Hermione and Her Elf

"If you had told me I'd go to Hogsmeade in the company of a Muggle-born and a Weasley just two months ago I would have called you crazy, but you know what, this has been a great time." Theo was glowing a bit from the fifth butterbeer he just consumed. "I just hope my father does not hear about this."

"I never imagined I would enjoy my time with two Slytherins either." Ron replied. "And yet, this time this has been the best Hogsmeade weekend in a while."

"You only say that, because you were able to beat Theo in that giant chess set in the park." Harry said.

"Don't remind me. I will have to renew my chess practice in order to defend house honor. This is not over Weasley." Theo said.

"It was not only my glorious victory." Ron defended himself. "What made today fun was that the only time, I was bored was when we waited for Hermione to get her ingredients at 'Dogweed and Deathcap.' Did you really not get enough potion ingredients for the year?"

"It's not for school, it's for a little project of mine, and it was only five minutes!" Hermione reprimanded her boyfriend. "Where else would I get witchweed?"

"Don't talk about this too loudly. We are not alone, you know." Theo looked around nervously.

And indeed just then Angelina Johnson approached their table. "Mr. Potter, could I take up some of your time? I have a business proposal to make to you. Could we step outside for a moment?"

"I would be delighted, Champion Johnson." Harry got up. The two of them left the other three behind in the Three Broomsticks. As they left he heard Ron wonder why their project was so secretive. Interesting, it looked like Hermione hadn't shared their plans with her boyfriend.

"So what is it?" Harry said once they were outside.

"We are both British, we are both proud students of Hogwarts. Should we not make an agreement that ensures that our Queen can be proud of her magical …"

"Enough of that, you want us to take out the other two champions and duke it out between us? I already got this proposal form Fleur. It's interesting I guess. But why would I pick her over you?"

"I already said that. We are both from Hogwarts. Don't you want to make sure that we win?"

"How would you winning be a win for me? Anyway, I'll answer the same: I'll think about it. But don't get your hopes up. Fleur is at least a friend."

"All right. That is all I had." Johnson looked a little deflated. Had she really hoped for more just because they went to the same school?

HPU

A little later, the four decided to walk back to Hogwarts. Ron and Theo walked ahead, talking excitedly about Quidditch. It was astounding what this sport could do to unite people.

Harry and Hermione straggled a little behind. Hermione happily chatted about her favorite subject, Ancient Runes. As always she tried to convince Harry to switch from Divination to Runes. "And I finally have a new reason that you should consider taking Ancient Runes next year! Ancient Runes is essential to understand what happens in rituals!"

"Hermione, about that, I researched about ritual magic this past week, and what I found is not good. Any and all ritual magic makes you a dark wizard. You know what that means? We will qualify as dark wizards after this. Are you not at the least concerned about that?"

Hermione was silent for a moment. "I read that too. Honestly, at first I was concerned, but then I remembered how messed up the Ministry is. Just because they classify something as dark does not actually mean it is. I would compare rituals to nuclear power. Just because nuclear weapons are horrendously destructive, and should never be used, it doesn't mean that nuclear power is evil. It is true that most rituals mentioned in the library are very destructive in some way. Some example require human sacrifice. Other unleash plagues. But that does not mean we can't come up with beneficial ones."

"I see, kind of like the cutting curse. It can be used to cook or to kill." Harry mulled it over. If they wanted to do more rituals in the future, they would have to do it in secret, but he was definitely intrigued. But then another question arose: "What about Ron. Did you convince him?"

"I didn't tell him anything. He is from a light pureblood family. In a way they are just as brainwashed as the bigoted purebloods. There is no way I could convince him to help in a ritual. I actually just took some of his blood while we were practicing for DADA. I hit him with a stunner and woke him after that."

"Hermione this is revealing an entirely new side to you." Harry smirked. But then got serious again. "Are you sure you are in a good relationship though? I mean stealing blood doesn't exactly speak of a good foundation."

"That is none of your business."

"Just saying."

HPU

The three of them went straight to the same abandoned class room that Harry and Hermione usually use to prepare.

"Harry do you have everything? I mean the candles and your cloak?" Hermione said.

"I said so, didn't I? Where is your broom? If we walk, it could take us until two to get there."

"I don't have a broom. I didn't realize I needed one." Hermione was even more nervous.

