Harry, Hermione, Remus and Tonks sat in Zeno's restaurant drinking the wine he had brought them and enjoying the wonderful food in front of them. Harry sat there listening to the conversation around him and realized he felt truly relaxed for the first time in a while. He looked over at Hermione, who was avidly talking to Tonks and Remus, and smiled at how beautiful she looked tonight.
Thud! Harry watched as Remus's head suddenly fell forward and hit the table in front of him. Before he could say anything, he watched as Tonks head also hit the table. Hermione looked at him frightened and then reached over to feel for a pulse on Tonks neck. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found one.
Hermione turned to Harry and watched in horror as his eyes rolled back into his head and his head also fell to the table. "What the hell is going on?" she asked frantically, looking at the other patrons in the restaurant. No one seemed to have noticed what was happening at their table, or they were ignoring it. She froze as she heard three pops behind her, knowing what she would find if she turned around.
"Hello Mrs. Potter" drawled the voice of Lucius Malfoy "we've been waiting for you." Before she could react, she heard him say "Stupefy!" and she fell stiffly off of her chair. Zeno walked out of the kitchen, smiling a very evil looking smile, and walked up to Lucius.
Bowing down in front of him, Zeno said "I hope you are happy my Lord."
"I am indeed" replied Lucius "you will be rewarded for your loyalty. Right now though, we need to get this mudblood back to our hideout and see if we can get the location of the scepter out of her."
Lucius took a portkey out of his pocket and held it out so that Rookwood and Nott could grab it also. Lucius made sure Hermione's hand was also touching it and then they vanished, leaving Harry there unconscious along with Remus and Tonks.
Harry groaned as his head throbbed with pain; what the hell had happened? Slowly, he moved his head up off of the table
and groaned again. Opening his eyes slowly, he looked around and saw that he was in a restaurant. 'A restaurant,
what am I doing here?' he thought, looking at the empty room. He noticed Remus lying on the table next to him along
with Tonks, who was also passed out across from him. When he looked to his right he noticed the empty chair.
'Who...?' he thought, wondering why there was a glass of wine and a plate of food there, but no one occupied
the chair.
"OH MY GOD! HERMIONE!!" he yelled, remembering that she had been with them. Forgetting about Remus and Tonks, Harry shot up from his chair and ran into the deserted kitchen, looking in every possible closet and any other place she could be. He ran back out into the dining room and noticed that Remus was starting to stir. Harry ran up to him and grabbed his shoulder, shaking him awake. "Remus, Remus wake up!! Hermione's gone, I can't find her!!"
"Wh-what?" Remus asked drowsily, lifting his head slowly off of the table. "Who?"
"HERMIONE! She's gone!" he yelled again, waking Tonks in the process.
"What happened?" she asked groggily, running her hands over her face sleepily. "Where are we?"
"AAARG!" yelled Harry frustrated. He slammed his hands down on the table hard, making Remus and Tonks sit straight up in their chairs.
"Damn Harry" mumbled Tonks, rubbing her temples "what's your bloody problem?"
Harry dug his hands into his hair, grabbing handfuls in anger. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he opened them again and said "Hermione is gone."
"WHAT?!" yelled both Remus and Tonks at the same time.
"Thank Merlin" said Harry, glad they finally understood what he was saying. "The three of us were knocked out. I was the first to wake up, and when I did Hermione wasn't here. I looked all through the restaurant and she's not around here anywhere."
"Zeno" Tonks said, looking at Remus with wide eyes "I bet he had something to do with this. He gave us that damn wine; I bet he spiked it with something."
"What do you mean? Wouldn't he just magically stupefy us or something?" Harry asked, pacing next to the table.
"Not if he is a squib; maybe Lucius promised to give him magical powers if he agreed to help him" Remus explained.
"Where are all the other patrons?" asked Harry. "When I woke up this place was completely empty; no staff and no customers." He looked at Tonks and noticed she had lain her head back down on the table, looking pretty out of it again.
Remus looked at the watch on his wrist. "Oh no..." he said, staring at it in disbelief.
"What?" asked Harry, concerned by the look on his face.
"It's ten o'clock in the morning" said Remus.
