Restitution

"Restitution"

by Paracelsus

Chapter 14: The Heart of Papatuanuku

Charlie winced and stifled an oath. "Merlin, A.C., be more careful! What are you using there, a putty knife!?"

A.C. (no one had ever learned what the initials stood for) grabbed him firmly by his uninjured bicep and forced him back into his seat. She'd been a dragon keeper at Awamotu for over ten years and had experience in dealing with recalcitrant patients - dragons and colleagues. "I'm using the same medicinal applicator we've always used, as you know full well. Now sit there and don't move. The burn paste has to gel into place."

She continued applying the paste to Charlie's burns, working quickly but gently. He was stripped to the waist and was severely burned over much of his left shoulder, arm and torso, and she had to make sure every burned surface was treated. At length she stepped back and surveyed her work. "I must say that orange paste clashes shockingly with your hair," she said critically.

Charlie scowled. "Ho ho. I'm lucky you didn't decide to amputate," he muttered.

"You're lucky to be alive." A.C. replaced the jar of burn paste on the shelf. The Awamotu station was well stocked in medical supplies, both magical and Muggle. Her voice took a more concerned tone. "I wouldn't have dreamed that the dragons could turn so savage so quickly! Seriously, Charlie, you really were lucky this time."

"I know," said Charlie. "But the next time won't be any better." He sighed. "I don't know what to try next, A.C. The standard Stunning Spells aren't working as well as they should. And at any rate, we can't keep an entire valley of dragons permanently sedated." He shifted slightly in his seat, trying to make himself comfortable. "We may have to look into Repelling Charms around the valley's rim, but..."

"But given how magically powerful dragons are, that's going to be bloody difficult." She turned to the third man in the room, a wiry young man waiting patiently. "Mr. Llewellyn, I think you'd best plan on spending the night. It's not safe for you to be flying at the moment."

"The dragons have never bothered my 'copter before," Rhyence Llewellyn pointed out. "They know it's not another dragon, and it obviously isn't food."

"At this point, they're attacking anything that moves," Charlie put in. "A.C. is right, you shouldn't go back tonight. We can find you some blankets or something."

There were sounds of multiple Apparitions from outside the station. Moments later, one of the Awamotu dragon keepers stuck his head in the door. "Charlie, you have some visitors..." he started to say, but before he could finish, the door swung completely open to admit the newcomers.

"Charlie!! What happened!?" Ginny rushed into the room, immediately followed by Ron. Harry and Hermione entered close behind them.

"It's okay, Gin, Ron... don't worry, I'm all right... well, I will be, soon as this stuff does its job." Ginny stopped short of hugging Charlie, but she hovered over him anxiously for a moment. "It's just a burn, after all. It happens, when you work with dragons. You should see my poor broom... or what's left of it..."

"Are these your family, Charlie?" asked A.C. "We aren't really geared for visitors here... and frankly, folks, this is a bad time to visit."

"Trust me, we know," said Harry. "But I'm afraid this is an emergency." He looked around the room. "Charlie, could we have this room to ourselves for a few minutes? We promise not to let him get overexcited," he added to A.C.

A.C. reddened. "Listen, mister, I don't know who you think you are, but you can't just show up here and..."

"A.C.?" interrupted Charlie. He wasn't looking at her as he spoke, but at Harry's face. "Why don't you show Mr. Llewellyn where he'll be sleeping tonight, okay?" His tone made it more than a simple suggestion.

She reddened further and looked about to explode... but she escorted Llewellyn out of the room. Though she didn't exactly slam the door behind her as she left, the door closed very firmly.

"Sorry about that," said Harry once they were alone. "But they work for the Ministry of Magic and I didn't want them hearing this. Charlie, we need your help. The Death Eaters are definitely here in New Zealand - and they've kidnapped Margaret."

Charlie's head snapped up. "Margaret? Kidnapped!?"

"Don't move, Charlie," warned Ginny. But she, Ron and Hermione were all now staring at Harry. "Harry, when did this happen?"

"This morning. Someone showed up at her flat and Portkeyed away with her. It wasn't anyone in Magical Law Enforcement, or from Whare Wananga. I think that the Death Eaters who killed Nana also wanted to take Margaret - but they couldn't get to her as long as she was at Whare Wananga. It's as safe as Hogwarts. But once she was back in her flat..."

