LV
From one moment to the next, chaos erupted in the stadium. Just minutes ago, they'd been watching the game, trying to see anything through the heavy rain as they cheered Gryffindor on. Then, suddenly, everything went wrong. Ron hadn't seen the Dementors all the way until Dumbledore's silver phoenix sent waves of white light across the pitch. In the darkness of the storm, without Hermione's help charming their binoculars, he wouldn't have even seen Harry fall. After that, everything happened very fast. Diggory caught the Snitch before he saw that Harry had fallen, the game ended, Dumbledore was furious, and the teachers quickly herded them back to the castle.
"What happened?" Seamus asked for the third time now, as they waded through the mud back to the castle. "Who won the game?"
"Hufflepuff! Hufflepuff won!" Dean yelled over the chatter of the crowd and the roaring of the thunder.
"Who cares? Did you feel the cold? What was that?" Lavender shrieked and shivered, pulling her cloak tight around herself. "Was that the Dementors? I was never so close to them."
At that moment, a group of Slytherins barged past them, through the main entrance. "Did you see Potter fall?" an older boy laughed. "Bet he just faked it because he saw he had no chance getting the Snitch."
A girl agreed. "He was too slow. Sore loser."
Ron had heard enough, he was about to turn on them and yell at them, throwing all his frustration and worry in their faces, when Hermione called out. "Ron!" He barely heard her over the noise of the crowd. "Ron! Ron, where is Harry?"
He finally found her standing between a group of young Ravenclaws. He wouldn't have seen her if she weren't a head taller than the other kids, but clearly, despite their short size, they managed to push Hermione into the direction of the Ravenclaw tower. "What do you mean?" Ron asked. Last he saw, Dumbledore had slowed Harry's fall, and then he lost track of what happened next. But the silver phoenix had expelled the Dementors only shortly after, and he heard Dumbledore's angry yelling when he came down from his seat at the Gryffindor fan block. He'd never seen him so angry. "The teachers took care of him." He wanted to go look for Harry himself, but McGonagall had pushed him to follow the rest of his classmates to the common room.
Hermione finally managed to free herself from the crowd of chattering Ravenclaws surrounding her. She grabbed his sleeve and then pulled him up the stairs with the other Gryffindors. He thought they were going to the common room the way they were ordered to—surely Hermione was the last to ignore McGonagall's orders—but instead, as they reached the first floor, she threw a quick glance back to check that nobody was looking for them and then pulled him away.
"Where are we going?" he asked. "The Hospital Wing?" He shook his head. "Surely, they'll need a bit longer to get him there."
"I'm worried," Hermione said.
"I'm worried, too," Ron admitted as he pulled his sleeve free and ran next to her. "Of course, I am. But it's not like we can help." He smirked. "The way I know Harry, he's going to wake up and be majorly pissed that we lost the game. That reminds me…Did you see where his broom flew off to?"
Hermione stopped running, ogling him in that way she sometimes did when she thought his priorities were all wrong.
"What? He'll want his broom back," Ron shrugged. He couldn't do anything to help Harry with the Dementors. As frustrating as it was, finding the broom was all he could do. "We should go outside and look for it."
Hermione frowned. "I think it was blown towards the Whomping Willow."
Oh no. The idea that the nasty tree might have clobbered Harry's valuable racing broom to pieces made Ron cringe. Never mind, Malfoy Sr. bought the whole Slytherin game shiny new Nimbus 2001s last year. Harry's Nimbus 2000 on the other hand was the best broom in the whole Gryffindor team. They'd have a serious disadvantage without that, and with Hufflepuff already winning the first game…
"Let's get it! Before the bloody tree turns it into splinters." He didn't have any good experiences with the Whomping Willow. The violent tree stood in the middle of school grounds and last year, Ron crashed his dad's car into it, and almost didn't survive the ordeal. Not the accident itself, that had been bad enough, but the thick tree trunk and whipping twigs attacking them…That hadn't been fun.
"Ron, I don't think…"
There she was again. That's how he knew Hermione. McGonagall told them to go to the common room. Going to the Hospital Wing instead, was one thing, but sneaking outside was quite another. "I know McGonagall said we're supposed to stay inside," Ron argued, "but it's Harry's broom. He loves that thing." Ron loved it too, to be honest.
"No, that's not what I mean," she shook her head. "Ron, something is wrong."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"When Professor McGonagall sent us away, I saw a bit of what Dumbledore was doing, and he was furious," she said in a nervous voice. They had just about reached the Hospital Wing by now.
"Ha! You can say that again! I never saw him so angry."
