"The good thing is that we know where she has taken him," Dumbledore said, after everyone had gathered in the Headmaster's formal office and took their seats.
The room was full. Professor Snape had arrived first with panic in his eyes. Upon seeing Ginny, he took a cleansing breath and took a seat.
Austerus arrived next, took one look at his brother and Ginny, and immediately sat down.
Harry and Ron were next. Harry stepped back to let Ron go to his sister. Ron, still dealing with his loss, took a stiff upper lip and decided to be there for his sister.
Ginny, still in a light shock, was sitting on a leather loveseat. Ron, after grabbing a nearby blanket, wrapped the blanket around her and gently rocked her in a warm hug. The rocking seemed to soothe Ginny, so he sat down and pulled her on his lap like a small child and held her tight.
"So is it a search and rescue, Headmaster?" Professor Snape asked in abnormally soft voice.
"I'm not sure, Severus. Austerus, have you any thoughts on the matter? Have you spoken with Charlie?" Dumbledore responded.
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore, I spoke with Charlie not 24 hours ago. He had said that while Amberlin had been a bit more active in recent days, there had been no outward signs of an actual plot taking place. I have already contacted Charlie and he has notified all of his men in the area. They are merely waiting for your guidance, sir."
Dumbledore gave a solemn nod, placed his fingers together and took on a pensive air.
"Professor," Ginny said, pulling out of her sorrow, "If I may, I would like to offer some suggestions."
"By all means, Mrs. Malfoy, please continue."
"Let's go over what we know before we jump into anything. I am assuming that you still have the Prophecy tome here?"
Ginny continued at Dumbledore's nod, "Good. Let's get that out. Go over the Prophecy, recent events and what this means for Draco. We also need to hurry. I don't think Amberlin has nice things planned for my husband."
Dumbledore motioned for Austerus to get the tome. Austerus returned seconds later with the tome in hand. He sat it on the corner of Dumbledore's desk and opened it to the correct pages. Dumbledore said the translation charm and the words became modern English, so that all could read.
"We know that Draco and I are the Prince of Dragons and the Woman of Secrets. Harry seems to be the One of Grey. Hermione…well she seems to be the one that could control the tides. Now we know that Merlin is to come back, but we don't know in what form. We do know that this Amberlin woman is a vampire and seems to be working with/or for Merlin. The real question at this point is why did she take Draco?"
"And you are sure it was this woman?" Severus asked.
"Positive, Professor Snape, I dreamt it. I think I saw everything from start to finish."
"Then why did she take him?" Austerus prompted Ginny.
Ginny closed her in eyes concentration. She rubbed her temples with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
"Mrs. Malfoy, are you all right?" Austerus asked with sincere concern in his voice.
"I'm fine. I am trying to get the dream straight in my mind. Ok, I recall that she said she had been waiting for him for a long time. She then said something about him not having manners; but, that his mother and father did. Draco obviously did not want to go, but she made him. She whipped him out of there with brute force and then literally swirled out of the room."
"Definitely a vampire," Austerus smirked. "Do you have any comments on the swirling, Severus?"
"Sod it, Austerus," Professor Snape sneered to his brother.
Harry and Ron hid their sniggers behind their hands, but quickly stopped at the glares they received from the Head of Slytherin.
"The question is why did she take him now? Was she simply trying to get Draco away from me, or is there more to this story?"
"Austerus contact Charlie Weasley," Dumbledore ordered.
"Right away, sir," Austerus said as he stood up and walked out of the office.
"Professor Dumbledore, I hate to bring this up, but could this possibly be linked to seeing Hermione's face in the lake?" Harry asked.
Ron's breath hitched at the mention of Hermione. Ginny returned the earlier favor and pulled him into a hug. Ron put his head in between her shoulder and neck. His body was slightly shaking. Harry walked over to the brother and sister. He placed a comforting hand on Ron's back, and gave Ginny a sorrowful look.
Dumbledore gave Ginny a stern, thoughtful look and said, "Mr. Potter, I think you might be on to something here. Let's remind ourselves of the role that Miss Granger is to play in this Prophecy."
He turned the tome to face him and began reading, "Ahh…here we are. 'The one that ceases will become the moon and the tides will change. Conflict and war always have two sides, yet it is not black and white. Grey will reign supreme for a time.' So it seems that, Mr. Potter, you are on to something here. We need to look into why Hermione's image was being seen in the moon. Minerva, do you have any thoughts? Severus, how about you?"
Professor McGonagall, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, shook her head and said, "Nothing to offer at the moment, Albus. I could contact a few friends of mine and get back to you."
"Good, why don't you go ahead and get working on that."
Professor McGonagall nodded in agreement and quickly walked out of the office. Dumbledore turned to Professor Snape and waited for him to answer.
