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Chapter 10: Answers

Hermione felt a great deal more comfortable, now that Bellatrix had left the basement. She looked at all the ingredients that she had spread around her. There was no point in avoiding the issue. If someone came to find her and put paid to Bellatrix's antics, then that would be great. However, until such a time as that occurred, she would have to brew the potion as requested.

Hermione picked up a bottle labelled 'Ground Erumpent horn' and sighed. She doubted whether any but a very few of these ingredients would have been found in Snape's stores. They weren't ingredients one was likely to come across, outside of places such as Knockturn Alley. She noted the Spirit of Myrrh, Doxy egg, Nightshade, Deadlyius, Unicorn horn, Dragon blood, Standard ingredient and what looked sickeningly like human flesh. She wondered how long it would take before that began to rot. More likely, Bellatrix had placed a few charms and enchantments on it so that it wouldn't.

There were a few more ingredients that Hermione didn't recognise. She didn't worry herself about them at the moment. She was attempting to read through the method and gauge how difficult it was going to be to produce it. If this was completed incorrectly, Bellatrix would kill the people in her life just out of spite.

She had hoped that something would need to pickle, stew or age before the potion could be completed, as had been the case when brewing the Polyjuice Potion. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be required this time. As Hermione finished reading the potion, she found that it wouldn't take very long at all. Two days at most. Two days for her best friends of six years to find her. The two people who were currently not speaking to her.

Even if they did try, how on earth would they figure out who had taken her and where she was before the potion was done?

No, Hermione wasn't holding out much hope at all.

"They took her because she's Harry Potter's best friend." Susan sighed and put her head in her hands. "They took her to get to him."

Ginny was sitting on the floor of the prefects' common room and staring off into the distance, a frown marring her pale complexion. Susan watched her for a few, long moments. When she didn't respond, she said, "What?"

Ginny looked at Susan, the frown still present. "That might be part of it, but I don't think that that's the main reason."

"What's the other reason?" Susan asked.

"Look," Ginny pulled the throw over her knees, "Death Eaters are followers and they aren't exactly famous for their forward thinking, or intelligence. If they wanted to kidnap someone to hurt Harry, they would have kidnapped me. As far as they're concerned, the loss of Harry Potter's girlfriend would hurt him a lot more than the loss of his best friend."

Susan nodded and followed the train of thought. "Okay, so they kidnapped Hermione for something else. Couldn't it just be a simple case of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Ginny's frown deepened. "That's true, I suppose. She found that the Restricted Section had been broken into and they kidnapped her so she couldn't tell anyone."

"It's no wonder that you two weren't sorted into Ravenclaw." Draco Malfoy entered the common room from the staircase that led to his dormitory. He was sneering, as he usually did when he felt superior to everyone else. Considering that he always felt that way, it was a wonder that his sneer ever left his face.

Susan rolled her eyes, and Ginny just watched him steadily. Unnervingly. Malfoy didn't flinch.

He sat on the sofa and watched the pair on the floor. "Granger bumped into me, remember? She showed me the lock. Whoever kidnapped her also collided into me on their way past me. They were quite aware that she'd already told me. They went after her after I left her alone."

Ginny's expression turned stony at the reminder that Malfoy had just left her. He didn't look in the slightest bit ashamed at his words.

He shrugged. "If they took her to silence her, they would have taken me, too."

Susan closed the book she had been reading before Malfoy appeared. She stared hard at the book. "It's because she's smart!" She looked up at Malfoy, alarmed. "Ravenclaw! They took her because she's smart."

"Well done, Bones," Malfoy said, snarkily. "You get ten points."

Ginny caught up. "They're trying to resurrect Voldemort, aren't they? That's what the Slytherins told you."

Malfoy looked at them grimly but didn't answer. He didn't need to. They already knew they were right.

"Great," Ginny mumbled. "Just great. What else did they tell you?"

"Nothing much. I've been going through the list of people who could have done this to her, and I think it most likely to be a Death Eater."

Ginny scoffed cruelly at him. "You think?! If someone wants to bring Voldemort back, it's going to be a Death Eater; no one else would want that evil creature back! And, considering you used to be so pally with a lot of them, I'm guessing it's someone you probably even know, Draco. So, who do you think it could be?!"

Malfoy opened his mouth for what was, undoubtedly, going to be an angry retort, but Susan got there faster. "Stop it, the pair of you! If you start fighting amongst yourselves, you'll waste precious time and energy. That's something we don't have the luxury of, at the moment.

"Malfoy, tell us your theories. Ginny, go and get Harry and Ron!"

