Disclaimer: I do not purport to own any of the HP Universe!
“I don’t like this. My owl has been gone far too long now. Something’s wrong,” Draco growled, pacing the floor of the kitchen. Ginny watched the tall blond man before her, as her own apprehension continued to build.
“Daddy, what’s wrong? Where’s Hermione?” Louisa asked with a wavering voice. Ginny put her arm around the child sitting next to her. Draco stopped pacing and knelt in front of his child.
“Louisa, I just don’t know. I wish I could tell you that everything is going to be okay, sweetheart,” Draco responded, in a strained voice. Ginny gave the child a squeeze before standing up.
“Listen, I think we should get Harry or Ron to go over to Hermione’s office. In fact, I’ll meet them there,” she paused, holding her hand up at Draco’s attempt to interrupt her. “No, I know what you’re thinking but Dumbledore warned you to stay here. You both have to stay safe right now- Hermione would insist- and you know that,” Ginny explained soothingly. Draco sighed and sat down across from Louisa at the kitchen table.
Ginny walked over to the fireplace.
“Incendio,” she said, pointing her wand into the hearth. She took a pinch of Floo powder and leaned into the fire.
“Harry Potter,” she said crisply. Within seconds, Harry’s face hovered in the bright green flames.
“Ginny! What is it?” Harry asked, taking in her distressed face.
“Harry, I’m here at the Order Headquarters. Hermione never came home last night- she wasn’t here, either- and we can’t reach her by owl. Would you meet me at her office?” Harry immediately nodded his head.
“One more thing- can you Floo Mother and ask her to come by for the day. I think we need her here,” she whispered, slightly nodding her head over to where Draco and Louisa were sitting.
“Of course,” Harry agreed. “I’ll get Ron and head over to Hermione’s right away. Meet you there- and Ginny, be careful. Don’t Apparate anywhere near the building. Wait until you see us, okay? We should be cautious given all that has happened this week,” he intoned. Ginny nodded her head and Harry disappeared from the fire.
She stood and walked back over to the kitchen table. Taking her seat next to Louisa, she put her arm around the young girl again.
“Look, we’ll figure this out. For now, you two are going to have to sit tight and trust us to find Hermione.” Louisa gave her a small smile while Draco looked mutinous. Neither said a word, though.
“I do have some good news- Mum’s coming for the day,” she said. Draco looked up in confusion.
“She’ll look after you both,” again she paused, holding her hand up to ward off any objections from Draco. “I imagine that when we all return, we’ll need to get started on that research. Trust me, it’ll be nice to have Mum here to look after things.” Draco seemed to understand and Louisa continued to look thoughtful.
Just then the three heard noises from upstairs. Draco jumped up and walked toward the stairway as Mrs. Weasley bounded down the stairs.
“Well, good morning,” she said, taking in the unlikely group in the kitchen. She looked from Draco to Ginny, her eyes finally resting on Louisa.
“My word, who is this lovely young woman?” she asked, immediately walking over to where Louisa sat. Louisa gave her a big smile and stood up on the bench so that she was eye level with Mrs. Weasley.
“Louisa Malfoy,” she smiled at the older witch. The child gave her a small curtsy that made Mrs. Weasley giggle just a bit. Automatically, the older witch’s hands were smoothing out some of the child’s unruly curls.
“Well, of course, you are, dear child. You are just the spitting image of your father,” she said, never taking her eyes off the little girl. Finally, Mrs. Weasley turned around to face Draco and Ginny.
“Mum, you remember Draco Malfoy, don’t you?” she asked, gesturing from her mother to the tall blond man standing next to her. Mrs. Weasley nodded.
“Of course I do, Ginny. Draco, it’s good to see you again. I must say that I am surprised- delightfully surprised- to meet your daughter,” she said as she reached out to pull him into a hug. Ginny stifled a giggle at the very flustered Draco Malfoy as he awkwardly returned her mother’s hug.
“Mrs. Weasley, thank you for coming,” he returned. She patted him on the shoulder before returning back to Louisa, who was still standing on the bench.
