Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light

CH88 - The Otter Revealed

by GuardianOfLight 1 review

The Dream Is Explained

Category: Harry Potter - Rating: G - Genres: Drama - Characters: Ginny,Harry,Hermione,Professor McGonagall,Ron,Tonks - Warnings: [!!] [V] [?] - Published: 2008-03-09 - Updated: 2008-03-09 - 3779 words

3Exciting
Chapter 88 - The Otter Revealed

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 3rd October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - The Library
Time: Late Evening


The next evening in the Library Ron, Hermione, Draco, Colette, Tonks, McGonagall, Snape, Buffy, a large portion of the DA and Dimitri Delacour were busy researching.

Since the attack Draco has joined the group, apparently he has spent nearly all his waking moments researching and like them he was reading frantically for anything that could help them locate the kidnapped pair or that would describe Hermione dream.

Hermione had spent the last four hours staring at a piece of parchment with a table full of the names of all the animals from her dream, only the falcon row was complete.

It was eleven at night and it was at this point most nights that people started drifting; Ron and Buffy had already started.

The Slayer was struggling to keep her eyes open and Ron was doodling on a spare piece of parchment while still trying as hard as he could to concentrate on the book on the table in front of him, it was an odd habit that he had picked up that allowed him to both read and draw at once.

Hermione just hoped Draco wouldn't notice, even the slightest deviation would set him off again, he had been very uptight over the last few days, even more so than Ginny's family.

"Weasley!"

He's noticed.

Everyone was snapped out of the trances they had been in.

"What the hell do you think you are doing, don't you want to get your sister back!!" Draco shouted angrily, standing and facing the red head.

Ron stood to shout back.

"You know I do Malfoy, so why are you wasting time arguing!!"

"Because you're not even reading, your doodling." he shouted snatching up the piece of parchment screwing it up then throwing it so that it bounced of the wall and flew back to land next to Hermione.

"Gentlemen." Dimitri began calmly, his dominant political voice grabbing their attention "Shouting about it won't solve the problem....We are all tired so I suggest we call it a night and resume tomorrow."

Everyone got up slowly while the boys turned their backs refusing to look at each other.

They collected their books together and piled them as they had everyday that week.

They all turned to leave Hermione stopped to pick up the piece of parchment that had been thrown by Draco.

She picked it up and unscrewed it

Ron had drawn a dodgy picture of Harry's Patronus form; the stag.

Wait....

Patronus....

PATRONUS....HER PATRONUS IS A....

OF COURSE!!

"RON!" she shouted getting everyone's attention "What's Ginny's Patronus form?"

He looked at her strangely, before replying.

"You know that....you were at the DA meeting when we did Patronus's"

"Patroni Ron, and yes I know but I didn't see it, what was Ginny's?" sensing the seriousness in her voice he answered.

"It was a phoenix but wh....PHOENIX!!" understanding hit him like a tone of bricks "She's the....and you're the."

He ran up to Hermione and planted a huge kiss on her mouth.

"Hermione....you're a genius!" he looked like she had just given him tickets in the VIP box for the next five Quidditch world cups.

He kissed her....he had kissed her.

Wow.

That alone made the discovery worthwhile.

"Would someone please explain?" Snape said with his usual droll monotone.

They turned finally remembering that everyone else was still in the room.

"Don't you see Sir?" Hermione began; she was so excited she was nearly jumping up and down.

"I'm the otter....I'm the otter and Ginny is the phoenix....Don't you see sir....it's our Patronus forms."

"Excellent Miss Granger." McGonagall said beaming as comprehension sunk in "Fifty points to Gryffindor."

"We may know who you are but we still don't know who the others are." Ron said slightly deflated.

"But it is simple now we know how the animals are selected; the black falcon would be James, presuming he has the same Patronus form as Adam." Hermione continued.

"Yes." Tonks continued from where she left of "The snake must be Voldemort." there were collective shudders from all who were not Snape, Hermione and Buffy.

"But what about the unicorn?" Buffy asked

"I don't know....but I think we know enough." Hermione concluded.

"Enough!" Snape said as if to say ‘Are you serious'. "All this is guess work....and we still don't know where they are."

As if it had been waiting for the question to be asked, Adam's staff started glowing brighter and faster.

A beam of light shot out of the crystal and hit one of the piled books.

The book slid out of its stack and came to rest in front of Hermione, the book opened and the pages flapped over until it reached the page it wanted.

Another beam of light, this time very narrow shot out of the crystal and crated a small burn mark on the page.

After a few seconds the crystal returned to its usual slow pulsing.

They all leaned in to see what was on the page of the book.

