Summary: Harry and Hermione arrive in Cornwall, but will they be able to save Ron and the others?
Disclaimer: These characters belong to JK Rowling, except for a couple I've added.
Author's Notes: This is a pretty dark episode, and more scary stuff to follow in part 6, but the rest of the story won't all be like that!
The Best Man 2: The Search for Snape, Part 5.
Harry stood by the window in the middle of the small room and looked out at the trees, and the glimpses of distant sea which were visible between the trunks. He was trying not to remember how upset Ginny had been when they had left the previous evening. She had not cried, but tears had not been far away.
He looked round towards Hermione, who was sitting on a chair across the room, watching two of their guardians talking. She was dry-eyed, her face rather pale and set. Harry had a good idea of what was running through her mind, although he couldn't be sure. He would dearly have loved to know what had happened on the night that Ron took Hermione back to Hogwarts. How did matters stand between them now? Harry sighed. His friends' relationship, intrigued though he was by it, seemed to matter less now that lives were at stake - Ron's life among them.
Yesterday evening they had Apparated to the "safe house" in Cornwall, a small stone cottage with a slate roof, in the middle of a copse of trees, and magically protected from discovery by wandering Muggles. By daylight, Harry had noticed the land sloping down to the cliffs and sea on one side, and sloping up on the other side towards a distant hill. But they had not left the building since their arrival.
Priskett had accompanied them himself - the fact that the C.E.O. wanted to be there in person underlined the seriousness of the situation. He had brought with him Martin, the young wizard, as his secretary or personal assistant. There was also the team of agents from the M.L.E.S., whose jobs including monitoring the hostage situation, following Priskett's orders, guarding Harry and Hermione and seeing to the housekeeping of the cottage.
As soon as they had arrived, Harry had sent an owl to Ginny, telling her that he was thinking of her, and would do his best to make sure that he, Ron and Hermione all came back safely.
That morning, since there had been no more messages from the squad's abductors, Priskett had suggested that they should visit Bernard Turvey. "He's not well enough to talk to anyone yet, but if the people who are responsible for all this are monitoring him, they'll see you visiting him and know you are around. We want them to know you are here and ready to be handed over."
On the night when Bernard and the rest of Ron's squad had rescued him from Malfoy and Lockhart, Harry had been drugged and hit on the head, so he didn't rememember Bernard or the other agents very clearly. Hermione did, though, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw Bernard lying motionless in the bed where he was recovering.
"Oh, my God," she breathed. "What did they do to him?"
"He looks much better now than he did when he was found," the witch taking care of Bernard told them. "We're hoping that in a few more days he might be waking up and talking to us."
Harry, Hermione and Priskett did not stay long by the sickbed. They returned to the cottage, where the team of agents were still trying to work out a plan.
"It's very dangerous. How can we make them release the prisoners - especially those two children - without actually handing you over?" muttered Martin, flicking through sheaves of paper on which people had been jotting down their ideas.
"We don't even know where they're holding Ron and the others prisoner," Harry pointed out.
Hermione was looking through the papers too. Her hand stopped as she found the wizard photograph of the two missing children, Morwenna and Meredith Carlyon. Very alike, the two little blonde girls were smiling and waving from the picture. "I can't imagine what their parents are going through," Hermione murmured.
Harry looked around at the room full of worried people. "I'm going out for a breath of fresh air," he said, making his way to the door.
"You should take someone with you," Priskett said, looking up.
"I'm only going out into the garden," Harry said firmly. "There's no need for a bodyguard." It was not the first time in Harry's life that other people had thought he needed protecting, but it still irritated him.
Priskett looked doubtful, but did not argue, as Harry left the room.
Outside, the air was cooler. A damp mist was coming in from the sea, and a breeze was plucking at the leaves of the trees which surrounded the cottage. Harry had no intention of going out of sight of the building. He just walked around, looking across at the big hill or the mist-shrouded coast. So much further south than Hogsmeade, there were flowers growing here he didn't know - even though the Hogwarts greenhouses had always held a motley collection. He was bending to look at one brightly-coloured plant when he noticed the parchment. It had been folded and rammed into a crack in the trunk of one of the biggest trees, opposite the door of the cottage. Harry looked quickly around, but there was no sign of anyone nearby. He pulled out the parchment and looked at it. Across the outside was scrawled "Harry Potter and Hermione Granger." Harry unfolded it.
