"Last time I saw her, she was sending an owl to you, to meet you at her home. She told me she would wait outside until you arrived," Mr. Weasley explained hurriedly as they rushed through the Atrium to the lift, "You're sure you didn't see the owl?"
Mrs. Weasley's voice shook as she answered, "Earlier, I thought that I saw an owl in the distance coming towards the house, but nothing came. When I looked again, it was gone, and that was right before we put her tine on the clock."
Harry came to an abrupt stop, forcing everyone else to skid to a halt. The Ministry workers behind them- oblivious to the urgency of the matter- grumbled as they passed, irritated that they had to walk around the group, "Wait, Mrs. Weasley, last year, all of the tines on the clock were always pointed to Mortal Peril, even when they weren't in any immediate danger, right?"
She nodded, "Yes, and they went back to normal after You-Know-Who was defeated, now come on dear, we have to get Kingsley and the Aurors-"
"But that could mean that there is potential for danger around her, instead of her actually being in danger. Like, there could be something dangerous in her house and she's waiting outside, right?"
Ron jumped, unable to contain the hope that spread through him like wildfire, "Brilliant, mate! She could be just fine! We just have to get to her and get her away from there, is all."
"Dad," Bill said, he had met them at the ministry immediately after he had gotten a message from Mrs. Weasley's patronus- a bear- explaining briefly what had happened, "You and Mum go to Kingsley, tell him what happened and get help in case we need it, quickly. Ron, Harry, and I will apperate to Hermione's home, come on you two, let's go."
They didn't need to be told twice, they broke into a sprint behind Bill, pushing roughly through the crowd towards the Visitors' exit.
"Ginevra Weasley, you come back here!" Mrs. Weasley screeched, her voice on the edge of pure panic, "Ginny!"
Ginny didn't slow, but instead continued to run behind them, ignoring her mother's panicked calls and thinking only of her friend in danger and the horrible number of hexes she would use on anyone that hurt her. Bill, Harry, and Ron didn't try to stop her. There was no time, and they knew she wouldn't let them leave without her.
They dove through a line of people waiting to use the Visitors' exit, and into the small red telephone booth, ignoring the angry shouts of the witches and wizards as they snapped the door shut.
"Please," Bill said as the booth lurched into movement, "Please tell me that one of you knows her address," normally cool and laidback, Bill radiated anger and worry. His ponytail and fang earing, things that usually served to add to his relaxed appearance, made him look fiercer and more terrifying to cross. His scars shone bright red on his flushed face.
Ron's heart pounded frightfully in his chest, making it difficult to remember anything, "Uhm, it was Number Six… shit, it was something barmy sounding… Pukish…Pickle…"
"Puckle!" Harry exclaimed in sudden recollection, "Number Six, Puckle Lane, Canterbury!"
"That's it!" Ron exclaimed, "That's exactly it!"
The booth finally came to a stop, and when its doors swung open, the four of them rushed out and span around, with Ginny gripping Harry's arm tightly in side-along apperation.
They appeared in a clean, cookie cut neighborhood. Ron had never seen anything like it before: every house was exactly the same, except for one with a light blue door, and matching curtains.
"That's it," Ginny pointed at a bronze number six next to the blue door, "this is her house."
Hermione wasn't waiting in front.
Ron's heart dropped, and he ran frantically toward the house. It was when he reached the door, with the others at his heels, that he heard the telltale crack of disapperation come from the inside of the house.
"HERMIONE!" he shouted desperately as he ripped the door open and sprang inside, ready to kill.
The house was empty.
"No," Ginny gasped quietly, "Maybe that was her, maybe she disapperated to the Burrow."
"It wasn't," Bill replied, his voice desolate, "There's an Anti-Disapperation Jinx on this house, only someone who cast the spell could disapperate from here, them and whoever they wanted to take with them in a side-along."
"HERMIONE!" Ron shouted again, he was half sobbing as he stumbled around the corner and up the stairs.
He gasped when he saw a still hand lying through an open doorway, and felt only a slight relief to discover that it wasn't Hermione. It was a man- dead- with singed robes and blue eyes that stared blankly up at the ceiling. Ron felt a small surge of satisfaction that Hermione had at least taken one of them down.