"WHAT?!" yelled Harry. "How is that possible, it's dark in here."
"Harry, the windows are tinted; that combined with the window shades makes it seem like night in here all the time" explained Remus, looking around the restaurant. "What the hell did he give us to make us sleep twelve hours?"
"I don't know, but we need to get back to the hotel now and figure out where Hermione could be" said Harry, starting to sound panicked.
"Ok Harry, calm down. Panicking right now will not help us get Hermione back." He looked at Tonks, who still looked pretty out of it. "This had to be Lucius."
"Son of a bitch, I can't wait to get my hands on him. I swear to Merlin I'll burn him alive and enjoy watching him die!" Harry was pacing faster now, his fists clenched and his eyes were wild looking.
Remus walked over to Tonks and tried to fully wake her, with no luck. "Harry, help me get her up so we can get out of here."
Harry walked over and lifted her up, putting her arm around his neck the same way Remus had, and then started walking towards the door. When they got outside, they made their way to where the car was parked, only to see it was gone. "SON OF A BITCH!!!" Harry yelled.
"Calm down Harry" said Remus "hold onto Tonks for a minute." Remus shifted her over so that she was leaning entirely on Harry and he picked up a big rock that was lying on the ground at his feet. Tapping the rock with his wand, he said "portus" and the rock glowed for a second. "Alright, this will take us to the lobby of the hotel. Grab a hold of it; I'll make sure Tonks is touching it." Harry grabbed it and tightened his hold on Tonks as Remus started counting "3...2...1..." and Harry felt the tug behind his navel.
They landed haphazardly in the lobby of the hotel and fell to the ground. Luckily Harry and Remus had cushioned the fall for Tonks. Picking her up, they made their way to the lifts and up to their floor. Finally getting to the door to Harry and Hermione's room, Harry used his key and opened the door, seeing his in-laws sitting at the table.
"Have you guys seen Hermione?" he asked as he and Remus took Tonks over to the bed and laid her down.
"What do you mean have we seen her? You were with her last night; where the hell have you been all night anyway?" Robert Granger asked, looking at Tonks suspiciously.
"We were slipped some spiked wine and we all passed out. When we woke up this morning, Hermione was gone and the restaurant we were at was deserted" Harry explained quickly. "Is Conlan ok?" he asked, looking into the crib where his son was sleeping soundly.
"He's fine. He only woke up once last night, which is amazing considering we didn't sleep much. We were worried about you and Hermione" Jane said, getting up and walking over to where he stood by the crib.
Harry just nodded and then made his way back out the door to Arthur's room, leaving Robert and Jane behind with a lot of unanswered questions.
Harry knocked on the door, waiting impatiently for someone to open it. Ron answered, looked at Harry and said "you look like hell mate."
"Yeah, nice to see you too Ron" he answered "I need to talk to your Dad right away."
Ron stepped to the side so that Harry could walk into the room and closed the door behind him. "Harry, where have you been?" asked Arthur, who took in Harry's appearance. "Have you been out all night?"
"We went to eat at a restaurant in town last night. We met the owner, Zeno, and he brought us wine and gave us our dinner for free because he recognized me. He seemed harmless enough..." Harry pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger, still feeling the effects of whatever was in the wine. "To make a long story short, the wine must have been spiked and we passed out at the table. When we all woke up this morning, Hermione was gone."
"What?! What do you mean she's gone?" asked Ron, angry that Harry had been so careless.
"Remus thinks that Zeno is one of Lucius's followers, or Voldemort's, hell whoever is the new Dark whatever...Remus thinks they took her." Harry started to feel dizzy so he sat down and put his head in his hands. "Remus is ok but Tonks is still pretty out of it. I think I remember her drinking more than the rest of us."
Arthur looked extremely worried as he started to pace back and forth. "Right then, I'm going to need to get a hold of Dumbledore right away. Lucius could be anywhere; didn't Hermione say that Hera was leading them with wrong clues?"
"Yeah, something about leading them to...the wrong cave" said Harry, trying to recall the events of yesterday.
"That's a start; we know we need to look at caves in the area around the Idaion Cave" said Arthur, thinking out loud.
