Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
A/N: I had to get one more chapter in before I went away on vacation. This chapter is LOOOONG and it's sort of boring because I needed to establish a few things before I read the climax. Thanks to all who reviewed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We have to go back!" Hermione screamed at Harry as they raced along the country side, widening the gap between themselves and the battling Death Eaters.
"And do what, Hermione?" Harry yelled back at her. "Lucius is past second chances at this point and even you know that the likely hood of him letting Draco go is slim to none."
"But we can't just leave him there!"
"Could you try yelling somewhere NOT in my ear, Hermione?" Ron muttered.
"We can't do anything for him now, Hermione! He's with family and as angry as Lucius is, Draco is still his son. I doubt he'll do anything to harm him."
"You haven't seen-"
"We have no time!" Harry yelled back at her. Hermione let her head slip onto Ron's shoulder and sighed.
"Well then where are we going?" she asked.
"We're searching," Harry said, his eyes fixed on the ground rushing below him. "The Ministry is on their way and if we can find them it will save a lot of time and explaining. And it wouldn't hurt for you to help."
Hermione looked down at the slowly lightening ground. The sun was slowly coming up over the horizon, sending pink slivers of light across the sky. The green of the hills slowly grew brighter as the sun showed its full face over the hill. Her face, cold from the rushing wind, found warmth again. Hermione looked around Ron's back and saw an approaching town coming up after a hill.
"Are we landing?" she asked. Ron nodded as he and Harry veered to the left and alighted on a hill that was still damp with night frost. Hermione climbed off and stretched her arms.
"Tired?" asked Ron, his smile lined with fatigue. Hermione nodded and sat down, facing back towards the distant beach. "He's fine." Ron said softly, sitting down beside her. Hermione nodded, although she wasn't so sure.
Lucius could be unpredictable and she didn't want to think about what he had planned next.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Draco was back at his house, lying next to Hermione near the warmth of the fire. The smell of her hair mingled with the smell of holly as he kissed the back of her neck. Hermione looked over and smiled.
"Do you trust me?" she asked softly.
"Yes I do," Draco whispered back into her ear. Hermione turned over out of his arms and onto her elbow.
"Then why did you leave me?"
"I'm right here," Draco replied, drawing her back into his arms. Hermione stiffened under his touch and shook her head.
"No, you're not. You're miles away. You're miles away because you didn't trust me." Hermione stood up and walked to the window. Draco stood up and tried to follow, but he took one step and found he couldn't move another inch. Dried holly rustled under his feet. He looked up and saw Hermione standing by the open window. Outside he could see the sea breaking.
"You're miles away because you didn't trust me," Hermione whispered, suddenly standing on the edge of the window sill.
"I'm right here!" Draco called out to her desperately. Hermione shook her head and took a step out of the window towards the roaring sea. "NO!" Draco screamed, his feet suddenly becoming free as he threw himself towards the window. "HERMIONE!" But she fell, slipping through his fingers like sand...
Like sand....
Draco jerked awake, his fingers clutching sand that slowly fell through the cracks between his fingers. It had grown light as he slept, as the Death Eaters planned around the fire. The fire had dwindled down into smoke that disappeared into the sky. Antonin pulled Draco up and brushed his sweater free of sand.
"We're off in a few minutes." Antonin said, leading Draco to a small group of Death Eaters. "We've been put into search groups to cover more ground." Draco nodded. His father was deep in conversation with another Death Eater, who had given chase to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"We know the general direction they went and we can easily follow it, but my concern is that they'll meet the Ministry and alert them," the Death Eater was saying. Lucius nodded and noticed his son listening to the exchange with interest. The Death Eater stepped back to continue the conversation to the appointed Death Eater in charge of the search for the trio.
"Have you decided to join the search or just be dragged along? Naturally you don't want to be a burden, but I'm afraid we can't leave you anywhere and although you've proved yourself to be a hopeless coward last night, I would rather not listen to your teenage angst as we search," Lucius finished, standing back and waiting for Draco's answer.
