AN: This is the first interlude of the story, well there was a bit of one in Chapter 8 but that doesn't really count. So here, we shall detract from our main characters for a bit and see how the rest of the world is doing. Also, I plug my other HG/RL story – Beauty and the Beast.
Disclaimer: Sorry, J.K., I'm still…er…borrowing your characters. Nevertheless, don't worry; I haven't gotten them too dirty…at least not yet.
Reviews: Muchos gracias: Aelimin (SQUEE:D Good luck with your story!), BiggerstaffStalker, FilthyMudblood345 (There won't be any really obvious HG/RL in a bit, so uh...rest easy?), Gecko149 (Just try and breathe…okay? Gotta love the enthusiasm), megzzy668 (You read what was going to happen in the last chapter? Uh…does that mean I'm getting predictable or am I slow on what you're saying?), Smiles28, sporty12gd4u, LALA, Shimmer of an Angel,and zeusfluff/"The Miss" Maria.
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Last Chapter: "Well I wouldn't have to put you in a Body Bind if you didn't walk around like that," she smacked his arm, hard. "Thank Merlin all I did to you was a Body Bind!" She hit him again. "Don't do things like that!"
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The noisy throng of students filed out of Hogwart's Great Hall. Most everyone was leaving except for the few who still sat eating, talking, or just staring down at the flatware, as was the case at the end of the Gryffindor table.
Solitarily, the boys pushed uneaten food from the meal around and around on their plates. One of them finally noticed that they were nearly the only people left in the room. He nudged the somber-faced boy next to him slightly with his elbow.
"I think it's time we went up to the common room, Ron," said Harry, pushing his plate away.
"What's the point?" the other muttered, following suite with his plate.
"The point," answered Harry, "is to do our homework. We've got something due in every class and we can't keep putting it off."
Ron sighed as he rose from the table along with Harry. "But it's just not the same anymore."
"I know," Harry replied heavily. "But she's safe now and if she was here, that's what she'd be having us do."
They were heading for the huge double doors as the room continued to become darker and darker. House elves could be heard scurrying in the background, snapping a finger here and there to put out the candles.
Ron looked at him angrily. "Yeah, but they could give us more information. We're only her best friends! It's been nearly a month since she's been rescued and we haven't heard a word out of anyone since. Not even from her!"
"Maybe she can't write to us." Harry stepped out into the corridor. "Owls get intercepted all the time. That would prove a danger to her hiding position. Not that I'm saying I wouldn't like to get an owl," he added hastily, seeing Ron glower at what he was saying.
Over the past weeks, Harry had had to take over Hermione's role of being the one who kept things under control. Ron's emotions would swing wildly from time to time and he would become increasingly enraged at the situation. Not that Harry did not feel the same; it was just he had learned over the years to control the emotions he showed. Harry also suspected that Ron's overwhelming feelings stemmed from his unannounced love for Hermione.
"There are other ways to send letters," said Ron, moodily. "I just…I just need to know how alright she is, you know, and how she's feeling…"
A voice shouting from behind them cut his words short. "Mr. Potter! Mr. Weasley! Do slow down, you are walking like your trousers are ablaze."
The voice was immediately recognizable. They turned to look at Professor McGonagall attempting to sprint toward them, which was not easy for a lady of her age and selection of shoe. Skidding slightly on the damp floors, she caught up with them, breathing heavily. It took her a minute before being able to utter a sound.
"Headmaster" –breath- "needs to see both" –breath- "of you right away in" –breath- "his office," she managed to say.
"Is it about Hermione?" asked Ron quickly.
"I was not informed as to what it is about, only that he needs to see you right away. So I wouldn't keep him waiting."
Both muttered their thanks and proceeded to walk the way they had just come, backtracking to Dumbledore's office. McGonagall yelled over their shoulders once again. A simple phrase of 'Acid pops' but the meaning was easily understood. The headmaster was highly predictable in his passwords and what they would be.
