Chapter Six

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After an hour of looking around the entire castle and its grounds, they decided that it was time to take a break. So they headed back to the common room.

"I can't believe this, where could he have gone?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know, it's not like him to be gone this long." Harry replied.

"I don't understand why you two are wasting so much time on a stupid Weasel like that." said a sneering voice.

Harry and Hermione whipped around and saw Draco Malfoy standing right behind them, leaning casually against the wall with a large smile spread across his face.

"Shut up Malfoy." Harry snapped, "This is none of your business."

"Oh really? It's none of my business is it? Well, I would think that it is my business because I'm pretty sure that I am the only one out of this entire school that has any idea where your friend is." he said, malaciously.

"Yea right, you're real funny. C'mon Hermione, let's go." Harry said as he turned to leave. Although when he turned to look at Hermione she wasn't beside him.

"Hermione?"

Hermione was standing in the same spot as if rooted to the ground, hardly breathing at all. There was something about the look in Malfoy's eye that told her that he wasn't lying.

"Where is he Malfoy?" she asked.

"Hermione, c'mon. He's just fibbing." Harry said.

"Tell me." she said fiercely.

"Well, well, well. The Mudblood actually possess' common sense, unlike you Potter." Draco said.

"You watch your mouth Malfoy." Harry said, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Draco's chest.

"Oh, no. Someone save me, Potter's going to hurt me with his big bad wand." he said sarcastically.

"CRUCI-"

"HARRY NO!" Hermione yelled, grabbing his wand.

"But Hermione, he-he just…" Harry studdered.

"I know, but he may actually know where Ron is." she said quietly.

"Smart move Granger. You just saved yourself some crucial information." Malfoy said.

"Just tell us where Ron is, and get out of here." Harry snapped.

"I would watch how you talk to your superiors, Potter." he said.

"Yes, of course," interrupted Hermione, "please, where is he?" she asked desperately.

"I would say that Weasel B went on a permanent vacation with my father," he said smiling wickedly. "Of course, he was refusing to go at first, but in the end he agreed, if that's what you want to call it."

As Malfoy walked away laughing, Harry cursed.

"Whatever, he's just trying to make us worry." he huffed.

"No Harry, he was telling the truth." said Hermione breathing quickly.

"Wha- how…?" he started.

"I just know." she answered simply.

"Well then, what are we going to do?" he asked, sounding scared.

"I thing that we should go straight to Dumbledore." she said thinking quick, not even knowing what she was saying.

The next thing that they knew, they were sprinting towards Dumbledore's office. When they got there they didn't have any idea what the password was.

"Umm…Fizzing Wizbee, Bertie Bots Every Flavored Beans, Lemon Drop, Sherbert Lemon,…I don't know, Dungbomb!" she said frantically.

Just then the gargoyle jumped down out of the way.

"Wha?" she sputtered, but didn't linger.

They dashed forward and up the spiral staircase and knocked on the door.

"Professor Dumbledore? Please, we need to speak to you." Hermione said pleadingly.

A split second later the door opened and Albus Dumbledore was framed in the doorway.

"Please, come in." he said.

They rushed into the beautiful circular room, it was dark outside now but Dumbledore's office was bright. The portraits on the wall were talking to each other and as soon as they saw Harry and Hermione enter the room they all became quiet.

"Yes? From what I heard from Ms. Granger while you two were out there, I think that you need to speak to me?" stated Dumbledore.

"Oh, sorry Professor." she said turning red and looking at the ground.

"No need for an apology. What is it that you need to talk to me about?" he asked, peering over his half-moon spectacles at the both of them.

"It's about Ron, sir. I was sitting with him at lunch and we started to talk and then a school owl flew down and dropped at letter off for Ron…" she started.

"Who was the letter from?" he asked suspiciously.

"I don't know. After he read it, he got up and ripped the letter up and threw it into the fire. When I walked over to him to see if he was alright and to ask him who it was from, he was extremely upset and told me that he was tired of everything and then he ran off." she said.

"Do you have any idea where he went Ms. Granger?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, by the time that I went after him, he was gone. Then I went looking for Harry and I told him what happened and he told me to try to calm down and that he would go and look for Ron." Hermione said.

"And did you have any luck?" he asked, addressing Harry instead.

"No, I looked everywhere for him. So I decided to go and check in the boys dormitory, that's when Hermione came up looking for Ron. I told her that I couldn't find him, so we went ahead and decided that we would look one more time." Harry said.

"And…?" Dumbledore urged.

"Nothing," said Hermione, "but as soon as we decided to take a break and were heading back to the common room, we ran into Malfoy."

"Draco Malfoy." he corrected. "And what did he say?"he asked inquiringly.

"He said that he was the only one here that knew where Ron was and when I asked where that was, he said that Ron went on a permanent vacation with his father. So I think he means that the Death Eaters have him now." she said with finality.

Dumbledore sat behind his desk, his fingers interlocked and deep in thought. The three of them sat there in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Until, finally, it was broken.

"I agree that Malfoy is telling the truth," he said simply, "and I do believe that the Death Eaters have takenRon and nowVoldemort has him and I think that he took him for a reason. I believe that Voldemort's thought for taking Ron was a weakness for Harry. He has been trying to find anyway possible to get ahold of Harry, or at least lure Harry away from my protection and he almost succeeded on more than one occasion."

"Yea, you can say that again." Harry said more to himself than to the others.

"Now I don't want either of you two worrying yourself too much. I will do as much as I can, and The Order and myself will get him back as soon as possible. I will inform Molly and Arthur Weasley of this and I'm positive that everything will be just fine." he said seriously. "Now, I want you two to head back to your common room and do not inform anyone of this."

"Alright." said Harry and Hermione together.

Author's Note: Keep reading, keep reading. (and review please!)