Chapter 32 part 2

Teddy hastily let go of James’ arm and looked around as the boy brought his hand to his head, which spun with dizziness.
“Are we there yet?” James asked looking around. "I gotta tell you Ted, you are so bad at this..."
Teddy swooshed him and glanced up and down the corner of what appeared to be an empty hallway of some ancient structure.
“Okay, James, I’m still not quite convinced that I should have brought you along so…”
“Well, what is done is done”, James breathed.
“…so you have to listen to me and do as I say”, Teddy finished ignoring what he said. James smirked but when Teddy turned to look at him, he nodded. “Okay, so…um…I guess we can only search for them blindly and hope…”
“Mom… and dad, if they really do have him… will probably be in a cell or something and I don’t think that the temple already had any cells, so the Death Eaters must have added some parts to the actual building, so they’ll probably be…”
“…somewhere close to the exit or somewhere close to the entrance”, Teddy finished his sentence again, impressed by the boy’s clever thinking. “Come on then…” he added and started walking forward taking his wand out just in case. James took his own wand out and followed him quietly.
They turned the corner, only to find themselves standing in another dark hallway, illuminated by candles.
“You know it kinda looks like Hogwarts in miniature”, James quoted. “I mean those candles look like they hide a secret passage or something like some candles and some paintings do at Hogwarts”.
“James, please stay focused and leave the candles be”, Teddy said as he kept on walking.
He knew it was wrong to bring James here, hell it was wrong that he came here, but he couldn’t help it; if by any chance Harry was alive he needed to do anything possible to help save him and he only felt like that because Harry was like a father to him, he could only imagine how James would feel, how badly he would want to help his father. Yet, it didn’t seem likely that they could actually help if they didn’t find Harry or Ginny. And they needed to do that fast.
“What do we say if we bump onto Ron and Hermione?” Teddy asked. “James?” He turned but there was no sign of the boy behind him. “James?” Teddy said again starting to panic. “Hell, no! Tell me I didn’t actually lost him!”

“You can see her?” Hermione whispered as she stayed hidden behind a wall, while Ron, who stood next to her, picked towards a large room, where a bunch of Death Eaters were gathered, which looked like a dining room.
“No, there’s no sign of Harry or Ginny”, Ron replied turning to look at her.
“How are we gonna find her?”
“Them, Hermione, not just her”, Ron corrected her with a whisper.
“Ron, I know you want Harry to be alive but logic says that…”
“Harry has to be alive, Hermione and not just because I want it to. And logic was never a good friend of mine anyway, so do not suggest I should follow it now; I know only what my gut tells me and that’s that my best mate is not dead, not yet”.
“Well, fine, how are we gonna find them?” Hermione asked exasperated.
“I don’t know but I don’t think there’s any reason to keep fooling around here”, Ron said and motioned her towards the door they had entered. She followed him and they slowly stepped out, unnoticed by the Death Eaters. When they stepped out in the hallway, Hermione illuminated it by a small light that she made to erupt from the tip of her wand. She looked up and down and then at her husband. They had no idea where to go next.
“Well, maybe we should just…” she started saying but then they heard hurried footsteps from behind them and they only managed to exchange a look before a thick voice spoke.
“Who’s there?”
Before Hermione could extinguish the light from her wand, three masked Death Eaters turned around the corner and came face to face with them. When the first one realized who they were, he shot a curse at them, but Hermione quickly stopped while Ron shot a curse at him and before his colleagues could do anything, Ron’s curse hit him right on the chest and he fell down unconscious. The other two started fighting against them, but soon became obvious that they weren’t experienced wizards, because their spells didn’t seem able to penetrate Hermione’s protection shield. After a few moments they both joined their friend on the floor.
“What are we gonna do with them?” Ron asked out of breath. “We must hide them somewhere for them not to find them like….what are you doing?” he finished as his wife approached one of them and crouched down in front of him.
“I want to see something”, she replied and she pulled of the mask of one of the Death Eaters. Ron gasped. It was a kid, barely twenty years old.
“Why on earth did she recruit kids?” Ron asked incredulous.
“New blood”, Hermione sighed. “Most of the Death Eaters were too old, like Dolohov is, and she needed new members to rebuilt the old army. At least they’re not experienced enough and are easy to defeat”.
“But…how…how did she ever get to them?”
“Artemis is cunning”, Hermione said standing up. “I’ve learnt that much from when we worked at the Ministry together, only back then I thought that was to our advantage. Who knows what she told them or what they think Voldemort really is about. I mean they weren’t around during the war, they don’t know what this new regime she promised them really is”.
“We’ve got to stop her”, Ron shook his head.
“Yeah, well first we have to save Ginny” Hermione sighed. “And Harry”, she added seeing Ron’s raised eyebrows. She started walking back at him, but one of the Death Eaters groaned on the floor and before they could stop him, stood up and started running away from them. “Ron!” Hermione yelled and they both started chasing after him, shooting curses at his back.
“We can’t let him alert them!” Ron shouted, but as they turned the corner the Death Eater was just standing there waiting for them. They both stopped, their wands raised and ready, and they quickly glanced at each other. Why did he stop?
Ron breathed and raised his wand to form a curse but Hermione grabbed his arm, stopping him. What if he too was just a kid and he wanted to surrender? She started walking towards him, trying to think of what to say, but before any of them could do anything he turned to the wall behind him and drew out one of the candles. Nothing happened for a second and then the ground beneath Hermione’s feet vanished and she fell into the hole that opened beneath her with a scream.
“Hermione!” Ron yelled but the opening closed before he even reached it. The Death Eater made to run, but Ron’s curse threw him all the way to the opposite wall, where he slid down and fell on the floor, not moving again. Ron started walking around the place where Hermione vanished, trying any spells he knew to open the secret passage, he even tried to pull out more candles but nothing happened. They had been separated, which would make them an easier target. Great.

