Chapter 43

Hermione's parents were obviously amazed at the portraits and moving staircases, as anyone that entered the school was, but it was tempered by their worry for their daughter. Minerva had guided them up to the Hospital wing and had left them in the capable hands of Madame Pomfrey and in that time neither of them had said a single word. Then she made her way down to the Great Hall in order to take control of the situation as best she could.

Alan Granger and his wife Susan had been terrified at the appearance of two men dressed in red robes at their door when they had been in the middle of their lunch. The couple ran a dentistry practice in a small town in Herefordshire and lived next door to it. Today they had decided to eat upstairs rather than in the practice as neither of them had any patients this afternoon. Just as soon as they had sat down, the knock on their door had come, which in of itself had been strange as they had a door bell and most people pressed that rather than knocked.

Alan had gone to the door and had been faced with the strangers who had introduced themselves as muggle liaison officers from the auror department. Of course he had demanded to see some form of identification; after all you didn't let just any stranger in your house. His daughter had told him about Aurors and how they were basically the police of the magical world. The only reason that he could think of why they were here had to be something to do with his daughter and he sincerely hoped it wasn't what he was thinking it was. The normal police only showed up at your door if someone was dead, had been in an accident or they were in serious trouble.

Their solemn faces weren't helping to make him feel any calmer. But in the end both produced a piece of parchment with their faces on it and their names ,rank and division and that was enough to convince him to let them into the house and shut the door behind them. His wife offered them a seat on the couch but they refused to take it.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but we have some bad news about your daughter." The younger of the two stated calmly looking at the two of them intently. Alan nodded not trusting his voice at this crucial point in time. He looked over to his wife and they locked eyes for a brief moment before returning to gaze at their bearers of bad news. "Hermione is very ill and the headmistress of Hogwarts has asked that you come up to the school to be with her."

In one way he was relieved that his baby girl was still alive, after all it was every parent's worst nightmare to get a knock on the door from the police to say that your child was dead but on the other hand he felt even more worried. She was really ill, ill enough that they had been called up to the school to see her. That was not something that had ever happened before.

"Headmistress, don't you mean Headmaster?" Susan asked, barely keeping control over herself. Alan moved closer to her rubbing one of his hands up and down her back soothingly and at that she lost it and began to sob. The sound broke his heart even more than it had been before during their twenty odd years together he had done his best to ensure that she never ever cried again. Yet here they were.

"The previous headmaster left his post a few weeks ago I believe and his post is being temporarily filled by Minerva Mc Gonnagol the deputy head teacher and the head of your daughter's house." The older of the two stated, offering his wife a handkerchief the lacy type that little old ladies carried in their handbags or tucked up their sleeves. "We'll take you there through the floo network, Daniel here will connect the fireplace that you have over there to it and we'll be there in two shakes of a lamb's tail."

The floo network was something else that his daughter had talked about. It was a way of travelling through fire and chimneys or something like that safely with the use of some magic powder. It sounded rather uncomfortable to him but at least it would be quick and wouldn't involve him driving for hours up into Scotland, out of his mind with worry.

The connecting process didn't take too long and in that time Susan had gathered together some basics for them and phoned their secretary to cancel their clinics for the next week. After all there was no way of knowing how long they would be away for and especially not until they had actually gotten there.

After some instruction of what to do the two Aurors went first and the two of them threw into the fire the handful of floo powder that they had been given before shouting the destination. Both of them getting into the fireplace had been awkward due to the cramped space, but even more so because of the fact that his brain was telling him that they were going to be burnt by the fire. The sensation was not one that he would like to experience again the spinning reminded him of a fair ride that he had been on as a child. It wasn't long before he felt Susan's hand being ripped out of his own by the spinning and he closed his eyes to avoid the nausea that had been building up due to the swirling fireplace openings.

It seemed like the trip would never end.

The teams of aurors were sweeping the school as quickly and thoroughly as they could in order you find the person believed to have poisoned one of the sixth year Gryffindor girls with a concentrated dose of amortelia. Apparently, according to the schools matron and potions professor this drugging had gone on for some time. When they found him Ronald Weasley was going to have some questions to answer, such as how he had managed to get his hands on a grade A illegal substance. So far they had ascertained that the first five floors had been completely empty apart from a particularly amorous couple in a broom closet that had been sent on their way down to the main hall. This floor was much harder to search as there were a larger number of classrooms many of which hadn't been used regularly for hundreds of years. The magical signature of the castle itself was sewing with their tracing charms and made manual searching also necessary. Peeves, was also not helping them out, throwing chalk at them when they had disturbed him in a storage cupboard. Anthony Goldstein was leading his patrol which was using a spell designed to light up areas where there were life signs, it had been what had alerted them to the couple in the cupboard earlier. It was showing a glow at the end of the corridor but that had already been checked out and found to be from the DADA classroom where Professor Fulbright Crankshaw kept the dark creatures the third years were taught about. The golden glow had also appeared on the ceilings, indicating that it was on a higher floor. It took them till they reached the seventh floor until it changed its direction. The light was now positioned on a bare stretch of wall directly opposite a rather disturbing tapestry of some trolls wearing tutus which Auror Goldstein would rather have forgotten about the statue of Ulric the oddball was also here but there didn't seem to be anything else. The other teams were following behind them so Gareth decided that it would probably be best if he waited for some back up to deal with this. Knowing the castle as all of them did, there was probably some sort of secret passageway but none of them now how to access it. The teams following them didn't take long to catch up and the situation was explained in less than five minutes.