The message was written on a similar torn piece of parchment to the first note which had been found on Bernard. It was quite a short message, and very clear in its instructions.
"Come to the top of Carn Brea at midnight. Come alone. Do not bring assistance from the Ministry with you unless you want us to dispose of our hostages immediately."
It was, of course, unsigned.
Harry looked at the message again, then at the door of the cottage, and then back to the note. What he should probably do, he realised, was to rush into the cottage and display this message to Priskett and his team of agents. Yet he hesitated, and after a moment stuffed the parchment into his pocket. He wanted to show it to Hermione first, in private, and discuss it with her.
He had to wait a while for the opportunity. Everyone gathered together for the evening meal, but afterwards the agents went back to their anxious discussions and Priskett wrote several messages to dispatch back to London by owl. Hermione had gone upstairs to the small room she slept in, and no one tried to follow Harry when he went upstairs too.
He tapped at the door of the room Hermione was sharing with a female agent - a minder, she said - and heard her tell him to come in. She was alone, looking out of the window. "Hi, Harry." He sat down next to her on the windowseat. Hermione glanced sideways at him, and raised an eyebrow. She knew him so well that she could guess something had happened. "What's up?"
Harry pulled the parchment out of his pocket. "I found this before dinner - wedged in a tree trunk outside. I think it's from the same people who sent the first message."
Hermione took the note and read it. "It seems like it. Have you shown it to Priskett yet?"
"No..."
"You should."
"I know...but..." Harry paused, frowning. "I've been thinking - are this lot really going to find a way of getting all the prisoners out from wherever they are, without actually handing over you and me, as the first note asked?"
"I've been wondering how they were going to manage that," Hermione said seriously.
"Well, I don't think the M.L.E.S. really know how to handle this. Perhaps it's time for us to take matters into our own hands." He looked hopefully at Hermione, and saw from her expression that she was torn between the desire to agree with him and her feeling that it was their duty to report the note to Priskett.
At last she said, "Do you think we can get everyone out of this by ourselves?"
Harry gave her a quick, affectionate look. "We've got out of tight situations before - you, me and Ron."
"Yes..." Hermione paused for a moment, her face turned away from him. "Goodness knows what's happened to Ron. And there are other people's lives in danger, not just ours. Those two little girls - I'd never forgive myself if we did something to put them in more danger than they're already in."
"I know."
"You think our only chance might be to try to get into wherever they are holding them, don't you?"
"Yes. And we shouldn't tell the Ministry first, in case they try to stop us from going and handing ourselves over - you know they would. But we can leave them details about where we've gone." Harry checked the note again. "Where is Carn Brea, anyway?"
"It's the big hill you can see in the distance over that way - with the tall stone sticking up on top of it. The carn is that lot of stones near the big one."
"Midnight...that's about two hours to wait."
"D'you think we can get out of the cottage without any of the others realising what we're up to?" Hermione said anxiously.
Harry tutted at her. "With your brains and our combined talents? We've done harder things before."
Harry was right. At a quarter to twelve, he and Hermione were hurrying out of the ring of trees and setting off towards the hill that was Carn Brea. They hoped their absence would not be noticed now until the morning, when the agents would find the explanatory note Harry had left.
They had agreed to walk most of the way instead of Apparating, not wanting to attract attention too soon by using obvious magic. As they walked across the grass, the mist which still hung in the air was parting occasionally to give glimpses of the moon. It was almost a full moon - Harry thought for a moment of Remus Lupin, wondering how he coped at Hogwarts these days - pretty well, by all accounts.
The moonlight vanished completely in the mist and darkness, however, as they reached the foot of the hill and began to climb. The night around them was growing increasingly black, although a few distant lights still twinkled over towards Redruth. The gorse bushes were just dark shadows on either side of them as they stumbled across the rough grass, and they had to walk carefully to avoid tripping into the rabbit holes which pitted the ground.