Draco might have lacked courage last night, but he wasn't about to help his father to kill the one person he loved, the one person who loved him...
"No Father," Draco replied, crossing his arms and regarding his father with sympathy. "Your lust for power has gone out of the control and I don't intend to play a part in a hostile takeover."
Lucius sighed and pulled on his gloves. "I thought as much. You really are hopeless, you know that? You're letting your feelings blind you from your ultimate purpose."
"At least I feel," Draco replied softly. Lucius smiled and signaled for his broom.
"Do you want to ride with me or do you prefer to be shackled to something heavy?" Lucius asked, the pleasure in his voice not impossible to detect. Draco only smiled and climbed behind his father. "Hmmm, glad you're not ruling out every possibility," Lucius muttered from the front.
"No, it's just that now I have my hands free to push you off if I wish," Draco said as the broom lifted off the ground. Lucius chuckled as the broom rose higher into the hair and joined the group in the sky.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ready to go on?" Harry asked, pulling his riding gloves back on.
Hermione, pulled out of a delightful day dream, pulled herself up and mounted on the broom behind Ron.
"Where are we going now?" she asked.
"We're still on the lookout for the Ministry, but if we see a dead person walking around anywhere, we should take note of that too."
"Take note?" Ron said. "You mean all we're going to do is look at it and say, 'Oh look, another dead person.' Shouldn't we do something about it?"
"Feel like battling a zombie warrior anytime soon, Ron?" Harry asked, pushing off from the ground.
"I'm not saying we should battle it, but couldn't we...cut off his legs or something?" Harry and Hermione looked at him in amused confusion. "You know! So he can't move any further!"
"See, this is why we keep you around, Ron," Hermione said.
"Shut up," muttered Ron.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Draco was planning. He refused to help his father, but if they did come across Hermione, he would have to do SOMETHING. He couldn't just sit there and hope his father had mercy. No, he would have to do something. But he couldn't think of what. He no longer had his wand and even if he did he couldn't hope to use it against his father.
He was glad of his cloak by now, because although it was a sunny morning, it was still December and the hood shielded his face against the oncoming wind. Draco adjusted the cloak around his legs and felt the pipes that were still lying in his pocket. His father still didn't know he had them. Fortunately, they hadn't turned cold recently or his father would have noticed in their close proximity. How could these pipes even hope to save him? He didn't even now how to use them and his father would notice before he had a chance to find out.
"There has to be some other way," Draco thought as he soared with his father hundreds of feet above the ground.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You know I just thought of something," Hermione said.
"What?" Ron asked curiously.
"If we wanted to alert the Ministry, shouldn't we have just stayed on the beach? The Ministry will apparate there anyway to investigate."
Ron stayed silent for a while.
"HARRY!" he yelled, spurring up until he and Harry were neck to neck.
"Yes, Ron?" Harry asked, slowing down a bit. "Do you see something?"
"Hermione...?" Ron started, turning his broom around so Hermione was facing Harry. Harry stopped and hovered, eyes searching the ground.
"Wouldn't it have been better to stay on the beach and wait for the Ministry? They need to investigate there anyway, don't they?" Hermione said tentatively.
Harry looked up in surprise. They hovered there for a few seconds, letting the wind blow their brooms about a bit.
"Shit..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The morning was cold and Draco's eyes watered as he gazed intently on the ground rushing below him. If he could get his father down on the ground long enough, he might be able to get away and find Hermione. All he had to do was to find an excuse for a landing. If he could maybe see a dead walker before Lucius.
"Lucius!"
"Speak of the devil," Draco thought, as he saw a man flying towards them. "I thought Travers died.."
Travers sped up on his broom towards his father and Draco, who paused his thoughts to focus on the man's frantic message.
"We just received word that the Ministry came and left. They're reported to have started looking for the dead."
