A/N: Hi everyone! A new chapter for you!

Thanks to kyresar for reading it and finding a lot of stupid typos (yes, I'm still embarrassed about that!).

And - credit where credit is due - thanks to my wife for having a wonderfully funny idea. I'm not going to spoiler you but one object that Valerie uses in this chapter was her idea. You can take guesses in the reviews. Fight for honour, my friends! There is no other price, sadly.

Anyway, have fun reading and let me know what you think!

Chapter 14

After a night of fitful sleep, Hermione woke early on Saturday morning. Her eyes felt like they were burning in their sockets.

But Hermione didn't mind. She felt it was only fair to be in pain after letting her best friend be kidnapped while going on a date with her girlfriend. Her girlfriend, Hermione pondered.

Ginny was hugging her from behind, one arm draped over her protectively. Hermione had never felt safer.

Suddenly, she felt a kind of panic rising in her. She took Ginny's arm and untangled herself before quickly getting up and going to the bathroom. She didn't deserve to feel safe right now. She had no right to a warm and peaceful bed when her best friend was alone, afraid and probably lying uncomfortably on a cold hard stone floor in the dungeons of Malfoy's manor.

Relishing the cold on her feet from the tiled floor Hermione got her toothbrush and sat down, leaning against the cold wall. She started to shiver a little, her thin t-shirt being no protection against the cold tiles.

Hermione set her jaw and forced her body to endure the uncomfortable cold.

Fair's fair.

Hermione finished brushing her teeth and then splashed her face with cold water before looking into the mirror.

At least I look the way I feel.

"Hermione?" Ginny mumbled while waking up, "are you OK in there?"

Hermione didn't answer, hoping Ginny would fall back asleep, but then she heard her get up and gingerly open the bathroom door.

"Hey love, I woke up and you were gone," Ginny explained.

"Couldn't sleep any longer," Hermione muttered under her breath, looking at Ginny via the mirror.

Ginny closed the distance between them and put her hand between Hermione's shoulder blades softly stroking her with her thumb.

Hermione shrugged the arm away and stepped out of the bathroom, "Sorry, Gin. Not now…I can't," she said quickly and went to get her clothes for the day.

Hermione heard the ginger witch following her and could practically see the confused look with the back of her head.

"Hermione, what's going on? Did I do something wrong?" Ginny asked bluntly, opting for the direct route.

Hermione turned around, holding the clothes she had picked out for the day and looked at her girlfriend. Worry lined her face and obviously not knowing what to do with her hands, Ginny just let them hang at her sides and stood there, waiting for Hermione to explain the rejection.

"Ginny, really. It's nothing. I just don't feel like cuddling now. I'll just quickly get dressed and then grab a bite to eat," Hermione said, hoping Ginny would focus on the food part of her answer.

She walked past Ginny back into the bathroom and closed the door. Now more than ever, Hermione hated the fact that the door didn't close properly.

She hadn't even put down her pile of fresh clothes when Ginny walked in after her.

She looked astonishingly calm and Hermione immediately felt guilty for shutting her out and shoving her away emotionally.

"What's going on?" Ginny whispered softly, stepping closer.

Hermione wanted to give in and just hug Ginny and be held by her, but as soon as those thoughts entered her mind, a flash of guilt shot through her. Valerie was Merlin knows where because of her wanting a date.

"Nothing, Gin. Would you just back off, for God's sake. It was a tough night, alright," Hermione shrugged away Ginny's advances again.

She immediately regretted her sharp tone when she saw the hurt look on Ginny's face before the redhead retreated and mumbled something about the kitchen and breakfast.

Wonderful, Granger, aren't we efficient today. Not even up for half an hour and already you have punished yourself for not being clairvoyant enough, growled at your girlfriend twice and managed to hurt her enough to make her retreat. Just bloody wonderful. Keep it up and by the end of the day you'll have all of Britain to yourself.

