Chapter 24

" It's Hermione. She's gone. " Ron panted out.

He waved his wand and Ginny's suitcases packed themselves. He looked around the room and then at Ginny who was openly gaping at him.

"Ronald. What do you think you are doing?" she asked in a deadly calm voice.

"I am packing your suitcases and then kicking your ass the bloody hell out of this house, that's what I'm doing."

Ginny looked as if she was about to explode, but it seemed to Harry that Ron found nothing even remotely intimidating about that and continued.

"I know Harry can take care of himself and well, me… I can take care of myself as well…" right there he was cut short by Ginny.

"You? Take care of yourself? Ha. That's a first! You don't even have a job for all we know. I don't care that you got just as many points in Charms and DADA as Hermione did and for Merlin's sake, were best in Divination! I still to this day wonder how you pulled that stunt off but I bet you haven't even cast a slightly harmful spell after that slug-thing you did to Malfoy and well, I hardly think that's going to do for that freak of yours. To conclude it all I think that you sending me away is just a load of bullocks and that's the end of it. I am…"

"Petrificus Totalus." Ron said lazily and Harry caught Ginny as she fell backwards. "You are going. I DO have a job and I DO know other slightly harmful spells to cast on someone who bugs the Hell out of me with opening their mouth. Today it happened to be you. Happening to be my sister saved you...and the fact that and mom would probably kill me if I did something to you... I am NOT in the mood of arguing with you so you will shut the fuck up and go! Understood!" Ron bellowed the last word out and turned to the window pulling his hand through his hair. He continued in a well-trained calm voice. "Harry, give her one of your brooms."

Harry merely nodded and Acciod one for her while Ron was talking to Ginny once again. "You WILL take this broom, fly to London, to Diagon Alley. You WILL go to the Ministry and you will tell them that we need help ASAP. Got it? Good."

Harry lifted the spell and Ginny spoke in a rather squeaky voice, obviously startled by her brother's sudden behavioural change. "Why should they believe me? I mean… I know Harry's name would do anything anywhere, but…"

" Just go to the seventh clerk there and tell them, that it's code red at Harry's house and that I sent you, okay?"

Ginny nodded, kissed Harry on the cheek and sent a little frightened look in Ron's direction before hugging him and flying away.

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The both of them watched her fly away and disappear in the morning mist, knowing full well, that she might not be back in time. Ron was the first to recover.

"Okay. We have to come up with some tactic and a Hell of a clever plan." He looked ten years older to Harry, than he really was when he was trying to make up an effective and safe plan. "Bloody Hell, Harry! I should have sent you away with her! You are what He wants, not me! Goddamn it!"

"Oh that's just a load of… crap! You know full well, that I would have never left knowing you would stay here to battle Him! With Hermione gone, you'd be all alone with no back up… What do you think happened to her? I mean…. Where could she have gone?"

"She has not gone anywhere. She's right here, in this house!" Ron growled, turning to face the window.

"She might have gone to fetch back up…"

"She did not! She would have told me if she were doing anything of the sort! She had no reason to fetch back up! Everything had been so quiet the past few days…too quiet… I should have never left her alone yesterday… I came to dinner and she was still writing something…finishing the last paragraph, she said… She vanished right after I left…no one has seen her since… Fuck!" He paced the room a few times and all the while Harry was thinking whether his mental situation was something to be worried about. The Boy Who Lived was working feverishly on somewhere Hermione might have gone, something logical, yet so unimportant that Ron might have missed. He failed. Ron would have searched the end of the World if he had to and probably would if he didn't say something logical sometime soon.

"She still has to be here then." That was a stupid conclusion to make on his part.

"Yes. Very good! Potter has finally caught up with me here! Wonderful! Harry, you've just made my day!" Ronnish sarcasm with anger and worry. A real delicacy.

Ron stopped his pacing abruptly. "Harry, you take her room, I'll go to the library."

"Don't you think it's smarter we stick together? I mean there's someone here, and if he gets you or me…"

"Fine. Room, then library. Let's go!"

