Harry was becoming concerned. Where was Ginny? She had never been late for Quidditch practice; in fact she was usually there before he himself was. He asked if anyone had seen her; everyone shook their heads. Fortunately enough qualified people had shown up that he could replace her, at least as Chaser. But he was unsure how much good he would do as Seeker if he was worrying about her, so he disqualified himself, simply acting as Captain and made one of the others act as Seeker.
As the game wore on, he was becoming more and more concerned. No, call it by its right name—he was worried. Worried sick. What could have happened to her? If it hadn't been for the game and the necessity of his presence, if only as Captain, he would have chucked it all and went looking for her. He could only hope he would see her again, whole and healthy—and when he did, that she would have a satisfactory explanation for missing their long-scheduled practice.
After a time he couldn't concentrate on the game; he was too busy picturing a thousand things happening to her, each worse than the last. He had never wished so much for a Quidditch game to be over in his life! Just then, Neville Longbottom came running onto the pitch, making a beeline for Harry upon spotting him sitting on the sidelines, seemingly immersed in his own thoughts and not watching the game at all as he usually did if he didn't play.
"Harry! Harry!" he called out, skidding to a stop in front of the object of his search.
"What is it, Neville?" Harry was both grateful and annoyed for being jolted out of his thoughts of Ginny.
"Ginny's been kidnapped!"
"What? What are you talking about? When?" he demanded.
"She was on her way here; I was coming to watch the game and saw her approaching around a quarter past three—then saw two blokes Apparate in not far from where she was. I hid where they couldn't see me and watched them; it looked like one of them did something to render her unconscious, then tied her up with ropes. Finally he seemed to murmur something under his breath, then stuff something in his pocket. Lastly, he picked her up and the three of them Apparated out again. That was when I thought I'd better come here and tell you."
For a moment Harry's eyes closed in pain at the thought of Ginny's being gone, then he forced it aside and faced Neville squarely. "Did you see what they looked like?"
"One looked tall and thin—and blond; the other was heavy-set with lank brown hair. That was all I could see from the distance between them and me."
That was when Harry's pain was replaced with anger. Malfoy! He should have known he was behind Gin's disappearance. But who was his accomplice? Sounded a lot like his lowlife cousin Dudley …but how could that be? How could they possibly have met? Could Draco have actually gone to Privet Drive and run into him somehow? It was the only explanation that made any sense.
But if Draco and Dudley had kidnapped Ginny, where could they have taken her? It was a cinch that Draco had to be the brains of the outfit; it seemed that all Dudley's limited brain power was confined to the mechanics of eating, bullying and moving his whale-like body around. All at once Harry knew what he had to do. He visibly pulled himself together and got to his feet.
"Nev, tell whoever comes down first where I've gone. I've got to go look for Ginny. There's no time to lose. Let me know how the game went when I get back." He added in his mind, And I'll be back with Ginny—or else I'm not coming back!
Harry grabbed his Firebolt, then mounted it and took off, moving so fast that he was only a red-gold streak, having only a vague hunch of where his beloved might have been taken, but deciding to follow up on said hunch nonetheless. He pushed the broom as fast as it would go, on the way developing a murderous anger at Malfoy which only seemed to grow in intensity with every passing moment.
The damn bloody bastard! This had to be his idea—and Dudley would naturally be both nasty and stupid (not to mention horny) enough to go along with it, especially if Draco had promised him he could have a go at Ginny if he helped him kidnap her. If he managed to get his hands on them, he swore with every ounce of hatred in him that he would kill them—and what's more, enjoy doing it …and be damned to the consequences! They deserved whatever they got for going after Ginny like this. I'm coming,love, he told the image in his heart's eye. I hope and pray you're all right. If you're not, I'll take it out of both Malfoy's and Dudley's stinking hides for both of us!
A half hour later Ron and Hermione sought out Neville to find out what had happened. They had been too far away to have heard what he said to Harry; all they could be sure of was that Harry had been worried sick about Ginny at first, then after Neville had told him whatever it was, his worry had been replaced with murderous anger—then he had mounted his broom and kicked off into the air, accelerating so fast that he seemed little more than a red-gold blur. He hadn't even taken off his Quidditch robes! Only something serious involving Ginny could have made Harry act like that and they were determined to find out what.
Upon reaching him, they demanded an explanation for both Harry's actions and Ginny's disappearance; Neville repeated the story he had given Harry. It could only have been Malfoy behind it, from the description—but who had the other been? Harry had once described his whale-like, nasty, bullying cousin; they could have sworn it sounded like him—but how could Draco possibly have met him? All they could think of was Draco's having gone to Privet Drive, disguised as a Muggle and offering Dudley something he couldn't refuse … perhaps even a go at Ginny, if only to get revenge on Harry.
They knew what kind of temper Harry had once it was aroused, and it was most easily aroused these days by any threat to Ginny, either emotional or physical; they had to stop him if they could before he did something which would land him in even more serious trouble than ever before. Upon reaching the adjoining locker rooms, they each ducked into them to retrieve their brooms, then took off literally like blue streaks just as Harry had, hoping every step of the way that they could catch up to him in time to prevent him from putting his head in a noose.
They could understand his being upset, not to mention his desire for revenge, but neither Draco nor Dudley was worth a lifetime stint in Azkaban … much less serving time in a Muggle prison for murder. Their brooms weren't as fast as Harry's, naturally, but they pushed them for everything they had, going on Hermione's hunch that Harry had headed straight for Malfoy Manor, convinced that he must be holding Ginny captive there, at the same time hoping against hope that Ginny would both come out safe and sound and Harry keep his freedom. If he insisted on venging himself on the two perpetrators, of course, they would help him do it—but in a manner which would leave them alive, just thoroughly punished within an inch of their near-worthless lives.
TBC