Harry and Hermione hardly spoke as they climbed, concentrating on keeping their footing. As they neared the top, they could see the dark mass of the carn's stones looming above them. The largest stump of granite, visible for miles around in the daytime, was now just a tall black shadow in front of them.
There was a natural hollow in front of the carn, a sheltered grassy space. Looking around, and seeing no one nearby, Hermione sat down to rest on the grass, while Harry leaned against a nearby horizontal slab of granite, glancing from side to side into the darkness. The air was chilly, and he remembered that in only a few days more it would be Hallowe'en.
They waited in silence, listening. Harry didn't move, but he was alert for any noise or movement nearby, and he knew that Hermione was too.
Minutes went past. Harry knew that midnight must have arrived by now. Was this a waste of time? Had the message just been intended to taunt them, lead them astray, get them no nearer to rescuing Ron and the others?
Then he heard it...a curious grating noise. Suddenly, Harry jumped up as he realised the slab of stone he was leaning against had began to move from its place. He and Hermione stood shoulder to shoulder, watching warily, as the granite slab slid to one side, revealing a yawning black hole in the side of the hill. After the stone's movement stopped, there was a short silence. Then a voice spoke out of the darkness. Try as he might, Harry couldn't see the speaker. The voice was merely a hoarse whisper - it didn't sound like Malfoy, but it could have been anyone.
"So. You are here. Good."
"Yes, we're here," said Harry, his voice sounding loud in the stillness. "We've done what you asked. Where are the others?"
"Come and see them," the whispering voice invited.
"No," said Hermione firmly. "We'll come in, after you send them out. That was the agreement."
There was a pause, and for a moment Harry was worried that she had made a false move. But then the voice spoke again.
"Very well. Wait one moment." Harry and Hermione waited. Scuffling sounds came out of the darkness, and then...three figures emerged from the cavern, darker shadows against the dimness of the hillside.
"Alex!" Hermione gasped, moving forwards and holding out her hands towards the tallest figure, a woman who was holding her head dazedly with one hand. Harry realised that this must be Ron's colleague, Alexandra. With her other hand she clasped the hand of one small girl. Another small girl followed them. Both children, as far as Harry and Hermione could make out in the darkness, looked as dazed as Alex did.
No one else emerged from the hole in the hillside. Harry turned and realised that Hermione had been quickly checking over the three released prisoners. "They don't seem to be seriously injured - probably hungry and tired and confused."
"Hermione Granger?" Alex certainly sounded confused. "What are you doing here? Where are we?"
"No time to explain everything now," Harry interrupted. "See that group of trees down there? Can you take the children and go there. There's a house. Priskett's there, and some of your people. They'll take care of you."
"Priskett's here?" Alex looked even more confused, but eventually she seemed to realise what she had to do. Taking the children's hands - neither of them had said a word yet - she began to hurry them down the hill, stumbling in fatigue, but heading in the right direction to find the cottage. As they watched this, Harry and Hermione heard the whispering voice again.
"See? They are free. We shall not interfere with them again."
"What about the others?" Harry asked loudly.
"Yes," Hermione added. "Ivan, and Leander...and Ron."
They heard a whispery chuckle. "I'm sorry. You will have to come and see them for yourselves. But I promise that Ivan and Leander will be freed when you are our guests instead."
Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. Harry knew what she was probably thinking. When Alex and the two children arrived at the cottage, the M.L.E.S. agents were going to come up here to find out what was happening - probably fairly soon. Harry didn't want to go into that dark place, but he would if he knew it was the best chance of saving Ron and the others, and he knew Hermione would feel the same. And, if he was going to go in, he couldn't think of anyone whose help he would rather have.
"All right," Harry said. "We'll come." Exchanging another look with Hermione, he moved forward. The darkness closed around him as he moved into the earthy tunnel. Behind him, he heard Hermione's footsteps as she followed him. Then there came another sound...a grating rumble as the huge slab moved back into place, closing up the entrance...and trapping them inside the hillside.
End of Part 5.
AN: Carn Brea - genuine hill visible from my mum's house in Cornwall. Pronounced, Carn Bray. No secret passages up there though, to my knowledge!
Cliffhangers; don't you just hate them?
