Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
Harry woke up, groggily feeling for his glasses. His room at Grimmauld Place jumped into focus. He looked around for the source of the disturbance. A scruffy brown owl was tapping on the glass and clutching a letter. The handwriting on the envelope looked like… Hermione's! "Ron, Ron, get up now!" Harry yelled. Downstairs, Sirius's mad mother awoke and added to the din. Ron finally began to sit up.
"What do you want, Harry? It's early in the morn…" Ron groaned until he caught sight of the letter Harry was brandishing. "MUM, DAD, LUPIN, GET UP HERE! HERMIONE SENT US A LETTER!!!!!" Several loud cracks were heard and almost the entire household apparated into Ron's room. Loud pounding on the steps signaled Ginny's approach. Everyone began speaking at once. Mad-Eye Moody finally managed to be heard over the din.
"POTTER!" he bellowed. "Don't open it. It's probably cursed. Give it here! I can see through the envelope." Harry reluctantly handed it over. Mad-Eye scanned it pensively. "Nothing. Still don't open it, though. Could be something else. We ought to toss it."
Ron had had enough. He yelled, "Look, rogue Death Eater," ripped the letter away from Moody, tore it open, and tossed the contents to Harry as Mrs. Weasley shrieked, "RONALD!" Nothing happened. Moody muttered and stalked out. Harry eagerly read the letter with Ron over his shoulder.
Dear Harry,
I have been captured by You-Know-Who, as you have doubtlessly surmised. I hope you will see the light and don't hesitate to attempt a rescue. I am completely desperate. I feel I can not hold out against the enemy, therefore a swift rescue is imperative. Harry, I hope you remember what happened to Mac Stibbon's parents after they were captured. After the horrors he endured, death was a boon. I do not know if I will have the chance to contact you again, please read my letter carefully, not in a lighthearted manner. Don't hesitate to send Dumbledore. I cannot live here much longer. It's a torment to stay in a place like this, a trap.
Come quickly,
Hermione Granger
"She's done it!" Ron yelled as he capered around the room. He ran his hands through his woefully mussed hair and babbled on. "We can go and save her now! I wonder how she snuck this letter out. Get your things, Harry! We can leave as soon as Dumbledore gets here. Bloody brilliant of her. Hah, told you I had better taste in girls than you, Harry. Think Cho would have pulled this off?" Ron realized what he had just said, turned the famous Weasley-red, and sat abruptly. Fred and George exchanged gleeful looks.
Despite initial doubts, Harry began to hope. Ron was right. Hermione, brilliant as always, had snuck them a message. Maybe they'd have her back by tomorrow. No one else would die because of him. This rescue would be well planned. He started rummaging in his trunk for his invisibility cloak.
"Harry, stop," Lupin said sadly. "How do we know this isn't a trap? Even is it isn't, how were you and Ron planning to rush in and save her from a house of Death Eaters? You don't even know where she is. This letter might have been faked."
"That's ridiculous," Harry said flatly. He read from the letter, "Surmised, imperative, boon, lighthearted, and torment. Only Hermione writes like that."
"Harry's right, Lupin," Ron chimed in. "I haven't a clue what most of those words mean. Lots of them are just pointlessly long. I doubt any of those Death Eaters know what they mean."
"Boys, Hermione may have been forced to send this letter. Voldemort knows visions won't get you there so he sent you this instead. Hermione wouldn't want you to get yourselves killed over her. She's bait! Voldemort can't get to you here, so you're going to run out and give him a chance."
"Lupin, Hermione must have sent the letter without You-Know-Who knowing. She's been hiding it. See, it's ratty and torn, it even has some small holes in it. She even made sure not to tell us exactly where she is, in case she gets caught. That's the whole Mac Stibbons thing. She's giving us a clue. You'll see," Harry turned to Ron. "Who is Mac Stibbons anyway? I don't know him."
"I don't know. There isn't anyone with that name in Gryffindor, our year, or the school, I think. I've never heard of him from the first war against You Know Who. It must be a muggle thing, Harry. Any famous muggles?"
"I don't know anyone." Harry began to feel slightly desperate. They were so close. What sort of reference had Hermione used? She would have picked something that only they would recognize. Ron was right; it had to be a muggle reference. He scanned the letter again. The letter looked exactly like Hermione's writing, neat and even. Well, not quite even. It looked as though she had traced over some letters to make them stand out.
"Harry," Lupin said, trying a new tact, "maybe she put that in so you'd know she was forced to write the letter. You have to wait. Moody's gone to get Dumbledore, he'll… what is it, Harry?"
Hermione's handwriting was normally perfect. The letters were the same size, shape, and hue. But here, in two places where the writing was a tiny bit bolder, a very small message had been left. "Lupin," Harry breathed, "She did give us a message. Look! These two bits are written in bold. 'see the light' and the 'light' in lighthearted."
"Harry that's not a very helpful message. It's probably a trick of the light…" Lupin was interrupted by Ron's happy yell.
"I've got it! Lumos!" A bright flash of light briefly blazed. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Ron snatched the letter up eagerly anyway. "Damnit! What the bloody hell does she want us to do?" He slammed the letter against the window in frustration. He began mimicking Hermione's voice, "See the light, lighthearted. What sort of light does she bloody want?" He turned and saw Dumbledore had apparated with a faint pop, lost in his shouting. Dumbledore, Lupin, and Harry all stared at the window transfixed.
Ron turned slowly. The letter was still pinned to the window by his accusing finger. The parchment was still old and ratty, the writing still neat, but now, the light of the rising sun shone through sixteen small pinpricks carefully poked under sixteen words. "Bloody brilliant," whispered Ron quietly.
Dear Harry,
I have been captured by You-Know-Who as you have doubtlessly surmised. I hope you will see the light and don't hesitate to attempt a rescue. I am truly desperate. I feel I can not hold out against the enemy, therefore a swift rescue is imperative. Harry, I hope you remember what happened to Mac Stibbon's parents after they were captured. After the horrors he endured, death was a boon. I do not know if I will have the chance to contact you again, please read my letter carefully, not in a lighthearted manner. Don't hesitate to send Dumbledore. I cannot live here much longer. It's a torment to stay in a place like this, a trap.
Come quickly,
Hermione Granger
Dumbledore conjured up parchment and a quill to write Hermione's message while Ron gaped. In a voice that, to his credit, shook only a little, he read, "Don't attempt rescue. I can hold out. Harry. Mac. Boon. Don't send Dumbledore. It's a trap."
Harry recovered fairly quickly, "Lupin's right. It's a fake to confuse us. Look at the middle 'Harry Mac Boon' is gibberish. We have to help her. You can't suggest we leave her there!"
Dumbledore looked not quite his calm self as he responded. "I don't suggest that, Harry. Hermione did."
Lupin looked nothing short of floored. He reread the message again and again. "She even told us where she is," he said quietly. Everyone turned to him with looks of surprise. "Look, the part in the middle that doesn't make sense. 'Harry. Mac. Boon. Harry MacBoon. Hairy MacBoon.' It's the nickname for quintapeds. She's on the Isle of Drear."