A/N Okay, sorry it took so long… Exams, illness, stress, etc, yadda yadda yadda, sure it doesn't really give me the right to leave you dangling like that! But still, not much I could do about it! Anyways, please read the A/N at the end! Until then… Read and Enjoy!
Fred, George, Ron, Hermione and Neville all trouped into Dumbledore's office looking nervy and tense. When they saw Ginny's grim face and Dumbledore's worried frown their concern grew.
"Do sit down." Said Dumbledore gently having conjured chairs for them with a weary wave of his arm.
They all sat tensely waiting for the bad news.
"It's not Harry is it?" Asked Neville gripping folds of his robes in his hands tightly.
"No, I'm afraid we have no further news of Harry's situation. I am sad to say that there has been a kidnapping."
Dumbledore said softly.
"Arthur, Molly and Percy Weasley have all been snatched by the Death Eaters, and Voldemort from the burrow."
There was a highly tense silence, Ginny looked at her brothers' faces, judging their reactions. Ron had gripped Hermione's hand and looked extremely pale. Fred and George however looked devastated.
Ginny reached over and grabbed their hands gazing concernedly into their eyes, which had lost their usual glimmer of mischief, her own fear and grief forgotten.
"We have good reason to believe that they're all still alive, there is hope. Especially seeing as they'll be with Harry and Professor Snape… Perhaps together they'll find a way out of there…" Said Ginny quietly trying to reassure herself as much as the others.
Hermione pulled Ron into a hug, which he returned, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Neville was watching Ginny and the twins looking as though he felt out of place, Ginny smiled weakly at him before turning back to the twins who were still worrying her greatly.
Dumbledore seemed just as concerned. He stood up and put his hands on Fred and George's shoulders.
"Your brothers Charlie and Bill are both involved in work for me that is very important, they've been informed of what's happened, but they'll both be finishing their missions before they come here. Who knows, this might all be over by then anyway." Dumbledore said smiling encouragingly at Ginny who was still holding the twins' hands.
~~~*~~~*~~~
Sirius and Remus started their search of the Weasley house in the roof. After having escaped the ghoul in the attic and passed through several messy but empty bedrooms they made their way downstairs.
When Sirius entered the kitchen he yelled,
"Moony! Get in here
now!"
Remus stormed in, wand raised, looking nervous.
"What is it Padfoot?"
He asked, not seeing anything sinister.
Sirius pointed quickly at the grandfather clock before
transforming into his dog-form and sniffing around for clues.
Remus took a glance at the hands on the clock sighing sadly
at the three Weasleys that were at 'Mortal Peril' and the other six that were
at 'Depressed'.
Then something on the kitchen table caught his eye. A piece of wrinkled old parchment... he
picked it up and noted the hastily scribbled words on the front,
Harry in trouble
not much time
needs help quick.
He dropped the parchment in surprise before looking up and seeing Sirius who seemed to have frozen, he was sniffing the ground in the corner of the room and looking confused – If it's possible for a dog to look confused. Then suddenly Sirius' head snapped up and he padded over to Remus and sniffed the fallen parchment curiously.
He transformed back looking even more confused, shocked and
hopeful all at once.
"What wrong Padfoot?" Asked Remus timidly.
"Two things Moony. Firstly, this parchment has been passed recently from our favourite
death eater, that slimy Slytherin, and Arthur Weasley… But more confusingly,
Mundungus Fletcher has been here a little while ago, in that corner over
there…"
"Mundungus?! But he
shouldn't have been here… do you think he's been taken as well… unless… or…"
Remus began to babble incoherently feeling overwhelmed.
Sirius' face darkened
"Who knows, but I think we've found everything Dumbledore
sent us here for." Said Sirius in a
gruff voice still frowning.
Remus nodded and the two of them apparated back as close to
Hogwarts as they could.
~~~*~~~*~~~
Dawn Inigma fingered the message she'd just received from
Dumbledore anxiously, of course she knew about the kidnapping, the Ministry was
in disarray, but she felt awful imagining what the news would have done to
those poor Weasley children.
At least Fudge wont be able to deny everything any longer,
thought Dawn bitterly. She stood from
her chair to reach for a piece of parchment to write her reply on but suddenly
she felt the stabbing pains return to her chest. Frowning and gasping for breath she sat back down swiftly, the
parchment abandoned. She'd been feeling
a little under the weather for a while now but she'd ignored it with all that
had been going on, the pains however had started only recently and she realised
that she couldn't ignore this.
She cursed the bad timing and tried desperately to catch
her breath as the pain subsided. Her
pulse was racing and her fingers and toes tingled unpleasantly.
