Thank you for spell checking Zabini for me, I didn't even realize that had happened in chapter 5. Sometimes I hate spell checkers. I will go back and fix that soon. I love every comment and I read every single one. Someone requested a one-shot for Harry finding Pansy's scars on her legs, but I cannot write it. I know, I know, I always do my absolute best to give every request something beautiful to enjoy when asked. But it would ruin this story...So do me a very small favor and be patient because it is coming. I do take every request seriously and try to make them come to life but that one is already in the works. I do apologize for the wait and appreciate everyone's patience. Also I like the word ya instead of yeah so *sticks tongue out and blows raspberries* Love you lol, Crack on.
Upon arriving at the Goyle Dower house, Ron instantly felt nauseous. Not from the world wind feeling of apperation nauseous but the feeling that the air was filled with something disgusting and oppressing. Like how it would feel to watch a devastating car crash or knowing that a baby died. Like innocence was being stolen. Tragic and horrific. Whatever it was, Ron hated being here and stepping inside was much worse.
If George looked bad before, he looked absolutely horrid now. His eyes were red and puffy. His fists clenched down at his sides, his wand clutched firmly in his grip. It didn't look like he had changed his clothes in days.
"...searched the basement but there isn't any sign of anyone being in there. Just a cupboard and a few boxes. But there is a magical signature around one wall so well will call in a curse breaker." Robins seemed to be leading the group but was relaying all the information to Kingsley, who stood next to George in royal purple robes and his familiar stoic face.
"Send for Bill Weasley. He is the best curse breaker I know from the war. He should be with Malfoy's group." Kingsley's deep baritone rang out over the din. He clapped George on the shoulder and went to the basement to see what he could find.
Ron stood next to George for a bit while they waited for their elder brother to show up. Unexpectedly, George's hand shot out to grasp Ron's own. They held hands for a long while, neither speaking, just seeking comfort for one another in a very dark time in a very dark place.
It was a bit odd to be honest, holding his brothers hand. But Ron knew that George would probably fall apart without it. George had lost his best friend, his twin in the war. And now the wife he barely knew was missing. The whole situation had made the relationship with his own wife grow unexpectedly. He enjoyed her presence, her kind words and soft voice. He had grown to like the girl. And to make it so very much better, she didn't call him Ronnikins or WonWon. His wife was something miraculous that he didn't expect at all.
Tracy was stuck in the house, which would make some women completely batty. But Tracy took it in stride and promised not to leave the wards of her mother's home and not to let an owl in. The last thing he needed was for her to go missing as well. Who knew what these girls were being subjected to or what horrors were befalling them. He hoped with everything that he had inside himself that they would be found quickly and unharmed. But with the way George was clinging to him, he knew that something was wrong that he didn't yet know.
Ron's group of Aurors and volunteers consisted of Harry, Marcus Flint, Terry Boot and Elphias Doge. Harry had scrambled off after Kingsley and Marcus stood next to Terry looking awkward and uncomfortable. Marcus had married Hannah Abbott and the girl had just put an offer on the Leaky Cauldron just before this whole mess had happened. He wondered how their marriage was fairing. Flint was an awful and cruel Slytherin and Hannah was a sweet, shy Hufflepuff. Odd match to say the least. But weren't they all in odd matches? Terry had been married to Angelina Johnson, so really the odder the better it seemed.
Bill showed up with his group soon after holding George's hand became a bit uncomfortable and sweaty. He grasped George in a brotherly hug and patted his back before asking how he was feeling. The scars that decorated Bill's pale face pulling when George just shrugged. Bill pulled away and beckoned the boys follow toward the basement.
Kingsley and Harry where looking over every square inch of the basement, wands flitting and turning looking for anything that might have a hint of blood or magic. At the sound of Bill's boots on the stairs, Harry stopped to show Bill where the magic percolated around a blank stone wall.
"It doesn't feel like dark magic being used to keep whatever is hidden, hidden,"Harry ran a hand through his already mused hair,"But it does feel kind of...gross, really. Like borderline dark."
"Grey magic can feel kind of icky when used," Bill swept his wand through the air. "Mostly grey magic is blood wards used on ancestral homes and jewelry passed down through generations to keep people from stealing it or touching it all together. This is blood magic. But oddly it feels like multiple sets of blood was used. I can't say for sure how many sets but I'd say two, maybe three." His face set in concentration, he flicked his wand at the wall.
Malfoy came down the stairs then, and whispered something to Harry that made Harry's face look like me maybe sick, before following him back up the stairs. Kingsley was flicking his wand at the cabinets set around the room before stopping in front of a larger portion. He pulled the door open and surveyed the inside before pushing against the back with his bare hand. He looked puzzled for a moment, before he turned from the cabinet at the sound of little feet on the stairs and multiple barks and yells from the top floor.
