Within These Wallsen-usAAF1ADBCBB

Within These Walls

A Novel By

Solstice Muse

Dedicated to Puguita for all the wonderful covers she makes for my fics on Live Journal and beta'd by nutnatz who skips with me through fields of bluebells!
Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter 1 Captives
Chapter 2 Leading By Example
Chapter 3 Witch Interrupted
Chapter 4 Goodnight
Chapter 5 Looking Out For Number One
Chapter 6 Choices
Chapter 7 The First
Chapter 8 Distraction
Chapter 9 Selfish Thoughts
Chapter 10 Water, Water Everywhere But Not A Drop To Drink
Chapter 11 I am Not Afraid
Chapter 12 Everybody's Talking
Chapter 13 Two Lost Souls Living in A Fish Bowl
Chapter 14 Man Can Not Live On Bread Alone
Chapter 15 Sacrificial Pawns
Chapter 16 Pulling Strings
Chapter 17 Famous Last Words
Chapter 18 Duel
Chapter 19 Protection
Chapter 20 To Heal and To Hurt
Chapter 21 My Brother, My Friend
Chapter 22 Holding You Together
Chapter 23 Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Chapter 24 Hard To Swallow
Chapter 25 Two For One
Chapter 26 Brothers In Arms
Chapter 27 Babies
Chapter 28 Shields
Chapter 29 Earth to Earth
Chapter 30 Too Late
Chapter 31 Behind the Wall
Chapter 32 Almost There
Chapter 33 Unseen
Chapter 34 Diversionary Tactics
Chapter 35 Please and Thank You
Chapter 36 Back From The Dead
Chapter 37 Hickory Dickory Dock
Chapter 38 Family
Chapter 39 Amends
Chapter 40 Hurt
Chapter 41 Comfort
Chapter 42 Release
Chapter 43 Fighting Back, Breaking Through
Chapter 44 Paying the Price
Chapter 45 Firebrand
Chapter 46 Uprising
Chapter 47 The Last Stand
Chapter 48 The End
Chapter 49 Our Boy
Epilogue

"I'll use a lock that has no key
Bind you with chains
That no one else can see
Let the water creep over your face
I'll send it in waves
Just to watch you perform the great escape

I'll pull your arms tight behind you back
Use myself as weight
And wonder while you fade

How long can you hold your breath
While you hold mine again and wait
Just to watch you perform the great escape"

The Great Escape - Moby

Prologue
He had been so tired when he got back to the safe house. After transporting the elusive Death Eater Pengelley into Auror hands so they could put him away with the rest of his kind in Azkaban prison, he had crawled straight into bed fully clothed and drifted away into a deep sleep before he even remembered to pull all the covers over him.
It only felt like a matter of seconds before the door banged open wide and shattered off its hinges as it hit the wall. It couldn't have been so short a time though as the dawn light was bouncing off the walls. He grunted and sat up in bed, instinctively reaching for his wand but something grabbed his wrist and wrenched his arm painfully behind his back before another pair of arms hauled him out of the bed and threw him down onto the floor.

"What the f-" he began to say as he suddenly woke up enough to hear the yelling and crashing coming from the other rooms in the Ministry approved safe house.

The steel-toe-capped boot that landed into his stomach had cut off his question. His eyes began to water and he coughed and wheezed while blinking the different pairs of feet into focus as his hands were tied behind his back. He saw Colin Creevey being dragged past his doorway on his knees, battered and bloody, and called out to him desperately.

"Colin! What the hell's going on?"

A hand grabbed Ron's hair and pulled him up by it to snarl into his ear.

"Shut up or you'll be first on the list blood-traitor!"

Ron's hair was released and he slammed down to the floor hard on his face, his cheekbone splitting against the hardwood floor and another voice bellowing his name.

"Ron, Colin, it's a raid! Run!"

Ron felt himself being heaved up off the floor, a figure on either side of him hooking their arm with his, and then he was dragged outside to see the full extent of the security breech on the safe house in Venlo. There were Death Eaters everywhere, some hauling their prisoners to the fireplaces and some duelling with those lucky enough to have been awake and alert during the ambush.

Ron could hear running footsteps coming from the floor above and decided that he didn't survive that whole war just to get finished off in a revenge attack once Voldemort was defeated. He took a deep breath and swung his bare foot out to kick at one of his assailants in the shin while shoving into the other with his shoulder. The kick didn't do a hell of a lot other then hurt his own foot but the shove had the desired effect and Ron was released on one side, his loss of balance causing the Death Eater who still had hold of him to drop him onto the floor. Ron wriggled in an attempt to get to his feet while the Death Eaters both scrambled to get a hold of him again.

"Stupefy!" Ernie McMillan's voice yelled out and both Death Eaters were blasted away from him.

Ron was still fighting to push himself up as he called out to his old classmate and fellow D.A. volunteer to the war effort.

"Ernie what the fuck is going on?"

"Stay down!" he ordered as he sent another curse whizzing over Ron's head which obviously hit it's intended target.

Ron pressed himself flat against the almost completely bald rug beneath him. This couldn't be happening, they'd rounded the last of them up only the night before. Where had these bastards come from? He tried to wriggle his hands free from the magical ropes but they were too strong. Panic began to set in now as he searched around him for his wand, one of the Death Eaters had taken it, but the floor shook with what felt like an explosion from downstairs and Ron's eyes scrunched closed very tightly. He felt a sudden wave of nausea as he realised he hadn't seen Dean yet, they had mumbled goodnights to each other and then he had gone to his room upstairs. Ron wondered if the Death Eaters had overcome all those on the top floor. Gaining a second wind he gritted his teeth and forced himself to sit up, his determination to help fight overcoming his self-preservation instinct and even his sense of logic.

He looked around for somebody to untie his magical bonds and arm him but he was alone apart from Ernie who stood ahead of him at the junction between two corridors, still fighting valiantly. The attacks he was defending himself and Ron against seemed to be coming from all sides. Ron craned his neck to try and spot their assailants but there were too many stray curses flying in all directions for him to be able to pinpoint an origin for any one of them. Eventually Ernie had to duck and roll away from two spells that headed for him from opposite ends of the corridor and he crawled along the floor to Ron's side.

"Prisoners...it looks like they're trying to," Ernie had to stop and fling himself and Ron flat to the floor before lifting his head again and scrambling closer to Ron to point his wand at Ron's wrists, "They're not killing anybody, they're taking us all. Hold still."

Just as Ernie raised his wand to flick it down he was hit hard in the back by an intense red beam of light and slumped to the ground unconscious.

"Bastards!" Ron growled through gritted teeth before trying to sit himself up and curl his fingers around Ernie's wand behind his back.

Ron felt the smooth birch handle and his heart picked up speed with renewed hope.Then he heard heavy footsteps running at him from behind. Just as he got a grip on the wand and turned to take uncomfortable aim at his attacker he saw a fist the size of a ham heading into his face.

After that he didn't see anything.

Alastor Moody brushed himself down as he stomped across the deserted reception area of the British Ministry's embassy in Venlo. It had been their base of operations in the Netherlands during the recently ended war against Voldemort. Harry Potter had defeated him and gone back to London a hero. Remaining were most of the Aurors, Order of the Phoenix members and even some of the D.A. volunteers who had decided to stay behind to round up the last of the Death Eaters to face trial for their many crimes.
Venlo was situated in a good area for monitoring dark wizards and their movements as it was near to both the German and the Belgian borders while being far enough away from Amsterdam so as not to draw muggle attention to all the unexplainable explosions and magical phenomena.

Moody had been called to the embassy by a frantic office clerk via floo call and knew instantly that something was very wrong indeed. For a start the embassy wasn't supposed to be deserted and that didn't do an overly cautious mind like his much good at all.

"Hello?" he yelled gruffly, his shoulders tensing up in preparation for an ambush,"Who's in charge here? This is Auror Alastor Moody and I was told that there was an attack here."

Moody drew his wand and stomped through the reception area to the conference room across from the floo network. His magical eye whirred around in all directions and he saw, to his incredible unease, that there was nobody in the whole building other then the timid looking wizard who was cowering in the stationary cupboard.

He flicked his wand at the door.It flew open and the young wizard yelped and sent a spell zigzagging from the tip of his wand. Moody ducked the wayward hex and watched through the back of his head as it struck the portrait of Mapother the third, who ran from his portrait screaming like a girl,causing it to burst into flames.

"I take it that was you who called the Ministry in London for assistance," Moody said as he strode over to help the trembling wizard to his feet.

"Y-You came!" he said, a shudder seeming to rattle his whole body, "I didn't think anybody was coming," he gripped the front of Moody's robes and began to cry into them, which didn't impress the hardened Auror in the least, "I'm the only one left. I'm only a personal assistant!"

The man sobbed and his knees began to buckle. Moody grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him briskly before giving him a firm slap on the face.

"Personal assistant to whom and where in hell's name are they?" Moody snapped.

"S-Secretan, he's a Swiss Auror, he was sent here when all the Dutch Aurors were massacred three weeks ago. He went with everybody else to fight them."

This was better. They were getting somewhere now. Moody could handle talk of fighting and massacres much better then he could handle a grown man's tears.

"Fight?" Moody huffed, "What's this?A mini uprising of the dregs?", he found this hard to believe as he had trained most of these people himself at some point or other and the fact that a few radicals had rendered the entire embassy a ghost house made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, "It took a whole embassy to fight a few leaderless losers?"

The young wizard shook his head so rapidly his face was temporarily nothing more then a blur before Moody's eyes.

"This was planned, this was organised, this was— this was..."

"Spit it out you foolish boy, people could be dying!" Moody snarled.

"A tactical strike!" the young PA blurted as his face paled.

"Tactical...Where?" the hardened Auror felt himself stiffen at this news. The safetly of their people, his people, was something he prided himself on and he felt sickened that he might have allowed this silent uprising to happen right under his nose.

"Right here sir, in Venlo!"

"Where was the target you fool?" Moody roared as he shook the young wizard roughly.

"The safe house," the pale young man said in such a thin, shallow whimper as he looked pleadingly into Moody's eyes as if begging him to make all this go away.

"The safe house?" Moody repeated as his magical eyes spun in his head to scan the embassy all over again for any kind of devices he might have missed the first time while his heart sank, "Our safe house where we tell our people to go when they're fighting in Germany, Holland or Belgium?"

The PA nodded while cowering under Moody's obvious displeasure. Moody was trying to control his temper and failing miserably. He knew exactly how many people he had advised to take shelter at the safe house. It was his spells that made it safe. The thought that he might have let his people down by neglecting to abide by his own motto of 'Constant Vigilance' was making his blood boil.

"It was breeched during the night. We had people sleeping there, so many people, and Auror Secretan, Auror Maccario, Krum and one of the trainee Aurors...I don't know his name, they all took their brooms and flew to the safe house and they haven't...none of them...they didn't come back!"

Moody cursed under his breath, he knew Maccario by reputation and greatly respected the Italian Auror, and he knew that there was no way the stand-in Ambassador would abandon his embassy unless things were desperate. He rubbed his hand over his craggy scarred face. Something had gone horribly wrong.

"Who was staying there last night?"

"S-Sir?" the PA was so pale now Moody began to doubt he would be able to stay upright for much longer.

"Who did we have in our care last night? Who have we lost?"

Moody always took it personally when he lost an Auror, a friend, but he knew that it wasn't just professional dark wizard catchers who were taking refuge in that safe house but some of their volunteers. He also knew of several young wizards who had last been seen in the area and felt the dreadful sense of inevitability that he would have to deal with civilian casualties, captives or deaths.

"I didn't have a full account of exactly who was where at the time but Secretan said he knew for sure that a couple of the Order were stopping off on their journey home from the final battle and one of the healers...Callahan, he was definitely there because he was called in for a young wizard who had a temperature."

"Young wizard? For you to call somebody a young wizard that means only one thing to me," Moody said with the awful confirmation of what he had feared about to ruin his day before it had even begun.

"You had D.A. people staying there," the wizard said as Moody's eyes fell closed and he rubbed his scarred face roughly while watching the PA go on with his magical eye,"You had lots of D.A. people staying there last night."

"How many?" he said with a weary sigh.

"I don't have numbers," the young wizard shook his head and looked to the ground.

"Higher or lower then five?" Moody said as his eyes snapped open, his jaw setting firmly, and ready to hear the worst.

"Higher," the wizard swallowed.

"Higher or lower then ten?" Moody said as he felt the need to be very violent with something or somebody now.

"Higher," the PA shuddered before shaking his head and putting his hand to his face, "We can't be sure how many but it was between ten and fifteen people from different D.A. divisions scattered all over Europe."

Moody took this information in for a few seconds before the giant clock above the floo fireplace began to chime out loudly. Moody's magical eye spun around to glare at the clock behind him and he flicked his wand over his shoulder to obliterate the thing into firewood on its third chime. The P.A. cowered and staggered over to a plush armchair and sank down into it.

"Do we have names?" Moody asked, knowing that he had an idea of some of them and a sickening feeling about one name in particular.

"We have I think," the wizard nodded as he pulled a roll of parchment from his robes and held it out to Moody, "this came, it's addressed to the negotiator. I suppose that means you."

"When did this come?" Moody snarled as he snatched the scroll and unfurled it impatiently.

"Just before you, I hid, I thought they were coming here next and I hid!" the young wizard said, still trembling, "I was supposed to be sleeping there last night but I had to work late with Auror Secretan."

Moody focused both eyes down at the parchment and read.

To whomever has the authority to negotiate.

We are the 'Liberators van het broederschap' and we demand the release of all members of our brotherhood from Azkaban prison.

Until our demands are met we will execute one hostage per day and deliver something to identify the deceased hostage to the embassy by one of our members. Arresting them when they arrive will be pointless as they will be free soon enough when you meet our demands.

The Dark Lord's supporters must be freed from this undignified form of punishment. We stand by everything we have fought for. The Dark Lord is dead; his dream is not.

We have eighteen hostages. The first will be executed at noon tomorrow. A hostage will die at noon every day onwards until we are satisfied. You have 18 days to empty the cells of Azkaban prison otherwise you have the blood of eighteen of your own men on your hands, men and children. This is only what you deserve for sending boys to war.

Moody cursed under his breath again as he understood that they did indeed have a number of D.A. volunteers as their hostages and that meant that there were going to be a lot of frantic mothers descending upon the embassy within a matter of hours. Moody didn't doubt that a copy of this letter was on the desk of the editor of the Daily Prophet right now. He read on.

Here is the list of hostages,

Creevey, Colin

Krum, Viktor

Belby, Marcus

McLaggen, Cormac

Sloper, Jack

Callahan, Edward

Auror Secretan, the Ambassador

Jordan, Lee

Thomas, Dean

Painter, Thomas

Auror Maccario

Davies, Roger

McMillan, Ernest

Finnegan, Fergus

Robbins, Samuel

Peakes, James

Prang, Daniel

And then he saw it; the name he knew would be there but dreaded seeing more then he could ever have imagined. He snarled to himself and clutched the parchment so hard that it crumpled in his hands.

Weasley, Ronald

Those bastards knew exactly what they had and they were going to use it. An ambassador, a world famous Quiddich player, two relatives of influential Ministry wizards, and Harry Potter's right hand man.

Harry Potter's right arm.

They knew they were never going to be able to break Potter so instead they decided to destroy him through his friend, his brother.

"Bollocks!" Moody hissed as he kicked at an empty chair to his right, sending it skidding across the conference room on its side.

The P.A. jumped with fright and let out a shuddering sigh before staring up at Moody's face, twisted with the awful realisation that he was going to have to tell Molly Weasley that her boy was on an executioner's list and there would be nothing anybody could do about it.

After all, the ministry doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

Chapter 1 Captives

Multiple yells woke Ron out of his unconscious state. He couldn't tell whether the echo was inside his bruised head or if the string of obscenities and protestations really were bouncing off the walls of the stone windowless room.

Ron blinked his eyes into focus and shook his head, immediately regretting having done that as his brain felt as if it had been shaken loose and was bouncing around inside his skull. He looked up and saw Jack Sloper being hit with the leg-locker curse to stop him from kicking out at the black robed figures assaulting him. He heard a whistling inside his head and felt as if his face was splitting open just beneath his eye. As he tried to bring his hand to his face to hold his pulsing skull he felt the tight bindings that secured his hands behind his back.

It all came rushing back to him.

He swore to himself and shifted his legs beneath him while trying to keep his confusion and panic to a minimum. None of this was making sense and all of him was hurting. There was a deep, wet smashing sound that sounded a lot like the time he had broken his brother Charlie's nose with a quaffle as a little boy. He heard pained yelping to his right and saw a flash of light hitting a figure that was already slumped on the ground. This made him so furious he could feel the anger burning up inside of him and filling him with a little bit of extra adrenaline.

Ron was about to push himself up when an arm curled around his throat and lifted him clean off the ground.

"Well look who's decided to join us!" a man with the faintest Dutch accent said while Ron gasped and tried to wriggle out of the arm that was suffocating him.

"Ron!" Dean Thomas yelled as his arm was twisted up his back almost to the point of breaking and he was shoved face first into a wall while Ron watched helplessly.

Ron couldn't breathe and couldn't even fight to loosen the strangle hold because of his hands being tied behind him and he had no idea where he was or what was going on. He tried to kick at the knees of his assailant before wincing in pain at his grazed and bruised bare feet as they made contact. He had nothing to punch with, nothing to give a decent kick with and no wand. A tiny voice in Ron's head spoke to him, it sounded just like Harry telling him he'd faced worse odds before, and that was enough to give him the strength to put up another fight despite the pain it caused him.

Ernie McMillan was being ferociously beaten in the centre of the darkened room and Jimmy Peakes struggled in vain to help his fellow Gryffindor. As Ron managed to land a hard backwards kick in the Death Eater's groin, he caught sight of an older man with his hands above his head pleading with the Death Eaters to let him help somebody who was shivering a little way away from him on the floor. In retaliation for the heel in the groin Ron felt the hold on his neck tighten with a shake and he saw spots before his eyes and struggled not to pass out.

"Compileer de lijst," the Death Eater who had hold of Ron bellowed to his cohorts with a strained voice as he dropped Ron back on his unsteady feet and slammed him against the wall beside Dean, "don't move otherwise the person to either side of you will be executed!" he said sickeningly close to the side of Ron's face with a whisper that almost left a layer of condensation upon his cheek.

Ron was still choking a little as the revolting Death Eater removed his sickening presence from his sight. His eyes then fixed upon Dean's as Auror Secretan, the fill-in Ambassador, was lined up against the wall to Dean's right.

"Breathe Ron, it's gonna be fine, we're all gonna be fine," his old dorm mate said with an eerily confident tone of voice.

Ron cleared his throat and nodded. His cheek felt as if it was inflated to twice its size and it felt as if his lip was split and bleeding quite heavily too.

"Yeah," he forced a painful smile Dean's way, "they're just sore losers. This'll be over by tomorrow."

"You don't know how true that is for one of you blood-traitor!" that same slightly accented voice snarled into the back of Ron's head before punching him in the back, causing him to slide down the wall to his knees.

"You fuckers are going to pay fer this I'm tellin' yer!" a strong Irish accent roared before being silenced as he too was slammed face first against the wall.

"There will be no fighting and no talking from any of you otherwise..." the lead Death Eater put his wand to Dean's head as another put their wand to the head of a person Ron knew to be the Italian Auror Maccario who was setting his jaw into a defiant expression and trying to silently instil Ron with the strength to do what he needed to, "I meant what I said Weasley. Up against the wall and shut up in three...two..."

Ron grunted as his legs thrust him upwards again and he leaned against the wall, trying not to let the pain in his back show.

"Good, we understand each other."

Ron was facing Auror Maccario now who smiled at him and gave a nod. Ron saw Lee Jordan and Colin Creevy further down the line and heard what sounded like Ernie McMillan being dragged to the wall in a state of semi consciousness and leaning against it in desperate need to have something to hold him up.

There were many more prisoners but Ron couldn't see them all. He could only hear the ragged breaths and occasional wheeze of somebody suppressing the agony of their injury to spare the lives of those to either side of them. The sound of footsteps calmly walking the line past Ron and all the way to the end echoed around the damp walls before the lead Auror spoke again, this time to his aides.

"Begin met dit!"

Somebody scribbled something on a piece of parchment before the ambassador was pulled away from the wall and shoved through a doorway by an armed Death Eater. The footsteps sounded again before the voice spoke, almost from behind Ron this time.

"Dit!"

Auror Maccario was dragged away while his name was scratched onto the parchment somewhere.

"Prang?" the Death Eater said disapprovingly as he walked further down the line, "You are an Auror also?"

"Trainee, proud to be a trainee and working against you and your vicious evil bas-"

There was a yelping sound and a growl from two different people as heavy blows landed with muffled booms.

"I'll shut up, I'll shut up don't kill them please!" Prang begged before being hauled away and through the same door as all the others.

"Healer? Where is the healer?" the amused voice pondered aloud to himself as his footsteps passed by Ron again, "Ah Callahan! Dit!" he ordered his Death Eaters and another person was taken.

It went on like that. A weak looking wizard Ron had never seen before was hauled away; Roger Davies, Cormac McLaggen, Sloper, another wizard Ron didn't know the name of but who looked incredibly familiar, Marcus Belby, Lee Jordan, Jimmy Peakes. This was getting too much for Ron to take. He forced his eyes closed for a moment to remind himself to be strong and clenched his jaw before opening them again.

He was shocked to see Viktor Krum before him with that same surly look on his face that he always had. For the brief second they were eye to eye Krum seemed to recognise Ron and move his lips to speak but he was pulled out of Ron's sight and taken through the same door as all the others. Ron felt his breaths shorten as the number of people lined up against the wall grew smaller and nobody seemed to be coming back out of that door.

He waited while Dean, Ernie, and Colin were taken through before it was eventually his turn.

He was pulled by his bound wrists and prodded towards the door with the tip of a wand. He suddenly felt dread hanging thickly in the atmosphere as he passed through and saw a very narrow corridor lined with six iron doors. He was directed with great force to the middle door on the left and shoved through it. He staggered into Lee Jordan who did his best to catch Ron despite his own arms being behind his back. The iron door slammed behind him and magically locked.

There was another person on the floor of the cell, it was the weak looking wizard Ron had seen taken through at the very beginning. There was nothing else there other then a small opening nine inches wide with a bar through the centre of it to let the shaft of sunlight in to form a rhombus on the dirty floor.

"Ron mate, are you okay?" Lee was saying as Ron steadied himself on his feet, "Shit what did they do to your face?"

Ron shrugged and tried to smile.

"I reckon they might have improved it, what d'you think?"

Lee smiled back very briefly before they heard another set of footsteps and the cell door next to theirs slamming shut and locking.

"That's the last of us," Lee mumbled, "They took eighteen."

"What for?" Ron frowned as best he could with his swollen face, his heart beating like a humming bird's.

He looked into the fearful eyes of his twin brothers' best friend as the dread locked young wizard shook his head and swallowed.

"I'm fucked if I know!"

Chaos wasn't the word to describe the reception area of the embassy at that moment.
There were frantic families and friends, spouses and colleagues, and no control over any of them as they demanded answers and action from Moody.

"Now come on Mad-Eye you can't seriously expect me to believe that there's no ransom involved and if there is it's not the ministry's place to deny us the right to pay," Mr McLaggen was ranting while almost elbowing a tearful Mrs Creevey in the face.

"Watch it!" Denis Creevey said protectively as he pulled his mother into the protective cocoon of his arms and guided her out of the fray.

"I have read you the note as I have it, there is no demand other then the release of all the prisoners in Azkaban and this will never happen!" Moody bellowed while wanting more then anything to take a swing at the obnoxious but desperate parent before him.

There was a beautiful young woman with short blonde hair and almond shaped eyes dabbing a handkerchief to her face and holding on to the son of the captured healer, Callahan. He heard her accent and deduced that this must be Auror Maccario's fiancÃ©e Chiara and felt thankful for the stoic dignity with which most of the families were handling this development. He still had not faced Harry Potter and was not looking forward to it one bit.

The Weasleys had already besieged the embassy and Moody resorted to sending Tonks and Lupin to break the news to Potter and try to keep him calm before bringing him along into this frenzy of anxiety and fear. Hermione Granger was nowhere to be found as they had lost contact with her while she was returning from giving evidence at the trial of several Death Eaters who were apprehended in New Orleans.

"Mother what did he just say to yeh?" Seamus Finnegan was pulling at his mother's arm with a grimace of apology to the Auror, "If Aunt Marie can wait without making a show of herself then you can too!"

"Your Aunt Marie's in shock and so should you be young man!" Mrs Finnegan snapped at her son with wild eyes and even wilder hair.

Moody assumed she had come to her sister's side as soon as she heard the news, regardless of hairbrushes or combs.

"I'll be in shock when you calm down woman," Seamus said as he began to wrestle the tyrannical woman away from the McLaggens, who were aggravating everybody to the point of threatening them, just to air their disapproval.

"I said I wanted calm and this is not calm!" Moody bellowed and several voices and scuffles within the crowd stopped.

The McLaggens and the Belby's were at the point of coming to blows with each other and taking no notice whatsoever. Moody was about to storm down and shut them up with more then just his booming voice but stopped when he saw Arthur Weasley pushing his way between the two men and holding them apart from each other at arm's length.

"Now come on gentlemen, we're all in the same boat here and fighting amongst ourselves..." Arthur began with diplomacy that was betrayed by the haunted look in his eyes and the quiver in his voice.

"We are not in the same bloody boat though are we Weasley?" McLaggen said, his eyes almost bulging out of his head and a vein pulsing in his neck with such alarming prominence that Moody was tempted to stun the man just to keep him from having a heart attack.

"That is what I have been trying to tell you fool!" Belby said, his own concerns for his son beginning to spring to the fore while attempting to remain a good example before his dignified family a little way away, "We are all the same here. Money doesn't matter, influence doesn't matter, and power doesn't matter. All these people want is to cheat justice and hurt many more people, maybe even re-start the war!"

"Well somebody takes the ranting of this senile old coot far too seriously if you ask me," McLaggen scoffed while trying to shake off Arthur's palm from his chest so he could face-off with Belby again.

"Gentlemen please, who does this help?" Arthur said, his lips thinning and sweat breaking on his forehead as he struggled to keep the peace, "It certainly doesn't help our boys."

"And that's what it comes down to isn't it Weasley?" McLaggen all but spat into Arthur's face.

Moody drew in a sharp breath as he saw Charlie Weasley rising up from his chair beside his trembling mother and went an alarming shade of purple. He willed somebody to step in and calm him down before things got out of hand and almost heaved an audible sigh when he noticed Bill nodding for Fleur to distract his mother while he set about subduing his sibling.

"Leave the poor man alone you arse!" Belby said, his temper finally fraying beyond repair.

"Geoffrey please don't," Mrs Belby called across to her husband while her brother-in-law gave her shoulder a squeeze of reassurance.

"We all know that the only reason Moody won't talk money is because the likes of him," McLaggen pointed at Arthur, "her," he jerked his head in the direction of Mrs Creevey, "and those muggles over there," everybody turned their heads against their better judgement to see the defiant but humble Painter family straighten up and lift their chins from their spot beside the fireplace, "can't afford feed their own children let alone buy their lives back!"

"You fucking bas-" Charlie almost threw Bill to the ground as he rose to charge at the foolish wizard but Lee Jordan's mother seemed to appear from nowhere and plant her hands on his chest and say something to stop him in his tracks and make him lower his head to stare at the floor, his shoulders slumping.

"I feed my children," Mrs Creevey said in a willowy lost tone of voice before being shushed by Dennis.

Fergus Finnegan's mother crossed the room to hug the woman and mutter words of comfort into her hair while rubbing her back.

"The truth of the matter is I can afford to get my son out and so can you Belby," McLaggen said as deep lines began to form around his mouth due to it twisting so tightly as he spoke, "I have influence and contacts and so does your brother over there," he gestured to Geoffrey Belby's brother who had been estranged up until this very day from his brother's family due to some petty little feud and he continued, "but we are being forbidden to do whatever we can do in our power to save our children's lives because of these people!"

"These people?" Moody snarled as he threw an ornate vase against the wall to silence this shouting match, "You do not know these people McLaggen. These people were fighting for your family and their freedom. These people gave you a future where you can keep your precious money and not be forced to hand it over on pain of death. These people are the people who helped raise you to the position of influence you hold today and you owe them some bloody respect you jumped up little twerp!"

McLaggen looked about ready to blow as he opened his mouth and drew a breath.

"I have not...finished...speaking!" Moody roared with such volume that dust fell from the ceiling and cobwebs were shaken loose.

The room collectively held it's breath and Moody exhaled calmly before stomping down from the makeshift platform he had been trying to command attention from and limped across the wooden floor with the deep booms of oak against oak.

"There is nothing in your vault at Gringotts that can save your son's life McLaggen. There is no influence in the world that can manipulate his freedom. There is just surrender and how many more young wizards will be taken next time we win and they taste sour grapes?"

"Exactly," Belby nodded and moved a step back.

Arthur gratefully lowered a shaking arm and turned his cautious mediating fully on McLaggen now.

"Why should my son die just because everybody else's son is going to?" the man said, his voice sounding unsteady now, like a lost little boy trying to be a big brave man about a grazed knee.

"Why should everybody else's son die just because you made a deal to spare yours?" Moody said in a rough but even tone as he settled his battle-worn hand upon McLaggen's pristinely tailored robe at his shoulder.

"We are going to have to liberate our boys rather then surrender our morals to the Death Eaters McLaggen," Belby said as his brother stood at his side and put a strong arm of support around him.

"First things first," Moody said as he gave Arthur a smile of thanks for his positive influence and patted the man on the back as he passed him to address the rest of the anxious gathering, "we find out where they are."

"I'm on the team that goes in to get them," a strong, young voice sounded out from the far end of the reception area, "and I'm not taking no for an answer."

Moody didn't needed to turn around to see who had just arrived via floo, he had seen him and his escorts stumble out of the fireplace and freeze to take in the debate in question, and he kept his back to the saviour of the wizarding world while his magical eye swivelled back to look him in the eye through the back of his head.

"Hello Potter."

Chapter 2 Leading By Example

The Ambassador and Auror Maccario were calling out to each other from their adjoining cells while the other captives friends yelled across to their friends from the small six inch square opening in their cell door. Lee Jordan was peering out at the worried faces before looking back to Ron with a shrug of resignation.

"There's no point trying to talk to anybody right now. They're all too freaked out."

Ron would have raised an eyebrow if it had been possible to do so and crouched down to the ground so he could step backwards through his bound arms. Now they were in front of him, and his shoulders felt as if they were in a more natural position once more. Ron crouched before the shivering wizard on the floor of the cell, Ron settled down onto his knees and put his hand to the young man's forehead. The poor bloke was burning up and Ron glanced up to Lee worriedly.

"Shit this guy's really ill."

Lee copied Ron's movement to manipulate his hands in front of him and squatted beside Ron as he began to rub his magical bonds against the rough surface of the wall.

"What are you doing?" he said with a tone that seemed to betray a concern for Ron's sanity.

"Well I want to give him my jumper but I can't take it off with my hands bloody tied!" Ron snapped back before exhaling deeply and looking back at Lee with a wince of apology for his tone.

Lee put his own bound hands upon Ron's shoulder and smiled for a moment before turning back to consider the problem at hand. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times before rising to his feet and calling through the cell door.

"Excuse me but did I hear right that there was a healer here?"

The background chatter died down immediately and Dean Thomas' face appeared at the cell door opposite, nudging Auror Maccario aside as if he was an annoying first year who was blocking his way to the great hall at dinnertime.

"Is Ron alright?" he asked.

"Fine," Lee nodded, before seeing the Ambassador across the way and to the left looking at him intensely, "Sir, Ambassador Secretan...sir, we've got a guy in here in a really bad way."

"You've got Tommy with you?" a Scouse accent called out from the cell opposite Secretan's and right next door to their own.

Lee turned back to look at Ron and shrug.

"Do you know his name?"

Ron shook his head and felt slightly guilty.

"I've never seen him before, I don't even know who he's with," Ron swallowed and looked back down to the trembling wizard and squeezed his shoulder, "hey there, what's your name mate? Can you tell us your name?"

The thin, pale wizard parted his dry lips and began to whisper something that Ron couldn't make out. He looked back to Lee and made a shrugging gesture with his eyes.

"Ask him if he's Tommy," Lee said, gripping the cell door with subconscious anxiety.

Ron turned back to the ailing wizard and smiled, then winced as his bloodied and swollen lip broke open where it had just partially closed,

"Are you Tommy?" the young man nodded his head and pulled his thin t-shirt tightly to his body, Ron huffed and struggled back to his feet to whisper into Lee's ear, "I think they dragged him out of his sick bed or something, he's in his bloody PJs. He'll freeze tonight."

Lee turned back to call through the cell door again.

"We've got Tommy in here and he's got a temperature and the shakes and he's only wearing pyjama bottoms and a t shirt. Are you the healer guy?"

"That's me, I was called in to take care of him when the attack happened," the North Westerly accent responded, "Who am I talking to?"

"Lee, Lee Jordan."

"Hi Lee, I'm Cally, is Tommy a mate of yours then?"

"No neither of us have ever seen him before, do any of the rest of you know him or who he's with?"

There were murmurs coming from everywhere and Ron looked back down at the weakened wizard and felt the need to do something once again. All he could think of was to renew his quest to try and grind through his magical bonds against the wall.

"I arranged for Cally to come to the safe house and treat him," the Ambassador said, almost with an unspoken apology in his voice as he recounted his part in dragging this poor healer into the whole hostage mess, "He's with the Order. He worked with Shacklebolt and Tonks' teams in Eastern Europe and became sickly just as the war ended so he wasn't able to disapparate home. I arranged a portkey transfer to the safe house and brought the treatment to him once I knew he was...secure."

The cellblock was deathly silent after the Ambassador's last word left his lips with its sorrowful resonance hitting everybody where it hurt.

"This wasn't your fault Ambassador," Maccario was saying, shaking everybody out of their contemplative state suddenly, "You didn't see this coming because I didn't see it coming and it's my job to be on the look-out."

"Alessandro no," the Ambassador called back again while Ron grunted and rubbed his wrists even harder against the stone wall with gritted teeth, "I am still an Auror despite my temporary position of Ambassador and..."

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Ron growled as he rose to his feet and shouldered Lee away from the opening in the cell door to yell through at the two Aurors across from him, "has everybody got their hands tied or is it just us?"

"W-What?" the stunned Ambassador blinked at Ron, not used to teenagers speaking to him so bluntly.

"I can't give this guy my jumper 'cause I can't..." Ron lifted his wrists to the opening to show the others, "...take it off!"

There was a shuffling and murmuring from the cell across the corridor and to Ron's right before Danny Prang, the trainee Auror, turned to look over his shoulder and then look back across to Ron with a reluctant frown.

"Ernie's saying you can take his robe but I don't think..."

"I saw what state you were in mate," Ron called across the narrow corridor, "no way!"

"Bet...look...darn sight better...n'you Weasley!" Ernie's strained voice said with considerable effort by the sounds of it.

Ron let himself smile before closing his eyes and resting his throbbing head against the door.

"I think you might be right there Ernie."

A thick woollen sweater was shoved through the tiny opening to the Ambassador's cell door and Ron opened his eyes to exhale his gratitude while reaching through the opening with his bound hands and pleading with himself not to drop the damn thing when he got his hands on it.

"Thank you sir."

Just as the sweater left the opening completely Ron saw whose arm was pushing it through and their eyes fixed and froze them like statues for a split second.

"Thanks Krum," Ron mumbled while biting his lip and pressing his body flat against the door so he could reach out diagonally as far as possible.

Krum was doing the same, with slightly more success due to his hand being free, and beginning to swing the sweater by its sleeve in Ron's direction. Ron didn't want to drop this bloody thing but now more then ever. If he fumbled an easy catch in front of Krum then the Death Eaters could just go ahead and kill him now.

"Turn your head so you can get closer," Krum instructed with his brusk Bulgarian accent as the other sleeve of the jumper kept gliding tantalisingly close to Ron's fingertips but nowhere near enough for him to get any kind of grip on it.

"If I turn my head I won't be able to see it to catch it you great pr..." Ron bit his tongue, "That's not a good idea," he chose to re-phrase his comment.

Krum seemed oblivious to Ron's slip of the tongue, either that or he genuinely didn't care for anything Ron would have to say in general, and looked him in the eyes with that surly humourless expression of his.

"Turn your head, press flat against door, I will swing sweater towards your hand and count three. When I say three you grip. You will have sweater in hand, I give my word."

Ron wanted to give Krum a few words of his own but knew that this was too important for him to bugger up like he had his and Hermione's burgeoning relationship and turned his head to face the cell wall. He pressed his cheek hard against the cell door, buying him a couple more centimetres and making his eyes water from the pain shooting through his broken cheekbone and directly into his brain, before calling back to Krum through a grimace of discomfort.

"Do it!"

"One..." Ron flexed his fingers as far as they would go and felt nothing but a draft caused by something wafting close by, "...Two..." this time Ron felt the fabric brush against his fingertips and tried to grip, ", this time Ron, three!"

As soon as he heard the count he curled his fingers shut and felt the thick wool beneath his fingers. A fresh wave of pain sliced through his skull from his cheekbone but Ron ignored it and forced himself hard against the door to be sure he had a good grip on the item of clothing.

"You have it? I can let go?" Krum was asking.

"Yeah please," Ron said, cursing himself for letting the fact that he was struggling show so obviously, and when he felt the fabric go limp in his hands he pulled backwards into his cell and dragged the sweater with him.

He tossed it to Lee who caught it and watched Ron momentarily before turning his attention to Tommy. Ron leaned back over to the opening in the cell door and called through.

"Thanks Krum...Viktor."

"Welcome," Krum grunted back

Ron closed his eyes and slid down the wall to try and stop his head from spinning.

"Ron you okay?" Lee was saying.

Ron opened his eyes again and forced a smile onto his aching face and nodded.

"Just sore," he lied before turning to see Tommy in his warmer attire, "Feel any better Tommy?"

Tommy was still shivering quite violently but he too was forcing a smile onto his chapped lips as he responded.

"Th-Th-Thanks. S'better."

"Hey Lee?" the voice of the healer, Cally, called out.

Lee went to respond through the door while Ron closed his eyes again and tried to focus his mind on something other then the pain in his head. His bones ached too, the bruises would be going all the ugliest colours of the rainbow soon and eventually he was going to get cramp in his arms and not be able to do a thing about it other then flex and contract his fingers. The terrible thing was that all of those things were the least of his worries.

"You've got another guy in there who needs looking after am I right?" the Scouser said.

"Um well," Lee glanced down at Ron who cracked his un-swollen eye open and shook his head just a little, "he's just got a black eye and a fat lip that's all really. I reckon Ernie's worse off as far as beatings go."

"You know what, he really is," Prang's voice interrupted the conversation and Lee gladly moved away from the door to let the healer treat his patient from the diagonally opposite cell.

Lee watched Tommy turn onto his side and snuggle into Krum's sweater before looking back at Ron sadly and taking his face as gently but forcefully as he could and turning it towards the minimal light available. He swore through his teeth as he examined Ron's split and swollen cheekbone. Lee plunged his bound hands into his pocket, looking for something before cursing again and turning out his trouser pocket and ripping it clean off at the seams.

"What are you d-" Ron began but Lee was dampening the material with his tongue before dabbing at Ron's cheek with it.

Ron's eyes widened as he flinched away from it, causing his head to slosh from side to side as if filled halfway with water, but Lee was persistent and pulled him back by his chin. Ron rolled his eyes and huffed with resignation.

"Y'know this is the sort of thing my mum does," Ron grumbled and Lee chuckled, "'cept she does it in front of more people!"

The two of them heaved deep sighs and sat back against the wall side by side.

"Mum's gonna lose her mind when she finds out about this," Ron said blankly, focusing idly ahead of him at the opposite wall.

"Mmmm," Lee nodded, "mine too. Fred and George are going to be pissed."

There was an empty pause before Ron spoke.

"Yeah."

"Nobody messes with ickle Ronniekins but them."

"Shut up," Ron said as he jabbed Lee in the ribs gently.

"Seriously though Ron, I'm the oldest in this cell so..."

"You don't know how old he is," Ron nodded across the cell to the sleeping Tommy.

Lee took in an annoyed breath and began again.

"I'm the oldest healthy person in this cell," Ron chuckled and fidgeted against the magical ropes absent-mindedly while the 'older' boy continued, "therefore it's my responsibility to look after the two of you until the Aurors come storming in later on tonight so when I say behave you behave. When I say shut up you shut up and when I ask you if you're alright you tell me the bloody truth right?"

Ron turned his head to look at Lee, who seemed to be serious. Ron decided to test the eternal clown.

"I never was one for following rules," he smirked.

Lee didn't smile back at him.

"Are you alright Ron?" he asked, clearly his tone demanded no bullshit from the redhead.

Ron closed his eyes and took another deep breath in to concentrate on his pounding head before blowing the air out again and looking at Lee once more.

"I think maybe I shouldn't go to sleep for longer then an hour...maybe."

Lee allowed himself to smile, just a little, at Ron for his admission of vulnerability.

"Concussion is it?"

"Well I'm no healer but...yeah, definitely."

Lee nodded and they turned their focus back to the wall again before Lee suddenly shattered the silence and the fragility of Ron's head by shouting back at the wall behind him.

"Cally my friend Ron has concussion, advice please?"

Before Cally could holler back Ron punched Lee in the arm with his bound fists and roared back into his face.

"Your friend Ron's gone bloody deaf!"

The sound of laughter emerged from a couple of the cells before there was a pounding on the main door to the cellblock and a deep voice bellowing through at them.

"Stil!"

Nobody said a word until the highly amused Irish accent broke the tension.

"Gentlemen I think we just learned how to say shut yer yap in Dutch!"

Ron and Lee raised their magically bound arms and whooped sarcastically with the others.

More Aurors were arriving, along with ministry representatives and the Mminister for Magic himself, to attempt to give each and every family somebody to deal with their case individually and supply them with information. Well the Mminister wasn't neccessarily going to be there for that. He was going to be there because it was expected in this sort of situation.

Moody closed the door behind him as he followed Harry and Lupin inside the Ambassador's vacant office.

"If you dare try and talk me out of coming along or fighting or..." Harry began, defensive from the start.

"There is no team Potter," Moody interjected, "There is no plan for me to let you in on and there is nothing I can talk you out of doing as there is no information for us to act upon other then a demolished safe house and eighteen missing wizards!"

Harry's whole body tensed to the point of rigidity. His lips were pressed together thinly and his hands balled themselves into tight fists as his rage threatened to take him over in the same way it had when he had trashed Dumbledore's office after Sirius died.

"Safe house!" the saviour of the wizarding world spat the words as if they disgusted him.

"Come Harry, this isn't anybody's fault other than the Death Eaters," Lupin put a calming hand on Harry's back but Harry snaked his body away from it and took a step towards Moody.

"When he was fighting with me I didn't manage to lose him once. When he fought alongside his brothers or Hermione he came back home again," Harry's voice was straining along with the rest of his body not to explode with fury, "He comes out here as a favour for you..."

"Harry this isn't helping us find Weasley or anybody else for that matter now pull yourself together and start thinking like the man who faced Lord Voldemort and took him down."

"Yes I did!" Harry lost his composure completely, "And you know what I wanted to do after 'taking him down' Moody? I wanted to take my friends home safely to their families and enjoy a world and a life where people I love stop dying!"

Lupin cringed under those last words of Harry's as if they caused him pain. He reached out to try and calm Harry once again but Harry was determined to face-off with Moody.

"There's the little complication of having to go over the final battle with you and then the minister for magic and then the press so I can't go back to the Burrow just yet. Then I have this little thing where I have to accept a wizarding award and a parade and all sorts of stuff I never fucking wanted!"

"Harry please..." Lupin tried for a third time but was waved away as if he was a troublesome bluebottle buzzing around Harry's head.

