Three days later they found out Dumbledore had ended up in the infirmary when one of the few gossips of Ravenclaw had gone to get a Potion for, as they blushed and explained, study stress.
"That's that done," said Harry, smiling to his bondmates.
However, half an hour later he noticed Hermione was upset.
He walked over, dragged her to a couch and, with her wrapped in his arms, asked, "Alright. What's wrong?"
It took a little while. Harry just held and cuddled her while he waited for her to respond. She eventually replied, "We killed him, Harry. We set him up to die."
"Those are two different things, Hermione," he replied. "The first would be considered murder. The second is we engineered a situation where we knew he'd end up dying because that's what happened in the original timeline."
"We didn't kill him, love," said Daphne coming over to cuddle her from the other side. "This event was going to happen. All we did was bring the event forward in time. Dumbledore is one of the pre-eminent minds of knowledge pertaining to magic in the world. He knew better than to put the ring on, even with the compulsion charm it had upon it. He's a Master Occlumens, and he should have been able to easily overcome it."
"All we've done is moved up what was going to happen by about fifteen months," added Harry, before he asked, "Did Roma tell you he still had to die?"
Hermione sniffled and nodded. "I asked why and she told me it was both his time and that he needed to be 'removed from the equation' so that the rest of the wizarding world would prosper."
"And you've never been one to agree that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one," said Harry.
She snorted and quickly had to wipe her nose with a handkerchief before she replied. "No," she replied, while wiping. "That's no different than Dumbledore's own 'The Greater Good' nonsense."
"Alright," sighed Harry. "We know that horcrux had to be destroyed, right?" She nodded.
"And we know it was also the most magically protected of them all, right?"
Again, she nodded.
"And we also know the only one who was likely to be able to get through all those protections was Dumbledore, right?"
After she'd thought about it for a while; again, she nodded.
"Then he had to go after the ring, and have it destroyed as a horcrux, before the third task," said Harry. "I think we kind of left it to the last moment, don't you?"
With a sigh she replied, "Yeah, I guess we did." "No guess about it, love. We did," added Daphne. "We have no idea what the Unspeakables would do with it if they found it. If what I hear about them is correct, they would have held on to it for almost forever simply to study it."
"We had to send him, so we sent him," Harry firmly said. "Grieve for the man he once was and should have remained. Please, don't grieve for the manipulative old fool he has become."
It took a few days but, a week after Dumbledore went after the ring, Hermione had managed to reason her way through it. However, she still felt a little ashamed each time she saw him.
This time around, the old man was wearing a skin-toned glove to cover his hand. But the three also knew exactly what that hand looked like under the glove - blackened and shrivelling.
Harry decided it was high time he contacted his godfather again, to share experiences.
Holding the mirror he whispered across the surface, 'Padfoot."
It took a little while but the mirror finally buzzed the connection being made before the fog cleared and Sirius's face appeared.
"Hello?" he said. "Do I know you?"
That caused Hermione to laugh, Daphne to smile, and Harry to give a hard-done-by sigh.
"It's not been that long, Sirius," he snarked back. Sirius looked back at him in shock and gasped. "You know my name?"
"Alright, alright," grumbled Harry. "I get the very obvious hint. You want me to contact you more often."
"Good," Sirius firmly said. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"Well, I was only contacting you just to say hello, you know?" said Harry. "However, since I'm contacting you and all... you can tell me how Remus is doing in his new job."
"Well, he expected a small bursary he'd have to look after; and that it would, therefore, be a short term job. When he found out just how much money had been set aside, and that it wouldn't be the total amount, he nearly flipped," explained the old dog. "He then angrily Floo-called me yelling about how much he was supposed to be paid. And demanded I talk you out of it.
"I then contacted Ackerman and Co, and they then contacted him with the evidence that it was the going rate for someone at his level. Only then did he back down on refusing to accept that much pay.
"From me, that was a bloody clever way to get Moony to accept a decent job with decent pay, Harry."
"I just hope he's happy doing it," sighed Harry. "I know it'll be a rewarding job and he'll be able to get a lot out of it. However, it's also going to be a very demanding job. That's why there are provisions to employ Under-Bursars as soon as possible. So he's not run ragged."
"You can be assured he loves the job, Harry," Sirius said, well, seriously.
"I'm glad," said Harry. "Now, have you been doing any excavating?"
"Oh," said Sirius perking up again and twigging to what his godson was getting at. "Yep! And it's all done already. I'll give you the full tour when you come to visit me this Easter. You wouldn't recognise the place. That is, you wouldn't recognise the place if you'd been here before, which you haven't."
"I get it, Padfoot," said Harry. "Your godson needs to visit his godfather and spend a bit of time with him. We'll do it."
"Good," said Sirius. "I'd expect you to bring your wives with you, so no need for the hint. I've even already set up a room for the three of you, with an extra-extra large bed." He then grinned somewhat evilly back and said, "I also expect you to put up your own silencing charms."
When both ladies almost instantly blushed, Sirius barked with laughter again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/