Hello hello! Happy to see you here! Even thought this chapter was delayed a week, it will still be two weeks before the next one is posted. Hope to see you all then! In the meantime, enjoy the chapter.

The seventh year boys dorm took on a different vibe once everything was out in the open, and it became the unofficial base of operations.

"We're getting Ron back."

There were seven people grouped together on beds and chairs, discussing how in the world to rescue Ron Weasley.

"Why was he taken in the first place? Why Ron specifically?" Lily asked.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, and then they looked at Peter. He seemed to shrink in his seat under their gazes, but he gave a tiny nod.

Harry turned back to Lily, and took a deep breath. "Last year, we were sent on a mission. A mission from your father, James."

James' face scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean, 'from my father'? Last I checked he wasn't in the habit of sending teenagers on missions made for Aurors."

"This wasn't exactly a mission Aurors could do." Hermione said.

"And your father knew we weren't just any ordinary teenagers. He knows what we've done, and knew we could handle it." Harry looked at James and gave a small smile. "We had to tell him who we were, as he found us in the Department of Mysteries with the Invisibility Cloak and my face looking exactly like yours."

"He also thought we were Death Eaters, which did not go over well with some of us." Hermione pointedly stared at Harry, who had the sense to look ashamed.

"Yeah I'm not proud of that. But he and your mother ended up believing us, and so we got to stay."

Hermione looked at Peter again and heaved a sigh. "The mission we were sent on…. We were to infiltrate a recruitment meeting. A Death Eater recruitment meeting."

"Ol' Tom had gathered together any school aged child that would potentially be sympathetic, or at least, easy to scare." Harry scowled at the floor. "Indoctrinate them young, and they won't know that what they're doing is being pawns in some old man's game. Easy sacrifices." Harry sneered.

"He was there. Voldemort." Hermione looked up when she heard the others gasp. "He...didn't look how I was expecting."

Harry reached out and squeezed her arm. "Well, we were used to old snake face, so seeing him look human… it felt wrong. It was easier when he was disfigured, made it simpler to see him as the monster he is."

"Snake face?" Sirius looked like he was going to laugh, but Remus elbowed him.

"That story is too long for right now, we'll get back to that." Harry said. "But anyway. It was the three of us, me, Ron, and Hermione. We were there to scope out how many followers he had, and see if any of the kids needed help."

"When Voldemort came out to speak to us… He told us that we could join him 'if we wanted', ha." Hermione snorted derisively. "Like Voldemort has ever given anyone a choice."

"We were told we didn't have to answer right then, but he was waiting. And he's not a patient man." Harry leaned against the desk nearest to him and crossed his arms. Ron's face stuck in his mind, in the last moment he saw him. The panic in his blue eyes and the desperation in his scream.

Harry didn't know how much longer he could go without Ron.

How much longer Ron could go, captured by Voldemort.

"We were told to make a decision and we didn't, and now they've taken Ron until we do. But we're going to get him back." Harry straightened his back and looked at the six other people in the room. "We have to."

Ron Weasley was no stranger to being held captive. He was taken by Snatchers during their hunt for the Horcruxes. Locked in the Malfoy's basement. Captive by his own jealousy.

That didn't mean he enjoyed it.

Luckily, Ron did not have the same notoriety in 1977 as he did in 1998, thus he did not endanger the same...personal touch from the Death Eaters as he might have otherwise. They barely came by his cell, and when they did it was only to throw stale bread through a small window. The food came at irregular times and made it impossible to keep track of the time. He didn't know how long he'd been in this cell, whether it be days or weeks.

All Ron knew is that he wanted to get back to the two people who meant most to him.

"Oi, mudblood! Are you listening to me?"

Ron was startled out of his reverie by a lank haired figure on the other side of the door. The man leered through the bars and Ron sighed.

"No I'm not listening to you asking if I'm listening. Is that all you wanted? Can you let me go back to being locked up in peace?" Ron rolled his eyes and slumped against the wall.

"Do you know who you're talking to mudblood? Do you need to be taught a lesson?" The Death Eater stared intently at Ron as if hoping he'd give him a reason.

Ron was never one to disappoint.

"Oh yes please, I have missed so much school because of this." Ron snarked back.

"You need to learn to hold your tongue, mudblood."

"Is that the lesson? I'm afraid people have been telling me that for seventeen years." Ron shot a shit-eating grin at the door. "It hasn't quite stuck."

The Death Eater grinned and his wand came up to stick through the window.

"No, but this will. Crucio!"

A month goes by.

Harry and Hermione have planned and replanned and almost left to get Ron countless times. Remus and Lily always stop them, pointing out another flaw in their plan, and Harry was starting to get frustrated.

"It's been too long, Hermione. Who knows what they've done to him?" He paced back and forth in the Room of Requirement. In their quest to rescue Ron, Hermione felt they needed a secure place to speak without anyone potentially overhearing them. Thus, the Room of Requirement. Hermione sat on a pouf by a table covered in books, but she wasn't looking at them. She stared off into the distance, and looked as if she didn't hear a word Harry was saying.

"We know what Death Eaters do to people, we can't just….just let him stay there." Harry's voice broke and he crouched onto the floor and fell onto his butt, putting his head into his hands. "I can't do this without him, Hermione. I can't."

Hermione looked up at the thud of Harry hitting the ground. She slid from her pouf and crawled over to him, taking his hands away from his face.

"I know this hurts, Harry. Everything seems worse without Ron here to lighten the mood." She cupped his cheek in her hand and smiled softly at him. "You love him. So do I. But I also love you, and we can't go out recklessly and get ourselves hurt. That wouldn't help anyone. Lily and Remus are right. We haven't been thinking it through enough."

Harry placed his hand over hers on his cheek. "I love you too, 'Mione. And I know it wouldn't help anyone, but I'm not used to doing nothing."

"I know. Since we were eleven, everything has been 'Go go go!' and our minds don't really know what to do when we're not going."

Harry straightened. "Maybe we should just go then. We've gone into things with less planning before, we could do it this time." He started to stand, but Hermione pulled him back down.

"Harry, please, we've talked about this. It hasn't even been two minutes since we talked about it. We have to have a plan." Hermione kept her tight grip on Harry's hand, incase he decided to spontaneously bolt.

"We don't even know where he'd being kept, Hermione! We're completely in the dark! There is no way for us to make a good enough plan to save Ron without us going out and doing something!" Harry said, frustrated.

"Well, then maybe we should do something. Something that doesn't involve us going out and getting each other killed." Hermione had her very familiar thinking face on, and Harry's heart ached when he realized he didn't have Ron to share a look with.

"And what would that be, Hermione? What can we do?"

She looked at him, and smiled.

"We find a Death Eater."