"I'm put up in the best room at the Leaky Caldron, I'm tied up with events and ministry approved public appearances, and I'm told that I can't even floo the Burrow to talk to my best friend and my family and my girlfriend because of security leaks to non-ministry approved publications and unauthorised biographies of me. When I eventually see Ron. When he comes all the way to the ministry, and waits four and a half bloody hours just to see how I'm doing, you...you show up and pull him aside to ask him a favour."

"Potter nobody could have anticipated something like this was going to happen. The hostages were taken at random. It was just unlucky that Weasley was sleeping there that night. it was bad luck for all of them."

"Don't you talk to me about luck!" Harry roared, "Bad luck is winning a war when you are only eighteen years old and having nobody else with you for the whole fight other then two other eighteen year olds and then, when you've lived through the impossible, being asked to go off into Europe and bring in 'a few dregs' for the ministry because they're so over stretched."

"Weasley understood the risks Potter and I'm sure he wouldn't want to know you were getting yourself into this state over..." Moody was fighting a losing battle.

"His name is Ron!" Harry snarled before running his hands through his hair and pacing the room desperately.

The two world-weary wizards seemed to be satisfied with this moment of silent rage for the time being. Anything was better then Harry vocal indignation.

He couldn't stand it. Not after all they had been through together, not this, not now. He had seen Ron shrugging at him and rolling his eyes as Moody led him away to a briefing room before patting the bottom of his chin and grinning that Ron grin of his. 'Keep your chin up', that had been his parting message to Harry. Harry had waved and called after him, 'But then I'll keep walking into people!'. The last thing he had said to Ron was as meaningful as a cough. Just a joke, a lame joke and a wave before his best friend was directed into a side room and sent out to do busywork like the nobody the ministry thought he was.

He wasn't nobody. He was Ron Weasley, the person Harry Potter would never have survived this past year without. He was the person Harry wouldn't have been able to survive school without.

"We should be sitting in the Burrow playing chess," Harry said with a hollow voice, "only none of you would let us."

The door burst open and Hermione was practically wrestling her way past three Aurors to get inside.

"Leave her!" Moody instructed them and they obeyed immediately, "We've been expecting Miss Granger."

Hermione marched over to the still quivering Harry and they hugged, both their bodies feeling as tightly wound as a watch spring and ready to burst. She released him as quickly as she had grabbed him to her and spun around to face Moody.

"Don't bother asking him Hermione, they're all as ignorant as each other, this'll have to be down to you, me and..." Harry was growling bitterly.

"Shut up Harry," Hermione snapped, still looking Moody in the eyes, which both remained focused upon her respectfully.

"Thank you Miss Granger, I knew your positive influence was all that was needed h-" Moody was beginning to relax just a little before Hermione raised her finger to silence the Auror.

"No Auror Moody," she said with her jaw setting at a defiant angle and her shoulders back, "you're going to listen to me!"

Chapter 3 Witch Interrupted

Hermione sat in the waiting room and pondered having the words 'Of Mice and Men' tattooed onto her forehead backwards. That way she could be reminded about the pointlessness of her ever making future plans for anything every time she looked into the mirror of a morning.

She had wanted to just put her head down and work hard at school. She had wanted to be the top of the class, become a prefect, then head girl and then go on to dazzle the world with her magical skills like the prodigy she had all the potential to become.

But then she had been distracted by the temptation of having friends.

She'd never had friends before. There had been the people who bullied her, the people who disliked her but couldn't be bothered to take time out of their day to be mean to her, and then there were the people who just didn't know she existed at all. She had expected Hogwarts would be much the same and, sure enough, it was. She didn't care, she was used to it by then.

It was only when she kept bumping into those two boys and finding their conversations so fascinatingly incorrect that she just had to jump in and correct them. She'd always look out for them in class and over meals. They'd pass in corridors and make eye contact. Eye contact! Nobody made eye contact with Hermione Granger; it was like an unwritten rule. She even spontaneously joined them on a couple of occasions and found herself partnered with one of them or the other in certain classes.

She'd been partnered in Professor Flitwick's class with that infuriating one who she seemed to want to impress despite him not liking anything she found impressive. She had performed the levitation charm perfectly and won their house some points, so she'd turned to him to at last gain his approval and he looked at her as if she was covered in dung.

She'd overheard him saying cruel things about her on the way out of the class and mentally kicked herself for almost forgetting that she didn't have real friends. She almost fooled herself into thinking she might be friends with the two exasperating boys.

Then they did become friends and she found that it was possible to be the best witch in the class and still have somebody to talk to in the common room before going to bed. It was more then she could have ever dreamed to have. She, Hermione Granger, finally had her cake and ate it at the same time.

But then she had been distracted by the temptation of Ron.

It was the most frustrating time of her life and still was. He was her best friend and she wouldn't and couldn't lose that friendship for anything, yet she would find herself teetering on the brink of ruining everything between them. Why would she take the chance of driving Ron away when it had meant so much to her to have him as a friend in the first place?

Because something inside of her screamed, every time they were close or laughing or fighting or even just sitting in silence, that every wonderful thing she had ever felt would be ten times better if she became that different kind of friend to Ron.

Then he went and grew up so awfully well. How dare he! How dare he grow taller and less gangly and somehow even more handsome then his little cute freckled self had been when they first met on the Hogwarts Express? How dare he get onto the quiddich team and get an athletic build? How dare he do that thing with his hair in front of passing girls?

How dare he put his lips to Lavender Brown's!

Because that was yet another thing she had become distracted from of course. She had been so focused on having everything she wanted at the same time it never once occurred to her that somebody else might want it too. She could keep Ron hanging on while she prioritised other things; her schoolwork, her prefect duties, her elf rights campaigns. She would have gone that way until N.E.W.T.s were over and done if she hadn't, to her intense displeasure and overwhelming fear, seen that other girls were noticing Ron the way she noticed Ron.

That had been the thing to get her to act at long last. Lavender Brown was prettier then her, more popular then her and definitely more confident then Hermione was. What made things worse was that Ron noticed Lavender's flirtation for what it was and flirted right back.

Hermione had flirted.

She had!

She had flirted with him multiple times and he was still clueless. Lavender 'cowing' Brown walks past him and laughs at something he says and he picks up on it straight away. What had she been doing wrong all those years? She laughed at him lots of times. Well she decided to be obvious if that's what it took to get through his thick head. She asked him out to Slughorn's party that Christmas.

She asked him out and he didn't say no.

Yet, as with everything else in her life, she didn't get to see it through.

She didn't get to become the best witch ever to attend Hogwarts, as she didn't finish her Hogwarts education at all. She didn't get to become Head Girl for the same reason. She didn't get go out with Ron Weasley because of the most cruel set of circumstances, so then she felt as if she had missed the boat altogether and they were back to being friends again.

Because then she had been distracted by that little war thing that came up.

She couldn't start a relationship in normal circumstances so she definitely couldn't start a relationship as complicated as one like her and Ron's would have been during a war. All the emotional risks of losing the greatest friend you've ever had mingled with the terror of losing your other friend to a homicidal madman were hardly stable grounds to begin a relationship. So they waited.

They waited until the horcrux mission was over with.

Then they waited until the final confrontation with Voldemort was over with.

Then they waited until the war was tied up with a neat little bow and they could get their lives back.

Hermione was still waiting and she was sick of it. She wanted what she had been waiting so long for and this moment was going to be the last time she had to wait before finally being able to complete something without interruption or distraction or life threatening intervention.

Ron was going to pick her up from the station that morning, just like they had planned.

She would finish her business in New Orleans and he would finish his clean-up job for Moody in the Netherlands and then they would meet outside Kings Cross Station and get on the Hogwarts Express for old time's sake to finally talk things out, just the two of them in a private carriage. Hermione had reserved it for them.

She had waited.

She had waited for so long that she began to wonder if she had been foolish to think that Ron was in the same emotional place as her. Maybe he was going to tell her that she was nothing more then a friend to him and they could never be. What if he hadn't been able to bring himself to show up to tell her his reasons why at all? Then she began to scold herself for getting the date or the place or the time wrong and tore her diary to shreds for any alternate arrangements they might have made that she had forgotten. She knew she would never have forgotten this appointment with Ron for anything in the world though. It was indelibly imprinted upon her brain and even one of Lockheart's memory spells wouldn't have been able to move it. Soon she was worrying that something had gone wrong and Ron had been involved in some kind of accident.

She waited for two and a half hours before she picked up her bag and carried it into the waiting room to try to work out what she should do next. The train had long gone and that would have been her only way of contacting him, sending an owl from the train's own communications carriage to ask him where the hell he had got to.

Yet again her plans were incomplete, unfinished, interrupted.

That was when she was had been distracted by the sight of a huge man with a bushy beard wading through the crowd at Kings Cross Station as if they were nothing more then knee-deep, calm water. She knew Ron wasn't coming now. She knew Ron wasn't ever going to come. She met Hagrid's watery eyes and got to her feet, taking a deep breath and telling herself that she would keep it together when he told her what he had come all this way to tell her. She wasn't going to break down when the sombre-looking half giant told her what she already knew.

He was going to tell her Ron was dead.

"'Ermione..." Hagrid said, his voice cracking slightly.

"Hermione?" Harry said as he stared from her to Moody and back again.

"Miss Granger," Mad-Eye Moody began as they stood opposite each other in the office of the Ambassador at the magical Embassy in Venlo, "I understand how you must be feeling right now but..." he was cut of by the voice of the witch he had known as a girl but who now was very much a woman.

"You will never understand how I feel."

Molly did what any mother would in such circumstances; she started cooking.
There were a lot of hungry, worried families out there, her own brood amongst them, and she couldn't stand to just sit and wonder whether she would ever see her Ronnie again. She froze and pressed her lips together for a second before shaking her head and huffing. She hated that thought. That thought kept on coming back to her out of the blue and making her insides turn to solid ice.

Bill had been the beautiful baby and grown into the most charming young man. Charlie had been a whirlwind of cuts, bruises and scrapes and then transformed into the strongest person she knew, both physically and mentally. Percy had been such a weak little thing as a baby and spent so much time on his own with his nose in a book. She had adored her quiet, thoughtful son and it hurt her to think that he grew up to be just as alone and estranged from them all as he had always been. Fred and George were personality and energy and fireworks, yes that was it, they were human fireworks. They would send sparks with their laughter and their faces would glow when they smiled and that twinkle of mischief that she so often had to chide made dark days bright. Then there was her baby boy, her Ronnie.

He wouldn't sleep when he was first born. He'd never sleep but also would never tire. She would run to his cot at all hours to check up on him because he was so very quiet and he'd just be lying there smiling up at her. He never wanted to be a bother to anyone; he just wanted to be with them all the time. He was adorable as a child; he had that smile that could melt you like butter, and a charm that was nothing like his brother Bill's. Ron was just a daisy in a bouquet of red roses, you never knew he was there until that special little something caught your attention and you suddenly found yourself picking the daisy out and saying 'oh what an adorable little thing' and putting it in its own little vase on the windowsill so it could have its moment in the sun.

Ron was her wildflower. You can't contain or control wildflowers. You just let them grow.

"Oh I'm sorry," a voice with a strong Irish accent said from the doorway of the Embassy's kitchen, "I was coming in to make some sweet tea fer everyone but I see you're busy with..."

Molly wondered why the woman had stopped. She was around the same age as Molly, fairly rounded about the waist but not as much as Molly herself, and with one of those deeply lined weary faces that mothers seemed to get after a certain age. It was the look of somebody whose child had grown up and declared their independence. When a child becomes an adult the mother is still a mother, she just has bigger worries to contend with.

The woman's eyes were suddenly saddened as she rushed across the kitchen to Molly with her arms extended and a sigh of sympathy and understanding as she hugged her close to her. Molly suddenly realised that she'd been crying.

"Oh dear, will you look at me, don't pay me any mind. I'm just about to peel some onions that's all," Molly sniffed.

The woman with the greying sandy coloured curls leaned back to look Molly in the eye.

"You cry before you peel them do yeh?"

Both women let out a sudden chuckle before Molly crumpled again and found herself drawn back into the woman's arms. She sobbed into her shoulder, letting out everything she was trying so hard to control for the sake of her children. They needed her to be strong for them and she just needed to scream until she was hoarse. The witch shushed her and rubbed her back soothingly. Molly sniffed and took in a deep breath to try and pull herself back together again.

She leaned back and wiped her eyes.

"You don't need to be dealing with me, I'm so sorry to burden you when you are in the same boat I am."

"I need to get away from my sister to be honest," the woman said as if the admission was like a weight lifting from her shoulders.

"Your sister?" Molly blinked as she fanned her burning face with her hand.

"Kathleen, she's making me feel as if I'm not panicking the right way. As if I should be beating myself on the chest and wailing uncontrollably over Fergus but I just don't have it in me to emote just to show people how much I love my son."

Molly took the woman's hand in hers and squeezed it tightly.

"It's my pain and it's my fear and if I want to keep it to myself then I should be able to without people mumbling under their breath that I'm a cold hearted auld bitch who couldn't care less for her boy."

"Nobody is saying that dear. Nobody would dream of it," Molly said as she patted the back of the woman's hand reassuringly.

"My sister is, I know it. I know her."

"Yes well some people are like explosions of emotion but we can't all be the same can we? The last thing those Aurors need is a room full of explosive mothers."

The two mothers smiled at each other for a moment before Molly rubbed the other woman's arm.

"I'm Molly by the way."

"Marie, Marie Finnegan," the woman said as she turned to look inside the kitchen cupboards and pulled the tea caddy down, "determined that all those frayed nerves out there can be helped with tea!"

Molly chuckled and began to peel some carrots that were before her on the chopping board.

"Finnegan?" she frowned suddenly, "And Kathleen Finnegan is your sister?"

"My little sister and a right royal pain in the arse I can tell yeh!" she huffed before her demeanour softened considerably, "But I don't know where I'd be without her. She's panicking for me and shouting when I'm screaming inside and scowling at the people I want to be scowling at. She drives me crazy but I'd be worse if she weren't here. I think about all the ways she's annoying me rather then all the ways Fergus could be... Well I like the distraction is what I mean. I need her every little annoying quirk."

"Seven children my dear, I know all about sibling incompatibility and dependence," Molly shook her head and thought about all the fights the twins would have with Percy, "But what I meant was, you're sister and you're both married and you still have the same last name?"

"We married brothers," Marie smiled, "can you believe it? The most volatile sisters possible marry brothers who are exactly the same. Only my Sean, he died back when Fergus was a tyke so it's just been the two of us all this time. I think that's another reason Kathleen tries to look after us they way she does."

Molly tossed the carrots into the large pot of bubbling stock she had already prepared and set about peeling and dicing the onions.

"I'm making a stew," she said while Marie set out four rows of teacups ready for the brew she was making, "It's hard to know what so many different people will like and you can't really go wrong with stew can you?"

"I bet that gobshite McLaggen'll find some objection to it but that man doesn't deserve your cooking or my tea so he'll take what he's given and shut up if he knows what's good for him."

"Well now he is under a great deal of stress isn't he?" Molly said with a wince of understanding, "You have to make allowances in situations like this."

"Do you bollocks?" Marie snapped as she summoned the sugar bowl towards her with a flick of her wand, "Yer man Belby is in the same situation and he didn't turn into a total eejit did he? Or the fella who came between them both, he's lost a boy too and he kept his head."

Molly swelled on hearing this and beamed at Marie with pride.

"That's my Arthur."

Marie turned and met her eyes. She saw Molly's new posture, back straight and chest puffed out while lifting her chin proudly, and she grinned at her.

"Well aren't you the lucky hen in the coop eh?"

As the two witches went about their business the door clicked open. The muggle woman who had been sitting in silence, surrounded by a world she didn't feel a part of and that now threatened to destroy her child, stepped inside nervously and called over to the busy witches.

"Excuse me but the Italian lady just fainted I don't suppose...?"

"I'm bringing some tea out now," Marie said with a friendly nod, "Would yer hold the door for me while I levitate them through my love?"

The muggle woman nodded and pulled the door wide while stepping as far back out of the way as possible.

"Is it any wonder that she's swooning all over the place, I've more meat on my little finger?" Marie was calling over her shoulder to Molly who chuckled and saw that the muggle woman was smiling ever so slightly too.

"Don't worry, we'll feed her up enough so that you'll be able to see her when she turns sideways!"

The muggle woman gave a small giggle at this and seemed to relax in their company.

"I'm sorry dear I didn't catch your name earlier on, my head was all over the place," Molly smiled as Marie manoeuvred the huge tray of teacups through the door steadily.

"Oh mine still is," the jittery woman shuddered before smiling back at Molly, "its Julie."

"Well thanks fer all yer help there Julie," Marie said as the tray cleared the doorway and zoomed along ahead of her towards the crowded reception area, "Would yer grab me the sugar bowl and a handful of teaspoons?"

Julie nodded and scampered nervously over to the kitchen counter to lift the sugar bowl and plunge a bunch of teaspoons into it before smiling and nodding at Molly and rushing out after the bold Irish woman.

Molly threw the onions into the stew and stirred it with a sigh.

These women were going to have to watch each other lose their loved ones. They were going to have to look each other in the eye knowing that they hoped it would be somebody else's child who dies before their own. She felt that chill shooting through her bones again. Ronnie's survival depended on the other hostages' deaths. It made Molly sick to think of the lives of those other wizards so callously but if she was honest with herself there was only one thought in her mind at that moment.

Please let the executions be in alphabetical order

Chapter 4 Goodnight

"Ron?"

Lee looked at his watch and then frowned at Ron, who was propped up in the corner of the cell, head drooping onto his chest.

"Ron mate, come on," he patted the side of Ron's face as gently as he could, not wanting to aggravate his injuries any more then they already had been, "wake up for a minute."

He winced as he gave the sleeping redhead a firmer pat on the cheek and Ron hissed through his teeth and then lifted his head. He blinked his eyes sleepily and after a moment, stared at Lee as if completely lost to understand why he was there at all. Ron then glanced around at the four dark, damp walls of their cell and groaned.

"You forgot about it all for one blissful second there didn't you?" Lee smiled, as he saw that Ron was alert enough for somebody who'd been knocked about the head as much as he had been.

"Yeah," Ron murmured as he rubbed his sore cheek with the back of one of his bound hands, "Is it bleeding again?"

Lee leaned in close to examine Ron's swollen cheekbone in the moonlight before shaking his head.

"No."

"Oh good," Ron said as he shifted into a less uncomfortable position and began to drop off to sleep again.

"Wait up there mate," Lee shook his shoulder just slightly and twisted the corner of his mouth into an apologetic smile, "just stay up for a little longer and talk to me for a bit. You remember what Cally said about your concussion don't you?"

Ron shifted again and scrunched up his face.

"Who's Cally?"

Lee swallowed and rose to his feet, about to whisper to the cell to his left that he needed some more advice from the healer when Ron poked him in the leg and grinned as best a man with a face paralysed by swelling can do.

"Only joking!"

Lee rolled his eyes and dropped back to his knees with a weary shake of the head.

"Fucking hell Ron, no wonder you drive the twins so crazy!"

"Me drive them?" Ron said as he sat up and looked offended, "I think you'll find it's the other way around.

Lee smiled and turned to check on Tommy, who was sleeping behind him against the opposite wall of the cramped cell.

"Well I'd say you were still sharp, go back to sleep Ron, I'll see you in an hour."

Ron yawned and then yelped at the pain the action caused him. Lee glanced over his shoulder and saw Ron crawling over to his side.

"I'm awake now," he grumbled before nodding down to Tommy, "so how is he?"

Lee put his palms to Tommy's forehead, grimacing at the discomfort he felt in his bound wrists as he did so, and exhaled with a shake of the head.

"Still burning up like a furnace. He's sweating now though, that's got to be good hasn't it?"

Just as Ron was about to respond a low but clear voice drifted through the door of their cell and echoed very slightly around a narrow corridor outside.

"It would be if he had plenty of water to drink."

Lee looked at Ron anxiously before getting to his feet and stepping over Ron where he crouched on the floor to whisper through the opening in the cell door.

"Cally?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Sorry if we woke you," Lee whispered back.

"You didn't," a clearly spoken voice from the cell to Lee's right spoke up now, "Do you really think any of us are sleeping tonight Jordan?"

"Who's that?" Ron asked Lee from Tommy's side.

Lee was in the process of shrugging when the voice answered again.

"Davies, it's Rodger," the voice was clear but very weary, "I stayed awake for the big rescue and I'm beginning to think that it might not be coming," the voice tailed off towards the end of the little speech.

"So is anybody asleep?" The authoritative tone of the Ambassador called out, causing Lee to jump slightly with shock.

There were several murmurs that told Lee, and indeed the Ambassador, nothing.

"Right, I want to take account of you all then. I'd like to know where everybody is and what condition you are in."

"Starting where sir?" the Italian accent from the cell opposite Lee's sounded and the olive skinned Maccario's face appeared at the cell door.

He had short dark brown hair and hollow cheeks. Despite the Auror's slight build he had been quite a presence whenever Lee had seen him around the safe house. He was fun to relax with but could be as hard as nails when out on an assignment. Lee had heard Ernie McMillan talking about the brutal beating he had given the Death Eater who had murdered the entire Horrigan family. The Death Eater had raped their youngest daughter and had finally been apprehended trying to hang the fourteen year old's body from the lamppost outside the Ministry of Magic in the early hours of the morning.

"Starting with me Maccario," the Ambassador said, his even tone sounding slightly raw and gravelly.

Lee glanced across the corridor to his left to watch as the Ambassador's heavily drooping eyes turned to look behind him and downwards just a little.

"I have Krum with me as you know and Mr McLaggen from the DA," the face turned back to be bathed in the moonlight once again, silver light forming dark eerie shadows all over the man's deeply lined face, "cuts, scrapes and bruises but otherwise we came out of this relatively unscathed. Maccario, who do you have?"

The Italian Auror sighed and lowered his head.

"Both of my cell mates are DA boys," he began.

"Oi a little less of the boy thank you!" Dean Thomas' voice barked out abruptly.

Macarrio smiled just a little and called back to the cell beside him.

"That wild kid you are always talking about, Dean Thomas, and I have Sloper as well. I think they broke his arm."

"They tried and failed," an anguished but firm voice added from what sounded like the far corner of the cell.

Lee tried to stand on tiptoes to peer across and into Dean's cell to try and catch his eye but he blocked the moonlight out with his own shadow in the process and dropped back down again with a huff.

"And the cell beside you Maccario? Who do we have at the far end?" Secretan called out in a business like fashion

"It's me sir, Prang," the twenty one year old trainee Auror called out.

He was one of those fit confident types but he could go from proudly defensive of his principles to selflessly defensive of those around him. Lee had been on an assignment with him only recently and the two of them had been outnumbered three to one by a gang of Death Eaters. Prang had held his tongue until he had shoved Lee aside, out of harm's way, and then began to taunt them with incredible arrogance and confidence. He wasn't the strongest person on the Auror programme but he had the temperament of a bulldog with a bone; he'd fight for it with everything he had but if the dog saw somebody attacking his master he'd forget the bone in an instant and leap in to protect them.

Lee really liked Prang.

"I have Sam Robbins," Prang called back to the Ambassador with his strong East London accent, "he's with the Order, and McMillian from the D.A."

"Isn't one of them in a bad way?" Auror Secretan called back thoughtfully.

Prang cleared his throat and glanced over his shoulder with his chestnut brown eyes.

"Ernie...um McMillian, he's taken quite a beating but he's doing alright sir. We're looking after him."

Prang saw Lee watching him from his cell and grinned his cocky, confident smile. Then Prang looked back to the floor of his own cell and winked at something Lee could only guess must have been Ernie.

"I think they gave him a few extra kicks for giving them so much trouble. He didn't let up on them for a second sir."

The Ambassador nodded to himself and mumbled something that sounded like 'good kid' under his breath before looking to the cell across from Prang's and to the right of Lee.

"Davies, you're awake aren't you?"

There was a sudden shuffling and then somebody answered.

"Yes Ambassador Secretan, I'm here."

Davies was a softly spoken and slightly intense young member of the Order. He was what Lee would describe as a pretty boy; perfect blonde hair and better looking then most witches Lee had ever been out with, though he'd never admit something like that out loud. He would always blend in to the background and keep pretty much to himself at meetings and briefings but during a fight he was the person you could always depend upon to show up just when you needed him.

He was a lot like Ron in that way. Obviously Ron wasn't the strong and silent type but the reliability and timeliness of his arrival in the heat of battle made Lee sort of proud of him on the twin's behalf. He lowered his head as he thought of Fred and George and how they must be feeling right now. He set his jaw and looked back up again, silently promising them both inside his own head that he'd look after their little brother for them.

"Who do you have with you and what are your conditions?" the Ambassador was calling to Davies.

"I've got Peakes and Finnegan sir."

"Finnegan from the D.A or Finnegan from the Order?" Secretan asked with a frown.

"The older one sir, Fergus."

"Howiya sir?" Fergus Finnegan's voice called out as amiably as if they were meeting across a crowded room at a dinner party.

"Very well Finnegan, and yourself?" the Ambassador played along with a sad smile.

"I'm thinking about complaining about me room sir, there's no mint on me pillow. In fact there's no pillow at all!"

Lee heard Ron chuckling at his feet where he was watching over Tommy.

"I'll be asking for the manager over breakfast to make a formal complaint don't worry," Secretan said with a dark look in his eyes before his brow furrowed and the lines around his eyes deepened as they squinted, "Did you say Peakes? Maccario, do I know a Peakes?"

The Italian Auror was shaking his head just as Davies answered the question.

"He's a D.A. volunteer, he's one of the youngest sir."

The cells fell incredibly silent at this and Lee glanced back down to see Ron turning away and fussing over Tommy in an attempt to avoid his eyes. Peakes was only just seventeen and had left school to join the volunteer organisation in their fight against Voldemort. Peakes being here was about as wrong as it got, he should be studying for his N.E.W.T's. Lee looked back out to the corridor as he realised he was no younger than Ron was when he had taken off on a dangerous horcrux hunt with Harry and Hermione.

"How old are you boy?" Secretan was asking, almost as if fearful of the answer he was going to get.

"Seventeen sir," Peakes said with a deliberately strong tone of voice, "and I've helped to send thirteen Death Eaters to Azkaban so I don't think my age is really relevant do you Ambassador?"

Lee saw Maccario's eyes light up and a smirk cross his face. The youngest prisoner in the cells impressed the Italian Auror.

"Indeed, very impressive," Secretan nodded, "and are the three of you well?"

"Delightful sir!" Fergus Finnegan's jovial Irish accent called out.

"Yes sir," Peakes seemed to be laughing at his cellmate.

"As well as can be expected sir yes," Davies was adding, summing up for the undoubtedly roughed-up twosome.

"Good," Secretan said as his eyes moved along to meet Lee's, he straightened up for some reason, "Jordan from the Order, of course I know you. You have two injured with you in there don't you?"

Ron was grunting as he got to his feet behind Lee.

"My head's fine now sir, it's...I'm fine," Ron called over Lee's shoulder.

"Weasley you are just as stubborn as your brothers has anyone told you that?" Secretan was saying with an exasperated shake of the head.

"My mother puts an announcement in the Prophet weekly sir," Ron said with a mocking tone.

Lee tried not to laugh but the amusement on Maccario's face tipped him over the edge and he sniggered.

"Sir he does seem to be a lot more alert then earlier on but don't worry I'll keep an eye on him all the same."

He felt something poking him in the back and turned to look over his shoulder and saw Ron's grumpy expression, which in all honesty was even funnier then his jovial expression.

"I'm nearly twenty y'know? I don't need an eye kept on me."

"Please continue keeping an eye on your cell mates Jordan," Secretan said just as Lee was about to snap something back to put 'Ickle Ronniekins' in his place. His place being two years younger than Lee and therefore his bitch.

"Yes sir," Lee grinned while meeting Ron's eyes.

Ron tutted and turned to walk to the other side of the cell, something he was able to do in under three steps, to lean against the wall and scowl at the substitute for his twin brothers.

"It's Tommy Painter you've got in there with you isn't it?" Secretan said, more to himself than anything before looking across to the cell to Lee's left to address Healer Callahan, "Callahan did you get the chance to see him at all before the raid happened?"

"Briefly, but I didn't get the chance to treat him at all," Cally's tired sounding voice responded.

Lee looked down at Tommy at the same time as Ron did and watched him shivering in his sleep.

"His division of the Order had to split up and the next thing we know they showed up thirty miles away in Eindoven and he had hypothermia," Secretan mumbled.

Ron stared at Lee in alarm and they both crouched back down beside Tommy.

"How the hell do you get hypothermia in Holland during the summer?" Ron whispered to Lee.

"I dunno," he shrugged, "maybe it was a hex or something."

Ron swallowed and felt Tommy's forehead again.

"He needs more then just a jumper. He needs a proper blanket," the redhead muttered with a frown.

"He needs a proper bed," Lee said with annoyance, "Couldn't those bastards have just left him behind?"

"Oh 'cause they're so compassionate like that aren't they?" Ron snorted, "When they're not murdering innocent people in cold blood they're often seen pulling thorns out of puppy's paws and building donkey sanctuaries."

Lee had to marvel at Ron's aptitude for sarcasm at all times. Ron noticed that he was suppressing his chuckle and grinned back at him as best he could through the bruising.

"Sorry I'm having a bad day," Ron rolled his eyes.

"Oh really? Tell me about it!"

"So what with you being in there Callahan, I take it you're cellmates are in good condition," Secretan was asking the healer.

"Creevey's a bloody mess but it seems to be all external blows to the body," Cally said, his voice seemed to be directed back into his own cell as he spoke.

"Creevey?" Secretan said, "Are you with the Order or the D.A.?"

"Neither sir, well I was in the D.A. at school and I was going to join again when I left but I was given a special assignment because of my special skills. Well I say special skills sir, it isn't really a skill is it, taking photographs, but the thing is I have a bit of a knack for getting into places with nobody noticing and snapping a few shots off before anybody knows what's happening," Colin was rambling so fast that Lee began to shake his head to try to organise that lot into a sound bite, "Did it all the time at school sir, frankly I think people found it a bit annoying, but then it all came to good use in the end when I was able to record the movements of the enemy and such like."

There was a long silent pause before the Ambassador's voice sounded out once again.

"In no more then three words Creevey, what is it you do?"

Ron's shoulders began to shake and Lee could've sworn he heard Dean Thomas laughing in his own cell.

"Reconnaissance sir," Colin said, seeming to be quite pleased he'd hit the nail on the head with one word to spare.

"Good," Secretan said, seeming to be a little shell shocked, "thank you, couldn't have defeated You-Know-Who's people without you."

"Belby's in here with me too Ambassador but he doesn't seem to be that bad," Cally added, himself sounding a little amused.

"Belby?" Secretan said, "You're not Damocles Belby's boy are you?"

"He's my uncle sir," the nervous voice of Marcus Belby responded, "My father's name is Geoffrey, he's Uncle Dam's younger brother."

"Damocles has a brother?" Secretan exclaimed in amazement.

"Yes sir," Belby sounded a little put out by this, "He makes and repairs brooms sir, he's...he works with his hands," Belby sounded defensive, as if expecting a snide comment from Secretan.

"Oh marvellous!" the Ambassador said, his voice suddenly losing the tone of authority and detachment as he enthusiastically called across the corridor to Belby, "Does he fix up classic models as well?"

There was a snort of amusement from somebody's cell that was quickly suppressed.

"Um, yes sir, he's a specialist in the vintage brooms of the 1950's."

"Oh mon cher Merlin!" Secretan said, slipping into his native tongue with apparent ecstasy, "I have a Winx Triumph in my broom shed at home in Zurich, I've been working on it for fifteen years but I can't get the right twigs for it, it's all about speed rather then the smoothness of the ride these days, I don't suppose your father can...?"

"He grows the different trees on my grandfather's land, he can match any broom handle or twig exactly."

There was what sounded like a squeal of joy and more snorts and sniggers could be heard from the other cells. Ron put his tied hands to his mouth to hold his own laughter in.

"Well, when the rescue comes you stay close to me boy!" Secretan was ordering.

"Okay!" Belby said with a bewildered laugh.

There was another snort, this time of derision, and Cormac McLaggen's voice cut through the light mood like a gore-covered blade.

"Dear me Belby, that has to be the first time your father's been in the position to impress anyone."

Ron was up at the door before Lee had even blinked.

"Oh shut up you fat headed git!"

Lee tried to pull Ron back from the door just as McLaggen's face pushed it's way in front of the Ambassador's at his cell door to smirk across at Ron.

"Now I know when it comes to derogatory comments about father's you're used to defending yourself Weasley, but I was actually talking to Belby y'know?"

Lee shoved Ron aside and snarled through the door with his own sense of indignant rage.

"Who are you again?" he said with a theatrical frown, "Because I think you need to be reminded that Ron here actually got on the Gryffindor Quidditch team on talent and not by default and he also didn't take a girl to a Christmas party only to have her hide from him for the duration of it because he was boring her so much!"

"What?" McLaggen seethed.

"I'm saying that you were second choice mate, and everybody knows it!" Lee grinned cruelly before moving away from the door and trying not to notice Ron's intense shade of red.

"Can we not start bickering so bloody early on into this lads?" Cally was calling out to them, "I know a lot of you are still quite young but we need to stick together and keep our heads to stand against these bastards alright?"

"Well said," Prang called out from his cell.

"Teacher's pet," Fergus Finnegan seemed to mumble.

"What did he just say about not descending to the level of playground fighting?" Jack Sloper's face appeared at the cell door, his cropped dark hair and penetrating stare seeming to look right through the iron door across from him.

"Shut up the lot of you!" Cally said again, losing his temper, "I refuse to take on the role of your dad while we're in here so all of you put a stop to this shite now!"

The huge door at the end of the corridor clunked and swung open. A large shadow fell upon the floor between the cells and the lead Death Eater sniggered to himself before stepping into the moonlight. He had heavy eyelids and the kind of nose that was just made for looking down on people with. His greying brown hair was pristinely combed and every part of his body seemed to be slightly bigger then normal human anatomy dictated it should be.

"Stop!" the Death Eater said with lazy amusement.

"Laat de jongens gaan," Auror Secretan said as he pressed his face to the opening in his cell door with desperation.

"Zeg gelieve Secretan," the Death Eater said, the corners of his mouth curling up even more now.

Ron and Lee pressed their heads together so they could both see out, as did most of the others at their cell doors, watching as the lead Death Eater walked with slow, even strides to the Ambassador's cell at the end of the short corridor. Secretan seemed to be bracing himself as he swallowed and made a point of fixing his captor's gaze.

"Alsjeblieft laat hen gaan," Auror Secretan said slowly and clearly as he lifted his jaw defiantly.

"Nee," the impossibly tall man responded with relish.

Secretan banged his hand against the cell door and roared with a grimace.

"This is a new low for you people! They are just children, most of these boys, some of them are barely of age."

The Death Eater turned and began to walk back down the corridor.

"And yet you let them fight at your side," he turned to tut three times over his shoulder and waggle his finger patronisingly, "you give a child matches to play with and then marvel that he gets burned. This will become not only an example to the wizarding world but a lesson also."

"Ik zal doden u!" Secretan roared, a livid fire behind his eyes.

The Death Eater laughed at this with genuine amusement. Ron and Lee exchanged anxious looks before watching as the man strode back towards the Ambassador.

"Well, well the tempers are running high in the cells tonight aren't they?" he reached the end of the corridor and turned to pace back the way he had come with his hands casually clasped behind his back, "First I hear you fighting amongst yourselves and now you dare to threaten me from the safety of your cage."

"This cage protects you from us not the other way around," Maccario snapped as the Death Eater passed him for the third time.

"Well let us release somebody from the cage for some entertainment shall we?" the Death Eater said with a look of delight on his face.

Two more of his drones appeared at the main door and rolled their sleeves up.

"Who shall I give to the broederschap?" the Death Eater stroked his chin theatrically as he stopped outside the Ambassador's cell once again and drew his wand, "You, the wire-haired boy," he took aim at McLaggen, "come forward."

Secretan took a step before McLaggen to shield him but with a careless flick of the wand he was thrown aside and McLaggen was at wand point once again. Just as McLaggen was about to take a step forward to face the dark wizard Krum took up the protective place in front of the youngest occupant in their cell. Again he was thrust aside and into the wall of the cell.

"Well aren't you the valuable one my boy?" the Death Eater sneered, "Valuable but not popular. I heard you having many harsh words with your comrades."

"You miss-heard," McLaggen said shakily.

"I hear everything perfectly clearly," the Death Eater said, his amusement seeming to dissolve into sheer blood lust now, "Let me see how willing they are to turn on their own kind when I am the one doling out the punishment."

Lee felt Ron shudder as he realised that McLaggen was about to be taken out for torture because they had all been turning on him. Lee knew the guilt would break everybody who had been drawing attention to McLaggen and Ron especially so. It was one thing to dislike a person but another to single them out before the eyes of a sadist with a need to entertain himself.

"It wasn't him!"

Lee almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of Ron blurting those three words out loud beside him. The Death Eater raised his eyebrows and turned to look at Ron as he fixed his face into an expression of defiance.

"It was me," Ron said, "they were all having a go at me."

Lee grabbed Ron and pulled him away from the door, clamping his hand over the impulsive redhead's mouth in desperation.

"What the hell do you think you're doing you idiot?" he hissed.

He could see it though. He saw exactly what Ron was doing and shook his head while pleading with his eyes not to go through with this.

"Not for McLaggen Ron, he doesn't deserve it."

Ron shook Lee's hand away from his mouth and looked back at him with a look similar to the one he used to have when he was about to walk onto the Quidditch pitch before a match.

"He doesn't deserve to get tortured just because some of us don't like him either. Nobody does."

"You don't either. You didn't draw attention to him because you wanted this. You drew attention to him because he was being an arsehole!"

The cell door clunked open and the tall Death Eater stood with his wand drawn and his two lackeys on either side of him.

"Why do they all dislike you on the ape's behalf young firebrand? Do tell us what you could have done to make yourself so hatefully unpopular?"

Lee knew what would inevitably happen but he went ahead and did it all the same. He stood before Ron and stared at the three dark wizards with determination.

"He didn't do anything. He's lying to keep that prick from getting a beating and you're stupid enough to have fallen for it."

Lee didn't even see the wand move, he just felt himself lifting off his feet and hitting the wall so hard that all the air left his lungs. He couldn't find the strength to draw more air inside, wheezing and sputtering as he slid to the ground, and could only watch as the wand was aimed at Ron's chest.

"I know exactly what the brave young hothead is doing," the man smiled at Ron as he took a step toward him, "and I'm going to make him pay for trying to interfere. Neem hem!"

He nodded to the two smaller Death Eaters and they moved in on Ron so fast that Lee couldn't gather his thoughts quick enough to grab him. Ron was hauled out of the cell with such speed that by the time Lee called out his name the four of them were already out of the cell and the door closed and locked behind them. Dean Thomas was bellowing a string of obscenities after them as Ron was dragged through the main door and that too was slammed and locked securely.

Lee felt sick and he could do nothing more then gape at the almost grey face of Auror Maccario as he tried to calm Dean down. He looked to his left and into the wide horrified eyes of Cormac McLaggen as he stared, unblinking and shaking as violently as Tommy was, back at him.

"You bastard."

Lee had meant to spit it with ferocious venom but it came out as nothing but a hoarse exhalation of disbelief.

"I didn't..." McLaggen said as he shook his head and still seemed unable to blink, "...I didn't ask him to..."

"You didn't ask him but you bloody well owe him you fucking bastard!" Dean roared as Macarrio struggled to keep a hold of the livid boy.

"Lads please!" Cally begged them all, Lee could just about make out his arms thrusting through the opening in his cell door to make a 'calm down' gesture with his hands, "That poor sod did not just do that so we could start arguing again."

"No that is right," Macarrio was saying in a determined but calm tone as he made a little progress with the struggling Dean Thomas, "This what they are planning to do to destroy us. They want us to destroy ourselves from within."

"That is exactly it," Cally said, his fist clenching and his finger pointing to Macarrio's cell door, "They want us to pick each other off and then beat ourselves up with the guilt for doing it. We need to show them that this won't work, not with us."

"Yer man there's just gone out to get tortured to save some fucking arsehole he doesn't even like and they know it," Fergus Finnegan snapped, "it makes no difference to them if we're getting along or not getting along!"

"Silence all of you!" Auror Secretan, the man who agreed to be temporary Ambassador and now seemed to be in charge of a prison riot demanded with his most authoritative tone, "We will not destroy ourselves in here and we will certainly not degenerate into a state like this on our first night!"

"First night sir?" Fergus answered back, "What happened to the inevitable rescue we were all waitin' up fer?"

The cells fell silent and everybody realised the awful truth; that nobody was coming for them at all. The silence only lasted a few seconds however. Soon all they wanted was the silence back.

Anything so they didn't have to hear Ron screaming

Chapter 5 Looking Out For Number One

"Tea Mrs Jordan?" Fred beamed at his best friend's mother, while George presented her with a steaming hot mug with an unrealistically huge grin on his face.

The witch smiled as she took the mug in both hands and watched the twins, who seemed overjoyed that they were looking after her in some small way.

"Thank you both but you really don't have to follow me around all day long. Go and look after your family and let them look after you."

"We're fine," Fred shrugged, still smiling unnaturally wide, "and there's plenty of us lot to look after each other..."

"...But there's only one of you Mrs Jordan!" George nodded. He seemed to be suffering from facial cramp now and she released a hand from cradling the mug to set it upon the boy's twitching cheek softly.

"I know you feel as if you should be watching over me for Lee but I'm not about to fall apart boys," she grinned in her own special way at them.

That was something she always had in her emotional armoury. She always had her smile. Her dark skin and wide full lips would suddenly be the frame for the most dazzling white smile you could ever have imagined. That had always been what her mother told her as a child. There was a flower called a buttercup that grew in the front lawn if it was left uncut for long enough. Floella Andrews used to love how it would light up the palm of her hand when she held it close to her skin.

Her mother had told her that the buttercup would glow yellow against your skin if you were healthy and she would always pick a buttercup as soon as she saw one to check up on her entire family's well being.

When she moved to the city and married Anthony Jordan she stopped seeing buttercups and forgot all about it. That was until one time when Lee had been crying over a grazed knee and she had turned on her brightest smile to cheer him up. She had done such a good job of it that he had started laughing and told her that her whole face was glowing. It became a family joke that a lumos spell was never necessary while Floella was around as all she had to do was beam and the world would be illuminated by the brilliance of her smile.

She became the buttercup. She could make everything better as long as she kept on smiling.

"You know it's perfectly alright for the two of you to worry about your brother don't you boys?" she said, her eyes darting from George to Fred.

George's cheek muscles finally gave out on him and his face fell into a frown along with Fred's.

"Ron's gonna be fine," Fred said as he lifted his head defiantly.

"So is Lee," George added as he folded his arms, "and like we said," he nodded over his shoulder to his family as they sat together talking quietly amongst themselves, "they've got each other so you get to have us."

She felt like hugging the two boys for that; for their selflessness and in gratitude for their offer to stand by her side through all this but also because she could see that they were hurting inside and couldn't let their family see it. They wanted to spend time with her for all the right reasons but also for one very wrong one too.

She kept her hand upon George's cheek and put her mug into Fred's so she could grip his shoulder and give it a squeeze.

"If you really don't want me to wait here on my own then why don't you introduce me to your family and we can all wait together?"

She smiled her healing smile and saw it reflected back at her from the new glow upon both their troubled faces.

"It's my best friend and my little brother and I don't want to have to choose," George mumbled as he looked at his feet.

Fred turned and glared at his twin, not because he was disgusted at what he was thinking but because he had vocalised it. He was ashamed to have been feeling the same inner conflict.

"You're not choosing anybody over the other," she said as her smile softened a bit so she was overwhelming them a little less, "and right now you need your family more then they need you so I'm going to take you both back to them now."

"But will you stay Mrs Jordan?" Fred asked her anxiously.

"I think I'll sit down and talk to your sister," she said as she saw the red-haired girl chewing her fingernails.

