Gryffindor Investigations

Ron came back to himself slowly, his body still tingling from the aftereffects of the electricity. He felt something cool and hard beneath his cheek, and something cooler and harder binding his hands together at the wrist and behind his back. Handcuffs. Cautiously, he opened his eyes.

He was in a warehouse, but an empty one. Dim light poured through the grimy windows near the ceiling, and Ron blinked as his eyes tried to adjust. There were several people on the far side of the room, one of them much bigger than the rest, and one who, Ron saw with a heavy heart, just about Harry’s size.

Someone said, “He’s awake.” The figures crossed the room toward Ron—and yes, Harry was among them. So, Ron noted sourly, was Gregory Goyle. Geoffrey Williams and Tommy Edwards. No surprise there. A couple of others Ron didn’t know.

“Nice to have you back with us, Mr. Weasley,” Edwards said in a cold tone. “Unfortunately, you won’t be with us long. Our…employer….was very definite about that.”

“Draco Malfoy, right?” Ron spat.

“You don’t really think he’s the only enemy you’ve ever made, do you, Mr. Weasley?” Edwards replied mockingly. “Why, just a few months ago, you crossed the Cryne family, didn’t you? Harry here told us all about that—and he also told us about your little trick of Apparating without taking any restraints with you.” Edwards’ voice hardened. “Try it, and we’ll simply shoot you. We have plenty of Muggle firearms to do that.”

Ron’s mouth grew very dry; he’d been planning exactly that. “So it was….what was her name…Clarissa Cryne who hired you?”

Edwards smiled. It was not a nice smile. “Maybe. Maybe it was Draco Malfoy. Maybe it was Dolores Umbridge. It could even have been Viktor Krum. You have made a lot of enemies in your career, Mr. Weasely. Think about that while your partner here disposes of you.”

He turned to Harry and said, “Finish him.”

Ron’s eyes widened with shock and horror as Harry stepped forward, wand in hand. He pointed it directly at Ron and, in a voice colder than Voldemort ever managed, uttered the words, “Avada Kedrava.”

Green light shot forth from Harry’s wand, crossing the distance between them in an instant, and struck Ron on the shoulder………

And with a terrific burst of force and energy, Harry was blown backwards to land in a stunned heap on the floor behind the others. Ron was likewise blown the length of the warehouse—but, unlike Harry, he remained awake and aware.
Edwards and the rest were staring at Harry’s barely-moving form, dumbfounded. Ron didn’t hesitate. He concentrated for a moment, and then, with a loud CRACK!, he had Apparated out of his handcuffs and over to Harry’s side. Somehow, Harry had managed to hold on to his wand; Ron grabbed it and pointed it at them. A half-dozen Stunning Spells later, Edwards, Williams, Goyle, and the rest were lying at Ron’s feet. Five Binding Charms later, all but Edwards were bound hand and foot.

Ron strode over to the half-conscious Edwards, fury boiling inside of him. He bent over, grabbed Edwards by the scruff of the neck with one hand, and hauled him into a sitting position. His other hand held Harry’s wand, pointed right between Edwards’ eyes.

“I have three questions for you,” he snarled, his blazing eyes boring into Edwards’ wide and terrified ones. “If I like your answers, you get to live. If I don’t, I get Unforgivable on your arse. Do you understand me?”

Edwards nodded, weakly.

“All right,” Ron growled. “First question: where are the rest of your goons?”

Edwards shook his head wildy. “There-there aren’t any. Just the six of us here.”

Ron prayed that was true. The last thing he needed was for someone to get the drop on him while he was dealing with this idiot. “Fine. Second question: what the bloody hell did you do to my partner?”

Edwards licked his lips. “I……I have a t-talent,” he stammered. “It m-makes people friendly t-toward me. M-makes them w-w-want to do things for me. I’ve h-had it since I w-was a kid.”

“I knew you were too good to be true,” Ron muttered. “And?”

“W-well, w-when I got o-o-older, I l-learned h-how to make p-people feel other things, too. So I used that on Potter, t-t-to try to split the t-two of you. M-make y-you spend m-more time fighting th-than looking for Archer.”

Ron felt himself gripped by pure rage. It must have shown on his face, because Edwards continued, hurriedly, “I can take it off!”

