WARNING: CONTAINS SPANISH
I Caught Myself-Chapter 14
Hermione's POV:
I awoke the next morning, sitting up so fast that I got dizzy. 'Where am I?' I thought as I rolled out of bed.
"Morning babe," Fred smiled at me, peeking through the door of the tent.
"Babe? That's new," I smirked, rubbing my eyes as I walked towards him, ducking under the tent door.
"Sleep well? You fell asleep with your head on my shoulder and your feet in George's lap. I carried you inside shortly after," he said, poking a marshmallow onto a stick.
"Thank you. You didn't have to though; I would've been fine out here," I yawned, brushing my hair up into a pony-tail with my hands.
"Hermione, don't be stupid. There was no chance in hell that I would've let you stay out here. Anything could've happened."
"Hmm."
"You okay?"
"I'm fine. I guess I'm just a little annoyed," I shrugged, copying Fred's actions with the marshmallows.
"About what?"
"I don't have a clue what I'm doing! I never thought this through, Fred. I never thought about what we would do once we were out here."
"We'll figure it out. Between the five of us, we have something special. Two thirds of the Golden Trio, one being The Boy Who Won't Fucking Die and the other being the brightest witch of our age. We have Ginny Weasley who just happens to be an extremely talented witch, especially with that Bat Bogey Hex she's pretty handy with and the last two are the Weasley twins. Enough said."
I laughed at him, knowing fine well that he was right.
"Maybe you're right. We will figure this out."
Fred wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his side. I felt my heart speed up as I laid my head onto his shoulder, breathing in his sweet scent.
"You smell good," I said quietly, breathing in as much as I could.
"You think so?" he laughed, looking down at me.
"Please tell me that I didn't say that out loud?" I slapped my hand to my forehead, very embarrassed.
"It doesn't bother me. I like that you think I smell nice," he laughed again, kissing the spot on my forehead that I'd slapped.
"Is that Hedwig?" I asked, imidantally sidetracked as I saw the snowy, white owl fly closer to us.
"I think so," he replied, getting to his feet to collect the letter that was attached to her leg.
"It is," I grinned, getting up beside him.
Once Fred got the letter from Hedwig, he opened it up to a familiar, messy writing. He read it over, his eyes scanning the page before handing it over to me.
"Here, I think it's from Longbottom."
I took the parchment from him and began to read.
Dear Harry,
Professor McGonagal
Professor Dumbledore
Professor Flitwick
Professor Hagrid
Cho Chang
Luna Lovegood
Ron Weasley
"I forgot Harry told Neville to check who was missing," I said, tapping my chin lightly.
"How on earth did anyone manage to get those teachers. Well, Hagrid I suppose was pretty easy, but McGonagal? Flitwick? Dumbledore?"
"Hey! What do you mean, Hagrid was easy?" I demanded, suddenly pretty hacked off with Fred.
"'Mione, he's a lovely bloke and I like him, I really do, but he's far too trusting of people he doesn't know. And people he does know."
I couldn't exactly argue with that, so instead I went back into the tent and sat on my bed. Fred followed me through and sat beside me.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" he asked softly, placing his bigger and warmer hand over my tiny, cold one.
"No," I sighed. "I'm just a little over-emotional right now."
"It's to be expected," he said simply. "Anything could happen out here. But it's the risk that makes it fun."
Mrs. Weasley's POV:
I stumbled into the living room, clutching any surfaces I could that would make me stay upright. Now the children were gone, I didn't have to pretend to be okay anymore.
I collapsed into the armchair and began to cry again. I couldn't take the pain. My son was being held hostage by Death Eaters and I couldn't do anything about it. I felt like a terrible mother.
"Gammy Weasley?" I heard an unsure voice call to me.
Oh Merlin, it's Victoire!
"I'm in the sitting room, darling," I called back to her, trying to hide any traces of tears or sickness away before my granddaughter saw them.
"Gammy!" she squealed as she came hurtling towards me, arms flailing out desperately.
I scooped her up onto my lap and rocked her gently.
"Gammy, you eyes all wed and puffy," she frowned, wiping them with her tiny hands.
"They're a little sore, sweetheart. Nothing to worry about!" I exclaimed brightly, hoping she didn't notice the wavering voice.