All the men in the Weasley family were involved in a heated debate with Harry Potter and Mad Eye Moody and Ginny was being left out. She looked quite annoyed and on the verge of shouting at them all.

"Because she seems to be getting pushed out of the loop because she's a 'fragile', 'hysterical' woman," Floella continued, "I know what that feels like. I think I'd like to have my tea with somebody who knows how I feel right now."

She took a step back to turn and pick up her handbag and her cloak before taking her mug back from Fred and waiting expectantly.

"Well boys," she said with her eyebrows raised and her shoulders back as she prepared to be swallowed up by the largest family waiting at the embassy, "shall we?"

The main door to the cellblock clanked open and Lee held his breath.

Everything had been quiet for the last few minutes and he had been pressing his ear to his cell door until he lost all feeling on that side of his face. Nobody had been speaking at all. Occasionally Ron would cry out and somebody would snarl or swear under their breath but that had been about it.

There were footsteps and a dragging sound as Lee leapt to his feet and found himself shaking with a mixture of rage and fear. He heard the voice of Danny Prang as the Death Eaters passed by his cell.

"Bastards!" the trainee Auror hissed.

The cell door was unlocked and swung open wide to reveal Ron slumped unconscious between two armed Death Eaters and their highly amused puppet master standing behind them. The two guards dragged Ron forward; each of them with one of his long arms draped over their shoulder, and threw him into Lee who did his best to support the unconscious body despite his own bound hands.

"What did you do to him you fucking animals?" Lee snarled through gritted teeth as he bent his knees to try and lower Ron to the ground as gently as he could.

"We simply taught Mr Weasley a very valuable lesson," the puppet master sneered as his two flunkies retreated back out of the cell, "never take somebody else's punishment for them. It's never going to be worth it."

The cell door swung closed with a bone shaking boom and the Death Eaters headed out of the cell block, followed by their master, who paused at the main door to call to the cell at the far end and to the right.

"Goodnight Mr McLaggen, do sleep well won't you?"

The cellblock door slammed closed so hard that the floor seemed to shake.

Lee set Ron down onto the ground, cradling his head as he leaned over his bruised face, and shook him ever so gently. He didn't move. Lee swallowed and patted the side of Ron's still face with the palm of his hand but he didn't even wince.

"Come on Ron, please?"

"How bad is he Lee?" Dean was calling from the opposite cell.

Healer Callahan called out at the same moment however.

"Is he bleeding from anywhere Lee?"

Lee felt himself throw up into his own mouth a little as he set Ron down flat on the cell floor and scanned his body for blood. He didn't see anything and forced himself to swallow again. He lifted Ron's jumper and then his t-shirt to flinch at the awful state Ron's stomach was in from his earlier beating during the raid. There was no blood or cuts as far as he could tell.

"No," he called back, ashamed at how weedy his voice sounded so he cleared his throat and tried again, "No blood Cally, none."

"Is he moving at all?" Cally asked next.

"No," Lee responded immediately, "I can't wake him."

There was a sound from one of the other cells, it sounded like something hitting the wall with a grunt and then yelping with pain.

"McLaggen you breaking your own foot against the wall doesn't help anybody!" the Ambassador snapped out of the blue.

"I'll break your fucking face when I get hold of you!" Dean's voice hissed.

"I'm trying to listen to Cally here now shut up all of you!" Lee found himself shouting with more strength behind his voice then he knew he had in him at that moment.

"Right Lee," Cally was saying with determination to help Ron as best he could from the next cell with no magic whatsoever, "pinch his earlobe really hard, it's a pain receptor."

"A what?" Lee frowned, not wanting to hurt Ron anymore then he already had been.

"If he can feel it enough to wince or flinch or...anything then we know he's still with us," Cally snapped before a collective gasp reverberated around the cell block and Cally's voice sounded once again, a lot more hollow then it was before, "I mean...I'm sorry. From what I saw of him when they brought him back it looked as if they'd hexed him until he broke. I'm sorry, I just hate not being able to help you kids that's all."

"It's okay Callahan," Maccario was saying soothingly, his lilting Italian accent seemed to make the words of comfort sink in a little deeper.

Lee held his breath and pinched Ron's earlobe as hard as he could and exhaled with a shudder as he saw Ron's face scrunch up as he pulled his head away from Lee's finger and thumb.

"Yeah," Lee found himself saying with a terrified smile, "That did it, he's moving now."

"Is he awake?" Cally asked, almost surprised at himself for daring to hope.

"No," Lee shook his head pointlessly before glancing down at Ron's raw looking wrists, "they untied him though. I guess that's something eh?"

"It's easier to share a dead weight if you each take an arm," the voice of Danny Prang said before suddenly drawing in a sharp breath, "Oh Merlin I didn't say that out loud did I?"

"Unfortunately you did," Lee heard Davies say sympathetically from the cell beside their own.

"Well just let him sleep then okay Lee?" Cally called through from the cell on the other side.

"Yeah, okay," Lee said meekly as he tried to roll Ron over onto his side and prop his head up a little on his arms before sighing, "fat lot of help I've been to him so far."

"What's that?" Cally asked, though Lee felt sure he had heard him clearly enough the first time.

"Nothing it's just," Lee wondered if he'd ever be able to look the twins in the eye in the event he ever got out of this mess at all, "he's my best friends' little brother. I let 'em down."

"No you didn't Lee," Dean was calling across the narrow corridor that parted them, "There's nothing you could've done to stop him taking the punishment. That's just Ron. He's an idiot like that."

The cells fell quiet for several minutes before a shaking voice cut through the darkness.

"I'm sorry."

Lee knew nobody but Ron and Tommy was asleep at that moment, but still nobody responded to McLaggen's desperate statement. He looked across the cell at Ron as he drew his knees up to his chest and balled his hands into fists with a grimace before letting his body relax once again.

Lee looked out the small window to gaze at the stars and wondered if it was possible for things to get any worse.

Molly was surreptitiously watching Ginny talking to the Jordan boy's mother while listening to Bill and Charlie. The two eldest Weasley siblings were agreeing with Harry on a point he was making in a very angry tone of voice. A handsome young man with pale skin and shoulder length brown hair escorted the pretty but annoyingly waif-like Italian witch towards her. He was forcing a friendly smile upon his face. However, he wasn't able to convince her of his easy going attitude for one second due to the poorly hidden grimace that twisted the corners of his mouth.

"Um Mrs—?" he began uncertainly.

"Weasley, Molly please. What is it I can do for you dears?" she stepped away from the three hot-headed wizards she had been hoping to calm with her presence and walked to one side with the two lost looking youngsters.

Well she called them youngsters, they were both older then her youngest children, she guessed that they were about twenty-five years old. The girl was maybe a couple of years older then the boy. At first Tonks had been comforting the Italian Auror's fiancÃ©e. Soon Molly had noticed that the beautiful blonde witch was spending a lot more time talking quietly to the Liverpudlian who was staying at the embassy rather than the Metamorphmagus. Maybe the Italian girl connected with the young wizard because he was the sole representative of his family and was also on his own at the embassy.

"Well the thing is," the young man said before pausing to clear his throat and lean in to speak conspiratorially to Molly, "Chiara, she's Auror Maccario's..."

"I know dear. What is it?" Molly nodded and smiled that smile she always used to coax something out of her boys when they were on the verge of confiding something in her, "you can tell me."

"Well I know you and Mrs Finnegan have been cooking for everybody and..."

"Oh does she want something to eat?" Molly suddenly exclaimed, rather too loudly to have remained discreet.

The young man's piercing blue eyes widened as he lowered his voice even more and leaned in so closely that Molly could feel his breath on her ear.

"No she," his melodic Scouse accent made Molly smile as she remembered somebody from her school days at Hogwarts, "the thing is she'd like to cook for everybody but she doesn't want to...like...well it's your thing isn't it, the cookin'?"

Molly leaned back to look at the wary young man as he waited to be scolded and ordered to keep his nose out of business that doesn't concern him. She melted on seeing his caution and rubbed his arm with a warm chuckle.

"Oh that would be lovely," Molly leaned around the wizards to see the nervous young Italian witch playing with her hands and gazing back at her with enormous almond shaped eyes, "something Italian dear?"

Chiara nodded and seemed to loosen her shoulders just a little. The young wizard exhaled and smiled a real smile at Molly as he put an arm around the Italian girl's shoulders to encourage her forward with a little pressure on her back. She stepped a little closer to Molly and smiled the first smile Molly had seen break across the girls face since they all arrived at the embassy.

"Some gnocchi I thought," she moved her almond eyes across to fall upon the young man and her smile grew wider, "Patrick said I need to be fatter."

The wizard, Patrick, laughed out loud at this.

"I said you need fattening up!"

Chiara shrugged before looking back to Molly and blinking her hypnotically huge eyes.

"Well gnocchi fills me so I thought..." her accent was like poetry, Molly could listen to these two voices talking all day, "...and I would like to be helpful."

Patrick seemed very pleased with himself for getting Chiara talking to people and finding some way to let go of her worries, even for just a second, and beamed at the two women with delight.

"I do nothing here," she shrugged, "and I see you working all the time. Always fussing and helping people so I want to fuss for you."

Molly reached out and grabbed the young witch to her and hugged her so tightly that she feared she might snap her slight frame in two.

"That's a lovely thing for you to do my dear. Thank you so very much," she broke out of the hug and saw that Chiara was looking a little shocked to have been embraced by an English woman. Despite the lack of 'touchy-feely-ness' in England Molly always had been the physical type and she chuckled at the girls' apparent astonishment. "I look forward to somebody cooking for me for a change."

Patrick took Chiara by the hand and began to lead her away.

"C'mon, let's get you all set up in the kitchen eh?"

Chiara nodded and waved at Molly before being led away by the hand towards the embassy kitchen.

Molly watched as the son of the missing healer and the fiancÃ©e of the missing Auror left, escaping the room they had been trapped in all this time with a purpose at last. Everybody needed something to take their minds off of the awful things could be happening to their loved ones right now, after all. She turned to look back at Harry and her oldest boys.

"I don't care what Moody says! I say we get out there and search the bloody country until we find them and if we don't find them we start searching the country next door!" Harry was huffing with determination set in his green eyes.

"I wanna look too Harry, but surely we can be more effective working with Moody rather then against him?" Bill said, ever the reasonable one in situations like these.

Just like his father, Molly thought to herself as she contemplated intervening.

"We can't work with him Bill, he's not doing anything!" Harry said as his face contorted into a scowl of frustration that nobody was listening to the so-called saviour of the Wizarding world.

"He co-ordinating a search from here," Charlie said, doing his level best to stay reasonable, while himself wanting to storm buildings at random until he got his brother back, "there's Aurors and Order members combing the area and the Death Eaters we've got are being pumped for information in Azkaban as we speak."

"As if they'd tell us anything!" Harry said, throwing his arms into the air and kicking out at an imaginary object at his feet, "Surely there are locator spells we should be trying. We could disapparate to different points of Holland and send them out to...I dunno...triangulate Ron's position."

"Triangulate?" Charlie raised a cynical eyebrow.

"I've heard you talking about stuff like that!" Harry waved an annoyed hand in Charlie's direction, "You track Dragon's down that way, why is this different?"

"Ron is not seventy feet tall Harry," Charlie said with exasperation, "he will be a little bit harder to find then a bloody dragon!"

Molly was about to tick her son off for his language when something tapped the small of her back and she spun around to see a very short woman with an equally short son at her side smiling timidly up at her.

"Hello?" Molly said, at a total loss at how to handle all these things going on around her at the moment.

It was the boy, a little younger then Ginny she thought, who spoke.

"We were just wondering if it would be okay for my mum and me to maybe try to help in the kitchen too seeing as the Italian lady and Patrick were taking over the lunch for this afternoon and, I know that too many cooks spoil the broth and everything, I was wondering, because of course we won't be making broth or helping to cook broth so the broth won't be spoiled at all, anyway," Molly wondered if the boy was ever going to pause for breath, "we were going to leave them to do their broth or whatever it is they are going to be cooking and we would maybe do a dessert or a pudding or something."

Molly was almost rocking back on her heels and couldn't quite believe that the verbal assault was over with.

"So what d'you think Mrs Weasley?" the young wizard beamed at her.

"Huh?" Molly blinked.

"Dennis was just asking if we could go into the kitchen and make a trifle," the tiny woman said slowly and with such affectionate resignation that Molly assumed that this was her role in life, translator to a family of chatterboxes.

"It's not my kitchen dears, you can do whatever you like," Molly smiled as she regained her ability to speak.

"It was just that you staked the claim first, I thought it was only polite," the woman smiled before taking her son's arm and pulling him away with her.

"Nice talking to you Mrs Weasley!" he waved cheerily over his shoulder.

"Um, yes, you too...um...?"

"Dennis, this is my mum Janette!"

Molly nodded to let the rapidly departing ball of energy know she understood and gave them a sad wave. Colin Creevey was a friend of Ginny's from school. Thinking of Ginny made her turn her attention back to her daughter who was now being rocked from side to side by Mrs Jordan. The two mothers' eyes met and they stared into each other for a full minute before looking away.

"Molly? It's Molly isn't it?" the nervous looking muggle woman from the day before was at her side now.

"Oh yes dear, that's right, you're Julie aren't you?"

The woman nodded and then tilted her head into a quiet corner partially hidden by some potted plants. Molly followed the woman with a frown crinkling her brow and a backwards glance at her huge family, all in need of her attention and comfort and calming influence, before reaching the plush sofa that she was being directed towards.

Molly sat down and Julie sat beside her. There was a cup of tea waiting on the coffee table before them and Julie lifted it up and presented it to Molly with a sad smile.

"Oh thank you Julie dear, this is lovely but I really should..."

"You really should stop thinking about everybody else for five minutes and have a moment to yourself," Julie sighed as she put a hand upon Molly's back and began rubbing it gently.

Molly stared at the muggle woman before looking back down at her full cup of tea and setting it down onto the table again as her shoulder's slumped.

"If I stop concentrating on everybody else I just think about my boy and I can't stand to think about what's happening to him right now. I just can't!"

Julie pulled her into her arms and held her closely to her. Molly felt her shoulders shaking and clutched the woman's cardigan as if it was her grip on Ron himself.

"They're going to kill one of them today and I can't...I can't...Oh Julie where is he?" Molly's cries were muffled into Julie's shoulder as they came out in a series of choked screams of anguish.

"He's with my Tommy," Julie said with a strange confidence that seemed to come from her being able to help somebody rather then sit and do nothing but wait, "and my Tommy will look after him. He's such a selfless lad. While he's got an ounce of fight left in him he won't stand by and let anybody get hurt believe me. Our boys'll look out for each other."

Chapter 6 Choices

Ron opened his eyes and saw that the cell was a brighter shade of grey then it had been when he'd last seen it. Then he realised that every bone in his body felt as if it was on fire and had splintered, every spiky hot needle scratching into his muscles and making him wish he'd never woken up in the first place. He gulped and blinked the cell into better focus. That was when he noticed Tommy's blue eyes and long blondish eyelashes blinking back at him.

"Morning," the prostrate wizard said with a lazy smile.

"How d'ya feel?" Ron said, his throat dry and sore from all the screaming last night.

"Like utter shit, but a bit less shit then yesterday."

Ron twirled his finger by way of celebrating this fact.

"Woo!" he said half-heartedly, before having to cough, as the exclamation made him feel as if he'd torn open his larynx.

"How 'bout you?" Tommy said with a shiver.

"Like utter shit but a bit more shit then yesterday," Ron said with the very smallest of smiles.

"Well you look stunning!"

Ron laughed so hard at this that he ended up clutching his sides in agony.

"Oh Godric, oh please don't, please don't make me laugh!" he winced while still smiling ever so slightly.

"Ron?" Lee said urgently as he seemed to appear from behind him somewhere, "You're awake! Are you okay?"

Ron was about to nod but his laughter and pain combination seemed to have morphed into a coughing fit so he couldn't quite muster his affirmation right at that moment.

"Stupid bloody question," Lee hissed to himself before hollering out at the top of his voice, "Cally! Cally wake up!"

"I'm awake!" Cally said with a little too much shock in his tone to really convince anybody that he hadn't dropped off at all.

"Ron's back with us but he's...well listen," Lee shrugged and Ron tried to communicate to him through his watering eyes that there really was no need to worry.

Ron did his best to hold off the coughs, for the sake of his ribs if nothing else, and swallowed before drawing a breath to wheeze up to Lee.

"S'nothing, got a sore throat and he made me laugh."

Lee frowned down at him as if the Death Eaters had broken Ron's mind last night.

"He?"

Ron nodded across the hard stone floor to Tommy who was still shivering but chuckling at Ron.

"Blimey we've got both of 'em!" Lee exclaimed.

"Y'wha?" Cally said with bemusement.

"Tommy's back with us too," Lee smiled as he put his hand to Tommy's forehead, "Still hot enough to bring a cauldron to boil but it's not as bad as last night."

"Told ya," Tommy said to Ron.

"Show off," Ron croaked.

"Is that Ron talking?" Dean was calling through the opening to his cell door now.

Lee got to his feet and peered out of the tiny hole in the cell door.

"Yeah, his throat's a little rough, I think they tried to throttle him last night or something," Lee was shrugging.

"No," Cally was saying from the wall behind Ron, "the voice is always the first thing to go under cruciatus."

Lee turned and looked down at Ron with wide eyes, pleading with him to refute what Cally was assuming, Ron looked back across the floor to see Tommy staring back at him in exactly the same way. There wasn't a trace of amusement left upon the ailing wizard's face now. Ron looked away into the far corner of the cell and hoped they'd stop staring at him like that.

"That's what they did wasn't it Ron?" Cally was saying, his voice sounding strong and clear but with a hint of anger behind it.

Ron was still focused upon the corner of the cell as he swallowed again and nodded once.

"Fuckers!" Lee said, his own voice leaving him half way through the expletive and his head hanging despondently.

There was a growling sound coming from the Ambassador's cell; it didn't sound like the Ambassador though. Then a string of obscenities sounded out from another cell.

"Fergus, calm down," Rodger Davies was saying.

"He needs water," Cally was calling out over the white noise of disapproval that now bounced from wall to wall of every cell, "Tommy as well."

Ron closed his eyes and thought about just how good a drink of water would feel against his throat right then. His eyes sprung open with shock as he heard a pounding upon one of the cell doors nearest the main door to the cellblock.

"Prang is that you?" Maccario called out over the pounding.

"It's," Prang answered, sounding a little shocked himself, "it's McMillan sir. He's kind of livid!"

Ron pushed himself up with his arching arms and winced at the new places he could now feel hurting as he frowned up at Lee.

"Get in here you sadists and bring them some bloody water!" Ernie was roaring.

"McMillan, sit down," Prang was attempting to coax Ernie into calming down a little, "you're hardly in a fit state yourself y'know?"

"I'll sit down when they get something to bloody drink!" Ernie roared before pounding once again upon his cell door.

Ron gritted his teeth as he tried to get to his feet but Lee was away from the door and grabbing hold of him so he didn't fall with a look of exasperation on his face.

"Sit back down Ron, that's an order."

"A what?" Ron's voice managed to just about squeak.

The main door to the cellblock opened and Lee forced Ron back to the floor of the cell again before throwing himself at the cell door to peer out and curse under his breath.

"Shit it's the Puppet Master!"

"Stil!" the familiar voice boomed out.

"I'll stil when you bring some water for everybody," Ernie said, that pompous arrogance he used to have at school recognisable and causing Ron to smile to himself.

"There will be no water today," the Death Eater who was obviously in charge, or the Puppet Master as Lee seemed to refer to him, declared with apparent glee.

Ron heard something that could only have been somebody spitting and Lee went rigid at the door and held his breath.

"Oh you are going to have to learn civility Mr McMillan," the puppet master said with, what sounded like seething rage, "Hem aan breng me!"

There was a lot of movement outside the cells all of a sudden before Ron heard a cell door opening and a scuffle before Danny Prang's voice yelled out clearly.

"No! I am in charge of this cell and if you're going to take anyone out of it it's going to be me!"

"Prang don't be a hero. I can fight my own..." Ernie's voice was cut off by the Puppet Master's.

"You are in charge of nothing Prang. I am in charge of everything and everyone including you. Now step aside and let us show Mr McMillan some manners."

"No!" Prang said again, "I am the representative of this cell and if one of the inmates of this cell upsets you then it falls upon me to take the rap for that so you will deal with me."

"Prang don't antagonise them," Maccario was calling out fearfully.

"Very well," the Puppet Master said, "neem Prang."

There were shouts coming from the cell opposite Prang's now. Ron could hear them coming through the wall behind Tommy, and then some spells were sent whooshing from wands and something hit the floor with a thud.

"Does anybody else want to interfere with justice?" the Puppet Master bellowed.

"Justice?" Maccario said with incredulity, "Blasting a seventeen year old wizard who is locked in a prison cell directly in the face is justice is it?"

Ron saw a red flash whizzing by the tiny window in the cell door; Lee leaping back from it in shock and another whumping sound of a body hitting the floor shook the ground beneath him. There were sounds of Prang being wrestled from his cell and Lee chanced another look out of his small window. Something about the way Lee froze on the spot made Ron's blood run cold.

"Yes," the Puppet Master said with relish, "I think we need an audience this time. Neem Weasley!"

"What? No," Lee said with a violent shake of the head, "you've done him already. You can't..."

The cell door unlocked and groaned open. Lee took up a position in front of Ron as he saw the puppet master stepping into the doorway and flicking his wand at his human obstruction carelessly.

"Everbero!"

Lee was flung backwards over Ron's head and pinned to the wall with a bright orange force that seemed to be crushing him. Ron took in a deep breath and struggled to his feet unsteadily.

"I'm coming okay?" he wheezed through his sandpaper-like throat.

He saw Tommy out of the corner of his eye sitting up and trying to pull himself in front of the orange beam to break its connection with Lee and Ron stepped forward with a wince.

"Stop," Ron said, forcing more sound out of himself this time around, "I'm coming."

The Puppet Master broke the connection with Lee. He slid down the wall to the floor, a panting, sweaty mess and one of the other Death Eaters stepped into the cell to pull Ron out while Lee tried to crawl across the floor and grab at Ron's ankle to keep him from going back out there again but the door was slammed on him before he could even get close.

Ron saw Ernie as he was marched past the two cells nearest the main door. His face was almost unrecognisable, the colour of an overripe plum, and then he looked to the other side to see Davies and Fergus Finnegan crouching on the floor of their cell trying to rouse an unconscious Jimmy Peakes.

"Your mother was a squib and your father was a half breed and you're nothing more then a troll!"

Ron froze, as did the Puppet Master and his puppets, at the sound of Cormac McLaggen bellowing this playground insult after the departing group.

"What was that Mr McLaggen?" the puppet master said with his jaw clenching and his eyes wide.

"What I meant to say was I think you need to go to the lavatory and beat out a good hard wank if you want to feel more like a man you cock sucking, mother fucking, scrotal sack looking cunt!"

"Fucking hell!" Dean Thomas gasped from within his cell in awed horror.

Ron didn't have a clue what McLaggen thought he was doing. He looked from the face pressed against the window of his cell, back to the puppet master, and then to Dean's stunned looking face.

"Haal hem, haal McLaggen," the puppet master said, his mouth twisting with bitterness as he shoved Ron out through the door while the Death Eaters went back inside to grab McLaggen too.

The families sat down to lunch together while it was still morning. Nobody was going to be able to sit and eat at noon and whatever happened after that would ensure that nobody was going to touch their food. So that had been why, at twenty minutes past eleven in the morning, the main dining area of the embassy was host to home made gnocchi and trifle.

Hermione found herself sitting next to Demelza Robbins, her older brother Sam was taken while working with the Order, on her left and Harry on her right. Harry was as tense as ever. He couldn't tolerate the sitting and waiting, nobody could, and especially when he knew that we were all just waiting for notification that somebody had been executed. That Ron might be executed.

She looked down at her plate and felt like pushing it away but she didn't, she ate quietly, for the same reason everybody else did. Auror Maccario's fiancÃ©e was almost wasting away before everybody as it was, they couldn't stop her eating now that she finally was doing so without coercion. Mother's ate so husbands and children would do so. Children ate to encourage their fretful mothers. Friends ate so their other friends had no excuse but to join them.

Everybody just ate.

"Choose," the Puppet Master said as he lifted Ron's chin and forced him to look at McLaggen and Prang.

The two of them had been tied to chairs and given a few punches to soften them up while the puppet master himself had conjured shackles to the wall behind him and Ron had found his arms wrenched up above his head so painfully tightly that he had to stand on tip toes so he could take some of the strain off them.

Just to be spiteful, it seemed, the Puppet Master summoned a glass of dirty water into his hand and held it before Ron's lips.

"You wanted water?" he smiled that twisted sadistic smile of his as Ron forced his lips together, not trusting that murky water at all.

The Death Eaters who were standing around to see the show laughed and one of them grabbed a handful of McLaggen's hair and pulled his head right back so his mouth was open.

"Dit jongen," the Death Eater said happily.

"Ah," the Puppet Master said as he broke into a grin, "shall we use the water to wash out your friend's foul mouth?"

Ron glared at the pair of cold blue eyes that stared right into him. It felt as if he was reading Ron's thought process and for a moment he tried to recall what Harry said it felt like to have Legillemency practiced on you.

Again the glass was brought up to Ron's lips and he turned his head away and tried to kick out with one of his legs to get the Puppet Master to spill it or drop it altogether. The dark wizard scowled momentarily and flicked his wand down at Ron's feet. They were tightly bound together and then yanked up away from the floor behind him, his heels resting against the back of his knees, and Ron let out a yelp of discomfort as his full body weight was now being supported by his shackled wrists.

"Stop it!" Prang began to yell at the Puppet Master's back, "You've had your fun with him, it's my turn now. Leave him alone!"

"We will come to you and Mr McLaggen once the problem of the water is solved. You were asking for water after all and I am delivering water to one of you."

Ron tried to lower his legs back down to the ground but there was a magical pull on them. He could feel his fingers getting colder and blood trickling down his wrists from where the shackles were cutting into the flesh.

"Now Mr Weasley," the puppet master said, turning his attention back to Ron again and swirling the water around in the glass before Ron's eyes, "You now have two choices to make today. The first one will be who will get the water, you or Mr McLaggen?"

Ron's eyes met Prang's as he and the trainee Auror tried to work out exactly what was going on here. The huge hand of the puppet master grabbed Ron's face and pulled it round to look at him.

"I am talking to you, pay attention boy!" he said fiercely.

Ron swallowed and followed the cruel wizard's gaze as he looked up at Ron's bleeding wrists with a smirk and flicked his wand at them. Suddenly the shackles grew tighter and Ron let out a yelp and thrashed involuntarily in pain. Again Ron felt the powerful fingers grabbing him by the chin and forcing him to look him in the eye.

"The first choice is this. You drink the water or McLaggen drinks the water. If neither of you drink the water then nobody in those cells will drink tomorrow at all."

Ron looked down at the glass and braced himself to down the putrid looking stuff.

"No Ron! Let me drink it," McLaggen shouted from his chair, "I owe you, let me drink it, choose me to do it."

Ron glanced over the Puppet Master's shoulder to see McLaggen's face. He really meant it, Ron could see that, he was begging him with his eyes and struggled against his own magical bonds.

"Please Ron, I owe you!"

Ron leaned forward and drank from the glass before the Puppet Master even knew what he was doing. He soon laughed with glee as he tilted the glass so more of the liquid poured down Ron's throat. He could hear the other Death Eaters woops and cheers and Prang's indignant yells mingled with McLaggen's abusive protestations but it was all insignificant right at that moment.

All he could do at that moment was try his very best not to gag on the salt water he was gulping down. He tried to drink quickly to get it over with but the Puppet Master was tilting the glass as slowly as possible.

"Now now Mr Weasley, don't be greedy, if you spill any or spit any out I'm going to have to insist that you drink another glass for me."

Ron swallowed carefully while forcing his eyes closed, feeling sick at the awful sensation of the cool water on his throat while tasting the intense concentration of salt flowing across his taste buds at the same time. The last of the water was tipped into his mouth and Ron downed it with a shudder before coughing and looking away from the Puppet Master's jubilant expression.

"Now for your second choice Weasley," his smooth accented voice crowed while Ron tried to keep himself from vomiting, "I want you to chose which one of these two get what you got last night?"

Ron shook his head and stared back at the horrified pair where they were sitting, chained into their chairs, and tried to think of something.

"Yes Weasley," the Puppet Master nodded carelessly, "You will chose one of them for torture or I will torture them both twice as badly as I did to you last night."

Ron felt the salty bile rising and swallowed with disgust at the same moment the Puppet Master's face moved right into his own. Ron turned his head to one side just as their noses were about to touch and the vile Death Eater leaned in even closer, grinning in a way that seemed to spilt his entire face in two, until he whispered into Ron's ear.

"Would you really let that brave noble young Auror suffer to spare that pathetic, pampered daddy's boy who let you take his curses only last night?"

"Fuck you," Ron whispered, still with his head turned away, practically into the wall to avoid meeting the sickening gaze of his tormentor.

"All you have to say is his name Ronald," Ron squirmed on feeling the repugnant breath on his neck, "Tell me to torture McLaggen and I'll do it gladly. Choose him and Mr Prang is spared. You could save him."

"You sick bastard," Ron hissed as he felt his arms seized by cramp and forced his eyes tightly shut while gritting his teeth through the discomfort of his position.

The claustrophobic presence of the puppet master was gone suddenly and Ron opened his eyes and turned his head to see the man marching with great purpose towards McLaggen and Prang.

"He refused to choose so you will both suffer under the cruciatus curse this morning."

"Ron no chose me!" Prang yelled, "Quickly pick me, it's okay I've been trained for stuff like this, it's my job, it's my duty. You've got to choose me; McLaggen's a civilian!"

Prang was slammed across the face by the back of the Puppet Master's enormous hand.

"Oh my that was satisfying," the dark wizard said as he rubbed at his knuckles and walked around the two chairs like a predator about to devour his prey.

"Ron I owe you twice now, please, you wouldn't let me drink the water and you took that crap for me last night you can't let this happen to Prang."

Ron felt as if his head was buzzing, screaming and whistling all at once while his stomach churned and his vision began to blur.

"Oh dear is that sea water making you feel a little queasy Ronald?"

"Ron quickly, so it's over with, so we can all go back to the cells. Choose me, it's got to be me you know it has," Prang pleaded with him.

"You've already suffered for me and if Prang has to as well I won't be able to live with myself please," McLaggen begged, "Don't feel guilty about choosing me because you hate me pick me because I owe it to you and I don't want to owe it to Prang as well. You're better then me Ron, you've already proved that twice, please..." McLaggen's head dropped desperately and his voice was barely a whisper, "don't make me owe two people I won't be able to take the guilt please."

"Well I don't know about my colleagues who don't speak any English but I'm finding this more enjoyable then the theatre!" the Puppet Master said jovially.

"Ron I have the most authority in this room and I order you in the name of the Ministry for Magic to choose me," Prang said in a scarily determined tone.

"You're not a bad person to choose Ron," McLaggen said with a kind of detachment in his voice, "but I know you wouldn't have two people suffer just to spare your own guilt."

"Enough!" the Puppet Master barked, both his hands rose, "he did not choose so we torture you both."

The dark wizard clapped his hands to summon his designated torturers.

"Ron please!" Prang yelled fearfully.

"Do it!" McLaggen bellowed.

Ron dropped his head and wished he were dead.

"McLaggen," he choked out with a squeak.

The Puppet Master seemed to swell up to twice his normal impressive size.

"What was that Weasley?"

Ron took in a breath and lifted his head to look McLaggen in the eyes.

"Do it to McLaggen," his resolve broke, along with his voice, and his head dropped again.

"Thank you," McLaggen said in a terrified whisper while Prang began to kick and scream and roar his protestations about protocol regarding prisoners of war and civilian hostages.

Ron heard none of this however; all he heard was the voice of the Death Eater who aimed his wand at McLaggen's chest.

"Crucio!"

Chapter 7 The First

Marie Finnegan was elbow deep in washing up when Molly drew alongside of her and offered to dry.

"Anythin' to keep yer mind occupied eh?" she smiled as she handed a plate to the red haired woman.

"Everything but think about what's going to happen in ten minutes," she said as she bowed her head sadly and rubbed at the wet plate with the tea towel.

"Well you never know," Carol Thomas said as she took the dried plate from Molly and carried it to the open cupboard to put it away, "the Aurors might be onto something and springing the boys right now. Maybe that's why we've heard nothing from the Brotherhood of Sore Losers."

Marie chuckled at this comment and shook the water away from another plate before handing it to Molly to dry.

"Well there is that," she shrugged, as she set about washing another plate, "I just hope they're eating as well as we are."

"I just hope they're eating," Molly said without thinking, she froze for a second before smiling and shaking her head, "of course they are. Moody was telling us all about prisoner's rights and all that wasn't he? They'll be fine."

Carol cleared her throat and leaned backwards to look out through the open door and into what was now the family waiting area.

"Have either of you noticed that the Belbys and the McLaggens haven't once made a pot of tea or offered to cook or come in here to lend a hand?"

"Well," Molly sighed, "I think it just hasn't occurred to them that's all. When you've got house elves doing everything for you it would never cross you mind to you to pitch in and help."

"Yeah yer definitely right there Moll," Marie nodded while the three members of the chain passed their plate on down the line and she began to clean another, "although I doubt if we'll ever see her nibs McLaggen out there, 'oh look at me and my perfect skin and perfect hair and perfect twenty year old witch's tits', getting her manicured hands dirty for anything."

Carol and Molly laughed at this.

"How many times has she been married?" Carol said as she glanced back outside to scowl at the ever-youthful Mrs McLaggen.

"Oh I think she's two rings short of having one fer every finger now isn't she?" Marie said with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh Marie it's not that many," Molly said with a gentle nudge in the ribs, "just very nearly that many!"

"Yeah well the fellas aren't any better are they? Where are all the husbands while we're running ourselves ragged and looking after a bunch of frantic kids scared out of their wits?" Marie said, feeling sure that her Sean would be doing a lot more then pacing up and down and shouting useless things at people every once in a while.

"Well Arthur's got seven...sorry six, I can't believe I counted Ronnie just then," she gulped before continuing on with what she had been about to say, "Well he has six of his own and Harry and Hermione to contend with so I wouldn't judge him too harshly."

"Yeah and that gorgeous lad, the healer's kid, he helped the Italian girl make the lunch didn't he so he's alright?" Carol said with a comical expression of middle-aged lust as she put away another plate.

"Oi!" a voice exclaimed from behind the stove, soon followed by the grubby, gerbil-cheeked face of Carol's husband, Darren Thomas, "Are my efforts to fix this bleedin' stove going unnoticed down here? And you," he pointed at his wife who was beaming at her husband, "eyes off the young studs and on me d'you hear?"

Carol rolled her eyes.

"Yes dear."

Molly and Marie shared a mischievous chuckle while Darren shuffled back behind the stove.

"All this talk about the useless blokes while I'm grafting away under your noses, I don't know!" he grumbled, teasingly.

"I'm not going to hear the end of this now," Carol gestured to her husband's legs, the only part of him still visible.

"Um," a voice called around the door, it was Delitia MacMillan, "I was about to ask if you need any help but I see you've got everything covered."

The three women smiled at her and Carol called down to her husband's legs.

"You hear that Daz? Another offer to help from a woman!"

Delitia looked a little lost before somebody seemed to startle her from behind and she stepped into the kitchen to reveal Dennis Creevey.

"I'm just doing the tea run, I won't get in your way I promise. Oh and mum told me I was to slow down and enunciate so if I start to get a bit hyper you're to just let me know and I'll take a deep breath and stop it okay?"

"Dennis?" Molly chuckled.

"Yes Mrs Weasley?" the short wizard said chirpily.

"Take a breath dear."

His face fell and his eyes were wide.

"Was I doing it just then?"

All four women nodded slowly while smiling to let him know they found it endearing.

"But I thought I was being slow!" he exclaimed.

Delitia shrugged and gestured Dennis into the kitchen with her.

"Well I'll help you out then shall I?" she smiled.

"Oh thank you Mrs McMillan," he said in that wonderful amiable way of his.

"Now you see?" the voice from behind the stove called out, making Dennis jump several inches into the air with fright, "Another bloke in the kitchen doing his bit, and a rich bird!"

"Darren!" Carol said with embarrassment.

Darren leaned back out from behind the stove with a cheeky grin on his chipmunk-like face.

"Oh she doesn't mind do you? It's obvious that your family's better off then us, no shame in that is there?" he pointed a wrench at his wife, "That blows your theory out of the water doesn't it? It isn't just the working class females doing all the work. I've warned you about clichÃ©s Carol and you never listen do you?"

He ducked back behind the stove just as his wife threw a spare tea towel at him.

For a wonderful few minutes everybody forgot. Just for those few minutes though. Then somebody had to say it.

"What time is it now?"

Ron skidded back into his cell on his knees and immediately thrust his fingers down his throat to induce regurgitation. Lee was at his side in a second, rubbing his back and avoiding the liquid that began to purge itself from the young wizard's convulsing body.
"Thanks to Mr Weasley here you all get water tomorrow," the Puppet Master announced as if telling them that Christmas had come early, "Now thank Mr Weasley."

There were murmurs throughout the cell block of 'Thanks Ron'.

"Well come now," the Puppet Master said disapprovingly, his tone beyond patronising, "Ronald here didn't go to all that trouble for that kind of ungrateful behaviour."

Lee tried to shield Ron with his body as the smug Death Eater leaned into the cell to address Ron's convulsing back.

"Hardly worth your sacrifice was it Weasley? You might want to think about that next time."

He stepped out of the cell and the door closed and locked while Lee jumped to his feet to snarl out through the door.

"What did you do to him you madman?"

Ron made a gagging sound and wretched more putrid bile onto the floor of their cell. Lee couldn't stand to leave him alone like that for more then a couple of seconds and dropped back down to his knees to rub his back. He touched Ron's swollen and bloodied wrists and hissed through his teeth.

The Puppet Master didn't respond, instead two more cell doors swung open and a dragging sound followed by despondent struggling and cursing at the main doorway distracted everybody's attention. Lee just about made out McLaggen's limp form being dragged past their cell door and the Ambassador began to express his great outrage while, what sounded like Krum, grunted under the weight of the body thrust into his arms and set him down onto the floor.

"That's two civilians you have used an unforgivable curse against and they were prisoners of war too, you have flouted just about every..."

"Silence Ambassador!" the Puppet Master bellowed with great authority.

"Sir I'm sorry," Prang sounded as if he was crying, "I tried sir, I told them, I quoted all the laws and the articles of war and I told them it should be me but he broke them sir. He got into Weasley's head and he broke them both."

Prang seemed to be muffled against something now and Lee thought he could hear Sam Robbins attempting to calm Prang's nerves. Lee looked back down at Ron as he spat the last of his stomach contents onto the floor before him and tried to sit up. The redhead turned to meet his eyes and seemed to be disgusted about something more then all the puking. Lee couldn't take seeing that devastated look in Ron's eyes and grabbed him into a hug.

"It's not your fault okay? Whatever the made you do or whatever they did and made you think was your doing; it wasn't your fault Ron. You got us water, you got Tommy water for tomorrow, you did us proud mate."

That seemed to be the absolute worst thing he could have said as Ron shoved him away and crawled into a corner to put his head in his hands and take several shaky breaths in and out. Lee could see the streaks of dried blood all the way down both Ron's arms and wondered if they'd tied his wrists with barbed wire.

Prang's door was closed but McLaggen's cell was still open. Lee got up and peered out of the opening. He saw that the Puppet Master had his wand drawn and was looking into the open cell with a broad grin on his hateful face.

"It is five minutes to twelve Ambassador, do you know what that means?"

The Ambassador stepped in front of the open door and splayed his arms to keep any more being done to his cell mates. Before Lee knew what was going on two Death Eaters advanced on the Ambassador and his hands were bound behind his back.

"Auror Secretan, Ambassador, uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners ," the Puppet Master began to say as the Ambassador's eyes widened and he looked to the cell next to his at his colleague, Auror Maccario, "Kom vreedzaam of lijd in de dood."

"Sir?" Maccario said uneasily.

A small glass, about the size of an eggcup, was pushed to the Ambassador's lips and he was forced to drink it down in one.

"Neem hem mee," the Puppet Master grunted to his flunkies who began to shove the Ambassador ahead of them and out of the cellblock.

"Maccario, Callahan," he called over his shoulder, "the boys are yours now. Keep them safe!"

"Sir no!" Cally yelled while Maccario began pounding upon his iron door like a crazed animal.

The main door to the cellblock slammed shut and Lee turned around to stare at Ron and see if he knew what was going on. Ron was pale and trembling ever so slightly but he shook his head to indicate that there had been no talk of torturing the Ambassador while he was out there with the Death Eaters.

Lee ran to the tiny window and grabbed the bar to pull himself up a little so he could see down to what looked like a courtyard.

"I can see them!" he shouted and soon he heard people from his left and right cells scrambling to their windows.

"Cally, what's going on? How are they doing it? They're not really doing it are they?" Maccario said, his voice sounded powerless and utterly defeated.

"They're..." Cally began before stalling.

Lee knew why, he could see it right in front of him.

"Lee?" Ron said, his voice rougher then ever.

"They're putting him against a wall," Lee said, his voice emptier then he'd heard it in a long time.

"They can't!" Krum was barking from his, now two man, cell, "They can't execute the Ambassador."

"They've got no civility left," Prang was saying, still sounding completely lost, "They've got no honour left. You should have seen them next door..."

"Shut up!" Ron found himself roaring.

Lee was about to go to him when he noticed Tommy pulling himself across the floor to take Ron's hand and smile at him confidently.

"It's okay Ron," he nodded and squeezed Ron's hand.

Lee looked back out of the window and saw the Puppet Master taking aim with his wand.

"This is a fucking outrage!" Cally was hollering down into the courtyard.

Lee held his breath and saw the brilliant green light shoot forth from the tip of the Puppet Master's wand and hit the Ambassador, Auror Secretan, in the chest. The man fell. He didn't get back up again. The Puppet Master approached the body and fumbled around inside the man's robes.

"If it's not enough they're robbing him now," the wavering voice of Rodger Davies said from the window to Lee's left.

Everybody moved away from the windows. Every cell fell silent. They all knew exactly what was going on now.

Noon had come and gone.
Moody was pacing up and down, his false leg thudding deeply against the wooden floorboards with each alternate step and various groups of family and friends clutching each other and watching the door to the embassy in total silence.

The McLaggen's were looking strangely meek as they held each other closely. The craggy face of Mr McLaggen seemed determined to set itself into a mask of British stoicism. His robes were pristinely pressed and exquisitely tailored. His wife didn't have a single hair out of place and her make up seemed to paint over the worry lines and hide the pain behind her eyes.

The tiny Creeveys were glancing at each other every once in a while and smiling bravely before Dennis put his arm around his mother's shoulders and gave her a bracing squeeze.

Seamus Finnegan was holding onto his Aunt Marie's hand while his mother sobbed quietly into a handkerchief. Seamus rolled his eyes and shook his head, he and Marie shared an amused smile, before his eyes fell upon the husband and wife who waited just feet away from him. Dean's parents were waiting unnaturally quietly, both facing the doors and holding each other as if they were made to fit together like that. Mr Thomas was standing behind his wife with his arms wrapped around her waist and his chin nestled upon her shoulder. The two of them were rocking from side to side very slowly. Mrs Thomas met Seamus' eyes and gave his the slightest of smiles and a one-fingered wave. He mirrored the gesture back at her.

Patrick Callahan and Chiara were sitting on chairs in the far corner of the room, holding hands and staring at the door without seeming to take time to even blink. The Belby's were standing together. Damocles, olive skinned, rested his corrugated-looking black head of hair upon the smooth brown hair of his sister in law while she shook ever so slightly and held her husband Geoffrey's hand with both of her own.

