"I'll take you and Harry both to where you'll be staying, I've got to hurry and get back to the meeting," Molly said in a rushed voice as the rest of the adults all went to where the meeting was being held.
Lucifer grabbed Harry's trunk and followed him and Molly down the hall. "I do ask that you both keep your voices down in the Hall, so as to not stir anything unpleasant."
They passed long, moth-eaten curtains, where Lucifer wondered if it were a door or a portrait.
They passed an umbrella stand that was a severed Troll's leg, and some heads mounted on the opposite wall.
Upon closer inspection, Lucifer saw that they were House-Elves.
"Here we go, Harry, you're there in that door there with Ron, Lucifer, you're with them," Molly said and hurried away, "I'll let you know when Dinner's ready."
Harry walked over to the door, but Lucifer didn't follow, "Nothing against either of you, but I'm sleeping alone," he said and walked to the next door.
He gave a gentle knock, and when no one answered, he opened the door.
He walked in and there was a bed, a nightstand, and a dresser.
He wasn't going to use either as his stuff stayed in his pouch, but they added to the room at least.
"HARRY!" He heard from somewhere outside his room, "Ron, he's here, Harry's here!"
Lucifer walked to the door and didn't see anyone, but he heard the door click and he walked out, "We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you alright? Were you furious with us?" He heard her say from behind the closed door, she was playing the part well, so Ron must've been in there.
'What were they both doing in there?' He thought to himself.
Lucifer knew how Hermione felt about Ron, so he knew he didn't have anything to worry about.
"I know our letters were useless, but we weren't allowed to say anything, Dumbledore wouldn't let us. Oh, we have so much to tell you! But first... where's Lucifer?" She asked and turned to see the door when she heard it open back up.
"I should feel insulted, y'all closing the door on me," he said, smirking.
Hermione turned to see Lucifer leaning against the doorframe, silently watching her.
A second passed, where she paused, frozen, convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her, then she ran at him full-tilt, practically tripping over her own feet.
She ran up to him and almost flattened him with a tight embrace, "I missed you," she whispered.
Burying her nose in his white shirt, she inhaled, reveling in the smell of him, her arms squeezing him around the waist as tightly as she could.
"Oh my God," she muttered.
Lucifer pressed his nose to her hair and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
She was hugging him so hard he thought she was going to crack a rib.
He didn't mind.
Her hair smelled like oranges and sunshine—for the first time in days, his head finally felt clear.
She pulled her face from his chest and smiled up at him.
It felt as if his stomach wanted to squeeze into the cavity where his heart used to rest, but that was okay since his heart was currently somewhere near his larynx.
"Kissmekissmekissme," she whispered in an excited breath.
Lucifer pressed his lips to hers.
She melted against him, her tongue pressing right past his lips with no attempt to tease him.
It was more than welcome, he couldn't get close enough to her—consuming her seemed rational.
After a breathless minute, one of the boys cleared his throat, and they both came up for air.
"...I missed you too, Hermione," Lucifer whispered, a little out of breath.
She looked up at him with cloudy eyes, "You need a trim... your hair looks shaggy."
"Yeah... I'll ask Mrs. Weasley to do it," Lucifer said and looked at Ron, "Good to see you too, Weasely."
But Ron wasn't looking at him at all, he was noticing how Hermione greeted Lucifer.
Ron narrowed his eyes at her but somehow decided to keep his mouth shut this time.
"Likewise," Ron fake smiled and waved.
"Hedwig!" Harry said as the snowy white Owl came to rest on his shoulder.
"She's been in a right state, almost pecked me half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this," Ron said and showed Harry his hands.
"Oh yeah... sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know..." Harry said, upset.
"We wanted to give them to you, mate," Ron said,
"we both did, but Mum read every letter that left here, making sure nothing was said in them that could jeopardize everything. Her words, not mine. You know, Dumbledore-"
"Wouldn't let you, yeah, Hermione just said as much." Harry said.
