Chp 14: A Close Encounter
The New Year had passed uneventfully, and classes were back in session at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The seventh years were all buried in their studies as their N.E.W.T.s were quickly approaching.
Hermione sat at her desk in Defense Against the Dark Arts, eyes concentrating on Snape as he droned on about the use of Inferi in battles. Next to her, Harry shuddered briefly, remembering his close encounter with the pale bodies the previous year.
Ron was snoring lightly on Harry's other side, and Harry nudged him with an elbow.
Ron's eyes snapped open and he picked up his quill, starting to write notes with fervor, yawning widely.
The blonde boy sitting on Hermione's other side snickered at the bleary look on Ron's face. Hermione smacked his hand lightly under the desk, and he caught her hand in his own, fingers entwined.
Hermione's eyes widened momentarily. It had, after all, only been a week and a half since that night.
The night where everything changed. She thought dreamily, before shaking herself and busying her free hand with note taking.
Draco allowed himself to look at Hermione out of the corner of his eyes. He thought of how beautiful her face seemed to him as she bent over her parchment, writing furiously with the quill Ron had given her for Christmas
The necklace she wore around her neck caught the soft light from the chandelier overhead, and he smiled to himself. Hermione kicked him.
"Mr. Malfoy," came Snape's oily drawl. "For the third time I ask: Can an Inferius be defeated?"
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It was Monday evening, and Harry and Draco walked to Dumbledore's office in companionable silence.
When Harry and Ron had first discovered that Hermione and Draco had finally gotten together, they had teased him quite mercilessly, but that had settled down as the group adjusted it's rhythm to Draco and Hermione's relationship.
"Butter Toffee," Harry said clearly to the gargoyle, which spring to life.
Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, and nodded as the two boys entered his office. The portraits looked at the two boys with interest, as they always did, and Harry smiled at them.
"Tonight, we will not be conducting any research," Dumbledore began. "Instead, we will be taking a short journey."
Draco and Harry looked at each other with excitement. Taking the heavy cloaks the Dumbledore handed them, they wrapped themselves and followed Dumbledore out of the castle.
The snow glittered in the moonlight. A light wind blew some of the loose snow around, and it swirled in ghostlike patterns across the frozen surface of the ground.
The three did not speak a word until they had reached the gates of the school. Dumbledore stopped abruptly.
"We are partaking in a dangerous mission tonight. Before they went into hiding, Lily and James Potter lived just outside of Hyde Park. Regulus Black was found dead not far from where they lived. He had been living in an abandoned home, and we can now assume that he had been trying to reach the Potters to give them information."
"We will be visiting the site of Regulus Black's murder to see if we can find any information as to the whereabouts of the locket he stole."
The two boys nodded gravely, and the group walked down the road towards Hogsmeade.
Dumbledore stopped at a small clearing along the road, and spread his arms.
"We will apparate from here. Concentrate on the address '18 Whingley Lane,'" He said, before disappearing with a sharp crack.
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The wind whistled softly through the branches of the trees, and Draco looked with great trepidation at the rickety shack before them.
The porch leaned precariously to one side, and the middle step was missing. A beat up porch swing creaked back and forth in the cold breeze, as though a ghostly figure were sitting there, observing.
He noticed that Harry and Dumbledore had strode purposefully forward, and he shook himself mentally.
It's just an old house. No need to get all jittery, he thought to himself forcefully.
Dumbledore repaired the broken step with a swish of his wand, and the three carefully climbed up the steps.
"Alohomora," Dumbledore said firmly, and the creaky door swung open.
The inside of the building was covered in a thick layer of dust and smelt strongly of mothballs and cat.
Harry picked his way across the floor, avoiding several dead mice and piles of bat droppings while Draco fidgeted nervously, back pressed against the wall.
Dumbledore stood in the middle of the room, eyes closed serenely, with his fingers pressed together.
"Ah. Of course." He said softly, opening his eyes. "Follow me."
Harry and Draco followed without a word. Dumbledore strode into the hallway, turned the corner, and was waiting for them in the midst of an old kitchen when Harry and Draco entered the room.
"Doesn't this all seem rather…simple?" Draco asked hoarsely.
"My dear boy, Harry and I have already gone through the magic to get to this Horcrux." Dumbledore said kindly as Harry shifted uncomfortably, remembering the awful events of the previous year.
"All that remains is to discern if Regulus succeeded in destroying the Horcrux, or if he hide it somewhere. If he had not succeeded in destroying it, we can be sure that it was hidden very well for Voldemort not to have been able to track it down."
"Now. Regulus lived in this room here, it still has traces of magic."
Draco and Harry watched as Dumbledore whispered softly, caressing the dusty countertop.
His long fingers traced an intricate design on the surface, and gestured for Harry and Draco to join him.
The three placed their fingers lightly around the patterned traced on the table, and in unison spoke one of the many spells that they had learned during their lessons with Dumbledore.
"Aparecia Totalus."
The pattern glowed golden, and the golden light floated up into the air around their heads, writhing and reshaping itself into the names of many spells.
"There," Dumbledore breathed as he used his wand to coax a single word away from the floating mass.
"Prosterno."
The Vaporizing Spell. Draco's eyes widened. Prosterno was a powerful and complicated spell. If cast successfully, the Vaporizing Spell released a concentrated destructive force that few substances on earth could withstand.