Ginny knelt down beside Harry again and he took one of her hands in his, while she used the other to push his hair out of his face.
“You’re cold”, he commented wriggling her hand in his.
“You can’t even stand and you’re worried about me being cold?” she asked rolling her eyes and then she sighed. “What are we gonna do?”
“I don’t know”, Harry replied. “They’ve taken your wand as well, right?”
“No, I have it and I’m not using it because it’s so nice and comfy in here”, Ginny said sarcastically. Harry rolled his eyes and then shrugged.
“I guess Ron and Hermione will come searching for you and…”
“Oh, I so yelled at them”, Ginny said sheepishly.
“Yeah, I know, Artemis told me! Gin, what were you thinking? You kicked them out?”
“I wasn’t thinking, Harry, I thought you were dead”, she grunted. Harry closed his eyes and leaned back on the wall. “Sorry”, Ginny said with a small voice. He had told her that he had seen the funeral; that she had made him watch it and she could tell that seeing their pain had hurt him just as much. She exhaled, angry with herself; while she thought him dead, she kept thinking that she would do anything and give everything to have him back, and now there he was and all she was doing was yelling at him and making sarcastic comments. “Sorry”, she repeated and hugged him, wrapping her arms tightly around his chest. Harry opened his eyes and looked down at her startled.
“Gin, it’s okay, don’t cry”, he said and wiped away the tears, she didn’t even feel falling from her eyes.
“I just couldn’t live in a house with Ron and Hermione and keep thinking that I had lost you because of them”, she sighed.
“But it wasn’t their fault, Gin”.
“I know and I knew back then too and that’s why I had to send them away. If they were there, it would be even harder for me not to blame it on them”, she explained.
“Anyway, whatever you did, I’m sure they will come”, he sighed. “They both love you very much”.
“They love you too”, she said. “Both of them were devastated; both kept blaming themselves for your ‘death’” she said the last word by making quotations marks with her hands.
“Imagine what a great shock it would be to them, to find me alive”, he said.
“Honey, since I didn’t get a heart attack, don’t worry nobody else will”, she told him matter of factly and they both laughed, but Harry became serious almost right away.
“What about the kids?” he asked her then. “How…how are they?”
She sighed, knowing he wasn’t referring to their physical health.
“Well, the baby has been crying a lot, since you weren’t there to do whatever it is that you do that makes her stop crying immediately”, she said.
“And what about the other three?”
“Lily has been doing a lot of crying too”, Ginny shrugged. “James…he was hurting, but he tried to be strong and I think he was the strongest of all of us, I don’t know what I’d have done without him, you’d be so proud of him. But yet, the one that worried me more than anyone else was Albus”.
“Why?” Harry asked her and she looked up at him deep in thought.
“Albus knew”, she replied.
“Knew what?”
“That you weren’t dead”, Ginny explained. “From the moment we told them, he kept saying and believing that you were alive. Of course I thought you were dead and Albus in denial, so I was worried about him, but obviously, he was right”, she said smiling at him.
“Maybe he was in denial and only happened to be right”, Harry said. “How could he have known?”
“Oh, no, now I believe he did”, Ginny shook her head. “It wasn’t denial, it was conviction. He was certain, but I didn’t believe him”, she added with a sigh. “Nobody did and we all tried to convince him that you were gone, but he wasn’t listening to anyone”.

“Will you wait up one moment?” she yelled behind him as Albus was running down the corridor, they apparated. “Potter stop!” Cornelia shouted grabbing his arm. He shrugged off.
“Look, you brought me here, now you can go back”, he told her.
“If you think that I’m going to leave you here, you’re crazy”, she said as she was looking around at the dark and aged place they were in. “This was a big mistake”, she added and grabbed his arm again. “Come on, we’re going back!”
“No!” Albus exclaimed shrugging her hand off again. “Look, I don’t care what is that you do with my brother and I’m not gonna tell anybody, so please just go back and leave me here, so I can find my parents!”
“You think that’s what I care about?” she asked him with a calm voice that surprised him. “I don’t care if you tell, I don’t care for my job; I care for James! That’s why I apparated us here, but I can’t…I can’t jeopardize your life…we need to head back!” she finished and grabbed his hand again.
Albus recovered from the shock the next moment and shrugged her hand off again, but this time less aggressively.
“I need to find my parents…my dad is alive somewhere in here and I need to find him”, he said. “I’m not going back; if you want to help me, then stay, if you’re gonna make this difficult go home and bring help”.
The woman exhaled and then shrugged.
“Fine, I’ll stay”, she said. “But, Albus you can’t start running around calling your parents; you need to be careful”.
“Fine”, Albus nodded and turned around and started walking slowly this time down the corridor, as he pulled his wand out. He stopped after a few steps though and turned to look at the woman that hadn’t moved. “It’s okay, professor, we’ll find them and then get the hell out of here, that’s all”.
She took a deep breath and followed him.



-Angie-