Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Many thanks to Kaetti for beta-ing

Chapter 13: This is Getting Dangerous

Everyone spoke at once.

"Does this mean what I think it means?" Ron wondered, aloud.

"Where's Dobby now?" Remus asked.

"Elves are immune to the Fidelius!" Algie Croaker exclaimed.

"He might be able to get us into the orphanage!" Hermione cried.

"How did he do it?" Ginny queried.

"Why didn't I notice that before?" Harry berated himself.

"Is this important?" Rosamond Croaker inquired.

"I wonder if House Elves have the same ability as Bollywoggles?" Luna mused.

As her comment was the longest, it continued into the silence that followed everyone else's utterances, which also left everyone looking at her. After the slight pause in the midst of the preceding chaos, Harry turned to Remus.

"Can you get Moody to Headquarters? I'd like to try to figure out what we can do with this. We'll go to the Burrow, get Dobby, and wait for your call."

"Can I come too?" asked Mr. Croaker.

Neville looked a little embarrassed, and looked at Harry. Ron and Hermione did, too.

"I'm sorry, but it's under the Fidelius, and none of us are the secret keepers," Harry told him.

"How about. . . . " he started, but was interrupted by his wife's hand on his arm.

"Let them be, Algie. If none of them are the secret keeper, then it's not their secret. Perhaps you can trade information later. Why don't you go to that library in the Dee Oh Em and find out everything you can about the Fidelius for them."

He looked at his wife, and nodded, resigned. He turned to Harry and said with a smile, "What do you say? I'll tell you what I find out if you tell me what you do."

"That sounds like a good deal. Unless something terrible happens, we'll be back tomorrow, we'll talk after our workout."

They group soon dispersed, the teens heading back to the Burrow and Remus heading to Hogwarts. Algie looked at his wife and asked, "What was that all about?"

"The war against You-Know-Who. Don't worry yourself, dear."

"The war? And I'm not supposed to 'worry myself'?" he asked, in the calm tone that he developed when he knew the answer his wife was going to give wasn't going to be understandable at all, and he could do nothing about it. Of course, she used the same tone with him, when he sometimes talked about what he was doing at work.

"That's right dear. This part is theirs. Support Neville and his friends as best you can. Maybe they'll invite you along later."

"What do you expect to happen, later?"

"I expect Harry Potter to collect a group of people who will follow him when he goes up against You-Know-Who. I hope they will win."

"Me too. Well, I'm off to the library. I shall try to be back in time for tea."

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"Bella."

"Severus."

"Interested in rescuing your husband?"

"And your godson?"

"Yes."

"It won't be easy. Last time we had the help of the Dementors."

"We still have a few."

"Will it be enough?"

"I don't know. But that is the least of our worries. Doing this without permission will get us killed if we don't succeed."

"That's true. I have got to be crazy to follow you."

"That about sums it up. Here's the plan. . . ."

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That morning at the Burrow had been chaotic, Charlie contemplated. He sat in the living room, reading a book, monitoring the fireplace. With Headquarters closed for who knows how long, Diggle had asked that he continue be the contact person, but at the Burrow.

But that morning it had been interesting, as his mum had tried to make breakfast, while trying to keep Dobby out of her kitchen. Every time she turned around he was setting the table, washing a dish or utensil she was using, putting food on the table. Molly was not used to volunteered help. Harry was bad enough. No, she expected to order unenthusiastic workers to help, but only what she needed, when she needed. It was funny, though, when both Dobby and his mum had scolded Harry for taking care of his own dirty dishes.

They had survived breakfast and Molly had gone to St. Mungo's while Harry and company had gone to Neville's. Dobby had busied himself with the laundry. Charlie had to admit that the elf seemed happy to work. He wished he could be doing something better than sitting around.

The fireplace flared green. It was early for the kids to be coming back, but not too early. Just in case, he had his wand trained on the fire as the first body came stumbling out. Ginny caught her balance and didn't fall. She was soon followed by Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and finally Harry, the only one who ended up in a heap on the floor. He picked himself up, grumbling something under his breath. Charlie was a bit alarmed when he saw Neville.

"What happened? Why are you all here?"

"Something has come up. We're going to see if we can reclaim Headquarters," Harry answered. For a few moments there was auditory chaos while everyone tried to tell Charlie what had happened.

