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This is going to be a very long chapter...
There are two puzzles in this chapter so you might want to do it.
DM's POV
The moment when he dashed into the Auror Office, Melanie shrieked and documents flew out of their hands, scattered across the floor.
"Mr. Malfoy! You're back!" exclaimed Melanie. "Where's Her-"
"Is Potter and Weasley here?"
Melanie nodded and Draco immediately burst into Potter's Office. Potter stood up, shocked by his sudden arrival.
"Draco-"
"Hermione has been kidnapped," said Draco.
Weasley widened his eyes and gawked, then Potter said,
"Is that genuine?"
"Confirmed, I even received a note."
As Draco passed the notes to Potter and Weasley, Potter asked,
"How so?"
"She's not in the ward, and you wife was in the ward at the moment of disappearance," stated Draco. "And here I thought she was a trustworthy person."
Weasley licked his lips and argued,
"Ginny said she passed out due to exhaustion and she thought you took her a walk around the garden."
"Do you think I would do such a thing when she has a miscarriage?"
"Hey, would you two just shut up!" yelled Potter. "Hermione's missing and you two are arguing over something that's not even important at this stage!"
Draco took a deep breath and began,
"I request a team to assist my rescue."
Potter nodded, but Weasley suddenly pointed out,
"Wait a minute, wasn't Tali with you? I heard Ginny said that Morgan and Turner were with you too, discussing about Phelp's disappearance."
Weasley's sudden sharp mind shocked Draco, then he said,
"I left her at the mountain."
"You what?" yelled Weasley. "How can you leave our client alone!"
"I was worried!" shouted Draco, agitated. "Hermione's my wife and she has a miscarriage! She hasn't yet recovered!"
"So did you contact her before coming?"
"I couldn't contact her!"
Weasley's face had gone crimson with fury and he could no longer hold his temper.
"You're going to get us into trouble! Who's going to write a report then!"
'We're talking about lives when you're talking about stupid reports!"
Potter patted their shoulders, signalling them to control his temper.
"Calm down, we need to clear the path ahead. My understanding is Hermione was with Ginny at the ward, so were Draco, Morgan and Turner. Then Tali came and told you about Phelp-"
"Tania was missing too," added Draco.
"-and Tania's disappearance," continued Potter. "Then you four went to find them-"
"Morgan and Turner went to find Tania whereas Tali and I went to find Hermione."
"Would you let Harry finish his sentence?" snapped Weasley.
Before Draco could punch him, Harry cleared his throat and said
"It's okay. So Morgan and Turner went to find Tania whereas Tali and I went to find Hermione. After that, you received a note saying that Hermione's gone and you went back to check if she's still in the ward but obviously not, and you left Tali up on the mountain. Is that correct?"
"That's more or less what's going on," mumbled Draco.
"Did you receive any news from Morgan and Turner?"
"No," answered Draco, wondering what had happened to them. "Best hope they are alive and still searching."
Potter ruffled his hair, then said,
"We'd better hurry."
A knock rang at the door and Melanie came in, shocked and pale.
"There's a lady at the lounge, feeble and injured," reported Melanie.
Alarmed, Draco clutched her shoulders and said,
"Is it Tali?"
"I don't know, Mr. Malfoy," replied Draco.
"Draco, relax," said Potter and took his hands off the young lady's shoulders. "Let's go."
The moment they walked out of the office, a figure thudded on the floor and Draco hurried towards it. The figure was a young woman with messy hair and dirty clothes, as though she had been through hard times. Bruises were on her limbs and dried blood stains lingered on her skin.
"Mr. Malfoy..." she whispered.
"Tali?" asked Draco, recognising her voice and shocked to see her mauled.
"Mrs. Malfoy is kidnapped-"
"Yes, we know," replied Draco. "Where is she?"
"She's in our castle, I'll lead you-"
"No! You need rest," said Draco. "Trust me, we can handle it."
"No, you don't understand," said Tali. "She put on spells and a sphinx to guard the room."
"She?"
"Tania," answered Tali. "She's planning to bomb Parliament Building."
"Why?"
"Nikoloz is going to make a speech there," explained Tali, then clutched Draco's arms. "Please save him, please!"
"Calm down, Tali," said Potter. "We need to get you to St. Mun-"
Draco raised his hand and stopped his speech. He drew his wand and aimed at her bruises, murmuring. Then with a flick, a flask of purple liquid appeared and he said,
"Drink it."
Tali received the flask and gobbled down the potion without hesitation. The bruises on her slowly faded and she recovered energy.
