FicWad

The night was much colder than any nights before, the three of them were shivering under their covers. None of them slept as the storm raged on outside the safety and limited comfort of their tent. Harry and Hermione endured in simple silence, willing the storm to relent; however, Ron had to complain, had to talk about how hard his life was and Harry couldn’t bear it.
He kept talking about how it was Harry’s fault that he had come along, Harry was going to snap back at him, but Hermione got there first. “You didn’t have to come, Ronald, but Harry needed us.”
“Yeah, well, Harry isn’t risking his whole family. It’s only my family that’s in danger.” Ron said angrily.
“No, it isn’t, Ron. Hermione’s parents are in danger too, she had to obliviate them, Ron. Do not think for a second that you are the only one suffering here, we all feel the same thing.” Harry said angrily.
“No, it isn’t. Hermione’s parents are safe in Australia, my parents are still there, at the burrow. What could happen to them at any moment if they found out I was with you. It isn’t the same thing for you, either, Harry.” Ron said.
“Oh, really, Ron, how is it not the same thing for me and Hermione, we all have people we love on the outside, people that are worth fighting for.” Harry said.
“It is different, your parents are dead, and Harry, you-know-who and the Death Eaters can’t kill them for that.” Ron said harshly.
“No, they already did that 16 years ago, for no reason. I already lost my parents to their cause that is why I am fighting so hard, to make sure no one else dies. To make sure the other people, that I consider my family, don’t die. Remus, Tonks, your family, as well, our Hogwarts friends. That is why I’m fighting, so no one else dies like my parents, leaving an orphaned child.” Harry said.
“Well, you’re too late, for a lot of them. For Neville, he lost his parents, for Bill for rescuing you, for George, losing his ear for you. For Moody, he lost his life for you, Dumbledore. All those lost their life because of you.” Ron said, his tone bitter.
“That is unfair, Ronald, they didn’t die to protect Harry, they died to protect everyone from you-know-who.” Hermione said, tears running down her face.
“Yeah, well, I’m sick of being stuck in the shadow of the boy-who-lived. I’m sick of loving a girl who only cares about him. I can’t take it anymore, I’m leaving. Hermione, you can either come with me and live a happy life, or stay with him and probably die a tragic death. We both know we have such chemistry.” Ron said, getting out of bed and staring at her.
“I promised Harry I’d help him, Ron, and so did you.” She said, the tears still sliding down her face.
“Fine, have it your way.” He said and stormed out of the tent and instantly disapparated. Hermione got worse, she was crying heavily on Harry’s shoulder. Harry let her cry it out and she finally stopped in the early hours of the morning and looked up to Harry for the first time.
“He did this all the time for you, it’s the first time for me. I can’t believe how unbelievably painful it is.” She said.
“The first time he did it wasn’t so bad, but that time in fourth year, that hurt more than I can tell, but this was worse. I’m sorry you had to witness it.” Harry said.
“No, Harry, that was unforgivable. You forgive everyone, except a few people, but in some cases Ron has treated you worse than them, so why does he deserve your forgiveness when he comes back, why does he deserve mine after what he said.” Hermione said and it made sense.
“I don’t know, he was my first friend.” Harry said defensively.
“No he wasn’t Harry. I cannot believe you never noticed.” She said and he looked confused.
“Why Molly Weasley on the muggle side that the train was. After sending five other sons to Hogwarts, why did she need reminding of the Platform number, why? Why did Hagrid forget to tell you how to get through the barrier? Why did Ron insist that all other compartments were full but when I went in there, a lot of them around you were empty? Why does Ron act so friendly towards me when you’re around but act like he’s better off than me when you’re not. Why does he treat me the equivalent that Malfoy treats me when you are not with him? Why does he get so jealous of you when you’ve suffered all your life and are famous for your parents being murdered? Why was he only nice to me when he wanted me to do his homework? I never wanted to say anything, but they were spies, Dumbledore’s spies. He has something planned for you and under no circumstances do I want you to listen to him. Do you understand?” Hermione said.
