Hey guys! So sorry for the wait. Turns out this chapter was harder to write than I expected but I'm super happy with it. Hope you enjoy!

Ginny leaned against the countertop in the kitchen, reading through the letter Kingsley's owl had delivered with bleary eyes. It was much the same as the others she'd received most every day that week, but she appreciated that the Minister was personally taking the time to keep her updated, even while he had little in the way of new information to share with her.

She'd awoken just after dawn with Teddy still curled up and sleeping soundly beside her. Finding him there had brought the briefest of fond smiles to her face and while waking up with Harry still missing grew increasingly depressing with every passing morning, Ginny was again grateful to have the young wizard with her.

She'd carefully disentangled herself from the blankets, careful not to disturb her godson, and padded quietly down to the kitchen in time to see the familiar regal outline of Kingsley's owl landing outside the closed window. He'd noticed her eyes on him and had simply waited, staring at her imperiously as she crossed the room and unlatched the window to let him in. He'd barely accepted the treat she offered before taking to the skies once more. It seemed the Minister's owl was nearly as busy as the man himself.

Ginny was disappointed but not particularly surprised to find there was little to report regarding the hunt for Harry. Kingsley informed her that all known safe houses in Belarus had been raided and thoroughly searched, and had yielded little in the way of leads. He assured her that they were not giving up, however, and were doubling their efforts in going back over their gathered information in hope of finding something they'd missed. Meanwhile, patrols were still being sent out throughout the land and he was working as much as possible with neighboring governments as well. Ginny wondered if the Minister truly felt as optimistic as he came across in his writing. A large part of her highly doubted it. He was still a politician, after all.

With a deep breath, she laid the parchment aside and straightened, fighting against the wave of anxiety that once more threatened to flood her heart. It isn't anything you didn't already know, she told herself, yet the wave attempted to crest all the same. With a sigh, she turned to face the window and watched in silence as the sun continued to rise in the sky.

Ron lasted a grand total of four hours before losing patience completely with Goodwin's directive. And while he was aware that, in the grand scheme of things, this was not long at all—he and Harry had scoured sources for weeks in the past to find the proof they needed for various cases and raids—he could not stand the idea of sitting idle any longer while he was sure he knew where his best friend was, proof or no proof.

He was sat in a far corner of the safe house's tiny lounge, which had served as the focal point for the Aurors' research the past weeks and was full of conjured desks covered in maps and case files. He was not alone—Goodwin had ordered nearly every Auror who wasn't out scouting to assist in searching for any evidence that a Death Eater safe house could exist at the tripoint—but he paid the others no attention as he tossed aside the report he held on Knox's last known movements and stood to leave. The action didn't apparently seem like cause for concern as he was largely ignored in return.

If Goodwin needed proof before he'd allow the team to do anything, Ron would get it for him—in the form of a first hand glimpse at the hideout. And if he needed to take matters into his own hands once he got there, well, it was safe to say he'd accept any consequences the Ministry wanted to hand down if it meant getting Harry home safe. He was done following stupid rules and wasting time. He hoped Hermione would understand. And Kingsley too, if it came down to it. But Ron had made up his mind and he didn't mind going alone. He knew Harry would do the same for him.

He considered just leaving right then with nothing but the clothes on his back and the wand at his belt, but thought better of it and filled a knapsack with some supplies and a map, applying a feather-light charm before slinging it over his shoulder. He gave the room a last cursory scan and was about to Disillusion himself and turn for the door when a voice asked from behind him, "Have you found something then?"

Ron froze, gritting his teeth, and turned around to face Goodwin, stood in the doorway and apparently unsurprised to have found him attempting to leave. "I don't need to find anything to know where he is," he said evenly.

"Our orders here would indicate otherwise."

"Well, guess what, Goodwin. I'm not an Auror anymore and my being here doesn't change that. You are under orders. I'm not."

"You're right. I'm under orders, and those orders include keeping you from doing something stupid. That's all I'm trying to do."

Ron forced himself to take a breath. "Robards already made it perfectly clear before I came here what would happen if I did. I'm well aware of what I'm risking here and, frankly, I don't care."

"You'd throw your entire life away to possibly find Harry?"

"Without hesitation," Ron told him. The Auror simply nodded. "Look," he went on, "I understand we've only been looking for a few hours and there very well may be some evidence to be found to support my theory, but I can't wait around for that to happen. I am sure Harry is there and I can't sit on that and make him wait any longer. You're not a half-bad Auror, Goodwin, so I know you know a gut instinct is sometimes the best source of evidence there is. Well, that's all I've got to go on here but I intend to follow through on it—"

"Okay."

