"Bloody muggles." Ron seethed as we walked into our room.
"Calm down, Ron." I said, following behind him. He threw his bag down on the table and flopped down in an arm chair.
When we had first arrived, we had discovered our slightly horrid hotel and I had used a bit of magic to turn the tiny room into a two chamber suite with a sitting area for all of us to convene and plan. Sitting on the loveseat across from Ron, I let out a sigh.
I knew Ron wasn't angry at the muggles who'd rudely bumped into him on the way in. No, he was angry because it had been three days and we hadn't been able to track down one good lead. To make matter worse, we had received a message warning us that Ginny had gone nutty after we left. Draco had been the only one to be able to control her and we all decided not to question how. Whatever spell he was using was buying us time.
I set out the books and some parchment on the table. "Let's get back to it, shall we?" I proposed, flicking my wand to get some tea going.
"We've been everywhere that bloody map has been sending us and have found absolutely nothing." Ron replied, standing and going to look out of the window. Harry leaned against a wall, the hope he once had for our expedition dimmed in his eyes.
"I know, Ron, but this map is all we have to go on." I stared down and made some marks on the parchment. "It doesn't make any sense. We've been exactly where this map told us to go and there's nothing there." I paused, my eyes narrowing. By this point, I was basically talking to myself, mumbling these words again and again. Ron and Harry seemed in their own worlds.
"At least, there's nothing where we've looked. Maybe...," I stopped and both Harry and Ron, finally interested in what I was saying.
"Maybe what, love?" Harry asked, moving to sit by me and looking at the parchment I was staring down at.
"This is a long shot but every time we've been to the places on the map we've only been above ground."
"Yeah. So?" Ron's brows furrowed.
"What if it's not that easy? What if it's lower than that?"
"You mean underground?" Harry asked.
"As wizards, I'm sure nothing magical is done up on the main level. I think we need to get underground and search for maybe an entrance to a wizard world here in America." I suggested. "The same way we have our world back home, I'm sure they have one here. We just need to find the right doors. And I think this map leads the way to them."
"Let's try it." Ron said without pause. "First thing in the morning, we'll go back the first place and find a way underground."
"I'm predicting a dirty morning until we find what we need so all of us should dress accordingly." I suggested.
"Got it." Ron nodded. The tea tray came gliding in and settled on the table.
"I'll check for updates from home." I told them, digging into my bag. All updates came through letters sent to my office or left in our bedchamber.
Sure enough, when I put my hand in my bag, I felt a letter from our family. The babies were okay, which was reassuring, but they weren't our source of anxiety.
"Liam's getting stronger." I murmured, reading through the letter. "He's starting to try to influence Ginny again. He still doesn't have his own body. He's parasitizing on another wizard's body and he needs Ginny to be able to get his full strength back."
"Is Malfoy still handling her?" Ron asked.
"Yes. He's been skipping his own classes to keep her under control. It's becoming a full-time job. He's giving her potions to make her sleep but they leave her open for Liam to control her body and try to get her to come to him. Draco's trying to keep her down and away from Liam but he's starting to have power over her. It's taken us too long time find what we need." I sighed, rubbing my forehead.
"He's much quicker than we anticipated." Harry breathed softly through slightly gritted teeth.
"Tomorrow, we don't come back here until we find what we came here for. Get your rest tonight, boys. Tomorrow, we put every ounce of our energy into finding what ever the bloody hell we need to to break Liam's spell. We find what we need to save Ginny then we get the hell out of here."
"Agreed." They nodded. Harry passed me a cuppa and I took it with a grateful smile.
"When we leave tomorrow, I'll take down all of this." Harry said after a pause. "I have a feeling we won't be coming back here."
"Me too." I grinned.
*************************************
"This is the place." I told Ron and Harry, trying to ignore the unpleasant smells around us.
"If it's anything like back home, there's a passcode." Harry stepped up to the brick wall and moved his hands over it. "Maybe..., maybe it's the same as back home. I watched Hagrid do this many years ago but I think I can redo what he did." He drew his wand. Stepping back and closing his eyes, he started tapping on the wall.
We waited hopeful for a long moment but nothing happened. Each of us let out an exasperated sigh. Not wasting a second, I enchanted the books and my parchment to float before me.
