Bring the Rain
by Jardyn39
Chapter 7: Lost
Once they were safely inside the house they discovered Dumbledore, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley waiting for them. They had been sitting in the dark as far as they could tell.
"I do apologise for us letting ourselves in," began Dumbledore as Arthur insisted upon helping Mrs Granger and Hermione made some hot drinks. "Is anything the matter?" he enquired gently of Mr Granger.
Harry thought a rather guilty look passed across Mr Granger's face before he replied, "I'm afraid I took us on a detour this evening, on the way home. We hit the end of some traffic that was at a standstill and I turned off without thinking."
"Ah," said Dumbledore as Mrs Granger carried a tray of assorted mugs into the living room where Hammond's restored whiteboards stood again. Harry noticed a good deal more writing had appeared on them.
"Thank you," said Harry as he took one of the mugs offered.
"Hammond will be back shortly," explained Kingsley. "He's gone to telephone from the village."
"He should have just called from here," said Mr Granger.
"No, he said the call could be traced so he wanted to use a public call box."
"Perhaps while we wait," said Dumbledore, "you'd like to hear how Kingsley and Arthur got on this evening."
Kingsley took a quick sip of hot coffee and began.
"We waited until the shop was quiet after it closed and then Apparated directly inside."
"Wasn't it alarmed?" asked Mrs Granger.
"Well, we didn't break any door and window contacts, so the only things we had to contend with were movement detectors and pressure mats. If you freeze a movement detector it just stops working until it thaws out again. We avoided stepping on any mats, so there were no problems."
"There were security cameras in the shop as well," added Hermione. "We saw them as well as a monitor."
"Yes, but none in the back rooms. We didn't find the watch you saw but we did find a desk diary with an entry that indicated the shopkeeper was due to return the watch this evening. His receipt book gave us three possible names. Three people had their watches repaired or cleaned recently. One gave an address abroad but the other two were for cash."
"Did they leave any names?"
"Two Smiths and a Powell."
"I see. Anything else?"
"Well, his desk diary was full of weird notes. Maybe he was a crossword nut or something, but almost every day for the last week was full of crossed out notes."
"Did any stand out?"
"We made a note of these," said Arthur going up to a blank corner of one of the marker boards. He wrote just five groups of three letter words.
"sun sec neo mil foe"
"Those were engraved on the watch!" cried Harry. "They were around the rim of the snake design, I'm sure of it."
"But what could they mean?" asked Hermione frowning and turning to Dumbledore, who was looking intently at the words.
Harry watched Dumbledore's lips form words. Then as a realisation appeared to dawn upon him, Dumbledore grew perceptively graver.
Just as Harry was about to ask what it was, the doorbell rang.
*
Hammond sat down and gratefully accepted a cup of tea from Mrs Granger. He looked quite exhausted.
"Well, the mystery deepens," he announced. "I got an acquaintance in the local constabulary to call the shop manager at home on the pretext that I'd seen a couple of suspicious character's taking an interest in the shop after it had closed."
Kingsley and Arthur exchanged grins.
"Unfortunately his wife said he still hadn't returned home. She said he had been due to deliver an item that had been repaired. She had no idea what it was, nor who the customer was. At the time they spoke he was only just overdue and didn't want to make a fuss."
"Might he be at risk? I mean, if he mentions us taking an interest in the watch?" asked Hermione with concern.
"Well, he would have known that the watch wasn't his to show off, so hopefully he'll have the good sense not to say anything," said Kingsley.
"I believe it more likely that he'll ask about the watch inscription," said Dumbledore, "especially if he's been obsessing about its meaning."
There was a sound of a muffled whistle that filled the room. Dumbledore reached into his robe pocket and brought out a delicate silver instrument.
"Someone is trying to contact you, Peter," he said to Hammond. "A message has been left with the Ministry telephone answering service."
"May I use your phone?" asked Hammond.
"Of course," said Mrs Granger. "Use the hall extension."
"Thanks."