“You really think that Ron’s friendship was so Dumbledore could keep an eye on me?” Harry asked.
“You were his best friend and you told him everything, I think Dumbledore put a compulsion charm on you.” Hermione said.
“He knew what Ron was like, always being jealous and ditching me, but he always came back. What if he knew that he would do it, again? What if he left him something that he could trace back to us, to find us again?” Harry said.
“He left his stuff here, he didn’t take anything with him, he just stormed out and disapparated. He won’t be able to find his way back after that.” Hermione said.
“But what if I’m right and Dumbledore left him something that he could use to track us, if he did he could have just placed us in terrible danger.” Harry said and Hermione gasped.
“What if he did it to us all?” she asked in shock.
“Wait, what, why?” Harry said.
“Each of us, he gave something to us. Ron got the light-thingy, whatever it was called.” Harry had to stifle his laughter.
“Right, I got the snitch and you got a book.” Harry said.
“I think we should leave. I think we should leave and destroy those items.” Hermione said.
“But they’re clues.” Harry protested.
“Yes, clues about where Dumbledore wanted us to go, I don’t think we can trust him. He never exactly had everyone’s best interests at heart, particularly yours. Sirius, he knew he was innocent, from the start, he could have made sure there was a trial, so he could be free, heck, and he was the leader of the Wizengamot. If he said, like we, and Sirius, pointed out to him, he had no trial, a lot of those people would have placed a trial. Have you ever heard Dumbledore say ‘For the Greater Good’?” Hermione asked.
“Yeah, he used to say it all the time when he had hard things to decide.” Harry said curiously.
“I know you won’t like it, but Rita Skeeter had a way of getting to the truth, in all of her articles the truth was there, but it was greatly plastered in lies and speculations. But there was always an element of truth. She has real letters written from Dumbledore to Gellert Grindelward, another Dark Lord. They were friends, it even hints of a romance. They were conspiring together to put muggles under their rule, for the Greater Good was their motto, of sorts. They wanted to rule the Wizarding World, rule muggles and muggle-borns. Can you not see how this attitude is similar to a certain Dark Lord that we know and hate?” Hermione said laying out her argument.
“You’re right, as always. What do we need to do?” He asked.
“We need to find another place to camp.” Hermione said, but Harry interrupted her.
“Hermione, not that I didn’t love camping and all that, but why did you choose it?” Harry asked.
“I – I, I-uh. I don’t know. I was thinking about how we would conceal ourselves and was thinking different things and decided on something totally different from camping, after my parents were safe. But when I went to the Weasley’s, I decided on camping, I don’t know why, I’ve only ever been camping once, and didn’t thoroughly enjoy it.” Hermione said uncertainly.
“This just proves it, they probably placed a compulsion on you.” Harry said with disgust.
“Right then, the first thing we need to do is check ourselves and our belongings with spells.” Hermione said and they got busy, they checked their belongings first. On some of their clothes were compulsions and loyalty charms keyed to the Weasley’s and Dumbledore. They quickly broke them and if the item was not special to them destroyed it. There were also several tracking charms on their clothes and belongings, including the snitch and book which they received from Dumbledore. On Harry’s cloak was another powerful tracking charm and a charm to stop him from exiting the Surrey area once he touched it with his bare skin and another few charms on Harry’s belongings were to stay with the Dursley’s and to undermine them so they punished him.
They next started evaluating themselves, Hermione did Harry and Harry did Hermione. Harry started, seeing if there was any spells on Hermione. They found several things and each that they found made both Harry and Hermione madder and madder. There was a harsh block on her magic and to stop her core from getting larger, a very powerful compulsion to authority figures and a few Order members they did not know. Harry even found some memory tampering, a few missing memories and some that made no sense. That as mild, Harry was worse. They found several tracking charms on his person that Hermione got rid of at once, several powerful compulsions to trust the Weasley family and Dumbledore and Order members, there were memory blocks and missing memories and several powerful block on his magic. Hermione also found very dark magic behind Harry’s scar and she gasped with shock. “Harry, you are a Horcrux, it is your scar.” She said, her voice shaking. Also on Harry was the spell to be bad at school and a memory charm that said that Harry did different subjects and got all O’s on his OWLs with Honours. He also remembered that he and Ron had a big falling out in sixth year, but he had never forgiven him and then found himself with false memories and back at the Weasley’s house. It didn’t make sense, but it did. Dumbledore wanted to control Harry, to believe him.
