A/N: I managed to update. Phew! I won't be able to update in the next two weeks due to midterms, but hopefully I'll update again as soon as I'm free of those.
Song: Azure Moon – Every Little Thing
Ch. 27: Getting Captured
Ginny watched as Yapheth started training Harry in wandless magic. She could see Harry was unable to concentrate as he kept sending glances in her direction so when Yapheth politely asked her to leave, she didn't complain. She did curse under her breath as she left the room where Harry was to train, though. She had wanted to train too and had been waiting for a turn, but now it seemed she was only being a distraction.
Harry kept being unable to concentrate on what he was doing. So far, the magic had come from strong emotions when he had been under stress or angered, but little by little, he started to materialize it.
Soon enough Ron, Hermione, and even Severus joined the strange sessions with the vampire, but it was a branch that was even difficult for Severus Snape. He hadn't honestly tried much wandless magic before in his life. Miosotis joined afterwards to have her try, but Ginny was almost feeling left out from the training. Whenever she tried joining them, Harry would start failing miserably on his efforts and everyone would stare at her. She was feeling like that again in New Year, completely useless and as a distraction so she went outside. She could feel rage boiling inside her. It wasn't fair. She wanted to train too. She would probably fail a lot when it came to trying wandless magic, but she was going to be involved in the fight, right? She had the right to have her try at wandless magic too.
Ginny couldn't help it. She screamed in rage. She screamed and screamed until she couldn't scream anymore and then fell on her knees, sobbing as she tried covering her face with her hands. She could feel her cheeks burning from embarrassment because she didn't want to cry. She had been strong bottling her emotions so far and to break was something she would have seen in weak girls. She didn't want to be weak and even less seen as weak in front of Harry's eyes. Knowing that someone would come after all that screaming she wanted to hide. They couldn't see her like this. It was too embarrassing and they would disapprove or worse, pity her.
As she stood and tried to run into the forest something stopped her and she almost tripped, but fell on the animal. She felt soft body under her and almost smiled as she noticed she was almost mounting the unicorn. She hugged its neck and felt two eyes on her. Cassius was there, bow ready. Her cheeks burned even more as she guessed the centaur had thought she was being attacked. She saw the disapproval on his features as he lowered his bow and placed the arrow back on his quiver. "I'm sorry," she managed to utter in a whisper as she buried her crimson looking face on Theseus' beautiful white mane.
"You shouldn't do that, you know? I almost had a heart attack thinking the house had finally been found!" He looked curiously at her after he spoke, unable to understand what was wrong with her.
Ginny almost felt like laughing. She had somehow matched Cassius' expression of disapproval to her being weak. Certainly not to the fact that she had alarmed him with her screams.
"Why in the cosmos were you screaming? Hurt?" Cassius explored her with his eyes, looking for any sign of injury.
"Can't the heavens reveal that to you?" she asked in an amused tone, her face still red, but the tears had stopped.
Cassius looked annoyed and reacted with sarcasm. "Funny. Ha ha ha."
Ginny started to laugh, but came to a halt when Cassius pointed to the area behind her. She didn't want to turn around; knowing what she would see and true enough, everyone was there in front of the house looking worried.
"Are you all right, Ginny?" Hermione asked with concern.
Miosotis approached Ginny and stared at her. "She seems fine to…" She stopped when she saw the redness in Ginny's eyes. There was understanding in Miosotis' own tired and sick looking eyes as full moon would be exactly that night. Miosotis placed a hand on Ginny's shoulder and whispered, "I'll ask Yapheth to train you too."
Ginny almost gaped in surprise, but quickly managed to straighten herself and whispered a quick 'thanks' to Miosotis. She saw Miosotis trot back, dark braids moving wildly as she jogged. She seemed to mutter something to the others that Ginny couldn't grasp, but she saw them enter the house and also saw Harry glance back worriedly, his eyes locking with hers for only seconds before the door closed behind him.
XxXxX
Full moon passed on the night of the 1st of January towards the 2nd and Miosotis had been left by Yapheth in a farther area of the woods that night, but he had picked her up the next day. After two days of recovery she was able to join the wandless practices yet again.
