Credits: All the references to Harry Potter, the world of Hogwarts and the magical community are J.K. Rowling's. All the rest are mine.
Author's Note: ::Stares evilly:: I shall torture all who wilt not reviewist myest chapter!!!!!!!! Pwease??? I'm sorry. It's been summer vacation for at least a month, I haven't written, and I should have. I am now. Review for my pains. *puppy dawg eyes* Please. That's an order.
Chapter 16
*at the castle*
Hermione and Ron tried to keep up with Harry as he raced through the damp, echoing halls of the castle.
"Harry!!!" gasped Hermione, trying to run with a cramp in her side, "I can't believe we're doing this!!! The Fat Lady nearly expelled us!!!"
"Then again, she couldn't, she's a painting …" Ron muttered.
Harry paid no notice of either of them. He just kept running, looking for Dumbledore's office. Since the castle had kept moving for the last month or so, his office should just be right around the corner, here…
"Oh no not this again," Harry muttered. "If only Nirry was here… she'd have the password…" and he swallowed.
Hermione stood with her hands on her knees. "She's not here, she probably got lost or something inside the castle…" Ron gave a snort.
"Right… and where would she have gone? To Hogsmeade?"
"All right-" Harry took a deep breath "- Fizzing Whizbees!!! Chocolate Frogs!!! Jumping Jelly Beams!!! Marmalade Minced Mangoes!!!"
Hermione and Ron were looking at him. "Now, where'd that come from?" Hermione asked him. "Too much time in an American's influence."
"She's Canadian." Harry said shortly. Hermione shivered, Nirry's disappearance causing her to think, please let us find her…instinctively, she reached for Ron's waiting hand. Harry saw, and pretended not to.
"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans!!!" burst out Ron, very red in the face. It might have been from the run, or it might have been the touch of Hermione's hand in his.
Lo and behold, the gargoyle sprang aside. Harry sent a puzzled look at Ron, but Ron was trying not to look at Hermione, who was as red as he, bnot looking at him, but at their entwined hands.
Shaking his head in disgust, Harry bounded up the steps ahead of them both. With Nirry gone- and he had a very bad feeling about this storm- his oldest and best friends were flirting.
Knock. Harry knocked on the door once, and instantly, Dumbledore's twinkling voice came through the gap. "Come in!!!"
Dumbledore was seated in a large, cushioned chair, behind his desk. "Yes- I had an inkling it would be you all… come in, have a seat…"
Ron and Hermione sat in the chairs closest to each other, leaving Harry the third of the four chairs. He avoided the sight of Nirry's usual chair, and began voicing his thought.
"Professor… Nirry's missing. I think it's- she's in the storm right now, and…"
Dumbledore's feet, which had been on his desk, dropped with a loud thump. "Right now?" The three somber faces answered his question. "I must say…- all right."
He got up and started fluttering his hands nervously- Harry had never seen him like this before, and suddenly realized he was very fond of his daughter. Harry swallowed. If they didn't find her…
"We will find her." Said Dumbledore slowly. Harry wondered if he could read minds… wouldn't be surprising, seeing as he WAS a great wizard and all that… Dumbledore looked at them sternly over the tops of his glasses. "Now, I am going to send trained wizards from our Allies. Do not, and I repeat, do NOT on any circumstances go out of this school. Especially you, Mr. Potter. This storm- most likely… well, we shall worry about it later. You understand, clearly… Very well then, up to your dormitories, and I will see to it that she's found."
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat still, Dumbledore's voice washing over them. When he finished, they nodded their heads, and left the room silently.
* * *
A roar shook the ground on which both Nirry and Cinnamonne stood on. Nirry stood frozen, one hand clutching her wand. Very slowly, she turned around.
And almost fainted again. For there, not even five feet away, stood one of the most terrifying things she'd ever seen in her life… especially now, dripping wet, dirty, and holding a stick of green wood, a broken-legged animal on her hands.
Ten feet tall, it at first resembled Godzilla… but then Nirry got a sharp relief as the creature took a step. A dark purple, strangely gentle, sculpted, huge face and bright, yellow eyes lacking pupils looked at her silently, standing in the rain.
Nirry stood trembling on the spot. "Please it ignore me… please God, I'll do anything, just let it ignore me..."
However, the next thing the animal did was to take two more steps towards the fear-radiating pair of human and horse. Cinnamonne's eyes were rolling, red showing in the whites of the eyes. The pain of her leg kept her from jumping out into total horse frenzy, which probably saved her life.
"Do not move," the thing said in a surprisingly smooth, silky voice. "Do not move." And it pounced. Nirry closed her eyes and prayed it would be quick. What a stupid way to die. Her heart beat furiously, as if to make up for the years in the future when it would never beat. Stupid.
A second later, she heard another roar from the beast, this time behind her. With a tingle of shock- she wasn't dead- she regarded the scene in front of her in open-mouthed amazement.
The Godzilla-like creature was locked in fierce battle with a tangle of weeds. The weeds were almost totally wrapped around the belly of the thing, and were trying to choke it- or give it a Heimlich maneuver.
"Holy moly… this is… way too much…" she said weakly, gazing at the fight, whose yells, screams of pain, and thumps were nearly muffled by the rain. Cinnamonne whimpered, fright showing in every nerve of her body. Nirry, as if her brain was being continuously washed by the ever-increasing rage of the strom, was oblivious to everything except the rolling tangle of purple skin and green stems, and so gave a huge jump of surprise when she heard Cinnamonne- and fell hard onto her butt.
"I'm sorry girl…" she whispered… coming to her senses fast while rubbing her now muck-encrusted behind. "Come on, let's get out of here while they're at it…"
Cinnamonne's frightened face nudged Nirry's, reminding her mistress of a certain broken leg.
"Oh right… I'm so sorry!!!" Nirry shook her wand a little, found it was clean and wet, and proceeded to straighten her mare's leg.
"Mendaficus!" she whisper-yelled, trying to see where to aim- Cinnamonne's hind leg. Luckily, the pink light burst out at the same time Cinnamonne slipped a little down into the mud-lined hole, and the straightening spell hit her full-blast.
The horse screamed in pain. Nirry's hands went up… "My God, girl… I'm sorry… is it okay?"
She seemed to hear the strangled thumps from above, and remembered her position. "Let's get to the castle before we're something else's lunch…"
* * *
Harry paced the common room, wringing his hands and looking out at every window he passed. They had no more than five inches of visibility outside, given the rain coming down in bucketfuls.
"Harry, come on!!! Lighten up, play some Exploding Snap with us!!!" Fred and George yelled across to him from where they sat with a group, playing the game. George grinned. "Here- take you mind off things, Harry, have a Jumping Dust Bunny."
They don't know about Nirry, he thought… then sighed. Dumbledore said he'd find her… but what if this storm is really… he looked at the gray-colored white/black chocolate George had given him, and took a bite, completely forgetting their Ton-Tongued Toffees last year and Dudley's unfortunate experience, or the Canaries that gave Neville a feathery shock, or the-
Fred and George grinned.
* * *
Professor Albus Dumbledore did not waste much time after the trio left. Soon, pacing around his study were Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Hagrid.
They looked at him when he cleared his throat.
"Nirry has disappeared."
They stared at him.
"This is what we must do to recover her from Voldemort's storm."
Apart from three flinches, the figures did not move.
"Yes, Professor."
Dumbledore proceeded to give them their instructions, and sent them off to their own missions. This done, he walked out of the castle. Into the rain.
* * *
Voldemort looked into the pool. Amid the misty rain conjured by him, he saw a tall, white-haired and -bearded figure walk into the gloom.
He smiled.