"As are we," mummered Lucius. "And have they found any?"
"No, we've found them all." The man replied, keeping speed with Lucius's broom.
"Them ALL?" Lucius asked disbelievingly.
"Yes. It seems the girl lied. They are all massed together and moving as one."
Draco tried to envision the sight, but found he couldn't without frightening himself. The pipes, which had grown painfully cold, throbbed even more painfully against his leg.
"Moving as one? Where are they headed?" Lucius asked.
"They seem to be moving towards the strongest gathering of life in Ireland," the man replied tentatively.
Lucius slowed his broom down to a slow crawl and stared at the man in furious exasperation.
"I'm so sorry that I'm not as familiar with the terrain as you, my dear Travers. Would you be so kind as to tell us where my army is headed?" Lucius said in short bursts between his teeth. Draco could feel his father's heart racing through his back.
"I meant no disrespect. They're heading towards Dublin and they're in plain daylight. We need to catch them before they cause an accident." Travers explained, backing his broom away from Lucuis a little just in case.
"But that, my dear Travers, is what we want," Lucius responded, a smile curving up his lips. Draco shivered, readjusting his pant leg so the pipe wasn't against his leg.
An army of the dead marching on Ireland's biggest city, moving slow and intently across the live green hills towards Ireland's biggest populace. "Most people are probably still having their morning coffee." he thought.
"We need to find them," Draco whispered to himself.
"Indeed we do, son." Lucius said back, his broom picking up speed, heading towards the marching death walkers headed towards Dublin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I have an idea," Ron said, breaking the enormous silence that had fallen over the trio. Hermione was just thinking whether it would just be best to go back and wait on the beach, but found her thoughts broken by Ron's first input of ideas. Ron was rubbing his face, thinking it over more fully. He raised his head in decision and cleared his throat.
"We can't go looking all over Ireland for dead people. What would we do if we found one, anyway?" He looked at Harry, who stayed silent. "Yeah. That's what I thought. But if we could find someone or something that could maybe give us a hint, we could deal with this more rationally."
Harry and Hermione waited for more, but apparently Ron was done.
"Where do you suggest we go, Ron?" Harry asked. "Who do we know who has knowledge of necromancy?" Ron shrugged. "Well then we're back where we started."
"How about the local library?" Hermione said thoughtfully. Harry and Ron turned slowly and disbelievingly at Hermione, who shrunk back a bit on her seat. "Ok, it was just a suggestion."
"No, no," Harry said, still looking at Hermione, but this time thoughtfully. "You're right."
"Harry, a LIBRARY? Even our library doesn't go into detail on Necromancy!" Ron said, laughing incredulously.
"We don't even know the basics, Ron. We need all we can get," Harry replied, rising higher in the air, looking around him for a town. "Didn't we land near a town earlier?"
"Dublin," Hermione replied. "We can still see it from here. They're likely to have a few libraries." Harry nodded and sped off towards the distant town and beyond that, the country that lay sprawled out like a giant patchwork quilt across the hills. Ron followed, this time closer to the ground.
"Hermione, do you still have that invisibility cloak?" Harry yelled back at her, slowly down to avoid being seen by a passing car.
"No! I left it at Draco's," Hermione yelled back over Ron's head.
"Then we'll just have to walk in, then." Harry said.
"Or break in," Ron added
"Just be sure not to crash into any windows this time, Ron," Harry said, smiling at the approaching town and slowing down to land.
"Thanks for that Harry. I'll remember that." Ron landed next to Harry and sent him a look that said, "I'm going to kill you when this is all over." Harry laughed and Hermione couldn't help by join in. By the time they had reached streets, they had broken the morning silence with their joyful laughter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mom, some kids with brooms are walking down the street laughing." A boy peeked out of his curtains while eating breakfast.
"They have brooms?" his mother asked, coming up behind him to peer out the window.
"Yes, and they're laughing."
