I made a mistake in the last chapter it was a cruciatus curse not a Doloris. Got mixed up between my language and english
Hermione woke up and stretched before realizing where she was. Suddenly everything came back to her. She could not think at something else than finding Charlie. She stepped out her bed and went to find the rest of the Weasley. Seeing all their tired faces she felt bad for sleeping. Ron immediately went to her side.
"Don't worry 'Mione, you deserved your sleep. We just couldn't…" she saw that his face was strained. She could only imagine what pain they were suffering. Fred's death was still fresh and there was no way she would let Charlie die. They had to organize a rescue mission. Ron's words had made her felt a little bit better but she knew that they had to find Charlie soon. Who knew what he was suffering right now?
"I'm going to ask the same stupid question but is there any way we can locate Charlie?" she asked, she already knew from the day before that they could not find where he was.
"Hermione we can't…"began Bill before his gaze lost his focus. Tears began clouding his eyes and he wiped them angrily.
"How did you know he was in danger yesterday?" she had to understand everything that happened before she could act. She hated this, she did not want to plan, she only wanted to go and rescue him. But if they wanted to be successful they had to carefully plan everything.
"We all casted a charm at the end of the war. It allows us to tell the other that we are in danger. It was the only way for us to feel safe. And we can locate each other…" Hermione rejoiced at Ron's voice. Maybe Bill had forgotten this aspect. She knew it was nearly impossible but she had to cling to some hope. "But only if we are dead or under one of the forbidden curse" she could hear Ron's voice cracking.
She had to admit it destroyed her to ask them but she had to.
"Could you please try to locate him?" her voice was shaking, the implications of her question only to be visible in her mind. She faced Ron, asking him to help her. He could see that she was asking it for the right reasons, that she was suffering as much as them. He knew that was one of their few hopes so he nodded and pressed his right hand on his left arm. It had been quite ironic that the only spell that enabled the Weasley to locate each other in time of trouble forced them to do the same movements than the Death Eaters.
He screamed in terror, his eyes full of tears. "I located him". Hermione did not hesitate a minute longer. She knew that time was running out.
She quickly called the leader of the investigation and asked for thirty men. She fought with him, to know who was going to come. He did not want any of the family present. But they had so much experience that he could not resist much longer. And Hermione was more than determined to be the one leading the operation. There was no way in hell that someone was going to lead this if it wasn't her. She needed to do it. First for her conscience, second for the Weasley who had been her family for eight years and also for Charlie. As she had already led the counter attack on the reserve the leader of the investigation had no other choice than to access her request. In a way she was glad they were in Romania, in England she would have been relegated to the simple rank of spectator.
Bill declined the opportunity to come with them. The persons they were going to deal with were way too dangerous for his taste. He was simply glad that his family had survived. He knew that he could trust Hermione to bring Charlie back if he was alive. He felt bad for leaving his brother but he knew he was making the right choice. He also managed to convince his parents to stay with him. They were going to be more a burden than a help and the rescue team needed to be 100% efficient.
Percy and Audrey, his girlfriend, decided to stay also. They weren't going to be really useful in the battlefield and they were needed to put some order into the disaster that had followed the previous day. George decided to join the rescue. He could not let Charlie meet the same fate than Fred.
Harry, Ron and Ginny did not even ask for permission. They were going to help whether they liked it or not. Hermione smiled tiredly. She was proud of her friends and was happy to see them stand strong for their brother. She was also happy to see that they were intelligent enough to know when to come. She smiled at Bill and promised him that she was going to do everything to come back with Charlie.
When they had everyone ready Hermione explained what their plan was.
"I don't have much to say… Just go in and find Charlie. We need him alive. Some of his captors too just in case we could gain some useful info. The priority is Charlie. Kill if you have to." She hated saying those words but she preferred killing someone and save Charlie than let him die because she was too frightened to kill. Ron told them the GPS localization so that they could all apparate. When everyone had memorized the info they gathered and took each other arms before apparating away.
Charlie could not take it anymore. His jaw was nearly broken and his voice was a hoarse whisper at the best. He knew that he had to talk. So he did
"What did you do with the two eggs you stole?" It surprised his assailant. But his question was rewarded by another Cruciato curse. He tried to scream but his vocal chords were ablaze. He could only feel pain, nothing else. He just prayed his family had the courage to not try to locate him. His torturers were sadistic psychos and he was afraid for the rescue team if there was any. He could barely think at this point, the only thing keeping him awake being the thought of the two missing eggs.
"Where did you put the stolen eggs?" he asked again once the curse wore out. He was nearly sure nobody heard him, his voice was dead for having scream too much. But apparently someone heard him, the man he had come to fear over the past hours. He did not know his name as everyone called him the man in black. He did not use the forbidden curse as the other. No he was much more sadistic than that. He had used legimency to see his worst fears and used them against him. Charlie was emotionally and physically broken. He was just glad he knew enough Occlumency to protect the place they had hidden the eggs. It had of course angered his torturer who had used everything to make him break. He even falsely killed Hermione in front of him by using one of his men and Polyjuice.
The man in black get on his knees, near Charlie's body and whispered: "We did not take any dragon eggs yesterday. They must be dead." Charlie screamed. He knew it was stupid but he wished they were alive. Two future dragons were dead because he did not react fast enough. He knew that was also a torture, they did that so that he would finally give in but he couldn't.
"We're under attack!" this scream relieved Charlie and at the same time made him more afraid than before. "Please, don't let my family be among them" he prayed to Merlin know who. He had seen all the traps they had set and knew that there was nearly no way the rescue team would avoid them all.