For Hermione, wandless magic seemed to come quite easily to the amusement of them all, but soon they learned that it wasn't because of the girl's abilities as a witch, but to her mixed new life as a hybrid. It was something that actually frustrated her rather than brightened her moods. She had truly thought that she had some sort of innate ability for that kind of magic in the same way that she had usually surpassed the others in certain kinds of spells, but decided to be happy about it in the end. She still wondered how her parents would react if they learned that she wasn't entirely human anymore, but half undead in a strange way. Would they blame the Wizarding world? Perhaps it was better for her progenitors not to know. It wasn't like they would notice anything different about her...
Ron seemed to be the one doing worst. Harry seemed to really have a genuine innate ability for the wandless magic, Hermione was a hybrid with bits of vampire magic, Severus was a great wizard and could catch on to anything... When it came to Miosotis, she seemed like quite a gifted witch herself and was grasping wandless magic slowly like Snape, and Ron had also heard Ginny had managed some bits of wandless magic too in her own times with Yapheth. The young Weasley boy was beginning to feel somewhat like a reject, a feeling that seemed to be coming a lot to him lately.
The afternoon of February first, Yapheth approached Ron and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. So far the Weasley young man's performance had been disastrous. He hadn't managed a single spell wandlessly and had seemingly given up hope. He hadn't even bothered going to practice that day. Miosotis had also been absent to practice that day, but her absence had a reason, unlike Ron's. The full moon had paid its toll on her the night before, meaning there had been two full moons in January and there wouldn't be any full moon in February. "Fiery one, Ron... It has to come from deep inside you. Do not look at your friends. Instead look inside yourself."
They had been simple words and Ron had been about to snap. Those things were easier said than done, but instead of talking back Ron decided to try. It was difficult and at some times he did snap at Yapheth during practice, complaining that the vampire had never even needed a wand in the first place, but truth was Yapheth couldn't perform all the spells they could and would never know or learn all the spells witches and wizards could perform.
By mid-February, Ron was catching up with the rest at last. It was obvious that he wasn't going to be as good as Harry, but so far so good. Harry had surpassed them all, but at least Ron would have some unexpected tricks under his sleeve for when they had to battle Death Eaters if they somehow lost their wands.
Severus had never actually tried much wandless magic in his life. He knew lots about magic, but wandless magic was something he had never bothered much with. After having found out how Harry had gotten rid of fifteen manticores without using his wand, the wizard had decided that it was something to be explored, but after so many years of depending on a wand, he had to recognise that it was difficult to perform magic without one.
Reginald observed the practices. He had some tricks of his own, but he wasn't proficient in magic. It was something that he might learn as he grew up and perhaps learn to use it fully through centuries if he survived. For the first time, the little one feared for his life. As a vampire, he always thought about the fact of being immortal and took that for granted, but after seeing how his father had sent him away, how his aunt had ended up dead, and how even Yapheth had gotten hurt in a fight against Death Eaters even if minimally; Reginald knew better and he was afraid. Death had never been closer.
Harry was exhausted after all their sessions and simply wanted to look for the snake bastard and finish everything already. He had always wondered why there had been nothing in the Muggle papers a couple of months before about a horrible mass murder in the Ice Palace Hotel in Dublin until he asked Yapheth. The vampire had cleaned the scene before getting to Harry, a perfect way to get away with a gruesome murder. Harry realised that was why Yapheth had remained in the hotel for ten more minutes after they had been leaving. The bloody vampire had been cleaning! Probably using magic! To Harry, it was almost ironic, but he didn't want to remember the events of that day.
Severus had been summoned as part of Voldemort's circle a few times during those months, but always told them that nothing was mentioned of Bellatrix Lestrange. To the Death Eaters, she had just vanished, but Voldemort somehow suspected or knew that the witch was dead. Of that, Severus was certain. Voldemort was no fool.
It was on the first days of March that the group was finally going to leave the house. At last, they were going to do what they had set to do from the start, finish the war by vanquishing a Dark Lord.