Hermione inwardly groaned at her own inability to keep it together, exhaling loudly before actually getting dressed for the day.

When she arrived in the kitchen Hermione saw that everyone was already up. Molly was busying herself with the dishes. Arthur was unsuccessfully trying to distract himself with the newspaper. George was cradling a cup of coffee seeking solace or wisdom in the black and probably cold liquid. Harry and Ron were pushing their eggs around on their plates, looking at each other from time to time as if to check whether the other one had come up with a solution to their problem and just hadn't said anything yet.

Ginny didn't even pretend to eat. She sat at the table, her food untouched before her. Her head hung low, her face hidden by a curtain of long silky hair. Hermione felt her heart constrict in her chest. It was her fault that the lovely redhead looked so dejected.

Hermione sat down next to Ginny and noticed the younger witch flinch away almost unperceptively.

"Ginny?" Hermione whispered. When there was no reaction she tried again, "Gin, I'm sorry. Can we go outside and talk for a minute? Please." Hermione put Ginny's hair behind her ear to reveal her girlfriend's face.

Ginny didn't nod, she just got up and walked outside. Hermione followed.

When they arrived at the shed Ginny turned around abruptly. Hermione could see that there was a lot going on within the redhead's mind that wanted out but was held back for various reasons.

"Ginny, I'm sorry for snapping at you. It was very unfair. I'm not making excuses but I would like to explain," Hermione began and took a step towards the younger witch.

"Hermione, I understand. You don't have to explain anything. I understand what is going on. It just hurt nonetheless, that's all," Ginny said, embracing the brunette witch.

"I'm so sorry, Gin," Hermione repeated her apology, "I feel so undeserving of all your support and help. I know it's stupid, but I feel responsible for Valerie's absence and I feel so helpless and…and I just hope she's alright." Hermione said. Her throat felt sore and tears were streaming down her face again.

Godsdammit, Granger! Keep it together or are you trying to compete with the average precipitation in England?

"We'll get her back. Do you hear me?" Ginny pulled away to arms length and looked Hermione straight in the eyes, "I trust Draco as far as I can throw him, but I know he is very much afraid of what you might do to him if something happened to Val. He'll do his damnedest to help us."

Suddenly, Ginny's stomach growled loudly causing both the witches to chuckle, "Seems like I'm not the only one growling at you this morning. Come on then, I don't want you to starve," Hermione said while leading Ginny back into the kitchen.

The mood was still rotten but at least Hermione had made up with Ginny.

They were done with breakfast and Arthur had read the same article about fifteen times by now and he still didn't know who had enchanted the chairs at Habitat to dance a jig.

Molly was about to be handed the medal for the cleanest kitchen sink in all of Britain and George was still training to be Hogwarts' next Divination teacher, cradling that same cup of coffee; as untouched as ever.

Ron and Harry had finished their breakfast and were now just sitting around trying to will their brains to come up with a solution.

By noon, Ginny had all of her old brooms polished and clipped to perfection. The wood was so shiny you could almost see your own reflection in it.

Hermione had summoned her books from her room but she could have just as well read the phone book. There was no way she was able to concentrate on 'The most notorious wizards of the 12th century until today'. Secretly, she had hoped for a title like 'How to save your Muggle friend from an evil wizard in three easy steps', but the magical community had never been much in the way of self-help books.

Slowly but surely, they were all going mad from the waiting.

"We should talk about a time frame for Malfoy to arrive. When do we stop hoping he'll show up and try to take action ourselves?" Ron asked.

"And what would that action be, Ron?" Harry wondered aloud.

"I don't know, mate, but I don't want to sit here until Sunday evening, then shrug my shoulders and say, 'well, it's not our fault Malfoy never showed up.' You know?" Ron quipped.

The mood in the room was getting worse by the minute.

"Should we try to contact him?" Ginny suggested.

"No. It's too risky. We'll give him three more hours. Then we'll do something," Hermione decided.