The man in black smirked, he could see the terror in Charlie's eyes and he actually enjoyed it. His smile rapidly dropped when another scream followed "they dodged the traps!"
"No fucking way" the man in black yelled. He loved making people suffer but he hated fighting. Even if he was skilled at it. He preferred to torture people. He took a look at a proud Charlie "Don't worry little ginger, I will have your girlfriend and she would soon wish she had never come to this place" He saw the look of pure anger that Charlie sent his way and he could see him struggling to move. That made him laugh. Just for fun he casted a Cruciatus on Charlie before going where the fight was taking place.
When they had apparated, Hermione had immediately felt that something was wrong. There was no way in hell that their entrance was not guarded. She could feel it was a trap. So she created out of thin air, cloud persons. She then sent them to the entrance. Numerous traps entered in action at that. Learning them from her dusk army Hermione then guided her team to the front door, managing to avoid all the traps. Now the real fight was about to begin. She took a big breath and after having check on her friends she opened the door.
They surprised their opponents. She was sure no one had previously thought about her trick. It was really nothing, a spell that was taught to children and that nearly everyone forgot. But it was the best to avoid any form of traps and Hermione was kind of happy to have managed to have everyone safely inside. Even if that was going to be the worst part. She stunned as many people as she could and she could feel Harry, Ron and Ginny at her side.
She tried to asset the situation even if she was struggling to stay alive. They were more opponents than they had thought there would be and her thirty men were not enough. They had to find Charlie and disappear quickly. She spotted a door near the back and she motioned to her friends. They followed her and she knew her intuition was right when she saw a man in black coming from it. She did not have time to be happy as he appeared to be a marvelous fighter. She could see Harry struggling against him. There was no way that guy was just a random henchman. She quickly changed her plans: they had to locate Charlie and neutralize this guy.
She moved closer to the door and she felt the man in black's eyes on her. He smirked and she had the reflex to dodge a vicious curse sent her way. She needed to get to Charlie. Behind her the rescue team was being slowly butchered and Ron and Ginny were trying to protect Harry and her from any behind attack. They had to beat the man in black.
They had beaten Voldemort so she knew they could beat a simple guy. Charlie still in her mind she began giving herself completely to battle. She knew it was nearly impossible to beat her and Harry in a fight. Both were too skilled for one wizard. So it was no surprise to her when, after a few minutes, they managed to knock out the man in black. She yelled "Harry, apparate with him, we need to interrogate him!" she then went through the door.
Her breath caught in her breast when she finally saw Charlie. He was laying in a pool of blood. "No, no that's not possible" she thought. He could not be dead, not after the fight they had put. He could not let her alone! He had promised to watch over her! She could feel tears menacing to go down. She fought them off and quickly disarmed the two guys that were watching over Charlie. She was devastated, she could not imagine what the Weasley were going to feel when she was going to tell them. Her heart was broken and she had trouble breathing.
Charlie was dead. Their rescue was a failure and she felt worse than she had ever felt before. It was like Fred death all over again. She could not believe her eyes. They had fought so much to come there. But then that made sense, Ron had located him because he was dead… She was so angered she wanted to kill someone. She turned to the two men she had disarmed but she slowly put her wand down.
If there were watching him that meant he was not dead! She ran to him and when she saw his eyes she could not restrain her tears anymore.
"Charlie, oh Merlin, Charlie! You're alive!" she was crying but she did not care. All that mattered was that he was alive. She quickly asserted the gravity of his wounds. She could definitely not apparate with him. Which meant that she had to fight her way back. She sent her patronus to the Weasley, asking for reinforcements. Charlie was alive she just needed to go out!
She went out the room and locked the door. Nobody was going through it without her knowing. Nobody was going to hurt Charlie anymore. She was not going to let that happen. She was currently trying to disarming two wizards when she heard the characteristic plop of Apparitions. She looked around her and was glad to find ministry workers.
The fight was over soon after that and Hermione guided the paramedic team to the room were Charlie was. Molly had not waited the end of the fight to apparate. She needed to see her son. When she saw him she fell into Hermione's arms.
"Are you sure he is alive?" she asked, her voice full of fear. If another of her son was dead she was not sure she could handle it.
"I checked he was breathing. He just passed out…" Hermione was quiet, not wanting to hear what the paramedics were saying. In her mind, Charlie had always been the strong one. Saying him there, laying unconscious in a pool of blood she was feeling vulnerable. It felt like the war never ended. She was not sure she could stand it anymore but she waited until he was deemed ready to apparate to let her tears fall down.
Molly kept hugging her, knowing full well what she was feeling. The two women held to each other, as if there was nothing else in the world. When Hermione's tears began to recess Molly thanked her.
"You know I couldn't let that happen. Not to you, not to your family." Hermione couldn't understand why Molly was thanking her. She did what she had to do. And she was glad she had done it.
"After Fred died I thought that the world was going to end. Voldemort was alive and one of my sons was laying in a destroyed Hogwards, dead. And then we learned that Harry was dead. I thought this was the end. It was impossible that so many bad things could happen. But you carried on fighting and at the end we won. I knew then that Fred's death had been worth the price. But I can't lose another son. And thanks to you that did not happen." Molly confided in Hermione, admiring her bravery.
The two apparated to the hospital were Charlie had been taken and they waited for his wake up.
Here you are ! Hope that relieved some of you! What did you think about this chapter?
Thank you all for your amazing reviews :)
