Chapter 18: Kidnapped

Over the week that followed, Ginny transitioned with relative ease into the life of an Apprentice, or parts of it, anyway. She had taken to the intense physical training aspect with grace. In fact, she seemed to thrive on pushing her body past its limits, which

It was the obedience aspect that the fierce young woman had difficulties with. Rather, it was filtering her sarcastic thoughts from flying out of her mouth, that Ginny truly struggled with. Even so, Harry got the feeling that Saldor, at times, truly seemed to enjoy her quick wit. When angered, her insults could match only Snape's in sheer creativity.

Strider became quite content at Hogwarts, frequently discussing plants with Neville, and to Harry's surprise, Snape. Neville found that Snape's expertise, as it related to ingredients, was quite remarkable, though he skirted away from the man during any other conversation. At times, Harry would find Neville eating meals with Strider and Master Atwater, chatting about particular uses for plants. It seemed that Neville had started coming into his own.

Anxieties were beginning to reach their breaking point, as they all continued to watch and wait for Voldemort's infiltrators to make a move. Harry had tried insisting that they dose every student with veritaserum, though this was struck down immediately by Dumbledore with a resounding "no."

Terran had suggested the Junior Guard assist on completing nighttime rounds, but Silverwood pointed out that they were just learning the spells and combat, but hadn't the practice to be effective in an attack. They simply weren't ready yet. Saldor, his eyes lingering on Harry for a moment too long had then observed that Harry had been the only one with actual experience in any sort of battle.

Harry snorted, and admitted that he hardly called Quirrel, the basilisk, or Snape a battle. Saldor acknowledged the point, though Harry was still unnerved by the stare the man had given him.

On the Tuesday following their return from Headquarters, Hogwarts was abuzz with gossip: Ginny had voluntarily forfeited her position as quidditch captain, and other apprentices would be coming on a daily basis.

Outside of Hogwarts, the papers reported a gloomy atmosphere with a few deadly attacks, though nobody at Hogwarts had yet been affected.

Within Hogwarts, but away from prying eyes, War Council meetings had become tense, as there was no evidence who the two student spies could be. In fact, while training continued in earnest, secrecy became imperative. Harry had decided to keep even Ron and Hermione in the dark about the spies, a move Snape wholly supported, meaning the only Hogwarts residents aware were the four masters, their apprentices, and Dumbledore.

So on that Tuesday, Harry, in concert with Silverwood and Fletcher, had decided that it was time for the students to be pushed harder and further. Up until now, they worked on strength and endurance and had practiced defensive spells. As the Guard students were accustomed, they arrived at the Training Hall immediately after their last class of the day. The time between classes and dinner, as well as Saturday afternoons, was intended to be practical applications, while Conditioning with Fletcher fell during the school day for the students.

For the first time, they found Silverwood's more experienced troops waiting for them.

"Excellent," Harry announced as the last of the students filed in. "Welcome to the next level. I have asked Master Silverwood to supply a partner for each of you. Moving forward, you will work with that partner during this period, unless you are instructed otherwise."

What Harry did not admit was that he, Silverwood, and Fletcher had wanted to see if this would drive the students to work harder. However, they did not wish for the masters to go easy on the students, and had spent an hour creating pairs with the potential for conflict.

"Today will be simple. Students, you will be dodging your partners' stinging hexes. This is a simple activity and will not require you to have a wand, so you will keep them in your holster. While your partners are fully aware of this exercise, Master Silverwood has asked me to demonstrate. Master Isaac, do you care to assist?"

The other master, though he did not necessarily dislike Harry, had consistently looked for an excuse to beat the boy in training soars, though it rarely happened. There seemed to be a healthy mutual respect, borne only out of the continued sparring matches. He smiled widely as he agreed. "Thank you." Harry handed his wand to Fletcher as they began. After five minutes, despite the other man's furious and efficient casting, Isaac had yet to lay a spell on the boy.

Finally, Silverwood called a halt to the activity. "Thank you, Master Isaac, Aeter. As you all can imagine, Aeter is extremely adept at this exercise. Do not expect to be so skilled."

As Silverwood read out the pairs, Harry approached Isaac. "Thank you, sir."

The man glared. "I have a feeling you were having me on. Did I have a chance of touching you?"

Harry beamed widely. "I'm quite good at sensing them. Master Shadowman currently has me working with three casters in that exercise."

"Insufferable," the older man muttered, without real heart.

"Anyway," Harry carried on. "Silverwood and I have determined we, and Fletcher, would use this time to evaluate both the Guard and the Junior's abilities. We could use your eyes."

"Of course. Anything specific?" Isaac asked.

"Form, for one. We are using the masters in this way to see who becomes lazy in form and action. For the students, we are focusing on basics. How can they do better? Are they improving? We'll start with this exercise daily before moving on to simulation duels: sometimes individual, sometimes teams. You are the most skilled dueler of the Guard, so your feedback would be appreciated. You'll likely be my opposite in many more demonstrations."

Isaac looked happy to be recognized as a skilled dueler, and tried to avoid looking eager as he agreed.

Silverwood, wrapping up the pairing off, grinned slightly as he put Hermione with Abrams, a particularly well-read Master who had a penchant for reciting facts from books. They expected both would attempt to out-cite the other, and were looking forward to see how the competitive duo faired.

As the final duels wrapped up, Harry dismissed the students to dinner. Each looked exhausted and Harry wondered how many stinging hexes had struck their targets. Harry bowed to the masters as they were dismissed, surprised to find a handful had lowered their heads respectfully before they left.

