Chapter Seventeen of Unexpected Losses
"We can't all go." Harry spoke, annoyed, glancing around the very full room. Almost every inhabitant in the room wanted to go along to help find and save Hermione. Surprisingly, Willow offered to remain behind. The Grangers, however, really didn't have much of a choice to stay, regardless of what they wanted, because of the fact that they were Muggles.
All of Ron's older brothers, pardoning Percy, who was still in another room and refused to come out, wanted to go. As did Ginny. Harry wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised that Ron's parents wanted to go. It seemed that absolutely everyone wanted to go. He was glaring about the room. Most seemed to think that he was automatically in charge, though Mrs. Weasley had stared at him dubiously for some time, before it became obvious that not even she could change his mind about going.
"Even if only the graduates go, it's just too many people." Bill spoke, earning himself with a furious glare from Ginny, who was the only one that wouldn't be included if they based it on the graduation basis. Especially as Harry was apparently included no matter who else went. "This isn't an assault. This is to get Hermione."
"Don't forget, you guys will be going to a place that's overrun with Muggles usually. How he even managed to hide there with all the activity...I'm not sure." Willow spoke directly to Harry. "You definitely need to go in a group that can blend in. If Hermione's not in good shape, you need to able to get her away without attracting attention. This has to be planned out well, not just spur of the moment kinda things." Her voice faded out again as she was subjected to looks from several people around her.
Harry, however, seemed to be listening. "Okay. A small enough group to blend in, but large enough that we will be able to make sure that we can get Hermione out of there safely, and without gathering any unwanted attention from any Muggles. Or frankly, anyone else."
Willow nodded in agreement, but didn't speak again, not wanting to subject herself to the attention of everyone in the room once more. The moment passed quickly, as everyone began arguing once more. Willow retreated to Harry's side and he gave her a remorseful smile. He understood how overwhelming the entire Weasley family could be all at once. And at least when he'd had to face them, he knew them and had Ron. Willow only had him, and the situation was entirely different.
A few moments later, their entire conversation was called to a very quick halt when there was the familiar crack sound that accompanied someone that was Apparating. Willow found herself instantly on guard, and wasn't surprised when Harry was the same. Everyone instantly relaxed when it was Lupin. Even Willow did for a moment, but as soon as it was obvious that Giles was with him, she was on edge again.
Lupin approached Mrs. Weasley to receive a fond greeting. She and her husband led the werewolf away to explain to them what had happened. Giles, however, motioned to Willow with a smidgeon of relief on his face once he'd spotted her. She shot Harry a glance, and then followed Giles as he led her to somewhere where they could obviously talk. Harry followed quickly.
Giles stood stiffly, his arms crossed. Willow didn't bother giving him any kind of girth, standing very close to him, her arms almost touching his as she leaned towards him. He ducked his head closer to hers, and glanced around. "Willow." He began softly. "Please tell me Xander is here."
"No. Xander is with you. He waited at the house so when you got back you wouldn't be alone and you'd know where we were and were safe. And Xander is with you now and that's how you knew to find us here and he's okay." Willow's answer began slowly and worked itself into a panicked babble. "He is, right, Giles? Xander's with you and okay?"
"While I have no doubt that wherever he is, Xander is in no danger, he isn't with me. I was hoping that you were all being terribly irresponsible and left without leaving word." Giles answered, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the hem of his shirt. He knew what he would find when he found one of his kids. Something would have happened. While he wasn't entirely positive about Xander, he knew that Willow wouldn't have been negligent enough to leave his house empty without as much as a note. When Remus arrived, and suggested that they go to the Weasley's home to look, and he'd seen Willow, he didn't think he'd been so relieved in his life. But when he saw Willow without Xander, his heart and stomach both dropped to the vicinity of his feet.
"You don't think that that Death Eater came back, do you Giles?" Willow asked in a panicked voice, giving the Watcher a desperate look. "Because if he went back and only Xander was there..." She paused for several moments. Harry, who was standing only a few feet away wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Everything just seemed to be unraveling. Whenever they got a hint of good news, they were blown over by bad. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. In the end it was supposed to be Harry vs. Voldemort. Other people weren't supposed to get involved. Or hurt.
"I understand, Willow, but I'm sure that Xander is alright." Giles answered, reaching out to smooth down Willow's hair in a comforting motion. The redheaded girl was nearly chewing on her lip, staring dolefully at the ground.