"But why, Harry?" asked Ron. He hesitated. "Not because she and you were..."

Harry shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I think they wanted her for practical reasons: her sensitive hands."

"Her healing hands?" asked Hermione. "But that makes no sense... they could always find a regular Healer..." Her brow furrowed in thought, then cleared as she snapped her fingers. "Pounamu! They took her to use as a... a kind of Geiger counter!"

"A what?" asked Ron.

"A divining rod," Harry translated. "Margaret's sensitive to pounamu. They want to use her to help them locate where to dig for it. They must be close to finding it," he added. "Very close, or else they wouldn't be trying to get all of this done in one day."

"But where've they taken her?" Charlie demanded.

"Right here," said Harry. He smiled as the other four stared at him. "Here... to Awamotu."

No one said anything for a moment. "Harry," said Ron finally, speaking for all of them, "you've gone barmy."

Harry took a deep breath. "Before he died, Haldane was trying to discover why the dragons were growing wilder," he began, "just as they did back in 1979. In '78, Serpentard Mining was issued a permit to begin exploratory mining for greenstone - but in '79 they were forced to quit because of Craddock's protest demonstrations. Crown Minerals cited 'environmental impact' as the reason their permits were revoked, but I'll bet anything the environment in question was Awamotu's magical environment."

There was another moment of silence, but it was no longer a disbelieving silence. "It fits," said Charlie in growing excitement. "Dragons have so much magic - their metabolisms are partly based on magic - they can sense magical changes humans can't. And if the changes were violent enough - yes, yes, it would drive the dragons wild!" He looked up at Harry. "Haldane was right, then. The same thing that drove them wild in '79 is doing it again. Someone's doing something in this greenstone mine of yours..."

"...and it's somewhere in this valley," Harry concluded. "Haldane found out about it, and that's why he was killed."

Charlie nodded and drew out his wand. "Accio map!" he called, careful to move as little as possible. A large roll of parchment flew into the room. Ron caught it in midair, and together he and Charlie spread it on the table. It was a topographical survey map of the valley of Awamotu, with contour lines marking elevation and prominent landmarks labeled.

The five huddled over the map. "The problem is, the mine could be anywhere," said Ron after a moment. "If they made it Unplottable, it wouldn't show up on this map... and if they made it invisible, or hid it with a Fidelius Charm, you'd never see it even if it were out in the open."

"Yes, but if they made the mine Unplottable, they couldn't Apparate to it... and someone might see them coming into the valley," argued Hermione. "And I really doubt that any Death Eater would trust another Death Eater to be a Secret Keeper!"

"And I'm not sure they could make it invisible," added Charlie. "Remember, we're talking about the natural magic of the area being disrupted, to the point that it disturbs dragons. Under those conditions, any spells they might cast could be disrupted, too... hey, that would explain why our Stunning Spells are losing strength!" he added, making the connection.

Harry pored over the map as though tiny script were concealed among the elevation contours. "So they can't hide the mine site," he mused. "Which is why, whenever they wanted to do something at the site, they had to get as many people as possible out of Awamotu. Those free Quidditch seats a week ago, for instance - but only you accepted the offer, Charlie. That must've set them back... Then your invitation to dinner at Whare Wananga - supposedly from the Headmaster, but it wasn't. He didn't send it. It was a forgery." Harry looked up from the map. "Was there a staff meeting or something here yesterday, by any chance?"

"I... I think so, yeah. I didn't pay much attention to it, since I'm not on the Ministry payroll..."

"That's why I didn't want to talk about this in front of your friends. They are on the Ministry payroll. I'd just as soon this not get back to the Ministry." Harry returned his gaze to the map and concentrated. "You're the only one they can't really control... so they had to distract you."

Ginny leaned over the map, her head bumping Harry's from across the table, and traced with her finger the line of the river that ran the length of the valley. "'Disturbs dragons'," she repeated slowly. "You were telling us about that last week, Charlie... when you came for the Quidditch match. You said that's why you were hired here."

