Chapter is beta'ed,
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Chrys
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Ron knocked loudly on the door to Harry and Sirius room before entering. Seeing that Harry was half way out of bed already Ron spoke. "Dad got us the list. Two main houses, one cottage up in Scotland, and a small Manor over in Germany that belonged to his late uncle."
Harry, who had fallen into bed with his clothes on, stood up and slipped his feet into his trainers, "K, Get everyone up. Send a patronus over to George and Mandi, I want them here now. Check on Percy and Charlie, if they aren't back already they need to be."
Ron nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
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By the time everyone from upstairs was dressed and in the library, George, Mandi, Percy and Charlie were all ready and waiting. Charlie had made enough coffee and tea to wake up a dragon, and everyone had a cup in their hand when Harry started talking.
"I know it's O dark thirty, but I figure we have a little over two hours until the sun comes up, and if we can use the dark to our advantage we might be able to surprise Ginny. According to the paper Arthur gave us, there are two main houses connected to the family directly, along with a half a dozen other places loosely connected. For now, our plan is to split into two groups, and storm the places at roughly the same time. If they aren't there, look for any sign that they were, as well as any clue to where they might be now."
Ron got up then, putting his cup of coffee onto the table and handed out little pieces of paper with apparition coordinates on them. "Harry and I split everyone up, into the two most effective teams that we could. Harry, Sirius, Charlie, Remus, Tonks, and myself, are going to the cottage in Scotland. Meaning of course that George, Mandi, Draco, Neville Luna, and Percy, are going to the manor in Germany."
Sirius walked over to Hermione's desk and opened the bottom drawer, pulling out two identical mirrors. He slipped the mirror holster onto his own belt, and then handed the other one to George. "Your mother has the other one, all you need to do is either say her name, or mine, this is how we are going to stay in contact. If for some reason, you cannot get a hold of me, send the message to your mother, and we'll check in with her when we can."
George nodded and attached the mirror to his belt as well.
"Also… if you need the ministry… and it damn well better be an emergency, call Molly and tell her the code word "Phoenix", she'll contact Kingsley. Don't use that unless you absolutely have to." Harry added.
"Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" Remus said, standing up and fixing his cloak.
Harry looked at everyone, catching everyone's eyes before saying, "Be careful… all of you."
All twelve of them turned on the spot and were gone.
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Ginny was asleep in the far room, Hermione had made sure she waited a good amount of time before she stopped pretending to be asleep herself. She didn't need to look at Connor to know he was asleep, his snores rocked the house, and hopefully would provide a cover for any noise she might make.
Hermione had to make her move now, before Ginny woke. If she could get that wand, she had a chance of getting out of there. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
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"Oaf… Bloody Hell that hurt…" Ron groaned as he was thrown on his ass into a tree.
The other five people attempting to apparate to the cottage in Scotland were thrown to the ground around him.
"Where's the house?" Charlie asked, jumping to his feet, his wand in the air, while the other brushed his behind off.
Harry got up and moved north, his wand directly in front of him. He moved about three meters before coming to a stop. "There are wards up, that's why we didn't land on our feet, we were thrown out of the warded area."
"Ginny?" Tonks asked, as she moved forward with the rest of them.
"It feels like the set of wards that I taught her a few months ago, but they aren't uncommon wards. I won't know until I break a hole in them." Harry answered.
"How are you going to know, most wizards know how to do Anti-Apparition wards." Remus asked this time.
"True enough, but everyone layers wards differently. If this is the set I taught to Ginny, it should be quite a few wards layered on top of each other in a particular pattern that Hermione and I came up with when we were hiding in the forest."
Just then Sirius' mirror began vibrating. He slipped it off of his belt and brought it up to his face, "George?"
"Sirius… we couldn't apparate in, there are at least two wards here, anti-apparition and a non-entry. Percy and I were about to break through them when Luna remembered that Harry and Hermione have a set of wards that they use, which incorporates both of those, so we thought we might check with you guys."
Harry moved back to where Sirius was standing and tipped the mirror so that he could see into it. "We were thrown back as well. The wards could belong to the Gregory's, or they could be set up by Ginny. If they are Ginny's they will be set up in a very distinct pattern. Which one of you guys are the best at wards?"
George asked around before handing the mirror off. The face that appeared was Draco's. "I've been dismantling wards for as long as I can remember, what do I need to know about these."
"If they are Ginny's you're not going to want to dismantle them completely, just make a hole in them. If you take them all down completely it will warn her." Harry thought for a moment, catching Draco's nod an thinking to himself how odd it was that he was trusting Draco with this.
