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Chapter 12

Harry was going out of his mind, the day had passed so slowly and they had nothing more to go on, he had visited each of the Lestrange properties again hoping to find something new, the only one they had been unable to visit was the plot of land Hermione was investigating, without translating the runes they had been unable to identify its location and it had been put to the bottom of the pile as there was no building on the plot. Ron had visited home where his mother was still sitting by the fire waiting for news, she had not slept at all and Harry was feeling increasingly guilty for having put her in this position.

He was leafing through the pile of papers on his desk for the hundredth time when Hermione burst through the door gasping for breath, she had spent the whole day in the archive office translating the runes, Ron had visited her for news at various times during the day and reported back that she was struggling to find the runes in any translation books. The deeds for this piece of land were old, they had been written in the ancient runes used only by dark wizards and at his last visit Ron had found Hermione consulting six separate books to try and translate them. It was now ten o clock at night and Ginny had been gone for over twenty four hours, Harry was almost tearing his hair out and was desperate for anything to lead him to her. "Harry," Hermione shouted, "It's in Hogsmeade."

"What?" he cut in.

"The land, it's in Hogsmeade, it's part of the land originally owned by the founders, these runes say that the land was lost by Slytherin in the dark ages, though a bet with the ancient family, Durell, they were known in the dark ages to be darker than any wizarding family known throughout history, Lestrange is a descendant of the Durells, this land belonged to his family, it was part of Hogwarts, that's why I thought I recognised it, years ago probably when Rodolphus was still at Hogwarts the land was sold back to them, these runes here," she pointed to some of the symbols, "They say that the land was sold back to Hogwarts, the Lestranges were short of money back then and they obviously thought this land was worthless to them, it should never have been lost by Salazar it belonged to the school and the four founders not just Slytherin, but the school bought it back anyway, the deeds should have gone back to them but the Lestranges had new ones made and kept these originals, probably so the school wouldn't find out that the land was never really theirs and demand their money back.

I've cross referenced the land with the area now owned by Hogwarts and this is where the shrieking shack is built, I think he might have taken her there, he would think that no one would look there for him as they wouldn't associate the building or land with him, look the building is not there because it was still just a piece of land when Hogwarts got it back, Harry she has to be there." Harry looked at her with eternal thanks in his eyes, he knew that she was right, Hermione had a way of working these things out.

"We're coming with you Harry," came Ron's voice from the corner of the room, Harry nodded and added, "But no one else," Hermione made a small sound of protest but Harry held up his hand and she stopped, "He wants me to go, and he wants me alone Hermione, if I go in with a team of aurors he'll kill her without a second thought, I won't let that happen, I know this is against protocol but…" he paused and lowered his voice to continue, "It's Ginny." Ron nodded in agreement and Hermione reluctantly nodded too, she knew he would do this alone and they would have to let him. Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak from his bottom drawer and threw it to Ron and Hermione, "You can come if you wear this," they nodded and took the cloak, wrapping it around themselves and waiting for Harry to give the go ahead to apparate to the shrieking shack.

"Now," he said and they turned resolutely at the same time, feeling the familiar sensation of the air being squashed from their lungs and immediately released when they landed in the snow outside the shrieking shack. Harry ran forward to the front door and slunk around the side of the building, all the windows were boarded up so he could not see inside, a faint glow shone through the boards of one window to the south side of the house, Harry indicated for Ron and Hermione to join him and they hurried over to the board, he peeked through the crack in the board and saw a faint candle flame flickering softly on top of a small wooden coffee table, a high wing backed chair blocked his view of a dining table but he inhaled suddenly as he saw a small foot peeking out from behind the chair wearing Ginny's shoe. Hermione grabbed his arm as he inhaled and whispered, "What?"

"I can see her," he replied sharply, he continued to stare at the foot and then saw Lestrange drag her to her feet and hold her against him, he caught a glimpse of the fearful look on Ginny's face before they both disappeared as Lestrange apparated from the room taking Ginny with him. "NOOOO," Harry screamed, making Ron and Hermione jump.

"What?" Ron whispered.

"He's taken her he must have heard us, get in there now!" he screamed. Hermione stood back and waved her wand at the boards over the window shouting, "Reducto," the boards blasted from the opening and Harry jumped into the room, frantically searching around for anything that would give him a clue to where he had taken her, why had he gone when he was waiting for Harry? Had he known he was not alone? Harry turned over the chair and coffee table and stopped when he saw something silver glinting on the floor by the table, he bent down and picked it up, tears pricking his eyes as he realised it was Ginny's bracelet, a silver charm bracelet he had given her for her birthday last year, he held it to his lips as if touching it would bring her back to him and the tears ran in rivulets down his face, he had been so close, he had almost had her, almost been able to save her and hold her again, for one last time.

Ron and Hermione watched on in silence, neither of them sure whether they should try to comfort him or not Hermione's eyes scanned the room and stopped on the table next to where Harry knelt on the floor, "Harry," she said softly afraid to break the silence, "Look," she pointed to the table and Harry stood up to follow the line of her finger with his gaze. He stopped on the same item in the middle of the table, a small jagged stone with a symbol carved into it, a small version of something Harry had seen before, the runic symbol Lestrange had carved under his bed in Azkaban and left burned into the wall at the Lestrange mansion in Surrey, the symbol for revenge.

Harry reached out for it, "No Harry, don't touch it," Hermione screamed but it was too late, Harry grabbed the stone from the table and felt a jolt somewhere near his navel, the room in the shrieking shack spun out of view and Harry hurtled through the air spiralling round as he flew higher and higher, he felt his altitude lower before landing suddenly in a dark cave, he fell to his knees and the stone flew out of his hands.

"Harry!" called a weak but familiar voice behind him, followed by a much deeper and very gruff voice which said hollowly, "I knew you would come for her, at last I shall have my revenge."