Chapter 2
Hogsmead and The Underground
Hermione, Sarah, Harry and Ron were on their way to Hogsmead when they saw Draco and Blaise in their way. In the shadows a little way behind them, Snape waits patiently for Ron and Harry to make their inevitable mistake.
"Oh look, there's the two mudbloods" Blaise says, frowning at them.
"Oh why don't you go and fuck yourselves" Ron shouts,
"Yeah Malfoy, why don't you go and jump off the Astronomy Tower, you fucking pureblood" Harry exclaims.
"Well you two will be going back to school right now Mr Potter and Mr Wesley! Wait for me in the Potions Room." Snape says with a sneer as he appears to the group. He then turns to Hermione and Sarah, flashes a quick smile, and with that he makes his way back to the school with Harry and Ron right behind him.
"Sorry for calling you two darlings mudbloods, but we had to get them away from you." Blaise apologises,
"That's ok Blaise. We were thinking of going to the book shop to get away from them anyway, but thank you all the same." Sarah says with a smile.
"Well we have something for you from someone you know Sarah. There's one here for you too Hermione." and with that Draco hands over a crystal to each of the girls. Sarah's green eyes open wide at seeing them, and with a shaky hand she takes one from Draco.
"Oh my Jareth, I do miss all of them from The Underground."
At Tom's hideout, preparations are underway.
"So you say that your castle is safer than my hideout?" Tom asked
"Yes and the Order of the Phoenix well not find us there." Jareth says with an evil smile. Lucius then enters the room.
"Ah Lucius, is it done? Have they agreed to help us in the time of need?" Tom asked.
"Yes my lord they well help you and my son has giving the girl the crystal."
"Good." Jareth says looking rather bored, absentmindedly rolling his crystals around in his hands.
"Yes very good indeed. Well we'll soon be leaving this cave. Get the Deatheaters ready Lucius." Tom commands with a smile. They watch Lucius strut out of the room, waiting until the door has closed behind him before speaking.
"That crystal will help our girls hide from this Potter boy and that map of his." Jareth says menacingly. "I don't like it; there is something that is not quite right with that boy Tom". Snape then skulks into the room to join them. "My lord, the potion is ready for you. It will bring your body back but it will be as it was when you were lost to us."
"Well, this will be something that that old fool would never have thought possible." Tom says with a triumphant smile, thinking to himself "to be young again and my Hermione only 18 years old." "Are you ready to go Tom and Mr Snape?" Jareth says sharply, trying to snap Tom from his thoughts.
"I am ready, Lord of the Labyrinth and King of the Goblins" Snape announces to the fey. Jareth eyes the Potions Master, wholly unimpressed by this display. Tom looks up, blinking a couple of times to bring himself back to the present before addressing the two of them.
"I am Jareth, and I shall take the potion when we get there so that Dumble-drool will not know that the younger me has returned." Jareth plucks one of his crystals out of thin air and drops it in the middle of the three of them. They then disappear in a swirl of glitter.
In Hogsmead; Hermione, Sarah, Blaise and Draco are sitting in one of the rooms that Draco has rented out in The Three Broomsticks.
"Yes, they have found it with Deloris. We believe it to be a Horcrux and those two dim-witted boys have asked us" Hermione indicating herself and Sarah "to look up a way to verify and if needed, destroy it. But we thought it would be better that we come to you with it." She hands over a necklace to Draco. He examines it for a moment.
"Thanks. This will indeed help the Dark Lord out, if the research proves to be so."
"Those crystals we gave you will mask you from that map of Potter's. With any luck, they might even start thinking you've been taken by Deatheaters." Blaise says with an evil look in his eyes.
"It would be a lot easier to be out without those two fuckups and the potion we've been brewing in the Room of Requirement is very limited. You'll have to thank Jareth for us." Hermione tells Blaise. At that moment, a light knock on the door breaks up the conversation.
"Who's there?" Draco yells out,
"It's me, Pansy." She yells back through the door. Blaise gets up from one of the beds and crosses to open the door for her.
"Pothead and Weasel are on the war path with you two." She says, pointing to Blaise and Draco. Pansy moves over to the beds and sits herself down by Hermione.
"And by the way, Pothead is thinking of asking you out to the Halloween ball this Tuesday Sarah. He's got it into his head that you like him more then you let on hun."
"NO, NO, NO! I don't like him at all! Not after that night!" Sarah says angrily, staring out the window with a betrayed look on her face. "I would never go with him. I must find a way out of going to the ball this Tuesday. If he thinks I will go with him, he's got another thing coming!" Draco looks over worriedly at Sarah, but then turns to Pansy.
"How did you get this info? And let Pothead and Weasel come and give it their best shot if they've got the balls to do it." The three girls can't help but laugh at Draco's words. Pansy is the first to regain her composure.
