Authors Note: I'm sure we're all getting excited about Book Five…I decided to do n update as I waited. Hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for the kind reviews!
Chapter 21
Find Me
It was a little after nine that evening when Harry arrived at Auror headquarters. He'd apparated there straight away after leaving Hermione with Sirius at the Burrow. He thanked Merlin once again that the Auror headquarters was not a well-known place in the Wizarding World. No one outside of the Minister of Magic and the staff of Aurors knew where the place was and that such a place existed. Because of this, he hadn't had to worry about dodging inquiring reporters as he made his way inside the secluded building.
The house was simple enough from the outside, nothing too ornate or ostentatious to give away its true purpose and the goings on inside it. It wasn't very big on the inside, either. In total, the house had six rooms. There were two interrogation rooms, a kitchenette, a sleeping quarters, a small foyer which housed the security team and a meeting room. Harry likened it to a small police precinct house. The main purpose of the headquarters was to conduct interrogations of key witnesses or suspects and to house various Death Eaters or wrongdoers as they awaited transfer to Azkaban. When Voldemort had been alive, the place had been much larger to accommodate the number of Death Eaters who had been captured. Since Voldemort's death, they'd scaled down the headquarters.
Harry quickly made his way through the double doors into the house. He gave a quick nod to the security staff and navigated his way down the narrow hallway toward the interrogation rooms. To his surprise, it wasn't very busy. Save for a couple of people scattered in the kitchenette, the place was pretty much dead.
To say the least, he was shocked to find both interrogation rooms empty. This was odd, he thought. Sirius said this person only wanted to speak with me, Harry thought. Surely, they wouldn't have taken him to Azkaban already.
He made his way back to the kitchenette and approached one of the men. He recognized him from a case they'd worked together in Australia earlier that year.
"Hey, Tim," Harry said. "Sorry to interrupt your dinner, but have they moved anyone or brought anyone in tonight for questioning?"
Tim put down his sandwich and shook his head. "No, sorry, Harry," he said. "I've been here since about five and to my knowledge, no one's been brought in."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "Sirius didn't bring someone in earlier today?"
Again, Tim shook his head no. "Not to my recollection. He's here, though. You can ask him yourself."
Harry stared back at Tim in amazement. "Sirius is here? What, did he just get here?"
"He's been here since this afternoon," Tim said. "Last I saw of him, he was heading back there to catch some shuteye. Is everything okay, Harry? You look like you just saw a ghost."
Harry couldn't reply. A thousand different scenarios were playing out in his head and none of them were pleasant. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Uh, no," Harry finally replied to Tim. "I don't think so. I need to go see Sirius. Thanks, Tim."
Within seconds, Harry had found Sirius asleep on one of the cots in the back room. He shook his godfather awake. It took a couple of seconds for Sirius to become aware of his surroundings and the urgency of his godson's voice.
"Calm down," Sirius said, sitting upright on the cot. "What is it?"
"I thought you were going to see Hermione home," Harry said, urgently. "Please tell me that she got home okay."
"Well, I'd like to tell you that, Harry," Sirius said, running his fingers through his hair. "But I don't know. I haven't seen Hermione or you since I left you in Hawaii."
"No," Harry said. "We saw each other not even thirty minutes ago. Hermione and I were at the Burrow talking to Ron. It went about as well as you'd think it would. We were there and the next thing I know, you show up and tell me that we had someone in custody who would only talk to me and that I was needed here immediately. You told me that you'd see Hermione home and make sure she was safe and sound."
Sirius stared back at his godson, a look of bewilderment on his face. "No, Harry," Sirius said. "I've been here since this afternoon. I haven't seen you or Hermione. I haven't been at The Burrow in years and I most certainly wasn't there tonight."
"No," Harry said, a sense of dread washing over him. "That can't be. That can't be. This can't be happening, Sirius."
Sirius put a comforting arm on Harry's shoulder, but Harry shrugged it off. He got up from the cot and walked toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Sirius asked.
"Where the hell do you think I'm going?" Harry asked. "I'm going to find Hermione. And when I find the son-of-a-bitch who did this, I'm going to tear them apart, that's what I'm going to do."
Sirius followed him out the door.
"Where are you going to go first?" Sirius asked.
"I'm going to go back to her apartment," Harry said. "Why don't you go check at the Ministry. Get a team together. I want every available person on this. We have got to find her, Sirius."
Sirius nodded grimly as he watched his godson take off out the door.
Within moments, Harry had apparated to Hermione's flat. As he put the key into the door, he said a silent prayer that she would be inside the apartment, safe and sound. The apartment was dark and looked just as they'd left it hours before. He turned on the lamp in the living room and called out her name.
"Hermione?" he asked. "Mione? Please be here."
He walked in and out of every room in the apartment. It was a Hermione-free zone. She hadn't been here.
"Where are you?" he asked, he walked over to the fireplace mantle and looked at the pictures. There she was in the photograph staring back at him, smiling brightly. She playfully waved to him. "Where are you?" he asked the photograph again. She just waved back at him, oblivious to what was going on outside the world of that photograph.
Harry put down that photo and his eye caught another photo-the one of Hermione, Ron and himself. The picture was from their third year at Hogwarts. All of a sudden a thought popped into Harry's head.
"No," Harry said, putting the photograph down. "He couldn't have done that. Could he? I mean, he was upset, but he wouldn't have done something like this, could he?"
Ron wouldn't have done something to Hermione, Harry thought to himself. No matter what had happened, he loved her. He wouldn't hurt her, would he? Love made a man do strange things, though. Being betrayed by your two best friends could also make a man do strange things, too, Harry thought. Although he didn't want to think this of Ron, he couldn't rule him out. One of the first things he'd learned in his training had been that you never rule out anything, even the obvious.
