The Hidden Soul
Author Note: Okay, new chapter at last! I've kind of sorted out the plot now, its still a bit shakey but I'll hopefully be able to muddle through alright. I'll try and get a new chapter out in time for Christmas, but I'm going to be pretty busy, so be patient :D
Thank you very much to those who reviewed the last chapter, there still weren't many of you , come on people it takes a minute to review and it really encourages me to continue when I know what people think.
One last thing... I'd like to invite all Harry Potter fans to join Fawke's Ashes a new forum. There are fanfics, fan art, writing and blending challenges, chronic literature and much much more. Hope you sign up soon! The address is...
h t t p : / / f a w k e s a s h e s . p r o b o a r d s 2 3 . c o m
Kisses to the reviewers...
Ginger – Heres a new chapter, hope you like it!
Hallie Walker – I've updated, sorry the updates aren't so close together, I'm a busy girl. Hehe.
Alen Chic – Glad you think so, thanks!
Zeriae – Thanks, and yep, Bill is great.
Mystic Soul – Thanks for the review, heres an update – it took a while but at least its here!
Mistress Desmonda – Glad you think they're pretty IC, I try and keep them as much as possible. Hope you enjoy this new chapter. More Bill/Hermione action coming soon – promise.
Little Lily – Heres a new chapter, I'm glad you like my fic! Thankyou so much.
Chapter 6.
Narino's was an upmarket bar in the centre of town. As Hermione and Bill walked past the heavily guarded doors they entered a narrow, very busy bar, which widened at the end into an area of seating and tables. Everything was a shiny, highly polished cherry wood, large green plants were scattered everywhere among the red velvet trimmings.
Hermione raised her eyebrows at Bill. This wasn't like any of the other Egyptian bars she'd been too. They'd all been bustling, noisy local bars full of rickety furniture, smoky and sweaty and thoroughly foreign.
Here was different, the expensive decoration could just as easily have been a London cocktail bar, it was still smoky, but this smoke hung in thick puffs just below the soft lighting as tasted almost sweet on the tip of Hermione's tongue. It was tasteless, imposing, and ostentatious down to the decorative clouds of cigar smoke.
Glancing around Hermione perceived it to be occupied by what looked like a number of drug hustlers, wearing smart but understated suits talking discreetly to each other; a selection of pimps, dressed in outlandish suits of various bright colours and draped in gold jewellery and skimpily clad women; and taking up most of the seating area, what looked like the majority of the Egyptian Mafia, dark skinned and clad in expensive suits, the middle group were lolled casually in their seats engaged in a card game, fat cigars dangling from their fingers, around them sat more stiff, rigid looking suits, whose eyes flitted shiftily around the bar.
They sidled down the bar, Bill's hand riding the small of her back, his fingers touching her skin through the crisscross pattern of ribbons. They reached the end, and he leant over to call out to the bartender. Minutes later she had a wide brimmed glass of martini and Bill a whisky. A hand dropped onto Hermione's shoulder and she looked up into Harry's face.
"Late." He teased, smirking at her. Hermione grinned and turned her cheek as he dropped a kiss to it.
"Sorry," she replied lightly, following him over to where Ron was sat, glancing nervously over at the rowdy card game.
"About bloody time." He commented as Hermione and Bill dropped into seats. He wasn't alone, beside him sat Isis, her shiny black hair pulled back from her face to reveal dark, feline eyes and beside her sat Zahra, who grinned in greeting at Hermione.
"Sorry," Hermione repeated,
"Yeah – sorry, dinner carried over a little." Bill said, twirling his glass making the ice clink. Ron grunted irritably.
"Uh, Bill. I don't know if you've met Zahra..." Harry said, motioning to the girl. Bill grinned at her and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you," he said, "And Isis – is it? I remember you both from the club."
Isis nodded and blinked at him, her thick eyelashes sweeping her cheekbones.
"Yes. Nice to see you again," she smiled.
"So where did you two eat?" Zahra asked, propping herself up on an elbow, "Harry took me to Merosha the other night, it was delicious."
Hermione felt her cheeks blush; she slanted a look at Bill who also looked slightly flustered.
"Well, actually... Merosha was shut, so we just, uh, headed back to mine." He said it casually, hoping Ron wouldn't make a fuss. Harry snorted loudly and hastily turned it into a cough under a glare from Hermione. He turned away from the table, but when he reappeared from his fake, overdramatic hacking fit, he looked positively gleeful.
"Oh really? How nice." Harry enthused, ignoring the death glare he was receiving. "What did you have?"
"Lasagne." Replied Hermione shortly, turning her face away from Harry her eyes came to rest on the dark haired girl, "So... Isis? That's after a goddess, am I right?"