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Hermione's room looked just like it had earlier in the morning when he had looked in. Nothing had been moved, or if it had, then it wasn't by any chance misplaced. Everything neat and ordered – just the way she liked it. Except for her night-gown. It had been tossed carelessly on the foot of the bed. It's folds looked exactly the way they had, just as if she had just dropped it there and would be back any second to neatly put it away. But she wasn't coming, was she? She was somewhere, waiting to be found.

Ron did not 100 support Harry's flash-idea. She could have easily been moved during the time he and Harry had been sitting in the kitchen or any other time during the night. A few simple spells and some basic use of wand would do it. One thing he knew was that he was not leaving this house without knowing who the psycho really was… if he had done something to her….even touched a hair in her bunch of locks he would… would …

Harry was still trying to find something. He looked frantically around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of something unusual, anything unusual, but there was nothing. The room looked as if the House Elves had just tidied it to perfection and left. He looked towards his best friend who he hoped had seen something that would help them, but he was simply sitting on the edge of her bed, flicking his wand at something visible only to him alone. As soon as Harry had opened his mouth to tell him that they should head towards the library, Ron got up and exited the room, muttering something under his breath.

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Their journey to the library was the quietest ever. Ron had always had something to say about libraries. They either smelled bad or had no pretty chicks to hit on, they were either too dark or too educational and full of things he said they would never need in their life. Well, this time, it was different. Ron was walking in front as fast as he could, leaving a few inches shorter Harry, behind him. He entered the temple of knowledge at a fast pace and muttered a few indications under his breath to light the torches and the fire in the fireplace. He then stood still in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do next. He stood and studied his surroundings for a few moments before walking to the table.

"The documents are scattered. 'Mione put them in piles yesterday and now they are scattered. Damn it! I should have checked on her but I was too damn proud and ashamed to come back!" He let out a string of words not appropriate to the ears of anyone who likes to think of themselves as sophisticated and polite people and sat down at the table. Harry stood still and then moved to help him. Soon the piles stood as they had stood the night before and the sun had fallen behind the horizon. During that afternoon they had hardly spoken two words and those too concerned the pages of various reports. About an hour ago Ron had Acciod himself a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky and had been gulping it down like water ever since. Harry dared to turn his eyes on his oldest and best of friends who had just poured himself another shot. He gulped it down and looked Harry in the eye.

"Listen to me. I want you to do exactly what I tell you, understood?"

Harry nodded in response.

"I am going to put the Fidelius on you and you are going to accept the fact that you are invisible to the rest of the world for a while. I am going to be the secret keeper. The only person I would tell in this fair world is 'Mione and I don't think she will be posing a threat… Then I am going to search this house inside, outside, forwards and backwards until I find her and that nice friend of our's… Where is the safest room in the house?"

"Mine, I guess." Harry thought best not to argue with Ron. He was slightly drunk and devastated about Hermione. The two of those reasons did not make a good mix.

"Good. Okay… Let's do it, let's go." He grabbed the bottle to assist him with the spell and they left for Harry's room.

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Ron put Harry under the Fidelius charm, promising not to forget about him once he had completed his mission and found Hermione. Harry was sure he would spend a day or two longer in that room of his than necessary.

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It was well after midnight when Ron finally awoke. He was sitting in front of the radiating red coal in the fireplace, the empty bottle of whisky still in his hand. He was not sure when he had fallen asleep, but now it had to be dark outside. He got up and pulled aside the thick curtains covering the windows and blocking the view to the garden. The full moon was high above the house, covering the branches of the trees with a silvery light and giving the grass an unearthly look. The night would have been perfectly beautiful if there hadn't been that almost invisible red glow around the great silvery sphere. 'Blood on the moon', Ron thought. This wasn't good. It was one of the Death omens. 'Mione. He rubbed his eyes to see if the red glow he thought he saw was a delusion caused by alcohol, but once he opened his eyes he saw it still. It was even clearer than it had been before, glowing almost as evilly as the Mark of Death Eaters during the Quiddich World Cup. Of course he had seen the mark again and again later on as Voldemort rose but he still vividly remembered the first time he had seen it glow high above unnatural glow of green. The red around the moon was getting stronger and stronger by the second. Ron stepped back and let the curtains fall back, covering the back yard and hiding the moon.

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