A/N I ALWAYS HATE A LONG UPDATE TIME SO YOU ARE RIGHT TO BE ANNOYED. So in short there have been a string of murders and the old gang plus Dudley are trying to solve them without the ministry knowing because of the danger of spy's at the ministry.
Dudley sat on the train seat completely and utterly bored, Hermione had been treating them to a lecture on magical theory, Ron was not even pretending to listen and was staring glassy eyed out of the window, Neville had listened to every word, Harry was looking frustrated and Ginny was fast asleep. Eventually Harry had had enough.
"So basically apparating is two different spells performed at once, one to disappear and one to reappear. And you think that it may be possible to delay reappearing long enough to perform another spell?"
"Yes." Replied Hermione to Harry's question. "But you would need to be very powerful and very determined."
"Or very stupid." Ginny chipped in very unexpectedly as she turned over, her eyes still closed.
"What do you mean?" Asked Harry
"Well you risk some serious splinching staying in limbo for to long."
The Room fell silent for a while imagining how bad the splinch would be. Dudley, not understanding what splinching was, watched Harry, imagining the internal dialogue, the conflict showing in his eyes; should I tell them, should I not. Eventually Harry had made a decision.
"Well you wont like what I have to say." Harry announced.
Ron sat up giving Harry his full attention, Ginny opened one eye and Dudley leaned forward, it looked like they were about to find out. "I think its someone we know well or used to at least, He disappeared after the war."
Ginny sat up, both eyes open, and looked at Harry.
"No I refuse to believe it, he wouldn't," she shouted suddenly and before anyone could say another word she jumped up and left the compartment. For a moment there was a very strained silence
"Sorry Harry but I still don't know who you mean?" asked Ron.
"Dean Thomas."
Ron and Hermione looked shocked to say the very least. "Do you remember after the battle that Dean disappeared, nobody knew where he went." the others except Dudley nodded "Well a few years ago I was able to read the file that Aurors had kept on him, about six months after the battle some Aurors caught up with him and he was, well..." Harry was struggling for the right words "Disturbed. He had been hiding in a rundown old barn, St Mungoes had treated him as best they could but he escaped again and they have not been able to find him since." even Dudley was able to appreciate the difficulty of hearing of such a thing happening to a good friend.
"How did it happen?" Ron asked eventually.
"Well Riddle managed to catch up with his parents at one point and well he murdered them and most of his friends, he was tortured at Hogwarts, and the battle, well you were there!" Harry finished aggressively annoyed at Ron's question.
"I'm going to find Ginny." Harry finished and left the compartment.
Dudley sat in the corner thinking it over in his mind, an unhinged wizard who had had his family murdered most of his friends as well, had probably seen some horrific things in the war, then spent months living in filth all by himself festering a hatred. If there was anything that could drive a man mad and cause them to do such terrible things then I would put money on that, thought Dudley.
"So how do we stop him?" Asked Dudley.
"We wait for Harry, he always had the plan." Neville said, speaking for the first time "Ginny will be alright, she was good friends with dean for a long time, she would not have reacted like this if she had only gone out with him for those few months."
The train rattled on through the country side trees flashing past, the occasional barn or sheep. Half an hour passed and Harry and Ginny had still not returned, Dudley was sitting and thinking about what he had learnt over the last few days. A silver light suddenly flared up from the front of the train throwing the cabin in to relief. Dudley looked round to see if any one had noticed only to see Hermione walking towards the door wand out being followed by Neville and Ron.
"Dudley are you armed in any way?" Hermione asked
"No I only have my Hand cuffs its all I need." Dudley replied wishing he had the luxury of armed backup.
"Back!" Hermione said suddenly as running foot steps were heard from down the train. The door burst open and Harry and Ginny piled into the compartment.
"The ministry have found us and are waiting at kings cross so we need to apparate to the Leaky Cauldron, now." immediately neville and Ron apparated away spured on by te urgency in Harry's voice, Harry was about to do the same when Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Dudley!" she said. Harry grabbed Dudley's arm nodding to Hermione as she disappeared.
"Help me Ginny.' He finished as she also grabbed Dudleys arm and Darkness enveloped them. They stood in the dingy back room of a pub the chatter of the crowed outside filtering through the door.
"Harry can I ask how we managed to be on the run from the ministry?"
"Well I was speaking to the minister and he said that I was right that some junior aurors had been imperiused and passed the curse on to some of the senior aurors, they are acting without orders." Harry finished rubbing his eyes with a combination of frustration and tiredness. "We need to get moving I know where he is hiding out, there is a barn on the hill side of Ruadh Stac Beag, it's in Scotland and very remote, we need to get there before the train arrives at Kings cross and he is tipped off." Harry walked over to the door leaned out, shouted sorry Tom, closed the door, pulled the door handle off and whispered Portus.
"Ok then hold on to this everyone." and before dudley had time to think about any one of these things they off again.
A/N I will try to update slightly quicker but i agonised over this chapter for so long i hate to think what i will do about the next.