"Professor," Harry asked quietly, "that shows that the spell was cast, but how do we know if it was done correctly? The Vaporizing Spell would have destroyed the locket completely, and if the spell went incorrectly, the locket would not be here either."
Dumbledore nodded gravely, studying the floating word. Suddenly, he bent down. Harry and Draco looked to where Dumbledore was staring intently. The dust on the floor was of a slightly darker color.
Looking at each other with hopeful expressions, the three began to concentrate on the dirty floor.
"Revalo Incantatem," Harry whispered nervously. A small stream of light shot from his wand and connected with the ground, dancing like lighting across the dust.
Nothing happened. Dumbledore nodded to Draco, who knelt down next to Harry.
"Revalo Incantatem," he said through dry lips. Another dancing beam of light joined Harry's
Still nothing.
Dumbledore used his wand to pull to glowing outline of the Vaporizing Spell towards to the dust.
"Cambiato Incantatem," he said calmly. Harry and Draco watched in awe as the glowing word absorbed their streams of light, swirling the dust on the floor around.
A moment later, the dust had settled into the ghostly outline of a delicate locket.
CRACK!
The sound of someone apparating outside of the house startled the three, and broke the stream of concentration. The dust fell to the ground in a small pile, and the glowing words floating above the table dispersed into the air.
The porch door banged open.
"Who's there?!" came the gruff yell from the front room. "I know yer in here. Show yourselves and I may be merciful."
Harry and Draco looked at each other in panic. Draco recognized that voice, a voice he knew well. Bernard Flint was a close personal friend of his father's.
Dumbledore grabbed the two boys by the arm, blasting a hole in the kitchen wall and pulled them outside.
Red light began to flash around them as Bernard blindly threw curses their way.
Still holding tightly to the boys, Dumbledore apparated with a loud crack, and Harry and Draco felt odd relief at the squeezing sensation that brought them back to Hogsmeade.
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Ron and Harry sat in the two comfortable chairs in Professor Dumbledore's office while Draco sat on the couch, Hermione wrapped securely in his arms.
Dumbledore looked down at the group from behind his desk, speaking seriously to the small group assembled.
"Tonight's mission took a dangerous turn. Luckily, I do not believe that Bernard Flint got a clear view of who we were, as we were all wearing large cloaks. No doubt he will believe that we were a mischevious group of teenagers who broke into the house on a dare or something equally foolish."
"But Professor, won't the spells you performed leave traces?" Hermione asked.
Dumbledore smiled at her fondly, replying, "The magic performed in that house this evening was complex magic indeed. It would take a very powerful wizard to sense that those spells had been used, an even more powerful one to realize to what purpose they were used."
"I am certain that Voldemort will examine the home at some point and realize what has happened, as he has apparently been closely monitoring the home. However, the half empty bottles of firewhiskey that I conjured was we escaped will no doubt be convincing enough to Flint to deter him from reporting a 'serious situation' immediately."
"So, is the locket really gone then?" Ron asked incredulously.
"Yes Mr. Weasley, I believe we can safely assume that only three Horcruxes remain…Nangini, the Dark Mark Brand, and Voldemort himself. We will have to locate and destroy each Horcrux during the Final Battle, as we can be sure that Voldemort will keep them close to his person."
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It was a solemn group that exited Dumbledore's office late that night.
Harry and Ron waved good-bye to Hermione and Draco as they parted at the top of the stairs.
Hermione gripped Draco's hand tightly and he squeezed her hand back several times on the short walk to their dormitory.
Once inside the portrait hole, Hermione began to sob softly.
"I-I-almost lost you tonight-" she sniffled miserably.
Draco lifted her tearstained face to his gently and brushed her tears away with his thumbs.
"Hermione, love, that is untrue and you know it. Harry and I were perfectly safe with Dumbledore. Besides, you know I would never leave you alone, right?"
She sniffed and nodded.
He bent down and kissed her gently, pulling her towards him.
Hermione melted into his warm embrace and they kissed tenderly for several moments. When they broke apart, Draco leaned his forehead against hers, their noses almost touching.
Hermione wanted desperately to voice the feelings that were churning her stomach, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. She tried to focus on his eyes, but they were blurry from their proximity, and she finally pulled away from him, walking over to the couch.
The embers in the fireplace glowed softly, and Hermione picked up the Ancient Runes she had been working on before being called to Dumbledore's office.
Draco came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He kissed the back of her neck, and she felt shivers erupt along her spine.
Turning to face him, she smiled a little sadly.
"Goodnight Draco. Sleep well."
Draco watched Hermione walk upstairs, an odd feeling in the back of his throat.
A/N: Sorry it has been so disgustingly long since I updated. I literally have not had a free moment in my day, so I had to drop a course to preserve my sanity and now I have some time to breathe. Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, Now we're starting to get into the actual action of the story!
I'm also running a bit short on time for individual comments, but:
Mysterygalwolf, missycary12, Kill-me-if-Harry-dies, Mrs. St. John Allerdyce, -NH- Jackie -BL-, MiKaYGiRl, shoppinsweetie13, and aerochick06: Thanks so much for the reviews! I hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long!
For all you other readers…if you read it, why not review it? I promise it won't hurt you! Plus…I just might update sooner if you send me lots of love!
Elizabeth