Lost
Voldemort
The Dark Lord was angry. Nott had completely disregarded his intentions with the students. The idiot man had almost destroyed whatever chance there was to retrieve the prophecy after his bumbling attempts to control the Longbottom boy. Voldemort steepled his fingers reflectively and considered the situation logically. There was still another.
Apparently the mudblood wench was fancied by the Potter brat as well. The situation could possibly be salvaged after all. He had directed Malfoy's irritatingly shrill whelp to deal with the witch this evening. By first light, he would have the girl and the prophecy in hand. If Potter neglected to tell her what the Seer had said, Potter could expect to find his `girlfriend' in a much more disagreeable state. Dead actually.
Tom Riddle snorted to himself enjoying his own humor. He quieted to set his face back into the impassive visage the figures that waited in the shadows had come to expect.
It had become more difficult to control his followers when they were led by such imbeciles as Nott and Malfoy. Such sycophantic lap dogs. They had lost their fire and were now only led around by their base desires and dark hungers.
Voldemort frowned to himself. They didn't understand anymore. The impurity had to be expunged. Potter had mocked him once telling everyone that he was a half-blood. His eyes narrowed in anger; red slits and sparking dangerously. All the Muggle had been exactingly purged from his soul. He was now Pure. The dark magics he had performed and sinister atrocities committed to expunge the taint of Muggle blood made him shiver delicately. His soul was divided, but no one could ever see him and think him merely human ever again. He held himself more erect and petted the silently watchful snake at his left that slithered quietly closer as it's dryly rasping skin brushed against the floor. Voldemort smiled mirthlessly. Yes. Yes. He was completely in Control.
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At Hogwarts
Seamus had fallen asleep on the couch and his soft whuffing snore alerted Harry and Ron to his presence as they wearily trudged through the Fat Lady's portrait. Neville had finally dropped into an undisturbed sleep and they had turned to Healer Pomfrey who luckily fixed their worst bruises. Shuffling in tiredly through the common room, they couldn't help but grin at each other when they saw their friend on the couch and with a mutual nod they sat at the head and foot of the dilapidated sofa. Trying to repress their sniggering they pulled off his shoes and transfigured them into goose feathers with which they proceeded to tickle him just enough to make him squirm but not wake up.
"Umm. No. Wait! Hermione...great legs…there's no Potter here, now, my sweetums…" Seamus mumbled in his sleep making Harry frown and Ron try to hold in his laughter without tipping completely over.
Harry transfigured his feather into a small canister of shaving cream and a straight razor then proceeded to cover the unsuspecting sleeper's head with the foam while preparing to shave his head with a maniacal gleam in his eye that would make Fred and George proud. Ron couldn't help but snort making himself fall off the couch with a loud thud that did finally wake the boy up from his sleep.
"Whuuzit…Whoosipit..Harry?" Seamus scratched his head pulling back a handful of foam. The glitter in Harry's eye brought him even more awake and Ron rolling in laughter on the floor made him look at them both as if they had gone round the bend.
"You are SO lucky, mate. Harry was about to make you the Shiny Snitch-head from Gryffindor Tower if you hadn't woken up. Actually with whatever you were dreaming about his girlfriend…" Ron paused significantly.
Seamus' eyes grew wide and he faced the territorial glint of his bunkmate with not a little fear. He scooted quickly off the couch and fell hard to the floor with a grunt.
"Don't go mental, mate. He can't control who he dreams about. I've had odd dreams about Hermione before, too." Ron smirked then pulled back his hands in a defensive gesture when he saw Harry's eyes narrow.
"Hey! I'm a young and virile sixteen-year-old male! Get over it! I'd pretty much dream about Winky at this stage. Now, your girlfriend, she does have some great legs! And she's got that cute dimple…" Ron laughed and jumped out of the way of the oncoming blur that was Harry Potter trying to throw Ron to the ground. With a grin, Ron charmed his feather into a dozen more that proceeded to mercilessly attack the boy-who-lived.
"Hey! Stop!..No..not up the nose…" Harry couldn't help but laugh as he curled into a ball to protect his face from the pitiless feather barrage. Harry closed his eyes and focused hard, and within a moment all the feathers burst into brilliant blue flame and turned into ash with a pop.
