Disclaimer: JKRs world makes a great amusement park.

Back to School

The teens and chaperones enjoyed themselves at Harry's house. The television, VCR and Ginny's Nintendo64 had been set up in the lounge for the back-to-school party, and between the movies, games and music, it was a cacophony.

Harry's ears were still ringing the next day as he boarded the Hogwarts Express, but he bore the discomfort stoically, knowing it would be worth it when he told McGonagall he'd beaten her high score in Starfox.

He and Neville could have simply walked through the cabinet to go to Hogwarts, but they'd decided to take the train instead. Their girlfriends had prefect duties, Ron and Hermione had Head Boy and Girl obligations, and Harry thought it would be prudent to ride just to keep an eye on any Slytherin activity. Winky and Dobby had already taken their trunks and pets to their rooms, so they had no luggage to contend with.

"Short train this year," Neville observed. "Only half as many compartments as usual."

"McGonagall told Ron and Hermione a lot of students weren't coming back," Harry commented. He hadn't planned to return either. He wondered how he could have been so foolish. "Leave Ginny and chase Voldemort alone? Not one of my better plans." He was glad his friends had absolved him of his stupidity.

The train ride was singularly uneventful, other than the fantastic dream Harry had when he dozed off. He was James Bond, infiltrating Death Eater headquarters, doing some serious collateral damage. Ginny completely altered the tone of the dream by kissing him awake to tell him they had arrived.

"Hey Hagrid!" Harry shouted as he disembarked, seeing the half-giant directing the few first-years into boats.

"'Arry! Good ter see yer! Come down fer a drop o' tea tomorra', yeah?"

"Sure! See you later!" Harry held fast to Ginny's hand as she tugged him toward the carriages.

"Short Sorting, wasn't it," Hermione commented sadly.

"Yeah." Ron glanced around the Great Hall. "Lots of empty places at the tables."

The food appeared then, effectively cutting off most conversations. Ron wasted no time in filling his mouth to full capacity as Hermione gave him a reproachful look.

Harry stared at the staff table that looked so wrong without Dumbledore. Gradually his gaze drifted to the stool where the bedraggled black hat caught his attention and something began to form in the back of his mind. "Hermione, do you remember one of the Sorting Hat's songs where it said the Founders put brains in it? How is that possible?"

"Fourth year." Hermione said. "The Hat belonged to Godric Gryffindor, and the Founders 'put brains in' to make it a Sorting Hat, so the Hat could continue to sort students based on the House values the Founders established."

"But how?" He lowered his voice significantly. "What if someone put more than brains in it?" It was one of Gryffindor's relics, after all.

"It's not like that," Hermione frowned. "It said brains, not souls. I suspect it's something like the portraits. Or the ghosts." she nodded at Nearly Headless Nick as he passed by. "They transferred an imprint of themselves into the hat somehow."

Harry finally turned to his plate, lost in thought.

"You were awfully quiet during dinner." Ginny snuggled next to him on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.

"Sorry. I feel like I'm trying to remember something that's just on the edge of my mind."

"That's the problem then. You're trying to think too hard. Your brain is playing hard to get. We have to sidetrack it." She pushed herself behind him to begin working the knots out of his shoulders and neck. "Luckily for you, I am an accomplished master of distraction techniques."

"My brain is playing hard to get?" Harry turned to give her a quizzical look.

"Mhmm." Ginny smiled impertinently. "Just like you."

"I think Hermione used the word 'obtuse,' rather than hard-to-get."

"That's alright. I have years of experience wearing you down," she said drolly.

Harry chuckled. He leaned back to pin her behind him. "But back then, you didn't really want me, you wanted some fairytale hero."

"Good thing I grew up and learned to like the real you better." Ginny smiled, her arms slipping around his neck. "Hermione was awfully smug when you finally started to catch on last year. You know how she is when she's right. Nearly unbearable."

"Speaking of Hermione..." Harry's eyes closed as he leaned his head back. "How is she doing with the notebook translations?"

"The translating seems to be going fine." Ginny played with his hair at the nape of his neck. "Unfortunately, none of it makes sense yet. We're still working on the code."

"I wonder if it's a Marauder code," Harry mused. "Maybe Lupin could shed some light on it."

"Maybe. We'll have to ask him. Have you talked to Bill about that, ah, curse-breaking project?" Ginny asked.

