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Authors note:This is another Gryffindor chapter! Woohoo. That's all I'm prepared to say, but I'm also absurdly hungry while typing this so I have to go eat my weight in cheese-itz. Enjoy! Read! Review!
Harry sighed, scribbling his message, and finally whistling for Tonk's little bird. Things were not going well, they couldn't find Dumbledore, but they had figured out how Voldemort had stayed alive. There were these weird magic things that Hermione had explained were like little soul holders, and they'd been able to work out that the diary that Harry had stabbed had been one, and that Dumbledore knew what was going on, and had been working on it when he had been taken. But now they needed dragon fire, basilisk venom, and one of these weird little soul holders. But presumably Dumbledore knew where they were, and the man was missing.
Harry finally caved; after they found out that there were only about one third the students there had been at the beginning of the year left at Hogwarts. Ginny and some others were missing, some presumably taken into hiding with their families, some lured to work for Voldemort.
I need Dumbledore, I heard you could help.
He scrawled, pausing for a moment, before handing the note to the Snidget, who had buzzed in from nowhere. They were at a ramshackle little cottage they'd found on the cliffs along the ocean, and they were making no leads. Harry leaned back, hoping whoever was on the receiving end was as useful as Tonks had said.
An hour or two later, a little golden bussing bird flitted into Harry's window, dropping a scrap of parchment near him, before perching on Hedwig's perch, nibbling at a mouse the snowy owl had left in her cage.
Don't know where the old man is, but I'll keep an eye out. Who are you?
The plain script was unhelpful, not any kind of familiar handwriting Harry had been hoping for. He thought for a minute, chewing on his lip, and then inked his response on the back of the other person's parchment.
Ill tell you mine if you tell me yours. Do you know where Voldemort is?
He sighed, and got up, coaxing the small, gold Pip out of Hedwig's cage, and handing him the small parchment. He wandered downstairs, to where Hermione was obsessively reading, and Ron was trying to get her to eat. He sat down quietly, and picked up a book, sighing. His brain might melt out of his head, but he would figure this out.
As the sun was setting, Pip zipped into the room, dropping a small roll of parchment into Harry's lap before zooming off, obviously hoping to scavenge some more dead mouse off of Hedwig's perch.
Harry picked up the scroll, there were two pieces of parchment, one a sheet, the other a scrap. He read the scrap first.
Hah. Nice try, Seeker. To answer your question: Yes.
-C
The other was a vague map, but there was a V drawn in red on one of the buildings.
"What is it, Harry?" Hermione sounded curious, Harry's relieved expression obviously wrenching her from her research in how to locate a horcrux. Finally, they had a lead. He grinned, and shoved the map at her.
"And V is for…?"
"Yeah." He couldn't help but grin. Hah.
"Who sent this to you, Harry?" The concern in Hermione's voice shouldn't have annoyed him as much as it did. Didn't she ever just trust him? He'd come this far couldn't they just all agree that his gut feelings had to be more than luck or something? He sighed, and bit back any impatient snaps that tried to worm their way out.
"Who ever is on the other end of Tonk's Snidget?"
"You sent Pip off? I thought we agreed I was in charge of him!" Before either of them could placate him, a concerned and scowling Ron disappeared to check on his small golden charge. It was true that Pip was quite taken with Ron, that is seemed to like him while he seemed ambivalent on Harry, and a bit distrustful of Hermione.
He handed Hermione the note, and she frowned. "Who ever it is knows who you are Harry, that you're a seeker, or the youngest seeker in a century, or that you're seeking Dumbledore. How do they know?"
"Maybe they know my handwriting?"
Hermione sighed, but then smiled wearily. "Well at least now we can go help poor Professor Dumbledore."
Harry smiled, and sat down next to her, leaning against her happily, in relief. A lead. Somewhere to go. At last.