"That should do," said Draco. "All wounds would be slowly healed in the next eighteen hours," explained Draco. "When is he going to make the speech?"
"Tomorrow morning at nine sharp," said Tali. "We need to save Nikoloz, please-"
"Relax, Tali," said Potter. "We will."
"Tali, we will take you with us, but you will wait for us somewhere safe, is that clear?"
Tali nodded and she fell on her knees, then kowtowed,
"Thank you."
"Now, we need to contact Cassandra and Marcus," mumbled Weasley.
"It's no use," said Tali. "They are Tania's.
"Tania?" exclaimed Draco, shocked. "And here I thought Phelps was the culprit."
"He's the paramour."
"What?" gasped the three men.
Tali took quite a while to explain what she had just witnessed, and Draco could not help getting furious the moment when he heard Hermione being tied to a chair and jeered at. When she finished, Tali said,
"We need to warn Nikoloz."
"No," said Potter. "There is a possibility that Phelps and Tania would be alerted the moment when we reach him."
Draco glanced at the clock. Half past three in the afternoon, seventeen and half an hour until the speech. Things had become more and more complicated. Never had he imagined Tania could plot against her own husband. After hearing Tali's story, he sort of understood Tania's feeling, but then he felt it was not an excuse for murdering Nikoloz. He felt fortunate that Hermione had grown to like him and vice versa.
"We'll take the Portkey to the castle and see if we can rescue Hermione first," suggested Draco.
"I will go to the Portkey Office now," said Potter and immediately he left.
Weasley looked at Tali, wondering that made her so injured. Tali seemed to understand his doubts and explained,
"Cruciatus curse, a few hexes and jinxes, and countless kicking."
"Geez, Phelps did that to you?" said Weasley, disgusted by the idea.
"I consider myself fortunate enough that I am still sane."
Draco bit his lips, then conjured another bottle and quickly stuffed it into his pocket. Potter came back, sprinting, with a large invisibility cloak in his hand.
"The Portkey is ready, let's go."
The moment they darted into Portkey Office, it shocked the old lady and she shrieked,
"Can you not run?"
"Sorry, Mrs. Patterson," said Weasley curtly and immediately they headed to the old leathered shoe on the floor. The moment their fingers reached it, wind swirled around them and they landed on a random floor in the castle.
"Where are we exactly?"
Tali looked around and said,
"Fourth floor. They are in the a room that can only be accessed through the basement."
"Well then, we shall just apparate-"
Tali put her index finger on her lips and quickly, a few footsteps followed behind, then voices rang. Draco wished he had learnt Georgian. After they left, Tali began,
"The basement and the room is magic-blocked so we have to use the Muggle way to get in there."
"What were they talking about?"
"They mentioned something about cries echoing at the ground floor, the corridor that leads to the kitchen."
"That must be Hermione," mumbled Weasley.
"Anyway, we have to go down there without alerting anyone or the alarm system," said Tali. "I could not go down there under the cameras."
"Cameras?" asked Weasley. "Nobody's going to take pictures of you-"
"Not that kind of camera," said Draco, before Weasley could finish his sentence. "We need to take down the cameras."
"I have an idea," said Tali and nudged them to the lavatory.
"What are you doing? We are men!"
Tali went out of the cloak and altered her appearance into Tania's.
"Now, we will just find him."
"Him?" asked Weasley.
Tali opened the door and the boys followed them to a mahogany door. After three knocks, an old man came out and respectfully gave a deep bow. Tali's tone was cold as stone and if Draco had not witnessed Tali changing her appearance, he would have believed that standing before him was Tania. The old man nodded and as he turned back into the room, he clicked the button on the pad before numerous screens showing different places of the castle. Then, all screen blacked out. Draco immediately understood. After the old man closed the door, Tali let out a deep breath, Draco noticed glistening sweats covered her forehead and her body was shaking.
"You alright?" asked Draco as he took off the cloak.
"I was just...never mind, let's go," answered Tali.
They hurried downstairs and turned left towards the kitchen. Sneaking past a few guards and servants, they arrived at a large door that was twice their height.
"This leads to the basement?" asked Weasley.
"We have two basement," explained Tali. "This portal cannot be accessed by Muggles since they cannot see the door."
Potter reached for the door knob but Tali immediately hit his hand.
"Don't touch the door knob, they are hexed."
Tali drew out her wand and muttered a phrase. The door knob rattled and the door swung open. In front of them was a long dark stairs leading to pitch black darkness. They walked down, going deeper and deeper, so deep that Draco could barely see anything. The moment when the saw a glimpse of light ahead, they ran and ran, and light blinded their sight...
