Written Mystery

Chapter Three- The Secret

Ron was worried. Where is Hermione? She can't disappear now. After what they did, Ron felt a bit guilty for tricking Harry. They plotted this last summer when Hermione was staying at his house. Hermione confessed to Ron about her feelings towards Harry and he plotted a little plan for her to perform. At first Hermione was reluctant but she soon agreed after much persuasion from him. "But won't that be like betraying Harry?" he remembered her asking. And being typical Hermione, she listed out a page of pros and cons of the conspiracy. There were more pros to it so she concluded the idea and agreed to be part of it. She wrote the poems silently in her room, in Ginny's room anyway, when the rest of the Weasleys were out playing Quiddich. Ginny was out to Diagon Alley with his mother to buy her favorite teen magazine, Cosmowitch. Ron took the task of putting the letter in Harry's bag. He did it successfully and Harry was now confused and determined to find the letter writer. He has started to miss her very much. Maybe he'll start to love her soon. They were very good actors, Ron thought. The last line of poem, "Before your loved ones be out of trace" was just a joke. Ron added it to make the whole thing more intense. Nobody was supposed to disappear. The whole prank was supposed to end today, where she is supposed to give Harry the last letter, but where is she? She should be here now.

Ron paced up and down the hallway to the dungeon. He was getting a bit restless.

"Ronald Weasley? What are you doing here near my office? Planning to steal some of my potions?"

Ron groaned silently. It was Snape.

"Uh..No..uh..sorry Professor, but I was supposed to meet Hermione down here to discuss the homework that you had given the class last Monday. She will be here any second now."

Snape frowned.

"You haven't yet started doing my homework? I gave it to you yesterday. I'll have to take five points out of Gryffindor for that. Five points for procrastinating and another five for being down here without permission. So, that will be ten points taken from Gryffindor."

Snape smiled slyly.

Ron was aghast.

"But...but..that's not fair, Professor. I wasn't even..."

"Another ten for talking back to me so scoot before I take more points off your house."

Ron walked away from the dungeon, fuming.

That slimy slug! He just wants to get back for what we did to him during that Sirius Black-Remus Lupin incident two years ago! No wonder Harry's father and gang hated him back then. He would too back then and how he hated him now!

He was walking briskly up the stairs when he bumped into Dother Whittler, a second year Ravenclaw. They hit each other hard and Dother fell down. Ron offered his hand and helped the tiny boy up. Dother apologised generously.

"Sorry Ron! It's my fault really, I didn't see you coming up."

Ron shook his head.

"No, Dother. My bad. I was the one who was too busy climbing the stairs to see you walking down."

Dother shook his blond hair out of his eyes. Ron noticed that his blue eyes are twinkling.

He is really cute, in a pretty boy kind of way. I mean look, he has whitish blond hair, very blue eyes, the colour of an azure sky, clear skin... Ron slapped himself up. What was he thinking? Was he examining the guy? Ugh! What is wrong with me? I'm straight!

Dother grinned.

"Well, nice seeing you Ron. I've got a class to catch. Potions with Professor Snape."

Ron grimaced.

"Snape the snake? Well, good luck. You will need it."

Dother laughed. He then sauntered down the stairs to the dungeon. Ron was left alone to think about the incident.

Yes, I love girls. I do like girls. I like Fleur, for instance, and I used to have a teeny crush on Hermione before she had confessed her feelings on Harry to him.

He shook his head. I'm not thinking rather well now. With Hermione being late and that little incident with Snape had jumbled up his feelings.

Ron was busy reassuring himself on his sexual preference when he saw Dean and Seamus, a couple of his friends from Gryffindor, walking. He walked up to them and all three went on their way to the Great Hall to eat their breakfast.

****

Hermione groaned. She hasn't eaten for a day now and she was really hungry and thirsty. Her hands were tied and her eyes were covered. She bristled when she heard footsteps coming to her.

"Well, well, look at the poor dear. All alone and shaking. Where are your friends now huh, Miss Granger? Are they here to rescue you now?"

Hermione frowned. That voice, it sounded so familiar.

She coughed back.

"I am not shaking and I am not scared of you either, whoever you are. My friends will come and rescue me soon and you'd better beware then."

The man laughed.

"Ooh..someone's in denial now. Where's your beloved hero, the famous Harry Potter?"

"He will come! He always will."

The man then sang a song.

"And they say that a hero will save us, I'm not going to stand here and wait*.." the man finished singing and continued;

"Definitely darling, I will not stand here and wait for him to come and rescue you, I'll catch him first. Oh! Want to hear this?"

The mysterious man recited a poem. It was the poem that Hermione had written in her prank letter to Harry.

"Every night, the stars leave a trail of luminous light,

The sparkles and shine brightens your exquisite face,

Find me before the sixth day of the night,

Before your loved ones go out of trace."

Hermione gasped. She felt her bowels turning cold. The man laughed hard.

