter's pencil before the small pile of parchment and one worn journal were visible.

"Excellent!" Janet crowed. "Once the smoke clears, try doing the rest. I'm going to take these to my office, its more secure and more comfortable too. Can you bring the rest as you uncover them?"

Hermione nodded at the excited researcher. "Sure, I'll let you know if I think anything needs special handling."

Hermione taught Harry the trick of tracing runes in the air, then taught him the nullification rune. It had taken Hermione hours to learn to air trace runes. It took Harry fifteen minutes. On the other hand she'd learned to draw or etch the nullification rune in ten minutes. That took Harry the better part of an hour.

Harry was able to use the nullification rune to make items noticeable which he immediately followed by an accurately targeted ending spell. Once he got that down it was just a few hours to get everything visible and shuttled to Janet's office. Hermione had Harry do nullification runes on the hidden shelf. She found a small book and a rolled document with a ribbon around it that she'd missed earlier. They shuttled everything to Janet's now over-full office with Joshua silently following them.

Janet thanked them absently. "Hermione, I'll need to sit down with you and go over some points once I've checked out more of these documents. In the meantime it's getting late. David said not to let you stay too late or your dad would murder him."

"You're right, my dad's concerned I'll overdo it." Hermione sounded frustrated.

Harry leaned down and whispered "Hermione Granger, overdoing research? Never." In her ear.

His breath on her skin made her shiver. Her awareness of Harry's interest in her was effecting her hormones.

Joshua spoke for the first time in hours. "Miss Johnson should be waiting. Tomorrow you're to meet at headquarters with Mr. Deerfield. Mr. Potter, I've been told you'll be staying at the same place as yesterday. Other arrangements should be in place in a few days."

"Thank you Joshua." Hermione turned to Harry. "I hope you're staying somewhere safe?"

"Crashing on David's couch for now. It's a comfortable couch. The food is good as well, as long as I do the cooking. David's idea of cooking is heating up leftover pizza."

"That's about my level of cooking too." Hermione admitted. "It's just not something that interests me. I get distracted and things burn."

Joshua gestured out the door with his head. "Come, Miss Johnson awaits."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 7: Back at 10 Downing

(Tue July 9)

Harry was drinking a steaming cup of coffee and reading the Times in the small conference room near David's office. He'd ridden the tube in with David that morning rather than waiting around for Angie to pick him up. That would hopefully give Angie time to replenish Harry's supply of carpenter's pencils. They tended to become unstable if he let them overheat more than once or twice. He'd have to have Hermione teach him more runes, tracing those seem work better.

Hermione shuffled into the office clutching a cup of tea. She was followed in by Angie.

Angie pulled out a chair and sat Hermione in it. "Good morning Harry. Hermione is a bit unresponsive this morning."

"Hmm...I'd guess she got interested in some project or book and didn't get enough sleep." Harry said. "Earth to Hermione, come in Hermione."

"Berk."

"Yup, your favorite berk. Now drink your tea and then tell us why you're so out of it."

Angie grabbed the Times Harry had set down, scanning the front page and going through the paper, either looking for an interesting story or reading parts of articles very fast. Harry focused on encouraging Hermione to drink her tea so she'd be aware enough for the meeting.

Eventually Hermione became coherent. She pulled a small strip of metal out of her purse and handed it to Harry.

Harry examine the piece of metal, it was about fifteen centimeters long and less than one wide. "It's covered in runes on this side and part of the other. Half these runes are all the same. What does it do?"

"Not much yet, the repeated runes are used to store magical energy, the ones below those are to capture ambient magic and the other side has the runic equivalent of a light spell and the light extinguishing spell. I'm going to add the equivalent of an ending spell and a shrinking spell and if I have room something useful like a generic repair spell.

"Sort of a specialized wand? How do you use it?"

"That's the hard part. I think it can be controlled with intent by anyone who has a bit of magic. She took it from Harry and pointed to one of the repeated runes, which was glowing slightly.

"You managed to power it up a bit just by holding it. Now let's see if we can make it work." She handed the metal to Angie who had been watching them.

