HPNS- Chapter 12

Read Chapter 11 here or start at the beginning


DEAD END

The night was dark and billowed like a Death Eater’s cloak. The greenish haze grew deeper and there was heaviness in the air as though a dust storm or cyclone would soon brew up. Trees rustled and branches creaked before a large house that belonged to a very rich and powerful man. A monstrous and large smoky shape loomed over the rooftop, brightening the moonless sky. A giant skull with the large serpent sliding out of the jaw… coiling with fearful intensity around a little girl’s heart that was beating for the family she could no longer have… Aurors fought on below the staircase and there was pandemonium.

Ron coughed up hot foamy blood and spat on the hard wooden floor, recovering from the curse that had hit him. Wiping his mouth on his sleeve he focused his blurred vision of Sam Whittaker wrestling a hooded figure, their wands flashing like swords. An anguished scream from the upper compartments shook him from his senses and he sprang to his feet to follow the direction of the shriek.

“Geroff me!” Sam yelled, blowing the Death Eater off from his body with a curse.

Helping Sam onto his feet Ron whispered hoarsely “Where’s the kid? That was her screaming!”

Sam’s light brown hair was disheveled and his nose bleeding, “Ron, it came from there”, he said pointing to a room on the left of the lofty staircase, “Go after her! I’ll tackle this tough nut!”

As he ran towards the source of the scream, Ron leapt over the mangled body of a woman at the head of the staircase. He banged open the door to the room.

Standing before him was a Death Eater holding a young girl by her blonde hair, his wand pointing at her throat. As her eyes took notice of Ron entering the room with his wand held out, she began to moan pitifully.

“She means nothing to you. Hand her over now” Ron said in a deliberately calm voice.

The Death Eater stuck out his tongue and licked the skin on the child’s neck dangerously, “Have it your way then”, he whispered maliciously before raising his wand and levitating the girl so that she hung upside down, her head lolling from one side to the other helplessly.

Clearing his mind, Ron thought ‘Stupefy’. He succeeded in surprising the Death Eater who fell backwards onto the floor. Running towards the girl, he lifted her unconscious form into his hands and headed down the stairs where fresh noise could be heard.

“What’s the hurry sweetie-pie?” an unctuous voice interrupted Ron’s progress. Hoisting the girl onto his shoulder with his wand ready, he turned around to look into the face of the Death Eater unmasked. He had her seen before…

A small grey owl tittered away at the misty window pane of Hermione Granger’s apartment, oblivious to the jeopardy its owner was in. The slight noise disturbed the sleeping inmates of the room.

“Hermione, wake up! Hermione!” Esme’s anxious voice awoke Hermione from the deepest, most rewarding sleep.

“Mmm wats happ’nd?” she mumbled.

Suddenly Hermione jolted awake and reached out for her wand from inside the pillow case. Sitting up erect, she turned on the bed lamp and saw Esme kneeling in her cot adjacent to Hermione’s, looking stunning in a black, revealing nightdress.

“Something’s knocking on the window pane”, she stammered looking frightened.

Hermione kicked off the covers and ran to the window where Pigwidgeon was suspended with parchment rolled in its beak. Charming her window pane to lift up she allowed the owl to zoom around the room before it stopped in front of her, and waited to be relieved. It was a short note in a frantic handwriting.

Hermione,

Ron and Sam were on a project and have been injured severely and that’s why he couldn’t make it to your place for the party. I’m with him at St. Mungo’s.

Ginny W.

PS- Esmeralda from Mexico.

“Esmeralda from Mexico? What do I have to do with this? And who’s Ron and Sam? What is all this?” Esme asked in quick succession after reading the note over her cousin’s shoulder.

Hermione felt as though she had lost her voice.

In a normal circumstance she would have quickly abandoned everything and rushed to Ron and Ginny, but tonight she felt inhibited… scared.

The letter trembled in her hands and the corners of her eyes pricked. She knew exactly what Ginny meant by ‘project’. The Ministry usually sent Trainee Aurors to the most dangerous rescue-missions as the loss of a trainee meant little to them. She knew how easily Ron would have slipped into a fatal mission if he was going to be paid a raving bonus once more. She could never understand was how he could be so callous.

“Hermione?” Esme asked uncertainly, looking at her white face, “can I help in any way?”

