The Snitch.
The full moon shone on the grounds of Hogwarts, illuminating the peaceful castle. However, if anyone was awake inside the castle and had peered out at the windows that overlooked the quidditch pitch they would have seen two shadowy figures creeping towards the changing rooms at the far side of the pitch. The first figure was a tall boy with platinum blond hair, and he was holding the hand of a shorter girl with long brunette curls as they snuck around in the middle of the night.
"This is rather creepy," Hermione Granger whispered as her boyfriend pulled open the doors to the deserted changing rooms.
"Afraid of the dark are you, Granger?" Draco Malfoy teased, grinning over his shoulder at the witch behind him.
"I'm not afraid of anything," Hermione replied defiantly, even though it wasn't quite true. She was afraid of very little, but the one thing that did scare her was the thought of her father not winning the war and ending up in the terrible state he'd been throughout her childhood.
Unbeknown to anyone but a trusted few Death Eaters, Hermione was the daughter of the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort. Hermione's mother had turned up in wizarding Britain with Hermione when she'd heard the rumours Voldemort had vanished while trying to kill Harry Potter. Knowing that the Malfoys were trusted alleys of Voldemort, Hermione's mother had gone to them and they'd helped her raise Hermione as a single mother. They'd also helped get Hermione into school as a muggleborn, so she would be safe from persecution as Voldemort's daughter, and Lucius had been extremely instrumental in helping Voldemort regain his full powers a couple of years ago.
"Come on scaredy-cat," Draco urged, pulling Hermione into the dark changing rooms.
"Do you really want to mock me?" Hermione questioned. "After all, I'm not the one who ran screaming from the Forbidden Forest when my father made an appearance."
"I was only eleven," Draco argued defensively. "Plus, I didn't know it was The Dark Lord, did I? It could have been anything. I could have been killed."
"You are such a drama queen," Hermione laughed with a roll of her eyes. She'd known Draco forever, and as much as she loved him, she had to admit he did have a tendency to overdramatise certain situations.
Even in the dark, Hermione could see Draco's pout as moonlight flowed through the windows. Knowing they didn't have time for a full scale argument, even a light-hearted one, Hermione quickly reminded her boyfriend that they were down in the changing rooms for a reason.
"Where's the supply cupboard?" she asked, looking around at the five closed doors leading from the small lobby of the changing rooms.
"The middle one," Draco answered, pointing out that the other four doors led to the four houses respective changing rooms which Hermione was amused to note that the Gryffindor and Slytherin changing rooms were the furthest apart.
"Is it locked?" Hermione asked.
"It will be," Draco replied.
"How are we going to get in there without breaking the lock?" Hermione questioned with a frown. Draco had assured her that he had everything under control, and that no-one would be able to trace anything they did back to them.
"We're going to unlock it," Draco answered, pulling a wand from his pocket.
"Wait." Hermione grabbed Draco's hand before he had a chance to cast any sort of spell at the locked door. "What if they check the lock afterwards and discover you unlocked the cupboard? We're supposed to be avoiding suspicion, Draco."
"Which is why I'm not using my wand," Draco replied, giving Hermione a good look at his wand so she could see it wasn't his.
"Whose wand is that?"
"Madam Hooch's."
"How did you get Madam Hooch's wand?" Hermione gasped.
"Severus," Draco answered. The Head of Slytherin, Severus Snape, was another person who knew about Hermione and he'd spent the last several years keeping an eye on her while she was pretending to be an innocent muggleborn.
"How did Severus get Madam Hooch's wand?" Hermione asked.
"I can make a guess," Draco replied with a slight grimace. "When I went to collect the wand, he came to the door looking decidedly dishevelled."
"Bloody hell, he seduced Madam Hooch?" Hermione screeched.
"I think so," Draco answered. "Which means we're on a clock here. I have no idea how much staying power Severus had got, or how distractive he can be. We need to get this wand back to him before Madam Hooch leaves his room."
"I never knew Severus was so devoted to the cause," Hermione murmured as Draco unlocked the cupboard and pulled out the large chest which contained all the quidditch balls.
"You have to do what you have to do," Draco answered with a shrug.