"That was unexpected." Ron raised his eyebrow and looked questioningly at the confused Seamus who couldn't seem to pick up his jaw.
"You didn't say anything for that spell." Seamus dumbly pointed out the obvious.
Harry stretched out on the floor and crossed his ankles and shoved his arms under his head to prop himself up.
"Thanks, Seamus for that brilliant observation." Ron rolled his eyes and looked pointedly at his friend.
"Learn some new tricks on your `mission', did you?" Ron said lightly but he couldn't hide the real amazement in his voice. Harry grinned up at his friend and just shrugged.
"Let's just say that I've worked through a few ideas lately. It's easier with the wand, but that's just to give you focus, anyway. You should have signed up for Arithmancy Ron. It's a brilliant class." Harry yawned widely and rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"I think you spend too much time with the Homework Queen as it is. Now you are starting to talk like her! Hermione has got you completely whipped, boyo. What will a bloke do for a pretty face…" Ron threw the threadbare couch pillow at Harry's head which Harry snatched out of the air and stuffed under his head with a grin.
Seamus slapped his forehead and groaned. "I forgot to tell you, Harry. Hermione was walking out of the tower late this evening and something seemed a little odd about her. She was wearing the skimpiest outfit," Seamus grinned wolfishly then swallowed the grin at the expression on Harry's face; "and she seemed in a daze of sorts. I tried to talk to her, but she just walked on without a word. No shoes, no wrap and a nightgown that stopped, well. I'd have to say you normally wouldn't expect something like that on our `Homework Queen'." He leaned over to Ron and wiggled his eyebrows. Ron snorted in response.
"Actually, the thing that most caught my attention was her wrist. She had scratched it bloody and had stained the side of her nightgown pretty badly. It was dripping down her arm and she smiled like everything was sunshine and butterbeer. Kinda wibbly, if you ask me. I just thought, you know, since you're the boyfriend…" Seamus rolled back onto the couch and missed the alarmed look that passed between the two other boys.
Ron was first to grab the boy and pull him back up from the couch with Harry rushing just behind him.
"Hey! I didn't mean to dream about her, really! It wasn't my fault!" He squirmed around trying to see what prank the boys were trying to get him with.
"Which way did she go, Seamus! She's in trouble! Are you sure it was her wrist? There's no telling how long she's had that device…How could we have missed it!" Harry angrily ran his hands through his hair and started to pace thinking furiously.
"It must have been the Hogsmede Attack. They were both stunned by a spell at the same time…they must have focused on Neville first…maybe they couldn't reach her while you both were away." Ron sat down heavily next to a very confused Seamus who gaped openly at the odd conversation.
"I think she said she was to the library. I dinna think mun aboot it." Seamus' brogue thickened with worry as he saw the concern on both of their faces.
"Don't worry, Mate. You go check her dorm, Ron and see if maybe she's in her bed and fine. Maybe she's alright after all." Harry face had blanched with worry and his eyes were growing brighter and starting to crackle with magic. Ron nodded and flew to the stairs yelling for Ginny. He was back in moments with worry obvious on his face.
"She's gone." Ron said bleakly and without another word, the two friends ran out the door.
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Hermione
Hermione was gasping for air. The sobs had finally abated, but she just couldn't seem to calm herself down. The terror she had felt was slowly fading, but the leftover adrenaline swept racking tremors up and down her body and she had succumbed to the emotional release of a really good cry.
Finding herself in a small dusty tower room she looked down from a tiny crenulated window from which she could just barely see the tops of the Herbology building by the fading moonlight. It was confusing to discover herself in a tower, when she had just come down three flights of stair to the ground level just minutes before. The castle had taken her to a room she had never seen before and with apparently no way out. The ancient but solidly carved wooden door was locked from the outside and no one came to let her out when she had banged and yelled. It took her a while to get up the nerve to even do that when she imagined Malfoy somehow finding her. After considering that horrible idea, she reasoned that the castle wouldn't take her away from him only to lead him back to her after all. It was all pointless, anyway. No one heard her and obviously no one was coming.