Without a word Hermione put on a cloak, brushed her hair and turned determinedly to face Esme.

“I-I need to go to the hospital. One of my best friends is injured. Don’t get scared and make sure you ask for me before you open the door at morning. Remember we talked about the Ministry procedure?”

“There won’t be any need for that I’m coming with you” Esme retorted quickly slipping a jacket and trouser over her sultry nightdress, “the letter says that they want me there”.

“No Esme it’s just a password to confirm that this letter really is from Ginny. We decided that our next security question would be about you, since no Death Eater knows you. You need to stay here!”

“We are getting late. Your friend Ron won’t thank you for it”, Esme said, moving uncharacteristically fast down the stairs.

***

“Harry yeh should’n go abou’ hidin’ like tha!” Hagrid huskily scolded Harry while he readied some tea, “Yeh could’ve gotten hurt if Grawpy hadn’ found yeh!”

“Hagrid, I need to get out of here. I need to stay hidden and I can’t be found sitting here in your hut!” Harry retorted angrily, trying to fight off Fang who continued to lick him all over.

Arriving at the table with a pot of tea Hagrid undid his flowery apron and lifted Fang off from him. He then stared at Harry with his beetle-black eyes boring into Harry’s face and examined him up and down. Despite his annoyance he felt uncomfortable here under Hagrid’s vigilance. It brought back memories that were happy… Hogwarts… lessons… lazing in the afternoons with Ron and Hermione…

“Yeh’ll be jess like James then. After You-Know-Who started after them, all he could talk abou’ was hidin’ you n Lily” Hagrid said, his voice drenched with emotion, “Hidin-hidin-hidin’ was all it was abou’. But it did em’ no good see? Harry you gotta stay with yer friends, with us. Yeh’ll be a lot safer than tha’ cave where Grawp found yeh”

Grawp was sitting on three of Hagrid’s chairs holding a raw dragon steak over his bleeding skull. “Hagger! Grawp- find-Harry!” he grunted with pride.

Hagrid beamed at him and mumbled some sweet encouragement while Harry glowered into the fire. All this interruption brought him back to square one. Hagrid was the largest obstruction of all, by physical size and emotional blackmail. He couldn’t explain to himthat his parents had friends who weren’t in as much danger as his friends were. Yes, he could learn from his parent’s mistakes but then even Voldemort was more prepared this time… more formidable. Meanwhile, the Chosen One had struck a dead end.

Suddenly Harry began to concentrate hard… he had to give it a try even if he had no hopes of succeeding. After a whole minute of sitting in the couch, his brow wrinkled with concentration, nothing happened.

“Don’ think I don’ kno yeh can apparate” Hagrid chuckled watching Harry, “Yeh can’t do it in Hogwarts grounds anymore than Fang can. You gotta stay here Harry yeh’ll be safe fer tonight. Then we can let the Order kno that yeh’ve bin found.”

***

Ginny didn’t like hospitals at all. It reminded her of things she didn’t want to think about. Like the time when she was five, the ghoul that lived in their attic had lifted her by her ankles and thrown her down the stairs… or when in her fourth year, her dad had been attacked by the snake… more recently, when Charlie’s body had been brought to Mungo’s for examination…

She sat quietly drumming her fingers on her lap. It hadn’t been a surprise when Josh had sent her a warning that Ron and Sam Whittaker had been taken to St. Mungo’s after being found on a mission by reinforcements.

Ginny wondered that the rate at which Ron’s hospital visits were increasing, there wouldn’t be much spirit left in her brother by the end of the war. Her sullen thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of two figures in the corridor sprinting towards her.

“What happened? Are you okay?” she was surprised that the interrogation came from the strange cousin and not from Hermione. Even though she was looking into Ginny’s face, Hermione’s expression was one of withdrawal. Ginny thought she looked like she had been revived from a faint, her pallid profile and trembling white lips… she looked a nervous wreck.

Walking up to her instead of Esme, Ginny clutched Hermione’s shoulders and spoke firmly, “I didn’t ask you to come here. Everything’s fine. Ron’s fine.”

As though to corroborate her statement, the door to the ward in front of them flew open and Ron walked out, drenched in crimson stains, his face whiter than a ghost.

