Chapter One: Trial by Fire
"Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated."
- Alphonse de Lamartine
The light of the grounds after the darkness of the Astronomy Tower was disorienting, but Harriet Potter hardly noticed it as she raced across the grass, the moonlight shining down from above illuminating her path. Her heart felt like it was being torn in two. Every single time she closed her eyes, even when she blinked, she saw a flash of green light and Dumbledore's body flying off the Astronomy Tower to the hard cold pavement below.
But she was ignoring that for the moment.
If she thought about it, it would only hinder what she was presently trying to accomplish.
Stopping Dumbledore's killer from getting away.
Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, and the other Death Eaters were all strutting across the patch of land that stretched between the castle and the Forbidden Forest, heading for the edge of the grounds where they could Disapperate.
Harriet wasn't going to let them get that far.
She paused at the top of the stone steps leading down to Hagrid's cabin and let out a small gasp. Even from here, she could see that the wooden hut was on fire, the orange glow much more harsh, bright, and present than that of the moon.
Trying not to think about what the hut being on fire could mean, she raced down the steps, clutching her wand between her shaking fingers. Once she reached the bottom, she could more clearly make out the black figures standing in front of the blaze.
Bellatrix Lestrange was at the head of the group, though she didn't seem to be its leader. Fenrir Greyback and the Carrows were following close behind. But Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape were missing.
Harriet's grip on her wand tightened and she gritted her teeth. It was stupid and foolish to follow a group of Death Eaters that were bigger and stronger than her into the Forbidden Forest, but at the moment she couldn't possibly have cared less about what they could do to her. She was going to have her revenge if it was the last thing she ever did. She had lost too much already. She wasn't going to let this death go unpunished as well.
"Where is he?" she shrieked at the Death Eaters.
The fire was at her back now. She imagined it lit her up in a blaze of glory, but what the Death Eaters saw was a hysterical and enraged little girl, devastated by the hand life had dealt her thus far. The picture was enough to make Bellatrix laugh outright and the other Death Eaters chortle along with her.
"Are you talking about Severus?" Bellatrix asked. She pointed in the direction of Hagrid's burning hut as she sauntered between the other three Death Eaters towards the young witch standing at the edge of the trees. "Because he's long since gone. He and Draco both disappeared after their little drama on the tower with your dearly departed Headmaster."
"Shut up!" Harriet shouted through gritted teeth. Her entire body was shaking. Her hands were clenched into fists. Her brows were closely knit together they almost looked like they'd melded and become one. The anger coursing through her was dangerously close to boiling over. "I know he's here. Where is he?"
"Gone." Bellatrix sounded far less patient than she had a moment earlier.
This only served to enrage Harriet further.
She raised her wand, the words of the curse she'd used on Draco not too long ago in the bathroom on the tip of her tongue, but before she could get any of it out, her wand was knocked from her fingers. She watched it fall to the ground as if in slow motion, while the other Death Eaters – Fenrir Greyback and Alecto Carrow – grabbed her arms, holding them behind her back.
For a moment, she struggled in their grip, trying to get one of her arms free, so she could pick her wand up off of the forest floor blanketed in dead, dry leaves. Then Bellatrix picked up her wand and began twirling in between her fingers. She was reminded uncannily of Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets during her second year and, just like that, the fight left her. She slumped, her knees buckling and head dropping between her shoulders. Her dark hair fell in front of her face, her glasses slid down to the end of her nose, and she stared at the ground of grey leaves, tinted orange in the light of the fire behind her. The only thing keeping her upright was the iron grip of Fenrir Greyback on her arms.
She didn't understand what was going on, but did it really matter? Did anything really matter anymore? Dumbledore had been murdered by Severus Snape, a man he trusted, a man who was, evidently, still a Death Eater. And now here she was in the Forbidden Forest with the rest of his posse, unable to find who she'd come for to begin with, so they'd captured her. But what had she expected to happen? She'd walked right into their trap. She might as well pay for it. In exactly the way they had intended.
Harriet felt the tip of her wand on the underside of her chin, forcing her to look up into the face of Bellatrix Lestrange once more.
"You're not as bright as they make you out to be."
