A/N: So this chapter is two days later than usual, but it's also FOUR PAGES longer than usual. I hope it compensates for the lost time. You're all getting so eager about this story and I'm really so thankful for all your feedback! My praises go out to all of you! I hope this chapter makes you do a happy dance!
Angellwings- I'm glad you can't get enough of this story! Updates come about once a week. I'm a college student and that's really all I can manage right now, but I'll keep it up, don't worry!
IsabellaPaige- I love cliffhangers too. They make the world go 'round, really.
Quidditch7- There's lots and lots of mystery, but some of it is solved in this chapter. There's not as much H/G as I wanted to get in here, but there's still some. If you liked the last chapter, I really think you'll like this one!
Zarroc- Thanks, you're just too kind! Thanks for reviewing!
Trixie7- I'm glad that you're intrigued, because I try to keep people intrigued, but I don't always know whether or not I'm doing a good job! Thanks for the reassurance!
Violet Snicket- I took long. Sorry! I'll try to be a little quicker next time!
Harrysmom- Yes, I remember you from my other stories. I'm sorry to confuse you. This story is one of those "there's more going on than it seems" sort of stories, so it's a little hard to follow. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks for reviewing.
Love-is-everything- Hermione is a pretty clever witch. I wish I was that good! Haha!
Cappygal116- Now you will find out how Dean just GOES MISSING! I think Ron overreacts a lot, but that's just me. I've been bad about editing, but I did fix the mistake you told me about. I actually still have yet to edit this chapter. Hopefully it's not horrid.
Coolgirlc- I'm really glad you think it's getting good! Hopefully it'll only get better!
The End of a New Life by MyKonstantine.
Chapter 6: Confessions of a Dead Man
It was one of the most awkward moments Hermione had had to deal with since her younger years at Hogwarts. Everyone in the room, including Ron, was staring at her as if she had completely lost her mind. All Hermione had done was seen the same creature Lavender had seen. Why was it so difficult for the others to grasp that idea?
Ron gulped down hard on his Adam's apple. "Hermione, you can't be sure of that. You were drunk."
"You were drunk?" Lavender squeaked at Hermione. She turned to Ron with an expression of gleeful shock. "She was drunk?"
"Shut it, Lavender!"
Seamus' chest puffed up to bellow at Ron. Hermione could see another argument heading their way. She could barely take in all the bad will towards others in the room. She had never seen so many disagreements in a single day. She had to stop this one verbal fight before it turned into a physical one. It was the only slice of hope she had left.
"Yes, I was drunk." Hermione admitted. Lavender and Parvati let out almost identical snickers. Hermione wanted to pummel them both, but getting into a fist fight in order to save Ron from one was just not going to work. She had to keep her cool. "That doesn't mean that I didn't see anything! How often does alcohol make you hallucinate?"
Seamus shrugged. "It's happened once or twice."
"Yes," Ginny sighed, "but how often do you drink?"
"Let's not talk about that."
"Even if I was hallucinating, why would it match up perfectly with Lavender's description of it all?" Hermione sent this question to Harry, who she knew would emphasize with her situation. He'd been accused of being more than just delusional many times over the years. "I saw the glowing crack in the wall! I saw the black figure! I could see its head but I couldn't make out any eyes!"
Harry nodded his head in understanding. "This isn't just a coincidence."
"So," Neville cleared his throat. "This thing was Dean's partner? How? He's a dark creature and a pureblood elitist!"
"Maybe Dean didn't know that." Ron hypothesized. "Maybe this person, creature.. Whatever it was.. set it all up to kill Dean."
The word 'kill did not go over well with the crowd. Parvati let out a sharp cry, Seamus a nervous cough. Everyone else seemed to be very interested in either the floor or the ceiling. Only Ron Weasley could have that effect, Hermione thought to herself.
"There's no solid evidence that Dean is dead. Let's remember that." Hermione's words seemed to comfort the fragile people that surrounded her with the exception of Seamus, who picked the bloody cloak up off the bed and held it in Hermione's face.
"How do you explain that, then?"
Instead of getting angry at this gesture, Hermione gently took the cloak out of his hands. Seamus seemed reluctant to let anyone else touch the only remnants of his best friend, but he eventually let Hermione have it.
