Chapter Five - Finding Hermione
Charlie quickly changed out of his robes into a leather jacket, while Ron used the Floo to call his parents. He didn't give them many details, and Harry winced at the shrill sound in Molly's voice as Ron cut the connection. Someone would be getting a Howler tomorrow -- he hoped it wasn't him.
Harry looked at Charlie and Tracy. "Alright, then. Where would they be taken?"
Charlie looked embarrassed, "I'm not sure. Carnifex isn't one of us; I mean, his lair isn't one that we know."
"Well, where can we start?" Ron asked. "Should we try near the downtown blood bank?"
Harry snapped, "No, they can't use blood from there. It has to be taken live."
Ron looked a little disturbed, "I'll take your word for it, Harry. I don't really want to know why you know that, do I?"
Harry shook his head, "So, this Carnifex, do you know anyone who might know where he lives?"
Charlie shrugged. "I'm not sure. Look, I'm going to have to tell you some things that are supposed to be secret. Don't spread them around, OK?"
"Or what?" Ron challenged.
Harry started to answer him, "You don't..."
Tracy looked at him crossly, "Don't start that again. Look, if Charlie feels he needs to break the Seal of Secrecy, that's his lookout -- if it ever comes out that he's done it, though, he'll be killed."
Charlie nodded, "And if it ever does come out that I've said anything, don't let on that Tracy was anywhere near the scene. Got it?"
The non-vampires in the room nodded, and Charlie continued, "So, here's the thing. There are two kinds of vampires running around here; we belong to one, Carnifex the other. We usually just leave each other alone, since open war between the groups of vampires might end up being noticed. Tracy and I, though, seem to have gotten on Carnifex's bad side. I'm not going to say why, right now, it's not important."
"What makes his kind different from yours?" Harry asked.
"Ours have a fairly rigid code of honor, which includes not killing humans except in self-defense, not doing anything that will make the papers, and generally trying to get along."
"And them? No 'code'?" Ron guessed.
"No, they have a code alright," Tracy scowled. "It's just not as nice as ours."
"Let me guess," Harry interjected, "They don't try to get along."
"That pretty much sums it up," Charlie agreed.
"So, do you know anything about their group that might be useful?" Ron asked, trying to keep the discussion moving.
"Well, they don't tend to recruit Wizards," Charlie said, brainstorming, "and they like live entertainment. Well, it always starts live."
"How about their territory? Is there somewhere that they would generally hunt? Do they have some kind of uniform, like street gangs?" Ron kept prodding.
"Well, not a uniform, exactly, although the ones in Britain all have tattoos on their shoulders."
"That'll help," Ron said sarcastically.
"Well, on territory... they like some of the up and coming neighborhoods. More single people, people who have unpredictable habits."
Ron snapped his fingers; "There have been a few cases at the office lately, Witches who have disappeared from one Muggle neighborhood. We were suspecting Dark Wizards, but they hadn't left any magical traces."
Charlie nodded, "That could be it!"
"Let's go," Harry said, "We don't have anything else to go on."
Ron nodded, "Wait just a moment." He Disapparated.
While he was gone, Harry and the others tried to think of anything else that would let them find Hermione. They couldn't come up with any other ideas, though. The waiting seemed unbearable, and when Ron finally showed up, Harry was stunned to see that he'd only been gone for fifteen minutes.
Ron opened the small box that he held. "When we touch this, we'll be brought back to the flat that the last Witch lived in. I figure we can go from there."
Harry nodded, and they all reached in together. Ron whispered, "Don't worry, Harry, she'll be alright."
The familiar wrench as reality twisted around them made Harry gasp, but he quickly drew his wand in their new location, looking around for danger. They were in a dark, dusty room.
"She disappeared last week," Ron said quietly. "Didn't show up for work. Her neighbor took care of her cat -- said she loved that cat, would never have just left it. We don't think she's coming back."
Harry froze, as he saw a picture on the mantle. "Isn't that...?"
Ron nodded, sadly, "Katie Bell. I hadn't wanted to mention it."
Harry remembered Katie fondly from Hogwarts, one of the three Chasers on the team when he joined it. "I can't believe it."
"Well, if Carnifex is behind this, we have another reason to make him pay."
