Last time Hermione researched the ritual that Cho and Marietta did. Along with some remising about their first year at Hogwarts, Hermione discovered the nature of the creature Cho made in her eagerness to be with Cedric Diggory again; a Homunculus. Meanwhile Neville told Harry that he's worried about Luna, that she's been having stranger dreams than normal. On with the show!
Chapter 4: Hunting the Homunculus
The next day the muggle news reported of two unexplainable deaths in downtown London. At first glance the cause of death was massive lacerations to the neck; someone cut their throats and the victims drowned in their own blood. But the most disturbing part was that each victim had their hearts removed after they had died.
The day after, three more muggles were murdered the same way. What linked the five murders was the fact that their necks were cut by the same edged weapon, a weapon that seemed to have organic qualities.
"This is just bloody weird," said Ron, "No pun intended."
"None taken," said Harry, "I'll bet that our Homunculus is responsible for these murders."
"The muggles say that a blade with organic qualities was the weapon that killed the victims," said Hermione, "It's as if the knife was alive. I think I may be able to explain this. The Alchemic records say that a Homunculus has super-human abilities. Previous encounters with Homunculi tell of shape shifters, above-average strength, speed and endurance. Other reports tell of regenerating flesh, the ability to stretch limbs and other appendages. Then there's the power to turn body parts into living weapons, which is what we have here. I think our Homunculus can turn part of himself into an edged weapon. As to why it removed the hearts of its victims, I'll bet that it took them as trophies."
"Well that's just bloody great," said Ron, "Now how do you suppose we find this creature before it kills again?"
"I've already got that covered," said Harry, "Follow me." He showed Ron and Hermione to a side room in the Auror Office where two familiar faces sat at a table; The Patill twins, Pavarti and Padma. They were pondering over several maps of London with a scrying crystal.
"Long time no see," said Hermione, "What brings you down here?"
"They volunteered," said Harry, "They said they could help find the Homunculus. Any luck?"
"Nothing yet," said Pavarti, "But scrying rarely gives results immediately. Sometimes one needs to wait."
"Well how long have you been waiting?" asked Ron.
"About an hour," said Padma, "This could take hours, days even. It's worse because I only got an Acceptable on my Divination OWL."
"I wish Lavender Brown was here," said Pavarti, "She would have found your Homunculus in no time."
"She did love Divination," said Ron, "Almost as much as she loved me."
"Excuse me!" snapped Hermione, "Aren't you forgetting whom you're married to now?"
"Sorry, dear," Ron said, "Just remembering the old me, before I realized that you, Hermione, complete me."
"There are times, Ron," said Hermione, "When you can be a complete git. But now is not one of those times," with that she kissed him and he kissed back.
"If you two are done with all the romance," said Pavarti, "I think I may have found your Homunculus." The scrying crystal had settled over a map of the London Underground.
"It's somewhere in the tubes," said Harry, "If we hurry we can catch it before it kills again."
Thirty minutes later our three Aurors and about sixty members of the Magical Law Enforcement committee had entered the Underground, (that's the British equivalent of a subway.)
"The Homunculus is down here somewhere," said Harry, "Pavarti and Padma say that it's in one particular branch of the tunnels that has only one way in or out. Even so, there's plenty of darkness for it to hide in. We need to be careful; it's extremely dangerous and will probably kill if cornered. Nobody is to attack this thing alone, stay together and keep your guard up."
With that the searchers split into groups of three and entered the tunnels. Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the primary group with all the other search groups coordinating their communications through them.
Less than an hour into the search our heroes caught their first sign of the Homunculus by a trail of fresh blood. "It's killed again," said Harry, "We need to catch up with it now!"
After signaling to the other groups, our heroes followed the trail of blood as it led from the tracks of the underground into a side tunnel. "How long has this been here?" asked Ron.
"It looks like an old air raid shelter from World War 2," said Hermione, "The Homunculus must be using it as a lair of sort."
The air raid shelter ended into another tunnel, one that looked to have been freshly dug. "Looks like our friend has been busy," said Ron after he, Harry and Hermione used the Lumos spell to light their way as the tunnel continued downward.
Eventually the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Our heroes cautiously entered the cavern, their eyes shifting from following the blood trail and from all around them for any movement.
The blood trail ended in the middle of the room. "Where is it?" asked Ron, "Where did the blood go?" Just then something red dripped from the ceiling. Harry looked up to see something clinging to the rock, blood dripping from its hands. The creature was the exact image of Cedric Diggory, yet his very presence gleamed with hate and malice.
The Homunculus jumped down from the ceiling and swiped at Ron with its bare hand. Ron managed to dodge the hand, the edge of said hand gleaming like a sharp knife. It then kicked Ron to the cavern wall, knocking the wind out of him.
Hermione tried to stun the creature, yet her spell just bounced off the Humunculus's skin. The creature then backhanded Hermione into the cavern wall, the force of his blow knocking her out before she impacted the rock.
