Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Harry's New Boggart – Chapter 10 - The First Search
Early the following afternoon, the quartet returned to the Burrow after their training session. When they found her in the kitchen, Ginny commented to Mrs. Weasley, "Mum, after lunch, we're going to do some shopping."
"Really?" asked the Weasley matriarch, "Where?"
"Diagon Alley," answered Harry quickly.
Mrs. Weasley smiled brightly, "There are a few things I need to pick up, too. I'll go with you."
The quartet exchanged quick glances before Ginny put on her most innocent expression, forcing herself to blush. "We were, er, making it a double-date. We were going to make a day of it. We, er, were going to have dinner out, y'know. I don't think you'll be, er, comfortable with us."
Mrs. Weasley took a deep breath. "Oh, I suppose I could go tomorrow instead if I'm not wanted."
"Thanks, mum," replied Ron, causing his mother to frown, but she said nothing and continued making lunch.
The others prepared for the trip. Hermione and Ron went outside on the pretence of having a private snog to retrieve and shrink the brooms so they could fit in their pockets while Harry and Ginny packed everything else and waited patiently. In other words, they snogged until they heard Ron's voice say, "Oy! Don't you two ever stop?"
The couple separated and Ginny looked her brother and Hermione over. She then smirked and asked, "And just what have you two been up to. I doubt it takes a half-hour to get four brooms out of a broom closet." Their ears turned pink. "You probably only stopped snogging when one of those nasty spiders landed on your faces." Ron's cheeks went completely red, matching his ears, while Hermione appeared to be holding back a giggle.
"Anyway," she said, pulling four tiny brooms out of her pockets, "Here they are. By the way, that was a brilliant story you told your mum."
"Yeah," agreed Ron. "I bloody thought that mum was gonna join us!"
After they'd packed everything, they went down to eat. After a quick lunch, each of them put on something with a shield charm. Hermione wore gloves; Harry wore a hat that covered his scar; Ginny wore a necklace under her shirt; Ron wore a vest. They loudly flooed to Diagon Alley, and then Hermione hailed down the Knight Bus with her wand.
Ernie was still driving the bus, but they were surprised to see that the beautiful Cho Chang was now the conductor, obviously taking Stan Shunpike's place. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, Harry, Hermione, Ron, er, and little Ginny," Cho greeted, earning a glare from the redheaded girl. "Where are you headed?" she asked Harry, ignoring Ginny.
"Er," replied Harry eloquently as he realized he didn't know exactly where they were headed. "Hermione, what is the address?"
"We're going to Number 18 Norman Drive…"
"Norman Drive?" asked Harry, as a surprised look came in his eyes, "As in two blocks from Privet Drive?"
"Yes," answered Hermione with a smirk on her face."
The ride went as smoothly as could be expected on that bus. They only fell to the floor nine times during the trip. When it was over, they happily left the bus, and looked at the decrepit house before them. Harry commented, "I can imagine what Uncle Vernon would say about this house if he'd seen it." The house had apparently been painted black decades before, but had since rotted. Harry didn't know if the roof would hold for them.
Hermione assured him, "No one but magical people can see the house now, otherwise it would have been condemned long ago. It used to be the residence of a muggle family that interviewed both Tom Riddle and another boy from his orphanage. The family chose to adopt the other boy. In Tom's essay, he wrote about coming here and torturing the parents into insanity in front of their adopted son, eventually putting him under the Imperius curse, forcing him to kill them with a knife and confess the crime to the police."
Ginny shuddered at that thought. "That sounds horrible, even for Tom!"
"He, er, wrote that he truly enjoyed it," said Hermione.
Harry sighed, "We're going to make him pay for every life he's ruined. Anyway, I guess we need to go in."
They walked up to the door, and Harry opened the old wooden door with a loud creak. He discreetly pulled out his wand, and the others did the same. Harry took a step inside the doorway, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny behind them. Harry noticed that it became extremely dark as soon as Ginny closed the door behind them. "Okay. Would our seventeen-year-olds light up their wands?" asked Harry sarcastically.
"Don't sound so jealous, mate," replied Ron. "Your birthday's in just a few days."