There was excitement that mixed up with fear among the group. Yapheth had considered leaving the unicorn and the centaur behind to care for his house and be out of everything, but they had surprised even Ginny by opposing to the request. They were going to remain by Ginny's side and that had been another quarrel, but not with Yapheth. Harry had wanted Ginny to be left behind too, but had approved of Miosotis coming with them. Ginny had threatened with escaping the house after them if she was indeed left behind. Ron tried to talk some sense into her. Ginny was his baby sister, his only sister and he knew their mother would be forever broken if she lost her little girl, but Ginny wouldn't yield so in the end, Harry and Ron had to accept she was coming. Both boys had actually tried to make Yapheth and Snape back them up, but neither the vampire nor the middle-aged wizard interfered.
Harry was sure that the remaining Horcruxes were Nagini and Tom Riddle himself. First, they would have to kill Nagini and lastly Voldemort. He was nervous about what they would do, but they had gone far and had to finish it. Harry would somehow make sure to keep Ginny out of harm's way. He thought he wouldn't be able to fight well if he knew she was fighting too so he had his own silent plans that he would put into action as soon as he saw the opportunity.
XxXxX
On March 9, the group finally left the safety of Yapheth's house. It had been a few hours walk to the end of the woods where they would finally travel by portkey. They had decided not to try in front of Yapheth's house because they could feel the great amount of spells that had been placed to trace any strong magic around the woods. Trying to remove all the wards was a tiring idea so they would walk to the ends of the forest where they believed there was no magic as it was closer to the 'human world'. The group had almost reached the chosen place to use the portkey when they were surrounded, taken completely by surprise. The captors were Aurors and seconds before they could recognise Severus Snape, Yapheth had grabbed the wizard in a protective manner and had vanished.
Reginald cowered in fear as he felt he had been left by Yapheth, but Ron calmed him by telling him that those were Aurors and not Death Eaters. One of the Aurors was quick to speak: "Do not try to Disapparate. We've put wards on this place. If you try to escape, you'll get splinched and you know that wouldn't be very nice. You will come with us for your own well being and protection."
The teens didn't say a word, but Reginald started crying by saying: "He left me! Master left me with the humans! How could he?"
Harry could understand why the vampire had left the child, though. The Aurors wouldn't harm the child and there was simply no time to save them all. Yapheth had done what he had to do in precious seconds, which was to save the one that was truly in danger amongst Aurors. Severus Snape wouldn't have lasted long in Auror hands.
Soon the youngsters found themselves in some strange building that belonged to the Ministry and to their disgusting surprise; they were actually placed in a heavily warded cell before the Minister of Magic arrived.
Rufus Scrimgeour had Harry removed from the cell and escorted to his office. Harry and his friends were of course, disarmed supposedly for their own security, not that it meant they were defenseless.
"Well, Harry Potter, we see each other again," Rufus stated without even looking at Harry.
"Thanks for the invitation," replied the teen bitterly, his eyes fixed on the Minister.
Rufus then locked his own eyes with Harry's dangerously piercing gaze. "Don't be like that, child. You know it's for your own protection! You have given us quite a headache, I can assure you! Of all places! What in Merlin's name were you doing in Ireland! When I heard the rumours I had put them aside, but they were true! I am glad that in the end our efforts have paid off!"
"What efforts? Efforts tracking me? What about tracking Death Eaters? You do know about all the murders, right? You do know they are even killing other creatures just because they don't join their forces, right? You do know the massacre they performed during Halloween night, right? Why do you waste your time tailing me?" Harry was almost out of breath while trying to control his rising anger.
"Harry, we cannot risk losing you and of course we are tracking Death Eaters! We are happy to also announce that a very dangerous Death Eater by the name of Bellatrix Lestrange is dead!"
Harry paled at what Scrimgeour had just stated. How did the Minister know? "How do you know that?"
"We received a bone from an anonymous sender on Christmas day! After lots of analysis in St. Mungo's it was concluded that it belonged to her. Why do you ask?"
Harry felt almost sickened by Yapheth's odd taste in sending a Christmas present to the Ministry of Magic, but stuck to answering the question. "I was present when she was killed in Dublin by a first class vampire on Christmas Eve. And by the way, she was not the only Death Eater that died that day."
It was Rufus' turn to pale. "A-Are you sure about what you are saying, Mr. Potter?"