Hermione came barreling down the stairs with Malfoy hot on her heels, yelling explicitly at her back.
"You can't be here, Mine. I'll drag you back by your hair if I must." Malfoy was growling at her and trying not to trip over the last stair.
"I have a hunch on something, Draco. Leave me be." Wand rising in the air she flicked it around the room, before smiling at Ron and running her hand down Bill's arm to announce her presence while he worked. She hugged George quickly before flitting around the room like a hummingbird, wand twirling as she went whispering about wardrobes.
Bill pulled on invisible strings of the wards, finding loose spots and signatures in the grey magic. Muttering spells under his breath, he pulled down the wards slowly. One by one, multiple wards dropped from the wall, until finally a door appeared against the stone. Ron moved slowly toward the door, but before he could reach for the knob, Bill seized the sleeve of his jumper halting his hand.
"There are four people allowed to come in and out of this room. I need a few more minutes before we can enter or else the whole house could topple around us. Ready the men upstairs, Ron. We will be going in soon."
Ron took off toward the stairs in time to see Mione step into the larger portion of the cabinet. As he told everyone to get ready and head for the basement, Mione came running from...outside?
"Uh...Mione?"
"It's a vanishing cabinet!" she shouted at him but loud enough that the whole house must of heard because a harsh "fuck!" came from the basement, sounding oddly like Malfoy. She smiled broadly at him.
"The other end had Eloise Midgen's body pushed through it. Theo and Lee found her earlier but Dean has already collected the poor girl," she explained.
"So if we can get to the girls..." he started.
"We can push them through the cabinet and straight to the Ministry." she finished for him.
"Smart, Mione."
She stood on tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek and ran off to the basement once again. Marcus Flint raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
The group started down the rickety stairs and began to fill the basement with bodies, waiting on baited breath for Bill to finish his work. Behind them, Theo and Malfoy were trying to persuade Hermione to get in the vanishing cabinet once more and wait for the girls to come through. Finally after a few minutes of whispered bickering, Malfoy pulled the reluctant woman to him, pushed her lips to his and picked her up. Once she was in his arms, he pushed her into the cabinet and she vanished.
As much as the fact that his best friend was married to the ferret bothered him, that was pretty smart.
"She isn't going to be happy with you," Ron told him. He smirked a bit thinking about how she would probably scream and throw a fit when they got back.
"I know. But really, she isn't ever happy with me so this is no different. Except now she knows I mean it and she can yell later." Malfoy told him sadly.
"It's alright, Malfoy. Every person Mione loves has to deal with her ire every once in awhile. Hell, Harry and I have had our fair share of tongue lashes in the past. And George and Percy and Bill. And Kingsley too if I'm not mistaken," Kingsley cleared his throat from the front of the room, turning a lovely pink across his dark cheeks, "It just means she loves you. Get use to it, mate. There will be plenty more."
Bill waved his wand one more time over the wall. No one made a noise as the wards over the wall and door shimmered and fell like a breath of air being released. Bill turned to nod at Kingsley Shacklebolt to announce he was done. This was it. Each man in this room was praying to every known deity that these girls where behind this door.
Kingsley turned to the fellow men waiting for instructions and inspiration from their leader. "We are going to send 5 men to man the stairs, and 7 to watch the house from outside. I want a ward thrown up out there before we cross this doorway. Charlie take Macmillan, Smith, Doge, Podmore, Cornor and Boot outside. Arthur take Robins, Diggle, Matter, Collen and Hughes to guard the door to the basement." People scattered to run for the stairs, Hughes tripping over his feet as he went.
"This is an important mission, boys. These are our women in here. These are our sisters, wives, daughters and neighbors. Be careful and be safe with them. They are ours to protect and we failed them. It took us too long to get here to let them down now." Kingsley turned around to face the door.
Suddenly, the handle jiggled from the other side. Wands went up in a semblance of a wave. Whispers to hush went through the sea of men and wand tips lite with tiny sparks. The door pushed open and little cry of relief spilled from the other side.
Padam Patil and Millicent Bulstrode stumbled out, naked as the day they were born. Pansy Parkinson's face shot out behind them to offer Patil a hand off the floor, a messenger bag dangling from her arm. Daphne Greengrass and Mandy Brocklehurst were holding up a seemingly passed out Isobel MacDougal. Each girl was unclothed and bloody. Pansy was the first to speak after getting a good grip on Padma and Millie.
"Took you lot long enough. Someone get us some clothes. And maybe Granger."