Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Inc., Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, and any other affiliated party.
Also, orcs are from J. R. R. Tolkien's Mythology of Arda (of which Lord of the Rings is part of). This is the only time I'm going to put this part up.
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Chapter 4: The Exchange
Godric's Hollow did not sleep that night. News of the kidnapping of the young prince and princess spread like wildfire through the kingdom and citizens wept publicly. Search parties were organized but as the hours flew by, the lack of any news was highly discomforting.
Although the entire population was depressed about the lost of the twins, nobody was more agonized then Hermione and Harry.
By morning, Hermione seemed as if she had lost the will to live. She remained in bed all day and simply refused to come out. Harry for his part, refused to leave Hermione's side. He was constantly pacing back and forth in the master bedroom, eager for news about his children. Sometimes, Hermione would burst into tears quite suddenly. Harry would immediately tightly embrace her and let her cry on his shoulder while he himself occasionally wiped a tear from his own eyes.
By nightfall, Hermione had calmed down but there was still no news on the whereabouts of the missing twins. While the royal couple lay in bed, Hermione felt the need for comfort and crawled into Harry's arms. Harry gently stroked her back as Hermione let a few tears roll down her cheeks. She finally spoke up.
"Harry, what if when we find Lily and James, they're…" She couldn't bare to say it and she started sobbing again.
"Shhh. Don't say that. They'll be alright." Harry kissed Hermione's tears away but he also had to swipe away the tears in his own eyes.
Hermione stifled a sob. "I just keep thinking. If only I were a little stronger, I could've saved them. It's my fault, Harry. It's all my fault." Hermione started crying again. Harry gently stroked the back of her head.
"Nobody blames you for what happened. You tried your best. You're a strong person, Hermione."
"Not strong enough."
"I should've stayed here. I should've just sent a representative to the conference rather than go myself. I should've stayed where I belong, right here with you, Lily, and James."
"It's not your fault, Harry." Hermione dug her face into Harry's shoulder as Harry gently stroked her hair. "What if we never see them again?"
"Don't say that. We will see them again. I promise."
Hermione looked up into Harry's emerald green eyes. Overwhelmed with love for her husband, she kissed him passionately while she let more tears run down her face.
"I love you so much, Harry."
"I love you too."
* * * * * * * * * *
By morning Hermione was feeling a lot better. As a result, Harry took it upon himself to personally lead the search for his own children and left the palace. Though still horribly depressed, Hermione was moving around again and had returned to her royal duties. She was still hoping for some, even a little news on what had happened to her children.
It was a little past noon when Hermione was sitting near the window of the west wing, searching for any sign of her family. A proud looking eagle owl swooped by and dropped a letter into her lap. Hoping it was a report on the search, Hermione eagerly tore the note open. It was indeed a letter about the twins, but not the one she was hoping for:
If you ever want to see your children again, come to the southern bank of Privet Drive River at midnight, alone. If you do not come, we will kill your children.
Despite the threatening nature of the letter, Hermione couldn't help but feel a little relieved that she would finally be able to see her children again. That hope dashed away all sense of the physical danger from her mind.
'I will see you again, Lily and James,' she thought. 'Mommy is coming to save you.'
* * * * * * * * * *
Harry finally returned to Godric's Hollow about thirty minutes before midnight. He was exhausted and depressed for the simple reason that the search hadn't yielded any results. He was now starting to despair that he would even ever see his children alive again.
Harry dragged himself up to the west wing only to find that Hermione wasn't there. 'Where could she have gone?' he wondered. Starting to get worried, Harry started searching for anything that could give him the whereabouts of his wife. He finally spotted the letter that had been delivered earlier that day. Harry read it, and was horrified.
"No."
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A part of Hermione was screaming at her for reason, that what she was doing was stupid to say the least. Hermione, however, buried that part down into her subconscious as she made for the banks of Privet Drive River.
'Harry grew up along this river,' she mused. She wondered what Harry would think when he found out what she as doing. 'No doubt he'd be horrified and angry with me,' she thought. 'But if I can get Lily and James back this way, than he'd probably be more overjoyed.'
Hermione was more than adequately prepared to defend herself if the need should arrive. She was wearing her familiar blue and white travel robes, which had always served her well. She didn't want to alarm the captors by showing up armed so she had shrunk her staff and hid it behind her right ear.
Soon, she made it to the banks of the river. She looked up at the gibbous moon to judge the time.
'It should be midnight right about now,' she thought. Yet, there was absolutely no sign of anybody around. 'Why isn't anybody here?' she wondered. 'Could this be just some large hoax?' Hermione decided to wait for a few minutes. She shivered in the night air as she listened to crickets chirp. It was around the time when Hermione was considering giving up when she heard a baby's cry. Motherly instinct taking over, Hermione dashed to the bushes where she could hear the crying coming from. She pulled aside the bushes and gasped. There, wrapped in green cloth, were two babies crying at the top of their lungs: Lily and James.
"Lily! James!" gasped Hermione as tears of joy rolled down her eyes. She quickly picked the two babies up and hugged them close to her. "Oh Lily! Oh James! I was so worried. I thought I'd never see you two again!" Hermione let more tears fall as she gathered the twins in her arms.
Lily and James continued crying. Hermione started cooing them. "It's OK, Mommy's here now. She's going to make sure that the bad people never get you two again."
It was just then that a shadow came up from behind her. Hermione had just enough time to whirl around and see someone yell "Stupefy!"
* * * * * * * * * *
Harry ran his horse, Firebolt as fast as he could. He needed to get to the banks of Privet Drive River as fast as he could or else he would lose his family forever. If he didn't make it in time…Harry refused to think about what would happen if that were so.
Finally, Firebolt bolted into the clearing by the banks of the river. Harry jumped off his horse and ran to the river's edge. He was just able to make out a Durmstrang ship sailing out to the sea.
"No," whispered Harry. He desperately looked around his surroundings but found nobody else there.
"No! Please, God. No!" But Harry knew it was a lost cause. He looked out at the Durmstrang ship sailing away and he felt his heart crumble. Somehow, Harry knew full well that Hermione was on that ship.
"No!" Harry sank to his knees and started weeping. "No. No! NO!" He soon started wailing and cursing at no one in particular.
"WHY?! DAMMIT! WHY?!" he shouted. "Why is everything I ever loved taken from me?! First my parents! Then my children! And now my wife! WHY?! DAMMIT! WHY?!"
Harry abruptly stopped when he heard what sounded like babies crying. He slowly crept to the bushes where the crying was coming from. There, lying in a small heap were Lily and James!
Harry felt a brief leap of joy to find that his children were all right. He pulled them into a hug and openly wept, thankful that he had found his children, yet despaired because of the loss of his wife.
"It's an exchange," he muttered to himself. "They exchanged Lily and James for Hermione. She was the one they were after all along."
The young father simply sat there weeping for a number of hours while he held his children close to him. It was in that position that Ron and Ginny found him early the next morning.
"Come on, mate. You've got to get back home," said Ron. He and Ginny easily figured out what had happened. Harry however had no intention of going back to Godric's Hollow.
"We're going to Hogwarts," he said.
"What?" said Ron and Ginny in unison. Harry looked up at his two friends with a new spark in his eye.
"We're going to Hogwarts," he declared, a certain fire burning in his emerald eyes. "I'm going to figure out a way to save Hermione. That best place to do that is at Hogwarts."
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A/N I didn't know that you needed a disclaimer for orcs considering that its another name for goblins. But I put one on the top of this chapter so I'm sure that should make it satisfactory. So how was this chapter? R/R. Next: Mage Knights go across the sea.