Rec'ced by Know It Alls! Read the recommendation at: http : / / mujaji . net /kia/?p=1596

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe is the property of J.K. Rowling and her publishers. Anything you recognize belongs to her. I am not making any money from this.

Shades
by Orm Irian

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Chapter 1: Searching

Sunshine poured down into the dingy square in front of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, scorching the sparse patch of grass and drooping, neglected bushes there. In a nearby alley, three soft popping sounds could be heard… if there had been anybody nearby to hear. At this time of day, nearly all the residents of the rundown neighborhood were at their jobs. Those actually at home were hiding in the shade of their squalid flats, trying to keep cool. Leaving the alley, the three figures moved purposefully across the square, up the front steps of number twelve and disappeared inside.

Across the square, a pair of eyes watched from the tangled bushes aside a dilapidated duplex. The watcher reached into a voluminous cloak and drew out a small brown owl. He affixed a yellow token to its leg and sent it off. Now he had only to wait; his backup would arrive soon.

Inside number twelve, Grimmauld Place the door was quickly closed and magically warded. "Harry, we really shouldn't be here! You know what Remus said about coming here without an escort," Hermione said.

"I have to finish searching the house. I promise, this is the last time, okay?" he replied.

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but was prevented by a sharp "Leave it, Hermione!" from Ron. As Harry made his way up the stairs, Ron continued in an undertone, "You know he doesn't want to be in this house at all. So, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can leave for good!"

"Yes, you're right," Hermione sighed. "Let's go help," she said with a small smile. Ron took her hand and they followed Harry up to the third floor.

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Two hours later, they were all sweaty, discouraged and covered with dust they had disturbed while rummaging through the long-uninhabited bedrooms. Ron was sneezing repeatedly as they retreated from the last bedroom at the end of the hall. Harry sank dispiritedly onto the top step.

"Ugh!" Hermione exclaimed. "The smell in there made me feel sick to my stomach. We don't have to go back, do we?"

Ron dropped down next to Harry. "Is that it, mate? Have we finished the entire house?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," Harry replied softly.

"Too bad we didn't have a house-elf to do the dirty work," Ron said as he brushed off the dirt smeared on his sleeve. "This is one time I would have welcomed Kreacher's presence." Hermione gave him a disapproving look as she also tried to beat the grime from her clothes.

Suddenly, Harry's head snapped up. "Kreacher!" he exclaimed. "He used to hide in the attic when Sirius was alive!"

"The attic…" Hermione repeated in a whisper. "We never thought of it before."

"Is there anything up there? I thought Sirius cleared it out when the Order started meeting here," Ron said.

"He did. But Kreacher could have hidden stuff up there later," Harry replied. "Remember how he used to try and sneak off with things? Maybe he 'saved' some stuff from us. Come on. Let's go look."

So Ron and Hermione trooped dutifully up the narrow attic steps after Harry, half-hoping it was empty so they could leave, and half-hoping it wasn't. To their surprise, they saw a stack of boxes at the far end of the low-raftered space. None of them were surprised, however, to find a heap of absolute junk, tattered books, filthy trousers, broken china and the like, piled in a jumble behind the boxes. Presumably, the pile of rubbish was Kreacher's legacy.

Examining the boxes brought another surprise: they were neatly labeled with the date and room of origin, in Sirius' handwriting. They all recognized his writing after seeing the notes he had sent to Harry when he lived as Snuffles in the cave during their fourth year at Hogwarts. Harry became quite agitated, his hands shaking slightly as he reached for the box at the top of the stack. The boys immediately began unstacking the boxes, spreading them out in a single row for easy access.

Excellent!" Ron exclaimed, grinning at Harry, "Sirius would only have saved useful stuff! We're bound to find something!"

Hermione, however, was looking reluctantly at the boxes. "Um, Harry, do you mind if I don't stay up here? My stomach is still upset and the heat up here is really unbearable. It's making me feel even worse."

