Your subtleties
They strangle me
I can't explain myself at all.
And all the wants
And all the needs
All I don't want to need at all.

The walls start breathing
My mind's unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.

When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight
It ends tonight.

A falling star
Least I fall alone.
I can't explain what you can't explain.
You're finding things that you didn't know
I look at you with such disdain

The walls start breathing
My mind's unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.

When darkness turns to light
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight won't make this right
It's too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.

Now I'm on my own side
It's better than being on your side
It's my fault when you're blind
It's better that I see it through your eyes

All these thoughts locked inside
Now you're the first to know

When darkness turns to light
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight won't make this right
It's too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends

When darkness turns to light
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight won't make this right
It's too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.

Tonight
Insight
When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight.

-All American Rejects, "It Ends Tonight"

--

Chapter 25

Over the Line, Part Three

--

The search for Harry proved difficult. All of Catherine's attempts to locate him had proven unsuccessful and she had tried everything she could think of.

"I'm sorry, Mum." Catherine said two days after Miley's rescue. "I've done my best, I've tried everything I can, but I can't find him. I've gotten close, I think… but something is blocking me from getting a proper lock."

"Avatars have the ability to cloak lairs." Phoebe commented, looking up from the book she was reading. "It's possible that wherever Harry's hiding, he's made his hideout invisible to anyone looking for it."

"And how do you propose we find him, then?" Catherine asked.

"I honestly don't know." Phoebe said. "The fact is, Harry knows how we operate, he knows exactly what steps we'll take to find him, so he'll know exactly what to do to ensure we don't."

"I've tried the Return a Lost Loved One spell, To Call a Lost Witch… Mum, I'm completely out of options." Hermione nodded, and then looked to Phoebe.

"Pheebs, you are the foremost expert on the Avatars I have at my disposal. Do you have any ideas on how we could find him?" Phoebe sighed.

"Well," she said thoughtfully. "I might know someone who could help, if he's willing."

"And just who would that be?" Hermione asked.

"Well, he's… a demon. The worst of the demons, actually. Still, he doesn't like the Avatars any more than we do. Not to mention, he knows just about all there is to know about movements in the Underworld."

"You think Harry's in the Underworld?" Catherine inquired.

"It's a possibility." Phoebe said. "He's obviously been planning this for a while now. He didn't just cook this up overnight. He would need a safe place to do that, and while it is true that portions of the Underworld have been rebuilt since it was destroyed at the end of the war, I would imagine that there are still some sections that are still abandoned, but structurally sound enough to hide in if need be. It wouldn't surprise me if Harry was there at one point, even if he isn't now."

"Okay, then." Hermione said. "Who's this demon we're supposed to talk to?" Phoebe grimaced.

"Yeah… about that… You're not going to like it."

--

"It amazes me that after all these years the powerful Charmed Ones are coming to me for help."

"Look, we really don't have time for this." Phoebe said. "Do you know anything or not?"

"What really interests me is what Ms. Hermione Granger is doing here." The black robed demon reached out his hand toward her and gazed into his palm. "Let's see what it is that you fear the most." The Demon of Fear concentrated for a moment, then chuckled. "Oh, I see, I see… well, isn't that sweet. Your worst fear is the thought of losing any more of your family." Phoebe's gaze suddenly dropped to the floor at this pronouncement.

"I understand that you're having fun at my expense, but we're in a hurry." Hermione growled. "So, either you know something, or you don't." After several moments, Hermione added; "Fast would be preferable to slow."

"I might know something. But I'll not just pass it along to you in exchange for nothing."

Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"How about if you tell me, I make your death slightly less painful than I would otherwise?"

"You know," the Demon of Fear said. "Threatening to kill me really isn't all that great of an incentive."

"Alright, look!" Hermione exclaimed. "I've got an abused and raped daughter, another daughter who has lied to me twice and also happens to be pregnant, a friend who is desperate to hunt Harry down, and another friend who hates everything I intend to do when I find Harry." Hermione took a deep breath. "So, I really, really, really, really, really don't have time for this beating-around-the-bush shit right now. Tell me what you know, and we'll be on our way. Refuse again, and I plan on blowing you into a million little pieces."

"Oh, my dear girl… the one you're hunting has been under your nose the whole time."

--

"He's been at Hogwarts all this time? You have got to be kidding."

"It makes sense though, doesn't it?" Phoebe commented, causing Catherine to arch her eyebrows. "Hogwarts is the last place we would look for him. I mean, like Magic School, no one has been to Hogwarts since Dumbledore destroyed the place. The ruins were labeled as being too unstable to search."