Mrs Jordan was smiling all the time at Julie Painter; she appeared to have a lot of sympathy for a muggle in this situation. A woman who sent her only child to a magical school and afterwards learned how dangerous that world really was. She watched her son go to war to defend people she never knew existed and now he was on a death list. Floella Jordan seemed to just want to think about anybody else other then herself right now. Distraction seemed to be the most popular pastime at the embassy of late.

Delitia McMillan, Bianca Robbins and her daughter Demelza all stood together with their arms linked. The three raven-haired women looked as if they were wearing veils of mourning already but their faces were strong and confident. It was as if they could feel it in their very core that their boys were safe for the time being.

Korin Davies and Caroline Peakes stood apart from each other and completely alone. Davies, a blonde woman who would have been very beautiful if it weren't for a set of front teeth that appeared too large for her small mouth was frozen with her arms folded. Miss Peakes, a smaller, round faced woman with a child like voice but a hell of a set of lungs on her when she chose to raise her voice, chewed her ragged fingernails and tapped her foot on the floor rapidly.

Ginny felt Harry's fingers interlace with her own and she squeezed his hand so tightly she thought she heard him gasp and felt his knuckles crack.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"'S okay," he whispered back.

She could feel that his hand was trembling just as much as hers was. The twins were standing behind their mother, ready to jump in and hold her back from doing anything stupid or catch her if she collapsed, while Charlie was almost giving of steam as he paced up and down like an animal that had been caged for far too long. Ginny looked to her father who smiled at her, something Bill noticed him doing and turned to see his little sister to do the same himself. Hermione's eyes were focused on two different things, changing from one to the other with every passing second since twelve o'clock, the door and her watch.

Lupin and Tonks ran inside the embassy with their wands drawn and hissed to Moody, now standing in the centre of the room, bathed in the noonday sun as it poured in through the open door.

"Somebody just apparated outside!" Tonks said urgently as she took up a position behind the door.

"Stay calm Mad-Eye!" Lupin warned before pressing himself flat against the other side of the open door, wand at the ready.

A figure was silhouetted against the brilliant sunlight as it walked up the steps and strode purposefully through the door.

It was a black robed and hooded Death Eater who carried something in his right hand. He was walking towards Moody with no fear at all. Ginny heard Charlie swear under his breath and saw him lurching forward out of the corner of her eye but she couldn't take her eyes off the dark figure as he reach Moody and stopped directly in front of him.

There was the sound of what could only be somebody wrestling Charlie into submission but still Ginny stared at the robed figure as he held out a twinkling gold medal in his open palm while speaking loudly and clearly for the whole hall to hear but none to understand.

"Wij hebben hem gedood!"

Moody flung back the man's hood at the same time he snatched the offering from the dark wizard's hand and Tonks and Lupin hit the man in the back with simultaneous stunning spells.

Ginny felt sick. The man even looked smug as he hit the floor unconscious.

"Moody what is it? What's happened?" Lupin said as he ran forwards and kept his wand on the still Death Eater just to be safe.

"Who did they kill?" Tonks demanded, her tact going out the window as she skidded to a halt before her mentor.

Moody was looking down at the glinting round medal in his hand before taking in a deep breath and snarling through gritted teeth.

"The Ambassador," there was a collective gasp and several people said 'Thank Merlin', "they killed Secretan."

Ginny fell into Harry and began to go weak at the knees. She buried her face into his body and felt his embrace support her weight as her legs finally gave out once and for all. She heard her mother mutter something about making tea and then rapidly departing footsteps followed by an Irish accent calling out.

"Wait Moll, wait fer me!"

Ginny couldn't look any of the families in the eye. She just hid her face deep in Harry's chest and tried not to choke on her emotion. Auror Secretan, the fill-in Ambassador, was the first to die.

She was glad.

Chapter 8 Distraction

Lee knew it was futile but he also knew that Ron needed to put his mind on something else, anything else, at that moment. So he sat patiently while Ron's sore-looking fingers scrabbled at his magical ropes to try and loosen them.

Lee tried not to stare at the deep cuts around Ron's own wrists. He hoped they weren't going to get infected in the filthy environment of their cell. Every now and then Ron would wince and rotate his shoulders back and forth before getting back to his task. Lee guessed that Ron had been hung by his arms and, on top of the welts at his swollen wrists, he had pulled all the muscles in his shoulders.

"Mr Cally?" Krum's thick accent broke through the heavy silence.

"It's Cally, Viktor. What is it?"

"Cormac is waking up. What should I do?"

There was a long pause. Lee felt Ron tense up and lower his head. He still didn't know exactly what had gone on outside the cellblock but it had hit Ron very hard.

"Aside from making him comfortable there's nothing Viktor," Cally said despondently, "we don't get water until tomorrow."

There was a murmuring sound coming from Krum's cell now and Ron listened for a moment before catching Lee watching him and looking back down at his magical bindings. He set about trying to loosen them once again but Lee pulled them away and set his hands on Ron's shoulder firmly.

"I'm sorry I let them take you again. I tried to sto-" Ron shook his head to shut Lee up, "What is it Ron? What happened out there?"

Ron's lips parted to speak just as Krum's voice boomed out once again.

"Ron!"

Lee stared at Ron for a moment before the redhead scrambled to his feet and looked out through the opening in the cell door.

"Yeah?" Ron responded, his voice rough from lack of use in the past few hours.

"Cormac wants to pass message."

Ron swallowed and nodded his head.

"Go on."

"He say..." Krum seemed to be pausing to listen to the inaudible message, "...he still owes you one more."

Ron's head fell and he shuddered. Lee looked to Tommy, who was lying awake and glancing between his two cellmates with concern, before getting to his feet and putting a hand upon Ron's back.

"Tell him I'm sorry," Ron said shakily.

"Weasley," Prang was calling out from the other cell across from them and to the far right, "I was there too. It wasn't your fault. You had to do something and he knew it. Don't let him beat you."

"He wouldn't be singling you out unless he was afraid of your strength of will Ron," Cally said.

"Just drop it okay," Ron mumbled as he shrugged off Lee's hand and walked over to the far corner to sink to the floor and put his head into his hands.

"Yeah, let's talk about something good," the seldom-heard voice of Sam Robbins called out, "Let's talk about Quiddich or honey or pretty girls...something we like."

Lee smiled very slightly to himself as he rested his forehead against the cell door and tried to send his mind away somewhere else.

"How did yeh know I liked all girl Quiddich teams slathered in honey? Ye haven't bin readin' my diary have yeh?" Fergus Finnegan piped-up.

Lee saw Dean Thomas's face in the cell across from him. He was sniggering and shaking his head.

"You are so much like your cousin it's scary!" he called across to Fergus' cell.

"Oi I came first, he's the one who's like me," Fergus protested.

There was a pause as everybody seemed to be taken away to some other place they'd rather be at that moment before Belby spoke up and brought them all back to reality with a stomach churning question.

"Did Secretan have a family? Does anyone know?"

The atmosphere in the cellblock was so thick all of a sudden Lee felt as if he might choke on it. He and Dean lowered their eyes just as Maccario's voice emerged from deep within the cell, over Dean's shoulder.

"He never spoke about his private life. He kept things professional. I think the only time I've heard him speak of home was when he was talking to you about his broom Marcus."

Lee took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. He couldn't believe that conversation was only twenty-four hours ago. So much had happened. Two of them had been tortured and one of them had been murdered. Now they were trying to have a normal conversation again.

"I can't believe they killed him first," Rodger Davies muttered to Lee's right, "he was their best bargaining tool."

"Sends out a message doesn't it?" Cally called out from Lee's left, "They don't care who they kill, how rich or influential they are, they're going to keep on killing until they get what they want."

"What if the thing they want is the lot of us dead?" Jimmy Peakes said despondently.

"They'd have killed us all with him," this voice was also coming from over Dean's shoulder, Lee guessed that it must have been Sloper, "They're going to pick us off one at a time until they get what they want."

There was another long weighty pause. Lee turned around to look back into his cell. Ron was huddled in one corner staring at the wall and Tommy was laying on his side hugging his arms to himself, his eyes wide open. Lee slid down the cell door to settle on the cold hard floor and gaze at the clouds he could see through the tiny window.

"He had a wedding ring," Colin Creevey said, from out of nowhere, "The Ambassador I mean. He was wearing a wedding ring."

"Yes I know," Maccario's voice responded, sounding suddenly rough and strained.

"Can we get back to that honey drenched female Quiddich team please?" Fergus chipped in all of a sudden.

Jimmy Peakes' laughter sounded out, his was the only one.

"Oh come on you lot, it could be worse," Peakes called out to them all.

"Oh you are kidding right?" Sloper snorted.

"I wish I was!" Peakes snapped back, "The Ambassador was married and I'm sure you're all fighting off the birds left right and centre but remember fellas, I came into this war right out of school."

There was a shuffling sound and Lee heard somebody in one of the other cells getting to their feet to call out through their cell door.

"What are you saying Jimmy?" Ernie McMillan asked with a wheeze, Lee guessed that his chest must still be heavily bruised and giving him a great deal of trouble.

"I'm saying, Ernie, that I bet you've had your end away. You can at least die a man!" Peakes said loud and clear.

There was a collective intake of breath. Lee stared at Tommy who put his hand to his mouth and tried not to laugh. Then he turned his gaze to Ron who was looking up at staring right into the wall of Peakes' cell with wide eyes.

"Are you saying...?" Dean began before Peakes cut him off.

"Yes I am a virgin!" there was a indecipherable 'ha' from somewhere and several exclamations that sounded like the start of a very popular swear word and petered out into nothing more then a whistle, "I am the only one here who is going to die unfulfilled so please do go ahead and talk about women so I can at least lose my innocence vicariously through you!"

Ron almost spat; the laugh came pushing its way from his lips with such force. He stifled it and clamped his hand to his mouth and stared at Tommy, who was still holding his own laugh inside with an incredible amount of effort by the look of it.

"Who was that?" Peakes demanded of his fellow hostages.

"'S me, sorry Jimmy," Ron said with the amusement still lingering in his voice.

"Well...you need a laugh so I'll let you off the hook but come on you lot," Peakes pleaded, "This could very well be it for me. I'm so disappointed!"

Dean let out the kind of laugh he only reserved for times when something unfortunate befell a Slytherin and Lee's shoulders shook too.

"Well Davies is quite pretty," Sloper called out, "you could always..."

"Don't," Peakes yelled, "finish that sentence!"

There were more laughs reverberating around the cellblock now.

"You people think this is funny?" Krum barked in a way that shook Lee from the inside out, "A person just died! He was murdered!"

Krum's words hung in the air like a cloud of thick smoke, wafting down and threatening to suffocate them all. There was the sound of uncomfortable shuffling and somebody cleared their throat.

"And we're supposed to just wait our turn are we?" Colin Creevey's voice cut through the uncomfortable silence.

"Well said Colin," Cally said warmly, "You're sharing an enclosed space with a lot of Brits, Viktor. I'm afraid this is what we do in a crisis. You're gonna have to get used to it mate."

"I will never get used to it," Krum said, his tone sullen.

Lee and Ron shared an uneasy look while Tommy sat up and leaned back against the wall. Ron crawled across the floor to sit a little closer to him and they shared a sad smile before looking back to the wall that separated them from Colin as the excitable young photographer spoke up again.

"And you won't be the only one Peakes," he said clearly, and almost proudly, "I too have never felt the touch of a woman."

The cells erupted with laughter.

"Who talks like that Colin?" Sloper demanded through his obvious mirth.

"Seriously you two," Ron was grinning and shaking his head, "you sound like the articles in Witch Weekly!"

"How do you know what the articles in Witch Weekly sound like Weasley?" McLaggen strained to call out to him.

"I have a mother and a sister and a best friend...well, no she's not really a Witch Weekly kind of...then again neither's Ginny..." Ron realised he'd dug himself a very deep hole and looked from Tommy's raised eyebrow to Lee's delighted face, "They sometimes have pictures of underwear in there alright?"

The cellblock was filled with laughter and wolf-whistles now.

"Why are you English so ashamed of your sexuality?" Maccario was saying now, he sounded as if he was about to burst into song as he began to rhapsodise about the female of the species, "A woman, a witch, is a beautiful creature and you have to dance the dance of seduction and flirtation. You must woo her as if she is the first and only woman you have ever seen and she has you enraptured...captivated...enchanted..."

"If I woo'd at Hermione she'd punch me!" Ron interrupted.

"Not woo as in 'woo-ho' you twat!" Cally laughed, "Woo! To woo a woman, y'know? Like courting her?"

"Well we can all safely say that Cally's an old man 'cause he just used the phrase 'courting'!" Fergus declared.

"What's wrong with 'courting'?" Cally protested.

"Me ma doesn't even use the word courting and she's ancient!" Fergus said incredulously.

There were sniggers throughout the cellblock at this. Soon all the noise petered out again and they were temporarily subdued once more. Lee wondered why a pounding on the door or a holler of 'Stil!' hadn't interrupted all this commotion. Maybe the Death Eaters were at post execution drinks. Lee shuddered at the thought of anybody celebrating the death of another, and then he reminded himself that he did three cartwheels when he heard of Voldemort's demise himself.

"So Ron," Ernie called out through the silence.

"Yeah," Ron answered, al humour lost from his voice again, his mind had obviously been wandering too.

"You planning on wooing Hermione Granger then?"

Ron frowned at looked up at the opening in the cell door where the words drifted through, almost visibly, before looking back down at his scabby wrists and massaging the swelling subconsciously while he answered.

"Um, well I'd..." he began before folding his arms across his chest and pulling his knees up defensively, "That's all redundant now isn't it? What's the point?"

There was a moment when Lee wanted to say something. He could feel it in the air, everybody did. Something about Ron saying what's the point didn't sit well with the rest of them. He was their example, after only one day, of not letting the bastards get you down and yet now he seemed to have resigned himself to defeat.

"I had a girlfriend," Tommy suddenly spoke out loud, addressing the ceiling as he rolled onto his back and put his arms behind his head to create a pillow, "she had long legs and bouncy blonde hair like that witch on the shampoo bottles, and she was like sunshine every time she walked into a room."

Tommy was smiling to himself. Lee watched him thoughtfully while Ron lifted his eyes to examine Tommy's face for possible heartbreak or longing. He expected to see pain etched upon the wizard's face for some reason but Tommy simply looked content. Sick as a dog but content.

"Thing is every time she walked into a room she started talking as well and that girl had a voice like fingernails down a blackboard!" Tommy finished with a cheeky grin.

Fergus was cracking up in the cell next door; Lee thought he could hear Cally and Colin sniggering as well. Ron was breaking into another smile as he nudged Tommy with his bare foot and Tommy glanced along the floor to him with a chuckle.

"Well lads," Fergus began, "I've been with many women and I have to say, on the whole, that the best physical experience I had with a female member of the opposite sex," Davies seemed to be snorting at this abuse of the English language, "was with a girl broad as a barn and with a face like a wet weekend."

Dean laughed at this.

"But when yeh had her in the dark," Fergus said dreamily, "oh my she was somethin' special!"

Ron was looking into space again but this time he seemed to be in a better place inside his own head. He let out a single quiet laugh before turning his attention back to the opening in the cell door above Lee's head. Auror Maccario was speaking once again.

"The first time I saw my Chiara I turned to my friend Antonella; she was my partner on Auror training, lovely witch, enormous bosoms but they never interfered with the job...killing curse in the back three weeks ago. Anyway I turned to Antonella and I said, 'that is what my soul has been searching for'. It has found it's other half; it's mirror image. She is the light to my dark, the cream to my coffee, the life to my death..."

The cells were enraptured by this soliloquy of unashamed adoration. That it came from an Auror of all people made it all the more powerful. This man knew ten ways to kill a man without using a wand and yet he was talking like this as if he was a poet.

"She wears my ring," Maccario said longingly, "She waits for me. I close my eyes and I see hers and I am never sacred or alone. For I am loved."

The sentiment seemed to sink into every one of them until Sam Robbins' voice brought them all back to reality.

"Shit Prang are you crying?"

There was a sniff and a muggy, muffled response from the cell to the left of the main door.

"I told my...she would have been my..." Prang choked a little before continuing, "I told her we should wait until the war was over before we became a couple. I told her I didn't want to worry her and that I didn't want to feel as if I was leaving her by going off to fight. I asked her to wait for me and she said she would."

There was a shushing sound coming from the cell now and it sounded as if Robbins was comforting Prang. He was such a pendulum of emotions. He could be the strongest most hardened and fearless wizard on the cellblock one moment and the next he would be emoting himself half to death. His empathy for others was obvious and Lee wondered if that was going to be used against him by the Death Eaters.

"I just wish I hadn't wasted so much time and just...let us be together. I always have to think things through too much and protect everybody all the time but now I think I made a mistake. I should've told her I loved her before I left rather then planning to do it when I got back," Prang's voice was barely even there anymore.

"Hannah Abbot," Ernie said, out of the blue, "I told Hannah Abbot I loved her and it doesn't make it any easier I can tell you. She's in hiding still, her whole family were after what happened to her...well the war ended and she was too scared to come back into the real world. I didn't get to see her before Moody asked me to come out here. She's the only one there's ever been and it's only ever been once. That's good enough for me."

"Better to have loved and lost then never loved at all and all that," Colin called out from the most opposite cell to Prang and McMillan's.

"So where does that leave me?" Rodger Davies spoke up.

"Now Davies," Belby called across Lee's cell, positioned inconveniently between the two wizards who were about to have this conversation, "You're not going to string us along with some tale about you being a virgin too are you? Because I happen to know that's crap!"

"Conquests aren't love Marcus," Rodger Davies said sadly.

"I'd take a good hard conquest right now," Fergus muttered under his breath.

"Unrequited love is still love though," Dean said, strangely serious, "That still counts even if it hurts."

"Hmmm..." Davies murmured to himself, "Why doesn't that make me feel better?"

"My wife died when my youngest was born," Cally said, his voice strong and clear, "I left my eldest, Patrick, looking after them while I came out here to help out. He's a good lad; likes taking care of people, just like his mum. She had sad eyes, my wife, but a smile in the exact same shape as a diamond. It used to blow me away when she smiled. These down turned heartbreaking eyes and then this jackpot smile right beneath them. I know what it feels like to be left behind fellas and I can tell you it hurts like hell but you hold on to every precious moment you had and you treasure it more then your own life. Every moment...every minute...every day..."

"So Ron," Dean called across from the opposite cell, Lee saw Ron lift his head and respond, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Ron drew in a deep breath and exhaled before answering.

"No. No I don't."

Lee knew that Ron couldn't stand his eyes staring into him so intently but he couldn't tear his gaze away. Lee had always thought that Ron and Hermione were secretly together. The twins had not just suspected it but declared it as fact. He had always taken it as read that Ron and Hermione had got it on at Bill and Fleur's wedding, maybe even before that, but Ron seemed to be genuinely pained about admitting he didn't have a woman in his life.

Ron took another deep breath and stared right back at Lee while answering Dean's question through two iron doors.

"I was supposed to. I'm supposed to have a girlfriend now. I was gonna meet her yesterday and we were gonna..." Ron's voice sounded so distant, it was as if he was trying to project it across the country and the sea and right to Hermione wherever she was right then, "But I got delayed."

Cally repeated Ron's sentiment with a smile in his voice.

"Delayed, that's one way to put it kid."

"Don't worry Ron," Krum's deep voice called out, with a lot more understanding then his previous interjection, "she will wait for you."

Lee finally broke his gaze and traced a pattern with his finger on the ground with his finger.

"What about you Lee?" Tommy said, shifting his weight so he was laying on his side again, "What's your story?"

Lee looked down at his hands and wriggled against the magical ropes uncomfortably. He didn't have a story. He'd never been in love. He'd never wanted somebody who didn't want him back. He'd had girlfriends and had fun with them and ended things on good terms but he'd never had anything particularly deep.

He marvelled at how deeply everybody in these cells had felt things. They might have experienced a great overwhelming love or an utterly devastating hurt but they had felt something to the extreme all the same.

"Lee?" he heard himself being asked again.

Lee looked back at Ron who was frowning at him.

"My story's yet to be told boys," he said eventually, "I'll find my great unrequited or my joy or pain sometime in the future."

"The future eh?" Cally said, wistfully.

"Yeah," Lee said as he looked out of the barred window at the passing clouds once more, "a year from now I'll have a story to tell you all, I promise."

Chapter 9 Selfish Thoughts

Seamus just threw himself through the first unlocked door he could find at the Embassy and locked it behind himself with a flick of his wand.

He heaved an enormously deep sigh as he closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face in an attempt to wake himself up. This had been a long day and he hadn't had one single moment of it to himself until now. He looked around the room and saw that he was in a poorly lit clerk's office. It must've been one of the few offices in the Embassy that wasn't the temporary home of one family or another.

"Hiding from the women are you?" a voice called out, making Seamus jump and spin around on the spot.

Dean's father, Darren Thomas, stepped out of the shadows with a muggle newspaper in his hands and a wide grin on his face.

"So many women in one enclosed space, it gets to you pretty fast doesn't it?" he chuckled.

"Oh you're tellin' me!" Seamus huffed as he dropped himself into a vacant chair in front of the cluttered desk, "I've got my Aunt Marie going crazy over me ma in one ear and me ma going mental over Aunt Marie in the other and all the while I'm trying to get to my man Potter to find out what he knows, if anything, and then the Weasley twins intercept me and I'm talking about the last time I saw Ron and Lee fer half an hour!"

Mr Thomas sighed and sat down on the corner of the desk with a shake of the head.

"I keep finding things to do with myself so I don't have to get involved with the whole waiting and fretting process out there," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, "Do you?"

"Nah, I'm a boozer me!" Seamus grinned as he propped his head up on his elbow, which rested on the arm of the chair.

"Good choice," Mr Thomas nodded, "easier to cover up drink then smoke. If you see my missus I don't do either alright?"

"Alright there Mr Thomas!" Seamus chuckled.

"Darren please."

"Secret's safe with me Darren."

Darren lit his cigarette and Seamus scanned the walls of the office idly. There were a lot of posters and memos written in Dutch, some looked like they were Russian or Greek, and one or two unfurled scrolls of parchment on the desk were scribbled in English.

This had obviously not been the office of anybody very important. Seamus glanced up to the ceiling and saw a couple of broken links of a paper chain left over from Christmas still hanging from the ceiling.

"I just deliberately broke the upstairs toilet y'know?" Darren said aloud as he exhaled a plume of smoke idly.

"Ye wha?" Seamus frowned.

Darren tried to suppress a guilty smirk.

"I broke the stove as well. I keep breaking stuff and then disappearing for a few hours to 'fix' it," Darren made air quotations as he said the word fix and Seamus laughed, "it gets me away from the wife and all the mothers."

Seamus shook his head and rubbed his forehead roughly.

"I wish I knew how to fix stuff," he mumbled.

"You don't have to know how to fix stuff, you just have to know how to break stuff!"

"Now that I can do!" Seamus said proudly while Darren sniggered, "If yeh want anythin blowin' up, I'm yer man."

"Oh I think we'll save the real destruction for when we get into a real fix. Like when Carol wants to talk about 'feelings'"

"Oh Godric, I hate feelings!" Seamus groaned, "me ma's got enough fer the whole Embassy and she still doesn't think that it's enough. She's constantly on at poor Aunt Marie because she's not letting herself become a gibberin' wreck."

"What is it with people wanting to see you cry?" Darren said as he took another drag.

"I like that best about my Aunt Marie! I like that she doesn't lose her head at every little thing," Seamus said as he sat back in his chair and plonked his feet up onto the desk, "I mean yeh can worry without...letting people see can't yeh?"

"Not any more mate," Darren said as he leaned against the wall and flicked some ash into a nearby caldron, "you've got to let it all out or be branded repressed."

"Well get out the brandin' iron and burn it into me arse," Seamus said defiantly, "I'm repressin' me depression! I'm denyin' all me cryin'. I'm abstainin' from complainin'."

Darren laughed at this and soon Seamus was chuckling, pleased with himself for the lyricism of his little outburst, and the two of them fell silent again.

"Oh God, those Weasleys," Darren suddenly said with a wide eyed shake of the head, "They're so intimidating. There's so many of them."

"Ah no they're good people the Weasley's," Seamus nodded sincerely.

"Oh I know that but it's kind of hard to break through the wall of chatter to say hello isn't it. It's like a private, members only club with them and I'm not invited."

Seamus frowned as he swivelled his chair from side to side while thinking about this statement.

"They're just worried like the rest of us, that's all," he said as Darren stubbed his cigarette, "I know what yeh mean about the invisible wall though. I used to get it at school, me and Dean both did, it was Potter, Weasley and Granger and everybody else on the outside lookin' in."

"Well I'm sure the same could be said of you and Dean eh?" Darren shrugged, "Thick as thieves you two."

Seamus chuckled wickedly.

"Yeah well, Dean went out with their girl Ginny didn't he and it still didn't get him on the inside? Now Neville, don't ask me how, but Longbottom managed to break through and get in the loop of things. Not the inner loop but a loop all the same. What's Longbottom got that I haven't I ask yeh?"

Darren shook his head.

"I don't know which one he is, sorry mate."

"Oh he's not here, his gran's on her last legs, he has to nurse her constantly now, poor sod."

"Oh right," Darren said as he pulled a breath mint from his pocket and tossed it into his open mouth before offering one to Seamus who declined wordlessly, "Well I see Carol's bonded with the mother. It's nice that she has someone to talk to...y'know? Seeing as I won't!"

Seamus sniggered at this.

"Yeah, she's spendin' time with Aunt Marie as well. Pissing me mother off somethin' chronic that is. I had to have words with her to be honest and that's why I'm hiding in here."

"Oh yeah, stress making her snappy is it?" Darren frowned.

"Somethin' like tha yeah," Seamus said as he lowered his legs from the desk and spun the chair around to face Darren, "She made some stupid comment about it bein' worse fer Aunt Marie and those who only have the one kid while the Weasley's have so many and are takin' over the place as if their kid's more important then the others 'cause he's got more people watin' fer 'im."

"Right," Darren said with a shake of the head, "I overheard that pompous prick MacGalagan or something..."

"McLaggen," Seamus corrected, knowing that anything that man had to say was bound to be moronic.

"Yeah him, well he was pissing and moaning to his missus that anybody with seven kids would feel the loss of one less then somebody who only had one child."

"Dick head!" Seamus scowled to himself.

"Well that's what I told him pretty much, "I may have commented on his lack of hair and told him it was hard to make out exactly what he was saying with his head up his arse but the gist of it was me saying dick head."

Seamus cackled at this and realised where Dean got his dry sense of humour.

"As if the more kids you have, the more expendable they become. What a load of cobblers!" Darren said, getting annoyed all over again it seemed.

"Ignore 'im," Seamus said with a dismissive wave of the hand, "There's one thing worse then a bigoted gobshite and that's a scared bigoted gobshite!"

"Don't I know it," Darren said as he folded his arms across his chest.

Seamus realised that he was swearing a little too much considering he was in front of his best friend's father but the man didn't seem to mind so he thought better of drawing attention to that fact by apologising for it.

"To be totally honest with you Seamus," Darren said, looking down at his feet now, "I'm so glad that the Ambassador didn't have anybody waiting here for news of him because I wouldn't have been able to look them in the eye and tell them I'm sorry it was him and not Dean. I can't look anybody in the eye and face the fact that I want these people's kids to die so mine doesn't have to."

"Don't think like that, it'll kill yeh," Seamus said in a low voice.

"I know."

"D'ya know what? I'm glad it was him, the Ambassador I mean, I'm glad it was him and not Fergus or Dean or Ron or Colin or any of my mates."

"Don't do that to yourself kid," Darren said as he pushed himself up and put a hand on Seamus' back.

"But it's true," he said, looking up at the older man, his expression eerily blank, "I never met him, I never knew him and I'd never heard of him until all this and I want everybody who fills that criteria to go first because I just don't care about them."

"You think you're the only one who's tearing themself apart because they think that? We're all thinking that Seamus, we're all human after all, and we just want our loved ones to get through this alright."

"I never thought I'd be so happy to hear that a good man had been murdered but there I was this afternoon, almost smiling when I heard."

"Seriously son, stop doing this, stop thinking about that," Darren said as he shook Seamus bracingly.

"How can I not when I'm in my mother's company hour after hour?" Seamus snapped as he got to his feet, "You know she's got her own little 'death list' in her head, all written out in her brain, who deserves to die in what order. Who should go before her nephew in her educated opinion. I see her scannin' the place at dinner and tickin' 'em off in her head. Yours should go before Fergus, yours should go before Fergus, yours should die and then yours and yours and your-"

"Grab that paperweight!" Darren said out of the blue, pointing at a large heavy glass dome on the cluttered desk.

"Wha?" Seamus frowned.

"Grab that paperweight and come with me," Darren said with a look of determination set on his features, "We're going to find something to break and then I'm going to teach you how to repair it the muggle way."

Seamus broke into a smile before reaching for the paperweight and tossing in his hand like a quaffle he was about to pass to a teammate. Darren's face broke into a grin, his cheeks doing that chirpy gerbil thing that Dean always used to tell him about, and he swung open the door.

"Let's go express our emotions!"

Ron knelt beside Tommy and put his hand to his forehead, frowning at the amount of heat that was still coming from the sick wizard's skin.

"I know what you're thinking," Tommy said, his large eyes staring back up at Ron and his voice shaken by the constant shivering.

"Oh yeah," Ron grinned, "what's that then?"

"You were thinking, 'if only I had an egg I could fry it up on this guys flat head and finally shut that noisy stomach of mine up'!"

Ron chuckled at this at the exact moment his empty stomach groaned and contracted even more.

"Now that's just scary!" the redhead said as he removed his hand from Tommy's forehead and sat down beside him, leaning against the damp wall.

"Still," Tommy said, nudging Ron in the ribs as he strained to sit up beside Ron, "water tomorrow eh? That's something to look forward to isn't it?"

Ron's smile faded and he rubbed his face roughly with both hands.

"If that bastard keeps his word."

"I dunno, I think he's got something up his sleeve but I also think he gives exactly what he says he's going to give you. He's a clever one that Puppet Master bloke," Tommy's whole body gave an involuntary shudder before Ron began to pull off his blood stained jumper to give him an extra layer of warmth, "No don't, you need it. I'm fine, really."

Ron removed his jumper and began to force it over Tommy's head while ignoring the weakened young man's muffled protests.

"Listen the sleeves are aggravating my wrists alright?" Ron said pointedly as Tommy's head popped through the neck of the tatty old Weasley jumper, "If I take it off and leave it on the floor it'll get damp and grotty but if you wear it and then give it back to me later then it'll be all warm and toastie for me."

Ron was manipulating Tommy's arms through the sleeves while Tommy gave him a look that told him he wasn't buying it for a second but he'd let it go for now. Ron smirked at his little victory. Tommy looked down at Ron's scabby, bloodstained wrists and winced.

"What'd he do to you out there?" his shaking hands took one of Ron's arms and examined it closely.

"So...I don't know anything about you mate," Ron beamed as if Tommy hadn't said anything at all, "Lee's pulling rank 'cause he's older then me, please tell me you're over twenty two?"

"Twenty one, sorry," Tommy shrugged before looking Ron hard in the eye and refusing to release his injured wrist from his grasp, "Now I've answered one of your questions you have to answer one of mine. How did this happen?"

Ron looked back at Tommy, slightly annoyed that he wasn't going to let this go.

"Chained to a wall," Ron shrugged, "So where are you from?"

"Chained to the wall isn't the full answer, I want the full answer Ron," Tommy said as Ron yanked his arm away from his feverish inquisitor.

Lee had been snoozing in the corner very lightly, as soon as Tommy and Ron began talking he had stirred and woken but not said a word, now he was holding his breath and listening for the answer. Ron could feel his eyes on his back.

"Chained to the wall with my feet off the ground alright?" Ron said resentfully.

"So you were pulling right against them the whole time you were gone?" Tommy said as he winced and looked back down at Ron's forearms.

Ron tried to fold his arms to hide his wounds but it didn't really work.

"They cut in a bit yeah. Right so now it's my turn," Ron said with a huff.

"I'm from Leytonstone," Tommy smiled.

"That question is void," Ron said with a scowl, "you asked a simple question and then wanted details so I'm allowed to amend my question so I can do the same thing to you."

Tommy found this quite amusing and nodded.

"Go ahead then, give me your question."

"How d'you end up in this mess?" Ron blinked.

"Wait up," Tommy said incredulously, "that's not a question with a couple of details that's like an epic. That's not fair!"

"So you're with the Order yeah?" Ron said, arching his eyebrows.

"Yeah," Tommy confirmed.

"How d'you get into that, who do you work with that I might know and where were you based when you got sick?"

"Right, you're going to get some proper questions when my turn comes along you know that?" Tommy pointed at Ron who gave a 'pft' of defiance, "Okay, I wanted to help. I wanted to fight. I saw something in the Prophet asking for people willing to do anything, no matter how menial and unsatisfying, to contribute. I thought, well that sounds like an awful, thankless way to join the war effort but at least I can get my foot in the door and it turned out to be..."

"Shacklebolt's coded advertisement for new Order members," Lee said over Ron's shoulder with a smile in his voice.

"That's the one," Tommy nodded ruefully, "So I joined up via a fluke, got assigned to a team of all the other new recruits and sent to Maastrict to wait for anybody to call for emergency back up."

"So you were on standby in Belgium?" Ron clarified.

"Yep," Tommy nodded, "Got called in when there were more Death Eaters then expected during a raid in Holland and hit with a freezing curse. By the time somebody got to me to thaw me out I had hypothermia and I was bouncing all over the country trying to find a healer. Came to Venlo to meet up with Callahan and get myself sorted but then..."

"So it was your first action?" Lee said pityingly.

"Just my luck," Tommy grumbled before looking back at Ron and seeming to search for a really good question that Ron wouldn't be allowed to avoid answering, "So, your turn again, I think I'll go back to what went on this morning before they killed the Ambassador."

"Let it drop Tom," Ron said wearily.

"Nope," he said as he hugged his two layers of other people's clothing to his shaking body, "I think I want to know what you did to get us water tomorrow."

Ron knew that if he held back on this Prang would probably just tell them anyway and make it sound a whole lot worse then it really was so he bit the bullet and went for it.

"He had a glass of some grimy water that turned out to be sea water and said either me or McLaggen had to drink it to get water for the rest of you."

Lee scrambled to his side and stared at Ron in horror.

"You drank a whole glass of sea water?" he snapped.

"What's this?" Cally was calling out from his cell next door.

Ron glared at Lee and hissed at him to keep it down.

"I puked most of it back up when I came back didn't I?" he said, defensively.

"See that's what I meant about that Puppet Master bloke," Tommy coughed as he looked from Ron to Lee, "you tell him Ron needs water and he gives him salt water."

"Fucking sadist," Lee growled.

"My turn!" Ron said with a look that told them that conversation was over, "I don't recognise you from Hogwarts, where'd you learn magic?"

Lee shifted his weight, the hard floor of the cell obviously giving him pins and needles now, and answered the question.

"It's just me and my mum at home. If I'd have gone off to boarding school she'd have been on her own for most of the year and I couldn't leave her. They've got programmes for people like me. Home schooling it's called."

Ron shook his head on hearing this news.

"So your mum wasn't lonely but...fuck you must've been!"

"Well there are about a dozen like me in the London area and we'd get together twice a week for group lessons, y'know, the practical stuff you've got to do rather then read?" Tommy said before sniffing and coughing a little more, "Well we all made friends there so it wasn't so bad really."

"Still," Lee said, looking kind of disturbed by something about that set-up, "no Quidditch. I don't know if learning magic is worth it if you don't get to have Quidditch."

Ron and Tommy sniggered at this before Tommy broke the mood with his next question.

"Why'd you say sorry to McLaggen when you're the one who took the Cruciatus curse for him?"

Ron shook his head and got up to his feet.

"That's enough now," he said as he stepped over Lee to look out the cell window at the receding dusk light.

"No," Tommy said, he sounded determined but very sympathetic at the same time, "You answer my question."

Ron fixed his eyes on the courtyard where Secretan had been murdered only hours earlier and shook his head without a word.

"He saved P-Prang from getting tortured," a ragged voice called out from across the corridor, it was McLaggen, "He's beating himself up because he couldn't save us both but he saved Prang and s-somebody needs to remind him of that."

Ron's head turned and he stared out of the opening in the cell door. He couldn't see McLaggen's cell from where he stood but he could see Dean Thomas and Auror Maccario at their door right opposite and they smiled at him.

Suddenly the main door to the cellblock clunked open and every cell fell silent.

There were clear measured footsteps sounding against the stone floor and the Puppet Master spoke up.

"Warr is de bioed verrader?" he said with mild amusement in his tone.

There were two sets of footsteps rushing into the cellblock behind him and one of them magically opened the door to Ron's cell. Lee stood before Tommy protectively while Tommy tried to get to his feet, snarling his disgust at their captors under his breath the whole time. Ron moved forward to shove Tommy back down to the ground when both Death Eaters wands pointed directly into his chest and Ron froze.

"U jongen, het einde!" one of them said.

"Hem aan breng me," the Puppet Master said lazily and one of the Death Eaters lurched into the tiny cell and pulled Ron out of it by the front of his t-shirt.

"Would yeh lay off him fer fuck's sake!" Fergus Finnegan was roaring as Ron was thrown towards the Puppet Master and the cell door closed behind him just as Tommy and Lee were reaching out to try and grab Ron's flailing leg.

With the sound of Lee and Dean hollering abuse and demands for them to take Ron's place this time, he felt the Puppet Master jam his wand tip into the side of his throat and slam him up against the far wall. The Puppet Master leaned in close and whispered into Ron's ear with that sickeningly moist breath of his.

"The next one of them that speaks in your defence will pay the price, Firebrand!"

He pulled Ron back from the wall and swung him around to shove him hard into the closed door of Cally and Colin's cell.

"You will all remain quiet and that is my order!" the Puppet Master yelled to all the faces at the cell doors before jamming the wand tip even harder into Ron's throat.

Ron gagged at little and Cally looked him in the eye and parted his lips to tell the Puppet Master to go easy on him but Ron widened his eyes and mouthed the word 'no'. Cally seemed to know that something was going on and turned to Colin to shake his head and then do the same to Belby where he was sat on the floor in shock.

"Very good," the Puppet Master said, his breath on the back of Ron's neck, "Now for our celebrity."

Ron was yanked away from Cally's door and his chest bounced off the cell opposite where Krum was watching with livid eyes. Ron gasped as the air was knocked out of his lungs and his eyes burned as they suddenly flooded. He drew breath and puffed out his chest to tell the Puppet Master just what he could do with his demand for silence but Ron pleaded with the surly proud wizard with his watering eyes. He swallowed down his discomfort and mouthed his warning once again.

'No, please'

Krum stared at Ron in confusion for a moment before biting his tongue and pressing his lips together until they were practically white.

"Good boy," the delighted Puppet Master said, his patronising voice sending shivers down Ron's spine.

Before Ron could thank Krum he as thrown back to the other side and hit the closed door to his own cell now and was about to try to warn Lee when the Puppet Master's hand clamped down hard over his mouth and Ron's eyes bulged so much that they didn't feel as if they were still inside his skull at all. Lee was looking right at him and Ron had no other way of telling him to keep his mouth shut other then with his eyes.

Lee seemed to be conflicted. He could tell that the others hadn't spoken for a very good reason and knew by Ron's eyes that he should do as he was told but his instinct was bursting to explode from within him and bellow at the Puppet Master to let Ron go. Ron caught a glimpse of Tommy on the floor and saw him tugging at Lee's trouser leg frantically. Lee looked down at Tommy made a zipping gesture over his lips and pointed at Ron and mimed the hand over his mouth, pointed to Lee and put his finger to his lips.

Ron closed his eyes with relief that Tommy seemed to understand the game. Ron's mouth had been covered this time because he was telling the others not to say anything. He looked back to Lee and willed him to understand. Lee swallowed and stepped back from the cell door with his arms folded across his chest. He didn't say a word.

"Oh this is marvellous," the Puppet Master said with relish as he spun Ron away to slam him against the opposite cell where Dean was looking about really to spit blood.

The hand was still secure over Ron's mouth and the wand jammed in even harder, Ron winced and gave a muffled yelp before he could begin trying to communicate the trap with his old dormitory mate.

"You fucker!" Dean hissed.

Ron was thrown to the ground as the Puppet Master raised both his arms victoriously and declared his joy to his men.

"Neem weg hem!"

"No wait," Ron said as he tried to scramble back up from the floor.

A boot slammed into his stomach and Ron crumpled onto the ground, wheezing and sputtering, while the door to Dean's cell was unlocked and a fight broke out between Maccario and the Death Eater guard attempting to extricate Dean from the cell. There was a bright flash of red light and the sound of a body hitting the ground forced Ron to open his eyes completely. He saw Maccario being cradled in Sloper's arms while he yelled after Dean as he was dragged kicking and swearing from his cell.

The door to Dean's cell slammed shut at the same moment the door to Ron's swung open and the Puppet Master booted Ron back inside. Lee ran forward to drag Ron deeper into the cell and out of reach while Tommy spat onto the Puppet Master's pristine robes. The Puppet Master looked down at the trickle of bile before flushing in the face and flicking his wand at Tommy's chest.

"Everbero!" he snarled.

Tommy was hit with something that winded him and painfully held him down to the floor. Ron drew in a strained breath and yelled out to his nemesis.

"Enough!"

The Puppet Master smirked and broke the connection with Tommy.

"Enough for now Firebrand, we will play again tomorrow."

The Puppet Master turned on his heel and strode out of the cell, the door closing behind him and then the main door booming shut soon after.

"Fucking hell!" Fergus exclaimed.

"What the hell was all that about?" Prang demanded.

"He was going to punish the first one of us to stand up for Ron," Cally said, his voice sounding sickened, "You alright kid?"

Ron was still coughing but he nodded.

"He's gonna be okay Cally," Lee called back shakily.

Ron shoved Lee away from him and toward Tommy. Lee paused for a moment before Ron gave him a second shove and he crawled over to Tommy's side. He was shaking even worse then before and he was also coughing and straining to breathe. It was the same hard-hitting spell that had been used on Lee and it hurt like hell but didn't last.

"You'll be okay Tommy mate alright? Just try to breathe easy for me okay?"

Tommy rolled over onto his back and seemed to nod. Ron clutched his stomach and drew his knees up to his chest in his own attempt to get back up again but he gave up when the fresh bruise and the old bruises on his tender stomach knocked him back down with a new kind of discomfort.

"Oh shit Ron," Ernie MacMillan exhaled, "he really has singled you out."

Chapter 10 Water, Water Everywhere But Not A Drop To Drink

Hexes, curses and debris were flying all over the place. Yells and screams shook him to the bone and somewhere there was an almighty explosion that filled the cellblock with thick black smoke.

He felt his eyes stinging and his throat burning as he dropped to his knees and began to choke. He reached out for Tommy's still body on the floor, he was cold. He laid himself flat to the floor, trying to limbo through the suffocating smoke, but as soon as he did the door to the cellblock was blasted off it's hinges and familiar voices bellowed out familiar names in desperation.

Names of the dead whom they did not know were dead yet.

The door to his cell was sucked away as if the cell block was suffering from explosive decompression and everything but the prisoners was being drawn out of the room and thrust outside to clear the air so their saviours were able to see.

He looked up and saw them, their welcome but battle scarred faces. The twins had come for him like he always knew they would. They ran into the cell, picked him up off the floor, and stood him up against the wall. They held him securely so he didn't fall down again.

"Lee, where's Ron?" Fred said, his eyes wide and frantic.

He crumpled and his legs gave out beneath him but the four hands on his chest forced him to stay upright.

"Where is he Lee?" George demanded after looking down at the long dead body of Tommy at his feet.

He felt his eyes burning again, not because of any smoke this time but through the guilt and the pain of what he had to tell his two best friends in the whole world.

"Where's Ron?" Fred roared into his face as his hands shook violently.

"They killed him," Lee only just managed to force the words out of his throat, his vocal chords felt shredded, "They killed him Fred I'm so sorry."