"Yeah, but that wasn't all. He was…I mean, he looked almost afraid."
Albus Dumbledore being afraid was something Ron couldn't even imagine. He didn't want to imagine it either. Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard in all of Great Britain, maybe the world. He couldn't think of anything that Dumbledore would be afraid of. "You must have seen wrong."
"No," Hermione shook her head. "I heard him talk to Professor Snape." What did the old bat have to do with it? "He said…I mean it sounded as if they were looking for Harry."
Of all things, maybe, he had expected that least of all. "But Harry was right there, wasn't he?" He had seen him fall, and he had seen Dumbledore slow his descent. If it weren't for that fact, he wouldn't be so calm now. He had been certain, that Dumbledore was with Harry. "Dumbledore caught him."
"Yes, he did," Hermione nodded. "At least, I think so, but it took a while until Dumbledore came down from the teacher's lounge. And somehow, in that time…"
Ron tried to make sense of it all. "You really mean it? You think Harry—what? Vanished?"
Instead of answering, Hermione shouldered through the door into the Hospital Wing. Clearly, they weren't the only students who'd come here. Madam Pomfrey hurried busy as a bee from one kid to the next, treating shivering first years and pale fifth years. Without counting, Ron guessed there to be roughly twenty children, snacking chocolate and sleeping the shock of the Dementors' vicinity off. When they came through the door, a young Hufflepuff looked at them with huge, scared eyes as if they were spooky ghosts who came to harm him.
"Mr. Weasley, are you having troubles with the Dementors, too?" Madam Pomfrey asked from where she was currently treating a Ravenclaw boy, without even looking at them. "I fear you'll have to wait a moment."
"No," Ron answered sheepishly. "I'm fine, I was wondering if—"
"You already did your detention today, Mr. Weasley," she interrupted him. "I fear, I'm currently a bit busy. If this can wait, could you come back later? Ms. Granger?"
"We were wondering if Harry is here?" Hermione asked quickly.
"Mr. Potter?" With a raised eyebrow, Madam Pomfrey turned to survey her patients. "Why would Mr. Potter be here? Did that boy get injured again?" She eyed Ron and Hermione sharply. "Is he sick?"
Ron instinctively took a step back. When it was about her patients' well-being, Madam Pomfrey wasn't one to joke around. Though her tone wasn't aggressive, she was still a bit scary in such serious situations. "No, I—" he stuttered, "I mean I don't know. I thought he was. I thought he'd be here."
After she finished up with her Ravenclaw patient, Madam Pomfrey straightened up to fully turn to Ron and Hermione. "If Mr. Potter is injured, I hope you will be smart enough to bring him to me."
"We thought Professor Dumbledore would bring him here," Hermione admitted.
She'd been right. This was weird. Surely, even if Harry hadn't arrived yet, the teachers would've at least sent a message, so Madam Pomfrey could already prepare a bad for him. Many of the kids here didn't seem to be in any danger, nor injured, but simply a bit shocked by the experience. Nothing was quite so bad as when Harry lost his consciousness in the Hogwarts Express, never mind on a broom falling who knew how deep.
"I don't know about this," Madam Pomfrey said. Then she turned to treat her next patient, sending the Ravenclaw to his common room. Ron and Hermione followed the boy outside. But they stopped as the boy turned toward Ravenclaw tower, quickly ascending the stairs out of sight.
"What's going on?" Ron wondered.
"I have no idea," Hermione admitted. "But it's odd, isn't it? Surely, if Professor Dumbledore's about to bring an unconscious student in, he'd send a messenger."
"Yeah," Ron frowned in thought. "We should be looking for him." No matter, how much they fought about Scabbers and Crookshanks recently, when it concerned Harry's safety, they worked hand-in-hand. "I bet McGonagall knows."
They didn't even need to talk about it, as they both hurried to Gryffindor tower to get Harry's invisibility cloak. They were back down and on their way to McGonagall's office in only a few short minutes.
They didn't find McGonagall in her office, instead, just as they wondered where else to look, the teachers came through the main gate, hurrying through the Entrance Hall. It wasn't just McGonagall, but Professor Dumbledore, and even Snape too.
"Filius and Pomona will be looking for the students," Professor McGonagall said, just as the teachers rushed past Ron and Hermione who were hiding under the cloak in the shadow of the huge marble staircase. "I've told Weasley to make sure the Gryffindors are complete too."
"I have instructed Ms. Richmond to do the same in Slytherin," Snape added in a snarling voice, so quiet, they almost missed it.