A soft hooting from the Hogwarts owl reminded her of the
need to reply to Dumbledore's letter which had requested that she remain at the
Ministry to help restore order seeing as all classes had been cancelled.
Her efforts so far ad been thwarted by the illness which
was now coursing through her even more strongly than before.
After a few minutes she roused herself and, moving much
more slowly this time, she reached again for the parchment. In a rather shaky hand, quite unlike her
usual flamboyant script she scribbled down her reply. The owl that'd been waiting patiently hooted reassuringly as it
took her letter and Dawn staggered over to the couch in her makeshift Ministry
office and fell into a feverish sleep.
~~~*~~~*~~~
Snape wanted desperately to run far away, he'd never been
more sorely tempted to flee in all his life. Mundungus Fletcher knew about his loyalty to Dumbledore… Harry was
powerless to help… He was alone and Snape knew that he was a dead man… No one
lived at the mercy of Lord Voldemort...the snake did not know mercy.
As Severus retreated self-consciously into the group of
Death Eaters he thought frantically for a way out of the situation. But nothing presented itself… and soon he
was distracted by the introduction of a new and disturbing complication…
"A dragon!"
The woman's voice rang through the previously silent hall,
it snapped Snape from his thoughts so strange was it to hear the soft female
tone to the frightened voice.
He felt his heart sink as he watched Molly Weasley being
dragged into the hall, closely followed by Arthur and Percy Weasley, and
Minister Fudge.
~~~*~~~*~~~
Harry stirred and Molly Weasley's soft whimperings of fear
echoed around the hall. Arthur Weasley
however was studying the dragon intently and when he saw the golden lightening
bolt his eyes widened in realisation and concern.
"Harry! Molly! It's
Harry!"
He muttered quickly,
"See his scar?"
Fudge overheard Arthur's amazed voice and his head, like
Percy's snapped towards the gleaming white dragon, which seemed to be
awakening. He felt himself tense in
fear… Harry Potter… A dragon… Was that a good thing?
He was just thinking about how he'd punish Harry for being
an unregistered animagus when he remembered where he was, and then, as if his
sudden fear had triggered it, the sea of Death Eaters parted revealing what
Fudge had been denying for months… The risen and powerful Lord Voldemort.
The Weasleys ignored Fudge who seemed to have collapsed in
a trembling wreck on the floor and huddled together closely hardly daring to
look up at the terrifying sight that met their eyes.
Voldemort strode towards them with frightening glint in his
eyes, he paused when he reached Harry's struggling form, and pointed his wand
at the dragon. Molly grabbed Arthur's
hand in fright and they squeezed hands nervously as they watched.
Voldemort's face was supremely confident as he used the
awakening spell to revive Harry.
"Enervate!"
As the dragon sprang up Voldemort twirled his wand happily
between his hands.
He then proceeded to clear the conjunctiva curse from
Harry's eyes.
The dazzling green eyes that replaced the sore white ones
showed no emotion, and Harry simply snorted at Voldemort a little impatiently.
"You muggle-loving scum will now witness the immense power of Lord Voldemort, and what it can do… As you probably know, seeing as you have such an amusing devotion to Dumbledore's cause, I have been carrying out a little spell on your dear friend here. And it seems that I have been successful."
Arthur and Molly looked at each
other in horror. Surely Harry couldn't
have been beaten… It wasn't meant to happen like this!
"If you don't believe me, perhaps
we will test him out." Said Voldemort
with a chilling look of superiority and mocking on his face.
"Imperio!" Cried Voldemort sending the spell at the
dragon.
Molly pulled Percy into a tight
Hug with her free hand and clenched Arthur's hand even more tightly,
"Come on Harry! Fight it! You've always managed before… Please!" She muttered desperation tainting her motherly voice.
But when she saw the blank look
on the dragon's face she realised that there wasn't any hope, that the
impossible must have happened, that her life and the lives of the two people
she was clinging to so desperately were almost certainly about to end, in this
cold dark room, to be ended by the boy she'd practically adopted as a son, who
she loved as a son, and who she knew would never have harmed them were it not
for… Lord Voldemort.
~~~*~~~*~~~
Sirius and Remus stumbled into
Dumbledore's office pale-faced and panting Remus thrust the piece of parchment
into Dumbledore's hands before collapsing into a chair, Sirius in his dog form
nudged Lupin's leg impatiently as if willing him to speak.
"Albus… Si-… Umm, we have good
reason to suspect that Mundungus Fletcher has betrayed us."