Hermione held the piece of clothing directly up to her face so that she could see every detail. Something had to be there to prove whether or not Dean was badly hurt.
To Hermione's surprise, she wasn't the first person to notice an unusual characteristic. It was Ginny who spoke out after examining the robes from over Hermione's shoulder.
"The rip is perfectly straight." She noted. "It's too neat. If someone had been stabbing Dean, the line would be crooked and frayed."
Harry popped up over Hermione's other shoulder. "She's right. I didn't notice that before. And the blood, something about it is, I don't know, odd."
Hermione could see what Harry meant. The blood just didn't look natural. It was far too red to have been sitting there for at least a day, and in contained an iridescent shine.
A solution struck her, but was it possible? It was really rare and quite unstable in the wrong hands. Could it be?
There was only one easy way Hermione knew give her the answers.
She held the cloak out at arms length away from the crowd of friends and yanked out her wand. "Scourgify!"
The cloak remained covered in a thick scarlet liquid. Hermione stared at it with a devilish smile. It still didn't make too much sense, but at least she knew one very important thing. "Dean's not dead. At least, he wasn't when he left this place."
Neville gave her a quizzical look. "How would you know?"
"It's dragon's blood." Hermione said with a cheerful laugh. "A cleaning spell would have removed any human blood right away!"
"Somebody must have planted it." Parvati observed. Behind her, Seamus dipped his wife, gave her a kiss, and let out a loud whoop.
"This still isn't good. He must have been kidnapped." Ron reminded all the others.
"Or he might have gone for some training like he told his mum." Lavender pointed out.
"Don't be so thick!" Ron groaned. "Without telling any of us? Doesn't anybody else find this so-called training the least bit dodgy?"
Hermione had to give Ron some credit. For once in his life, he was actually making sense. Somewhere along the way, his loyalty had at least gained some logic.
"Ron's right." Hermione admitted. She felt her level of power shrinking away in the moments following her words. Ron gave her a charming, cocky smile, and as much as she hated to admit it, her stomach flipped.
"At least we know where he is, right?" Ginny shrugged. "Seamus has been there before."
"I never wanted to go back to that place." Seamus shivered a bit. "I don't see why Dean would ever go there?"
Harry's ears perked up. "What's wrong with it?"
"There are a few rich wizards, but it's mostly poverty and crime. The government is corrupt, it is." Seamus informed them. "It's damn right depressing."
"It doesn't make a difference!" Parvati burst. "He could be there! That's all that matters!"
Seamus nodded his head. It was obvious that Seamus took pity on Parvati and her delicate state of mourning. "I know. I'll leave in the morning."
"No." Parvati shot back. "We're leaving tonight."
Ginny looked absolutely thrilled with Parvati's sudden gust of passion. "All of us."
Hermione looked shiftily from person to person as they all agreed to go on their way to Germany. When all eyes were on her, she gave herself to the cause. They weren't able to get along at all, yet they were all hoping to find a person together. This was not going to be a simple task.
Seamus let in a deep breath and let out an over-exaggerated sigh. "All right, then."
Hermione had seen images of poverty before, but never anything like this in a wizarding community. The streets of this German city were dilapidated and worn. The buildings looked as if they could crumble at any moment. Hermione was more than unsettled, she was thoroughly disturbed.
It was just after sunset, yet there was barely anyone out on the streets. The few people the group did pass by wore dirty faces and cloaks that made Ginny and Ron's hand-me-downs look as if they were high fashion. These people called out to them in German. Hermione couldn't understand them, but Seamus insisted that they keep their mouths shut and keep moving.
Why would any country's Ministry let their territory get like this?
Finally they seemed to have reached their destination. It was no better than any other place they had seen, but Seamus led the way in anyway. The building seemed to be a single floor motel with a large bar next to the check-in counter. At least it wasn't as bad on the inside as it was on the outside.
"Why do we have to stay in this place?" Lavender snarled in disgust.
"Well, I don't know about you, dear," Harry began sarcastically, "but I haven't been saving up extra cash for a rescue mission in Germany."
Parvati scowled. Neville snickered. Hermione giggled, and Ron blatantly let out a loud "HA!"