"—I'm not asking anyone to come with me or anything. I just need to…" Only then did Goodwin's reply fully register with Ron. "What?"

The corner of the Auror's mouth twitched slightly but he remained serious when he answered him. "You're right. Sometimes instinct is all we have to go on and you obviously trust yours a great deal to be willing to risk all that you are. Which is good, because I just sent word to Robards that we'd be moving out shortly to pursue your lead."

Ron blinked. "What?" he repeated.

Now Goodwin really did smile a bit. "You're right. We were wasting our time tracking down leads on safe houses in Belarus that clearly don't exist and I've been doing this job long enough now to know there's rarely such thing as a coincidence. Your hunch seems far-fetched but it is absolutely plausible and we've come up empty everywhere else. We all owe Harry a debt we can never repay and we should be trying every lead we can, adequate proof or no, and the Minister agrees."

Ron's eyebrows had risen in surprise as the Auror spoke. "So…?" he said now, now sure what it was he was even asking. Goodwin was going to help after all? He'd been playing with him before!

He continued now, "I was on my way to inform the team about our change of plans when I ran into you here. Because of the fragile nature of relations abroad right now, the Ministry can't officially sanction this particular raid, meaning the rest of the team doesn't have to take part if they don't choose to, but the Minister has personally given the go ahead for us and any who decide to help. So if you can stand to wait just a little longer, Ron, we'll plan to head out in an hour."

Ron blinked, and then nodded. He reached out to shake Goodwin's hand. "Thank you," he said.

"We're going to find him," the Auror said in reply.

Ron only nodded as he stepped back and moved to follow the other wizard to the lounge while the tiny flicker of risky hope he'd carried with him since he'd first decided to ask Robards to send him to help flickered a little brighter.

The underbrush was scratchy and the approaching night wet and cold as Ron waited impatiently in a patch of forest a kilometer away from the tripoint with a handful of other Aurors for dark to fully fall.

The area was heavily patrolled by Muggle militaries from each of the three bordering countries, but as Ron had suspected there wasn't much evidence of extensive wizarding security. This was good for their particular endeavor, though he had to admit this was mildly concerning considering how strict the borders were supposed to be everywhere else. He hoped it was something Kingsley would seek to correct once they managed to leave with Harry.

The majority of the Aurors working on the case had agreed to come along when Goodwin had given them the option earlier today. Only about a sixth of them had opted to remain out of it and Ron had made a concerted effort not to judge them for their bad decisions in favor of focusing on finding Harry. They'd devised a plan before heading out shortly after eleven that morning.

They'd arrived at the border nearly an hour later—a much smaller group than would be assisting with the actual mission—having been forced to Apparate a few kilometers away and walk the rest of the distance in favor of stealth. The next several hours were spent scouting the area, learning the patrols of both the Muggle and occasional wizarding soldiers, the holes in the watches, searching for evidence of recent magic, possible charms in place, and gathering all the standard necessary information. The plan was to be ready by nightfall, when the rest of the participating Aurors would arrive, and move in then.

They were currently waiting for said night to finish falling and for the reinforcements to arrive. The actual entry plan was a straightforward one and Ron was feeling confident about it even with the limited planning. He was through waiting.

The actual tripoint was rather unimpressive. It consisted of an open area with a cement slab and a small marker designating the space as such. The surrounding area, largely occupied as it was by Muggle military, was wooded and scattered every so often with buildings that maybe served as storehouses or barracks. They had detected evidence of Muggle repelling charms in place throughout the area but the majority of magic, as well as some decidedly unfriendly spells, was concentrated around a single small, rather dodgy looking cabin just over the border of Lithuania. Homenum Revelio had informed them of multiple people inside and, in any case, Ron thought, the place just looked like a Death Eaters' lair. They would breach within the hour.

He was practically buzzing with excitement; he'd developed an incessant drumming of his fingers against his knee and he knew he'd be powerless to stop even if he wanted to. They were so close. Ron could feel it. He and Harry would be home in a matter of hours, where he would face the wrath of both his mother and his fiancée—he honestly wasn't sure which one he was more intimidated by and he thought he'd never looked forward to the prospect more.

A slight rustling sounded behind them and Ron, along with the other Aurors huddled there with him, turned to find the rest of the team had joined them at last. The tallest among them, an Auror Ron recognized as Bentley Rhodes, Goodwin's second in command on this mission, nodded a greeting in the dimness. Goodwin returned the gesture, expanded the Muffliato charm to include the new additions, and then turned to the group as a whole.

