The Kidnapping

Chapter Eleven

Down Mossy Creek Road

Harry swooped down towards the ground, rushing over the sporadic trees in the direction Cho's scream had come from. If he didn't make it in time...

There! He caught a glimpse of sleek black hair, and saw Cho working through some underbrush, trying to get to cover before the wraith that was twenty yards away and charging her down on its horse reached her. It was wearing the same outfit that it and its fellows had worn when they had taken Harry. This time, Harry saw that the visor on its motorcycle helmet was up... and there was nothing behind it. He felt a sickening lurch in his stomach.

The wraith screeched again, and Harry resisted the urge to clap his hands around his ears - he would drop his wand and Hedwig, and probably lose what little control he had over his broom given that he was holding on the handle with only a few fingers from each hand.

He saw Cho point her wand at the wraith and shout something, and a jet of red light shot out and struck the horse. It collapsed, and the wraith pitched head over heels into a bush, screeching with rage.

"Yes!" Harry whispered. Cho began running, and Harry noted with dismay that she was plunging towards the house. The wraith was getting to its feet.

"Cho! Go right!" he bellowed, and she gave a shriek and looked up at him, clearly startled.

"Don't stop! Turn right and RUN!" Cho did as she was told, and Harry could see sweat glistening on her forehead as she sprinted down the lightly wooded hillock. He hovered for a moment, glancing around. The wraith was on its feet, its sword out and at the ready, and it cried out as it began running after her.

Harry felt a moment of panic. What would he do? He pointed his wand at the wraith. "Impedimenta!" he shouted. The wraith paused at the sound of his voice and looked up, and the jinx struck it full in the chest. It staggered back, much to Harry's dismay. It was immune to the hex!

Harry was in a panic. The wraith turned around, ignoring him, and started back to pursuing Cho, who had put some distance between them. What if the others arrived and caught her?

He took a deep breath and concentrated - he was going to get out of here and get back to Hogwarts and see Sirius again - and shouted "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The silver stag erupted from his wand and reached the ground in a heartbeat, and it charged down the wraith. The wraith cried out as the stag somehow bowled it over. Harry goggled at it - the Patronus could stop the wraiths!

"Keep it busy!" Harry shouted down to his Patronus, hoping it lasted long enough. He set off again, towards Cho, who was only yards away from the road. He kept an eye out for more of the wraiths. He heard cries in the distance, and he shivered - they knew that something was going on, and they weren't pleased about it either.

He looked again towards the village. There were still flames roaring into the air, but he could see no other signs of the battle.

He looked down and back to see that his Patronus was gone. The wraith that it had tied down was moving again, but slowly. He frowned. Couldn't it see the trail that Cho had left as she churned through the underbrush? It was stooped near the ground, sniffing its way along, following the path of crushed branches and leaves.

But he had to get a move on, or else he would lose sight of Cho. He flew towards the roadway. He noticed Cho had stopped moving and was hiding behind a tree, keeping herself hidden from view of the road. He frowned and looked up. There was an unfamiliar witch in an official-looking robe, her wand out and a watchful expression on her face. She was peering into the trees, trying to see what had made all the noise.

Harry's blood went cold. What if she was one of Salisbury's agents in the Department of Magical Affairs? Then she looked up and saw him. Her face went several shades of red as she recognized him, and his eyes went wide when her wand shot up.

But Cho was ready, and before the woman got a spell off, she had shouted "Petrificus Totalus!" and within seconds, the witch was stiff as a board and in the ditch alongside the road. Harry descended to the ground beside the road, and Cho came crashing out of the bushes. Harry set his broom and Hedwig's cage on the ground, keeping his wand out and an eye on the road in case anyone else showed up.

He was quite unprepared when Cho came running up and threw her arms around him in a suffocating embrace.

"You're all right!" She half-sobbed, half-shouted. Harry felt like he was going to fall over dead from shock - Cho was hugging him? He felt his lips twitch, and he fought against an urge to grin stupidly.

"Er - well - I think we'd best get out of here," he managed to get out. In the distance, he heard an unfamiliar cry, but the way it made him go cold made it clear it was one of the wraiths.

Cho jumped upon hearing it. "You're right," she said nervously. She had taken no more than a step eastwards when she saw the witch, still stuck in the Body-Bind.

"Ron and Hermione!" she said, turning to Harry with panic in her eyes. Harry felt his insides go cold again.

"Harry, they were taken prisoner, the Americans tried to get us, I only escaped in the nick of time, we were supposed to go in to get you, and it all went wrong - " Cho was talking so quickly that Harry had a hard time keeping up.

"Calm down," Harry said soothingly, and instinctively he put his hands on her shoulders. When he realized an instant later what he'd done, he drew them away as if he'd stuck his hands in a fire. Cho looked at him oddly, but she took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself.