"Yes. She was eaten alive along with her companions by a vampiric monster. You cannot even credit your Ministry for those deaths if that was what you were trying to do, sir." Harry over pronounced the word 'sir' in a sarcastic way as he was reminded of how Snape would make him use it.
Rufus was silent for a moment, but somehow managed to regain his composure. "Well, that's a surprise! I am glad that you are not with that vampire! Horrible creatures! I am glad they have gotten themselves into a mess with the Dark Lord's followers. I hope they all get killed!" The man had a gleam in his eyes when he spoke, but Harry was thoroughly disgusted.
"What about the werewolves? Do you think they should die too?"
"Of course! Those creatures are dangerous, Harry! And the centaurs! Hope they also get wiped out! Do you know what they did to poor Dolores? That poor woman!"
Harry was feeling sick there and then. It seemed after all that Cornelius Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour were more similar than he had thought before. "May I return to my prison cell, sir?" The words had been spat with anger.
"Why is that? I still want you to..."
"I will not do anything for you, sir."
Scrimgeour gaped for a few seconds and then his gaze became severe. "Very well, then! You may return. Aurors!"
"Just one thing before I leave, Minister. There is a vampire sharing the cell with us. Please provide some blood for him unless you want me or one of my companions dead or worse, turned into vampires ourselves. Oh!" Harry smiled with sarcasm. "And one of us is also a werewolf so we hope you will also take that into consideration if we are still here by the time full moon comes."
The Minister of Magic was definitely shocked by those words, but nodded after visibly swallowing hard. Rufus had definitely not expected that one, although he had been wondering about Harry's strange companions and about one of the companions being a small child. "Do-Do you mean the young man with white hair as the vampire? A-And who should I assume is the werewolf? Perhaps the boy with pastel green hair?"
Harry didn't know whether to laugh or get angry. "Actually, the first one you mentioned is a unicorn and the second one you mentioned is a centaur. The small child is the vampire and the girl with braids is the werewolf."
Rufus laughed without emotion. "Preposterous! That—" He was about to say that was impossible, but remembered the transfiguration issues the Ministry had been dealing with months ago. They had never found the culprit or the subjects. Still, having a unicorn and a centaur in a cell was too ridiculous. Harry simply rolled his eyes before leaving with the Auror escort.
XxXxX
"So? What the hell are we going to do now?" asked Ron Weasley in frustration and throwing a small stone through the bars. He was sitting on the floor, knees up, opened legs.
Harry didn't know what to reply. He certainly had no idea what the Ministry could accomplish by having them locked up, unless they thought they could end the war without involving The-Boy-Who-Lived. Now that they were locked up, it looked like Rufus was seriously dispatching Aurors to investigate where Voldemort was hiding for real. Months lost in tracking Harry Potter when they should have been tracking the Dark Lord instead.
"Hermione!"
Ron's sudden calling of the girl's name made Harry look around the cell and almost jump as he saw where Hermione was. She was connected to the ceiling! "What are you doing?"
Ginny raised an eyebrow as she looked at Hermione and Miosotis giggled a bit. Cassius didn't seem amused or remotely interested, but Theseus smiled.
Hermione jumped to the floor with a bright smile and breathing rapidly. There was a gleam in her eyes. "Just exploring new abilities." The girl was actually beaming. She was getting used to being a hybrid and wanted to explore every ability she could from being one. She hadn't had the time to explore new abilities while she had been practicing magic instead.
Reginald was in a corner, not speaking. His arms were embracing his pulled up legs and his eyes looked swollen from crying. No one had brought blood yet, but Harry decided to wait. They had just been captured and locked up that same day, but the boy suddenly surprised them as he spoke with a broken voice: "He has been captured."
Hermione approached the child and knelt beside him. "Who has been captured, Reginald?"
The boy gave her a scary and protuberant gaze that reminded her of Luna Lovegood. "My father has been captured by the Dark Lord. I've felt it for some time now."
Harry and Ron looked at each other, while Hermione cradled the boy in her arms. "Everything will be fine," she murmured to the child. "Everything will be fine. We'll somehow get out of here and we will rescue Renard."
Ron gave his girlfriend a look that clearly implied that he wasn't that interested in rescuing said vampire, but she gave him a glare.