Harry and Theo exchanged a glance.

"You are the better flier, mate." Theo said. "I'm not on the Quidditch team."

"Fine." Harry sighed. He turned to Hermione. "It's all right, you'll have to sit behind me. Just make sure you hold on tightly."

"That means we are finally ready?" Theo had been ready to go half an hour ago.

"Let me…" Hermione began.

"Yes." Harry cut Hermione short. They had checked their equipment and supplies three times already. They had everything, but the brooms. They had left those in Harry's room. It would be too conspicuous to walk around with brooms. They knew what they were doing after all. They had been down there plenty of time. Harry more then Theo, thanks to the holidays, but they were well aware what they needed. "I think when we get to the door to the Dungeons, it would be best if you stay behind us. Here is my invisibility cloak. That way you can sneak in unseen after us. Stay under the cloak until we tell you the coast is clear. We are going to go down quite a way's. You'll see. Any more questions? … okay, lets go."

HPU

The three had no problem getting past the common room. It was still only five o'clock, and most students only now were leaving Hogsmeade. Thus the common room was almost deserted, apart from a few second years.

Harry and Theo strode confidently to Harry's room. He could not tell how Hermione was fairing, but he had an inkling he would soon find out.

And indeed as soon as they had closed the door behind them, she spoke up: "Wow, just what I have seen is bigger then the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor towers combined. Do all of you have single rooms?"

"No, only Harry and the prefects have that privilege. I have to share with Malfoy and his goons. Harry gets one because he is a Triwizard Champion. How do you know how big Gryffindor tower is?" Theo said.

"I have seen the common room, Ron lets me in sometimes. and the rest you can extrapolate from the outside, since it is a tower. I don't know how big the Hufflepuff dorms are, but I think yours are the biggest, by far, if the tunnels are really as extensive as that map suggests."

Harry got his broom. Everything else was in their bags. He checked the outside. No one was around. He gestured them to follow. Harry and Theo got onto their brooms. Hermione said nothing when she got onto the broom behind Harry. They lifted off the floor and took off.

HPU

It took them a little under three hours to get to the room. It was not so bad as Harry had thought. He had expected that having the wrong balance on the broom, due to an extra passenger, would cause a big hassle. But it was not bad for two reasons. For one, the broom manufacturers had added a few spells for precisely this occasion, that Harry had not know about until then. Also, having Hermione press herself on to him was not at all a bad sensation.

Now they were finally in the ritual room and real business could begin.

As before, when Harry stepped into the room, his wizarding light first flickered and then extinguished. He felt the magic of the room again. It was a strange place. Even though he knew that rituals were classified as dark magic, he somehow felt at home here. Hermione tried to cast a lumos, but this also did not work.

"No wand magic will work in here," Theo informed them, from the tunnel, where his wand still glowed, "it's a property of all higher level ritual rooms."

"I just wanted to check." Hermione muttered.

Harry smiled and stepped outside the room again. He propped the door, which opened outwards, with a few rocks that lay on the ground of the tunnel. Then he lit his wizarding light again, and positioned it outside the door, pointing in. It was not the brightest solution, but it did provide some light.

The floor was hard rock and perfectly flat. The circles and the pentagram were black rock which stood out from the light gray of the rest of the chamber.

Hermione pulled out a few candles and lit them. They would help her in drawing the runes. They had brought black sand for that job. Theo had said that usually sand of the appropriate color was kept in a bucket by the room, to be reused as needed. Many rituals required either animal or human blood, but enough needed simple sand that this practice made sense. Harry was glad that this ritual didn't need blood, as this would have been much harder to obtain. They had brought their own just to be sure, but that proved unnecessary. There was a big barrel of black sand just to the left of the door.

Hermione pulled out a parchment, and started drawing runes on the floor. Theo helped her, as he was decent in runes. Apart from a quick comment by Hermione they remained in silence. Hermione had commented on Ancient Runes again: "See, if you were in Ancient Runes you could be helpful here."

Harry smirked. Depending how this worked he might actually reconsider.

But even without his help the runes were drawn quickly. There were only twenty runes between the two of them, so in five minutes they were done with that. While they did that Harry emptied the bag of sand into the tunnel. 'No need to carry that up again,' Harry thought to himself.

Theo stepped next to Harry, "Now we are just spectators, huh."

"Looks like it." Harry answered.