"Are woo sure?"
"I'm positive, angel. Now, will I go and get you some cookies and milk?"
"Yay!" she giggled, clapping her hands together.
"I won't be long, honey," I promised, entering the kitchen.
"Why have you been crying?"
I jumped about a meter into the air. "For Goodness sake, Bill! Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry Mum. But why were you crying?"
"I've not been crying, silly," I lied, starting to make the cookies.
"I heard you, Mum," he said gently, placing his hand on my upper arm.
"Bill, darling, it's nothing to worry about," I told him.
"Is it about Ron?"
My heart started beating irregularly. I didn't want to have to worry him with my thoughts. I didn't want him to know that the only reason I said I was okay was because I didn't want to worry Ginny, the twins, Hermione or Harry. I didn't want to burden my son.
"No. Now if you excuse me, I need to make cookies for my Granddaughter," I said, a little more sharply than I intended.
Bill sighed and made his way to his daughter. I felt bad for not telling him but there was no way I could do that to him.
Ginny's POV:
"Stop! Just stop it, okay!" I yelled, my temper reaching the surface.
Hermione and Harry had been arguing for two and a half hours and it had only gone from bad to worse.
"Ginny it's not my fault. All she's been doing is having a go at me since I got up," Harry yelled.
"Me? Me? Harry, it's not always my fault, you know!"
"I know it's not Hermione, because it always seems to be mine."
"You said it, not me," she shrugged, drawing her eyes away from him.
"I can't believe that you're actually putting this on me."
"Well why else would we be here?"
"What do you mean by that?" he said quietly.
"It's your fault they're gone!" she screamed.
Everyone fell silent. I looked between the two of them. Hermione was seething. Absolutely livid. Harry looked as if he'd just been shot.
"Wow. Thanks for that 'Mione," he said, more calmly than he looked.
"Harry, I...I didn't...I didn't mean that," she stuttered, trying to fix it.
Harry held his hand up, silencing her. "Just don't," he growled as he stormed back into the tent.
Hermione looked to me, as if asking for help. I couldn't even begin to explain the feeling that was rushing through me. I couldn't believe her. We'd been out for one day and she was already being an ass. I shook my head at her and followed Harry through the flap of the tent.
"Harry?"
"What?" he said, tonelessly.
"Are you okay?" I asked, sitting on the end of his bed and putting his legs over mine.
"I'll be fine. It's you four we need to worry about."
"Hermione didn't mean it like that Harry. You know she didn't. She was just...het up."
"Sure," he snorted, rearranging his pillows to make him comfier.
"She was," I bargained awkwardly.
"Ginny, if you're in here to try and make talk to her, you're wasting your time."
"I just wanted to make sure that you're okay; I wasn't trying to make you do anything," I replied, slightly wounded.
He sighed. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just kind of upset about Hermione."
"I don't blame you. She was out of order, sweetie," I said, slipping out from under his legs and sliding up beside him.
He twisted around and pulled me in towards him, resting his head on my head which was on his shoulder.
"This is never going to work if people keep arguing like this," I mumbled against his chest.
"I know, it's going to be pretty intense," he yawned.
"Don't you two be getting too cosy," George warned jokingly as he came in.
"Shut up, George," I laughed, flinging a spare pillow at him.
He caught it expertly and put it on his bed.
"Hermione's crying," he said, sitting on his bed and looking towards us.
"Attention seeking little-"
"Ginny," Harry sighed. "I'll talk to her."
"Why should you have to apologise?" I started, pinning him back down as he tried to get up.
"Someone has to," he shrugged and gently put me back down onto the bed. "It's fine Gin, don't worry about it," he kissed me gently on the forehead.
I sauntered over to George's bed and sat beside him, flicking his ear in the process.
"Hey there, little sister," he grinned, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
"Are you happy?" I blurted.
George gave me a puzzled look. "What? Yeah, I'm pretty happy."
"Are you happier now that you're...out?"
George laughed. "Ginny, I was happy before that, you and Freddie made sure of that. Honestly."
"And you're 100%...gay?" I slapped my hand over my mouth. The question had exited my lips before I could stop it.
"I don't know, Gin, I really don't."