"What? What will we do?" Harry asked.

"I don't know Harry. We have three hours to come up with something!" Hermione answered irritably. To say she was on edge was like calling Hogwarts a magical garden shed.

"We'll just have to improvise a bit," Ron said in an attempt to calm everyone down.

Valerie had barely gotten any sleep. She was in so much pain, she could hardly think. She had to get out of here somehow.

She was lying on the bed when she heard footsteps approaching her hopefully temporary accommodation.

She panicked. She was thirsty and hungry, but her jaw hurt so much she didn't think she'd be able to even drink anything.

The door was opened and someone put a tray on the floor. She didn't move, showing her guard that she wasn't interested in the food.

"You'll get hungry eventually," Danvers predicted.

He was gone and the door locked again, when Valerie climbed out of the bed and inspected the sandwich and tea. She lifted the upper slice of bread to see what kind of sandwich it was and found salad, tomatoes and a tiny vial with a misty purple liquid in it that someone had obviously smuggled in there for her.

Maybe it was Draco and this was something for her jaw? Valerie unstoppered the tiny vial and sniffed. Nothing. There was no smell at all.

After a bit of back and forth, she decided that someone smuggled this vial to her, so it probably wasn't poison. If they intended to kill her, they could have just used a spell.

She put the vial to her lips and swallowed. Almost immediately the pain radiating from her jaw was gone.

Valerie couldn't believe it. This was wonderful.

Since she didn't know how long the effect of the potion would last, she went to work immediately.

She had come up with a plan for her escape. All she needed was something hard to hit Danvers over the head with.

She looked under the bed and even tried to take apart the bedframe; all to no avail. There was nothing. Not even the tiniest bit of wood or metal. All she found in the overhead cabinet was some weed killer and a bunch of age old provisions. But she could hardly sugar coat Danvers to death.

Then she started scanning the uncomfortably small bathroom for something she might use. Nothing.

No wait, the toilet seat! Inspiration struck. And although she was slightly uncomfortable with the idea she decided that beggars couldn't be choosers and set to work. With a coin luckily dug out of her jeans' pocket she had a go at the screws in the toilet seat.

Finally, the first screw came off and even though the coin she was using was all bent out of shape by now she got the other screw off pretty easily.

Satisfied with her effort she swung the toilet seat around a bit to feel its weight and get used to the strange motion.

Now all she had to do was hide in the tiny bathroom when Danvers came back in and hit him over the head from behind. The only problem was that he would immediately know where she was, when he came into an obviously empty bedroom. A distraction was clearly needed.

At first she thought of her phone, but she knew that the battery was as flat.

Then she remembered something and frantically started to search the cabinet containing the provisions. She took out the half empty bottle of weed killer. Apparently, wizards didn't have a spell for everything. Or they had a Muggle staff. Valerie kept looking and found some salt and the sugar she had seen earlier.

Valerie had only a very faint memory of how to do what she was planning, but she had to give it a shot.

Taking the little bowl for the soap from the sink, she poured some salt and sugar into it. She put it on the floor at the far end of the door, then filled it up with the weed killer.

Now came the hard part. If it worked, she didn't want to be too close. She took out the battery of her phone and stepped on it to crack it open. When she was satisfied with the level of destruction she carefully balanced the battery on the edge of the bowl, allowing the battery acid to drip into the mixture in the bowl.

She quickly hid in the bathroom and waited, toilet seat in her hand.

Then everything happened so fast that Valerie couldn't even properly retell the story later. It was all a blur.

The crazy mixture of chemicals in the bowl exploded with a loud bang.

The door flew open and Danvers raced into the room, looking for source of the unfamiliar noise. Valerie jumped out of her hiding spot and hit him over the head with the toilet seat. He saw it coming however and protected himself with his arm. The toilet seat crashed to the floor and Danvers caught Valeries arms with his hands.

"You think you can win, Muggle?" he laughed arrogantly.

