Disclaimer: I don't not own Harry potter or any character relating to such a man but if he chooses to come to me then I have all the right to welcome him with very loving arms…don't you think?
Rating: R….Mahwah ….p.s. there will be torture coming up in the next chapters so don't worry
(A/N): SORRY THAT IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO POST I HAD A TRAGIC MESS WITH MY COMPUTER AND SHE HAD TO BATTLE FOR HER LIFE..AND THE LIFE OF MY HARRY POTTER STORY. So I apologize and ask that you forgive me and know that I love you all and PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter 5
It was odd how neither Ron nor Harry were able to fully pull all of attention to getting Hermione back to Hogwarts. Harry was transfixed with why Voldemort would want Hermione dead as being the-boy -who-lived and the soul person who could bring down the dark wizard Harry had already decided that it was Voldemort that sent her assassin. He was not as worried with why it had been Victor Krum that was sent to kill her as why she was a target. He was busy pacing back and fourth muttering to himself about possible motives. He would every once in a while go over to Hermione to comfort her whispering reassuring words for she was still his main priority, as always.
Ron on the other hand was slightly less controlled then Harry. He was in a furious rage no longer pacing but running back and fourth screaming about Victor Krum and how he had never really liked him. How Hermione was always too good for him anyhow, and how if Ron could get his hands on him he would tear off his left arm and feed it to him, even if he were dead.
Ron's comforting words were also less ..comforting then Harry's. While Harry's were accompanied with hugs and light kisses on the top of Hermione's head, Ron's attempt at comfort was a little different. Instead of soft yet strong loving words he was describing for her different and descriptive ways of brutally murdering traitors. And after each vulgar scenario large amounts of red sparks would fly out of the tip of his wand.
It was after about ten minutes of this when there was a loud crack and a hooded figure in a bright yellow rain poncho apperaited directly in Harry's path. Harry immediately drew out his wand and with his free hand he slammed the figure's back up against the tree next to Hermione's.
"Harry! Harry! Its me. It's me let go! It's me let me go!" The man talking was not fully fighting off Harry but had placed his strong hands on Harry's shoulders so that Harry's grip on his neck could become no tighter. As the man shook his head repeating his worlds to Harry his hood fell off his head to reveal a face that they all knew well.
"Mundugus? Is that you?" Harry lessened his grip on the dirty older man but keep him pined to the tree trunk.
"Yea Yea its me. Are you all right?" Harry had finally let Mundugus go and he was now looking around furiously. "Where's Hermione?…she alright? " As he spotted Hermione on the ground and ran over to her. "Where's the boy… that Krum fellow…have you seen him? Are you meeting him here. DON'T MEET HIM!"
" TO LATE FOR THAT HUH!" Ron turned to Mundugus his ears were fire red but his face was pale almost ghostly white as he asked, "How did you know about him? Why are you here…How did you know?"
" Snape… he tipped us-"
"What? Snape? What does he have to do with this?" Harry interrupted.
"Tipped us off he did. He sent a message to the order, in code of course, and I was the only one there, it was on my duty you see…good thing I was there, so I answered it."
"What did it say? How did he know?" Ron began to pace again as the color still drained it's self from his face.
"All in code of course that Hermione was in danger…." He paused for the effect of silence, "And that the dark lord had sent someone after her…" Again he paused looking around at the others waiting for their reactions, when the only one he got was a look that clearly said 'tell us now' did he continued, "And that she was at Hogsmead… and needed help." Mundugus' face then fell as he seemed to just then hear Ron's earlier replay, "What do you mean to late!" He shook his head around questionably looking for answers, "Has he been here already ?" He got no replay but guessed what the silence meant, "What happened?"
"He died." It was the first time that Hermione had spoken since Ron and Harry had first found her.
"Oh no this is bad…." Mundugus took a long breath in and then held his head in his hands for a while, "We must go to Dumbeldore, he needs to know all of the details!" Mundugus was nervous, but he was also right.
Harry nodded his head in approval and took Hermione's hands questioning if she would be able to walk, "Alright lets go…We'll take the short cut so Hermione doesn't have to go so far."
"No I got us a portkey." Answered Mundugus as he puffed out his chest in an important way, "I took it as I left the order I thought that we might need one that would take us to Hogwarts."
"But you cant use a portkey to get into Hogwarts?" It seemed that Ron had finally learned something from Hermione's constant resisting of 'Hogwarts a History'.
"You can if Dumbeldore makes ya' one…now hold Hermione and lets go."
Mundugus pulled a simple tattered gray writing quill for the inside folds of his rain poncho and held it out for them all to touch. Harry held Hermione tightly around the waist so to support her and Ron put a strong arm around her shoulders. With a light finger pressed gently on the old quill the 4 were transported out of Hogsmead and into a warm and safe Hogwarts.
"I am very proud of you Draco. There was once a time that I thought your loyalties were a little weak and unclear to you, but I see now that you know what to do and that you have become strong and smart enough to see were to put your faith all on your own."
"Thank you father , but to clarify I have never been weak."
"SILANCE!" The dark lord was surrounded by 21 of his most trusted men and from the state of his greeting he was angrier then usual. " Search the man's body and give me his possessions."
His men did as he ordered as a man brought in Krum's lifeless body. They searched his pockets and found his wand, a small amount of gold, and a maroon marble. But nothing that Lord Voldemort was looking for.