For a moment he looked troubled but he promptly fixed a smile on his face and started ticking me.
"George!" I squealed, "Quit it, you complete moron!"
"Calling me a moron isn't going to get you anywhere, princess," he smirked, tickling me more.
"Stop messing about in there and come out! We need to start talking about this plan!" Fred yelled at us.
George helped me up, both of us pretty out of breath and we made our way outside to where Hermione and Fred had started the fire back up.
"Okay you two, sit down," Hermione instructed. "Now, what do we know about the Malfoy Manor?"
Percy's POV:
I yelped in pain as a box of heavy spell books came crashing down and landed on my foot.
"Good Godric, that hurt!"
"Perzee are you okay?" Mrs McGowan asked, poking her head around the door.
"Yes thank you Mrs McGowan," I smiled, trying to mask the pain.
"Good boy. Thank you for taking care of my girlz," she said in a pretty Spanish accent.
Although Amilie was Spanish like her parents, only she was able to shake the accent off.
"My pleasure, ma'am," I said sincerely.
"Please, call me Aracelia," she smiled at me.
Aracelia brushed her soft brown curls from her face, gave me one last dazzling look and set off back down the stairs.
I picked the fallen book box back up and shrunk it, just like I'd done with the rest of the boxes and shoved them all towards the landing. We had planned to move after my six week stay was over but had decided that it was best we done it early. So Perrie was going to be staying with Amilie's parents whist we unpacked everything and made suitable living conditions out of the place.
"Are we all set to load the stuff into the car then?" Amilie asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway.
"Should be, darling," I smiled.
We were travelling back the Muggle way because the chimney of our new house hadn't been connected to the Floo network yet. So we were driving to the nearest airport and flying from there.
"Right then, let me go and say goodbye to my parents and we'll be off," she gave a teary smile and retreated down the same stairs her mother had gone down a few moments beforehand.
I followed her down with an armful of boxes for the car.
"Oh mi amor! Voy a echarte mucho de menos! Si necesita cualquier cosa no dude en volver, pero estoy seguro de que va a cuidar de ti. Te queremos mucho," her mother gabbled in fluent Spanish.
"Oh Madre, Te amo también," she replied tearfully.
She turned to her father and stifled a hiccough. "Papá."
"Oh mi ángel," he wiped his eyes. "Querida, voy a echarte mucho de menos. Hazme saber si él no está tomando el cuidado de usted y yo lo arreglaré."
"Él quiere, Padre," she nodded and wrapped her arms around her parents.
We traipsed out together and loaded the car.
"We'll need to go back and say goodbye to Perrie," I said, shutting the boot after the last box was in.
"Come on, let's go," she smiled, clearly trying not to cry.
We walked back up the path towards her parents who were now holding our daughter.
"Ha olvidado algo, queridos?" Aracelia asked.
I gave them a puzzled look, hoping that they'd understand and translate for me.
"She's asking if you two forgot something," her father muttered.
"Just our goodbyes to Perrie," I said, scooping my baby up.
Soon enough, the goodbyes were done, we'd got to the airport, we'd checked our bags in and we were on the plane, watching sunny Spain fade into the distance.
Harry's POV:
Hermione and I made up shortly afterwards and soon enough we were all sitting round the fire, ready to begin our big conversation.
"So, does anyone have any ideas about where the Manor is?" Hermione asked, looking around at us expectantly.
"Well, I'm pretty sure it's in this country," Ginny said thoughtfully, tapping her chin in concentration.
"Merlin you're a genius, Ginny. 'It's in this country." George snorted, pitching his voice so it was high and girly in a cruel imitation of his sister.
"It's a start," Hermione said, pointedly looking at the twin.
Ginny stuck her tongue out at George before turning back to the group, again, deep in thought.
"Do you think they'd have it in a well known place or a fairly quiet one?" I asked, thinking about process of elimination.
"That's where there's a problem mate. We all know Malfoys like to boast and be in the center of things, but then again, they might not want it to be easy to find because it's being used for Headquarters for their side," Fred piped up, scratching his head in confusion.
"I never thought of that," Hermione admitted, her brow furrowing.
"Do you think it would be reasonably close to King's Cross?" George asked.