The twisting walk to the office was punctuated by Ron's talk of what the visit was about. Most often, he speculated it had to do with Hermione. He ran through every possible scenario. Something horrid had happened to her. She had been kidnapped again or worse. Ron looked stricken at Harry for a moment before the other added that maybe she was actually in the office waiting to greet them.
Ron managed to calm down a bit after that statement and as they went past the gargoyle, he quieted down, but soon was as wound up as the staircase they were traveling on. Harry was also feeling a pit in his stomach. He began to fear that his supper might make a reappearance.
The duo hesitated outside the door before Ron knocked briefly, then finally grabbed the handle and rushed into the room with Harry right behind him. Only thing to be seen was Dumbledore leaning over some papers in a folder on his desk. He did not glance up from what he was reading as they entered, but did say, "Thank you for coming. Do sit down," indicating the chairs in front of him.
Glancing at one another then checking the room over for anyone hiding, Ron and Harry took a seat and waited. People with red-haired are famed for being quick with their temper and in addition to that, Ron could add impatient to such list. He had barely sat a brief moment in silence before blurting out, "What's this about anyway?"
Harry nodded his head in agreement. "Does it have to do with Hermione? We haven't heard anything in ages about her."
"Yeah," Ron reinforced indignantly.
Dumbledore looked them over and took something out of the folder. "Yes, it's about Hermione," seeing both start to talk again he quickly added, "who is completely safe and doing fine. I have just received something from her for you two."
He held up an envelope, printed neatly across the front was Harry & Ron. Each face brightened, each jumped up to snatch the letter; however, Ron was much faster. He tore it open and into shreds in the process. A single sheet of parchment, the only thing in it, survived the mauling. Harry leaned over Ron's shoulder to read.
Dear Harry and Ron,
How are you both? Are you keeping up your grades? I do not want to hear of any slacking while am I gone. N.E.W.T.S. are this year and neither of you can afford to do badly if you want to be Aurors! Enough of my lectures, I'm really writing to say that I miss you both so much. I never realized I'd miss you two badgering me all the time about everything but I do. I cannot disclose much about where I am or whom I am with, even though this letter will most likely not be intercepted. I can say that I am not in a hole in the ground nor am I with a horridly unpleasant person. Actually, the setup is not bad; Dumbledore did a good match up. Also, I want you two to stop worrying like I know you are. I am doing fine and am not injured.
The next few sentences were marked out heavily. Whatever she had written, Hermione had changed her mind and decided that neither of them needed to know or it was not that important. Harry noticed along side those the paper's edge was discolored slightly. Through the paper fiber, a dark red substance had seeped in and dried.
"What's that?" asked Harry pointing down at it.
Ron shook his head. "I can't tell." He handed the letter to Harry so he could look.
Harry peered at it closely and started to say as he ran his finger over it, "It looks like blood. But-"
His words were cut short as he bent over in pain, one hand clutching the letter and the other pressed against his forehead. He fell to his knees then cried out slightly. Ron and Dumbledore rushed to his side but Harry did not know that. He was already gone.
The room he was standing in was dank and dark with only a bit of light coming from a few slender candles on a lone table. Sitting at the table was a man easily lost in the dim room due to his black robe. He could not see anymore around him but that. He could not move his body at all.
"Nott!" Harry heard himself say in a frigid tone. "When I put you on duty, I expect you to do as I say and watch the prisoner, not nap."
The man startled in his chair, nearly knocking it over. "Master, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I shall never do it again." His groveling only served to irritate Harry who now tried to mentally beat against the body he was being held in.
"I will let it go this time. Get up. Where's Avery? Surely, one of you can follow orders."
From the other side of the room, another man emerged from the darkness. Harry started walking towards him. The other man stood next to chair near the corner. This chair was much sturdier than the one Nott had fallen asleep in, most likely chosen in order to support the chains that snaked around it and the person being held down.
"You look chipper this morning," said Harry, bending down slightly to look at the person's down-turned face. "Sleep well?" No reply. "Has she spoken at all?"
