A/N: After reading HBP, I seem to have rediscovered my love of writing the Harry Potter fanfiction. It's awesome, no? But yes. It's becoming hard to see how I can do this story, so it's just going to be AU from this point on. I can't say that I like disagreeing with canon, but I'm sure that I can forgive myself. Call it creative license.
Disclaimer: I own a book. And I own a computer. But that's about it.
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Angelina returned to her mother's house after seeing Katie and Harry off at Platform 9 ¾. She went back to the Burrow just to claim her luggage and then took the Portkey that members of the Order had made for her back to her house. Angelina's mother screamed when she heard the thump that meant that Angelina had returned. She went into the kitchen; her wand raised, but lowered it when she saw who had intruded into her house.
"Angie!" her mother cried, running to her daughter and enveloping her in her arms. Angelina clutched her mother tightly; fear coming over her at the thought that she had been very close to never seeing this woman again. The two women finally separated, her mother wiping tears out of her eyes.
"Can I make you a cup of tea?" her mother finally asked, her voice coming out in a small gasp. Angelina wordlessly nodded and sat down at the table. Her mother waved the wand vaguely at the teapot. Seconds later it was whistling. Angelina took a deep breath of the calming scent of her mother's tea before taking a small sip.
"So did you do what you were planning to do?" her mother asked, taking her own cup and sitting across the table from her daughter. "Or are you not allowed to tell me?"
"They didn't say that I wasn't allowed to tell you about what we were supposed to do," Angelina said, shifting uncomfortably. This would be the first time that she had to hide information from her mother. "We were supposed to go and save Oliver from the Death Eaters."
Her mother gasped softly and put her hand over her mouth. "Oliver…that nice boy that came by for a few days a couple of years ago when you went to the World Cup?" she asked. "He was such a nice boy. How did he get involved with…with…them?"
"That's one of the things that I don't think that I can tell you," Angelina whispered at the table, unable to meet her mother's warm chocolate eyes. Her mother nodded, sadly accepting the fact that there were now things in her daughter's life that even a mother was not privy to.
"It's all right," her mother said quietly, getting up from the table and hugging her daughter. "Why don't you go onto bed? You've had a difficult few weeks." Angelina nodded, feeling for the first time how tired she was.
Angelina collapsed into her bed. Before her eyes shut they caught sight of a small photograph sitting by her bed. Inwardly sighing, as she knew that she would not be able to sleep for a rather long time now, she sat up and picked the photograph up. A handsome black man waved at her energetically, still managing to keep the small girl on his shoulder balanced perfectly.
He hadn't deserved what he got. He wasn't even an Auror. He was a member of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, waiting to be advanced to an Auror. And then the renegade Death Eaters had come out into the crowded London street…they didn't even have a motive. She had been eating breakfast at the table when the owl had come flying in. a horrible, impersonal letter telling her that it had taken two Death Eaters to take her father's life away from him. He had died like a hero. Saving lives. The Ministry was proud of him. Order of Merlin, Second Class. The screaming, knocking over her cereal bowl. The anguished sobs, the low murmuring, McGonagall coming over and shooing everyone away. Someone had helped her up to the common room; she never did know who. She had spent the rest of the day sitting beside the fireplace, staring straight ahead with blank eyes, everyone else in the common room speaking in hushed voices and speaking cautiously around her.
Her father's death had caused quite a stir. It had been the first attack from the Death Eaters since Harry Potter had put an end to Voldemort. Everyone had been worried that he was starting to come back, that he was starting to form an allegiance again. They'd never found out who did it. That fact ate at Angelina's heart day in and day out, whenever she thought of her father. He had been a loving man, and had not deserved what fate and the Death Eaters had dealt to him.
Angelina clutched the picture tightly. She vowed to herself once again that she would find out whoever killed her father and deal them the justice that they so richly deserved.
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It felt like just a few short hours later when she heard her mother knocking at her bedroom door. "Angelina? I didn't want to wake you, but Alicia's here and she says that it's urgent." Angelina blinked her eyes that had been glued shut with sleep and slowly rolled out of bed. She did not bother to try to fix her horrible bed-head hair, as she thought that Alicia had seen her with worse hair.
She finally managed to make it across her room to open the door and Alicia strolled in. Angelina glared after her as Alicia walked past her. Alicia settled down on the bed that Angelina had vacated just a few short minutes ago. "Don't you sleep at all?" Angelina asked grudgingly, sitting beside her.
"I did sleep when I got home, but then I woke up and got to work," Alicia said. Angelina grunted.
"You were always the smart one," she acknowledged. "Still, it's just been a few hours since I got home. How much can you do in an hour or two?" Alicia looked at her incredulously and then laughed.
"Angelina darling, you've been asleep for almost a day now," she told her. Angelina let her mouth fall open.
"Are you kidding me? I can't believe I slept that long-oh forget it. I can't even pretend to be surprised anymore," she said in a resigned voice. "So while you were off being sleep-deprived, what did you find?"
Alicia looked at her, all joking aside and complete seriousness in her gaze. "Something that's pretty damn terrifying," she said frankly. "You remember that Sage said that she went to Beauxbaxtons? Well, I have a few connections inside the office, and I managed to get a copy of the student records, going back twenty five years. I figure that she can't be any older than that."