Hermione and Ron had to hurry to keep up with the teachers, so they wouldn't run out of earshot. It was some struggle, trying to remain under the cloak. Slowly but surely, they were growing too big to all fit under the cloak. With Harry, Ron doubted, they could've snuck behind the teachers at all.
"Merlin, Albus…What about the boy?"
"It is too early for any assumptions," Professor Dumbledore said, but his usually calm voice sounded tense. "It's impossible to apparate out of school grounds. He still has to be here, somewhere."
Snape snorted. Again, he was hard to understand. "Somewhere, surely. We thought the same when Black infiltrated the castle, and yet we haven't found him. Not us, nor the Dementors."
"I can't believe Fudge would've allowed them to come to the Quidditch game," Professor McGonagall huffed, out of breath from basically running up the stairs.
"Me neither, Minerva. I will talk to the Minister. Oh, for sure, I will! But that's not our priority now."
"What brought them there?"
"Maybe we should ask the only teacher who wasn't at the game," Snape suggested. "Who wasn't at the Halloween feast either."
"Severus!" McGonagall hissed. "You know as well as I do, why Professor Lupin was neither at the feast nor at the game. He's been sick all week."
"It is a curious coincidence don't you think." Ron could virtually hear his smirk. It made cold sweat run down his spine. If Harry had really vanished, if something had happened to him, surely Snape was rubbing his hands in glee. "Let me just say, what we all think: Black. He got to him. I told you all not to underestimate him."
"Nobody underestimated Black," Professor Dumbledore replied with mild annoyance in his tone.
"You allowed his old friend into the castle. I warned you, headmaster! I warned you."
"That's enough." Professor Dumbledore stopped in front of his office. "We don't know what happened, yet. As I said, you can't apparate out of Hogwarts."
"But you can use a Portkey," Snape suggested. "In any case, are we all forgetting that Black pulled such a vanishing act on us, before? He escaped from Azkaban. He managed to infiltrate Hogwarts, despite the Dementors, and he knew a way out of the castle as well. Maybe it's some Dark Magic. Or he has help. I'm sure Professor Lupin can tell us more about that."
"Or the boy," Professor Dumbledore muttered. "Chocolate Frogs."
"Surely now," Professor McGonagall muttered, just as the gargoyle slid to the side, opening the way to a winding staircase.
Hermione and Ron ran to catch up, but just as they reached the other side of the corridor, the gargoyle slid shut in front of them.
"Damn!" Ron yelled in anger.
"Ssh!"
"Did you hear that? He's gone! He vanished! What happened?"
"Be quiet, before anybody hears you!"
She seemed oddly calm for somebody who didn't know where their best friend was. "I don't bloody care! Harry's gone. He's gone. They think Black got to him." Harry had told them on the train on the way to Hogwarts that Black was after him, but somehow, they hadn't taken the threat all that seriously. Harry fought and survived Voldemort twice the years before and with the Dementors, there was no way Sirius Black could get into the castle. Then, somehow he had managed to get inside, but clearly, was so deranged he couldn't even tell the date or he wouldn't have attacked on Halloween. They'd been warned, and now Harry was gone.
If Ron ever found Black, he'd kill him!
"I have a plan," Hermione pulled him into a nearby classroom. "Give me a second."
He was utterly stunned by her calm and collected state. Why wasn't she panicking, the way he was? Instead, she ripped the Invisibility Cloak away and fumbled something out of her rain-drenched sweater. It looked like a filigree golden necklace, tiny links locking together to a long chain. She pulled the chain out of her sweater until she held a golden pendant in her hand. There was a small hourglass in its center. Ron never saw it before. Additionally, he was reasonably certain that he never saw Hermione wear any gold jewelry.
"What's that?"
"It's a Time Turner." She held the thing up for him to see. "We can go back and see what happened to Harry."
"Where did you get a Time Turner?" He didn't even know that was possible. His parents sometimes told him of curious things that were possible with magic. Especially his dad often came home from work with the weirdest stories, but time travel?"
"It's how I managed to be in two classes at once," Hermione quickly explained. She was a bit out of breath, either from running after the teachers or from her excitement. "I'm not supposed to…I mean…But Harry's in danger."
"You traveled back in time," the realization slowly sunk in, "to do extra classes." For an instance, his stunned surprise even brushed his worry for Harry away.
"That's not important now," she lifted the chain around his neck. It was easily long enough for two people. "What's important is, that if we go an hour back in time, we can see what happened, and maybe…maybe we can help."