"No, my Lord, but I have the orb ready for when she does." Avery produced a white, glowing ball about the size of an orange from his robes.
Harry saw a deathly pale hand move into his vision and realized it was his. He touched the woman under the chin, forcing her battered face to look up at his own.
"You'll talk. You won't be able to stop it. Prophecies take a person over and we'll be here ready when it happens to you."
Although her eyes were closed, she began to smile then laughed outright into Harry's face. She then opened her eyes to reveal dark irises that blended into the pupils, only black circles on a white background.
"Like the blind leading the blind," she rasped. "You have no idea what you are playing with. The Powers don't hand out visions on your watch. Although they have been whispering to me lately," she paused and looked around at the entire room, "about each of you."
Nott and Avery were standing much closer now, looking apprehensive. Even Voldemort leaned closer.
"You," she said, indicating Avery with her gaze. "What you seek you will not find, but do not give up for another door shall open."
"And you," she was looking at Nott, "do not play with fire for even the most careful get burned."
Nott glanced back at the candles on the table and moved farther away. The woman had directed her attention back to Harry, gazing at him calmly. Her face became impassive. "Do you want them to hear?"
Harry moved his ear closer to her and waited.
"The battle shall be long but the war longer. The Powers tell me your wins shall be in vain unless…" Her voice dropped off then she shuddered.
A hand wrapped itself around her neck. "Unless what?" uttered Harry dangerously.
Again, a grin cracked her solemn face then she laughed, nearly dizzily, right in Harry's face. He felt his hand raise then come down hard on her face. The noise stopped. "Miss Hollowell, remember who is tied and who isn't. Answer me!"
She shuddered for a second time, causing her dark hair to fall in her face. Then she went deadly still, along with the world it seemed. Through the silence, her voice came out stronger than before, a deeper, strange sound, "The time has come, and revelations shall be made."
Avery quickly produced the orb again, placed it next to her and let it hang in mid-air. All three men stood waiting expectedly.
"The Virgin born of the splitting septem…" she said. Harry could barely hear her. It was if someone was turning down the volume on a radio. He strained to understand what she was saying. Only bits were coming through.
"…blood is still mudded…tainted womb"
"he who shall seed…mere mentor no more…"
"Neither good nor evil…both side then will choose…"
Someone was calling now, over the woman's harsh voice. People calling him out of his unconsciousness, pulling him out of the black stupor.
"Wake up," they said.
He slowly opened his eyes to see two people standing over him. Both kept a respectful distance, each looking apologetic and anxious. One was a younger man, the other an older member.
"I said I did not want to be disturbed."
"Master, an urgent letter just came in from Hogwarts. Everyone agreed it would be of utmost importance to you and you wouldn't want to receive it later." The younger held out an envelope.
Voldemort took the letter from his newly inducted lackey. "Leave me and next time one person shall suffice to wake me."
The two men bowed out of the room, looking slightly triumphant than when they had entered. They shut the door noiselessly behind them.
His red eyes glanced over the writing on the front that said only had an L and U on the front. It was from Malfoy and he had marked it urgent. This had better be important, he thought. I don't often to get to waste time sleeping. Voldemort recalled that he even had been dreaming which did not happen often. He grinned. Megan Hollowell's inevitable crumbling was a happy memory indeed, though that had been equaled out by some idiot's incompetence.
Opening the letter, a blank sheet of parchment slid out. A quick uttered word and lines began sprawling out from where Voldemort's wand had touched it. Only a few sentences appeared.
I know he knows. He will be tailed like the last one until the opportune moment. He remains under the idea that he is still in. Information will be easy to get.
Voldemort had to admit at times that even Lucius Malfoy had his uses. The man was like a leach. He would stick the target at hand and employ all resources to get what Voldemort requested: Megan Hollowell, a few choice hairs, and now a soon to be sorry man. Pity, thought Voldemort, he couldn't have been more loyal. He was one of my favorites.