'A few connections?" Angelina asked, and then she remembered the boy from Beauxbaxtons that Alicia had been seeing during the months that he was at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. "Oh, never mind. But what's so startling about all of that?"
"It's the fact that there's nothing there that's disturbing," Alicia said grimly. "Angelina, there never was a Sage Cleaveland that went to Beauxbaxtons. I checked all of the records and she was never in there. She's been lying to us about where she went to school. If she's willing to lie about that, then what else is she willing to lie about?"
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Oliver came into the house, dead tired. For some reason it felt like the training session that day had been unusually hard. He sank into his chair and shut his eyes. "Don't fall asleep on the chair," he heard a soft voice chiding him. "You know that you're always stiff after you fall asleep on that chair."
Oliver opened his eyes reluctantly and smiled. "Right you are darling," he told her. "But you didn't have the bloodiest hard practice that I've ever had. Is that what I put the old team through? If it is, please let them forgive me."
"Ah, it was good for them," Sage reassured him, running her fingers through his short hair. Oliver closed his eyes in slow pleasure as a tingling went down his spine.
"I suppose so," he mumbled. "You know, I'd like to see the old team, see how they're doing," he mentioned carelessly. "I suppose that Harry's Captain now. I think he'd make a good one. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia already came by, and I saw enough of the twins over the holidays. I'd just like to get back together with them, just for old time's sake."
"Would you now?" Sage asked, never stopping in her massage of his scalp. "Perhaps that can be arranged."
The exhaustion that he felt and Sage's skilful fingers running through his scalp quickly took their toll on Oliver. Within minutes of coming into the house, he was asleep in the very chair that Sage had warned him not to fall asleep on. Sage waved her hand in front of Oliver's face several times to make sure he was asleep. For extra assurance she performed a Sleeping Charm that could only be removed by her. She walked out of the house, locking the door behind her.
No one noticed the slight woman moving through the shadows of the London streets. She kept her head down, looking at the small cracks on the sidewalk. In no time she was at the small, dingy building. She glanced over her shoulder before entering the building. Darkness engulfed her as the door closed. She rolled her eyes, though no one would be able to see her. The complete lack of light never failed to annoy her.
She took a few cautious steps forward into the darkness, expecting her foot to run into a piece of debris any second. She gasped when someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close to their body. "Got you," they whispered in her ear, making Sage shiver as a tingle went down her spine.
"I didn't know that you were here," she whispered back, just as softly. Her captor released her waist and squeezed her hand.
"He let me come here to be with you…and because he had plans as well," he whispered back to her. "Do you think that the Dark Lord gives up as easily as that?" Sage chuckled softly and followed the man into the biggest room, which was buried deep into the small building, so that no light would escape from the windows. A man was standing beside the fireplace, staring into the depths of the flames. Several armchairs sat around the fire. Sage could tell that figures were sitting in the chairs, but could not see their faces since they were shaded by the shadows that the fire cast on the room. When he heard the two people enter, the man turned around to face them.
"Master," Sage murmured, sinking into a bow. Lord Voldemort's bright red eyes sparked and his cruel mouth cracked into a sadistic smile. The firelight illuminated the room, revealing Sage's companion as none other than Marcus Flint. Marcus sank into a reverent bow, a small dancing around the corners of his mouth, as if he knew something that he did not.
"So Sage, we seem to have a problem," Voldemort said conversationally. Sage cringed, sure that she was about to receive punishment. Marcus's face showed a flicker of concern, but he made no move to protect her. He was not as stupid as to come between Lord Voldemort and his victim. "As of right now, our favorite Keeper was supposed to be dead. And right now, isn't he at home in your lovely flat?"
"Yes Master," Sage whimpered miserably. "I am sorry that I have failed you, I will try much harder…" She began saying disjointed statements, trying to postpone or possibly completely put off her punishment.
"I do not blame you," he told her, strangely benevolent. Sage looked up in hope. "You did your job well. You played your part and let him become close to you. Then you started administering the potions, and feeding him the false tips. It is not your fault that my other Death Eaters did not perform as satisfactorily." He sent a side-long glare at Marcus and he shifted uncomfortably.
"And even his brief sojourn with us was not completely useless," Voldemort continued. Sage was wondering what had gotten him into such a good mood. He was most definitely not usually smiling when one of his plans failed. "He told us about a spy that was living in our midst, and he let us know the general location of one of Dumbledore's refuges. And we're not done with him yet." He turned to Sage, his gaze piercing. "You are administering the potions daily?" he asked her sharply.
Sage nodded briefly. "Yes Master. He has no idea what's happening to him. In fact, he has no idea that anything at all is happening to him." She waited to hear what the plans were for Oliver, but unwilling to ask what Voldemort had planned, just in case he got angry at her.
"Good," he nodded his approval. "We still have plans for him. I've decided that it is no good trying to get information out of torturing him. It doesn't seem to work that well. We'll have to delve deeper into the finesse of his mind." He jerked his head and a figure which had been sitting in one of the armchairs rose.
"Since most of my Death Eaters are unskilled in the matters of delicacy, I am assigning someone who is," Voldemort announced. "I know that you dislike each other, but I hope that you will look over your dislike of each other, or else suffer my…displeasure." Sage glared at Bellatrix Lestrange, and she returned the expression, lifting her lip in a sneer of hatred. But in the presence of their Lord, they dared not do anything more than that.