"Lumos." I called for light. "There has to be a clue here about a code." I insisted, tracing every word and line.
"What do these numbers mean?" Ron asked, pointing to the page numbers.
"That's the page number, Ron." I replied offhandedly.
"No, it's not." He told me. "I'm no genius but I know numbers don't just skip around like that."
"What are you going on about?" I hugged, getting annoyed with him.
"You're so busy focusing on the words, you haven't even noticed the numbers on the page."
"Even if I had, they would make no sense."
"Hermione, look again." Ron insisted. "You're brighter than all of us here. There's something there. The numbers are a clue." With a sigh, I studied the numbers of each page from the different books.
My mind worked through number sequences and I scribbled down everything that popped in my head. I'm not certain how long I was going over and over the numbers before my head snapped up from the parchment and my eyes narrowed at the wall. Ron and Harry watched me, waiting for me to give them a clue of what was running through my head. When I just stared, Harry moved over and studied the numbers before moving to the wall and tilting his head.
He pulled my wand from Ron's hand, since he had been the one holding it for me in my frantic scribbling. Running it along the wall he moved left and right, crouching down then tilting his head different angles. Some piece wasn't clicking in my mind but Harry's brain found the missing piece.
The numbers were small inscriptions on the bricks, almost unnoticeable to the naked eye. Following the order I had written, Harry used his wand to tap the bricks while mine lit the way. When he got to the end, he stepped back. My heart dropped when nothing immediately happened, but I heard a grating sound that put hope back in my heart. Just like that, the wall began to separated, opening to a slightly familiar street. It was almost like stepping back home but it was much more Americanized.
"We did it." I breathed with a small smile. I stored the books, leaving out the parchment I still needed.
"Now that we're in, we can get to work." Harry said, walking ahead and looking about.
There was a throng of people wandering the area, looking in on the shops. If I didn't know better, I could imagine myself back in Diagon Alley. Nobody paid attention to us as we moved, making our way to the first mark on my list. When the mark turned out to be a shop, I reached out and touched Harry's arm.
"We need to have a plan before going in there." I told him. "What exactly are we to say?"
"Being up front will do just fine. If these books led to this shop, I have no doubt the shopkeeper knows something." He answered.
"If they went so far as to hide this information in multiple books and clues, don't you think straightforward is a bit dimwitted? We'll get thrown out on our arses."
"We don't have time for subtleties. We've taken too long already and we don't know how much we'll have to do when we finally get everything." He replied.
"Harry's right, Hermione. We have to get this done. The passages in those books indicated at least three places we have to go, who knows how many more we'll end up at." Ron shrugged. "We can't keep loosing time. My sister is going completely dottie and we don't know if she'll come out of this if we take too long."
"Fine." I sighed. "Lead the way." I gestured for Harry to walk on and he pushed the door open for me.
Inside, the shop turned out to be a lovely book store. The shopkeeper, a little elderly lady with round glasses perched on her nose, stood behind a long counter, reading from a book. Nobody was in the store, lucky for us. When she heard us approaching, she looked up with a kind smile.
"How can I help you?" She said in a strong American accent.
"Hello." Ron stepped forward. "We're looking for somebody who might help us find the subject of these books." He said, gesturing for me to show her the books. When I pulled them out, I noticed her shoulders go rigid.
"Why would you be looking for anything from those books?" She questioned, she fidgeted with her glasses with one hand.
When we had walked up, both of her hands were in plain view. Now, one was missing and I could guess where it was. My hand instinctively moved to clutch my wand in preparation for anything she might do.
"Please, ma'am." Harry stepped forward, aware also that she had reached for her wand. "We've come from Hogwarts and we need your help."
"Hogwarts." She stared at him. "I remember hearing of that place. Some of my colleagues attended school there."
"I'm Harry Potter." Harry reached out his hand.
"The boy who lived." She grinned at our confused expressions. "We hear stuff over here too." She shook his hand. "If you're who you say you are then I gather this to be Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, correct?" She looked to us.
"It's Potter now but yes." I answered, shaking her hand. Ron shook her hand after me.
"I'm Louisa. Louisa Lopkins." She smiled.
"We need to find the spell or potion these books are alluding to." Ron insisted without pause.
She looked at each of us and sighed, bringing out her wand and flicking it at the front door. We heard the door lock and the sign on the door turned to day the shop was closed.