Valerie struggled to free her arms, when suddenly, after a loud thwack, Danvers sank to the floor. Before Valerie stood Draco, holding the toilet seat, looking grim and a bit ridiculous.

"Thanks," Valerie whispered, still exhausted from her joust with Danvers and not wanting to move her jaw more than necessary.

"There isn't much time. Did you drink the potion in the sandwich?" Draco enquired and Valerie nodded in response.

"Good. Now listen carefully, you have to be quick. Follow the hallway to the kitchen and then turn left. There is another hallway. Follow that and you should get to a door that will lead you outside. Turn left again and run. Keep running. Don't stop until you see the park. Try to find somewhere to hide. And here, take this ring. Don't lose it. Hermione might need it to find you. Now go. Go!" Draco explained hurriedly and shoved her out of the bedroom.

Valerie didn't look back. She followed his instructions to the letter and ran.

Draco sat down on the bed and for the first time realised that he had knocked out his father's Lieutenant with a toilet seat. He looked at the crumpled body on the floor and decided to wait a bit longer before reporting Valerie's escape. She could use the head start.

Several minutes later Draco nudged Danvers with his foot, "Hey! Danvers, wake up! Explain to me what happened here! Danvers, get UP!"

The sorry looking Death Eater groaned and slowly got to his feet, looking around at the empty room. When he realised that Valerie was gone his eyes widened in fear, "I…She…I mean, boom. I don't know…where…bloody Muggle!" he stuttered, rubbing the spot where the toilet seat had connected with the back of his head, and winced.

"Come with me," Draco drawled and grabbed Danvers by his robe, dragging him upstairs to his father.

Draco shoved Danvers into the room in front of Lucius and angrily snarled, "And now you explain how a weedy little Muggle girl overpowered you, knocked you out and escaped!"

"What?" Lucius shouted, "What do you mean by the Muggle escaped?"

"I…was…I mean, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened," Danvers babbled, not knowing what to say.

"I'll tell you exactly what happened," Draco sneered, "You were tricked by a Muggle and she hit you over the head with a toilet seat, knocking you out. A Muggle knocked you out with a toilet seat, Danvers!"

Lucius face was turning a never before seen shade of crimson, "Get out of my sight, Danvers, before I kill you myself," he roared, spit flying from his mouth, "Draco, go and get her back. Find her, I don't care how and I don't care if she's alive. If she managed to leave the building she knows where it is and we can't risk her telling anyone."

Draco bowed and supressed a smile. This was going too well.

Nobody heard Draco's silent pop when he arrived, but they all jumped out of their seats when he knocked on and entered through the door into the kitchen of the Burrow.

"How is she? Is she alright? Could you give her a message? Do you have more information?" Hermione asked like a rapid-fire machine gun.

"Hermione, calm down. Valerie escaped. She's on the run and I'm supposed to get her back to my father, dead or alive. We don't have much time. Father isn't a very patient man." Draco explained quickly.

"She escaped? Wasn't she guarded?" George wondered.

"Valerie certainly is very creative." Draco answered honestly, "but we need to find her before Father grows impatient enough to employ someone else to find her. Hermione do you know any locating spells?"

"Yes, but I don't see how they could work. I can only trace a magical object of a person with another magical object of that same person. And Valerie doesn't own anything magical," Hermione explained, a bit hopeless.

"I gave her my ring," Draco said, quite proud of himself.

"Oh, you're brilliant!" Hermione exclaimed and hugged the blond man briefly before realising what she was doing. She was just so relieved about it all. She could see Ginny eyeing her suspiciously from the side, but decided to ignore her in favour of getting Valerie back.

"Alright, can you apparate us to somewhere near the place, so we can start looking for Valerie?" George asked.

"There is a park nearby, I told Valerie to run there. I can apparate us. I hope there won't be too many Muggles around though," Draco said.

Suddenly, everyone grabbed hold of Draco and nodded.