"Sage, I know that you'll make me proud," Voldemort said, staring deep into her eyes with his blood-red, snakelike eyes. Staring back at him, Sage felt a heady rush of pleasure that only this could make her feel. Not even Marcus could make her feel this sensation, the feeling that came only with being near extraordinary power and evil and knowing that she was needed by it, knowing that she was essential. Her lips quirked into a cold smile, the gesture not reaching her eyes, which remained as cold as ice.
When she was finally able to tear her eyes away from Voldemort's she felt Marcus's arm around her shoulder. She exited the room, feeling lightheaded, and her mind a million miles away. She and Marcus walked around the darkness of London, completely in sync with each other's rhythms. She knew what she was going to do. And it would be easy, oh so easy.
When Sage finally returned home it was child's play for her to convince Oliver into thinking that he had merely fallen asleep on the chair. She quickly made a dish and put it onto the counter of the kitchen. She then went to wake Oliver.
"Sleepy head," she said softly, inwardly hating herself for acting this childish. "Wake up now," she cajoled. Oliver grunted and then slowly opened his brown eyes. "What did I tell you?" she chided gently.
"Did I fall asleep on the chair?" he asked her, his Scottish brogue thick in sleep. She pursed her lips and nodded slowly, folding her arms in mock anger.
"I made something for you, but you probably won't want to eat it," she remarked. Oliver shrugged.
"I don't feel much like eating. Sorry love," he apologized to her. Sage returned his shrug. "I'm just bloody tired," he yawned. "I think I'm going to go to bed so I can be ready for practice tomorrow. How are you never tired from your practices? It's just been lately, I've hardly been able to keep myself awake during the day or during any time really."
"Perhaps it's your late-night activities that are making you tired," Sage purred suggestively, running her finger down his muscular chest. Oliver cracked a smile and slid his hand to the back of his neck.
"Do you want to make me tired for practice tomorrow?" he asked her, arching his eyebrow at her. Sage smiled, inwardly cursing everyone in the world for making her do this. Being fairly anonymous in the wizarding world was not always a good thing, as it usually led to her having to play parts like this. It was only at these times when she actually had resentment against her Lord.
Later that night, when Oliver was sleeping soundly once more, a mirror on Sage's nightstand began to glow with an unearthly light. Sage picked this up out of the corner of her eye and took the mirror into her hands. When she looked into the depths of the mirror Bellatrix Lestrange's heavily hooded eyes stared imperiously back at her. "Had another grueling night in the sack, eh?" she mocked her younger Death Eater.
Sage stared back in hatred. "What do you want?" she spat out, trying to be quiet so she wouldn't wake Oliver. Being discovered talking to a known and hated Death Eater might raise uncomfortable questions.
Bellatrix pretended to casually inspect her nails, knowing all the while that Sage was getting more and more annoyed at her. She finally spoke in drawling sneer that was almost exactly like the one that Lucius Malfoy spoke in. "Incredibly complicated though your job must be, the Dark Lord does have other plans for you. After all, it's no good having a spy planted in his house if you're not going to find out anything. Now what do you know that would galvanize him into action?"
Sage searched her memory and quickly came up with a name. "Alicia Spinnet," she said quickly. "She's one of his friends from back in school. She's graduated now, currently living with her parents I think." Bellatrix smiled sadistically.
"I think that we could find a way to…persuade her to come with us," she said slowly, before disappearing away from the mirror. Sage put the mirror, now merely showing her reflection, back onto the bedside table before turning her gaze to the sleeping Keeper. There was not a trace of sympathy in her light blue eyes as they scanned over his sleeping form. She finally lowered herself back onto the soft mattress beside Oliver. He rolled over in his sleep and threw his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Though every fiber in her being hated it, Sage let herself be pulled closer to him. She finally fell asleep.
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Bellatrix put down the mirror and turned to her companion, Marcus Flint. He was practically quivering with hatred at having to let his woman sleep with his school rival. "I swear I'm going to kill that bastard," he swore to himself, clenching his fist tightly at his side. Bellatrix clicked her tongue at him.
"Now dear," she said soothingly, running her hand up his arm. "All in good time. Who knows? If you do an excellent job with this mission perhaps you will indeed be the one to kill our darling Mr. Wood." Her playful smile vanished and was replaced by a face of stone. The only hint of emotion was in her eyes, which had a cruel, sadistic gleam in them. "Now, this girl…this Alicia Spinnet…do you know her?"
Marcus nodded shortly. "She played on the team. They were pretty close friends. Yeah, I think if we got to her, then he'd come for her."
Bellatrix nodded decisively. "Do it."
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Alicia turned over on her comfortable bed. She had politely declined Angelina's mother's offer to stay the night and had instead gone back to her house. It had taken her a longer time to fall asleep tonight than it usually did. Her mind was going insane with all of the pondering it was doing about Sage and what she really wanted to do with Oliver. She wrestled with telling Oliver what they had found out and it ultimately told her "Not tonight. You can tell him another day." She finally fell asleep with this weighing on her mind.
Her window was quietly jinxed open. Several black figures stole into her room, as silent as the grave. Alicia shifted in her bed once more, trying to burrow deeper into the covers. Some small noise caught her attention, or some internal warning went off in her head and she fought her way back from the depths of slumber.
