"He's not here," Ron whispered to Harry, shutting the bedroom door behind him as he returned to the room he shared with his best friend.
"Bollocks," Harry swore. "What do we do?"
It had nearly been twenty four hours since Sirius had set off to Malfoy Manor, and he'd yet to come back. Harry and Ron's concern had set in the previous afternoon when Sirius didn't return, and they'd now endured a sleepless night, worrying about Harry's godfather. As Sirius had ordered them, they hadn't told anyone about what they'd been up to and when they were asked, they'd claimed to have no idea where Sirius was. However, they now had to decide whether to do as Sirius wanted them to and keep quiet, or tell someone and get help.
"We can't keep quiet," Ron said. "Not when Sirius is in trouble."
"We're going to be in trouble when this comes out," Harry said with a wince. "Dumbledore will kill us for kidnapping Malfoy."
"Technically we didn't kidnap him, it was Sirius," Ron argued.
"I don't think that will save us," Harry snorted. "We knew about it, and we went along with the plan."
"So what do you think will happen when we come clean?" Ron questioned. "What will Dumbledore do with Malfoy, and will telling anyone help save Sirius?"
"If Sirius was captured at Malfoy Manor, I'm not sure how we're going to rescue him," Harry confessed. "Sirius said the place was virtually impenetrable, which was why he needed to pose as Malfoy to get in."
"We can't give up on him, though," Ron argued.
"Of course we're not giving up on him," Harry insisted. "But I'm just thinking, we might need Malfoy to get him back. He's our way into the manor. But if we tell the others, they might not see it that way. They might follow through with Sirius's original plan to obliviate and free him."
"What are you suggesting, Harry?" Ron questioned, trying to work out what his friend was thinking. "That we keep quiet and try and rescue Sirius ourselves?"
"I don't know," Harry confessed, holding his head in his hands. "I wish Hermione was here, she would know what to do."
"I think she would urge us to tell the truth," Ron said. "We can't handle this alone, Harry. We need help."
"You're right," Harry conceded with a sigh. "But we have to fight our corner. Malfoy is the key, we have to ensure they don't just release him. He's our way into the manor, and we can't lose him."
"So who do we tell?" Ron asked. "I think Dumbledore might just dismiss us and do what he wants. Mum will be furious, and then she'll tell Dumbledore. We need to tell someone who might listen to us."
"Remus?" Harry suggested. "He's more cautious than Sirius, but he'll want to save him as much as we do. We might be able to persuade him to listen to us."
"Remus it is then," Ron said with a nod.
Once the boys were both ready and had decided what they were going to say they left their bedroom and set off in search for Remus. When they did find the older wizard he was in the kitchen, but unfortunately he wasn't alone. Molly was bustling around tidying up, and neither Harry nor Ron wanted to bring the subject of Sirius up while she was around, so they exchanged a silent look agreeing to keep quiet until they could speak to Remus on his own.
"What time do the pair of you call this?" Molly tutted, shaking her head at the pair. "It's the middle of the morning. If you're going to get up at this time every day, I'll have to take you both back to The Burrow so I can keep a closer eye on you."
"We've been up for a while, Mum," Ron argued. "We were just upstairs."
"Yet I suppose you both want breakfast," Molly remarked.
"Actually, I'm not really hungry," Harry said. He was far too worried about Sirius to even think about eating food.
"Nonsense, you have to eat," Molly said, bustling around the kitchen to prepare the boys something to eat.
Knowing it was more trouble to argue with Molly, Harry and Ron conceded and let her prepare them a plate of scrambled eggs each. Once she'd handed them their breakfast, she started to make a shopping list and Harry and Ron got their hopes up that they would get to speak to Remus alone. However, Molly was still making her list when Remus got up and announced he was leaving.
"You're going?" Harry questioned, unable to hide his dismay.
"I do have things to do, Harry," Remus replied with a low chuckle. "I'll be back later. If Sirius turns up, tell him he's in trouble."
"You can say that again," Molly muttered. "I only let Ron and Harry stay here because Sirius swore he would be here to supervise the boys. And now he's wandered off, for the second evening I might add."
"He'll be back," Remus said with a shrug. Since he didn't know what Harry and Ron did, he wasn't overly concerned by his best friend's absence.