“Right, pick a country, any country.” Harry said quickly.
“What are you doing?” Hermione asked.
“We are leaving Britain.” Harry said.
“I have always wanted to go tropical, maybe Polynesian. So I am picking America, the 50th state.” Hermione said, hoping he would catch on.
“Ah, of course, but a lovely state.” Harry said and they packed up their belongings fast and side-along apparated to a private beach on the third largest island of Hawaii, Oahu.
“We need to do a lot of things, alright. First, we need to get some potions, we need ingredients, or we need to buy them straight out, we need food, a place to stay and money.” Hermione said, listing off the things.
“So we need to find Hawaii’s version of Diagon Alley, how do we find that?” Harry asked.
“I don’t know, sometimes I really wish that wizards would get over their aversion to anything muggle and get google, It would be the best thing ever.” She said in a frustrate voice.
“Internet Café.” Harry said. “Do you have muggle money?”
“Yes, I emptied my bank account, just in case.” She replied.
“Good, I think we need new clothes too, it is far too hot.” Harry said.
“I would say, you do one thing and I do the other, but I think we need to stay together, unknown territory and all that.” Hermione said.
“Clothes first, then?” Harry said and she nodded her head, they quickly bought some clothes and didn’t fall for the Hawaiian shirts, they felt that only tourists would truly wear them. They both got several pairs of shorts each and tanks and t-shirts and appropriate shoes and went down behind an alley to get changed. Then they proceeded to the nearest internet café and googled for Magical Hawaii. They found several places that they thought they would need to go, they were reassured that muggle couldn’t see it for as soon as they clicked on the site it read, ‘only the magical can see this’.
They wrote down each place and then proceeded to go to each, following the on-line instructions. First they went to what they thought was the Hawaiian equivalent of Diagon alley, aloha oe. They glamoured themselves quickly and went in to look at all the shops but their eyes caught the large building at the end of the street, it was Gringotts, they decided that they wanted to go in there first.
“Yes.” Said one of the Goblin Tellers nastily as they approached.
“Good Evening, I was wondering if I could look at all my properties, even if my main account was in Britain.” Harry asked shyly.
“It does depend, if you shall cut yourself and place some blood into this bowl, I shall know.” The goblin said in a more polite tone as Harry cut himself with the dagger provided and placed his fist over the bowl and it flowed into different patterns.
“Harry Potter, welcome, I shall fetch someone that you need to talk with, and Miss Granger is indeed welcome too.” He said, bowing through the doors to him which confused Harry and Hermione. A moment later he came back and instructed them to follow him, which they did until they were led into a grand room with gold patterns on the ceiling. He told them to sit down and make themselves comfortable until he arrived and they did so and within five minutes they heard a voice.
“Ah, Mr Potter, Miss Granger, how are you? I am Ragnok, leader of the Clan in Britain, it is luck that you caught me here today.” He said.
“We are well, sir.” Harry replied.
“Right, now, the teller claimed that you wanted to know more about your properties. I will tell you this, you parents were smart and feared the worse when Voldemort started attacking you and they went into hiding. They have a vault in each of the Clan’s districts, just in case you needed to go abroad, they also have many houses within other areas of the world and have one right here near Waikiki Beach.” Ragnok said.
“Really, we also wanted to know what were the best ways to get blocks of our magical cores, it seems people we thought were friends, really weren’t.” Harry said.
“There is a procedure that you both can take, I can assure you that it is more than your core, when the procedure is done, you will be yourselves again.” Ragnok said.