“Louisa, dear. I have some projects to do here today. Would you be a dear and keep me company?” she asked. Louisa grinned and nodded her head. Mrs. Weasley held out her hand and helped the child down from the table. Holding her hand, she walked Louisa towards the stairs.
“We’ll be upstairs sorting out all those old pictures in the drawing room,” she paused. Her voice lowered an octave, “Harry told me why you’re going, Ginny. Draco, I know you need to stay here, too. Hermione is a smart witch. She’ll be all right.” With that, she and Louisa walked up the stairs.
Ginny gave Draco a squeeze on the arm before turning and following Mrs. Weasley and Louisa up the stairs.
Draco watched as the three made their way up the stairs. He could hear Louisa delightedly asked Mrs. Weasley about the moving wizard pictures. He smiled a bit, grateful for the older woman’s presence. He would never have predicted the mother of one of his staunchest childhood rivals would be so welcoming to both himself and his daughter.
The Weasleys’ are a noble family, he mused, thinking of both Ginny and Ron, too. He couldn’t help but note the irony of the comparison between his own family and the Weasleys’. But his smile was fleeting as his apprehension returned for Hermione.
He retrieved some parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink from the mantle and returned to the kitchen table. He knew that he should begin working. With a sigh, he stared at the blank parchment, steeling himself for what he knew would be a most unpleasant task.
After a few moments of contemplation, he put his quill to the paper and began writing out the details of Louisa’s birth.
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Hermione opened eyes.
I must have dozed off again, she thought. She sat up and tried to stretch out the stiffness of her arms and legs. She groaned aloud, remembering the softness of her bed.
She reached for the food parcel and flask that Pansy had given her. She smelled it and decided to take her chances. With some trepidation, she took a bite of the sandwich. After noting that it tasted relatively okay, she finished it quickly. She downed the flask of water, too. Pushing away the remains of the meal, she stretched out flat on the stone floor.
She willed herself to breath slowly and deeply. She’d only ever performed wandless magic a handful of times- all of those had been when she was under extraordinary duress. She thought back to the last time it had happened. She’d just watched Draco and Louisa Disapparate and she thought she’d never see them again. She was bound and gagged and hyperventilating. She had panicked and desperately thought of Ron and Harry. Without meaning to, she had summoned them to her. She hadn’t had much time to think about how that had happened until now.
And now, she was going to try to draw upon that power of latent magic within herself to do something- she was not yet sure of what, though. Breathing methodically, she tried to relax her body completely. She focused on the faces of her two friends. She tried to shut out every other image and feeling so that only Ron and Harry remained in her mind’s eye. After several long minutes of meditation, she began to feel a curious sensation in her stomach. She continued to focus on her two friends. She tried to imagine herself with them and away from this dungeon.
The tingling sensation in her stomach began to slowly spread throughout her body. She tried to stifle the tiny bit of unease that was still present in her thoughts. She knew how futile her attempts were in light of her situation. But she tried desperately to maintain her focus on her friends.
She couldn’t help it. Unbidden, Draco’s and Louisa’s faces popped into her mind. She bit her bottom lip in an effort to shut out the anxiety that those images brought about. In a last desperate attempt to channel her nervousness, she thought of Draco and Louisa and Harry and Ron. She felt a surge of energy, saw a flash of blindingly white light, and then passed out.
Hundreds of miles away, a little girl screamed out loud while three others felt consumed by a wave of despair.
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“What was that?” Ron demanded, reaching out his hand to pull Harry up from the ground.
“I have no idea- whatever it was was horrible, though. I feel like I’m going to be sick!” Harry exclaimed. Ginny rushed over to them then. She was trembling and looked near hysterics.
“Come on!” she shouted, taking both of their hands. They rounded the corner of the street of Hermione’s office building.
Hovering above the building, in all of its hazy wretched green glory, was the Dark Mark.
The three stood there, motionless for several minutes, before Harry broke into a wild run. The other two trailed right behind him. They ran into the building, straight for Hermione’s office.
