Author's Note: I know I've been gone for a while and I'm sorry. I have been really busy at work and to be honest I was just a little burned out. Plus I had some things wrong with my plot and I had to completely change some things especially with this chapter. But anyways I'm back and I am excited to be writing the story again. I hope everyone that liked the story will stick with me even though I've taken such a big break. I promise that I will never abandon the story.

P.S.: I have updated this chapter to change Zonkos to Honeydukes.

Chapter 26

The Den

Harry decided to head down to the dungeons for his detention with Snape a little early. He wanted to make sure that he was on time so that Snape wouldn't have a reason to give him another night's detention. He thankfully had no major problems with the staircases so when he made it to the Potions room he was a full ten minutes early. He was about to go inside when he heard voices coming from the room.

"Where is my father?" Sneered the familiar voice of Draco Malfoy.

"I'd have thought you had more sense than this Draco." Snape replied coolly. "This is a very inappropriate time and place to have this conversation."

"You'd better watch yourself Professor." Malfoy retorted. "There has always been a question of where your loyalty truly lies and my father has always been the one to vouch for you. If he were to stay missing, then I might have to start raising questions about you."

"Don't threaten me boy." Snape said with a mixture of anger and anxiety in his voice. "I certainly don't need to answer to you."

"No, but you do need to answer to the Dark Lord." He replied. "My father is one of his most loyal servants and your job is to find out what that fool Dumbledore and his friends know."

"Don't tell me what my job is." Snape yelled and Harry thought he heard the sounds of Snape grabbing onto Malfoy. "I don't want to hear anything about this from you again." It sounded as though Snape had released him and Harry heard Malfoy walking towards the door so he ducked around the corner.

"I know they have him and I'm going to find out one way or another Professor." Malfoy said calmly as he exited the room. Malfoy walked up the stairs and out of sight and Harry decided that he would wait a minute before entering the room so that Snape wouldn't know he had heard the conversation. But before Harry could enter the room, Snape swept out of the room and up the stairs leaving a bit of parchment attached to the door. Harry waited until he was sure it was clear, and then came out from the shadows to read it.

Detention canceled Potter. I will talk to you Monday about rescheduling.

Harry thought that Malfoy's threats had obviously flustered the Potions master. The question was why. Dumbledore had always said that he trusted Snape but Harry and especially Ron had never understood why. If it wasn't clear before, it was clear now that Snape was a double agent. Both sides think that he is working under cover for them.

Harry made it back to the Gryffindor common room and talked the whole situation over with Ron and Hermione. They came to the conclusion that there was not much that they could do about Snape now except keep an eye on him. Harry knew that they weren't the only ones that had there reservations about Snape and he was fairly certain that the members of the Order wouldn't give him any crucial information.

"So no word from Dumbledore yet?" Hermione whispered. They were in a corner of the common room by themselves but there were other people dispersed around.

"No." Harry replied. "And I don't understand it. If the Death Eaters captured him, than I would have thought they would have attacked by now and if he left by himself than he should have contacted us."

"Let's just hope we hear something soon." Ron responded. "I can't even contemplate what it would mean if they have Dumbledore."

"But how could they get him?" Hermione asked. "It would be impossible for a Death Eater to get into Hogwarts."

"Maybe there is another way into the Chamber." Ron stated.

"It's possible." Harry replied. "But I doubt it. The chamber is so far underground and besides if Voldemort knew of another entrance then he would have come up and attacked from there before."

"So if there is no other entrance, and no Death Eater could have possibly got into Hogwarts, then Dumbledore couldn't possibly have been kidnapped." Ron said with a fair amount of hope in his voice.

"Unless it was an inside job." Hermione said gravely. "We know there is a traitor in the Order. And after our second year, all the teachers know where the Chamber is."

"But no one knew Dumbledore was down there except us and Aberforth." Ron added. They all looked at each other intensely without speaking.

"I think we can trust Aberforth." Harry finally said breaking the silence. "He's given me no reason not to trust him ... but at this point we have to explore every possibility."

Harry excused himself and headed up to the boys dormitory. He couldn't help thinking about who the traitor could be. Of course it could be Snape; he had always been the obvious answer. But then again, what did he really know about Aberforth? He was putting a lot of faith in a man who he had never known up until this year.

