More of a filler, more action coming up soon… please enjoy
Chapter: Unbeta'd
Enjoy
Chrys
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Night had fallen, and everyone had been working tirelessly for the past two days. Harry, Sirius, Remus and Draco, were currently in the middle of one of the largest forests in the U.K. They had decided to split up, Sirius and Remus, in their animagus forms started in the middle and went south, while Harry and Draco went north.
"This would be so much easier if someone would develop a spell to find people who don't want to be found." Draco complained as he stepped up onto a log and sent out another series of repellent finders. It was a set of spells that worked kind of like a dolphin's echolocation, sent out in every direction for 50 meters, in order to see if someone had set up any defensive repellent spells.
"True, but I'm sure the wizarding world would figure out how to circumvent them as well…" Harry answered back.
Draco paused and waited for the magic to return… nothing. No one had set up a repellent field within 50 meters of where he was standing.
They continued on, talking about nothing important, sending out magical feelers every 50 meters or so, trying to cover as much land as possible, and not get lost in the dark at the same time.
Out of the blue, during a relatively comfortable silence Harry spoke up. "Thank you for doing this… we both know that no one would blink twice if you came out publicly and said that you wished she was never found. It means a lot that you're willing to help."
Draco turned to him. He paused for a second and looked up into the tree's, finding the crescent moon and taking a deep breath as if looking to the sky to help him find words to reply with. "I'd like to think that I'm not a truly vile human being. I know I haven't been the kindest wizard out there," Draco paused for a second when Harry rolled his eyes and snorted, "But a huge part of that was how I was raised. When you are constantly surrounded by the same ideas, over and over again, and everyone you've ever met believes in them, it is hard to find fault in those beliefs."
"Your father isn't exactly the shinning example of a tolerant person." Harry said, remembering his many encounters with the elder Malfoy.
"I know you think that my father is like the second most evil person on this planet, next to Voldemort himself, but he really isn't as bad as everyone gives him credit for." Draco defended, watching as Harry sent out the repellent finders once again.
"Third… Third most evil person on the planet, your aunt holds the lovely position of number two." Harry shook his head again as the finders came back negative and continued walking.
"Well, I won't argue with you on that point, but I will say, my father isn't nearly as evil as the world has made him out to be." He paused again, making sure he remembered the story correctly before he retold it to Potter. "When he was in school, he dated a girl named Fiona Wolf, a muggleborn, and a Ravenclaw. He was in love with her and they dated up until his seventh year, the whole time keeping it a secrete from his own father. When he received his letter informing him that he had made Head Boy, he didn't even think and flooed directly to her house to tell her the good news. Unfortunately his father followed him, body-bound him to the wall and made him watch as he tortured and raped her, before killing her and her family. He told my father that the same fate would befall any muggleborn or half blood that he decided to befriend."
Harry looked at Draco in horror, to which Draco nodded and continued on. "When he got back to school, my mother was the head girl, he liked her well enough, not to mention she is a pureblood from a respectable line. Because he never wanted what happened to Fiona to happen to anyone else, he completely cut himself off of any friends he had made that were less than pure, married my mother right after school, and followed his fathers directions to a "T" including becoming a follower of the Dark Lord. The house elf that was in charge of raising me tells a story that the Halloween after I turned one my father came into the nursery, with a huge smile on his face. He picked me up and started yelling at the top of his lungs, "We're free, We're free." As soon as he put me down though his own father came into the room, looking very pissed off, he sent a myriad of dark curses at my father, including Crucio, telling him that the Dark Lord's down fall was nothing, because Voldemort could never die."
Draco rubbed the bridge of his nose before sending out the feelers again. "My father was controlled by his father until he died when we were in second year. By then the damage was done, I was already a pureblooded prat who thought I was the king of the world. It's actually ironic that the diary he put in Ginny's bag almost killed her, because he was only trying to get rid of anything that had to do with the Dark Lord, he didn't know what it would do, he just wanted it away from me."
How come he went back to Voldemort when he rose again?" Harry asked, distinctly remembering Lucius being one of the first death eaters to appear in the graveyard.
"Before you took down Voldemort the first time, my grandfather pledged his own life and the life of Lucius to the Dark Lord in some old ritual, it made it impossible for Lucius to disobey a direct order. Luckily for you and the rest of the world, my mother wasn't bound to the same code, that is why she was able to lie to him in the forest. I didn't know until the war was over that both of my parents and Snape secretly supported you… I was the only one left out of the loop."
Both boys were silent for a few minutes, walking through the forest, hoping to find some trail that Ginny may have left behind. "I guess we never really know people huh?" Harry asked, trying to find the right thing to say.
"Guess not…"
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Moony and Padfoot were able to cover the ground quite a bit faster than their younger counterparts. They had started down the west side of the forest and were working their way back up the east. Sirius paused for a second, looking around, his nose trying to find a scent of what ever was effecting him, right before he fainted.