"Don't go getting any ideas, Draco," Hermione hissed, pulling her boyfriend around to face her and levelling him with her most deadly glare. "You're mine, and you're not to go around seducing other women. Even if it is in the greater good."
"You're jealous?" Draco asked with a teasing smile.
"No, I'm not jealous. I'm deadly serious," Hermione corrected as she grabbed the front of Draco's trousers and gave his crotch a squeeze. "If I ever catch you looking at another witch, I'll hex you so hard that you'll never use your rather magnificent family jewels again. You're mine Draco, and don't you forget it."
"I wouldn't dream of it," Draco gulped, both aroused and rather intimidated by Hermione's show of power.
"Down boy, we don't have time," Hermione chuckled, noticing that Draco was starting to rise to the occasion under her hand. "Let's get on with what we're here to do."
With a sigh of frustration, Draco flicked open the catches of the box to display the full set of quidditch balls that would be used in the match between Slytherin and Gryffindor the following day. Pulling on a pair of gloves he removed from his pocket, Draco very carefully unclipped the lock keeping the golden snitch in place and grabbed it before it could take off soaring around the room.
"Here take it so it stops trying to escape," Draco said to his girlfriend, manoeuvring the snitch into her bare hands. At the feel of human flesh, the snitch stopped trying to escape and sat quietly nestled in the palm of Hermione's hand.
"How does this work?" Hermione asked, not quite understanding the mechanics of a snitch.
"A snitch doesn't rest until it's caught," Draco explained. "And it doesn't register it's been caught until it touches human flesh."
"But seekers wear gloves," Hermione argued.
"Gloves with holes for the fingers," Draco countered. "The fingers touch the snitch and it stops moving. Put that in your pocket for now and give me the bewitched snitch."
Slipping the snitch into her pocket, she pulled out a deep red velvet pouch from her other pocket and handed it to Draco. Very carefully Draco pulled a fresh snitch from the bag, which began to try and escape the second it was free of the confines of its velvet prison. However, Draco was ready and with expert manoeuvring he slid the snitch into the vacant position in the box and snapped closed the lock that kept in in place. Instantly the snitch ceased to struggle as it sat and waited to be released again and caught for good.
"Do you have the snitch I gave you the other day?" Hermione checked as her boyfriend shut the quidditch box and shoved it back into the cupboard, re-locking the door behind him.
"Severus has it," Draco answered. The snitch in question belonged to Harry Potter, one of the many he'd caught over his years at Hogwarts, and any test would show that he was the one who'd caught the snitch and put an end to its magic.
"And what do I do with this one?" Hermione asked. "How am I going to explain my imprint on the snitch? If anyone examines it, it will reveal that I was the one to deactivate its magic."
"Give it to me and I'll throw it into the fire down in the dungeons," Draco said, taking the tiny golden ball from his girlfriend. "Now is there anything else?"
"No, I think we're all set," Hermione replied. "Just try not to catch the snitch tomorrow."
"I'll try my best," Draco promised. They did have a back-up plan in case he was forced to catch the snitch, but the idea was to let Harry catch it and enjoy the fireworks that would surely follow.
Creeping back out of the changing rooms, Draco and Hermione carefully made their way back to the castle. They shared a lingering kiss in the shadows of the main staircase, before they headed their separate ways to sneak back into their respective dorms. On his way back to the dungeons, Draco called in Severus's office and left Madam Hooch's wand in the agreed spot behind the potions master's desk. He then hurried out of the office, trying to ignore the moans of pleasure he'd heard coming from Severus's private quarters, returned to the Slytherin dungeons and after destroying the snitch Hermione had touched, he went to bed to grab some rest before the big match against Gryffindor the following day.
As was always the case when Gryffindor played Slytherin, every single student and Professor at Hogwarts gathered to watch the match. The rivalry between the two houses was so intense that their matches were always rather spectacular and even the neutral houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff turned up en-masse to watch the action.
Hermione took her place in the stands, sitting beside Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. Her supposedly closest friends, Harry Potter, Ron and Ginny Weasley were all playing in the match. To be honest of all the Gryffindors, Neville was by far Hermione's favourite and she was hoping that when the time came, she could persuade him to come with her to the dark. She would willingly protect Neville from anyone who might disapprove of him, and she would much rather have him on her side than have to fight against him.
