Dispelling the Silence: a Harry Potter AU

By Indygodusk


Chapter 29: Finding the Children

"Let's just find the children," Ron said in a ravaged tone of voice, keeping his eyes averted from Pavarti's covered body.

While Bass took care of Parvati, Bill cast a series of spells on Fleur that restored her arm to human, but it hung by her side limply with the skin an unhealthy grayish cast. "We'll have to get that treated by a healer," he growled.

"Later," Fleur brushed him off with a pained grimace. "We have to find the girls first."

"I need to call this in," Bass said, "but my communication amulet's broken." Then he looked at the pile of brick where the fireplace and floo used to be and grimaced. There would be no messages leaving from there. "My people should have been here by now. The new dispatcher must have screwed up again and garbled the message. When I get back there," he snarled, "I'm going to hex him into next week."

"Help us find the girls, everything else can wait," Bill demanded.

Sighing, Bass looked around the room and then conjured up a hummingbird. He whispered into its ear and then set it loose out the front door. "He'll bring us any aurors that have come to the library, but it'll take a few minutes. We can keep searching until then."

Everyone searched room by room for the missing girls. The house wasn't large, being only one story. Barely two minutes later, everyone returned to the living room with grave, desperate faces.

"Did you find them?" Fleur demanded. No one spoke up.

"We know she had them," Bill said desperately, turning his head from side to side. "She admitted it."

"Hermione?" Ron asked, turning to her once again for help.

Taking her hand off of the wound, she made sure to drag her fingers across the barely seeping scabs that had formed to make the cut start to bleed again. It hurt. Pouring more magic into the spell, Hermine flinched and started to pant. She wouldn't be able to do this much longer.

Walking forward using Gabrielle as a crutch, Hermione directed them into a small study towards the back of the house. She stopped in a corner of the room and looked down. "They're underneath me. I can feel them. There has to be a secret basement in the house."

Everyone searched frantically for a door, but without luck. Gabrielle finally took a break to turn to Hermione. "You can't get us any closer now. You need to stop the bleeding in your arm," she insisted, holding out her scarf again demandingly.

"Alright," Hermione said softly after a moment of hesitation. She didn't want to pass out before seeing the children. Gabrielle held up her wand and cast a quick wound knitting spell first.

Nothing happened. Frowning, Gabrielle tried again. It still kept bleeding sluggishly. Sometimes wounds used to power blood spells wouldn't respond easily or at all to magical healing.

Grimly Gabrielle pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and pressed it down hard on the wound. Hermione tried not to flinch at the pressure. Then Gabrielle wrapped the scarf around the handkerchief and tied it off. "We'll get you looked at along with Fleur when we visit the hospital."

"Thanks," Hermione said with a tired smile. Then she looked up and around. "Ron, can you tell me anything about this house?" Hermione asked abruptly.

"Like what?" he asked with annoyance from where he was crouched down in the corner pressing on the decorative molding.

"Like the history, when it was built, or any other details Parvati might have let slip," Hermione snapped. "You knew her. Think Ron!"

Standing up, Ron rolled his shoulders uncomfortably and sighed unhappily. "Um, so she had Lav and I help move her in. So… that was about three years ago. She'd gotten it for a steal, said the previous owner had been an inventor and gone bankrupt? Maybe?"

"Why did he go bankrupt?" Hermione asked keenly. "Did she mention the type of invention? It could be important."

Ron scrunched up his face. "I think, I think it had to do with the trading of some kind of flowers? Ones that would sing, maybe? But something went wrong and he got sued and lost everything."

"Singing flowers," mused Gabrielle, "like the Glenfinnan Canaridills? I remember there being a scandal when I was in school with toxic ingredients being used to create the golden color in the songs. We're in Glenfinnan, so it would make sense."

Frustrated, Ron shrugged. "Maybe? All I remember is that it sounded like that famous muggle whisky but didn't have anything to do with alcohol, just flowers."

"You mean Glenfiddich whisky?" asked Bass.

"Yeah, that one," Ron said. "But as for the house, I don't really remember much more. It was a long time ago and I wasn't really paying attention. I'm sorry."

"No, that's actually really very helpful, Ron," Hermione said breathlessly, carefully examining the wallpaper. "This is an architecturally generic house built about forty years ago. No useful, mass-produced bolt holes there. However, the singing flowers are specific. I read an expose about the scandal when it came out. The toxic ingredient in Glenfinnan Canaridills came from a bright yellow basement dwelling mold that, when added to the plant right before flowering, created blooms that appeared to sing songs at dusk and dawn and produced glittering showers. The inventor, a Lucian Caracol, concealed from investors that the glitter showers were toxic spores trying to reproduce themselves in the lungs of all those young ladies buying the flowers in droves. Caracol made millions of galleons in profits, but then lost it all in the medical lawsuits that followed."