Her eyes blinked hazily as she tried to discover what woke her up. When one of the shadows detached itself from the corner of her room Alicia's heart froze. She opened her eyes wider and inflated her lungs, preparing to deliver an earth shattering scream, but the person was too fast. With one flick of the wand, a jet of silent red light shot out and hit her squarely in the chest. Alicia fell back to the bed soundlessly and the Death Eaters converged upon her. They bore her body up and then disappeared from her room, hardly leaving a trace of their presence.
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Alicia woke up, her mind immediately snapping to what happened just before she lost consciousness. She gasped loudly, trying to see something, anything in the darkness. Her heart pounded madly in her chest and she felt lightheaded with terror. Is this what Oliver felt? She wondered to herself, her fingers searching the rough surface of the room where they were keeping her. She thought that the floor was made of some sort of stone, but she could not be completely sure.
She staggered to her feet, her hands searching over her body for any place that she might have hidden her wand. Deep in the back of her mind she knew that she had been sleeping when she had been abducted, and therefore she did not have her wand. Sleeping with her wand had never seemed to be a very practical idea. Her eyes darted around wildly as she realized the enormity of her situation. She had been kidnapped and taken to this place and she had no wand to defend herself. She hadn't even won a fist fight since she was eight, and that was against a girl that lived up the street from her.
She walked around the room, cursing softly when she ran into a wall. No sign of light entered the room, not even from a crack in the door. There were no windows in the room. In frustration, Alicia kicked the wall. It did nothing save make her toe hurt. So now she was kidnapped without a wand and with a possibly broken toe. Things could not possibly get any worse.
She knew that it was a bad idea to think something like that. As soon as that thought crossed her mind the door creaked open and a light blazed forth. Alicia shut her eyes in pain at the sudden light that assaulted her pupils. She finally opened her eyes and squinted ahead. What she saw in front of her made her stomach drop and hit her ankles. "You," she spat at Marcus Flint's face. He gave her a Snape-worthy sneer and nodded his head slowly.
"Me," he clarified, leaning up against the wall. Alicia swore to herself that she was not going to let this bastard see any sign of her fear. She swore that he was not going to get the satisfaction of knowing that he was scaring the crap out of her by his careful nonchalance. Unfortunately, her panic was plain for anyone with eyes to see. Marcus basked in the revelation of her fear, absorbing it into the dark blackness of his soul.
"Well, I can't say that I'm surprised at seeing you as a Death Eater," Alicia spat. It was the first statement that came to her mind and she was pleased to see that her guess had paid off when Marcus smirked at her. So he had indeed joined the legions of Lord Voldemort's followers. "I'm just surprised that he hasn't killed you yet for something stupid that you did. You were always rather incompetent." The smirk on Marcus's face dimmed as he glared at her. Alicia's heart was racing, yet a certain recklessness had seized her. This was the only way that she could fight back. She panted, amazed at her own daring.
Marcus's face contorted for a moment as he struggled to come up with a decent comeback. He finally settled on the first one that he could think of. "Shut up Spinnet!" he spat at her. "You think you're so good with your Mudblood-loving leader. The Dark Lord's already risen, right under his nose. You have no idea what's in store for you."
Alicia quirked an eyebrow. She had no idea where this sarcastic, wise-cracking version of her normal quiet self had come from, but it was very comforting to have while it lasted. "Very scathing," she coldly remarked. "You almost had me shaking in my boots there. If I hadn't already heard Draco Malfoy screaming the same thing about fifty times already last year at Potter when he thought that no one else could hear him, I might actually be terrified."
Marcus's eyes narrowed and he shot the fatal barb that hit Alicia straight in the heart. "If the entire world's demise doesn't bother you, then what about your Captain's?" he asked her. Alicia's eyes widened in horror.
"So this is why you kidnapped me?" he asked her, her knees slowly weakening. She didn't think that they could hold her up for much longer. "You wanted to get back to Oliver?"
Marcus smiled viciously at her again. "Oh yeah," he drawled, carrying every syllable of the short sentence out. "The Dark Lord doesn't like it when his things go missing and he still has business that he needs to conduct. No matter how much you've all tried to protect him, we can still get to him. And the easiest way is through you."
"He won't believe it," Alicia said desperately, trying to convince Flint that it was true. "Oliver's not that stupid. He'll see straight through this."
Flint grinned at her, his abnormally large front teeth glistening in the pale light illuminating from his wand. "That's where I think you're wrong Spinnet," he told her softly. "See, Gryffindors have a strange affinity for rescuing first, and asking questions later. It's part of what makes them so easy to kill." He turned around, extinguishing the light from his wand. "Nighty-night," he bade her before shutting the door again. The sound of its closing echoed around the room, reinforcing the idea that there was no escape in Alicia's mind.
Her knees finally gave out and she fell on the ground, silent tears pouring out of her eyes. She was infinitely grateful that Flint had left when he did and had spared her from the ridicule of breaking down in his presence. Her anguish finally came out in audible form, her entire body shaking with the force of her sobs. She lightly pounded the floor with her clenched fist, shaking her head. "Oliver, please," she begged, even though she knew that there was no way that he could ever hear her. "Please Oliver, don't come for me."
But in her heart she knew that he already was.