"Giles." Willow finally brought her gaze up to meet Giles' and he tried not to notice the tears that had gathered in Willow's eyes. She had rarely been to show her emotions, and she seemed to be doing so in surplus lately. "If he's still alive, and a Death Eater showed up. That means they took him."
"That seems to be the most likely solution, yes." Giles answered, wondering where the girl's mind was going.
"Good." Willow answered, and she straightened herself, and turned to Harry. "I know who's going." She said softly, and his eyes widened in surprise. Even when receiving news that would make some people simply cease function, she was thinking. Harry cocked an eyebrow at her, obviously waiting for her to continue. "You'll go, of course. There's not a whole lot of choice about that. But I'm going to go." She glared at him when he started to object.
"I've been practicing with your magic and my own lately. I think it's best if I use mine. The spells are more powerful that way, and we'll have a better prepared assault if we're forced to make one. They won't be expecting two types of magic; what they don't expect, they can't defend." Willow carried on easily, Harry listening patiently. "We can bring Giles and Mr. Lupin. They're both adults, which will be good cover for Muggles, and they both have a wider range of spell casting than we do.
"Not to mention, Giles will be good for a physical assault. Magic isn't our only defense. If we treat it like it is, then we're in trouble." Willow continued speaking, unaware that Lupin and several of the Weasleys had filtered in while her attention was turned inwards. For the first time, she continued speaking easily despite their presence. "I also think that we should bring in Charlie. Gathering by the burn scars and his general physique, he'd be able to hand some of the physical problems we might face as well. I also want to bring in a twin." Harry gave her a most curious look at that. So did a great deal of the room, including the twins themselves.
"For the purpose of a small group, I don't want to bring in both. But when I was upstairs I saw a form for what I believe was a joke shop. Apparently run by the twins. I assume that they made a great deal – if not all – of their own products, which suggests a level of ingenuity that can be useful in doing more than just making Canary Creams. I figured that they'll be able to make flash decisions and, you know, use that to get us around problems that we can't magic or beat our way through. Sometimes you just need plain-old smarts."
"I have a feeling that with you around, we don't need anyone else to help us with that category." Charlie remarked from where he was leaning on the opposite wall of the room. Willow flushed when she realized how big an audience she'd required in speaking to Harry.
"Are you sure Willow?' Harry asked doubtfully. "You want to go?"
"Harry, I had no right before. Hermione is your friend and your family. But Xander? He's my family. And nobody messes with my family. So, yes, I'm going. Unless you think you can stop me." Everyone seemed surprised by the strength that Willow had seemed to collect as she spoke. For one who seemed so shy and fragile, she really did have a backbone of steel.
"I'd really rather if Arthur or I went along." Molly objected.
"No." Willow answered shortly, stunning Mrs. Weasley to silence quickly. Willow offered a sympathetic glance in hopes of softening her words. "As it is, I'm not too sure that I want anyone going but me and Giles." Noting the uproar that was stirring after her comment, she blushed, and motioned for them to stay calm. "It's nothing against anybody. It's just...you guys all lost somebody. Somebody really, really important, and you lost him because of Voldemort. As it is, Voldemort will probably be very nearby wherever Hermione is. I know it sounds horrible, but I don't know if I can trust all of you to not attack him. This isn't about revenge. Hermione's safety is on the line. Maybe her life."
"You were all content to let people go before you found out your friend was there." Ginny muttered resentfully from her space by the door, her arms crossed protectively in front of her.
"If you want me to say that my opinions have changed because Xander's out there, then you're right." Willow said bluntly, earning her mixed glances of anger and respect for her honesty. "I'm not some kind of emotionless superhuman, and I didn't claim to be one. But Xander might not even be there. Xander might not even be--." Willow broke off, unable to finish the thought. "Okay, this is how it's going to be. Mr. Giles, Mr. Lupin, Harry, Charlie, Fred, and I are going.
"We'll dress as Muggles, because we do not want to stick out. We'll probably have to buy tickets just as all the Muggles do. I'll cast an Invisibility charm over the rest of us, and we'll sneak away. There has to be some reason Voldemort is able to continue to be stowed away in there without anyone noticing. My guess is either some kind construction, or he's put a number of Muggles under spells. We'll infiltrate carefully. I don't want him to know that we're there until we have Hermione out of there and to safety. When we get there, I think Harry should call the shots. I'm not familiar with Voldemort or the way anything is set up. Everyone agree?"
