Harry Potter and the Unexpected Visitor

Chapter 2

Quaero Amoris Anima

Grimmauld Place was full of people right now. The whole Weasley family (with the stellar absence of Percy) had been taken to the big and creepy house, and now Neville and his grandmother had arrived. They were being placed in two of the bedrooms that were not being used now, and now there still were three people to arrive.

In the kitchen, a red-haired sixteen-year-old boy was pacing nervously. He was decidedly concerned about where his friends Harry and Hermione where, and he didn't know what to do to be sure that they were OK and coming to Sirius' house.

"Ron, will you stop pacing, please?" his sister said, irritated. "I know you are nervous, but you don't have to get me nervous too."

Ron scowled at her, but he sat down on one of the chairs which were placed on the house.

"Sorry, sis, it's only that they are getting late. Dumbledore said Harry and Hermione would be here soon, but I think his "soon" it's not really "soon", or they would be here now."

"Please, Ron, try to calm down," his mother said. "If Dumbledore says they are coming, they are coming."

"I won't be able to calm down while my best friends are not here."

"Have some tea, then. At least it will give you something to do."

Ron took the cup his mother was handing him, but he didn't drink it. He was keeping an ear on the hall, eager to welcome his two friends to the house and make sure both of them were OK.

When he heard the main door opening, and someone tripping on the umbrella stand. That one only could be Tonks. Smiling and ignoring the screams of "FILTHY HALF-BLOODS!" coming from Mrs. Black portrait, he went out of the kitchen, but when he arrive at the hall, his smile froze: Dumbledore, Lupin and Tonks were with Hermione's parents, but nor Harry nor Hermione where with them.

"WHERE ARE HARRY AND HERMIONE?" he shouted, only to be heard over Mrs. Black.

"Harry is safe, Ron, the wards have been reinforced and Bellatrix can't get within two kilometres of Harry's relatives house," Tonks answered.

Ron sighed, but he realised that both Lupin and Tonks were avoiding his gaze while they drew the curtains which covered Sirius' mum's portrait. When they managed to shut her up, he asked:

"And Hermione?"

This time, Dumbledore was the one to reply with a sad voice:

"Mr. Weasley, I am afraid that Bellatrix Lestrange has succeeded on her mission: Miss Granger has been kidnapped."

Ron was shocked at the news, and suddenly he exploded in anger.

"WHERE THE HELL IS HERMIONE? WHERE THAT BLOODY BITCH OF LESTRANGE DID TOOK HER? AND WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING FOR HER?"

"We are doing our best, Ron…" Lupin said, but his comment was unheard because Ron's shouts had woken Mrs. Black again.

"BEGONE FROM MY PLACE, HALF-BREEDS, BLOOD-TRAITORS…"

"SHUT UP, YOU OLD HAG!" Ron shouted even louder than her. "I MAY HAVE JUST LOST ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS ON THE HANDS OF ONE OF YOUR FUCKING NIECES! IF YOU DARE TO SAY ONE MORE WORD I WILL RIP YOUR THROAT WITH A KNIFE AND I WON'T LEAVE YOUR PORTRAIT UNTIL I'VE CUT YOUR UGLY FACE!"

For the first time in months, the portrait stopped shouting on its own, because Ron had scared her and seemed to be prepared to do what he had said if he was provoked a bit more.

Before Ron could redirect his anger towards the Headmaster, he Stupefied him. Ron fell to the floor knocked-out by the spell.

"Remus, take him into the kitchen. We will bring him round after we give him some calming potion."

When Albus entered in the kitchen, Molly looked horrified, and he could not reproach her: between the bad news about Hermione, whom she considered as one of her daughters, and the fact that her youngest son was now out, it seemed a miracle that she was still standing up.

"I'm sorry, Molly, but I had to Stun Ronald to keep him calmed."

Ginny, who was now crying silently, motioned her mother to sit on a chair. Hermione's parents, who where sobbing at the absence of her only daughter, sat down, too, and had a cup of tea from the trembling hands of the young girl.

When they sipped a bit of the tea, they started to recover the breath, but they still were crying. Mr. Granger was the first of the two of them who talked first.

"Pr-Professor," he started among sobs, "do you have any idea of why Hermione has been taken by that witch?"

"Did she talk you about what happened one week before the term ended?"