"Think I didn't know about that? I know everything, my dear. Soon, I will know much more when your little friend is captured. My master is waiting for him. After what he did to him last year, he deserves to die. Lord Voldermort reigns and he will be in power again soon."

He then uttered a curse, a leg locker curse.

"Locomotor mortis."

Hermione legs were tied.

"There. Now you can't run nor you can't hide. See you later, girlie."

Hermione was sobbing when the man walked out of the place and left her alone. This time she was really shivering.

****

Harry woke up to find another sparkly red letter down at the floor.

He summoned it up.

"Wingardium Laviosa."

He opened the letter quickly, anxious to find any clues leading to Hermione's disappearance. He found another poem.

" The rain falls as the unicorns gallop away,

Whilst the rainmunks and frogs come out to play,

Meet me at the stairs at the Astronomy Tower today,

Before your little friend waste away.

:. Be there at two am sharp! Bring no one, please. It's our special date!.:"

Harry was astounded. The whole thing was getting to be more sinister than ever. He glanced at Ron's bed and found him gone. Harry was worried. Was Ron kidnapped too? He quickly bathed and dressed up.

He found Ron at the dining hall, eating breakfast with Dean and Seamus.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed.

Harry queried Ron, "You're up early. What's the occasion?"

Harry sat down in front of the boys and glanced sideways to see several girls staring adoringly at him.

Ron explained the fact that he can't sleep and didn't want to bother him so he went down to eat alone. He felt sick lying to his best friend.

Harry nodded. A girl, Emma Watty offered Harry a piece of caramel stick. Harry took one, thanking her.

"Harry, look, Hedwig's back with a post." Seamus pointed out.

Harry looked up to see Hedwig flying down towards him. The bird threw the post for Harry to catch and rested on Harry's shoulder. Harry gave his piece of caramel stick to him. Hedwig hooted appreciatively.

"Thanks boy. You did a job well done." Harry stroked his pet lovingly before sending him back to the owlery.

Harry opened Sirius's letter. Ron leaned closely to him.

"Dear Harry,

If I were you, I won't worry as much. That letter is probably written by one of your fans or something like that. Ron told me you've gotten mountains of fan mail in the past few weeks, eh, my boy? You are beginning to become more like your father. He was just as popular back then, and as handsome too. One of the [minor] reasons why Lily, your mother was attracted to him. Hermione gone? She was probably hiding in the toilet or something. You know how teenage girls are at that age. I think she is fine. Oh, I've just had a chat with Dumbledore yesterday at Hogsmeade, Harry. He told me everything was fine. The security around Hogwarts has been tightened, a new spell was fixed last week by Aurolius, one of Dumbledore's old friends. One of the greatest wizards of this time. Anyway, the spell would prevent outside wizards and witches to enter Hogwarts. Even if they are using a secret tunnel or a secret path. They would be electrified to death. So all students and staff are safe there. I was relieved to hear that Harry. Now I know you are safe for sure.

Well, got to go now. Take care of yourself and do not worry too much. I've got to hunt rats now, I haven't eaten for days.

Your dog, sorry * wink *, godfather,

Sirius."

Harry breathed out in relief. He put the letter in his bag.

"Whoa! Thank God for that! Sirius told me to relax and not worry too much about those letters. Hey, Ron, have I told you that I've gotten another one this morning? I found it on the floor."

"Wha..what?" Ron stammered. This can't be happening. What is going on?

****

Draco was walking out of the Slytherin room when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him. He recognised it as Fleur's. Draco walked faster, pretending to not hear her.

"Draco! Draco amour! I'm 'ere! I 'ave been waiting for you!"

Draco walked even faster. That Fleur girl has been stalking him lately and that had begun to irk him much. He admitted that she was gorgeous, someone who was in par with him in the looks department but he was just plain uninterested. He's already in love with someone else, and he's now off to find that person.

"Draco! Wait!" Fleur ran and caught up with him. She took his hand and stopped him.

Draco sighed loudly.

"What now, Fleur? I'm busy at the moment."

Fleur pouted.

"Oh Draco, I 'ave been waiting for you outside since yesterday. I want to see you, I cannot sleep without seeing your 'andsome face."

Draco became restless. He brushed his long blond hair out of his eyes.

"Excusè moi for staring, but you have such beautiful eyes, Draco. You are so 'andsome. You look just like me."

"Then go and date yourself." Draco muttered under his breath.

Fleur stared adoringly at Draco's face. She was just about to stroke his face when Draco uttered an incantation.

Fleur gasped when the object of her affection suddenly disappeared.

****

"Potter."

Harry was busy cleaning his Firebolt when he heard his name being called. He looked up and saw Draco striding across the Quiddich field.

"Potter. So you are here. I've been searching for you for quite awhile."

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"What for? So you can tease me and taunt me some more?"

Draco gave a slow smile.

"Why would I do that when all I want to do is this."