"Think about making the tip of the metal glow and then use some word to trigger it. I suggest 'lumos' which is the usual trigger word for the light spell using a wand. The actual word doesn't matter that much since it's rune based, but using the same word all the time will help control the intent."

Angie shrugged. She held the small strip of metal out and said 'lumos'. Nothing happened. Harry stepped in, knowing Hermione wasn't at her best explaining the basics. "Try imagining the tip of the metal glowing a bit, say about like a lit candle. Get that image in your mind, then do it again while willing the spell word to make it happen."

Angie took a deep breath and stared at the strip of metal then whispered 'lumos'. The tip of the metal flickered then lit up for a moment before going out. "I did it!"

Hermione grinned at her. "It may take a bit of practice to have it work reliably. I was planning on finishing it up and then giving it to you so you could do some useful magic after Harry and I have to head back to school."

"So cool". Angie said.

"It won't take more than a day or two to finish. My dad said he'd put it in a piece of wood to make it look like a wand. If we get you a robe you should be able to enter the magical world without anyone getting suspicious."

"That could be useful." David said from the doorway. "What else can it do?"

Hermione explained what she was planning on doing. "I got the idea from shrinking the chief's biro. She mentioned it could be useful. I thought I'd give one of you the ability to shrink and cancel the spell on items. It'll take some experimentation to see how effective it is."

David seemed impressed. "Very clever and potentially life changing for anyone like Angie. We'll have to have a few other folks like myself give it a try once Angie has it mastered. We may ask you to make a few more."

"Shouldn't be a problem. Worst case I can make them at school and owl them to my parents."

David sat in the remaining chair. "We better get started. Today may be a bit different. It seems the minister for magic scheduled a meeting with the PM for tomorrow afternoon. Mrs. Withers wants to meet all four of us at 10 Downing at eleven this morning. We'll need to leave in a bit over an hour to make it."

"Shouldn't take that long." Angie said.

David grinned at her. "You'll be joining us Angie, that means finding a place to park."

"Damn! I usually manage to get out of that sort of thing."

"Who's Mrs. Withers?" Hermione asked.

David gestured to Harry, which he assumed meant he should answer. "She's on the PMs staff and knows about magic. I talked to her on Saturday about ways to record what happens in meetings. It seems Fudge or someone with him is using memory charms on the PM. Since none of the recording devices work during the meeting the PM has no real idea what happened."

Hermione half rose from her seat in shock. "That's...that's criminal!"

"It is." David answered calmly. "Our job is to give the PM and his staff options so they can decide what to do about it. Now let's go over the suggestions Harry made on Saturday and see if we can improve on them."

* * *

Mrs. Withers and Hermione got along quite well. They discussed the problem of Fudge leaving the PM with no real memory of their meetings and how new meetings were scheduled.

"So no one but the PM knows how the Minister for Magic contacts him?" Hermione asked Mrs. Withers. "It may be important to know."

Mrs. Withers shook her head. "Only he knows and he is unable to discuss it."

"That sounds familiar." David broke in. "Adults who leave the magical world are unable to talk about it as well, which is why we're working with students. By that I mean they cannot communicate with us about it no matter how much they want to."

"That does sound the same. It certainly makes the PM very frustrated. Hermione, do you have any idea what's causing it?" Mrs. Withers asked.

"Nothing specific. Some secrecy spell or maybe an enchantment, those are harder to remove. I think it's only applied to those who leave the magical world. I know at least some people in the ministry, like Fudge and members of the DMLE, need to discuss magical issues with non-magicals. Though they may apply it to everyone who leaves school and then remove it from some of them."

Harry thought the meeting was getting off course. This was important but not critical right now. "We could do an experiment with Moony or Padfoot or just ask Mr. Weasley. It seems less important than making sure this meeting is recorded."

"Agreed." Mrs. Withers said. "Though I do ask that you try to find out what you can and give me any information you have.

