With the knowledge that Mikayla was due to arrive at Shell Cottage in a hour's time for a wellness check and to have lunch, Harry decided that it was time to fill Ron and Hermione in on his revelation of what happened at Malfoy Manor. As he climbed the stairs towards the room that Hermione was resting in, he passed by Fleur on her way down to the kitchen with a tray of different potions. "Harry, can I speak with you for a moment? It won't take long." Fleur requested, stopping her descend down the stairs in front of him, "uh..." Harry began, looking towards the room to see Ron going inside while trying to come up with an excuse to ditch Fleur, which he failed miserably, "yeah, sure. I'll take that and you lead the way." Harry took the heavy tray from her, which made Fleur smile before continuing her journey to the kitchen with Harry in tow.
"I just wanted to speak about our discussion on Tuesday and apologise for the way Bill and I handled it. We do understand that you can't share any details of what you've been up to since our wedding, Mikayla gave us a very stern talk about it before you lot even arrived. Our goal for that conversation wasn't to get top secret information out of you, though we both know it came out that way, we were looking for information on how you were captured and to what extent were people tortured. Physical wounds are easy to mend, but all know that mental trauma is so much harder to treat and can destroy the best of us. We got our wires crossed when broaching this with you and we are deeply sorry that we upset you." Of all the things Fleur could've said to him, Harry would've never expected all of that. An angry part of him wanted to disregard the apology and just walk away, but a familiar voice in his head warned him not to.
"I'm sorry too for reacting the way I did, getting so defensive and snarky. I didn't even give you a chance to clear up the miscommunication, and thank you for clearing things up now and for apologising. However, I hope you both understand that it isn't my place to tell you other people's traumas, it's up to them to choose whether to share it with you or not, just for future reference." Fleur nodded to Harry's concluding statement, expressing that they allowed worry to overcloud their better judgment and won't ask anything of Harry that doesn't reflect directly on his own experience, physicality, emotions or mental state. "Good, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check on Hermione." Fleur waved him off, reminding him that lunch will be on the table in exactly a hour's time as Harry left the kitchen.
Harry rushed up the stairs, knocking on Hermione's door while announcing himself and waited until he was given permission to enter the room. "Come on in, Harry!" Hermione called a handful of seconds later, Harry twisted the doorknob and push the door open, walking inside and actively ignoring the flush on Ron and Hermione's faces that faced him. "Sorry to interrupt, just wanted to check in on you Hermione and tell you both some important information." Harry explained to them as he closed the door behind him, placing a Silencing Charm on the room to prevent anyone listening in. He made his way over to sit on the empty chair next to Hermione's bed, since Ron had decided to sit at the foot of Hermione's bed. No one spoke at first, Harry immediately picking up on the awkward tension in the room and how Ron and Hermione seemed to actively avoiding each other's eyes.
"How are you feeling today, Hermione?" Harry queried, wanting nothing more than to leave these two alone to figure themselves out. "I'm honestly fine, I don't see why Bill and Fleur are making such a big fuss about it." The annoyance Hermione felt from being coddled was crystal clear in her tone, and Harry gave her a small frown to show that he's empathetic to her situation. "They're just worried, you weren't in great shape when we got here, 'Mione. It was scary." Ron cut in, making Hermione huff childishly to show her discontentment with being given a logical answer. "I think they want Mikayla to give you the all clear first, they told me that she's been very adamant that we all take time to rest and recover before jumping into the next step of our mission." Ron didn't seem all that surprised by Harry's information, in his mind it made perfect sense after seeing Hermione in such bad shape.
While Ron was mentally agreeing with Mikayla's decision, Hermione could see by the way he carried himself that Harry knew what their next move would be. "So, where do we go from here then?" Following Hermione's question, a nervous expression flickered across Harry's face, a small part of him regretted not running this talk by Mikayla first. After all, it's possible that he reached the wrong deduction in a time of stress, but his gut urged him to simply say it, so that's exactly what he did. "Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts." Harry announced confidently despite his reservations about his own instincts, prompting Ron and Hermione's eyes to widen and a shocked expression to settle on their faces. "You can't be serious, Harry. Why would we ever want to go anywhere near her vault?"
Hermione's scepticism was understandable, Harry noticed how tense her shoulders became when he first declared where they had to go next. She was scared of aggravating the woman who had tortured her only a few days ago, but unfortunately they didn't have the luxury of working around things that scared them, they needed to get into that vault. "Bellatrix was completely beside herself when she thought that we had been in her vault. Why do you think that is? What else did she think we had seen?" Harry opened up the conversation for them to supply another theory for Bellatrix's actions, in those fleeting moments the realisation dawned on Ron. "Bloody Hell, Harry, you're right!" Harry grinned at Ron's declaration, staying quiet as the redhead spelt out Harry own thoughts for him.
"She was so petrified that we might've taken something else from her vault that she didn't want You-Know-Who to know about. That's why she was so adamant that they waited before calling him. There has to be a Horcrux in that vault." Harry nodded while trying to hide the relief that Ron had immediately understood what he was trying to explain, "exactly, we need to get into that vault." Hermione's head swivelled around to look at Ron, for perhaps the first time since Harry's arrival, surprise evident on her face which made the tops of Ron's ears go red. As soon as she recollected herself from the momentary shock, Hermione asked the boys how exactly do they plan on them all getting into Gringotts. She reminds them that the Wizarding Bank was one of the world's most secure places before the war started, security has quadrupled since then.
