Review Responses:

Kurama: Yay! You're back! And no biggie, everybody is bogged down with school stuff. I'm the ultimate moron who decides that instead of doing the homework that so desperately needs to be done, I do this. Ha ha

Peyton: I told you! I'm trying to liven it up a bit- is it working? Dumbles is dying- mahahahahahaha!

The Great and Powerful Oz- It does kinda suck, so close, but yet so far. I think it's sadistically funny though. Ha ha, or does that make me kinda evil?

Chapter 10: A Night at Amycus's

"What?" Persephone was stunned, Dumbledore was regarding her with a hopeful gaze glowing in his ice blue eyes. "Why me? This is a little unorthodox don't you think?"

"Well yes, but I am simply too tired and you know how the Death Eaters work. You would be the best bet to formulate a plan for rescue." The other people in the room were staring at her now as well, McGonagall gave her the usual pitying look that infuriated her. Snape was sweating again and Moody looked anxious. Persephone was caught in the headlights but then she thought of those poor boys and noble Kingsley, suddenly it was clear in her mind what they had to do. She snapped into action like a fired gun,

"Severus, go to Malfoy Manor, make it look like your there to talk about Draco or something. Work it into the conversation get as much information as you can about the kidnapping. Report back as soon as possible." Snape glanced at the other people in the room as if looking for someone to tell him not to follow her orders. No one even met his eye, so he walked out of the room with a quick swish of his black as night robes. Persephone paced the room, her hand at her lip, deep in thought.

"Minerva, Mad-Eye, I would like you both to go to Grimmauld Place. But Minerva first, please go fetch the other Weasley children and Mr. Potter to bring them with you. I believe you know how to make a portkey?" she nodded, so Persephone continued, " Mad-Eye I want you to send out an alert at the house, call in all good trackers and start a search party. Do not let them go out alone, everyone must be in pairs." The two of them agreed and left the room without another word. Turning to Tonks, she asked her if she could go and get Lupin and get started on a search immediately,

"We're placing confidence in your stealth and tracking ability Tonks. Don't let us down." Tonks gave a rather nervous smile and tipping her off color bowler hat at Dumbledore left the Office in a hurry. Dumbledore merely gazed at Persephone for a moment, waiting to see if she would talk to him. She re-adjusted her cloak and said to him,

" I will be going to Voldemort, make it look like a weekend surprise or something. I'll get as much information out of him as possible and try to get back as soon as I can." She turned to leave,

"Persephone-" she looked back at him, "Thank you." She didn't know what to say so she turned away and pushed open the large doors to the stairs. Dumbledore watched her go, and as soon as he was certain that she was gone he sent a correspondence to Sirius. He needed the best trailers he could get.

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Persephone had a disgusted feeling in her stomach, the trackers needed a distraction and that was exactly what she would give them. She went as fast as she could to her quarters and ruffled through her clothes, deciding on a pair of tight black pants and a red top she applied a bright, seductive red to her lips and fixed her hair. Voldemort would have to fall for her or the others could be caught. She grabbed some things the might come in handy on her mission and throwing her heavy cloak over her shoulders she sped from the room and down to the village. She went into her apparition at a run and in seconds was standing in front of Tom Riddles headstone, Persephone came out from behind it and tried to catch her breath. The stitch in her side was painfully throbbing while she gasped for air, her entrance had to be as natural as she could make it.

Persephone regained control of her breathing and hugged her cloak to her frame. She looked around cautiously before heading up the steps to the front door, without bothering to knock she opened the door and came face to face with Erik, Voldemorts new servant. He didn't seem surprised,

"Why did you wait so long to come inside?" He asked in a dangerous voice.

"You were watching me?"

"Of course, it is my job to alert The Lord if something is wrong, or if someone is acting strangely." Persephone rolled her eyes, if it was Peter she could have just shoved him out of the way and told him to go and screw himself. But Erik was different, despite his young age he was forceful and not a person to be trifled with.

"Well I'll let you know if anyone is." He didn't laugh, she figured he wouldn't.

"My Master is not here at the moment. He went to Lord Amycus's house about an hour ago. Said he had some important business to attend to tonight with a few people. I'm not sure where he would be now. I will let him know that you stopped by to see him, can I expect that it was for a, special occasion?" He said this last part in a superior tone as his ugly nose scrunched up at the Dark Lords lover in disgust.

"Yes you can, but tell him I cant come back for awhile. This was just for this weekend. Dumbledore is watching me too closely." He inclined his head towards her to say he understood.

