AN- This is probably not gonna be as long as the first chapter, or as action packed. Next chapter is going to explain why Hermione went insane, if anyone wants to know why.
Chapter 2
The Reunion and the First Two Riddles
Draco sighed in exasperation. Getting out of the manor unnoticed had taken him longer than expected. The Zabini Manor was packed with wizards, and unfortunately for Draco, he always seemed to be the center of attention.
But then, why wouldn't I be? As the son of the right hand man to Voldemort (I hope the two of them are rotting), and because of his distinguishing hair color, there were very few people who didn't know who he was. Not to mention, he was good looking too.
Why did Blaise offer up his Manor, anyways? Although he had to give his best mate a pat on the back for that one, as it had paid off in a big way. It was the poor people who were using the Manor as a place to stay as they got enough money to build a house that Blaise and Draco had slowly brainwashed into listening to Hermione, Blaise and Draco's orders, without complaint.
Some of them were bloody annoying though. Did they really need little Colin Creevy? Annoying, nosy little twit. It was mainly because of him that Draco had had trouble getting out of the Manor.
He certainly left me alone after a healthy dose of the crusiatus curse, though. A satisfied smirk appeared on his flawless face as he remembered Creevy's agonized screams, and the way his limbs twitched in spasms as he fought to get thee breath to beg Draco to stop.
It had only been his want to see his brown haired, secret lover as soon as possible that had lowered his wand from the helpless boy. With a final, uncaring glace at Creevy, he swished his cloak and hurried out the mahogany, silver lacquered door.
Hermione's probably wondering why I'm not there yet. Probably worrying, knowing her. With this thought in his head, he hurriedly apparated off of the Zabini lawn, and as close to the Burrow as possible.
Stupid war hero 'advantages'. For their work in the war, Hermione and Ron's house had been given every protection imaginable, just in case an angry supporter of the dark side wanted revenge. In Draco's opinion, the only thing in spells did was keep out people who really needed to get in.
Falling down on his knees, he crawled over to a precise spot on the unkempt lawn.
"Conosenza é il potère" He murmured, and a second after, chuckled softly. Leave it to Hermione to make the password 'knowledge is power'. Draco was sure her redheaded buffoon had no clue what it meant.
A small hole in the ground opened up, revealing soft, moist soil. In sprawling, neat hand writing one word glowed green out of the dark brown earth.
Treachery.
A small smile graced his pale lips, and he began to lift himself away from the grass. As he stood up, an eerie green light lit Hermione's bedroom window. That light could have only come from one spell.
"What the?" As quickly as he possibly could, he ran out of the grounds of the Burrow. Stopping at the iron gate, he apparated as quickly as possible, not even noticing the unpleasant squeezing sensation that accompanied the apparition.
Pop
As the unpleasant sensation subsided, Draco opened his grey eyes. His view of the dumpy living room was quickly obstructed by a small tan blur with a think mass of dark brown curly hair.
With a yelp of surprise, Draco almost toppled over. In one fluid motion, Hermione dropped her bag, and hugged Draco so tightly that it felt like he was still apparating.
Gently the blond haired man pried Hermione off of him. "Hey, you. You can't kiss me if you suffocate me to death.
He tenderly lowered his lips to hers, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. As the kiss turned more passionate, Draco's tongue begged for entrance at Hermione's mouth. Surprisingly, the brunette pulled away.
"We have to get out of here, and quickly." She said with nervous eyes.
"What happened?" Merlin, what happened? He placed one hand on her shoulder.
"There was a…glitch on my side of things. It's all sorted out now though." She paused. "The Ministry can detect Unforgivables, so we have to leave quickly." All of this was said calmly.
"What happened?"
"Someone got a little nosy." Hermione said with uncaring eyes. She motioned for Draco to follow her. She led him into the bedroom.
Draco gasped.
The unmoving body of Hugo lay like a limp rag between them.
"Good job 'Ni." He let out a sigh of relief. "At least the problems been taken care of, and it will show everyone that this is serious."
"I know." She said as she pushed the body with her toe. "Lets leave now."