"Alright," he said to them, "I want us ready to move in ten minutes. You know the plan. Divide into three groups and cross over at different points. Bear in mind we have permission to be in Balarus but the same can't be said for Lithuania or Latvia. It may be a wizard's No Man's Land but the Muggles don't play games about their borders. Repelling charms are in place but be careful all the same. I don't need to tell you how important this retrieval is." He was met with nods of acknowledgement. "Good. I want us in position and ready to breach by half-past. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," the group answered as one.

Not ten minutes later, they were indeed moving—and quickly. Each of the three groups contained four Aurors and would cross the border at different locations to remain as inconspicuous as possible while travelling in such a large unit. Ron was in the group led by Rhodes and he trotted quietly along behind him and a short blonde Auror whose name he thought might have been Mallory something. He'd never worked with her directly. The Auror behind him had transferred from the French Ministry a few months back. Ron didn't know him well either, and for the moment, he did not care. They were getting Harry back at last.

The plan once they reached the cabin was simple. They had discovered three points of entry into the small building in the form of the front door and two dingy windows on the back and side. Two members of each group would enter the cabin at each point while the other two remained outside as guards and backup—Goodwin had actually tried to assign Ron to this position until he'd leveled the Auror with an unyielding look and, clearly understanding it would be more trouble for him than it was worth otherwise, he'd given it to Mallory something instead. Ron may not have had privileges as an Auror anymore but that didn't matter on an unofficial mission—and regardless, anyone who expected him to sit on the sidelines while Harry's fate hung in the balance was sorely mistaken.

They moved efficiently through the brush. Ron's heart pounded in his chest even while his thoughts quieted and his mind went into that still-familiar mode in which nothing outside of the ground beneath him, the lives around him, and the mission before him mattered.

As Goodwin had projected, it took the team about twenty minutes to reach their positions outside the Death Eaters' cabin, not including the handful of minutes they'd waited in the shadows just past the border while the Lithuanian equivalent of an Auror passed by on the guard route—one of only two apparently in existence—they'd scouted out earlier in the day. Once he'd gone, the team had a full thirty-minute stretch before he came around again—plenty of time to slip past.

Ron moved with the other Aurors to get into position now, keeping with the three members of his group as they navigated silently in the dark to their assigned position at the cabin's left side window. There, they were to wait until Goodwin gave the signal to move in.

A few years ago, the Auror Department had commissioned a special batch of Peruvian Instant Darkness Power from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes that not only removed all light from a room but also prevented any occupants from leaving—though not from entering— until it was removed. It had taken months for George to figure out the right spellwork to make it both harmless and controllable—as well as to invent a way to make sure the Aurors could remain unaffected by it—but the end result had become an invaluable resource for missions like this one. The stuff was being used tonight. Each group carried a canister—Rhodes had theirs—which was to be dispensed prior to breaching.

The four of them lined up on either side of the window, now open just slightly, pressed tight against the cabin to remain unseen from the inside—though frankly the glass was so dirty, Ron highly doubted one could see much out of it anyway. "Ready?" Rhodes, beside him, murmured. Ron nodded, waiting, as they all were, for Goodwin's signal.

It was another minute before Mallory, the closest of them to the front of the building, pointed up to where a streak of light, inconspicuous but definitely there, could be seen just above the roof. "There it is," she said, "Time to move."

She'd hardly finished speaking before Rhodes had the canister of darkness powder in hand, unfastened the clip, and tossed it through the gap in the filthy window. A second later, he had the pane opened completely and jumped in after it. Ron moved instantly to follow.

He knew something was off the moment his feet landed silently—thanks to the Cushioning Charm on his boots—on the floor of the cabin's small bathroom. Brushing aside the thought out of sheer stubbornness, he moved to follow after Rhodes, covering him from behind as they moved out into the main area of the tiny, decrepit house. The place was little more than a dingy living space of kitchen and living room, with a bathroom off one end and a minuscule bedroom off the other. With as many Aurors present as there were, it took only a matter of seconds before the team had swept the place and because he'd used George's charm to enable him immune to the man-made darkness, Ron could see every inch of the depressing place with perfect clarity. And he realized quickly what had seemed so odd from the second he'd set foot inside, his heart dropping down to the general area of his stomach as he did.