"Plus, I'm familiar with this place." Seamus regretfully admitted to his wife. "This is where we stayed for training. That means Dean is familiar with it too."
"So he could be here!" Neville piped up. "Why don't you ask?"
"I really don't speak German." Seamus shrugged. "I know a bit, but not enough to carry out a conversation with the bloke behind the desk."
"Then how are we supposed to find him?" Lavender questioned. Hermione couldn't help but ask the same question in her mind. Perhaps they didn't think this over well enough.
Seamus rolled his eyes. He marched over to the counter looking completely disgruntled. When he finally got the attention of the wizard standing there, he grunted out. "Wo ist Dean Thomas?"
Goodness, his German accent was appalling.
The man behind the counter looked very uncomfortable. Hermione wondered if Seamus had said something offensive or just because of the nasty face with which he stared at the desk clerk. After a moment, however, the clerk moved to a large book by the wall, muttered something inaudible, read whatever was on that page, and returned to Seamus.
"Er hat Zimmer257 heute morgen verlassen." He said in a very casual tone.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny whispered to the rest of the group, who waited a few meters back.
"I don't know, Ginny." Ron laughed. "You see, we sent the man who speaks German up there! If you hadn't realized this during other childhood, I only speak one language."
Seamus stalked back over. "Well, that didn't help much."
"What happened?"
"I asked him 'Where is Dean Thomas?' It wasn't a very formal way to start conversation, but that's all I can really say. He looked at the records and told me Dean left room 257 this morning."
"So he was here!" Parvati squealed.
"But he's not anymore." Neville added. Parvati shot him a look of distain.
Hermione couldn't believe how close they were, yet some of the details were so far away. "Did you ask if he was alone or not?"
Seamus snorted. "I don't know how to ask that! I could barely get out 'Where is Dean Thomas,' Hermione!"
"Well, let's start with this place, then. We need to check in anyway, so we might as well investigate." Harry suggested
"Alright then, two rooms." Ginny announced as if the others had no say in the matter. "Lavender, Seamus, Parvati and Neville will go in one room, me and this lot in the other room." She jerked a thumb toward the trio standing next to her.
"I am not sharing a bed with Neville!" Parvati shrieked immediately.
Neville scoffed. "Don't worry! I'd much rather sleep on the floor, trust me!"
"I'll get the room while you settle the bickering." Seamus said to his wife before walking away.
"We are not bickering!" Parvati looked like she had just received the worst of insults. "I do not bicker, especially not in public."
"You just offend mates instead?" Neville raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"Oh, quiet." Ginny said in a voice that wasn't cruel at all. In fact, the tone seemed quite amused. "None of us need to hear it, you know."
"I just want to sleep." Hermione added. "I could care less about what everyone else does for the rest of the night."
"You should care about what Ron does." Ginny smirked. "His snoring will keep you up until all hours of the morning."
"Hey!" Ron began to protest, but before he could start trouble with his youngest sibling, Seamus returned looking quite unhealthy.
"I got our rooms." He informed the crowd that had been waiting less than patiently. "255 and 257."
An hour later, room 257 had been completely ransacked by one very irritated group of young wizards. They stood scattered throughout the room looking equally distraught.
"Nothing!" Seamus growled. "Nobody can find any trace of him?"
Everyone looked around the room, averting their eyes from Seamus' glare. Neville shifted his foot across the thick brown carpet. "It's not our fault, you know."
"You're all hopeless!" Seamus began to carelessly throw things back into place, banging the furniture as hard as possible into the other surfaces around them. He whipped around to Hermione after screeching a chair back under the side table. "Even you didn't find anything?"
Hermione understood that Seamus was upset about Dean's disappearance, but he was getting ridiculous. Why did he blame everyone else for not finding the clues that he couldn't find himself? It wasn't her job to solve the mystery, so why did Seamus act as if he was depending on her?
"Oh, I'm sorry." Hermione cooed with a very fake smile plastered on her face. "Is this the part where the clever one is supposed to suddenly come up with the answers?"
Seamus definitely fell down to reality at that moment and he hit the ground hard. "I wasn't saying that you-"
"It doesn't work that way, Seamus." Hermione interrupted. "You need t deal with your insecurities yourself. Meanwhile, we'll need to look somewhere else before we can figure out where Dean has gone."
