Bring the Rain
by Jardyn39
Chapter 8: Found
"What have you done?" breathed Powell.
"I was trying to take our revenge," she replied through gritted teeth.
"What?" asked Powell weakly. "But we agreed to put all that behind us, didn't we?"
"Why do you want to take revenge against me?" asked Harry, recognising the woman as she stepped into the light of the kitchen.
"I don't," she replied, her voice dripping with emotion. "You were merely an instrument."
Harry had no idea what she was talking about.
"Shouldn't our first priority be to find the missing girl?" said Hermione. "I suggest we all put our wands away and begin looking."
Hermione pocketed her wand and waited.
"Yes," agreed Powell, lowering his wand and clearly trying to get a grip on the situation. "Let's make sure she isn't here and then we can talk and sort all this out. There's a girl missing from a local village," he explained.
"I know," replied the woman.
"Oh. Was there something on the radio?" he asked.
"I found her last night."
"What? Where is she?"
"I locked her in The Room."
"No!" cried Powell in alarm, rushing past her. Harry and Hermione followed at once. From the lobby they hurried down some steps into the damp smelling basement. Here, there was a narrow corridor that lead to a single closed door.
All the way there they could hear Powell say, "No, she can't have done. She just can't," over and over again in a panicked voice.
The woman was following at an easy pace.
Powell tried to open the door. It was locked. He pointed his wand at the lock and said loudly, "Alohomora!"
The door still would not open.
Powell turned back to the woman and pleaded, "Open it!"
Meanwhile, Hermione tried to open the door herself.
"Alohomora!" she cried.
The door frame glowed slightly this time with the strength of the spell, but the door still refused to open.
"The room is protected. This is the only way in," explained Powell. "Please, Julie, please let her out," he pleaded anxiously.
"I survived that room, didn't I?" she retorted. "Stupid girl, coming wandering in here uninvited spoiling my plans. Let's leave them to get her out and go before-"
"She must be terrified, all alone in there," Powell cut across her.
"Who said she was alone?"
That was the final straw for Harry.
He pointed his wand at the centre of the door and shouted, "Reducto!"
The emotion he was feeling was reflected in the power of the spell that erupted from the end of his wand. The door simply exploded.
"Lumos," said Harry and Hermione together as they rushed inside through the splintered remains of the door frame.
The large square room had a stone floor and the bare brick walls were covered with an assortment of sharp and lethal looking instruments. The only other feature was a dentist's chair that had been adapted with hand and angle restraints.
At first sight the room appeared to be empty, but Hermione rushed over to the far corner. There, curled up in a ball, was the girl.
Harry hurried over after satisfying himself that the room was indeed empty. A circular iron floor grating gave a dull bang as he trod on it. It banged again immediately after as it returned to its original seating.
The small girl was incredibly dirty, and had obviously been crying. She continued to try and hide her face, clearly terrified that some new harm was about to come to her.
"It's alright," said Hermione gently.
"We've come to get you out of here," added Harry, trying to sound reassuring.
The girl appeared to recognise his voice and looked up at once. After a moment's indecision, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Let's get you home, shall he?" he asked gently.
Crying freely now, she just nodded against him. Harry reached down, put his arm around her legs and picked her up.
Hermione led the way out.
Before them, the woman appeared to be hurrying to make her escape. Harry heard hurried footsteps climbing the stairs.
"Wait!" Powell was crying as he chased after her. "You can't just go!"
Harry knew his priority had to be the girl at that point. He was just reassuring himself that they would catch the woman again when it sounded like the front door was being blasted in.
Whatever happened was over by the time he got to the top of the basement steps.
Ginny made to rush forward as soon as she saw the girl in Harry's arms but Neville pulled her back saying, "Give Harry room to carry her outside."
Harry hurried through and out into the cool morning air just as the patrol car skidded to a halt, almost demolishing the garden fence. The WPC, who had opened her door before the vehicle had stopped, rushed over.
"She was locked in overnight," explained Harry, "but I don't think anything else happened."
"Hey, sweetie," she said gently and checking visibly that the girl was physically unhurt. "Let's get you to your mum and dad, and then you can all go to the hospital together."
She didn't let go of Harry.
"Put her in the patrol car and we'll take you both," the policewoman suggested. "She'll be fine once she sees her mother."
Harry carried the girl over and with some difficulty he manoeuvred them both onto the back seat.
A blanket was immediately thrown over them both and the car sped off.
"It'll be two minutes," promised the driver. "Sorry about the blanket, but we spotted a journalist earlier. They aren't too distinguishing when it comes to taking and selling photographs."
"Tell me about it," muttered Harry.
The car skidded to another halt, this time almost ending up on the Granger's front lawn.
The girl released Harry as soon as she heard her mother's voice. After an emotional reunion, Harry was being rushed back to the house they'd found her in. It seemed safer travelling that fast when he had a blanket over his head, thought Harry.
Thankfully, they didn't encounter any oncoming traffic as they hurtled down the narrow county lanes that were barely wide enough for one car. The dense hedges either side of the road were just a blur.
They arrived to find Hammond and Mr Granger waiting outside for them.
