Usual disclaimer: IKNOW

(I Know. Nothing Owned. Whatever.)

Chapter 4: In Which Harry and Ron Hear of Hermione's Disappearance…

News of a Hogwarts's student's disappearance spread through the school like wildfire. Classes were dismissed for the day while the Hogwarts teachers were searching for the missing girl. Most of the students were in their dormitories talking in low, secretive voices, while some stayed in the library or in the Great Hall. Everyone was suspicious of everyone else. Even friends were a little less sociable with each other.

When Harry heard the news of Hermione's disappearance, he couldn't believe it. He had just come down from the fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory, fastening his cloak on over his black, billowing robes when he noticed that everyone was crowded in the common room around the fireplace. The common room was usually empty when he came down from the dormitory to go to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Everyone was talking in hushed, fearful, and (for some) excited voices as they stayed in small groups. People were throwing glances anxiously back over their shoulders as if they expected someone to sneak up behind them and snatch them away.

Harry knew something was wrong for sure when he saw Neville Longbottom standing in a corner by himself, his round, pink face streaks with tears.

He hurried over to Neville and asked him, "Neville, what's wrong? Why is everyone just standing here? What happened?"

"Her-Hermione is gone!" Neville stammered tearfully as he tried to speak while sniffling. He looked even more of a nervous wreck than he usually was. "Sh-she's been k-k-kidnapped!"

Harry froze. All thoughts of hunger that he had had only seconds before vanished from his mind. Instead, his mind seemed to go blank with shock. Hermione was gone? But how could this be?

Instantly he bolted back upstairs. When he reached the boys' dormitory, he threw open the door and ran inside. Ron was the only boy still sleeping in the dormitory. Everyone else was up.

"Ron! Ron! Wake up!" Harry cried. "Hermione's been kidnapped!"

Ron rolled over sleepily, rubbed his eyes, and murmured while yawning, "Don't worry. They'll give her back soon…"

He then promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

"RON!" Harry yelled. "HERMIONE-IS-GONE!"

This time Ron immediately sat up in bed and looked at Harry. He squinted his eyes sleepily as he repeated, "Hermione is gone?"

Harry nodded grimly. "I think Voldemort took her," he said solemnly, "as a way to get to me."

Ron was awake enough to hiss, "Harry, don't say-"

Suddenly the impact of Harry's message finally came across to Ron. He instantly jumped out of bed.

"Harry! We've got to go look for her!" Ron cried, suddenly panicked as he ran to his trunk at the foot of his bed. He threw open his trunk, pulled out his shoes, and put them on. He put his right shoe on his left foot and vice versa for his other shoe and seemed to take no notice of this. "We've got to find her!"

"Wait, Ron! We don't even know where she might have gone!" Harry called anxiously after him. He then tried reasoning aloud to calm himself and Ron down. He said hopefully while pacing the room. "Maybe she wasn't even kidnapped! Maybe she- I don't know, maybe she just went for a midnight stroll outside of the common room and-"

"What, do you think she got locked in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom or some kind of rubbish like that?" Ron demanded, exasperated, as he ran to the dormitory door with his shoes on the wrong feet.

"But Ron, we don't even know where to start looking for her!" Harry called after him. "And you've-"

"Just come on, Harry!" Ron said, throwing the dormitory door open and dashing down the stairs.

Harry shook his head and ran downstairs after him. He was all for rescuing Hermione too, but he thought they needed to think more before just dashing around the school blindly searching for her. Also, he thought that Ron needed to change out of his too small, patched up, Weasleys pajamas before they searched for Hermione.

Loud, jeering, girlish laughter coming up from the common room told Harry that everyone else in the common room had seen Ron dashing valiantly down to rescue Hermione…in his Weasley pajamas, which were knitted by Mrs. Weasley and had a big 'R' on the front of them, and in his shoes that had holes in them (which were usually not noticed because of his long black robes) that were on the wrong feet.

Seconds later, Ron reappeared at the top of the stairs to the boys' dormitory, his face and ears as red as his hair.

"Let's rescue Hermione…" Ron said slowly, taking a deep breath to try to dispell his embarrassment. He added sheepishly, "…But I think I should wear something different than my pajamas before we start searching for her."

Harry grinned and said, "See you in the common room, Ron." He then made his way down to the common room where the girls were all talking and giggling about Ron's Weasley pajamas. This would be an interesting day indeed.

