Ron and Hermione gripped each others hands tightly as Lucius Malfoy loomed ever closer to them.
“So the little Weasel and the filthy Mudblood were sharing a moment?” he scoffed. “To bad it will be the last that either of you will be able to remember. Now who wants to go first?”
The two looked to one another and slowly both raised their hands. Neither one wanted to witness the other being tortured. It was easier to just take the pain themselves.
For a moment Lucius looked taken aback at their volunteering but slowly regained his composer and raised his wand to choose a victim. Before he made a decision, Snape appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Lucius,” he spat, “I thought we agreed that we would handle this together.”
“I’m tired of waiting Severus,” Lucius seethed, “and your…tolerance is making me suspicious of where your allegiance lies.”
The two men eyed one another for a moment before Hermione broke the silence. Her brain had snapped into gear and she was looking for a way out.
“Alright listen,” Hermione began with more confidence than would be expected given her situation.
The three men in the room looked toward her with curiosity etched on all of their faces.
She walked toward the edge of the cell and began addressing the two angry Death Eaters.
“Neither one of you like me very much so why don’t you just take me first and be done with it,” she finished without as much as a tinge of fear in her voice.
Lucius looked like Christmas had come early while Snape remained emotionless. Ron on the other hand was not taking this plan, if that’s what it was, very well.
“Hermione!” he whispered. “I won’t let you,” he continued his voice growing with every word.
“Take me, not her,” he stated looking defiantly at Lucius Malfoy.
“No,” said Lucius simply, “I like her idea.”
Lucius waved his wand at the lock on the cell door and muttered, “Alohomora,” unlocking it.
Hermione grasped Ron in a tight hug before she was removed from the cell and whispered in his ear, “When they take me from the cell, try to get out and go for help.”
The next second Lucius Malfoy spoke, “Accio Mudblood,” and Hermione was lifted off her feet and went speeding towards the door.
Ron also made his move towards the door and dived out of it just as Hermione was floating through the open cell.
Lucius was caught off guard by Ron’s sudden burst of movement and lost control of his spell. Hermione went flying off course and the angry Malfoy sent another random spell hurtling towards the now free Ron. At the same time Snape had sprung into action and was muttering a spell of his own.
At the hit of both men’s spells all of the torches in the room were extinguished and everything went silent and black.
Harry had been port-keyed back to number twelve Grimmauld Place. He was still a little loopy from his happiness draft but it was slowly beginning to wear off.
“Harry! Are you all right?” came the voice of Ginny Weasley from a mass of red hair that had tackled him the minute his feet hit the floor. “I was worried that you wouldn’t make it back. Are my brothers okay?”
Harry was chuckling slightly at having fallen over and wasn’t answering her questions.
“Well, you seem to be okay,” she said in reference to the laughter.
“Yeah,” he said, still snickering. “Charlie tossed me this tea saucer,” he added, holding up the plate and trying not to laugh. “It ported me out of there before anything happened,” he managed through spurts of giggles.
“What’s so funny in here,” said Mrs. Weasley as she walked through the door of the kitchen into the front hallway where Ginny and Harry were piled in a heap on the floor.
“Oh Harry, you’re back!” she screamed with glee while running towards him. “Ginny get off of him. He’s just been through an ordeal, I’m sure,” she added before scooping Harry up into an enormous hug.
“I’m not sure what he’s been through,” stated Ginny with a bemused expression on her face.
“Harry dear, what has gotten into you?” asked Mrs. Weasley as Harry burst into another fit of laughter for no apparent reason.
“Dumbledore made me drink this draft thingy,” Harry told her while trying to contain himself.
“Ah, a happiness draft,” said Mrs. Weasley matter-of-factly as she turned to go back into the kitchen. “Just before it wears off, you go into this mad fit of the giggles. I suppose, I’ll have to wait and question you after this dies away,” she finished while scurrying into the kitchen with worry once again etched on her face.
“Hey Gin,” started Harry, still chortling a bit, “Did you know you have the cutest little button nose?" He couldn’t contain his laughter now.
Ginny just rolled her eyes as she turned to leave Harry to his random amusement. She wanted to leave before the draft wore off because her face had turned beat red. Had Harry just called her nose cute?
“Okay, let’s take her together,” began Tonks as they observed Bellatrix attempting to hide herself near the entrance to the Serpent Root. “You go around to the left and I’ll come in from the right. We’ll try to stun her before she realizes what’s happening.”
“Alright, good luck,” Bill said as he took off in the direction he had been pointed.
Tonks took off in the other direction and the two slowly began to approach the hiding place of the watchful witch.
They were almost at a distance where a spell could be fired when…*snap*…Tonks stepped on a twig that broke in two.
Bellatrix began looking widely around for the source of the noise and finally spotted Tonks who was trying in vain to conceal her location.
Tonks dove wildly out of the way as the evil witch fired a spell at her. She then retrieved her own wand from inside her robes and fired a spell back at Bellatrix Lestrange.
The Death Eater became suddenly aware of Bill Weasley’s presence after dodging Tonks' spell and focused on trying to hold both of them off.
Bellatrix wasn’t ignorant about the art of dueling and stood her ground. Bill sent a stunning spell at her but she deflected it back to him. He barely had time to block it but managed to divert the spell at the last second.
The threesome dueled back and forth for what seemed like hours. After having just successfully blocked another of Lestrange’s spells, Tonks began to advance on her. She was making her way closer to the witch while her evil attention was focused on Bill.
All of a sudden Tonks' clumsiness came in contact with one of the many exposed roots in the bosk. This gave Bellatrix the opening she needed.
“Temporalis Pedica Letum!” she shouted.
Tonks’ sprawled form that had tripped over the root became suddenly limp and she did not move.
“NO!” Bill screamed as the spell hit, but it was too late.
The witch and wizard faced one another as Tonks remained motionless on the ground. Bellatrix smiled as they were preparing to continue the duel.
Before another spell could be uttered the Serpent Root began to open. Bellatrix and Bill waited to see who would emerge.
Alrighty now you know the drill. Go review and just ignore the log-in problem. I had to ignore it to get this chapter to you so you can ignore it to review, lol =) I'll give the meaning of Bella's spell in one of the next 2 chapters but I don't want to tell what it did to Tonks just yet. Now here's some publicity for some of my wonderful reviewers. There are several of my 'regular' reviewers that have really good stories on here so go read them...CraftySlytherin, Harriet Evens, Evil Penguin, Jenn_Weasley and fvweasley. If I forgot anyone I appologize. It wasn't intentional. =)