"How does that help us?" Bill asked impatiently.

Hermione turned and started examining another wall. "Well, if this is Caracol's house, and the wallpaper motif of Canaridills flowers lends support to that theory, then the book I read also said that he first discovered the mold in the basement guest rooms. To hide his discovery, he redecorated and hid the stairway to the basement."

"Show off later," Fleur snapped. "Focus on telling us how to find the basement now."

"I'm trying," Hermione snapped back defensively. "My head's spinning and talking helps me focus. There's a clue in the wallpaper on how to get in, because Caracol's interior decorator hated him and felt underpaid for the job, so she planned on coming back later to steal some of his "yellow gold" from the basement and left herself a clue on how to get in, but before she could its toxic nature came out. The only way she could cash in on him after that was by selling her story to the expose I read. I just don't remember exactly what the clue is or if she even mentioned it. I'm hoping I'll recognize it when I see it."

"Alright then," Auror Bass said with a clear note of authority in his voice, "everyone look at the wallpaper and shout out if you find something."

After a few minutes of desperate examination, Gabrielle spoke up, "What about this? It looks like stretched out music notes, but when I turn my head, it also looks like a staircase." She pointed to a spot on the wall. Everyone crowded around.

"Well Hermione?" Fleur said, the imperious question echoing with desperation and anxiety.

"I-I think so, yes!" Hermione said excitedly. "Good job, Gabrielle. I'd missed that the first time. Everyone step out of the room."

Once everyone crowded into the hallway, Hermione asked, "Which Glenfinnan Canaridills song was most popular?"

"How am I supposed to know? I'm a bloke. I don't buy singing flowers for myself," Ron said defensively.

"I wasn't asking you, I was asking everyone else," Hermione snapped back. "Gabrielle? Fleur?"

"Down the Tracks to the Centaur Hills," Bill said firmly.

Gabrielle looked over at him with a surprised smile, "He's right."

Bill shrugged. "I got one for Mum but the twins accidentally hexed it to stop shooting glitter and just repeat that song nonstop. Mum finally had to just throw it out because it drove everyone spare, but just as well considering the toxic spores."

"Right, well, now somebody just has to sing it. That'll reveal the stairwell," Hermione explained.

Frowning, Bill said, "I'm not sure I remember all of the words except the chorus. Do you reckon that's enough?"

"I know some of it, but not word for word," Gabrielle said guiltily.

Releasing an exasperated sigh, Fleur snapped out, "Then everyone just sing it! Together! We'll fill in for each other. 1-2-3 go!" Bill and Gabrielle started singing first. There were several pauses and gaps. However, more and more voices joined in, getting louder and louder, until the entire battle-torn group was singing the chorus about riding 'Down the Tracks to the Centaur Hills' to meet with their lover.

Perfectly harmonized they were not, but they did mostly have the right melody. They finished the song and started it over again stronger. This time they managed to sing most of the words and sound more like a chorus and less like something to make dogs howl.

As they finished belting out the second verse, a decorative brass trellis sitting in front of one wall shimmered and began stretching out, becoming the railing across the top of a shadowy, descending staircase. Everyone made sure to sing even louder through to the end of the song.

Finally the stairway completely solidified. Bill leapt forward and raced down the stairs with everyone in hot pursuit. Auror Bass and Ron kept their wands raised, just in case. Hermione did too.

Bill opened the first door, poised to spring inside, but reeled back into the hallway coughing and gagging a second later. "What is it?" Ron demanded from the back of the group near Hermione and Gabrielle. The hallway was too narrow to allow them all down at once.

"There's a rotting werewolf in a cage. It looks and smells like it's been there since the last full moon," Bill said raggedly, his arm held up across his nose. Hermione noticed two more doors in the small hall. The children had to be in one of them.

Bill slammed the door on the rotting werewolf and turned to the next. He opened this door a bit more cautiously, then abruptly gave a strangled shout and lunged inside. "My babies," Fleur sobbed, flinging herself into the room.

Everyone surged forward into the small room, until Hermione could see Victoire and Dominique clutched in their parent's arms. Fleur was sobbing into Victoire's silver blond hair. The children were limp and unresponsive, sending a bolt of fear through Hermione, but then she saw the vial of sleeping potion on the bedside table and collapsed back against the wall in relief.

"I think they're just sleeping from being dosed with potion, but we need to get them to the hospital to be sure," Bill said in a voice trembling with emotion as he cradled Dominique in his arms.

