Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters here. I don't own the music either, but I do feel rather protecting of the specific combination, so at least ask me if you want to use it.
Heavy Cloud No Rain
Turned on the weatherman after the news
I needed sweet rain to wash away my blues
He looked at the chart but he look in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain
The farmer took out a book on some old witchcraft
He made a spell and a potion on a midsummer's night
He killed a brindled calf in the pale moonlight
He prayed to the sky but he prayed in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain
- Sting
"Wouldn't it be easier just to come up with a different way to kill Voldemort?" Ron contemplated. "We've spent the last week trying to figure out how to summon a thunderstorm for a plot that seemed rather shoddy to me from the beginning, and is seeming shoddier the longer this goes on."
"I don't see you having any better ideas, Ronald," Hermione snipped at him from atop the ladder for the upper shelves.
"It seems to me," Harry remarked, adjusting his hold on the bottom of the ladder, "that causing a big rain is something that you'd want to do often enough that someone would have taken the trouble to figure out how to do it. And since Flitwick said it's been illegal for 200 years or so, we've probably been looking in books far too new or far too, well, legal."
"I did think of that, Harry, I just figured that we'd better look into everything we could before figuring out how to break into the Restricted Section," she sighed, climbing another step up to get a better view of a title. Harry tactfully covered his eyes.
Ron slammed shut the book on his lap. "We don't have to break in."
"Sure, what teacher d'you expect will give us free access to the Restricted Section so we can carry out a plot that violates the International Warlock's Convention of 1872, the Nations United in Magic charter, and the British Code for Wizards, besides having the possibility of causing a drought over most of the continent and likely killing at least the three of us?"
"But," he gestured emphatically for a moment before finding any words. "Voldemort!"
"Yes, Ron, Voldemort. That doesn't mean the laws have changed any, especially not those ones. And it doesn't mean the teachers have changed any in their attitudes towards them. In fact, they are even more strict about them than they used to be."
Ron grumbled and opened the book back up.
Two more hours saw them still tucked between the last row of shelves and the wall, just switched around a little. Ron stood near the shelf, tucking books back up. Hermione sat on a conjured cushion, book on her lap, deeply absorbed. She had gotten reading glasses the previous summer, when she couldn't just fix them herself, and at the bottom of every page she pushed them back in place. Harry had just arrived with a large tray from the kitchen.
"What would you like, Hermione? They sent me a pot of tea, Ginger Newts, pumpkin juice, blackberry walnut scones, chocolate biscuits, and some of those little beef pasties you always want during full moons. Which, let me remind you, is a little creepy."
"A pasty, a cup of tea - no sugar, and," she lifted her head to glance at the tray, "two scones."
He divided those out on a small plate for her and poured the tea. "Here you go. Ron, you?"
"Some pumpkin juice and the chocolate biscuits. Hermione, are you still in the middle of the Juno Pritchard book?"
"Yeah, and it's not doing much good."
Harry filled the second plate for Ron and started nibbling on the Ginger Newts. He almost choked when Hermione yelled out.
"I'm sick of this! There can't just be this one stupid spell to do this! And the flaming thing has to actually be written somewhere!"
Harry coughed the bit of Newt out of his windpipe. "Hermione, calm down. Let's see what we can do about this. Are you sure Madam Pince won't be back until next week?"
"Yes, she was quite clear about that. That's why we've been in here, she wants me in charge in case any of the teachers need anything."
"Didn't you work out a searching charm of some sort that you tried to teach me a few years ago? The one you said you wished you had come up with when we were looking up Nicholas Flamel?"
"We already tried that, Harry, that's how we got all of these," she gestured towards where the pile of books had been, before realizing that Ron had already re-shelved the rest of them and was poking at Harry's Ginger Newts, trying to animate them.
"I know, Hermione, but how about it if you were to try it just on the name of that one spell they keep talking about?"
She turned a bit pink and grabbed a second pasty off his tray. "That could work." She pointed her wand at the page and got the name of the spell to glow a bit. "Locatum."
Bits of light flew off the page. A lot of them clustered around the shelf Ron was leaning against, but Harry's eyes followed a few of them into the Restricted Section. "Shall we?" he proposed, setting down the tray and offering a hand to help Hermione up.
"Oh, I suppose so." She accepted his hand up, and the three of them set off for the dark corner of the library.
"Are you sure this is the one they meant?"
"Ugh, that's disgusting!"
"Where in the world are we supposed to get one of those? I can imagine try to order it through owl post."
"Wait, you have to kill it? That's revolting."
"And so well illustrated."
"Are you sure you want to do this, even if it is the one they meant?"
"Well it's not like we have all that much time to decide! The solstice is only four days away, and I'm sure it will take me almost that long to make the potion."
"Oh, you're making the potion. That means you expect us to go and find . . . "
"Well it's not like I could do that. I can't fly."
"You could summon one."
"If I could do that I could just summon the thunderstorm in the first place."
"Why don't you just do that, then, and we won't have to kill anything?"
"Have you not seen the clouds in the Great Hall all week?"
"Oh. Already tried that, then."
"That doesn't mean that you couldn't."
"I'd like to see you try to summon one. Not only is the nearest over a hundred miles away, they're really big. It's not like a piece of parchment or something that you can just catch in your hands as it comes."
"Even the little ones?"
"We're supposed to use a baby?"
"That's what it says."
"That's not what the guy in the picture is doing."
"Yes, but he's also using a guillotine, so I'm not sure how accurate we can assume the pictures are."
"Either way, we can't just summon one, and I can't fly."
"Fine, but remember, you'll have to do this in the middle of the night. The library's supposed to be supervised."
"We can close for meals. We're closed for tea."
"You mean we're starting this now?"
"When else?"
"I don't know, some time that's not now?"
"Just go. We won't need it until Friday night, and I certainly don't want to hide it in my room. Just figure out where the closest place to get one is."
"It's a good thing we like you, really. There aren't very many people I'd do this for."
"Hey, speak for yourself."
"What, you mean to say you're less distinguishing in who you take this sort of orders from?"
"Shut up."
"You said it."
"Grow up, the both of you. I don't want to see either of you before dinner."
"Yes, sir."
"I won't dignify that with a response."
Hermione tucked the last pasty in her pocket, banished the tray and dishes back to the kitchen, and led the boys out the door.
"There's something anti-climactic about all of this," Hermione sighed.
Ron spoke up. "I seem to have missed something. Why are we shivering in Hagrid's hut and not doing the rest of the curse?"
"Because, Ron, it take a lightning storm. A really, really big lightning storm. And the potion got all wet and ruined, and the spell is only any good on the Summer Solstice, when it's dry. And if you hadn't noticed, it's raining outside."
"Are you telling me I just killed a cow for nothing?"
"I'm really, really sorry?"
"Bloody hell."
A/N: I was having a lot of fun writing this. I wasn't ready for them to actually defeat Voldemort, but it was a brave attempt anyway. Tell me what you think (or anyone who has the album and wants to make suggestions for the next songs). This seemed particularly appropriate after the hurricane-rainstorms and the tornados we were having here when I started working on this.
Green Eyed Lady: Thanks for your comments on the previous chapter. I tried to fix it up a little, so the 'kidnapping' was a bit more realistic. Hope you liked the new-and-improved length.
