Chapter 12- Research
"What do you mean Ron has been kidnapped?" Hermione exclaimed.
"What other meaning is there?" Harry answered with a question.
Hermione looked around at her surroundings wildly. "I don't know. Maybe, he was…" Hermione couldn't continue her sentence. She realized how silly it would be to continue with that topic while her friend was being held captive somewhere. "Well, what does the note say?" Hermione stood up to get a look at the note. She became painfully aware that she was not wearing any shirt. Glancing around the room quickly, she grabbed Harry's robe sitting on a chair and put it on.
Harry was trying not to pay attention to Hermione as she put his robe. He tried to focus all of his attention to the piece of paper that was in his hand. It was hard, very hard.
Hermione walked over to Harry, and he handed the note to her.
Hermione Granger-Potter,
Your plan was good. I applaud you for your attempt. You get an A for effort. However, you did not really think that we would give up on you? You killed one of our own. This is not taken lightly, trust me. I would just like to say we have your friend Ronald Weasley with us now. He sends his best wishes. We will be keeping him, and maybe even killing him if you do not forfeit your life and give yourself up to us. After all, that is only fair. A life for a life. Doesn't that sound about right? Well, I hope I did not spoil your evening, and I give my best wishes to the husband.
His Eminence Fraser
Lord of the Shlay People
Hermione looked up from the note, tears in her eyes. "What are we supposed to do?"
Harry's face hardened. "I'll tell you what we are going to do. We are going to go in and kill as many of those freaks as we can and walk out with Ron."
Hermione almost smiled that Harry's immediate solution is to go into the place, guns a blazin'. However, that is not how she thought. "I don't think that is the best way Harry," Hermione told him gently.
"Let me guess, you would have us sit down calmly and rationally to discuss this. Next, we will research this clan until we know every single detail about them," Harry spoke sarcastically.
"Well, maybe not every single detail. However, that is what we are going to do. These people are not stupid."
"But, they have Ron!" Harry protested.
"They are not going to be doing anything to him. If they kill him, then they have nothing to bargain with," Hermione explained rationally.
Harry slumped in a chair. "I guess you are right, like always. Where would I be without you?"
"On your way to beat the shit out of the Shlay," Hermione joked.
Harry had to laugh. "Once again, you are correct."
"So, should we get cracking?"
Harry shook his head. "It's my turn to think logically. We should be as rested as possible for all this planning and researching. It is 2 a.m. already. You must be as exhausted as I am. We should get a good night sleep and then start up early tomorrow to get working."
Hermione agreed with Harry, "Yeah that would probably be best. Well, lets get ready for bed."
"Sounds good," Harry commented as he went over to his dresser to change into his pajama pants.
Hermione walked over to bathroom to change as well. When they both came to the bed to crawl under the covers both blushed at the sight of the rumpled blankets and both of their shirts lying on the bed. Neither knew what to say about what had happened earlier. They solved the problem the way they knew best. Hermione swiped the shirts off the bed and they both lay down, ignoring what had happened earlier that night.
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"I come bearing gifts," Harry announced as he opened the door to their room. In his hands were two large mugs of steaming coffee and a large plate full of assorted goodies.
"I'm glad. I need something to eat. I'm starving." Hermione licked her lips as she looked a particularly appetizing donut.
Harry pushed a large stack of books aside on a table to make room for the plate and mugs. Almost every surface in the couple's apartment was filled up with books of all different shapes and sizes.
Hermione was currently sifting through an ancient looking book while she was jotting down notes in a notebook.
"How has the research been going?" Harry asked.
"Not so well. I haven't found out much yet. Although, they gave a very useful bit of information. They named themselves. Before today, I did not know what the name of their clan had been. I had tried to find more details before I even came to you, but let's face it, there are hundreds of exclusive wizard groups in England. There is not a lot of information about them in these books, and there probably won't be, thus the whole clan being secretive and allusive. But, I have found some things that will help us."
Harry watched Hermione as she told him about all of this. She really was amazing, he thought to himself. She was in her element. This is what she did best. "So, what kind of things have you found that will be helpful?"
"Well, I found out the general area that they are located in and I also found out that they are very sensitive to light, or sunlight to be specific. They have been around for hundreds of years to thousands of years, dating back to the original people of this area."
"Really? Well, wouldn't that mean that there are a lot of them?" Harry questioned.
"Not necessarily," Hermione answered as she flipped through the pages of the book that was opened in front of her. "There is a period where there wasn't anything specifically written about them, but from what I can gather from the context of other entries, they went through some sort of revolution among themselves killing off a large percentage of their people."
"How long ago was this?"
"I would say around 150-200 years ago."
"Interesting," Harry mumbled as he took a seat, picking one of the top books from the stack.
They continued looking through the dusty books gathering any information at all that would be of any use to them. Each person wrote down every small detail on a piece of parchment and marking pages of the books that would be helpful. After working like this for about two hours they did an update.
"Well, I narrowed down the region in which they live in," Hermione began. "In several of these passages they mention small day trips to the "large body of water" which I assume is the ocean. With the information I found about their location earlier, I narrowed the area to about a 5 mile radius."
"Five miles?" Harry looked skeptical. "That is going to take a while to look through."
Hermione glared at Harry. "It is better than the 20 mile area that I had earlier."
Harry shrugged. "I guess."
"I also found out the symbol of their clan."
Harry looked confused. "How is that helpful to us?"
"Well, it is not uncommon for such tribes of people to mark their area. The symbol might be found on trees or marked on the ground or something. It is their way of marking their territory without having gigantic signs that will give them away."
"I still don't get it. Why would they need to mark their territory at all if they are so secret? What would be the point? No one is going to know what the symbol means."
"Of course most normal people are not going to recognize it, however other tribes or clans will recognize it and know not to trespass."
"If there are other tribes then why does no one know about them, especially the government?" Harry was still trying to clear this all up.
"Usually in such cases the government does no about these exclusive groups. The government allows these groups to exist because they have just as much of a right to be here than anybody else. As long as they do no harm the government, or anyone for that matter, no one will interfere with their ways. Any more questions Harry?"
Harry shook his head, processing all of this information.
"Good, now what did you find out?" Hermione said.
"Not as much you but I did read some details about their lifestyle and their characteristics. I wrote them down and then matched some of them with a spell that can be used against them," Harry said as he passed the list over to Hermione.
"This will be very helpful." Hermione put her quill to her mouth in thought as she examined the list. "AHA!" She scribbled down another spell next to one of the characteristics. "Most of these spells are quite simple as well."
"That's what I was going for. I figured the simpler the better."
Hermione nodded as she wrote one last thing onto the list before putting it down. "I think we have everything we need to go after them. We will set out tonight."
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