"I've had enough!" Lavender proclaimed, taking a step forward and waving her arms frantically.
Parvati sighed. "Maybe we should all just go to bed."
Seamus walked toward the doorway. "Come on Lav. Let's go get some rest."
"What about the room you just tore apart?"
Ron's yell was answered from a distance. The couple had already entered the other room across the hall.
"Have a good night!"
Hermione had spent a good amount of time cleaning up the room with Harry, Ron and Ginny before finally going to sleep in the early hours of the morning. She wanted nothing more than to claw Seamus' eyes out when they all met to discuss their strategy the next day.
"Alright." Hermione announced. "We'll split into pairs. Obviously, Seamus and Lavender will be together. Parvati will be with Neville."
"Oh come on!" Neville cried out in protest. Hermione smirked to herself but continued on without a response to his comment.
"Ron and Harry will go together, and I will partner up with Ginny."
Parvati's head snapped up from its previous sulking position. "Why can't I go with Ginny?"
"Hermione's going with me." Ginny told the whining woman.
"Why can't Hermione go with Neville?"
"And why do Harry and Ron get to go alone together?" Neville asked. "They're likely to get themselves killed, you know that!"
"No, I am likely to get myself killed." Harry answered with a straight face and an official voice as if he were not offended at all. "Ron will simply be there to watch."
Ginny sigh and whirled around to Hermione. "Maybe we should split up and partner up with one of these two." She jutted her thumb toward Harry and Ron. "It's not that I don't want to go with you, but it's the fair thing to do."
"And it'll shut Miss Patil up." Harry mumbled.
Ginny and Harry shared a quick laugh and then stared at each other a little longer than needed. Hermione knew exactly what Ginny was trying to do. The youngest Weasley was lucky that Hermione would sacrifice her own sanity for a friend.
"Fine." She gave in with a huff. "Ginny, you go with Harry. I'll stick with your brother."
"Who no longer has a name." Ron added with a roll of the eyes.
"Sorry, Ronald."
"Are we done with that?" Seamus growled. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get on with this."
"Get on with it then!"
Seamus held up a large piece of parchment and unfolded it on one of the beds. The map drew out every nook of the German wizarding town where they stayed. Buildings on the map disappeared and reappeared at random as they stared at it.
Seamus circled his finger over a small area in the upper right corner of the map. "This is where the International Auror training took place, or at least, it used to be here. I'm most familiar with it, so that's where Lavender and I will be going."
Nobody seemed to protest. The next search area covered the right side of the map moving toward the center. "This is all high end living. It's mostly occupied by filthy rich government officials and foreigners. Since Dean's got more money than most of the people in this place, it's possible he'll be there. This area is for Parvati and Neville."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. Seamus' plan certainly seemed to be working in the favor of those to which he was closest.
"The eastern part of the center is where it starts to get creepy. Still, almost every family that managed to stay together is in this area. I figure Ron and Hermione can held it. You've just got to watch your back. You look like you may have money and frankly, they get desperate."
Hermione and Ron were now in imminent danger, but Seamus and his love were not. How convenient.
"Harry and Ginny will go to what's rest of the city." Seamus informed them. "This has got to be the worst part of town. Be careful who try to communicate with, and certainly don't trust anyone. They're all crooks and murderers, that lot."
"Why is it that Harry Potter sent down the path of certain death?" Ginny fumed.
Harry shrugged. "Well, not certain death." Nobody paid any attention to his comment.
Ginny continued on. "Why aren't you going that way? You're the one who claims to know everything about this town!"
"What the hell are you trying to say?" Seamus huffed, looking bothered in a way that exposed more than just anger.
"Isn't it just lovely?" Ron began, agreeing with what his sister was saying. "You, your wife, and your wife's best friend go to the safest part of the city. Meanwhile, everyone less important to you gets to rot in its bowels."
"Oh Christ!" Seamus belted out. "You know I have reasons for all of this! Don't take it like I'm trying to kill you off!"
Hermione took a very feminine stance, putting both hands on her hips and shifting her weight to one side. "What are your reasons, then?"