After he'd left, Dumbledore said seriously, "Harry, I think we should reconsider whether here is the best place for you, right now."
Harry had been expecting something like this to be said, and unfortunately this expectation didn't make the observation any more welcome.
At least Dumbledore hadn't ordered him to leave.
"I'd like to know the truth about wherever we passed through this evening," said Harry.
Dumbledore sighed but nodded.
"In truth, we do not know if there is indeed a risk to you associated with that village. Last night we spoke of Julie Graham's grandfather. He was the leader of a group of self styled fanatics, the last of whom was believed to have perished many years ago.
"I cannot say what motivations nor what common ideals the group had, since the then Minister of Magic ordered Edenhardt's writings to be destroyed, lest some disciple decided to pick up the mantle.
"I can confirm that Edenhardt dedicated his final years to torturing many of his own followers. It was said he was driven by paranoia to suspect his flock was wavering in their beliefs. The Ministry stepped in when the death toll became too great for them to ignore.
"At the time, the press and public feared that the group had been driven underground and had re-formed as a secret society."
Dumbledore's eyes were drawn back to the circle of words on the marker board.
"Edenhardt himself evaded arrest for some time, I recall."
At that moment Hammond returned to the living room. He sat down quickly to allow Dumbledore to continue.
"The reason for my delay in telling you about the Granger's kind invitation, Harry, was that a village a few miles away was known to be the family home of a suspected Death Eater. By coincidence, this family was also suspected of sympathising with Edenhardt.
"In the event, the Order searched the village thoroughly and found the principal suspects had left, presumably to join Voldemort. I still felt it prudent to inform Hermione's parents of our concerns."
Harry nodded and turned to give a small smile to Mr and Mrs Granger, who were sitting together and holding hands.
"The thing is," said Mr Granger, "the house you pointed out clearly wasn't empty this evening. It had lights in all the front windows."
"Are you sure you got the house right, Mum? Dad was driving fairly quickly tonight."
"Yes, dear," she replied with a sad smile. "We've seen it many times. It's a beautiful three storey late Victorian building. It's the most striking house in the village."
"Moody has been posted in that village for a couple of weeks now," said Dumbledore. "He only reported activity this evening. It was all quiet before."
Dumbledore fell silent for a moment.
"Professor," asked Harry, "what was the name of the family who lived in the house?"
"Powell," he replied simply.
"Um," Harry continued, "Was there any known link between Edenhardt and Voldemort?"
"Quite the opposite," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort has always craved the power to control people. Edenhardt didn't care about anyone outside his immediate circle."
"So the watch we looked at today might just have been a keepsake or maybe the current owner knows nothing about Edenhardt or anything," suggested Harry hopefully.
"The watch is linked to that house, Harry," said Dumbledore gently.
Harry nodded. No, he agreed, it could not be a coincidence.
"You said Edenhardt was into torturing his followers. Did they ever extend this activity outside their circle?"
Dumbledore looked over to Kingsley, who said, "We looked through the records today. With one notable exception, the Edenhardt group didn't ever hurt anyone outside their group. Even three captured Aurors were released unharmed except for having their memories modified."
"What was the exception?" Hermione asked before Harry had the chance.
"Something was stolen from them once. This was before they were outlawed themselves, but they tracked down the thieves and made an example of them."
"Just great," muttered Harry to himself.
"I was about to suggest that if they restricted themselves to torturing each other, there shouldn't be a problem. As it is, I suppose we must assume that Edenhardt's followers had something stored in the bank vault?"
"We can do better than just assume," said Hammond. "Powell was one of the names of the deposit box holder's the bank manager tipped me off about."
Harry's shoulders sagged a little.
"The telephone message was from the jewellery store manager's wife," advised Hammond. "She called to say that he had returned and was fine except he was behaving a little oddly. He was sort of vacant and denied having any watches to clean."
"Memory modification," said Kingsley. "Well, at least he's safe."