"Yes." Isis replied, fixing her dark eyes on her. "An ancient Egyptian one, my parents were very interested in the ancestry of our country." She said, her tones lilted with the now familiar accent.
"Really? So am I, did they –," Hermione began leaning in eagerly to start a barrage of questions when Ron cut across her.
"What do you mean you went back to Bills?" He demanded his voice steely. Hermione frowned slightly,
"Ron, we've been through this argument, remember?"
"Yes. But I don't remember the part where I agreed to be okay with my brother taking you home." He shot back angrily.
"He didn't take me home. We went there to eat dinner." Hermione replied irritably. Ron opened his mouth,
"Leave it Ron." Bill cut in, setting down his glass on the table with a clunk, "If you've got a problem, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Ron scowled then shrugged. "Whatever."
Hermione rolled her eyes at Harry who had watched the heated exchange with an expression of mild amusement. He blinked at her innocently.
"More drinks anyone?" He asked, eyeing the scattering of empty glasses.
"We could move on," Zahra suggested, tucking a few strands of her golden hair behind an ear and looking at the others, "Head to a club or something?"
Hermione nodded enthusiastically, a desire to dance fleeting through her, as she felt Bill's hand rest lightly onto her knee below the table. Isis murmured an agreement and Ron shrugged grudgingly.
"Good idea," Harry said, beaming at Zahra. He stood up and took her hand to pull her up. Ron and Isis followed them along the bar towards the exit. Hermione glanced up at Bill,
"Sorry,"
"What for? My brother being an idiot?" he said, grinning. "You should have told me he was being like this, I used to think he shared a respective awe of my apparent reputation with the twins, obviously it doesn't apply when I'm with you. I do wish that if I have to have this bloody stigma, I' actually reap the rewards of it, as it is..." He threw up his hands and grinned but Hermione could tell he was smarting a little.
She raised her shoulders a little in indifference, "I don't prejudge. I want to get to know you myself."
"Good." Bill said, reaching across the table to take her hands, "I know Ron's got a right to be protective, well, he thinks he's got a right..." he amended at the look on Hermione's face, "I'll speak to him later." He promised. Hermione smiled,
"Okay. Thank you."
Bill shrugged, and stood up. "Come on, are you ready to do some more dancing? I certainly am."
"I can't wait." Hermione answered, grinning. Bill's arm slid around her waist and they left the bar.
Harry, Zahra, Ron and Isis were waiting in a pool of light underneath a streetlight opposite the bar. Hermione and Bill crossed over to them, Ron's eyes were on Bill's arm encircling Hermione's waist, but he didn't comment.
"Where did you have in mind?" Bill asked Zahra, who was stood close to Harry.
She pushed out her bottom lip in consideration for a moment, "Well... Destello is near, isn't it?"
Bill nodded, taking a swift glance of the street. "Yes. We can cut through 6th over there and it's just to the left." He pointed across the road to a narrow alleyway. Ron was still looking sullen, but Isis wound her fingers through his and his face brightened considerably.
"Lets go." He said, setting off towards the nook in between the buildings. The others followed. At the end of the alley was a skip piled with a jumble of dusty building materials and discarded broken furniture, and two large over spilling wheelie bins, their escaped contents swarming with flies and releasing a potent stench of urine and rotting food. They skirted it, Harry with appropriate gagging sounds.
The alley was very narrow and unlit, so narrow that the slice of orangey light from the street lamp was cut off abruptly and it was very dark, apart from the small chink of similarly orangey light at the opposite street end.
"There's some more crap up here," Ron called back down to Hermione and Bill who were behind Harry and Zahra. "On the left, probably a good idea to get into single file – wouldn't wanna trip – there's not much light – hey!" He let out a startled yell. As suddenly, the dim light they'd be struggling in was extinguished instantly. The alley was engulfed in a pitch and complete darkness.
"What's going on?" Yelled Bill, his arm instantly snaking firmly around Hermione's waist his other hand wrapping around his wand.
"Dunno..." Harry's voice replied from a few feet ahead, "Ron – what are y–,"
But his voice was cut off by a sudden blast of ferocious wind, it whipped the dusty ground up and the dust stung painfully against their faces and bare skin. Hermione opened her mouth to yell, got a mouthful of grit, and then felt against the bare flesh of her arm something brush past.
She felt Bill's fingers dig hard into her waist and push her towards the ground, as something else slipped past her in the harsh biting gust. The whistling wind was deafening. Hermione's eyes were screwed up against the flying dirt, she squinted to the side and there was a tiny flare of light – recognisable as a wand tip flare – and her stomach lurched.