"I think it's going to be a tough game," Seamus remarked as the two sets of players flew out onto the pitch behind Madam Hooch.
"It always is against Slytherin," Dean agreed.
Although to be honest, it hadn't always been that way. When Draco had first started playing as seeker in his second year he was so caught up in beating Harry that he often didn't play to the best of his ability, so Harry tended to beat him easily. However, over the last couple of years Draco had put aside his desire to beat Harry and instead had focused on being the best player he could be. As a result matches between the two teams were closer than ever and Draco had beaten Harry to the snitch on several occasions. As it now stood, the two players were virtually neck and neck on ability and it really was a coin toss to see who would emerge victorious on any given day.
As the two sides lined up, and the captains reluctantly shook hands, the cries in the stands began to grow. Half the stadium was shouting for Gryffindor, while the other half were shouting for Slytherin. When Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the balls shot into the air, the screams only got louder and it was a couple of minutes before the noise died down enough to hear the commentators thoughts on the match.
Hermione had never really taken to quidditch, even as a child when she'd spent all her free time with Draco, so she was always pretty subdued during a match. She did cheer whenever Gryffindor scored, but she didn't jump around and scream like lots of other people did. However, knowing the importance of the match she was watching, Hermione was more edgy than normal and even though she kept up the act of cheering for goals, her eyes never strayed far from the two seekers.
For the first half hour of the match, Draco and Harry stayed within arm's length of each other as they searched for the snitch. Several times, one of them got the tiny golden ball in their sights and set off with the other in hot pursuit, but they never managed to get close enough to actually catch the small golden ball in their hands.
"I think Malfoy is onto something," Dean called, nearly forty minutes into the game, as the blond seeker went soaring towards the floor.
Hermione watched with her heart in her mouth as Draco dive-bombed towards the grass. Harry was hot on his heels, and normally Hermione would think her boyfriend was trying to cause his rival to crash, but she was hoping he wasn't doing anything so foolish given what they wanted to happen. However, just as Draco reached the floor and changed direction to fly virtually above the ground, she spotted the snitch hovering just in front of his outstretched fingers. Just when she was sure her boyfriend was going to catch the snitch, Harry jostled into him, causing Draco to falter slightly and for the snitch to flutter away.
"Go Harry," Dean cheered as the Gryffindors realised that their seeker had just narrowly avoided defeat.
Under normal circumstances, Hermione would have been seething at Harry's tactics, especially as she knew that if Draco had pulled such a stunt the Gryffindors would be up in arms claiming he was cheating. However, she was thrilled that Draco hadn't caught the snitch and she was even happier to see Harry was now in pursuit of the snitch. Draco was rapidly chasing after him, looking as though he was desperate to catch Harry and the snitch, but Hermione had every confidence her boyfriend would just fail to catch up with his rival.
Sure enough, Draco couldn't seem to quite manage to get past the tail of Harry's broom as the two seekers soared after the snitch. As the snitch fluttered in front of the Ravenclaw stands, Harry made a fresh surge and there was a brief roar of approval from the Gryffindor stands as it appeared he'd caught the snitch. However, the sounds vanished almost as soon as they started as all of a sudden Harry vanished from sight. One moment he'd been inches in front of Draco, the next moment he was gone.
"What the hell?" Hermione cried in surprised outrage, even though she knew exactly what had happened and where Harry was.
"Where's he gone?" Seamus cried, his disbelief echoed all around the stadium.
Everyone in the stands was totally bemused as to what had happened, and things weren't much clearer on the pitch. Draco had stopped in mid-air and was looking around with bafflement etched on his handsome features. The other players had also frozen in shock and for a moment there wasn't a sound to be heard in the entire stadium.
"Everyone stay where they are," Dumbledore's booming voice called, breaking the stunned silence.
Leaning over the front of the stand, Hermione watched as Dumbledore led the Professors down onto the pitch. Minerva McGonagall was right on his heels, followed by Severus, Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout. Behind them came the other Professors, and they called all the players down to the centre of the pitch and stood them together why they tried to work out what had happened.
"This is all your fault," Ron Weasley accused Draco, pushing the blond in the chest. "You've done something to Harry."