Harry started to pace from side to side: "Of all times to get captured... I just hope that we'll be out of here soon!"
"Can you feel if he gets killed?" Miosotis asked as she also approached the boy and he nodded at her. "You have been hiding it. Did you tell Yapheth?" The boy shook his head. "So that's why you've been crying, huh? I was wondering why you'd cry so much for Yapheth leaving you. It didn't make much sense until now. Your real reason for crying was your father."
Everyone went silent and Ginny came to Reginald's side and sat next to where he was trapped in Hermione's arms. "We'll somehow rescue him. You'll see." But in truth, Ginny could feel her whole world falling apart as she could sense the day of her nightmares approaching. Now she even wondered if all of them would make it out alive. Chances of every one of them surviving suddenly seemed quite slim. Her eyes fell on each of the ones in that cell: Hermione cuddling Reginald, Miosotis, Cassius, Theseus, her brother Ron, and the owner of her heart and soul, Harry. She suddenly cursed and went to a wall and punched it.
Ron looked at his sister baffled as he stood up. "You all right?"
She smiled bitterly as she turned to her brother. "You better survive, Ron. I'll never forgive you if you don't."
The words had been addressed at Ron, but everyone knew what Ginny meant and they all looked at each other and all their faces went grim.
XxXxX
It had been one week since they had been captured. An Auror brought blood in a bag once every two days during that week. He also brought them a copy of The Daily Prophet every day. They could read about how the Death Eaters were out of control killing without any care. There were killings every single day and so far, the Ministry hadn't stopped them. It seemed that the dark forces were already proclaiming their victory.
Rufus Scrimgeour had sent an Auror after three days of them being incarcerated to remove Theseus, Cassius, Reginald, and Miosotis from the cell. There had been a huge argument about it and in the end, Harry and his friends prevailed and they were not separated. The Auror had even told them Cassius and Theseus were to be returned to their natural forms and natural habitats, but Ginny had interfered in anger and in the end the Auror had given up.
On the last day of the week of being imprisoned, a female in dark purple robes approached the cell. Her features were those of a teenager, but her hair was completely white and her eyes yellow. "You are no witch even if you wear robes as if you were."
She smiled at the green-eyed teen that had spoken. "I know you."
Ron laughed. "Of course you know him! He is Harry Potter! Everyone knows him!" Ginny also laughed with Ron's comment.
The girl shook her head. "I've seen you before."
"Where? I don't remember ever seeing you?" Harry said as he approached the bars to look closely at the strange girl.
She smirked. "My name is Theresa and the day I saw you, you were on a broom." She smirked again before approaching her face to his with only the bars separating them. Her lips were almost touching his when she softly stated: "I tried to kill you."
Harry opened his eyes wide in understanding. That girl was the creature that had slashed his back when he had been leaving the cave on top of the Ghastly mountain, the small demon as it hadn't been as big as Yapheth's monstrous form. She was obviously a vampire of lesser rank, if it was all right to think of it that way, but still a pureblood. Harry had figured the creature that pursued him had to be a vampire, but as he never looked back he had never confirmed it. His only evidence of being pursued had been his bloody slashes. There was something bothering him though. The name Theresa… It sounded familiar.
"Do not worry," the girl said casually in a seductive voice. "I have come to get you out. Here are your wands." She got the wands from the depths of her robes and displayed them playfully between her hands, but Harry wasn't going to ask how she had gotten them.
"Did Yapheth send you? Where are we going to find him? And are you Renard's wife?"
Theresa looked curiously at Harry, but a bit of sadness flashed in her eyes before she straightened up again. "And how may I ask did you obtain that information? That loser I have for a husband got captured!"
Harry could tell that she was worried, but trying to disguise the fact. She then continued speaking. "Yapheth might join you later, but not now. Now you will join the other wizard. I will take you to the other wizard and leave with the little one." She pointed at Reginald, who was actually staring at her expectantly. "He will hinder you and he needs to be protected. As my stepson he is my charge from this moment onwards. Now let's leave."
"What about the..." Harry had just noticed that the Auror that had been placed to guard the cell was in deep slumber.