***

Harry Potter strolled across the Hogwarts grounds in his Invisibility Cloak and felt the cold night breeze rustle his hair. There was the hint of a storm, a violent one that evoked the passions of the earth below before it could break out. The smell of the damp, rain-expectant soil filled his nostrils and he floated along as an unseen spectre in the lawns.

Looking up at the castle he saw the hundred little windows glowing like a many- eyed creature, one that would please Hagrid. Counting the windows from the right, he found the window to his old dormitory in Gryffindor Tower and stared in the direction for a long time. Harry could visualize a flying hippogriff with two students seated upon it soaring towards Professor Flitwick’s office to free an escaped convict, who had been captured and locked up there… always locked up.

Sinking to his knees Harry felt hot tears gush down his cheeks of repent, sleep and frustration… and an empty feeling like he was an alien in a different land.

Hogwarts no longer felt like home.

It was desolate and sad… deprived of the usual activity and students… from Quidditch… from Dumbledore.

How could Hagrid think that Harry enjoyed running away, being far from his friends… from the only people he had… from Ginny.

The thought of Ginny brought a fresh pang of agony in his stomach and he let the tears flow incessantly. Harry longed to hold her in his arms, to feel her warmth, to lose himself in that flowery scent and to kiss her. He remembered how under the tree by the Lake, they had shared so many wonderful moments.

The animal in him seemed to be cowering in pain.

But he knew that if he kept his head straight until he had done what he had to do… he would be rewarded with all the happiness and peace of the world… he mustn’t give up trying. He just wished he didn’t have to be so alone… maybe this was his greatest weakness… as well as his strength… the need to be loved… to love someone… it was this power that made him stronger than Voldemort.

***

“Sam’s condition’s pretty critical” Ron said feverishly walking up to the three women standing in the moonlit corridor of the hospital, “he managed to knock out two Death Eaters but the last one got him. What I can’t understand is why the reinforcements didn’t come when we send the message that we were outnumbered”

“Do they know what Sam was hit with?” Ginny asked, forcing him into a bench outside the ward.

Ron looked down at his knees and shook his head quietly. His shirt was spattered with the blood of the little girl… he didn’t want to think about it. It made him retch.

“R-Ron?” a familiar voice quivered bending on her knees before him. He looked up into the face he wanted to see… she looked insane with anxiety… with passion… he wanted to sweep her in an embrace and tell her that he was fine.

Ron couldn’t believe that he could be thinking of this when he had blundered up the whole mission so badly. His reflexes had been out of practice and he hadn’t used his head like he should have… he could have saved them all. And now he wished he wasn’t a Trainee Auror at all.

“It was the McFadden’s, you know Kevin McFadden works in the Ministry under Scrimgour and by the time we reached the Dark Mark was already on the house” he explained in a low bitter voice, “they got his whole family. Must’ve targeted him because he made that decree on arresting Death Eaters without prior warning and trial. Only his daughter was left when we got there…” his voice trailed off as he found it too hard to continue.

Ron firmly shut his eyes, not wanting to explain how he hadn’t been able to save the little girl. The images flashed in his mind… the Death Eater- Alecto Carrow… she had cornered him. He had confronted her before at Hogwarts in their last year. Ron had tried to bring her down but she was more powerful. He had been lucky enough to remain conscious, else he wouldn’t have been able to bring Sam back… the girl however, had paid the heavy price…

Ron felt a warm grip on his shoulder and looked up into the face of a woman he didn’t recognize.

“I’m sorry Superman but you can’t expect yourself to do so much” she spoke in a voice that felt like nectar.

Ron stared at her despite himself. She looked like something from a far off tropical island that one could capture in a Flutterby-net and collect.

His gaze strayed to her half-shrouded bosom, somehow she seemed to be healing him… removing all thought of reality… he didn’t even know who she was.

“Ron this is my cousin Esme. She’s from Mexico and she’s non-magic” Hermione said briefly, “but are you hurt? Oh I knew something was wrong when you didn’t make it to the party”, she continued getting up and pacing.

Ron hardly heard her… her name was Esmeralda… she didn’t shy away from his gaze or flinch, but looked right back rather invitingly… strangely it soothed Ron at the moment. He didn’t want to discuss the mission or Sam… he was drowning in Esmeralda’s elusive eyes.

Read Chapter 13 - HAVOC AND HAVEN here