~*~*~*~*

Later…

Several minutes later after Ron had changed clothes and put his shoes on the right way, Harry and Ron were sitting down in the Great Hall discussing what they should do about Hermione's disappearance after breakfast.

"This is as much as I've learned about Hermione's disappearance from other people," Harry said quietly, leaning forward. "Apparently she disappeared during the night. Parvati Patil said that she thinks she heard her coming to bed around two-thirty in the morning or so. Mind you, Parvati thinks that she heard Hermione coming to bed around that time. It's not certain."

"Why didn't anyone report her disappearance sooner?" Ron demanded.

Harry shook his head. He explained, "No one knew that Hermione was gone until Parvati discovered that Hermione was gone. The kidnapper put a pillow under the blankets of Hermione's bed to make it look like she was still there so that no one would get suspicious. Parvati discovered that Hermione was gone around seven-thirty. So anytime between two-thirty and seven-thirty Hermione was kidnapped."

"Between two-thirty and seven-thirty?!" Ron exclaimed in disbelief. "But that's a broad range of time! She could be anywhere by now! Her kidnapper could have taken her far away from here." He then pondered aloud. "How did a kidnapper get in here?"

"Who knows?" Harry replied, shrugging. "The kidnapper could be anyone. The kidnapper doesn't have to be a stranger. It could have been someone who was already in Hogwarts."

"Like a teacher!" Ron cried. He became excited by his own 'brilliant deduction'. "Of course! A teacher would know all the passwords to the houses, I'm sure!"

"But Ron, even if a teacher did know all the passwords to the houses, the portraits would know that someone had come in the house, and they would have told someone who came in at night," Harry said, trying to reason with him patiently. "The portraits claim that no one came into Gryffindor house at night. So the kidnapper must have gotten inside some other way." He added, "Besides that, why would a teacher kidnap Hermione? It doesn't make sense. Teachers like Hermione. They wouldn't want to kidnap her…"

"But what if Snape kidnapped her?" Ron persisted. "I mean, you know that Dumbledore sent him to go join You-Know-Who as a spy for us. What if You-Know-Who convinced Snape to really join him again and kidnap Hermione since Hermione is a friend of yours as a show of good faith? You know, I bet You-Know-Who would do that. I'm sure of it. You-Know-Who would do that-"

"Oh! Will you please stop it with the You-Know-Whos!" Harry cried, agitated. "I'm sick and tired of all this using 'You-Know-Who'. It's driving me crazy! You-Know-Who kidnapped You-Know-Who and took her You-Know-Where at You-Know-When! For goodness' sakes, can't we just say his name? He isn't going to come swooping down on us if you say his name!"

Ron looked terrified at his audacity. So did many other people who were sitting in the Great Hall staring at him in horror.

"Sorry, people, sorry," Harry muttered appologetically as he put his elbows on the table and ran his hands through his hair. "I'm just getting a little worked up, that's all."

Ron replied when people gradually went back to what they were doing.

"Okay, so how do you think the kidnapper got into the Gryffindor girls' dormitory?" Ron asked, putting aside the subject of the kidnapper's identity. "I mean, he couldn't apparate in here, and I don't think that he could fly up to the dormitory windows and break in…"

"Well, that girl Maria told me that the kidnapper must have gotten in using Floo powder," Harry replied, quieter. "Everyone thinks they used Floo powder because there were Ashwinders in the fireplace that had to be exterminated. Ashwinders are only born when a fire, especially a magical fire like one enhanced by Floo powder, are left burning for long periods of time."

"You're starting to sound like Hermione," Ron said, sounding half-amused and half-annoyed.

"I should after Hermione made me read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at least a thousand times before the Care of Magical Creatures final exam," Harry said, shrugging.

"Harry!" Ron said suddenly, seized by an idea. "What if there's a spell that would make the fireplace in the girls' dormitory take us to the place it took the last person who used Floo powder? Then we would be brought to the exact place where Hermione was taken when she was kidnapped! What d'you think Harry?"

He was silent for a moment, thinking. After a few seconds passed, he looked up and said, "Ron that's a bloody brilliant idea! Let's go rescue Hermione!"

With that, Harry jumped up from the table and bounded out of the Great Hall.

Ron ran after him, yelling, "Hey! That's my line! You stole my line! Get back here!"

~*~*~*~*

A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed! If I get at least two reviews for this chapter, I'll post the next chapter. ^_~