Chapter Eleven: Harry's Plan

"Hold steady," Harry instructed Jessica, though he needn't have. He pointed the wand at the ring in her hand and his expression fell into deep concentration. The incantation he spoke was long but not too terribly complex. Soon, the ring began to glow a brilliant blue. Out of breath, Harry lowered his wand and looked up at Jessica. "Your turn."
Jessica closed her fist around the ring and took a deep breath, her eyes slipping closed. The silence stretched out for many minutes. Cho shifted on her feet, uncomfortably. There were no other movements. Finally, Jessica spoke. "It's. a castle. Large. Rundown. Empty. No, not empty." There was another pause, then Jessica gasped and her eyes snapped open. "Voldemort has him!"

Chandler awoke to the clicking of a key in the door. He sat up and was rubbing his eyes when the door creaked open. A tall, thin man with a dark cloak stood there, glaring at him. "You. How did you get out of your bonds?"
Chandler didn't reply. If the man couldn't see Dog, then that was fine with Chandler. Let him wonder.
The man didn't like wondering. He grumbled and then reached for the boy, pulling him roughly out of the cell. "Come on, get moving. Lord Voldemort wants to see you."
Chandler didn't know who Lord Voldemort was, but he had a feeling that he would rather not see him.

The castle that Jessica was able to describe was the missing clue for the Minister of Magic. Harry now knew what he had been trying to figure out for years - where Voldemort was hiding out. But now it did him no good. He couldn't just send in a team of Aurors, not when Voldemort had the boy. There was only one choice and it was one that Cho didn't like at all.
"Harry, you can't! Don't even think about it!" She exclaimed, her eyes blazing.
"It's too late, love, I've already thought about it. It's the only way."
"What is so special about this boy?" Cho demanded, angrily.
It was Jessica who answered. "It isn't just the boy. We might be able to save two lives here." She already had her cloak on and was waiting for Harry by the door. Her face was gripped with a determination that was so like the Jessica that Harry knew that he was rocked by with nostalgia. But there wasn't time for memories now. Not if they wanted to fix a mistake that had been made almost a decade ago. Not if they wanted to save the future. Without another word, Harry hurried out the door after Jessica, leaving an extremely upset wife behind. He would worry about making it up to her later. If he lived that long.

The castle was just as Jessica had envisioned it. The sky was clear and the moon was full as she and Harry snuck up to the back wall. The wall was sheer and cleared of ivy or vegetation. There's no way they could scale it. Good thing they wouldn't have to.
Harry pulled out his old broom, the Firebolt, and handed it to Jessica. He started to ask her if she remembered how to fly, but the look she gave him suggested he had better not. Silently, she mounted the broom and, as natural as if she were a nimble teenager who had been flying her entire life, Jess made it to the top of the battlements. In no more than thirty seconds, she had silently slipped off onto the wall and dropped the broom neatly down into Harry's hands. A few seconds later, he joined her.
"This is too easy!" She whispered as they knelt in a dark alcove.
Harry shook his head. "We aren't there yet. And we have to face the Dementors."
Jessica's shocked look made Harry grin. "You've been out of touch, Jess. Yes, the Dementors made a treaty with Voldemort."
The look on Jessica's face went from shock to terror. "Oh, no. Chandler!"
"We'll get him. Don't worry." From under his traveling cloak, Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and held it out to Jessica.
Jessica shook her head. "No, you wear it."
"Jessica-"
But Jessica had gained the stubborn look that Harry knew so well. "No. The Dementor's terrify me, yes. But you know as well as I do that they can see right through invisibility cloaks. If I wear it, I might get careless. And you've always been better with Dementors than anyone I have ever known. I'll stay in the shadows."
Harry knew better than to argue. "Very well." Pulling the cloak around him, he whispered. "I'll meet you in the courtyard in 30 minutes. Stay safe, Mrs. Black." And then he left before he could think better of it. He had a mission to do. He had to distract Voldemort and his guppies long enough for Jessica to get Chandler and Padfoot to safety. With the silence of a cat on the prowl, Harry began his hunt for the ancient creatures of fear.