"We're ready, Malfoy. Let's go!" Harry said, uncomfortably holding onto the blond man's belt.

With a loud crack they arrived in a somewhat hidden corner of the park.

Immediately, Hermione sprung into action, "Draco, do you have another ring or some other magical item on your person?"

Draco nodded and reached behind the back of his neck to unclasp a delicate silver necklace with a beautiful green emerald pendant that he had apparently been hiding underneath his black dress shirt. Ron snickered, "Oy, where did you get that from then?"

"It was a present from my mother if you want to know, Weasel!" Draco snapped at Ron, while handing the necklace to Hermione.

She quickly checked for any Muggles that might be watching the unusual spectacle that they were presenting before taking out her wand, "Quaereo Pertinens," she said and pointed her wand at the necklace. Immediately, the necklace began to pull in one direction and Hermione just had to follow it. So off they went, everyone walking after Hermione.

The park seemed quite big and while they were walking Draco seemed to have something on his mind that he couldn't quite get out.

"Do you want to say something?" Ginny asked surly.

"Erm, well, yes actually. There is something that I haven't told you yet," Draco began and Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, ignoring the pull from the necklace.

She turned around and glowered dangerously at the uncomfortable looking Slytherin, "Spit it out!"

"Well, you see. Valerie was shouting so loud that Father gave her guard permission to silence her. I'm sure he meant with a spell, but Danvers, well you see, he's a bit of a brute and he broke her jaw instead," Draco explained.

Molly gasped and Ginny automatically lifted her hand to her own jaw, remembering an especially well aimed bludger. Hermione narrowed her eyes dangerously, expecting Draco to continue his story.

"I healed a nasty gash on her cheek from his ring! But I, well, I never paid much attention to healing spells. I…she…I mean, her jaw…I couldn't. It's still broken and it looks rather ghastly. All blue and purple," Draco finished his confession.

Hermione willed herself not to explode in the middle of a park. Their funny looking group was already getting some unwanted attention by a bunch of picnicking Muggles, she didn't need to spike their interest even more. So, very calmly, Hermione turned around and followed the pull of the necklace again.

They zigzagged around the park for a couple of minutes before they came to a halt in front of a group of three trees.

"Are you sure the spell worked?" Ron enquired doubtfully.

"I thought I'd done everything right." Hermione answered, obviously confused by the lack of results.

All of a sudden, Ginny pulled George to one of the trees, "Give me a lift, will you?" And a moment later Ginny was climbing up the tree, through the narrow weave of branches and leaves until it was hard to see her from below.

"What do you see, Ginny?" Arthur called up.

"Nothing yet, she might be on another tree, though," Ginny answered.

Hermione pulled out her wand again and pointed it upwards, "Homenum Revelio."

She waited for a moment and then called up into the tree, "Ginny, she's on the other tree. Can you get there from where you are?

"Sure. Hold on," Ginny answered and the group looked up to see the leaves rustle, holding onto their branches in distress. "Got her!" Ginny called down from her tree, "She's unconscious. I'll float her down."

Not a moment later, Valeries body came into view and Molly immediately came forward to tend to the poor injured girl.

Her face was swollen on one side and, as Draco had warned them, looked awfully purple around her jaw.

Hermione held Valerie and stroked her hair, while Molly assessed her injury, "It seems to me that it's only cracked and not fully broken. I think I can heal it. We don't need to go to St. Mungo's. But we should do it at the Burrow and not here in plain sight.

Hermione flicked her wand again and then said, "Alright, I've put a Disillusionment Charm on her. We can just carry her back to that spot we arrived at and apparate from there. Ginny, if you want you can apparate from up there, no one can see you anyway."

They heard a cracking sound and knew that Ginny had done as suggested.

"I'll carry her. We can't have anyone here seeing a wand. I'd rather look like I'm walking funny than break the Statute of Secrecy," George explained and carefully picked up Valerie.

The odd looking procession made its way back to their apparition point before vanishing back to the Burrow.