"I think I see what you mean, Ginny," nodded Hermione. "If they've been reacting to the change in the environment... Charlie, didn't you say you were using tracer spells to track the dragons' movements?"

Charlie nodded and tapped the map with his wand. "Locaro!" he said, and a multitude of small red dots appeared on the map. Each had a tiny name next to it - "Duchess", "One-Tooth", and so on - and some of them moved slowly across the parchment. Harry was immediately reminded of the Marauder's Map, and couldn't help wondering if Lupin had helped design this spell.

"Can you show us a history, Charlie?" Hermione continued. "Where the dragons have been since you first cast the tracer spells?"

"Sure." Another tap of Charlie's wand, and the dots sped up their movements considerably. They buzzed across the map like a horde of agitated bees, retracing the dragons' movements for the previous fortnight. Harry watched carefully.

"Again," he ordered when the dots ceased motion. Charlie obligingly tapped the map again, and the dots repeated their frenetic dance. Harry's narrowed eyes raked the map, finally resting on a spot near the high end of the valley. "There," he said, pointing.

"You sure, Harry?" Ron asked, squinting at the spot where Harry was pointing.

"Charlie, once more," said Harry by way of reply. "Only this time, can you have the dragons leave a permanent line as they move?"

"Yeah, I think so." Again the dots buzzed about the map, but now they left red trails behind them, crossing and recrossing into a bird's nest of tangled lines. Soon the trails covered the entire valley - except for the one area near the high end. It was evident that, for the last two weeks, the dragons had actively avoided that area.

"If the dragons are upset by the local magic being disturbed," said Ginny, "it stands to reason they'd stay away from the source of the disturbance... This narrows our area of search. But is it enough?"

No one said anything for a moment. "The best way to spot the mine site would be from the air," began Harry.

"Aerial reconnaissance?" asked Hermione suspiciously. "How? You're not seriously contemplating..."

"Erm," said Harry, not looking directly at her. "Charlie, does anyone here at Awamotu have a broom they could loan?"

"Four brooms, Charlie," Hermione put in before Charlie could reply. She glared a challenge at Harry, who was examining the map with renewed interest. Though sorely tempted to say more, she kept her mouth closed and waited.

Harry sighed and slowly raised his head to meet her eyes. "Now this is the part where I try to convince you all to wait here while I scout for the mine site," he said in sensible tones. "Since I am, no offense, the best flyer of us four, and I'm the only one who has experience outflying dragons."

"And this is the part where I remind you that Friends Don't Let Friends Fight Alone," replied Hermione fiercely. "Since you are, no offense, not leaving us behind again." He opened his mouth to speak, and she leaned into him to jab her finger in his face. "Because. You. Promised."

"I know I promised!" he shouted indignantly. "And I'm not leaving you behind! I'm coming back - it's only that I'm best choice to go!" He looked to Ron, certain that his male best friend would understand, only to see Ron fold his arms across his chest and steadily return his gaze.

"You have to admit, Harry," he said coolly, "asking for only one broom did make it look like you were thinking of heading out alone."

"But I wasn't..." Exasperated, Harry turned to Ginny... to see her toying with her wand, face thoughtful, as though trying to decide whether to use a Jelly-Legs Jinx or go all the way with a Full Body Bind. "Either all of us go... or none of us go," she said simply.

"Right! No argument! This is me not arguing!" He raised his hands high in surrender. By his expression, Harry was baffled and hurt, upset but not yet angry - not yet. His eyes flicked from Ginny to Hermione, to Ron, back to Hermione. They, in turn, kept their eyes firmly fixed on him. The Trio-plus became a living frieze, standing motionless for a long moment.

"If I may interrupt," said Charlie in oh-so-solicitous tones, "it's a moot issue. We haven't any brooms to spare - the ones still left are all in use by the Awamotu staff trying to keep the dragons calm. Sorry," he added with a sly smile, "but I'm sure you can all find something else to shout about."

The frieze lasted for a couple more seconds as Charlie's words sank in. "Um," Hermione finally said, blinking in surprise at the sudden denouement. "Oh... well, that's, um..."