There was nervous shifting and voices muttering too softly to be heard, but no one objected to anything Willow had to say.
"Well said," was the only eventual response, and it unsurprisingly originated from Giles, who was wearing a look of fierce pride. "Well said, indeed."
"Alright then. Let's go."
OoOoOoO
"I'd say one thing for sure; this Voldie guy has really good bars." Xander reported, while attempting to use every ounce of his strength and body weight combined to get the bars loose without any result.
"I don't think you're really going about this the right way." Hermione said absently, glancing around for some kind of tool. Unfortunately, the cell in which she was occupied held absolutely nothing of use besides herself. Sighing dejectedly, Hermione ran through a mental checklist of everything on her person in hopes of finding something useable to get herself out.
"You have any ideas then?" Xander asked in response, annoyed and trying not to show it. This was a Willow kind of puzzle. He just wasn't locked up all that often (pardoning when possessed by hyena spirits, not that he remembered any such event). Maybe Oz would've been better for solving this.
"Well, if the age is anything close to my hypothesis, then yes, I think I might have an idea. See, certain aspects of modern life weren't quite as...adapted as our own now. People tend to forget that. My guess is that if we can find something suitable for the purpose, we should be able to pick the locks quite easily." Hermione answered, wondering what she had that would be applicable in the process of lock-picking. She turned slowly, surveying the cell in hopes of catching something she'd previously missed. She was disappointed to find nothing.
"Wait. Throw over your hair thing." Xander said in an excited tone after watching her turn in what was probably her twentieth circle of the evening.
Reaching up to pat her hair, she pulled out a clasped barrette. Shrugging, she threw it across the corridor and into Xander's cell. He picked it up, and broke the back off, ignoring Hermione's outcry at the movement. After a moment, she paused, coming to the understanding of what, exactly, he was doing. Driving the narrow end of the back of the clasp into the keyhole, Xander only had to work it around for several moments before being rewarded with the most satisfying noise he'd ever heard in his life.
"Click is a beautiful noise." He reported to Hermione before yanking out the back of the clasp and freeing Hermione quickly. She nodded in agreement to his assessment, and both glanced around. "Which way now?"
"Well, whenever somebody comes down here, they come from the right. So I guess we go left. We can at least avoid probable guards that way, and if it's a dead end, we can turn around." Hermione answered thoughtfully. Xander shrugged in his concurrence and the pair headed off quietly. The corridor they traveled was long, and there were many, many empty cells on either side of it. After a short while of this journeying, the came across a hopeful sight, a staircase upwards.
They continued to travel quickly and silently, thankfully not coming across anyone. The staircase seemed to go up for several stories before it reached the next landing. The stair continued, and Xander and Hermione shared a glance, silently debating whether or not to go up another level. Finally, Xander questioned the presence of a window. When it was clear that there was none, the returned to the stairs and quickly ascended. This repeated for two more landings until Hermione did find a window.
The pair both glanced out to be met with one of the most beautiful sights they would ever see in their lives. A landscape spread out before them, a majestic castle wall surround gardens and beyond that was a city. It took Hermione several moments to come to the realization that something was familiar about the place.
It wasn't until Xander's cry of, "Hey! There's people!" that Hermione realized what it was. There were indeed people. He pointed at them excitedly, but Hermione wasn't focused on him. She was focused on the people. Because there was something about them that seemed very obvious to her, and yet she couldn't put a name to it. It wasn't until a car honked somewhere nearby that she realized what, exactly, it was. They were people. But they were also people. They were Muggles. And at that realization, several others were made. Foremost among them was their location.
Located in a huge city. A very, very old building. One that housed apparently many Muggles. The topper was, of course, that she'd been there before. She glanced at Xander. "How does someone hide out in one of the biggest European tourist attractions without getting caught?"
"Where are we?" Xander asked after that.
"See that?" Hermione pointed to a huge square tower that was relatively close, but apparently further inwards. Xander nodded in agreement. "That's the White Tower."
"Which means...?"
"We're in the Bloody Tower."
OoOoOoO
(a/n: I'm not sure if that was supposed to be some kind of revelation to the readers or not, but there you have it any case. I'm not feeling great right now, so I'm going to go and take a nap. But thank you all for your feedback and kind words. I really appreciate you guys. I'm sorry for the shortness, but I need to lay down.)