Chapter Nine- Sooty road to the Muller Manor

"Damn it, Muller! I'm filled with ashes!" Draco Malfoy coughed.

Harry, Hermione and Kat were already there when Malfoy arrived. Malfoy stood in front of the fireplace, brushing soot off his clothes.

"Yeah, I forgot to tell that the fireplace hasn't been cleaned in like… centuries," Kat said, a not of maliciousness in her voice.

"How convenient of you to forget tiny and insignificant details like that," Malfoy snapped.

They suddenly heard a noise coming from the fireplace and Malfoy turned around, frowning. "What the…"

"Watch out!" Raven cried as she emerged from the fireplace and crashed into Malfoy. They both fell hard to the floor and Kat started laughing.

"Is this your idea of a fun trip?" Raven barked as she and Malfoy stood up.

"Yes," Kat said. "But surely your trips to the, um, Land of the dead must be more exciting than this."

Raven opened her mouth to reply, but Harry interrupted. "And talking about that… What's that smell?"

Hermione breathed deeply and flinched. "Oh my God, it stinks!" She said, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Welcome to the Disgustingly Smelly but Yet charming Muller Manor in Karlsbad, Germany," Kat said happily. "I forgot that it smelled like this."

Kat started walking and everyone followed her. It was indeed an enormous manor, with expensive furniture everywhere and beautiful paintings in the halls. Even Malfoy seemed quite impressed.

"What did your aunt did for a living before she retired, Katherine?" Malfoy asked.

"I really don't know," Kat admitted. "But I guess she killed people. When I was five years old, I found a corpse in my bed, and my aunt just said 'Oops, I misplaced it.'"

"Really?" Malfoy blurted. "And what did you say?"

"Nothing… But since that, I have never been afraid of dead bodies," Kat said as opened a heavy-looking door.

"That explains your obsession with death," Raven muttered.

"Heard you, Zombie chick," Kat said. She stood in the middle of the room, and Harry saw that it was like a great ballroom.

"AUNT VELIA!" Kat yelled and everyone jumped.

Suddenly, a door across the room opened slowly, and very old woman walked over to them. "Katherine? Willkommen, shoner jungling!(Welcome back, my beautiful teenager!)" (A/N: Okay, so my German is pretty bad… but play along)

"Oh, Aunt Velia!" Kat said loudly. "I'm not teenager anymore! I'm twenty four!"

"I thought she was deaf," Malfoy muttered.

"Not completely deaf," Kat muttered back. "You just have to yell at her. HELLO!"

Aunt Velia grinned a toothless grin. "Da bist du ja wieder? (Are you coming back?)" She asked.

"No, Aunt Velia," Kat said as she rolled her eyes. "I came for work."

"Oh," Aunt Velia said, sounding disappointed. Kat and her Aunt chatted for a little while, and suddenly Aunt Velia left the room.

"Kat, no pressure, but…" Harry said. "We have some criminals to find."

"I have a surprise," Kat said as her aunt returned. "She has tickets for the New Dark Arts Museum. Maybe we can find Remarque and Navitek in there!"

"Yeah, well," Harry sighed, a note of disbelief in his voice.

"Harry, Kat's right… Maybe we can find them in there," Hermione said. "Or they can be around, who knows?"

"Yeah, Potter… don't be such a pessimist," Malfoy smirked as he checked the tickets. "The rest of us have a quite positive look in life."

Harry ignored Malfoy and stared directly at Kat. "This should work, Muller," he said. "Let's go."

Later, at the Schneider Museum for the Dark Arts

"I am truly amazed," Malfoy said as he looked at the building.

"You feel at home, don't you?" Harry retorted and Malfoy laughed.

"Calm down, Potty," Malfoy sneered. "Boy, are we in a mood today."

"Let's get inside and ask someone if they have seen Navitek and Remarque," Kat pressed on.

Raven, Harry, Malfoy, Hermione and Kat entered the Museum, being received by a very frightening-looking guard. The guard checked their tickets and nodded at them.

The museum presented grotesque paintings and instruments of torture that made Harry feel slightly uncomfortable. "Who ever thought of a museum like this?" Harry whispered to Hermione.

"I tried to find out about that, but I didn't find a thing," Hermione whispered back. Kat pulled out some photographs from her pocket and walked over to a man that was sweeping the floor.

"Guten abend! (Good afternoon)" Kat said cheerfully and the man stared at her.

"Your German accent is very bad," the man said. "I'm American, I do understand English."

"Okay then," Kat said, her cheeks slightly red. "Um… Have you seen these people lately?"

"Of course I have," the man nodded eagerly. "This is Mr. Kropp Remarque and his fiancée."

"His what?" Raven gasped.

"His fiancée," the man repeated. "A lovely lady, I must add."

"But how do know their names?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh, that's easy," the man smiled. "He's the brother of the founder of this museum, Mr. Johann Remarque."

"Remarque's brother…?" Harry blurted.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" A green light emerged from nowhere and Harry immediately embraced Hermione and pulled her to the floor. They remained still for a second, and then Harry raised his head.

Kropp Remarque and Stephanie Navitek were standing in front of them, Navitek sneering maliciously.

"We expected you sooner," Remarque said in his deep voice.

Harry and Hermione stood up and Harry immediately looked around. The janitor was lying in the floor, his eyes widened in surprise. He was dead.

"He spoke too much," Stephanie smirked. She pointed her wand at Harry and chuckled.

"I have waited so long for this," Stephanie spat. "And here you are, Potter. At last, I will be able to kill you and your nosy friends."

"Look, you psycho freak," Kat said, pulling out her wand, but Malfoy took her by the arm and shook his head.

"Katherine, calm down," he muttered.

"Get off of me!" Kat barked. "I'll show her, smirking idiot…"

"Stupefy!" Stephanie yelled and Kat was blasted off her feet. She lay in the floor, unconscious.

"And Verlaine," Stephanie grinned. "Alive. It will be my pleasure to kill you again. LOWER YOUR WANDS!"

Everyone ignored her, and Harry raised his wand higher. "You have to surrender, Navitek," Harry said. "We are four against two."

"Against three, as a matter of fact." A man apparated un the hall, smiling. He looked just like Remarque, expect that the man had white hair.

"Harry Potter," Johann Remarque breathed. "Such a legend." Harry saw Johann take something from his pocket and Harry pointed the wand directly at him.

"Don't you dare," Harry snapped.

"Oh, okay," Johann grinned. "I shall drop it."

Harry saw Johann drop a small sphere and smoke started spurting from it. Harry ran out of air, and he heard Stephanie cackling madly. He pulled Hermione close to him, but suddenly he couldn't feel her…. They had taken her away from him…

"Hermione…" Harry gasped, and everything went black.