She wiped her eyes and stood swaying in front of the window. Her heart was slowly getting back to normal and the stickiness and pain of her bloody knees and wrist was aching horribly. There was nothing much in the room except an antique baroque bed with truly tacky cherubs carved into the headboard and on the posters. An ancient and tattered silk swag collected dust on top of the four posts and even though she was vaguely concerned about what might have been nesting in the bedding, she sat on it gratefully. There were no paintings in the room that she could send out for help, and the only other thing in the sparse room was a rickety old spinning wheel covered in cobwebs. She could see the pile of fleece next to the wheel had been used once as a bed for untold generations of mice and she pulled her feet up underneath her just to be sure nothing scurried too close to her toes.
Hermione sighed softly to herself. Why had she gone downstairs in the first place? It had been almost like she had been sleep-walking. A voice in her head had been whispering softly over and over for her to go. It had sounded so sweet and tender, and then suddenly, it wasn't tender at all. The voice became desperately evil and the taint of it made her whole body shudder in rejection. Even though she had wanted to scream, she found she couldn't. Her body refused to be her own and as much as she wanted to run to Harry, she felt the essence of herself fade into the background as somehow someone else's voice was sweetly commanding. "Go to the library," it had said. Hermione shook her head to dispel the lingering fog that had enveloped her as the voice tried to call to her again.
"No!" She wailed and shoved her face into her knees focusing on the pain to keep the voice from beguiling her again. She breathed hard and fast and focused her mind as hard as she could on the clear image of herself in control. She sat up ramrod straight, squeezing her eyes shut and biting her lower lip in concentration. The voice receded slowly away leaving her panting slightly in her mental exertion.
A slow tear trickled down her cheek and she brushed it away angrily. No one had the right to do that. No one controls me but ME. She stood up and wandered around the room looking for something of use. What ever this room had been used for before it had been ravaged by time and apparently also the whole castle's vermin population. A small black silvered mirror alerted her to her rather frantic appearance and she uselessly tried to brush the dirt from her face.
The moon had set and Hermione finally gave in and crawled into the dusty bed curling into an exhausted ball. Tomorrow. She'll get someone's attention tomorrow. She'll yell out the window or maybe climb down the tall sloping roof. Yes. Tomorrow. She sighed tiredly and faded off into a worried sleep filled with frightening voices and images of too much blood.
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Harry and Ron
They had looked everywhere. Harry and Ron had alerted their Head of House, and Professor McGonagall had woken up the teaching staff and all the prefects who were currently combing the grounds for the wayward girl.
Harry looked out the darkened window to desperately watch the tiny points of wand-light crawl across the grounds. Few
were left still looking outside and he despaired when he watched the last wand flicker out. The grounds were empty. The
Ravenclaw Prefect, Terry Boot had found the blood at the front of the library and he had stepped back almost in fear
when he saw Harry's green eyes almost blacken in flashing power and anger. Everyone had rushed to the spot but
there was no sign of Hermione.
Harry's face whitened when he saw the blood. There wasn't really a lot of it but there was enough. The streaks of her hand prints showed she was trying to get away from something. Harry closed his eyes and angrily wiped away a stray tear. He had no time for that. She could be hurt.
A startling thought entered his mind and he grabbed against Ron in disbelief of his stupidity. "Accio marauder's map!" He yelled startling Professor Flitwick and nearly knocking the tiny man's hat off with his wand movements.
Within moments the map flapped furiously into Harry and Ron peeled it off his friend's face as he scrambled to open it.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Harry tapped the parchment then quickly ruffled it open. They scanned across the pages and even turned it over looking for the tiny dot that indicated Hermione Granger. There was nothing.
"Where is SHE!?" Harry yelled angrily throwing the map to the floor.
"Not everything in this castle can be seen by your very excellent map, my boy. Only things that were known by your, ahem….friends?...Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs." Dumbledore had approached the seething boy and had picked up the map and was inspecting it curiously.
Ron sighed as he realized they'd probably never see that map again. "He's right, Harry. When you make a magical map, the spell can only show what you know since you are essentially writing the map." Harry looked shattered and rubbed his hands tiredly across his face.