When the Grangers shook their heads, Professor Dumbledore related them about what happened in the Ministry, from what he had been told by Harry that night. Ginny told them her part from the moment Ron, Luna and her got separated from Harry, Hermione and Neville. By the end of the long story, Hermione's parents were horrified by the length of the things their daughter had not talked about.

"The six of them," Dumbledore said when Ginny finished, "managed to run away from twelve Death Eaters. If it hadn't been for Harry, who had been training them for a long time, they would have been in a very bad state. They could fight twelve well-grown wizard and helped in the capture of eleven of them, minus Bellatrix Lestrange - that's the witch who kidnapped your daughter. I had been told by a spy that Voldemort," nearly everybody winced, "had given her the mission of kidnapping anyone who was with Harry at the Ministry, but unfortunately, we didn't arrive on time."

"Can we do anything to save her?" Hermione's mother asked, desperately.

"Until a few minutes ago, I didn't have an idea, but now I think I got something. Tell me, Miss Weasley, could you tell me what is the relationship between your brother and Miss Granger?"

In spite of herself, Ginny smiled.

"Well, they are friends, of course. But I have my suspicions that his feelings towards her are far away from friendship. He has been jealous of every guy that has approached to her, especially Viktor Krum; he cares a lot about her although he is angry with her, and he talks non-stop about her when she is not around. I'm on the opinion that he really loves her, but he is so thick that he hasn't realised yet."

"That would do," Dumbledore declared, smiling. "Have you ever heard of the Quaero Amoris Anima Charm?"

"No" Ginny replied.

"I have," Mrs. Weasley said. Everybody looked at her. "It is supposed to be a special Apparition charm, only that you Apparate next to the person you love instead of a place."

"Mum?"

"It was on one of those love novels I used to read when I was young. It was very romantic, but I thought it was an invention."

"It's real, dear Molly," Dumbledore said. "It's a very old and ancient magic, like the one that protects Harry while he is at his aunt's house, and its knowledge has been kept in one book that, fortunately, remains at Hogwarts' library. And, from what I read on it, you can break any anti-Apparition wards that have been disposed between the caster and the objective."

"Really?"

"Yes. If your daughter is right, her brother may be the one who can rescue Miss Granger."

~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~

After that declaration, Dumbledore sent Minerva to Hogwarts to look for the book in which the Quaero Amoris Anima Charm was kept, while he prepared everything so that Ron could be woken up and be ready to go on the rescue-mission. He shooed everybody from the kitchen except Mrs. Weasley and Hermione's parents, who seemed so shocked at the knowledge that their daughter could be back soon. When he put everything on its place, he said:

"Molly, give your son three drops of the calming potion. It will keep him woken, but enough calmed to hear to the instructions and use the charm."

Mrs. Weasley did as she was told. Then Dumbledore said:

"Enervate!"

Ron started to wake up, muttering "Er-my-nee" under his breath. If the situation wasn't so critical, the old man would have started to laugh.

"Mr. Weasley, please wake up. I need your help to rescue Miss Granger."

Ron opened his eyes and his breathing rhythm increased.

"Mr. Weasley, calm down. You have to ask me some questions."

"OK, Professor. What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Which are your feelings towards Miss Granger?"

"She is my best friend. Why?" Ron answered, confused.

"No, Ronald." That surprised Ron, because he had never heard the Headmaster calling him by his name. "I need to know which your real feelings towards Hermione are."

He breathed deeply, and started to say, slowly, as if he was trying to pull a very well saved secret out of his chest:

"Well, she has been my best friend - apart from Harry, that is - since we saved her from that mountain troll in Halloween, our first year at Hogwarts. She has always helped Harry and me with our homework if we needed help. She is loyal, brave and very intelligent. We may have bickered lots of times at school, mainly around the subject of homework, but that doesn't keep me from being her friend. But since our second year, when she was petrified, I… kind of developed feelings towards her. Those feelings have been growing, but I never told her about them because I didn't want to lose her friendship. On our fourth year, on the Yule Ball, I didn't ask her to go, only because I was frightened of which her answer would be. But now…" At this moment, Ron's eyes started to spark, not with joy, but with the tears that were falling from them, and went down by his reddened cheeks. "… now I only want to look for her, I only want to tell her that I love her. I don't care of what she answers, ‘cause I will be always regret not doing it. I love her, sir, and I'd do anything so that I could save her."