Persephone nodded and thanked him, she would have been excited that she didn't have to sleep with Voldemort tonight but the prospect of going to Amycus's house was nerve-wracking. Amycus was a high level Death Eater from France, close in Voldemort's circle and she was absolutely sure that the boys and Kingsley were locked in the sick dungeon he kept in his basement. Amycus used this basement for numerous actions, he preffered torturing victims over sex, although Persephone was sure that he sometimes incorporated both activities into one night time event.

Needing a safe place to send a message Persephone apparated to Hogsmeade and, making sure she was alone, conjured her Patronus. The large black dog erupted from her wand and stood in front of her, whispering into it's ear her destination it dutifully ran up to castle to deliver the message. She didn't watch it go, she just flipped around and was standing in front of Amycus's house. It was finally dark outside and the house was ominously staring at her. The windows gave off an eerie glow and there was a soft mist surrounding the grounds, she rang the bell at the large wrought iron gates and a translucent head of one of Amycus's servants popped out of the box.

"Name?" it asked in a bored monotone voice.

"Persephone Parker." she replied.

"Purpose of visit?"

"I need to talk to your master, our business has nothing to do with you." The head rolled its eyes and said, "Very well." before the gates swung open. She walked up the path towards the twin black doors, a lantern hung on the front of the house and she could see the marks of what was clearly three bodies being dragged through the dirt. She shuddered and went to knock on the door.

Amycus opened it after only a few short moments, his face protruded from the crack between the door and its frame. His features, which were rough yet very feminine at the same time, were squished in a comical fashion.

"Vat do you vant?" His accent was overpowering and since his mouth was being squished Persephone found it difficult to understand him. She gave him a confused look before he finally let her in and she walked over the threshold. A servant immediately came towards her and took her cloak while the Frenchman gave her a disapproving glare. Although he was a small man, Amycus was imposing and not someone that Persephone would be too happy to get into a fight with. He was famous for his sexual cruelty, not unlike the Marquis de Sade, torture was erotic to him, it was just a freaky coincidence that both of them were French.

"Where is the Dark Lord?" she said, trying to calm her nerves, she knew the boys were here somewhere.

"He stopped by about an hour ago to talk to moi about a verree important plan."

"You know Amycus, it is only polite to offer a guest something to drink." she wanted to annoy him and stay for as long as she could. Hopefully she would be able to slip a sleeping potion into his cup while he wasn't looking, then she could rescue the boys. Amycus scowled at her,

"Tea?"

"Yes please." she replied pleasantly as he led her towards the kitchen, while they walked she moved the small potion bottle to her front pocket for easy access. The Frenchman poured the pair of them a cup of steaming hot tea and sat down at the kitchen counter across from her. Persephone wasn't dumb enough to actually drink the liquid, Death Eaters weren't trustworthy, she knew that better than anyone. Amycus in turn didn't trust her so Persephone found herself at an amusing standstill. His manners fought him to keep her in the kitchen and comfortable but he desperately wanted to return to his prisoners in his basement. He hadn't even started on the younger ones yet, and he had only beaten the elder man, there was much left to do.

"Could I get some crackers? I haven't eaten all day." she purred and scowling, again, Amycus stood and walked towards his cabinet, just feet away. Persephone decided against pouring anything into his cup, trusting him pour it out, so instead, she surreptitiously poured the entire contents into the tea kettle. He threw some old moldy biscuits down on the table and poured the contents of his teacup into the kitchen sink. Giving her a look of intellectual superiority he poured himself a new cup, taking a sip he immediately fell face flat onto the counter asleep.

She had to move quickly, she put a charm on the house so that the servants would only hear a gentle talking coming from the kitchen and nothing else. Persephone checked the time (9:17) and moved as fast as she could to the basement door. Amycus had positioned a guard at the outside of the entrance, Persephone hid for a moment to determine if she was in the clear before whispering "Imperio!" and pointing her wand at him. She felt him in her control, and she could see the blank stare upon his face. Open the door she said in her mind, every one of her instructions were followed perfectly until she found herself standing in Amycus's dungeon of torture.

