To Have and to Want

They spent the night in Viktor Krum's house. Ron strained to be polite, and, as soon as dinner was over, headed outside. Harry joined him.

Ron looked at him angrily. "She likes me. Yeah, she does--if Krum isn't around."

"Ron, she does."

"Didn't look like--"

"Please. She hugs me all the time."

"That's different."

"How?"

"You... you're... well, you're you!"
"Of course I'm me. You know, if someone didn't know us, they might expect us to date, with the hole 'hero' thing and all. Rita Skeeter thought so."

"What?"

"You forgot--"

"Of course I didn't forget. But... you now like Hermione--"

"I don't. Not in that way. I'm saying people might expect us to. And we might." Ron looked terrified. "It's not like Hermione is my long-lost sister, or something. The only thing in the way is that both of us fancy other people. I like Parvati, and Hermione likes--"

"Krum."

"No. Not Krum."

"So why's she spending so much time with--"

"First, he knows this region better than any of us, and we'll need that. Second, she also spends a lot of time with me, Ginny, Parvati, Padma, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Lupin. Like I said, it means nothing. She even kissed me once!"

"And--"

"Listen up. When you asked her out, she told you she needed time to think. Tell her that you gave her time, but that she should decide--because this is hard for you, especially when you don't know whether you should give up--"

"You don't know--"

"I do know. It was a lot more painful seeing Ginny with Dean than with Padma, because with the latter, it was clear that I had to give up and move on. If Ginny was still dating a guy, I don't know if I'd risk dating Parvati--or anyone else."

"So how do I tell her this? Burst in--"

"Of course not! Get her alone and tell her."

But Ron was unable to do that over the whole of the next day, while they first fixed and flew on a large flying carpet Krum found in the basement of his house. "The Bulgarian Ministry of Magic," Krum explained, "forbade Apparating outside several specified locations, to better trace the activities of You-Know-Who."

"So where're we going?" Harry asked.

"To one of those sites, from which we can Apparate to Romania. That is where you're going, right?"

Hermione nodded. "We're going to meet a few friends there, before we go on our mission."

Krum returned to steering the carpet. Ron saw that there was no way to get Hermione alone here.

Don't worry, what you can't do, Krum can't either, Harry wrote to Ron on a note. The idea didn't cheer Ron up.

They finally landed at the designated location. There were other people there, and they had to wait to make sure that none o f them got a trace on their destination. When they Apparated into Romanian mountains, everyone breathed with relief.

"There you are, Harry," Professor Lupin said. "We've been waiting for you."

Charlie Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks stood next to him. Charlie hugged his brother and then shook Harry's hand. "Hello there. So you finally decided to visit me in my,--" he chuckled, -- "natural environment."

"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks said. "I'm sorry--"

"Don't talk about it," Harry cut her off. He had no intention of listening to apologies about Neville.

"Harry!" Hagrid shouted, stepping out of the woods. Madame Maxine, as large as him, followed.

Harry greeted them, and quickly got to the issue. He took out a map of Romania.

"We're right here, correct?" Getting a nod of agreement from Charlie, he continued, "How far to Count Dracula's castle?"

"Twenty miles, give or take a few hundred yards," Charlie said. "You aren't--"

"I am. Voldemort hid an important item there, and I've got to recover it. Knowing him, he'd put it at the top of the highest tower and place defenses all the way to the bottom."

Everyone nodded. "And we'll need rest after we Apparate. I guess this means storming it at night," Hermione concluded.

No one liked the idea, but waiting till morning was dangerous in two different ways. First, the disappearance of Harry and his friends from Hogwarts would be known, if it wasn't already, by both the Ministry and Voldemort. Second, the night would be cold, and spending it outside, even as warmly dressed as they were, was calling trouble upon themselves. The castle, booby-trapped or not, would be warmer.

They Apparated, and saw the towers of the castle, which stood out against the sky like sharp teeth.

Harry shivered. There was nothing to do but go forward.

"All right," he said. He mounted his broomstick and tried to take off. Tried, since, no matter how much he pushed up, the Firebolt didn't rise even an inch.

"What's wrong with my broomstick?" he asked.

"Nothing," Daphne Greengrass said. "Look, no one else can take off either."

"If a Firebolt--"

"Why can't we?"

"There's probably an anti-hover charm operating in this area," Charlie said.

"Oh," Hermione replied. "Could we break it?"

"You have to get to the source," Daphne replied. "If it's also on top--"

"We do it the hard way," Harry said and began the climb.

XXX

They all suffered significantly from thorns by the time they finished the climb and reached the gate of the castle. Harry cut off all complaints by stating that they'd be very, very lucky if thorns were all Voldemort put in their way.

And indeed, as soon as they finished the climb and were about to walk over the drawbridge into the castle, the terrain lit up, and an enormous dragon fell in front of them. Two more, smaller ones, appeared behind and landed on small towers on the walls of the castle.

"Back up... slowly," Charlie ordered. "Wands ready, stun on my command."

Charlie stepped forward and, raising his wand, cast a spell.

The dragon lowered its head. The smaller dragons, though, raised their necks to the sky and released fountains of fire, whose roars echoed in the mountains. The large dragon turned and nearly burned Charlie.

"Now!" he desperately shouted.

"Stupefy!" eight voices shouted at once. Eight stunners hit the dragon and brought it down.

The two small dragons again released the fire, and, to Charlie's and everyone else's shock, the large dragon rose.

"Stun the little ones!"

"Stupefy!" the wizards cried. It was useless. The large dragon covered the small ones, took the stunners, and was revived before it even lowered fully.