I've added a photo to my author profile!
Disclaimer: These characters belong to JK Rowling, except for a couple I've added.
Author's Notes: This is a pretty dark episode, and more scary stuff to follow in part 6, but the rest of the story won't all be like that!
The Best Man 2: The Search for Snape, Part 5.
Harry stood by the window in the middle of the small room and looked out at the trees, and the glimpses of distant sea which were visible between the trunks. He was trying not to remember how upset Ginny had been when they had left the previous evening. She had not cried, but tears had not been far away.
He looked round towards Hermione, who was sitting on a chair across the room, watching two of their guardians talking. She was dry-eyed, her face rather pale and set. Harry had a good idea of what was running through her mind, although he couldn't be sure. He would dearly have loved to know what had happened on the night that Ron took Hermione back to Hogwarts. How did matters stand between them now? Harry sighed. His friends' relationship, intrigued though he was by it, seemed to matter less now that lives were at stake - Ron's life among them.
Yesterday evening they had Apparated to the "safe house" in Cornwall, a small stone cottage with a slate roof, in the middle of a copse of trees, and magically protected from discovery by wandering Muggles. By daylight, Harry had noticed the land sloping down to the cliffs and sea on one side, and sloping up on the other side towards a distant hill. But they had not left the building since their arrival.
Priskett had accompanied them himself - the fact that the C.E.O. wanted to be there in person underlined the seriousness of the situation. He had brought with him Martin, the young wizard, as his secretary or personal assistant. There was also the team of agents from the M.L.E.S., whose jobs including monitoring the hostage situation, following Priskett's orders, guarding Harry and Hermione and seeing to the housekeeping of the cottage.
As soon as they had arrived, Harry had sent an owl to Ginny, telling her that he was thinking of her, and would do his best to make sure that he, Ron and Hermione all came back safely.
That morning, since there had been no more messages from the squad's abductors, Priskett had suggested that they should visit Bernard Turvey. "He's not well enough to talk to anyone yet, but if the people who are responsible for all this are monitoring him, they'll see you visiting him and know you are around. We want them to know you are here and ready to be handed over."
On the night when Bernard and the rest of Ron's squad had rescued him from Malfoy and Lockhart, Harry had been drugged and hit on the head, so he didn't rememember Bernard or the other agents very clearly. Hermione did, though, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw Bernard lying motionless in the bed where he was recovering.
"Oh, my God," she breathed. "What did they do to him?"
"He looks much better now than he did when he was found," the witch taking care of Bernard told them. "We're hoping that in a few more days he might be waking up and talking to us."
Harry, Hermione and Priskett did not stay long by the sickbed. They returned to the cottage, where the team of agents were still trying to work out a plan.
"It's very dangerous. How can we make them release the prisoners - especially those two children - without actually handing you over?" muttered Martin, flicking through sheaves of paper on which people had been jotting down their ideas.
"We don't even know where they're holding Ron and the others prisoner," Harry pointed out.
Hermione was looking through the papers too. Her hand stopped as she found the wizard photograph of the two missing children, Morwenna and Meredith Carlyon. Very alike, the two little blonde girls were smiling and waving from the picture. "I can't imagine what their parents are going through," Hermione murmured.
Harry looked around at the room full of worried people. "I'm going out for a breath of fresh air," he said, making his way to the door.
"You should take someone with you," Priskett said, looking up.
"I'm only going out into the garden," Harry said firmly. "There's no need for a bodyguard." It was not the first time in Harry's life that other people had thought he needed protecting, but it still irritated him.
Priskett looked doubtful, but did not argue, as Harry left the room.
Outside, the air was cooler. A damp mist was coming in from the sea, and a breeze was plucking at the leaves of the trees which surrounded the cottage. Harry had no intention of going out of sight of the building. He just walked around, looking across at the big hill or the mist-shrouded coast. So much further south than Hogsmeade, there were flowers growing here he didn't know - even though the Hogwarts greenhouses had always held a motley collection. He was bending to look at one brightly-coloured plant when he noticed the parchment. It had been folded and rammed into a crack in the trunk of one of the biggest trees, opposite the door of the cottage. Harry looked quickly around, but there was no sign of anyone nearby. He pulled out the parchment and looked at it. Across the outside was scrawled "Harry Potter and Hermione Granger." Harry unfolded it.