What they saw was a map of England; the burn mark was in the lower left hand corner.

"Dartmoor." McGonagall read the label next to the burn "That's where they are being held."

"You mean all we had to do was ask the staff?" said an exasperated Buffy, not liking having done all that research when all they had to do was ask the stick of wood.

Draco immediately made for the door but Snape intercepted him.

"Mr. Malfoy what are you going to do....charge in there all by yourself....We need to plan this carefully." Draco nodded slowly.

McGonagall turned to Tonks "Rally the troops....we're going on the offensive."
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 4th October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - England
Location: Dartmoor
Time: Dawn


Dartmoor at dawn the next morning, almost all the members of the Order were present along with Buffy, Dimitri, Delphine, Ron, Hermione and Draco. More had wanted to come but some had been left guarding Hogwarts and the wounded in the infirmary.

Snape had suggested that the last three should stay back but McGonagall knew that Ron and Draco would be there if they had to destroy all of Hogwarts to do it and Hermione had to be there because she was the otter, although they didn't know what she had to do yet.

They were crouched in the shrubs surrounding a small castle; it was a simple keep with no additional outer walls, though the keep did not appear on any maps that they had seen it was the only place that the pair could be hidden.

The group was divided into two teams.

Each would take a different entrance to the castle.

The first team lead by McGonagall contained Ron, Hermione, Tonks, Kingsley, Mad Eye, Buffy, Arthur and Molly were going in via a side door.

The second team lead by Remus contained Draco, Snape, Dimitri, Fred and George (now that they had been fully initiated into the order), Bill, Charlie and a dozen Veela guards that most thought were a favour to Dimitri from The Veela Matriarch rather than Alliance reinforcements to bolster their numbers.

This group would be flying to the roof and creating a distraction so that the others could hunt for the prisoners (apparently Lupin and Snape had been amateur Quidditch players in their day but Snape simply had no ambition to join the Hogwarts house team and Lupin given his condition was banned because of the extra strength and sensory awareness it provided).

For obvious reasons there was a heavy contingent of Weasley's on this mission and boy were they mad, Hermione felt really sorry for any Death Eater that got in their way.

The plan was simple.

One team create a distraction while the other team gets in, gets their people then portkeys out.

She looked around, the rest of her team were there and all had their wands drawn, she was the only one who didn't the reason for this being that it was safely tucked in her robes and that she was using her staff.

Her staff.

When had it become hers, it was Adam's, IS Adam's, he'd be taking it back at the end of the night.

She wasn't sure if it was an overly sensible thing to do as she hadn't tried using it yet, she hadn't dared risk it.

She saw a flash of green sparks in the distance. That was the signal from the other team saying they were in position.

McGonagall sent up a small plume of her own signalling the attack.

They would only just have been visible as dawn hadn't broken yet.

McGonagall turned to them "Let's go."

They all stood crouched low and moved quickly towards the castle, about one hundred meters ahead at the top of a small hill.

In the distance Hermione heard the subtle sound of fast moving brooms and the flapping of wings.

"Stop." McGonagall whispered back to them gesturing down with his hand.

They all crouched low.

From her position next to her she could see what the Professor was looking at.

On the battlements silhouetted against the sun's rays was a Death Eater.

He was only visible to them because behind him was the morning light.

The second team would never spot him until it was too late.

McGonagall levelled her wand in his direction but did not fire.

"You can't hit him from here." Tonks whispered.

"You're right, I don't think I can." She admitted, lowered her wand "You need to use the staff Miss Granger, it will be more accurate."

She gaped.

"But Professor.... I haven't even...." she began.

"Have faith in yourself Miss Granger." she whispered.

"Ok....I'll try."

She levelled the staff at the Death Eater he was at least forty meters away from them.

She had better not miss or he would raise the alarm.

Using the staff's length like a sight she aimed along it.

"You can do it." Ron whispered behind her.

She took a deep breath.

"Stupefy." she whispered as quietly as she could manage.

The spell coursed through the staff and rocketed off towards the Death Eater like a shoulder launched missile, the force of the spell knocked Hermione off her balanced crouched position onto her back.

To say ‘He never knew what hit him' would be an understatement.

Instead of making him unconscious, it had hit him and blown him clean off the rear battlements and the last they saw of him was when he dropped down over the far side of the castle and bearing in mind the castle was a keep over fifty meters square and the walls were ten meters high, It was safe to say that if he regained consciousness he was going to have one hell of a headache and that was assuming he ever got up again after that fall.

Luckily from Hermione's point of view, he landed in a bush (as they later discovered), so aside from the headache and a few thorns he survived the spell intact.