“The office is still sealed!” Harry cried. Ginny stepped forward, quickly muttering the complicated locking charm that Hermione had taught her. They watched as the shimmering field slowly dissolved. Harry threw open the door and the three bolted inside.
Quickly, they searched the anteroom, office, kitchen, and bathroom.
“Nothing,” Ron muttered. “No signs of struggle- no nothing. It’s like she just vanished,” he said in a louder tone. Ginny was going through Hermione’s briefcase.
“She left this here,” she said, indicating the briefcase. “She had this with her last night at dinner. She must have come back and worked or something- then she left it. But she never came home,” she sighed, sitting down at Hermione’s desk. She looked thoughtful as she continued to sift through the briefcase’s contents.
“The birth ritual notes- it’s all here,” she said slowly. “I bet she thought she’d come back here in the morning- she probably left this here because she was going to walk home-she does that when she has a lot on her mind- no one could have broken into this office- not with all those locking charms. But if she left the office on foot, she would have been an open target,” she reasoned. Harry was pacing in front of the kitchen.
“I don’t like this at all. It’s been a strange week- attacks on Muggleborns, Malfoy has a daughter who’s wanted by Death Eaters- and Hermione likes Malfoy- and now she’s gone. And just a few minutes ago, Ron and I were hit with some kind of intense…,” Harry faltered. Ginny’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, what was that?” Ron asked again.
“It was like a power surge,” Harry explained. “And now the Dark Mark- which we haven’t seen in two years- is floating above us!” he finished.
Ginny strode over to the fireplace. After lighting a fire, she reached for the Floo Powder. Before throwing it into the flames, she turned back Harry and Ron. She took a deep breath.
“Both of you, listen to me. Hermione is clearly in trouble. Go out and look in the hallway and foyer- the Dark Mark is here and not at home and she wasn’t attacked in this office- meaning she was taken here in the building or someplace very close by. See what you can find. I’m going to explain what we know to Dumbledore. I’m sure he’ll alert the Order. Then I’m taking Hermione’s notes back to Headquarters. I’ll meet you both there,” she charged. She turned and resumed her task at the fire. Harry and Ron quickly walked out of the office to investigate the rest of the building.
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As soon as he recovered from the initial shock of the charge, Draco bounded up the stairs to where he could hear his daughter crying. Mrs. Weasley was kneeling on the floor next Louisa, holding her close and trying to soothe the child’s cries.
“I don’t know what happened, Draco. One minute we were looking through these old photographs, and the next, Louisa was rolling on the floor, screaming like a banshee,” the older witch explained in a quavering voice. Gently, Draco took the child out of her arms.
“Louisa, shush, shush,” he crooned. “What happened, love?” he whispered. Louisa opened her tear-swollen eyes. Her breathing was still raspy but her sobs had subsided.
“You felt it, too, Daddy. Hermione called to us- she’s in trouble- she’s scared- I could see her laying there on the floor,” she breathed. Draco felt his chest constrict a bit.
“What do you mean, you saw her?” he asked, looking closely at his daughter. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. When she opened them, he noticed that her gray eyes had lost their brightness to a dull hazy glaze.
“She was laying in the floor- she was trying to come back to us. But she couldn’t- she’s afraid- and she’s alone right now. It’s very cold where she is- and it’s the same place that they took me- like a basement. She reached out to us- to me, you, and Harry and Ron,” she droned in a sleepy voice. Then she blinked her eyes a few times and the brightness returned.
Draco shuddered at what he’d heard and pulled his daughter close to him. He looked up into the concerned eyes of Mrs. Weasley.
“Well, I think we should probably go downstairs and discuss this further,” came the clear voice of Albus Dumbledore. Draco stood, Louisa still in his arms.
“Dumbledore,” he said, feeling a sudden rush of hope at seeing his old Headmaster.
Mrs. Weasley stood, “Come along, Louisa. Let’s get back to these pictures, dear,” she said in a warm tone.
“Molly, we need Louisa. I believe she may be able to help us find Hermione.” With that, the old wizard turned around, leaving three puzzled faces behind him.