"Again, don't know," Hermione said.
"Does anyone know when it was built? Then we could look for buildings built in that time period and make the search a little smaller," I finally spoke.
"Harry! You're a genius!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Do you know?" Ginny asked eagerly.
"Well, not exactly but when I first found out I was a Witch my parents and I went to France as a sort of congratulations thing. When we were there, I started researching famous French wizards and I found something about someone called Armand Malfoy."
"What about him?" I asked.
"That's the thing...I don't remember," she bit her lip anxiously.
"At least we've got a bit of a start," Ginny said, trying to look on the bright side.
"Not really," Hermione grumped, "We only know that it's probably in this country and we need to find as much information about Armand Malfoy as we can."
"And how are we going to do that if we're out here and trying not to get caught?" Ginny asked, pulling a blanket closer around her as a great gush of wind blew over us.
"Did you pack any books for us before we left, Hermione?" George encquired.
"No," she said, her voice becoming strained and wavering.
Fred instinctively wrapped an arm around her. "It'll be okay, we'll figure something out," he said softly, nuzzling her ear.
"Do you have any ideas?" George piped back up again.
"I don't think it's wise to go into the Wirzarding world for books," she said, pulling herself nearer to her boyfriend.
"Then where else are we going to get purely magical books?" Ginny spat.
"Calm down, sweetheart," I whispered to her, hoping her and 'Mione weren't going to start arguing.
"I've got some in my room at home," she told us nervously.
"How are we going to get there safely and make our way back here? Does anyone actually know where we are right now?" Ginny snarled, looking around the circle.
"No. But what I do know is that there is a storm coming, so if we want to stay dry and alive, we'd better get inside now," Fred said as he started taking the blankets back into the tent.
And sure enough, Fred was absolutely correct, because the second we got into the tent a heavy case of thunder and lightning began.
Fred's POV:
"I told you all there was a storm coming," I showed off, as I climbed into the top bunk of one of the beds.
The inside of the tent was a soft sort of orange with black patterns on it, illuminated by the lanterns at the side. We had six deck chairs in the center of the tent and they were surrounded by the beds. On the left hand side there was the girls' bunk where Hermione slept at the top and Ginny at the bottom. To the right of the chairs, George and I slept in our bunk, me at the top and George at the bottom. At the back of the tent, Harry slept on the top of his bunk. We had all retreated to bed early that night after deciding we were going to try and get to Hermione's house the next day and see if we could find anything on Armand Malfoy.
"Yes Fred, we know. You've only been telling us for the past hour and a half," Ginny huffed, curling up tighter in her bed.
"It's not very often I'm smarter than Hermione," I said slyly, flinging a wink at the said girl.
"Oh please, you're never smarter than 'Mione," Harry snorted.
"Shurrup, Wonder Boy," I grinned, turning over onto my side and shutting my eyes.
Each of us turned out a lamp and sighed softly. Just as we were drifting off, Hermione gave a yelp.
"What? What happened? Are you alright?" Harry called, sitting up so frantically that he whacked his head off of the roof of the tent.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, but I do have an idea."
"Was it an idea that couldn't wait until morning?" Ginny yelled.
"Yes actually, it was."
"Well enlighten us," she snarled back.
"I think one person must keep watch every night. Just to make sure nothing happens."
"Nothing will happen, Hermione," George groaned, obviously sleepy.
"What if it does?"
Nobody had an answer for that.
"I'll take the first shift," Hermione said happily, glad she'd got her own way.
She unfolded one of the deck chairs, pulled a blanket around her and placed a book on her lap. And that's the last I remember before drifting off into sleep.
Charlie's POV:
'Mr Weasley? Hello, I'm Julia Collins. I'm sorry to have to contact you on such a series note but there is a dragon here of a species that's quite unknown to us. It has killed several people already and we have been alerted by experts that you're one of the best in the business.'
'Miss Collins I would hardly go as far as to say I'm one of the best in the business but thank you. I'll come over and have a look at the type of dragon with a couple of other guys who are good at what they do. When would be best for you?'
'Any time this week, if that suits you Mr Weasley.'
'Please, call me Charlie.'
'Thank you Charlie. I look forward to meeting you in person.'
'It'll be my pleasure.'