"You can't," Tracy said. "We need to get Hermione, and get out, and hope they don't know we did it. If mortals get involved, all of the vampires, both his and ours, may decide they need to hush us all up."
"Let's table the doom and gloom," Ron said, "I'm sure I can worry enough for all of us. Let's just see if we can find anything."
They left the flat quietly. Ron pointed out the way to the homes of the other two that had disappeared. "We were focusing on the pub up at the corner. We've established that all three of them stopped there on a regular basis."
"No," Charlie said. He pointed to a park, nearby, which looked dark and menacing. "It would have been there."
"There's no way Katie would have gone in there," Ron said impatiently. "She knew about the other two disappearing -- she knew not to go anywhere that there weren't people. We're surprised she was even walking, instead of Disapparating."
"She may not have walked," Charlie said. "There's a clear view from the park to her window. And, unless I miss my guess, to the windows of the other two."
"That's enough?" Harry asked.
"Doesn't anyone read the classics anymore?" Tracy interjected. "It's straight out of Dracula."
"Forgive me," Ron said, "I don't think the Vampire Book Club met at Hogwarts."
"You might be surprised," Harry said. "There were a few Slytherins that probably could have quoted you chapter and verse. I wouldn't be surprised if Dracula was one of them, originally."
"Vlad?" Charlie responded, "No, he went to Durmstrang. That's beside the point, though. Yes, a vampire could have lured them to the park, if they had the right set of skills."
Ron's voice was so quiet, it was almost a squeak. "They aren't still there, are they?"
"Something's there," Charlie said, equally quietly. "Follow me."
Harry and Ron looked at each other, and each quickly cast a Disillusionment on the other. Charlie and Tracy didn't seem to notice, but they almost blended into the background.
Harry couldn't see anything. As far as he could tell, the whole park was abandoned. He followed Charlie and Tracy, though, with some difficulty, to a park bench. It was under two lights, both of which had burned out bulbs. No, smashed bulbs; Harry could see the broken glass on the ground. He had an almost overwhelming sense of evil. There was a faint noise that he couldn't quite identify, but it nagged at him, like he was missing something.
Suddenly, Charlie's hands shot out and pulled. It looked like he was grabbing into empty space, but his hands were occupied.
His prisoner was mewling like a kitten. He was disgusting to look at; his skin was as pale as the glue Harry had used as a child, his eyes were solid black, no white visible. His ears were fleshy and pointed, their ends drooping. His teeth were huge; they had eroded his lips over time, and one of them was shaped almost like a walrus' tusk.
If the creature had been difficult for Harry to see, it was evident that insects had no such trouble. Flies buzzed around his feet and over his clothing, such as it was. His clothing looked like nothing so much as a black potato sack, with stains that looked almost sticky.
"What the hell is that?" Ron asked under his breath.
Charlie responded, "This is what you were looking for." He tore back a shred of the sack, and pointed at the shoulder. Harry really didn't want to look more closely at the thing, but he did anyway. There was an inverted cross on its shoulder, inside an upside-down five-pointed star.
"Where's the girl?" Harry asked roughly.
The creature looked at him. It looked terrified, but there was something almost mesmerizing about its eyes. Harry quickly put a shield charm between them, and the effect lessened. Whatever they were doing, it wasn't totally different from magic.
It seemed to know that its powers weren't working. It shrieked, but Charlie shook it. "Answer the question, or I'll tie you down on the park bench and let you wait for dawn."
"I'll take you there," it said in a rough voice. Harry couldn't think of it as a 'him'; he'd seen more humanity in Buckbeak or a Blast-Ended Skrewt than he saw in this... thing.
It shambled along. Once, it started to fade from view, but Charlie rapped it across the head, and it returned.
It took it almost an hour to reach a warehouse. It pointed, "In there."
Harry looked at Charlie, "Do you think this is a trap?"
Charlie nodded, "Probably."
"Wands out, then," Ron said, and Harry winced. Those words again. He hoped they weren't an omen.
Charlie pulled off his belt, and tied their prisoner to a lamppost. "If you try to run, we'll find you," he said. The prisoner nodded fearfully.
"Well, then," Tracy said, and she started to run at the door. She hit it with her shoulder, and it fell in with a crash. Charlie was right after her, with Ron and Harry right behind. They had curses on their lips, but they didn't see any targets for them.
