Floo-Jacked!

By: CNJ

PG-13

3: Darkness All Around

Hermione:

The next week passed in a dark haze. We went to classes and did what we could, but all over was the anguish of our missing schoolmates. Ginny, Neville, Harry, and I huddled close fearfully, never straying far from each other.

I concentrated on finishing my own assignment for the year and keeping an eye on the younger students since I'm the girl prefect for the Gryffindor house.

Harry was sliding back into a deep depression, although he struggled to keep afloat. Ginny was a wreck, especially since her brother was among the floo-jacked along with Luna, but for classes, managed to keep herself together.

The news was out in the wizard/witch world as well and the floo network was closed down until the death eaters were caught and the floo-jacked were rescued. How long it would be, we didn't know.

The floo-jackings, which also involved several others in the magical community now explained the disappearances and yellow flames throughout this year.

I'm not sure about the other dorms, but we girls in the Gryffindor dorms moved our beds together and huddled close when we slept. I think all of us were in a state of shocked disbelief.

Many parents rang Hogwarts and I spoke to my parents on the main office mobile to my parents and younger sister. Harry also received a ring from his great-aunt Miranda.

The poor Weasleys and Luna's dad and aunt...we could only imagine their pain. Harry and I put on a brave front during the day for the younger students. All of us had to be in our dorms after dinner and teachers and security guarded the halls.

At night, it was really dreadful. Ginny, Neville, Harry, and I all had bad dreams one night and came down to the common room and sat together softly weeping. Being not too big talkers on what was going on deep inside of us, it was hard.

We fell back asleep, not really feeling better. One thing that did change for the better was that the Parliament of Magic was moving to have several Ministry officials removed from office, including Minister Fudge. Dumbledore and McGonagall mentioned this at dinner one night.

"...many members of the Ministry allowed corruption to run rampant and had a self-serving agenda until we received this result," Dumbledore told us.

"...so the articles you see in the Daily Prophet are alarmist now," McGonagall told us. "Try to take the dire predictions critically. We in the Order will take on the Ministry if necessary." There was a smattering of applause and silent tears streaked down several faces, including Ginny's and Neville's.

"I must say it is most unfortunate that many of the Ministry has served itself and used us as pawns while the death eater incidents escalated," Snape told us in Potions one day. "And today we have Fudge, that pompous putz, on the ice seat himself. However many of you may have despised me over these years, I do stand by all of you in the Young Order and appreciate your hard work over the past year. On that note, let's begin class."

Neville's eyes were wide with surprise, I guess because it was the nicest thing that Snape had ever told us. So we started the class.

Of course, we knew Snape would still have the sarcastic edge, but now many of us understand it better now. He's mostly burned out with teaching and I hear through the vine that he had a really rough childhood and adolescence.

To Harry's pain, Harry's dad, James, had also bullied Snape back in their Hogwarts days. But it was good that Snape seemed to be moving on from that and is now not as hostile toward Harry as he once was.

Harry:

During the weekdays, our nightmare was a bit easier to endure because we had classes and homework to get done. But unfortunately, Saturday came and the horror of this situation engulfed us fully.

To make matters worse, it was reported in the Daily Prophet and all over the Wireless Wizard Network that Friday that Voldemort was definitely the mastermind behind the floo-jackings and his motive was to demand that his arrested and jailed followers be released by mid-June...or our fellow students will die.

Even Quidditch practices had been suspended and if this crisis wasn't over in two weeks, the upcoming Ravenclaw/Slytherin game would be postponed. I woke up at around nine and realized that my dormmates were awake, but still lying in bed, aware of each other, but staring silently at the ceiling. Hedwig peered down at me sadly as if she sensed my distress.

I stroked her with a shaky hand. Oh, Ron! Oh Luna! I wailed mentally. If I lost them the way I lost Cedric and Sirius, I really didn't know what I'd do.

Willing myself to be strong enough to face another day of this horror, I got up and got dressed. Around me, several of my dormmates silently did the same. We'd been mostly quiet like this all week and it was eerie without the usual chatter and bantering that filled the dorms.

No one was hungry, so we just hung about in the common room, reading, doing homework and things like that. I'd just finished my Advanced Potions homework, when I heard a sucking sound and looked up to see Neville crying.

I went over and gave him a hug, whispering a few soothing things, my soft deep voice reverberating throughout the somber room. I guess it started with this, but several others started crying.

Ginny was clinging to Hermione and started weeping, which got Hermione started. Hermione clutched me with such a force that I dissolved into tears also and buried my face into her shoulder. I knew every Gryffindor was in tears by then and it made me cry harder.