Faltered Remus between breaths,
Dumbledore frowned and they could
all see the betrayal in his eyes, but he kept his composure and started to
unfold the parchment.
It was however thrust down on the
desk and forgotten when a school owl swooped into the room distracting
everybody.
Dumbledore read Inigma's letter
and frowned,
"Students, would you please leave
Professor Lupin and I for a moment please." He said pensively.
Ginny had not been distracted by
the arrival of the owl, she'd recognised the writing on the front of the
parchment as that of her father and when she saw that there was more writing on
the inside she realised with a jolt that it had been written on some of Fred
and George's parchment paper! Knowing
that even the professors would not be able to read it she sneakily snatched it
as she left the office, feeling a twinge of guilt as she left but realising that
for once this was something that Fred and George would be better able to put to
use than the professors who seemed distracted by this new letter anyway.
~~~*~~~*~~~
As they regrouped outside the
office Neville sighed,
"I wish they'd let us know what
was going on for once. It's like they
don't trust us, I really wish there was something we could do!"
Everybody nodded.
Ginny looked around at her
friends, they all looked miserable,
"Fred, George, is there a spell
you can use to un-jumble your puzzlement parchment?"
She asked grabbing their sleeves.
"What has that got to do with
anything Gin?" Asked Fred frowning.
"I think we should unscramble
this for the professors is all." Said
Ginny holding out the parchment.
The others all looked at her in
shock, moving away from the office Hermione exclaimed
"You just took it! I can't believe you did that!"
Fred grabbed the parchment,
"This is Dad's writing." He said looking at the parchment as if it
were a treasure.
Opening it he almost smiled
seeing the jumbled and disfigured letters he and George looked at each other
nodded and pointed their wands at the parchment saying together.
"Mischief Managed!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N – hee hee hee, hope you all
liked it!… Okay, I realise that you weren't allowed into Harry's head for this
chapter, and I'm afraid that it's something I did on purpose… Deadly
cliffhangers seem to be one of my specialities… I hope I've rattled you guys
enough to get a load more reviews!
*Grins evilly*
It certainly seems to work!
Over 300 So far!!! Thanks soooo
much for all the reviews I've been getting! I love them, and I love you for sending them!
So much that I will do individual
replies….
Jade – Fun? well I don't know about that, but I
certainly toyed with both options before deciding…
PEZ – Wow! That must have taken ages! I try and update
regularly… I try!
Allison – The reason Harry hasn't
transformed back from a dragon is because he needs to know who he is so that he
can harness those inner qualities in transforming… Um, the main reason why he'd
prefer to be human is for communication… He can't talk as a dragon.
Elsebeth Fishnips – Nope haven't seen
A League of their Own, and thanks.
Jeanne / Jess – I'm sorry! You know you love it really!
candidus draconis – That's a really
cool coincidence! I'm glad you like my story!
Abbey – *grins evilly again* You know
what I'm like by now! Glad you liked it!
Ady – Yup that Ginny sure is a star…
Ahem (you murderer you!) And thanks for the neverending praise! It's really nice to have from you, great support
for the struggling 'artiste' *laughs at self*
Zepp Hob – Thanks!
Dumbledore's True Love – Thanks! I hope you and Prongs sort out the whole thing
with yer fics, I love them both!
Zenya – I'm going to check your story
out, expect a review from me! I'm sure it's
great.
vmr –Thanks!
Lily (kittyKat) – No need to beg,
and thanks!
Sandrine Black – Thanks!
Kelzery – Is that Cedar Point in Sandusky?
Coz I went there last summer, it was wicked!
And thanks for your continuing and brilliant
support
Shadow – I do try to be quick – Exams
are less now so I should speed up again… hopefully!
Breezie - *shies away* I know!
He will pay… eventually… hopefully… I think…
Noura – Loved Eye of Darkness… Write
More!!!!
Lena – Good! I hope you enjoy the rest of mine!
Nagh – Thanks!
DJ – Thanks!
Sweets – Thanks!
Lin-z – Could you sign in this time
so I can get to your fic! & Thanks!
Adrienne – Glad you like Harry's animagus!
I think it would be pretty cool 2 c as well!
Jinskid3 – Here it is! Thanks!
harry's girl 3 – I thought that what
you'd written so far for 'The End' was brill! Please write more!
Allison – I know it's not Halloween
yet!!!!! Most of the action happens very early in the year… and … well… you'll see!
Claudia – I'm not a genius! But thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to review! Thanks for enjoying my writing!
*Phew!*
I think that's everyone! *Sighs
contentedly*
Please review!
Next part as soon as I manage it!
Love,
Jona
xxx