The dungeon was dark, lit with only few torches along the stone walls. One corner of the room held an actual cell, where Persephone could see Fred and George looking at her. They were smart enough not to make any noise, they pointed towards the opposite wall. There lay Kingsley, his back was bloody and torn up, bits of his white shirt were embedded in long gashes across his shoulder blades. She made her victim stand in front of where Kingsley's body lay and she then punched him straight across the face, knocking him out cold. Taking his keys she went and freed the twins, "Shh." she instructed them before going over to Shacklebolt, leaning down she pushed up her sleeves to preform a spell.,

"Ennervate." Kingsley's eyes fluttered open, "shh," she used a finger to cover her mouth. He nodded to say he understood, the twins were watching the door, while she healed the whip marks enough so that Shacklebolt could walk. She mouthed to the men to follow her and showed them out the doors, she gave Kingsley her wand and told them to head to Hogwarts and report to Dumbledore. Running back into the house she stood in the dining room, directly adjacent to the kitchen, she saw that it was now 9:26. Taking a time turner out of her pocket, Persephone flipped the dial once, glad to see that no servants had come in or out of this area since 15 minutes ago, Persephone watched herself pour the potion into the tea kettle and then Amycus's head hit the table. As soon as her other self left the kitchen Persephone moved into the kitchen and poured out the contents of both tea cups and the pot, using Amycus's wand she conjured new tea and poured out the right amount to make it believable. She distributed the tea back into the cups and at 9:18 she used Amycus's wand to reinervate him. He woke up to a memory charm, remembering his angry conversation with Persephone that he KNEW he had just had. They proceeded to shout at each other until a petrified guard ran inside saying that the dark prisoner had punched him and everyone had escaped, no trace to be found. Amycus was furious.

Voldemort showed up about 15 minutes later to hear what had happened, he was delighted to see her and she was a good enough actress to act as though she felt the same. Amycus was punished with the cruciatus curse (although for someone like him that might have been a gift rather than a punishment) and Voldemort took Persephone from the house and back to Riddle Manor. She stayed with him all night in his bedchambers, but this was the first night she let him use her and didn't end up hating herself for it.

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Harry sat in Grimmauld Place with the remaining Weasley family. Bill, Charlie, Mr.Weasley and Percy had joined the search parties to find the twins so that left Mrs. Weasley, himself, Ron and Ginny and Hermioneto think about all the terrible things that could be happening at this very moment. Harry longed to go out and help look but McGonagall had refused it outright, saying that once he was seventeen he could do whatever he wished but while he was sixteen he would follow the rules that the people who loved him set down. The group sat in this miserable stupor for awhile, Mrs. Weasley had silent tears slipping down her face while Ron and Hermione sat on the couch together, Hermione supportively holding Ron's hand. He had turned green and looked as nervous as Harry had ever seen him. Ginny sat in front of the fireplace staring into the flames, Harry watched her, wanting to sit down next to her and comfort her but he couldn't, now was not the time.

They remained this way, unspeaking and solemn for about an hour until Dumbledore walked in followed by Fred and George and the rest of the Weasley family. Mrs. Weasley jumped up and pulled them into a tight hug the boys were so scared that they didn't even protest. The rest of the family took part in a silent hug fest while Dumbledore looked on with a silly grin upon his face. Finally Mrs. Weasley was able to stammer,

"What happened? Where were they? Who…who…who…" but she had lost her nerve and the tears overtook her.

Dumbledore smiled, "The will be their decision of what to tell you, not mine. I am only here to drop them off and take Harry and Hermione back to the school." The two in question stood up to leave but Mrs. Weasley wouldn't hear of it, they were family and she would take them back when she saw fit. Dumbledore smiled and bid the happy group goodbye. Harry and Hermione joined the entire family in the kitchen where they all listened to Fred and George tell about the night and the creepy dungeon they were held in, Harry could tell that they were holding something back. Fred looked nervous and George had gone quiet, it was a bit unnerving.

Finally, at 2 am Mrs. Weasley made everyone go upstairs to bed but Harry had another idea. Once he could be certain that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were asleep he grabbed Ron and Hermione and all three of them apparated to the twins bedroom. Fred and George hadn't gone to sleep yet and as soon as they three of them appeared they grabbed their wands in a nervous jump, pointing it at the trio.

"Hey, its just us, it's okay." Ron said, holding his arms up, they lowered their wands to their sides. Harry stepped forward,

"What weren't you guys telling us? You don't honestly think we would believe that the tortured Kingsley punched the Death Eater out and then helped you escape do you?"

Fred was sitting in a chair and George was staring out the window, both are their faces lit with a single candle glowing brightly in the middle of the room. Fred looked at them,

"We told Dumbledore, that should be good enough."

"Well its not. We want to know, why wont you tell us." Fred replied,

"Maybe because we don't want to."

"Fred-" This came from George, who finally tore his eyes away from the window, "They need to know, they could be in danger if we don't tell them." Fred conceded to his brother simply because he didn't want to fight with him. George walked over and stood behind Freds chair, "That teacher of yours. The new one. She's the one that rescued us." Harry shrugged his shoulders,

"How is that bad? I saw her when she got the message, she was terrified."