"WHERE IS MY DAGGER!" Voldemort was standing now, towering over his death eaters. He rarely showed emotion to such an extent unless provoked by the great Harry Potter, and seeing Voldemort shaking in anger with his fits clenched and pressed against the solid rectangular table so that his knuckles if possible had become even whiter, was not a site one saw often. And definitely not a sight one ever wished to see.
"May I enquire Sir?" Lucius spoke up tentatively for even he knew that to anger the dark lord would mean punishment for even him, "As to what dagger you are speaking of my lord?"
Voldemort's eyes blazed, his snake like nostrils flared out ward and his fists began to slowly beat with intimidation against the oak table. "I gave him." He reached for Krum's limp body and with a long slender and bony hand raised Krum's lifeless arm off the table only to let in fall and dangle over the edge once more, " A very prized possession of mine. He was supposed to kill the dirty mudblood with it and then return it to me. Her blood, that my dagger was supposed to capture, would have been very valuable to defeating Harry Potter." He then began to pace up and down the sides of the long table every so often touching the shoulders of the death eaters that quivered under his light and deadly touch. "AND NOW IT IS GONE…And someone must pay for the mistakes of the weak and the step that we had over Harry Potter that is now lost." He turned around and again began to pace the length of the table. "Who will win the punishment?"
Draco was confident in his actions and knew that one should never show weakness especially towards the dark lord, but even he was unwilling to give himself up to the punishment of others flaws. He was better then others and would never take the pain that was not his to take.
"WORMTAIL! I think that it is time that I teach you a lesson in the deliverance of pain." Voldemort's face then light up with a glint that could only be brought on by the pain of another man. "DeLotton, will you do me the great honor of stepping forward and removing your hood." A tall man with broad shoulders but little to hold the rest of his body up stepped forward. He removed his hood to reveal a face that even through he was trying to hide the fear it was written in every line and crease.
This man, Charles DeLotton, was either going to die, and be broken or do the breaking of another man himself. Voldemort turned to Wormtail and grabbed his wand form the insides of the shaking man's robes. He took it and turned it over in his hands judging the it's weight and power. Then to the surprise of every man he gave it back to the balding traitor and smiled. He then moved on to DeLotton, he took his wand and placing it in both his hands he snapped the dark mahogany wand in two.
"My lord what are you doing?" DeLotton was confused and it shown all over his face and in his voice. This only made the dark lord's evil grin spread even wider across his face. "What do you expect me to do with my bare fits my lord?" DeLotton was unsure as to how he was to punish Wormtail if he was the one that was unarmed.
"Nothing. I expect you to feel pain and I expect it to hurt." The glint that was now shining in Voldemort's eyes was now even more prominent then ever. He walked over to his servant, Wormtail and placed a cold dead white hand on the small man's plump shoulder, "Do you remember the curses that I taught you ?" Wormtail nodded, he was slowly starting to understand the situation that was playing around him. The situation that for once in his life placed him in control. He nodded again and began to unroll is sleeves, his head shacking madly at the anticipation, his eyes burning with a fire that had only once in his life shone so strongly, and then it had been a look of pure malice formed by jealousy. Wormtail raised his wand and the stronger man before him crumpled to the ground writhing in pain.
All of the death eaters had their eyes glued to the figure of Wormtail wielding another to the ground pleading for mercy. But Draco was lost in the pervious events of the day. The look on his face was one that mirrored that of Voldemort's. Draco's face held an expression of satisfaction. He was thinking of the look on Hermione. And the fact that Krum would never be able to hold her in his cold arms again. And the fact that she would never again be manipulated by his blackness. The fact that he could never again hurt her. It was the first time that he felt the satisfaction that he was doing the right thing.
Hermione was now laying in the white sheets of the hospital wing. She had just finished talking to Dumbeldore and Professor Snape. Snape had confirmed that Victor Krum had been given the task of murdering Hermione for his initiation. Him and Dumbeldore both agreed that they had no idea who her rescuer was and that they were just glad she was alive.
Dumbeldore however was vary interested in the fact that her rescuer told her that Krum had been sent to kill her. This meant that the man was bold and rash and not afraid of taking a life. He said he had no idea who the man was, but his eyes held a glint in them that strongly suggested other wise. Dumbeldore was also not surprised to see that Hermione was not totally crushed by the death of Krum, I guess the fact that he was trying to kill her makes him harder to miss.
Dumbeldore then processed to warned both Harry and Ron that Voldemort was up to something and somehow Hermione might be involved. He told the two of them that they should watch Hermione's back and make sure that she stays safe at all times. Also Dumbeldore made Ron promise not to mention anything about Krum's death or of the reasoning behind his murder to any of the other students, for Hermione needs nothing like rumors right now. He left Hermione to rest in the hospital wing while Harry and Ron stayed by her loyally trough the night.
Things were a lot less peaceful from a death eaters point of view. Even after watching Wormtail brake a man and then take his life Voldemort was still filled with rage about his missing dagger, and now every single death eater was going to search for it.
"I don't care where you have to go or who you have to kill all I want is for my dagger to be lying on this table in front of me before any of you are free from it." Voldemort had ordered the death eaters to search every where looking for the lost dagger, and if it was not found then many men would be suffering from his wrath.
Voldemort had suggested that the death eaters get information out of people painfully ensuring that no information was left secret. He also suggested that the death eaters start their search with Hermione Granger.
(A/N): REVIWING TIME….YHEY!