"Oh that was easy," she explains "I was by the potion classroom and I overheard them talking. I had to find you two guys to warn you that they intend to get back at you, and then try and find Sarah and Hermione too." Hermione gets up and starts walking back and forth between the two beds.
"This is no good if they find us with you three. All of the work we have done so far will go up in smoke." Draco eyes follow her with a concerned expression.
"You're right. You know that they'll find a way out of cleaning all those cauldrons and that old fool of a headmaster will help them."
"They are so up that man's wrinkly old ass that it looks like his butt cheeks are talking." Sarah snaps, not shifting her gaze from out of the window. The room then erupts with a burst of uncontrollable laughter. Blaise walks up to the window by Sarah after the room finally settles down again, but stops a short way behind her. "What are you looking at hun? Is there something out there?"
"Yes, I think I can see one of the Order out there. I'm not sure if they can see us but they haven't moved." Pansy jumps up off of the bed.
"Shit. How long have they been there and how the hell are we going to get out of here?" Everyone looks at Draco expectantly. He sits quiet for a moment, deep in thought.
"Hmm. We can go out of the inn in groups. Sarah and Hermione go first and then Blaise, Pansy and I can stay for a bit but not too long. We will meet up again at the Room of Requirement tonight at midnight." They all nod in agreement and Hermione and Sarah leave the room make their way back to the school. Blaise looks out of the window sees that Sarah was right. The two girls are being followed by a tall, thin and rather scruffy looking man that he recognises all too well. He quickly turns to Draco.
"We have to find a way to help the girls out; they're being followed baby, but how do we do it?"
In the castle beyond the city of the goblins there is a racket as Hoggle is surrounded.
"We see? we see?" one of the goblins shouts to him and makes for the crystal that he is holding for Jareth.
"If this thing falls, we'll all be in the bog before we can say 'Hi Sarah'." Hoggle says while he searches for some way to get away of the mass of hoarding goblins.
"Hogwart! Where are you? Get over here!" Jareth storms into the throne room with Tom and Snape following.
"It's Hoggle, and I ams right here you 'ighness."
"Well come here and take Tom to his chambers. Then you can take Snape to the potion lab after that. Now go and do it before I dump you head first in you-know-where." Jareth threatens, then snatches the crystal from him and strolls up to his throne and lounges back into it with the crystal in hand. Hoggle shows Tom and Snape up a narrow staircase and through a couple of corridors to Tom's room.
"This is ya chambers sir. Do 'ope it's ta ya likin'." Hoggle then turns and goes to walk out with Snape following behind him.
"Hoggle is it not? Can you just what for a minute." Snape calls as he looks back at his Dark Lord. "You should take this potion in a glass of fire whiskey my Lord" and with that said he follows Hoggle down to the potion lab.
Tom stands in his chambers alone, trying to cast a spell with his wand.
"Why can't I use my magic here?"
"Oh dear, had I forgotten to tell you about that." Tom looks up startled to see a swirl of glitter before him with Jareth's face floating in the centre of it. "Your magic will not work if you do not have my permission to use it." Tom can see the glint of glee in Jareth's eyes; he could tell that he was loving every minute of this.
"How forgetful of you Jareth," he says with blatant sarcasm "so do I have permission to use my magic here in you kingdom?"
"Of course you do my friend." Jareth replies with a chuckle and his glittery visage slowly melts away into the air. With a wave of his wand, Tom conjures a glass of fire whiskey on the nearby table and he pours the potion into it. Jareth then opens the door and swaggers casually in as he sees Tom down the contents of the glass in one. Tom looks over and smiles at him as he falls forwards to the stone floor, face first.
"Well, I didn't expect that," Jareth says to himself, and with a shrug of his shoulders turns on his heel and walking straight back out of the room again, closing the door behind him.
In the potion chambers, Snape was looking at the labs layout when Jareth casually wanders in.
"I think Tom might need your help. He's just taken that potion that you made for him but I think it gone wrong." He walks up and puts a hand on the Potion Master's shoulder and then they are in the chambers of the Dark Lord. Snape waves his hands around wildly, clearing the glitter away while looking round to find that Tom is laying on the floor face down.
"He didn't down the potion and fire whiskey in one, did he?" Snape asks the Goblin King.
"Yes he did. Why? What will it do to him?" Snape and Jareth both crouch down and pick up the still unconscious Dark Lord and put him onto the bed. They then leave the room with Jareth heading to his own personal chambers and Snape making his way back to the potions lab. On his way there, Snape pulls out a wizard's photo of a young woman with a baby in her arms and a young Snape behind her with his arms around both her and the baby.
"This for you my love, and our child. One day I will have my child back Lily, that I swear to you."