Remus, who was a few meters ahead, turned around at the sound of his friend falling to the ground. The wolf dashed to his friend's side, nudging him with his nose and whining. He looked around, noticing that they were very near the place that they were to meet up with Harry and Draco. Moony was about to change back into his human self when the forest started spinning. He could only let out a howl before he fainted as well.
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"Why don't you try using wandless magic to just undo the bonds Ginny put on you…?" Connor asked. Ginny had left again, their wands still on the table, and both still tied to the chairs in magical bonds.
"I honestly cannot believe that hat put you into Ravenclaw." Hermione sighed, shaking her head and praying to whatever god could hear her to get her out of this hellhole with the only person more thick than Crabbe and Goyle put together. "We learned how to summon in first year… we learned how to undo bonds in sixth year… which magic do you think would be easier to do without a wand?"
Conner would have smacked himself on the forehead if his hands were free. "I wonder how long it will take for someone to find us."
"Knowing Ginny, she'll move us before they can, which is why we shouldn't attempt to rely on others to find us and need to work on freeing ourselves."
There was silence in the room, and Hermione was about to close her eyes and begin focusing again when she heard a whimper coming out of her male companion. She looked over to see a line of tears running down the boy's face.
"Do you think she is going to kill us? I'm so scared… I never meant for this to happen. Honest to God, I loved her." Conner finally broke down, and cried. He wasn't a Gryffindor; he had never faced a truly dark wizard, and had never been on the unforgiving end of a wand before. He had lived his life in peace, staying in the back, not making himself noticeable. He made sure that he had been the first person out when Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts, and would never claim to be the hero of anything. He was a very sad, scared boy, who fell in love with the wrong girl.
"Honestly… I have no idea what she is going to do with us. This Ginny isn't the same girl I grew up with. She's changed since the war, and I really think she is capable of anything." Hermione answered, feeling mad at herself for attacking him the way she did.
"Look, maybe if you help me… try to use your magic to pull the wand towards me at the same time, it might work?" Hermione suggested, not knowing if something like that was possible but wanting him to feel as useful as he could be.
"How do I do that?"
Hermione thought for a second. "Close your eyes, and take deep breaths, then visualize your magic as a bright ball in the center of your chest, once you can visualize that, manipulate that ball so that the magic flows out of your fingers, as if your finger was your wand. Then move the magic across the room and have it wrap around the wand, then think very hard on the levitating spell, while I think of 'accio', maybe that way it will come to me."
"And that is going to work?" Connor asked somewhat skeptical.
"It's better than nothing right?"
Connor shrugged, "Alright, might as well give it a try."
Both of them closed their eyes, attempting to concentrate on their magic. After about five minutes, both of them were visualizing their magic wrapped around Hermione's wand, and were lifting it off the table. If either of them would have opened their eyes they would have seen the wand hovering just a few inches above where it had been lying. But before either could think of their respective spells to pull the wand into Hermione's hands, they heard footsteps coming up the porch. Both lost concentration and opened their eyes, just in time to see the wand fall back onto the table, and Ginny walk in through the doorway.
"Did you two miss me?" she asked in what she apparently thought to be a sexy voice.
"Can't say that I did… nor will I when you spend the rest of your life rotting away in Azkaban for kidnapping a war hero." Hermione answered.
"Normally I would torture you for such a vile comment… but as I have finally gotten what I want out of Aubrey, I seem to be in a happier mood, so I'll let that one slide. But if either one of you would like to eat any time soon, I suggest you keep the snide comments to yourself."
Hermione's hunger won out, and she stayed silent, praying for another opportunity to summon the wand soon.
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Ron and Andromada had started out that morning checking out all of the houses associated with anyone of their names. They had checked all of the obvious ones, Shell Cottage, Charlie's flat, Grimuald Place… and had found no trace of Ginny. At seven p.m. they switched, Tonks passed Teddy to her mother, grabbed two cups of coffee for her and Ron, and they hunted down Connor's parent's house.
They found nothing; his parents were gone, as was he.
"They must have all gone on holiday." Tonks said, ready to leave and pursue something else.
Ron was about to agree with her when he saw a light on in the back of the house. "One sec…"
Ron and Tonks slid around the house, wondering why there were no wards to alert anyone to their presence. When they reached the back of the house, they looked through a window into what seemed to be a dinning room. It was the only room with a light on, but what both Ron and Tonks found as strange is that on the table was a plate full of food, half a cup of tea, and the Standard Book of Spells: Year Seven.
"Generally, when one leaves for holiday, they don't leave half eaten food, and their book open on the dinning room table…" Tonks said, trying to reason what had happened.