George's face went almost grey as he released his hold on Lee and staggered backwards to put his hands to his head and shake it defiantly. Lee choked back his emotions and looked Fred in his bloodshot eyes.

"I tried to stop 'em but there was nothing I could do. They were too strong and too fast and I couldn't...I couldn't...I really tried Fred I swear but they..."

Fred stepped back from Lee and let the boy fall to the floor and break down completely.

"C'mon George," Fred said, his voice so empty that it almost echoed within him, "I want to find his body."

"I'm sorry," Lee wept, "Fred, George, I'm so sorry."

The twins left the cell without another word and Lee's body was shaken to the core by another explosion from somewhere deep beneath him.

"No wait!" Lee said as he sat up panting heavily and shaking all over.

"Shit what is it?" Ron was saying as he scrambled over to his side and put his hand upon his shoulder, "What's wrong?"

Lee looked at Ron and then behind him to Tommy who was sitting himself up with a great deal of effort to look over at him with concern.

"It's nothing, just a stupid nightmare," Lee said with a rushed exhalation and a smile that he forced upon his face to try and communicate that they were to ignore him and his little outburst.

"You sure?" Ron frowned, as he looked Lee up and down, "You're shaking worse then Tommy mate!"

Lee gulped and nodded in an attempt to pull himself together again.

"I'm sure. I'm fine, just being silly that's all. Lack of food I think.

Ron smiled at him nervously.

"Yeah I know what you mean. If I get any hungrier I might take a bite out of Tom!"

Tommy's face broke into a tired smile and Lee forced out a laugh.

He looked back at Ron and watched as his bruised face changed its expression from weary amusement to a frown of concern. He didn't say anything though; he just looked back at Lee and waited for him to confide what exactly had upset him so much. Lee couldn't look into Ron's eyes any longer and tilted his head to glance up at the cell door.

"Did they bring Dean back yet?" he asked.

Ron gave a deep sigh and sat back on his heels.

"No, and it's nearly sunrise now, he's been gone all night."

Lee looked back at Ron on hearing his tone and fixed his eyes firmly on the lowered blue ones before him.

"This wasn't your fault," he said with determination.

Ron looked up and sighed again before shaking his head.

"He spoke up before I could even try to warn him. He spoke up for me."

"Don't Ron," Tommy said from behind the redhead's back, "This is what they want you to do to yourself. Don't play along."

Ron looked over his shoulder and threw Tommy a smile before edging backwards on his behind and huddling into the corner of the cell to hug his arms to himself and rest his head, his eyes closing.

"Take your jumper back now," Tommy said as he struggled to sit up.

"No!" Ron's eyes snapped open wide and he glared at Tommy, "I'm not cold, I'm tired, you keep that on."

Tommy looked a little affronted at the youngest member of their cell giving him orders but, in all honesty, Lee really didn't think the ailing wizard had the energy to pull the jumper off by himself. As Tommy gave up without protest and Ron settled back into his corner to try and get some sleep, a horrible thought occurred to Lee and he found himself voicing it before he could stop himself.

"D'you think that Dean's been executed? He was the next one after Secretan?"

Ron's eyes opened again and he looked back across the cell at Lee.

"I dunno," he said, his voice low, "they didn't take him outside like they did with Secretan."

"Maybe it's just torture that went on a bit long," Tommy suggested.

Ron and Lee turned to look down at him with bewildered looks on their faces.

"What d'you mean just?" Lee said.

Tommy shifted his weight into another uncomfortable looking position and huffed.

"Well I'm not saying that torture is a walk in the park. I'm just saying it's better then death isn't it?"

"Not at the time," Ron mumbled before realising he'd spoken out loud and looking away from his two cell mates rapidly.

The three of them tried and failed to get back to sleep in total silence after that. After all, there really was nothing more to say.

It was mid-morning when Ginny noticed that Mr and Mrs Prang were whispering something into their daughter's ear before the wavy haired brunette nodded and walked across the crowded room in the Embassy where the families had congregated. They were all awaiting noon with a sense of dread.

Ginny was helping her mother serve the tea when she saw the girl, a year younger then herself, almost bouncing over to her purposefully.

"Um hello," she smiled, "my mum told me to come and help. What should I do?"

Ginny smiled at the poor girl. It was typical of the way all the parents were coping with this strain. They would all band together into their own little groups and then gang up on their younger relatives for not making themselves useful.

"Well I'd say we could take our wands, sneak out the back and perform an ordinance locator spell for our brothers and then go after them like witches possessed but I think that'd be frowned upon so," Ginny smiled and shrugged and nodded down to the tray in her hands, "you could always fetch the biscuit tin and follow me round doing the menial tasks we've been assigned."

"Oh goody, I love menial tasks almost as I love going to arithmancy class!" the young witch said sarcastically, "I'm Lynne by the way."

"Ginny," the flame haired witch responded while looking back down at her full hands and raising her eyebrows with a laugh, "if I could I'd shake your hand!"

"That's okay, I'll go and get the biscuits," Lynne chuckled before heading off to the kitchen.

Ginny felt her mother approaching before she saw or heard anything from her and tensed up immediately.

"Oh Ginny dear I'm so glad you've finally got around to talking to some of the other girls waiting here for news," her mother fussed while patting down her hair as if it was in a terrible windswept state rather than as smooth and sleek as she could see it was from her reflection a little way away.

"Mum, will you get off me, I'll spill the teas!" Ginny fidgeted to get away from under her mother's fussing presence.

"Come now, let's not get snappish with each other again dear, there are people watching after all and we have to set a good example so we don't show Ron up don't we?"

Ginny snorted at this.

"A good example? For Ron?" Ginny said incredulously, "We are thinking about the same person aren't we? My brother Ron, over a foot taller then me, long nose, blue eyes, swears every other sentence and eats like he's got worms?"

Ginny's stomach did a mini flip as she saw her mother's face falling and her hands drop limply to her sides.

"I'll thank you not to go spreading you low opinion of your poor brother around this Embassy young lady and I hope on Merlin's name that you don't live to regret talking so flippantly about him like that!"

"But mum," Ginny began to protest but her mother turned and marched away to be followed by Mrs Finnegan; the nice one not the frantic one; who could plainly see that she was steaming about something her 'bolshy' daughter had just said to her.

Ginny wished that her mother would realise that this was just her way of dealing with all this stress and tension. Then she became slightly aggravated that her mother had immediately jumped to the conclusion that everything she had just listed about her brother were things she considered bad qualities that the family should be ashamed of. Ginny loved it when Ron swore, it was always really funny and seven times out of ten he got away with it which was more then most other members of the family.

She also thought that it was quite a good thing that Ron could eat like a family of starved trolls and not put on a single pound of fat. Surely that was admirable!

She took a deep breath and set off towards the Belby's with her 'look how well my family's coping' smile plastered all over her face and heard Lynne Prang's footsteps clip clopping behind her to catch up.

"Got 'em!" she said breathlessly.

"Thanks," Ginny said as if nothing had happened in the girl's absence, "Mr Belby, Mrs Belby, Mr Belby...again!" she said as she turned to address the well-to-do uncle of Marcus Belby, "Tea?"

"Oh thank you dear," Damocles Belby said with a charming smile, "I am absolutely parched!"

Ron was thumping Tommy on the back firmly while he coughed as if he had something lodged in his windpipe.

"C'mon mate, cough it up, it might be a gold watch!" Ron said while Tommy laughed and coughed even more ferociously.

Tommy had been wheezing a hell of a lot over the past half hour. His throat was sore and dry as a piece of parchment.

"He needs that water we've been promised, we all do," Cally called out from his cell next door, "but I'm almost afraid to call out and ask them when we're getting it after what happened last time."

"I'm...fine..." Tommy wheezed, "...can...wait."

Ron looked up at Lee who had been watching this whole scene with a deep worry line creasing his forehead. The two of them looked back at Tommy, whose eyes were forced tightly shut as he struggled to suppress his cough.

"It just...tickles," Tommy whispered to them as Ron began to rub his back, "breathing...sets me off."

Ron gave a tut and rolled his eyes.

"Well why didn't you say so you prat?" Ron looked pointedly at Lee with a straight face, "Lee, suffocate him!"

Tommy began to laugh again which only set off the coughs once more and Ron scrunched up his face with apology. He set about patting him on the back again.

"Nice one Ron," Lee said with a smirk.

The cellblock door banged open and the amusement was wiped from both their faces immediately. Ron moved to stand and held on to Tommy long enough for Lee to take his place and support him in the sitting position. As Ron pressed himself up against the door he saw Dean, walking like a ninety year old man but with a defiant smile on his face as he passed the first two cells, meeting his eyes and winking.

"Dean I'm so s-" Ron began

"No problem mate," Dean said as he suppressed a wince, "it was worth it!"

The cell door across from Ron's swung open magically and Dean was shoved inside. Sloper caught him while the visibly sore Maccario struggled to his feet to check on his returning cellmate as the cell door closed.

"What did they do to ya Dean?" Cally called out as the Death Eaters retreated from the cellblock but left the main door open.

"They've got this room," Dean said as he was being lowered to the floor of his cell to sit, Ron could've sworn he heard him hissing before continuing, "well it isn't really a room, more like a hole in the wall with a door over it. Anyway they shoved me in there for the night and left me."

"What, that's it?" Fergus said; sounding bewildered as to Dean's aged state that morning.

"Well it was a really small room Fergus!" Dean protested before yelping about something.

"What is it? Maccario, what's going on in there?"

"His back and his knees, they seem to be painful to move," Maccario said from the opening in his cell door.

Ron stood on tiptoes to try and see Dean on the floor but it was impossible. Maccario noticed him worrying and smiled at him confidently.

"Don't let them see you're feeling bad Ron," the Italian Auror said, "do what Dean is doing, make light of it, that is what they can't stand."

Ron tried to smile back as he nodded.

"Hey Dean?" Cally called out again, "This hole in the wall; was it tall enough to stand up in?"

"Nah," Dean's voice responded.

"Was it wide enough to sit down in?" Cally asked.

"No," Dean said, sounding as if he was grimacing now.

"Shit," Cally whispered to himself, "that's an old medieval technique."

Ron swallowed and looked down to see Lee staring up at him while rubbing Tommy's back. Tommy's coughing fit seemed to have subsided for the time being.

"Okay then Maccario, and Sloper is it?" Cally said calmly but with an air of authority in his tone.

"Yes, I'm here," Jack Sloper replied.

"Which one of you is most confident about your masculinity?" Cally asked them both, now sounding as if he was smiling.

"What?" both Maccario and Sloper said as they looked out of their door and across to Cally's cell.

"I'm afraid one of you is going to have to massage young Mr Thomas, back, legs, shoulders, neck...the lot."

"Are you kidding?" Dean's voice cried out from the floor of his cell.

Fergus sniggered and Prang appeared at his cell door to cast a scowl across the corridor at the cell before him.

"Oh grow up Finnegan!"

"Well I'd do it," Ron called across with a smile and a shrug, "only my arms aren't long enough to reach you mate!"

Lee laughed at this and Ron felt a little better to hear Dean doing the same.

"Don't worry about it Ron, like I said, it was worth it. I'd do it again if the clock went back," Dean answered back.

Ron saw Maccario rolling up his sleeves and sighing with resignation before Sloper pushed his shoulders back and stood up straight.

"Well seeing as Maccario's been hexed recently I'll do it."

Maccario froze, his sleeve already halfway up his arm, and a smile broke across his face as Sloper disappeared out of view and there was a sudden cracking sound.

"Blimey Sloper, that wasn't him was it?" Cally called out urgently.

"No," Jack cried out indignantly, "I was cracking my knuckles!"

Ron laughed at this and glanced across to his left and was shocked to meet the eyes of Cormac McLaggen doing exactly the same thing. Ron nodded to him and McLaggen nodded back. Before Ron could begin to feel any more uncomfortable about this, a shadow was cast along the floor between the cells and the Puppet Master's voice began it's arrogantly superior taunting.

"Gentlemen," he took a step into the cellblock and glanced into the cell to his left where Ron could only assume Jimmy Peakes was staring out at him, "boys, I understand some of you are a little thirsty?"

Ron drew in a deep breath and looked down at Tommy. He really hoped that this wasn't another of the Puppet Master's power games. The large figure clicked his fingers over his shoulder lazily.

"Haal de water."

A Death Eater came in with a glass and a large jug.

"Begin met dit," the Puppet Master said as he gestured to McLaggen's cell.

Ron watched as the glass was filled and handed through the opening to McLaggen who hesitated, looked Ron in the eye again, and drank it down in one. Ron held his breath and scrutinised McLaggen's expression. He smacked his lips and handed the glass back to the Death Eater.

"It's just water," he said, relieved, "It's just ordinary water, it's fine."

The glass was refilled and handed to Krum. Then the cell opposite was seen to, Cally, Colin and Belby all drinking quietly and then handing the glass back to the Death Eater who seemed to be getting excited about something. He met Ron's eyes and he could've sworn he saw a cruel glint before the man turned to refill the glass and pass it through to Maccario.

The Italian Auror drank and then held out the glass for Dean's share. Ron listened as he heard Dean gulping down his glass full and then Sloper was at the door to get the glass filled for himself.

Both the Puppet Master and the Death Eater turned to face Ron's cell and he could definitely tell something was going on now but didn't say a word. The glass was filled and handed to Ron with instruction to give it to the weakest one. Ron crouched down and held the glass to Tommy's lips while Lee continued to support his weight from behind. Tommy drank every last drop and as the empty glass left his lips he smiled at Ron.

"Thank you Ron."

"'S okay," Ron shrugged as he moved to take Tommy from Lee while he went to the door for his own water.

"No," Tommy said while staring right into Ron, "thank you."

Ron nodded to let Tommy know that he understood and looked up to see Lee drinking half of his glass before crouching down and holding the other half to Tommy's lips.

"No, it's yours, I'm okay now," Tommy protested.

"Shut up and drink!" Lee demanded as he pushed the glass to Tommy's lips and tipped it, giving him no other choice.

When Tommy swallowed the last of his extra water Lee took him back from Ron. Tommy handed him the glass and Ron knew that he was silently warning him, 'don't you dare do the same thing'. Ron passed the glass through the opening and the Death Eater took it with a jubilant grin and turned to face to next cell while refilling the glass.

"No wait," Danny Prang pointed out, "you've still got to give Ron his water yet."

Then, with a delivery that let everybody know exactly how much the Puppet Master had been looking forward to this delicious moment, the man purred victoriously.

"Mr Weasley drank yesterday. He doesn't get to drink today as well. That would not be fair."

Ron huffed and shook his head, relieved in a way to finally know the punch line to the joke he knew was coming, and slumped against the wall of the cell and slid down it with a wry smile. He was a clever one. Ron was up against a hell of a challenger here.

"You can't do that!" Ernie MacMillan was bellowing, "You said if he did what you asked him..."

"You would all get water today," the Puppet Master completed Ernie's sentence, "and here you all are drinking cool fresh water thanks to Mr Weasley. I hope you thank him when I'm gone."

"You fucking sadist!" Fergus snarled and seemed to be banging against his cell door.

Lee and Tommy were simply staring across the floor of the cell at Ron where he crouched, running his hands through his hair with resignation, and Ron shrugged at them as if trying to communicate to them that it could've been worse.

"You can't do this you bastard!" Cally was sounding utterly irate as he shouted from the far end of the cellblock, "You can't give the lad a stomach full of sea water and then deny him drinking water for two days. It's fucking inhuman!"

"Cally don't" Ron called out, "It's alright."

"It is not alright!" a deep, heavily accented voice boomed out, Ron couldn't quite believe what he was hearing now, the voice sounded like Krum's, "You should have told us before we drank. I would give him my share."

Ron's eyes widened with surprise at this and he looked at Lee, expecting to see the same shock on his face but Lee was nodding.

"That's it!" Prang snapped suddenly, "Give my share to Weasley, I'll go without."

Ron got to his feet once again in under a second.

"Prang don't be a hero, just drink the bloody water," Ron said through the opening.

Ernie was at the cell door too now.

"I'll drink half of mine and he'll drink half of his and you give a full glass to Ron," he said in a way the indicated he wasn't open for argument on this.

Ron was about to huff and tell them all to stop giving the Puppet Master what he wanted, a big emotional outburst of outrage, when the spiteful dark wizard raised both arms to silence the crowd. He still wore that self-satisfied sneer on his face as he addressed them all.

"There will be no exchanges or compromises. You will drink the water you are given or I will pour your share onto the floor and neither you or Mr Weasley will drink today."

The Puppet Master held the full glass before Prang's face and began to tip it ever so slowly.

"Danny just drink the fucking stuff," Ron pleaded with him from across the corridor, "I did not go through that shit so I could watch him pour good water on the bloody floor!"

Just as the water reached the rim of the glass Prang's arm thrust forth and grabbed the glass from the Puppet Master. He turned around and seemed to mutter something to Ernie, who suddenly nodded enthusiastically and drank the water from the glass before sinking back out of sight into his cell. Prang held out the empty glass for refilling and then handed it to Sam Robbins before passing it through the opening one more time for his own refill.

While Fergus Finnegan complained and swore profusely he was talked into drinking his share by Davies who took his share and finally Peakes drained the last of the water from the jug and handed the empty glass back.

"There you go gentlemen, boys," the Puppet Master said with a bow, "Never let it be said that I do not keep my word."

The two robed figures left the cellblock and the door slammed shut just as the cells erupted in raised voices and hisses of disgust.

Ron was about to drop back down to the floor again when Prang caught his eye. Ron frowned at him and wondered why he was waving so frantically and pointing at his mouth. Ron hadn't been the only one to notice this, as Jimmy Peakes called across to the cell opposite his own.

"Prang are you feeling alright?"

Prang seemed to be getting very annoyed at something and waved for Ron to come closer to the door of his cell. Ron glanced down at Lee with a bewildered shrug before doing as he was bid.

"What are you trying to say Danny?" Ron asked.

"Why don't yeh just bloody well say it?" Fergus was exclaiming.

Prang looked as if he wanted to scream with frustration and pointed at his mouth again. Ron shook his head and shrugged. Prang held both hands outside his cell and cupped them before pointing at Ron.

"You want me to do this?" Ron said with a blink of comprehension as he mirrored Prang's gesture.

Prang nodded enthusiastically so Ron did as he was being encouraged to do. Prang drew his own hands back into his cell and opened his mouth to let a mouthful of water fall into his cupped hands and then hurriedly thrust his dripping hands back out towards Ron's.

"Quick take it!" he said, now able to communicate with speech once again.

"Prang you twat jus-" Ron let his hands fall, partly with disgust at the idea of drinking something that had been held in somebody else's mouth for some considerable time and partly at the honourable futility of the trainee Auror's gesture.

"Take it and drink it!" Prang ordered with genuine authority in his voice as more water leaked out between his fingers, "You need to drink something Ron."

"Do it Ron," Cally said from the cell to his left.

"But," Ron began before he felt a foot kicking him in the shin hard.

"Drink the water or I'll make you wear your own jumper," Tommy said sternly.

Ron laughed momentarily and looked back across at the cupped hands leaking water before him. He had never wanted a drink more than he did at that moment and he cursed under his breath and lifted his hands again, cupping them tightly together, while stretching as far as he could to reach Prang's extended arms.

"When we get out of this mess this is never spoken of again understand?" Ron grimaced as he just got close enough for Prang to release the disturbingly warm water into his waiting hands.

"That goes for me getting a body rub from Jack here as well," Dean added.

There was laughter emerging from all the cells but most of the faces at the windows were concentrating on Ron as he drew his hands back inside his cell and brought his hands to his mouth with a revolted wince. As he drank he chanted inside his head 'It's nice warm butterbeer, it's nice warm butterbeer, it's nice warm butterbeer' and swallowed the tiny amount of liquid before looking back out through his cell door at Prang.

"Thanks Danny."

"Oh you're not done yet," Prang said with obvious delight as he shoved Ernie to the door.

"No way!" Ron gaped.

Ernie nodded silently before cupping his own hands and dispensing his mouthful of water into them and holding them out towards Ron. Ron took in a bracing breath and reached out again.

"I don't suppose Sam's got a mouthful of half warm water, half spit for me too does he?" Ron said while the liquid transfer was made.

"Oh yes," Ernie said with a smile as he watched Ron draw his hand to his face and lap up the water.

"Thanks Ernie," Ron said as he wiped his mouth.

"Thank you, I wouldn't have it to share if you hadn't got it for us in the first place," his former classmate said earnestly.

Sam Robbins was waiting his turn and Ron put his hands out at the ready without wasting time to even grimace. Robbins let the water fall from his mouth and into his hands and then reached out and let the liquid drain into Ron's hands. After drinking the last of the only liquid that had passed his lips in three days , other then a glass of seawater, he thanked Robbins and sat back down on the floor.

Lee was sitting with his arm absentmindedly still slung around Tommy's shoulders as he smiled at him sadly.

"That bastard eh?"

Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"At least he hasn't killed anyone today...yet."

Chapter 11 I am Not Afraid

Floella was kneading the dough rhythmically while Molly whisked the contents of a large bowl and Marie Finnegan flicked her wand at three different counter tops where pastry was being rolled, eggs were being beaten and chocolate was magically being melted magically.

"I wish I could do that," Julie Painter said from the doorway.

Floella saw Molly beaming at the Muggle woman.

"Well it's nearly noon and there's no point in forcing everyone to eat when they're as tense as this so we thought we'd make a few pastries, cakes and sausage rolls for people to snack on later on."

"And I'm making bread the Muggle way anyway so you don't have to feel left out my girl," Floella grinned.

Her dark skin was dotted with specks of white flour all the way up to her elbows and there was a smear across her cheek as well. She couldn't be bothered to clean herself up though. There was no point the way she baked; she'd be messy again within minutes.

"Why are you doing it that way?" Julie said as she crossed the kitchen floor to watch the slow firm kneading.

"It's therapeutic," Floella smiled, "Good for stress, anxiety and out-and-out fury!"

Julie laughed at this.

"I should try that next time our Kathleen makes me want to shove her head into a fire without using any floo powder," Marie chortled, "pounding on dough rather then her face would probably get me into less trouble!"

"Well," Julie said as she rolled up her sleeves, "Maybe I'll make some scones then. It'll be nice to kill...some time."

Julie's face fell and her eyes widened as she stared at all the faces looking back at her.

"I really shouldn't have said that," she said, as she seemed to clench her entire body and stand before them like a statue.

There was a snorting sound beside Floella and she turned to see Marie putting her hand to her face and trying to stifle a laugh. Floella broke into a smile at the two women and saw that Molly was taking a deep breath and looking back to her whisk.

"Well never mind dear" the flustered red haired woman sighed, "I accidentally told the Creevey's that if I didn't feed my lot soon they'd be screaming bloody murder. That's why I came in here in the first place!"

Marie threw back her head and brayed with raucous laughter while Floella thumped at the kitchen counter and sent up a cloud of flour. Molly cleared a space beside her and grinned at Julie.

"Here you go dear, get started on those scones and see if you can beat us to the oven."

"I told you lot I'm having that oven first!" Marie declared as she wiped her eyes."

"Bread takes longest so bread takes priority!" Floella declared.

"But bread has to sit fer an hour before it even goes in, mine'll be in and out by then!" Marie protested.

"Not the way I raise it," Floella said as she twirled her wand.

"Oh you don't magically raise the dough do you Flo?" Molly tutted disapprovingly, "It's never nearly as fluffy that way."

"My bread is perfect!" Floella protested adamantly.

Julie chuckled to herself as she reached for a bowl and began to weigh out some flour.

The door to the cellblock banged open and Ron shuddered.
"It is almost noon my friends," the Puppet Master said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Davies snapped before there was a flash of light and, what sounded like, Fergus cursing under his breath and straining with a heavy weight in his arms.

"Now, I will keep this discipline up until you all learn to behave yourselves," the Puppet Master paced up the corridor between the cells haughtily, "You are becoming the most tiresome of guests I must confess."

"Guests?" Prang was scoffing before a Death Eater who had remained back in the doorway sent a curse into his cell and there was a moan and a thump.

"Gedraag je," the Puppet Master said warningly, "I will be leaving you in the hands of the brotherhood until I get bored and decide..." the Puppet Master had paced back down a little and paused beside Ron's cell, peering down at him and smiling sickeningly, "...to play once more."

Lee was on his feet before Ron had even registered that he was moving and had thrust his bound arms through the opening in the door to grab at the Puppet Master while bellowing his outrage.

"No more games you spiteful fucker! You want to play you play against me next time!"

Ron got up and yanked Lee back from the door, throwing him into the far wall and looking at him in disbelief from the same position Lee had just been forcibly vacated from. He was about to hiss at his cellmate to shut up and calm down when a hand grabbed him by the hair and pulled him back hard into the cell door.

"Ron!" Lee gasped as Ron felt a wand pressing into his throat again.

"I said behave!" the Puppet Master roared while tugging so fiercely on the fistful of hair he had hold of that Ron felt some come clean away from his scalp and let out a yelp, "Because every time you cause me to notice you Jordan I will take it out on him."

Ron sucked air in through his clenched teeth and tried to pry the hand open before that sickening moist breath was on the side of his face again. It was like a warm slug creeping across the back of his neck and sliding over his earlobe before disappearing down into his ear canal.

"Lower your hands boy otherwise I will make him put the sick one out of his misery with Imperius."

Ron's arms fell limp at his sides immediately. The grip on his hair only increased however. He felt the tip of the wand stroking upwards from his throat, along his jaw line and then settling against his temple, while the putrid breath kept caressing the back of his neck.

"Tell your friend I'll make you suffer the next time I hear his voice," the Puppet Master growled.

Ron swallowed and looked at Lee, who seemed to want to do nothing more then pound the Puppet Master into a fine paste.

"If he hears you talk again he's gonna," Ron began before the fist at his scalp twisted and Ron's voice rose an octave in pain, "make me suffer!"

Lee was suddenly nodding fearfully.

Again the breath was creeping wetly around to Ron's ear.

"You are my plaything Weasley," he said in a disturbingly low whisper, "say it back to me."

"Fuck you!" Ron hissed.

"Do you want them to eat as well as drink?" the sadistic wizard roared before his voice fell back into that sickening low purr, "What are you Firebrand?"

"I am your plaything," Ron said with disgust at himself.

He didn't have to see it to know the man had broken into a wide grin.

"You only exist for me to break," the Puppet Master sighed onto Ron's crawling skin, "say it.

"I exist for you to break."

"Now look Mr Jordan in the eye and tell him that whatever happens to you is all his fault."

"No," Ron said he gritted his teeth for the inevitable pain.

"Tell him this is all his fault otherwise I will slit the enfeebled boy's throat."

Ron closed his eyes and kicked backwards at the door in frustration.

"You have the count of three," Ron felt his hair released and the wand moving away from his temple and down towards the floor, "One...Two..."

Ron looked Lee in the eye and shook his head with apology.

"Lee this is all your fault."

Ron saw his cellmate's lips part and his jaw move before clamping shut firmly and nodding. A hand shoved Ron in the back and he staggered away from the door. Lee caught him and tried to whisper but Ron widened his eyes and shook his head.

"There's a good little plaything," the Puppet Master said with amusement before turning to face the cell opposite theirs and open it with a flick of his wand, "Auror Maccario, uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners."

The Death Eater at the door moved forward to grab Maccario from his cell and bind his hands behind his back while another lifted an eggcup sized glass to the Italian Auror's lips and tipped it down his throat.

"Kom vreedzaam of lijd in de dood," the Puppet Master said before shoving Maccario in the back and towards the exit while closing and locking the door to his cell with a flick of his wand.

"Sir?" Prang was calling out, sounding like a lost little boy.

"Tell my Chiara I loved her until the end," Maccario said, an eerily calm tone in his voice, "and tell her I was not afraid to die."

"Yes sir," Prang said with a whimper.

"I am not afraid!" Maccario bellowed out at the top of his lungs just before he reached the door to the cellblock, "And Ronald Weasley is nobody's plaything, he is your master and he will own this game you make him play. He will own you!"

Ron felt himself shaking as he looked at Lee and felt his knees give out beneath him just as the door slammed. Lee caught him and lowered him down to the floor gently.

"It's okay Ron," Lee was saying as he rubbed up and down both his arms vigorously, "It's okay don't worry about it. You're too strong for him and he knows it. It's him that's pulling us all into it, it's his fault what they do to us okay? None of this is on you, d'you hear me Ron?"

Lee shook him and Ron forced himself to nod.

"Say it!" Lee demanded, "Repeat after me, none of this is your fault!"

Ron looked Lee hard in the eyes and took in a deep breath.

"None of this is your fault."

Just as Lee was about to give Ron another hard shake of frustration the sound of Auror Maccario's voice roared out through the window from the courtyard below.

"I am not afraid of you!"

There was a hissing crackling sound and then a dull thump.

"He's dead," Davies said from the cell next door.

"They're taking something from him too," Colin said from the cell on the other side.

Lee took in a deep breath and shook his head to rearrange his thoughts once more.

"Tell me what I want to hear Ron," he said with determination.

Ron looked across the floor to Tommy, who smiled at him and sat up with some considerable effort, before turning back to stare right into Lee with determination.

"I am not afraid."

Fleur had come in time for noon.
While Bill had insisted on staying at the Embassy, he had also insisted that Fleur, Ginny, Hermione and the twins go back home and wait at the Burrow so the place wasn't quite so overcrowded with Weasleys. He counted Hermione as a Weasley, as he did with Harry, but he knew that she would be just as immoveable as her best friend was when it came to waiting and planning and searching for some way to help the hostages.

Anything to help Ron.

The twins wouldn't be sent away, the twins could never be sent anywhere they didn't want to be, and had declared that they wanted to be there for Mrs Jordan just as much as for their own family. Bill had no rebuttal to that argument. Once he had caved on the twins then there was no telling Ginny she shouldn't stay. Everybody was staying, everybody but Percy who seemed unable to let the situation interfere with his work for the Ministry, and now Fleur would floo back and forth to bring clean clothes and make sure everything was running smoothly at the Burrow while it sat, strangely empty.

She had arrived and hugged Bill tightly before looking into his eyes sadly and telling him that the family clock showed Ron to be in 'mortal peril'. Bill knew what that meant. Since Ron had been taken his hand was swinging between 'prison' and 'lost', the clock not having a hand for 'hostage' after all, and sometimes it would shoot around to quiver on 'mortal peril' as if in some kind of pain itself.

Ron was being tortured wherever he was, tortured, tormented, beaten and who knew what else. Bill didn't want to imagine. He didn't want to but he did all the same.

With every chime of the clock that Charlie had magically repaired, the families had grown more sombre. Moody had had no information letting him know that the location had been found. There were no arrests, no clues, and no hope of stopping the second execution in time. It was now three minutes past twelve.

It was too late.

Bill felt his wife jump beside him as the crack of an apparition sounded outside the Embassy and Lupin, Tonks and Shacklebolt took up positions ready to arrest another of the Death Eater messengers and send him to Azkaban. Soon enough there was a figure, hooded in long black robes, ascending the stairs to the Embassy and stepping through the door.

The figure moved soundlessly across the reception area before pausing and withdrawing something from their robes. It looked like a photograph. The Death Eater looked around the Embassy at all the anxious faces that stared back. Geoffrey Belby suddenly lunged forward towards the Death Eater but Moody caught him and wrestled him into submission.

"Don't lower yourself Belby," Moody said gruffly, "the swine will get what's coming to him."

Tonks and Shacklebolt were moving forward cautiously, wands drawn, while Lupin hung back and covered them both.

The Death Eater seemed to have spotted who he was looking for and began to move forward with long slow strides that made his robe billow behind him as if he was gliding on air. He was heading right for the waif-like Italian girl and her friend, the Healer's son who Bill thought was called Patrick, and the two of them seemed to pale and cling to each other before freezing completely.

They weren't blinking. They weren't breathing. There were just shaking and holding each other.

"Wij hebben hem gedood," the Death Eater said triumphantly before holding out the photograph.

Patrick Callahan shook his head and whispered a breathy 'no' before the small moving image was thrust into the girl's hand.

"No!" she screamed as she fell to the floor and Patrick dropped down beside her to hold on to her body as she began to convulse with anguished sobs, "Alessandro, no, no, no..."

The Death Eater was hit with three stunning spells at once before Shacklebolt tore the man's hood away from his face and punched him for good measure. Lupin cast him a reproachful glance before helping to lift the limp body off the floor and drag him away to the fireplace to transport him to a cell in Azkaban.

The young Italian witch was still wailing and weeping into Patrick's shoulder. Bill could see the conflict in the young man's eyes. He was relieved that this hadn't been news of his father's execution and guilty at having that feeling while he rocked the mortified young woman, who had come to become his very close friend during their time at the Embassy together, while she hurt for her lost love.

"I'm sorry Chiara, I'm so so sorry," he was whispering as he held her and rubbed her back.

"Charlie dear," Bill heard his mother saying quietly, "I saw a bottle of brandy in the kitchen. Be an angel and go and fetch it will you?"

Charlie was gone without a word.

Fleur hugged Bill and kissed him on the cheek.

'Ee will be all right Beel," she said before planting a kiss on his cheek, "We weel get 'im back safe, I know eet."

"Yeah," Bill said with a nod, his voice nothing but a broken whisper, "We'll find him."

They had to.

Chapter 12 Everybody's Talking

The bread was sliced, the sandwiches made, and now the pastries and cakes were being eaten. Ginny Weasley and Lynne Prang were rushing back and forth refilling people's glasses with either butterbeer or pumpkin juice. Mrs Belby, who was looking paler as the time drew on, was sipping at a sweet sherry while her husband and brother-in-law shared concerned glances with each other.

Ginny was trying to wrestle a tray of chocolate covered biscuits away from her ravenous brothers, while Julie Painter and Janette Creevey had decided to get on with the washing up. Kathleen Finnegan had been bemoaning the fact that her sister wouldn't let her go in and get it all done and put away with a couple of flicks of her wand but Marie insisted that the Muggle women be left alone to do it the manual way if that was what they wanted.

Bianca Robbins was trying to encourage her daughter Demelza to go and help the two harassed-looking girls but the young dark-haired witch had been very subdued ever since the news of the second execution. Harry had realised that he was doing a hell of a lot of shouting, some considerable complaining, and not much actual finding and saving of hostages. He looked around the room at all the different groups of people who had bonded and found people to look after or to lean on. He met Seamus' eyes and they nodded and smiled at each other.

Seamus' Aunt shoved him in the back and he turned around to cast a playful scowl at her before crossing the room, pausing to sneak a chocolate biscuit from Ginny's tray and a glass of butterbeer from Lynne's with the other hand and nodded over to Demelza. Harry nodded.

"Here ya go girl, get that down yer!" Seamus said as he thrust the butterbeer into Demelza's thin, pale hand.

"Oh thanks, I'm fine," she smiled and shook her head.

"What you want the choccy biccie first do ya?" Seamus asked as he broke it in two and stuffed half into Demelza's mouth before she'd even opened it wide enough to decline.

Harry tried not to laugh at this but Demelza's mother just let rip which set him off.

"The other half's fer you Mrs Robbins," Seamus grinned with pride at breaking tension in that corner of the room.

It amazed Harry how Seamus could be the way he was. He supposed that it was an Irish thing. Then he noticed Dennis yammering away nineteen to the dozen to his mother and Mrs MacMillan, who were both wide eyed before collapsing into giggles, and thought that maybe it had something to do with being a boy growing up around women. Seamus certainly had two incredibly strong female influences in his life with Kathleen and Marie Finnegan. He was peacemaker, caretaker and referee all rolled into one.

It also amazed Harry just how much laughter was reverberating around the room. He had thought it odd at first, felt that he should be angry about that on top of all the other things he was angry about, but then saw that the laughter wasn't about insensitivity. It wasn't about relief. Nobody was smiling because somebody they didn't know had been murdered rather then the alternative. It was simply because crying and screaming hurt your head after the first thirty seconds or so and there was enough pain in that building already.

Bianca Robbins nibbled on her half of the chocolate biscuit and looked impressed.

"We should get into that kitchen tomorrow Demelza," she said, nudging her daughter gently as she tried to chew and swallow the large chunk of biscuit that Seamus had forced down her throat.

"Mmmffh!" she managed to say, which Harry could really translate as either a positive or a negative response.

"That's easy fer you t'say!" Seamus mocked and Demelza choked a little as she laughed and swallowed and gagged all at once.

"Give her the drink you prat," Harry chortled.

Harry caught Ginny's eye. She was looking flustered and a long lock of hair was falling down into her face from her ponytail. It seemed to be greatly annoying her as she huffed in an attempt to blow it out of her eyes. Harry patted Seamus on the back to let him know he was leaving and the sandy-haired young wizard winked at him and took a seat beside Mrs Robbins to tell her about Demelza's greatest Quiddich moments.

Harry threw a sympathetic look at Caroline Peakes as she tried to escape Mrs Sloper and her habit of tactlessly pointing out that Jimmy Peakes had gone to war a mere child and how awful that must be making her feel. He saw Mrs McLaggen glaring at her husband when he turned his nose up at the food on offer before looking away from his and smiling forcefully across the room at somebody. When he followed the woman's eye line he saw she was being smiled and waved at by a very amused looking Mrs Weasley and Mrs Jordan. Harry sniggered to himself before looking back at the pristine looking witch. She noticed him and rolled her eyes towards her husband before shaking her head.

Harry suddenly realised that Cormac McLaggen's beautiful, snobby mother who always seemed to be sulking about something or snappily whispering to her husband in annoyance wasn't being nasty about the other families at all. She was giving her arsehole of a husband what for in as discreet a way as possible. Harry beamed at her and found himself giving the woman a little wave before reaching Ginny.

"What are you waving at her for?" Ginny scowled, "Uptight old bitch needs that broomstick pulling out of her backside if you ask me."

Harry looked at Ginny and blinked before lifting the stray lock away from her face and tucking it behind her ear.

"You're such a delicate little flower Ginevra," he said, amazingly with a straight face.

"Oh sod off Potter!" she said as she broke into a smile, "So look at you then, circulating and talking to people. Acknowledging that I'm in the same room as you. I have to ask Harry, are you drunk?"

Harry took Ginny's tray from her and walked back over to the kitchen so they could re-fill the empty glasses.

"Not drunk no," he said as his smile faded a little, "just a tad annoyed with my own company that's all."

Ginny's eyebrows rose at this and she held the kitchen door open for him to pass through with ease.

"And whose fault is that mister 'You don't understand!' eh?" Ginny said as she mimicked Harry's intense yet stressed voice.

Harry nudged her with his shoulder before setting down the tray and greeting Mrs Painter and Mrs Creevey, who were each elbow deep in a sink, with a friendly nod.

"I know, I know," he muttered, "I got a bit carried away with the gung-ho; attack now, think later attitude alright? I just hate not being in control."

Ginny didn't even have to respond to that. Harry already read her mind and went on.

"Well I know I've never been in control of my life or events or anything like that but..."

"You've always been close enough to Ron to protect him before," Ginny surmised.

Harry lowered his head despondently before shaking it.

"Not every time but, yeah, essentially that's it."

Harry had lost contact with Ron in the Department of Mysteries when that door was closed and sealed between them. It had been the strangest and most disorientating feeling after being under the Imperius curse. That kind of feeling he got when he could go on as normal but it's always there and he just wanted it to stop. He knew it was wrong and despite everything else going on at the time he couldn't ignore it. Like hiccups or waiting for your ears to pop when you go high up or underground. Almost like that moment when he'd roll his broom and he wouldn't be sure what was up and what was down. It was like when he used to wake up in the morning after sleeping on his arms and find that they were totally numb and useless to him for several seconds.

If Ron was in trouble, Harry was in trouble right beside him. If Ron was taken away from him Harry was giving chase. If Ron was hurt Harry was getting him the help he needed. Ron had never needed him like this before, not even when he had been dying on Horace Slughorn's floor on his seventeenth birthday, and Harry was able to do nothing more then shout and stomp and rage until nobody would come near him.

Harry had never needed Ron like this before either.

It was Ron who could raise a smile at the darkest of times. Ron was the person who could be terrified beyond belief and still stand his ground regardless. Ron would look after his loved ones and keep everybody's spirits up in hard times. If the roles had been reversed Ron would be handling the waiting side of things a hell of a lot better then Harry had been.

"Harry?" Ginny penetrated Harry's daydream as she hesitantly touched his arm.

"Keep your chin up," Harry murmured.

"What's that?" Ginny frowned.

"That was the last thing Ron told me," Harry said before swallowing, "Keep your chin up."

Ginny smiled and gave a single nod before taking Harry's chin between her finger and thumb and lifting his head. He smiled at her and she stood on tiptoes to plant a brief kiss on his lips.

"Good advice for somebody about to carry a large tray of drinks around a crowded room don't you think?" she said.

Harry realised that Ginny had refilled every glass while he was off in his own little world. He took a deep breath and nodded.

"Let's get out there and take people's mind off everything for a second."

Ginny strode over to the door and held the door open for him again.

"Welcome back Harry, we missed you," she smiled as he passed her by, "Now all we have to do is get Hermione to un-clench!"

The cells were quiet. They had been for some time now. Ron's head kept lolling down onto his chest before he would blink a few times to force himself to wake up. He glanced across the cell towards Lee who was leaning up against the cell door and gazing out of the window opposite him. The sunlight was falling on his face and he was sitting with his eyes closed and a little contented smile on his face. Ron rubbed his tired eyes and looked over at Tommy. He seemed to be asleep.

Ron shoved his weight against the wall behind him and then crawled across the floor as quietly as he could to check on him. Just As Ron lowered his head to Tommy's lips to hear if he was breathing okay the sickly wizard whispered, making him jump with fright.

"Go to sleep Ron."

Ron got to his feet and stretched out his arms and legs. His shoulders still ached from where he had been hung on the wall but it seemed as if not moving them was more painful them moving them so he began to do the shoulder roll warm ups that the Gryffindor Quiddich team used to have to do before practice.

"Going jogging Ron?" Lee mumbled with amusement as he cracked open and eye lid to take in the sight of a six foot two bloke in a cell smaller then a broom shed turning his arms backwards and forwards like windmills.

"Just a few laps y'know?" he smirked, "You and Tommy stay where you are, I think I can use you as hurdles."

Tommy's eyes were still closed but he grinned.

"Don't burn too much energy Ron," Cally called out, "Not a good idea on so little water and absolutely no food whatsoever.

"He said we'd get some didn't he?" Ron frowned as he massaged his shoulder joint with his fingers while walking to the door of his cell to chat with the Scouse healer incarcerated to his left, "When he made me 'his plaything'" Ron rolled his eyes as he said that.

"Fuckin' arsehole," Fergus hissed to Ron's right.

"Didn't say he would though did he?" Cally said wearily, "Just said we needed to eat."

Ron arched his back and stretched with a wince before noticing Dean's eyes blinking back at him from the cell directly across from his.

"Y'know I recommend Sloper if your a bit stiff Ron," the former dorm mate said to him, "he works wonders."

"Shut up," Jack Sloper's voice said from somewhere on the floor.

Ron yawned and shook his head before rubbing his face so roughly.

"Why am I so knackered? I haven't done anything?" he asked himself and nobody in particular.

"Well they do say that inactivity breeds laziness don't they?" Colin began, "So you've got to ask yourself are you actually tired or just so inactive and with so little mental stimulus that there is nothing more for your mind and body to do then to lull you back into a state of sleep. Because of course sleep has no restrictions does it? There are no doors or walls or bars. You can go anywhere and do anything and have whatever adventure you want. I know I've been napping frequently and Peakes must be doing the same as the other prominent virgin in the cell block..."

"Did you just call me a prominent virgin?" Peakes exclaimed, sounding greatly insulted while Fergus, Ron and Dean tried in vain to stifle their laughter.

Ron looked down to see Lee sniggering while still taking in the brief moment of sunlight before the rectangle of light spread further up the door and hit the far wall of Dean's cell.

"All I'm saying is this Jimmy," Colin set off again, "we are bound to be having a lot of sexually charged dreams because of our situation and personal circumstances and especially due to the lack of any kind of release what with the other cell mates being in some close proximity."