"I didn't do anything," Draco protested. "Everyone saw me, I was merely trying to get the snitch. And I would have already had it if Potter hadn't flew into me."
"The snitch," Ginny Weasley gasped. "What if it was a trap? What if someone wanted to get Harry?"
"Or me," Draco interjected dramatically. "I was playing as well, and as I've just said, I would have caught the snitch if Potter wasn't a cheat."
"Why would anyone want to take you?" Ron sneered.
"In case it slipped your notice, Weasley, my family is very wealthy," Draco replied with a smug grin, deliberately reminding the redhead that he had money while his family was dirt poor. "I could have been kidnapped and held for ransom. Merlin, do you think that's what was supposed to happen?" he asked Severus with a dramatic gasp.
"Let's not speculate, Draco," Severus said, rolling his eyes at his godson's dramatics. Although it had been the perfect cover for him to slide the snitch Draco had given him a couple of days ago out of his robes and under the stand where Harry had just vanished from.
"It was, I was almost the victim of a terrible kidnapping plot," Draco declared as he turned to his two best friends, Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini, who had also been playing on the team and were therefore on the pitch with him. "Just wait until my father hears about this."
"For Merlin's sake Malfoy, this isn't about you," Ginny screamed.
"You don't know that," Draco said with a pout. "We don't know what's happened yet."
"We do know Harry is gone," Ginny cried. "Where is he?"
"We will find him Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said reassuringly. "Although it is looking as though the snitch had something to do with his disappearance. Rolanda, were the balls secure before the match?" he asked Madam Hooch.
"They were locked away as always," Madam Hooch answered. "I can assure you headmaster, no-one has tampered with my balls."
"Before we go blaming the snitch, hadn't we better check that it's not here?" McGonagall asked. "I agree that it seemed to play a part in Mr Potter's vanishing act, but we don't want to jump to conclusions."
Agreeing with McGonagall, Dumbledore ordered the players to remain where they were while the staff searched the pitch. After only a couple of minutes, Professor Sprout let out a cry as she found a golden snitch nestled under the Ravenclaw stands, virtually right underneath where Harry had vanished from.
"Is it from today's match?" Ron demanded.
"It has to be," Madam Hooch replied. "Before every match I sweep the stadium for rogue balls. That snitch was not underneath the stands before the match started."
"Isn't there some sort of spell to see who caught it?" Professor Flitwick asked.
"Indeed there is," Dumbledore answered with a nod. Pulling out his wand, he cast several spells over the snitch and a hologram of Harry appeared over the ball. "Harry caught this snitch."
"So it has nothing to do with his disappearance," McGonagall sighed. "So what happened Albus?"
"I have no idea," Dumbledore replied in a grave voice as he turned to face the spot he'd last seen Harry. "I want everyone back in the castle now. Gather them in the Great Hall," he snapped, jumping into action as he realised that time was passing and they needed to find Harry before something terrible happened to him.
"I still say you're behind this, Malfoy," Ron hissed as the Professors starting herding the students back to the castle, starting with the two quidditch teams.
"I could have been the intended victim, Weasley," Draco shot back. "Not that you would understand the trauma of very nearly being kidnapped. No bugger would want you. In fact the kidnappers would probably pay your family to take you off their hands when they saw how much food you eat."
"Evil bastard," Ron yelled, charging at the blond. Thanks to Draco's fast reflexes he dodged out of Ron's way and the Gryffindor went sprawling to the floor.
"Come on Ron, he's not worth it," Ginny said as she helped her brother to his feet. "Dumbledore will find out what's happened to Harry, and if he's involved, he'll pay for it."
"Damn right he will," Ron seethed. "Watch your back Malfoy, I'm coming for you."
"I'm shaking in my boots," Draco laughed with a fake shudder before he turned away from Ron and strode off towards the Great Hall, laughing with his friends.
Ron and Ginny were among the first to reach the Great Hall, and they hadn't been there long before Hermione arrived. Stuck in the stands she missed a lot of the action, but she'd gotten the gist of what had happened. Although Ron and Ginny were only too happy to fill her in on their theory that Draco was behind whatever had happened to Harry and that he was trying to throw suspicion off himself by calming he was the intended victim.