"Headmaster, I do believe I may have a lead on this perplexing matter. I seem to recall something about this in some texts I once read for Voldemort. If I am given a few hours of research time, I may be able to offer something of use."
Professor Snape snorted at those that jumped at his use of the Dark Lord's name.
"We don't have time," Ginny practically yelled. "We need to move while she is out of commission."
"Severus, go ahead and do your research. As soon as you have something, let us know. The rest of us are going to work on getting Draco back here."
Severus Snape gave a sharp nod to the Headmaster and left; his robes billowing in their usual imperial manner.
"Mrs. Malfoy…Ginny, do you have any thoughts on what needs to be done?"
Ginny shook her head and took a deep breath. It looked like she was about to speak when Austerus came charging back into the room with the copper pyramid.
He placed the pyramid on the desk in front of Dumbledore and nodded to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore pulled his wand out of his sleeve and muttered the enchantments to activate the copper pyramid. Minutes later, Charlie Weasley's head was bobbing above the enchanted device.
"Charlie, good of you to join us, do you have anything new to tell us?"
"Professor Dumbledore, several of my men have confirmed that Miss Mossuri has indeed brought someone new into her castle. According to one of my best men, he is about 6'2", thin and very blonde. Hmmm…that kind of sounds like Draco, doesn't it?"
Ginny had to choke back a sob.
Upon hearing the noise, Charlie turned around and saw everyone else in the room.
"Oh Merlin, Ginny, do you guys think she has Draco?" Charlie asked with fear in his voice.
"We know that she has him," Ron answered for her.
"What do you want us to do, Professor Dumbledore?"
"We want you stay close by and ready for any action that may be needed. We are waiting for Minerva and Severus to return with some further insight into the Prophecies and recent occurrences"
"We'll be standing by, sir."
About two hours later, Severus came running into the office and stopped all conversation by saying, "I found it, Headmaster."
"Found what, Severus?"
"The passage I was looking for…about Miss Granger's image in the moon. I knew I recalled reading something about that while working with Voldemort and I was correct. In fact, I think this entire passage is related to the Prophecy. It seems that Voldemort was trying, at one point, to hasten Merlin's return."
Professor Snape handed a small, tattered parchment to Professor Dumbledore and sat down with a serious look on his face, his head propped on his right arm.
Dumbledore read the parchment to himself and sat back. He gave a sharp look to Professor Snape and asked, "Are you sure about this, Severus?"
"Positive."
"Then I do believe we have a plan, Severus. Thank you for finding this."
"Sir, what is it?" Ginny asked, sitting up on Ron's lap.
"Mrs. Malfoy, I believe that we have a partial answer to the riddle that we call the Prophecy. It seems that Voldemort had tried to expedite Merlin's return and found out some rather odd and, I might add, useful things to help us combat Merlin."
"Are you saying that Voldemort is actually going to help us?" Ron asked with disbelief in his voice.
"Mr. Weasley, you should know by now that nothing is purely evil or purely good, be it even unintentional," Dumbledore assured Ron with a twinkle in his eye.
"Well, what is it, Professor?" Ginny asked.
"It seems, Ginny, Miss Granger is going to play a very large part in our defeat of Merlin."
"What is that parchment, Professor Snape?"
"This is a list of items that Voldemort collected over several years back in the late 70s. This list was complied to do several things. One is to bring back Merlin. Apparently he could only be brought back in certain forms. This is according to several monks who did some research on Merlin in the 1400s. Furthermore, it seems that because Merlin can return in only a few forms, there are, obviously, only certain ways for him to be destroyed. One of the ways for him to be destroyed is through unnatural sunlight."
"Unnatural sunlight? Do you mean sunlight from an eclipse or something? Because there is not another eclipse for at least a year or so, and, even then, it is not a full eclipse," Ron began but was quickly stymied by a hand from Professor Dumbledore.
"Ron, you are getting ahead of yourself, dear boy. No, we are not speaking of a solar eclipse. I guess, in a way, we are talking of something much rarer. We are speaking of an extraordinarily rare surge of light from the sun that is bounced off the moon, magnified and sent to the earth. It causes a rare, full force UV surge during the nocturnal hours." Dumbledore explained to Ron and the rest of the assembled group.
"When can we expect one of these rare occurrences?" Charlie asked.
"I guess that will be the next phase of the research," Professor Snape replied.
"Since Minerva is already with her astronomy colleagues from her old University, let me send a note through the floo to her about this, so she can question her friends." Dumbledore said as he gestured for Fawkes to join him on his desk. Fawkes took the letter in his mouth and, with Harry throwing in some floo powder, flew into the green flames and offered a shrill song.
"What can we do in the meantime?" Austerus asked.
"Keep looking," Dumbledore simply responded, "I fear we are missing something that is right under our noses."