"No Harry, she, she… we saw her kiss Voldemort." Hermione gasped and Ron's face turned white,

"What?" Harry replied, shocked.

"She has a Dark Mark, she was kissing him and she seemed to hold some sort of power over the guy that had kept us locked up."

"When did you see this? I thought you guys said you were running away."

"We couldn't get out as fast as we wanted so we had to hide and hope that no one found us. We watched him come up the walkway and she came out to him, smiling all wide and thrilled. He grabbed her and just-" at this he shuddered and decided to head back to the window. Hermione thought about it for a moment,

"Harry, remember on that first day of class when she was introducing herself?"

"Yea, so what? I still don't see any proof that shes a Death Eater, shes probably just a spy like Snape."

"No, when she said her full name it sounded familiar, like I had heard it before. When we get back to school in the morning I can prove it. I think Fred and George are right. Even if you don't want to admit it, its possible." Harry shook his head but Ron spoke up,

"Yea Harry, you have to admit there is something creepy about her. She's always in long shirts, she avoids questions about her past, she seems to really hate Dumbledore and not mention she was meeting some shady person in the Three Broomsticks yesterday. It might be the answer." Harry was still in disbelief,

"But that person she met was Lupin. And she also hung around with Sirius when he was alive." Ron replied,

"But Harry, that's exactly it. When he was alive, maybe he figured it out and she needed to shut him up. Then she went off with Lupin to the Shrieking Shack, that seems fishy to me. She also refers to Voldemort as the Dark Lord, only something that Death Eaters do."

Harry shook his head, "Do you all realize how far fetched this sounds? It's not very likely."

"But what if it is true? As a woman, I know that there is no way I would kiss Voldemort unless I was in love with him. So she must be. Just wait until tomorrow, I can prove if she was a Death Eater all those years ago." Right at that moment they thought they heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley stir so they all quickly ran back down to their bedrooms before they could get in any trouble.

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Dumbledore came and retrieved the 4 students the next morning and got them to the castle just in time for breakfast. Harry and Ron headed straight for the Great Hall while Ginny and Hermione went upstairs. Ginny wanted a shower and Hermione had to figure something out about Professor Parker. Harry watched as Ginny went up the stairs, sad to see her go.

The two boys sat down at the long dining table and loaded their plates full of bacon, eggs and toast. Understandably, Ron was in a much more boisterous mood than last night. Somehow rumors of Fred and Georges kidnap had circulated throughout the school so between mouthfuls Harry and Ron had to remedy people's questions about the popular twins. They wouldn't tell anyone any details, just that they were fine. It wasn't as if they could have told any details if they wanted to, neither of them was completely sure of what the real story was anyway.

The students were all getting ready for the first Quidditch Match of the season, Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin, and many people were already leaving to get good seats down at the pitch. Harry and Ron were just about to leave and head down there themselves before Hermione came running at full force with a piece of paper in her hands, trying to get their attention.

"It's true! It's true! She served 14 years in Azkaban for being a Death Eater. I just read it in the Daily Prophet archives, so what do you think of her now huh?" Harry took the paper from her and read through the small article.

Today, Bartemus Crouch sentenced 5 death eaters to an undetermined prison time in Azkaban. In a statement to the Daily Prophet yesterday Mr. Crouch had this to say, "Hopefully with the capture of these evil doers the wizarding community as a whole, is coming closer to seeing these dark days put behind us. We can all sleep safer now knowing that a handful of You-Know-Who's underlings are behind bars." The 4 men and 1 woman's crimes varied from torture, to murder to conspiracy. The names of the sentenced are as follows, Mark Russo, Tyson Burne, Sam Clent, Frank Mossimo and Persephone Parker.

Harry turned the paper over, "That's it?" He asked, shocked, "How can that be it?"

" I don't know but after that she wasn't ever mentioned in the papers again. The other 4 were though, Mark Russo died in prison as did Frank Mossimo. Burne and Clent were both broken out by Death Eaters a few months ago. I cant find anything on why she's out, nothing if she was released or if she was broken out."

"Well at least we know one thing." Ron said.

"Whats that?" Harry asked, still staring transfixed on the piece of paper in his hand.

"Fred and George were for once on their lives, actually right."

To Be Continued…..

Next Chapter- Dumbledore will have a little chat with Persephone about his plans and not alone Harry is suspicious of where her loyalties lie. There might also be some sex for her, I don't know yet. Ha ha