"Just look at him," Ron sneered, glaring over to where Draco was now holding court with the other Slytherins, no doubt telling them all how close he'd came to been kidnapped for his family's vast fortune.
"Ginny's right, if he's involved the truth will be exposed," Hermione said, sitting herself so her back was to Draco as if she was facing her boyfriend she wasn't sure she would be able to stop herself from laughing at his dramatics. "Let's focus on Harry. Surely the Ministry can get a trace on him."
"But he's not underage anymore," Ginny pointed out in a low voice.
"Damn it, I'd forgotten about that," Hermione swore. Of course the whole point of arranging for Harry to be taken at this point was because he was now seventeen and any protective spells Dumbledore had on him would be null and void, meaning her father could hopefully do what he hadn't been able to do before and kill him. "But there has to be something they can do. People don't just disappear into thin air."
"Let's hope you're right, or we're all doomed," Ron whispered, his anger dissipating and leaving him feeling depressed and defeated.
"We have to have faith. Dumbledore will find some answers," Hermione said positively.
Sadly Dumbledore didn't have any answers, and several hours later he and the officials he'd called in from the Ministry were as clueless as they had been when Harry had vanished. The obvious solution was that the snitch had been some sort of portkey, but that didn't explain how they'd found the snitch on the pitch and it showed no signs of tampering. There had to be another solution, but no-one could think of it. Somehow, Harry Potter had vanished into thin air, and no-one knew how it had happened, where he now was and what was happening to him. Would they ever see the Boy Who Lived, again?
While Hogwarts was stunned by his disappearance, and dozens of people were trying to work out what had happened to him, Harry Potter found himself in a stone dungeon. He was as bewildered as anyone about what had happened. One minute he'd been grabbing the snitch and winning the match for Gryffindor, the next minute he was tumbling off his broom onto a cold, hard floor.
"What did you do to me?" he whispered to the golden snitch, still clutched in his hand.
"It brought you to me," a voice called as the door to the cell he was in swing open.
"Voldemort," Harry gasped, taking a step back as the dark wizard stood in the doorway of his prison.
It had been a couple of years since he'd seen Voldemort upon his return, and Harry was surprised to find him looking much more humane. In fact he was guessing that he could pass for an average wizard and could walk about their world unnoticed if he so desired.
"Nice to see you recognise me, Potter," Voldemort chuckled.
"Of course I'm going to recognise the wizard who killed my parents," Harry snarled. "I know a monster when I see one."
"Baiting me won't work," Voldemort said. "I won't be dragged into a fight with you. You're at my mercy, and when I see fit, I will end your puny life."
"My friends will rescue me," Harry said defiantly. "Dumbledore will find me."
"You'll be nothing but a pile of bones by the time Dumbledore works out what's happened to you," Voldemort replied with a shrug.
"It's not hard to figure out," Harry spat. "I vanished in front of the entire school the second I caught the snitch. They'll figure out it was a portkey and they'll track me down."
"Actually, they'll find a snitch that they'll think you caught today," Voldemort said. "I've been working on this plan for a long time, and I have to say Draco and Hermione pulled it off excellently."
"Hermione?" Harry frowned at the mention of his muggleborn friend.
"My daughter," Voldemort announced, cackling with glee as horror distorted Harry's features. "She's the reason you're here, Potter. I couldn't have done any of this without her. And now she's right in the heart of the action at Hogwarts. She'll know every move the Order make in trying to find you, and she can warn me about what's coming. So you see, it's over. We've won."
"Over my dead body," Harry spat, refusing to let the tears fall that had pooled in his eyes at the news that his friend had been playing them all for fools for years.
"That can be arranged," Voldemort said menacingly. "But not just yet, Potter. I think I'll let you live long enough to see Hermione one last time. Maybe I'll even let her finish you off."
Leaving Harry alone with the thought of his friend not only betraying him, but possibly going to kill him, Voldemort locked Harry back in the dungeon which would be his home for the final few weeks of his life. With Harry in his possession, and ready to be killed whenever he felt like it, Voldemort had taken a big step towards victory. Very soon, he would take the final steps and then he and his daughter would rule the world.