By the time Charlie had it sorted out and Dobby had his role in the upcoming activities explained, the fire turned green again, and Remus and Mad Eye appeared.

"According to Dobby," Harry told the new comers, "house elf magic works a bit like Owl magic - they can always find their masters. Whether that helps in this situation or not we'll have to see."

"You're Dobby's master?" Hermione asked, a trace of anger in her voice.

"Ever since the great Harry Potter freed Dobby, Dobby has wanted Harry Potter to be Dobby's master. Now Harry Potter is master!"

"But he's paying you, right?" she asked.

"Yes, because Dobby is free! And Dobby chooses Harry Potter to be master because Harry Potter is the bestest wizard in the world!"

Harry looked embarrassed and Hermione smirked at him.

Moody interrupted the teens, "I've talked to just about everyone who can talk to me in the Aurors and among the Unspeakables, and they all tell me the same thing: you can't get past a Fidelius. I didn't tell them about what your Elf did. What they don't know can't come back and haunt us. If there's a Portkey Anchor inside one, then yes, you could portkey to it, but it would have had to be there before the Fidelius was cast. Which is probably the case here. The few I've given more details to say if we can get the so-called Anchor Chain -- the portkey that's attached to the Anchor, we could get inside the hidden room, and probably find the Fidelius runes. Break the runes and we can get the room back. You're sure that one room is the only one the Death Eaters trapped?"

"No, but it's the only one that I can remember being there that we can't find now," Harry answered.

"Portkey anchor?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, an object enchanted with a portkey, that the portkey will take you to. Usually a portkey can only take you to a specific place. But with an anchor, you can move the target location. For a two way portkey, you actually have two anchors. One nasty thing about them, is they can get through a standard anti-portkey ward. You need a special one to stop it. Theoretically, we could get Grimmauld Place back, and be relatively safe. But the wards that will stop an anchored portkey are hellishly tricky. We might not be able to do it until Bill gets back."

"Well, we might as well go to headquarters and see what we can figure out," Harry said. He threw some floo powder into the fireplace before anyone could object, said "Headquarters" and spun away. Dobby popped away a moment later. There was more chaos as everyone else tried to get to the fireplace at the same time. They eventually got it sorted out, and found Harry on the third floor with Dobby in a bedroom.

"I see a closet door there, any others?" Harry asked. Dobby answered in the negative. Harry told his assembled friends, "We've gone through most of the rooms of the house, and the only door that Dobby can see that I can't is on the second floor, next to Hermione's room. We just a few more up here, and the attic, and we'll have searched the whole house for missing rooms or closets."

They quickly finished, and went down to second floor. Dobby pointed to a blank wall where he said that he could see a door. No one else, including Mad Eye, could see it.

"Now what do we do?" Harry wondered.

"Dobby can pop in and check out the room," Hermione suggested.

"And if there's traps in there? Wouldn't do to have our only way into that room be stuck in there," Moody snarled.

"How about he open the door and look in?" Ron suggested.

"Same problem, door could be trapped."

"Why would the door be trapped?" Luna asked. "If no one can see it, unless they have been given the secret, it wouldn't make sense."

"Constant vigilance!"

"Or an excuse not to do anything?" Luna asked. "Dobby, open the door, and lead me in."

"NO!" several voices spoke at the same time.

"I'll go in," said Charlie. "I'm tired of being the Order's receptionist. I'd like to see some action."

"Be careful what you wish for," said Luna.

Charlie and Mad Eye went with Dobby to the blank wall. Dobby held Charlie's hand, who held Moody's. The elf reached out to the wall, and disappeared. For a moment Charlie stood there with his arm out, but hand invisible. Then suddenly, he looked surprised, and appeared to be pulled into the space where they knew the room had to be.

Moody had time for an "Oh, Sh..." before he lost his balance and disappeared from view, too. Harry leaped forward, and felt the wall - he still couldn't find the door.

"Dobby!" he yelled. The house elf appeared beside him, once again curled up and trembling.

"Dobby, you have to help me. Lead us into the room, please. Everyone, grab a hand; Remus, take mine. Dobby, please, take us in there."

Dobby uncurled, but was still reluctant to approach the door.

"You can leave as soon as we're in. Please Dobby, we have to help them."