Hammond leaned in to have a word with the two officers as soon as Harry got out and Kingsley casually sidled up to the open passenger window, his wand held below the window cill.
The patrol car sped off again almost at once. Harry was a little surprised, but he presumed they needed to tell all the other search parties the good news.
"Sorry about sneaking off like that," said Harry sheepishly.
Hammond just rolled his eyes.
"Moody told us where you were."
"Where is he?"
"Gone for a shower and a change of clothes. He's been living as a tramp in that barn over there," he said pointing. The dilapidated barn looked disused, probably because it barely had a roof and walls any more.
"Did the woman get away?"
"No, your friends are standing guard on them inside."
"I'd like a word with her. I honestly think he had no idea the girl was here, though."
"Hurry, will you? Kingsley has bought us a little time but they'll soon be back and those two will be taken in for questioning."
*
"Now, where were we?" asked Harry lightly as he walked into the living room.
Powell immediately looked up and asked, "How is she?"
"I'm not sure, but hopefully she will be fine."
"Nothing happened to her," spat Graham, who was sitting next to him on a small settee in the middle of the room. "She was just shut in for a while."
Harry felt everyone around them in the room bristling with anger towards this woman.
"Being locked in a dark room for hours isn't nothing," said Harry evenly. "I speak from personal experience."
Graham looked up defiantly like she was about to call him a liar, but she caught Harry's eye and appeared to realise he was telling her the truth.
As Harry looked into her troubled eyes he realised she was no stranger to that room. He wondered just what it was she had survived in there. He felt his anger dissipate a little.
"I assume you used Polyjuice potion to make yourself look younger?"
"Actually, no. I just used a temporary regressive draft."
"But how did you get into the common room?"
"It was easy. I just attached myself to a group of First Years and looked lost. I just followed them inside. That was the evening you showed me your watch. That was useful because I could only trace it to within a few feet."
"Why did you take my book?"
"I needed it to hide the watch in. I stole the watch the next day but as soon as I was about to leave the common room I realised that a tracing charm was active. I'd seen that book in your trunk and I had the idea that I could charm the book to shield the tracing effects. That didn't work but I kept the book in case you found the cut pages. After that I left and had a replacement chain and pendant made up. I switched them two nights before the robbery."
"Where is my watch chain?"
"In the desk," she replied, nodding towards a scroll desk in the corner of the room. Ginny leapt up and opened it. After searching through a few tiny drawers she turned and held up the chain.
"I assume its anti-Apparition properties prevented you from escaping?" said Harry, taking the chain and pendant from Ginny who sat down again.
Graham nodded angrily.
"Why did you need it?"
"The coin. It's a key."
"A key to where?"
"The deposit box," she answered miserably.
"What box?" asked Powell.
"My father had a deposit box, or rather, he controlled the box that was opened in your father's name, Giles."
"Why on earth would you want the key?"
"To get into the box, obviously."
"What did you find?"
"A booklet. Just a list of my Grandfather's associates."
Powell looked simply appalled and said, "Some of the people on that list would kill to ensure that they remained unknown."
"Why did you leave those things implicating me?" asked Harry.
"Well, they were all I had. Lily gave them to me."
"I still don't understand."
"I opened the box whilst I was still in the vault. I knew they kept that box hidden from the Ministry. Father always said they kept their greatest assets there. I should have known it wasn't gold. They were fanatics, after all. I kind of panicked when a saw the list. Those things were all I could find at such short notice."
"What made you panic?"
"The book was dated. It was just a year old. He's still alive," she added with a nervous look at Powell.
"No," he breathed.
She nodded tearfully back at him before looking up at Harry again.
"I knew you were the one who got rid of You-Know-Who when you were a baby. It seemed obvious that if you could do that, you could get rid of him too."
"Voldemort is back, in case you hadn't noticed," Harry said dryly.
"I'm more scared of him."
"How was I supposed to even find Edenhardt?"
"Oh, no. He'll find you. He'll know that you did it, and he'll come for you, just like he did before."
"But no one could think that I'd take such things with me on a bank robbery, would they?" he asked more gently.
"I always carry them. Once I decided to use you, I just left them. I managed to plant the book afterwards, just to make sure. It had one of your old essay drafts tucked inside so I could copy your handwriting."
"But why on earth did you carry those things around with you?" asked Harry.
"They were a reminder of the kindness Lily showed me," she admitted. "She was one of the few people to see past my eccentricities when we were at school. I didn't find it easy to fit in. Abuse victims have that problem, you see?"
"I'm beginning to. Where's the list?"
She shook her head, but her eyes darted towards the desk for an instant.
Harry walked over and looked at the desk. A small black book caught his eye. He picked it up and flicked through it. It was the list, although he was relieved to find that it contained relatively few names.
The book's pages were made from a heavy, high quality parchment. The inside fly sheet was embossed with the knight and snake motif.
He held up the chain and rested the coin next to the embossed copy.
They looked identical.
Harry made to pocket the chain again when his fingers momentarily brushed the fake coin.
Instantly he felt the now familiar tug of a Portkey.