Harry looked directly at Dumbledore who returned his determined look with a slight frown to indicate he knew exactly what Harry was about to propose and didn't approve one bit.
"What are the significance of those words?" asked Hammond, pointing to the circle of letters that Arthur had copied out onto the marker board.
Before anyone could answer though, the doorbell rang again.
Mrs Granger went to answer the door as Kingsley waved his wand reducing the marker boards once more. Dumbledore, Kingsley and Arthur stood and made ready to Apparate away if necessary.
Harry couldn't hear the conversation that Mrs Granger was having, but he picked up that someone was upset. Mr Granger left at once to join his wife.
*
Mr Granger opened the living room door and popped his head around it. He was looking grave.
"Harry, I could use a hand."
Harry stood at once.
"The little girl from next door is missing," he explained. "I said we'd search the garden and the sheds. Hermione, you'd better check the house, top to bottom."
Hermione nodded seriously.
"If we can't find her we'll join the search parties looking in the immediate fields."
"Have the police been informed?" asked Hammond.
"I'm not sure. Her parents are quite fraught."
"Leave the parents to me then," he said confidently. Harry realised they were lucky he was there. Not only would he know exactly what to do and who to contact, he also had enough experience and tact to extract any information he needed from people who were bound to be upset.
There was a flash and instantly Kingsley and Arthur appeared wearing Muggle clothes.
"We'll join the searchers in the field," said Kingsley.
"Dumbledore, could you pop over to the Burrow and rouse everyone? Charlie's home for Easter, but Bill's away. Send them all along, will you."
Dumbledore bowed and Disapparated away silently just as Hammond pulled open the door fully.
*
Harry looked around as soon as he went out into the cool night. Every room in the house had its lights blazing now. He could hear Hermione and her mother checking every room and every possible hiding place.
He instinctively looked over to the neighbouring house and up to the window that he'd seen the little girl spying on them from.
The lights in their home were all on too, as were the lights in all the houses.
Harry could hear distant hails as the villagers gathered out in the square.
Mr Granger appeared and handed him an electric torch.
"Good job we had these on charge," he said as they walked over to the two sheds.
"Both these are locked, but we should check in them anyway," Mr Granger said fumbling with the keys.
"I'll check around the back," said Harry.
He walked around to the end farthest from the house and shone his torch down behind the back of the old timber sheds. The gap was narrow, but a small child could easily get down there.
With some difficulty, Harry squeezed himself between the sheds and the thorn bushes that protruded through the garden fence.
He scratched his bare arms several times but found he could crawl along fairly easily. He shone the light under the sheds. The skirting was missing here, but there wasn't room enough to hide under the first shed.
He continued on and found, as he had suspected, that there was more room under the second, larger shed.
He could hear Mr Granger shifting boxes of rubbish inside.
Harry shone the torch around under the final shed. His heart missed a beat when he thought he saw a bundle of rags. He gingerly reached out, but found he'd been mistaken. It was just a dirty polythene sheet.
Harry reversed his way out again and joined Mr Granger who was now looking under and around all the bushes in the garden.
"Let's join the others," said Mr Granger. "It sounds like the others are gathering in the field out the back."
"Okay," agreed Harry.
"Do you want to see to those scratches?" said Mr Granger seeing Harry's arms.
"No, let's just go."
"Okay, I'll tell the others. See you out front."
Harry went around to the side gate and went through. He was just in time to see Mrs Granger and Hermione take a distraught woman into her home. It looked like she had just finished speaking to Hammond and the others. They were followed by several other women.
In the middle of the square, Hammond was giving orders to the assembled volunteers.
"Remember," he was saying, "she may be hurt and unable to respond to hails. Look everywhere. If you find anything suspicious, do not touch it. Just call for assistance.
"Finally, form a group and stay together for the entire search. Follow the directions of the police with regards to where you search. You will find that more searchers will join us later and there will be a greater police presence here shortly.
"Please remember, we are here to help them, not the other way around."
