The Prime Princess

Alya ran into the ballroom, creating a commotion.

“They took my baby! They took her!” she screamed hysterically. Moretius turned from the guests and rushed to his wife, grabbing her before Alya hit the floor in the fit of tears.

“She’s gone,” mumbled Alya.

“What? What happened there?” asked Moretius, keeping his voice down. From the corner of his eye, he saw Lucius approaching, shoving people out of his way.

“My baby, she cut her hand and… and they took her away,” she tried to explain as Moretius hauled her up to her feet and helped her out of the room, away from nosey stares.

“What’s going on?” demanded Lucius quietly as he followed them to the boudoir. The small room was luxurious but lacked Hermione. Lucius’ stare went right to the fireplace and he strode drawing his wand at it, casting a revealing spell.

“Darkmore castle, Blacksburg,” came the answer from the fireplace.

“Where is that?” wondered Alya as she gazed at subdued flames.

“It’s a hidden mansion,” growled Moretius.

Lucius took a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fire. Green flames burst up with glittering sparks and Lucius boomed the given address but flames turned into scarlet red and nothing happened.

“You need a password,” said Moretius to his old friend and soon-to-be-son-in-law.

“I see that already,” huffed Lucius.
***
Tall candles lightened a dark room. Cauldron boiled in the center of an ancient kitchen and Pansy towered over it as she stirred the potion. She added another spoonful of herbs and checked the clock. Beside her on a tabletop glinted a wonderful diamond ring. Magic surrounding it was powerful and its powers had already left a mark on Hermione.

Hermione was tied up on a chair and Blaise stomped around her, reading an old book. He needed a curse breaker for this job and the best one was… well he didn’t want to think about him. What he needed was a good potion and charmed jewelry.

“How’s it coming?”

“Oh, it’s coming alright.”
***
Draco, Ron and Harry Apparated into the entrance hall of the Ariston Mansion and confronted with a group of whispering witches and wizards looking at them curiously.

“Something must have happened,” figured Ron as felt quite out of place wearing usual clothes as all the guests were dressed up like royalties.

“Yeah, you,” snapped Draco and strode right into the ballroom, looking around to see some familiar faces. Harry was close behind him and Ron tried to move along the pace but he kept bumping into people.

Draco took out his wand and placed it hovering above his palm, demanding it to show him the direction where Hermione could be. The wand twirled around until it stopped and wobblingly pointed at a small door hidden behind wine red curtains. Harry took the lead and walked in on Moretius and Lucius having an argument.

“Er…” Harry was about to turn around but Alya’s voice called him back. Alya stood up from the luscious armchair and walked over to them.

“Young men, are you looking for someone?” she asked with a soft and caring voice, hiding her scratching tears.

“Yes, Hermione,” told Harry hesitantly as he noticed Draco staring at his father with such fury it could have burnt a hole through a wall.

“Oh,” she sighed quite happily, “She’s at Darkmore castle in Blacksburg. I hope so.”

“She’s where?”

“It’s a hidden mansion. Actually, I don’t know if Darkmore is in Blacksburg anymore. That mansion can change places like some man his socks,” told Alya with a sudden smirk.

“Who has possession of it?” asked Draco and took out his wand again, searching for the direction. The wand still pointed at the same direction.

“I have to say it’s a haunting castle. Finder’s keeper,” she told and shrugged her shoulders as she turned to two quarrelling wizards.

Draco turned to his new allies and then looked at his wand pointing at north.

“You heard the lady, lets go!”
***
In the endless darkness there was a teardrop alone in the void until a hint of light was shown on it.

Inside the droplet could be seen the whole world. Watching closer there was a city littered with skyscrapers and over the river reached the Brooklyn Bridge.

On top of one support pillar sat Hermione. Tears ran down her pale face and before landing below into the water, tears froze into snowflakes.

Soon the whole city was covered in white snow and Hermione was trapped inside a crystal ball searching for a way out. Glassy walls surrounded her in all direction, lined with tall forest.

Dried up and leafless trees rose from the snow like bony zombie paws with claws, reaching at her.

“No!”
***
Blaise walked around the cauldron and looked at the potion bubbling inside. It had turned from green to pink.

“This is old magic. It’s from a time when there was no spells or wands,” told Pansy and stirred the pot. The diamond ring still sparkled and defiantly put up to Pansy.

“So, you see! Mione is under a spell!”

Pansy nodded and stepped to her potion book to read the next task. Suddenly a security spell went off and Pansy grabbed at the rim of the cauldron to keep it steady as the Darkmore castle started to change its location again.

“How long can we outrun them?” asked Blaise from the floor.

“As long as it takes,” answered Pansy.
***
“Damn! It was right there! Is saw it!” cursed Draco and in anger he shot at trees around him, setting them on fire. Ron ran for cover as Draco bled his rage.

“We have to figure out how to catch it before the castle disappears,” said Harry and wished Carmen would be there but she was already in Paris having fun.

“What? Freeze it?” retorted Draco and again demanded his wand to show him the way to Hermione.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Um, guys, we should hurry up,” squeaked Ron from the dark and yanked Harry’s sleeve. Harry looked in annoyance at him and then at the direction Ron showed and noticed pale hair flashing between trees.

“Lucius,” whispered Harry, “We gotta get moving or Lucius finds her before us!”
***
Hermione woke up with a start. The smoke of sandalwood filled the air as she tried to open her eyes. She sensed that something was missing. Something important. Getting the life back to her body took some time with nearing acknowledge that she was tied up. Rubbing her fingers together, she discovered that her engagement ring was gone.

Opening her eyes, she looked directly at Blaise.

“Welcome back,” smiled the Italian.

“Where is it? What have you done? Where am I? LET ME GO!” screamed Hermione and trashed around to get the ropes loose.

“Calm down, Mione. You’re safe, we’re helping you,” hushed Blaise and wanted to touch her face but she almost bite his fingers off.
***
“You know, this is useless. Every time we get close to Darkmore, it just takes off,” pointed Ron out as he sat down to take a rest. Harry sat next to him but Draco paced in front of them.

“We have to get to the next place before Darkmore!” he snapped his fingers as the brilliant idea came to him.

“How are we going to do that?” asked Ron in confusion, “Castle could appear in any place!”

“Exactly! We have to herd it to the place we want it to go!” said Draco like it was the most obvious thing ever.

“How?”

“No, there’s an other way. So far Darkmore is traveling in very strict route,” told Harry after thinking a bit and conjured a map. Red dots on it marked the places Darkmore had been earlier. Connecting the dots, they made out a very distinguished shape. Only few dots were missing from completing the whole outline.

“And when were you gonna tell about this to us?” asked Draco and studied the map more closely, calculating the next spot.

“Now?” guessed Harry, “I believe Darkmore is here right now,” he said and pointed at one spot in a deep forest. “When your father and Mr. Ariston get to there, then Darkmore will probably move to here where we will be waiting.”

“Potter, I didn’t know you had brains,” complimented Draco with a grin, thinking that chess had done wonders on Scarhead and looked at the place they’d be waiting. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Burrow?” came from Ron who had finally understood the map and its contents.

“Yes,” told Harry, “Not far from Burrow anyway.”

“Why Burrow?” asked Ron suspiciously.

“I guess they need a curse breaker.”

“Bill?”