"Well done, Ronald," Dumbledore said, taking an empty vial and putting some of Ron's tears into it. "Molly, give this to Severus. He is on the first floor, preparing the potion."

Mrs. Weasley, still shocked at the declaration of his son, from who she would have never thought that sort of strong feelings, took the vial and went out of the kitchen.

"Potion?"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley. Professor Snape is preparing a potion which will allow us to rescue Miss Granger, or more accurately, it will allow you to rescue Miss Granger."

"How?" he asked.

"Have you ever heard of the Quaero Amoris Anima Charm?" When Ron shook his head, Dumbledore explained: "It is a very old kind of magic which was intended to be used as a way of being near your beloved ones if they were in any danger. But it was very difficult to use it, and when Apparition was invented, it was put aside and nearly forgotten. But I rediscovered it, and now everything here is prepared to perform, for the first time in nearly a thousand years, a Quaero Amoris Anima ceremony."

"B-but surely Hermione is under lots of spells, and wards…"

"Maybe, but this spell is very powerful. It is so powerful that you will be able to be through any ward which is put around Miss Granger, and bring her back."

Ron breathed deeply again, and said:

"What do I have to do?"

"Read this, and try to memorize it," Dumbledore said, handing him a piece of parchment. "You will have to drink a potion, but that will be in two hours or so. And don't worry for Miss Granger's health. From what I've heard, Voldemort is busy and he has ordered that she is not to be harmed."

"Could you do me one favour, Professor?"

"Yes."

"If you have Hermione's wand here, could you give it to me?"

Professor Dumbledore seemed surprised.

"Why?"

"I don't know how to say it, but with Hermione's wand next to me it will be like she is with me. That will help me to get concentrated. And I'd like to give it to her so that she doesn't get scared or something like that."

Professor Dumbledore smiled, and summoned the wand from the room in which Ginny and Hermione usually slept. Ron put it in his pocket and started to read the parchment, conscious that this would save Hermione's life, and maybe his.

~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~

Hermione woke up slowly: her head was hurting like mad, but when she touched the hurting part, she was relieved to feel that it was not bleeding. She opened her eyes, and everything around her was dark and confusing, but when her gaze started to focus, she realized she was in some kind of jail. When she tried to stand up, she felt dizzy and nearly fell again.

"So, you woke up at last?" a sneering woman voice said.

Hermione turned to the door, and she saw Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Could you give me some water, please?"

"Although my choice would be not to do it, the Dark Lord has asked me to treat you correctly, so…"

She flicked her wand, and a glass filled with crystalline water appeared in front of her. Hermione took it and drank everything in one gulp.

"Thanks."

The Death Eater merely vanished the glass.

"Why am I here?"

Bellatrix started to laugh. "I was told you were more intelligent than that. Haven't you realised the reason yet?"

Hermione's mind was now starting to run faster, thanks to the water that had calmed her thirst, and said, a bit scared, "To bring Harry into a trap?"

"Well done, Miss Little-Prissy. You are the bait, and when Potter comes here, the Dark Lord will catch him and kill him."

"He's more intelligent than that, you know. He won't fail for the same trap again."

"I'm sure that he will do it again, especially when his girlfriend…"

"I'm not Harry's girlfriend," she said automatically.

"Say that to the hundreds of news that say you two are together."

"You shouldn't believe everything that is said on the newspapers. After all, they kept the whole last year the story that Harry was a liar and that Voldemort…"

"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Lestrange roared.

"This is a free country, no?" Hermione answered. "I, unlike you, am not a coward who follows a stupid half-blood who believes that killing everybody that doesn't worship him is the right thing. And you, unlike me, are a fucking mad bastard who is only able to attack people from their backs."

"YOU FILTHY…" the Death Eater said, raising her wand.

"Didn't Voldemort tell you that I was not to be harmed? Let's make a deal. You leave me in peace, and I won't tell your boss that I hit my head with a tree."

This was risky, Hermione knew it, but it was the only way she could get rid of the woman for enough time to get everything on her mind right.

She seemed to consider it carefully, and said, "All right, I'll leave you here in peace, but I promise that when the Dark Lord allows me to, I'll make your death more slowly than I intended."

Hermione gulped, but didn't answer.

