"It was her fault! She totally did it on purpose!" Ron said when he was out of the hospital wing. It took one night for him to get out; Madam Pomfrey insisted he stay.
"She was out of control! She was probably just scared!" Hermione told him. "It's never your fault, is it? She's just another person to blame, is she?" she scolded.
Amari was watching the argument with Harry.
"They're like an old married couple, eh?" he joked. Amari laughed. She decided she liked Harry now, but she still wanted to make Ron's life a living hell. She kept her duct tape in her locked trunk. She wanted to strike before the next Quidditch practice. After all, it was that day.
"Hey, Ron! How's your babysitting job going?" Ginny asked Ron at breakfast.
"I don't think she likes me – unless she's just evil…" he answered her.
"Oh, nonsense! She a perfect little angel! Anyways, you can't expect her to like you if you call her stupid and go so high on a broom only to fall off! What were you doing to fall off like that?"
"She is NOT an angel! She lied about the stupid thing and she threw me off the broom! AND it was her who wanted to go higher! I'm the one who broke my arm!" he said angrily.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Sure, Ron. Where is she anyways?" she looked around and couldn't see her.
"I left her with Harry and Hermione," he said, before taking the advantage of the little girl's absence to stuff his face.
"Where's Amari, Ron?" Hermione just sat down next to him with Harry – no Amari in sight.
Ron choked on his eggs. "I left her with you!"
"NO, you didn't!" Hermione said.
"I'll get her… I need to get my Quidditch robes anyway." He got up and sprinted up the stairs up to Gryffindor Tower. Amari was waiting for him, duct tape in her pocket, in his dormitory.
"What are you doing? You were supposed to go with Harry and Hermione!" Ron scolded her.
"Ron, I just wanted to apologize about everything… I got you a present!" she fibbed, "Close your eyes and hold out your hands – it's a surprise!"
"Really? Thanks, Amari…" he closed his eyes and stuck out his hands as he was told. Gullible much?
He heard the noise of tape ripping (which was Amari unraveling the duct tape) and said, "What's that noise?" without opening his eyes.
"I had to put it in a box so you wouldn't see it and so it won't break. It's all taped up and I have to take it out now," she rehearsed that a hundred times.
When she was satisfied with the amount of duct tape she pulled off the roll, she quickly wrapped it around Ron's outstretched hands. "ARRRGH! What are you doing?!" he yelled, falling backwards when she jumped on him. She cackled evilly, pulling more duct tape off the roll and placing it over his mouth.
"I'm not evil, totally. I don't like you – or Michael. I like him more, though…" she kept laughing and taped his ankles together. He was doing his best to escape, but he only rolled a foot before she caught him again and he couldn't make any noise.
"Aha!" she said, when she found his wand in the back pocket of his jeans. "You need to find a safer place to put this! I was reading a book before you got here," she smiled, "did you know that you can stun a person by magic?" he opened his eyes wide and tried to roll away.
"Stupefy!" she cast confidently, pointing Ron's own wand at him. If he had been conscious, he would consider her a mini-Hermione. She succeeded after one try! She took a piece of paper and wrote magically:
To Harry Potter,
I have the little girl. Send me an owl where you want to meet me to get her back. Bring your firebolt whenever we go. Freedom isn't free! No teachers, or else.
-Draco Malfoy
Amari smiled her evil little smile and took Harry's Invisibility Cloak from his open trunk. She knew what it was, seeing as she had one at home. She locked Ron in her trunk.
She stalked out of the room, head held high, under the Invisibility Cloak. She went through the empty common room, through many hallways and into the Great Hall. She went to the Slytherin Table and found Malfoy.
"Draco! Pst!!" she whispered, poking his back.
"What? Who's there?" he whispered the last part.
"It's me, Amari," she stuck her head out of the cloak for a couple seconds then retreated into it again. "I got Ron back for you, and Harry's gonna believe you kidnapped me," she added.
He pointed into the hallway and went out of the Great Hall. Lots of people were starting to leave, so it wasn't conspicuous. She took off the cloak in the dungeons.
"You didn't say anything about that!" he said angrily.
"Well, to make the note I left convincing, I told him to mail you a note saying when and where to meet him to get me back… with his firebolt. I hope that's okay!" she informed him.
"I'm really starting to like you. Where is Weasel bee?" Malfoy asked, smirking. He could get a firebolt out of this!
"He's locked in my trunk. I had to take his wand and I had to get him out of the way! He had it coming!" she giggled.
"And where are you supposed to go? I don't have anywhere to hide you!"
"I'll hide under the Invisibility cloak… Are there any problems? I can go let Ron out and hide the note! Nobody's seen it yet… I think…"
"No, no! I think you'd be a good Slytherin, kid." He ruffled her hair. She smiled proudly, even though she didn't really know what it meant. "We just have to wait for Potter to get the note and send me his own. Lay low now." He told her. She nodded and turned invisible again.
"I wonder when he'll find the note?" Amari wondered.
Just then, Neville came running into the Great Hall, waving the said note in his hand.
"Harry!" he said, catching his breath, "I found this in the dorm!" he handed Harry the note and the Boy who Lived read it in his head and gasped.
"Where's Ron?" he asked Neville. Neville shrugged. Harry gave Hermione the note and ran to Gryffindor Tower. What had happened to Ron? Why didn't he come get him?
He blasted through the dorm door and looked around. "Ron?" he whispered.
Ron had woken up a few seconds before, taking until then to register what had happened. He heard his name from somewhere outside the trunk he was locked in. He reacted like anyone would – he started kicking the trunk, making as much noise as possible.
Thump, thump, thump. Harry looked over and found the source of the noise. Amari's trunk was moving.
"Alohamora!" Harry opened the trunk to find a duct taped Ron scrunched up inside. "What happened?" all he got for an answer was "Mmmph!"
"Oops, sorry," he ripped the duct tape off his mouth.
"OW!! Jeez Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "The little devil did it!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "If you mean Malfoy, I know. He left a note saying he kidnapped Amari. We can't find her so it has to be true!" Harry told his still unable to move friend.
"What? It was Amari! She attacked me! Look! Why would Malfoy use muggle things?" he said, holding out his hands.
"What if he used the Imperious Curse?" Hermione asked – she had just walked in. "Oh my God! Ron! Are you okay?" she had over to him and started ripping off his bonds.
"Ouch! Hermione! OW! That hurts!" Ron whined.
"Well, if this hadn't happened, it wouldn't hurt, would it? You got locked into a trunk by a little girl with duct tape!" Hermione scolded. "I should just leave your hands as they are," she only finished undoing his ankles.
"Hermione! Are you saying this is my fault? How was I supposed to know she had duck tape?" Ron yelled.
"Ron, it's duct, duct tape. You guys have to stop fighting! We have to get Amari back!" Harry ordered, releasing Ron's hands.
"What note?" Ron asked, rubbing his wrists. Hermione handed him the note Amari wrote. "Your FIREBOLT? He's insane! Greedy little…"
"What else can we do? There's no knowing what he'll do! We have to get her back! Actually, YOU have to get her back, Ronald. She is your responsibility!" Hermione said. "We should do a trade in – I'm sure Malfoy would much rather have you as a prisoner!" she was so angry that Ron couldn't tell whether or not she was joking.
"Well, what do we do? We can't afford another firebolt!" Ron said, frustrated.
"Well, what if we made sure Amari was safe then tell a teacher?" Harry asked.
"He will have thought of that – he's not stupid, Harry. He'll do something to prevent it. There's no way out!" Hermione cried.
"Well, let's write the note. Maybe we'll think of something by then." Harry said dismissively with a sigh.