Harry's eyes snapped open and he carefully surveyed the common room. "No. Lupin did though, and Bill wants me meet with him to show him the, erm, items."

"When?" Ginny asked.

"This week, maybe." He shrugged. "I thought you could join us, if you wanted to. Bill just wants to take a look. I doubt we'll be attempting any destruction, so it probably wouldn't be very exciting for you."

"You think I'm some sort of adrenalin addict? I can handle a boring meeting with my brother. Though we may want to avoid having the meeting in his office," Ginny wrinkled her nose. "I can only imagine the fantasies he and Fleur have been acting out on his desk."

Harry's lip curled. "I really don't need visual images of your brother and Fleur."

"Ha, try one of Charlie and Luna," Ginny huffed.

Harry sat up and turned to look at her more directly. "They're pretty serious then?"

"Luna might be my sister-in-law before Hermione."

"I knew they'd gone out a few times..."

"Oh yes," Ginny said dryly. "Luna told him the Death Eaters are kidnapping pureblood witches, and virgins are a premium. She looked a bit smug, so I have to assume Charlie saved her from that horrible fate."

Harry's eyes widened, aghast. "Is that true? They're targeting …"

Ginny nodded emphatically, all wide-eyed innocence.

"What for? Is there some ritual? Or is it just for their sick, twisted gratification?" Harry ran his hand through his hair, agitated for several moments. Then he paused. "Wait. How can they tell who to kidnap?"

"Unicorn test."

Harry snorted. "I highly doubt Voldemort has a unicorn working for him." He caught the glint of mischief in her eyes. "Nice try, Weasley."

"Nyah," she stuck her tongue out. "I suppose now you think you deserve credit for being smarter than Charlie…. Or are you? I'd be willing to bet several Galleons that most of the male population would argue that point."

"Do I detect a bit of frustration in your tone?"

She gave him a look of haughty disdain. "No, no, never you mind. I'll just grab some random bloke in the hallway to bend to my every whim."

"Okay." Harry shrugged. "Mind if I watch? Sounds like I need a few pointers for keeping my next girlfriend happy."

"Sure, that sounds kinky." Ginny nodded agreeably.

Harry stood, grasping Ginny's hand to pull her off the couch. He tugged too hard and caught her tightly against his chest. "Oops, guess I don't know my own strength," he smirked.

Ginny swiveled on her heel and stepped through the portrait hole. Harry followed, looking up and down the hallway. "Perhaps we need to look over this way." He pointed in the direction of a convenient broom cupboard. He opened the door, and lightly pushed Ginny inside. Gleefully, he threw the door shut and leaned against it from the outside. Part of him thought it'd be hilarious to grab Colin or Dennis Creevey and toss in the closet with Ginny. He frowned as the beast in his chest snarled. Perhaps not.

An absence of protests from the dark little room prompted Harry to yank the door open again, suddenly afraid she'd been injured when he'd pushed her inside.

"Nice to meet you, mister random bloke." Her voice was husky and amused. She snatched his tie and dragged him in with her.

"Do you come here often?" he asked teasingly, shutting the door with a sharp snap.

Ginny chuckled wickedly, clicking her wand on the doorknob. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

"So, this is broom cupboard number one." Harry glanced around the small space. "How many will it take to convince me that they're fun places to visit?"

"Just the one," Ginny's arms were already around his neck. "But you'll probably have to try several dozen just to be sure."

Several weeks later, Ron patrolled the hallways, dragging his feet. He cringed every time he opened doors to check empty classrooms or broom cupboards these days, always fearing the sight that would inevitably meet his eyes. Over the past two months, he'd caught Harry and Ginny snogging more times than he could count. He suspected they planned it on purpose, because he knew they could lock him out if they really wanted. The night he happened upon them after Hermione's birthday party had left him with a particularly vivid memory that had taken two tries at extraction to eradicate, and it still wasn't completely gone.

He'd already rousted several couples from their trysts following the Halloween feast. As he continued down the halls, he reflected irritably how Ginny and Harry always seemed to know in which part of the castle he was on duty. Either they purposely searched him out on the Map or Ginny was checking the patrol schedule. "Probably because I'm the only one who doesn't give detentions," he muttered. He flicked his wand at yet another broom cupboard.