Ron immediately sobered up, pushing his questions back for later. "Of course." He smirked. "You mean, we're going to save Harry, right? For sure, we are."
Hermione looked worried. "I'm not sure."
"Yeah, I have no idea, how to fight Black yet," If it was really Black who took Harry. "But I'll kill him, if necessary."
"Ron!"
"He took Harry!"
"We don't know that—Anyway…" She bit her lip. "Ron, before we do this, you should know, that…We can't really change the past. Time is like a loop, we can go back, but we can't really change anything that already happened."
He didn't quite understand it. Surely, if they went back in time, they could just take Harry and run as soon as the Dementors would appear. Maybe they could even give him a hint about the Snitch? Save Harry and win the game.
"Let's just do it." There was no point arguing any further. If they could change the past, they would.
Quietly, Hermione turned the hourglass once.
Somehow Ron thought time travel would be more exciting; flashier. He never really had a concept of it, never even though it was possible, but in the few seconds he had between learning that time travel existed and actually doing it for the first time, he had expected something different, something more. There were no sparks, no obvious signs of magic. Hermione simply turned the hourglass, they waited for a few seconds, and really the only weird thing that happened was that suddenly Peeves flew through the room backward, and very fast. The next thing he knew, they were still in the same room, nothing had changed, just the storm had gotten worse again… Or well, he assumed, that was just the worst phase of the storm he had already lived through during the game. So... 'again' was probably not the correct way to say it.
It only really sunk in, that they had traveled back in time, after Hermione threw the invisibility cloak over them again and they had to hold it real tight, to stop it from fluttering away in the wind. Just over their heads, there was a huge, bright flash of lightning, followed by booming thunder. He was sure he'd seen that lightning before, that exact same one. The last time, he'd flinched and cringed at the loud boom.
Then, he heard the sounds from the Quidditch pitch, cheers, and screams carried away by the storm.
They had traveled back in time. They had really traveled back in time. The game had just started.
"Wicked!"
Before he could share his wonder with Hermione, she suddenly pulled him away from the main path. "There."
Just ahead, he saw himself, cursing and muttering as he fought against the storm, coming just a few minutes late to the game from his Detention. Charlie was just behind him, hands buried deep in his pockets.
"That's me," Ron whispered. "Me and Charlie. We were a bit late."
"Yes, hush now. He can't hear us. You…I mean you can't hear us." She sounded afraid at the very concept of his past self, seeing his future self. Ron wasn't afraid though, honestly, he kind of wanted to know what would happen. "It's dangerous. What do you think, you'd do, if you suddenly saw—"
She stopped short, ducking away as Past-Ron and Charlie walked past them. Charlie stopped. He glared right at them, with narrowed eyes. Then suddenly, the strong wind changed direction, blowing right into Ron's face. The Hufflepuff frowned, then he shook his head and followed Past-Ron.
"What was that?" Ron asked. Curiously, he remembered Charlie suddenly stopping an hour ago. Hermione had been right. Everything they did, had already happened. It was unnerving. It meant that whatever they did, at the end of the day, Harry would still be gone.
"Did he see us?" Hermione asked. She was shivering in the cold. They were wet with the wind blowing through their cloaks.
"We're under the invisibility cloak," he reminded her. "At best, he might have heard something, but with the wind and the cheers, I doubt anybody can hear anything here." Even just to be heard by Hermione next to him, he almost had to yell.
"I hope you're right," she shuddered. "I think he's creepy."
Ron laughed. She might not dislike Charlie as much as Harry did, but she never took it well, when somebody was better than her in theory. Practical magic, sure, she wasn't always the best, but nobody was allowed to out-nerd her. "Nah, he's fine," Ron assured her. "Believe me, I spent the last few days cleaning bedpans with him." He stuck his tongue out, still annoyed and disgusted at Snape's idea for his detention. It hadn't been as bad as he had first assumed, but it was still bad enough that he wouldn't forgive Snape for it anytime soon. "I think, he's just awkward. Wherever he's from, I don't think he had many friends."
Hermione nodded, not disagreeing with him. "But you have to admit, it's weird. Lying about where he's from and all that. And this whole ninja story…" She shrugged. "Doesn't matter, we're not here for that." Pointing up to the players she added, "look Wood just called the break." There was a moment of hesitation, then she suddenly ran out of the protection of the invisibility cloak, out on the field.
"Hey!" Ron called out. "What are you doing?" He ran after her, quickly pulling the cloak away and shoving it under his school robes. "What happened to not wanting to be seen."
