Well, is it better so far? I know it's moving a lot quicker, now that I actually know where I'm going. As a warning, I kinda suck at dialogue, which is mostly what this chapter is made of. Also, I apologize if scene dividers disappeared. Hopefully you weren't too confused?

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me, and neither does Beauty and the Beast. However, the "Cruentus conspicio" incantation, all related rituals, effects, ect., along with the Looping Charm belong to me. Please ask if you want to use them.

MWMWM

Ten Minutes Later

"He's not there," I panted, skidding to a stop behind Hermione, who was hunched over a moldy-looking tome that was almost as big as she was. I flopped into the thankfully sturdy chair next to hers, having sprinted all the way to the Hospital Wing and back (1).

"More bad news," she muttered, only half speaking to me. "That first line was a spell."

"So, what kind of a spell was it?" I muttered after a few moments, when it became evident that she was not going to elaborate.

"It's Divination, but it's definitely of the Dark sort. Apparently, it uses the Seeker's blood, somehow…I'm not quite sure yet…" she explained, poring over the enormous book.

"Seeker?" I wondered, confused for a moment.

"Not the Quidditch Seeker, Ron! The person using the spell!" she whispered, sounding exasperated.

"Oh," I muttered, feeling stupid. Of course it wasn't the Quidditch Seeker. What was I thinking?

"Hermione! Ron!" Ginny's loud whisper, which no doubt prompted a glare from Madam Pince, startled me, though Hermione was unfazed. "Have either of you seen Harry?" she whispered when she reached their corner, looking rather frazzled.

"No. I haven't seen him since last night. Can't find him anywhere." I told her absently, looking over Hermione's shoulder. Unfortunately, the book appeared to be in Greek. Or something.

"What's that?" my sister asked, curiosity momentarily overcoming her need to look for Harry. After all, he'd only been missing for a day.

"Spellbook," Hermione replied shortly. "I'm not completely sure I'm translating correctly," this statement was directed at me, "but it appears that it's got something to do with a mirror-charm. You smear the glass, and it moves around to show you what you want to see. Kind of like that story, Beauty and the Beast, with the magic mirror…"

"Beauty and the Beast?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"It's a Muggle story, remind me to tell it to you some other time," she explained, still scanning the yellowed pages.

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked, looking at Hermione as though she was completely mad. We both jumped a little; I, at least, had almost forgotten that Ginny was standing there.

"Oh, hello, Ginny." Hermione gave her a half-smile, which made her look rather daft. She abandoned it rather quickly.

"Er-hello. Hermione, are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, of course. Just trying to translate this…. Whoever wrote this had beastly handwriting." With that, Hermione went back to her translations. Ginny and I stared at her.

"We'll let you know if we see Harry," I assured Ginny, hoping she would leave soon. I didn't particularly want to get her involved in a Dark ritual if I could help it.

Reluctantly, Ginny left, and we were left in silence once more, with Hermione translating and me looking over her shoulder, pretending I knew what the book said, too.

After another five minutes, Hermione let out a short string of muttered curses, some of which I was sure she'd picked up from Fred and George.

"Whassamatter?" I sputtered, shaken out of my glassy-eyed daze.

"I'm an idiot! I was translating this as modernized Latin, not Roman Latin! (2)"

I stared at her for a moment. She scanned through the text once more, and nodded.

"It makes perfect sense now," she stated confidently.

"So what does it say then, if it makes so much sense?" I ask, slightly frustrated.

"I was partially right: you do smear the glass with blood, but it isn't the blood that forms the picture, like I thought before. Apparently, the blood is just the medium for the scrying…" Hermione trailed off, studying the page again. "And before we try this, we're going to want a Looping Charm, just so we don't have to rely on memory…I think I know just the thing…." she muttered, beginning to plan how they'd manage it.

"Hermione," I began, wondering if she was feeling all right. "Didn't you say that was a very Dark spell?"

"Weren't you the one that was so worried about Harry? And since your precious note specifically mentioned this spell, don't you think that should be the one we ought to use, if we bother at all? Do you want to do this or not, Ron?" Suddenly, she was absolutely ferocious, and I vaguely wondered if she'd always been capable of looking so terribly violent.

"I was just thinking that maybe we should look for a different spell. After all, this one could be set with an alarm-trigger," I snapped back, forgetting that we were in the library.

The argument escalated from there until, finally, Madam Pince threw us out, which left us both frustrated; Hermione, because she didn't have the books she needed for her homework, and I because I hadn't been able to prove anything, other than that I could be absolutely pigheaded.

MWMWM

"This is the only lead we've got. I say we use it." Hermione finally sighed. We'd sneaked back into the library under the Invisibility Cloak (which I'd 'borrowed' from Harry's trunk) and stolen the spellbook. Now, we were sitting in a small, unused classroom on the seventh floor, hoping that Filch wouldn't catch us. "I've got a Looping Charm, so we can run whatever we see as many times as we need to. By the time we found another spell, Harry could be who-knows-where. I say we use it."

By this time, I'd given up arguing with her. Taking my silence as agreement, she continued.

"Right. You get the candles and something that belongs to Harry. I'll get the mirror and a knife. We'll meet back here in an hour," she said, picking herself up off the dusty classroom floor.

"Wait! Where'm I going to find candles?"

"Steal them from a supply closet, or something! I'm sure you'll figure it out! Just get going! You're wasting time!"

I watched her disappear beneath the Invisibility Cloak (we had agreed that she would need it more, in case she had to steal from the kitchens, or even the Potions cuboard), and wondered what I had gotten myself into.

(1) I'm just going to assume that this is a relatively tiring sprint, especially with various staircases.
(2) I don't actually know if there's a difference or not, and anyone who actually knows Latin, don't get on my case about having bad grammar or not knowing what I'm talking about. Because I really don't know what I'm talking about; probably sixty percent of my writing is pretending to know what I'm doing.