"What's wrong?" Harry asked in concern.

"They've kidnapped the Professor," the Doctor handed over the parchment. "They're demanding that you give yourself up."

"How did they manage to send the ransom note?" Harry blinked.

"There's another not explaining that," the Doctor replied. "Here."

"The Professor writes that he sent it back with his Zippo . . . and then sent this second note explaining how the first note got here along with an explanation on how this second not arrived." Henchgirl glanced through the note. "Though he doesn't say why he didn't just use the Zippo to port back."

"He was probably out of range or something," Harry shrugged. "What's the other note say?"

"Says that they'll start cutting off fingers if you don't respond soon," Henchgirl looked over the parchment. "Is it difficult to reattach fingers?"

"Very," the Doctor nodded. "If they send us a finger, it might be too late to put it back on by the time we find him."

"Can you attach a fresh finger if I was to find another one?" Harry asked quietly.

"Yes," the Doctor nodded. "But I don't think you'll have an easy time finding any fresh fingers."

"If we find the people who took him," Harry's smile turned cold. "I'll have all the body parts you'll ever need."

"I . . ." the Doctor nodded.

"I'll move the Zeppelin to the Professor's location," Henchgirl replied. "He shouldn't be too hard to find."

"I'm going to do a bit of reading," Harry called out. "Tell me when we're close, I want to be sure we have a good entrance."

"I'll get a field hospital set up," the Doctor volunteered.

"I'll . . . get some sleep," the Architect nodded to himself. "Wake me if there are any interesting ruins or something."

IIIIIIIIII

"No one's going to save any of you," the Bandit smirked at his captives. "And pretty soon I'm gonna start sending parts of you back to your families and . . ."

"Oh shut up," the Professor glared. "It's bad enough being in such an uncomfortable cage, must you taint the air with your incessant simpering?"

"Wha . . ." The bandit stared in shock, he'd never had that response.

"And another thing," the Professor started working up steam. "I think I'm an important captive, I should have my own cage . . . why should I have to share a cage with other people, granted they've been good company but still I find it rather insulting that you didn't go to the effort of giving me my own cage or even chaining me to the bars . . . that . . . that lack of respect for my level of threat will not go forgotten."

"O . . . huh?" The bandit wandered off in confusion, tormenting the captives was no fun if they were going to complain about how mild the treatment had been.

"You . . . you stood up to him?" One of the captives stared at the Professor in shock, "I've never seen anybody do that."

"The nerve of that man," the Professor folded his arms. "You'd think that I was harmless, I can't believe how insulting that is."

"Um . . . who are you?" One of the other captives asked with a look of wonder.

"Me?" The Professor smiled, "I'm no one of consequence."

"The Dread Pirate Roberts?" The captive smiled, "Yay three cheers for--"

"I'm not the Dread Pirate Roberts," the Professor frowned. "I'm--"

"Mr. Black?" The captives all perked up, with Mr. Black around they'd soon be out.

"Nope," the Professor shook his head. "He usually adds that he's just a guy on vacation . . . I'm The, Professor."

"Who?" The captives sagged.

"The Professor, I work for Mr. Black . . ." the Professor looked around at the blank faces, "surely you've heard of me?"

"Wait . . ." one of the captives gave a slow nod, "he's the guy that works with Henchgirl.'

"You know Henchgirl?" The captives perked up, "what's she like."

"That's not important," the Professor sulked. "What's important is that Mr. Black will be here soon and I think that he'll be annoyed, so if you'll give me that hairpin, that bubble gum, those bits of wood, and that green rock. I'll find a way to get the cage open so Mr. Black doesn't have to wait around while the others overcome the wards."

IIIIIIIIII

"We're close," Henchgirl called out.

"Excellent," Harry grinned. "I thought that I'd better provide a better entrance than fog."

"What are you gonna do?" Henchgirl asked with a frown.

"Fog is uncommon in the desert," Harry explained as he began casting the spells. "Sand storms on the other hand."

"The book has a section on sand storms?" Henchgirl's brows shot up, "I must have missed it."

"No," Harry shook his head. "But it does have a section on the wind."

IIIIIIIIII

"Wind's picking up," Bandit one said to Bandit two.

"Yep," Bandit two nodded. "Looks like there might be a storm."

"And you know what happens in storms," Bandit one grinned. "Things go missing."

"The big crate that the boss has been keeping everyone away from?" Bandit two suggested.

"Gotta be worth a lot," Bandit one agreed. "Why don't we open it up and check."

"Be a shame if someone beat us to it," Bandit two grabbed his crowbar.

The two idiots pried open the crate and found a large metal box inside.

"How do you suppose we open this?" Bandit one frowned.

"The key is hanging off it," Bandit two smirked. "Lucky for us."

"Well let's open it then," Bandit one grabbed the key and opened the lock. "Just a statue."

"Of what?" Bandit two peered into the darkness.

"Looks like a sleeping Nundu," Bandit one gave his opinion.

It was then, that the 'statue's' eyes shot open.

"Um . . . I don't think that's a statue," Bandit two gave his opinion. It was the last thing he'd ever do.

The Nundu raged through the camp killing everyone that crossed its path, within minutes nearly every bandit in the camp had been ripped to b.l.o.o.d.y shreds.

"What's going on out there?" Wormtail growled.