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"What?" Fred bellowed, loud enough to wake up the entirety of Diagon Alley. Angelina half-heartedly tried to pacify him, though she also wanted to scream until her lungs were ripped into shreds. Hadn't they been through enough already with Oliver? Now they had to go through the same with Alicia? Two of her best friends had been kidnapped, and Angelina would have to be kidding herself if she thought that these were not related. They were two of the most gentle, loving people that she would ever meet—all right, Oliver was not very loving towards certain Slytherins, nor was he very gentle towards anyone, but they were still two of the best people that she knew and they had both been abducted.
Lee emerged from the back room with George, both looking slightly puzzled. "What's going on?" he asked, glancing from Fred to Angelina and back again. A slow grin spread across his face. "Don't tell me that she's breaking up with you!" he told Fred. Fred turned and viciously attacked Lee.
"Alicia's missing you idiot!" he shouted. Lee stepped back, an expression of hurt and fright on his face. "She's missing and we have no idea where she is!"
"We should get Katie and tell her too," Angelina said dully, sinking into a chair. "I just thought…after Oliver maybe we were all safe…"
"That's it," George said quietly, his face lighting up with realization. "It's all connected to Oliver isn't it?" Angelina's mouth hung open as she upbraided herself for never thinking of this. "Two Gryffindor Quidditch players get, for lack of a better word, kidnapped, all within the space of two months, and you're saying that they are in no way connected?"
"I guess we'd better tell Oliver then, shouldn't we?" Fred asked, his face darkening. "I thought we'd see Oliver for a little party at London, not telling him that one of his best mates has been kidnapped."
"And I'll go onto tell Dumbledore that Alicia's been taken," Angelina said. "Do you have any Floo Powder in the shop?" she asked Fred.
"Sure, it's right beside the fireplace in the back," he said, gesturing to a door that was almost hidden behind the paraphernalia of the shop. "Come on George, I guess we'll go tell Oliver." They stepped outside of the shop and promptly Disapparated.
Lee gazed after them, a slightly resentful look in his eyes. "They're always doing that," he commented lightly when he felt Angelina's eyes on him. He managed to force out a smile, though it came out horribly lopsided and made him look slightly demented. "So, I'll take you to the back room. And then I should probably get back out front. We still have a shop to run, you know!" He laughed, and the shrillness of it made Angelina wince.
"Lee," she began. He turned around from where he was leading her, the demented smile still on his face. "You're horrible at pretending to be cheerful." The smile was instantly wiped off of his face and a stony resentment replaced it.
"I just…I was in Gryffindor too damn it all," he exploded, punching his thigh with his fist. "And they don't even bother to ask me if I want to come. Hell, the last time I practically begged them…I know that I'm being stupid and they're just trying to protect me, but I knew Alicia and Oliver. They were my friends too. I just don't want to be here, minding the damn shop. We started the shop as friends. When they walk off like that…it's like they don't trust me to help them."
Angelina nodded slowly, an idea beginning to blossom in her head. "Lee, do you want to come with me to Hogwarts? I mean, you might as well." Lee nodded, and did not say anything as he waved his wand. The sign at the front of the shop flipped around to show "Closed". "Let's go then," Angelina said, letting some of her internal turmoil shine forth as she thought about why she was going to return to her alma mater.
Angelina stepped up beside the fireplace, grabbed some Floo powder and threw it into the fire that suddenly blazed up. "Hogwarts!" she cried, and stepped into the warm flames. Lee quickly followed her and Angelina shut her eyes tightly against the sparks that flew around her. She felt herself slowing and turning around. With a huge whoosh she fell out of the fireplace, straight on the feet of one Mr. Severus Snape.
Angelina looked up into the face of her former Potions professor. She had heard about what had happened to him over the course of their stay with the Order. He looked no different from when he had been torturing her in her Potions class, and his sneer in particular stayed put upon his sallow face as he peered down at her.
"Miss Johnston," he drawled slowly, folding his arms and glaring down at her. "And Mr. Jordan," he continued, as Lee fell out of the fireplace. "To what do I owe this…pleasure?" he asked them with an unpleasant smirk. Angelina and Lee struggled to their feet, slightly taken aback from Snape's presence.
Angelina felt the aura of stupidity that had always surrounded her in Snape's classes floating in the air to finally, inevitably settle down around her shoulders. "We…we were ah, here to see Dumbledore," she finally managed to stammer out, her mind going completely blank for a moment.
"Is there a reason that you needed to see the Headmaster?" he asked them in his low, dangerous voice. "I assure you, your sleepover invitations can be delivered by owl, though the sentiment behind hand-delivering them is admirable."
Angelina flushed, though it was hardly noticeable against her dark skin. "We're not…it's not…we're here about Alicia!" she finally got out. Snape raised an eyebrow. This enraged Angelina and made her more determined than ever to save her friend. This dawdling was doing nothing to save her best friend.
Lee cut in before Angelina could say something that one day she would undoubtedly regret. "Alicia Spinnet has been kidnapped, and we have an idea that it could be tied up with the Oliver business," he said, lowering his voice conspiratorially on the last two words. Snape's face remained impassive, but he walked towards the door.
"I'll show you to the Headmaster's office," he told them, sweeping away, his long black robes billowing out in the sudden wind caused by his movement. Angelina and Lee followed them, Angelina looking curiously around at the hallways. Lee noticed this and whispered to her, "It can't seem that unfamiliar. It hasn't been that long has it?"