The mom sighed and moved to the sink to pull on her washing gloves. "Brooms. What will kids find 'hip' next?"
"I want a broom!"
"Eat your breakfast."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They stood staring up at a massive building out of the way of the shops and situated near the Dublin's city border. It looked fairly new, gray concrete and flower boxed windows around the walls. A sign was glass plated and stuck above the door:
DUBLIN LIBRARY
Open Monday-Saturday, 10-7
All books to be returned on Sundays at the box
***************
"Well, where's the back way?" Harry asked, walking around to the back.
"It looks fairly new, Harry. It'll probably have a security alarm or something." Hermione said, she and Ron following Harry to the back where it opened up into the patchwork fields.
"Like a hex?" Ron asked, moving behind Hermione as Harry searched for a door.
"No, like electric." Hermione replied. When met with a blank stare, she only shook her head. "Never mind."
"Found it!" They followed Harry's voice further down the wall behind some bushes and watched as he cleared away a bush to reveal a cellar door. "It's probably a storage room."
"Is it open?" Ron came up and pulled on the handle. "Evidently not."
Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed at the lock. Harry and Ron both had to stop themselves from warning her against magic, until they remembered she had already done enough to get her expelled.
"Alohomora."
They all heard a click and Ron pulled open the door into a dusty dark hole. "Thanks Hermione." She nodded.
They descended into the gloom, sidestepping boxes of books air packed to prevent dampness and decay. They found some stairs in little time and with Harry in front, Hermione in the middle, and Ron ending the line, they climbed up and opened the unlocked door into the library.
They walked into a back room, leaving the cellar door open. They opened the far door and peeked out into the shelves of books. The building was silent, all three floors of it. The sound made from their shoes on the white tile floor echoed off the walls and off the volumes surrounding them.
"Where could it be?" Ron asked, his voice sounding strangely loud. Harry pointed towards a file drawer and they headed towards it.
"If you would be so kind, Hermione." Harry murmured.
"Alohomora," Hermione said blandly, and Harry opened up the drawer marked "N." He riffled through the cards, brow furrowed in intensity. "Well," he said, closing the door, "it's not here."
"Maybe we can check Black Magic," Ron suggested as Hermione got the "B" drawer unlocked. Harry looked, pulled out a few cards, and headed off to their corresponding shelves. The first was a dud, a stupid fiction book about a witch.
"This is so inaccurate," Hermione said, looking over the book in disgust. They moved on towards the second card, which listed only necromancy as a tool used in séances. Seemingly hopeless, their search led them to a shelf near the back of the library where the magazines and comic books are kept.
"Are you sure this book will be legitimate?" Ron asked, eyeing a Superman comic suspiciously. But the book Harry pulled out was leather bound and worn at the edges. Hermione and Ron watched as Harry leafed through the pages.
"Here we are: Necromancy. Ok...nothing we don't know..ok...you were right, they do need their souls in bodies...let's see.." Harry paused, and read over a sentence a second time. He breathed in shakily and read it over a third time.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, trying vainly to see over his shoulder.
"This is weird, but it says that the raised souls will head towards the largest gathering of the living they can sense." Harry paused and looked at them. "It doesn't make sense."
"Where does it say-oh..I see," Ron said, grabbing the book from Harry's hands and finding the sentence. "Where would they go? China?"
"Dublin." They turned towards Hermione who was staring at them in horror. "Dublin is the biggest city in Ireland, especially when people come in to go to work."
"Are you saying there's an army of DEAD PEOPLE marching towards Dublin?" Ron cried.
"Towards us," Hermione added, nodding. They stayed frozen in shock for about three seconds, until suddenly they all broke into a frantic run for the cellar door, dropping the book and the cards on the clean tile floor. They raced into the darkness of the cellar and fumbled to open the door, already climbing onto their brooms. Harry opened the door and they all tumbled out into the morning sunlight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Uh oh! I used the "s" word! I am SUCH a rebel! MWA HA!
