Library
You see nothing special.
A few small stacks of notes sit on a table in front of
the Ravenclaw Seeker as she checks through a couple more books off to the
sides. The biggest book that she has seems to be an atlas. Cho taps the end of
her quill lightly against her chin, a lone smug left behind already on her
face. She isn't generally this studious, but she's working extra to make up for
the help she couldn't seem give a certain person who will remain nameless. Some
people are just far more receptive to help than others...
Harry rubs at his temples, entering the library. He's
been trying to find quiet places to think throughout the past couple of days,
finding it difficult. Students keep coming to him as if he has all the answers
and he doesn't. He's just a kid too. Granted he's trying to be as polite and
helpful as he can.. but why can't he just go off like Malfoy from time to time?
He looks around the library, knowing it's useless to find Hermione in here.
He's already checked the Marauder's map and the girl doesn't show up anywhere
on the ruddy thing, but he did see Cho working in the library. Hence his
presence. He quietly crosses the room, approaching the table you're working at.
"Hey there.."
Cho glances up from her notes and offers a small smile,
"Hey.. You doing all right?" She gives him a sincere look of
sympathy. She's been wondering how he's been since Ron told her about
Hermione's disappearance. It's not every day that someone goes missing, after
all, especially considering what happened to the Slytherin... Seems kind of odd
that two of the three people she danced with at the Ball had something bad (or
potentially bad, in Hermione's case) happen to someone close to them.
Harry isn't quite alright, but he's not running around
completely nutters, jinxing people left and right. His answer however is just a
shrug. "Ron said you were helping to work on a locating spell?" He's
surprised and pleased that you're taking the effort. Meanwhile he's been
racking his brain with possible scenarios and not liking any of them.
"Need any help?"
Cho nods a little bit, but doesn't push the question.
She's not really surprised if he's not all right, she can somewhat relate,
though the 'what if' in his case isn't something she ever had to worry about.
She had a definite knowing immediately. "I'm looking. I figured there
might be someway to use a plotting spell to figure out at least her general
location with a map, but... I could use a little extra help, yes. If you're not
too busy."
Harry nods, "There's got to be something we can
use.. I know she's not on the Hogwarts grounds." He's people who KNOWS
people. "Not at all.. I can keep churning over ideas while poring over
books too." That brief talk with Ron started him thinking. He's got to
talk to Snape again. Hermione spoke with him not too long before the holidays
started and she was shaken up. He had told her something.. she refused to admit
it, but he could tell she was told something that upset her greatly.
Cho nods towards the chair next to her and pulls a book
out from the bottom. "I haven't looked thru this one yet." She passes
it over and sets it down. "If you see anything that might be relevant,
just tell me and I'll make a footnote." She's got a small stack of
footnotes and other information already. "There are lots of ways to do it
to find places, but nothing quite as delicate as a person. They could probably
be modified, though would require the use of a personal object, or perhaps even
a hair sample, or something. The main problem though, is if she's somewhere
that's Unplottable, or masked in some other way... I got a pass into the
Restricted section and looked for ways to bypass those kinds of spells, but
came up with nothing. I might have been looking in the wrong place
though."
Harry pulls the chair out, seating himself. He accepts
the book, opening it up and starts browsing through it. "Getting a
personal article of Hermione's won't be a problem at all. We could get her cat
to fetch us something, or we could go get it ourselves." Yes, the boys
will use the invisibility cloak to tread into feminine territory. He's braved
the girl's loo before. Why not the dorm? "Alright.. it's possible. There's
got to be a way to locate her. I would think they would take her someplace
remote, where no one would bother them or .. hear them.."
Cho nods slowly, looking pale. "Most likely, yes.
And even if the map only pinpoints general area, we'd be a lot closer to
knowing than we are now." If she isn't being masked by another spell at
least... She pauses and looks down at the atlas for a second, which is turned
to a page for the lower part of
Harry shakes his head.. "The place may just be
remote enough to keep muggles from interfering.. they wouldn't want to mask
their location too much." No, Hermione and Sakura are being used as bait..
for him.. His jaw tightens as you ask, "...." Does he have to answer
that? He feels completely responsible for those two getting nabbed..
Cho doesn't press the question, though she looks back
down at the books and fingers through a few pages. "Could be. It shouldn't
be too difficult then, if we don't have to worry about spells
interfering." It would certainly cut down a lot of the extra work. She
pauses, then flips the page. Though if they figure out how to do this, getting
there could be a problem... Neither of them have brooms anymore.