Hermione was alone at her desk. Her fingers tapped out an odd rhythm as she let her eyes slide out of focus, smearing the words on the paper into splotches. "Dots, patterns of dots…" she muttered. She grabbed a piece of parchment and turned it transparent, laying it atop the first sheet of decoded notes. She began underlining certain words with her quill. She turned the page and aligned the clear parchment up with the words again, erasing or adding a line here or there, then flipping back to the previous page to check it again. She tested it against several more pages, her face shining with triumph. She made the parchment solid white again, leaving clear gaps over the lines she'd made. Her mind, as logical and Muggleborn as Lily Potter's, had been uniquely equipped to break the code. "Just like an answer key for those fill-in-the-circle tests," she said triumphantly. "Oh, I can't wait to tell Harry."

She skimmed over the new details emerging from the notebooks, looking puzzled. Suddenly, her expression turned incredulous; her eyes widened with shock and disbelief. She continued working late into the night, copying out the entire contents of the translated notebooks. As she finished the final page, she sat back with a deep sigh, worriedly chewing her lower lip. She massaged her eyelids with her fingertips. "Harry is going to have kittens," she said aloud, gathering the notebooks and sheets of parchment to lock away. As she was leaving her room, she paused and turned to add a password and extra concealment spells to the hidden drawer she'd added in the bottom of her trunk. She glanced around her room one last time before setting off for her turn at patrolling the castle.

"Hermione?" Ron knocked on Hermione's door through the small kitchenette they shared. "Are you awake?" He frowned. Hermione never overslept. However, she'd worked late and then had patrol duty during night. "She must be catching up on some sleep," he mumbled as he scribbled a note and slid it under her door. He whistled jauntily as he strolled down the hall.

At the Gryffindor table, Ron spotted Harry, Ginny, Neville and Luna. The Ravenclaw girl often sat with them at meals, which had spurred other students to migrate to other tables for meals as well. Hannah took her prefect duties seriously and always sat at the Hufflepuff table, but Harry wondered how much longer it would be before she passed the table monitor duties off on the younger prefects.

"Where's Hermione?" Ginny asked, looking at her watch.

"She was up late working, then she was scheduled for patrol duty." Ron sat with his friends and began filling his plate. "Maybe she'll come out and watch us fly later."

"No, I mean where is her hand on my watch?"

Everyone immediately yanked their wrists before their eyes.

"Why would her hand disappear?" Ginny whispered fearfully.

Harry unstrapped his watch, leaning over to observe Ginny's wrist. "Does it disappear when someone takes their watch off?"

"Oh, yes, of course," she answered, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry to raise such an alarm. I guess she must have taken it off to shower or something. I suppose it disappears when it's not getting a reading."

Ron, who claimed to be starving just moments before, seemed to have lost his appetite. "Yeah, I'll just run up and check, shall I?"

Harry and Ginny shared an uneasy glance. "I think we're finished. We'll come too. Maybe we can convince her to take a break."

Neville and Luna stood to join them, and the group left the Great Hall. They traveled the corridors in silence and ascended the stairs. Ron knocked on Hermione's door. He chewed his lip worriedly, glancing at his friends. "Alohamora." He tried various other unlocking spells before Ginny roughly shoved him aside. She had the door open within moments.

"Hermione?" Ginny called into the empty room. She darted into the loo and kitchenette. "She's not here," she said tensely.

Ron stared in horror at Hermione's watch, lying on her desk. "What if something happened? She doesn't have her watch on."

Harry steadied Ron's shoulder. "We never had these watches before, and we got out of plenty of sticky situations. She's fine. She probably just went up to the library." Even as he made reassurances, he felt dread creeping through his veins. Something was wrong. "Gin? Could you and Luna check the library and hospital wing? Neville, duck over to Headquarters and see if she's visiting her parents. Ron, is there a log or reports she'd have to fill out for patrol duty?"

The others scurried off while Ron numbly led Harry to the logbook where prefects and Heads signed in and out. Hermione's name was written very clearly next to the time she had begun her patrol.

"Who had patrol before her? Could she have run into them?" Harry asked, motioning Ron to flip the page.

Ron's heart sank when he saw the names of two Slytherin prefects on the previous time slot. "Shit," he whispered, looking to Harry with haunted eyes.