Somebody needed to take charge of the situation, and considering how often Gryffindors and Slytherins clashed when they spent too much time together, Susan supposed that it'd have to be her. She didn't like the idea of that.

Thankfully, Ginny stood and left through the portrait of the lion. It would take her back to the Gryffindor common room.

Susan sighed and shook her head. She looked at the silver-haired Slytherin and asked a question she knew she wasn't going to like the answer to. "Who do you think it was?"

Hermione held the bottle of dragon blood in her hand. It was warm, as though it were still a part of the creature it had been taken from. She was stalling. She wanted to buy more time for someone to find her. Her absence would have been noticed by now. However, she knew that Bellatrix would be back down, and soon. She would expect the potion making to have begun.

"This is never going to end," Hermione said to herself.

Sighing, she set the bottle on the floor, filled the cauldron with water and started a fire beneath it.

It was best not to incur Bellatrix Lestrange's wrath so early on. She found too much pleasure in torturing people who did not heed her needs and wants.

She added the standard ingredient and let the cauldron warm up. Pulling the pestle and mortar towards her, Hermione added the dried Hellebore to it. She ground in down until it resembled dust and then added three scoops of it to the lightly simmering cauldron.

At that precise moment, the door to the basement opened and Bellatrix walked down. Hermione had to quell the urge to smack that haughty look off her face, just as she had smacked Malfoy in third year. She didn't expect that Bellatrix would let her off as easily as Malfoy had.

Hermione didn't encourage conversation from the Death Eater. She was there to do a job and that was what she carried on doing. There was nothing that woman could say that would make Hermione happy, so she waited without acknowledging her presence.

Bellatrix didn't disappoint. "I assumed that it would be best to come down and make sure that you weren't cooking up something other than the potion. I know perfectly well what your stupid Gryffindor bravery predisposes you to do. How it makes you foolish enough to think that you can escape, even when it is clear that there is no escape possible."

Her voice was grating on Hermione's nerves, so Hermione looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "And what exactly were you expecting me to do with a bunch of useless, dark ingredients and no wand?"

Bellatrix's mean little smile reappeared and her look of triumph deepened. "Exactly. There's nothing you can do!"

Hermione returned to looking at the book. "Well, as you can see, I'm flourishing. Honestly, there is absolutely nothing more that I could ask for. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to this. You can leave."

Hermione could practically feel Bellatrix bristle. She knew that the she-devil wouldn't take kindly to being told what to do, which was why Hermione enjoyed doing it so much. There was always the risk of the Cruciatus curse for her insolence, but sometimes, Hermione couldn't help what came out of her mouth. Especially around people she truly hated.

"How dare you speak to me like that?!" She screeched.

Hermione smiled to herself. "I know. After you've been such a hospitable host. How rude of me. After all, you could have left me down here with no bucket at all, and a smaller bed. I mean, you even took the time to decorate for me." She spared a glance at the tiny bulbs of light, floating up near the ceiling.

Bellatrix seemed to swell with indignation. Hermione just looked pointedly at her and waited for further retorts. When none came, she rolled her eyes and returned to the potion.

"Keep it up, Mudblood, and I will bring your little boyfriends down here and torture them in front of you. While you watch and are unable to help them."

Hermione knew that she was grasping at straws. Bellatrix did not like it when she didn't have the upper hand; whether it be in conversation or in a given situation.

"Okay, then," Hermione nodded. "Will that be all?"

Bellatrix sneered, flicked her wand at the bucket; which vanished, and then exited up the stairs again.

When she was sure that the Death Eater had gone, Hermione sat down on the hard floor, defeated. Showing weakness in front of her would only have pleased her to no end. She put her head in her hands and took very long, deep breaths. She was in a lot of trouble, now, and she had just started the countdown to her own death. With a heart that was heavy with her rapid heartbeats, she returned to the book and the potion.

The Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and three Gryffindors were gathered in the prefects' common room.

"What about Terry?" Susan asked.

"What about him?" Ron raised an eyebrow.

"He lives here," Susan explained. "If we discuss this here, he might decide he wants to help. He could be of some use."

"No!" All three men said in unison.

Harry shook his head. "The more people there are, the more that need to be kept alive and safe. We can't risk that. This is dangerous enough."

"It's always dangerous, Harry," Ginny argued. "But she's our best friend. The more people who are there to help her, the better the chance of finding her alive. The better the chance of keeping her alive."

"He's not coming," Malfoy stated, flatly. "And neither are you two." He looked between Susan and Ginny.

"Why?!" Ginny bristled, indignantly. She looked at her boyfriend and was outraged to see that he wasn't arguing with the Slytherin.