Harry flips through a few pages, glancing at the spells.
No no.. those won't do.. "They want me to find them.. If that's the case
that is." No one's confirmed it for him. But he has this nagging feeling
that's exactly what's going on. Perhaps he should try finding Dumbledore and
getting the man to tell him why Voldemort wants him dead. "They would have
had to have gotten out of the castle in a hurry.. You can't apparate or
disapparate on the grounds, plus with two hostages... they would have had to
have been using invisibility cloaks or ..
a portkey.."
Cho frowns at Harry, who's seated beside her at a
research table in the Library. She doesn't like the sound of that at all. But
the next thing keeps her from commenting further on it. She blinks and quickly
looks over from the book, "Two? No one told me there were two people
missing... Ron only mentioned Hermione." She hadn't heard about the second
person yet, obviously.
Harry groans a bit outwardly, "Yeah.. Sakura
Kinomoto, first year, sorted into Hufflepuff. She's one of the Japanese
exchange students. Only reason I can come up with that she was taken was that
stupid article Rita Skeeter wrote about us awhile back.. The other possibility
is her magic. It's a weird style using cards. But why her? Her friends from
Cho blinks again for a second, then sighs, "The girl
we met out at the Quidditch pitch when we practiced?" She hadn't seen the girl’s
magic style, but of the Japanese students she met so far, they all seemed to
have some strange styles of magic, not surprising though. "It does seem
strange. And... do you think all these.. recent happenings are related? The
Dementors, Dr--the Slytherin girl? I mean, it just seems a little bit odd that
all these things are happening." She sighs, looking back at the book, eyes
skimming over the spells.
Angelina picks this moment to push open the heavy doors
to the library. She looks a bit tired and worn, but no more than most students
probably look lately. As usual, her cat Orin is perched on her shoulder. She
does not immediately spot Harry and Cho, but instead slides into a seat at the
nearest table and begins pulling books out of her bag. Homework. Joy!
Harry nods, "The same girl. I wish I knew..
Professor McGonagall seems to think the Dementors were to lure us away from the
school. But why throw all of this at us at once? Just for confusion? Maybe to
distract from the kidnapping? But what's the point of kidnapping them if a
Dementor got close enough to give one of us a.." He doesn't even complete
that sentence. "Maybe they know I can produce a Patronus.. For once I'm
running into dead ends here." It's Hermione who's good at this sort of
thing, but as he's the boy, he gets to go through the actual fighting bit.
"All I keep coming back to is that maybe all three events are isolated and
pure coincidence.. but the kidnapping is for bait. I mean, I didn't even know
the Slytherin student, unless it was just.. random.. I mean the girl was
Malfoy's date, she was at the ball.." Argh. He's getting another headache.
Cho chews on her lip for a second, then says, "Maybe
it's not just pointed at you. Maybe it's more complicated than that. It was his
practice that we stumbled in on. And yes, she was his date. But I don't see any
reason why... uh... 'they' would do anything to Draco." Unless of course
they tried to have a conversation with the egotistic-- ahem, not the point. She
shakes her head, still looking down at her notes, so she doesn't notice
Angelina or her strange cat. "It could all be just isolated incidents
though." She doesn't sound too convinced of that though.
Harry flips another page in the book, still keeping his
eyes on the spells listed, "I keep hoping that's the case.. that it's NOT
because of me... But I just can't see any other reason they'd take Hermione or
Sakura.." As for Draco.. he's not going to go into what the Malfoy's get
themselves into. "Perhaps it wasn't over Malfoy.. that article noted that
a couple of her family members were in trouble with the Ministry in the past.
That's probably it.. Wavering loyalty to Voldemort. Perhaps none of the
incidents are tied together, they just happened to take place at once."
Angelina isn't far enough away to not catch snatches of
your conversation, but she nevertheless continues to examine the book in front
of her, at least *trying* to study. Her own worries about recent events, and embarrassment
over what she told Harry, however, are making it very very hard to memorize
these potion formulas. Orin climbs off her shoulder to perch near the book, and
begins to groom.
Cho winces just a bit as he says 'that name', but other
then that she nods slowly. "Perhaps. But Harry, its /not/ your fault. Even
if-- even if they're doing this to get at you, its not your fault. Its-- its
'his' fault. Not yours." She doesn't want him going into blaming himself
again. If something really bad comes of this... well... she's going to do what
she can to stop this. Even if the only thing she can offer is a spell that
might help. Her eyes wander from the book and she glances up enough to see
someone sitting close enough to hear, eyes widening gradually. And that's
probably partly because there's that cat again. That cat's got some oddities
all by itself.