"We could have delayed until then if you wanted," commented Hermione.
"How many people die every day in this bloody war?" asked Harry, sounding a bit frustrated. "We can't waste days while Voldemort is out there killing people!"
"All right, all right," responded Ron. "Calm down."
Harry took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I just think that with Voldemort out there, the ministry should stop worrying about bloody underage magic and should concentrate on saving lives. But will one of you please light up this room? We're getting muggle flashlights before our next search."
After Hermione lit her wand, Harry could see that this house was completely filthy. He was unable to stop himself from sneezing as breathed the dust. He saw webs everywhere. "Hermione, could you put a bubblehead charm on me so I can breathe?" She complied and then performed the charm on everyone.
"What's that?" asked a concerned-looking Ron. He pointed at a huge shadow of what appeared to be a spider crawling toward them.
"What's it look like, Ron?" asked Ginny sarcastically, "A small spider. If it were bigger, we'd see more than just a shadow."
"Hermione," suggested Harry. "Let's start searching the room for Horcruxes."
The brunette performed the spell at several places in this house, followed closely by the rest of them. They found blood stains on the floor of the living room, presumably where the parents were killed. Hermione performed other spells meant to reveal hidden doors at various locations, along with the Horcrux detector. It seemed as though the only things to be found were dust, rats, and insects.
At Ginny's suggestion, Hermione and Ron started shooting every rat they saw with the spell that forces an animagus to show his or her true form. That was one of the spells Hermione had insisted they all learn. Harry felt better knowing Wormtail wasn't watching them. They finished that floor, scanning the kitchen and several other rooms. They then went upstairs, and searched the bedrooms and bathrooms up there.
They finally made it to the last room. It was the smallest bedroom. They walked inside and saw what appeared to be a green spray-painted Dark Mark on the wall. Hermione checked it for a Horcrux, and then they heard a snapping sound. Harry watched in horror as he saw a huge crack appear in the center of the symbol and work its way along the wall both up toward the ceiling and down toward the floor.
"Let's get out of here," Ron shouted.
"We don't have time!" yelled Ginny.
"Let's hold onto each other and try to protect our heads!" screamed Hermione.
"Concentrate on shielding and levitating yourself!" shouted Harry.
"Of course," replied Hermione as though she'd missed a question to an exam. If she'd had more to say it was drowned out by the sound of the ceiling collapsing above and around them, followed by the floor below them.
When the dust settled, several minutes later, four very filthy teenagers could be seen floating about six feet above the wreckage, all huddled in what appeared to be a group hug. Slowly, they began to descend onto the wreck that used to be a house. Fortunately, no one seemed to be looking, so Hermione quickly scourgefied them all, revealing minor scrapes and cuts, but no major injuries.
"Er, Hermione," asked Harry, "Did you detect a Horcrux when that happened, or was that just a booby trap set just in case someone looked for one?"
"No, I didn't detect one. I-I think it was just a trap, but I'll scan the wreckage anyway. All of you stand around me and watch for muggles."
"I hope Tom doesn't find out about this and figure out what we're doing," commented Ginny.
"So do I," agreed Harry gravely. "So do I."
After an hour of Hermione carefully scanning ever inch of the wreck and finding absolutely nothing, they abandoned the search. They walked to a more isolated area nearby that Harry knew about, and Hermione performed healing spells on their cuts and bruises. She explained, "This way your mum won't ask embarrassing questions about our appearance. These are only minor healing charms. I think I need to learn some stronger ones, in case we need them later."
"So this has been a wasted trip!" exclaimed Ron.
"No it hasn't," argued Ginny. "First of all, we've now eliminated one hiding place, and secondly, we've learned that we need to be more careful."
"We've also learned that we need a new book on advanced healing spells and detecting traps," added Hermione, "As well as some muggle flashlights."
"Well," suggested Harry, "There's a store we can walk to from here to get the flashlights and batteries. After that, we can take the Knight Bus to Diagon Alley, eat some dinner, buy those books, and floo back to the Burrow."
"Maybe we can try to enjoy our double-date before we do that," added Ginny. "Is there one of those muggle tea-thaters around here? I think we have time to watch a mow-vy."
Chapter end