Ron nodded… "What if his parents went on holiday without him. He's sitting at home, studying, and eating dinner, when Ginny shows up. She probably figures that this would be one of the places we would look for her, so she either forcibly takes him somewhere else, or asks him to take her somewhere, for her to hide."
"Sounds plausible." Tonks said as she moved away from the window and tripped over a root of a tree, landing her flat on her back. She brushed her hands off and stood back up, "When did you become Mr. Detective?"
Ron just shrugged, all I'm doing is thinking like Ginny would."
"Come on, we need to go back to Hermione's house and update the others… maybe someone can use their influence to dig through the property records and find out if Connor's parents own any more property."
Ron nodded and held out his arm like a proper English gentleman, making Tonks laugh and grab a hold.
When they arrived back at the house, Ron left to find another cup of coffee, and to see if Harry was back yet, while Tonks went up stairs to check on Teddy again.
When they had started the search, it had been decided that it would be better if all of those involved, and not on duty at the burrow, would just stay at Hermione's house, which they had come to affectionately call "The Inn", as it had way too many rooms. When Hermione had told Sirius that she bought a house much too big, she really hadn't been exaggerating… nearly everyone was staying at the Inn… and there were still empty rooms about.
Ron found that Neville and Luna were already back, currently sitting in the far corner of Hermione's library, which of course was dedicated to Herbology, researching any plant life that might be able to help them in the search. McGonagal had sent a message over that Ginny hadn't been spotted on the grounds of Hogwarts. George had checked in a few hours ago, saying that there was nothing suspicious at Diagon alley that he or Mindi had seen, and that they would be setting up some wards around the burrow that would alert them if Ginny came within a hundred meters of their house. Molly, of course, had sent over dinner, enough soup to feed them all and still have enough for leftovers. Charlie and Percy had covered two forests during the day, and were out canvassing any nightlife that Ginny might be tempted to go to.
Ron grabbed some soup and sat down in the middle of the room. As he was eating he looked around and saw a book and piece of paper lying behind the main table. Ron set his bowl down and grabbed them off the ground laying them both in front of him, keeping the book open to the page the paper was sticking out of. He was about to open the folded up piece of paper when Tonks came into the room.
"I sent a Patronus over to your dad, who is still at the Ministry, asking him if he could take a look at those property records." Tonks sat down next to Ron, placing her bowl of soup down on the table.
"If he can get them soon, we might want to go out tonight and look into them." Ron answered.
"Sure you're up to such a long day?" Tonks asked.
"For Hermione… I'd never go to sleep if that is what it took."
Tonks was about to reply when her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted right into Ron's arms.
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When Harry heard Moony's howl he immediately knew something was wrong. He turned around, waiting for another, waiting to hear a matching howl from Padfoot… but it never came. Harry grabbed Malfoy's arm and apperated them back to the point in which they split up.
"Moony?" Harry yelled, in the general direction of which the left.
"What's going on?" Draco asked, still a little rattled from the impromptu apperating.
"That howl a second ago… something is wrong with Moony, or Padfoot… or both."
Draco looked around his eye catching on silver in the moonlight. "Over there!"
Harry and Draco ran, coming to their knees next to Moony and Padfoot, who were both out cold, the wolf on top of the dog.
"Wrap your arm around Remus, and they we will disappereate out of here." Harry said, pulling Sirius into his arms.
Once Remus and Sirius were securely in the boys' arms, they disappeared back to Hermione's house, directly into the library.
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Complete and utter chaos. Those are the only words to describe how the Inn's library was the second Harry and Draco popped in.
Ron was screaming for someone to help him, not having the foggiest idea of what was wrong with Tonks. Luna and Neville came running, and they could hear Andromada's feet pounding down the stairs.
The second the swirling cleared from Harry's mind, he too was screaming for help, placing his lover onto one of the couches and watching Draco do the same to Remus. Harry and Ron both turned to the other's screaming, and went silent.
"It's should be Hermione responding to those yells." Harry said completely deadpan before he fell to the ground, his hand gripped over Sirius' as he tried to heave air into his lungs.
"What in Merlin's name is going on down here… AH! Nyphadora!" Andramada was yelling now, running to her daughter's side.
Luna was the first one to break the panic by moving over to Remus and running her wand over him in a slow figure eight pattern. "He's breathing ok, his heartbeat is steady, he looks alright except it seems that he is suffering from a some long term curse."
Luna moved over to Sirius, placing her hand on Harry's shoulder as she ran her wand over Sirius' body in the same fashion. "The same goes for him."
Neville didn't wait another second before following his girlfriend's actions and performing the same spell over Tonks. He nodded, "Same."
"What is the curse?" Harry asked.
"I've never seen anything like what they are suffering from. The diagnostic spell couldn't even tell me the name of the curse, just that it was slowly draining the life from them… very slowly.
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So what do you all think? Let me and Draco Potter here know!