A New Approach

"I have missed this." Harry said.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" Hermione replied. "We haven't strategized since the first task. Or really spent any time together."

"What was the first task again? Dragons?"

"Har, har, all right I guessed wrong. Dragons were the logical choice, based on history. Who would have guessed Pixies!" Hermione pouted.

"Your right, even Moody was fooled." Harry tried to placate her. "And anyway, despite what Snape says, lack of strategy didn't really hinder me too much. I mean I am leading Tournament so far."

"You were lucky that the second task depended on flying. You are a natural with brooms."

"Hey, it was an honest competition, the other three can fly as well as I can."

"Anyway, you have not yet won a task outright. You are only in the lead, because you are the only one who has not completely messed up a task. Angelina didn't complete the first, and in the second Fleur and Krum dead locked each other, until they practically ran out of time."

"Which is why we need to know more about the final task. I need to win that one outright to win. Have you got any ideas about that?"

"The library has quite a few books on the third task. In the early day's the third task was mainly a three way duel, until one champion was left standing. This was the main cause for the high death count in those days. They changed that in the seventeenth century. Since then it has been mostly a race of sorts."

"Sounds like the second task."

"In a way. Usually the settings and the obstacles were the main difference, oh, and the scope. Since the invention of the wizarding wireless, it often takes a whole week."

"What? How can a race last a whole week?"

"It moves about the whole country. They would have way points in the different wizarding enclaves. That way more of the population can see it. And it is supposed to be more exiting. Like multi-day cricket matches, I suppose."

"Is it worth more points then?"

"The winner of the task is the winner of the tournament."

"What is the point of the other tasks then?" Harry frowned.

"The order in which you start is determined by your points. You should get quite a head start. Though, I don't know how they determine how much."

"A week long race through wizarding Britain. Okay, I can do this."

"They might just make you go through a maze." Hermione laughed.

"Any suggestions on how I should tackle this?"

"I think your training with Snape and Moody's handbook is the best preparation you can have. In a way it will be like the second task, where you will have to think on you feet a lot."

"So, you want to see where I am with that right now? Theo has been sparring with me every other morning." Harry got up.

He went through the spell chains that he had developed. Hermione was impressed with the fluidity of his casting, and that quit a few of his spells were silent. As in the fall, Hermione could not really help as an opponent, but she had an imaginative mind. Instead she helped him, by suggesting new combinations, new spells and different uses for the spells.

"Enough about me, how have you been?" Harry closed the practice session.

"Well, you know Ron and I are an item. Any time I have not been revising, I have spent with him. He can be a lot of fun, and he has a great family."

"I only know the twins. They are cool."

"They are funny sometimes, unless you are at the receiving end of their jokes. And they don't think at all about studies. They should look how Percy works. He is going places."

"Percy is rising quickly, that's true. Already Deputy-Director of International Magical Cooperation, just a year after Hogwarts. But is he really doing more then schmoozing up to Crouch? He hasn't done anything about Mafalda for example."

"Ron says that Percy has called in the Director of Magical Law Enforcement. Apparently he thinks Crouch is now missing as well."

"So when his cousin is missing, he does nothing, but as soon as his beloved boss is not there, he gets concerned? I think the twins are right bout him. He is a bloody careerist." Harry's temper rose.

"I'm sure he tried to help Mafalda. I mean, what have you done?" She tried to defend Percy.

Harry promptly pulled out the map he had made of the dungeons. "Here, I have been searching the dungeons for her. The twins are covering the castle, so between the three of us we will find her. Dumbledore said she has not left Hogwarts, so it is only a matter of time."

"You are only covering the Slytherin dorms? That doesn't seem like a fair distribution." Hermione scoffed.

"You are right, the twins should help me. The dungeons are far bigger then the castle. They go down and down for who knows how far."

Hermione grabbed the map and a fascinated expression spread over her face.

"What is the scale to this map? The tunnel network look enormous."

"It now takes me almost four hours of flying on my broom to reach the lowest levels I have explored. I can't go that fast, because of the dark, and the turns and all. I would say I'm going roughly twenty miles an hour. I don't know how far down it is, however, because it is three dimensional. But there are even more tunnels that go even lower from there."

"You were not kidding. The Slytherin dorms are huge. I always thought we had the best. Ravenclaw Tower is airy and light and has beautiful views. But this tunnel system is fascinating, with all these magic rooms." Apparently Hermione could make out Harry's chicken scratch writing. "Is this what I think it is?"

Hermione pointed at the pentagram. Everyone seemed to notice it.

"It is a room with a seventh category ritual circle. Why?"

Hermione looked at it intently. She mumbled to herself. Then she looked at him, "Could you meet me here tonight at eight? Also, think of a way to get me into the Dungeons unnoticed. I'll see you tonight."

And she disappeared from the room. Harry was non the wiser.

HPU

After Hermione had departed, Harry only remained a short time longer in the room. He finished his homework and headed back to his room.

He wondered what Hermione was up to. Her task for him was already solved. His fathers invisibility cloak would make it easy for Hermione to follow him unnoticed into, and past, the Slytherin common room. He only had to get it.

On the way a surprise awaited him.