"So they told me," Harriet managed to hiss out, but it came out more desperate than she had been intending and that was the last of the fight left inside her. The moment Bellatrix moved away, commanding Fenrir and the Carrows to bring her with, reminding them that the Dark Lord wanted to see her anyway, her head drooped again and she grit her teeth to keep the tears swimming in her eyes from falling.
The last time she'd felt like this had been exactly one year ago when Sirius had died.
The hands holding her pulled her roughly to her feet and forced her to start moving forward. She staggered a couple steps and moved forward, keeping her eyes on the gray and orange ground instead of Bellatrix's back.
Suddenly, the person behind her stopped walking. She looked up, opened her mouth to ask a question and –
A hand fondled her breast. Another pressed at the space between her legs. Fenrir Greyback pressed his face into the hollow of her neck and took a deep breath, drinking in her scent in a way that made a shiver run down her spine and gasp escape from her lips.
"The Dark Lord has other plans for you," he breathed into her ear. His voice was dangerous and low. Harriet noticed Bellatrix had gotten much farther ahead of them. She could barely make her out through the darkness of the trees pressed close together in the forest.
Fenrir let out a low chuckle, one that made her shuddered in fear and memories she'd tried to forget surface in her mind.
"I can't wait to get you back to the Manor."
And then he gave a bone-chilling laugh.
Harriet could feel herself shaking, could feel all hope of this being a relatively painless experience drain from her almost instantly as fear of what was to come took its place.
ϟ
The rattle of the train as it chugged over the tracks, taking them away from school and back towards home was the only thing keeping Hermione's mind from going into full-blown panic mode as she stared out the window of the Hogwart's Express. She watched the world zip by in a flash of green, yellow, and sometimes blue, trying her hardest not to think about what had happened to put her mind into such a state of unease to begin with.
It had been less than a month since Dumbledore's murder at the hands of Severus Snape and Harriet Potter's capture at the hands of the Death Eaters Draco Malfoy had let into the school, but the wizarding world had yet to calm down about either one of these events, so, naturally, she hadn't really calmed down either.
Normally, these train rides from Hogwarts to King's Cross Station were full of games of Exploding Snap, tasty treats from the trolley, and talk of what they were all planning on doing over the summer. But now, she, Ron, and Ginny sat in complete silence, trying with difficulty to keep themselves from contemplating what they were going to do over the next few months.
The plan had originally been to start looking for Horcruxes and not going back to school when it started up again in September, but with Harriet kidnapped and their only lead to the location of the Horcruxes dead, that no longer seemed to be a viable option.
It was halfway between Hogwarts and home that Ginny finally broke the silence by asking in a soft, timid voice, "What are we going to do?"
No one answered because no one had an answer. Hermione didn't have any brilliant plans. Ron fully admitted he was mostly incapable of coming up with those kinds of plans. And Ginny had been asking the question and therefore didn't have a good response either.
A few more minutes of silence passed before Hermione replied, without turning away from the window, "I was thinking we could go speak with the Order."
"What could they do that we can't?" Ron asked.
Hermione replied uncharacteristically by shrugging. "Perhaps get Harriet back in a way we can't or haven't thought of?"
Ginny shook her head and whispered, mostly to herself, "They won't help us."
This time Hermione did turn away from the window. "Why not? Harriet's the most important person to the wizarding world right now. Surely they'll – "
But Ginny continued shaking her head. "They have more important things to do right now, like coming up with a way to save the world themselves. Harriet was captured by Death Eaters to be brought to-to You-Know-Who. They think she's dead and there's reason to bother mounting a rescue for a corpse."
"It doesn't hurt to ask," Hermione said softly, going back to looking out the window.
No one answered and she didn't expect them to.
The trolley came by a few minutes later and Ron got up to buy some sweets. He ended up buying himself, Ginny, and Hermione all a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but no one really ate them. They opened their boxes and spent the rest of the train ride picking out a bean before putting it back. Sometimes they might pop one into their mouth, but not one of them finished their box before the Hogwart's Express pulled into King's Cross Station.
In near absolute silence, Ron put Pigwidgeon back in his cage and Hermione managed to coax Crookshanks back into his carrier. Ginny put her Pigmy Puff back in the pocket of her hoody. They left the compartment, leaving the Bertie Bott's boxes on the seats.