"Don't worry!" she yelled to him. "I used the break to go to the toilet, and you're still trying to find your seat. Anybody who sees us, will just think we're us—I mean past us."
Worriedly, Ron looked back, thinking if it really was so dangerous to be seen, Hermione was taking an awfully high risk. He couldn't ask any more questions though, nor could he just pull Hermione back anymore, because at that moment, Hermione stopped right in front of Harry. Past-Harry, that was. Past-very much still alive and not vanished-Harry.
"I have an idea, Harry, give it to me."
Ron watched, as Hermione took Harry's glasses waving her wand over them. He had no idea what she was doing, and was so curious about the plan, he almost missed it, when Harry spoke to him. Nervously, he shoved the invisibility cloak further under his robes, to make sure, Harry wouldn't see it.
I should warn Harry.
But he didn't, instead, he complained about the weather, spraying mud all over Hermione, as he demonstratively kicked with his boots.
Hermione seemed to have a plan, and clearly, that plan didn't include warning Harry. It made no sense to Ron. Still, he was glad to know, that at least at his time, Harry had been fine. Cold and frustrated from the weather, but perfectly healthy.
"Here, take that." Hermione handed Harry's glasses back over. "It should repel water, now."
Ron was confused. He didn't care about the water making it difficult for Harry to see. Or did Hermione think that would help him fend off an attacker later on? "Why didn't we warn him?" Ron asked when the Gryffindor's took off into the sky again, while Hermione quickly pulled him away from the center of the pitch. "We should've warned him."
"And then what? What would you have told him? That we're from the future and he's about to be…what? We don't even know what happened, what we're warning him about." She shook her head. "He'd only be confused, he'd ask questions. We don't have that time. How long do you think you need to find your seat? Or for me to go to the toilet? We need to be gone before anybody notices there are two of us, never mind our past selves seeing us down here."
Ron scowled. "So, you just gave him a water-repelling charm." He ducked under a wooden beam when she pulled him to the Gryffindor fan block.
"Of course not!" She sounded offended. "I put a locator spell on his glasses, so we can always see where he is. Look." She pulled her wand out, waved it, and immediately, an arrow, like a compass, appeared pointing up above their heads, moving slightly.
Ron smirked. "So, we can find him," he understood, already a bit happier, but still worried. "But what if he's seriously injured. What if Black kills him right away? Dad said, he's a maniac and he killed dozens of people in one go, they say. Why would he hesitate?"
She nodded. "That's why—I mean, Professor Snape gave me the idea."
Professor Snape? Ron doubted any idea of Professor Snape's would help them here.
"I've never done it before, but I've read about it. So, I'm not sure, if it will work."
"What?" He was getting impatient.
"A Portus charm," she said in a very quiet voice, almost drowned out by the wind banging against the Gryffindor colors that were wrapped around the fan block where they were hiding.
The name of the charm sounded vaguely familiar to Ron. He didn't need to think long, to put two and two together. "A Portkey? You made a Portkey?" He couldn't believe it. "That's illegal, Hermione." It was one of those things his dad told him about. The creation and use of Portkeys was heavily restricted by the Ministry. Without their approval, creating one could even result in a prison sentence.
"So what?" Hermione glared at him. "Using the Time Turner alone, for things it's not approved of, could get us expelled. But it's worth it if it saves Harry."
Ron agreed wholeheartedly. "So, what now?"
"We wait," Hermione said. "The Dementors will come soon, then… I mean just in case I failed, we should at least see, what's happening. And then we need to get back into the castle as fast as possible."
Ron nodded along with her plan. He had walked to the edge of their hideout, moving a big red flag away so he could peer out at the game. "What do you mean, as fast as possible? If your spell fails, we'll need to fight."
"If my spell fails," Hermione said with a quivering voice, "then Harry will be gone. Who do you want to fight? Even Dumbledore couldn't find the culprit. If it was Black, he got away immediately."
If…
Who else would it be?
"But we can at least stay and search a bit longer," he argued.
"Didn't you listen to what McGonagall said? Percy will make a headcount of house Gryffindor. If we're not back by then, they'll know we're gone, and start searching for us too. Never mind, haven't you seen how angry the Dementors were? We can't just be running around outside without protection."
At least, to the last point, Ron had to concede. "Speaking of which…about what the teachers said, I mean. What about Lupin?"
Hermione slung her arms around herself. "What about Lupin?"
"Snape seemed to think, that he had something to do with it. That he has some connection to Black." Normally, he wouldn't give a damn about what Snape said, but this time, though McGonagall and Dumbledore hadn't agreed with Snape, it at least seemed as if they understood his reasoning.