Harry honestly keeps forgetting that people don't like to
hear What's his face's name. He's so used to calling the man.. thing.. by his
name.. he just forgets. ".. I know it's not directly my fault, but it
still.. doesn't make it easier to accept." His voice lowers a bit, "I
don't think I could live with myself if either of them were killed.." Too
late Cho, Harry perpetually blames himself, particularly since last term.
The cat in question is indeed an oddity, but right now
he's doing typical cat stuff. His fur gets so out of place with these constant
forays outside, you see. Angelina, however, is finding herself even more
distracted. Two strands of chopped bogweed added to a boiling mixture of
toadskin and flaverfoil...oh dear...She's trying not to eavesdrop, she really
isn't. Must_get_homework_done...
Well, at least that cat isn't scratching or climbing on
anyone right now, so Cho turns her eyes back to Harry, offering over a
sympathetic (if tight) smile. Just the mention of them getting killed is enough
to make her obviously tense. She doesn't want anything like that to happen to
anyone. She can be more than empathetic to this situation, part of the reason
she tried to do her best to help out a certain emotionally stunted blonde boy.
"It'll be all right. We'll find something that will work." She's more
worried about what he's going to do next.
Harry keeps his gaze down on the book, "I hope
everything'll be alright.. Well here's that shrinking key charm.. THAT's handy.
There's got to be a locating spell around here somewhere." Maybe that book
is hidden. "We could always talk to Professor Flitwick.. but.. he'd
probably alert another teacher what as to what we're on about." That wouldn’t'
be good.
Angelina begins scratching down formulas with a rather
ratty looking quill on a spare piece of parchment. Locating spell eh? So that's
what they're up to. Unfortunately, Angelina doesn't know of any spells that
could be of assistance, as much as she wishes she did. She pauses a moment to
scratch Orin under his chin. The cat gives a 'mreoww' of appreciation and
purrs.
Cho pauses a second, wondering if she's looking in the
wrong place. The shrinking key brings a certain thought. "What about an
object finding spell. I mean, there must be one. People lose things all the
time. Too bad the summoning spell can't be used on a person." She pauses,
"Can it?" She's pretty sure it can't, plus, it'd be kind of strange
to have them float back to the castle... Most things she's heard it used on
were items no larger than a broom. She's not to the point of giving up, not
even close, but she's certainly trying to think of other ways to do this.
Harry hrms a bit, chewing at his lower lip, "Makes
sense.. I can't help but think that a port key might have been used to get out
of here. I think they might be harder to locate or detect in a place like this.
Look how easy it was to plant one last year.." always back to last year.
*mutter* "We could use an object finding spell.. but.. wouldn't we need
some way of detecting an item last used by them?" It's starting to sound
like an impossible long shot.
Angelina grumbles something to herself. Bloody potions
homework. She inks over a miswritten formula and begins writing again,
wondering if she stands a chance at graduating this year, seeing as how absent
she's been from classes. If Snape was around more, she's certain she wouldn't
even have got this far. The Chaser chews on the feather end of her quill as she
tries (and fails) to concentrate on the parchment and book before her, and
tries (and fails) to ignore the conversation going on not far away.
Cho's eyes tighten at the mention of last year, but she
nods. Her voice is somewhat tighter as she says, "We could try to use the
locating spell to find the portkey. Though if it really /is/ a trap, they
probably wouldn't make it that difficult for you to figure out..." She
doesn't like the idea that it might be a trap, but it doesn't make sense to use
them as bait if finding them would be impossible for him. "But we probably
shouldn't wait around for an answer to present itself. It may not be a trap."
And he certainly can't just leave the two in 'their' hands. He's a Gryffindor,
after all. Cho would normally just leave it to teachers, but she wants to do
/something/ to help. Kind of her way to keep what happened last year from
happening again... She's trying to keep her voice down, so not to disturb the
people who are actually doing class work...
Harry keeps browsing through the book, "What would
they use as a portkey? If the Tri-Wizard Cup is still about the castle, it
would be insanely obvious to use that again.. but probably so obvious it would
be overlooked.. But I would also think that Professor Dumbledore would have
something done to remove the portkey spells placed on the cup.." He looks
over at Cho and nods, "Precisely.. we can't wait. Who knows what's being
done to them." Which is why he hasn't broken down. What good will that do?