Seeing his friends rendered helpless, Harry launched curse, after jinx, after hex at the Homunculus, yet like Hermione his spells did no damage, just bounced off the creature's hide.
"You're pathetic magic won't work on me," said the Homunculus, "You should run while you still have legs to run with." His voice was too high pitched for Cedric's face, too full of hate and disgust.
"I never run away from an assignment," said Harry, "You may look like my friend, but he died a long time ago."
"I had no choice over what I look like," said the Homunculus, "You can thank that girl; her jealousy and lust brought me here. And all it cost her was her precious hands. That and the life of her friend"
"You talk about human life as if it weren't worth a damn," said Harry.
"Well, no sh$t," said the Homunculus, "Human life means nothing to me, not just because I'm not human. If I had my way I'd wipe your filthy pathetic excuse of a species from the planet. Now get out of my way, or you and your pitiable friends are next."
"You'll find that my friends and I are rather hard to kill," said Harry before he shouted, "Sectumsempra!" Harry slashed his wand like a sword and sent his curse at the Homunculus. The spell hit the creature head on in the chest area, producing a large cut.
Yet it was all for nothing, the cut seemed to heal within seconds. "I'm not so easy to kill either," gloated the Homunculus. Faster than Harry could react to, the creature rushed over to him, grabbed him and threw him into the rock wall.
The force of the throw and impact nearly knocked Harry out. He remained conscious, only to see the Homunculus coming towards him, it's outstretched hand gleaming like a sharp knife.
Suddenly the creature stopped. It tensed, as if hearing something. The other searchers were almost at the cavern.
"You're lucky I'm in a hurry," said the Homunculus, "I'll kill you next time." With that the creature disappeared into the darkness of the cavern. Harry dimly heard footsteps running towards him, Hermione and Ron before he passed out.
…Later…
I am really sick of waking up in hospital, thought Harry as he regained consciousness. He was in St. Mungos, with Hermione in the bed to his right and Ron to his left. Ginny was sitting at the foot of his bed.
"It's about time you woke up," said Ginny, "You almost made me worry." "How long was I unconscious?" asked Harry.
"About seven hours," said Ginny, "You, Hermione and my idiot brother were really banged up this time, what were you doing in the underground?"
"We were looking for a Homunculus," said Harry as he reached for his glasses from a nearby table, "One that has killed at least six people and will kill again if it isn't stopped." He sat up and made to get out of bed.
"I don't think so," said Ginny as she pushed Harry back into bed, "You've been through a rough time. The healers say you shouldn't move for at least a day."
"And in that time," said Harry, "The Homunculus can find a less easy to locate hiding place and kill at it's leisure. We have to stop it now!"
"I'm with you, mate!" said Ron as he tried to get out of bed, yet he barely had the strength to sit up, let alone stand.
"Like I said," said Ginny, "You're not going anywhere for a day, so just sit and spin."
"Whatever you say," said Harry, "Just don't get to comfortable alone at home."
"Oh don't worry," said Ginny in a sly tone as she got up to leave, "I'll be waiting for you most eagerly."
"Whoa!" exclaimed Ron, "Way too much information!"
"There's one good thing about us being stuck here for a day," said Hermione, "We can go over what happened with the Homunculus and figure out what went wrong."
"I can tell you what went wrong," said Ron, "We got our asses kicked and handed to us!"
"I mean why our magic couldn't harm the creature," said Hermione, "It must be impervious to normal curses, jinxes and hexes. There's got to be a way to get around its defenses."
The next day our three Aurors left St. Mungos and headed back to The Ministry of Magic. Back at headquarters they ran into Amos Diggory, Cedric's Father. "I heard the rumors," said Mr. Diggory, "Tell me the truth, Harry, this creature that's killing people, does it have my boy's face?"
"I'm afraid it's true, Mr. Diggory," said Harry, "There's a Homunculus somewhere in London that is the exact image of Cedric. I'm sorry."
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about, Harry," said Amos Diggory, "You were the one who brought my son's body back from the clutches of V-Voldemort. But now there's this Homunculus that looks like my Cedric, and it's on a killing spree. Promise me that you'll stop this creature."
"You have my word," said Harry, "That Homunculus will be stopped, one way or another."
"And just how are we going to stop the Homunculus?" asked Ron as he, Harry and Hermione entered their office, "Magic doesn't work on it, remember?"
"I remember," said Harry, "I think what we need to do is approach this from a different angle, think outside the box. We need to figure out how to destroy the Homunculus with Alchemy, hopefully before it kills again." Just then a report came in, stating that the Homunculus had indeed killed again, four muggles this time. "I spoke too soon," said Harry.
The end of chapter 4. Next chapter our heroes plan out how to destroy the Homunculus, while we meet up again with Neville and Luna Lovegood. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!