Angelina shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that," she said, looking around, pursing her lips and shrugging. "It's just…it seems smaller, you know?"
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Fred raised his fist to knock upon Oliver's front door. They had remembered the address from a piece of paper that Oliver had hurriedly given him when he left Grimmauld Place. According to what Angelina, Katie, and Alicia had told them, that was really the last time that any of them had seen the real Oliver. It was strange to think that the brooding, grief-stricken Oliver was the one that they would prefer to have, but very few things in their lives were normal nowadays.
"Have you thought about what you're going to say?" George asked him tensely, all the joking in his eyes gone for once. "I don't think it'd be the best thing to say, 'Oh, hi Oliver! We were just in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd stop by and say that one of your best friends has been kidnapped, and it's probably something to do with you.'" Fred nodded shortly.
"I've got something worked out, yeah," he said. Before he could change his mind and walk away completely, he struck the door with his fist several times.
"Good, because I'm complete rubbish with stuff like this," George said with his customary lightness, though Fred could sense that this time it was forced. "If I had to tell him I'd completely muck it up." Oliver answered the front door before he could say anything else.
"What do you two sods want?" he asked. His brown eyes flicked over them, trying to divine through their appearance the purpose for their visit. George strained, but he could not see a trace of the evil girlfriend that the girls had met.
Whatever Fred was going to say to Oliver to break the news gently to him flew out of his head as he looked at his former Captain. "Oliver, it's about Alicia," he said, his voice breaking. "She's been taken."
Oliver's mouth fell open, his eyes wide and astonished. It was now that the girlfriend decided to creep up behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Fred stared at her, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. There was something in the careful nonchalance that she moved, something in the way that her face was completely blank without the slightest hint of concern or curiosity at what these two strange men were doing on her doorstep.
"What do these two gentlemen want?" she purred in Oliver's chest, her fingers tickling over his sculpted chest. Oliver absently pushed her off, his face disturbed.
"You remember Alicia, don't you?" he asked her, his breathing coming out in short little pants. He ran his hand over his forehead and walked back to his chair. Collapsing down upon it, he leant over, almost like he was going to be sick. Fred and George followed him into the house, while the girlfriend knelt down before him, running her fingers through his hair.
"Oh no Oliver, I'm so sorry," she whispered, bringing his head up, kissing his forehead. His body shook with the force of his sobs, although no tears ran down his cheeks. "Let me make you some tea."
Something clicked in Fred's brain. When Angelina and the girls had been over here last, the girlfriend had given them a cup of tea, and their brains had become blank, and a feeling of inexplicable well-being had stolen over them. The tea was key.
George had realized this as well. He laid his hand down on Oliver's shoulder. Oliver looked at him, his eyes wide and lost for a second before the self-control that Oliver always had stole back over his face. "Actually, I don't think it's that good of an idea for you to stay for that tea," he said, keeping his voice and tone light. "Let's take you out somewhere where you can think about this a little bit, eh?" he said, keeping his tone purposefully light, though still concerned.
"It was nice meeting you," Fred said, putting his arm around Oliver and walking on the right side of the man, as George did the same thing on the left side. He turned around to offer the evil girlfriend a smile, and the look on her face stopped him in his tracks. It was a look of pure, evil hatred. She pulled the corner of her lip up in a snarl as she stared at him. It was obvious that she didn't care what he thought about her.
As he looked into her eyes, a mocking light mingled with her hatred. Her snarl became more of a sneer and she slowly drew her finger across her throat. The implication as to Alicia's fate was painfully clear for Fred. He stared at her, lost for a reply. He turned around to see where he was going when his shoulder collided painfully with the door lintel. He shook his head and turned around for another look at the girlfriend. The look of hatred was wiped entirely off of her face like it had never been there.
George kicked the door shut with his foot, letting out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin we got you out of this one," he said gratefully, gradually letting go. Oliver tottered slightly, but stayed on his feet. Once he was steady, Oliver turned around to look at Fred curiously.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked, a hint of hostility in his voice. The twins shared a look, and Fred pulled the older man down onto the nearest bench on the sidewalk.
"Oliver, there's something that we need to tell you about Sage," Fred said gently, in a most unlike-Fred voice.
"Oh Agrippa, she's not pregnant is she?" he moaned. Fred snorted for a moment with the inappropriate humor and then he quickly sobered, his face becoming impassive.
"No, she's evil," he quickly said. Oliver's mouth hung open in startled amazement. Fred quickly told him everything that he, George, Angelina, Katie, and Alicia had managed to figure out. "She's been giving you some sort of tea thing that makes you all nice and complacent. They can't find a record of her at any kind of Wizarding School, which means that she's lied about where she's come from. There has to be a reason that she's done that. And I think that she might have been feeding you false information as well as potions." Fred stopped to see what Oliver would do.
The Keeper reacted quicker than the stocky twin was expecting. With force so great that it knocked Fred off of the bench, his fist slammed into Fred's ear, making an odd ringing noise. Fred clutched his ear, looking up at Oliver. He had never seen him this angry before. His lightly freckled face was chalk white with rage. His eyes were full of cold fury, and his voice shook very slightly as he pointed a trembling finger at Fred.
