The Case of the Missing Red Head by clandestinelyours



Summary: Ginny's gone missing. After the teachers searched all night without finding her, it looks like it's up to Harry - with the help of Ron and Hermione - to find her.
Rating: PG starstarstarstar
Categories: Cluedo Challenge (2010-4), Cluedo Challenge (2010-4)
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2010.08.28
Updated: 2010.08.29


The Case of the Missing Red Head by clandestinelyours
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Author's Notes:

Thunder boomed as lightening crashed outside the window, briefly lighting up the Hogwarts grounds. Harry peered down at them, his mind far away from reality. All he could think about was the fact that Ginny was missing, and no one would let him leave the common room to help look for her. Sure it would have been easy to grab his invisibility cloak and sneak out to search the castle, but Ron and Hermione were making sure he didn’t leave and they knew about the cloak. Ron was worried, sure, but he trusted the teachers to find Ginny before the night was up. No one seemed to be going to bed soon, all of them waiting until Ginny was found. This, however, was bad news for Harry because he couldn’t sneak out to search himself.

---

Somehow, morning had come. At some point in their sleepless vigil, Hermione, Ron, and even Harry had fallen asleep on the common room couches. As they woke, Harry looked around, hoping that he would find Ginny curled up near them, or at least a note saying that she was fine, but in the hospital wing. There was nothing, apparently they had not found her yet. Luckily for Harry, it was now morning and he could join the search as there were no rules banning him from roaming the castle during the day time. And besides, he decided, if Ron and Hermione want to try and stop me now they will just have to follow me. Nothing is going to keep me from searching until Ginny is found.

“Where are you headed off to mate?” Ron asked, blearily raising his head from Hermione’s at the sound of Harry getting up to start the search.

“You know perfectly well where I’m going,” replied Harry, “I’m heading out to search for Ginny…and you aren’t going to stop me now, it’s perfectly okay to walk around Hogwarts during the day.”

“Well if she’s still missing, I can’t blame you…Blimey, if it were this one,” Ron said, gesturing toward the still sleeping Hermione, “I would be doing the same thing you are. Just one request before you leave though…”

“What’s that mate?”

“Don’t leave without us,” Hermione finished, as she had woken up just as Ron was finishing. “We’re coming with you, you never know if you might need help...Besides, someone has to look out for danger after you’ve found her, goodness knows you won’t be paying attention to anything except her...” She giggled at this, while at the same time, Ron shuddered and tried to get the image of Harry snogging his sister out of his head. It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust Harry, it was just that he didn’t want to think of anyone snogging Ginny.

---

After they had changed, the trio headed down stairs to grab a bit of toast on their way to search for the missing Ginny. As soon as the portrait of the Fat Lady had swung shut, however, they quickly forgot about food (well perhaps Ron didn’t forget) as they could hear the sneering voices of their favorite Slytherin coming down the hallway. Harry grabbed Ron and Hermione by the shoulder and quickly pulled them into a nearby hidden passageway, so they wouldn’t get caught…and so that they could hear what Malfoy and his cronies were saying without getting caught.

“The girl’s still missing,” laughed Malfoy “stupid little Weasel. The teachers and staff will never find her…and for that matter, neither will Potter.”

“You really are brilliant Draco,” cooed Pansy “If anyone could do it you could.”

“Well I’m not saying it was me, but I’m positive no one will be able to find her.” With that Malfoy and his cronies passed out of eat shot chuckling at the thought of Ginny, wherever she was.

In the passageway, Ron and Hermione were holding onto Harry by each shoulder, barely restraining him from pounding the whereabouts of Ginny from Malfoy. “Give it up mate,” said Ron “He won’t tell you any ways, so there’s no point in getting detention for pummeling Malfoy. It won’t help us find Ginny.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Harry replied “but if I find out he hurt her, there will be nothing left of him to find.”

---

They began by wandering the hallways on the first floor (after a quick stop to the great Hall for lunch to quiet Ron’s growling stomach) glancing in classrooms they passed, and searching them thoroughly if anything caught their eye.

They had already searched one entire hallway of classrooms when they reached one that actually looked promising. It was the Muggle Studies classroom, and while it didn’t seem to hold any clues, something told Harry to look inside.

What he found surprised the three of them, and made Hermione glad that she had remembered to bring along her quill and some parchment to write down any clues. It seemed unremarkable, but the bit of long, Weasley red hair stuck to it made all of them realize that it was a clue to the whereabouts of Ginny. “What is this?” Ron asked as he leaned forward to examine the strange object more closely.

“It’s a wrench, Ronald,” Hermione said “It’s something Muggle plumbers use to help them fix pipes.”

“If it’s a Muggle tool, then why is it here? Hogwarts doesn’t hire any of those pulmberers anyways.”