Ron hauled Edwards to his feet and half-dragged, half-carried him over to Harry. He threw the other man down on his knees next to Harry and pressed the tip of Harry’s wand into the back of Edwards’ neck. “Get busy,” he demanded.

Ron couldn’t see Edwards’ face, but he could see Harry’s. The other man’s eyes slowly began to focus……and then they met Ron’s eyes. Harry’s eyes widened in horror and he cried, “Ron……oh, Ron, I didn’t mean those things I said, I didn’t mean any of them.”

“I know, mate. But right now we’ve got other fish to fry.” He spun Edwards around to face him and returned Harry’s wand to a spot right between Edwards’ eyes. “Question three, Edwards: where is Michael Archer?”

“Right behind you,” Edwards said promptly.

Ron scowled. “Remember what I said about using a couple of Unforgivable Curses? I wasn’t joking, Edwards.”

“Neither am I,” Edwards said, shaking his head. “We Polyjuiced him to look like Gregory Goyle. The last dose we gave him should wear off in about an hour.”

“How the hell did you get hold of Goyle’s hair?”

“He’s a cousin of mine, actually,” Edwards said. “I asked him for some, and he agreed. I didn’t tell him what it was for.”

There was something about the way Edwards said it that made Ron sure he was lying, but now wasn’t the time to deal with it. He shoved Edwards roughly down to the floor and hit him with another Binding Charm, then tossed the wand back to a now-standing Harry. “You all right, mate?” he asked.

“No,” Harry responded coldly, “but I will be once we get this lot to the Aurors and after I’ve had a bath.” He bent over the bound man before them, and said, in a deadly voice, “Edwards, you have no idea how lucky you are that Albus Dumbledore was my mentor. Anyone else, and there wouldn’t be enough left of you to fit in a shot glass.”

Edwards went even paler, but wisely stayed silent.

“You know what they’ve done with my wand?” Ron asked.

“Yeah,” Harry said, gesturing with his head over his shoulder. “There’s a table back there; your wand’s on it. Go get it; I’ll watch this lot.” He paused, and then said, “Even better, once you’ve got it, you might want to go get your bearings, and then Apparate down to the Ministry.”

“You’ll be okay on your own?” Ron asked dubiously.

Harry turned to face him, and Ron could see the anguish in his eyes. “Not by a long shot,” he whispered, “so hurry.”

Ron hurried. It was less than a quarter of an hour later that he returned, six Aurors in tow. By then, “Goyle” was starting to shrink, and Harry had taken the bindings off of him. Edwards, Williams, and their thugs were taken into custody.

“What about Archer?” Harry asked. “He could probably use at least an examination at St. Mungo’s.”

The lead archer, a burly man in his mid-forties, nodded in agreement. “We’ll get him there, Mr. Potter,” he promised. “Will you and Mr. Weasley be available for statements tomorrow?”

“We’ll make ourselves available,” Ron assured him.

After the Aurors had gone, leaving them alone in the warehouse, Harry looked at Ron uncomfortably. “Ron……I……”

“Forget it,” Ron told him. “I told you, I know you didn’t mean any of that stuff. And look—how many times have I been a git over the last couple of weeks? And I don’t have the excuse of being Imperiused, or whatever the hell it was that Edwards did to you.”

Relief flooded over Harry’s face—only to be replaced by puzzlement. “But, Ron……I used the Killing Curse on you. I put everything I had behind it. You should be dead. Why aren’t you?” A shy grin crossed his features. “Not, you understand, that I mind……”

“I have no idea, love,” Ron said, shaking his head. “Maybe Hermione will. Or Professor McGonagall. Or even whoever’s teaching Dark Arts at Hogwarts these days. But we can find out tomorrow, or maybe even the day after.”

Ron stepped forward until his face was inches from Harry’s, and kissed him long, hard, and deep. Harry responded with all the enthusiasm he could have hoped for and more. As they broke away, Ron murmured, “We’ve both been under a lot of strain lately. Why don’t we go home and work it off?”

“If you call that work……”

“Oh, I do. Our very own labor of love……”

The two Wizards Disapparated……



(More coming, I promise--although reviews would go a long way toward motivating me.....)