"There's nothing here," Ron said after a moment.
"Don't speak so soon," Tracy said, sniffing. She picked up a table and swung it wide into what looked like empty space. With a crash, it splintered into dozens of pieces, and Harry saw two more of the undead huddled together. They looked equally as disgusting as the one outside, with strangely shaped teeth. One was missing its nose.
Tracy reached out, and Harry saw that her fingernails looked more pointed than he'd noticed before. She swung, and tore into one of the undead. It crashed to the ground, with a weak spray of blood. The other was shrieking in terror.
"We need to question them!" Harry shouted.
"No, we don't." Charlie said softly. "I can smell them... there are four women under there." He pointed to a solid steel square that lay on the ground. "They're still alive."
At his words, Tracy attacked the other, and it, too, fell to the ground.
Charlie walked over to the metal square, and flexing his muscles, lifted. The square raised several inches above the ground, and then moved as he pushed it, uncovering a pit that had probably been used for servicing automobiles, judging by the closed garage door in the wall nearby.
There were, indeed, four women inside, all of whom looked like they were in comas. "They'll survive," Tracy said, "Just get them to a doctor."
Ron was looking at them closely. "She's not here."
"What?" Charlie asked, looking at him sharply.
"She's not here. This is Katie, and these are the other two that had disappeared recently, and I've never seen this one before in my life. She's not here."
Charlie cursed. Tracy let him go on for a few minutes, then interrupted. "We need to get these people to medical attention, quickly. Where can we take them? Is there a hospital nearby?"
Ron turned his nose up, "You mean one of those places that Muggles take their sick? Those superstitious quacks? I don't think so."
"St. Mungos'?" Harry asked, and Ron nodded.
"I'll go get an extraction team," he said quickly, and Disapparated. Tracy and Charlie grabbed the corpses of the vampire assailants.
"What are you doing?" Harry looked on in disbelief.
"We can't let them be found, and you can't say anything about us. Weren't you listening?"
Harry hadn't really thought about it. He wasn't tracking right now; he was still back on the realization that Hermione wasn't here. He just stood there dumbly as they dragged the corpses outside. Then he heard a shout, which sounded like Charlie, but didn't sound like anything he'd heard a Weasley say before. Probably because it was an anatomically impossible suggestion, and possibly because of Molly's influence.
Harry ran out the door. "What's wrong?"
Charlie pointed -- the lamppost was unoccupied, his belt in parts on the floor.
Harry echoed Charlie. "Well, we'll have to get him later. Get out of here... Ron should be back soon."
Charlie nodded, and looked up at the top of the warehouse. He leaped what must have been thirty feet straight up. Harry saw him standing there next to Tracy for a moment, and then they both backed away from the edge of the roof.
Harry whistled under his breath, and then heard the sound of small thunder-cracks inside. He walked back into the warehouse, and saw Ron supervising as emergency crews loaded people onto stretchers. Ron looked happy to see Harry. He motioned him over.
"Did you say anything?" Harry asked in a whisper.
Ron shook his head, "No, and I won't."
"What are we going to do about Hermione?" Harry asked urgently.
"I'm not sure, but I think we need more information," Ron said. "I know Charlie doesn't think he can tell us anything, but he's going to need to, if we're going to do anything about this."
One of the Healers came over to Ron, interrupting their discussion. "You got them just in time. One of them wouldn't have lasted another night. I don't suppose you'd know what happened?" The Healer looked like he was middle-aged, but fairly worn, probably a result of too many late nights rescuing wayward witches and wizards. He wore a white robe that reached his feet.
Ron answered, "I'm not sure. We were tracking down a Dark Wizard who was suspected of being an Animagus, and found them."
"An Animagus?" the Healer responded.
"He turns into a really big vampire bat," Ron said solemnly, and Harry had to fight down the giggles.
"I see," the Healer said, gravely. "Well, we'll do what we can for them. I assume you'll want reports to your office?"
Ron nodded.
"We'll be going then, and we'll leave the crime scene to you."
Ron nodded again, and watched as they left, small thundercracks echoing in the darkened warehouse.
Moments later, Charlie and Tracy walked in, whistling softly.
Ron leveled his wand on his brother. "I don't care what Mum does to me, I swear I'll turn you to dust if you don't tell us everything right now."