When they arrived Ginny had already put a couple of pillows and a blanket on the sitting room couch. George carefully put Valerie down and Molly set to work, muttering spells and flicking her wand.

Soon enough the angry bruises were gone and Molly went to the kitchen to make them all some tea.

Hermione sat down at Valerie's side and carefully tried to wake the young woman,

"Val, hey, wake up. You're home. You're safe."

Slowly, Valerie began to stir and opened her eyes. She carefully lifted her hand to her jaw and looked around the room. She sat up to get a better view of all the people staring at her.

When her eyes found Draco, she smiled and whispered hoarsely, "Thank you." It was then she realised that her jaw didn't hurt when speaking, "Did you give me another one of those purple thingamajigs? They are bloody awesome!"

Draco shook his head and Hermione spoke up, "We found you unconscious in a tree in that park. Molly healed you. This injury looked really nasty but it seems you're fine now. Do you want to tell us how you escaped?"

Molly came back with a tray full of cups and a kettle of tea. Everyone found somewhere to sit and Valerie made room on the couch for Hermione and Ginny.

"There isn't much to tell, really. I literally MacGyver'd my way out of that tiny bedroom and fled. Draco helped," she explained, earning a room full of confused looks.

"MacGuywhat?" Arthur asked, intrigued by the new Muggle word.

"It's an old TV series. They broadcast reruns all the time. Very educational apparently. No? Hermione? No one? Nevermind," Valerie chuckled, "I distracted this Danvers bloke with a little home made explosion – Hermione, please remind me to get a new phone – and tried to hit him over the head with a toilet seat I had undone previously. But it didn't work and while I was struggling to get free, Draco came in and knocked the git out with the toilet seat. He told me where to run and I did. When I reached the park, my jaw started hurting again. The purple pain potion didn't last very long, but long enough for me to climb up into one of those trees. Then I tried to invoke my inner Katniss and made sure I won't fall out of that tree before I fainted. That's all, really. And my parents always told me that watching TV wouldn't teach me anything. Oh, and thank you, Molly, for taking care of my jaw. And thanks everyone for finding me and getting me home." Valerie got up and gave Draco a big hug, taking everyone by surprise, "Thanks. I owe you my life." She gave him a friendly peck on the cheek before retreating back to the couch.

Draco blushed at the unexpected display of affection and George turned livid. "Can you please quit kissing the Slytherin snake. I carried you through the whole park looking like an idiot because you were hidden from Muggle eyes and you go and thank him for saving your life?" George spat.

"Oh, and who knocked out the guard and told her where to run? Who gave her the pain potion and a head start? Who came here to let you know she had escaped? Who was that, you petty little cave-wizard?" Draco shot back, getting out of his seat. George sprang to his feet and was about to shout back when Valerie interjected, "Shut it! Both of you. I'm flattered George, but keep your jealousy to yourself. It doesn't become you and it's completely unwarranted. And Draco, I already thanked you for helping me, there is no need to rub it under everyone's nose. They already know you're trying to turn your life around."

Draco and George sat back down and found a sudden interest in their shoes, both a bit embarrassed by their immature behaviour.

"As much as I love having you back, Valerie, there is another rather important thing we need to do. We can't sit here hoping Lucius doesn't notice that Draco isn't back yet. We need to come up with a plan to catch him or at least a story to buy us some time," Harry reminded them all.

And right on cue Draco's arm began to hurt again. "Val…erie. The. ring, please. I need it. Father will…notice," Draco pressed out between clenched teeth, clearly forcing himself not to apparate on the spot.

Quickly, Valerie took off the ring and handed it to the panting Slytherin.

And before Hermione could tell him what to tell Lucius Draco was gone from the Burrow.

"Well, let's hope he doesn't bollocks everything up!" Ron stated glumly and Molly whacked him over the back of his head.

"You will use no such language in my house, Ronald!" She reprimanded him.