Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
WARNING: Again, unbetaed.
Chapter Two: Kidnapped
It was about ten o'clock and
Hermione and Ron were sat in the garden.
"Do you think Harry will be happy that we come to get him? As we haven't
contacted him by owls, even though his come daily. Poor Hedwig." Hermione said.
"Yeah. What did you do with Hedwig?" asked Ron.
Hermione smiled weakly. "Send her up to Hogwarts." She looked displeased.
"WHAT? Harry has to suffer through the company of the Dursleys for four weeks
and then..."
Hermione interupted him. "It was Dumbledore's wish, not mine. If I could
chose..."
"Then you would reply to Harry's letter and let him have Hedwig for company.
Yeah, I know. Didn't mean to bite your head off." Ron finished.
Hermione nodded. And an awkward silence followed on from that conversation.
Hermione and Ron had been distant from each other, ever since she got to Grimmauld
Place a few days before.
Ron had been there since the end of term and helped his mother cleaning so the
house could be sold.
In two hours, it would be the 31st of July, meaning it was Harry's Birthday.
Ron and Hermione would be flying, just after Moody had done the Disillusation
charm on them, so the could blend into the surroundoings, and then they
wouldn't be spotted.
"Ok." Moody was ready. "I just need..." But Ron and Hermione never found out
what he was going to say, because a cry came from inside the house and Tonks
come outside, here eyes looked terrified.
"They found us. They have to go now."
Moody turned to them. "Ok..." but Moody turned and saw about 50 masked death
eaters come out of the house. They could here the screams of Mrs Weasley and
Ginny.
One of the death eaters (who they were sure was Lucius Malfoy) shouted "Crucio.
Moody braced himself and while Lucius had his fun, the others stepped forward.
Tonks stepped forward and one death eater said, "Avada Kedavra." Tonks fell o
the floor dead, Hermione screamed, Ron pushed in front of her. The death eater
that had killed Tonks shouted: "Petrificus Totalus." At Ron, then at Hermione.
Then they got dragged away.
Hermione was the first to wake. She found herself in a cage, by a fire in a
grand study. She looked around and saw a man looking at her – Voldemort!
Hermione screamed, and that woke Ron, who was on the opposite side of the room.
"Where the hell are we?" Ron roared, when he realised he what he was doing in the
cage.
"Oh that will spoil the fun." Voldemort said sweetly. "I promise to tell you
before I kill you, and if your Mudblood loving headmaster Dumbledore doesn't
follow the terms of getting you back." Hermione looked petrified. She looked
like she had seen a basilisk.
"What... What are the terms?" Ron asked, his temper vanished in an instant.
"Well... First, they will chose who will go first... Then the other one will be
released when I get a philosopher's stone." Hermione looked scared, and so did
Ron.
"I'll be seeing you two." And with a swish of his cloak, Voldemort
disapparated.
Harry turned off the alarm and yawned. He saw his aunt, Petunia looking at him.
With tears in her eyes.
"What have I done now?" asked Harry as he began to open the letter nearest to
him.
"I got an owl today..." Petunia began. She gave a small laugh. "Vernon hit the
roof as usual, and it was addressed to me. So I read it, and found out what has
happened to you. Before, when you got back... We thought that you had had a
normal year at school, and only today have we found out... That... That... You
have been up against this Voldemort poerson three times, that you tried to save
your step dad... but then he got killed... and I feel... proud of you fror
risking your life.. for these causes, and that you stopped him from coming
back." She looked like she could burst into tears at any moment, and Harry
stood at looked at her, and for the second time, he fully appreciated that she
was his mother's sister, his aunt; and she was showing signes of... that she
cared for him.
"I hated her, because I was jealeous... I hated being this 'muggle' as she
called us. I wanted to be able to do magic, and that is why I hate her and
magic." Petunia sighed. "Vernon doesn't
know this, please don't tell hm."
A couple of weeks Later, Harry was downstairs eating a bacon bagel that he had
been made by Petunia and she was gardening.
"Harry?" can a voice from the door.
It was Remus Lupin, he had been trying to use the door bell, but it had broken.
"Yeah." Harry asked, worried.
"Can you open this door please."
"Yes, sure." He stood up and walked over to the door. He opened it to reveal
Remus Lupin, he looked like he had seen to many winters; his robes were shabby
and his amount of scars had seemed to have doubled. Had he been crying?
"Hello, Professor?" Harry said, forcing a smile.
Lupin smiled at him. "Where is the rest of guard?" continued Harry.
"Well, they will be over in a few weeks to collect you..." Harry now lost his
smile.
"What a few weeks! That is not fair." Harry's famous temper was rising.
"I'm sorry, Harry. If I could take you now, I would... It's is just... Grimmauld
Place was attacked... And..." Lupin looked
mournfully at Harry.
"Hermione and Ron have been kidnapped."
"What? How? When?"
"On your birthday." Lupin said after a pause.
Harry looked as if he was about to explode.
"WHAT!" Harry shouted. "MY BIRTHDAY! THAT WAS BLOODY WEEKS AGO!" it was two
weeks ago.
"We had to try and find them.. and... What are you doing?" Lupin stopped as he
saw Harry pointing his wand at him.
"Get me out of here!" he said, his eyes looked insane. "Or I'll hex you."
Lupin looked at him and then came another voice: "Expelliramus."
Harry was knocked back, and his wand fell to Lupin's feet. He picked it up.
Dumbledore sighed. "Take him with us."
"But..." Lupin began.
"Remus... Just do it." Lupin opened his mouth to argue, but then quickly closed
it again and followed his orders. He walked inside and emerged some minutes
later with Harry trunk and Hedwig's cage. "Where is Hedwig?" Lupin asked.