Ron gave a snort of mirth. The snort quickly turned into a chuckle - and the next moment he was laughing gleefully. Ginny tried to glare at her brother, but a smile was forcing itself onto her face. The tension of the previous instant was rapidly evaporating. Harry slowly lowered his hands. "All right, then?" he asked with the beginning of a grin.

"S-Sorry, Harry," Ron managed to say through his laughter. "Sh-Should've known better..."

"Yeah... sorry," agreed Ginny in an almost grudging tone, her smile broadening despite herself. Harry nodded gratefully to them and glanced at Hermione.

She alone wasn't smiling. If anything, she looked more upset than before. "Well, if I'm a little sensitive on this subject, you've no one to blame but yourself," she told him defensively.

His own grin died aborning. "I'm not blaming you, exactly... but I was sort of hoping you could trust me. Like you used to." He sighed in frustration. "Hermione, I was planning to go out on the broom, try to find the mine, and straight return. Honest. If I were going to leave you behind, would I have brought you here?"

She bit her lip and shook her head. There were traces of tears in her eyes, but she resolutely turned her face back to the map and gave it her full attention. Harry watched her for a moment, his face losing expression, before drawing a breath and saying to the room, "Getting back to the matter at hand... how are we going to find the mine site? Since we can't use brooms..."

Ginny pondered the question, serious once more. "Can't we just... Apparate to someplace inside that area and walk? Search on foot?"

"Only as a last resort," said Harry. "That's still a pretty big area, even for four people... and we might lose the advantage of surprise."

Charlie cleared his throat. "Harry... I may have a solution. Would one of you go find A.C. and ask her to come here?"

Ron nodded and left the room. The door hadn't yet closed behind him when Hermione stood from the table. She walked briskly to the window, where she watched the afternoon sun force its way through the clouds. Ginny looked at Harry for an enigmatic second, then turned away from him... she stepped over to Charlie and began fussing with the burn paste. "I wish you could come with us," she began in a low voice. "We could really use you..."

Harry was left standing alone by the side of the map table. His mood had plummeted in the space of mere minutes: crestfallen now, where he'd been exhilarated. It had seemed so obvious to him, that he should scout for the mine site... He had to remind himself that his friends had every right to question his motives... perhaps it was too much to expect them to trust him again so soon. Nonetheless, their reaction had stung.

Her reaction had stung.

He hesitated, wanting to do something but unsure what to do. Then he came up behind Hermione and looked over her shoulder at the clouded sky. He knew she heard him approach, but she didn't acknowledge him... she wrapped her arms across her stomach but otherwise didn't move. Nor did he try to touch her, but stood near her without crowding her. Neither said anything for a few moments.

"I do trust you," she said abruptly, in a very low voice. "I trust you to always be there for me. I trust you with everything that's mine... I trust you with my life." She twisted her neck to look back and up at him. "I just don't trust you to not act like a stupid prat sometimes."

He acknowledged the justice of her remark with a nod and a sigh. "Stupid prat, yeah... But you must admit I've gotten better." He gave her a calculating half-smile and added, "And I do learn." Deliberately he took a step so that he was no longer behind her, but beside her.

She looked down at his feet, or rather the spot where he'd planted them. When she looked back to his face, she had a slight smile in return. "Side by side, then?"

"Well, I suspect this time it'll be back to back... but yeah, that's the idea." His full grin was disarming.

She made a show of considering. "Acceptable," she said, and finally grinned back at him. Silently he mouthed the words Thank you - she nodded happily.

They shared those grins for the longest time... Harry was tempted to tell Hermione about his epiphany in the Rose Cottage garden, but no, this wasn't a time for words... no words now, no gestures, only two broad grins bridging the space between them. They were enough.

Not until the door opened did Harry force himself to tear away from her. He looked over as Ron and A.C. came back into the room. A.C. did not seem at all pleased to be summoned... she ignored them all and addressed Charlie. "Well?"

"Change of plans, A.C.," said Charlie with a conciliatory smile. "I think our Mr. Llewellyn will be going back to Queenstown tonight after all ..."

*

Harry fiddled with his omnioculars, trying to keep them steady against the turbulence as he scanned the ground below him. The late afternoon sun kept peeking in and out of clouds, which made for confusing shadows... but he knew what he was looking for. "Any signs of dragons yet?" he called.