"We don't even know what vault belongs to Bellatrix, and no one at the bank is going to bring us to a vault that we don't own, not to mention that we're three high-ranked Undesirables." Harry and Ron shared a look because while Hermione's concerns were completely valid, infiltrating Gringotts would be an extremely risky, they didn't hold much weight in the fact that they had no other choice. This is there one and only lead after months of travelling to every corner of the UK and Ireland in hopes of stumbling across a Horcrux, and frankly, they were running out of time. "Hermione, I don't disagree that it isn't going to be easy, but it is our only option, and I do have a plan." Harry goes on to explain how he planned to talk to Griphook and make a deal with him to get into Bellatrix's vault, he would be their key.
As for them walking in as wanted criminals, the solution was simple, they just wouldn't have to be themselves. "What if they move it? It's risky to leave it there if we might've caught wind on what they're hiding." Neither boys were surprised that Hermione was fighting the idea the most, she needed them to consider every possible situation before she gets on board and helps them figure out the logistics. "I doubt Bellatrix even knows what's in her vault, You-Know-Who didn't tell Lucius about his diary being a Horcrux. He probably told her it was a treasured possession and asked her to place it in her vault. Hagrid told me on my first trip there that it's the safest place in the world for anything you want to hide, except for Hogwarts." Harry reminds them that the Death Eaters have no clue as to what they've been up to since they broke into the Ministry, how they believed that they only broke in to free the Muggleborns that were on trial.
He tells them about the visions he's seen in his sleep of Voldemort torturing Bellatrix and the Malfoys for letting them escape with their lives, so they are already on thin ice. "Bellatrix isn't going to tell her Dark Lord that it was selfish panic that led to our escape. That it was out of fear that they'd be killed because she believed that we might've broken into her vault and stolen his prized possession. She'll go to check the vault, make sure her sword is still there and the Horcrux, but ultimately won't take anything out to risk it being stolen as her vault is now proven as secure since we didn't break in." Harry's explanation seemed to convince Hermione that he had put a lot of thought into this next step of their mission.
With Ron and Hermione on board, the trio could make more concrete plans to break into Bellatrix's vault and come up with some back up strategies because their plans never go the way they intend. "We can't set anything in stone until after we talk to Griphook, like you said Harry, he's our key into Gringotts." Ron pointed out while stopping Hermione from getting out of bed to get the supplies to properly map out their plan, "we can't do that until tomorrow, Mikayla has asked Bill and Fleur to stop us if we try to do it before she gives the all clear. There's something else I have to tell you, but before I say anything, no one is to scold me for how I found out this information, alright?" Ron and Hermione agree to Harry's terms, Hermione somewhat reluctant to do so since she knew it wasn't going to be something she approved of, if Harry was being so vague. "He's got the Elder Wand, I saw-"
A knock sounds from the door cutting Harry's sentence short, "it's Mikayla." The blonde called from the other side, "come in!" Hermione answered but Mikayla didn't follow her direction, "hello? Is anyone in there?" The trio share a confused look, listening as Mikayla shouts down to Fleur asking if the older woman was sure they were in the room. "Whoops, I totally forgot we had the silencing charm on the room. Finite Incantatem!" After Ron dispels the Silencing charm, she shouts for Mikayla to come into the room. Harry and Hermione exchange a look of embarrassment as the doorknob turns and the door pushed open to reveal the grinning blonde, as they too forgot about the Silencing Charm.
"Forgot about the Silencing charm, huh?" She asked as she stepped through the door, turning to close the door behind her, before being enveloped into Ron's arms. The redhead boy had crossed the room so quick that he startled Harry and Hermione into motion as they move to greet Mikayla, who let out a short chuckle as she held tightly onto Ron, "I assure you that I've miss you more, Ronnie." Mikayla tells him as she plants a kiss on the side of his head, giving one final squeeze before breaking the hold to wrap Hermione into one. Mikayla felt her heart soar with Hermione's death grip on her, sinking her face in Hermione's bushy hair with closed eyes, as if she had journeyed through time to experience this affection again.
As soon as the girls parted, Harry drew Mikayla into his arms, and she could hear faint sniffles in her ear as they all were all overwhelmed by the emotions of momentary reconcile. Tears filled Mikayla's eyes, there she was, surrounded by her three best friends once again, all of the have changed yet look the same as they did the last time she spent time with them. "I missed you all so much." Mikayla's voice crackled with the silent sobs that racked over her body, feeling a different kind of cathartic release than when she was laughing limitlessly with Ginny. Hermione and Ron joined her hug with Harry, completely engulfing her with their love for her. "We missed you too, M." Harry whispered just loud enough for them all to hear his broken, raspy voice.
Mikayla felt a strong sense of belonging and comfort whilst embracing her best friends, the weight of their reunion lightened the load that has been weighing on her heart and she no longer felt so alone."I can't stay long, Dumbledore trapped me in an Unbreakable Bond and I can only spend an hour a day in the same place as any of the Orders members. So let me quickly do your health checks before dinner."