"I need to, Professor!"

"Absolutely not!" McGonagall barked.

"But—"

"No, Potter, and that's that! Now get to your dorm!"

"But—"

"NO!"

Harry stomped off to his dorm, Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean behind him. McGonagall refused to let them into the girls' dorm to see what the scene looked like. Harry didn't even need to ask if she'd let them go after the girls, especially when he had no idea where they were. Not like he needed her permission to go gallivanting away from Hogwarts anyway, Harry thought angrily.

The five sat down in their four-posters but none lied down, nor spoke for a while. It was Harry who broke the silence.

"Who did it? Wormtail? Malfoy? Voldemort himself?"

Several shivers ran through the remaining four, though Seamus, Dean, and Neville held confused looks.

"Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, the guy who really betrayed Harry's parents." Ron looked back at Harry. "I dunno. What can we do, though?"

"Well, we have to get Hermione back, at least. How'll I survive Potions?" Neville uttered as though it were the fiercest the memory of his life, which, Harry reminded himself, it was.

And Kelly, Harry found himself thinking. Kelly has to come back, too.

Harry gave himself an annoyed look. The stupid heroism inside him was talking again.

"Can we do anything? We've all been to at least half a D.A. meeting," Dean asked. He was referring to Seamus, whose first meeting had been the last meeting.

Harry silently knew there were several things they could do, but had no idea how to work any of it out. He lay down, thinking. He forgot to keep himself uncomfortable, and fell asleep fairly quickly….

Kelly was screaming her head off at Diane for criticizing Harry's Patronus. "How dare you! I doubt you can do one at all yourself—you insolent fool! How could you let this happen? My plan was perfect, but now… thanks to your foolishness, I'll have you know, it has failed. And you have no idea where?" a high, cold voice asked.

"N-no, my Lord…" a hooded person said quietly.

Voldemort glared at them. "Crucio!"

The hooded figure screamed in agonizing pain. They tore at the curtains surrounding them and got themselves tangled up in them, Ron's screaming becoming louder and louder.

"Harry, stop that! Harry stop! … Oh, Seamus, come help me! … Of course he'll be all right, we just have to get him out! Ouch!" Harry's foot collided with Ron's jaw. "Oh, Harry, you idiot, STOP!"

Harry stopped moving. Ron got him out of the curtains and looked positively alarmed at the cold sweat all around Harry's face.

"Go on back to bed, he's fine…." Ron said to Neville, Seamus, and Dean. "He'll be fine, I'll get him fixed up…. I know, Seamus, but now we don't need you anymore. Go on…."

Ron raced back to Harry's side. "What was it?" he muttered.

"He's angry. His plan didn't work. Someone did something wrong somewhere and he put the Cruciatus curse on them," Harry whispered back.

Ron thought for a moment. "Maybe…"

Harry didn't need for him to elaborate. Maybe it had been Hermione's and Kelly's kidnapping that had gone wrong. Harry went to sleep hours later, with that small, but possible, comfort.

¨¨¨

Harry spent twenty minutes waiting for Hermione to come down so they could go to breakfast before Ron came back from a trip to the Owlery and sadly pointed out that Hermione wasn't going to come to breakfast. Harry, remembering the night's events, felt rather stupid and said nothing as they walked down to breakfast.

The nighttime kidnapping had spread. Everyone knew about it, and Harry heard talk of nothing else. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the only two witnesses, had become the center of attention, and Harry was quite grateful to have less eyes looking in his direction, as was common every day at Hogwarts.

Harry had just finished piling his plate with eggs, toast and butter, bacon, and one pancake when the owls flew in for the morning delivery. Harry looked up instinctively, and was thoroughly surprised to see a snowy-white owl among the mass of gray and brown. Hedwig dropped several letters into Harry's lap while Ron received just as many. Harry thought he had an idea what this was about, and when he met Ron's eyes, they confirmed that their suspicions were the same—these were from members of the Order about the kidnapping.

Harry had one from Remus Lupin, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, Moody, and Kingsley, all basically telling him the same thing: Do NOT go looking for Hermione and Kelly. We have a good idea what's happened to them, don't worry; we'll take care of it.

Well, that was pointless, Harry told himself. They all knew what happened to Hermione and Kelly—they were kidnapped! Voldemort might have them, but according to Harry's dream, something had gone wrong, and he prayed continually that it had to do with the kidnapping.

Harry had just finished his toast, the last thing on his plate, when the doors to the Great Hall slowly started to open. The people trying to open them were obviously weak and having trouble moving properly. One looked like they had a broken leg, as it was twisted at an odd angle and they were hopping, the other's right arm limp at their side.

Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape all stood up at the staff table. Hermione and Kelly were the ones who opened the doors.

Hermione could have been shot and looked better. Her robes, which she must have still had on at the time of the kidnapping, were so torn they looked like a couple pieces of thread magicked together. Her hair had more sticks, thorns, and leaves, and dirt than Dudley was overweight. Her arm was limp at her side, and she seemed unable to move it.

Kelly looked similar to Hermione. It was her leg that stuck out at an odd angle and made several people gasp and look away. Her hair was stringy and scattered all over her face. Her robes, in a similar state as Hermione's, looked extremely dirty and bloody, giving the impression that they'd just been through the Forbidden Forest or something of the sort.

"Dumbledore," Kelly gasped, falling to her knees.

Dumbledore was at her side in an instant. "What is it?" he asked urgently.

"Tromedlov," she whispered. "Sih regnassem." Harry thought this was a foreign language, and it seemed several others did, too. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape all tightened as she spoke.

"Come on," Dumbledore said, helping her to her feet. "I'll—"

But he was going to do, they didn't find out. At that moment, Hermione and Kelly collapsed simultaneously, both looking rather surprised. Harry tried not to scream.

A/N:

BUM BUM BUM… Wow, I love doing that for some reason. Go ahead, figure out Kelly's "cryptic not-so-cryptic message". I didn't bother to code it in some special, hard-to-break manner. If you're one of those people who like challenges and would prefer such, let me know before you figure it out. I'll come up with something too difficult for you. Yes, I do believe that IS a challenge. I'd have to have your word that you wouldn't cheat, though….

Sorry, this chapter's kinda shorter than the rest. I'm trying to keep it generally the same length, but I do fail miserably at times; sometimes they're a lot longer, though I don't think any are as short as this one.

Next chapter! Harry and Ron barge into the Hospital Wing to find out how Hermione and Kelly are (take a wild guess). Then it's story time. And then Harry sends Ron out for a "mission" that's on the DL, at least from the Slytherins.

So I hope you enjoyed Chapter 8. I know I, personally, think it to be rather lame. It's kinda… just an appetizer for Christmas, though Christmas is much more fun and adventurous…. Two in one day…. BAHAHA! PLOT GIVEAWAYS!!! They're so much fun. Though that was a crappy one. ANYWAYZ….

Make me happy! Review! : )

Thankx,

Riles