"My team will be here any minute," Auror Bass said. "I'd prefer you to have an escort to Saint Mungos, just in case. Let me check the other room to see if there's anyone else here."

Bill nodded ungraciously. "Five minutes, then I'm taking my family there with or without you."

"Thank you. In five minutes, if they're not here, I'll escort you myself and then come back to secure the scene." Turning on his heel, Bass strode out of the room and down the hallway. Gabrielle had crouched down by her sister's side, holding Victoire's limp hand to her face and crying with relief.

Sniffling herself, Hermione wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "You were amazing," Ron pronounced, coming over to lean against the wall by her side.

"Thank you," Hermione said, sending him a grateful smile. Then spots filled her vision and she felt herself start to slide down the wall.

"Woah there," Ron said, catching her and slinging her up into his arms with a grunt. "You're small but solid," he muttered.

"That's rude," Hermione said, breathing shallowly to avoid throwing up. She could feel Ron shrug as he adjusted her weight.

"I'm not saying you're fat, 'cause you're not, just that you aren't twiggy. Slinging around all of those books must build muscle, I guess," he rambled.

Vision starting to clear, though now she had a pounding headache, Hermione chuckled, then winced and cradled her head. "Ow, don't make me laugh. Let's just cry pax and be friends. Can we do that, Ron?"

The red-head tucked her more carefully against his chest. "Course we can. After what we just went through, we have to be friends. We're practically family, after all. I acted like a prat before, and you looked down your nose at me and treated me like an idiot, but I'm sorry and I'm going to assume you are too. I have a feeling that from now on, our friendship's gonna be epic. I'll provide the brooms and strong arms and you can provide the obscure spells and random facts. We'll solve mysteries together on the weekends. It'll be great," Ron teased.

Leaning her head against his chest, Hermione closed her eyes and smiled faintly. "Maybe only every other weekend, just in case I've got a date, but otherwise you've got a deal."

"Oy, Hermione, stay awake until we get to the hospital, just in case. I'm not sure just what that spell did to you." Ron gently jostled her, forcing her to open her eyes.

"If that's the deal, then I get to cancel if I have a date too," Ron added good-naturedly. "Not meaning me dating you, of course, we've well established that, but maybe you can introduce me to your cute friends."

Hermione forgot herself and snorted, only to be rewarded with another spike of pain through her skull. "I have to see if you're deserving of my friends first, but my neighbor Calliope is single and cute," she mused threadily.

"Excellent, I'll hold you to that when you're feeling better," Ron said.

Hermione yawned. "It seems only fair, since I'm trying to date one of your friends right now too. Maybe I'll have you put in a good word." Her voice started to fade out as she blinked her eyes shut.

"Which friend," Ron demanded forcefully. "I can't help you out if I don't know his name. C'mon Hermione, stay awake and tell me."

Forcing the boulders of her eyelids to stay upright seemed a Sisyphean task, but Hermione tried. "Harry, of course," she answered foggily. "I kissed him, you know. Well, he kissed me first and then I memorized his mouth like I was cramming for a test, but that was before I knew he was famous and named Potter."

Hermione could feel Ron's bark of laughter through his chest before it escaped his mouth. "I have got to hear that story. He actually mentioned you to me, you know. He's rather crazy about you, so I don't think you have much to worry about."

Before Hermione could force herself to answer, Bass came back into the room. He carried a small child's backpack with him and looked very grim. "The other room is empty, but the bedsheets are rumpled and I found this inside."

"Whose is it?" Ron asked fearfully.

Bass unzipped the bag and pulled out a book. Flipping open the cover, he grimly read out, "Property of Teddy Lupin."

Jerking in shock, Ron turned his head away for a moment. "She did say, 'all three are cursed,' but I was too busy to really think about it. I can't believe I didn't see, didn't realize she'd gone so crazy." Turning back to Bass, he asked in a cracking voice, "Is there any hope that Teddy's still alive?"

The room went silent. Hermione looked over to see that Fleur and Gabrielle had stifled their crying to hear Bass's reply. Fleur and Bill knew Teddy too, and Gabrielle couldn't help but empathize with another kidnapped child.

Hermione cared too. She cared because it was an endangered child that deserved better and she cared because Harry would grieve deeply to lose his godson. For everyone's sake, she hoped they could find Teddy.

"Until I see a body, there's always hope," Bass said firmly.

Suddenly from upstairs came the sound of shouting voices and footsteps finally arriving. Bass gently tucked the book back into the backpack and zipped it up. Then he walked out to meet the crowd.

Distracted by events, Ron forgot to keep watch on Hermione. She tried to keep her eyes open, but Ron's chest was very warm and her head and arm hurt so very badly. One long blink turned into a long sigh as she slid into unconsciousness.