Dobby nodded, and took Harry's hand. He reached for the wall where Harry had just been feeling, and opened a door. As Harry stepped forward, he passed through some magical barrier, and was in the bedroom. An Inferi grabbed at his arm that was holding Dobby, but Harry moved aside, making sure he didn't let go of Remus. He saw Charlie being choked by a pair of Inferi. He had no time to see anything more, because the Inferius that attacked him was moving at him. Checking that Remus was all the way in, he let go of the werewolf and dove away from the zombie. He whipped out his wand and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" and stopped the creature. Spinning, he cast it again on one of the zombies holding Charlie, and the other dropped too, caught by a spell from Ron, who had followed Remus in. Remus finished his second casting of the spell, dropping one that was holding Moody. There was a second one already on the floor by Moody.

Harry looked around. There appeared to be only the five in the room. Charlie sat on the bed, rubbing his neck, and coughing, as he tried to fill his lungs beyond their capacity to make up for the lack of air. Remus was kneeling next to Mad Eye. He appeared to be feeling for a pulse. The room was starting to get crowded.

"Oh, no!" Hermione cried. Harry looked at her, but she was looking at Remus. Remus was shaking his head. She rushed over to Moody, calling Harry to help her. She felt for a pulse, and when she didn't feel one, she titled his head back, closed his nose, put her mouth over his, and inflated his lungs twice. She got up, found the spot a hands width above the solar plexus, put one hand over the other, and started CPR.

"1, 2, 3, 4, Harry, get ready to breath for him...10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Breath!"

Harry, who had only a vague idea of what Hermione was doing, none the less tried to imitate her actions, and did get some air into Moody. After two breaths, Hermione started pumping his chest again.

"Someone, get Pomfrey!" Hermione called, keeping count at the same time. Ginny went running out of the room, and Remus took over from Hermione. They kept it up, switching between the three of them, while Ron and Neville moved the petrified zombies into a corner. Charlie recovered enough to explain that the five Inferi seemed to have been left as guards, and two each attacked him and Moody. While he was talking, Moody coughed, and Hermione and Remus helped him sit up.

"Next time I say say watch for traps on a door, watch for bleedin' traps!" he croaked out. Remus and Ron helped him out of the room, leaving Harry, Charlie, and Luna. They looked around the room, but didn't see anything that was an obvious Portkey Anchor. Luna did find a set of runes in each corner.

"I've never seen runes set like these. But I do recognize them: that's secret; Those are hide and knowledge; that one's easy, air, that's friend, and that's elephantseal."

"Huh?" Harry had been looking at the runes as Luna pointed them out, but for the last one he looked at her. She held her dreamy expression for a moment, then laughed out loud.

"Or maybe it's promise," she was able to get out between laughs. Harry and Charlie chuckled with her.

"Harry," she said, as she got control of herself. "How long are we going to be in here?"

"After they get Moody looked after, I assume Remus and the rest will come back. Uh, except they can't get back in, right?"

She nodded. They held hands, and with Harry staying inside the room, Luna stepped outside. She found most of the rest of the group out there, and helped them back inside.

"Moody will be alright. Pomfrey has taken him back to Hogwarts' infirmary. Meanwhile, what do we do about this place?"

Luna pointed out the runes, and Remus felt they should wait for Flitwick or Bill to disenchant them. They used Mobilicorpus to move the bodies outside while Remus contacted Tonks. She arrived with several Aurors, who helped get rid of the zombies.

They floo-ed back to the Burrow. After a mostly quiet supper, people floo-ed back to their own homes, Harry and Hermione staying at the Burrow again.

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The next several days fell into a pattern. The Ministry crew would go to Neville's for training in the morning. A couple of morning Charlie joined them, and once George did. Alister Moody joined a few times, too, and gave help and instruction the days he was there. They would have lunch at Neville's and go their separate ways.

