Chasing the Truth

All known characters found herein are the property of J.K. Rowling, only borrowing her genius. They will all be put back where they belong when the story is done. And there is no money being made off this. This story is purely for everyone\'s enjoyment. Thanks so much.


Chapter Three: Flight
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\"You\'ll be next, Granger. You and every other Mudblood will die!\"

\"If I were you, Miss Granger, I should be careful who you go talking to. It might get you hexed. Or worse, killed. My advice to you is to stay clear of this whole mess.\"

***

Hermione stepped up to the vulgar writing and grimaced at its declaration. She should have known this would happen. Percy wasn’t stupid enough to forget with whom he had bumped into and with whom his papers had been confused with. After all, her name and handwriting was all over the research papers he no doubt had in his possession.

\"The papers!\"

She ran quickly back to her desk, which had been knocked over onto its side. That in itself wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish, taking in the fact that it was made of pure oak and cherrywood. Whoever destroyed her apartment had to have used a wand to move it. Knowing what she would find, she waved her wand, righting the desk back to its feet. Immediately, she saw that the top drawer’s lock had been blown into smithereens as the drawer swung open on its own accord. Frowning, she reached in to find it completely empty.

No papers.

Okay, they got those. She knew that those would be found if Percy had been here. She expected that, but… She turned and walked quickly into the small bathroom and pointed her wand at the toilet. \"Levare patiri.\" She muttered as the stool slowly rose from its resting place to reveal a small opening at its base. She stooped down and, using her wand fished out a thin envelope the size of a postage stamp. She breathed a sigh of relief as she enlarged the small envelope and brought out the documents.

\"Thank the Gods,\" she muttered and quickly returned to her bedroom. Going to the closet, she opened the door to see most of her clothing had been slashed or torn into unusable rags. \"Shit!\" she slammed the door closed and looked about the shambled room. Percy’s gang had really done a bang up job on her stuff. It would take forever to get this place back in shape. Even with her wand. She sighed loudly and flopped heavily onto her bed. Her emotions overtook her as the day’s events finally caught up with her. She bit her lip, willing the tears not to fall. She wasn’t going to give Dumbledore, Percy or anyone associated to this mess the privilege of thinking that they had gotten to her.

She wiped angrily at her lids as a twinkling sound garnered her attention. The Scrying mirror was calling to her. She walked over to her dresser and rummaged within her scattered lingerie for the hand held silver-backed mirror that Harry had given her for her twenty-second birthday. She took a deep breath before muttering. \"Show me.\" The clear glass began to fog over and a swirling mist of black gave way to an image.

\"Hermione?\"

She smiled wearily at the familiar green eyes that looked back at her.
\"Hey, Harry,\" she returned, unable to smile at the image of her friend.

\"You all right? You look like crap.\" He gave a tilt of his head as if to look behind her. \"What the hell happened to your flat?\"

She turned to take in the mess and shrugged. \"Vandals.\"

Harry’s eyes narrowed as his attention refocused on her. \"I heard you had a meeting with Dumbledore again.\"

\"Yes, a very unsuccessful meeting. Nothing was accomplished,\" she muttered angrily.

\"Hermione, Dumbledore knows what he’s doing. The Order has their own…\"

\"Don’t Harry. Don’t lecture to me. I am not in the mood.\"

\"I am not lecturing, I’m just stating that you need to let us do our job.\"

Hermione felt her fury blowing again and gave the mirror a furious glare. \"The last I heard, Harry…I was a part of the Order too.\"

\"You have other things to worry about now, ‘Mione. Just stop worrying and things will work out. You will see. After all, you have told that very same thing to me for years. Right?\" he ended with a small smirk, meant to help lift her spirits. If the look she gave him in the two-way glass was anything to go by, it was failing miserably.

\"Yeah, right. But you never listened to me then, either,\" she dredged up enough energy to make a face at him. He chuckled, then saw the look of determination in her eye.

\"Hermione,\" his voice lowered in what she was surprised to hear was anger and a bit of intimidation.

\"I have to go, Harry. I have to get this place straightened up if I am going to get any sleep tonight. I will talk to you later.\"

\"Hermione…wait…\"

His voice was cut off by her single muttered word. \"End\"

She ignored the tinkling of the scrying mirror as she stood up to face the regular dresser mirror, seeing the fear evident in her face. She was scared. First the threat from Severus earlier, now the outright intimidation tactic from Harry. None of this made a lick of sense.

She stood in the middle of her bedroom shivering. Not with complete fear, as she thought she should be, but with the fact that her friends all seemed to be on the other side of the line this time. A deep, bone-chilling anxiety started to filter into her frame.

\"What if…\" She muttered, turning in a slow circle to take in her damaged apartment. \"What if…Percy didn’t do this?\"

A shiver crept up her spine at the thought that her best friends and colleagues could have had a part of this destruction of her property. It would fit in with the way they were treating her. First, the direct noncommitment from Dumbledore, then the threat from Severus followed by the scare tactic of Harry’s. It was as if they were all somehow trying to scare her off. Sadly, it was beginning to work. If somehow her own friends could have been pulled into this travesty, then they most likely had something to do with the missing Death Eaters and they had intimate knowledge of what was going on with Percy’s rise in the darkness.
\"Perhaps…perhaps it’s not Percy,\" she crossed her arms around her, trying to stave off the chills racing along her spine. \"Percy isn’t capable of ruling a mass, but…Lucius…or even Harry…\" Her breath hitched at that thought.

\"I got to get out of here…\"

She ran back to the closet and dug out a bag. An old fashioned traveling bag. There was no help for it. She needed to find a place to hide. If they knew she had the papers, who ever they were, it was highly likely that they would be back. And since she didn\'t know who she could trust, leaving was her only option. Quickly, she dug through what she could find that wasn’t too damaged, searching out the few things that she could use repairo on. Stuffing them into the bag, she ran back to the living room to grab her work satchel. She stuffed the incriminating papers inside before stopping to look around her. She said a sad goodbye to her home and apparated to Gringotts to empty her account and disappear.


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A/N’s

Special thanks to: Rilla, GEmory and Bambu. Thank you all so much for your comments. They mean a lot to me.

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