“It’s plumbers, Ron,” Harry said “And it’s probably here because this is the Muggle studies Classroom. I would guess that they might show what tools Muggles use to do what we wizards can with our wands.”

“Ok, well that still doesn’t explain why my sister’s hair is on it…wait a minute isn’t that Goyle’s shoe laying next to it?”

“Yeah, it sure looks like it, but why…”

“I know!” Ron interrupted “It was Golye in the Muggle Studies classroom, with the wrench! I’ll bet if we search around here, we’ll find Ginny.”

“Honestly Ron,” Hermione said “First of all, you can’t just assume it was Goyle, there isn’t enough evidence for that. Second of all, do you really think that Ginny would go down with a wrench? Especially a wrench that obviously didn’t hit her hard enough to draw blood?”

“That’s true, I suppose my sister wouldn’t have gone down without a fight, but why is her hair on the wrench then?”

“I think perhaps it might have just fallen there as she passed though that passage way,” Harry said. Ron and Hermione turned to look where he was pointing. A hallway had appeared in the wall just behind the wall of electronics, and another red hair was seen caught on the edge of the archway leading into it.

“Well I think we can safely say that Ginny is not here. Hermione, why don’t you keep track of these things on your parchment and we’ll follow this passageway, never know what we might find. Plus Ginny’s hair is also in the entryway.”

“Where do you think it leads to?” asked Hermione.

“Not sure, but I feel like we should follow it to find Ginny,” Harry replied.

After about five minutes of walking they had their answer. At the sight of house elves bustling about Ron excitedly exclaimed, “We’re in the kitchens! Now we can finally eat properly, since you two wouldn’t let me grab enough food at breakfast.”

All of a sudden a very excited house elf came up to the three of them. “Harry Potter! Dobby is most excited that you have come to visit him. Is there anything Dobby can get for you, sir?”

“No thanks, Dobby, we’re actually just looking for Ron’s sister Ginny. She has been missing since last night. Have you seen her?”

“Dobby has not seen Miss Wheezy since yesterday, sir. Came in the same way as Harry Potter and his friends did just now.”

“Where did she go from here, Dobby?”

“Well, sir, Miss Wheezy went through the passage to your right.”

“Thank you Dobby, let us know if you hear anymore about where she might be.”

“It will be my pleasure Harry Potter, sir.”

“Alright guys, let’s take this passage way and continue on our search. Hermione, make sure you mark down that she wasn’t in the kitchens, Ron put down the food and let’s get going…this is your sister we’re searching for.”

“I’m coming,” Ron replied between bites, “but you know I think you’re more anxious to see her than I am.” Ron winked at him.

Ignoring this, Harry led them down, yet another secret passageway, wondering where they might end up next. Much to his surprise they walked out into the Greenhouses. “Wow, I never knew there was a way to get here without having to walk outside,” said Hermione “we’ll have to remember this when it’s raining or snowing.”

Ron shook him head in agreement, but Harry was too busy scanning the greenhouse for signs of Ginny. Finally he saw it. It was Ginny’s book bag, lying next to the Venomous Tentacula, and something else, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Cautiously, Harry approached the plant to grab the items that were nearby. “You don’t think that thing ate Ginny, do you?” asked Ron looking worried.

“No, because it would have also spit out her shoes, you know that Venomous Tentacula dislike shoes.
Every reported attack by one always has the victim’s shoes nearby. And as you can see, Ginny’s shoes are no where nearby.” Hermione stated very matter of factly. “What’s that Harry?” she asked, noticing that he held something other than Ginny’s book bag.

“I’m not sure but I think it’s Neville’s Remembrall.”

“Ah Ha! Then it was Neville, in the Greenhouses, with the Venomous Tentacula!” Ron shouted.

“Honestly, Ron. Why would one of our friends attack Ginny?” Hermione said “and besides, we already know that the Tentacula did not eat her, there are no shoes around.”

“Hermione’s right, you know,” said Harry “Neville probably just dropped this during class at some point. If it was him, we would have figured something out yesterday night in the common room.”

“I guess we have another one to mark off on the list of no’s,” Hermione sighed “let’s see where we end up next.” At this they noticed yet another passageway across from them another one of Ginny’s red hairs lay just inside of it. Shouldering Ginny’s book bag, Harry set off to see where they would end up next, hoping that they would soon find her.

---

Three hours, four rooms, and five passageways later the trio found out that it was not: Pansy Parkinson, with a stupefy, in the Charms classroom; Nearly-headless Nick, with a pool cue, in the Ghost’s Billiards room; Professor Snape, with the Sleeping Draught, in the Potions classroom; nor was it Blaise Zabini with the candlestick, in the Library. As they reached the end of their current passageway, Harry began to wonder if they would ever find Ginny. And then he saw it, Ginny’s bright red hair, far more than they had seen before because this time it was attached to her head. Harry rushed towards her, worried that something was wrong. As he approached her apparently sleeping form, he began to realize where this passageway had let out. “I think we’re in the hospital wing, mate,” said Ron, confirming what had just registered with Harry.