"There are rooms upon rooms in this old castle that even I have never seen. It looks like we should make a floor by floor search and open any possible door, cabinet or drawer. This is an odd castle, of course. Who knows? Maybe she's climbed into a wardrobe or something? I can try and SEE if you would like me to, Mr. Potter." Sybil Trelawny had floated down from her perch in her tower room and had come to see what all the trouble was about.
Harry shut his eyes tightly and forced himself not to hex the bumbling old witch. She meant well, but she was bloody useless. Harry had to admit that right at this moment he was just as useless as well. He stared at the slowly drying blood and he could feel his heart race as he imagined his beautiful Hermione in pain somewhere calling for him. Harry swallowed slowly and forced his mind back on the situation. Ron was carefully watching him hoping for some brilliant idea to come up that they could use to save their best friend. However, it was usually Hermione that did most of the "brilliant plan" things now that he thought of it.
Harry leaned against the cold stone wall and pushed his head back in despair. One after the other, the prefects would stumble in and announce their lack of information about the girl then be sent back to their dorms. Harry's head ached and his body was still sore even after the ministrations of Madame Pomfrey. He rubbed his temples with his thumbs and tried to force himself to think. The ache grew stronger until the pain of it knocked him to his knees. In seconds, Harry could feel the malevolent familiarity of Voldemort's anger wash over him through the pain.
"He's so angry!" Harry hissed through his teeth to Dumbledore who had followed the boy to his knees in concern as he gripped the young man tightly with his hands grasping his shoulders. Harry forced himself to look up into Dumbledore's eyes so the Headmaster could possibly see something that Harry couldn't. The old man understood his silent plea and focused hard on Harry's face making Harry flinch as he felt the wizard's power hit him full force. Harry felt something slowly well up inside him that unexpectedly threatened to spill over. Harry's eyes grew wide and his mouth tried to verbalize a warning when the two kneeling figures were suddenly and painfully thrust apart. Harry staggered against Ron who caught him with a grunt. The headmaster however had collapsed to the ground and the two boys rushed to his side.
"Angry…so angry…he was controlling her…he sent one to her…he was going to torture her for the prophecy." Dumbledore gasped in pain and grabbed his head wincing.
Harry's face was desperate as he willed the old wizard to remember what he could not. Dumbledore grimaced as Ron leaned in to help the old man back to his feet. Ron couldn't help but snort at the fancifully mismatched socks on the Headmaster's feet.
Dumbledore's joints popped and he smiled wryly at the sound of his aching bones. The smile faded quickly when his body froze as he remembered one last thing from his brief voyage into Harry's mind.
The Headmaster turned and faced Harry and Ron with the most serious face they had ever seen on the usually jovial old man. His hands shook as they took Harry and Ron both at the shoulders and gripped them quite strongly.
"You must promise. There can be no more of my students' bloodshed from this." Dumbledore looked older than he had ever been before. His voice quivered in pain and worry as he saw the faces of two of his favourites harden in expectation.
"Who did you see try to hurt her, Sir? Who was it!?" Harry's voice was low and menacing as his eyes narrowed.
Dumbledore looked around to Professor Flitwick, Professor Trelawny and Professor McGonagall who had just joined them. His eyes lowered in reluctance but he forced himself to face Harry who was clenching and unclenching his fists in controlled fury.
"Draco Malfoy." Dumbledore's face had hardened. I have lost another to Evil.
Ron let loose an epithet that made his head of house gasp. Harry merely pivoted in place without a word and flew down the hallway. Ron hastily apologized then flung himself into a full out run to catch him.
Dumbledore unabashedly stood as tears rolled down his face. He was mourning. So many of his children had fallen away. He was feeling every year of his one hundred and sixty- one years. Professor McGonagall silently held him up and allowed him to rest against her.
"Have I done so badly, Min?" He looked down at her with his cheeks flushed and wet from fallen tears.
"No, Albus. You haven't done badly at all." The staid Professor looked up at the old wizard and her eyes mirrored his as tears fell from hers as well.
"So many children…lost. I could have helped them if I had only seen…" Albus's eyes were far away in remembrance.
"You do know you have a bit of a saving-people thing?" the normally stark professor's eyes softened and she bit her lip in worry when he didn't respond.
Together they sighed with the weight of the lives and choices made under their leadership and they slowly walked back to his office to await the coming morning.
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