Chapter 4: Keep it Together
"So far away from everyone, and everything starts today. Let's keep it together. Can we keep it together?"
Ginny was confused. Not really about who this Orris guy was that was after Harry and what he could want from him, but mostly her feelings towards Harry. When he had kissed her under the table it had sent her mind spinning. She had completely forgotten where she was and what she was doing and just responded. That scared her more than anything. How could anything make her lose herself that quickly and completely?
She shook her head to clear those thoughts from her mind and looked down at her coffee. Getting up that morning, she noticed that Hermione was not around. 'Well,' she'd thought, 'Guess she found that hot date after all.' After that, she just continued about the kitchen, making coffee and generally just waking up. Now she was fully awake and wondering about contacting Harry. What could they do today? What new leads could they possibly find?
Still racking her brain for solutions and reasons to call off her meeting with Harry for today, even if he was probably in danger, she heard a noise from the living room. Upon entering, she found a very sooty and generally disheveled Harry sitting on the living room floor. As she got closer, she could see that he held a parchment in his hands and was looking very solemn.
"What's happened Harry? What's going on?" Upon getting no response, Ginny dropped down on the carpet with him and looked imploringly in to his eyes. At this he only motioned to the parchment now lying face down on the floor. Picking it up, she read it quickly.
Mr. Potter,
So glad to finally be in communication with you. I hear you've been checking up on my boys over there. How rude of you. That just ruins the surprise of the whole thing now doesn't it? Yes, definitely.
Now, here is what the problem now is. I was going to just come over there and take what I want, but due to your lack of compliance with propriety, I will be forced to have you come here.
I know now you might be thinking, 'I don't have to do what he asks me to,' but I have a solution to my problem. My men, that you ever so offensively looked in to, have also been looking in to you. They have found that you really only have one friend left. I found that curious, frankly, but I let it go and monopolized on the situation.
I have had my men bring your friend, the lovely Ms. Granger, to my residence in Los Angeles. I do hope you mind having to come all the way here. You greatly displeased me with your lack of tact.
I would request that you be in the restaurant just down the street to the north from the portkey point here in Los Angeles at noon sharp. If you do not, I will be forced to send yet more men to apprehend you and that interesting red head that my men for some reason know nothing about. If you do decide to come, you may bring her if you wish. The more the merrier, as I like to say. Also, should you decide to opt out of our little appointment, Ms. Granger will be done away with, and I would hate for that to happen. Alerting the authorities to our little matter will result in the same consequences for your friend. So please, Mr. Potter, do be quick about it.
Awaiting Your Arrival,
Orris
Ginny paled at the mention of Hermione. How could she be so stupid? Of course Hermione hadn't gotten the hot date. Not for lack of ability, but if she had, she would have sent or left a note of some sort, something to let Ginny know where she was. Glancing at the clock, Ginny did the math in her head and noted that it would be 9:30 in California. They still had two and a half hours, but they would need to leave immediately for the portkey terminal.
Finishing the letter, she looked at Harry. She saw he was still just sitting on the floor, now staring at the carpet as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Are you alright?" Ginny asked quietly. Before continuing on, Ginny reminded herself that they were in a hurry, and gentleness with Harry was not of the utmost importance at the moment. "If you're not, you're going to need to get over it. Hermione is in trouble. We need to go help her. For some reason, he knows even more about you than the scanning spells could get out of you. That scares me, but we can't worry about that now. Right now, we need to get to the portkey terminal and get to L.A. before it's too late." Harry was still staring listlessly at the floor. Yelling now, Ginny was silently hoping Harry's last thread hadn't broken. "SNAP OUT OF IT HARRY! WE HAVE TO GO!!" This time Harry did look up.
"This is all my fault. I should just leave you here and let that man have me. I cause too much trouble for everyone around me. I'll go Ginny, I'll make sure Hermione gets home safely, but you are staying here. This is my problem."
Ginny snorted. "Get over yourself Harry. You do not cause these problems. These crazies are out there all the time and would do something like this eventually, with or without you. Also, Hermione is my friend too, and I'm not going to leave her with that crazy man and just sit here, twiddling my thumbs and hoping you can do this by yourself. I'm coming with you and we're leaving now. So stop it with the self-pity, get up, and let's get going. We're running out of time." With this, Ginny strode towards the door, stopping only to give the smallest of glances to her house that she may never see again, and make a hurrying gesture towards Harry. Walking out the door, she hoped she knew what she was getting in to.
Harry looked up as he caught Ginny out of the corner of his eye, stopping just before the door. She cast a quick glance around the room then motioned for him to follow. All he could do was obey. Ginny was right, this was not his fault. Hermione needed him, and he was going to help her, no matter what happened.
Running after Ginny, Harry marveled at the strength of this woman and the fact that he had never noticed it before.
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Hermione couldn't breathe properly. She was panicky, not to mention there was a ball of cloth about the size of a softball shoved in to her mouth. Once again struggling against the bindings at her wrists, and once again succeeding only in giving herself rope burns on her wrists, Hermione cursed her stupidity in relation to the events that had landed her in this terrifying situation.
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Hermione sighed as she walked in the side door of the simple house she now shared with Ginny. Hermione wished she could escape it. The whole house was filled with memories of the times she had had with Ron. Every nook and cranny and piece of anything in the house seemed to remind her of a different event or joke or anything she had shared with him, and each and every time these memories brought a stab of pain to the center of her chest.