They gathered Hermione's bag from the living room. As they walked out of the run down house, a chill seemed to settle in the night.
"What is that?" Hermione said, shivering. She cast an uneasy glance at her surroundings.
As the cold descended upon them, Draco grew nervous. "Dementors." He spat with an air of understanding. "The godforsaken Ministry sent them here!"
"Oh god." Was her only reply.
Picking up their pace until they were sprinting, they quickly made their way towards the gate of the Burrow. Just before they reached the apparition point, a dark, cloaked shape glided in front of them.
"Oh no…" Hermione breathed. Without wasting another second, she raised her wand and bellowed, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Intently Hermione concentrated on her happy memory. Her silver fox quickly drove the dementors back, and it turned and glided into the woods.
Just as they reached the apparition point, the curly haired witch turned back towards her old, run down house. With a flick of her wand, two pieces of parchment zoomed towards the tilted house and into Hermione's bedroom window.
Ignoring the quizzical look that Draco sent her, she stood patiently, waiting for him to join her in apparition. As he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, she felt the familiar turning and squeezing of side along apparition. Closing her eyes, Hermione relished the feeling of Draco's muscular arms around her. In them, she was finally home.
--
"Potter…Potter…Potter WAKE UP!"
"What…" With a tired groan, he rolled out of bed and tiredly stood up. As the black haired man noticed the overly serious face of Kingsley, he grabbed his wand and fully woke up.
"I thought you said the dragon poachers weren't going to arrive until tomorrow."
Kingsley's face tightened in sadness. "No, it's not that."
Harry was now fully awake and panicked. "Tell me what happened!" He begged. Was Ginny hurt? Ron? Hermione?
Kingsley sighed heavily. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to be the one to break it to you. A half an hour ago, the ministry received notice that an Unforgivable had been preformed at the burrow."
"WHAT!? Are Hermione and Hugo okay?" Harry's face turned dead white, as Kingsley bowed his head.
"The ministry scanned the house and the grounds, but there were no signs of life."
"Oh…my…god…" Seemingly lifeless himself, Harry sunk down onto the makeshift bead.
Kingsley came over and sat down next to Harry, and attempted to comfort the distraught Auror.
Stopping his hysterical tears long enough to catch his breath, Harry gasped out, "D-does Ron know?" His emerald eyes displayed only sadness.
An agonized groan escaped Kingsley's lips, and he seemed close to tears himself. "I know it's hard for you, but I wanted you to break the news to him. You know how…emotional he gets, especially about his family."
"Yeah…" Harry's voice trailed off, and he slipped back into his sobs.
For a few awkward minutes, the tall Head Auror stood off to the side of the army cot that Harry continued sobbing into his hands on. After several long minutes of his heart breaking, the tall black haired man drew in an agonized breath, and lifted his head heavily from his salty, tear stained hands.
With his eyes closed, as if he were afraid that more tears would leak out, Harry whispered, "I can't believe this…I guess…" he drew in an unsteady breath, "We'll go tell Ron now. He deserves to know, and it would be best if it came from me.
With a miserable look in his eyes, Kingsley followed the distraught Harry from the small tent.
--
The Burrow loomed in the distance, unearthly, as if it wasn't really there. Harry's heart seemed to contract in sadness as the quartet of people walked close and closer to the house.
Outwardly, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at the tiny house. No broken windows, no signs of disturbance.
Whoever got in there must have used a very advanced version of Alorhormora…and I will kill that evil person when I find out who it was…for Ron. Thought Harry, his anger softening as he looked at his beast mate.
Ron's reaction had been the worst of them all. He didn't cry as Harry had, and nor did he yell, scream and throw things like Ginny had. Instead, he had just sat there, with a blank look on his face like he had been told something unimportant like it was raining out.
The same look still rested on his face as step by step they approached the Burrow. This chilling calm hurt Harry more than anything. It's like he's in denial.
Finally they arrived at the door of the Burrow. Harry clenched his fists together, and prepared himself for what was within.