"So far we have a hardened recorder that the PM will start before the meeting. That's the only system he knows about. Operational security. We also wired one of the speakers in his sound system directly to the head of an old reel-to-reel recorder that's almost ten meters away from the office. An electronics expert tells us that will produce a recording of sound in his office though it may be low quality."

"What about using my cloak?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked at him sharply. "Is that a good idea?"

Harry shrugged. "I can't think of anything else that would let someone be in the room without being detected."

Mrs. Withers looked curiously at Hermione. "Is there a problem with this cloak?"

"Maybe." Hermione said pensively. "It's not like any other invisibility cloak. It doesn't just make you invisible, it hides you completely. I think it's the Peverell cloak and that means it could be dangerous to anyone except Peverell descendant." Hermione pointed at Harry when he said this.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"I did some research on the cloak when you got it. Over time I realized it wasn't a normal invisibility cloak. I did some more research and, well, I think it's one of the deathly hallows."

Everyone was staring at her. "Look, it sounds like a children's story. In fact it is a children's story in the magical world though it's a story like Robin Hood, with a firm basis in fact. The cloak is not just a magical item it's one of three true artifacts that were lent to the Peverell family, supposedly by Death."

"Death, as in the really thin guy with the scythe?" Angie asked. "Wait, I think I remember this story, there was a wand and something else that let you talk to dead people."

"That's the story. The thing is, the wand and stone aren't held by a member of the Peverell family anymore and reportedly everyone who has the wand dies a violent death and everyone who uses the stone commits suicide or sinks in to irreversible depression. I'm worried that anyone who uses the cloak who isn't a Peverell is in danger of some kind."

Mrs. Withers was frowning. "This sounds like a fairy tale. Is it really something to worry about?"

"Unicorns and dragons seem like fairy tales as well, as do fairies themselves." Hermione said.

Mrs. Withers wrinkled her brow. "Yes they do, what's the point?"

Hermione stared at Mrs. Withers, trying to communicate how serious she was. "The point is I've petted a unicorn. Harry actually fought a dragon. We both had to deal with a group of pixies our second year. Nasty little things."

Mrs. Withers and David were both looking shocked.

"You didn't mention the goblins." Harry said. "You also never mentioned any of this Peverell stuff to me."

Hermione put a hand on his arm. "Sorry Harry, I would have once I had more solid proof. I never imagined you'd let anyone take it that might not give it back."

Angie spoke up at that. "I'm sure Mrs. Withers would return it if she was given a choice. I also know that the chief, the head of MI5, would confiscate it in a second if she heard it was available. Probably not worth taking a chance."

"Very well." Mrs. Withers said. "The cloak is not to be used by anyone but Mr. Potter. Is it safe to have him sitting in the office during the meeting?"

"I'll be glad to sit in. I'm not good at taking notes and certainly can't write down everything that's said."

Hermione poked him. "Use a silencing spell and take a notebook and biro. Write down notes like you would a school lecture. Actually do better notes than you usually take. And no heroics."

"Come on Hermione, you know I only do that stuff when it's absolutely necessary."

Mrs. Withers couldn't hide a smile at the way Hermione rolled her eyes and smacked him on the shoulder.

* * *

(Wed July 10)

At the "come in" Mrs. Wither's opened the door to the PM's office. "Ready for your meeting Minister?"

"Yes, yes. I'll activate the recorder as soon as we're done here. Anything you want to tell me beforehand?"

"Nothing that can't wait. I'll leave the building during the meeting and return as soon as I'm informed it's complete."

"Excellent, I'll see you then. You may go."

"Thank you minister."

During Mrs. Wither's distraction Harry had slipped into the office and found a small space between two bookcases and sat on the floor. Hermione had suggested the floor rather than a chair as there was no telling which chairs might be used during the meeting.

It turned out silencing spells didn't work well using only a pencil. He'd managed to mute his shoes, notebook, and biro. He'd have to be as quiet as possible.

For the next twenty minutes the PM read papers, occasionally noting something down or signing something. Suddenly a painting in a dark corner shifted and the man in it said. "The minister of magic will come though now."

The PM shook his head and muttered something. Standing, he turned to face the fireplace.