"We ran a scan on the school the moment you two came back." Danielle said, drawing their attention to one of the control room's stone consoles. "Nearly the entire school has collapsed upon itself, but there are still pockets where someone could potentially hide." A blueprint of the school appeared on the console's screen.

"The Chamber of Secrets is still intact, along with several secret passages out of the castle. Several sections of the third floor corridor appear stable enough… there's also…"

"Wait a minute, you said the third floor?" Hermione interrupted. "Which side of the third floor from the Grand Staircase?" Danielle studied the screen.

"Erm… looks like most of the left side of the corridor has collapsed. The right hand side, though, appears to be relatively intact." Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"What are you thinking?" Phoebe asked.

"There's a secret passageway under the right side of the third floor corridor. That's where Dumbledore hid the Philosopher's Stone in our first year. Harry, Ron and I went down through the trap door to find it in order to stop Voldemort from getting it."

"And you think Harry's hiding out in a secret chamber under the third floor?" Catherine asked. Hermione nodded.

"Like Phoebe said, the last place we'd look."

"Well let's check it out, then." Draco said, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"Not without a plan, we're not." Hermione said. "I'm not about to go into that school unprepared."

"Hermione, if Harry finds out we're onto him, he'll pull out before we can even…"

"I'm well aware of them, Draco. But I'd rather have to track him down again than order an assault and end up walking into a trap. No, if we're going to do this, we're going to need a strategy."

"Power of Three spell'd be enough to take him down, Mum." Danielle said. "If that's the route you plan on taking anyway."

"I would prefer not to involve the Power of Three if I can avoid it. Miley's in no condition to come with us, not to mention how she would feel about being asked to kill Harry, despite what he did to her. No, I won't ask her to do that… not in her current state, I…"

"My current state is perfectly fine, thank you." Miley said, entering the control room and sitting down on the sofa next to Phoebe. "But even so, I won't help you kill Harry, Mum. Listen, there's something going on with him."

"Yeah, he's gone completely off his nut, that's what's going on with him." Catherine said.

"He's not crazy, Kat." Miley told her. "The man who took me, the man who did the things he did… that wasn't Harry, at least not the Harry I've known for the past eight years."

"Right, because you typically aren't the same person when you've lost your mind." Danielle said.

"I'm telling you, he isn't insane." Miley said. "Nor is he crazy, or loopy, or mad, he hasn't lost touch with reality, he hasn't gone off the deep end, or lost his marbles. No, I think he's under a spell."

"A spell?" Hermione asked. "What kind of spell, sweetie?"

"Who am I? Captain Knows Everything?" Miley deadpanned. "All I know is, he wasn't acting crazy. That man knew exactly what he was doing, I just… I know Harry, and I know that he would never willingly do what he did to me, no matter how mad he is at you, Mum."

"We encountered Andras, the Spirit of Rage. He could enhance a person's anger to the point that they would just become consumed with fury." Phoebe said. "Cole used him to make me and my sisters so furious with each other that it broke the Power of Three. Maybe that demon got to Harry."

"That's possible." Miley admitted. "But I think this is something Dumbledore did. Maybe he used the same spell he used on my dad."

"Maybe, but we don't have even the tiniest bit of hard evidence to prove that… and even if that is the case, we don't have the slightest idea what that spell is, nor do we know how to break it." Hermione said, gazing at Miley intently.

"Mum," Miley said quietly. "I know you want to kill Harry for what he did to me. I know you're skeptical of this because if it's true it means you can't hunt down the person who hurt your daughter, but… I can't sit by and let you kill someone who may be innocent. If it really was Harry on his own, not under a spell, then you can do whatever you want to him, I won't care… but if he's being controlled, if he's acting against his will… We have to be sure, Mum."

"I know we do, baby." Hermione whispered. "You're right, Miles."

"Alright, so we capture him then." Phoebe said, clapping her hands together. "Bring him back here and find a way to break the spell… and if we discover there isn't a spell, then…"

"We put him on trial." Hermione said softly, her eyes boring into Miley's. "We let a jury of his peers decide his punishment."

"Hermione, are you sure you want to…" Phoebe began.

"Yes, Phoebe, I am." Hermione said. "I want to kill him, I want to make him suffer for what he's done… but that isn't my job. I can't do that, not if I intend to be any better than Dumbledore or all the other evil beings we've faced. So, if there is no spell, then we'll bring him back and let the legal system run its course."

"And you'll be able to go along with whatever the courts decide?" Phoebe asked.

"Whatever punishment they set, in my mind, won't be strict enough… but I will accept their decision." Phoebe nodded.

"Alright, then," She said, standing and lifting the Book of Shadows into her arms. "Let's get to work."