The basement was a lot different from what Draco had expected, at least it was different from the Manor's basement. It was a bright corridor made of gold.
"Wow, that's really grand," commented Weasley.
"This way," said Tali. "But it's going to be a problem."
"Why?"
"Riddles."
Tali pointed ahead and Draco saw a sphinx resting by the door. It stood up as they approached with caution.
"The riddle, please," said Tali.
The sphinx began,
"Once a family of six. got lost in the forest. As they reached the river bank, they saw a boat, an Auror and a handcuffed criminal. The boat could lead them to the other side of the river yet the boat could only hold two people at the same time and only adults could control the boat. The family has two daughters and two sons. The father would beat his daughters if the mother was not around and the mother would beat her sons if the father was not around. Please explain how could the family cross the river."
"Damn, how could I forgot Tania was a Ravenclaw!" exclaimed Draco.
"Blimey, how am I going to solve it!" mumbled Weasley, scratching his head.
"Definitely it is going to take a whole day for me to solve it," said Potter, frustrated.
"Damn it!" yelled Weasley, devastated. "Could they not just apparate?"
"I think this logic puzzle is a lot better than words puzzles," said Potter grimly.
After an hour of trial and error, Draco finally came up with the solution.
"First, the Auror and criminal. Then, the Auror comes back and takes one of the daughters, and comes back with the criminal. After that, the mother and the other daughter reached the other side, the mother comes back and sets off with the father. The father comes back, the Auror and the criminal go to the other side. Then, the mother comes back and sets off with the father, the father comes back and takes one of his sons. And finally, the Auror and criminal comes back, the Auror takes the other son, comes back and take the criminal!"
"What did you just say?" asked Weasley, gawked and dazed with confusion.
Draco turned to the sphinx, who was smiling.
"Not nicely phrased but correct logic," commented the sphinx and she moved aside, allowing them to get through the door.
"If you hadn't been sorted into Slytherin, you would have been in Ravenclaw," said Potter.
"I will take this compliment," said Draco.
The door led to two different paths, and Weasley exclaimed,
"Two separate paths again!"
Noise echoed through the right path.
"Let us go, you bastard!"
"That was Cassandra's voice," whispered Tali darkly. "Perhaps that's a trap set by Tania."
Potter ignored her words and walked to the right path, Weasley quickly clutched his arm and said,
"You're going to fall for the trap!"
Potter did not listen and continued walking further into the path. The rest had no choice but to follow, then they saw four people behind the metal bars, two of them were elderly and the other two were Morgan and Turner.
"You two!" yelled Weasley. "You two betrayed us!"
The old lady at the corner of the cell coughed so badly that Draco could tell she could hardly breath.
"Granny!" said Morgan, immediately went to her and patted her back.
"Your grandma?" said Weasley.
Turner sighed and explained,
"They kidnapped her grandma and my grandpa, using them to threaten us. We had no choice..."
Draco felt a bit apologetic, still he said with anger,
"But that does not mean you can hurt Hermione!"
"So why are you here and not by Tania's side?" asked Potter.
"We were useless chess pieces now," said Morgan gloomily.
"You're going to Azkaban for sure," said Weasley, wearing a triumphant grin. "Serves you right!"
"We can tell you everything, in exchange for freedom," said Turner.
Morgan dashed to the bars and said,
"We have always expected imprisonment the moment we stepped into this quicksand. But at least, pity our parent and grandparent."
"Deal, how to get you out then?" asked Draco.
"The puzzle on the ceiling," said Morgan, with her finger pointing upwards.
Draco looked up, a puzzle was written on the ceiling.
There are five houses. Each of the five houses is painted a different color, and their inhabitants are of different national extractions, own different pets, drink different beverages and smoke different brands of American cigarettes
The Englishman lives in the red house.
The Spaniard owns the dog.
Coffee is drunk in the green house.
The Ukrainian drinks tea.
The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.
The Old Gold smoker owns snails.
Kools are smoked in the yellow house.
Milk is drunk in the middle house.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.
Kools are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.
The Japanese smokes Parliaments.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
Now, who drinks water? Who owns the zebra?
Draco wished Hermione was here to help, she could solve any puzzle within five minutes. Potter was not clever yet better than Weasley. Tali was witty but not quick enough to solve such puzzles. With no quills and papers, he could hardly do anything. He took a glance at Potter's watch, it was seven in the evening already. There was not much time left to save both Hermione and Nikoloz. He clutched the bottle in his pocket, probably this would save him a lot of time...
So who drinks water and who owns the zebra? ;)
