wmipart9 The Werewolves' Magic Institute
By Admiral Albia

In which everything goes horribly wrong...

Disclaimer; I own nothing except the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the books. It's very simple. Jiggy McCue (and the other Musketeers) belong to the great god Michael Lawrence, the rest belongs to the great goddess J.K. Rowling.

My heartfelt gratitude to Caitlin Black. A better beta-reader I could not ask for.

Chapter 9; Kidnap!
Naturally, the adults had to be told. Just as naturally, nobody wanted to do it. Eventually, Anna screwed up her courage and went to tell Remus.
"Uncle..."
"Mm? I do believe Sirius just kissed Emilily... oh, sorry, carry on, Anna."
"Paul just... vanished. Literally. So did Mona. And Neville. And Harry."
"Define `vanished`."
"Disappeared. Dissolved. Disapparated. One minute there, the next minute gone. Vamoosed!"
"All of them?"
"Yeah."
"Did you see any of them go?"
"Mona. Sort of. I mean, she was standing right next to me and then she went. Why, Uncle, what..." Remus cut across her.
"Did you smell anything? Other than everyone else, I mean."
"Um. Sort of... rotten. A bit like that Hogwarts idiot... Malfoy."
"Rotten and sweet, or rotten and sour?"
"Sour." Remus swore.
"Get everyone away from the area. I'll go and find James, and we'll do an organised search. Whatever you do, don't tell anyone."