"I helped Hermione with the research on Hera's diary before we left Hogwarts; I know where she had everything written down" Ginny said, remembering the list Hermione had made when they were in the library.
"Good, that should help us with possible locations. Ginny, why don't you go see if you can find that list while I go contact Dumbledore." Ginny nodded at her Father and made her way out the door, heading to Harry's room. Arthur followed her out, heading towards the lifts to go to the local Ministry to contact Dumbledore through the floo network.
"How are you doing Harry?" Molly asked, walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I feel horrible; I can't believe I let my guard down like that last night. I know better than to let myself relax and now Hermione is paying the price for my stupidity." Harry just sat there with his head in his hands, feeling like shit thanks to whatever was in the wine. "When is this stuff going to wear off?" he asked no one in particular.
"It depends what they gave you" said Molly, looking at his face when he looked up at her. "I must say, you do look awful Harry. Why don't you go grab a shower back in your room and pack your things. That way when Arthur gets back you'll be ready to go."
"That sounds like a good idea" Harry said, shakily getting to his feet. "Where are Phoenix and Pyrena?" he asked, looking at Ron.
"They were in their room the last time I saw them" he answered.
"Will you go down and explained what happened and make sure they're all ready to go too" Harry asked, slowly walking to the door.
"Sure Harry; go take your shower and I'll take care of them" Ron said, feeling kind of sorry for Harry. He was extremely worried about Hermione and she was just his best friend; he couldn't imagine if it were his wife that was missing. They walked together to Harry's door where he used the key to get in and waved a quick goodbye to Ron before walking in.
"Any news on Hermione?" Robert asked the minute he stepped into the room.
"No, not yet. We're going to go search some caves that are near the Idaion Cave we found out about yesterday. Ginny, did you find the list you were looking for?" Ginny looked up from her seat on the bed. She had about five books on her lap and she was flipping through a notebook she held in her hands.
"I haven't found it yet, but I have one more notebook to look through" she said, turning pages slowly.
Harry just nodded and walked over to his bags, pulling out a set of clean clothes. "I'm going to go take a quick shower and clean up." Looking around the room, he asked "did Remus take Tonks back to their room?"
"Yeah, she was finally starting to come around, so he was thinking about setting her in the shower stall and turning the cold water on her to wake her fully" Ginny said with a smirk on her face.
"Now that ought to be interesting; I wonder if he'll turn up with a black eye?" said Harry, picturing the scene in his mind. Pushing the thought away, he made his way into the bathroom to clean up.
The group met in Harry's room about thirty minutes later. Phoenix had started in on Harry the minute he had walked into the room.
"Great job Potter; you're wife is the only one who can use the scepter of Hera, which we'll probably need to use to get to the scepter of Zeus, and you let your guard down? What the hell were you thinking?"
Ron had to hold Harry back from going after Phoenix; he quietly said "He's not worth it Harry, just concentrate on finding Hermione, ok mate?" Harry nodded his head in agreement and Ron let him go.
Ginny had found the list of caves; unfortunately there were ten of them. Arthur cleared his throat and said "I got a hold of Dumbledore and he made arrangements for us to stay at a place called Hotel Vritomartis; it's within walking distance to all ten of the caves on the list. They are all located in the mountains surrounding the beach. For those of us who can apparate, we can check out the caves quicker than Harry, Ron and Ginny will be able to. There will be three groups and there will be three guides to help us navigate and search the caves. Each group will have one of these" he held up a gold coin "and if your group finds where Hermione is being held, you just tap it three times with your wand and say the name of the cave you are in at the time. It will then notify the two other groups and we will be able to apparate there straight away."
"I know how to apparate Mr. Weasley, I just don't have my license yet" said Harry.
"When did you learn how?" asked Arthur.
"When Dumbledore taught me how to use my fire magic last summer, he also taught me apparition. He said it might come in handy if I had to fight Voldemort." Arthur nodded his head in understanding and said "Ok, the groups will be..."
"Mr. Weasley?" interrupted Harry "I would like Phoenix and Pyrena to be in my group since Phoenix has fire ability also and Pyrena is a descendant of Hera."