"Er - I know that something was up. I saw a letter when I made my escape," he said. "Salisbury controls people in the American Ministry - even the Undersecretary. The letter said that they'd put their loyal troops on this case. They had something like this planned." Harry was fidgeting as he said this, and it was all he could do to keep eye contact with Cho.

"In fact," Harry said, "I took the letter with me." He managed a grin. "It might come in handy."

Cho managed a smile as well. Then she became sombre again. "But what about Ron and Hermione?" She glanced back at the witch - still not moving.

Harry gazed absently at the road. "Let's get out of here before the wraiths find us," he concluded. "I don't want to leave them here, but we're outnumbered and outmatched. We need to find Professor Dumbledore. There was a big fight in the village, that way," he said, pointing south-west down the road.

"That was where Professor Dumbledore was meeting with that old man who took you, and with... with You-Know-Who!" Cho said. Then she flashed him another odd look. "What are the wraiths? Oh, never mind, I think I know what you're talking about," she said with a shudder. Harry was impressed at how quickly she put things together, but Cho was in Ravenclaw, after all.

There was a screech from nearby, and they both jumped. Harry rifled through his backpack and took out his Cloak. "Quick," he hissed, and pulled Cho near and threw the Cloak over them. "It's an Invisibility Cloak," he whispered, picking up Hedwig and his broom, and they began walking, as quickly as they could without making noise, down the road towards Mount Solon.

"When did you get one of these?" Cho asked, curious. Harry heard the hint of admiration in her voice, and he felt himself blushing. He hoped it was too dark under the Cloak for her to notice.

"Er, well, I-I got it at Christmas in my first year," he explained. "It was my Dad's - I don't know where he got it from - and he gave it to Dumbledore for safekeeping, and he sent it to me anonymously. I only found out more about it after-after my run-in with Quirrell." And, he didn't mention, with Lord Voldemort.

"So," Harry said after a pause. "What happened to you and the others this morning?"

"Well, I came with Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Lupin, Sirius Black, Ron, and Hermione," Cho explained. "We met Mad-Eye Moody in New York City, and we stayed there for a few days. We came out here, where the Americans had set up and were keeping an eye on things. The plan was that Professor Dumbledore would go to his meeting, and then the others would, with help from the Americans, distract the, er, wraiths. The three of us would go to the house and try to get you out.

"But the American who was with us started to attack us right when we were supposed to set out. He Stunned Hermione before we knew what was happening, and Ron tried to stop him. While they were tussling, I made a break for it. I heard other people Apparating into the post, and I heard Ron cry out and go quiet. I managed to get enough distance between me and them that they couldn't see me and get me, too, and I don't think they wanted to wander onto Connor Salisbury's property.

"That's when the wraith saw me, and, thankfully, so did you." Cho smiled at him after saying this, and Harry felt like he was going to lift off the ground.

"How did you manage to escape?" Cho asked after another pause.

"Well, Wormtail - Peter Pettigrew, he's a servant of Voldemort," Harry ignored Cho's face blanching at the mention of Voldemort's name, "he came up and disarmed the protections on the front door and barged in, but Catherine - Catherine Scott, you know who she is - she stunned him and put him under the Full Body-Bind. But when she went to check him out, she forgot to keep an eye on me, so I snuck up on her and knocked her out with a vase of flowers."

"Good!" Cho said with a hint of savageness. Harry paused, surprised.

"Anyway," he continued, "I went upstairs to the room I was in and grabbed my robe and Hedwig - I couldn't leave her there, after all - and then I tried to find my wand, Cloak, and broom, which they took away earlier. I wandered through a few rooms and entered a study. There was all of my missing stuff, and the letter and a map that are in my bag. I thought it would be important to take those. Catherine came in and tried to stop me, but I fended her off, and made a break for it on my broom."

"Speaking of Hedwig, Harry, what's wrong with her?" Cho asked with some concern. Again, Harry was impressed with Cho's quick thinking. If it were Ron in this situation - had Ron not been Harry's best friend, of course - he might have had to ask who Hedwig was.

"I dunno," Harry said. "Salisbury put her under some kind of spell. Maybe Dumbledore can fix her up."

There was the distant sound of a car on the road ahead. "D'you hear that?" Harry whispered, as quietly as he could.

"We're invisible, let's just make sure we're on the side of the road," Cho muttered. They carefully shuffled along so that they were at the edge of the ditch. The noise increased, and a car quickly became visible: it was Salisbury's Mercedes.

Harry felt his breath get caught in his throat as the car passed them by... but fortunately, it passed them by, and though he could not see through the heavily tinted windows, the car's occupant - or occupants? - did not notice them.

He sighed in relief, and he heard Cho do the same. They looked at each other and shared a furtive smile.

"C'mon," Harry said, braving a louder tone of voice. "Let's keep going. Maybe we'll run into someone else - maybe someone else got out of the trap."

"You can bet someone else did," said a rough voice from the bushes nearby. "Now put your hands where I can see 'em."