"Way to go girl." Tonks encouraged giving her a slap on the back.

This was probably the worst thing she could have said, what the others were doing was a lot more preferable by far.

They were stunned into silence.

Hermione was almost afraid of the staff now.

How did Adam regulate that kind of power?

"I suggest we continue," Arthur suggested "The other team is already at the roof."

They quickly made their way to the door, after casting numerous disarming and neutralisation charms to make sure the door was not booby trapped McGonagall opened the door.

They crept inside, the castle looked terrible, the floors, walls and ceilings were all black with dirt, slime and dust of every kind. It would be a good place for a horror movie.

"This place sure needs some major housekeeping." commented Buffy.

People would have laughed if it the situation hadn't been as serious as it was.

They made their way down the corridor they were in and other than being confronted by a pair of rats (with normal limbs) they saw no one.

After another minute they heard an explosion overhead.

"Looks like the others are making their presence known." chuckled Tonks.

They searched three rooms as they passed down the next corridor. Each time all they found was what can only be described as torture chambers. Each room had manacles on the walls, a table full of torture devices both Wizarding and Muggle which none of them would care to describe, tables (also fitted with manacles) that could be altered to lie flat or hang vertically.

But this was nothing to what else they found.

Bodies.

Decaying carcases, long since dead.

Scarred, burned, blood covering the floor.

Signs of torture on their skin.

Broken limbs.

Slit wrists.

Severed fingers.

The smell of decay flooded their senses in every room they entered.

Hermione and Tonks were both physically sick at the sight. No one, not even Mad Eye could blame them, most felt the same and it was only thanks to them holding their breath that they did not react the same way.

They moved on as rapidly as possible, they did not want to linger more than they had to.

They came to the last room on the corridor praying they did not find more of the same.

The door creaked open.

The sight that greeted them shocked them all and would scar their memories.

"Oh Merlin."

Hanging from the far wall was Ginny Weasley.

Her shirt and skirt were ripped and were hanging off; she was covered in blood and cuts and had numerous bruises and swellings.

"Ginny!!" Molly cried out, running into the room, immediately followed by Ron and Arthur. The others rushed in to help get her of the wall.

They had to blast the manacles to release them.

They lowered her to the floor to examine her while Ron removed his jacket and draped it round her shoulders.

McGonagall pointed her wand.

"Ennervate."

Her eyes opened slowly "Mom."

Wait something was wrong; she didn't say that as if she were in pain.

"Oh Ginny." the entire family threw themselves at her.

With all the cuts and bruises she should have been in agony.

"Are you in pain?" asked McGonagall.

"No....no I'm not." she said surprised looking down at herself "Oh Merlin what happened."

"You....you don't feel any pain....none at all?"

Realisation dawned on Hermione.

"It will fight until death, it will defend what it has sworn to protect."

All turned to her.

"That's what it meant, the dream. This isn't real." she said gesturing to Ginny's injuries "Adam is still protecting her; he must be using the power he has left to create the illusion of these injuries."

McGonagall turned to Ginny "What do you remember Miss Weasley?"

"I remember appearing here then....then peace....just peace, utter calm....that's all."

Moody aimed his wand at Ginny and muttered something the others did not hear.

There was a moment's pause before her injuries flickered then disappeared.

"Merlin!"

The Ginny in front of them was exactly as she was when she was taken, even her clothes were intact, it didn't even look like she had been chained to a wall for almost a week.

Hermione spun on McGonagall "How much power would that take?"

"An enormous amount especially if he had to deceive James and Voldemort as he would need to make the illusion react as though it was hurt, we need to find Adam VERY quickly."

They started to stand.

Hermione drew her wand and handed it to Ginny.

"Here, we left yours back at Hogwarts....I don't need it." Ginny took it with a questioning look; Hermione raised the staff so she could see it.

"Isn't that Adam's?" she asked

"Until we rescue him," Tonks began "It belongs to Hermione."

Ginny tried to question them but they told her that they would explain later.

They stood, Molly still fusing over Ginny with the rest of the Weasley's standing over her protectively.

"We must be going." Mad Eye grunted from his position guarding the door.

A huge explosion sounded on the other side of the castle.

Buffy looked in that direction and raised an eyebrow.

"A distraction is one thing but this is ridiculous....what are they doing over there?"

Tonks and a couple of others made sounds of agreement.

A couple of flashes and the sound of dull objects hitting the floor came from the doorway.

"You will never find out." said a voice from the same direction.
________________________________________________________________________

Buffy and the others spun round to see Wormtail and four other Death Eaters in the doorway, wands drawn, standing over the unconscious bodies of Mad Eye and Kingsley. The other four all had their hoods and masks on, only Pettigrew's head was fully visible.

