Hindsight

Foiled Plans

Harry pulled another sandwich out of the basket and gnawed on it. Sandwiches were the limits of Hermione's cooking, but they were by no means bad. Her salmon cucumber sandwiches were more than palatable.

Hermione pressed herself a little tighter into his side. They were sitting under a large oak tree in the small park in Hermione's town. Around them, muggle children were enjoying their summer holidays, blissfully unaware of what was going on in a world that they neither knew of nor believed in.

'To think there's a war going on…' Hermione whispered.

'A part of me can't fathom how these people can have fun like nothing out of the ordinary is happening,' Harry said. 'When there's a Dark Lord hell-bent on taking over the world on the loose.'

'They don't know, and I hope they never will.'

Harry sighed. 'When I first learned about magic, I felt like one of these children,' he admitted. 'And then I realized how wizards are the same as everyone else. Only instead of guns and knives and clubs they use wands and potions.'

'So much for the fairy godmother fantasy,' Hermione said with a chuckle.

'I did meet my mystical princess, though,' Harry teased.

Hermione could not help but giggle and the two shared a furtive kiss. The afternoon soon began turning into evening, and they gathered up their picnic things to head home.

On the way back, they passed Rowntree and his little gang. They seemed positively afraid of Harry and Hermione now, a sentiment reinforced by Harry shooting them a lethal glare that promised severe violence and retribution if they so much as looked at Hermione the wrong way.

They were only two streets away from Hermione's home when Harry felt a sudden chill. He turned and shared a look with Hermione. By the look in her eyes and her rapidly paling features, Harry knew that she, too, knew the cause of the unnatural cold.

Without even needing to think, Harry's wand was in his hand. He whipped his head around and saw two dark, cloaked figures gliding towards them. Harry began to feel a sense of dread. He bolstered his Occlumency defences to stave off the flashbacks that would no doubt come if he did not. He pictured Hermione in his head, how she looked and how he felt the day they married.

'Expecto Patronum!'

Prongs shot out of the end of Harry's wand with an almost blinding white light. A second later, Hermione's otter joined in and the two shining silver creatures charged down the dementors, which immediately fell back and fled.

Harry and Hermione exchanged another look. Both understood immediately what the dementors were here for and who had sent them. Without a second word, they dashed off as fast as they could towards Hermione's house. The moment they were inside and their things put down, they grasped hands and apparated directly to the doorstep of Grimmauld Place.

They banged on the door, and seconds later, a very unnerved-looking Sirius opened it.

'What's going on?' he demanded harshly.

'It happened,' Harry replied breathlessly.

'What happened?'

'The dementors,' Hermione said. 'Umbridge. Get Amelia.'

Judging by Sirius's blanching expression, he understood the magnitude of what was happening. Without saying another word, he had dashed off into the basement kitchen. By the time Harry and Hermione caught up to him, his head was already sticking through the Floo.

Kreacher stepped up and delivered a bar of chocolate. Harry gratefully took it from the old house elf and snapped it in two, giving Hermione a half. The two nibbled nervously on the confection as Sirius remained kneeling on the ground.