Usually, I cry soundlessly, but now I could feel soft sobs ripping out of me painfully, stinging my throat and eyes. All around me, the crying grew more alarming. I think it frightened us; I know it frightened me.

I could feel my heart banging and I tried to look up, but my round, wire-rimmed glasses were a hopeless smear of tears, so I had to take them off and keep crying. I could hardly see anyway. Also, I think I was afraid to really look and see my dormmates' faces contorted in pain.

I felt my own face crumple painfully and Hermione and I clutched each other. As with Cedric, a howl fought to get out of me, but I kept it lodged in my throat for fear of what could happen if I let it out. I think eventually that howl escaped in a low windlike keen and it sounded so scary.

Hermione's sobs came in low wails and from across the room, someone almost screamed between sobs. I really don't know how long we wept like this, but some sense of urgency took over me and I had the feeling that we really needed to do something...just do something.

Mustering up whatever courage I could in my broken heart, I took shuddery breaths and began the herculean task of trying to stem my flowing tears.

It was a terrific struggle, but by mentally reciting the Gryffindor song of courage, I managed to get my weeping to a controllable level and wiped my glasses with one of the many tissues that now floated around the common room. I blew my nose and wiped my eyes and sat up, shakily putting my glasses on. Hermione kept crying and holding on to me.

"Everyone..." I blurted out shakily once I could see again. Some of my dormmates, including Ginny, started, but they slowly looked in my direction. Seeing that I had their attention, I had a surge of courage, albeit shaky, to go on. I cleared my throat and fought back a fresh wave of tears.

"Everyone, please, I think..." a painful catch squeezed at my throat. I fought it back and kept on as the others slowly wiped their eyes and looked over at me.

Hermione sat up and blew her nose, looking over at me too, her eyes still full of tears. "I...think we need to stop our tears for a while...this crying isn't helping our fellow students or us...we can't just sit here in a state of helpless weeping...we need to do something..." I looked around, fearfully wondering what exactly we could do in this condition we were all in.

"Wh-what can we d-do?" Neville wailed and started to cry again. Hermione handed him a tissue, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

I took several shuddery breaths, then plunged on. "Until we get..." I started, then felt my brows tighten and a stray tear trickle down my face. I silently commanded my wayward brows to relax and defiantly wiped away that willful tear.

"...definite news on them, we need to control our emotions for now and act. We have limited time and we can't afford to waste it with tears...once this is over, whatever comes...then we can..." I had to fight back a fresh wave of tears at the very thought of our friends and classmates not making it out of this alive.

It was just too dreadful to even contemplate, so I shoved that awful scenario out of my mind, lest I collapse emotionally again. "...let our tears flow...but not now...it's our classmates who need help more than us..."

It was a relief to see my dormmates muster up their courage and wipe away their tears and begin talking. We were still very much overwhelmed and the room was heavy with our recent flood of tears, but I could feel us Gryffindors beginning to get back on track with attempting to devise a plan that could save our classmates.

Bit by bit, the courage that we Gryffindors are famous for surged back as we pieced bits of a plan together. We summoned other members of the Young Order to our dorm to help us brainstorm a plan.

As the others came in, I noticed that several of them, including Padme, looked swollen-faced and troubled. I wasn't surprised, since some of their friends had also been floo-jacked, including Padme's twin sister. My heart went out to them.

"Oh, Merlin, this week has been a nightmare..." Cho wailed as she sat with us.

We moved to make room for all of us, including magicking over a few more chairs so they could sit. Once the entire Young Order was gathered, the others poured out their fears as well. Hermione put an arm around Padme and handed her some tissues. My heart squeezed for her.

So far none of the others had been able to devise a solid plan yet. But now that all of us are here, we should be able to, I thought, looking around. So all of us in Young Order magicked over our Y.A. stripes, applied them onto our robes and I called the emergency meeting to order.

It took a good part of the afternoon and evening and we tossed around, debated, and discarded many ideas and half-plans, but finally by mid-evening, we came up with a loose plan.

It was perilous plan and we'd have to break a few rules to do it, but if we could get the Order behind us, it could be workable. It would involved devising a special potion that could trace the floo powder path that could lead us to the whereabouts of our classmates and the death eaters who had them.

Our next task would be to get there. We still were working on a plan to rescue them and get them out of there and safely back to Hogwarts grounds without the death eaters trailing us by the time we went to sleep that night.

If we could just find a way to get there...maybe if we could have an Order member apparate with us since underage wizards and witches are forbidden to apparate without an adult. We were still rather heavy-hearted as we got ready for bed, but not as stricken with the helpless despair that had threatened to paralyze us earlier.