Luna was still looking through the old issues of the Prophet for clues to "R.A.B." Hermione was floo-ing to Hogwarts to look through Dumbledore's papers. Remus went with her a few times, but was less curious about the Headmaster's circle of friends, and more diligent in searching for information on Horcruxes. Ron, Ginny, and sometimes Harry, would go to St. Mungo's in the afternoon; their mother insisting upon it. Neville was still receiving instructions from his uncle almost ever afternoon, but he was also getting some time in on his green house, helping with the construction. Remus moved out of where he was staying (he never said where that was), and into a room at the Longbottom manor. Moody, on those days he showed up at training, would take Harry afterwards and portkey away. Later, they found that Harry was training with some Aurors-in-training. Ron was a bit jealous the first time. The second time, Harry spent the night in pain as a very broken leg was mended with Skele-grow. Ron wasn't so anxious or jealous after that. Ron wasn't sure if it was connected, but Harry mentioned that Moody was pretty upset when he heard that Harry had given his real name to the pub owner in Godric's Hollow. Harry admitted that in retrospect he probably shouldn't have done that.

Harry, Moody, Remus, and Algie Croaker spent an afternoon working with Dobby trying to discover the limits of the elves' ability with respect to the Fidelius. With a vow of secrecy from Croaker, Harry got him permitted to Headquarters. Moody wasn't happy, but did say that Croaker had a clean reputation from the people Moody trusted.

Dobby could see the door that no one else could. He could "pop" into it as easily as any other room, and neither magically nor visually did he detect the spell. When it was open, and some part of a person's body passed through the Fidelius field, they too could see the the door and the interior of the room. Further searches of the room didn't reveal anything. Algie examined the runes. They were similar but not exactly the same as the ones that were placed around a structure being hidden by a Fidelius.

Harry pointed to one, "Uh, does that have anything to do with elephant seals?"

Croaker nodded and said, "Good catch. It could be called a variation on that. The Vikings had a saying, "Elephant seals never forget." This modification reflects the longevity of memory, and is used for promise.Glad to see the young people still taking an interest in the old magic."

Harry looked embarrassed, "Actually, Luna figured that out. I don't know runes. I guess she was making a rune pun."

Croaker snickered. He thought they should wait for Bill or Flitwick before trying to disenchant the runes and recover the room.

The next day after the workout, Harry was explaining what they found. As it was just the people in the know, they could talk freely, with a little protective magic. They discussed how Dobby could get them into the orphanage once they found it.

Harry spoke with frustration, "But that's the point, isn't it? Dobby can't get us into the orphanage unless we know where to look for it. We can't take Dobby all over London pointing out every building to him, and asking if he sees one we can't. It would take years, and how do we sneak around London with a house-elf and not draw attention? From the Muggles, if not from Voldemort!"

Ron tried to head off Harry's rant. "Hey, mate. Calm down. The Fidelius just hides the address. There has to be something that tells us what part of London it's in. We just have to keep digging."

"Ron," Hermione said, with her that's a stupid suggestion voice. "The Fidelius will stop anyone from remembering where it was. Harry's right, we stuck." She looked at her food gloomily.

"No, Ron's right. When I was being driven to Headquarters, I could get us to the neighborhood, even though Bill cast the Fidelius while I was on the way. Once there, I couldn't remember where the house was, or even see it, but I got close..." his voice faded.

"So what we need," Luna continued, "is to ask someone who used to live or work there."

"How do we do that?" Ginny asked.

"There must be records!" Hermione spoke rapidly. "We can go to City Hall and see if they can get us a list of people who used to live there."

"Let's go this afternoon," Luna suggested. "I am so tired of the Prophet's basement."

Hermione nodded. "I can do with some time away from Professor Dumbledore's papers. I read a fascinating one yesterday where he definitely proved his fallibility. He was arguing with Godel on the incompleteness theory, and totally missing the whole point."

"Harry," Ron asked, "want to come with us to St. Mungo's? Mum thinks it will be real soon."

Harry nodded. They soon floo-ed to their respective spots, leaving Neville with his great uncle for another round of tutoring on the business of farming and running a manor.

"Neville," Croaker said, "I want you to know that I'll help you any way I can. I know you're training to fight the Death Eaters, and I want you to know I'll help."

"Thanks, Uncle Algie. If we need you, we'll ask."

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"The Master should be told," Pettigrew whined.

"Where's your effing Gryffindor courage, Wormtail?" Bellatrix mocked. "The Master rewards those who further his cause with initiative."