“We are,” Harry replied “I didn’t know there was a secret entrance to this room.”

“I don’t think Madame Pomfrey did either, and she looks pretty upset that we are here.”

“What are you three doing in here?” Madame Pomfrey said “There is to be no visitors, this young lady has had a rather long night and needs her sleep. So if you will…”

“Actually,” Ginny cut her off “I’m quite fine and I’m sure they were worried about me. If they could stay for a little while, then they might not worry so much.”

It didn’t look like Madame Pomfrey was going to give in to Ginny’s request, however, after a few moments of thought she replied, “Alright but you have one hour, then these three have to leave so that you can get some rest, and our other patient doesn’t get disturbed.”

“Thank you. I promise we’ll keep our voices down,” said Ginny.

Harry rushed to her side, and grabbing her hand asked “Are you alright? What happened to you? I was so worried. If anyone hurt you I swear they’ll have me to answer to.”

“We were all worried,” Hermione said.

“I’m fine, really” Ginny replied “it’s just been a long night. And no Harry, you don’t have to go after anyone over this.” She smiled at him.

“Well, then what happened to you? You didn’t return to the common room last night, and now you turn up in the Hospital Wing.” As worried as he was, Harry wanted to know what had happened.

“Relax, Harry,” said Ginny “It all started after dinner last night. I was taking a walk around the castle after dinner, and there was something moving inside the Muggle Studies Classroom, so I went in to see what it was.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Harry cut in “you never know what could have been in there, you could have gotten killed.”

“You would have done the same thing,” Ginny smiled, squeezing his hand to reassure him, seeing the worried look on Harry’s face. “Anyways, when I walked in I saw Goyle playing around with some sort of metal object. Once he noticed I was there he came toward me brandishing the metal thing. Naturally, I stunned him. Once he fell to the floor I noticed a passageway that led out of the classroom. Curious I followed it. If you followed all the passages I did, then you surely know what happened already.”

“But we don’t,” Hermione said “what we know is that you weren’t hit by Goyle with the wrench — that metal thing he was swinging — nor were you eaten by a Venomous Tentacula, stunned, hit with a pool cue, given a Sleeping Draught…except maybe by Madame Pomfrey… or hit with a candlestick. All we do know is that you ended up here.”

“Didn’t you see what was in the Owlery, when you reached there?” asked Ginny.

“We never went to the Owlery,” Harry replied.

“Well, then you didn’t take all the same passages as I did then. Well after the library, I found myself in the Owlery, but I wasn’t alone. Malfoy was there too, sending a letter off. It was probably about midmorning at this time.”

“If he hurt you…” Harry started.

“Let me finish,” Ginny said “Anyways, Malfoy was there and as soon as he saw me he decided to do something about it...Harry, let me finish,” she said as Harry tried again to say what he would do to Malfoy. “He started saying things about me being a blood traitor, which I could ignore, but then he started insulting you, Harry, and I decided he wasn’t going to get away with it. So I gave him one of my infamous Bat-Bogey Hexes. Unfortunately, it was more powerful than I had anticipated,” she paused smiling at the memory. “The hex actually flung him out the window of the tower. I rushed to see whether he was okay.”

“Who cares if he was okay?” Ron said “he’s a slimy git.”

“I didn’t want to kill him, Ron, just teach him a lesson. Anyways, I went to the window to make sure that he wasn’t dead,” she paused.

“Well, was he?” Harry asked.

“No, but did you know that slimy gits bounce when dropped from that high up?” Ginny laughed.

“I’d pay to see that,” Harry said “Does anyone have change for a bent knut?” He laughed at his own joke, Ginny just rolled her eyes.

“Well I suppose we’ve solved the mystery then,” Hermione said after the laughter over the thought of a bouncing Malfoy died down. “It looks like it was Ginny Weasley with the Bat-Bogey Hex, in the Owlery.” They all began to laugh. Even more so when they heard a slight groan from the neighboring bed that caused Madame Pomfrey to rush out to check on the patient.

“Are you okay Mr. Malfoy?” she asked. No one heard his response because realizing that it was Malfoy in the next bed, their laughter grew. At least until Madame Pomfrey was done tending to Malfoy and came over to shoo them all out for disturbing her patients.

Harry paused before leaving, and bending down he gave Ginny a gentle kiss before saying, “I’m glad to know you can defend yourself, but next time don’t leave me worried all night, okay?”
“I’ll try,” Ginny said with a smile. They snuck one more quick kiss before Madame Pomfrey could literally kick Harry out of the ward.

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