A/N: I had to get one more chapter in before I went away on vacation. This chapter is LOOOONG and it's sort of boring because I needed to establish a few things before I read the climax. Thanks to all who reviewed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We have to go back!" Hermione screamed at Harry as they raced along the country side, widening the gap between themselves and the battling Death Eaters.
"And do what, Hermione?" Harry yelled back at her. "Lucius is past second chances at this point and even you know that the likely hood of him letting Draco go is slim to none."
"But we can't just leave him there!"
"Could you try yelling somewhere NOT in my ear, Hermione?" Ron muttered.
"We can't do anything for him now, Hermione! He's with family and as angry as Lucius is, Draco is still his son. I doubt he'll do anything to harm him."
"You haven't seen-"
"We have no time!" Harry yelled back at her. Hermione let her head slip onto Ron's shoulder and sighed.
"Well then where are we going?" she asked.
"We're searching," Harry said, his eyes fixed on the ground rushing below him. "The Ministry is on their way and if we can find them it will save a lot of time and explaining. And it wouldn't hurt for you to help."
Hermione looked down at the slowly lightening ground. The sun was slowly coming up over the horizon, sending pink slivers of light across the sky. The green of the hills slowly grew brighter as the sun showed its full face over the hill. Her face, cold from the rushing wind, found warmth again. Hermione looked around Ron's back and saw an approaching town coming up after a hill.
"Are we landing?" she asked. Ron nodded as he and Harry veered to the left and alighted on a hill that was still damp with night frost. Hermione climbed off and stretched her arms.
"Tired?" asked Ron, his smile lined with fatigue. Hermione nodded and sat down, facing back towards the distant beach. "He's fine." Ron said softly, sitting down beside her. Hermione nodded, although she wasn't so sure.
Lucius could be unpredictable and she didn't want to think about what he had planned next.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Draco was back at his house, lying next to Hermione near the warmth of the fire. The smell of her hair mingled with the smell of holly as he kissed the back of her neck. Hermione looked over and smiled.
"Do you trust me?" she asked softly.
"Yes I do," Draco whispered back into her ear. Hermione turned over out of his arms and onto her elbow.
"Then why did you leave me?"
"I'm right here," Draco replied, drawing her back into his arms. Hermione stiffened under his touch and shook her head.
"No, you're not. You're miles away. You're miles away because you didn't trust me." Hermione stood up and walked to the window. Draco stood up and tried to follow, but he took one step and found he couldn't move another inch. Dried holly rustled under his feet. He looked up and saw Hermione standing by the open window. Outside he could see the sea breaking.
"You're miles away because you didn't trust me," Hermione whispered, suddenly standing on the edge of the window sill.
"I'm right here!" Draco called out to her desperately. Hermione shook her head and took a step out of the window towards the roaring sea. "NO!" Draco screamed, his feet suddenly becoming free as he threw himself towards the window. "HERMIONE!" But she fell, slipping through his fingers like sand...
Like sand....
Draco jerked awake, his fingers clutching sand that slowly fell through the cracks between his fingers. It had grown light as he slept, as the Death Eaters planned around the fire. The fire had dwindled down into smoke that disappeared into the sky. Antonin pulled Draco up and brushed his sweater free of sand.
"We're off in a few minutes." Antonin said, leading Draco to a small group of Death Eaters. "We've been put into search groups to cover more ground." Draco nodded. His father was deep in conversation with another Death Eater, who had given chase to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"We know the general direction they went and we can easily follow it, but my concern is that they'll meet the Ministry and alert them," the Death Eater was saying. Lucius nodded and noticed his son listening to the exchange with interest. The Death Eater stepped back to continue the conversation to the appointed Death Eater in charge of the search for the trio.
"Have you decided to join the search or just be dragged along? Naturally you don't want to be a burden, but I'm afraid we can't leave you anywhere and although you've proved yourself to be a hopeless coward last night, I would rather not listen to your teenage angst as we search," Lucius finished, standing back and waiting for Draco's answer.