"He better be," Molly warned. "If he's not back tomorrow, the boys will be coming home with me."
Harry and Ron exchanged a horrified glance at the thought of being forced to return to The Burrow. With what was happening they needed to stay at Order headquarters if they had any chance of rescuing Sirius. However, while the boys were busy contemplating their potential return to The Burrow they missed Remus leaving.
"Has Remus gone?" Harry asked, suddenly noticing that Remus had gone.
"Why the interest?" Molly asked, scrutinising the boys. "Is there something I should know?"
"Of course not, Mum," Ron answered quickly, flashing his mother an innocent smile.
"Okay then," Molly said with a reluctant nod of her head. She wasn't sure if she believed the boys, but she was sure she would find out what was bothering them sooner rather than later. "I've got to go and do some shopping. Do you boys want to come with me? Or do you fancy going to The Burrow for the day? I'm sure Ginny would love to see you."
"It's okay Mum, we're just going to stay here," Ron said. "We were thinking we might get in some revision for our N.E.W.T.S."
"Well it's nice to see you taking things so seriously," Molly said with a proud smile. "I'll leave you to it. Don't overdo the studying though."
"We won't," Ron promised as Molly said her goodbyes and left Grimmauld Place.
"Revision?" Harry asked, chuckling at the way his friend had gotten rid of his mother so perfectly.
"It worked didn't it," Ron replied with a shrug. "Mum won't bother us for the rest of the day. Now we need to decide what to do now? Do we wait for Remus to return, or do we take matters into our own hands?"
"I hate to say this, but I think we need to go and see if Malfoy is okay," Harry replied. "Personally, I'd love to see him starve to death, but we're going to need him, and we're going to need him alive."
"I guess we better take him some food then," Ron said with a sigh. "But will we be able to find him again? Sirius took us last time."
"I should be able to get us back to the cottage," Harry said thoughtfully. Both he and Ron had passed their apparition test, but he had a more natural grasp of apparition than his friend. "I'm not sure about getting past the wards though."
"We could take Sirius's wand," Ron suggested. When Sirius had gone to the manor, he'd taken the wand he'd removed from Draco and left his in Harry's care.
"It's worth a try," Harry replied. "Although I guess even if we do break them in some way it won't matter. Any alerts will go to Sirius's wand, and we'll have that with us. Although we are going to have to be careful not to let Malfoy get free. I'm not sure what sort of wards I can cast to keep him locked up."
"If we have to, we'll physically restrain him," Ron said. "There's two of us against one of him, we can take him. Plus we have magic, while he's wandless."
"Yeah, we'll be fine," Harry agreed. "Now let's grab some food and get going. Hopefully by the time we return, Remus will be back."
Getting a paper bag, the boys prepared a few sandwiches, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and retrieved Sirius's wand. With food for their prisoner sorted, the boys left Grimmauld Place and Harry prepared to apparate them to the cottage Sirius had taken them to a couple of days previously. Harry was as nervous as he'd ever been as he grabbed hold of Ron, and taking a deep breath he focused on where he wanted to take them. On the count of three, he flicked his wand and they vanished with a small pop.
Through the entire thing, Harry kept his eyes closed and his focus on the cottage he wanted to reach. As they landed, he didn't feel any signs of splinching, and when he cracked open his eyes he found himself looking at the cottage Sirius had shown them. Turning to Ron, he was relived to find his best friend was in one piece and seemingly unharmed by their journey.
"Nice one, Harry," Ron said with a grin, taking in the cottage in front of them.
"Now to get through these wards," Harry muttered.
Deciding the best thing was to test out the wards the boys tried to enter the garden, however they both received small shocks as they tried to enter the property. Sirius's wand in Harry's pocket also shot off sparks, but when Harry pulled it out and raised it towards the house, it vibrated and Harry felt a surge of power flow from the wand.
"I think it's disabled the wards," Harry said.
"Without a spell?" Ron queried. "Is that even possible?"
"I don't know," Harry replied with a shrug. "Maybe the wards are connected to the wand, and with the wand's presence they've dropped."
"I suppose it's worth a try," Ron said. "Shall we try again?"
"Let's."