As Kingsley swung the door open with an ominous creak, the interior of the Burrow was revealed to those four grieving people. A small gasp escaped Ginny's lips as she surveyed the lack of damage in the house in front of them.
A smile lit up Ron's previously unemotional face. "The detectors must have malfunctioned! I bet you anything 'Mione and Hugo are curled up in my room. All the wards on the place must have messed the detectors up!" Happily he bounded into the room that he and Hermione shared.
Harry and Ginny glanced at each other, not willing to let themselves feel any hope. Could this nightmare night be nothing more than a mix up?
As a long, drawn out wail of agony sounded from the adjoining bedroom, Harry felt his insides turning to ice. Quickly he and Ginny sprinted into the room. At first glance, nothing wrong could be seen. But with a few more searching glances, an unimaginable horror was revealed to them.
A hysterical Ron Weasley had curled himself around the limp, unmoving body of Hugo Weasley.
The tiny corpse wasn't moving, breathing, of jumping up to tell him it was alright like he was supposed to be. It was at that moment that Harry realized that nothing was fine. Hugo was dead, and Hermione was probably too. Nothing would ever be fine again. A sickening bile rose to form a knot in his throat, and he collapsed onto the rumpled bed.
Ginny; however was seeing nothing but red. As the boys- ahem, men, in the room went to pieces, she started searching for any clue as to who could have done this. Whoever had killed her nephew and probably Hermione- sweet, kind Hermione- had to pay.
At first her desperate search revealed nothing, but finally two seemingly ordinary pieces of parchment presented themselves to her. Quickly, she bent down to retrieve them. Her ginger brow furrowed in confusion as she read the written lines on the parchment, and with decisive strides, walked over to her husband.
"Harry…Harry get up!" She whispered in a hoarse voice filled with sorrow and anger. "Look at this!"
With an agonized groan, Harry pulled himself into a sitting position, and took the two pieces of parchment from his wife. Without thinking, he began to read the first one aloud.
In a war you must take part
I've stolen a piece of your heart
The trio is now down to two
I've taken the brains away from you
So if you don't want to lose anymore
Prepare yourselves for what's in store
It was signed, with neat script, DL.
Harry looked towards Ginny with confusion in his eyes. What could it mean? The note certainly said that Hermione was gone, but it didn't confirm that she was dead. Is there some hope? Thought Harry. Aloud, he whispered, "Here's the second one."
This time as Harry began to read; Ron's anguished sobs faded to background noise while Harry tried to decipher the eerie riddle.
When the people start to die
It's with you that the blame lies
For it's you who made me who I am
Made me start this evil plan
You think you know me, think again
All you did was cause me pain
So I'm fighting back, I've become strong
I will prove it's you who's wrong
I who's blood is unnaturally pure
Who hides behind a façade, demure
I'm cruel, I'm ruthless, and I'm smart
With my lover we'll do our part
To make the world a better place
Problems that you now must face
DL
The two riddles fell to the floor was Harry covered his face in his hands. "I don't get it!"
Ginny sighed, and cast a pitying glance towards her brother, who had finally gone to sleep, still clutching his dead son. Like that could bring him back to life. "I have no clue. The one who was good at solving stuff like this was…" She paused, and a single tear ran down her cheek. "Hermione."
The distraught pair lay on the bed together, absorbed in each others grieving. It was many long minutes before Ginny spoke, her voice muffled due to sadness, and because she was lying against Harry's chest. "Every time I come up with a lead I get to a dead end."
"I know Gin…I know…" He comforted her.
"I just want Hermione back." The wall that she had set up when she had heard the news had finally broke, and she dissolved into distraught sobs that racked her whole body and her very soul.
"We WILL figure it out." No matter how much he tried to convince himself, the lingering doubt was still there. Harry tried to hold it in, but that pain of losing one of his longtime best mates overwhelmed him, and he joined his wife in grieving and mourning to the friend that they had lost.
Knocked under the bed by accident due to Ron's discovery of his sons' corpse, a tiny, ordinary note book lay unnoticed under the bed, containing secrets that could determine the fate of the Wizarding and Muggle World.
--
AN- What can I say? Review, review, review!