Because he had been on plenty of raids during his time with the Aurors; he'd used George's powder plenty of times, and every time he had, the action was met with shouts of shock and fear and anger from the surprised occupants within. Never had its use been met with utter silence.

Not until now. The cabin was encased in impenetrable darkness and there had been not a sound. And now, with the space full of Aurors, Ron understood why.

They were too late. The cabin was empty.

Harry was gone.

He'd lost track of how long it had been since the raid had gone sideways that night. They'd kept him in the dark, away from windows and the light of day—and, he was fairly certain, drugged as well, just enough to keep him aware but disoriented; his mind foggy and any wandless magic suppressed. He'd been at the mercy of Knox's men and their wands for days and it if it hadn't been for that fact that his limbs had not splayed in odd directions when he'd been moved just now, he would have assumed every bone in his body was broken. The pain was certainly bad enough. He'd essentially had to be carried out of whatever hole they'd kept him in since he'd let them take him. As it turned out, days on end of the Cruciatus—among other things—had that effect on a man. He wondered how much longer he could stand it before the torment drove him insane.

Harry didn't regret his choice that night. He hadn't even really thought about what he was doing, he'd simply acted. Murray, though motivated, was young and inexperienced, and he'd seen the moment the young wizard had frozen in the Death Eater's line of fire. Harry had done what he had to do and he'd probably do it again. The thought did cross his mind now though that his heroics might actually get him killed this time. He thought of Ginny and hoped she'd be all right if they did. He thought she would; she was stronger than he was.

They removed the cover from his head now and Harry squinted painfully up at the blurry figure. If the Death Eater had remained quiet, as some tended to, he never would have known who he was—they'd taken and smashed his glasses by his second day with them—before, despite his training, he'd lost track of time completely. But he knew this voice and frankly he was unsurprised to find Knox had come to taunt him. Harry did not know why they'd moved him but he assumed it had to be due to someone getting a bit too close to finding them for comfort. This thought was simultaneously as devastating as it was encouraging.

"Enjoying the change of scenery?" Knox asked cheekily, maybe smiling from the inflection in his voice. To Harry's swollen eyes, he was but a dark-robed blur. "It's almost a pity," he drawled on lazily, "we couldn't stay and watch the show. To see those Aurors of yours show up and flood into our safe house only to find we'd already abandoned it." Harry gave no indication of even hearing him. He slouched horribly in the chair they'd once more tied him to, playing at completely spent—he was concerned to note he did not have to try hard at all. He'd played his role the whole way here, forcing Knox's brutes to support his weight completely as they'd dragged him away to wherever it was they were now holed up. The show had been enough to convince them of his broken state; no one had noticed his tense wrists as they'd bound him once more upon arrival, or the fact that the ropes they'd charmed to tie themselves fit much more loosely than they all thought.

"They came for you, you know," the escaped Death Eater went on, clearly pleased with himself. He must have been in a good mood too, given how long he'd been talking now without casting a single curse in Harry's direction. "Probably been searching tirelessly for their precious Boy Who Lived. They made it all the way to the house we've been using; rushed in there, wands blazing. Little do they know you lot aren't the only ones capable of establishing sources of inside information."

Harry struggled to appear unaffected by this news but perhaps he had finally begun growing tolerant of whatever drug they'd been poisoning him with because his mind was not foggy now as he contemplated Knox's words. Inside information? Was he saying he had a mole inside the Auror Department? Was that how they'd known to leave the hideout before Harry's coworkers arrived?

Knox must have felt very confident indeed that his prize would not be leaving his clutches in any position to do much of anything if he was willing to so blatantly discuss such delicate material.

The Death Eater continued on, confident and amused. "What's truly a shame though was that I missed the opportunity to see the look on your precious Weasley's face when he realized you were not there."

Despite himself, Harry could not keep the shock from flashing across his face at his words. Ron? Ron was here? For him? Of course he was—the git was too loyal for his own good sometimes, though Harry figured he maybe wasn't in a position to pass along criticisms just now.

Knox, of course, noticed and Harry didn't need to see clearly to know his face split into a wicked grin at the reaction in his eyes. "Yes," he gloated, "You didn't know that, did you? Your best friend managed to talk his way over here to find you. It is rather inspiring, the bond you two share," he said, his tone taking on a derisive quality, "It's just too bad he'll never get the chance to see his friend alive again."

Then, in a single, swift movement, he drew his wand and leveled it straight at Harry, the curse already on his lips.

Thanks for reading! I will try my hardest to update soon for you guys.