Draco bent down to Harry and suddenly kissed him. Harry dropped his broom cleaning kit, and he just sat there, stunned.

"Potter, I've been dreaming of this moment for ages."

Harry's heart was kicking hard in his ribcage. Harry was still quiet when he suddenly took a deep breath and pulled Draco close to him, kissing him passionately. His lips were so soft and tasted so sweet.

"So do I, Malfoy. So do I."

Draco loosened his tie. He looked deeply into Harry's eyes, his blond hair glistening in the sun. Harry ran his fingers into Draco's long hair. It was so soft and it smelled so nice. Both of them were silently ravishing this moment when Draco spoke.

"Harry.."

He called me Harry! Harry thought thrilled.

"Harry!"

Harry woke up with a start.

"Draco?"

"Draco? What are you talking about? This is me, Cho"

Harry turned red. Oh, it was just a dream. Thank God it was so. He looked up and saw Cho Chang looking at him with a wide grin.

"Oh." He blushed deeply. "Sorry, I just had this dream...Oh, Forget about it. It was nothing." He adjusted his spectacles and looked around. He saw that he was in the library.

Cho smiled and a tiny dimple in her left cheek appeared, making her look more adorable than ever.

"Sorry to bother you, Harry. But you were actually, uh, snoring too loud. I had to wake you up as you were disturbing other students."

Harry was dismayed. "Oh really sorry for that, I didn't sleep well last night. I had uh, some personal problems."

Cho grinned. She shook her head slowly and flipped her long, straight hair off her shoulders.

"Doesn't matter Harry. I understand." She then took a good look at the book Harry was reading before he fell asleep.

"Oneirocritica by Artemidorous. Dream interpretation, Harry? You a fan of divination?"

Harry shook his head. How ironic that he was reading this book when he had that weird dream. "Nah, just reading it for, um, this project I had for my, uh, Divination class."

Cho, who was still grinning, gave a brief nod to Harry.

"That's great. Well, got to go now. Got a prefects' meeting to attend. By the way Harry, I like the way you looked when you were sleeping. You were so cute. But it's not that you don't look cute now, I like you in every way you are in."

She then walked away leaving Harry to grin sheepishly at his crush. He was still blushing and grinning like an idiot when he continued reading his book.

Reading too much of this book has seriously fried my brain. But why was I even reading it? And why was I even here in the first place?

Then he remembered. He went there to search for Hermione and apologise to her for his insolent behaviour yesterday. He couldn't find her and decided to find a book that could explain the dream that he had of the girl. Great, now he had two weird dreams to interpret.

He opened the book and started to read it.

Hmm...

****

The room was really quiet and dark. All eyes were fixed upon the newly arrived wizard. The wizard stepped into the light and all of the Death Eaters gave a loud gasp. He moved to Voldermort and kissed the hem of his robes.

"Master...Master...I'm back."

Voldermort gave a curt smile. He quietly welcomed the Death Eater back.

"My dear Death Eaters. It seems that my faithful servant here wasn't who he seemed to be. This, my followers, is actually Morgana Mclair, the Death Eater who was killed by Aurors, fourteen years ago. But she came back, yes she came back to serve me, reincarnated as a Hogwarts student."

The faces of the Death Eaters showed total shock especially on the face of Peter Pettigrew.

Morgana spoke.

"Master, I've got good news. The muggle friend of Harry Potter was captured and time will only tell when Potter himself would fall into my trap."

Voldermort gave a cruel smile.

"The mudblood? I hope you have tortured her enough. She deserved it after what her friend did to me."

Morgana nodded. "Yes my sire, I haven't given her any food or drink for the past two days and I've gagged her eyes and body."

Satisfaction filled Voldemort's face. "Good enough. Maybe when that Potter boy was captured, you could give him and that mudblood the crucio curse. Make sure they suffered greatly, but never let him die, for his services is still needed."

Morgana bowed upon Volvemort's legs. "As you wish, my Lord." She then stepped back quietly before disappearing into the darkness.

****

"Parvati! Parvati!" Ron chased the beautiful Indian girl into the Gryffindor Common Room.

Parvati Patil stopped and turned. "Yes, Ron? Anything wrong?"

Ron paused to gasp for breath when he continued. "Have you seen Hermione today?"

Parvatil frowned. "You know what, I haven't seen her for awhile. She wasn't even in her bed yesterday. What's up with her?"

"Wasn't she with you yesterday at McGonagal's office? Lee told me he saw you talking with her." Ron looked worried.

"Oh, that wasn't Hermione. That was in fact, Lana Brown, Lavender's younger sister. She had the same bushy brown hair as Hermione's. I guess that's the reason why Lee got confused." Parvati paused. "Hey, Lavender told me you have been searching for Hermione since yesterday's Charm class. Has she disappeared? Did something bad happened to her?"

Ron shook his head. "I don't know Parvati." He gave a loud sigh. "All I hope for is that she's okay."

*****