Lucifer noticed the way he said it was different.
Harry was no longer elated to see his friends, and his resentment for them, or Dumbledore, or the Order, or all of the above, had replaced his previous demeanor.
He knew that when Harry started yelling, it wouldn't necessarily be directed to Hermione, but he wasn't going to step in if he did start yelling at her.
It wasn't Malfoy, or Snape, or anyone else that he wanted to wring the neck of; this was Harry, their friend, and Hermione had grown in more ways than just physically over the past four years.
She had grown far more confident in herself and he knew she would let Harry vent all of his frustration, so he was going to do the same.
"He er - seemed to think it best we not tell you anything," Hermione said, though she really, really wanted to go against Dumbledore and tell Harry what had been going on the past three weeks anyway.
"Right," Harry said shortly.
"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-" Ron had begun to say.
"Yeah?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows, "Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?"
"Well, no- but that's why he's had people from the Order tailing you all of July-" Hermione finally got to tell Harry, but she saw in his eyes that that wasn't really something he was excited to hear about.
"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" Harry said, still obviously trying to keep himself calm, but Hermione wasn't sure for how much longer it'd stay like that, "had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"
"I should've been there that day... I wasn't but I should've... I'm sorry, Potter," Lucifer apologized.
"You've got nothing to be sorry for," Harry said to him, but because he was still trying to remain calm, it had come out harsher than he meant, but Lucifer just remained calm himself.
"He was so angry," Hermione said, and she would not forgive Fletcher for it, "Dumbledore - we saw him - when he found out that Mundungus had left his post early, he was scary... not Lucifer scary, but still scary..."
"You know what? I'm actually glad he left," Harry said coldly, "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have had to use the Patronus Charm to defend myself, and Dumbledore would've probably left me at Privet Drive all summer."
Lucifer knew that Harry knew that wasn't true, but he was so angry right now, he was saying things that felt good, whether it was true or not.
"Aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" Hermione asked him calmly.
"No," Lucifer knew Harry lied, but with how riled up he was, he wasn't going to admit he was worried about it.
Harry walked away from the two of them, looking around the room.
He was trying to find something to raise his spirits and calm down with, but Lucifer knew that wasn't going to happen.
Every room looked as uninviting as the next.
"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" Harry asked, and it was obvious he was still trying to remain calm and keep his voice casual, "Did you - er- bother to ask him at all?"
Hermione and Ron glanced at each other.
She had expected Harry to act like this, and she wanted nothing more than to embrace him into a hug and tell him how sorry she was, but the look on his face let her know he wanted everyone to stay away from him.
"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on, you and Lucifer," Ron said before Hermione could, "we did, mate, but he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since Hermione got here, and he didn't have much time for idle chatter. He just made us swear to not tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted-"
"He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said shortly, "you're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."
"Believe me, Harry," Hermione said, getting him to look at her, "I wanted to tell you everything going on, and I almost did at one point. I had it all written out in a code I knew you could translate, by giving you a hint at the end of it to remember to brush up on your Herbology, but Mrs. Weasley stopped me and shredded my letter. She said Dumbledore didn't want you to know anything."
"Maybe they think I can't be trusted," Harry said, looking between the both of them.
"Don't be thick," Ron said, looking highly disconcerted.
"Or that I can't take care of myself-"
"I don't think he thinks that, Harry," Hermione said, trying to get through to him, but she saw that it wasn't working.
"So how come I have to stay at the Dursley's while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" Harry said and it was obvious to Lucifer that he was no longer able to stop himself.
"The only one that seems to care about me is Lucifer, because he kept me from that dreaded place. My own Godfather told me to stay put-"
"He said he regretted it immediately-" Hermione interrupted.
"But that was after he felt bad about it, wasn't it? Why are you both allowed to know everything that's going on-"
"We're not!" Ron interrupted, "Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young."
That's when Harry started yelling, and Lucifer was surprised it took this long, honestly.
xxxxxx
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