"Wormtail," began Tonks "Do you honestly believe that the five of you can stop us?"

Buffy's enhanced hearing picked up the muffled sound of voices in the hallway; no one else seemed to notice them.

"Oh we don't need to," Peter nodded to the floor behind them "She will."

A hiss behind them turned all their heads.

A very large snake slithered its way out from under the table it had been concealed under.

"All yours Nagini." Peter said through an evil smile.

Nagini....Harry didn't say the snake was that big, it's almost four meters long, how on Earth did we not see it.

Well never mind, you have faced bigger.


The group turned back to back so that they were facing both enemy threats. Buffy was standing in the middle trying to cover both directions at once.

Wormtail turned his head towards Hermione; his gaze flickered to the staff then back to her face.

"Ah, you must be the one he gave his power to." Buffy and Tonks protectively moved in closer.

"My master was very annoyed when he was brought back powerless....I guess I can make a gift of you to him."

Buffy saw one of the Death Eaters raising his wand slowly.

She wasn't going to let them take them by surprise, but apparently Hermione could see it as well.

"Immobulus!"

Hermione's spell tore through the air.

The spell collided with ALL of the Death Eater and like their friend on the roof they didn't know what hit them; they were thrown back at the wall on the far side of the hallway....but the wall didn't stop them.

It crumbled under the force of the impact as they flew through it to land in the next chamber.

Buffy though she heard another voice from the hall this time a bit louder, but she was in too much shock to notice, whatever that spell was supposed to do it definitely would give those five a headache the next day.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again Hermione, Way to go girl....you could do this by yourself, do you really need our help?" Tonks slapped her back again, Hermione wished she wouldn't keep doing that, Tonks might not be the strongest person in the world but she does have some strength in her.

McGonagall sent the Auror in question a disapproving look.

Cautiously a head poked its way round the door all wands (and staffs) levelled at it.

"It's ok it's us."

Oh thank God, it's one of the twins.

He and the rest of the other group walked into the room.

Adam was not with them.

"Shouldn't you be creating a distraction?" Buffy accused.

"Yes, but we ran out of Death Eaters to distract." Bill informed them "It was too easy. The Veela are clearing up any we missed, we left a portkey with them so they could get out."

"Merlin Hermione!" Fred (or George) exclaimed examining the damage in the far wall.

"We better not get on your bad side." the other twin finished, before both twins along with Draco, Bill and Charlie spotted Ginny and rushed for her engulfing her in multiple hugs.

"Air....AIR!" Ginny reminded them from inside the mass of (mostly) red hair.

They all pulled back.

"Oh God Ginny are you alright." Draco asked, he had just noticed her remarkably unmarked state.

"I'm fine, I didn't feel a thing....Adam protected me....he created the illusion of injuries to make it look like I was hurt."

"I really need to meet this man." Charlie commented, all the other members of the room who hadn't met him nodded their agreement "He's going to be a friend of the Weasley's for life."

"Come on, we better get going." Remus reminded them.

As they started moving out a scream sounded.

The snake....

They had forgotten about the snake!!

Buffy whipped her head around; the snake had coiled its tale around Ginny's leg and pulled her to the ground.

"GINNY!!"

The snake pulled her out of their reach, it reared up to lunge.

"STOP!!" Hermione shouted.

The snake did.

More out of shock than an acknowledgement of the command, but stop it did.

"Let her go!"

Let go of her it didn't.

Just as it dawned on the snake that it had stopped, Buffy took her chance and plunged a dagger into its coils.

The snake hissed out in pain, giving the others time to pull Ginny free.

Spinning back to the snake they were just in time to see it disappear through a small hole in the wall.

Hermione looked around and realised everyone was looking at her; many as if she had had grown another head.

"Was I....was I speaking...."

"Sounds like you were." Nodded Ron.

"How?"

"Adam's power." Remus guessed "He must have the ability to talk to snakes."

Hermione nodded.

"We can discuss that later." Snape reminded them in his usual agitated manner as he helped a now conscious Mad Eye to his feet....well, foot and wooden leg.

"Constant vigilance Mad-Eye?" Tonks asked beaming as she passed him to check the hall was clear.

If looks could kill Tonks would already be in her grave from the look Moody sent her way.

"This is not the time for this," he said trying to change the subject "We have that Guardian to find remember."

"I just did." Tonks voice filtered through the door from where she had been checking the hallway, her previous comic manner gone completely.

She was looking into the room the Death Eaters had been blown into.

"Oh Merlin."
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