Draco might have lacked courage last night, but he wasn't about to help his father to kill the one person he loved, the one person who loved him...
"No Father," Draco replied, crossing his arms and regarding his father with sympathy. "Your lust for power has gone out of the control and I don't intend to play a part in a hostile takeover."
Lucius sighed and pulled on his gloves. "I thought as much. You really are hopeless, you know that? You're letting your feelings blind you from your ultimate purpose."
"At least I feel," Draco replied softly. Lucius smiled and signaled for his broom.
"Do you want to ride with me or do you prefer to be shackled to something heavy?" Lucius asked, the pleasure in his voice not impossible to detect. Draco only smiled and climbed behind his father. "Hmmm, glad you're not ruling out every possibility," Lucius muttered from the front.
"No, it's just that now I have my hands free to push you off if I wish," Draco said as the broom lifted off the ground. Lucius chuckled as the broom rose higher into the hair and joined the group in the sky.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ready to go on?" Harry asked, pulling his riding gloves back on.
Hermione, pulled out of a delightful day dream, pulled herself up and mounted on the broom behind Ron.
"Where are we going now?" she asked.
"We're still on the lookout for the Ministry, but if we see a dead person walking around anywhere, we should take note of that too."
"Take note?" Ron said. "You mean all we're going to do is look at it and say, 'Oh look, another dead person.' Shouldn't we do something about it?"
"Feel like battling a zombie warrior anytime soon, Ron?" Harry asked, pushing off from the ground.
"I'm not saying we should battle it, but couldn't we...cut off his legs or something?" Harry and Hermione looked at him in amused confusion. "You know! So he can't move any further!"
"See, this is why we keep you around, Ron," Hermione said.
"Shut up," muttered Ron.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Draco was planning. He refused to help his father, but if they did come across Hermione, he would have to do SOMETHING. He couldn't just sit there and hope his father had mercy. No, he would have to do something. But he couldn't think of what. He no longer had his wand and even if he did he couldn't hope to use it against his father.
He was glad of his cloak by now, because although it was a sunny morning, it was still December and the hood shielded his face against the oncoming wind. Draco adjusted the cloak around his legs and felt the pipes that were still lying in his pocket. His father still didn't know he had them. Fortunately, they hadn't turned cold recently or his father would have noticed in their close proximity. How could these pipes even hope to save him? He didn't even now how to use them and his father would notice before he had a chance to find out.
"There has to be some other way," Draco thought as he soared with his father hundreds of feet above the ground.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You know I just thought of something," Hermione said.
"What?" Ron asked curiously.
"If we wanted to alert the Ministry, shouldn't we have just stayed on the beach? The Ministry will apparate there anyway to investigate."
Ron stayed silent for a while.
"HARRY!" he yelled, spurring up until he and Harry were neck to neck.
"Yes, Ron?" Harry asked, slowing down a bit. "Do you see something?"
"Hermione...?" Ron started, turning his broom around so Hermione was facing Harry. Harry stopped and hovered, eyes searching the ground.
"Wouldn't it have been better to stay on the beach and wait for the Ministry? They need to investigate there anyway, don't they?" Hermione said tentatively.
Harry looked up in surprise. They hovered there for a few seconds, letting the wind blow their brooms about a bit.
"Shit..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The morning was cold and Draco's eyes watered as he gazed intently on the ground rushing below him. If he could get his father down on the ground long enough, he might be able to get away and find Hermione. All he had to do was to find an excuse for a landing. If he could maybe see a dead walker before Lucius.
"Lucius!"
"Speak of the devil," Draco thought, as he saw a man flying towards them. "I thought Travers died.."
Travers sped up on his broom towards his father and Draco, who paused his thoughts to focus on the man's frantic message.
"We just received word that the Ministry came and left. They're reported to have started looking for the dead."