Finally, only Harry, Silverwood, and Fletcher remained. "Who do you think will blow up first?" Fletcher asked, having already sensed one or two pairs that were uneasy.

"Pandora," Silverwood answered immediately. "Master Charles is a bit… bossy, shall we say. I already saw her glaring at him as she left." Harry had seen it too, and nodded with the assessment. "Dinner?"

The three made their way to the Great Hall. Noticeably, many avoided sitting near the three that evening.

If Tuesday was unremarkable, then the rest of the week was downright boring, though Harry began to settle into his own pattern of working with students, focusing on his own training with his leadership team, and regular meetings with a variety of people.

Unremarkably, he met with Atwater on Wednesday afternoon for their first mind healing session. Before leaving, Harry pointedly announced, "See, Sir? I mean no disrespect, but I'm perfectly well-adjusted and we have nothing to talk about."

Atwater merely gazed at the boy for a few moments before saying, "we shall see, Aeter. We will meet again next Wednesday, as planned."

After dinner on Friday night, Harry decided to walk to the library. It was unusual for him to have time alone, so he enjoyed his stroll. As he was walking up a set of steps, he heard his name being called.

Harry turned to find a third year Hufflepuff girl approaching him. "How do you do it?" He stopped, perplexed at her question. Before she could ask for clarification, she had lifted her wand. However, before she could utter a spell, Harry felt the hair rise on the back of his neck, and the world went dark.

When Harry came to, the first thing he noticed was that the room he was in was dark. He was on a chair, with his arms tied behind his back and each leg fastened tightly to the chair legs. He struggled against the bonds, but found them merciless.

As Harry struggled, his mind wandered to the Hufflepuff girl. He didn't recognize her. Was she one of Voldemort's spies? She had to be, but she couldn't be working alone. Still, something about the situation didn't seem right. The room was completely dark, with no light coming into the room, so Harry had no way of knowing if he was alone or not.

Harry had no way to know how long he sat there, his heart beating in his own ears. He had no idea where there was, or how he would escape. They had begun working on wandless magic, though anything heavy still tired Harry out quickly. He wondered, though, if his knife was still in his boot. If so, he might have a fighting chance… at what? He had no idea what was waiting for him here.

Finally, not knowing how long he had before his captors returned, Harry closed his eyes and attempted a wordless, wandless incendio. After several moments, enough of the rope had burned that Harry's wrists came free, burning his own wrist and singing his robe in the process.

Reaching for his knife, Harry felt his wand fall out of his holster. In surprise, Harry's suspicion grew even larger. What kind of attacker let somebody keep their wand? And, reaching down, Harry pulled his knife, cutting the ropes around his legs.

Deciding to go for broke, Harry cast a lumos, and glanced around. Noting the stone walls, Harry saw Terran nearby, struggling himself. Quickly, Harry cut Terran's bonds. Both unwilling to speak too loudly, Harry whispered, "Check for your wand."

Finding it in its holster, Terran held it up, ready to use at a moment's notice and whispered. "Thanks. This is weird. That door?"

Both boys crept toward the door, cautious to make as little noise as possible. The door, however, wasn't even locked. Stepping through the door, the boys found Ginny and Strider both struggling, desperately to get free.

"You likely still have your wands. There's something not right about this. We go through that door, very carefully. I will go first, then Terran. We may face assailants, so be careful."

As Harry crept through the door, he ducked, allowing the red curse to narrowly miss. He began casting in that direction, mildly pleased to hear a loud thud! As his curse hit an assailant. He cast another lumos, finding the room empty, other than the robed man.

"Aeter," Strider pointed out. "Those aren't Death Eater robes at all."

"We're still at Hogwarts, I'm sure of it," Harry announced. "Any thoughts?"

Ginny growled. "I kill that Hufflepuff kid."

"I don't think she's the whole answer. It's too weird," Terran interrupted. "I think she was a distraction. I was definitely attacked from behind."

Finally, the three decided to go through yet another door, ready to attack. Harry felt his heart beat faster and faster as he cast alohamora! and stepped through the door.

Where he found four masters, each sitting in an armchair, looking toward the door. After a moment, he sighed, "of course…"

Ginny, however, was not to be cowed. "What the hell do you call that?" She screamed at the four men. "Why, in Merlin's darkest dankest corner of this world would you kidnap us?"

"And who did Harry knock out?" Strider asked.

Ginny was not done, however. "Are you crazy? This is crazy. This must be illegal! Why would you tie us up?"

Harry, ignoring Ginny's rant, had his own questions. "Why did you let us keep our wands? That was hardly realistic."

Ginny, having paused for a breath, glared at the older boy. "REALISTIC? Why would you want this to be realistic."

Harry was mildly surprised to hear the exhaustion in Terran's response. "Clearly, Pandora, this was a test. Which we mostly passed. But you are failing, spectacularly, now."

Ginny only paused for a moment. "Aeter, surely you think this—"

Harry raises both hands. "Sorry, Pandora, not the battle to wage."

She turned to Strider, who shook his head. "Cowards, every one of you. This was abusive…"

Saldor finally set his book aside, "So you've said. But your peers are right. Observations?"

Ginny closed her mouth and thought. "Aeter took natural point position. He went in first. This might be expected. As the weakest, my going last is only beneficial if there is nobody waiting behind us. I need to be strong enough to watch our backs."

As the four began to debrief the pros and cons, Harry glared. "You won't be kidnapping the students, will you?"

Snape glowered. "Dumbledore said we couldn't because it goes against Hogwarts' education standards."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Are you upset that you can't kidnap students?"

"I should go wake Fletcher up," he deflected, leaving the room.