"Ok, The first thing your going to have to disable is an alarm, if you don't know how to do that without setting it off ask Neville, I know he's good at disarming them." Harry watched as Draco motioned for Neville to come closer and listen. "After the alarm is the anti-apparition, which is going to be woven with a non-entry and a second alarm. Your going to need to disable the alarm, then cut through the non-entry ward. Directly after that is going to be an additional alarm. Now the way to tell if the ward is Ginny's is that the next three alarms, anti-glamour, grounding, and a non-communication ward, in that order. If they are there, don't mess with them. If you tamper with them it could have adverse effects on all of you. Once your into the wards, close them back up just without the alarms, if you leave a hole she'll know about them."
"So, Alarm, anti-apparition, woven with another alarm and a non-entry, then a third alarm and three wards for no glamour, no flying, and no communication. Is that right?" Draco asked, ticking off the wards with his fingers.
"Its quite possible that she will layer an additional alarm after the no communication ward so check for that. I taught her to put all alarms at about waist level, so look anywhere between one and one and a half meters from the ground. Once in the wards you can't fly, apparate, you can't disguise yourself in anyway including turning into an animagus, and you aren't going to be able to communicate to anyone outside of the wards."
Draco and Neville both nodded, "Anything else?" Neville asked.
"She wouldn't have blocked the floo, so if you need to get out fast, try to use the floo, it will be her way of getting in and out of the wards without having to cut a hole in them."
"Got it… Good Luck." Said Neville as he walked away from the mirror, in order to begin on the first alarm.
Harry stared into the mirror and Draco got the story Harry's eyes were telling him. "I'll take care of her if she's here."
Harry nodded and tapped the mirror twice with his finger closing the connection. He handed the mirror back to Sirius, "Message Molly, tell her to keep her floo open just in case we need an escape plan."
Sirius opened the mirror and did as Harry said.
Harry moved back to the ward and touched it lightly with his hand.
"You know… it would have been impossible to map all of Hogwarts without cutting a hole in a ward or two." Remus said, stepping up next to Harry.
"Yeah… what about alarms?"
"James was the one that was good with alarms." Sirius answered standing on the other side of Harry.
"Ron, Charlie, Tonks? Any of you good at alarms?" Harry asked.
The three shook their heads and Harry nodded. "I do the wards, Hermione does the alarms… Bloody Hell."
"You do the wards, and Moony and I will do the alarms. Just because Prongs used to do them doesn't mean we didn't do a few our selves."
"Alright…" Harry answered and pulled out his wand, running it against the ward from right above his head down to his feet. His wand passed up and down a few times, each time the movement becoming smaller until his wand stopped near his knees. Harry tapped the ward and the alarm line lit up a florescent orange.
"Let's get to it."
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The wand was in the air, hovering over the table. Hermione concentrated on moving the wand closer to her, making sure to keep it from falling to the ground when a ripple of magic from outside hit her. The wand dropped a few feet before Hermione's magic caught it again. She didn't have time to figure out where the external magic was coming from and continued to pull her wand towards her.
Hermione wasn't prepared for the second wave of magic to crest against her. She lost her concentration completely and dropped the wand.
But Hermione never heard the wand hit the floor. She wondered if maybe it had been hidden by Connor's snores. Hermione slowly opened her eyes, and instantly realized why she hadn't heard the wand hit the floor. It hadn't. Instead none other than Ginny held the wand in the air.
"I should have guessed that you would try wandless magic." Ginny stated, waving the wand and turning on all of the lights, waking Connor up.
Hermione was about to respond when she felt a third wave of magic. She watched Ginny closely to see if she felt the same wave. It didn't look as if Ginny felt it.
Ginny shook her head and gripped the wand in her hand, "Crucio!" she screamed, holding Hermione under the curse for an entire minute before letting her up and turning to Connor and repeating the curse.
Hermione was panting, tears streaming down her face when Ginny stepped directly in front of her and tipped Hermione's head up with the tip of the wand. "You have been nothing but a bother to me. Even when we were back in school, you always had first dibs on Harry. He trusted you more, he cared about you more. You've been in my way since he met you, and luckily for me, you'll be out of the picture once and for all in just a few short hours."
Ginny slipped Hermione and Connor's wands into her back pocket and raised her own. She waved it at the two prisoners in front of her, causing them to stand. "I'm sure you'll appreciate what I'm going to do Hermione. My plan includes just a tiny bit more than what I told you yesterday… I'm not just going to push you two through, but use a ritual I found to close the Veil… forever."
After a few swishes of her wand, Hermione and Connor were clad in white hooded robes that were covered in red rune patterns with a black sash around the waist.
"I'm sure Hermione recognizes the rune patterns on your robes." Ginny spat, smirking at them.