"Professor Moody?" Harry asked, looking around. There was no sign of him.

"Well, what are you waiting for? You don't have to take off the Cloak. Both of you just bring your hands out - wand free, mind - in front of you. That's right."

"Professor Moody, it's us!" Cho exclaimed.

"I never was your Professor, now was I?" Moody said gruffly. "Spent almost all year in my own blasted trunk, I did. And you could be in a disguise, for all I know. Now, tell me, Harry, if you're really Harry, who was it who fixed the Tournament to get you into Voldemort's -" Cho flinched "- hands?"

Harry fought back a grimace - of all the questions Moody could have asked with Cho here! "Barty Crouch Jr.," he replied heavily.

"Good. Miss Chang, take that damn bracelet off - bet it's really designed to keep track of your position, not keep you aware of where those black riders are. Just throw it in the ditch there, that's a girl."

Cho had taken the bracelet off, dropped it on the ground, and kicked it. It managed to get across the ditch and deep into the brush.

"Pro - Erm, what do you want us to call you?" Harry asked. "And where are you?"

"In a Cloak, same as you," Moody replied. "But you don't have the benefit of a magical eye to see me. Just call me Moody. Or Mad-Eye. Either will do."

"Can we stop keeping our hands where you can see them, Moody?" Cho asked.

There was a brief silence. "Sure," Moody replied.

"So, how did you get out of the ambush?" asked Harry.

"Simple. I was heading out to distract the riders, when I saw the Yankee who was with me start levelling his wand at me. So I Stunned him and went and put my Cloak on - I didn't tell anyone I brought it, of course, you never reveal your weapons to your opponents. Then I decided just to get out to the road here and wait and see if anyone else came along. If by nightfall no one did, I was thinking of taking a Portkey out of here to New York. We might have stayed there courtesy of the Department, but during the bad old days, Dumbledore set up a hidden safe house for anti-Death Eater operatives to live in after we'd caught wind that they'd set up a safe house as well in the city. We can go back to the safe house tonight. But I assume you're going down this way because you want to go to the village?"

"Yes, yes we do," Harry said fiercely.

"Don't expect you'll see much there, to be honest. Those three old wizards probably tore the place apart. Might be worth a check, though."

It was at that point that Harry remembered something that Cho had mentioned. "Cho, did you say that you were with Sirius?"

"Yes," she said. "The Weasleys and Professor Dumbledore assured me he was innocent."

"Oh." Harry felt further relief.

"We'd better get a move on," Moody said, wherever he was. "Wouldn't want those things to catch up with us."

= = = = =

Moody turned out to be right: there was little left of Mount Solon when they finally got there. The fires had long since been put out, and if anyone had been injured or killed, they had been taken away as well. When Harry and Cho arrived - with Moody somewhere nearby with his own Cloak - there were only police officers there, trying to find out what had happened.

"I'll bet the locals have already had Memory Charms placed on them," Moody whispered grimly from a few feet to Cho's right as they walked away from the sight. What had once been a rural intersection with a few stores and benches was now a soot-covered wasteland. Several charred beams rose up from the remains of buildings.

They walked in silence southwards down Natural Chimneys Road until they were out of sight of the swarming Muggles. Harry was beginning to worry. What had happened back there, and where was Dumbledore?

"All right," Moody said. "Let's get ourselves out of here. Find something we can use as a Portkey."

Harry and Cho looked around, being careful not to shift the Cloak off the ground and reveal their feet.

"How about that shoe lying there?" Cho asked, pointing several feet away. She gazed at it a bit longer and blanched. "No, let's find something else," she said, sounding a little ill. Harry wasn't surprised. He could see that it was covered some rust-red splotches, and it was an unpleasant thought to imagine where they had come from.

"Maybe that charred brick would be better," Harry said. At least it didn't have discoloured stains that looked suspiciously like blood on it.

"Good eyes, you two," Moody said approvingly. "No wonder you're Seekers. Just give me a second here."

After a moment, the brick seemed to vanish from sight as Moody stepped over it. Harry heard the slight scrape of rock on pavement and there was a sound of feet shuffling.

"Turn yourselves southwards and hold out your hands," Moody ordered. Harry heard him mutter "Portus" as he and Cho shifted around again.

They held out their hands and soon Moody's hand came out of the air, holding the brick. Harry and Cho both reached for it.

"Ready... three... two... one."

Harry felt a familiar kick behind his navel and watched the world go by in a swirl of colour and sound, before they suddenly came to a stop in a modest but comfortably furnished apartment. Judging from the cityscape outside the window, they were in New York.

Harry and Cho removed the Cloak at once, and Harry stretched himself, glad to be out from under it. A moment later, Moody also took his Cloak off, and he looked at the two of them with his good eye while his other eye scanned the room. Apparently satisfied that everything was okay, he stumped over to a chair and sat down, rubbing his forehead with a gnarled hand.

"What a fine mess we've gotten into now," he said with a sigh.