But she couldn't leave. She couldn't abandon the house she had shared with Ron, even for the short amount of time it had been. Not to mention, she couldn't leave Ginny with nowhere to go. Looking around the kitchen as she passed through, Hermione silently prayed for an end to this madness inside herself.
It was then that it happened.
Just as she walked over the threshold in to the living room, a man jumped out from either side of the door; one from the right and the stairs, the other from the left and the couch. Startled, Hermione tried vainly to reach for her wand, only to realize the had left it in the kitchen.
She was grabbed from the left and turned to face the man on her right. With her hands held behind her back and her feet already bound by the man now in front of her, Hermione started to scream and struggle wildly, only to be cut of by a leather-gloved hand over her mouth and a petrification charm from the same man who had magically bound her legs.
Before she could think of anything more to do, the man in front of her yelled "Stupefy!" and Hermione was out cold.
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Now, ending her struggles against her bindings and just laying on the cold stone floor, her wrists and ankles bound with magically protected and very thick ropes, Hermione could think of no way out. The only light was from a small window about ten feet from the floor. From the quality of the light, Hermione judged that it was almost midday. She had been observing this light constantly since she had awoken what seemed like a few hours ago to her.
Still staring at the window, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of keys rattling in a lock in the door to the room. Suddenly very alert, Hermione pulled herself up and propped herself against the wall, waiting for the door to open and maybe reveal something about her captor.
She did not have to wait long. Within seconds, the door opened revealing a tall slender man with shockingly white hair down to his waist. He wore a perfectly cut all black suit that provided great contrast to the fairness of his skin and his shining hair. Hermione was stunned by how beautiful his face was. His face seemed to be that of an angel. All, except, for the cold blackness of his eyes. Staring at her from across the room, Hermione could tell that this man could have nothing but evil and greed in his soul.
After all this sank in, Hermione was suddenly more afraid than even when she was attacked and she pulled herself up in to a ball against the wall. The man across from her chuckled.
"Do not fear me dear. I mean you no harm." He grinned at this. "That is, unless your friend, the esteemed Mr. Potter, deems not to attend our little meeting." Hermione gasped at the mention of Harry.
"What are you talking about? Who are you? Why did you bring me here? Where are we?" This caused this strange man to laugh, yet again.
"All in due time my dear. First things first, let's get you untied." Pulling out a wand, he muttered a few words and the ropes binding Hermione vanished. "You will find that you cannot escape this building without my blessing."
Still very wary of the man in front of her, Hermione slowly stood up and stretched her tight muscles. As she was doing this, it finally registered to her that this man had an American accent. Suddenly very much more suspicious, Hermione glared at the man across the room and asked, "Could you at lest give me a generalization as to where we are?"
"Why, America of course my dear. California to be exact, and LA to be even more precise. And also, Miss granger, I would have thought you would have noticed my accent sooner. My researchers took you to be intelligent." He tutted at this. "Too bad they were wrong. We would have had so much to talk about." This he said walking out the door.
Right before it closed Hermione yelled, "who are you?" one more time.
The man opened the door fully again and gave a huge smile. "Why, my lady, I am Orris. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He bowed and exited the room, closing and locking the door behind him.
Hermione, however, noticed none of this, as, at the mention of the man's name, Hermione had promptly fainted.
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Harry was still in a little bit of shock, but it was quickly wearing off in the hurry to the portkey station. After apparating there, it took Harry and Ginny about an hour to get through all the security. Harry could practically feel every irretrievable second of this time drag agonizingly by as he itched to keep moving. It was pure torture to go through all of this when Harry knew Hermione was in danger. Lost in thought and panic, Harry missed Ginny staring at him.
"Calm down Harry," Ginny said, shocking Harry out of his reverie. Ginny smiled soothingly as she saw Harry finally back in the real world. "We're almost through. We have plenty of time left. Please, just stop thinking about it." Ginny didn't believe the words that she was spouting to Harry. They didn't have that much time and she was experiencing the same agony as Harry. She just wasn't showing it so horribly.
After ten more painful minutes spent waiting for the portkey to be ready and restlessly shifting around in his seat, Harry was relieved when the door to their portkey room was opened and the six people going to California filed in. Harry felt lucky there were so few people with them. He wouldn't have been able to handle the ogling in the same pleasant and controlled manner as usual with so much stress. Also, Ginny was now looking a little worse for the wear, and Harry remembered how little Ginny liked to travel by portkey. He didn't get much time to think about this, however, as almost the second he and Ginny got in the circle around the portkey, he felt the familiar tug behind his navel and the rushing began. Through all this commotion, Harry felt Ginny grab on to his free hand with hers, locking it in a death grip.
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The portkey dropped Harry and Ginny in to a room covered in tile. The tiles were about a square foot in area and white.
"Ummm, Ginny?" Harry whispered. "Where is everybody else?"
Ginny, still shaken from the effects of the portkey journey, now looked at the room around them and began to panic. The other four people with them had disappeared and there was no door in the room they wee in. "I don't know Harry, but this doesn't seem good." Right after Ginny finished her sentence, the wall in front of her began to move. Ginny was now in a full panic, squeezing the hand in hers that she had not let go of after they had landed. Pointing in front of her she squeaked, "Harry, look!"
Directly in front of Ginny and Harry, a panel of tiles three wide and seven high slid away from them and then to the right, revealing a tall man, standing in the shadows beyond.