All of the unanswered questions floating around in his head prevented Harry from getting much sleep that night and Friday passed in a sleep deprived blur. Thankfully, on Friday night he was so tired that no amount of worrying would have been able to keep him from sleeping. And when he woke up early on Saturday morning, he felt a bit more refreshed than he had in ages.

Since he had fallen asleep so early on Friday night, he had apparently woken Saturday morning before anyone else in Gryffindor house. He made his way down to the common room which was completely empty and settled down in front of the fireplace to get some studying in. He was able to work for about an hour before he finally got a visitor in the common room.

"Morning Harry." Ginny said with a grin as she came in and sat down next to him. She had been a little distant every since the incident with Percy and Harry was glad to see that she was starting to act more like herself again.

"Morning Gin." Harry replied as he started putting his books and parchment away.

"Are we all set for tonight?" She asked sweetly.

"Yea, I sent an owl to Fred and George so they will be expecting us." Harry replied. "Hopefully they will have some good news for us."

"Yea, hopefully." Ginny responded starring at the floor. Harry could tell that she had more to say.

"Is there something wrong?" He spoke up. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Nothing. It's stupid."

"I'm sure it's not stupid. Just tell me."

"It's just that I've thought about going on a date with you for a long time." Ginny started blushing a little. "And I was looking forward to going to Hogsmeade together so much and with everything that is happening, I just get this feeling that we're never going to get the chance to really have fun and have a proper date."

"I know it feels like that sometimes. But I promise you that before the year is over we will have a proper date." Ginny's eyes seemed to gleam a bit and she reached over and pulled Harry into a tight hug.

"Thanks Harry." She said as she pulled away from him. He just smiled and leaned in to give her a kiss but was interrupted when one of the doors in the common room opened and some first years came bounding through it. The two quickly jumped apart from each other and began laughing out loud.

"Well I'm sure no one will interrupt in the secret passageway tonight." Ginny whispered in Harry's ear as she got up and headed back up the stairs to the fifth year girls dorm. And suddenly, Harry could not wait for nine o'clock.

At around 8:30pm, Harry met Ginny in the Gryffindor common room with his invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map. Earlier in the day, they had made a plan to meet Ron and Hermione in the 3rd floor corridor around 8:45. Hopefully, they would be able to clear the hallway so that Harry and Ginny could get past the statue of the humpbacked witch and through the secret passage without incident. Since the curfew for students was 9:00, it seemed reasonable that the hallways would be fairly clear by that time.

"We should get going." Ginny said, tapping Harry on the shoulder. Harry nodded in agreement and they set out through the door. Thankfully, at that moment no one else was coming in or out so they were able to exit the common room unnoticed. They climbed down the stairs and made it to the third floor and found Ron and Hermione waiting for them in a seemingly deserted hallway.

"Any problems?" Harry asked as he approached his friends.

"No, s'been fine." Ron replied. "No one has been down this way for about ten minutes."

"Brilliant." Harry said as he pulled the invisibility cloak out from a pocket in his robe.

"Now remember Harry, our shift ends at midnight so do try to be back by then." Hermione added as Harry threw the cloak over himself and Ginny.

"Right." Harry answered. "We'll be back in time."

"Say hi to them for me." Ron added as the two sets of friends started to descend down different ends of the hallway. Even though Ginny was relatively small, the two teenagers had to stay fairly close to stay under the invisibility cloak. Harry reached his hand behind him and grabbed Ginny's hand in order to make it easier to maneuver the hallway together.

As they made it through the secret passageway, Harry pulled the invisibility cloak of himself and Ginny and then quickly grabbed her hand again as they started to descend the seemingly endless amount of stairs that lie in front of them. They both lit their wands to provide some light in an otherwise dark passageway.

"This is really creepy Harry." Ginny said breaking the silence after a few minutes of walking. "I can't believe that you've done this alone before."

"It's not so bad." Harry replied as the stairs stopped and the tunnel began to even out. "I guess I was never really scared because nobody really knows about it." Harry had never really taken a good long look at the tunnel before and as he looked around he concurred with Ginny that it was a bit creepy.

"Wormtail would know about it wouldn't he?" Ginny asked. Harry sensed a fair amount of fright in her voice and she jumped a little at a noise that coincidentally turned out to be a rat scurrying down the corridor. Although this rat, Harry noticed, had all of its appendages.