"Obviously, you all have more experience with the dark arts." Seamus gulped.
Harry shook his head in disgust. "So that makes it okay for you to throw even Hermione and Ginny in there?"
"If you haven't noticed, Harry," Seamus gave Harry an obvious look of reason. "Hermione and Ginny can handle trouble⦠They're a little less, well, fragile."
"How am I fragile?" Parvati gasped.
"How am I not fragile?" Ginny shot back, but she didn't wait for an answer.
Her impatience only looked to be building as Seamus stumbled for an answer, and eventually she cried out "I don't care anymore! You all can figure this out. I'll be at the bar." She shook her head rapidly as if trying to regain her senses. "Merlin, I need firewhiskey."
She stormed away from the group without hesitation. Harry looked perplexed for a moment as his eyes traveled back and forth between the friends in front of him and Ginny in the distance. "Ginny!" He yelled out, and with that finally ran after his partner.
"Do you see what I mean?" Seamus pointed out. "She breathes fire at me and then needs whiskey to calm her nerves."
Neville shrugged. "So she's not the epitome of fragile. Still, she's a good girl."
"I don't even want to be discussing this with you lot." Ron grumbled, combing a hand through his fire red hair. "Let's just set off now on our searches so that we're not out there when night falls."
"I completely agree." Lavender locked her arm around Seamus' and began walking away, blabbering about how she couldn't stand this anymore. Hermione felt her pain.
Parvati reluctantly followed directly behind them with Neville in tow.
"Let me get my wand." Ron walked back toward the room slowly, as if his entire body was sore.
"How did you sleep last night?" Hermione inquired, simply trying to make friendly conversation. The reply she got was a groan.
"Harry kicks in his sleep." Ron informed her. "I don't know how any woman could share a bed with him. Actually, I don't know why I had a share a bed with him."
"Would you prefer Ginny slept with him?" Hermione waggled her eyebrows at Ron with a devious grin covering her face.
Ron made a guttural noise as he picked up his wand. "Good point."
"I resent that!" A voice called out from across the room. To Hermione's surprise, the voice was not an angry one, but filled with cheer and vibrancy.
Ginny Weasley stood with her arms on either side of the doorway, Harry Potter standing directly behind her with his head on her shoulder. Both of them were smirking like fools.
"What happened?"
"We found Dean!" Ginny squealed, entering the room and running up to Hermione. She grasped the older girl's shoulder and shook her quickly.
Ron gaped at them. "At the bar?"
"No, you daft git!" Ginny couldn't help but give her brother an irritated look.
"There was a man at the bar who spoke English." Harry began their story before Ginny could. Ginny looked a bit disappointed. "He heard us talking and commented to us on the large number of British guests lately. He said he gave directions to a British wizard a few days ago."
"To a place in town called Pogertey's Village." Ginny injected.
"The funny thing, he said, was that the man had a logo of a muggle sports team drawn on his trunk. West Ham soccer."
Hermione's eyes lit up. What a brilliant stroke of luck! Now all they had to do was figure out what exactly was going on.
"Was he alone?" Ron asked.
"The man said he didn't notice. A bit under the influence, you see."
"However," Ginny said with a sultry voice. "My brilliant partner got directions to Pogertey's Village."
Harry laughed. "I couldn't have done it if you didn't go to the bar."
"Yes, but you're the one who did all the talking." Ginny returned the compliment.
"Oh come off it!" Ron growled. "Let's get to this village you speak of."
The directions to Pogertey's Village were actually quite simple. The village was an area full of small shacks with the owner's house in the center. It was nicer than the place they had stayed in the night before, but not by much.
The owner had no idea what Hermione was trying to say to him, but every time they said "Dean Thomas," he pointed to the same little shanty. It was an obvious sign.
Now they stood waiting outside the door with their wands out, preparing themselves for whatever lay inside the house.
"One." Harry whispered, flicking his wand.
The inside of the house seemed to be quiet. Was this really the right place?
"Two."
Surely Dean could afford to stay in a place that was a little better than this. Maybe the landlord just wanted them to leave him in peace.
"Three! Alohamora!"
Ron's foot crashed into the front room. It was too late to turn back now.