"Nonsense," Hermione grumbled. "Professor Lupin's a teacher." But she looked as if she knew more than that. "And he wouldn't be the first Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Snape doesn't like."
It was as if their roles were reversed. Normally, Hermione would be the one to try and protect Snape from Harry and Ron's distrust.
"But Lupin wasn't at the feast," Ron insisted.
"Because he's sick," Hermione answered, glaring at her feet, clearly avoiding looking at Ron.
"I've been doing detention in the Hospital Wing all week. He wasn't there once." He should've realized it sooner, that something wasn't right. "And do you remember after Black tried to get into Gryffindor Tower? Snape also mentioned that somebody from the staff might have helped him."
Hermione shrugged. "So, Professor Snape doesn't like Professor Lupin. He wouldn't teach here if Professor Dumbledore didn't trust him. And if Professor Lupin really wanted to help Black, he could've killed Harry any day."
"Maybe, Black wants the honor himself."
"Stop it," Hermione growled, shaking her head vigorously. "Professor Lupin is our teacher."
"And clearly, after Quirrell and Lockhart we learned that our teachers can't do any wrong." He was annoyed at her insistence to protect Lupin, just because he was a teacher she liked. He liked him too, but if he had anything to do with Black… Maybe he was just a good actor.
"Snape seemed certain, that Lupin would know more about how Black got into the castle."
"Since when do you listen to what Snape says?" Hermione snapped at him. "Look, he probably just meant because Black used Dark Magic. So, of course, Lupin would know, cause that's his subject, right?"
Ron wasn't happy with that explanation at all. "I'm just saying if there is a chance, that Lupin might not be as trustworthy as we think—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence, as he slung his arms around himself, shaking in the cold, the way Hermione had been doing for a while now. The Dementors had arrived. They both realized simultaneously that the cold wasn't just from the storm anymore.
When they pushed the Gryffindor flag aside, to look out to the pitch, his breath froze in Ron's lungs. Before, he had barely even noticed the Dementors other than the cold and a feeling of melancholy. Up on the dais, he'd been a bit removed from them, and they hadn't really attacked the students either. Now, he was much closer. He'd never seen so many of them at once. A hundred of them, maybe more.
He felt horrible. As if he'd never be happy again. His whole body was itching as if a thousand spiders were crawling over his skin. He felt something soft and cuddly pressed against his chest, then turning to a many-legged beast, when his brothers turned his favorite toy into a giant spider. He immediately knew that it was that memory he relieved, even though he couldn't hear any sounds nor see it. Then, he suddenly heard voices, and the memory that resurfaced was much worse.
"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
"Who is it? Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley."
Lupin had explained it to them, on the train, and then again to Harry before Halloween. Dementors made you relive your worst memories. He shuddered and tried to shake it off, but it was easier said than done. With so many of them, it was hard for him to even see the reality in front of him instead of the nightmare images of Harry's and his journey into the forbidden forest to follow the spiders or into the Chamber of Secrets.
"There!"
It was only thanks to Hermione's pointing arm, that he saw Harry's fluttering cloak as he fell.
"Let's go!" Ron yelled, running over the pitch to get to Harry before anybody else could. However, there were so many Dementors and voices screaming in his head, a nondescript mix of memories resurfacing, that he quickly lost his orientation. "Hermione, Hermione! Where are you?"
He turned around his axis to look for her when he saw something dark rush past him. It was gone in a second and he thought it was only the cloak of a Dementor. Instead of finding Hermione, he eventually found Harry hovering above them. Hovering, and then—Where did he go?
The Portkey, he reasoned. It had to have been the Portkey.
"Kakashi!" He heard Hermione scream.
As he whirled around, he saw her stand right in front of the Hufflepuff. The boy looked at her queerly, as if he couldn't see her right, or as if he thought she wasn't real. Then he stumbled in the opposite direction.
Ron and Hermione ran after him, but he was faster than they could keep up.
It was the light of Dumbledore's phoenix, which made him really understand, that there was nothing else he could do. Hermione was running next to him, but they had long lost Charlie out of sight. There was still a cloud of Dementors following him, and they could maybe find him, by chasing those Dementors, but Ron dreaded even going close to them. And in any case, they had to get back to the castle. Hermione had explained it to them before.
Funnily, it was Hermione, who seemingly forgot the plan she had detailed to him beforehand. Instead of stopping, she continued to where Charlie had vanished. Ron grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"We need to get back to the castle."
"We need to get to Kakashi," she disagreed "What by Merlin did he do to Harry?"