When Lestrange's steps stopped being heard, she started to inspect every square inch of the jail she was being kept in. It had a bed, some facilities - which Hermione promised not to use unless it was completely necessary - and a little window from which she could see the soon-to-be nightly sky.

She sighed, resigned to her luck, and lied on the bed. For the next hour and a half, she tried to remember everything she had read about wandless magic, since she didn't have her wand (she had lost it because of the Disarming Spell that had hit her) and it was the only way she could get out of this place (wherever it was) without implying her friends.

At the thought of her friends, she started to cry silently: she desperately wanted to get out of here before Lestrange or Voldemort tried to kill her, but she preferred dying than letting her friends die for her. She was worried by Harry, because she knew the "saving-people thing" he had would impulse him to go after her, especially if Voldemort sent him a vision of her being kept on this jail and tortured; but the person she wanted to see the most was Ron, the red-haired boy she had been attracted to since she saw him in the Hogwarts Express. She smiled sadly when she remembered the hundreds and thousands of times they had talked, bickered, helped Harry or themselves, had fun… and a large etcetera. She wanted to see him, at least one more time before dying, so that she could tell him she loved him; she should have told him before, but her stupid pride always made her swallow all her feelings every time she could have done it, and now she regretted it deeply. Although she was sure he felt something for her, she could never see that "something", because he only looked at her as a friend or as a walking library, depending on the moment. She kept crying, thinking on Ron, until she got asleep.

~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~

Ron was sitting now in the middle of a red circle, with a big heart painted around the circle, pointing at the direction Ron was sitting.

"Have you memorized everything, Ronald?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, Professor."

"Drink this, then. It is of the biggest importance that you drink everything, although it has a bad taste."

Ron took the goblet, which was filled with a dark pink potion, and swallowed it. Ron had never drunk a better potion: it tasted of chocolate, butterbeer and mint. It also smelled of things like books, parchment and a strange smell. He smiled at these; everything was related to Hermione, in one form or other, especially the last one, which was the exact smell of the perfume he had bought her last Christmas.

"Very well. Now, I want you to concentrate on her, on all the good things you have shared with her, and on everything you like of her."

Ron nodded, and started to think on Hermione: he remembered the night they beat the troll, when they won the House Cup on their first year, when she recovered from the attack of the basilisk, when they made peace after their fight around Scabbers and Crookshanks, the Quidditch World Cup, the kiss she gave him before his first Quidditch match at school… and above all, her intelligence, her will power, her beauty, her...

"When you start to feel her, say aloud what you read."

Ron did not move, because he knew that this only would work if he was completely concentrated on her, and the most stupid movement would break everything.

Then he caught a strange feeling; it was like some part of his mind was sleeping, but he knew it was Hermione's, because her mind was as organized in her sleep as if she was completely woken up. He started to chant:

"I call the spirits of love…"

~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~

Hermione was having a nightmare, and she struggled on her dream: she was forced to see, again and again, how her friends and her family were tortured and murdered, and she could do nothing to prevent it.

When she was going to see, for the third time in a row, how a Cruciatus Curse was used over Ginny, everything changed: she was free, walking under the sun and over a big grass country. Everything shone under the light, and she could breathe calmly in here.

"Hermione!" someone shouted.

Although it seemed to come from miles away, she knew instantly that it was Ron. She turned around and, indeed, it was him.

"Ron!"

She started to run towards him, the same as he was trying to run towards her, but the distance between them seemed to reduce at a very slow rate…

"… shall you let me reach her…"

Now he was very near from her, probably some kind of ten metres…

"… even in the darkest times…"

Now he was next to her. She tried to hug him, but it was like there was a crystal wall among them…

"…Quaero Amoris Anima!"

… and the wall broke.

Hermione opened her eyes, and she nearly fainted from the impression: it had not been a dream, Ron was hugging her! Soon she realized that she still was in the jail.

"Ron! Did they catch you?"

"No, ‘Mione. I'm going to take you out of here."

With delicacy, he took her out of her bed and gave her wand to her.

"I knew you would miss it," he said, half-smiling.

Hermione was crying again, but this time was because of the happiness that she was feeling now. Without other word, she threw herself on his arms and kissed him.

Ron had not expected this, but he replied deepening the kiss, pulling his arms around her waist and concentrating on her. Then, the air around them started to fill with flickers of electricity, and, with a great flash of light, they disappeared.