Ginny walked past Ron and peaked her head into the room that the man was lying in, "It's a mess, but there's no one else in here. The window is blasted open, maybe she jumped out and disapperated, and whoever just now disapperated left when they knew they couldn't-"
"Ron! Ginny!" Harry's panicked voice called up to them.
The two looked to each other before charging back down the stairs, both of them knowing that whatever Harry had found probably disproved Ginny's hopeful theory.
Ron's heart dropped when he saw Harry holding Hermione's wand in the Grangers' living room, and his body threatened to give out when he saw a small spot of red letting on the wall: he knew in an instant the red was blood.
"W-… what does it say?" Ron asked weakly, not wanting to know the answer.
"She really is a genius," Bill muttered in awe, shaking his head slightly as he stared at the writing.
"What?"
Bill walked over to the words and pointed to them, "It says 'Lycia' and you can tell she started to write an n."
"She?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes off of the word.
"Yes, she. Hermione wrote this. You can tell by how thin the lettering is, and if you look close, you can see it was written with upward strokes. That's not how you write when you're facing it. By the look of it, she had her back to the wall, and her hands behind her, and was either bleeding slightly, or made herself bleed, and used her finger to write this. Bloody brilliant. All the Aurors in the Order of the Phoenix told me that if you were ever caught in a spot, to do your best to leave some sort of hint of who got you, that's exactly what she did."
"Who's Lycian?" Ginny asked meekly.
Bill turned to him and replied solemnly, "Lycian is the new leader of Greyback's pack of werewolves."
Ron felt his blood run cold, "Werewolves have her?"
Bill nodded.
Ron fell to his knees, and heard Ginny gasp quietly behind him. They all knew what that meant, "What do we do now?"
"I don't know. Wait for the Aurors, they should be here any moment, maybe they have a lead on where Lycian and his pack are."
Ron felt as if he was charging headlong into the path of a moving train.
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"Rennervate."
Hermione gasped as she awoke, realizing all too quickly that Lycian had stunned her the moment after they had apperated, and that she wasn't in her home anymore. Instead, she was in a dingy, windowless room on a hard and uneven brick floor. Above her was a smiling Lycian, his yellowed teeth looked like nothing less than fangs as he smirked down at her.
"Welcome to your home for the next three weeks, Mudblood," his smile widened, and he looked at that moment like he was going to swallow her whole.
"Three weeks?" she asked quietly.
"It's the eighteenth of May, today. Three weeks from tomorrow is the next full moon. That is when we will make an example of you for the whole wizarding world to see."
Hermione closed her eyes, Calm down, keep your head. Think of the solution, not the problem. The solution. You've gotten out of spots worse than this. Keep your head, keep your head.
It was then that Lycian planted his mouth fully on hers.
Hermione couldn't stop herself from squealing in horror, and brought her hands up to push at his shoulders as hard as she could. Instead of repelling him, her struggle made Lycian growl with pleasure and force his tongue into her mouth.
So she bit down: hard.
That did the trick.
Lycian punched her roughly to get her to release him, and pulled away, caressing his bleeding tongue, "'ou bit'h!" he shouted, while howling in pain, "'ou'll thay for tha'!"
Hermione shuffled into the corner, narrowly missing his angry kick, and jumped to her feet. His wand, his wand, where's his wand, find his wan-
"Cruthio!" he shrieked, whipping his wand out of his sleeve and pointing it maliciously at her.
She fell back to the ground roughly, screaming. She hardly even noticed the pain of her head striking the brick floor in comparison to the crippling agony of the curse.
Lycian didn't stop the curse, but instead seemed to intensify it as he shouted over her screams, "Tha's wha' you ge' 'udblood!"
Finally, the curse dropped, leaving Hermione gasping for air and gripping her sides against the aftershocks of pain.
Lycian healed his tongue with a quick spell. Then knelt beside her, "I suppose you need a lesson or two, do you, Hermione?"
She responded by gathering what was left of her strength and spat in his face.
Calmly, he wiped her spit from his cheek, and stared down at her with increasing hatred, "I'll take that as a yes."
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Author's note: I hope that answered your question jesrod82, if it didn't let me know. And asked if I already have this written or if I write as I go. The answer to that question is that I am just writing as I go. Usually I write during down-time in class, or in between different homework assignments when I am at home. I like updating quickly, because I like people who also update quickly… I also do so because I love reading all of your reviews, thank you again!