"No problem, we'll handle this." Harry turned back and opened the box in front of him, which appeared to contain the personal belongings of a pre-adolescent boy. He could see several magical puzzles, some comic books (complete with moving pictures on the covers) and what looked like a rock collection. Or maybe, he thought, Sirius just saved things that had sentimental value to him. Oh well, best get started. He began to remove items from the box, then suddenly stopped and turned to Hermione, who was just making her way through the attic doorway. "Hermione," he called, "would you do me a favor?"

She turned and raised her eyebrows questioningly. "What is it?"

Harry shot Ron a sly smile then said to her, "Would you mind looking through the Black family library for books that could be useful to us? You know—detection and revealing spells, spells to counter dark magic—things like that."

Hermione's face brightened instantly. "Sure, I'll get right to it then. See you in a bit." She turned and made her way down the steps.

Ron chuckled at Harry's ploy. "Does she mind….The real question is whether we'll be able to carry all the books she chooses!" Laughing, both boys returned to their search.

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The next hour passed quickly. Down in the library, Hermione was happily ensconced on the comfortable old sofa, a veritable tower of books on the end table next to her. Books she deemed useful were tossed on the cushions next to her; those she had rejected were stacked on the floor. Perusing a book on the rise of the dark wizard Grindelwald, Hermione's mind began to wander. She wondered if Ron and Harry were having any luck. That, in turn, brought her mind back to how their search had begun…

At the close of the school year, Harry had returned to the Dursley's for the last time. Mad-eye Moody and Remus Lupin had promised that they would retrieve him in two weeks, then take him to the Weasley's. Arriving at the Burrow, he had been surprised to see many of the Order members gathered in the small living room. Arthur Weasley had explained that it was no longer possible to use 12 Grimmauld Place as their headquarters because Albus Dumbledore's death had ended the Fidelius charm that kept its location secret. It was a foregone conclusion that Snape would have immediately revealed its location to Lord Voldemort. That evening it was decided that Moody would take up leadership of the Order. It was also decided, after some debate, that Harry, Ron and Hermione would become active members of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry's participation was at first opposed by Molly Weasley on the grounds that he was still underage. However, he pointed out that he was already deeply involved in the war by reason of being Voldemort's repeated target, he was widely acknowledged as the 'Chosen One' of the partially-revealed prophecy and he would be of age in a matter of weeks anyway. Any remaining opposition caved-in under the weight of his arguments. Indeed, most members of the Order considered him to be a vital player in the struggle to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Privately, Harry had long known that it was his fate to kill (or be killed by) Voldemort.

The three friends had held their own meeting the next day. Hermione and Ron were, of course, privy to all the details of Harry's lessons with Professor Dumbledore during the past school year. They had discussed all they knew or guessed about Horcruxes in general and had rehashed all the memories Harry had experienced from Voldemort's life. They had come up with some certainties and a number of unanswered questions. Hermione mentally reviewed what they knew. Fact: Over a number of years, Voldemort had split his soul into seven pieces, magically transferring the parts into objects of great significance to himself. Thus, he had made six Horcruxes. The final piece of his soul had remained with his corporeal body. Fact: As long as any of the Horcruxes were intact, he could not truly be killed. Fact: Three of the Horcruxes were presumed destroyed: Riddle's diary by Harry in the Chamber of Secrets, Slytherin's ring by Dumbledore and Slytherin's locket by a person whose initials were R.A.B. Fact: Dumbledore had believed that Voldemort's familiar, Nagini, was in possession of one of the pieces of his soul. He and Harry had also surmised that Voldemort had stolen and used an heirloom of Helga Hufflepuff, a cup, as yet another receptacle for a portion of his shattered soul. Fact: It was Harry's task to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes, then confront and kill Lord Voldemort. Ron and Hermione intended to help him every step of the way.

"No problem. We can have it done by Christmas!" Ron had joked wryly.