"Not yet," shouted Ron, who was in the forward seat next to the 'copter pilot. "But Charlie said it's only a matter of time."

"Yeah. Kinda makes me wonder exactly why I'm doing this," Llewellyn grumped.

"Did you really want to spend the night in the mountains, in winter, with nothing but a couple of blankets?" asked Ron rhetorically.

As they'd discussed, Llewellyn was flying his usual route back to Queenstown, so as to draw no suspicion from potential watchers... but at less than his usual speed, to give Harry as much time as possible to spot the mine. Unfortunately, that also gave the dragons as much time as possible to spot the helicopter. Ron kept watch for dragons in front, Ginny and Hermione from port and starboard, while Harry's Seeker eyes searched the landscape.

"I think I've got it," he said at last. "They tried to make it look like a natural cave, but I see old tailings below it." He recorded the scene, with reference points, in the omnioculars and handed them to Ginny. Once she'd located the spot, Harry called Hermione over to look, then Ron.

"Okay," he told them when they'd all fixed the location in their minds, "we'll Apparate just above the mine, so we'll have a downhill approach. Llewellyn," he raised his voice over the sound of the engine, "let's do it!"

Llewellyn nodded and, as planned, brought the helicopter up into an abrupt hover for a few seconds. As soon as the craft was stationary with respect to the ground, the foursome Disapparated and were gone. Llewellyn felt the 'copter surge upward with the loss of load, which told him his passengers had left. He wished them luck and pushed his controls to full throttle - desperate to leave Awamotu before he became some Opaleye's dinner.

*

Harry picked himself up from the ground and dusted dirt off his dark clothes. It had been a very rough Apparition, but at least he was still in one piece. Last time I try to Apparate from an aircraft, he thought, and hoped the others had fared no worse. He looked around... there were a few trees, but the area was mostly low brush with some bare rocky outcroppings. If they kept low, he decided, the brush would hide them well enough. Thank Merlin there was no snow to speak of...

He saw where the others had landed... he went over to each and helped them stand, making sure they were okay. After allowing them a moment to collect themselves, he gathered them into a huddle. "The mine opening is directly down slope," he whispered. "We should split into pairs and approach it from either side. Ginny..."

"I'll go with Hermione," she replied quickly.

He looked dubiously at her, but there wasn't time to argue about it. "Right then. You two go left, Ron and I'll go right. Keep your heads down, keep quiet."

"And if we run into anyone?" asked Hermione.

"'When in doubt, follow instinct.'" Harry shrugged. "Unofficial Auror Corps motto. Um, Stupefy them, if you can do it without being spotted. If they turn out not to be Death Eaters, we'll apologize profusely."

With a nod from Harry, the foursome separated. Ron and Harry headed down and to the right, Harry leading slightly. He took full advantage of every large boulder, every scrap of cover, and Ron quickly followed suit.

About halfway to the cave, they paused to listen for activity. "I thought I heard someone down there," whispered Ron after a minute.

"More than one, I think," replied Harry. "When we get closer, we'll spread out... but keep each other in sight." He paused, then continued, "Ron, thanks."

Ron looked surprised. "Haven't done anything yet..."

"Sure you have... for ten years now. No time right now to go into details, but... thanks."

"Wouldn't've missed it." Ron peered more closely at Harry's face. "You all right, mate?"

Harry gave him an assured smile. "Well enough."

"Then stop talking like you're setting your affairs in order, d'you mind?" Ron grinned and lightly slapped Harry's shoulder.

In point of fact, Harry was far from all right. His hands had resumed their sickly pallor, and he felt sure his face had followed suit, giving the lie to his confident words. His nap earlier in the afternoon, far from refreshing him, had exhausted him further... and while Auror training included disciplines that allowed him to work without sleep for long periods, those techniques had their limits.

None of that would stop him tonight, however. His years of experience would stand him in good stead, and adrenaline was better than many potions. Even had he owed no debt to Margaret Pohuhu, Harry would not spare himself to save her.

"Let's go," he whispered to Ron, and they continued to creep downhill.