The message was written on a similar torn piece of parchment to the first note which had been found on Bernard. It was quite a short message, and very clear in its instructions.
"Come to the top of Carn Brea at midnight. Come alone. Do not bring assistance from the Ministry with you unless you want us to dispose of our hostages immediately."
It was, of course, unsigned.
Harry looked at the message again, then at the door of the cottage, and then back to the note. What he should probably do, he realised, was to rush into the cottage and display this message to Priskett and his team of agents. Yet he hesitated, and after a moment stuffed the parchment into his pocket. He wanted to show it to Hermione first, in private, and discuss it with her.
He had to wait a while for the opportunity. Everyone gathered together for the evening meal, but afterwards the agents went back to their anxious discussions and Priskett wrote several messages to dispatch back to London by owl. Hermione had gone upstairs to the small room she slept in, and no one tried to follow Harry when he went upstairs too.
He tapped at the door of the room Hermione was sharing with a female agent - a minder, she said - and heard her tell him to come in. She was alone, looking out of the window. "Hi, Harry." He sat down next to her on the windowseat. Hermione glanced sideways at him, and raised an eyebrow. She knew him so well that she could guess something had happened. "What's up?"
Harry pulled the parchment out of his pocket. "I found this before dinner - wedged in a tree trunk outside. I think it's from the same people who sent the first message."
Hermione took the note and read it. "It seems like it. Have you shown it to Priskett yet?"
"No..."
"You should."
"I know...but..." Harry paused, frowning. "I've been thinking - are this lot really going to find a way of getting all the prisoners out from wherever they are, without actually handing over you and me, as the first note asked?"
"I've been wondering how they were going to manage that," Hermione said seriously.
"Well, I don't think the M.L.E.S. really know how to handle this. Perhaps it's time for us to take matters into our own hands." He looked hopefully at Hermione, and saw from her expression that she was torn between the desire to agree with him and her feeling that it was their duty to report the note to Priskett.
At last she said, "Do you think we can get everyone out of this by ourselves?"
Harry gave her a quick, affectionate look. "We've got out of tight situations before - you, me and Ron."
"Yes..." Hermione paused for a moment, her face turned away from him. "Goodness knows what's happened to Ron. And there are other people's lives in danger, not just ours. Those two little girls - I'd never forgive myself if we did something to put them in more danger than they're already in."
"I know."
"You think our only chance might be to try to get into wherever they are holding them, don't you?"
"Yes. And we shouldn't tell the Ministry first, in case they try to stop us from going and handing ourselves over - you know they would. But we can leave them details about where we've gone." Harry checked the note again. "Where is Carn Brea, anyway?"
"It's the big hill you can see in the distance over that way - with the tall stone sticking up on top of it. The carn is that lot of stones near the big one."
"Midnight...that's about two hours to wait."
"D'you think we can get out of the cottage without any of the others realising what we're up to?" Hermione said anxiously.
Harry tutted at her. "With your brains and our combined talents? We've done harder things before."
Harry was right. At a quarter to twelve, he and Hermione were hurrying out of the ring of trees and setting off towards the hill that was Carn Brea. They hoped their absence would not be noticed now until the morning, when the agents would find the explanatory note Harry had left.
They had agreed to walk most of the way instead of Apparating, not wanting to attract attention too soon by using obvious magic. As they walked across the grass, the mist which still hung in the air was parting occasionally to give glimpses of the moon. It was almost a full moon - Harry thought for a moment of Remus Lupin, wondering how he coped at Hogwarts these days - pretty well, by all accounts.
The moonlight vanished completely in the mist and darkness, however, as they reached the foot of the hill and began to climb. The night around them was growing increasingly black, although a few distant lights still twinkled over towards Redruth. The gorse bushes were just dark shadows on either side of them as they stumbled across the rough grass, and they had to walk carefully to avoid tripping into the rabbit holes which pitted the ground.