Fudge and a red-robed auror came though.

Fudge spoke first. "Good evening Prime Minister. I'm sorry to bother you outside our regularly scheduled meetings."

"I'm guessing it's important. Would you like some tea or shall we get to business?"

Fudge paused a moment, as if considering. If Harry didn't know what a pompous idiot he was he'd almost think he was deeply considering something. "Business I'm afraid. This is Auror Campbell, he's familiar with one of the issues in case you need additional information."

The PM gestured to the seating area. "Very well, let's sit down and get to it."

Despite saying they wanted to get down to business they chatted for a few minutes before Fudge brought up Sirius.

"Prime Minister, I wanted to inform you that we've found additional evidence and exonerated Sirius Black. He's currently in Italy recovering from his incarceration."

The PM frowned. "I thought you had magical ways to ensure a person was innocent or guilty."

The auror spoke up. "We do sir. They aren't quite foolproof and due to legal limits we are unable to use them in some situations. In this case the previous administration didn't apply them as the case seemed open and shut."

Harry just barely kept himself under control at the way they casually discussed throwing Sirius in prison without a trial.

"That's very unfortunate. I assume your own administration will take much better care. I will have to inform the queen that one of her barons was imprisoned without due process."

Fudge purpled at that. Harry didn't know that Sirius was a baron, he'd have to ask him about it later. He used the short pause in the conversation to scribble some notes.

After calming himself Fudge went on to his next point. "We've discovered that one of your government people took a young magical from his home."

Harry was impressed by the studied look of mild interest and concern the PM presented.

"That seems like a matter for your Madam Bones to take up with her contacts at Scotland Yard." The PM said mildly.

"Yes, and I'm sure she will. This young boy is rather special. He's quite famous in our world. Basically a good lad, but rather wild and just a bit dangerous."

The PM nodded. "Any more information that might help?"

The Auror spoke up. "His aunt said it was a Mr. Deerfelt who took him, though she wasn't completely sure about the name. The boy's name is Harry Potter. She described the automobile used as a dark green BMW. He went willingly, supposedly to help out a friend of his. We don't know if the friend was a magical or not."

"Hmm..." The PM sat back. Harry had a good view of his face and it seemed there was a tiny upward twitch on one side of his mouth.

"Harry Potter? Isn't that the boy who took care of that terrorist you were having problems with in the early eighties?"

Fudge flushed for just a moment though Harry couldn't think of any reason for it. "Yes, that's the boy."

The PM nodded decisively. "One of our domestic intelligence agents is what you call a squib. I'll have her look into this immediately. If she finds anything I'll let the gentleman in the painting know. However, we have to accept that it may not have been a true government employee, or at least not one from our government."

That last bit seemed to shock Fudge. Harry scribbled more notes, realizing Fudge's reactions might be important.

The auror took the information in stride. He handed the prime minister a card with a number the agent could call if she needed additional information.

Fudge eventually found his voice. "Speaking of the troubles in the eighties, we've had an upswing of similar events. We have it under control for now. We will let you know immediately if we find it spilling out of the magical world."

That pissed off the PM, or at least he did a good imitation of it. "I do NOT want a repeat of that. Hundreds of people died horribly with nothing we could do about it. I will have to tell the queen. You will likely be summoned to discuss it with her!"

Fudge paled. With surprising speed he pulled his wand and cast the memory erasing spell. "You don't feel the Sirius case is important enough to report to the queen. We only discussed the Potter boy and the Black case."

Fudge put his wand away. The PM stayed glassy-eyed for a few seconds, during which the auror pulled his own wand and cast several spells silently.

"All clear." The auror said.

Fudge started speaking in a normal voice. "Thank you Prime Minister. I'm sorry we had to bother you with these small matters."

The PM's eyes had cleared. "Ah...of course, feel free to schedule additional meetings if needed. You may leave if there's nothing else you'd like to discuss."

They shook hands and Fudge and the Auror left without fanfare.