"I'm going to talk to my parents," Hermione said as they got off the train and went to retrieve their trunks. "I'm going to tell them what's happened and explain that I need to stay with you because of it. I'm sure they'll understand."
Ginny nodded. Ron didn't reply.
The platform of 9 ¾ was packed with students, parents, siblings, and other family members come to greet their other family members as they got off the Hogwart's Express. The Weasley family was immediately distinguishable by the mass amount of red hair in one place, which was normal for them. What wasn't normal was the silent way in which they were standing. Just like everyone else, they knew what had happened to Harriet Potter and, if Ginny was right about the Order's way of thinking, they probably assumed she was dead already.
As Hermione looked around the platform, she noticed, suddenly, how somber it seemed. Every smile seemed forced, every hug seemed to end too quickly, and everyone seemed eager to get home. No one wanted to stay to chat, no one wanted to make anyone promise to write until next year. The kidnap of the Chosen One had made everyone glum. Even the Slytherins that detested Harriet's very existence seemed to have a pall cast over them.
I wonder if Harriet has any idea how important she is, Hermione thought to herself as she sought out her own parents. If she does, she certainly doesn't act like it.
Mr. and Mrs. Granger were standing near the Weasley family. They, too, looked solemn and Hermione wasn't sure if this was because the feelings of everyone else on the platform was effecting them or if because the Weasleys had told them why everyone was acting that way to begin with. The Grangers had never met Harriet, but they were empathetic and knew how close Hermione was with her. They knew that if Harriet was kidnapped and presumed to be dead it would be affecting her negatively.
"Hello mum," Hermione said, forcing a smile that she didn't feel onto her lips. "Hello dad."
She gave them both a hug.
"We heard what happened, darling," her mother told her as she embraced her. "I'm so sorry that's happened to your friend. We know how much you care about her."
Hermione nodded. "Actually, that's what I was going to ask you about," she said softly, staring at her hands, suddenly nervous. "I-I want to stay with Ron and Ginny over the summer, if that's alright. I think we can rescue her, but I need to stay at their house."
"Hermione," her father began, "they think Harriet is dead. How can you rescue someone who isn't alive?"
"I think she is alive," Hermione replied. "And I think I can rescue her."
"Won't that be dangerous?" her mother countered. "These people who've captured your friend have most likely killed her. You can't go after people like that."
"No one else is going to, mum," Hermione said. "I have to try."
Her parents were silent for a moment. They exchanged nervous glances. Then her father turned back to her and said, "Alright. You can stay with your friends over the summer. Just as long as you talk to some more experienced witches and wizards about this first. If you're going to go rescue your friend, I want you to have people with you who know what they're doing."
Hermione forced herself not to feel bitter about the fact her parents thought she wasn't experienced enough to rescue Harriet, but they had no idea all she had been through so far, so she couldn't really judge or hate them for it.
She smiled and said, "I will. I promise. Thank you."
She gave them both another hug and moved over towards Ron and Ginny.
"They said I could come home with you, if it's alright with your mother."
Ginny nodded again. She hadn't spoken since they'd gotten off the train. In fact, now that she was standing more closely to them, Hermione could see that all of the Weasleys looked just as bad as Ginny. None of them were speaking. They all seemed to be waiting for her, so they could leave. No one wanted to be there anymore.
It was then that the gravity of the situation hit Hermione with a force she hadn't felt previously. Harriet had been kidnapped by Death Eaters. She'd most likely been taken to Voldemort. If that were the case, then the Order and everyone else was right. She was probably dead. And yet…and yet something inside her told her that that wasn't the case, that Harriet was alive and waiting for someone to come save her.
We're coming, Harriet, I promise, Hermione thought, staring up at the ceiling of King's Cross Station after they walked back through the barrier separating Platform 9 ¾ from the Muggle world. Just hold on. Just wait for us.
NOTE: Alright! Here's the first chapter! I got it done last night when I finished planning out the entire first fanfiction that is going to be in this duology. I'm really proud of this idea and what's going to happen and how everything is going to happen, so I hope everyone likes it! All you need to know is that basically everything (except Harry's relationship with Ginny) has happened exactly the same as it has in the books up to this point. There's just...a different story that's going to be told now. I guess this fanfiction and the one that comes after it are both a rewrite of the Deathly Hallows. Like I said! I hope you enjoy! Please fave and review if you do!