As Hermione saw it, there were two important questions. First, what object had Voldemort used as the sixth Horcrux? And second, where were it and Hufflepuff's cup hidden? These led to a number of related issues and questions. After more discussion, she, Harry and Ron had decided to focus on the nebulous R.A.B. who had taken or destroyed Slytherin's locket and left a taunting note behind for Voldemort. They had concluded that R.A.B was: 1) probably dead, 2) had either known Voldemort well or had been in a position to learn information about him, and 3) had turned against Voldemort. Harry knew that although Voldemort considered his Death Eaters to be servants rather than friends, they were undoubtedly his closest associates, and were likely to know more about him than most others. So Harry had suggested that R.A.B could have been a former Death Eater. From there it was a short leap for Hermione to put together the facts and come up with a conclusion: Regulus Black.

Both boys had looked at her with dawning comprehension on their faces. "All the pieces fit," Hermione had rationalized. "He was a Death Eater, he's dead, he tried to leave Voldemort's service and at least two initials match." She still remembered the warm glow she had felt when Ron told her it was a brilliant idea.

It was Harry who had reasoned that Regulus would have been likely to leave some record of his search. Perhaps he had obtained information about the other Horcruxes or even had managed to destroy one or more of them before he was discovered and killed. Thus their search had begun.

They had returned to the house three times prior to today, always in the company of Remus and Tonks. They had to be extremely careful not to be detected by agents of Lord Voldemort, who were now able to find the house as easily as them. Harry had not revealed to the older couple what, precisely, they were searching for (this was easy, as they didn't know themselves), but he implied it was something of Sirius' that he wanted as a keepsake. However, after the third trip, neither Lupin nor Tonks would agree to go back. So they had returned on their own to finish the search.

After the three of them had searched those last filthy bedrooms, Hermione had privately given up hope. I suppose we'll have to try researching the last known locations of ancient wizarding artifacts or some such thing to get another lead, she thought. No matter, we will solve this puzzle. We've done it before! Doggedly, she returned to her stack of books.

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Up in the attic, the two searchers were nearing the end of their task. Ron lifted a large, metal strongbox from the bottom of the carton he was searching. It was not heavy and shaking it lightly revealed that it was not empty either. "Harry," Ron said, "do you think this is worth the effort it will take to get it opened?"

"Sure. Try Alohomora."

Ron drew his wand. "Alohomora!" The box remained shut.

"Look, it has a keyhole," Harry noted. "Use Demonstro Forma to get the shape of the key, then we can transfigure one to open it."

Ron flourished his wand in a half circle then, with a sharp jab said "Demonstro Forma." A shadowy key began to appear in front of the box, but before it was fully formed it faded away to a wisp and vanished.

Both boys scowled at the box. "What's going on? Why didn't the key take shape?" Harry wondered.

"Wait, I think I know what's going on," Ron said. With a sideways swish of his wand he chanted "Aperio." A red glow enveloped the box, glowing especially brightly around the lock. "It's got a key ward on it - see the bright spot there, in front of the keyhole? You had better handle this, Harry, you're better at breaking wards than I am."

Harry stepped in front of the box and leveled his wand directly at the lock. "Rumpo!" The glow disappeared. Then, "Alohomora!" The latch fell forward. Harry lifted the metal lid and looked inside the strongbox. A small drawstring bag lay atop a leather-bound book. Removing these, Harry found a stack of papers beneath. He had begun to rifle through them when a loud expletive from Ron drew his attention.

"Shit! This is it!" He had opened the front cover of the book. There on the top left corner was printed: Regulus A. Black. Wide-eyed, he passed the book to Harry. "I think its some sort of journal."

Harry sank onto the floor with the book in his lap. Thank you, Sirius, for being sentimental enough to save this seemingly useless stuff from yours and your brother's rooms, he thought.

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A shadow fell across the page Hermione was scanning. She looked up in surprise to find that the afternoon sun was now angled onto the side of the house. It was past four – way past four – according to her watch. She jumped up and went to the bottom of the attic stairwell. "Hey, you lot! I have to leave! I promised my Mum I would meet her for shopping at four o'clock," she called. "Oh, and the books you wanted are on the couch."

"Hold on, Hermione!" Ron called in return. "I'll walk you out to the Apparition point." He turned to Harry, "We really should get a move on too, mate."

Harry didn't look up, but said distractedly, "I'll meet you down in the square in five minutes. okay? We can come back with Bill or your Dad to get those books later." As Ron descended the stairs, Harry smiled fondly and thought, Ron will use any excuse to be alone with Hermione - even if it's just for five minutes.