Harry put a hand on her arm. "I won't let you come. I love you too much to lose you. And I will, if you come."

Ron looked pointedly at Susan, not saying anything, but making it quite clear that for the first time in their lives, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley wholeheartedly agreed with each other on something.

Ginny was about to argue and Malfoy caught it. He spoke before she had a chance to. "Look, you may be able to convince these two," he indicated Harry and Ron, "to let you tag along the majority of the time. I, however, am not going to let you come. If you think I'm joking, I invite you to try and push me."

Ginny glowered so fiercely that her hair seemed to crackle. She shook Harry's hand off her arm and sat there, arms crossed. Ginny didn't like being mollycoddled.

Susan huffed impatiently and said, "Fine. But you didn't answer my question when I asked you who you think has taken Hermione."

"That's because I prefer to only have to say it once." He looked at them all and made sure that they were all listening to him before he continued. "There is only one person whom I can think of who is obsessed enough to try and bring him back. Someone who has no morals or conscience. Someone who is as close to crazy as you can get, without being officially diagnosed as such."

Harry thought he knew who Malfoy was talking about, and if he was right, it was very, very bad indeed.

Malfoy inclined his head towards Harry. He registered the dawning comprehension on Harry's face. "Yes, Potter, I am talking about my dear auntie Bella."

Harry closed his eyes and took deep breaths. Bellatrix was very skilled in the Dark Arts and very crazy. Without any morals or a conscience, she didn't care who died or who she killed in order to get what she wanted. He opened his eyes and looked directly at Malfoy. "Where does she live and how do we get there?"

"We don't know that she took Granger to her house." Malfoy said.

"It's the only place we've got to start," Ron hissed. "It's better than nothing."

Malfoy grumbled and started pacing. "Just remember, she knows that I was involved in the fight against Voldemort. I'm not welcome there. I can't just walk in and pretend that I'm there to help her. I'm as much of a traitor, just as disowned, as Sirius Black was."

Ron bristled. "If you don't want to come, don't. We don't need your help. You're the one who said you wanted to be a part of this. If you're too afraid to face your aunt, we'll pretend that you weren't even involved."

Malfoy turned on the red-head. "I'm not saying it because I'm afraid, or because I want to back out. I'm just stating the facts. You won't be able to get into her house by throwing me into that situation first and hoping she's pleased enough to see me to be distracted."

He sat down on the sofa. "We'll have to fight our way inside. She has wards and enchantments on her house. It's unplottable to everyone except those who already know where it is."

Ginny whispered, "Like our house."

"Exactly," Malfoy said. "Like most of the old wizarding families. Especially Death Eaters."

"Where?!" Harry exploded. he couldn't take this skirting around the subject anymore.

Malfoy paused for a moment before he answered. "She lives in Southend-on-Sea. I'll take you there, but I can't give you the address."

"Why?" Ginny demanded.

Malfoy looked at the girls pointedly.

Susan understood. "He doesn't want us to follow them, under our own steam."

Both girls were angry that their boyfriends seemed happy with that decision. One look at Malfoy silenced any protests that either of them could have made. Ginny vanished all of the parchment and books they had been using for tips and ideas about what they could use to help Hermione. She then stood and stormed out of the common room, back to Gryffindor Tower.

Susan looked after her friend uneasily. Whilst she loved Hermione dearly, Ginny still knew Hermione better. She had also known her the longest of the two. She was sure that Ginny saw it as equal to a punishable crime, that she could not be directly involved in the fight to rescue her friend.

Ron looked at Harry anxiously. "We're going to pay for that one. But, for now, we need your dad's old cloak and map."

"How are you going to get out of the school?" Susan asked.

Harry looked at the portrait of the lion, through which Ginny had disappeared, grimly. He hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye to her. If something happened to them, it was the one thing he would always regret. "We're going to go through Gunhilda of Gorsemoor."

Ron was wearing his usual look of puzzlement. "Who?"

"The One-Eyed Witch," Malfoy supplied, unhelpfully.

Susan was thankful of one thing; at least she wouldn't have to bear witness to the arguments that were sure to arise between the three men. The fact that it was midnight meant that the only person they would have to watch out for was Filch and his cat.

Suddenly, feeling quite tired, Susan stood, kissed Ron and then left for her own bedroom. She wished them all the luck she could. They were going to need it.

I'll update the next chapter as soon as possible. The next one will require a bit more time, as it involves the find and the fight. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I felt a bit grim, writing it. I'm eager for more D/Hr interaction, though, so I'll get there quicker.

Please review and please don't flame.

Dina x x x