Ron shook his head. "Your Portkey, your Portkey must've worked."
She looked utterly stunned as if she didn't even consider that it might have been her doing, that Harry was gone.
"Where did your Portkey lead to?"
Hermione stared at him. "Gryffindor Tower."
And they ran back to the castle before Dumbledore had fully climbed down the dais to look for Harry. However, as they burst into the common room, they didn't find Harry. He wasn't in the dorms either, nor in any of the other rooms.
"Maybe, I screwed up the location," Hermione whined in a hysteric panicked voice. "He must be here somewhere!"
"Use the locator spell," he suggested, as she seemingly forgot about it.
Immediately, a hopeful smile appeared on her face. However, when she pulled her wand to activate the locator spell to find Harry, the arrow spun in endless circles over her palm. It never stopped, it never slowed down, it never even seemed to linger at any point.
Ron was confused at the display. Before, it had worked perfectly. "Why isn't it working?"
"I don't know," Hermione admitted.
"What's the range on this spell, how far does it reach?"
Hermione shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I thought it had no range." Distraught, she watched the spinning arrow. "Oh Godric, I screwed up! I thought I knew that spell. I mean I wasn't sure about the Portus, but his one… I—Merlin, what did I do?"
Hermione might have some flaws, and especially this year, she'd been horribly annoying and selfish with that fat cat of hers but ruining spells she was certain she could perform was not one of her flaws. "You never mess up your spells," Ron said. He would bet on that.
"Oh no," Hermione whined. "You don't think, he's dead, do you?"
"No," he shook his head, though he wasn't certain. A cruel fear dropped in his stomach, that Harry might be, that there was really no reason to assume he would be alive. Whatever Charlie had done… Charlie! He had trusted him! After a week of working in the Hospital Wing together, he had even somewhat befriended him, though he wouldn't admit so to Harry, and now it turned out that Harry had been right all along!
"Then what—"
"Even if he were dead," Ron said, trying to swallow his fears and cling to whatever hope he had. "Even then, the locator should still work. You charmed his glasses after all. They should be somewhere, even if they're just with his body." He surely hoped that wasn't the case though. "And I bet, if you say, the thing works regardless of range, you know what you're doing."
"But it doesn't make sense!" Hermione insisted with tears in her eyes. "I would find him. Or at least his glasses. I must have made a mistake."
Ron shook his head. "No, let's assume you knew what you were doing. Because I'm sure you did. Let's assume, you did everything right. What other options are there?"
She sniffed, trying to think. Even if it was just a thought experiment and wild theorizing, for now, it served to calm both their nerves. "Maybe he was teleported somewhere, where my spell doesn't work?"
"Where could that be?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess you could ward a place off against such spells. But that wouldn't be easy. They must have prepared a place beforehand just in case somebody would speak a locator spell."
Ron nodded. "So, Charlie prepared a room to teleport Harry to. Maybe to meet Black?" He frowned. He'd been so convinced that this had everything to do with Black, that he hadn't even stopped to consider that maybe, with Charlie as a culprit, it had nothing to do with Black after all. "Is Black even involved?"
"We know he wants Harry dead." Hermione nodded.
Ron remembered what Snape had said at Halloween. "And the teachers already thought Charlie might have been connected to him, right?"
Hermione nodded again, making no effort trying to discredit Snape's words as she did with his suspicions against Lupin. "They probably work together."
Ron shuddered. It meant, that Harry might right now be helpless in the hands of a mass murderer who wanted him dead and had managed to avoid the Dementors at least three times already.
Before they could continue their brainstorming, the portrait of Sir Cadogan suddenly swung inward and the whole of house Gryffindor minus Harry stormed into the common room, chattering loudly, some still shaken from the Dementors. Ron just wanted them all to get into their dorms, so he could continue talking to Hermione in private, but instead, he had to watch as Percy puffed himself up and marched to the blackboard where everybody could see him.
"I am to make sure, everybody is here," he announced importantly, and loud enough for his voice to carry over the chatter. "Could you all please quiet down?" Nobody really listened to him.
In the end, it took Percy almost ten minutes before he could even start counting the first years. It took him almost an hour to make his way to the seventh years before he proudly marched off to tell McGonagall that other than Harry and two kids in the Hospital Wing, everybody was accounted for.
An hour, which might have been the last hour in Harry's life. Ron was restless and on edge, knowing that Harry might already be dead, or could die any moment. If he got his hands on Charlie… He'd do whatever was needed to make him talk and bring Harry back. In a way, it was all, Ron could do for his best friend.
