Sold-Chapter 6- Location
By M-Fever
Hermione turned the quaffle over and over in her hands, thinking. She had a theory now, but how to put it into motion? She wrote down a few figures on the parchment that Malfoy had given her.
She had gone to sleep as soon as he had left the room. The house-elf, Kobby, had come and brought her some breakfast. (A very welcome breakfast, at that.) How she envied the little elf! Despite his enslavement, she was certainly in a worse position. S.P.E.W. seemed like a thing long forgotten.
It was now around eight in the morning. She had set her mental clock to wake her at 6:30 so that she could work on the riddle. Her thoughts were interrupted as Malfoy abruptly entered the dungeon.
"Mudblood," he said, nodding his head in her direction.
"Malfoy," she acknowledged.
"Have you figured anything out yet?" He conjured a chair and sat down primly, staring at her with loathing.
"How's the boy?" she asked, changing the subject.
Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "He's fine."
"Good…" Hermione crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. She closed her eyes for a moment. "Have you ever gone bowling, Malfoy?" she asked, opening her eyes to stare at him.
"Mudblood… what are you on about now?" Malfoy asked, staring back at her with venom.
"Do you know what bowling is?" Hermione asked, unscathed. He didn't reply, just stared at her. "It's a muggle sport, Malfoy."
"Yes, yes… I know that much. There's a ball and it tries to knock over some sort of white things… puns, I think they're called."
Hermione nodded. "Pins," she corrected.
"Granger, what has this to do with anything? I highly doubt there's a single bowling alley left on the planet, and I'm certainly not taking you on a field trip."
Hermione held up the quaffle to show him. "In bowling, you use a very heavy, dense ball. The bowler puts his fingers into the three round holes and rolls it down the alley to knock over the pins."
"Ten points to Gryffindor, now get on with it!"
"Now, pretend this doll is a pin." Hermione set the little doll on its feet and demonstrated throwing the quaffle at it. "See how it went straight backwards?" Malfoy nodded, irritably. "Now, if I set up two dolls…" Hermione stood both of the dolls up and threw the quaffle at them…
"They went in different directions!" Somewhere in Draco's brain, something clicked. So that was what the mudblood was on about. She was saying that the force that had brought the children here was only meaning to hit one of them, Lily. When the "ball" hit both of them, it sent them flying in opposite directions.
"So," Granger continued, "that means that there are three points we're working with. There's Evander's position in Malfoy Manor, Lily's position, and the point where she was meant to be sent." She drew a dot on the map where the boy had been found. "The dot represents a point on the circumference of a circle. Wherever Lily is is its mate. And an equal distance between those two points, the radius, is where she was supposed to be… where the caster of the spell wanted her."
"But how large is the circle?" Draco asked, coming forward to get a better look at the map.
"I can't tell. I need to know one of the other points. Lily might be meters away or she might be in Antartica."
"You took arithmancy, didn't you learn how to decipher where a hidden point is?"
"I would need a wand," Granger answered, tersely.
"Tell me the spell and I'll cast it for you," Draco countered.
Granger rubbed the back of her neck, irritably. "Point your wand at the point on the map and repeat after me. Pi, diameter alpha, beta."
The arithmancy spells had always sounded… odd to Draco, but he did as he was told. The dot on the paper glowed blue and a circle appeared on the edge of the point. It fluctuated in size and revolved several times before slowing to a stop. Hastily, Granger stood and traced the circle with her quill.
"Now, point your wand at the circle and say, 'Radii.'" The blue circle had not yet disappeared. Draco said the second spell and a red dot appeared. Granger put an ink dot on the map. "And now say point it at the first dot and say, 'beta.'" A green dot appeared on the opposite side of the circle. "Globus," Granger instructed. In miniscule writing, the points were labeled. "Finite incantetum." The glowing circles and the points disappeared, though the writing remained.
"My eyesight has gone bad. What do the words say?" Granger asked. They were about a foot away from one another, separated by the bars.
Draco pointed at the diameter. "Two kilometers, seven-hundred-fifty-two meters. The radius is one kilometer, three-hundred-seventy-six meters."
"So, where do those points take us?"
Draco's throat clenched involuntarily. "Potter's daughter is in the woods to the north."
"And where was she supposed to be sent?"
Draco glanced at her, and his finger shook as he pointed at the radius. "Right in the Dark Lord's lair."
A.N. Yeah, yeah, that was short. I'm going on about five hours of sleep right now. I stayed up 'til five AM at Grad Night. Bleh. You're all lucky you have a new chapter at all. Be content. (Shakes fist tiredly.) (You know I'm being silly, right?)