Together the boys once again tried to enter the garden, only this time they passed onto the property without any interference. Grinning at each other they headed towards the front door. Before they entered, Harry tucked Sirius's wand back in his pocket and pulled out his own wand. Ron also pulled out his wand, so they were both armed. With their wands in front of them the pair entered the cottage, bracing themselves to face their enemy.
The first thing that both Harry and Ron noticed was that the chair wasn't in the same place as last time, but thankfully Draco was still tied to the chair. This time he was fully awake and smirking at the duo.
"Well, well, well," Draco drawled. "Look what we have here. Two boys without their pet dog. What's wrong, Black's little plan failed, did it? I told you it would."
"Our plan is going perfectly," Ron snapped, unable to help himself by replying with an obvious lie.
"It looks like it," Draco chuckled. "So what are you going to do now? Try and use me to get into the manor and save your little canine?"
"We've brought you some food," Harry said, throwing the paper bag into Draco's lap.
"And how am I supposed to eat it?" Draco asked as the bag fell back off his lap and onto the dusty wooden floor. "In case it escaped your notice, I'm tied up."
"We'll untie you, but don't try anything," Harry warned, picking the bag back up and keeping his wand aimed at Draco. "There's two against one, Malfoy, and we're not afraid to curse you. We didn't even have to come and feed you."
"I hope you're not expecting me to be grateful," Draco spat.
"We wouldn't expect anything like that," Harry muttered.
Harry checked Ron was ready, before he magically untied Draco's hands, although he was smart enough to keep his feet tied. He then threw the paper bag back to Draco, who caught it and opened it up. Despite Draco's instincts to fight and try to escape, his hunger was more powerful and he gobbled down the sandwich and drank half the bottle of water in one gulp.
"I think that'll do," Harry said, stepping in while Draco was still drinking.
Before Draco even had a chance to consider fighting, Ron had removed the bottle from his hands and Harry had magically tied them back together. The only difference was, his hands were now in front of him rather than behind him. Even so, with his feet tied to the chair he was still stuck and able to offer no real resistance to the two Gryffindors. If Draco had thought he could take the pair, he would have tried, but he was smart enough to know that any attempt to escape would only result in him getting hurt.
"So what now?" Draco asked. He wasn't overly concerned by his capture as he knew rescue would be on the way, and sooner rather than later Hermione, The Dark Lord or his parents would find him. "You're going to leave me until you've figured out how to bend me to your will."
"Something like that," Harry muttered. It was clear the blond wasn't going to help them willingly, so he was hoping Remus would have some ideas on how to get him to co-operate.
After checking Draco was secure and couldn't escape, Harry and Ron left the cottage. Even though he wasn't sure how much good it would do, Harry locked the door behind them before he and Ron passed through the small garden and left the property.
"Do you think we should try Sirius's wand again?" Harry asked. "It might reset the wards automatically."
"It's worth a try," Ron said with a shrug.
Removing Sirius's wand, Harry pointed it at the cottage and gave it a wave. As with when they were arriving, he felt a blot of energy leaving the wand and there was a slight shimmering around the cottage. Clearly the wards were connected to Sirius's wand, and could be disabled and set by anyone. In one way it was good, and it had helped Harry and Ron get into the cottage, but in another way it was dangerous as anyone could steal the wand and use it just like Harry and Ron had done.
"That's it," Harry said. "Now all we have to do is confide in Remus and get him to help us."
"Let's hope he's home," Ron replied as they took one final look at the cottage and headed back to Grimmauld Place.
When they entered Grimmauld Place, they could hear someone in the kitchen and hoping it was Remus, they rushed off to greet him. Entering the kitchen the boys found it wasn't Remus. It was someone even better. It was Hermione.
"Hello boys," Hermione greeted with a smile. "Did you miss me?"
"Hermione," Harry gasped, rushing over to his friend and embracing her. "You have no idea how much we need your right now."
"Yeah, we've been desperate to talk to you," Ron added.
"Is there a problem?" Hermione questioned innocently.
"A major one," Harry replied. "We desperately need your help, Hermione."
"Sit down and tell me all about it," Hermione urged. "I'll do what I can to help."
As Harry and Ron exchanged a relieved smile they missed the wicked smirk that flickered over Hermione's face. As they prepared to tell Hermione everything, they had no idea they were about to make the worst decision of their lives. They were going to do something that was ultimately going to lead to their deaths.