"So that's how it is it?" Nymphadora Tonks, 'Tonks' asked leaning against the wall with a smirk on her face. Garth turned to look at her having been consulting with one of the older members of the squad what the likelihood that it was just rats in the walls.

"You now this place?" He countered somewhat incredulously as none of the others even recalled something similar.

"Of course, it's where the DA used for their training!" Tonks smiled and started pacing from one side of the wall to the other though on her second go she tripped over her own feet and collided with the base of the statue. She swore and then started muttering to herself about how she was going to have to start all over again. Most people had heard the story of the DA or Defence Association (there had been rumours that it stood for Dumbledore's Army, but the Quibbler had recently quashed them). It seemed that they had chosen a location that ever Moody might have been proud of; unfortunately they had been betrayed from within. On Tonks' third walk along the wall or her fifth, a door suddenly appeared in the wall and she pulled it open. The inside of the room from what they could see was filled with piles and piles of armour, broken furniture, and potion bottles containing very dubiously coloured fluids. It seemed to go on and on into the distance and paths had been made through the stuff. "Are you sure that he's in here"

"As sure as I'll ever be about anything." They ensured that they followed the correct procedure for entering an unknown space such as this. Firstly they called out to Ronald Weasley and asked him to surrender himself but the only response that they were met with was silence. Then they split up into their assigned groups of three to search the area using the life signs spell. The place was like a maze and even with the spell it was going to take them sometime to find him and that was if he wasn't moving around. Gareth would have liked to have the clutter moved to the edges of the room but he couldn't risk what might happen to the potions. There was no way of knowing how long ago they had been made what they were or how stable they were. So they were stuck with doing things the hard way.

People in the hall were starting to get annoyed about the length of time that they had been stuck in there. Even though they had been given plenty of activities to do the younger years were starting to become tired and the older years were bemoaning the loss of their lesson/ study time. After all it only meant that they would have to do more work later.

Harry was nearly finished decorating his book for creature study class and it was turning into something that he was quite proud of. Drawing was something that he liked doing and for the moment it was taking his mind off the fact that he was supposed to be meeting with Iain at this very moment. He hoped that the healer wouldn't be too annoyed with him. He was still struggling to comprehend everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks. As he was sat there he could feel a painful feeling on his back and he ran his hand over his shoulder blades only to jerk it back quickly with a cry. He nearly choked himself trying to take off his tie quickly causing his friends to turn around from their conversations quickly to stare at him. The red and gold tie was eventually successfully removed and thrown to one side and he could feel the pain lessening as the pressure on his wings (for now he remembered that was what it was). When the shirt was off, he could feel them sliding out from wherever it was that they were when they were withdrawn, the process was slightly uncomfortable. When Harry finally looked up, Neville was blushing from ear to ear and everyone else was laughing.

"Err thank you." Harry stuttered somewhat mystified he didn't really know why Neville had decided to fling a blanket over him. Neville caught his questioning look.

"It's so you're not all exposed and..." He said taking his seat once again nearly standing on his newly painted boo which was still wet. Harry himself blushed a little at that, he had forgotten where he was for a while. He was sitting shirtless in the great hall with his wings out.

"Why did they come out though, they've been in for a really long time without any problems?" Harry asked drawing them blanket more tightly about himself.

"Maybe that's why!" Luna stated in her usual dreamy manner, looking up from her picture with purple paint streaked across her forehead from when she had wiped the sweat from it with her hand. "They've been in there too long. You've not used them and the muscle will be atrophying. "

"You should use them." That had come from the twins.