The hour of Percy counting the students was quite possibly the worst hour of Ron's life. Or at least as bad as the moment right after learning that Ginny had been dragged into the Chamber of Secrets. He wanted to yell at his classmates to go to bed, so he could continue talking to Hermione alone, so they could come up with a plan. Though he liked Neville, he ended up growling and snarling at him, until his classmate finally turned in for the night, leaving Ron and Hermione alone in the common room, with just some sixth years who were on the other side of the room, where they wouldn't be able to listen in to their whispered conversation.
"I've been thinking," Hermione started immediately, as impatient as he was. "I don't know how he teleported Harry. I saw it happen. It was right in front of my eyes." Ron saw it too. Harry had just vanished. He thought he'd seen a spiral, but he was reasonably certain, that the spiral hadn't really been physically there. He wasn't sure if it was just a trick of the eye, or if what he'd seen was really a hole in the atmosphere.
"He didn't even touch Harry," Hermione continued. "And there was nothing that could've been a portkey. And apparating is impossible on school grounds," she repeated what Dumbledore had already said.
"It must have been Dark Magic," Ron reasoned, though even as he said it, he already had a different idea. He remembered a very different conversation a few weeks ago with Charlie. Hadn't he explained it then?
"It must have been—"
"No." Ron shook his head, suddenly sure that he knew what had happened.
"What no?"
"We need to tell Dumbledore." He jumped up. The sixth years stared at him as he stormed out of the common room, Hermione hot on his heels. They met Percy just outside the portrait coming back from reporting to Professor McGonagall.
"Ron!" Percy called out "Ron, Hermione! Come back! You are to stay in Gryffindor Tower for—" But Ron just ignored him, brushing past his brother, hurrying to the headmaster's office.
"Ron, wait!" Hermione had trouble catching up to him, after slowing down some to appease Percy, only to ignore him after all. "Ron, I agree we should tell the teachers, but what do you mean with no."
"No," Ron huffed, out of breath. "I mean, he didn't just teleport Harry into a room. Don't you remember? Dimensional travel! He told us himself! The idiot, gave his secret away because he thought we wouldn't believe it anyway. But it makes sense. That's why your arrow can't find him. He's not technically anywhere anymore. He's in another dimension."
"Another dimension?" Hermione repeated, flabbergasted. "That's impossible, Ron."
"No it—" but he realized, that she was right. Then again, up until today, he thought time travel didn't exist either. "He said it himself."
"Yes, I know what he said. And after he said it I went to the library and read every book on magical travel I could find, and didn't find a word of dimensional travel. It doesn't exist."
"Just because it's not in a book, doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Ron reasoned, taking three steps at once as he ran down the stairs. He almost stumbled and fell twice, but never stopped.
"Slow down!" He did, just a bit, so she could keep up. "So, what? He invented dimensional travel at...what? Fifteen?"
"Maybe he's not really fifteen. We know nothing about him." He stopped only when he was forced to because one of the stairs suddenly decided to go the other way and he impatiently banged against the banister to make it move again. "Look, okay, let's say it's not dimensional travel…Let's say…like time travel. If Harry had been sent through time, wouldn't the locator spell also fail to show his position?"
Hermione shook her head, equally impatient. "No, unless Harry's glasses were destroyed sometime between whatever time he was sent to and now. Like we didn't stop existing in this world just because we traveled through time, we caught up with the present eventually." She hesitated. "Or do you mean like years back, so far back, that my magic would just run out with time?"
Ron had no idea if that was possible nor how long that would take, but he still nodded.
"You think it's more likely that he traveled through time or through…dimensions than that he was simply sent to a place with wards against my locator."
"I just think it's a mad coincidence that Charlie mentioned dimensional travel, don't you think? And you were right, whatever that was, that wasn't an apparition or a portkey. I saw my dad apparate all my life, I know how that looks, and I've used Portkeys too." He tried to make sense of what he had seen. "This wasn't anything like that."
"Cause it was Dark Magic," Hermione insisted.
Finally, the staircase steered back into the direction they wanted, and Ron immediately jumped down, even before it was securely locked back into place. "So, it's Dark Magic. Why is it more likely that he learned Dark Magic to find a whole new way of magical transport, than for him to learn dimensional travel?"
They reached the gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office.
"Because dimensional travel doesn't exist! There's not a word of it in the whole library! It doesn't—"
"Chocolate Frog."
"Wait, Ron, we can't just—"
But the second the passage opened, Ron climbed up the winding staircase and banged at the door to the headmaster's office.