Behind Hammond a marked patrol car was parked and two uniformed policemen were studying a map on the bonnet.
They nodded to each other and came over to exchange a couple of words with Hammond.
Mr Granger came out of the house and locked the front door. They walked over together.
One of the policemen was giving the initial search instructions.
Harry realised that several of the volunteers had probably been drinking in the local pub. Everyone looked sober and attentive, though, apart from two individuals who were sniggering and swaying slightly.
Hammond walked over and said something inaudible to them that appeared to have a remarkably sobering effect on them. Harry had never seen such a threatening look on Hammond's face before.
Just then Harry felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned to see a group of people grinning at him.
"Alright, Harry?" said Charlie, holding out his hand which he shook at once.
"Thanks for coming," Harry said, "all of you."
Harry shook hands with the twins, whom he hadn't seen for ages. Behind them were Ron and Neville.
Hermione had emerged from the neighbouring house to greet Ginny and Luna.
Harry quickly introduced Mr Granger to everybody before Hammond came over to them.
"Everybody ready?"
"Yes," said Charlie. "Dumbledore gave us each a Muggle torch and whistle."
"Excellent. We'll look together as a group. We've got the far field at the back to begin with. Watch your conversation until we get out into the fields. Sorry, but I decided my inebriated friends over there should stick with me."
*
As they hurried along out towards the fields, Harry could see flashing torchlights far off into the distance and accompanied by distant hails.
"Good holiday, so far, Harry?" muttered Ron.
"Up to now, it's been good," replied Harry, noticing Neville position himself on Harry's other side.
"Thanks for coming, Neville. How did you know?"
"I, er," was all that Neville managed to say.
Harry decided not to push for an answer.
They searched through the night until dawn. During the night, Harry managed to have snatched conversations with most of the search party members, including the two drunks who were actually quite affable once they'd sobered up a little. They particularly enjoyed telling tall tails to the girls as they searched the hedgerows and amongst the growing crops that could so easily hide a small child.
Harry learned that Dumbledore had sent Mrs Weasley on an errand and so she wanted to let their nearest neighbour, the Lovegoods, know that they would be away. Luna had come over at once to volunteer.
Harry still had no idea how Neville came to be there, although he was extremely grateful to him for coming. He did notice, however, that things seemed to be a little strained between Neville and Ron for some reason.
During the night they had met up with a couple of other search groups who had requested more people to search some woods. Charlie, Fred, George and Mr Granger had joined them.
Just as it barely began to grow lighter on the horizon, they waited at a crossroads between two narrow country roads while Hammond received further instructions from a patrol car. The two locals were also busy talking to some friends from another group that had also convened at the crossroads.
"Rumour is they've found her," one whispered as they rejoined them.
Hammond came over as the patrol car sped off.
"No, she hasn't been found yet," he said. "We've been stood down so we can go and get some breakfast and some rest. We'll continue after a couple of hours rest."
They all got up to follow Hammond who was thanking the two locals. They would be going back to their cottages along a different route, but had promised to catch up with them later.
Hermione hung back to wait for Harry who was staring at a distinctive building in a village not far off.
"We've come further than I thought," he told her, nodding to indicate the village.
Hermione realised at once why the building had caught his eye. It was an elegant red brick three storey building with a slate pitched roof and large windows.
"That must be the Powell house," she said.
Harry looked over as the others trudged off down the road. Fortunately, they were moving off in pairs well spaced apart. Harry felt there was a good chance he wouldn't be missed for a while.
"No, Harry!" said Hermione, as if reading his mind.
"I just want to take a look," he said. "Catch up with the others and make an excuse for me when they notice I'm gone."
"I'm not letting you go alone."
"Well, come on then."
He crossed the road, careful to note that none of the others were watching, jumped the ditch and ducked through the hedgerow.
Harry turned to help Hermione to her feet as she came through behind him.
"It'll be quicker if we cut straight across the field."
"Okay. I wonder where Moody is hiding."