The door opened suddenly starting everyone and a deadly silence filled the room. Kingsley Shacklebolt was stood in the space where the door had been seconds before. The wood made a reverberating banging noise as it bounced back off the stone wall. He was dressed in the red uniform that all aurors wore and with his tall stature and grim expression there was only one thing that could be said about him and that was that he surely knew how to make an entrance. People also began to worry if the head of the Auror division had been called out what did that mean the situation was lie. Had Ron Weasley somehow gotten out of the school and was on the run? Was he fighting it out with the Aurors? Kingsley walked straight through the groups of students up to the staff table. The Weasley twins who had been rather quiet since the news had been broken were sat together on the floor hands clasped tightly together. It must be hard for them to know that even though they didn't get on well with their brother that he was capable of doing something so terrible and that he was in serious trouble. Ginny was paler than usual so pale that she looked in danger of fainting at any moment. No-one knew what to say to any of them. Obviously Ron was innocent until proven guilty but he had run away he had left Hermione lying there and hadn't gotten her any help. She probably could have died! That was practically murder if you thought about it.

The teachers all seemed to be listening to Kingsley closely though at this distance it was impossible to make out what it was or their expressions. A ripple of nervousness passed through them all, it was as if the entire school was holding its breath waiting for the proverbial axe to all. Eventually Kingsley turned away from them and marked out through the double doors. Professor Mc Gonnagol stood up from the table and walked to the front of the dais where the lectern was. It was shaped like a golden phoenix and Harry thought that there must be some sort of noise amplifying spell on it.

"I want you to know that Ronald Weasley has been arrested by the Aurors or using an illegal potion on Hermione Granger that has made her need to be hospitalised."

Fred and George looked even paler than they had previously. The knowledge that their younger brother had been arrested made the whole situation even more real to them. Harry didn't even know what to feel. In a way he was glad because it meant that he wouldn't have to deal with Ron anymore, but Ron had also been his friend. At least Harry had considered him to be a friend it seemed though that that sentiment hadn't been returned by the other boy.

"If anyone has any information that they would like to tell us. Don't hesitate to do so! Lessons will be resuming in ten minutes so please gather your things and get ready."

Harry parted from his friends at the doors of the great hall and made his way up the many flights of stairs to the infirmary on his own. It gave him a lot of time to think about what was going to happen. Iain had explained to him a little of what was going to happen but that didn't make him feel any better about the situation. Apparently he was going to be asked a lot of questions and some of them would be very personal some of them would be really peculiar. That was because the test was used on everyone to try and pick up problems. Despite the fact that this felt somewhat daunting, Harry felt like he could trust Iain.

That was something pretty big considering the fact that he found it very hard to trust anyone and that he hardly knew the man. Maybe it was like the trust he had in Madame Pomfrey neither of them had lied to him before and had always done their best to make him better. Walking with his wings out was very uncomfortable. At first everyone had been staring at him and he had felt really off balance. It wasn't that they weighed a lot it was more that he was very conscious of their presence. From what he had read it would be really painful to catch them on anything. They extended at their highest point to just above his head and at their lowest above his knees. It was only now that he really had a chance to look at them. Before he had either been too freaked out by the situation or feeling numb as the shock had set in. It was hard to go from thinking that you were completely human and that all you had o worry about on your seventeenth birthday was maybe getting an increase in powers. But here he was with wings and the ability to lay eggs. The thought of which still terrified him when he gave himself the chance t think about it.

When he arrived at the Hospital Wing a large area to the left was screened off and he could hear people bustling around behind it. Someone on his right coughed and harry almost jumped out of his skin right there. It was one of the Aurors or to put it correctly a pair of Aurors. They were obviously here to protect Hermione and to stop people coming in to gawp at her probably.

"I've got an appointment!" He squeaked out at their questioning glances wringing his hands together.

"Harry, Professor Snape will take you to the room you'll have your appointment in." Madame Pomfrey's voice called from behind the screen. The two Aurors backed away and a few moments later Professor Snape emerged and gestured for Harry to follow him. He looked worried and somewhat ruffled and Harry followed after him cautiously. They walked down the corridor that led to the bathrooms, passing two large windows through which the weak autumn light was filtering through. Eventually they turned a corner and came to an area with various chairs and some potted plants.

An/ See i told you that this chapter wouldn't take as long as the last one, i seem to have broken through the writers block that i had. :)

Youko's Befuddled Fox: Thank you i hope that you enjoyed this chapter.

TLJ110166: Don't worry everyone will get their comeuppance eventually.

Jennypea: I'm sorry that you believe that you can't read my story because of a mere wrong spelling, that has slipped through. I'm pretty sure that I've spelled Minerva's second name differently every time that I've written it but... Yes I have read the books that you very much there is no need to write so nastily, when you could have just pointed out the spelling mistake.

Timberstar: It's nice to hear from you again as well. I'm glad that you liked the bit with Neville and Harry in the last chapter, I hope you enjoyed this one as well it's longer than the last one as well. Hope that you have a nice day.