hg_reads (hg_reads) wrote in snark_n_bark, @ 2008-05-04 08:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, hermione |
Where has everybody gone?
Characters: Hermione, a map of London
Status: complete
It was the only answer.
Hermione stared at the glowing map pinned to the wall above her desk. She'd spent two days working on Padma's suggestion to apply the incident tracking spell to a street map of London, then had added every incident the other members of her team had collected. She'd tapped a few sources in the Auror corps as well, then asked the MI-6 liaison to the Squad for anything the Muggles had learned.
Of course the spell had failed repeatedly as she cast, and she'd had to redo her work twice. The rest of the Squad had gone home hours ago, leaving Hermione to share the building with the char-elves and one or two drones on the upper floors. But she was nothing if not stubborn, and now it was done.
She tapped the parchment with her wand and murmured an enlargement spell. The glowing colors pulsed, then seemed to flow outward as the map doubled, then tripled in size. Hermione leaned forward, frowning as she traced the incidents toward their nexus.
"The Veil," she murmured. "It can't be anything else."
It was ironic, that all their work had led straight back to the Ministry itself. Not that the Squad had anything to do with the Veil, oh no. Hermione herself hadn't gone near it since the awful night her fifth year when Harry had led that disastrous "rescue mission" for Sirius. She herself had been knocked out well before the battle, but she'd heard all about the battle, the casualties, and Harry's crushing loss.
A flash of light from the map jerked her out of her reverie. The pulsing seemed to speed up, then slow down, then speed up again. Hermione stared in horror as the nexus grew brighter and brighter as more and more magic flowed toward it. The very air seemed to tingle about her, and her wand arm began to throb.
Magic was being sucked into the Veil. Did that mean that something - or someone - was trying to manipulate its power?
She quickly scribbled notes to Tanner, Jack Fraser, and Peony, then cast the charm that would send the parchment directly to their hands. Normally she would have Floo'd them and asked for backup, but there was no time.
No time at all.
The map pulsed as she snatched up her wand and headed for the Veil room at a dead run.