When they were still some twenty metres away from the cave mouth, they could tell for certain: there were two people talking there. By silent agreement, Harry and Ron separated, drew their wands, and approached the cave as stealthily as possible. There was a clearing in front of the cave mouth... Harry stopped at its edge and peered through the brush.

Two men were standing and talking in the clearing. Something about them somehow suggested military men, despite the lack of insignia or badges... possibly the cut of the garments, possibly the way the men wore them. They were inspecting a collection of boxes and tools, all stacked on a large Persian carpet. Flying carpet, thought Harry. Illegal in Britain, but not elsewhere. It explained how they'd transported supplies into Awamotu.

Harry aimed his wand at the man standing closest to him. He glanced at Ron, making sure he'd aimed his wand at the other man, and silently held up three fingers, two fingers, one finger...

"Stupefy!" he whispered. A tiny wisp of red vapor sputtered out of the end of his wand and dissipated harmlessly. Astonished, he looked over at Ron again, to be met with a look of equal astonishment. Ron's wand hadn't produced even that much effect.

Disrupted magic, he realized. Our wands won't work here! Merlin's beard, we were lucky we Apparated without splinching...

Harry slid his wand back into its sleeve holster and, reaching down, dislodged a fist-sized rock from the earth. He looked back at Ron, shrugged, and held the rock as if to throw it. Ron smiled grimly, stowed his wand, and found a rock of his own. They waited until the men bent over to lift some of the assembled equipment, the crowns of their heads becoming inviting targets, before they let fly.

With simultaneous thunks the missiles struck, and the men fell stunned. Ron and Harry immediately darted out of the bushes and slugged the two where they lay. "I think that's done it," said Ron after a moment. "They're out."

"Excellent," said Harry, turning to the carpet. For a moment he wondered why the two men weren't using the carpet to carry the gear into the cave... For the same reason they didn't just levitate the gear with their wands, he concluded. Once they'd started disrupting the magic here, the carpet might no longer fly.

He picked up a hard hat with an electric torch mounted on its front - a miner's hat. "Good thing we hit them when we did - they were about to put these on. Timing is everything, they say." He looked over the rest of the gear... picks and shovels, what looked to be a small pneumatic hammer complete with air pump, and boxes labeled...

"High Explosive?" asked Ron, joining Harry. "What is all this?"

"If our wands don't work here, neither will theirs," said Harry. "They have to get the pounamu out of the mine using Muggle methods. Ironic, that." He looked at one of the boxes. "Blasting caps, I think. Small, controlled blasts... makes sense, if you need to get large crystals out of the rock without shattering them..." He stopped short at a sound behind him... from the cave mouth...

A third man was walking out of the cave, still wearing a mining hat - but unlike the others, he also wore a holstered sidearm. He seemed to immediately take in the scene - his two comrades unconscious on the ground, Ron and Harry standing over them - and reacted instantly, diving back into the cover of the cave while drawing his sidearm.

"Down!" shouted Harry, shoving Ron away from him as he dove into the brush on the other side of the clearing. Behind him he heard a phhhut! and the sound of a bullet gouging the dirt where they'd stood. Harry hoped that the third man had enough sense not to fire at boxes of explosives...

He scrambled through the brush, keeping his head down and changing direction every step or two. Behind him he heard the phhhut, phhhut of bullets being fired at him. For the hundredth time Harry cursed the wizarding mindset that discouraged learning about anything Muggle... like, oh, say, hand-to-hand combat techniques. His training had included a low-key Uncoordination spell, but it worked best against an aggressive physical assault. Not much good against handguns...

He heard a final phhhut to his left... and then the click of an empty chamber. Harry was preparing to take advantage of the lull in the attack when a soft spot in the ground crumbled under his foot. He lost his balance, tumbled clumsily, and fell out of the brush into the clearing.

His opponent spotted him at once, of course. The man shifted his empty pistol into his left hand... while his right hand drew a large knife from a sheath on the back of his belt. He crouched for a second, putting his weight on the balls of his feet while he settled his grip on the knife, before he stepped away from the cave into the clearing towards Harry...

...and was slammed from the side by six feet of redheaded Amazon. The gun went flying as Ginny knocked the man off-balance. Before he could turn to face her, she hooked an arm around his shoulder and forced his knife-arm up in the air. Her other hand came around his torso and up to his neck, as she attempted to catch him in a full Nelson hold.