A towering, black robed figure was passing inches from her side, at first she thought instantly of a Dementor, but the robes looked much more tattered and ripped, the hood a different style. It moved swiftly forward and she heard with another sickening twist in her stomach, a slash of metal as it unsheathed a curved blade that glinted dully in the dust.
"No!" She croaked, as it moved effortlessly through the relentless wind forward to join the already numerous wobbling shadowy figures in front of them. There was a hideous screeching cry and suddenly, instantly, the screaming wind and biting grit died. The orangey chinks of street lamp light flared at each end of alley, at the same instant Bill's wand distinguished. Hermione scrambled to her feet and lurched forward in the still dim alley.
"Harry? – Ron?" She yelled. Her eyes became slightly accustomed and she could pick out Ron and Isis facing her a few metres away. They looked shaken but unharmed. Her eyes flicked to the ground. Zahra was still sprawled on the dust. And Harry... Harry was gone? "Harry?" She repeated frantically, whirling round and facing Bill who looked stony faced.
"He didn't come past me. Ron – is Harry up there?" He called urgently.
"No." Ron replied his voice slightly shaky, "What the fuck was that?"
Bill shot a look at his brother, his eyes flitting for a second from Isis to Zahra. "I don't know." He replied shortly, stepping forward and dropping down to Zahra who was sitting up and rubbing her head.
"Are you alright?" Bill asked, pulling the woman to her feet. Zahra blinked then frowned.
"I – what happened?"
"I don't know." Repeated Bill, "I don't think we should hang around here. If those ..." he paused, "... muggers... come back or whatever. Where'd you live?"
"We should take her with us." Hermione spoke up; her eyes had been fixed intently on the dirt where Zahra had been lying, a crease between her eyebrows. It had been blown into extravagant swirls and patterns, and there seemed a great deal more sand than she could imagine being on the ground than before. She doubted very much this was the work of run-of-the-mill Egyptian muggers. There had been magic in the air, she knew it.
Bill shot her a quick look, and then nodded, he looked at Ron.
"I'll take Isis home, then meet you at the hotel." Ron said quickly, "She lives this way." He said, jerking his head at the end of the alley they'd been aiming for. Bill nodded and Ron spun around, his arm on Isis' who looked pale and shocked and they continued towards the street.
"Come on." Bill said, "Zahra are you –," His suddenly grabbed the blonde as she swayed. "She's passed out,"
Hermione bit her lip. She knew what he was saying, was it safe to use magic to get them back to the hotel? She looked up at him.
"You apparate to the suite with her. If she won't come round, put her into bed. I'll walk back and enter the hotel properly, get my key and come up."
Bill frowned and shook his head. "No way. I'm not letting you walk around after fucking Merlin-knows-what just attacked us and have made Harry vanish into thin air." He hissed. Hermione narrowed her eyes,
"We haven't got any other choice. I've got my wand, if anything gets bad. The hotel is two minutes away. It'll be fine."
"No."
"Yes." Hermione said, her voice breaking. "Bill don't waste time, we need to get back to the hotel, now."
He stared hard at her for a moment then nodded. "You've got two minutes,"
Hermione had walked fast, her feet thudding on the ground in time with her panicked heartbeat. She could hear her blood pounding in her ears; somehow, despite her fear for Harry and her confusion, she somehow didn't have her usual guttural, instinctual feeling of being in danger. However she was still relieved as she rounded the corner and saw the hotel stairs. She ran up them and entered the lobby, retrieving her key and sprinting into the lift.
She collapsed against the cool mirrored wall and poked feverishly at the button to her floor, trying to slow her breath. The events, moments before in the alley whirred through her, the squiggles in the sand, the ragged black cloths, slithery brushing touch, the slightly rancid scent, the huge, terrifying curved bladed swords, and Harry's disappearance.
The ting of the lift as it reached her level jolted her back into action; she pulled back the grill and ran across the carpeted hall to the door of the suite, shoved her key roughly into the lock and wrenched the door open.
Author Notes:
Harry's been attacked/kidnapped! This is all part of a rather ambitious plot I'm attempting which I'm probably going to tie myself in knots with as usual – but I'm giving it a go!
Narino's – the bar – is very much based on somewhere I went which was similar with the cigar smoke and suspicious suspects. And I like the idea of an Egyptian Mafia, I'd include them into the fic more if I had any ideas on how to thread them in somehow.
Anyway, I think that covers this chapter pretty much. Nothing much happened really.
Thanks for reading! Please leave me a review if you're enjoying the story or if you've any suggestions on how to improve it! J