"Hold on Creevey," Marcus Belby said, sounding quite anxious, "are you talking about wanking?"

"I'm saying we can't do it in these circumstances," Colin tried to go off on another endless spiralling verbal helter skelter ride."

"You definitely can't do it in the same cell as me!" Belby said.

Dean was laughing and looking across into their cell. Ron could only imagine the expression on Marcus Belby's face at that moment.

"And I don't want to see your hands in your pockets either Jimmy," Fergus warned.

"Oh give 'em a break," Ernie McMillan was saying through his own laughter, "the three of you do it together with your eyes closed and..."

"Excuse me," Rodger Davies protested, "I am not having these two wanking on either side of me thank you very much. I don't know where this one's been!"

"Oi!" Fergus said, sounding considerably offended, "Wasn't it you who were sayin' you were a man-slut? I bet your prick is more diseased then mine."

"Get 'em out and compare!" Ernie cackled.

Ron stared at him with an amused frown. He didn't remember him being as coarse as Fred and George were. He figured that he'd been spending too much time around hardened Aurors.

That reminded Ron, they didn't have any Aurors left with them in the cells now.

"So Prang," Ron found himself calling out before he could stop himself, "You're the only non-civvie left. Does that mean you're in charge?"

There was a long pause before Danny Prang appeared at the door to his cell and looked across at Ron sadly.

"I'm not ruling on the wank debate if that's what you're about to ask me," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Ron leaned against his door and tried to have as discreet a chat as was really possible in their circumstances.

"They took both Aurors first, I can't believe they did that, do you think they're working to a plan?"

Prang clicked his teeth several times before exhaling and shaking his head.

"Well if they are then it only make sense that it's my turn tomorrow doesn't it?" he said eventually.

Ron didn't like how detached the trainee Auror was sounding about his own execution.

"What d'ya mean?" he asked.

"Think about it Ron," he said, as if discussing theoretical tactics rather then life and death, "Ambassador and Auror, dead, the only other fully trained Auror, dead; out of everybody in this cellblock who follows that pattern?" he paused before answering his own question, "Trainee Auror."

"No Dan, I don't think it's as simple as that," Cally was saying from his cell door now.

Ron looked in the direction of the man's voice.

"They might not be working to a pattern at all. If they are why is Ron the one singled-out?"

"Maybe he is the last," Krum said from the cell opposite Cally's.

"Me over all of you," Ron said with great scepticism, "I don't think so. He picked me to mess with 'cause he knows I'm trouble. I drew attention to myself didn't I?"

"He picked on you because you're the one to break," Davies said, "he doesn't like to see somebody stronger then him and he definitely doesn't want us to see you overcome him. You won't break and it's humiliating him in front of his men."

"Aw diddums!" Ron scoffed.

Dean found this quite amusing.

"Well I wouldn't recommend you call him that to his face Ron," Cally said, sounding a little amused himself.

"Well there's more then one pattern at work here and they all suggest I'm up next," Prang cut through the break in the tense atmosphere to darken that cloud that was now hovering above them all.

"Is this a death wish Prang?" Fergus asked.

"Of course not, its logic Finnegan," Prang stated, "Auror, Auror, Trainee Auror okay? That's theory one where I'm the third to die. Then we've got third cell on the right loses an inmate, second cell on the right loses and inmate, first cell on the right loses an inmate. That means somebody from this cell is next up and so far they are taking the most powerful, or senior I should say, wizard from the cell for execution. That's theory two where I'm the third to die."

"Prang two coincidences do not make a pattern," Rodger Davies began before Prang continued.

"Theory three is the most damning and the one that I'm pretty sure is the plan those bastards worked out as soon as they got us back here."

"What's that then?" Dean called across to his unseen neighbour.

"Think about it lads," Prang said sadly, "They didn't chuck us in here randomly did they? They took us one by one and wrote a list while they were doing it. That's the poxy execution list. They're taking us out in the same order they put us in here. The Ambassador first, Maccario second, me third..."

"Then me," Cally said, his voice strong but weighted with repressed emotion.

Prang didn't respond to that.

Ron looked down to the floor and saw Lee looking back up at him. Then they both turned to look over at Tommy. He was staring back at them, knowing exactly what they were thinking. He had been the person taken after Cally.

"Don't you miss that wanking conversation right about now?" Fergus said.

Chapter 13 Two Lost Souls Living in A Fish Bowl

Hermione was drying her hair in what had been designated the women's bathroom, after her shower. She froze when she saw Chiara washing her puffy face.

"Oh, sorry I was just—" she began before realising she had no clue where to excuse herself to.

"No," the Italian witch sniffed, "I will go. I just came to splash water on my face. Patrick is waiting for me. You stay and take your time."

Hermione strained a smile onto her face. She wasn't sure how you went about supporting a bereaved stranger. Especially one who knew that their pain gave you an extra day of hope.

"I thought you'd gone home," Hermione said, wrapping the towel around her head like a turban.

"No," Chiara shook her head and took a shuddering breath, the kind that only women seem to make after recovering from a bout of crying, "I wanted to stay."

Hermione frowned at the pretty blonde witch. The pain was obvious, her large almond shaped eyes bloodshot and glistening, and her hands shaking slightly. How could this poor girl want to remain at the Embassy? Why would she want to anyway?

"Patrick has looked after me," Chiara said as she seemed to read Hermione's mind, "and his father is still hostage. I want to look after Patrick."

Hermione took a step forward and took Chiara's hand in both her own.

"Listen I'll keep an eye on Patrick for you. I really think you should be with your family right now, Auror Maccario's family too."

"I have no one," Chiara said with an incredible emotionless shrug, "Neither of us had family, we just had each other. All I had was Alessandro and now there is nobody."

"Oh I'm so sorry," Hermione said as she put her arms around the eerily detached waif-like witch, "but this really isn't a place to stay for company Chiara. It's...it's just awful here!"

Hermione realised that the ivory robes that flowed gracefully around Chiara's slight frame were getting damp from Hermione's wet towel but the witch didn't seem to care to she kept on hugging her.

"But if I go who does Patrick have?" Chiara said as her arms rested lightly upon Hermione's back, "Why do I have to go? Why is that?"

"You don't have to go, of course you don't, I didn't mean it like that."

"It is like I am to stop caring for these people because my Alessandro is gone. I cannot be like that. I don't want pain for all of you. I want to stay with you and help."

Hermione broke away and looked down at the wet puddle she was standing in. She had been hiding from everybody at all costs. She wasn't talking or cooking or socialising. All she was doing was focusing all her energy on every kind of locator spell she could find in the books she kept asking be sent to her from Hogwarts' restricted section.

"You're a better person then I am Chiara," she said guiltily, "I can't even look Ron's mother in the eye. She's being so brave and strong and setting such a good example. He'd be so proud of her for not falling apart and I'm just shutting myself away."

"You are lovers, you and Molly's son?" Chiara said, a look of understanding on her red, patchy face, at apparently finding a kindred spirit.

"No," Hermione said quietly, "no we're just friends."

She wiped her eyes even though no tears were falling, she wouldn't allow it.

"Alessandro was my best friend," Chiara said as she sat down on the edge of the bathtub and looked into the swirling steam clouds from the shower as they dispersed, "he made me feel safe, he made me laugh," Chiara's face broke into a smile as she spoke and her eyes flooded with the thousands of happy memories that must have bombarded her in that spilt second, "He told me he didn't see sun or moon or stars, that I was light in the dark and warmth in the day. He takes my picture everywhere he goes, carries me with him. Carries me by his heart."

"It sounds like he was a wonderful man," Hermione said through her constricted throat, the lump within felt dry and sore but she couldn't swallow it down.

Chiara nodded before smiling up at Hermione.

"They are all wonderful men. I talk to Patrick and he tells me about his father. All those children on his own and they all grow up perfect and kind like Patrick. He is a wonderful man."

Hermione looked to the closed bathroom door where she knew Patrick Callahan would be waiting patiently.

"I talk to the tiny lady, little thing with the little boy who talks and talks," Chiara chuckled.

Hermione laughed and nodded.

"Mrs Creevey."

"Yes, Creevey," Chiara said, her face alight, "she tells me her son is fearless. He thinks he can fly when he is small and jumps from window. He lands on Postman and break both the man's legs!"

Hermione yelped with laughter at this.

"He is so sorry that he pushes the man in a chair on wheels until his legs are strong again," Chiara said as she beamed, "I talk to lots of people and they tell me silly things that make them happy. I tell them that Alessandro got arrested for serenading me with no clothes on and a white rose between his teeth."

Hermione laughed again. She sat down beside Chiara on the edge of the bathtub and the Italian witch took her hand.

"Tell me silly things about your friend," she said as she focused upon Hermione attentively.

Hermione thought hard. There were so many silly things about Ron, so many funny stories, so many wonderful things. She couldn't think of a single one.

"What did Molly tell you about him?" she asked.

"Molly told me about him crawling into the fireplace when he saw his daddy's head in there, he was a little baby," Chiara explained and Hermione nodded, not having heard this story before, "and his father is in a very important place for his job and suddenly there a baby boy with a smelly bottom in the room with them."

Hermione had a little chuckle at the image in her head of this event.

"So you tell me, what has he done to make you smile so your face hurt?"

Hermione grinned at the phrase before remembering having exactly that sensation only a little while back.

"Y'know I worry about you sometimes Hermione," Ron said with an exasperated shake of the head.

"What have I done now?" she said with a tut.

"Just look at you!" Ron pointed at the evenly broken up pieces of the chocolate bar she was sharing with Ron while they waited for Harry to wake up one morning during the Horcrux hunt, "You're not supposed to eat chocolate methodically. It's supposed to be fun, a treat, y'know?"

Ron was looking at her as if he was the intelligent one and she was the fool.

"Why is breaking a slab of chocolate into chucks too large for the human mouth," she paused to glance up at Ron, "well the average human mouth anyway," Ron scowled at her, "and stabbing it down your throat with all it's sharp pointy angles deemed a good thing in your world Ronald?"

"Okay number one," Ron held up one finger, a stern expression on his face, "My mother pulls that Ronald crap with me and you are not my mother so lay off will ya?" Hermione tried not to smirk at this, "Two," Ron lifted another finger, "there's no such thing as sharp pointy chocolate inside a human mouth you twit, it melts before it could ever do any damage!"

"But what if there were nuts...?" Hermione began.

"I'm talking," Ron said, shocking close to sounding like Professor McGonnagal, Hermione was trying really hard not to laugh now, "Then there's number three," Ron now had three fingers raised before Hermione's face, "My mouth is not bigger then average thank you very much."

"Well the amount of food you can cram in there I beg to differ on that last point Ronal- Ron." Hermione said as she sat up and dusted herself down in a prim fashion.

"How is that even a problem?" Ron threw his arms up with exasperation, "Do you see me putting on weight? I'm a growing boy!"

"You'll start to grow outwards eventually y'know?" Hermione warned with a wise shake of the head.

"What, in ten years? Pft!" Ron snorted before lying back on his elbows and watching a red squirrel climbing a tree a little way away.

Hermione frowned.

"What does 'Pft' mean?" she demanded to know.

"Nothing," Ron shrugged before nudging the chocolate wrapper closer to Hermione, "Go on, eat one of your perfectly right-angled pieces of chocolate then."

Hermione turned around to face Ron, determined to know exactly what he had meant just before.

"Why did you 'Pft' at the idea of being fat in ten years Ron?"

Ron seemed to know that they were about to have a row and looked away so he could come up with a way to avoid it but Hermione poked him in the side with one of her strong, page-turning, index fingers.

"Ow! Bloody hell you're a pain, you know that?"

"Spit it out Ron!" Hermione ordered.

"I just don't think that either of us are in any position right now to worry about what we'll be like in ten years time do you?" Ron said, avoiding her eyes as he spoke at rapid speed.

Hermione's blood ran cold.

"And why's that?"

Ron cast her a sideways glance and shook his head.

"So you don't think future planning is worth the effort or the worry do you?" she said, growing increasingly more livid with every word, "That we've got no future...you, me and Harry I mean, so why worry? Is that it?"

Ron huffed and sat up wearily.

"Is this argument going to help either of us because I'd really rather not have it if you don't mind?"

"I don't want to fight with you but I want to know that you are prepared to fight for that day when you have to start watching what you eat for fear of middle aged spread!" Hermione found herself yelling at him.

"So now you want me to get fat?" Ron said, being deliberately difficult.

Hermione punched him in the arm.

"I want you to keep on making plans for the future Ron. I hate it that you've stopped doing that."

Ron rubbed his arm with annoyance.

"So you have big plans do you?" Ron said with great sarcasm.

"Yes I do!" Hermione declared.

"Name one," Ron snapped.

"You want to hear my plans for the future? You want to know what I plan to do after the war?"

"I think that was what I just said, yes," Ron said in a mocking tone.

"I want to finish my education. I want to contribute something to magical society, be it with S.P.E.W. or breaking down prejudices around half-breeds and werewolves and giants. I want to be able to read for fun again. I want to go travelling and not have to watch my back and I want to, finally and at long last, go to at least one bloody party or ball or picnic with you Ronald Weasley. You arrogant, aggravating, temperamental dunderhead!"

Ron stared at her and blinked.

"What was that last one again?" he mumbled.

"I know that we made that unspoken agreement not to start anything until this fight was over. But if you think that you'll be dead when this fight is over then that cheapens any plans we might be making. Anything and everything we're putting off until afterwards is worthless to you because you don't intend to be around to see it through!"

Hermione's whole body was shaking now and she turned away from the stunned face of her best friend in the world. Just as the soft spring breeze lightly stroked her face Ron's hand did the same across her back until it settled upon her shoulder and pulled her towards him. She let her body fall into his arms and he hugged her. It was the most wonderful and heartbreaking feeling she had ever experienced.

"When this is done I want to sit down and see if me and my best friend can sort out this weird thing we've got going on between us. I want to take her flying and have her not be afraid because she trusts me and I want to see her get everything she wants from that list she just gave me. More then anything though, I want her to swear at me when I piss her off rather then calling me silly names like dunderhead."

Hermione laughed into Ron's chest and felt his body shaking with his own chuckle too. She looked up at him and smiled.

"So you promise to get old and fat?" she asked.

"I promise," Ron nodded before reaching over to his own half of the chocolate bar and picked up an oversized piece in the shape of a triangle, "but only if you get old and fat with me."

Hermione pretended to consider this for a moment before nodding.

"I think I can make time in my busy schedule to get old and fat yes."

"Well let's get you started shall we?" Ron grinned before shoving the lump of chocolate into her mouth while she squealed and tried to protest that it was far too big, "There's no such thing as too much chocolate Hermione, c'mon get it down ya!"

They wrestled and smeared chocolate all over each other's faces until Hermione looked as if she was wearing a mud pack and was laughing so hard that her face was sore.

"Hermione?" Chiara said as she leaned forward to break her gaze into space.

"I was just remembering one of Ron's silly moments," she smiled, "When he tried to get me to swallow a lump of chocolate the size of my fist."

Chiara giggled.

"Why did he do that?"

Hermione leaned over and rested her head upon the witch's shoulder.

"Because we wanted to get old and fat together."

Chapter 14 Man Can Not Live On Bread Alone

Tommy watched as Ron and Lee sat, side-by-side and slumped against each other. They had dozed off several minutes ago and were only stirring now because of the sound of running water and the smell of fresh urine wafting through the small opening in their cell door.

"Oh lovely," Lee said as he lifted his bound arms so he could rub his tired eyes.

"I'm sorry guys but it isn't as if they gave us a bucket or anything did they?" Jimmy Peakes called out apologetically.

"But now I want to bloody go!" Dean said with what sounded like some considerable strain in his voice.

"Yep Jimmy," Cally said with resignation, "I think you've pretty much opened the piss floodgates with that."

"Okay," Prang announced in a very business-like fashion, "I think every cell should designate one corner of their cell the piss corner and avoid it for hygiene reasons."

"Avoid it?" McLaggen scoffed, "how exactly do we avoid something not two feet away from us at all bloody times?"

"You know what I mean Cormac," Prang said wearily, "just do it for the sake of civility will you?"

There was a mumble and each cell seemed to be coming to an arrangement about which corner should be their designated piss corner. Ron and Lee came to an agreement that it should be one of the corners beneath the window for ventilation and then chose the opposite side to where Tommy was laying.

Just as Tommy was about to thank them for their consideration with smile of disbelief at their bizarre circumstances the echo of several streams of piss hitting the stone walls of every cell began to make his bladder suddenly demand to join in.

"All that trouble for the water and now look at us eh?" Lee smiled at Ron who rolled his eyes and then looked down at Tommy on the floor.

"Well Let's help Tommy up and, I dunno...support him, is that the right way to say it?" Ron shrugged as he looked from Tommy to Lee.

Lee smiled and looked down at Tommy with an expression of deep sympathy for the indignity he was about to suffer.

"It's alright guys," Tommy smiled, "this can be another of those things we never speak of again okay?"

Ron and Lee sniggered about that and nodded before they leaned over Tommy and pulled him up, each taking an arm but Ron taking most of the weight due to Lee's restricted movement, and helped him across the cell to the newly designated piss corner.

"Um, can you...unzip alright Tom?" Ron said, his face practically begging Tommy to say yes.

"I'm fine thanks Ron, nice of you to offer though, I'll remember that."

"Please don't," Ron said with sad laugh.

Lee was chuckling and Tommy smiled as the both of them looked up at the ceiling while he did what a wizard had to do.

"Ahhh!" Tommy found himself sighing involuntarily.

There was a wicked cackle from the cell next door and Fergus' voice called out.

"Are yeh havin' fun in there lads?"

"Shut up!" Ron and Lee yelled back with a laugh.

"I'm done, thanks," Tommy said as he zipped himself up again.

His two cellmates helped him back over to the other side of the tiny cell and set him down gently. Tommy got himself settled while Ron and Lee looked at each other uncomfortably.

"So," Ron said, pausing to clear his throat and nod to the piss corner, "you wanna go first or...?"

"You, go ahead, I've got to..." Lee held up his bound wrists and then looked down to his fly, "I might be a while!"

Ron shook his head at the ridiculous situation they had found themselves in before turning to face the corner and getting on with the business of relieving himself.

Poor Lee was really struggling and Tommy wondered how odd it would sound for him to offer to assist with the problem at hand. The angle at which the young wizard's wrists were bound made it very difficult to both pinch at the zipper and pull down at the same time without losing his grip. As Lee struggled Ron finished and cleared his throat discreetly.

"Away you go Lee," he said with an embarrassed shrug.

"Um, yeah, right," Lee frowned as he stepped into the corner, still wrestling with his uncooperative flies.

"Do you want...?" Tommy began, not wanting to complete the sentence out loud but wanting Lee to understand what he was offering all the same.

"No, it's alright Tom, I'm almost there," Lee strained, he seemed to be desperately holding his stream of urine inside and getting slightly panicked now."

Ron frowned and leaned around to peer down at Lee's groin area.

"Ron!" Lee said, covering his modesty in the post pointless way possible.

"Haven't you done that yet?" Ron asked before wincing and averting his eyes as he reached forward and unzipped Lee all the way down, "Please tell me you can get your nob out all by yourself?" Ron half joked and half begged his cellmate.

Lee's shoulders shook with silent laughter and soon the satisfying trickling sound echoed through the cellblock, followed by a ripple of applause from the others.

"Oh shut up smartarses!" Lee yelled out before the heavy door to the cellblock boomed open and his face fell.

Footsteps sounded on the cool hard floor and Lee shook the last of the pee from his dick and cast Ron a desperate glance. Ron was there in a second, zipping Lee up and buttoning the button at the top before the two of them flinched and saw the shadow of the Death Eater guard just before they saw his robed figure passing by soon after it.

"Stil jongens. U gedraag je, u eet ja?"

Nobody said a word.

"Ja?" the Death Eater snapped impatiently.

"We don't understand you," Prang called out from his cell door, "You killed the only one of us who spoke Dutch you moron!"

"Stil!" The man yelled.

"Which is it to be?" Ron said, making Lee glare at him for making himself the focus of another sadistic Death Eater, while Tommy shuddered both from his fever and from fear for his headstrong cellmate, "You tell us to be quiet and then you yell at us for not answering your bloody question?"

The Death Eater's face appeared at the cell door. He pushed back his hood to reveal a pair of deep-set hazel eyes and dark hair with a brilliant white streak through it at the front.

"Ik zal martel u, bloedverrader," the man growled.

Ron looked the man in the eye but held his tongue. Lee put a hand upon his shoulder and was about to whisper some encouragement for him not to antagonise the dark wizard when the man thrust his wand through the opening and pointed it at Lee. Ron moved in front of him while the Death Eater spoke with anger.

"U jongen, stil! Ik doden dit vriend," the wand pointed upwards into Ron's face now and Tommy suddenly understood what this was about.

"The Puppet Master must have told them all that Lee's not allowed to speak. He must have told them that if they hear Lee they have to... That Ron..."

"Ikzalhem vermoorden," the Death Eater said with a sickeningly smug whisper.

Lee needed to communicate that he understood the rules of this game and stepped out from behind Ron. Ron tried to shield him again but didn't bother when he noticed that the wizard's aim was still focused upon him. Lee swallowed, nodded and pointed into his chest and then put his finger to his lips. The Death Eater smiled a satisfied grin and withdrew his wand from the cell once more.

Ron and Lee both let out breaths they had been holding and jumped when the Death Eater clapped his hands together loudly and shouted outside to others waiting at the cell block door.

"Haal de voedsel! Breng voedselbij hetjongens. Ga!"

There was a lot of sudden movement and then three stale bread rolls flew through the opening to the cell door and bounced onto the floor. One of the rolls was bouncing towards the piss corner and Ron flicked it up with his foot and caught it in his left hand faster then Tommy could blink.

The Death Eaters retreated from the cells and the door slammed shut. Soon the murmurs from the others started again.

"Shit Ron, are you asking for trouble or what?" Dean snapped at him from across the corridor, "Just keep your head down and shut up in future you prat!"

"Oh shut up and eat your lump of concrete," Ron threw back by way of retort but he was smiling at the other boy so Tommy assumed that this must just be their way of communicating.

Fergus Finnegan was grumbling about having to suck on the roll for the next three hours before being able to take a bite out of it and Cally was muttering something peppered with swear words under his breath about nutrients. Ron tossed the roll in his hand down to Tommy, who caught it and knocked it against the wall with a frown. Lee laughed at this.

"I can't believe I'm actually excited about stale bread," he chuckled.

"Hey Ron," Tommy said as the redhead sat down on the floor beside him and tried to break into his own roll.

"Mmm?"

"You don't happen to play football do you?" Tommy said with a smile.

"What like Muggle football; like Dean likes?" Ron scrunched up his face, "Nah. You want to talk about football you've got to shout over to him I'm afraid."

"What's this about football?" Dean's voice suddenly asked with excitement.

"Nothing, sorry Dean," Tommy gave a cough and laugh combination before continuing, "I just wanted to know where Ron got his great ball control from."

Lee's eyes widened, as did Ron's.

"He never touched them," Lee hissed so nobody but the three of them could hear.

"I just did the zipper!" Ron said, equally low and frantic.

Tommy felt a laugh so painful that he had to suppress it gripping his entire body and shook his head while his face burned crimson with the effort.

"Oh right," Dean was responding as if that phrase was nothing out of the ordinary, "Well he's a keeper isn't he?"

Ron looked up at the door and the sound of Dean's voice before looking back to Tommy and frowning.

"I saw the way you saved that roll," Tommy was finally able to explain, "You're pretty good with your feet."

"He's good with his hands as well," the voice of Cormac McLaggen called out through what sounded like a mouthful of wet cement, "bastard!"

Ron laughed at this, as did Lee and Dean, before Colin Creevey's voice broke above the general amusement.

"He beat you and he won us the cup twice, get over it!"

"Listen to the pip-squeak having a go at me now!" McLaggen declared.

"You tell him Colin," Sloper sniggered, "he sure as hell saved my skin. I was crap in the season I played for Gryffindor."

"We were all crap that season," Ron called out, "the only ones of us that were any good got lifetime bans!"

"Feel sorry for the poor sod that had to commentate on the God-awful matches," Lee said before gnawing at the crust of his roll like a beaver.

Ron sniggered at this and seemed to be lost in a memory with a dreamy smile on his face.

"You weren't there for Luna's one were ya?" he said to Lee, still with that Cheshire cat grin across his face, "She's a star!"

"I never understood why she always supported us when she was in Ravenclaw, " Jimmy Peakes spoke up.

"Oh she wanted to get into Ron's robes," Colin said informatively, "she told me and Ginny on our first day of our fourth year."

Ron's eyes bulged and Lee almost inhaled his entire roll. There were whoops and catcalls from all the other cells, along with what sounded like almost painful laughter from Dean Thomas.

"Ginny never told me that!" Ron exclaimed.

"She told me," Dean said with uncontrollable mirth, "when we were going out she'd point out to me every time Luna checked out your arse when you walked by. It was so funny."

Ron turned around and tried to look at his own backside before looking from Lee to Tommy and then huffing and shaking his head.

"What is it with women and my arse?" he said with annoyance, "All I do is sit on the bloody thing!"

There were more whoops and laughter before Fergus piped up.

"Wait a moment there Weasley, did I hear that right, did you just say women? As in the plural of woman?"

Ron's face paled suddenly and he avoided Lee's eyes for some strange reason.

"Um...yes."

"Lavender Brown had a thing for it too did she?" McLaggen asked thickly.

"Mmmmmm," Ron said, still averting his eyes.

"Anyone else?" Lee said, a gleeful look in his eyes.

Ron threw Lee a sideways glare before muttering.

"Shut up and eat your roll!"

Chapter 15 Sacrificial Pawns

Moody was pacing up and down the deceased Ambassador's office, rubbing his craggy scarred face and muttering expletives under his breath.

"Alastor, I understand but if we question these Death Eaters illegally then they could call for a mistrial at the Wizengamot and go Scott-free," Lupin explained for what felt like the fifth time. "And that is exactly what they're counting on."

"Don't you think I know that?" Moody growled, stamping his false leg down so hard that a picture frame fell from the mantelpiece and smashed on the floor.

Lupin bent over and picked up the broken frame. The photograph inside was of a younger version of the ambassador than the war-matured Auror that Lupin had met a few months ago. He was young and happy and had his arms around a curvaceous woman with brown hair in an intricate French plait. They were hugging and then he would brush his hand across her cheek while the woman would turn and kiss his hand softly.

"Reparo!" Lupin tapped the frame with his wand and it was as good as new again.

Moody watched him replace the frame on the mantelpiece before pacing up and down again.

"They're devious bastards; they're organised, vicious and very clever and I don't like it one bit!"

Lupin knew exactly what he meant. Tonks had told him all about the interrogation with the two apprehended Dutch Death Eaters. They had been triumphant, taking their role in delivering the news of the deaths as some kind of badge of honour. They were extremists and believed in their cause so strongly that they were willing to die for it.

The colour had faded from Tonks' hair as she told Remus of the Death Eater's boasts. They claimed that Ron and McLaggen had been tortured with the Cruciatus curse and, worse still, was that Ron had become the entertainment for their leader.

"The blood traitor with the fiery hair, his Firebrand, if he knew what our master had in store for him he would be begging them to kill him."

Tonks' words, the translation of the vile Death Eater who had delivered the news of Maccario's murder, sent chills through his body. The Weasleys could never know this information, nor Harry or Hermione. It would be like telling them that the only way Ron could possibly escape his name being next on the list would be for him to continue receiving unimaginable torture on a daily basis.

The Death Eater's had been clear on that. Ronald Weasley, the Firebrand, had been singled out as the one to break to control all the others.

"They know that we either use Veritaserum on them and get them a mistrial and they go right back to their master to set about those poor kids again or we don't use it and have no way of finding out where the bloody hell they are!" Moody snapped.

"Either way," Remus said with a sigh, "Tonks says that they're confident that they won't be in Azkaban for long enough to trouble them. They genuinely believe that we'll cave in and let them all go."

"They're not sacrificing themselves at all," Moody agreed. "They think they're winning. They think we won't sacrifice all eighteen of our own men to keep them locked up."

"And that's what we're doing, is it Mad-Eye?" Remus said, feeling his hair greying as he spoke, "We're sacrificing our men for the greater good?"

Moody stopped stomping up and down and focused both his eyes on Lupin.

"Not if I can bloody help it!"

It was the longest night of their lives.
Every fifteen minutes, one Death Eater or the other would come into the cellblock and create a brilliant light or a loud noise. There were icy winds, scorching heat waves, mini lightning bolts sending shocks through each of them and all in the name of keeping them from sleeping.

Right now, the floors were being charmed so they were as hot as a furnace. Lee was the only one in their cell fortunate enough to be wearing shoes, so he was able to stand and lift Tommy into his bound arms, very awkwardly, so he didn't fry. Ron was lifting himself off the ground by holding onto the bar in the window but it had been almost five minutes now and his arms weren't strong enough to hold him much longer.

Not being in contact with the floor was of no help to anybody at all, though. The heat rising from the searing hot stone was suffocating and only made the desire to drift back off to sleep even stronger. Lee was slumped against the wall of the cell for some extra support. Tommy was drenched in sweat as his fever combined with the sauna that the cell had become. The pair of them only made each other more uncomfortable by being in such close contact in such intense heat.

Ron felt his arms give a little and gritted his teeth with determination to keep himself up off the floor. He felt so pathetically weak but it was no real surprise that he was struggling. He'd eaten nothing but a stale bread roll and drank a glassful of seawater followed by three bile-laced handfuls of water his cellmates had managed to share with him.

He was dehydrated enough without all this heat.

"I can't," Ron suddenly found himself gasping on the thick warm air as his arms loosened and he sank down a little.

"Hold on mate," Lee wheezed, his throat sounded as dry as sand, "just a little longer and they'll stop. You can do it Ron."

His body didn't have the same will not to burn as his mind and his sweaty palms began to slip loose from the bar he struggled to grip so tightly.

"I...can't," Ron panted as his elbows straightened out and he dropped lower still, lifting his legs away from the floor with a great deal of effort. "I'm fucked."

"Don't let go!" Lee ordered him as he pushed himself away from the wall, "Count to ten and I'll get to you. You've just got to hold on for ten more seconds Ron okay?"

Ron had no idea what was supposed to happen in ten seconds time but he forced his eyes closed and nodded. He swallowed and gripped for all he was worth, pulling up a fraction of an inch, and managed to bend his elbows just a little once more.

"One...Two...Three...Four...count with me Ron...Six..." Lee was closer to him now.

"Seven...Eight," Ron strained before feeling his biceps trembling and his arms seizing up with cramps as his hands slipped. "Shit!"

Ron waited for the fall but something clammy gripped the waistband of his jeans and pulled him close. Ron's eyes opened and he saw Lee with Tommy thrown over his shoulder and hanging limply while the bound hands held Ron against him tightly. Ron was exhausted and breathless as he frowned at Lee before looking down and seeing that he was standing on the tops of the other boy's shoes, the soles of which appeared to be melting now.

"Sorry," Ron said as he tried to steady himself against the wizard before him. "And thanks."

Lee smiled back at him wearily.

"I'm amazed you managed to stay up there as long as you did."

Despite their alarmingly close proximity and the fact that they were both dripping with perspiration, Ron leaned forward and rested his head on Lee's shoulder.

"This is a fucking nightmare," he sighed.

"Nah," Lee said half-heartedly. "You get to sleep if you're having a nightmare."

Ron gave a half-laugh, half-sigh, into Lee's shoulder.

"I'd offer to take Tommy off your hands for a bit but," Ron leaned back from Lee and laid his back against the wall behind him, "I don't think I can lift my arms."

Lee broke into a smile and a chuckle so draining that he almost fainted. As he swayed on his feet, his head fell back. Ron grabbed him and pulled him towards him so he was leaning on Ron now.

"How the hell have you been holding onto him all this time with your hands tied?" Ron murmured as he took the weight of the two limp wizards on his chest and felt himself being crushed against the wall.

"With great bloody difficulty," Lee mumbled back.

Harry flinched wildly and almost threw himself out of bed. Before he even managed to grab his glasses and slide them onto his face, Charlie illuminated the tip of his wand and pointed it at him.
"What is it Harry? What's wrong?" he said, his eyes wide as he glanced around at the other rows of temporary beds filled with the other Weasley boys, still sleeping soundly.

"Nothing," Harry sighed deeply as he rubbed his head and sat back on the bed. "Bad dream. Sorry I woke you."

Charlie lowered his head and his wand with it.

"I wasn't sleeping," he mumbled.

Harry sat forward a little and frowned at the most physically strong of all the Weasleys.

"You having bad dreams, too?" he asked him.

"I'm already in the bad dream, Harry," Charlie said, his voice weighed down and weary. "Sleeping makes no difference. I wake up and Ron's still gone."

Harry tried not to think about the nightmare that had woken him. Ron being beaten by a dozen or so Death Eaters until he couldn't stand, then tortured by all sorts of curses until he was too weak to even cry out in pain anymore. Then a dark robed figure stepped forward and pulled back his hood. It was Voldemort. He looked right at Harry and laughed before pointing his wand at Ron and sending the green light of the Killing Curse into his face.

"He's still alive, Charlie," Harry said, needing to hold onto every kind of hope available. "He doesn't go down without a fight."

"No, never," Charlie shook his head with a very slight smile.

"He's the strongest person I know. He's going to fight them and get under their skin and get out of this I know it. He's so clever when it comes to strategies and stuff and I know he can outsmart anybody if he only trusts himself."

Charlie's smile grew a little wider.

"I bet he's giving them hell."

"I bet everything inside my vault at Gringotts he is," Harry nodded confidently. "That's his greatest gift y'know? Pissing people off!"

Charlie smiled properly that time and shook his head.

"I see why he became friends with you Harry," Charlie said as he ran his large hand through his hair, which was like an orange haystack that had been through a blunt lawnmower. "You're funny without even trying to be."

Harry wondered whether this was a compliment or not before choosing to take it as one.

"Our Ron," Charlie said as he lay back on his bed and put his hands behind his head, "was always the one who could make me laugh. Everyone always says it's the twins who are the funny ones but they are always trying to entertain. They always work at getting laughs and now laughter is their work but Ron, he could crack you up without even noticing he was doing it."

"And he swears like no other," Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"Oh yeah," Charlie nodded, proudly. "The greatest day of my life was the first time I heard Ron say 'bollocks.'"

Harry chuckled.

"How old was he?"

Charlie was still gazing wistfully into the middle-distance as he responded.

"Four."

Harry wasn't the least bit surprised about this information. The two of them sat in silence for a short time, both in deep thought and lost in memories of Ron, before Charlie spoke up again.

"I don't know how Percy does it."

Harry frowned. He hadn't seen Percy at the Embassy more than once in all the time they'd been there.

"What?"

"Keeps going as if it's not happening," Charlie answered blankly. "He checks in with Dad first thing in the morning. He gives Mum a cuddle and then he goes off to his little office to do paperwork all day."

Harry hadn't known this. He lowered his head and wondered how anybody could just carry on with life as if everything was fine. True, none of Ron's brothers were doing him any good sitting around in the Embassy, but it was the place they knew had to be closer to him them wherever else they might have been. They were near to the place Ron was taken from. They were near and that's all they needed at that time.

Harry felt the need to be there for Ron. He couldn't help him or take his place or fly in and rescue him but at least he was being there for him. He was waiting for him.

"Percy comes back after work. Dad tells him who died and he cuddles Mum again and goes home," Charlie was still talking about Percy in his detached way.

Harry cleared his throat and drew in a shuddering breath.

"Well, maybe he thinks it hurts less if you stay away from...all this," Harry offered.

Charlie stared up at the ceiling and blinked slowly before turning to face Harry and sending the most soul-shattering look his way.

"I overheard Moody talking with Lupin tonight, Harry," Charlie said, his voice still a lifeless monotone, but his face a mask of despair. "The Death Eaters they took to Azkaban, the messenger boy scum that showed up here with personal possessions of the people they've just murdered, they told Tonks that Ron's getting singled-out for torture."

Harry felt his whole body go rigid and he rose from the bed.

"What?" he asked, clenching his jaw to stop himself from yelling the building down around him.

Charlie rolled over onto his side and turned his back to Harry.

"Don't bother going after them and shouting Harry. What good will it do?" The broad-shouldered red head mumbled into the pillow.

"How can you say that?" Harry snarled through gritted teeth. "How can you literally roll over and do nothing? He's your brother!"

Charlie looked back over his shoulder at Harry, his eyes cold and emotionless again.

"Because when the next bastard comes waltzing in here tomorrow with blood on his hands and a smile on his face," Charlie blinked and turned away from Harry once again, "I'm going to kill him."

The floors had been cool for several minutes now and Lee, Ron and Tommy were all slumped against each other in one corner of the cell. It was as if they had passed out as soon as they could without frying. It only felt as if his eyes had closed just that second when the door flew open and a jet of water filled the cellblock.
"Fuck! What now?" Ron moaned as Lee jumped to his feet to look out and see what was happening to them now to keep them from sleeping.

As he stood, Ron had lost his leaning post and hit the floor hard. Lee bent down to catch Tommy before he did the same.

"Ron, help me get him up off the floor," Lee demanded.

"Oh not again," Ron said. It was almost as if he was sleepwalking.

"No, he can stand but we can't let him lay there and get his clothes soaked through," Lee huffed. "It'll do him in good and proper if the only thing keeping him warm gets damp. Prop him up and hold him there."

Ron complied without argument, leaning his head against Tommy's and his eyes already falling closed. He was going to drop and stay down if this went on any longer, Lee thought.

"Enough of this crap, you bastards!" Cally was yelling, an edge in his voice that they all had developed over the course of the night.

"You've gone hot and cold on us and now wet. Well done, you're evil geniuses," Fergus hissed. "Now go n'shite the lot of yeas!"

The running water stopped flowing. The floor was coated with a film of water and Lee knew that it wouldn't be dry enough to set Tommy down any time soon. The cellblock door slammed shut again and there was amused laughter coming from the other side.

"Ron," Lee said as he tried to get his best friends' little brother to move his head so he could see how Tommy was doing but soon realised that the sleep-deprived young wizard was dead on his feet. "Ron?"

"I've got him," Ron mumbled as he patted Tommy lazily.

"Good," Lee said with a tired nod before looking back out and seeing the only other face at the door. "Hey Danny, how's things?"

"Meh," Danny shrugged while his eyelids hung heavy. "Is Tommy alright?"

Lee looked back into the cell to see that Ron and Tommy were no longer standing against the wall.

"Oh shit!"

Lee dropped to his knees to see that Ron had sat down on the floor and had Tommy on his lap to keep him off the wet floor. Ron's jeans were soaked and he'd no doubt be complaining about it for the rest of the following day but Lee didn't have the heart to wake him up.

"What is it?" Danny Prang called out.

Lee looked back through the opening in the cell door and sighed.

"Ron's completely out and he's got Tommy on top of him so the poor bastard doesn't get wet and make himself sicker."

Prang frowned for a moment before stooping out of view briefly and reappearing with his cloak in his hand.

"Here," he said as he thrust it through the opening and swung it across for Lee to catch.

"That's good of you, Danny, but if I put this on the floor it'll be wet in a second, too," Lee shrugged incomprehensively.

"You don't put it on the floor you nit." Prang's East London background shone through most of all when he was tired and annoyed it seemed. "Make him a hammock or at least a sling to sit him in."

Lee's tired eyes widened and he looked down at the cloak. It wasn't a bad idea.

"D'you think it'll be strong enough?" he asked.

"This will," Cally's voice joined the conversation and another cloak swung before the opening from the left. "If you hang them together, it should be strong enough."

Lee reached and missed, a combination of his bound wrists and his lack of sleep, before catching it on the second try. Just as he dragged the second cloak through the opening, the main cell door clunked open again. The cellblock filled with curses and groans. Ron was still sound asleep and Tommy stirred a little and seemed shocked to find himself sitting in Ron's lap.

"Wakker worden jongens!" a wicked voice said before swishing his wand and lifting every prisoner's body up several inches and dropping them down hard.

That woke Ron up again.

"Whattafuck?" he said as he blinked and then flinched when he saw Tommy lying across him. "What the fuck?"

The cell door closed again and Lee sighed.

"C'mon Ron," Lee held up the two cloaks and yawned. "We've got a project."

Chapter 16 Pulling Strings

Tommy was sleeping in the 'sling' that Lee and Ron had made from the two robes and tied, at either end, to the bar in the window. Ron was curled up in one corner of the cell while Lee took up the rest of the floor, his legs splayed wide, and tried to will himself to get at least five minutes sleep before the next violent interruption to destroy their peace.

Lee figured that they must have only had around one hour's sleep in total over the course of the night in comparision to about six hours of various sleep deprivation torture. He winced and felt the cut across his tender cheek. The last interruption had been a series of short propeller-like canes flying into every cell and whipping them awake. Lee had caught one right in the face. Ron had shielded Tommy but ended up with several harsh welts across the back of his legs and up his back.

The sun had risen and for a glorious few seconds a butterfly had flapped at the window. Lee had never felt so giddy to see so may different colours all at once and re-assigned his favourite colour from blue to turquoise. He had enough of blue. It was all he could see through that damn window. He had grown to dislike the sight of red as the war had gone on. Turquoise was incredible though, he thought, and he took his mind away to an ocean he had once seen when he and his mother had gone to visit his grandparents as a little boy.

The door banged open and Lee sat up and huffed, readying himself for another assault of some kind.

"Good morning dear boys," the Puppet Master said, his voice loud and powerful while several sniggers sounded behind him somewhere, "I hope you all slept well."

Lee had been about to grumble to himself before he remembered the threat against Ron if the Puppet Master ever heard his voice again, so he pressed his lips tightly together.

"I want everybody awake and alert for the water," the Puppet Master purred, "that is assuming you want some today of course."

"Do we all get some this time round?" Cally's voice spoke exactly what Lee had been thinking.

The Puppet Master stepped forward and flicked his wand at the cell door that kept him from his favourite plaything, opening it wide and pointing his wand at Tommy. He saw Tommy's sling-cum-hammock and raised an eyebrow but didn't take time to comment on it.

"Please come out and join me Firebrand," he said with a lazy smile.

Ron heaved a sigh of resignation and got to his feet. Lee stepped in front of him protectively but Ron gently moved him aside and shook his head.

"That's my boy," the Puppet Master said, almost purring with delight.

Ron stepped out of the cell and seemed to prepare himself to get seized in some way. Lee could see the crowd of Death Eaters at the open doorway to the cell block watching eagerly. The door was still open wide and Lee wondered why that was and hoped that Ron was in for nothing more then a little bit of gloating. That was definitely how the Puppet Master began his 'little chat' with Ron.

Although there was something decidedly creepy about the way he spoke to Ron that made Lee's skin crawl and caused him to remind himself over and over inside his head not to yell out at the Puppet Master to back off.

"Oh dear me young Firebrand," the Puppet Master's frown didn't hide his apparent joy as he took Ron's face in his free hand while gliding the tip of his wand up Ron's body to rest at his chest with the other, "you look a little tired. I do hope you're up to our game later."

"Game's over you prick," Prang spoke up, his accent stronger then ever and his attitude demonstrating to all the others just how sure he was that today was his day, "there will be no more of this."

The Puppet Master licked his lips and his smile widened while the tip of his wand slid up from Ron's heart and stroked along his collarbone. Lee saw Ron's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed but kept his suspicious eyes focused hard upon the head Death Eater.

"Then there will be no more water, food, sleep and I think chains for everyone."

The Puppet Master saw Ron's eyes flicker over to Lee's bound wrists and then back. The man smirked and removed his wand from it's constant contact with Ron's skin to swish lazily at magical ropes, removing them as if they were nothing more then smoke he had batted away with a casual wave of his arm.

"There, you are right my boy, that was unfair wasn't it?"

Ron cleared his throat and nodded.

"Thank you."