Harry didn't move. He wanted to cast the ending spell on the PM, which might weaken or remove the memory modification spell if done quickly enough. Mrs. Withers had emphasized not letting the PM know he was watching in case they had to use the technique again. She'd mentioned operational security again, which Harry would have to ask Hermione about.

The PM stared at the fireplace for a long moment then went to his desk and used his phone to call and let someone know his meeting was over. A few minutes later Mrs. Wither's came in, leaving the door ajar. Harry quickly and as quietly as possible got up while Mrs. Withers and the PM check if the hardened recorder had worked.

Harry went to the meeting room he'd been in earlier and went over his notes, making some additions while he still remembered things clearly.

Mrs. Withers came in fifteen minutes later. "I'm afraid the hardened recorder only caught the first five or six minutes of the meeting before there was too much interference. It did seem to actually continue to work, which is an improvement.

"How much did it catch?"

"The part about Black and the start of something about someone from the government taking a magical boy from his home. The PM remembers everything on the recorder and that the boy is you."

Mrs. Withers sat down while Harry, at the woman's prompting, told him everything he remembered. Then they went over his notes.

"Thank you Mr. Potter. Your comments on Fudge's reactions are particularly useful. We'll check the other recording device. If I'm allowed, I'll let you know if that was effective.

"Now, I believe that Miss Johnson volunteered to drive you back after this, she should be waiting for you."

"That's great Mrs. Withers. I'm glad I was able to help. I just wish I could have stopped Fudge from casting that memory modification spell."

"Justice will catch up to him soon enough Mr. Potter. Have a good evening."

Chapter Text

COT Chapter 8: Important Meetings

(Thu July 11)

Hermione and Harry spent the next morning helping Janet catalog the documents, books, and scrolls from the hidden shelf and copying what they could. Mostly that meant Harry using a photocopy machine while Janet photographed what couldn't be photocopied. Hermione skimmed through documents and logged them using a computer terminal.

After lunch they were set loose, with Joshua as their babysitter/guard while Janet started going through some of the more important items. They decided to try to find the entrance to the royal wizard's quarters.

"This is the spot?" Harry asked. He knew Hermione was more sensitive to magic than he was.

Hermione just nodded, running her hand over the stone wall. After a minute she stepped back and huffed. "Nothing. I can feel the magic but there doesn't seem to be any places in the wall that feels like a door."

"Right, let me try an ending spell." Harry said, pulling out one of the half dozen carpenter's pencils Angie had found. Joshua stepped away from where he was leaning against the opposite wall and looked on with interest.

"Do we need a fire extinguisher?" He asked.

Harry grinned at him. "Probably not, but you and Hermione should probably step back in case the pencil explodes."

They both took him seriously and moved back several steps. With a muttered 'finite' Harry trickled power into the pencil. There might have been a flicker for just a moment but otherwise the wall looked the same. He repositioned himself in front of the area that had flickered and tried again, pushing power into the thick, flat pencil he tried again...and immediately dropped the smoking pencil with a quiet "ouch".

"Hmmm...still no change." Joshua said.

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks. There was now a solid looking wooden door plainly visible, at least to them.

"Must be a muggle-specific notice-me-not. Those were invented in the thirteen hundreds." Hermione turned to Joshua. "Actually it partially worked. Both Harry and I can see a door, there may be some hiding magic keyed to non-magical people. We'd have to get Angie Johnson in here to see if it's visible to squibs."

Several destroyed pencils later they managed to unlock and open the door. They had to pull Joshua through the door before he could enter and once inside he seemed on edge. They suggested he wait outside the door and he readily agreed.

They had to make do with the light from Hermione's pencil until Harry managed to ignite the old-fashion gas lights. Once they could see it became obvious this was a magical's quarters. Besides being free of dust there was a workbench with wood working tools and several wands on stands including one unfinished one in a clamp. Hermione poked around the workbench while Harry checked the two doors at the back of the room.

"About what you'd expect." Harry called from one of the doors. "A bedroom, pretty small, and a magical-style washroom. There's a window in the bedroom that seems to be at ground level. There's a bush in front of it so I can't see any more than that. The bedroom seems to have some dust in it unlike in here."