Arthur looked at him for a second, weighing the options, and then said "Ok, you, Phoenix and Pyrena will be one group, Tonks and Remus will be another group and Ron and Ginny will be with me." Ron looked at his Dad and asked "why can't I go with Harry?"
"Because you don't know how to apparate yet; I'll be making portkeys for you and Ginny as we go from cave to cave" explained Arthur. "Ok, we'll be heading downstairs to take the portkey to Crete and then go to the hotel and check in. As soon as we do that, we'll get started in on searching the caves right away. It's almost noon already; we may not be able to get to all the caves today. Are there any questions?"
No one said a word so Arthur said "grab your packs and we'll head out." Everyone grabbed up their gear and started to make their way to the lifts.
Harry walked over to Molly, Jane and Robert who were still sitting at the table. "Are you guys sure you'll be okay staying here by yourselves?"
"Yes dear, we'll be just fine" said Molly, giving him a reassuring smile. "Arthur gave me one of the coins also, but if I tap my wand to it, it will send an emergency signal to him so he can come right back here if we need him."
"Okay then, I'll be going." Harry walked over to the crib where Conlan still slept and leaned over to place a light kiss on his forehead. "I'm going to go find your Mum" he whispered quietly "Grandma and Grandpa will take good care of you; so will Grandma Molly." Molly smiled warmly at him when she heard him call her Grandma.
"Finally, I have a Grandson; adopted of course, but still a Grandson just the same." Harry walked over and gave her a hug, along with Jane. Robert stuck his hand out and Harry shook it. "Bring my little girl back safely, ok?" he asked.
"I plan to Mr. Granger" Harry replied. Putting his pack on his back, Harry made his way out the door, briefly glancing back to wave goodbye. He met up with everyone and climbed into the lift, making their way down to the lobby.
They walked out the front door and made their way up to the top of a little hill that was across the street from the hotel. Mr. Weasley passed out three portkeys, one to each of the groups he had named off in the room and said "they are timed to leave every two minutes. The first one will leave in thirty seconds, and that one is Remus and Tonks."
Remus held out the old hat that was their portkey so that she could get a good hold on it. Arthur counted down the seconds and once he hit zero, they vanished. The next two groups left at two minute intervals, the last being Arthur, Ron and Ginny. When they hit the sandy beach, they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
The group of eight sat staring at a beach full of nude sunbathers. "What the hell is this?" asked Harry, noticing all the naked women around them.
"This would be a nudist beach" explained Pyrena "which hotel did you say we were staying at Mr. Weasley?"
"The hotel Vritomartis" said Arthur, watching as a beautiful naked woman ran past him after a frisbee.
"Vritomartis is a nudist resort" said Pyrena, trying not to laugh at everyone's expressions.
"What?" asked Ron "Does that mean we have to be nude too?"
"No, it's clothing optional, so you can stay dressed if you want. Besides, we won't be around much to have to worry about it" said Pyrena.
"Well, let's go check in" said Remus, pulling his eyes away from the scenery.
Ron walked up next to Harry and said "can you believe this Harry? A nude beach and we're not even going to be able to enjoy it!"
Harry just nodded his head in agreement while saying "yeah, it's too bad."
"Hey Potter, did you forget about your wife?" Ginny asked, looking a little annoyed.
"Of course not Ginny. I'm married but I'm not blind" said Harry, making her mad. "Don't be angry Ginny, I'm not doing anything wrong."
She just continued to walk ahead of them, pretending she didn't hear him. Harry just shrugged it off; he had more important things to worry about right now.
"Oy, Harry, would you look at her!" said Ron, pointing to a beautiful blond running down the beach and looking like a kid in a candy store. Harry laughed as he saw Pyrena give Ron a very nasty look.
"Better watch it Ron" said Harry "I don't think your girlfriend likes you looking at naked girls."
"Girlfriend?" asked Ron, confused. When Harry looked pointedly at Pyrena, Ron said "oh right, her."
Harry just laughed at the crestfallen look on Ron's face and said "come on Romeo, let's go find my wife."
~**There you go, just as I promised! The next chapter should have a lot of action in it, so it might be a little while
before I post it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!! :)