"I've never encountered anything like this," Charlie muttered. "Unless..."

"Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled, aiming at the small dragon's tail.

As soon as he hit it, a change came over the beast. The dragon took to the air and made to rush them. "Stun them!" Charlie shouted.

They were already doing it. "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" rang out several times, and the three dragons lay in front of the castle. Harry looked at the largest one, with only the head being over eight feet long.

"Lucky for us it fell this way," Harry said. The dragons burned a portion of the drawbridge in their attempts to get Charlie, but the large head now lay over that part.

"Ugh! Walking on a dragon?" Daphne said. "Never thought I'd--"

"Come on," Nott said, and picking Daphne up, carried her over the head. "There you go." Daphne looked both embarrassed and pleased.

"Come on," Harry said.

The rusty gate was locked, but Hagrid broke it with one push, and they stepped into a stone corridor. They were about to light their wands when torchlight filled the place, and a voice rang out.

"All the mortals that disturbed us have joined us. You will be no different."

On the other end of the corridor, seven gates opened, and a vampire stepped out of each, the largest one in the center. They were followed by seven more vampires, and seven more. Seven rows of seven vampires stood in front of them when the center one stepped up and spoke.

"There are more of us in the dungeons. Thousands of us. We pay no heed to wizards, and we do not do their bidding. You have disturbed us, and for--"

He didn't finish, as a vampire separated from their group and approached him.

Tonks! What's she thinking? Harry thought.

"Brother--"

"Sister," Tonks corrected. "These have not come to disturb us."

"They disturbed--"

"They came to end the disturbances once and for all. They will remove what wizards come here for, and they will not return."

"Do you swear a blood oath that this is so?"

"I do."

"Then we let these wizards pass," the vampire said. And the vampires silently turned around and marched back into their gates. As soon as the last one vanished, the gates shut. Harry spotted a small ladder in the corner and pointed at it.

Tonks turned back to her usual self. "The last time I changed into a vampire was when I was twelve, for fun. It's really uncomfortable to talk with these fangs."

They climbed up the ladder--all except Hagrid. When the giant put his full weight on it, the old bricks broke, and the ladder, losing its support, fell down with Hagrid.

"'Agrid!" Madame Maxine shouted.

"It's okay, Olympe," Hagrid said. "Yer go on. I'll find a way an' join yer. Good luck, all of yer. Yer especially, Harry."

Madame Maxime wished to stay, but Professor Lupin pointed out that the castle got more dangerous as you went up, meaning that the group needed her more than Hagrid did.

In the next hallway, their steps echoed quietly until something cracked under Hermione's foot. She brought her wand light closer, out of curiosity, and nearly fell.

"Bones," she said. "Human bones."

"Aaargh!"

"Incendio!" Madame Maxime said, and all the torch posts in the room suddenly had lights in them.

Harry screamed. Hermione's arm was held by a skeletal hand, which was pulling her into the ground.

Ron ran up and kicked the arm. That made things worse, as a second skeleton arm appeared out of the ground and grabbed Ron's leg.

"Reducto!"

Two spells from Harry and Krum shattered the arms, but in response, the floor of the entire room came alive. Skeletons rose out, all looking right at them. The skeletons were armed with swords, shields, and spears. Some skeletons held long, heavy bones like clubs. All sizes seemed to be present: dwarfs, humans in all forms, half-giants, and giants. At the end of the hall stood a skeleton at least thirty feet tall. It raised a hand the size of a sofa and pointed at them. The skeleton army understood.

Spears flew at them, skeletons with melee weapons pressed the attack. "Reducto!" Harry cried. Others around him were doing the same, but with little success: skeletons kept attacking, and they threw bones that were lying on the ground with tremendous force. Soon, there was nothing to do but keep focus on keeping the shields up to block these missiles.

"Lubrio!" Daphne said, aiming at the floor. Around the place where the spell hit, skeletons slipped on the solid ground, fell, and broke. The others seized on the idea and began clearing the room. But the skeleton army was so large that it managed to slip individual warriors in between slippery spots, so sometimes Harry had to use the reductor curse at point-blank range.

"Lubrio!" Daphne shouted. "I've got him!"

"Got who?" Nott demanded, dodging three skeletons with spears. "Reducto! Reducto! Aaargh!"

Two skeletons fell, but the third managed to put the spear deep into Nott's leg. Then the thirty-foot skeleton slipped and broke apart, like the others, which vanished along with their master.

"Theo," Daphne whispered. "Did--"

"I'm alive," Nott said.

"Let me see." Tonks approached them.

"Will--"

"You'll live. The wound isn't serious, but the bone was broken. I can't do much here--just get the spear out, wash it--Aguamenti--and bind it. You'll need a Healer."

"We've got to get him downstairs, away from the fighting," Daphne said. "I can't carry him alone."

"I'll go, then I'll try to find Hagrid and meet up with you," Charlie suggested.

"All right," Harry said. "But I don't like splitting up. Get back as soon as possible.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Krum, Madam Maxime, Tonks, and Lupin headed farther up. "One good thing about this," Daphne said before they split up.

"What?" Harry asked.

"The broomsticks are working again," she said, pointing to Nott's broom, which hovered nearby, ready to take a passenger.

Harry still considered how best to put the broomsticks to use (he, Krum, and Nott were the only ones who took theirs into the castle despite the anti-hovering charm when they appeared outside, standing on a wall. "And here's the highest tower!" Hermione pointed to the entrance right next to them. "There must be a spiral staircase there that leads all the way to the top."

"The top! I think it's a bit too high for some people," another voice said. "Hello, Remus," Fenrir Greyback greeted them.