"I don't think there are any space expansion charms or wards here. Maybe there isn't enough ambient magic to support it. That could explain the dust too, not enough magic to keep the dust management runes working. It should recharge if we spend enough time here. Yet there's enough to do the notice-me-not... Hermione drifted off into one of her deep thinking poses.

He walked over to the workbench. He want to hear whatever she came up with. Besides, she was damn cute when she was like this. He might as well watch her while he waited. It took several minutes which gave Harry a chance to check out both the workbench and his female friend.

"There are no ley lines here. There are no magicals nearby, yet we know the castle has wards. The notice-me-not or whatever magic was keeping people here from remembering the Royal Wizard is fading, that's why the government is finally looking into it. There isn't enough ambient magic to run everything." Hermione said in a rush. "That's why there was a Royal wizard in the first place! Or at least one of the reasons." She added. "It was to keep the wards charged. Just having a powerful magic user here might be enough, and if they actively recharged the wards it would definitely be enough to keep things running. We need to find the ward stones so you can recharge them!"

"I wouldn't know how, can't you do it?" Harry asked.

"Idiot. You're way more powerful than I am. More powerful than anyone at Hogwarts except maybe the headmaster."

"You're joking."

Hermione sighed. "Harry, I know you don't like to stand out. You're just going to have to accept that you're stupidly powerful. Does running off a hundred dementors with one patronous sound familiar? You know I'm sensitive to magic so trust me on this."

"Umm...okay."

"Now we have to talk to David. Letting the wards drain may well have been the reason there's no royal wizard now. This is beginning to seem like a long-term conspiracy. If I had to guess I'd say those wards would have stopped that mind controlled revenue employee from entering if they were at full strength."

"I thought there wasn't any way to detect the imperious."

Hermione shrugged. "No way that wizards know of now. Binns mentioned the goblins have a way and maybe there was something known when this place was built. Or maybe there's some simple way like a powerful version of the ward to detect mind-tampering. You know how illogical magicals are, they may not have thought of it."

Hermione gestured at the workbench. "Now, since there are what look like wands sitting here that wont have the trace on them, let's see if we can find some that work.

Hermione found two that worked well for her. None of them worked better than a pencil for Harry until be brushed against the unfinished wand and it reacted. It wasn't as good as his phoenix feather wand but it was good enough to be useful.

* * *

After collecting Joshua they headed back to Janet's office to see if they could help. She chased them out saying she needed to concentrate.

As they left Angie and an oddly dressed girl about their age came looking for them. Angie had Harry's things in a duffel bag.

"Miss Granger?" The girl asked.

"I'm Hermione Granger."

"The queen has asked that you come speak with her. This is an informal meeting, your current outfit is fine."

The girl turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter?"

"That's me."

"Please join us. The queen may want to talk with you after speaking with Miss Granger."

Hermione shared a nervous look with Harry. Harry managed to answer first. "Of course."

* * *

David was waiting for Hermione when she left the queen's audience chamber. He offered his arm which she gratefully took, leaning heavily. She barely noticed Harry being led past her to see the queen himself.

"You okay?" David asked as he escorted her toward the exit to the palace and the waiting car.

"More or less. She was very kind, mostly just asked about some things I probably shouldn't talk about. She also asked if I had any questions and...well I now know why she knows my father."

"Anything you can share?" David asked.

"Sorry, no. Not unless Dad says it's okay. You could ask him over beers some time. I know you guys went out drinking at least once."

"I'll have you know that was a working meeting. The department even paid for it." David said in an officious voice.

"I bet that expense report was interesting."

* * *

Harry had been more nervous about meeting the queen that the PM. It didn't help that Hermione looked so frazzled when she left after her audience.

The meeting had been short. That didn't bother him, she was a busy woman. She'd asked questions about his run in with the man from Revenue, his experience observing the meeting between the PM and Fudge, and their recent discovery of the old royal wizard's quarters.