"Ron, relax," Harry commanded. "All she has to do is say something about the Order and she'd be transported to the Owlery as a diricawl, remember? She signed the loyalty oath like we all did."

Ron nodded. "But what if she can't talk? What if she's too badly injured? Or worse." He closed his eyes.

"Ron, I need you to think."

"Right." Ron took a deep, shuddery breath. "We have to find her." He massaged his temples. "Let's check the Owlery first, then, erm, trace her patrol route… and we need McGonagall to interrogate those two Slytherins."

Harry nodded. "Let's go."

Two hours later, they were no closer to finding Hermione. Neville and Luna were poring over the Marauder's Map, searching for her name.

Harry paced. Suddenly he clapped his hand to his forehead.

"Oh Merlin, no." Ron nearly whimpered. "Not the scar." Ron knew from experience, scar pain never boded well. Ron had found her wand on the floor when they'd retraced her route and strongly suspected she'd been taken against her will.

"No," Harry answered shortly. "DOBBY!"

Pop.

"Yes Master Harry, sir?" The little elf beamed with pleasure at being summoned.

"Dobby, we can't find Hermione," Harry said urgently. "Do you know where she is?"

The house-elf screwed his face up tightly, clenching his little fists. When he finally opened his eyes, he looked frightened.

"Dobby's sorry, Harry Potter, sir. Dobby does not know the place. Dobby cannot tell you where it is."

"Can you go to her?" Harry asked, swallowing his heart, which had lodged up in his throat. "Is she alone?"

"Yes, Master," Dobby answered. "Dobby can go there. But Dobby cannot tell if she is alone."

"Wait." Harry glanced apprehensively at Ron, dropping his voice to a whisper. "She's not underwater or anything, right?"

"No, not underwater," Dobby denied vehemently, shuddering. "Just very, very dark."

"Ron, give him her watch." Harry instructed. "Dobby, strap that on her wrist and hang onto her. If she's injured, it'll Portkey her straight to St. Mungo's. You'll have to explain to them who she is, and stay with her."

"What if she's not injured, but just Stunned?" Ron finally found himself capable of speech again. "What if she's been Obliviated and can't remember how to use the watch?"

Harry closed his eyes. "Dobby, just get the watch on her. We'll summon her from there if it doesn't Portkey her. We'll go to the hospital wing and wait."

The boys contacted the rest of the group and headed up the stairs to meet and update them on the events that had transpired.

"Harry," Ron said in a low, worried tone. "When Dobby said it was very, very dark where Hermione is…did he mean dark like no lights, or Dark like Voldemort?"

Harry shot a worried look at his friend before answering. "I don't know." Harry's own interpretation of Dobby's choice of words was that Hermione's mind was dark, meaning she was unconscious. She couldn't be…dead…because Dobby eventually located her, but...

Ginny sat on a hospital bed, staring at her watch. "Where is she? Why is this taking so long?" she fretted.

Finally, she shrieked, "There! Her hand is back!"

"Wait," Harry commanded, just as Ginny moved to Summon her friend. "I don't know what would happen if we tried to Summon her while she's being Portkeyed. Just wait a few seconds."

"What the hell are you on about!" Ron snarled. "What if those few seconds cost her life!"

"What happens if you interfere with a Portkey? Think she'd live through that?" Harry shot back. "Dobby is with her. He would protect her with his life, and I've seen elf magic. Even Lucius Malfoy wouldn't mess with him."

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Harry Potter?" Ginny asked sharply.

"What?"

"The old Harry would've gone charging off on a noble steed to rescue the damsel in distress with nary a second thought," Ginny scowled. "He was a man of action."

Harry met her gaze. "The new Harry has learned a very important lesson about utilizing his friends' talents and delegating responsibility. Dobby was the best choice for this. There's too much at risk to screw this up."

Ron stared down at his sneakers. "This was planned," he said. "Someone took her for a reason."

"Of course." Harry shook his head bitterly. "But is it because she's Muggle-born or because she's friends with me?"

"She's not been moved yet," Ginny said anxiously. "Can I get her now?"

Harry hesitated before nodding.

"I'll get Madam Pomfrey." Neville's voice was barely a whisper as he disappeared, heading for the matron's office.

Within moments, Hermione's too-still body arrived, clutched in Dobby's grasp. Dobby looked terrified and pale, shuddering as he held her shoulders.