"Actually, I guess you're right." Harry replied. "I never thought of that." Harry pondered this to himself for a moment as he and Ginny began to increase the pace at which they were manipulating the corridor. This was a way into the castle that Voldemort and his Death Eaters possibly knew about. Harry thought to himself that he would have to address this with Aberforth as soon as possible but figured for now he would do his best to relieve Ginny's fears.

"Don't worry Gin. I'm sure that Wormtail doesn't even remember this." Harry said. He stopped Ginny and pulled her closely to him. "And besides I'll protect you." Ginny grinned widely at this comment and seemed to relax a bit as Harry leaned in quickly for a kiss.

"Alright." Ginny conceded. "But let's hurry. I don't fancy being down here longer than we have to." Harry nodded in agreement and they began to walk even more quickly through the tunnel.

Finally, the stairs began to ascend upwards again and before long they were facing the trapdoor that led to Honeydukes. Harry pulled the invisibility cloak out of his pocket and threw it over himself and Ginny once they were through the trap door and on solid ground. Thankfully, Honeydukes was closed so they were able to get through the shop and out onto the streets of Hogsmeade without any trouble at all.

"This way." Ginny said stepping in front of Harry to take the lead. They had decided to keep the invisibility cloak on because you never knew who you might encounter in Hogsmeade. They had to dodge a few people that were making their own way through the streets but all in all, they made it to the Hog's Head fairly easily.

"This is it. Number 41" Ginny said pointing to an apartment in the alley next to the Hog's Head. Harry knocked harshly on the door while keeping the invisibility cloak on.

"Who's there?" George said loudly as he opened the door widely. He stepped aside to allow Harry and Ginny plenty of room to enter.

"Well I guess no one's there." He added as he closed the door behind them. Harry pulled the cloak off of Ginny and himself as soon as the door closed.

"You can never be too careful." Fred said as he shook Harry's hand and then moved on to give his sister a hug. Harry noticed a wooden sign above the door that proclaimed the name of Fred and George's apartment as "The Den".

"I never would have thought that I'd here that statement come from one of your mouths." Ginny said smirking as she pulled back from her brother.

"Unfortunately, things change Gin." George replied.

"Not only are we the children of the Minister of Magic," Fred started. "But we're also members of the Order now and there are a lot of people who would like to exploit those facts." Harry and Ginny nodded and took seats that George conjured out of thin air.

"Now onto why we brought you here." George started. "We have some information that no one else has."

"And we mean no one." Fred added.

"About Hagrid?" Harry asked hopefully.

"It could lead you to Hagrid." George said.

"You know that the Order is confident that Hagrid is being held at Malfoy Manor." Fred started. "Well they have been interrogating Malfoy day and night to find out who the secret keeper is."

"So they finally found out?" Ginny broke in.

"Of course they didn't." Fred replied. "He won't give the information up and we could never subject him to conditions worse than what you know who has done to him."

"What about Veritaserum?" Harry asked.

"That didn't work either." George responded. "Either the potion they used wasn't strong enough or Malfoy's mind is stronger than anyone would like to give him credit for."

"Then what information did you lot find out?" Ginny asked.

"Relax Gin." Fred said. "We're getting there."

"So Fred and I have been working on a bit of a truth potion of our own." George now spoke up. "It's really not very similar to Veritaserum but in this case it served the same purpose."

"What it does is make the person reveal there deepest secret." Fred chimed in. "So we volunteered to bring food down to the prisoners, (all three of the Weasley's faces fell a little when he made this statement) and we slipped a drop of Weasley's Secret Stripper in Malfoy's water."

"The best part was that he wasn't expecting it." George said. "You see Veritaserum has a distinct smell and taste that anyone familiar with it can identify. That's why it is often slipped into a drink that has a strong aroma itself. Our Secret Stripper potion is odorless and tasteless, so when Malfoy examined the water he had no reason to be alarmed and so he let his guard down."

"And as he put down the glass after taking a big sip of his water he told us who the secret keeper of Malfoy Manor is." Fred said smirking.

"Well who is it!" Harry yelled.

"Draco." The twins replied in unison.

Authors Note: Thanks to everyone who reminded me that the secret passageway leads to Honeydukes not Zonkos. I'll remember to check the lexicon for information like that in the future. I've changed it now. Thanks for the reviews everyone, I love hearing your opinions and questions.