"As are we," mummered Lucius. "And have they found any?"
"No, we've found them all." The man replied, keeping speed with Lucius's broom.
"Them ALL?" Lucius asked disbelievingly.
"Yes. It seems the girl lied. They are all massed together and moving as one."
Draco tried to envision the sight, but found he couldn't without frightening himself. The pipes, which had grown painfully cold, throbbed even more painfully against his leg.
"Moving as one? Where are they headed?" Lucius asked.
"They seem to be moving towards the strongest gathering of life in Ireland," the man replied tentatively.
Lucius slowed his broom down to a slow crawl and stared at the man in furious exasperation.
"I'm so sorry that I'm not as familiar with the terrain as you, my dear Travers. Would you be so kind as to tell us where my army is headed?" Lucius said in short bursts between his teeth. Draco could feel his father's heart racing through his back.
"I meant no disrespect. They're heading towards Dublin and they're in plain daylight. We need to catch them before they cause an accident." Travers explained, backing his broom away from Lucuis a little just in case.
"But that, my dear Travers, is what we want," Lucius responded, a smile curving up his lips. Draco shivered, readjusting his pant leg so the pipe wasn't against his leg.
An army of the dead marching on Ireland's biggest city, moving slow and intently across the live green hills towards Ireland's biggest populace. "Most people are probably still having their morning coffee." he thought.
"We need to find them," Draco whispered to himself.
"Indeed we do, son." Lucius said back, his broom picking up speed, heading towards the marching death walkers headed towards Dublin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I have an idea," Ron said, breaking the enormous silence that had fallen over the trio. Hermione was just thinking whether it would just be best to go back and wait on the beach, but found her thoughts broken by Ron's first input of ideas. Ron was rubbing his face, thinking it over more fully. He raised his head in decision and cleared his throat.
"We can't go looking all over Ireland for dead people. What would we do if we found one, anyway?" He looked at Harry, who stayed silent. "Yeah. That's what I thought. But if we could find someone or something that could maybe give us a hint, we could deal with this more rationally."
Harry and Hermione waited for more, but apparently Ron was done.
"Where do you suggest we go, Ron?" Harry asked. "Who do we know who has knowledge of necromancy?" Ron shrugged. "Well then we're back where we started."
"How about the local library?" Hermione said thoughtfully. Harry and Ron turned slowly and disbelievingly at Hermione, who shrunk back a bit on her seat. "Ok, it was just a suggestion."
"No, no," Harry said, still looking at Hermione, but this time thoughtfully. "You're right."
"Harry, a LIBRARY? Even our library doesn't go into detail on Necromancy!" Ron said, laughing incredulously.
"We don't even know the basics, Ron. We need all we can get," Harry replied, rising higher in the air, looking around him for a town. "Didn't we land near a town earlier?"
"Dublin," Hermione replied. "We can still see it from here. They're likely to have a few libraries." Harry nodded and sped off towards the distant town and beyond that, the country that lay sprawled out like a giant patchwork quilt across the hills. Ron followed, this time closer to the ground.
"Hermione, do you still have that invisibility cloak?" Harry yelled back at her, slowly down to avoid being seen by a passing car.
"No! I left it at Draco's," Hermione yelled back over Ron's head.
"Then we'll just have to walk in, then." Harry said.
"Or break in," Ron added
"Just be sure not to crash into any windows this time, Ron," Harry said, smiling at the approaching town and slowing down to land.
"Thanks for that Harry. I'll remember that." Ron landed next to Harry and sent him a look that said, "I'm going to kill you when this is all over." Harry laughed and Hermione couldn't help by join in. By the time they had reached streets, they had broken the morning silence with their joyful laughter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mom, some kids with brooms are walking down the street laughing." A boy peeked out of his curtains while eating breakfast.
"They have brooms?" his mother asked, coming up behind him to peer out the window.
"Yes, and they're laughing."
The mom sighed and moved to the sink to pull on her washing gloves. "Brooms. What will kids find 'hip' next?"