It was after 11 when Harry apparated back to the Weasley home. He determinedly knocked on their door.
It took a few minutes, but finally he heard footsteps approaching the door. Molly greeted him at the door, wearing a robe, curlers and some sort of cold cream on her face.
"Harry?" she said, opening the door. "What on earth are you doing here?"
Harry quickly walked past her and into the house. "Is she still here?"
"Is who still here, dear?" Molly said, following him back into the house.
"Hermione," Harry said. "Have you seen her? Is she still here?"
"No, dear," Molly said. "I haven't seen her since this evening when she arrived here with you. Is something wrong?"
"Yes," Harry said. "Is Ron here?"
Molly nodded. "He's upstairs. I'll go and get him for you."
She didn't have to go far, because Ron came barreling down the spiral staircase a few moments later.
"You have some nerve coming back here, Harry," Ron angrily said. "Isn't enough that you got the girl, did you have to come back here and rub my face in it?"
"Ron," Harry said. "Have you seen Hermione?"
Ron started to laugh. "Already lost her, have you?"
Harry rushed over to Ron and grabbed him by the collar. "Listen to me, Ron. This isn't a joke. Hermione is missing. If you had anything to do with it, you better tell me now."
"I haven't seen her!" Ron said. "Let go of me."
Molly hurried back into the living room. "Boys. What is going on?"
Harry let go of Ron. "Hermione's missing. We don't know where she is or what's going on."
"When was the last time you saw her, Harry?" Molly asked.
"This evening. She and I were in the backyard and Sirius-or someone I thought was Sirius-showed up and said that someone was in custody back at headquarters and he agreed to make sure she got home okay so I could go question the suspect," Harry said. "I get back to headquarters, there's no suspect there. No one's been brought in the entire night and Sirius has been there all afternoon."
"Polyjuice potion?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded. "I think so."
Molly had begun to cry. "Oh, Merlin."
Ron went over to his mom and put an arm around her. "Don't worry, Mum. We'll find her."
"We?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Ron said. "I'm going to help you find her."
"You are?" Harry asked.
"Don't look so surprised. I'm not happy about working with you, either, but this is Hermione," Ron said. "I love her, Harry."
"So do I," Harry said.
"Yet another thing we have in common," Ron said. "We better go, then."
Molly continued to sob. "Be careful," she choked out between sobs. "Bring her home safe and yourselves, too."
"We will, Mum," Ron said, giving her a hug.
"Let's go," Harry said.
"Right behind you," Ron said.
"Harry?" Hermione whispered. Her head hurt immensely and she felt nauseous. She sat up in the bed and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. She was in a room, a very small room. The bare walls were painted a royal blue. There were no windows and only two doors. Hermione gingerly rubbed her forehead as she tried to remember what she was doing here.
Something didn't feel right about this place. She didn't feel as if she belonged here. She tried hard to recall the events from last night or was it tonight? She couldn't remember.
The events of last night came flashing back to her. She remembered the ugly confrontation with Ron. She remembered how Harry had comforted her after Ron's blowup. She remembered Sirius approaching them and telling Harry he'd see her home. She remembered how she and Sirius set off to apparate back to her apartment and then, nothing. She tried to rack her brain to make herself recall what had happened after that, but she couldn't remember. She wasn't used to this.
She might not know how she got here, but she knew one thing, she wasn't going to stay. Still rubbing her forehead, she pushed back the sheets and arose out of the bed. She walked toward one of the doors and turned the knob to find a bathroom. She then turned toward the other door and tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. She didn't have her wand!
What was she going to do?
"Where am I?" she asked out loud.
"Ah, how nice to see you awake, Miss Granger."
Hermione jumped at the sound of the voice. She looked around the room.
"Who is that?" she asked.
"All in due time, my dear girl. All in due time. I trust you slept well," the voice said again.
"Who is that? Who are you?" she asked again. "What do you want with me?"
"So many questions. I always liked that about you, you know. So many questions. Well, you'll know the answers in due time," he said.
"I want to know now," Hermione said. "What do you want with me?"
"Everything, my dear," the voice said. "Don't worry, though. You'll know soon enough. And don't worry, I'm sure your boyfriend, or should I say, boyfriends, are looking for you by now. I do hope you enjoyed your time in Hawaii. Such a beautiful place. The two of you were the picture of young love, weren't you? And poor, unknowing Mr. Weasley back home without a clue."
"Listen to me," Hermione said. "Tell me what you want."
"I want what Mr. Potter took from me, you silly girl," he said, coldly. "He took everything from me. So, I, in turn, am taking the one thing in this world I know he can't live without."
"Harry will find me," Hermione said, determinedly. "You can count on that. He will find me. And when he does you'll be very sorry."
"No, my dear, I am counting on it," he said. "What kind of hero would he be if he couldn't save the damsel in distress? Or at least die trying, right?"
"Only a coward would say these things and hide his face," Hermione said.
"I assure you, my dear, I am not a coward. I'm just not ready to show my hand just yet. You know that's the sign of a good card player, he never shows his hand to early," he said. "Well, get comfortable. You'll be here awhile. Goodbye for now."
"Wait!" Hermione ordered.
No response came. She cursed as she sat back down on the bed. She said a silent prayer that Harry was safe and that he would find her. She didn't like being the "damsel in distress". She prided herself in being the type of girl who didn't need a man to bail her out of a jam. She was definitely in one, now. She needed Harry.
"Please find me, Harry," she whispered. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. "Find me, Harry."