They were not far from the North Sea wharf where the only boat that could reach Azkaban was being guarded. Wormtail looked around the small group of Death Eaters, and saw no one willing to back him up. It was always like this. He was bullied into doing things he didn't want to do. The fame and power he had been promised after school hadn't materialized. He was still low rat in the pecking order. Somehow, someway he would get his revenge. The simmering hate that he used to have against James and Sirius now burned against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. What was even more humiliating was that Voldemort knew it, but considered it worthless. He considered Wormtail worthless, even after all he had done for the Dark Lord! No, his hate would be assuaged. He would get his revenge one day!

"It's time. Get going."

Snape, too, mocked his hate. Yes, he would get them all. But it had to be done delicately. There had to be no chance that he would be caught. He concentrated, and turned into a rat. Those years with the Weasleys were the best years of his life. He looked at his silver paw. Even that was gone now, he could never be just a rat again.

He grasped the portkey anchor in his mouth, and headed towards the Azkaban boat.

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Harry sat in what had become known as the Dementor Ward. It was, frankly, boring. There had been other dementor attacks, before and after the Wedding, and there were about fifty bodies on beds, slowly dying. When the staff knew that a family member was coming to visit, they moved the patient closer to the door, and left more room about the bed. Both times that Harry had been here there were about six other patients being visited. Harry had been there for about an hour. He wondered how Mrs. Weasley could do it, sitting there all day. George wasn't even there. Harry found out he went back to the shop for the first time today. Harry mumbled about being back in a minute, and got up to stretch his legs. He headed out the door of the ward.

Down the hall was a water fountain. He met a man he had seen in the ward. The man must have noticed him, too, and smiled at him, and said, "Doing alright, son?"

Harry sighed, and answered, "Yes."

"It's sad, and it's cruel, but I don't know what else they can do for them. It's almost worst for us." He too sighed. "Someone from your family in there? I'm visiting my wife. It just doesn't seem right to leave her alone, even though I know she's not there."

"My best mate's brother and father," Harry answered. "Can I ask you a question? What were you doing in there?"

He chuckled, and brought out something from his pocket. "You mean with these? It's and old, meditative prayer called the Rosary. You assign your body the task of repeating a prayer over and over, and let your mind reflect on the story behind the prayer. The beads are part of body part - giving your hands something to do, as well as being a counting method. It helps relax me, and, of course, prayer is never wasted."

"Does it help your wife?"

"I believe so. It won't wake her up, but I believe that she's in a state where my prayers can help her. As a great Christian once said, 'Prayer doesn't change God, it can only change us.' So my prayers are helping me, too."

"So you think you'll see your wife again. I have a friend who thinks like that."

"Belief in the supernatural is the most natural thing in the world, son. Yes, I believe we be together again. What do you believe?"

"I don't know. I know I've met ghosts, but I've also talked to pictures and a book and they all had some sort of magical, animated version of the original people. Professor Dumbledore said that death was just the next great adventure."

"Never heard it put like that, but I have read that heaven is a very busy place, and God wants courageous people."

"Why does God do this," Harry made a vague gesture to the Dementor Ward.

The man chuckled. "That is one of the two biggest questions that no one has ever answered about God. They're called the Problem of Pain, and the Problem of Evil. Why does an all powerful God allow the innocent to suffer? And why does a good God allow evil? Don't expect an answer from me! Much greater minds than I have wrestled with this question. My own answer for the problem of evil is what I call the Road analogy. God created a road for us to reach him. However, roads go both ways, and to take the road the wrong way is "evil." Money is a useful tool, and can be used to help yourself and others down the road in the right direction. But it can be misused, too, and take you the wrong way on the road. Thus, the saying, 'Love of money is the root of all evil.' I don't believe it is the root of all evil, but it is a very easy way to end up on the path of evil."

"But if it's so easy to use the wrong way, why have it at all?"

"Money is damn useful. I don't think we can go back to bartering for what we want."

"Not just money, but lots of things. Power? Magic?"

"I think it was the same author who said, 'God is a hedonist -- he made millions of things people can do without sinning. To be a sin, it has to be twisted.' Think of a beautiful flower. The most innocent, beautiful thing in the world. How can such a thing lead the wrong way on the road? But imagine someone becoming so obsessed that they would kill someone who hurt the flower? Or that they spend all their time caring, watching, breeding the flower, and let their family go hungry, or ignore their neighbor's need. Should there be no flowers just because some people can use them as an excuse for evil? Just about anything can be used wrong."

"Love?"

