The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later

---

---------------The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later. chapter fifteen, "Brain Damage"---------------------

"Did you hear that, Remus?" Harry said as he dragged a heayv load of firewood towards the cottage.

"Yes, I did! I sounded like someone screaming," Remus said and sniffed the air.

The blizzard had started to ease up, but you could still see very little.

"It came from where I found you the other day," Remus said and dropped his wood on the ground.

"Do you think it's Malfoy?" Harry asked and felt scared.

"It is a strong possibility if he' still using that run down dungeon ruin as his hideout! But I don't think it was him that screamed," Remus said.

"What do we do? If he's captured someone, surely we must try and help them?" Harry said and images of his friends being tortured by Malfoy filled his brain.

"We have to help who ever it is!" he exclaimed.

"We will, Harry! But we must go and tell Lorna first so she knows where we've gone and is able to owl the Ministry of Magic if we don't make it back," Remus said and, ignoring the wood, began to walk fast back to the cottage, closely followed by Harry.

It didn't take long before the two wizards were armed, and heading for Malfoy's lair.

At that very moment, Ron was shaken back to life by Dudley, in the same room that had held Harry captive not one week ago.

"Ron! Wake up!" Dudley said as he slapped Ron's face to wake him up.

"Oww! Stop that!" Ron said and felt the cold draft from the small window and noticed the huge chains, holding him, and the blood on them.

There was more blood on the floor, frozen, and Ron instantly knew it was Harry's.

"Harry was here," Ron said and looked around the small, cold room.

"Are you sure? But were is he now?" Dudley asked.

"I don't know. Maybe in another room, or he's..." Ron stopped, midsentance fearing his own words.

"Dead?" Dudley said with an unsteady voice.

It was quiet for a while as they both thought about which of the two possibilities was true.

"I can't stand this anymore! I'll search this dungeon telepathically and see if Harry's still here," Dudley said and sat in a Lotus position, closing his eyes.

He felt himself leave his body in an astral shape and float around as if he'd been in space.

He felt Neville's presence, coming closer, but it would be at least an hour before he'd be there.

Harry's mind wasn't in the dungeon.

But there were traces of his pain, still fresh.

Malfoy's mind ecchoed all over the place, in shades of dark green and black silver, making Dudley feel sick.

He came closer to Malfoy and reached into his mind to see what had happened to Harry, and as he did so, a stabbing pain hit his own mind and he felt the madness of Malfoy try to grab him.

Dudley saw Malfoy's escape from Azkaban, he felt the joy Malfoy had felt as he'd snapped the neck of one of the guards; he saw how Wormtail had fished him out of the ocean in a charmed boat, saving his life, and bringing him before his father in Sweden.

Dudley flew past those memorys and came closer to the present time.

He saw how Malfoy knocked Grindle out with his Basilisk tail and how he'd captured Harry.

"Good! I'm closer now," Dudley thought and moved on.

He saw Malfoy beat Harry in the same dungeon as they were in right now.

Then the memory of defeat hit Dudley like a hammer in the groin as he saw Malfoy run outside in the snow, searching for Harry.

Harry escaped!!

With a thought, Dudley returned to his body and began telling Ron what had happened the days before they arrived.

"But, if Harry was naked and exhausted, how could he survive in this blizzard?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. I just hope he has," Dudley answered.

Suddenly the door flung open and Malfoy came in, looking like the original lunatic.

"What did you do?" he said and held his head as if he had a headache.

Ron and Dudley said nothing; they merely stared at him in disgust.

"Answere me!!" Malfoy screamed and punched the door, breaking it easily!

Ron and Dudley had never seen such physical power in any Dark Wizard before.

Not even Voldemort!

Malfoy left the room, but put up a shielding spell so Dudley, who wasn't shackled, could leave.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Ron asked in a whisper so Malfoy wouldn't accidentally hear him.

"I think he felt me in his mind," Dudley whispered back.

"So, what does that mean?" Ron asked.

"I don't know!"

A while later, Neville landed on a branch of the dead tree outside of Malfoy's dungeon, looking around.

He sent a mental message to Dudley, telling him he'd arrived to help them.

Dudley sent Neville an update on their situation, telling him Harry had escaped and about Malfoy's weakness.

"I'll search the surroundings for any sign of Harry. The blizzard has cleared up pretty good so I think I might find him if he's still out here. Can you two hang on in there for a while more?" Neville asked Dudley in his mind.

"Hurry! We musn't waste any time as Malfoy can decide to kill us at any time and Ron is shackled so he can't turn into a Werewolf to try and help us and we don't have our wands, either," Dudley said.

Neville flew high into the air and scanned the ground both mentally and with his Eagle eyes.

He'd been soaring for only a few seconds when he caught a feeling from Remus Lupin on the ground; anger!

Neville decended and when he was about twelve feet from the ground he turned into his human shape and landed in the snow next to Remus.

"Shit! Neville?!? Don't scare me like that!" Remus said as he'd almost jumped out of his skin.

"It's good to see you, Mr Lupin," Neville said.

"Remus, please! And it's good to see you too. Do you know anything about what's happening here?" Remus said.

"Malfoy has taken Ron Weasley and Dudley Dursley captive inside. You haven't seen Harry, by any chance?" Neville said.

Remus smiled and pointed into the nearby woods.

A Wolverine with lightning shaped stripes on it's sides looked up at them and seemed to wave it's paw.

Neville laughed in joy of seeing Harry was still alive.

"Harry's checking out the front entrance," Remus said.

Then he sent out a telepathic package, telling both Remus and Harry of what had happened from the moment when Grindle had returned from Malfoy's attack last week up to when Dudley had told him about Malfoy's weird outburst.

"So what's the plan?" Remus asked.

"We go in and try to catch Malfoy alive, but Hermione won't mind if he's unfortunate enough not to make it back alive," Neville said.

"But he's supposed to be stronger than Voldemort! Can we really do anything that will hurt him?" Remus asked.

"Hey, You are talking to the guy who nailed the Dark Lord's ass to the wall and killed him! I'm sure Malfoy can't be much harder to defeat," Neville said.

Harry had made his way back to them and turned back into a human.

"Neville! I'm so happy you're still alive," he said and hugged Neville.

"We'll catch up after this piece of shit is caught, dead or alive," Neville said and took out his wand.

Remus took his out, too, and Harry had the one he'd borrowed from Lorna, as Malfoy still had Harry's wand.

"Ok, let's do it," Neville said and the trio walked up to the front door, wands ready to kill anything that came at them.

----------to be continued in chapter sixteen, "Brains against Brawn"---------------