Hermione studied the patterns that she could see. With everyone she recognized, Hermione's hope for escape grew dimmer and dimmer. "You're sick…"
Ginny's smirk was one of pure evil, "Not only have I locked your powers so that you cannot use them even if you get a wand, I've also weakened you so that the longer you wear those robes the less life you will have in you, and the best part is… I've made you a conduit of power, so that I can channel enough magic to completely decimate the veil and the well of power it sits on."
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"Is she here Sirius?" Harry asked, as Padfoot sent out one last wave of magic.
"There are three people within range."
"But is one of them Hermione?" Charlie asked.
"I think so, I'm not 100 sure, but it feels like her." Sirius answered.
"How far away?"
"I'm not sure Moony… a mile, maybe two." Sirius slid his wand into the holster.
"Better get running then." Tonks quipped.
With a few nods the group broke into a run.
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"There is no one here but us." Percy said in a huff as he lowered his wand.
"Are you sure?" Draco asked, hoping he was wrong.
"The spell came back negative."
"Damn it… Half an hour on wards to find out that there is no one here." Neville yelled, pissed off that he had worked so hard for nothing.
A sudden thought struck Mandi. "Does the spell work if they are under ground level?"
"No… it only works ground level and up." Percy answered.
George nodded and put his arm around Mandi, "So, they could be here, but just in the cellar right?"
Percy thought for a second, "It's a possibility."
"Then what the bloody hell are we doing standing around here?" Neville stated, turning around and starting away towards the house.
Draco snorted and raised his hand, "You heard the man, better get started…"
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Charlie who had been running in the front of the pack, raised his arm, signaling the group to stop. "Cottage is right in front of us."
Sirius checked his watch, "We don't have much time before sun comes up."
"We need to know what we are up against before we just go storming in there." Piped up Ron, who was looking through the trees, trying to get a good look through the front cottage window.
"Let me see what comes from doing the finder spell again, maybe if I'm close enough I can get some more information." Sirius said, moving up next to Charlie, but still hidden behind the large trees of the forest that surrounds the cottage.
"Ginny won't be able to feel it will she?" Harry asked.
The older man shook his head, "She won't be able to feel it, Hermione might, but only because of the connection we have."
Harry nodded, "K."
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Hermione stood next to Connor; her hands were bound behind her back, her feet stuck to the ground. Ginny was running around the room trying to find her notebook. Hermione figured she had probably written down the spell to close the veil in it, maybe even the directions on how to get into the department of mysteries as well. But Hermione couldn't care less. Instead of watching her kidnapper run around looking for some notebook, Hermione had her eyes closed, attempting to find what caused the waves of magic that it seemed only she could feel.
She hadn't felt a wave in over an hour and was about to give up when she felt it again. She let the first one crash over her, expecting a second one. When the second wave came she use her own magic to counteract the wave sending it back. Within a matter of seconds she got a very distinct picture of six people, hiding amongst the trees. Hermione was shocked, realizing that the waves were from someone performing a finder spell. Generally the people you were looking for were not supposed to be able to feel the spell, but people who were connected through intense situations had reported some cases of feeling the magic. Knowing that the spell was cast in three waves, Hermione braced herself for the last one, intending to send it back like before to get a better feel of who was out in the trees.
She could see the outlines of six people, and her heart stopped when she recognized all of them. They were here to save her… she just hoped they did it soon before Ginny noticed them, or decided it was time to leave.
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Sirius grinned, "She's in there all right… and she knows we are out here. When I sent in the spell, she threw it right back. Hermione, and I assume, Connor are standing in the middle of the room, Ginny is moving around the cabin."
"So, what's the plan?" Ron asked.
"We storm the place…Charlie and Ron to the right, Remus and Tonks take the left and Sirius and I will come straight in. Go in, stun and tie up Ginny, make sure Hermione is completely safe, then call in the cavalry." Harry ordered as he watched the four move off to the side. He just hoped they were fast enough.
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"Ah… Found it!" Ginny grabbed her notebook. She opened it up and checked the front page nodding her head a few times. "Great, lets go."
Ginny raised her wand and motioned with it for the two to move closer to her. The moveable pedestals they stood on, slid across the ground until both Hermione and Connor were directly in front of the fireplace. She threw floo powder into the fire, and moved Connor into it while saying "The Far Room." Connor quickly disappeared.
She was about to throw a second handful in when the front door was blown open.
"Hermione!" Screamed Sirius.
Ginny panicked stepping into the fire and pulling Hermione along with her. Hermione saw Sirius in the doorframe, "The Veil!" Hermione screamed as Ginny finished pulling her in and yelled out their destination.
"Damn it… Where did they go?" Harry asked.
"I couldn't hear what Ginny said, but if Hermione is right… I think Ginny plans to push her through the veil."