"Love is a word that means so many different things. But it can be twisted, too. Twist it one way, and it's lust. Twist it another, and it's obsession. Twist it again, and it's objectification. But love is directing yourself outward for others -- helping, caring, sharing -- and like 'good' itself, it must become something else to be used wrong. Jealousy, stalking, dehumanizing sexuality -- these things are a twisting of love. It's no longer love once it's been twisted."

He held out his hand, "My name is John Hatterson, by the way."

"Harry Potter."

"Pleased to meet you. Shall we go back inside? I'm not really up for a deep theological discussion at the moment. You can introduce me to your friends, and maybe we can talk about our dying loved ones. It can help, you know."

Harry agreed, having seen it a few times recently. They went back inside.

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In early summer, 1945, Tom Marvolo Riddle left the Greater London City Orphanage for the last time. He signed a paper, and the social worker put the paper into his folder, and tried to make small talk with the tall, young man. Riddle just wanted to leave, and did.

Several years later the image of that folder came back to him. He thought about it for quite a while before deciding what to do. He spent more time among the Muggles than he wanted, but he was Slytherin, and did what had to be done to reach his goals. In the end he had placed a warning ward on the folder. And there it waited, quietly for many years.

Then, less than two years before he was resurrected, he felt the spell call him. He was in Romania at the time, and couldn't move fast enough to get to London quickly. He made his way back in his spirit form, and discovered months later that it was Dumbledore. It worried him, but what could the Headmaster really find out about him? That he didn't get along with the other children? That he was never caught doing anything wrong, despite all the allegations? The lack of useful information was the reason he didn't destroy the folder, and the knowledge that someone was researching him could be important. He should have expected Dumbledore to look into it, had he thought about it. The fact that someone else had triggered his ward meant that Dumbledore hadn't shared his information. Voldemort smiled as he looked up from torturing a Muggle. He ordered one of his Death Eaters to kill the man, dropped the anti-Apparition field, and apparated away.

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Harry and Mr. Hatterson re-entered the ward, and Harry did introduce him to the Weasleys. They started talking about their family members and it was was helping. Molly broke down, and was engulfed in a group hug that included not only her children, but Harry and their new friend.

She had mostly finished her sobbing when Harry cried out in pain. He collapsed on the floor, clutching his head, and shuddered. Suddenly he straighted, and actually bent backwards, in the throws of some sort of seizure. His scream of pain stopped when his lungs ran out of air, and he still tried to cry out. He was jerking every few seconds, and even when pulling in a breath, his breathing would be interrupted by the convulsions. Molly, Ron and Ginny tried, to hold him. Ron had never seen Harry do anything like this, even though Harry had woken him many times with his screams. Hatterson ran to get help. A few minutes later healers came rushing in. They were unable to get a calming potion into his mouth, the convulsions causing his jaw to clench, and when he seemed able, he screamed. This seemed to go on another ten minutes, the healers completely baffled. They got him on a gurney, and were quickly rolling him to a room, the Weasleys following closely.

About fifteen minutes after it started, before they could even get him to a room, he stopped moving, and went unconscious. They got him into a room, and he lay there, shaking every few minutes. Over the next few hours the healers kept looking but couldn't find the cause.

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Luna and Hermione waited in a office at one of the government buildings. This was the fourth office they had visited. Hermione was worried at how the Ravenclaw was going to act among the Muggles, but she was pleasantly surprised. Luna had helped Hermione come up with the story they were going to use, and had been completely proper while in the presence of the Muggles. When asked, Luna explained that on her vacations with his father they had learned how to work in the Muggle world, especially with government officials. You just couldn't search out of the way parts of countries without a government permit most of the time.

The two witches walked up to the first official they encountered and gave a story about a school project and wanting to interview people who knew Hermione's great uncle Tom Riddle when he was in the orphanage. So here they were on the fourth floor of a large downtown building, waiting for someone to return from the archives with the information.

Suddenly, Luna looked up, shocked. "Hermione, we have to get out of here, now!" she whispered.

"Why? We finally found the right office, and they're going to help us." But Luna had a death grip on Hermione's arm, and was pulling her out of the room. The lights flickered and dimmed. One of the computers put up a blue screen, several others seemed to just stop working.

"Someone's just cast a powerful spell. We have to get out!"

The lights flickered again. Then again.

"I think you're right. Lets head down the stairs. I don't trust the elevator with the power problems."