Angelina is only so distracted because a part of her is
itching to go over and help you two. Her offer to help Harry still
stands...though she doubts she was really of any help to him last night. Just
give him more things to worry about, great job Angelina. Top marks for you. And
now that Harry knows her secret, she's uncomfortable to approach him at all.
She should have just kept her big mouth shut. If only she could just take her
new broom out to the Quidditch Pitch and forget about everything for an hour or
so...but even that's not open to her right now. She flips a page in her book
and stares at the page blankly, nothing on it really registering.
Cho shudders briefly at further mention of that fateful
event. Could the Tri-Wizard Cup still be around and active? "It does make
sense, that would be the easiest way to do something like that, but... most
likely someone would have removed it. Unless of course they /wanted/ it to be
left that way.." But that hardly makes any sense to her at all. She isn't
about to go looking for it and test it out though... Nor will she suggest the
very idea. It makes her feel a bit ill, to be honest. She turns her eyes back
to the book and continues to flip through, skimming a bit more quickly now.
Sometimes she just wishes they could invent spells.
Harry has no clue what was done with the cup after the
tournament. He wasn't in a state to ask and frankly didn't care. A lot happened
in the hospital wing afterwards... things that would normally perk his
interest, but he was too out of it to make heads or tails at the time.
"Alright.. That's something for me to ask about." He doesn't want to
try it.. well just yet anyway. He marks the page in the book that he made it to
and gets up, "I'll go ask about the cup, and I have to go talk to
Professor Snape." And see if he can't get the man to talk to him. "..
Cho.. Thanks a lot for all this help.." A smile is offered as he walks out
of the library.
Angelina would like to corner Snape as well, but she's
had no success of late. She wants to know just what it is he's doing that's
making him so absent all the time. Lezard mentioned it was some task for
Dumbledore...and that's got the wheels turning in Angelina's head. She sighs
and slams her book shut, shaking her head. What use in pretending? She's
getting nothing done, and isn't likely going to. She begins stuffing her
various supplies back into her bag.
Cho smiles as he leaves, but immediately looks back down
at her books and lets out a sigh. She hates this completely helpless feeling
she's getting. First she couldn't even comfort Draco (because the rat-bastard
wouldn't let her) and now... sigh. She glances up from her books as a book
nearby is slammed shut and sees it's the Gryffindor Chaser leaving. She offers
a friendly smile, and a half wave, but makes no move to get up herself. She's
not going to leave til she finds /something/.
Angelina catches the slight movement of Cho's wave, and
turns slightly to smile back. Isn't that the Ravenclaw seeker? She can't quite
remember her name at the moment. In any case, from what she's overheard, its
obvious that Cho's in on this as well. The girl gives a nod and mouths 'good
luck' before whistling for Orin and making her own exit.
Cho offers a smile and nods to the Gryffindor Chaser. The
mouthing of the words causes her cheeks to pinken just a bit, and she looks
back down at her books and notes. So much to go thru, and only a few answers to
the problems. Too bad there's not a magical book that just gives you the answer
when you ask it...
Prof Major comes into the library, and moves on nearly
silent feet. He spots Cho Chang, alone in the library, and clears his throat to
alert her to his presence. "Evening
Miss Chang..." he says gently.
Cho glances up from her many books and notes, a little
surprised at the sound and offers a smile. Whatever she is looking for, it
includes an atlas... "Professor, good evening." She looks a little
tense around him, but that's probably because he's the one who took her broom
away.
Prof Major gives her an uneasy smile, "Miss Chang,
in the light of recent events of misfortune befalling students, there has been
a curfew instated here at Hogwarts. I am
going to have to ask you to return to your dorm or common room."
Cho blinks, obviously she didn't realize the time. She
flushes a bit and quickly says, "Sorry. I lost track of the time. Let me
just clean this up." She quickly closes all the books and shuffles the
papers into a folder, starting to stand.
Prof Major watches you, and they says, "Miss Chang,
I apologize to you from the deepest parts of my heart at having to take your
broom and Harry’s..." he says, and you can tell by his eyes, he means it.
Cho offers a less tense smile, "It's all right.. I
mean, I know why you did it.." But that doesn't really make it much
better. She puts the notes under an arm and starts to gather up the books to
put them on the return shelf.
Prof Major watches the Ravenclaw Seeker gather up her
things, and once she is ready, he follows her out of the library, and back to
the entrance of her common room. "Goodnight Miss Chang..."