The man struggled to escape her grip, kicking backwards and twisting to get free... and so was unprepared when Hermione rushed into the clearing and swung her clenched fist into his crotch. He doubled in pain, grunting and gasping for air... as with perfect timing Ginny relaxed her grip to step around him and bring her knee up sharply. Her rising knee hit his chin as it descended - Harry could hear the man's teeth click together from the impact, and couldn't help wincing in sympathy. The man's eyes crossed and he took the opportunity to fall unconscious as Ginny released him.

Ron was already crouching at the cave mouth, cautiously checking to see if anyone else was inside. He stood erect and shook his head with relief. "All clear, I reckon..."

Harry carefully picked himself off the ground. "Uh, where did you learn...?" he asked Ginny and Hermione.

Hermione shrugged. "'When in doubt, follow instinct,'" she told him smugly.

"Woo hooo!" crowed Ginny, doing a little victory dance with her fist in the air. "About bloody time! For once, I get to protect you!" Her face positively glowed with pride as she thrust an exultant finger at Harry. "Hah! Sauce for the gander, Potter!"

"Good job, Gin!" Ron called with a grin. "Hey Harry, what kind of wand was that?"

That was a Walther 9-mm semi-automatic with silencer, Harry was tempted to say. "That was a gun, Ron," he said instead. "You remember from Muggle Studies?" Briefly, Harry wondered about growing to adulthood in modern times and never having heard of guns... must be nice.

"Hey everyone," Ron continued, "If we're going into this cave, I think we should put on some of these hard hats..."

Ginny ran over to the carpet and selected one of the mining hats. Harry stayed with their fallen opponent, looking him over carefully but quickly. No identifying marks... if he wore the Dark Mark, it wasn't immediately accessible. He wore a sleeve holster for his wand, just as Harry did. Harry took the man's wand and handed it to Hermione, then stripped the belt out of the man's trousers. "I had no idea she felt that way," he said quietly.

"You try to protect everybody, Harry," Hermione replied, equally quiet. "But not everyone likes it... and it makes Ginny feel, well, less than competent. Remember our fifth year?"

Harry nodded, reliving the fight in the Department of Mysteries... how he'd moved to stand between Ginny and Bellatrix Lestrange... Ginny's insistence that her injured ankle wasn't a handicap... no, she hadn't liked being protected then, and she'd like it even less now.

"Fine," he said after a moment. He turned the man on his stomach, bent his legs behind him, and brought his wrists up around his ankles. Harry used the man's belt to bind his wrists, neatly hogtying their captive. "Fine. Next time, she can stand in front."

The Trio-plus spent a few more minutes tying up the other two men ("I don't want them following us if they wake up," said Harry reasonably) and confiscating their wands. They selected mining hats from the assortment on the carpet, making sure they fit properly. Then, turning on the hats' lamps, they started into the cave.

The cave's entrance had been made to look like a natural cave. Further in, the walls began to look less natural and more artificial - the original mine tunnel, perfectly round. The temperature dropped quickly, and Harry's insistence on warm clothes was justified.

At length the tunnel gave way to a huge cavern, filled with broken stalactites above and rocky rubble beneath. They walked carefully along what seemed to be a well-trodden path, down a slope of scree to a subterranean stream. A long sluicing apparatus sat beside the water.

"That would be where they've gotten their little bits of pounamu so far," said Hermione. "Panning the silt from the stream. The water would carry it here from its source."

"So to find the source, all we have to do is follow the river?" asked Ron.

Hermione shook her head. "Underground rivers can be impossible to follow... they can flow through openings too small for climbers, or even divers. We'll have to find a passage that runs parallel..."

Harry looked around. There were two or three obvious ways out of the cavern (in addition to the way they'd entered), plus a host of less likely possibilities. The obvious ways were well trodden, so those were probably the paths taken by the Death Eaters in their search. But if the Death Eaters were still searching, then it stood to reason that those paths didn't lead to the pounamu source.

His eye fell on a pair of boulders, nearly at the edge of his hat's area of illumination. They looked vaguely familiar for some reason... as though he'd seen them before, even clambered over them once... Of course, he realized in a rush. My dream! She was giving me directions!