She then told him she had taken on his guardianship with approval from Miss Kidder, Harry couldn't imagine the woman refusing the queen, and assigned an aid named Bethany Clarke to keep an eye on him.

She then named him 'wizard in residence' and suggested he use the old royal wizard's quarters they'd discovered until a true royal wizard was appointed. This included handing him a document and telling him he officially reported to the head of the security for the palace but would mostly be working with Mr. Deerfield and his intern.

Miss Clarke met him as he left the meeting. She gave him some time to recover before going over how they would work together and who in the palace he could talk to about his new position. It wasn't a lot of people. Miss Clarke knew of magic, as did Prince Charles and the Queen Mother, two other staffers Harry hadn't met, the head of security who happened to be Miss Clarke's father, and of course Janet. To everyone else he was a ward of the queen who was working with security to keep him busy and out of trouble.

Rather than using the old Royal Wizard's quarters as the queen suggested, Miss Clarke set him up in one of three small guest suites that didn't see much use. She did warn him he might be moved if they needed those rooms for regular guests. He was perfectly happy either way.

As they walked to the security offices to meet with his titular boss he realized he now had a home away from the Durleys. One that even the headmaster couldn't easily drag him away from.

* * *

Hermione hung up her purse and the dress jacket she'd borrowed from her mother.

Her father was waiting for her in the living room. "You're late kitten. Do I have to have another talk with David?"

Her mother walked in from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. Perfect.

"Oh, I had a last minute meeting." She waited just a moment until her father looked like he was about to speak. "With the queen."

Her father's mouth snapped shut.

Her mother looked amused at the way she'd played her father.

"You said if I met the queen and she told me how she knew you, you'd give me your side of the story."

"Oh, she didn't." Her father said weakly.

"Yup. She's not likely to forget someone who refused a knighthood."

Her father sighed. "I did say I'd give you my side of the story if you found out."

Her mother stepped up. "I want to hear this too. You've never gone into any detail on what happened."

"And I won't now. Much of it is still classified."

Her mother grabbed her father's hand and pulled him into the kitchen. "The stew is ready, so let's sit and eat while you tell us your big secret. Hermione, get washed up and join us."

* * *

"Okay dad, you've eaten. Now spill." Hermione wanted to know and she wouldn't hear 'none of your business' this time!

Her father set down the spoon he'd been playing with. "Fine. No questions until I'm done though."

Hermione nodded. She'd been working on her habit of breaking in with multiple questions.

"You know I was in the army. Just a regular grunt who happened to be good with his hands. An old buddy from training recommended me as his replacement when he was injured and I ended up on a small team that quietly took care of odd jobs. You met Captain Murphy, he was in charge of the team, though he wasn't a captain at the time. For that matter you also met our civilian control, she's in charge of MI5 now.

"Most of what we did wasn't particularly dangerous or secret, just not something that was talked about or could easily be done by civilian agents. We prepared questionable locations for a dignitary's visit, provided extra protection, backed up embassy staff, and so on.

"We had squads, the one I was in had ten people. One of them was your babysitter, Corporal 'do not ask for my last name' Joshua.

"We were given a non-routine mission. No details but it did involve a member of the royal family as well as several other important government people. When we completed the mission I was the only one who was able to walk and my left arm was unusable, I'm sure you've seen the scars. Two other injured had been left in a safe house early on. I only found out Joshua made it a few weeks ago. Everyone else was KIA.

Her father stopped there, staring down at his plate. After a long silence her mother broke in with the question Hermione was about to ask. "Why did you refuse the knighthood?" She asked gently.

"Because I didn't deserve it. The ones who did never made it. I was just...taking care of a task away from the main action. While I did technically complete the mission the hard part had already been done." Her father said quietly.

Hermione wanted to ask a half dozen questions. This was definitely not the time for that. "Thank you for telling me dad. The queen just said you did something heroic that was a great service to the realm. I won't mention it again unless you bring it up."

"Thanks kitten. I didn't imagine telling you would stir me up this much. I think I'm going to walk down to the pub for an hour or two. Can you handle the dishes for me?"

"Sure dad."