Hermione watched as Ron took the steps two-at-a-time, landing with a final four-step leap in front of her. She grinned up at him. "You don't really need to walk me to the alleyway, it's only a few feet."

"Now, now," he said, sounding remarkably like Percy the Prat. "We must follow Remus' directions: no one is to wander about London alone, even for one minute!" Both teens burst out laughing. Hermione reached out to take Ron's hand and they exited the house and walked toward the alley together.

The young couple, however, was not alone. Three pairs of eyes tracked their progress across the square.

"Two out of three," growled the first observer. "Where's the other brat that went in?"

A second whispered voice answered, "It doesn't matter. Any of those dammed Order of the Phoenix scum will be a great prize for us to bring to the Dark Lord."

The third observer suddenly sat up straight and swore softly. "I recognize her! That's one of the kids that was at the Ministry last year! Oh, I'm going to make that little bitch pay for that day," he hissed.

As Ron and Hermione entered the alley, Hermione heard the scrape of a boot on the pavement behind them. She whipped around, wand at the ready, as three cloaked and masked figures closed in on them. Ron, startled by her sudden movement, looked at Hermione questioningly. He instantly took in her startled expression and spun to face the intruders, drawing his wand. The Death Eaters, for what else could they be dressed in those masks and robes, spread out to partially encircle the teens. Almost instinctively, the young witch and wizard found themselves back-to-back in a defensive posture.

The attackers began firing hexes and Stunning Spells in rapid succession. Both Ron and Hermione reacted without thought, blocking them time and again. One of the men sent a searing-red Slicing Hex straight at Ron just as he was repelling a Stunning Spell. Unable to block fast enough, he threw himself to the side, catching the hex on his shoulder.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed. She dove toward him shouting the incantation for an encircling Shield Spell. She knew it would only last a few seconds, but it was enough time for him to regain his feet. He scrambled up and fired off a Stunning Spell, "Stupefy!" The nearest Death Eater staggered and fell to his knees, having been impacted only tangentially by the spell.

Suddenly, the rap of running feet was heard and a loud "Tarantallegra" rang out. A second Death Eater went down, his legs jerking in opposite directions from Harry's hex.

Before any of them could react, the remaining Death Eater surged forward to slam into Ron full force. Ron was propelled backwards into the wall at the side of the alley, landing in a heap on the ground. Simultaneously, the partially-stunned Death Eater regained his feet and began dueling with Harry fiercely.

Hermione flicked her wand towards Ron's attacker, "Impedi"--

But he parried her spell and in a lightning move, grabbed her arm, pulled her off balance and swung her in front of himself like a shield. His wand at her throat, he gloated, "Got you, little bitch." Hermione froze.

Ron was on his feet, wand trained on the two of them, but he didn't dare fire a hex for fear of hurting Hermione. "Let's go! Now!" Hermione's captor yelled to his companions. Still holding tightly to Hermione, he Disapparated.

"No! Hermione!" Ron's anguished screams echoed in the alley, completely obscuring the double cracks of Disapparition as the remaining Death Eaters fled. Harry stood immobile, a stunned expression on his face as he took in the nearly-empty alley.

Hermione was alive, but taken by the enemy.

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Author Notes
1. R.A.B. = Regulus Black? I have seen this speculation in a couple of online articles as well as having jumped to the conclusion on my own. I figured that I may as well stick my neck out on this one. When book 7 comes out we'll probably all be proved spectacularly wrong!
2. Spells: Demonstro Forma = show the shape; Aperio = reveal; Rumpo = shatter. Via an online English-Latin translator.
3. Snape is coming in the next chapter!
4. Lover's of The Lord of the Rings trilogy may recognize the last line of this chapter "Hermione was alive, but taken by the enemy." as a paraphrase of the final line in The Two Towers, wherein Frodo is captured and taken to the Tower of Cirith Ungol. All hail J.R.R. Tolkien, the master of fantasy. (There will be more of these quotes from LOTR as the story progresses.)