Harry glared up at him. "Hunting." He said and then refused to say anything
after that.
Dumbledore had ordered some ministry taxis and Harry was sat in the back and
looked out the window.
"Where to, sir?" the driver asked.
Dumbledore said: "The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole." He closed the door and
climbed into his own car with Lupin.
The journey wasn't pleasant at all. Harry was beyond depressed. His best
friends had been kidnapped.
'Why can't this summer be one where nothing happens?' he thought, he opened his
trunk and took out his book list, only to throw it back in and glare out the
window.
The driver had tried to make conersation, but he might as well have tried to
get water from a desert.
They entered Ottery St. Catchpole and drove through the small town and due
north to the burrow. A house with...
When the cars parked outside the porch, Harry saw Mrs Weasley rush out of the
house and hugged him. Harry stood there, unsure on what to do.
"Oh, Harry." She sobbed. "He's gone. My baby." Harry patted her back, unsure of
what to do.
Lupin saw he was uneasy, so he helped by talking to her so that he could get
inside.
It was a weird feeling; being here without Ron. The others sat there at the
table, all looking at him with expressions of worry.
"What happened?" Harry asked them.
George looked up and gave Harry a small smile. "We will tell you later."
"WHY LATER? I HAD TO THREATEN TO HEX LUPIN TO GET HIM TO TAKE ME HERE... SO
FUCKING TELL ME NOW!" Harry shouted.
The rest on the table flinched at Harry's choice of words. Ginny nodded at her
brother and she turned to Harry.
"It happened on your birthday, we were planning to suprise you with Ron,
Hermione and the Advance Gurad coming to get you. We were about to set of...
when..." she began to get tears building up. "When... a whole gang of death
eaters saw them hovering on their broom sticks, before Moody could do
anything... they attacked..." she started to sob, and Harry looked down at his
feet. Guilt rushed through him like a bacteria, and he saw out of the corner of
his eye that George had his arm around Ginny. He daren't look up, he felt so
bad.
"I'm sorry." Ginny said, and she sniffed.
"Harry!" came the voice of Mrs Weasley. "Dumbledore wants to speak to you."
Harry walked into the terrace area and Dumbledore was sat there and watching
Harry walk towards him.
"I gather that Ginny has told you what she saw. But unlike them, I know where
Ron and Hermione are. And the death eaters are willing to cut you a deal... You
can get one of them back... and you get the other back... when you get
Voldemort a philosopher's stone."
Harry was silent.
"They are being held hostage in a place not far from the forest in the town
where Sirius was spotted by Muggles. You know where I mean?"
Harry nodded.
"Also, Tonks was killed... and Moody severly injured." Harry looked down at his
hands. "I think now it is a good time for you to go upstairs and have a rest, I
need to discuss this at the wizard council, good day."
"You alright, over there?" It had been a week, and there would be an owl
going out to Harry for him to choose.
"Who do you think it will be?" Hermione asked.
"I think it will be you." Ron said stifly. "Because your the muggleborn here
and it would be safer for you to be out."
"Hmmm... I think it is you." Hermione concluded. "Because your the thing that
Harry needs the most."
Ron shook his head. "I can look after myself, and I am not the only thing that
Harry misses. Ihope he takes you... And I really mean that." Hermione was
touched.
"Where is Harry?" asked Ginny. She looked out onto the field behind the burrow.
George shrugged and Fred said: "I don't know, Ginny."
Harry was sat by a lake that Ron and him had swam in many times. He was
thinking about who of his friends should he spare... It was an unfair choice...
Because on her own, Voldemort could do soemthing because she was a muggleborn.
On his own, Ron would feel perhaps... Dare he think it... Turn against him...
What a stupid idea... Harry knew the stronger minded one out os Hermione and
Ron was definitly Hermione... But in strength and stealth it was Ron... What
was more important to use to face Voldemort? Stealth of stubborness? Easy:
Strength.
He needed to save Hermione, but to get Ron out... How? Could Dumbledore make a
Philosopher's Stone with out the help of Nicolas Flamel?
With just eighteen days until Harry would take the Hogwarts express train from
platform nine-and-three-quaters to Hogwarts; will they get Ron and Hermione
back? Will there be time?
Dumbledore came over the next day, and with him he had some books. Harry looked
at it and found that it was books belonging to Nicolas Flamel.
"Harry read this paragraph... What do you make of it?"
Finally I found the object of my search, and I knew it by its strong smell;
and with
It I accomplished the magic. I had learned the preparation of the first agent
and had only to follow my book word by word. The First Time I carried out the
operation I worked with quicksilver and transmuted about one and a half pounds
of it into pure silver, better than silver from a mine. I put the results to
the test several times. Later I accomplished the operation with the red stone
on a similar amount of quicksilver on the 25th day of April of the same year
when I transmuted the quicksilver into about the same amount of gold.
This gold was clarly superior to ordinary gold. I accomplished the magic three
times with Pernelle's help.
"What do you think of that?" asked Dumbledore.
"Well, the only substance that I can think of that has a strong smell is..."
"Sulphur." Said Dumbledore. "I gather you used that in Potions."
"Yes. Last year sometime. So is that what he used to make the Philosopher's
stone?" Harry asked. "Will you make one for Voldemort?"
Dumbledore sighed. "You are a curious boy, curiousity killed the cat. Well... I
will make a stone... Whether or not I give it to Voldemort depends... On if he
wins the duel or not."
"What duel?" asked Harry, but Dumbledore was humming and didn't show any
interest in Harry.
'So sulphur is what you use to make the philosopher's stone,' concluded Harry.
'Where can we get that?'