"Merciful heavens, where has this child been?" Madam Pomfrey rushed in, levitating her charge to a bed and immediately taking over.

"Mr. Potter, fetch the Headmistress if you would, please."

Harry nodded, his expression bleak. He sent a Patronus message to McGonagall. He knew she had the two Slytherins in her grip right now, and didn't want to interrupt in person.

"What happened to her?" Ron turned to the closed curtain, distraught. "She looks like she did that time she was petrified by the Basilisk."

Dobby just shook his head, ears drooping, eyes huge and sad. He gave Harry an apologetic look and disappeared with a pop.

Neville had gone on to fetch Hermione's parents after sending Madam Pomfrey out to her new patient. He guided them to the hospital wing where they waited with the others, looking frightened and frazzled.

"What's happening?" Hermione's mother asked. "Neville just said Hermione was in hospital and Madam Pomfrey was taking good care of her. Is she badly wounded?"

Luna stepped in and gently relayed what had happened, ending with Hermione's current state of unconsciousness.

"So she could be absolutely fine?" her father asked hopefully. "Perhaps she's just sleeping. She had an exhausting night."

"I'm sure she does need to catch up on a lot of rest, sir," Luna agreed. "Dobby can't explain where she was, so we'll need to wait for her to wake up and tell us. She didn't seem to have any injuries, and that's always a good sign, I think."

"She's strong," Neville said firmly. "She's going to be just fine."

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger?" Madam Pomfrey beckoned for them to join her behind the curtain.

"Neville," Harry whispered. "Find Bill."

Bill and McGonagall arrived together. McGonagall immediately went to confer with Madam Pomfrey while Bill joined the rest of the group. Neville trailed behind with Hannah.

"What's the emergency?" Bill asked, a concerned frown furrowing his brow.

Harry pulled Bill away from Ron.

"Holy bloody hell," Bill groaned. "So you think Voldemort kidnapped her to make her some sort of Horcrux receptacle?"

"I don't know," Harry said worriedly. "But it's some kind of Dark curse." He looked toward the drawn curtain. "She looks like Ginny did, down in the Chamber."

Bill pushed up his sleeves. "There are a lot of curses that can make someone pale and unresponsive. I'll take a look."

Ginny had crept closer and heard the last bit of their conversation.

She brushed against Harry's arm. "She's stronger than I was back then," she said. "And if anyone could fight him off with mental powers, it's her."

Harry made a vague noise of agreement.

"Meanwhile, let's try to figure this out. Voldemort still has one Horcrux that we know of. We need to finish destroying the others as soon as possible. And now we don't know what he's done to Hermione."

"You think he made her into a Horcrux? Dumbledore didn't think Riddle'd do that. Said it was too risky to use something that could think and act for itself," Harry said.

"Well, she's not doing much in the way of acting for herself," Luna commented. "And if she's thinking, we don't know about it. However, it seems out of character for Voldemort to use one of his precious Horcruxes on a Muggleborn."

"What about Legilimency," Ron suddenly interjected. "What if he tried to muck about in her mind for information and messed stuff up? Remember how shattered you were after your sessions with Snape?"

Harry felt sick. That had been a possibility he hadn't wanted to consider. Those sessions had been horrible. Plus, Hermione knew everything. If Voldemort had succeeded with his mental assault…

"You are all jumping to conclusions," Luna broke in. "We don't know where she was or what happened to her." She glanced at Neville. "She could have been exposed to any number of…painful curses."

"Madam Pomfrey would recognize effects of the Cruciatus Curse," Harry said curtly, his eyes on the curtain again. He released Ginny's hand, meeting her gaze again before pointedly looking at Ron, who had collapsed on a nearby sofa, his face buried in his hands.

Ginny moved to sit next to her brother, giving him a quick one-armed hug. "Ron, you've got to be strong for her," she urged. "We can't fall apart. We have to figure out how to help her."

"I know. I just... Why didn't I wake up to go with her? Why did she forget to wear her watch? Why couldn't it have been me instead?"

"Snap out of it," Harry said. "Luna's right. We're jumping to the worst possible conclusions. Hermione is here, and she's alive. Those are the most important things."

Ron ran a hand through his hair distractedly. "Yeah," he said hollowly, staring at the curtain around Hermione's bed.