Harry and Hermione hardly spoke as they climbed, concentrating on keeping their footing. As they neared the top, they could see the dark mass of the carn's stones looming above them. The largest stump of granite, visible for miles around in the daytime, was now just a tall black shadow in front of them.
There was a natural hollow in front of the carn, a sheltered grassy space. Looking around, and seeing no one nearby, Hermione sat down to rest on the grass, while Harry leaned against a nearby horizontal slab of granite, glancing from side to side into the darkness. The air was chilly, and he remembered that in only a few days more it would be Hallowe'en.
They waited in silence, listening. Harry didn't move, but he was alert for any noise or movement nearby, and he knew that Hermione was too.
Minutes went past. Harry knew that midnight must have arrived by now. Was this a waste of time? Had the message just been intended to taunt them, lead them astray, get them no nearer to rescuing Ron and the others?
Then he heard it...a curious grating noise. Suddenly, Harry jumped up as he realised the slab of stone he was leaning against had began to move from its place. He and Hermione stood shoulder to shoulder, watching warily, as the granite slab slid to one side, revealing a yawning black hole in the side of the hill. After the stone's movement stopped, there was a short silence. Then a voice spoke out of the darkness. Try as he might, Harry couldn't see the speaker. The voice was merely a hoarse whisper - it didn't sound like Malfoy, but it could have been anyone.
"So. You are here. Good."
"Yes, we're here," said Harry, his voice sounding loud in the stillness. "We've done what you asked. Where are the others?"
"Come and see them," the whispering voice invited.
"No," said Hermione firmly. "We'll come in, after you send them out. That was the agreement."
There was a pause, and for a moment Harry was worried that she had made a false move. But then the voice spoke again.
"Very well. Wait one moment." Harry and Hermione waited. Scuffling sounds came out of the darkness, and then...three figures emerged from the cavern, darker shadows against the dimness of the hillside.
"Alex!" Hermione gasped, moving forwards and holding out her hands towards the tallest figure, a woman who was holding her head dazedly with one hand. Harry realised that this must be Ron's colleague, Alexandra. With her other hand she clasped the hand of one small girl. Another small girl followed them. Both children, as far as Harry and Hermione could make out in the darkness, looked as dazed as Alex did.
No one else emerged from the hole in the hillside. Harry turned and realised that Hermione had been quickly checking over the three released prisoners. "They don't seem to be seriously injured - probably hungry and tired and confused."
"Hermione Granger?" Alex certainly sounded confused. "What are you doing here? Where are we?"
"No time to explain everything now," Harry interrupted. "See that group of trees down there? Can you take the children and go there. There's a house. Priskett's there, and some of your people. They'll take care of you."
"Priskett's here?" Alex looked even more confused, but eventually she seemed to realise what she had to do. Taking the children's hands - neither of them had said a word yet - she began to hurry them down the hill, stumbling in fatigue, but heading in the right direction to find the cottage. As they watched this, Harry and Hermione heard the whispering voice again.
"See? They are free. We shall not interfere with them again."
"What about the others?" Harry asked loudly.
"Yes," Hermione added. "Ivan, and Leander...and Ron."
They heard a whispery chuckle. "I'm sorry. You will have to come and see them for yourselves. But I promise that Ivan and Leander will be freed when you are our guests instead."
Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. Harry knew what she was probably thinking. When Alex and the two children arrived at the cottage, the M.L.E.S. agents were going to come up here to find out what was happening - probably fairly soon. Harry didn't want to go into that dark place, but he would if he knew it was the best chance of saving Ron and the others, and he knew Hermione would feel the same. And, if he was going to go in, he couldn't think of anyone whose help he would rather have.
"All right," Harry said. "We'll come." Exchanging another look with Hermione, he moved forward. The darkness closed around him as he moved into the earthy tunnel. Behind him, he heard Hermione's footsteps as she followed him. Then there came another sound...a grating rumble as the huge slab moved back into place, closing up the entrance...and trapping them inside the hillside.
End of Part 5.
AN: Carn Brea - genuine hill visible from my mum's house in Cornwall. Pronounced, Carn Bray. No secret passages up there though, to my knowledge!
Cliffhangers; don't you just hate them?
I've added a photo to my author profile!