"This way," he told the others, and began to retrace the route he remembered from his dream. Harry climbed over the stones and walked a bit along a narrow path. The path narrowed further, and he was forced to squeeze through a crevice barely large enough to admit him... The others followed him as he worked his way bit by bit deeper into the mountain. The deeper they went, the more certain Harry grew. He'd walked this path before, and this was the right path, he was sure of it.

After a long time they began to hear a sound in the distance, a faint rushing or throbbing. Harry paused, putting his hand up to still the others. They waited as Harry listened for a moment... then with a nod he continued more cautiously, following the sound.

Eventually they emerged from the passageway into a grotto with a broad flat floor and a high wall on one side. In the corner of the wall was another opening, from which the rushing sound could be heard. Harry hesitated only a moment before stooping and walking through the opening...

... into the side of a vast cavern, a natural chamber of rock, whose ceiling was too high to see. From an unseen opening above him fell the stream, pouring in a subterranean waterfall into a large pool at the chamber's floor. A mist rose from the pool, wetting the walls of the cavern... and the rush of the falling water echoed from the walls of the chamber, reverberating so that it sounded like the beating of an enormous heart.

"They would strike at my heart." This is it, Papa. We've found it. Harry looked around in wonder. The walls of the chamber sparkled emerald green where the hat's light touched them - veins of pure crystalline pounamu, pulsing with magic.

He reached out and touched the wall as Ron, Hermione and Ginny made their way into the chamber. He'd half expected not to be able to feel anything - he hadn't been able to detect the true greenstone tiki, after all - but to his surprise he could dimly sense the power concentrated in the rock. Probably because it is so concentrated, he thought.

Ginny had tilted her head back and was looking around the chamber in awe. "This is from your dream, isn't it, Harry?" she asked in hushed tones. "This is the source."

"Yeah. Put your hand on the wall, you can feel it..." Harry looked around the chamber as Ginny and Hermione touched the wall for a moment. He drew a deep lungful of air... the chamber's air wasn't dank or stale, as one might expect in a cave, but refreshing to breathe - almost calming. There was no other word for it: this was a holy place. The very thought of anyone desecrating this site for personal gain sickened Harry's stomach.

"Can anyone see any other way into here?" he asked. "Besides the way we came in?"

The spotlights from the others' hats danced about the cavern for a minute as they took a good look around. "There's the waterfall," said Hermione slowly, "where it enters and exits... but they couldn't use those openings. Other than that... no."

"Then that's where they'll come," said Harry, nodding at the opening by which they'd entered. "If they're using Margaret to lead them to the pounamu, sooner or later they'll have to come through there."

"And that's where we'll wait for them," declared Ron. "We can set up a little ambush just inside the door, catch them by surprise..."

"Such a splendid plan, Weasel... direct, yet effective. I wouldn't have expected it from you," came a tenor voice unexpectedly from the darkness. "I suppose you do have your lucid moments - or did. Imperio."

Harry recognized the voice immediately and whirled to face it. Or rather, tried to whirl. He found himself unable to move, not even to turn his head. It wasn't a Full Body Bind... it felt more like his brain had been disconnected from the rest of his body. The commands he was trying to send to his muscles weren't being received.

In his peripheral vision he could see Hermione and Ron standing like statues. They must have been hit with the same spell that held him. He couldn't see Ginny, but he had to assume that she was likewise snared.

"Unsurprisingly - and unfortunately for you," continued the new voice in amusement, "someone else thought of it first. Lumos," he added, and greenish-gold light filled the chamber. A nearby section of wall shimmered as a concealment spell was canceled, revealing two figures seated on a large boulder.

Margaret Pohuhu sat unmoving, staring blankly ahead, her face void of all expression. Her captor sat beside her, totally relaxed and at his ease. Though he must have clambered through the same rock openings as the Trio-plus had, his clothes were impeccably clean. His long blond hair was braided in a queue behind him, just as Harry had seen him last - but the glamour he'd used to appear weak then was noticeably absent now.

"Hello, Potter," drawled Draco Malfoy. "I always knew it would come down to this."