The Puppet Master grinned and stepped in closer to Ron. He set his wand hand upon his shoulder so the wand was idly pointing at Ron's temple and rested his other hand upon the side of Ron's neck. He was almost cradling Ron's jaw with his strong thumb and positioning Ron's face into an angle he found pleasing. Ron didn't seem to like this intimacy at all but didn't resist. The talk of water was clearly still on his mind.

"So we will play today after all?"

Ron just gave the slightest of nods and tried to use the movement as an excuse to move his head out of the dominant but eerily gentle grip of the Puppet Master. The huge hand slid around the back of Ron's neck and the fingers plunged themselves deep into his messy mane of hair. Ron's body stiffened and the Puppet Master leaned his face in close so he was now talking in a low tone directly into Ron's face.

"I look forward to the game," he breathed with his grin widening, "I have such fun planned for us and I look forward to seeing how well you...perform."

"Whatever you want," Ron winced as if the Puppet Master's breath was choking him.

Lee couldn't stand to watch this and not be doing a thing. He wondered just how impossible it was for him to jump the Puppet Master without getting Ron hurt and while avoiding the dozen or so curses that would no doubt slam into him from the audience at the entrance to the cellblock.

"Would you like some water today young Firebrand?" the Puppet Master said, his thumb stroking Ron's cheek and seemingly revolting Ron beyond belief.

Lee was beginning to fear that there was more to Ron's selection by the head Death Eater then they had all first thought as he watched Ron nod.

"And the others?" the Puppet Master arched an eyebrow, "they have done nothing to earn you water or nourishment. Do you still wish for them to share in your...preferential treatment?"

Ron didn't seem to be able to take this sarcasm without reacting and, while he remained compliant at all times, his demeanour changed to show hostility where the disgust had previously been.

"Please," Ron nodded once again, speaking through gritted teeth.

The Puppet Master's face lit up on hearing this and he looked at the opening to every single cell triumphantly.

"I want to see everybody's faces at their doors," he demanded before turning to look into the open cell, he saw that Tommy and Lee had a perfect view already, and he grinned smugly, "You must all see this lesson in behaviour. I am most disappointed in all of you and your dirty mouths while I am nothing but civil to you all."

There was a scoff that seemed to come from Prang but the Puppet Master was concentrating on Ron again. Lee could feel the tension and excitement that was almost crackling from the end of the corridor where the Puppet Master's audience were gathered.

"Say please again boy," the Puppet Master ordered.

Ron fixed his jaw defiantly and spoke stiffly.

"Please."

The Puppet Master swelled and puffed out his chest before stroking his wand from the nape of Ron's neck, upwards to his chin and holding it there, lifting Ron's head back as far as it would go.

"Get on your knees."

Ron looked slightly sick now and as he sank down, never tearing his wide eyes from the Puppet Master as he did, and trying to ignore the laughter from the watching puppets.

"Say it again," the Puppet Master said, pushing Ron's fringe back from his sunken bloodshot eyes with his wand.

"Please," Ron said, looking torn between humiliated and absolutely livid.

The Puppet Master seemed to be overjoyed. Dean Thomas, Viktor Krum and Cormac McLaggen, who Lee had the best view of, looked so irate that he wouldn't have been shocked if they had told the Puppet Master to take his water and shove it there and then had it not been for the wand that was still directed into Ron's reddening face.

"Beg me," the Puppet Master ordered, his eyes wide and burning with animal pleasure.

"What?" Ron said, actually giving the slightest of laughs of disbelief as he spoke.

"You want everybody, including yourself to drink don't you?"

Ron swallowed and looked into the cell at Tommy before looking back and nodding firmly.

"Yes."

"Well I want you to beg me for it Firebrand."

"Over my dead body," Danny Prang's voice seethed, his knuckles white from his intense grip on the cell door.

The Puppet Master looked over his shoulder and laughed at this with genuine amusement.

"Not just yet Mr Prang, do be patient."

Lee's jaw dropped and he gaped at Prang. Had he been right about the order of executions after all? Ron grabbed the Puppet Master's robes and seemed to want to do anything to distract the sadist's attention away from Prang and onto him once again.

"I, your plaything, beg of you," Ron's voice sounded as if it was fighting against the words it was being forced to speak, "for water for everybody."

The Puppet Master seemed to swell to twice his giant size on hearing this and the laughter from the doorway of the cellblock was louder and more raucous now.

"Kiss my shoe young Firebrand," he demanded with an almost feral surge of adrenaline.

Ron's eyes narrowed and he bent over with total disgust at himself and quickly kissed the toecap of the Death Eater's boot. Just as Ron shuddered and moved to sit up again the Puppet Master growled with satisfaction.

"Stay down there jongen!"

Ron froze, the tip of his long nose almost touching the leather of the shoe as his face hovered over the Puppet Master's feet.

"Lick it," the Puppet Master snarled.

Ron closed his eyes and mumbled an expletive to himself that Lee wasn't able to make out.

"Enough!" Cally was shouting, "This is enough. You've made your point, now leave him be and if you want to pick on somebody then pick on me."

The Puppet Master heaved a deep sigh of satisfaction as he looked across at Cally's cell.

"But I would not enjoy that half as much Healer Callahan." the cruel wizard lifted his foot and raised Ron's chin with it so Ron was still on his knees but looking up at his face, the shoe at his throat. The Puppet Master's eyes flashed before he demanded satisfaction once again, "Do it Firebrand!"

Ron took a deep breath and grabbed the large foot in his hands before stroking his tongue across the leather and cringing while the audience outside the cellblock broke in to rapturous applause.

"Geef ze water!" the Puppet Master said with a clap of the hands and shoved Ron in the chest with the sole of his shoe so that he fell backwards onto the floor.

Ron wiped his mouth and grimaced while keeping alert for any more sudden actions from the Death Eater.

"Back inside Weasley," the Puppet Master ordered with a careless nod towards the open cell and Ron scrambled back inside and the door slammed after him.

Lee didn't notice that he'd grabbed Ron around the shoulders and given him a hug until after he done it and broke away uncomfortably with a smile.

"Shake it off Ron," he whispered as quietly as he could but Ron seemed fearful of taking and chances and shushed him urgently.

The cellblock emptied but the main door was still wide open, no doubt the water would be coming straight away, and Ron spat into the piss corner before looking at Tommy and forcing a smile on his face.

"At least he hadn't stepped in dog shit eh?"

Bill watched as Harry walked back into the Embassy and slumped, dejectedly, into a large wooden chair that was just inside the main door. Nobody needed to ask how the mission had gone.

Ginny and Hermione ran to the disappointed young wizard and hugged him, which only seemed to make him even more mortified, and Bill mumbled to Fleur to keep his mother occupied so that Harry wasn't totally swamped by female worry and consolation all at once. He strode across the room, passing a downbeat Tonks and Lupin as they reported back to Moody while the McLaggens, Belbys and the twins listened in.

"It was a booby trap," Harry was mumbling into his hands while Ginny rubbed his back and Hermione dropped to her knees and put her hand on his knee, "They're clever, they knew exactly what we'd try to do to find them and they set us up. We went all the way across the German border and it was nothing but an old abandoned ruin with the bodies in shallow graves."

"The bodies?" Bill said, causing Hermione to flinch with shock at his sudden appearance over her shoulder.

"The Ambassador and Maccario, they knew we'd use their possessions to try and track down their location. Objects associated with the place of death and all that," Harry tried to explain with a shrug, "Moody explains it better then me. Anyway, the medal and the photograph just took us to their bodies and a set of magically triggered booby traps."

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked as she pulled Harry's hands away from his face and saw his glistening eyes.

"No Gin," Harry's voice broke slightly, "no I'm not alright. I didn't bloody find them did I? I wasted another day and that means another person's dead because we can't outsmart these bastards."

"No Harry," Hermione said firmly, "another person might die today and if they do it will be the fault of the evil people who murdered them and nobody else. No one here has any blood on their hands."

"Yet!" Harry snorted before looking past Bill at something a short way away.

Bill frowned and followed his gaze. He saw Kingsley Shacklebolt talking animatedly to his father and Charlie while the young witch Chiara tried to treat his heavily bleeding wand arm.

"Bill!" Harry said urgently as he jumped to his feet and knocked both Ginny and Hermione flying, "Oh sorry," he mumbled over his shoulder as he took Bill's arm and dragged him away into the Ambassador's vacant office.

As he closed the door behind him he seemed to paused to consider what it was he was doing before turning around to meet Bill's eyes and shake his head.

"I think Charlie's going to do something stupid."

Chapter 17 Famous Last Words

"You're leaving," Bill said as he thrust an armful of Charlie's belongings into a large leather travelling bag.

"Like fuck I am," Charlie snapped as he watched the hurried packing and folded his arms.

He seemed to think that his brother had finally snapped.

"I mean it Charlie," Bill paused and fixed Charlie's gaze with his own, "I've spoken to Harry. He told me everything and you are not staying here."

"You can't make me leave," Charlie said, taking a step forward and letting his arms drop to his sides, fists clenching.

"I'm doing it now," Bill said as he tossed the last of Charlie's stuff into the bag and flicked his wand at it to compact it down and close itself, "The ministry don't care who you kill or if they deserve it Charlie, they just see a killer and throw you into Azkaban and that's what will happen if you kill the bastard that comes through the main entrance next."

"Fuck the Ministry!" Charlie boomed, "I don't want to abide by the laws of anybody who protects these bastards Bill. They protect the rights of murderers, mass murderers and sadistic bastards who fucking laugh while they watch my brother...our baby brother Bill!" Charlie put his leathery hand to his face and cursed himself for breaking in front of his closest sibling, "They're torturing him and laughing about it and I'm going to go to Azkaban for giving them some of what they dish out?"

Bill grabbed Charlie roughly and gave him as strong a bear hug two people of such differing builds can share before they broke apart and Bill gave Charlie a bracing shake by the shoulders.

"He's a tough one our Ron," Bill said with confidence, "you've been away a lot and I haven't Charlie. I've seen the man he's grown into and he can give these shits a run for their money and then some. He survived a war and he fought Death Eaters when he was still at school. He's stronger then most of us ever gave him credit for and he needs to get out of this to find his family waiting for him at home and not in bloody prison!"

Charlie's jaw jutted out and he averted his eyes from his older brother with a shake of the head.

"I saw him three months ago Bill and he wasn't so different then," Charlie cleared his strained sounding throat and looked back into Bill's eyes, "he was sleeping on the sofa in the living room because there was a spider in his room."

Bill felt his eyes burn on hearing this but refused to blink. He had to stay strong and confident for Charlie during this rare weak moment.

"He's still the same Ron he's always been Bill," Charlie said with a shudder before his head fell and hung despondently, "he's still my little pain in the arse brother who falls over his own feet and makes me laugh like a girl and needs me to kill fucking spiders for him so he can go to bed."

"I know," Bill said, his own voice barely audible.

"This isn't just frustration and helplessness and uselessness Bill," Charlie said with determination as he lifted his head again, "I don't just want to hit somebody for hurting him. I want to see every single one of those bastards in pain for hurting him. I want to see them dead for what they're doing to him. I want them all dead Bill and you can't tell me you don't."

"I don't want you to be the one who kills them Charlie," Bill said firmly.

"I'd kill 'em all for him," Charlie said, his eyes cold and lost, "If it means we get him back safe I'd kill every single one of them."

The fifteen-minute wake up calls continued throughout the morning and several of the prisoners were beginning to lose their composure. Tommy kept hearing exasperated growling coming through the wall in front of him, it sounded like the Irish wizard Fergus. Colin Creevey was unnaturally quiet and Jack Sloper had been talking to himself for an hour.

"Please shut him up," Sam Robbins groaned as Sloper began giggling wearily.

"He can't hear me," Dean answered with a deep sigh of exhaustion, "It's like he's asleep with his eyes open and his lips moving or something."

"Slap him," Cally called out, his voice rough.

"That's your professional opinion is it?" McLaggan snorted.

"Just do it Dean!" Cally snapped, ignoring the frayed tempers from the rest of the cellblock.

Tommy listened and heard a slapping sound.

"Hey! What 'dya do that for?" Sloper called out.

"You were rambling," Dean explained.

"No I wasn't!" Sloper protested.

"Fine, I've gone insane and imagined it okay?" Dean huffed, "I'm sorry."

There was a thudding sound beneath Tommy's hammock and he jumped and leaned over to see that Ron had fallen over onto his side like a lead weight. Lee, who had himself been nodding off, jumped and scrambled across the floor to see if he was alright. Tommy watched as the older wizard lifted Ron's head onto his lap before leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes.

Tommy felt as if he was wearing a suit of somebody else's skin. His didn't seem to fit him anymore. It was tight in places and loose in others while making him cold at night and sweltering in the day. He just wanted to shake it off and breathe easy again.

It wasn't long before his eyes began to fall closed too, his eyelids weighing heavily over his eyes, and the dark shroud of sleep dragging him under.

"Wakker worden jongens!" a voice called out in a singsong voice before something jolted the floor and shook everybody back out of their brief moment of sleep.

The Death Eater laughed before the solid even footsteps Tommy had come to know as those of the Puppet Master echoed along the corridor.

"Come now boys," he purred, "you can't lie around on such a fine day as this."

Tommy could have sworn he heard Krum muttering something in Bulgarian while Ernie MacMillan groaned and swore as he yawned.

"In fact I've noticed that slouching is all you ever do and this can not be fair can it? My dear colleagues here working all hours of the day and night, doing their duties, while you take it easy?"

There was a ripple of laughter from several Death Eaters before a hooded face appeared at the opening in the cell door and it swung open wide. It sounded as if the same thing had happened at the five other cells too and Tommy glanced at Lee, who was still cradling Ron. The wake up calls were having less and less effect upon him as they progressed. Tommy guessed that Ron wasn't so much asleep as unconscious.

"Neem ze mee!" the Puppet Master called out and Lee was grabbed and hauled away from Ron and through the cell door, which stayed wide open.

Tommy could see that Dean was also being taken from the cell opposite. Soon after he was dragged out of view, Krum and Belby were wrestled past; the fight Krum put up being harder for their captors to handle then Belby's futile struggles. Tommy couldn't see who was taken from the cells nearest the main door but he heard Fergus swearing profusely and Prang demanding that he be taken instead.

There were five bangs as the other cell doors closed but his cell was still open. This made Tommy incredibly uneasy and he looked down to the floor where Ron lay still and awkwardly positioned, his eyes closed and his mouth hanging open slightly. The Puppet Master stepped into view; his enormous form framed in the doorway before he stepped through and closed the door behind him with a sickening smile.

"Some privacy I think," he said lazily before drawing his wand and crouching down at Ron's side and stroking his cheek in the same way Tommy's uncle Joe, a raging alcoholic, used to caress an unopened bottle of Scotch, "wake up Firebrand."

Ron's eyes opened just a crack, as if his eyelids had been slit with a razorblade, and then they flew open wide and he threw himself back into the cell wall to get as far away from the large hand that had been cupping his face moments before.

"Whatd'youwan?" he said so fast that it was practically an indecipherable garble.

Ron's bloodshot, sunken eyes searched the cell and the redhead suddenly realised that Lee wasn't there. His breath shortened and he glared back at the Puppet Master while paling rapidly.

"What d'you do with Lee?"

The Puppet Master's face broke into a wide grin and his strong arm reached out and he slid his powerful fingers softly around Ron's throat.

"Shhhh," he shook his head while Ron squirmed and glanced up to meet Tommy's eyes, "don't fight young Firebrand, not yet, we can duel later I promise. But now I just wish to talk to you."

"Leave him alone," Tommy said, the shiver in his voice annoying him, as he would have hated for the Puppet Master to mistake the tremor for fear.

The Puppet Master's smile fell immediately as he turned his large, pristinely groomed, head to face him in his hammock.

"This is no concern of yours invalid, just be thankful I didn't put you to work today."

Tommy swallowed and wondered exactly what the others were being subjected to in the name of 'work'. The Puppet Master returned his attention to Ron and tightened the loose grip around his throat ever so slightly.

"I want to hear from you," he smiled at Ron.

Ron didn't say a word. He just stayed where as was, pressed flat against the wall on the floor, and held in place by the intimidating wizard.

"He's not himself right now you bastard," Cally shouted out from his own cell, "You want to get a coherent word out of him? I suggest you let him get some sleep first!"

The grip on Ron's throat tightened just a little more and Tommy's eyes watered along with Ron's. He thought about reaching out and trying to grab the Puppet Master to pull him off his cellmate but Ron saw him lifting his arm and seemed to shake his head. Tommy might have imagined it, he might not, but he complied and held back against his own protective instincts.

"Mind your own business Callahan," the Puppet Master boomed with great authority through the wall before taking a calming breath and fixing that sickeningly satisfied smile upon his face once again.

He leaned in disturbingly close to Ron and almost put his lips on his earlobe as he began to murmur something. Ron looked utterly revolted by whatever it was and winced before forcing his eyes closed and struggling to draw in a breath through his constricted throat. The Puppet Master pulled back from Ron to look into his face with satisfaction and spoke aloud once more, in that nauseating purr of his.

"The smell of fear is intoxicating but the smell of defiance," he paused to lean in close and inhale through his prominent yet haughty nose, "that could very well become addictive young Firebrand."

Ron's eyes opened again and he tried to squirm out from under the domineering Death Eater just as the man sniggered to himself and released his hold on Ron's throat.

"I do hope we have many more games before the defiance is lost," the Puppet Master rose to his feet and pointed his wand at Ron, "I would miss that wonderful scent terribly."

Ron stared up at the man before being distracted by the sounds of yells and cries of pain from the room outside the cellblock and his eyes widened as he returned his gaze to the Puppet Master. They were livid.

"You want to smell my defiance?" Ron said as he got to his feet and scowled at the man, who seemed to get a kick from intimidation as well as fear, as if he was nothing more then a bothersome fly buzzing about his head, "I'll gladly fart in your face you fucking prick!"

"Ha!" the voice of Cormac McLaggen exclaimed from the far corner.

"You tell him Ron," Ernie MacMillan was shouting his own encouragement from the opposite corner while Prang tried desperately to try and stop the vocal display of support.

Tommy suddenly realised why he was so fearful.

The Puppet Master flicked his wand at Ron and yelled a spell with absolute searing rage burning through his eyes and seeming to burst forth from the tip of his wand with extra power.

"Impedio!"

The burst of brilliant orange light forced Ron's hands behind his back and bound his arms together about the wrists and again around the elbows. Ron yelped at this obvious discomfort before the Puppet Master pointed his wand at Ron and jerked it upwards with a sickeningly vengeful grimace twisting his, usually smugly calm, face and roared another incantation.

"Obtineo!"

Ron's body was lifted clean off the ground by his wrists and a chain magically formed and fixed itself to the ceiling. Ron cried out in pain as both his arms were wrenched up behind him and were made to support his entire weight while Prang and Sloper shouted their outrage at such an extreme punishment being dealt out while Tommy was so worried that both Ron's arms would be pulled out of their sockets that he rolled himself out of his hammock and slammed down onto the stone floor hard.

"Oh shit!" Ron gasped, "Godric don't...don't leave me like this."

Tommy reached up to try and grab the Puppet Master's wand from his hand but the man was too fast for him and he took a boot to the face that laid him flat on his back and made him feel as if his head had split in two. He couldn't see straight but he could just about hear the primal growling coming from the Puppet Master as he leaned in to Ron's pained face.

"You will stay this way until I am ready to duel with you!"

Ron gave out a strangled yelp at something and Tommy blinked his eyes back into focus to see the Puppet Master licking the side of Ron's face with apparent relish.

"Now pain," he said with that sickening purr of satisfaction and delight, "pain is simply delicious!"

"You sick fuck," Prang hissed.

As Ron hung, suspended mere inches away from the floor by his arms pulling agonisingly behind his back, the Puppet Master leaned back away from his face and patted him softly on the side of the cheek.

"Do try and get some sleep Firebrand," he smirked, "You look dreadfully tired."

"Keten ze vast!"

"Laat ze smeken!"

"Houd hem in bedwang. Martel hem!"

The Death Eaters were roaring at each other and treating the six wizards like animals. They didn't seem to have their master supervising them and they had become out of control.

"Sla hem in elkaar" the Death Eater who had his knee in Lee's back and his arm twisted up his back seemed to encourage the two men who were chaining Dean to the floor and kicking him repeatedly.

The only one of them to have had any success in fighting their captors was Krum. He had overpowered his armed guard and began pummelling him in the face until two of his colleagues blasted him in the back with oppugno spells. Marcus Belby was being throttled and was turning an alarming shade of purple while Fergus was on his knees, his arms and legs shackled together behind him, with a Death Eater standing over him and about to send a curse into the back of his head.

"Stop!" The deep booming voice shook the room and everybody, prisoners and captors alike; froze in stunned silence.

The Puppet Master was standing before the closed door to the cellblock and he looked as if he wanted to set about his own men with as much hate as he had for his prisoners at that moment.

"Laat hen gaan," he snarled as he pointed his wand at the Death Eater who looked as if he was about to execute Fergus, and then he turned his aim upon the men beating the chained-up Dean, "Ik zullen je doden."

The Death Eaters seemed to be terrified of the man and Dean's chains were gone before Lee even had the time to draw breath. The one-sided shouting match in Dutch continued while everybody was released by shame-faced Death Eaters and some of the more incapacitating injuries, such as Belby's crushed larynx, were healed in between berating from the Puppet Master.

Just as Krum seemed ready to try another attack, braver then he was intelligent obviously, the Puppet Master turned around to face all six hostages and seethed in their direction.

"You were brought here to work and that is what you will do," the Puppet Master hissed.

Lee turned to meet Dean's eyes and they wondered exactly what 'work' entailed. They soon found out.

"You," the wand was pointed at Krum, "will lift all the stone from the floor of the cellar to expose the soil beneath. Do you understand your job?"

Krum's lip curled and he nodded once before his captors shoved him to his feet and shoved him out of the room and down a flight of stairs. The Puppet Master aimed his wand at Lee next.

"You will take a shovel and dig," the Puppet Master growled, "if you attempt to attack one of your guards with the shovel I will kill your cellmates before you get to the top of the stairs to stop me. Do you understand?"

Lee swallowed and nodded, still mindful of the 'talk and Ron gets hurt' rule. He began to wonder what had been happening back in the cells while the Puppet Master wasn't outside the cellblock with his men to supervise them.

"You will be digging sixteen holes. They will be six feet deep. They will be long enough to accommodate the tallest of you and wide enough to accommodate the broadest of you," the Puppet Master seemed to have lost his composure ever so slightly, something other then the loss of self-control in his own men was obviously getting to him, "Do you understand?"

Lee nodded again.

"Wait," Fergus said, as Lee was being hauled to his feet and dragged towards the stairs, "Yeh're makin' us dig our own graves?"

"Yes Mr Finnegan," the Puppet Master barked, his face shaking with anger, "I am making you dig everybody's grave because, unlike my imbecilic colleagues here, I know that there will be no negotiation with the ministry and you will all die. I will see to that but I will not waste my time burying you."

Lee turned at the top of the stairs. The Puppet Master just wanted to kill them all. He didn't want his demands, whatever they were, met. He had no desire to negotiate for their freedom. He wasn't even in league with his own men. He just wanted to kill them all; for revenge, for fun, for whatever reason. Lee didn't know or care.

"Neem hen ook," the Puppet Master ordered the Death Eater who held Fergus at wand point and nodded after Lee to the stairs.

Just as he was pulled out of sight Lee understood the awful truth. They were all going to die here.

Prang felt sick.

He had been trying to keep Ron talking to give him some kind of distraction from the pain in his arms but he was running low on anecdotes. He knew that it would be execution time soon. He knew it would be his turn to walk that final walk. He knew that he'd made a mess of everything and hoped that his family wouldn't be disappointed with him.

It was difficult to keep Ron fighting when his mind was filled with so much defeat.

But he had to do something. It was impossible to see the self-sacrificing wizard hanging there in such an agonising position, like a swan dive gone wrong and frozen in mid air, and not try to do anything to help. Looking away wasn't an option as the sporadic yelps and strained gasps that came with every new muscle spasm was like rusty screws being drilled into his teeth.

"So I hear you're a Cannons fan Ron," Danny said, scraping the bottom of the barrel now but willing to do anything just to keep talking.

Ron's face was crumpled as he gritted his teeth and nodded with a squeak.

"I've never seen them play myself. Are they as bad as they say?" Danny caught Cally's eye all the way at the other end of the cellblock and the healer gave him and smile and a nod of encouragement to go on.

"Ron we need to pass this time okay?" Danny said with more determination, "If we don't distract ourselves time will stand still and this is one of those times you don't want to be stuck in is it?"

"No fuckin' way," Ron whimpered through shallow breaths.

"So? Talk to me."

Ron took in several deeper breaths before lifting his head and looking across through the opening in the cell door to him.

"Batty can fly faster backwards then forwards," he gasped, "that's a real skill."

Danny forced a smile onto his face and he felt Ernie MacMillan stand beside him and rest a hand upon his shoulder for moral support while grinning over at Ron himself.

"What position does he play?" Ernie called out.

"S-Seeker," Ron said and his knees lifted a little before he kicked out with his legs and cried out again.

He had heard about this kind of torture at Auror training. It was just like Dean's confined space torture, designed to damage the muscles and send agonising waves of pain shooting through the joints without relief.

"Dan my shoulders are fucking killing me!" Ron whimpered as his head dropped.

Danny looked back to Cally and pleaded with him for assistance, what kind the poor healer could offer other then encouragement he didn't know, but the man simply nodded at him and gave a thumbs up.

"So a seeker eh?" Danny said, "Does flying backwards help in that position?"

"Not bloody likely," Ron growled through gritted teeth, "That's why..." Ron paused to take a few rapid breaths before lifting his head again, "That's why we always lose."

That did it for Danny. Ron Weasley was in some of the worst pain of his life and he just looked him in the eye and smiled at him. His shoulders fell and his knees shook. Ernie was right there and supporting him though.

"Why don't you change your team eh? Change your allegiance?"

"Don't work like that does it?" Ron said before forcing his eyes shut to ride out another spasm of pain, "You chose your side and you stick with 'em through thick and thin."

Ernie nodded proudly.

"Yeah you do that."

"Nothing easy is ever worth fighting for is it?" Danny added.

Ron looked him in the eye again, his face looked so much older then his years. The lack of sleep on top of dehydration and starvation had taken its toll and that twinkle that used to be mischief in his blue eyes was now nothing more then the light reflecting the welling tears.

"Dan I think we fucked-up."

"What?" he said as he put his arm through the opening, for no other reason then an instinctive need to show him that he was there for him.

"We shouldn't have waited so long. We shouldn't have waited," Ron shook his head and then let it fall again.

"We thought we were doing the right thing for them Ron," Danny said, his heart twisting in his chest as he spoke.

"But it's too late now," Ron choked.

"No it isn't!" Danny said through his teeth as his fists clenched, "It's not too late Ron."

"Says the fucking guy who's convinced he's gonna die this afternoon!" Ron hissed back at him.

"I might die but she won't and that's because I fought for her. I fought this war so she could outlive me and she will and that is...that is...It's fucking worth it!"

"It was," Ron nodded and sniffed before grimacing again, "It was worth it."

Danny's heart was suddenly slower and his head cleared and that weight he had been carrying on his shoulders was no more.

"I am going to die today but you," he stared at Ron who turned his anguished eyes back on Danny's own, "you're different. You're special."

Ron shook his head sadly.

"Yes you are!" Danny said firmly, "You will beat this fucker and you will survive this and you will get to finish what I never could."

"For a pessimist you're pretty bloody confident, d'you know that?" Ron winced as he spoke.

"I'm confident enough to give you a message for my girl and know that she'll definitely get it. And you've got to pass on Maccario's too, he gave me a message for Chiara and it's on you to deliver both now."

Ron took in a few shallow breaths before nodding and drawing in a deep one to speak.

"Maccario wasn't afraid to die and he loved her. I got his memorised."

"Good man," Danny nodded.

"So what's yours?" Ron exhaled and began panting again.

Just as Danny opened his mouth to speak the door boomed open and the Puppet Master stormed in. He flicked his wand at Prang's cell and tied his wrists behind his back while the door flew open with such ferocity he was amazed that it stayed on its hinges.

"Daniel Prang, uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners," the Puppet Master said coldly while one Death Eater advanced upon him and pulled him from the cell and the other shoved Ernie back into the cell and knocked him to the ground with a single punch.

"I have a request," Danny said as the second Death Eater stepped out of the cell and closed and locked the door behind them, "I demand one last request."

"Kom vreedzaam of..." the Puppet Master went on with the speech to the condemned man.

"I demand you let him down now!" Danny said as he looked up at Ron where he hung helplessly.

"...lijd...in...de...dood!" the Puppet Master snarled before reaching for the tiny glass with one hand and gripping Danny's shoulder with the other.

"Please let him down," Danny begged just as the liquid was poured down his throat and the Puppet Master's firm grip clenched hard, causing him to swallow whether he wanted to or not.

It tasted like extra-strong firewhisky but there was a smoky flavour that reminded him of a potion he had once brewed for his N.E.W.T examination, the compliance potion. He felt his muscles relax and his fists unclench while his mind remained as aware as ever but a lot less frantic then before.

"There will be no final meals," the Puppet Master growled, "There will be no last requests and there will be no famous last words. Breng hem."

The Puppet Master led the way from the cellblock and the Death Eaters shoved him hard in the back to follow him out.

"For everything we never got to do I'm sorry," he declared as loud and clear as he could with his head held high and the tears streaming down his face, "and I want you to get to do all those things. I don't want you to wait to be happy any longer. Find someone who doesn't make you wait. Don't wait for me anymore."

He staggered through the door to the cellblock and a wand was flicked to bring it closed behind them. The last thing he heard from within that awful place was Ron's voice.

"I've got it!" he shouted, "I'll tell her!"

Chapter 18 Duel

Tommy had heard Prang's execution, the dull thud of his body hitting the ground and the silence that befell the cells immediately afterwards. His head was throbbing and he felt a chill on his back but, just before he tried to remember exactly what had happened to him to have put him in that state he heard a short but distinctive sound.

"Hup!"

He blinked and heaved himself up with his shaky arms and looked above him to the source of the sound just as the rest of his memory came flooding back and the sound cut through the silence again.

"Hup!"

"Oh God!" Tommy gasped as he saw Ron's body jerk and his face contort in pain as his swung above him, his pointed toes tantalisingly close to the ground but at the same time so very far away, "He left you like that?"

"S'oka-hup! S'okay Tom," Ron was breathing very strangely.

"What's that sound?" Cally called out, his voice sounded empty.

Tommy guessed that he had been thinking hard about Prang's claim that they were going out in the same order they had been taken in, making him the next on the list.

"Got," Ron hesitated and forced his mouth closed for a moment, his eyes closing as his upper body jerked slightly once again and a whimper escaping along with the exhalation, "hiccups on top of everything else. Just my luck eh?"

Ron tried to smile but he was obviously in a great deal of pain. Ron hissed through his teeth and his toes curled before hiccupping again. That was about as much as Tommy was willing to stand. He set his features into a mask of determination and dragged his weakened body beneath Ron's suspended form.

"Tommy," Ron gasped, "what ya...Hup! What ya doin'?"

"I'm giving you something to stand on," Tommy said sternly as he lifted himself onto all fours, very unsteadily, and pressed his back against the soles of Ron's bare feet.

"No," Ron said through another spasm of pain, "don't. Tom don't. I can't stand on you."

"Yes you fucking can and you are fucking going to!" Tommy ordered as he felt anger rising up inside of him when he felt Ron trying to lift his weight off of his back.

"It won't help me and it'll hup...hurt you," Ron swallowed his own words as he drew in a post hiccup breath while grimacing.

"It will ease your pain just a little though won't it?" Tommy said through teeth gritted with determination, "Just a little bit."

Ron's voice cracked as Tommy felt a little of his weight settle down upon his shoulder.

"Don't make me stand on you Tommy, please."

"Do it Ron!" Tommy ordered again.

"Shit Ron just do it for five minutes," Ernie MacMillan begged him from his empty cell.

"He says he can handle it for a bit so do it," Jack Sloper called out, he too being the only occupant of his cell at that time.

Tommy let himself sigh a little as he felt Ron's other foot settle on his back. Ron was still trying to spare him his full weight; Tommy could tell he was because whenever Ron was seized by a fresh onslaught of pain he would drop down onto Tommy completely, his instinct to relieve the strain on his shoulders taking over his martyrdom.

"Hold your breath Ron," McLaggen's voice sounded out from the only other cell which housed a single occupant, Tommy hoped temporarily, "Hold your breath right after you hiccup and keep it held until the next one comes."

"What are you talking about Cormac?" Peakes called out in bewilderment.

"It works!" McLaggen said with annoyance, "I swear Ron. Hold a deep breath right after you hiccup and keep it in. You'll hiccup again but you keep holding it for a few seconds after and then wait for another hiccup and do it again. I promise you, it'll be gone the third time you do it."

"Don't you think the fucking hiccups are the least of his problems McLaggen?" MacMillan snapped.

"I dunno Ernie," Sloper responded, while Tommy braced himself to support Ron as his feet pressed down upon his back through another muscle spasm, "the hiccupping is making his body jerk against his arms. It looks like it hurts him...more!"

"Do it Ron," Cally shouted, "do what he says kid. I've yet to hear of anything that works and I'd like to know that a cure exists before I die."

Tommy heard Colin Creevey berating Cally for so quickly turning into the same pessimist Prang had become so quickly. Ron seemed to be trying to lessen the weight he was putting on Tommy's back, but the feverish wizard straightened his arms and legs a little more and pushed up against Ron's feet with determination to take as much weight from his arms as he could manage in his weakened state.

It was with a great deal of satisfaction and pain that he felt Ron's feet rest flat on his spine while he yelped out a hiccup and then drew in a deep breath.

"Please let this work," Tommy whispered to himself.

Molly was trying to break through the barrier of intensity the appeared to have formed around her two older sons but they weren't letting anybody but Harry in. Harry looked concerned but so did everybody. Noon had come and gone.

She decided to give some comfort to Ginny while they waited but her daughter was nowhere to be seen. She frowned and huffed to herself and spun around on the spot. Ignoring her husband, as he hugged a strangely quiet Hermione to him, and the twins, who were standing on either side of Floella Jordan -- as had become their tradition now it seemed -- she locked eyes with Julie Painter. The woman was standing alone with her arms folded and was staring at the open door to the Embassy with worry lines crinkling her face.

Molly moved through the silent crowd towards the Muggle woman and rubbed her upper arm with a smile.

"I didn't imagine it did I dear," she began, "you had a lot of family here before didn't you?"

Julie nodded and took Molly's hand in hers as she struggled to smile back.

"My sister and her kids," she said in a detached tone, "none of them are magical, they didn't feel comfortable waiting here with me. They saw that you and some of the others had taken me under your wing so to speak and they went back home to London. I don't blame them. I can't stand this."

Molly hugged the woman close to her and rubbed her back with her shaking hand.

"Who can dear, who can?"

"I find myself thinking the most ridiculous things," Julie gave a shaky chuckle as she pulled back from Molly and wiped her eyes, "like...I hope he's made some friends there. How silly is that? Like it's a social club or something."

"It's not silly Julie dear, I want to feel as if Ronnie's not alone in this either," Molly smiled sadly, "I hope he's with one of the stronger wizards, somebody who can look after him and keep him safe. He's always been such an easily disheartened boy."

Julie took in a bracing breath and squeezed Molly's hand with both of hers.

"Tommy's got a never say die attitude," she smiled, "I don't know where he got it from, it certainly wasn't me. He's like a pick-me-up when you're feeling low. I've got so much faith in him to come out of this alright that I worry that I'm being delusional!"

Molly chuckled at this and wiped her eyes before they began to leak.

"I just hope he isn't being tested that's all," the Muggle woman said softly.

"Ah well you see, that's the thing with my Ronnie," Molly smiled and shook her head ruefully, "he's full of surprises. He's got no faith in his abilities so he doesn't really try, thinks it'll be more of a disappointment when he fails. The thing is he can do so well when he drops that cloak of failure. You should have seen the look on his face when he got his O.W.L. results. He was so amazed that he was actually good at something."

Molly shook her head at the memory and Julie put an arm around her and gave her a loose hug.

"Well Tommy can make me feel like I'm twenty years younger and the strongest and most envied woman in town. I'm sure he's giving your boy all the strength he needs."

Molly nodded.

"I bet they're all supporting each other. They all seem like such good boys don't they?"

Molly noticed Ginny clip-clopping across the entrance hall from the bathroom area and fixing a determined smile on her face as she joined her new friend Lynne in the far corner. Ginny and Molly had been very snappish with each other over the last couple of days and Molly knew that it was the situation and the typical volatility of the mother-daughter relationship but she still pined for her little girl during this horrible period of waiting.

They seemed to have a harder time of things the older Ginny became. When they were apart, when Ginny was away at school, they grew closer and could confide in each other. It had been wonderful. Then Ginny had left school and become an independent witch. She didn't seem to need Molly anymore, not her advice, not her confidence, not her life experience. The girl seemed to think she knew everything and her mother knew nothing.

It was just the same way she had come to feel about her own mother. Molly would hate for Ginny to feel about her that way.

"Oh look it's your girl," Julie said, pointing Ginny out to her as the young witch sat down beside her brunette friend.

"Yes I see her," Molly smiled sadly.

"She's such a credit to you Molly," Julie said as she took Molly's hand again, "I've seen her putting on a brave face and making sure everybody else if okay while not unburdening herself on anyone. She reminds me of you."

Molly blinked and stared at Julie.

"She does?"

Julie nodded and glanced across the room where she spotted Jannette Creevey.

"You go and wait with her, I'm going to sit with the Creeveys," she said before releasing Molly's hand and walking away with a small wave.

Molly turned back to see Ginny saying something to the Prang girl and making her laugh. She was proud of the young woman her daughter had become. She just hated being the old woman who was left behind.

Molly took a step in the girls' direction when a loud crack sounded and everybody froze and looked towards the door as the hooded figure stepped inside the Embassy.

Ernie and Jack had been talking to him for ages now but Ron's responses had degenerated into nothing more then murmurs and grunts. He couldn't feel his arms at all and his shoulders felt as if they were being ripped from their sockets. The tension was constricting his breathing and Tommy was losing the fight to keep holding him up.

"Tommy it's okay," Ron managed to force himself to say through gritted teeth, "you can stop."

"I'm not leaving you like this," Tommy said, sounding under some considerable pressures himself now.

"I'll be fine," Ron whimpered back, willing himself to pass out just to give him some respite.

"No!" Tommy growled before coughing.

This made his back weaken a little and Ron lost his footing. Tommy sat himself up and grabbed Ron around the ankles to try and lift him again, but the weight pulling against his arms once more had caused him to draw his knees up and kick out as he felt his muscles straining in their unnatural position.

"Oh Godric," Ron yelped just as the cellblock door boomed open again.

"Home sweet home eh boys?" the Puppet Master was sneering.

One by one cell doors opened and exhausted prisoners were thrown back inside. Ron thought he heard a gasp and then shouting from somewhere. He looked across the corridor and saw Dean Thomas, drenched in sweat and dirt and looking fit to drop, hollering something and pointing at Ron. Ron closed his eyes and his head dropped. He couldn't make out the sounds anymore, he just knew they were there and they were loud. He thought that this was it, he was finally passing out, and he tried to let it happen.

"What the fuck have you done to him?" Lee was roaring as Ron suddenly felt something around his thighs and the weight lifting from his arms once again.

Ron's eyes opened and he gasped at the mild relief and the new pain that shot through his muscles at this sudden change of angle his joints were now forced into. He saw the top of Lee's head and then the Puppet Master's amused face where he stood at the doorway to their cell.

"Oh dear Mr Jordan, I do believe I just heard you speak," he set a sarcastic frown upon his face and shook his head slowly, "That doesn't bode well for Mr Weasley now does it?"

"I did exactly what you said and I didn't say a word and look what you fucking did to him!" Lee ranted, "You're a bloody animal!"

"What's goin' on?" the weakened voice of Fergus Finnegan called out, "What've they done?"

"Where the hell is Prang?" Sam Robbins was yelling from his own cell, "What have you done with Prang?"

The Puppet Master clapped his hands together for silence. Most of the occupants of the cellblock obliged. Lee was still muttering hate-filled abuse while straining to wrestle Ron some slack against the chain that suspended him from the ceiling. Krum and McLaggen were talking to each other heatedly before Cally's voice called out over everything else.

"They killed him!"

The cells were totally silent now. The Puppet Master laughed.

"Thank you Callahan, silence at last."

"Let him down, please," Lee pleaded with the intimidating figure at the doorway, "Please I'll do anything you want just let him back down."

The Puppet Masters laughter grew even louder as he stepped inside the cell and looked down to Tommy's shaking form beneath Ron's feet.

"You carried the weight of being my plaything for mere moments and you've broken," he smirked, "you see why I chose the Firebrand now?"

The large, heavy lidded eyes lifted to gaze upon Ron's pained face and the smirk melted into something else, something disturbing that Ron couldn't face. He turned his head away and stifled a cry as his tendons were pulled to the point of snapping.

"Such resilience," the Puppet Master sighed, "Such a feisty opponent. Such a pleasure to watch him fight against me and lose."

"You win okay?" Lee said, as if lifted Ron a little more and his voice wavered in desperation, "Now let him down."

The Puppet Master stepped a little closer to Lee and Ron now and looked up into Ron's face. Ron tried not to let the discomfort show too much but his shallow breaths let out whimpers with every exhalation and he scowled at the glee that this seemed to cause the evil wizard who was gazing up at him.

"Are you ready to duel with me young Firebrand?"

"You're kidding right?" Dean exclaimed from across the way.

Ron shook his head and closed his eyes again.

The Puppet Master sounded as if he was pouting with disappointment and took a step back.

"You know the rules Weasley. If you want to be let down you must then duel with me," Ron opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at the Puppet Master as his lips curled with sickening pleasure, "If you are not prepared to duel then you stay as you are until morning."

"No!" Lee exclaimed as his grip around Ron's thighs tightened.

"You can't do that," Cally was pleading, "he's just a kid. He's already had enough."

"I'll do it," Ron panted, "I'll do it just gemme down."

Ron didn't even see the wand movement. It was so fast.

"Expedio!" the Puppet Master said triumphantly and within a second Ron was landing heavily on top of Lee.

Lee's legs crumpled beneath them both but he was still holding on to Ron for dear life. Ron's hands were free from the shackles and the chain now but they were as heavy as lead and every nerve ending in his upper body was causing him to twitch involuntarily. Lee shifted the weight in his lap and lifted Ron into a sitting position with his own shaking arms.

"Ron? Ron it's okay mate, I've got you." he whispered.

"No Mr Jordan, you haven't," the Puppet Master snapped his fingers over his shoulder and two Death Eaters rushed into the cell and tore Ron's limp body from Lee's arms, "I have."

Ron felt new pain in the same old places as the two dark wizards dragged him out of the cellblock with one of his arms over each of their shoulders. He didn't feel as if he'd ever be able to lift them again. As he was dumped on the hard floor he could hear Lee's voice echoing off the walls from within the cellblock while the Puppet Master followed them out and closed the door behind him.

"I'm going to kill you ya fucking bastard! I'm gonna kill you for this!"

The door slamming drowned him out and then the Puppet Master cast a silencing charm over it so now all Ron could hear was his own breathing and the sniggering of his two guards.

"Ga!" The Puppet Master said to his cohorts with distain.

The two men looked slightly put out at this. Ron understood enough to know that they had just been dismissed when they had wanted to watch the game, or better still join in.

"Waarom?" one of the men frowned.

"Alsjeblieft? De bloedverrader behoefte martel," the other seemed to complain.

"He has already been tortured," the Puppet Master growled at them.

The two men glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Wat?" one of them shook his head while the other shrugged.

"He said ga jongens," Ron scowled as he shifted on the ground where he lay on his side, his arms managing to be numb and cripplingly painful at the same time.

It was just like the moment when pins and needles dulled ever so slightly and the feeling returned enough to become violent cramp for a second or two. Only this second or two had been lasting for almost a full minute now.