"You take that back," he ordered. Fred looked up at Oliver, feeling helpless to stop his friend. George looked between the two, unsure of what to say or do. "You take that back, you fucking bastard. She's not…how dare you…oh God…" he sank down onto the bench again, shaking once more. He covered his mouth with his hands, shaking his head and muttering into his palms. "I've been an idiot, haven't I?" he asked them both.
Fred got back onto his feet, wincing with pain and gingerly touching his left ear. "It's all right mate," he said cautiously, putting his hand on Oliver's back. "We just need to get you to the Order and let them sort all of this out, all right?" he asked, a slight smile on his face.
Oliver nodded, the haunted look back in his eyes. That look had been in his eyes when he found out about his parents, and had disappeared when he went back to live with Sage. Now it was present once more, and the twins felt almost guilty for being glad that it was there. As long as Oliver was tortured it was the true Oliver, and not the one that Sage wanted. "Let's go rescue Alicia, shall we?" Oliver asked in a tight voice, bringing them back to the present.
"Good plan," George said lightly, clapping him on the back. The three friends moved forward once more.
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Dumbledore put his fingers together in a steeple as Angelina and Lee explained their theory of what happened to Alicia. He nodded slowly as they concluded. "I think that would be a reasonable conclusion," he said softly. "I think it would be good to have this all explained to Mr. Wood. This concerns him in particular."
"Fred and George were going to get him," Lee quickly explained. "I don't know where they were taking him after that."
"Undoubtedly they will be taking him to the Order's headquarters," Dumbledore explained. Lee sent a confused look towards Angelina, who sent another look back at him that plainly said "I'll tell you later." "We should send him a message to come here." He sent a glance at the phoenix that was sitting on its perch next to his desk. "Fawkes, he will need something." The phoenix let out a low quavering note which lingered on the air, and then he disappeared in a burst of flame.
"It will not take him very long to get here," Dumbledore said, leaning back in his chair. He gestured at the chairs and Angelina and Lee sat down. There was an awkward silence and then Angelina brought up a topic that was bothering her.
"Sir, we were wondering if we could go and get Katie Bell," Angelina said hesitantly. "She was one of Oliver's friends and she helped us rescue him this summer. I think that she would like to know what's happening."
"I have not forgotten any of this summer's events," Dumbledore reminded her gently. "You can go and get her. I believe that she is in her Transfiguration Class at this moment. Try not to make a disruption. Professor McGonagall might still try to give you detention."
Angelina smiled and filed out of the office, along with Lee. She walked down the familiar hallways until she found McGonagall's room. She waited with some trepidation until Lee pushed past her. He knocked on the door with none of the hesitance that Angelina had. She looked wide-eyed at him. McGonagall called out severely, "Come in."
"Don't worry," he said lightly to her, shrugging as he opened the door. "Minerva loves me. When I had to do all those commentaries on Quidditch she got to like me a little bit."
Professor McGonagall had seen quite a few things in her day. But seeing Lee Jordan come strolling back into her classroom like he owned it was not one of the things that she had expected to see. It was good that he did not have the Weasley twins with him; otherwise she might have gone and barricaded herself in her study.
"Mr. Jordan," she said formally, trying to hide her shock. "What a nice surprise. What are you here for?" Lee walked up to her and whispered something to her. She nodded, her face suddenly grave. "Miss Bell," she called out to the classroom. Katie looked up, her face suddenly fearful. "Mr. Jordan and Miss Johnston need to borrow you for a moment."
Katie followed Lee and Angelina outside. Once outside the room she turned on them, her eyes wide with fear. "What happened?" she burst out, grabbing Angelina's arm. "Is it Oliver? Is everything all right?"
"You know, one day we'll go and do something and it will have absolutely nothing to do with either Quidditch or Oliver," Angelina vowed to herself. She regained her seriousness and looked Katie in the eyes. "It has to do with Alicia," Angelina admitted. "When her mum went into her room this morning Alicia wasn't there. And it's not like Alicia to simply wander off. She would have had a reason, and since she didn't leave a note, it's probably a good sign that she was kidnapped. Dumbledore thinks so too," Angelina said, as if this opinion confirmed everything that she had ever thought.
"But why kidnap Alicia?" Katie wondered, her quick mind shooting through possibilities. "Why her…unless…" She looked up, realization dawning in her eyes. "They wanted to get to Oliver didn't they?" Angelina nodded.
"That's what we think," Lee supplied. "And what better way to get to Oliver than by kidnapping one of his best friends?"
"So what do we do?" Katie asked. Angelina shrugged as they began to walk back to Dumbledore's office.
"Fred and George went to go get Oliver, and they're bringing him here to Hogwarts. I guess we'll figure out what to do after that."
"He's not going to go after her is he?" Katie asked anxiously. "Forgive me for saying so, but this has "Trap" written all over it. Oliver would have to be stupid not to see that."
"Yeah, no doubt that he sees it, just like everyone else, but I don't think that it matters to him. He's still the Captain and he still has a responsibility to all of his players," Angelina summarized. "If he lets Alicia stay in with the Death Eaters I don't think that he'll ever be able to forgive himself. He's a Gryffindor, remember? That means that his bravery tends to rule out everything else, including common sense."
