Charlie had left Ginny and Harry on the beach with the intention to go check on Ron and Hermione, but he thought that was unfair. How could he allow Ginny to be tricked into kissing Harry and not let Hermione and Ron do it on their own accord?
So, Charlie had nothing to do for about an hour until Harry became normal again. A Mexican restaurant on the street along the beach caught Charlie's eye. He was in the mood for burritos; or maybe a tostada, hmmm….
Charlie left the beach. He was about to enter the restaurant "Jose y Jorge", but he decided to stop and shake the sand off his shoes. Charlie saw someone exited the restaurant but he didn't pay attention to the man until his hand was muffling Charlie's screams and his other hand was pushing him into an alley.
"Where is he? Where's Potter?" growled the man.
"Mmmmmmmmmhmmm" Charlie tried to say, the criminal obviously wasn't very good at this sort of thing. How was Charlie supposed to answer with his mouth covered?
"Don't mumble. You know where he is. I saw him go into that restaurant, but he never came out. I checked everywhere inside, I asked all the employees, I do speak Spanish fluently, you know." The man was talking in a broken scruffy voice. Some words were spoken without a growl; it seemed that this guy hadn't gotten the evil voice quite down yet.
"mmmhmmm" The man's hand was still covering Charlie's mouth.
"Anyway, the employees agreed that he came in, he went to the restroom, but never came out. Don't say he fell in, now, Noooooo, I'm not believing that one again." The man continued.
"MMMMMMMMM!"
"What? Oh, you want to speak, just a sec, I need to make sure you won't move." The man produced a pair of handcuffs and attached Charlie's wrist to a bicycle rack. "Ok, one, two, three, go!" The man said, as he jumped back from Charlie. The man had not worn a mask and the lights from the street made this tall thin man, with jet black hair and blue eyes, visible.
"I don't know where…..OH it's you!!!" Charlie screamed,
"Ron, Ron, stop for a sec." Hermione said, rolling out from under him. They still had their clothes on, this was a public beach remember. Alright, Hermione had pulled off Ron's shirt, but that's allowed. Ron wasn't looking or feeling scrawny now.
"What? No one is watching." Ron pleaded,
"No, I just… I don't know how to say it."
"Oh this can't be good."
"But it's not bad. I'm just still worried. You know, about whether Harry found Charlie and Ginny, we didn't' really see him go."
"You were thinking about Harry?" Ron said in disbelief.
"No! Ron it's just, we should still look out for him."
"He's not a baby! Hermione, we need to work something out. Things can't be the same as they used to be. That would kill us. You can't know everything about Harry anymore because he can't know everything about us. At least, I don't want to tell Harry about everything you and I do. If you and I are going to have a different relationship, than we need to keep some things private and you can't think about how it might affect Harry." Ron said,
"But don't you care how he takes this." Hermione pleaded, but she knew Ron was right. Harry wouldn't care. Harry probably had his own secrets. And how had she managed to upset her boyfriend the first day they were together. It pained her to see Ron upset, but she wouldn't give in.
"Of course, but whether he is ok with what we may doing shouldn't interfere. Besides you went over this with him already. And didn't he say like twenty times already that he was happy for us and that he'll be fine? Harry is not the type of person to be so mean spirited. Can't you trust your best friend?"
"But he's been so weird lately. Didn't you notice? I was just thinking maybe he's not really." Hermione explained.
"Do you want to go find Harry?" Ron asked, staring into his girlfriend's pretty face.
"Yes." Hermione said.
"Fine."
Ron helped Hermione up from the sand. "You are my gentleman, Ron." Hermione whispered to his ear, trying to put Ron in a better mood.
"That's 'cause you're my lady."
"Well, aren't you sweet?!" Hermione laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, only around you." Ron smiled. Hermione was extremely gorgeous when she laughed.
Hermione bent down to pick up Ron's shirt, "Don't put this back on yet, I like you like this." She said, running her finger along his chest.
"But, lady, I'll get cold!"
"No you won't." Hermione put her arms around him; they kissed and made up, and eventually started walking along the water.
Shifting our attention back to that frightening scene in the alley…
Charlie was horrified. The man was giving Charlie very evil looks. His eyebrows were perfectly turned, he was thin lipped and squinting.
"Silas, who are you?!"
"Don't call me Silas. I have a new name. It's, oh, hold, a sec, I wrote it down. My dad sent me a list of suggested names. I chose, 'Dudemort.' Mort means death you know. In Latin, I think. Death to the dudes."
"Are you kidding?" Charlie said, wondering if Silas, the surf couch, was serious. His evil glare must have been practiced because he was moving his eyebrows and he still was squinting as he spoke. It was very scary, but only because Charlie didn't know what to expect, Silas was the worst kidnapper ever.
"Shut up!"
"No, you shut up. Listen to me. What do you want with Harry?" Charlie said, Charlie's voice was truly frightening.
"Mind your own business."
"This is my business, you captured me!"
"Well I'm not telling. You take me to Harry first."