Harry snorted and said, "I'd forgotten about him. Hey, has that bull got a wooden leg?"
"BULL?!"
Hermione swiped at him as soon as she saw Harry grinning at her.
*
The back of the house and the surrounding buildings were shrouded in darkness. None of the lights were on and everything was quiet.
They crept around the side of the house and emerged on the road that passed through the village. The scene was lit by a solitary lamp post. Although the sky was becoming gradually brighter, deep shadows surrounded them.
The only other light was a dim bulb in a welcoming lantern on the house itself.
Harry stopped and listened.
Everything was quiet apart from some birds that were beginning to welcome the new day with birdsong.
As they watched the hall light inside the building came on.
"If anything happens," said Harry, reaching for the low garden gate, "just run for help. Got your wand?" he asked with a smile.
"Of course I have."
They entered the front garden and Hermione carefully closed the sprung gate, making sure they made no sound.
The front door was a heavy black painted panelled door with an assortment of ironmongery that included a lion's head knocker and a lever handle that looked quite out of place.
Harry reached out and hammered the door knocker three times in quick succession. The noise it made was considerably louder than he had expected.
They waited. He was about to try again, when the door opened and light flooded out into the garden.
"Good morning," said a middle aged man wearing a smart suit and tie. "I don't wish to be rude, but isn't this a little early to be making calls?"
"I'm sorry," said Harry. "You probably don't know but a small girl went missing from the next village. There have been volunteers out searching all night."
The man opened the door wider, an obvious look of concern on his face.
"I had no idea," he said leaning forward and allowing Harry to catch a glint of gold in the half light. Harry decided to throw caution to the wind.
"Nice watch," said Harry with a smile. The man immediately lifted his hand to cover the chain extending from his waistcoat pocket. Harry continued knowing he had guessed correctly. "Mine used to have a coin with a similar decoration."
"I suppose you'd better come in."
He led them through the spacious hallway into the warm kitchen.
"Is a girl really missing?" he asked.
"Yes, but the search hasn't been extended out this far yet. I expect it will unless she's found soon, though."
"What do you want?"
"Well, I think we should search the outhouses. Could she have got into the house?"
"We generally don't bolt the back door until we go to bed."
"Is there anyone else in the house that can help look while we look outside?"
"Yes, my wife should be down in a couple of minutes. Let's have a drink. It'll be easier to look when the morning light gets a little brighter anyway."
Harry nodded and withdrew his wand. Hermione did the same.
"Ah, I was right," said the man, also taking out a wand. "At least tea will be quicker. Even after all these years I still find tea bags a mystery."
He waved his wand and a tray of four teas appeared on the kitchen table.
"Help yourselves," he said. "My name is Giles Powell, by the way."
Harry and Hermione both took a cup but waited for the man to drink himself before taking a sip.
"I suppose you saw my watch when it was cleaned?"
"Yes," admitted Harry.
"Mm," mused Powell. "It was rather a risk having it cleaned, but I am rather fond of this watch," he said taking the watch out of his pocket.
"I inherited it from my father, along with this house. I know it's rather sentimental, but I couldn't bare it if I lost it. The Ministry would destroy it at once if they knew it existed, because of its, er, associations," said Powell.
"You mentioned a coin with a similar design?"
"Yes," said Harry, pulling out his own pocket watch. "That coin was stolen and replaced with a real sovereign while I was at Hogwarts. The chain was also replaced."
"The design is rather similar," agreed Powell.
"To change the subject," said Harry, "you had a deposit box broken into recently?"
"I don't have a deposit box, and never have."
"It was in the name of Powell."
"I'm sorry, but it wasn't mine."
Harry couldn't tell if he was lying or not.
"The person who took my things gave me her name. Perhaps you have heard of her? She gave her name as Julie Graham. We later found out she was Edenhardt's granddaughter."
Powell just stared at him in utter shock.
"No, you must be mistaken," he insisted as the kitchen door opened.
"What did you let them in for?" spat the woman, brandishing a wand at them.