Hermione read once more through her notes. She was just quadruple checking, Harry was sure. There was no way she hadn't memorized all the steps.

Then she lit five candles and placed them at the tips of the pentagram. While she walked around the pentagram she was of course careful to not disturb the runes drawn out of sand.

Then she returned to the center of the pentagram. She lit a sixth candle and burned the witchweed in its flame.

She took a breath of the smoke, suppressed a cough, and then called out: "Winky, your mistress calls!"

Winky instantly popped in front of Hermione. The elf stood on her two feet, but bowed sow low that her ears almost hung to the floor. Harry could not understand how she did not topple over, she bowed so low. "Winky be ready to please mistress."

"My good elf, your house calls in dire need. A most cherished ally of our friend is lost. An ally of a friend of our house is our ally. Therefor I have this most grave task for you. Are you willing?"

Harry wondered how much leeway Hermione had in the command. He really wanted to learn about rituals now.

"Winky be more then willing." She had still not moved.

"Then I task you to not rest until you have found Mafalda Weasley. By this blood," Hermione lifted a flask filled with red liquid, "I prove to Magic that this order is valid." Suddenly Winky stood upright, her face lifted upright, her mouth wide open. Hermione uncorked the flask and poured its content, a few drops, into the open mouth. Harry cringed. Hermione remained stone faced. After the last drop, Winky was instantly back in the bowing position. The feeling of the presence of magic intensified.

"By this blood," Hermione now held a knife in her hand. She slit her hand and squeezed a few drops of blood out and onto the center of the ritual circle, "I vow that this charge is a righteous one, one that honors our friends and allies." Now the presence of magic bordered on being overwhelming. The mysterious force moved the sand on the floor as if it was a strong wind, but Harry could not feel any wind.

Then the candles extinguished on their own.

"Go now, my good elf, do not rest until you can show me were young Mafalda Weasley is located."

With a pop the elf disappeared. Hermione let out a breath. Her face showed that she was not entirely pleased with the ritual. She frowned.

"That seemed to have gone well. I think you did splendid in your first ritual." Theo congratulated her. "Now we can only hope that Weasley is all right."

Hermione answered with a small smile and nodded. "Lets clean up and go back. I'm suddenly very tired." She swayed a little as she said this.

"Come here, you are still bleeding." Harry led her out of the room and performed a quick healing spell.

Clean up was very quick. There was a broom and a little shovel with the barrel of sand, so they put that back. They wiped off Hermione's blood, and in a few minutes the room looked as if nothing had happened.

Harry called Dobby for some food. They ate their sandwiches in silence. Hermione's exhausted silence kept Harry and Theo quiet.

On the broom ride up, Hermione fell asleep holding tight to Harry. He hated having to wake her up when they reached his room. Theo disappeared to his own dorm, and Harry guided Hermione out of the Dungeons with the invisibility cloak.

HPU

In the days following the ritual, Harry was both more relaxed and more nervous then usual. He was more relaxed because he felt like he could give himself a break on the hunt for Mafalda. He felt more agitated, because he was anxious to see if Winky could find Mafalda. It also finally dawned on him that they might well only find Mafalda's corps.

Even Snape noticed that something was off during their Monday Legilimency lesson.

This state of tension was only broken once, when Krum approached him after lunch on Tuesday.

Harry almost laughed when the Eastern European offered an alliance for the final task. He politely asked for some time to consider. He really needed to figure out what to do about these three offers. But at the moment he could not focus on the tournament.

Then finally on Thursday, relief came.

Just after Herbology, Hermione pulled him aside, "Harry, Winky found Mafalda. When can we enter the Dungeons again?"

"Can't you just command her to pop you to Mafalda?"

"Humans can not apparate inside Hogwarts. How many times do I have to tell people that? Elves can't change that, and that includes side along apparition."

"Ok, so how do we find Mafalda now?"

"We can meet in your room as soon as possible, and then Winky can lead us there."

"Okay, when is your last class?"

"Runes comes out at five fifteen."

"Meet me in front of the Dungeons at five twenty. We have no time to waste."

A.N. What can I say. I'm sorry, I don't think I will make predictions how soon I will post, ever again. Unless the next chapter is already written. This one took some time. I can say the next one is half done. Who knows what that actually means. Reviews are nevertheless appreciated! What did you think of the ritual?