/\/\/\
"I'm sorry, Remus, I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you just say Harry had vanished?"
"According to Anna."
"And a teenage girl is a reliable source?"
"I'd know if she was lying." Remus fingered his nose pointedly.
"Oh... OK. Now, here's the fun part. How do I know that you're telling the truth?"
"James, just go with me on this, will you?"
"Right. Fine. Aah, help, Harry's disappeared. Now what do we do?"
"You tell Lily, and keep Sirius from suspecting anything, while I go and sniff around in hope that my theory's wrong..."
"By the way, Remus, had you considered the fact that I used to disappear quite regularly at school?"
"We always saw you putting the thing on, though. Now, go and tell Lily. And whatever you do, don't say a word to Sirius." And Remus walked back over to the kids, who were forming a pretty effective protective circle.
"I still think they're playing us up," James muttered. "Oh well. Hey! Lily!"
/\/\/\
"Oh, great. Just peachy. Now what do we do?"
"I think now's the time to wait. For twenty-four hours. If they're not back by then, we tell the Ministry and Sirius. In that order."
"...And if a ransom note appears?"
"We tell Sirius and the Ministry and go after them." Remus sighed. "What I don't get is why they want Paul, Mona and Neville. I mean, Death Eaters kidnapping Harry is easy enough to work out, there's no big mystery there, but... well..."
"Neville's his friend, though."
"Sort of... they're not really that close. I mean, this term they've been closer than they were when I was at Hogwarts... but Hermione was hanging around with Anna and Ron was with Mona. He didn't really have anyone else."
"Great." James groaned. "There's no link at all, then. Unless they thought Neville was his best friend..."
"It's hardly likely, considering Peter was hanging around Harry for three years, pretending to be Ron's pet rat. Long story, don't ask. And no, Ron didn't know."
"Forgot him." James sighed. "And now Lily's refusing to talk to me and going on about how `next time we'll have to be more careful`... I've already told her I don't want another one, I don't know what's got into her..."
"I think you do, actually," Remus said, keeping his face straight with difficulty.
"...and she keeps coming into the bathroom to throw up. The place is huge, you'd think she'd be able to find another bathroom, wouldn't you, but no..."
"James?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you actually listening to yourself?"
"Not really, no. Why?"
"Oh... no reason."
"If she can't find another bathroom I'd be happy to help her... half the time I'm in there when she comes in. Do you have any idea how hard it is to stop halfway through?"
"Sheesh..."
/\/\/\
The next day, Sirius woke up to find an owl sitting about two centimetres away from his face and holding a letter. Blearily, he took it and thanked the owl, then shoved Bria off his stomach - and onto Emilily's - and sat up to read it.
Dearest Sirrikins,
If you want to see your friends again I'm afraid you'll have to come to the Riddle House in Little Hangleton.
Hope you're well and that the Mudblood wedding was just a pretext.
Mummy
Sirius stared at the letter. It wasn't possible... couldn't be... checking that Emilily was still fast asleep, he Disapparated straight out of bed.
/\/\/\
"Remus! Oh, thank God!"
"Sir'us? Wha? S'four am! Whaddaya doin' here?"
"I just got this." Sirius thrust the letter into Remus' hand.
"Hm?" Remus read it and his eyes widened. "Oh, no!"
"I'll go and check on James."
"You do that. But Sirius?"
"Mm?"
"Do you want to borrow a pair of trousers first?"
/\/\/\
"Phew!"
"Sirius? What the... no, actually I don't want to know. And don't tell Lily."
"Right. What's going on?"
"Huh? Nothing! Nothing's going on! What makes you think something's going on?"
"You only play Quidditch in the middle of the night when you're worried, James Potter, and you were most definitely playing Quidditch."
"What makes you think that?"
"You're holding a broom and a Quaffle."
"What? Where?" James looked at his hands and feigned surprise - in a very amateurish way, to Sirius' eye. "Oh, you mean this broom and Quaffle! Well I never! How did they get there?"
"James. What. Is. Going. On?" James sighed and gave up.
"Harry's been kidnapped by Death Eaters, so has Paul - Remus' nephew?, and Neville Longbottom - Frank's kid, and another one who we don't know..."
"When did this happen?"
"Yesterday."
"Yesterday?!? Are you nuts? Why didn't you do something?"
"We weren't sure, is why! And besides..."
"Besides what?"
"Well, we didn't want to worry you." James shifted uncomfortably under Sirius' stare. "You know how worked up you get... it's meant to be a relaxing occasion... and you'd only have gone storming off to find them. Like you're getting ready to do now."
"Too damn right I am!"
"Sirius. Come inside and let me explain why I don't think it'd be a good idea for you to go running off."
"Explain out here."
"OK. There's this little thing which you have. I'd call it a mental problem if I was suicidal, but the correct term, I believe, is Cruentus sanguis imperius... ah, you know what I'm talking about."
"I don't have that," Sirius said woodenly, to cover his reaction.
"Oh, yes you do. I've seen you fighting it - and giving in. Remember that thing with Snape? Don't tell me it was your good side that told him how to freeze the bloody Willow. And I've heard from both Remus and Harry how badly you want Peter dead. Now, I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve it, but... Sirius, you can't go into Voldemort's HQ by yourself."
"Well, tough. I'm going."
"Not without me, you're not," Lily said from behind them.
"If you're about to say `I've read about cruentus sanguis, I'll be safe`..." James began.
"Actually, I was about to say `You'll need a doctor with you just in case`, but never mind."
"We'd better tell the Ministry," James said.
"And Remus. He'll want to come."
/\/\/\
"My lord? Cerberus and Doxy are back."
"Excellent. Did they get everyone?"
"Well, they say so, my lord. However..."
"I hear your point, Wormtail. Give them this key - it is for the room we prepared. Then go and make some Wolfsbane potion. We may need it."
"Yes, my lord." Wormtail took the key from Voldemort, opened the door, and walked out of the room.
"Oh, Wormtail." Wormtail's head reappeared in the doorway. "Remember to disarm them. I shall expect you to do some guard duty yourself." Wormtail's face paled.
"Yes, my lord."
/\/\/\
"Why're there four of them?" Wormtail asked, eyeing the wriggling sacks doubtfully.
"Because that's how many friends he has. Why, is there something the matter?"
"Well, I'd've expected it to be either three or six, personally, but... OK. We need to disarm them. I'll do this one" - Wormtail pointed to the sack with the smallest lump in it - "if you'll do the others." After all, there was less chance of him getting the one he was dreading this way... he opened the sack, and peered in. "Oh, dear," he said.
/\/\/
A/n; It's fun, isn't it? Now. Can you guess - or even work out - what Cerberus and Doxy have done that's so stupid? And if you speak Latin, please excuse my pathetic attempt - I don't speak it and only had the help of a Latin dictionary and the Harry Potter books to help me make up Sirius'... uhm... mental condition.
I'm sure you all know what I live on by now, so go on; review!
|
V