"Sounds like Mr. Black might be here," one of the younger death eaters opinioned. "Why don't you go check?"

"Why don't you?" Wormtail replied.

"Because I already have my wand out rat," the young death eater smirked.

"Fine," Wormtail glared and stepped out of the tent. Everything seemed oddly calm and Wormtail was about to turn around and step back into the tent he shared with the other death eaters when he felt a hot breath on the back of his neck.

Turning to look, Wormtail began screaming when his mind registered what he saw. Wormtail screamed as the large cat-like creature clamped down on his arm. Turning into a rat, the pathetic man managed to escape and ran towards the tent.

"What'd you find?" The death eaters looked up as their comrade staggered into the tent and returned to human form.

"Where's the portkey?" Peter demanded, "Where's The b.l.o.o.d.y Portkey?"

"I got it right here around my neck," one of the death eaters pulled it out. "So don't worry."

Peter lunged at the man and grabbed it, "activate it."

"What?"

"Activate the d.a.m.n thing now," Peter looked over his shoulder and nearly pa.s.sed out in fright when he saw the Nundu stick it's head in the tent.

"Merlin," the snide death eater from before paled. "It can't be . . ."

The death eater managed to activate the portkey just as the terrible beast opened its mouth, of the entire team of death eaters . . . they would be the only survivors.

IIIIIIIIII

"Professor," Harry found the cage containing his friend. "Stand back while I get this open."

"No need," the Professor held up a strange-looking device. "If you could stand to one side."

"Sure," Harry stepped aside and watched in shock as the cage collapsed into its component parts. "Do you want to find your wand now?"

"Again no need," the Professor shrugged. "I left it on the Zeppelin, is there anything you'd like to do here?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "Everyone gathers around, we've got to get away from here as soon as possible."

"Whys that?" The Professor blinked.

"Someone let a Nundu loose in the camp and it's been rampaging and killing everyone," Harry replied.

"What an amazing coincidence," one of the captives smirked. "You wouldn't happen to be Mr. Black would you?"

"I am," Harry nodded. "Why?"

"No reason," the man looked like he was barely holding back the laughter. "Just wondering."

The rest of the group of former captives got a look of dawning realization and began snickering and concealing grins.

"Everyone touching the portkey?" Harry took one last look around, "port me up."

"You found him," Henchgirl girl greeted the arrivals. "Yay."

"And he was with a bunch of other prisoners," Harry nodded. "So it might be a good idea to send them to the Doctor . . . it also might be a good idea to notify the authorities about the rampaging Nundu that I saw in the camp."

IIIIIIIIII

"Sir," one of the former captives walked into the Egyptian Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "I have information that you have to hear."

"Khafra?" The Head of Magical Law Enforcement looked at the man in shock, "you're alive."

"Mr. Black rescued me from the bandits," Khafra gave a weak smile. "And I believe that he killed every bandit there."

"My G.o.d, he told us that he destroyed the camp but he did not say that he did it alone." the older man shook his head in wonder. "How did he do it?"

"One of two ways," Khafra smiled. "Either he set a Nundu loose in the camp or . . ."

"Or?"

"Or he's a Nundu Animagus," Khafra replied.

"He told us that there was a Nundu on the loose but we couldn't find any sign of the creature when we looked," the old man smiled. "Though it would make sense for the most dangerous man in the world to take the form of the most dangerous creature in the world don't you think?"

IIIIIIIIII

Mr. Black – Ex-Dark Lord or the Incarnation of Death and Destruction

By Ms. Information

It has come to our attention that Mr. Black has admitted to being the cause of the destruction of several civilizations and this has led some to label him as an Ex-Dark Lord. We at the Quibbler would like to propose an alternate explanation. For starters, there can be no creation without destruction and Mr. Black has shown time and time again that he is quite good at destroying things . . .

Mr. Black - He can't be human.

By Laetus Lovegood

I recently had the privilege of visiting a small town in Bulgaria where I came upon a statue dedicated to Mr. Black who is a local folk hero that many people think is a patron of fertility . . .

. . . a whole conclave of Veela, now I'm sure most men have dreamed about doing it but can you imagine what it would take to actually . . .

. . . and all the Veela were worn out, could barely move . . .

. . . several Veela conclaves have posted rewards for the location of Mr. Black, said one of the Veela 'I talked to my cousins and they told me . . . all about him, they said that . . .

. . . the question remains, how do we convince Mr. Black to teach us his secrets . . .

. . . hopefully coming soon from Lovegood press 'What I did to an entire conclave of Veela and How I did it' by Mr. Black.

I think I can find out Father, "Luna looked up from her father's latest article."

"Find out what k.u.mquat?" The odd man looked down at his child.

"What Mr. Black did to all those Veela and more importantly how," Luna replied. "How's this sound . . . I'm Luna Lovegood, Lovegood by name Love very Good by reputation."

"Go to your room," Laetus replied calmly. "And don't come out until after I have a chance to perform all those chast.i.ty rituals."

"I'm sure I could get him to join me there," Luna replied as she skipped up the stairs.

"The house has wards," her father replied.

"I'm sure he could get through those," Luna smirked.

"Well then go to my room while I impersonate you with Polyjuce," Laetus nodded. It was a foolproof plan.

"No," Luna stuck out her tongue. "You go to your room while I do whatever I want."

"Fine!"

"Fine!"