As they opened the door to the door to the stairs, they heard the yelling from above and the pounding of footsteps. They also heard a high pitched laugh, and a pair of words that made Hermione's blood run cold.

"Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra!"

It was followed by more screams. Then an alarm bell started ringing. Suddenly, the building was filled with voices crying "Fire!"

They two young women headed down the steps. It quickly became crowded, and then they heard shouting from below, "The fire door is locked! Head out the main door!" The crowd started moving again. Hermione and Luna reached the ground floor, and were again stopped by the crowd.

"The building's locked! No one can get out! We're all going to die!"

There were more screams from above, and the sounds of explosions. Hermione and Luna were stuck in the stairwell, more people trying to push down from above, but there was no where to go.

Hermione looked panicked. If they were closer to the emergency exit, she might have risked a spell. She could try to Apparate, but Luna didn't know how yet, and she wouldn't leave her friend. She looked at Luna and saw the girl had the same determined look that she had worn in the Department of Mysteries. She looked at the wall beside them.

"Does this look like an exterior wall to you?" she asked, in the same sort of voice you would ask if it was raining.

"It's on the same wall as the emergency exit, so I'd say so. Think a Reducto will get us out of here?"

"Not without alerting You-Know-Who. Lets get to it." They wiggled through the panicked people towards the wall. Since most people wanted to get to the door to the lobby they didn't have that much trouble. Luna reached in her purse and pulled out a box. Inside were two vials. She took one with an iridescent purple liquid in it and poured some on her hand.

"What are those?" Hermione asked, curious, despite their circumstances.

"The other is a headache potion. This is the quasi-locus potion." She had spread it all over her hands.

"Everyone!" Luna suddenly shouted. "Hold hands, it will stay open as long as you hold on to the person ahead of you!" She took Hermione's hand, and said, "Grab someone. Lets go!"

She put her free hand against the wall, and it went right through, as if there was no wall at all. Hermione grabbed the woman next to her, and started through the wall, telling her to hold on to the next person. She went through the wall without feeling a thing, and found herself outside.

Luna kept walking and pulling Hermione away from the building, leading a chain of people. The people following weren't as collected, though, and several were coming through at a time now, causing jams. The chain broke as the woman following Hermione started running away. Hermione noticed people still coming through the wall.

Luna said that as long as they held on to the person going through ahead of them, they'd get through. Seeing no reason to stick around the two walked through the alley and joined the crowd of onlookers at the front of the building. As they were coming out, they noticed one of the "policemen" at the front door had a wand. Hermione wanted to talk to him, but the crowd control wouldn't allow it.

Luna got his attention by yelling, "Hogwarts Alumni!" The wizard looked up, and came over to talk to the waving girl. He pulled them away from the crowd, and they quickly told him that Voldemort was inside killing people. He blanched.

"If You-Know-Who is inside, how did you get away?"

Luna answered, "He started at the top. We used a potion to get out near the emergency exit down there," she pointed. "I'm sure if he knew anyone was from our world, he would have killed them right off.

"I've got to get those people out!"

"Tell the people out here that it's a terrorist attack, and the building might explode. Then put a piece of clay on the door, wave the people away through the window, and cast a blasting charm, they'll think you put some explosive on the door," Hermione suggested.

"Somehow he's locked up the whole building, so you'll need to destroy the door to get the people out," Luna added.

He nodded, and started implementing their plan.

Hermione and Luna quickly moved with the crowd as the police ordered everyone away because of the danger of the building collapsing. The two reached the car, and as Hermione unlocked Luna's door, the younger girl started to shake. Hermione was stunned for a moment, and grabbed her in a hug. Luna started crying.

"I was so scared!"

There was an explosion from down the street in the direction of the building they just escaped from. It sounded like the building was indeed collapsing. Luna shuddered harder, and Hermione also felt a sense of disbelief that they had escaped even though it had been a narrow one. She got Luna calmed down enough to get her into the car, and drove towards Headquarters. From there they floo-ed back to the Burrow, and Hermione put Luna to bed in Ginny's room. She was emotionally exhausted.

As Hermione sat down to wait for the return of the rest of the Weasleys, she realized that they weren't any closer to finding the location of the orphanage. She cursed under her breath as she too fell into an exhausted sleep.