They all stood facing different directions as they entered. The hallway behind the doorway was completely empty. A room lay at the end of the hallway. They tiptoed toward it before leaping in. It was obviously a kitchen, and it was obviously empty.
There was a door off the side of the kitchen, and with another count of three, they stormed into that room. It was a bedroom. Books lay scattered about and clothes sat on the floor, but nothing in the room was breathing.
"There's nothing here." Ginny cried. "This is all that's left in the house. What are we missing?"
Just as Ginny finished, a toilet flushed from what Hermione had assumed to be a clothing closet. Now she realized it was actually a water closet.
All four wizards pointed their wands at the door. When the handle jiggled and the door finally opened, one astonished Dean Thomas stared back at them.
"Dean!" Ginny cried. "Wash your hands!"
Dean took a minute, but then sputtered out. "Have you seen the water? It's brown."
"Forget it!" Harry said. "We need to get you out of here. You're not safe."
Suddenly Hermione remembered it too. She had been so thrilled, she almost forgot that Dean was taken from them.
"I'm perfectly safe." Dean replied without as much as a shrug of excitement.
"Are you kidding?" Ron gave the room a quick look. "Who took you here? Did you see his face?"
Dean looked absolutely confused. "What?"
"Someone destroyed your room and put blood all over one of your cloaks." Hermione informed Dean. "You don't remember any of that?"
Dean looked more disappointed than Hermione had ever seen him before. He did a slouchy walk over to his bed and plopped down.
"Listen mates, it's not like that." He threw his hand down into his hands. "I didn't expect anyone to find me, let alone look for me."
"What?" Harry gasped.
"You mean you weren't kidnapped?"
"It's not my fault!" Dean yelled out. "It's that damn law! My life was perfect! Absolutely perfect! Then the Ministry has me buying a diamond ring for a woman I'm not even sure that I love!"
The tears were watering up in Dean's eyes. "Parvati is lovely, butit drove me crazy. Suddenly nothing made sense! I need to leave England for good."
"So you killed yourself off?" Ginny looked absolutely appalled. "You let us shed our tears while you hid in Germany?"
"It's not like that!" Dean was going to give an explanation, but another thought popped into Ron's head that didn't give Dean the chance to excuse himself.
"Parvati found the ring, you know." Ron stated. "She's out there looking for you with Seamus, Lavender and Neville!"
Dean nodded his head sorrowfully. "I'm glad she found it. At least she knows."
Ron's knuckles cracked as he formed a fist. "You're a twisted bastard!"
"No!" Hermione called out. Ron stopped and turned toward her, his hands easing down by his sides. "Ron, you can't do that."
After a look of exasperation, Ron stepped back. Hermione tried to look as gentle as possible as she knelt down next to Dean. "Dean, you have to come back to England."
"How?" With this, a few tears began to leak down Dean's cheeks. "I'm already dead. I can't face the Ministry, Hermione!"
"I'm trying to appeal the law." Hermione blurted out quickly. "I have a great argument, I think. If I win the case, you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do. If I lose the case," Hermione sucked in a deep breath "then you can make arrangements to leave once again."
To Hermione's surprise, Dean let his head move in a slow, reassured nod. "What about my supposed death?"
"We lie." Ron suggested from behind them. Hermione turned around to see Ron shooting a little smirk at Dean. "We say you were kidnapped and you escaped. We caught on to the kidnappers trail and found you on the streets. Simple as that."
"Parvati and the others will never have to know." Ginny reassured him.
"Alright," Dean agreed. He shuffled around his bed for a moment before standing up and pointing at objects one by one. They zoomed into his trunk; narrowly missing someone's head on many occasions.
Hermione approached Ron slowly and mumbled "Thank you for helping me convince him."
"I didn't convince him of anything." Ron shrugged as he smiled down at Hermione. She held her breath for a moment, but she didn't quite know what caused her to do so. "I just suggested some deception. You're the one that convinced him. You were wonderful."
Hermione's heart pumped just a bit faster than usual. Oh goodness, she must be turning beet red.
"Thank you." She replied meekly.
She wanted to say something more. She wanted to be clever or invite him to celebrate sometime, but she never got the words out.
"I'm ready." Dean announced. "I want to go home."
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