"Best that we not be interrupted." She explained. "Now," she folded her hands on top of the counter. "Why are you looking for this information?"
"Another great evil arose recently and we thought we had defeated him." Harry began. "We recently found out that he used the spell described in these books to bind himself to a good friend of our."
"Who is this friend?" She questioned. "I wouldn't be so quick to assume they are truly a friend if they allowed themselves to be bound to your enemy."
"It's my sister." Ron answered for us, his tone letting her know to watch her words.
"The boy who bound her was cunning and he outsmarted us all. He made her the bad guy in everything, so much so that we..., we cut her out and sent her straight to him." Harry continued on. "Hermione defeated him before but we all should have known it wouldn't be that easy. He made sure he was bound to Ginny because he knew we wouldn't kill her..., or at least he was quite certain we wouldn't. He's gaining his strength back and, with it, he's trying to get her back to doing his bidding. She's withering away in misery. We need to find a way to break this binding and end Liam once and for all."
She sighed, taking off her glasses. Ron moved closer and put his hand on the counter.
"Please, Ms. Lopkins. We need this." He stressed every word.
She took a deep breath. "Follow me." She turned and walked into the back, leaving us to follow her.
In the back room where books were stacked and waiting for the shopkeeper to use them, she stepped over to a broom closet door and shut it. Tapping her wand on it twice, she reopened it and motioned for us to enter. Instead of a broom closet, it now looked like the sitting room of a small cottage. Closing the door behind us, she moved to the bookshelf in the room and grabbed a medium sized box and a book. Both were metallic on the outside and etched with similar symbols. I could feel magic coming off the box as she set it down on the table in the middle of the room.
"Sit. Please." She said, gesturing to the chairs. We followed her request and sat down, waiting for her to tell us about the things sitting on the table. "What you're looking for isn't simply a spell or a potion. It's a ritual." She said after a moment of pause. "This ritual has to be done to near perfection to work.
"Personally, I only have one part of the ritual. It was separated as a safety precaution." She paused, opening the box and turning it to use. "The ritual involves a potion, made at the time of the severance; and a spell, derived from the original spell that bound the parties. The ingredients in this box aren't the only requirements." She paused. "The next stop you go to will give you the spell. The final stop will reveal the recipe for the potion and they will explain the process and the ingredients not included here and give you some tools you must use in the ritual."
Harry reached out for the box but she stayed his hand, picking up the book. "This book is the history of the spell. To collect the spell, you must be able to prove you met me and answer any question presented from this book." She handed it to me. "I trust Mrs. Potter will be capable of that step." Taking out a knife, she cut a piece of her hair and went to get a small, ring-sized box. She placed the hair inside then pricked her finger to get a drop of blood out. "This should be enough to prove you saw me.
"I'll bind the box with a spell that will leave my essence on it." She closed the box and tapped it with her wand then handed it to Ron, who slid it into his pocket. "Now," she moved to the box of ingredients. "this box must be protected at all cost. The ingredients inside are very rare and old. Once I place this box in your care, you become a guardian of it and you will be tasked with its return upon the completion of the ritual." She closed the box and slid it to Harry. "This is all I'm allowed to do for you. I will warn you of the danger of this ritual to all that are involved. And I wish each of you good luck."
"Thank you, Ms. Lopkins." I said, standing. "We appreciate you doing this."
"It's my job, sweetie, as one of the guardians." She paused. "I've never seen the ritual performed. Too many feared it in my time. I hope that it will work for you. I hope it will help you save your friend." She looked at Ron. "Your sister."
"Thank you." He nodded and turned to walk out. We bid her goodbye and walked out into the shop, making our way outside from there.
"Where to next?" Harry asked as I placed the book in my bag.
"Let's find somewhere to stay. I need to read this book before going to the next place. Now that we're inside, we need to stay in the area." I answered.
"Let's find an inn and we'll leave you to it then." Ron said, walking ahead. Harry placed the box into his bag then reached over to hold my hand, intertwining our fingers.
"One stop down. Two to go." I murmured to him as we walked.
"We'll make it, love." He kissed my temple. "We always do." He grinned.
And that's why I'm so worried, I thought. How many times can you cheat and run from death before it catches up with you?