Katie bit her lip in uneasiness. "Hopefully we'll be able to talk some common sense into him," Lee said, voicing all of their opinions. They came in front of the gargoyle that had marked the entrance into Dumbledore's office. "Ice Mice," Lee said. The gargoyle moved and the three stepped on the rotating spiral staircase.
Angelina knocked on the door. "Come in," Dumbledore's voice called. She opened the door to see Oliver sitting down with Fred and George leaning against the wall. The subjects of the portraits watched interestedly to see what was going to happen.
Oliver nodded as the three entered the room. Dumbledore smiled at them all, and then waved his wand, conjuring extra chairs for them all. They sank into the chairs, waiting to hear what he would tell them to do.
"I assure that the Masters Weasley have told you what has happened?" he addressed Oliver kindly. The Scottish man nodded. All who saw him could see that he was restless, unwilling to sit around while he perceived one of his friends to be in trouble. "What do you think that we should do?"
Oliver looked aghast at Dumbledore. Dumbledore was asking him what he thought that they should do? What was Dumbledore for, if not to tell them what to do? "Well, I think we should go and get her out of there before anything happens to her," he said finally. Dumbledore nodded slowly.
"Yes, I thought that you would say that," he murmured. "Has it occurred to you that your rushing to her rescue is precisely what the Death Eaters are expecting that you will do?" Oliver's face now showed a slight anger towards the old man.
"I don't care if that's what they're expecting I'm going to do, because I'm going to do it," he told Dumbledore, a hint of steel in his voice. "I am not going to leave one of my best friends in the grasp of Voldemort. Forgive if I'm wrong, but that's the sort of thing that the Death Eaters do, not the Order."
Dumbledore nodded again. Oliver was finding himself becoming annoyed with this habit. "No, indeed, we do not leave those that we love in the grasp of the enemy. That is one of our strongest failings, and the one that the Enemy exploits as much as he can to his advantage. Those who love have greater strength than those who do not, but because of their love they are made vulnerable for those who know how to manipulate their affections."
There was definite anger in Oliver's gaze, and a steely determination in the way that he held his jaw. "I don't care if they're ready for me," he said, his voice quivering with emotions that he was holding back. "Do you know that I've basically been a prisoner in my own for who knows how long? There's been…someone living in my house, trying to turn me against you, and the Order, and I didn't know. Now they want to take one of my best friends, and I don't care if they know that I'm coming. I have to try at least."
This time Dumbledore did not nod, but merely looked at the determination in Oliver's eyes. The Scot grew at least ten feet in front of Dumbledore's eyes, and now, more than ever, he was a man. "Be careful," Dumbledore murmured, and Oliver knew that he had permission to go. Oliver got up, nodded shortly, and left the office. Angelina, Katie, Lee, Fred and George were a bit more polite in making their exit.
"Professor…can I go with them?" Katie asked hesitantly. Dumbledore smiled softly at her.
"Yes, I think that would be for the best," he said softly. "After what happened this summer we can hardly count you as a child."
"What about Harry?" Angelina asked curiously. "Do you want him coming along as well?" Dumbledore's face suddenly grew grave and he shook his head.
"No, I'm afraid that this adventure will have to be Mr. Wood's alone," he said, rearranging a piece of parchment on his desk. "Mr. Potter will have things that he needs to do this year. Things which, while they might not be more important than your mission, will nonetheless require all of his time and effort. No, I'm afraid Harry will not be accompanying you this time."
"All right," Angelina nodded. "Well…good-bye sir." Dumbledore raised his hand in a wave as Angelina shut the door to his office.
They caught up to Oliver as he was walking steadily through the entrance hall. "Oliver, wait!" Katie called, jogging after him. He turned around, his hand on one of the doorknobs of the main doors. "Where are you going?" she asked, pushing back some of her hair.
"I'm going to where I know I'm going to get at least some information," he said shortly, pushing open the door and exiting onto the grounds. He turned around to see them all paused on the threshold of Hogwarts. "Are you coming?" he asked them gruffly. With no spoken word, they all followed their Captain down and out of the Hogwarts grounds.
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They had no idea of where Oliver was taking them when they Disapparated. There were several buildings and a stadium around them. He strode purposefully through several doors, until he was standing on a Quidditch pitch. Several figures were flying around. One stopped in mid-air before soaring down to meet them. Angelina grimaced as she recognized Flint's trademark teeth.
"Wood," Flint sneered at him. Oliver kept on walking towards him, not saying anything. It occurred to him that the last time he had seen this man it had been when he was throwing him out into the freezing snow to die. This thought put Oliver into an even worse mood. He knew that if he pulled back Flint's sleeve he would see the Dark Mark, glaring and vivid on his forearm. He had tortured Oliver, and tried to kill him, and he was greeting him like there was nothing wrong? Oliver's blood was boiling even more than it had been.
Flint began to be worried by Oliver's stony face. By the time that he realized that Oliver was on a death mission, the Keeper was on him. Wood grabbed Flint's shoulder with a grip that Flint could never hope to escape and propelled him to the nearest wall. Luckily for him, it was fairly shadowed and underneath the bleachers, so there was little chance that they would be discovered by an innocent bystander.
Wood slammed Flint into the wall with so much force that Angelina was surprised that Flint didn't just fly through. "What do you know?" Wood screamed, his elbow against Flint's throat, and his face less than an inch away from Flint's. "What do you know?"