The Dark Lady
Chapter 10 – Information
By gracie5412
Thanks to my reviewers and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas,
JKIJ,
Slayer of The Evil Penguins,
Kendra is cheese,
Hermione's heels clicked along the stone floor as she made her way to the cell keeping Thomas Duffy. She had left for The Riddle House as soon as she had left Dumbledore's office.
The door way opened for her by a guardsman and she stepped inside to join Draco who was trying to get information.
"No luck yet my Lady." He said as she entered the room.
"Well we'll see what I can do. What have you got out of him so far?"
"Nothing yet. He won't even tell us his name, which I stupid as he knows we already know it." Draco said through gritted teeth trying to bite back his annoyance.
"Well like most things in life it probably just needs a woman's touch." She sighed and walked over to Thomas.
"My offer still stands you know. You can join my men and me. I'd hate to waste a perfectly good body if he's willing to fight for my side."
"Never." He spat.
"That's the problem with you Order members always want it all your way. Ever heard of a thing called give and take? As in you give me the information I want and then I take your life for it. I can't see any fairer than that." Hermione laughed through her anger.
She took out her wand and stood directly in front of him. Pointing it at her palm she whispered a spell word and a small silver slug-like creature crawled from the tip and into her hand. She placed it on Thomas's left temple and it wriggled along his face and up his nostril.
"What I've just put inside you will crawl around and whenever I cast a crucio spell on you it will channel the pain much more quickly and much more effectively for me." She explained, enjoying his fear. "So every time you don't answer one of my questions you'll get a nice little burst of immense pain. Fun no?"
She pointed her wand at his head. "Who knows all four names of the Keepers?"
Thomas didn't answer, just graced Hermione with a steely gaze.
"Fine." She snapped. "Have it your way. Crucio."
Thomas's face contorted with pain as the spell took its hold on his body working from inside to out. He let out a yell and Hermione waited for ten seconds longer before removing the curse.
"Hurts like hell doesn't it? And that's just the start just think that's only with one of them in. I could fill you up to the top if I wanted."
Forty minutes later Hermione threw down her wand in fury as Thomas passed out for the fifth time.
"This is getting us bloody nowhere!" she shrieked at Draco. "What's the bleeding point if he won't talk."
"He will Mistress. He will, just give it time."
"I really hate Dumbledore! What was he thinking teaching them all to block information off. Bloody Occulmency, bane of my life! No spell can get through and when they do he's too quick."
"He's coming round again." Draco pointed out.
Hermione quickly turned and pointed her wand. "Crucio." She spat and left him in pain for around half a minute before removing the spell. "Tell me the names!"
Thomas said nothing yet again and Hermione felt pure untarnished rage surge through her. Her vision blurred and her eyes flashed red.
"That is it!" She screamed "Malfoy. Come." She ordered and the both walked from the room.
"What do we do now Mistress?" Draco asked as the door slammed shut.
"Well, you will go to my office, shrink the Pensieve and bring it back to me." She instructed and he quickly did so.
"What will you do?" He asked when he returned.
"I'm going back to Grimmauld place I have a little research to do and something to pick up." She said and quickly disapperated.
Two seconds later she was back in Grimmauld Place and making her way down the hallway. It was empty as it was quite late and most people were already in bed. She got to Ron's door and knocked before walking in with tears filling her eyes.
"Ron? I can't do this I'm scared. Can I sleep with you tonight?" she asked.
"What? Herms we broke up ages ago, I thought we agreed not to go back to all that."
"Huh? What are you on about? Oh. No! Not sleep with you sleep with you, just sleep in the same bed as you I don't want to be alone."
"Oh right sure I knew that." Ron said, his ears turning slightly pink.
"Sure." Hermione said sarcastically.
She climbed into his bed and after a moments hesitation Ron joined her. She suppressed a shudder as he wrapped an arm around her and waited around twenty minutes for him to fall asleep.
After listening to him snore violently for a further five minutes she carefully extracted herself from his grasp. She made her way silently to his chest of draws and lay on top was what she needed. Ron's dog tags. Protected by magic so they could never be duplicated or copied she had to have the real set. She carefully slipped them into her pocket and got back into bed and fell into an uncomfortable sleep.
"Herms have you seen my dog tags?" Ron asked when she woke up.
"What? No I don't think so. When did you last have them?" She asked through a yawn.
"Yesterday, I put them on the draws before I fell asleep."
"Maybe they fell down the back? You sure you had them I don't remember seeing them. When did you last change the chain? If it's old it could have snapped. Ask at the desk see if anyone's handed it in." She said as she got out of bed. "I'm going to go take a shower and get changed. I'll look round for you." She quickly left leaving Ron crawling around on the floor looking. Once in her room she showered, changed and apperated to the Riddle House.
"Good morning Mistress." Draco greeted her as she walked into his room.
"Malfoy, where's the Pensieve? Make sure there are no guards patrolling down the cells this morning until I tell you otherwise. And in about thirty minutes I want you to go into Duffy's cell and ask who was in there got it?"
"Er yes Mistress. It's on the table over there."
"Good. Oh and if you see Weasel it's not him really so don't kill him got it?"
She gave him no time to answer instead she walked from the room carrying the shrunken Pensieve in her hand.
She got to the cell and was pleased to find that Malfoy had already emptied it. She set the Pensieve down on the floor and closed her eyes tightly. Slowly the outline of her body started to blur and wobble until she changed. When she opened her eyes she looked down at herself and smiled, as now she didn't look like Hermione she looked like Ron.
She pulled her own dog tags off and put Ron's on instead. She picked up the Pensieve and put it into the pocket of the robes before walking to the cell that Duffy was in. she slipped through the door as into the cell. Duffy jumped up and balled his fists.
"Hey calm it's ok. I'm Ron Weasly Order Member. I'm here to help."
"How. Can you get me out?"
"Well no not yet. But I can put the information in here and then Obliviate the information from your head so then there's no chance that they'll ever find out and then we're all safe."
"How can I be sure you're really who you say you are?"
"Take a look at my tags." She said moving forward so Duffy could read the name on it.
"Ok then I believe you. I'll need your wand."
"Oh right here." She said and handed it over after making the Pensieve the right size.
Duffy took the information out of his head and placed it into the Pensieve in a silvery wisp. Then he handed the wand back over.
"OK I'm going to Obliviate that part of your memory now. You'll still have all the rest of your memories though. Hopefully." She quickly performed the spell and shrunk the Pensieve again.
"I think someone's coming." She said quickly and sure enough she could hear footsteps. "We'll come for you soon ok? It should be pretty easy but we'll need more than one person ok? Don't give up hope."
She then quickly left the room and went in the opposite direction to the footsteps.
a few minutes later she met Draco at the end of the hallway and showed him what she had done.
"Genius Mistress, pure genius." He praised and followed her to the office where they watched the memories that they needed to see. Finally they had the name they needed: Rachel Peres.
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