"I want a broom!"
"Eat your breakfast."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They stood staring up at a massive building out of the way of the shops and situated near the Dublin's city border. It looked fairly new, gray concrete and flower boxed windows around the walls. A sign was glass plated and stuck above the door:
DUBLIN LIBRARY
Open Monday-Saturday, 10-7
All books to be returned on Sundays at the box
***************
"Well, where's the back way?" Harry asked, walking around to the back.
"It looks fairly new, Harry. It'll probably have a security alarm or something." Hermione said, she and Ron following Harry to the back where it opened up into the patchwork fields.
"Like a hex?" Ron asked, moving behind Hermione as Harry searched for a door.
"No, like electric." Hermione replied. When met with a blank stare, she only shook her head. "Never mind."
"Found it!" They followed Harry's voice further down the wall behind some bushes and watched as he cleared away a bush to reveal a cellar door. "It's probably a storage room."
"Is it open?" Ron came up and pulled on the handle. "Evidently not."
Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed at the lock. Harry and Ron both had to stop themselves from warning her against magic, until they remembered she had already done enough to get her expelled.
"Alohomora."
They all heard a click and Ron pulled open the door into a dusty dark hole. "Thanks Hermione." She nodded.
They descended into the gloom, sidestepping boxes of books air packed to prevent dampness and decay. They found some stairs in little time and with Harry in front, Hermione in the middle, and Ron ending the line, they climbed up and opened the unlocked door into the library.
They walked into a back room, leaving the cellar door open. They opened the far door and peeked out into the shelves of books. The building was silent, all three floors of it. The sound made from their shoes on the white tile floor echoed off the walls and off the volumes surrounding them.
"Where could it be?" Ron asked, his voice sounding strangely loud. Harry pointed towards a file drawer and they headed towards it.
"If you would be so kind, Hermione." Harry murmured.
"Alohomora," Hermione said blandly, and Harry opened up the drawer marked "N." He riffled through the cards, brow furrowed in intensity. "Well," he said, closing the door, "it's not here."
"Maybe we can check Black Magic," Ron suggested as Hermione got the "B" drawer unlocked. Harry looked, pulled out a few cards, and headed off to their corresponding shelves. The first was a dud, a stupid fiction book about a witch.
"This is so inaccurate," Hermione said, looking over the book in disgust. They moved on towards the second card, which listed only necromancy as a tool used in séances. Seemingly hopeless, their search led them to a shelf near the back of the library where the magazines and comic books are kept.
"Are you sure this book will be legitimate?" Ron asked, eyeing a Superman comic suspiciously. But the book Harry pulled out was leather bound and worn at the edges. Hermione and Ron watched as Harry leafed through the pages.
"Here we are: Necromancy. Ok...nothing we don't know..ok...you were right, they do need their souls in bodies...let's see.." Harry paused, and read over a sentence a second time. He breathed in shakily and read it over a third time.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, trying vainly to see over his shoulder.
"This is weird, but it says that the raised souls will head towards the largest gathering of the living they can sense." Harry paused and looked at them. "It doesn't make sense."
"Where does it say-oh..I see," Ron said, grabbing the book from Harry's hands and finding the sentence. "Where would they go? China?"
"Dublin." They turned towards Hermione who was staring at them in horror. "Dublin is the biggest city in Ireland, especially when people come in to go to work."
"Are you saying there's an army of DEAD PEOPLE marching towards Dublin?" Ron cried.
"Towards us," Hermione added, nodding. They stayed frozen in shock for about three seconds, until suddenly they all broke into a frantic run for the cellar door, dropping the book and the cards on the clean tile floor. They raced into the darkness of the cellar and fumbled to open the door, already climbing onto their brooms. Harry opened the door and they all tumbled out into the morning sunlight.
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A/N: Uh oh! I used the "s" word! I am SUCH a rebel! MWA HA!