"'Arry, 'ow are you?" Fleur greeted him.

He chuckled. "Since I am in the lead in the tournament, I am doing excellent."

"If Krum 'ad not been so idiotic, I would 'ave been faster." Fleur frowned. "Speaking of Krum. What do you zink of making an alliance. Togezer we could easily beat ze ozers."

"How would we decide the winner? Turn on each other."

"It would be a fair fight between us."

"I'll think about it. I'd rather win honestly, but it is intriguing."

"It is a thought. Bye 'Arry."

HPU

As Hermione had demanded, Harry met her at the appointed time.

Hermione was not alone when Harry entered. Her elf, Winky was with her. Both of them sat at one of the desks.

Harry smiled at the little creature. He had not seen her since she and Dobby began their relationship. She looked to be completely recovered from her time as an unbonded elf. She did seem a bit uncomfortable at sitting next to her mistress, but that was probably obeying a command in itself.

"Finally, you took long enough to get here." Hermione said in place of a greeting. Never mind that he had come five minutes early. "Take a look at this." She pointed at a page.

Harry took the page and shoved into Harry's face.

He took a glance and almost lost his mind.

"You want to do a ritual?"

"Yes, … they seem to work."

"But they are legal as … murder." He finished lamely.

"Yes, but they seem to work."

"But they need to be performed in the right places."

"Yes, but you found such a place in the Dungeons. We might es well take advantage of it.

"…."

"Also, how did you know that, if rituals are so illegal?" Hermione said.

"After I found the ritual chamber in my search for Mafalda, Theo told me a little about rituals. His family does some apparently." Harry admitted.

"Aha. You said it has seven circles? Then it is strong enough for what we need, this one only needs four. We'll have to find some essence of witchweed. We need some blood too, from a close family member of the one we are searching for. I think Ron will be fine with that."

"Okay, there are so many things wrong with this. First of all you want to ask Ron to give you some blood?"

"What do you mean, why would he not want to help find his cousin?"

"But this bloody, ritual magic can get you in big trouble."

"Tell that to Mafalda while she is waiting for someone to find her. The Ministry obviously doesn't care for her."

Who could argue against that.

"What precisely is your plan? What does this ritual do?"

"You remember how Winky here is bonded to me. Normally a head of a house, can order the elves of the house to search for members of the house. But this is only limited to members of the house. It is rather interesting, because this shows that, despite what the History of Magic textbook says, the head of a house has some authority even magically over his or her family and vassals. I wonder what that means for people like us, who are not part of a house. Anyway, this ritual allows me to … allows Winky to find Mafalda."

Harry took a closer look at the parchment. It lined out how to prepare the ritual room with the blood and the essence of witchweed. Then it described the ritual itself, how one had to light the candles and how to formulate the command to the elf.

"How did you even find this?"

"Since autumn, I have been searching about the origin of the elven-wizard bond. I wanted to find out how it was formed, hoping to find a way to reverse it and free them. I came across quite a few elven-wizard rituals. There are things for all sorts of occasions. Some are helpful, like one that makes the elf able to protect the offspring of the master more effectively. Others are downright diabolical. Punishment for the elf, that inflict as much pain as possible while guaranteeing that the elf survives.

"So far I have not found anything that would indicate how the bond developed, but a few I noted down for future reference. I knew this one could be helpful in the search for Mafalda, but I didn't know about the ritual chamber. So I had shelved it until this afternoon. When I saw that you had found that chamber, I immediately thought of this."

"All right, it's not like I didn't break curfew to search for her anyway. What is a banned ritual to that?" Harry said dryly. "What do we need to do to do this ritual?"

"We have to find witchweed, I think I should be able to get it this coming weekend in Hogsmeade. I will get the blood from Ron that same day. We don't need much. We should be able to do the ritual Saturday night." Harry wanted to ask how much Ron would know, but Hermione continued. "How far down is this seven-circle ritual chamber? I would like to take a look before we do it."

"It is is in the lower regions of the Dungeons. It will take about three hours, on a broom to get down there."

"I will have to sneak into the Dungeons and fly a broom. Flying is not particularly my strength." Hermione frowned.

"I can do the ritual with Dobby, and Theo can help. He has done some rituals with his family, that should help."

"You could, but I'd rather do it myself. My main reason is that, your bond with Dobby is strange. I don't want to experiment with these things quite yet. After all it is probably not wise to experiment with your first ritual." Hermione also had a gleam in her eyes. She was evidently fascinated by rituals, and really wanted to do this one.

"All right. I have this here," he pulled the invisibility cloak out, "to get you into the Dungeons. Are you sure you want to go now? It will be a six hour trip, not counting any time in the room. We would barely get any sleep tonight."

"You are right. This means we won't have time to check the room out before." She chewed her lower lip. "It should be okay. I mean what could we really do by scouting it out? We will just go there in the evening of Saturday. Then we can sleep in on Sunday."

"Maybe we should bring Theo along. He has some experience."

"You talk to him. I don't rally know him."

They departed for the night. Harry had a spring in his step. Finally they had a promising plan.

A.N. I'm sorry, this is both short and late, what can I say, sometimes writing is hard.