The two Death Eaters glared at Ron and the Puppet Master raised an eyebrow and nearly laughed out loud.

"Stil, gedraag je!" the offended Death Eater snapped.

"Ga," the Puppet Master said as he pointed his wand at the protesting wizard, "In jow plaats zollen ik je."

The men looked livid but bowed grudgingly and departed with murmurs of dissent. The Puppet Master crouched before Ron and forcibly sat him up. Ron winced as he did but help back the exclamation of pain to maintain his glare at the much larger man.

"They don't appreciate being called boys you know?" he said with a sneer.

"Neither do we," Ron growled, half with anger and half with discomfort, "but you keep doing it."

"Picking up phrases are we," the Puppet Master lifted Ron's chin with the tip of his wand and purred his final word as if it gave him more pleasure then he could possibly imagine, "jongen?"

"Enough to know when somebody is calling me a blood traitor," Ron snarled back at him, his hands now being subjected to uncontrollable tremors every few seconds.

"Ik weet het," the Puppet Master said with a nod as he removed his wand from Ron's skin.

Ron blinked and exhaled with momentary relief. The Puppet Master glanced back at him and smirked.

"Oh I'm sorry blodverrader, are you not as fluent as you led me to believe?"

"I still don't know how to say dickhead so no, I'm nowhere near as fluent as I'd like."

The Puppet Master swung a punch into Ron's face. He didn't have the mobility or the alertness to even begin to raise his arms to block it. He took the hit and went down like a sack of spuds. While his head pulsed from deep inside the Puppet Master chuckled and massaged his knuckles.

"But my dear Firebrand, we will not be duelling like filthy Muggles. We will be duelling honourably," the Puppet Master withdrew Ron's wand and set it on the floor in front of him, "with wands."

Ron's watering eyes widened as he saw the Puppet Master turn his back and walk away slowly, polishing his own wand on his pristine robes. Ron tried to lift his arm and grab the wand but his muscles weren't cooperating and all he could manage was an inconsequential jerk of the wrist.

Still with his back turned the Puppet Master laughed.

"Oh my boy, do you really think you can recover from your torture so quickly?"

Ron scowled at the man's huge back before looking back down at his wand and trying to shift his hand across the floor a little closer to the handle. His fingers were still being subjected to involuntary muscle spasms and his shoulders were seizing up and his over extended muscles tried to settle back into their natural positions.

"Although you do amaze me with your attitude," the Puppet Master sighed as he turned and leaned against a large table behind him, "Your defiance knows no bounds it seems," the evil wizard grinned and leaned forward, his eyes glinting and his voice lowering to a whisper, "I like that about you."

Ron shoved his elbow across the floor with his knee and his fingertips touched the smooth wood of the handle. Ron drew in a sharp breath and concentrated all his strength in stretching his fingers over the handle and gripping it but all he could get his fingers to do was jerk and twitch. As his hand suffered from this spasm his middle finger knocked the wand and it rolled away from him a few inches. Ron's head dropped and he huffed in frustration.

"Oh well this is a very poor show young Firebrand," the Puppet Master tutted as he pushed himself away from the table he had been leaning upon and marched across the empty room, "I can't duel with you if you refuse to arm yourself can I? That would be dishonourable."

Ron almost laughed at this before hissing out an expletive that was lost within another painful cramp in his shoulders that sent pain shooting down both his heavy arms and contracted the muscles in his hands, causing his fingers to clench. The tremors started again after that and the Puppet Master snatched up Ron's wand and forced it into his palm, peeling back his fingers from it as if they were the skin from a banana.

Ron's brain sent the order to grip the wand and sent a curse flying into the sadist's face but all his muscles were capable of was a violent jerk of the wrist and the wand slid down out of his fingers and left them twitching while curled around something that was no longer there.

The Puppet Master gave another tut and picked up Ron's wand again.

"Now I am beginning to lose my patience with you jongen," he pressed the wand into Ron's hand and curled his own powerful fingers around the claw-like shape the spasms had contracted his hand into, "Now hold."

"You sadistic bastard," Ron hissed as he struggled to control his own extremities and let himself be armed.

"Come now Firebrand," he grinned, "It's almost as if you believe me capable of planning this all along. How was I to know that the hanging torture would leave you incapable of holding a wand? Do you really think I would have done that on the same afternoon I had been looking forward to our duel?"

Ron didn't say a word. He just glared into the cold blue eyes of the Puppet Master and willed himself to recover from the torture a lot faster then the man gave him credit for thanks to Tommy's efforts to alleviate the pull for most of the last half hour or so.

"Now you are armed, we can begin," the Puppet Master declared, "We will turn and walk five paces away from each other and then attack at will. Do you understand the rules of our duel young Firebrand?"

Ron wasn't wasting his energy bothering to respond. He was focusing everything he had upon keeping a decent hold on his wand. He could do this, he knew it, and he would be able to stun the man for long enough to unlock the main door and then one of the cells. Once he did that somebody could take his wand a free the others and then they had a fighting chance. They could fight their way out. They definitely wouldn't all make it but it had to be better then their chances of survival if they just sat in the cells waiting for rescue to come.

"One...Two...Three..." the Puppet Master counted his steps as he paced slowly away from Ron, his wand in his hand.

Ron gritted his teeth and held on to his wand with everything he had and forced himself to roll over, not wanting to be lying in the same spot he had been when the Puppet Master had turned away.

"Four..."

Ron's shoulders were in agony from the roll and the tremors worsened but he held on to the wand regardless and did his best to aim at the Puppet Master's back.

"Five," the dark wizard said as he spun around and roared out a spell at the top of his lungs, "Plaga!"

"Stupef-"

That was as far as Ron managed to get before everything went black.

Chapter 19 Protection

The main door swung open and Lee tried not to call out for Ron. He had been absolutely terrified ever since the Puppet Master had taken him away and even more so after hearing how quiet it had become.

"Oh shit," Ernie MacMillan whispered to himself just before the door to Lee's cell groaned open and two Death Eaters threw Ron's limp body into the cell.

Lee hadn't been close enough to catch him and he had hit the floor hard. As the cell door banged shut again he pulled Ron into his arms and rolled him over. He paid no attention to the sniggering guards as they closed the cellblock door behind them. All he could focus upon was the bruises and blood that discoloured and matted Ron's hair on one side and the slashes and grazes that oozed through his grubby t-shirt from the surface wounds on his chest.

Lee cradled Ron with his left arm and began to pat the good side of his face firmly with his right hand.

"Ron," he said fearfully into the motionless face, those familiar blue eyes closed and a trickle of blood seeping down his chin from the corner of his mouth, "Ron, it's me. It's Lee, wake up Ron, you're safe now. It's going to be okay c'mon."

He shook Ron's body before swallowing and looking over his shoulder to Tommy and feeling as if he was about to burst into tears.

"Stay calm Lee," Tommy wheezed, "he's br-breathing. I can see he's still breathing."

Lee nodded and looked back down at Ron's chest. It rose and fell ever so slightly but steadily. He ran his fingers along the injured side of Ron's face and felt a nasty gash just beneath his hairline. It seemed to have been a hex rather then a beating and there were very slight burns around the wounds as well as the usual swelling and bruising.

"Lee?" Dean Thomas was calling out from his cell.

"He's hurt," Lee found himself replying in a voice he didn't recognise as his own.

"Lee it's Cally," the strong confident voice of the healer called out to him, "I need you to speak up son. What's his worst injury?"

Lee looked Ron up and down and shook his head before finding himself clutching the limp body tightly to him and rocking him slightly.

"I'm so sorry," he whimpered, "I tried to look after you for Fred and George but I fucked up. I'm useless and I'm sorry Ron. I tried to fight him and you got hurt. I did what he said and you still got hurt," he began to babble.

"Lee don't do this to me," Cally ordered, "not now mate, he needs you. He needs you strong for him now come on!"

Lee felt Tommy's hand settling upon his shoulder and he choked on a single sob before nodding bracingly and scanning Ron's battered and bloodied form.

"I-I don't know what's wrong, I can't tell Cally," he replied shakily, "There's cuts and scrapes, burns like he's been hexed, and his shoulders are all swollen."

"That'd be from where they hung him," Cally said with a huff.

"Fucking barbaric what they did to him," McLaggen growled.

Lee thought he heard Krum saying something to him to silence him. He went on with his non-professional assessment of Ron's condition.

"His head's bleeding but the wound's not too deep. I'm pretty sure all the blood is just from superficial wounds. He's breathing alright as far as I can tell but he' not moving other then that."

"Do that earlobe thing again," Ernie MacMillan barked out from his cell.

"That's not a bad idea Lee," Cally agreed, "give it a good hard pinch, dig your fingernails in if you have to, and watch his face for a response."

Lee pressed his lips together before pinching Ron's earlobe between his thumb and forefinger, digging his thumbnail right into the fleshy part and staring at Ron's face willing him to react. He pinched so hard that his own hand cramped up and his thumbnail drew blood.

There was nothing.

"Lee?" Cally asked after some time.

"Not a flicker," Lee said, his voice broken and breathless, "Didn't even flinch."

Cally seemed to be drawing in a deep unsteady breath before exhaling with a swear word.

"Oh shit."

"He is alive yes?" Krum's voice grunted out through the painful silence of the cellblock, "You say he is breathing."

"Yeah he is," Lee said, the crack in his voice growing into a deep chasm.

"He did not sleep, maybe it is just sleep...deep sleep?" Krum seemed to be suggesting to Cally, whose cell was directly opposite his own.

"None of us have slept Viktor," Davies called out wearily.

"No he's got a point," Cally said, sounding slightly more hopeful now, "He's had the same sleep depravation as the rest of us but he also had a mentally and physically draining form of torture practiced on him for an obscenely long time. Then he got dragged out and hexed into unconsciousness. I think he might just have shut down out of exhaustion."

"You think?" Dean said, needing more reassurance then a wild guess.

"Well I can't see him to say for sure Dean," Cally snapped back before huffing and apologising.

The lack of sleep had everybody feeling tetchy.

"Sorry," Dean mumbled.

"No I'm sorry."

"Could everybody stop being bloody sorry?" Robbins called out before being shushed by Ernie.

Lee had given Ron another slight shake to try and wake him but the young wizard's head simply fell right back and lolled helplessly.

"Why won't they leave you alone?" he whispered to the unconscious redhead.

Tommy's hand, still on his shoulder, gave a quick squeeze and Lee's head dropped forward into Ron's chest and he broke down.

"Lee?" Colin called out nervously, "Is that you?"

"Leave him alone," Jack Sloper said calmly, "Leave him be for a few minutes."

Lee silently thanked Sloper and tried not to think of what he would tell the twins if they ever showed up to save the day. How would he explain letting the Puppet Master torture their baby brother so mercilessly hour after hour and day after day.

He hoped he would be dead before he had to face that.

Arthur had been warned by Bill to keep a close watch on Charlie and he had almost broken his wildest son's arm as he wrestled him back away from the Death Eater that had come with the awful news for the Prang family.

Molly had gone to Ginny but she had shrugged her off and it was Hermione who had been the one to finally catch up with her and help her through the pain. His poor daughter had only made one friend at the Embassy and it had only been for such a short time too. Now the girl was gone. She had gone back to her family home with her parents to begin a new life as an only child.

Arthur didn't envy Hermione having to talk Ginny through that. How could his daughter have had anything to say to the poor girl? How could a witch with six brothers possibly understand what it felt like to lose the one and only brother she had?

But Ginny could understand it in a way. Ron was her special brother, her kindred spirit. He was the only one who knew what it was like to be the baby. He was the baby boy and Ginny the baby girl. They were both 'babies' together and both resented every minute of it. Both wanted to be taken seriously as adults and both were the last of the clan to be mothered to the point of suffocation by Molly.

Arthur tried not to think of Molly, of how she would be a tower of strength for all to see before turning in for the evening and sobbing herself to sleep on his shoulder every night.

Instead he concentrated on Charlie as he came round from the hex Arthur had been forced to hit him with to keep him from doing anything stupid. He understood exactly how strong the urge to beat the scum that had his youngest boy was but he wasn't going to let Charlie become the kind of vicious animal that they were. Charlie worked with animals; he wasn't one himself.

They were sitting on the floor in the men's urinals; not at all pleasant but the most peaceful place in the whole Embassy at that exact moment; and the cold ceramic tile beneath his old backside was incredibly uncomfortable. Charlie was slumped against his shoulder, his head lolling and his nose twitching every now and then as if it were being tickled with the tip of a feather.

Eventually whatever it was that was bothering him got too much to ignore and he flapped his hand up to his face, cuffing himself quite roughly, and jerked back into consciousness.

"What's the...?" he frowned as he glanced around himself and focused upon the row of urinals before him, "Piss-pots?"

"Welcome back son," Arthur smiled as he shoved his son back into the upright position and slapped him heartily on the knee, "now be a good lad and help your old man up would you?"

Charlie rubbed his sleepy face before grunting as he got up to his feet and turned to extend a hand to his father. Just as Arthur was about to grip the toughened skin, the hand was withdrawn. Charlie's face crumpled into a mass of deep frown lines as he pointed down at his father in a state of total confusion.

"Hold on, did you hex me?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I did," Arthur said as he let his hand drop back into his lap and watched as his hot tempered son put the pieces of his shattered memory back together again.

"You hexed me!" he reiterated with wide eyes.

"Say it a third time and it might stop being true Charlie," Arthur smiled before holding up his arm for assistance again.

Charlie shook his head, hoping that it would aid him with his much longed for clarity, while stooping down over his father and grabbing his hand once again. This time Arthur actually rose up off the floor before Charlie's eyes widened and he dropped him back down again.

"The Death Eater...Who'd...Dad?" he said, suddenly cringing under an invisible weight as he came to understand exactly what had been going on when he had been hit.

"It was the Prangs' boy Charlie," Arthur said as he massaged his sore buttocks, they were bound to bruise after that heavy fall, "Ron's still fine. We've still got a chance. We've still got hope haven't we?"

Charlie swallowed and strode across to the sink at the far wall. He turned on the cold tap and splashed the water onto his face. Arthur strained his aching bones and staggered; despite his sore bottom, back to his feet.

"I hate these people too son," Arthur stretched out his arms and his back with a satisfied groan, "and it sickens me to see them march in here with a smile on their face but I want to be here when my boy walks through those doors and not in a prison cell awaiting trail. I want all of you here with me when that happens. Do you understand Charlie?"

Charlie shook the droplets of water from his face and huffed before looking over his shoulder, back at his father, and answering him with an empty sounding voice. Arthur could've sworn he could hear him echoing on the inside.

"What if he can't walk dad? What if he can't walk through those doors because of what those bastards have done to him?"

Arthur made his way, as fast as his creaking bones could manage, over to Charlie. He put his hand upon the muscular shoulder of his, very much grown-up, child.

"My sons are fighters, not killers. My sons never give up the good fight; the fight for life, theirs and each other's Charlie. Ron is staying alive for us and the least we can do is be here for him. All of us, together."

Charlie turned around and took in a deep breath before wiping his wet face with the back of his large hand.

"He's a tough nut to crack our kid eh?" Charlie said stiffly, Arthur smiled and nodded, "But if they do crack him dad...If one of those bastards waltzes in here and shoves some trinket of Ron's into mum's hand I will make sure he's dead before that smile can break across their sadistic face."

"Charlie d-" Arthur began before his son gave him a firm pat on the arm and smiled confidently.

"I'm gonna go for a walk," he stepped back away from his concerned father and that false grin of his widened, "Tell mum to save me a sarnie for when I get back."

"Charlie wait," Arthur called after his rapidly departing son, "I'm sorry I..." the door swung shut, "...hexed you."

Lee had been licking the dirty torn pocket lining that he had torn from his trousers and rubbing it against the dried blood on Ron's skin for ten minutes now. The injured redhead still hadn't moved at all and the talk had died down long ago.

Most of the prisoners who had been put to work -- Lee told Tommy they had been digging graves in the cellar -- were sleeping. It wouldn't be long before everybody was out for the count, Tommy thought to himself. His back ached and his spine was bruised from his feeble attempts to support Ron while he was being hung from the ceiling. He didn't feel too sorry for himself though. How could he when Ron was in the dreadful state he was?

Lee seemed to have changed. He seemed to have been defeated. It was as if the knowledge that he could do nothing to protect Ron had sunk in deeply and was poisoning him. The fear that he had no control and wasn't even able to help his cellmate when they were left alone, seemed to weaken him in the same way that Tommy's hypothermia had done to him.

"Lee," he ventured, reaching out for the back of the wizard's dread locked head, "try to get some sleep yeah?"

He turned around and seemed to shudder as he smiled back at him. Tommy had been helped back into his hammock and then pretty much ignored in favour of Ron. That suited him; he kind of liked not being the focus of concern for once. It made him feel awful that it had to be Ron's suffering that had taken this weight off him though.

"He needs me," Lee whispered with a shake of the head before turning back to Ron and heaving him up a little more so he could support more of the unconscious wizard's weight.

Ron was considerably taller then Lee, who wasn't exactly short himself, and the smaller man cradling the larger was a strange sight indeed.

"He's sleeping Lee," Tommy sighed as he tried to change his position in the home made hammock, quite a struggle in itself, "and when he wakes up he'll need you to be rested too. He's not waking up anytime soon. Give yourself a break."

Lee's eyes were so tired that when he turned to scowl at Tommy for his suggestion it just looked like he was fighting back a sneeze.

"What if they come for him again while we're all sleeping?" he hissed, tightening his grip on Ron's body, "They're gonna have to kill me before I let this happen to him again Tom. If they...If he... I don't want to have to tell his brothers I let this happen."

"You didn't let anything happen," Tommy said, dropping the whisper now and finding that the slight increase in volume shredded his raw throat.

He winced and Lee sighed and gave him a smile of sympathy.

"Look at this eh. The sick one looking after the two healt... Well, you know what I mean."

"This isn't about stepping in and protecting whoever's weakest at the time," Tommy said, his voice straining against the coughing fit that threatened to shut him up while waking the rest of the cellblock, "We're all protecting each other Lee, all of us all of the time. I don't know the two of you as well as you know each other but I know Ron well enough to say that he'd order you to get a grip and go to bloody sleep right now."

Lee felt the pull of his eyelids as he blinked and chuckled wearily.

"I'd say you know Ron well enough Tommy," he shifted his weight beneath Ron's body to recline slightly against the wall behind him and rested his head back while staring down at the bloodstained head of red hair resting in the crook of his shoulder, "I can't believe how much that bastard hates him. It has to be hate doesn't it Tom? To torture him like that and then hex him unconscious without giving him a second to recover."

Tommy couldn't meet Lee's eyes any more and shifted in his cloak hammock again to look up at the ceiling.

"I really don't think it's got anything to do with hate Lee," he whispered, "I think it's worse then that."

Chapter 20 To Heal and To Hurt

Lee couldn't feel his legs.

When he tried to shift his body into a different position, he noticed the weight upon him and grimaced. His hands moved and he felt something beneath them. The smell of urine, blood and sweat hit his nostrils and he blinked the world back into focus to see what the hell was going on.

"Ron," Lee gasped as he suddenly came back to his senses and saw the unconscious body lying across his lap.

He lowered his head to rest upon Ron's chest and listened.

"Lee, what's...?" Tommy murmured as he struggled to sit up in his hammock.

"Shhh..." Lee hissed as he listened, his own chest tightening as he waited.

Then he heard it; Ron's heartbeat, and a shallow breath lifted his ribcage ever so slightly. Lee exhaled in great relief and lifted his head again. He heaved Ron into a cradling position and began to tap the side of his face firmly.

"Ron. Ron, it's me, wake up."

The pale face was as still as it had been the night before. Lee slid his fingers into Ron's hair to feel the gash at his hairline. It seemed to be healing. He then shook the limp body in his arms urgently.

"Open your eyes, c'mon, open your eyes Ron," Lee pleaded. "I know you're tired but just look at me for a second, mate."

"What's going on?" the rough and weary voice of Sam Robbins called out from his cell by the main door.

"He still won't wake up," Lee responded with a crack in his voice.

There was a short pause before Robbins called back in a low voice. "Maybe that's for the best, eh, Lee?"

Lee glared up at the small opening in his cell door. How could he say that? How could he say Ron being tortured into unconsciousness was for the best?

"What?" Lee spat.

"Come on Jordan, don't you wish you could just sleep through all this?"

Lee looked back down at Ron. He looked dreadful. The parts of his face that weren't discoloured and puffy were as pale as death. His hair was greasy and matted with dried blood. His shoulders were tender and swollen and his wrists were raw and cut from the shackles.

"I don't like seeing him helpless like this," he said before pausing to compose himself, the emotion in his voice had caused him to squeak out his words, and he tried the earlobe pinching technique once more.

"Is it better or worse then seeing him in pain?" Sam asked.

Lee could hear shuffling from a couple of other cells. He knew that some of the hostages were waking up and probably listening to this exchange quietly.

"Good point," Lee answered. "I still wish he'd open his eyes for a second, just a second, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know," Sam sighed. "I woke up an hour ago and for a few seconds I couldn't work out why Prang wasn't there."

Lee shifted his numb legs beneath Ron's motionless body and settled his hand upon the boy's bruised chest, feeling his breathing and the warmth of his skin through the torn and blood stained t-shirt, before lowering his head and forcing his eyes closed.

"Ron's still alive, Jordan," Robbins went on," and he's not in any pain and he's with you. You're with him when he needs you."

Lee lifted his head and looked back at the opening in the cell door with glistening eyes.

"Yeah," he said, his voice sounding humiliatingly small.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye," Sam said, his voice breaking., "I was too busy digging his fucking grave."

Lee heard Ernie MacMillan's voice as he tried to comfort Robbins. Tommy was watching him from his hammock, attempting to give him a smile but obviously feeling far too ill to commit to it fully, and then he averted his eyes to stare out of the window at the bright morning sky. There were sixteen, no fifteen, open graves down in the cellar and no hope of any escape. All they could do was wish to be rescued but if that were possible then why hadn't it happened yet?

"Fred, George," Lee whispered to himself as he watched a bird fly by the open window, "where the hell are you?"

"Over here Mrs Jordan," George waved cheerily while Fred pulled out an empty chair between the two of them for their best friend's mother.

"Tea, coffee, pumpkin juice?" Fred offered as she sat down and shared an amused glance with the boys' mother.

"Pumpkin juice is fine, thank you boys," she said, "but you really don't have to wait on me. I'm quite happy to serve myself."

Fred rolled his eyes and thudded down into his seat beside her.

"And they wonder why chivalry is dead, George."

"Ungrateful, that's what I call it, Fred," George shook his head ruefully.

"Boys!" their mother snapped from across the breakfast table.

"I know they're only joking with me, Molly," Mrs Jordan said., "It's alright."

Fred had been using Lee's mother to channel all his excess energy into for days now. If he didn't release all the physical and mental activity he had stored up inside him somehow, he would be bouncing off the walls. George was the same way, although he now seemed to be feeling guilty for neglecting the family in favour of Mrs Jordan.

Something had gone on with Charlie but they didn't know what. All they knew was that Harry, Bill and their dad were all keeping a wary eye on him at all times. Fred suspected that it must have something to do with their dad hexing Charlie when the Death Eater scum had come into the Embassy the day before. He knew how Charlie felt and sort of wished that his father hadn't interfered. Those murderous bastards deserved a good kicking before they were dragged away to Azkaban.

While he buttered his toast, he watched George wink at Ginny and nod towards Harry. Ginny gave him the slightest of smiles before looking down at her untouched breakfast. She was still shaken up by the latest execution. She had stood at Lynne Prang's side and watched as the Death Eater walked right up to the girl and her family to drop an Auror trainee badge into Mr Prang's hand. Lynne had fallen to her knees and wailed, Ginny supporting her as best she could before the girl's mother took her into her arms and Ginny was left gaping blankly at the scene of devastation. Their mother had rushed to her and whisked her away to the kitchens before anybody could react. By the time a blotchy-faced Ginny came back the Prangs had gone.

"Fred, are you planning to put some more toast on your butter?" Mrs Jordan smiled.

He glanced down and saw that he had practically worn a hole through the centre of his slice of toast with the butter knife and the butter was smeared on almost as thickly as the bread itself had been sliced.

"Oh, um well..." he grinned back at Mrs Jordan, "It gets rid of that pesky 'bready' taste doesn't it?"

The woman laughed while George snorted and leaned across for the marmalade.

"Get a grip, Fred," he mumbled as he did.

"Sod off," Fred muttered back under his breath.

Somebody rushed towards the breakfast table and almost fell over backwards as they skidded on a spillagenear Mad-Eye Moody's chair. The panting young wizard, Fred thought he was a filling clerk or something, whispered something into Moody's ear and the old Auror dropped his knife and fork down onto his plate and rose from his chair without a word.

"Alastor?" Lupin asked with curiosity as the man stomped away, his false leg booming against the wooden floorboards.

"Eat your breakfast all of you," he barked gruffly,. "Tonks, Shacklebolt, come with me!"

Fred and George shared a look.

Something was happening,; something big, and they wanted to be a part of it. They both rose from their seats as one and as their mother and father both yelled at them in perfect synchronisation.

"Sit down!"

George was pulled back down into by Mr Thomas who seemed to put an arm around his shoulders, not only for reassurance, but also in an attempt to hold him firmly in his seat. Mrs Jordan's long fingers curled around Fred's wrist and tried to pull him down into his seat beside her but he yanked his arm free with ease.

"I'll be back in a minute, Mrs Jordan," he grinned his most charming grin,. "I've just got to go about my ablutions. Won't be long."

He scraped his chair backwards to let himself out and George frowned at him and mouthed 'ablutions?' Fred shrugged and set off towards the bathroom.

"Fred Weasley where do you think you're going?" his mother called after him.

"Don't worry mum," he heard George say., "he's He's just 'abluting' himself!"

"I will have none of that innuendo at the table young man!" his mother was scolding while snorts and sniggers drowned her out.

The bathroom wasn't anywhere near the conference room or the Ambassador's office, the only two places Moody could have staged his impromptu meeting, and as he Fred pushed the door open and let it swing shut behind him, he hadn't a clue how he was going to go about this intelligence gathering mission of his at all.

He looked around at the walls for any sign of a secret passageway but didn't hold out much hope. It was generally frowned upon to build secret passageways into bathrooms, and understandably so.

He looked up at the window. It was blocked with unbreakable wire mesh type stuff, like iron cobwebs, and far too narrow for his shoulders to squeeze through anyway.

He glanced up at the ceiling and spotted a vent to let the steam escape when anybody had a bath or a shower. He smiled; he could fit through that all right, but didn't have a clue where it would lead.

"Well, let's find out, shall we?" he Fred muttered to himself and jumped up onto the cistern of the toilet before stretching up to push the vent open above him.

Lee had just finished tipping Tommy's share of the water into his mouth and turned to get the glass refilled by the Death Eater guard when the familiar measured tread of the Puppet Master sounded against the stone floor. Lee tried to keep his cool. His hand shook with rage and fear as he held the glass while the cool clear water trickled into it all the way to the top. He turned and dropped to his knees beside Ron and set the full glass on the ground.

"Drink jongens, drink!" the Puppet Master said with amusement.

Lee lifted Ron's body into his arms and sat him up as best he could before reaching for the glass and holding it to the dry and cracked lips that were ever so slightly parted.

"Water Ron, c'mon, time to drink something mate," Lee whispered as he gave Ron's body a slight shake before tipping the glass so a little water touched his lips, "Come on Ron, please."

The trickle of water ran out of the corner of Ron's mouth and dripped onto the floor. Lee felt the Puppet Master's eyes upon him, boring into his back, and tried not to panic.

"Wake up for a second, Ron," he said shakily,. "I need you to drink this."

Lee tipped the glass a little again and a few droplets moistened Ron's lips but nothing more. There was no movement at all. Lee felt his heart beating faster now as the cell door magically unlocked and the Puppet Master took one step inside.

"Please," Lee begged Ron's still form, giving him another shake in desperation.

"He has not woken?" the Puppet Master said, emotion completely absent from his voice.

"No, he fucking hasn't you spiteful bastard," Tommy growled before coughing from somewhere deep inside his chest.

"I have volunteers to give you a firm pat on the back if you continue coughing, Mr Painter," the Puppet Master said coolly.

Tommy grimaced and held in his coughing fit as best as he could.

Lee tried to tilt Ron's head back and pour the water in but the Puppet Master snatched the glass away from him as he brought it to the unconscious redhead's lips.

"Foolish boy, do you want to drown him?" the Puppet Master snapped.

Lee finally turned his head to face the Puppet Master and glared at him while gritting his teeth.

"That's Ron's share, you can't take it away from him," Lee snarled.

The Puppet Master leaned over Lee and his eyes widened in a maddening fashion.

"I can do," he said in an even low tone, "as I wish."

Lee swallowed and suddenly felt his breath catch in his throat as the Puppet Master aimed his wand at Ron's face.

"No don't..." Lee began to plead.

"Ennervate!" The spell hit Ron full in the face but he didn't even stir.

The Puppet Master stood up straight and snapped his fingers over his shoulder. A Death Eater came running.

"Ja?"

"Deze jongen heeft hulp nodig. Haal de dokter. Nu!"

Lee watched as the Death Eater ran deeper into the cellblock and opened another cell door with a flick of his wand. The Puppet Master stepped back away from the door and seemed to be covering something with his own wand.

"You, in here," he ordered.

Lee held Ron tightly and tried to shield him from whatever hexes might be thrown in inside at them. His hold loosened immediately, however, when he saw Cally being shoved in through the open doorway and dropping to his knees in front of them.

"Cally, do something," Lee pleaded breathlessly.

The man's warm brown eyes looked right into his own and a concerned but confidant smile stretched across his thin lips.

"It's okay, Lee," he said, his Scouse accent and the firm hand upon his shoulder seeming to send calming waves through his entire body,. "Lay him down on the floor for me will you?"

Lee nodded and set Ron down as gently as he could. Cally had one of his hands resting behind Ron's head to cushion it against the stone and as soon as Lee pulled his arms out from under the limp body, the Healer lowered his ear to Ron's lips and then to his chest before smiling a little wider and nodding.

"He's a strong kid."

Lee gave a half laugh, half choked sob, and nodded.

"He won't take water," the Puppet Master said, the steely mask of detachment seemed to be firmly in place, . "He won't revive. Fix him."

Cally's face twisted with anger and frustration before he swallowed it down and turned to face the Puppet Master with his own mask of polite determination.

"I'll need a wand to fix him; it was magic that damaged him after all, wasn't it?"

The Puppet Master looked as if he wanted to kick Cally in the face but turned his glare to the Death Eater guard standing beside him and nodded for him to hand over his wand. The hooded wizard was clearly outraged by this but all the Puppet Master had to do was snarl at him like a predatory wolf and the wand was immediately offered to Cally with a grunt of displeasure.

Cally took the wand and turned back to Lee, his eyes wide with the shock at being armed and only watched over by one other armed wizard. This was the closest any of them had been to having a fair fight and a decent chance of escape.

"Dead boys everywhere, Callahan," the Puppet Master said,. "That is what any misbehaviour will bring you. You can use that wand to heal Weasley or duel with me but I guarantee you the end result to an attack will be lots of dead boys. Use that wand wisely, Healer Callahan."

Cally swallowed and pointed the wand down at Ron's face.

"Corrigo corroboro!" he mumbled with a swish of the wand.

A yellow light swirled and then snaked all over Ron's body before sinking in through his bloodied clothing and deep into his cut and bruised flesh. Lee saw the deep cuts at Ron's wrists reduce into pink swellings.

"Permeo pulpa vivificus!" he said with a slight smile as he saw the spells taking effect.

Ron's bruises faded and the swelling in his shoulders reduced by two thirds.

"It's working," Lee said with a relieved sigh.

"Sano plaga!" Cally flicked his wand at Ron's head and the singed laceration at Ron's hairline was as good as new.

"Corroboro servo...corroboro contego!" Cally chanted.

"What is that?" the Puppet Master snapped,. "Those are not healing spells, Callahan."

"They're strengthening spells," Cally said, his back to the man and a look on his face that let Lee know that he was lying to some extent, "Corroboro, to strengthen. A man of your breeding must know that."

There was a snigger from Ernie MacMillan and Lee looked back down at Ron and wondered exactly what Cally had just been strengthening within him.

"I have seen him healed enough now," the Puppet Master barked impatiently. "Wake him."

Cally pointed the wand at Ron's face and drew a three quarter figure eight before tapping Ron's forehead with the tip of the wand.

"Agito!"

Ron's body arched and he drew in a rattling breath. Lee grabbed him up into his arms again.

"Ron?" he gasped hopefully.

He glanced at Cally briefly before looking back down at the pale freckled face and saw Ron give a slight wince before he let out a weak groan and he head fell backwards again. Lee shook him roughly and the patted his face several times but all that happened was the Ron's head turned away from him and then lolled heavily again.

"He still won't wake up," Lee whimpered.

"Give him time, Lee. He's responding isn't he?" Cally smiled before turning to glare at the Puppet Master. "That's the best I can do without potions."

The Puppet Master gave a single, unimpressed nod.

"The wand; return it to it's owner."

Cally raised the wand and held it out towards the unarmed Death Eater who stood rigid.

"Point the wand towards yourself, Callahan," the Puppet Master snapped with obvious annoyance.

Cally seemed to smirk and turned the wand around in his hand so the handle was now pointing towards the Death Eater. The Dark wizard snatched it away and wiped it upon his robes childishly.

"Don't worry," Cally huffed. "Decency isn't contagious."

The Puppet Master smiled at this and handed the glass of water to the Healer.

"Make him drink."

Cally took the glass and Lee sat Ron up as best he could. The Healer pinched Ron's earlobe hard and Ron grimaced before moaning and turning his head away towards Lee.

"Water, Ron," Lee said with a hopeful smile, on the off chance that he might just open his eyes a little. "Drink some water for us, mate."

Ron sighed deeply and his head rolled back towards Cally. The healer brought the glass to Ron's lips and tipped it gradually. Ron's lips moved a little but not fast enough and some water dribbled down his chin. Cally cursed under his breath and mopped it up with his sleeve.

"Sit him right up," he ordered Lee. "As much as you can."

Lee hauled Ron up a little more before putting his hand on the back of his head and holding it up. Cally tried again and they both sighed with relief as Ron's Adam's apple bobbed and he swallowed.

"That's it kid, nice and slowly," Cally grinned while tipping the water as sparingly as possible so as not to flood Ron's mouth with too much liquid.

"You're doing brilliantly Ron," Lee said with a relieved smile. "Take your time. Get it all down ya."

Ron had paused for a moment to take a few deep breaths before draining the rest of the glass. As Cally thrust the empty glass behind him without even turning around to meet the Puppet Master's eyes Lee gently set Ron back onto the floor and looked over his shoulder to share a relieved smile with Tommy.

"Healer Callahan," the Puppet Master said loudly and coldly.

Lee saw Tommy's face falling and his eyes widen and his head snapped around to see Cally being dragged out of the cell and the door slamming closed with an almightily boom while the Death Eater flicked his wand at the healer and bound his arms behind his back.

"Uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners," the Puppet Master drawled.

"No!" Lee roared and flung himself against the door of the cell to reach through and try to claw at the evil wizard.

"Cally?" Marcus Belby shouted from the cell he shared with the Healer.

"But he just helped you," Colin jabbered, . "He just did everything you asked, you can't do this!"

"Kom vreedzaam of lijd in de dood," the Puppet Master's eyes flickered gleefully as the tiny glass was tipped down Cally's throat, "Thank you for repairing my plaything, Callahan. You can go to your death with the knowledge that you helped to prolong his suffering."

"I take his place," Krum bellowed from his cell opposite Cally's, "He has children, I have none, I take his place!"

"Ga!" the Puppet Master instructed his Death Eater flunky who shoved Cally ahead of him towards the main door.

"No!" Lee yelled again.

"I've protected him, Lee. I'll be protecting him even after I've gone," Cally called out with what sounded like a laugh in his voice. "You see to it my kids are looked after, see that they don't want for anything all of you. This'll be over soon, you'll see!"

The door slammed shut and Cally's voice was lost in the echo.

"Oh shit," Rodger Davies hissed to himself before there was a frantic scrambling sound and what sounded like all three occupants of the neighbouring cell; Davies, Fergus and Peakes; were all struggling to see out of the window.

"Cally!" Fergus suddenly roared, "We're with yeh, mate!"

"Up here!" Jimmy Peakes shouted.

"My family'll take them in, Cally, I promise," Belby was hollering. "I'll get out of this and I'll see them all through school and everything. I swear on my life Cally!"

"I'll help him him, Cally," Colin Creevey added in his own high-pitched yelp of a shout.

Lee looked at Tommy who shook his head and covered his face with his hands. There was a whooshing sound and then that the sickening thud they had all come to know so well and hate more then any sound they'd ever heard before.

"Bastards!" Fergus shouted with such ferocity it sounded as if he had torn through his own vocal chords.

Lee shuddered and slid down the wall, bumping against the hard floor with his buttocks, and reaching out to rest his shaking hand upon Ron's chest for reassurance that he was still alive.

"It's me tomorrow," Tommy whispered into his hands.

"No," Lee shook his head before setting his jaw with determination and staring at the sick wizard in his home made hammock. "No it won't be."

He would see to that.

Chapter 21 My Brother, My Friend

Fred wriggled along the tiny ventilation tunnel, the muffled voices of Moody and Shacklebolt wafting up through the wallks and he held his breath to listen.

"...just been done to taunt us Tonks." Shacklebolt was saying.

"If there was any real clues in this it would never have been offered to us," Moody growled, "and we show this to the families over my dead body."

"I wasn't suggesting a public screening Mad-Eye," Tonks huffed, "but we've got Order members out there who can help us comb the penseive for clues."

"Remus is welcome to hop in and take a look around Tonks, but the other Order members we've got out there are personally involved," Shacklebolt said wearily.

"And we're not?" Tonks said incredulously, "Most of these people are my friends Kingsley."

"We are not going to drag Bill and Charlie Weasley or their parents in here to see that," Moody snapped gruffly, "We are not going to bring the MacMillan's in to help us look for clues and expect them to ignore their own flesh and blood in the process."

"And there's no way the Finnegan boy is coming in," Shacklebolt said with a deep sigh, "Can you imagine it? He's got family in there, his best friend in there, old classmates...He's not going to be focused at all is he?"

"I'm not saying that," Tonks let out a growl of frustration, "You two can be so literal sometimes. What I'm saying is..."

"No Potter or Granger!" Moody barked.

"Let me finish!" Tonks snapped, "We've got a South facing wall with windows all along it, sun rising on the left and setting to the right, and a European landscape that we're all unfamiliar with."

"Get to the point Tonks," Moody demanded impatiently.

Tonks drew in a breath between her teeth and let it out before going on.

"Charlie Weasley's great with surveying landscapes."

"No!" Moody and Shacklebolt said as one.

"He doesn't have to be shown anything, just take him to a window and make him analyse the landscape that's all."

"No," Moody said again, "that one's too volatile at the moment and don't you think he'll hear something and abandon the reconnaissance in favour of running to his brother's side?"

"It's possible to remove the sound from a memory isn't it?" Tonks said defiantly.

"Tonks," Shacklebolt was saying, his voice carrying a heavy tone of apology, "you know the story with Charlie Weasley. He's too emotional right now."

"But he could help us find them before anybody else gets killed," Tonks protested in vain.

"He could also barge through the wall of his brother's cell block and see...well that, and you know as well as I do that the next Death Eater we see will be ripped to pieces before we can stop it."

"I hardly know the boy," Moody said, taking a step forward and causing his false leg to thump heavily against the wooden floorboards, "didn't even get to teach him myself did I? But seeing that...I know I want to rip those pieces of filth limb from limb. They're civilians and they're young boys Tonks, I know how you feel about this, but we can't use any of them out there."

Fred listened, but Tonks didn't respond. Then Shacklebolt spoke up.

"Take how you feel and multiply it by a hundred Tonks," he said sadly, "Could you really keep a clear head while you were feeling like that?"

"No," she said softly.

"So we describe the landscape as we observed it as best we can to Weasley," Moody said in a business-as-usual kind of way, "put down a map of the local area, send him out on a brook under an invisibility cloak to see if he can find a match. We do all those things but we do not take him inside that memory, agreed?"

"Agreed," Shacklebolt said immediately.

"Agreed," Tonks added, glumly.

"Come on then, we've missed noon already," Moody said, his voice sounding tired and bitter, "We need to take up positions to greet our next guest."

Fred listened for quite some time, holding his breath in fear that 'constant vigilance' Moody would randomly scan the ceiling above him with his magical eye. Mercifully he seemed to be distracted and Fred thanked the Weasley luck for it.

Fred listened to the three Aurors as they left and closed the door behind them. He looked around the vent and saw that this was a direct bathroom to exterior job. There were no pauses to other rooms along the way. He felt around the seams of the ventilation space around him, it was very secure, and he cursed under his breath before dragging himself along a little further to the next seam. He pushed down hard and felt a little give. He drew his knees underneath him and pushed his back against the top of the vent above him, while pressing down on the bottom with his knees and his shins. Eventually, Fred's face was red from the exertion and the narrow passage began to buckle and then break open.

There was an almighty creak and clunk as Fred's legs pushed right through the weakened floor of the vent. His body dropped down, hard on top of the ceiling of the room beneath him. Immediately, the weakened ceiling plaster gave way under the force of his fall. Fred crashed through the ceiling and landed on something hard and stone before feeling a sickening pull, the colours of the rich wood panelled room around him tearing away to be replaced by grey stone walls in a candlelit room.

Fred hit the floor hard and winded himself slightly.

"What the fuck was that?" he wheezed, clutching his ribs as he crawled to his feet.

He blinked and looked around. His eyes flew open wide and he realised that he was surrounded by some of the missing wizards; Krum, Fergus Finnegan, Sam Robbins...

"Lee!" he exclaimed as he stumbled forwards towards his best friend.

He looked like hell and Fred saw worry lines etched deeply into his face that he never knew could exist on a cheerful face like Lee's. He saw that everybody in the darkened room was digging. Fred scanned the room quickly and suddenly realised what it was he was seeing.

"Oh Merlin," he said with a ragged exhalation before looking back into Lee's face as he carried on digging in silence, "Lee mate, we're gonna find ya. We're gonna find both of ya I promise."

Just as the words left Fred's lips he suddenly realised that he hadn't seen Ron. He looked around at the hunched and exhausted gravediggers surrounding him and couldn't pick out that lanky freckled figure with a mop of red hair just the same colour as his own.

He saw Belby and Dean Thomas but no Ron.

A wave of panic suddenly hit him and he leapt from open grave to open grave, looking inside to make sure that they were empty, and almost collapsed with relief when he saw that every one was indeed vacant. He glanced up at two Death Eaters who were aiming their wands at the hostages and chuckling about something between themselves.

"You sick fuckers," Fred hissed before recognising one of them as the Death Eater who had come with news of Prang's death.

A third Death Eater appeared and mumbled something into the dark wizard's ear. The man nodded and put his wand back into his robes before slipping away to be replaced by the new arrival. Fred realised that it was this man's memory and he was going to have to follow him wherever he was going or get dragged along when he got too far away from him.

Fred gave chase, muttering obscenities all the way.

He pursued him up a couple of flights of stairs and into a large room with a large wooden table in the centre of it. There was a heavy iron door in the centre of the wall on one side and it appeared to be locked magically. The Death Eater strode over to it and muttered something in another language to the robed figure guarding the door. The two men snorted and one of them flicked his wand at the door and opened it wide for a moment.

Fred stepped a little closer and watched as the Death Eater he was following leaned in and sniggered at something before there were yells and abusive language and he stepped back out and closed the door once again.

"Let him down you fucking animals!" one of the now muffled voices roared from behind the iron door.

Fred realised that this room must be where the other hostages were being held. He approached the door while the two Death Eaters on guard mumbled something before laughing and tried to press his ear against the door to listen to what was going on. Both his hands began to sink through the door, as did his head, and Fred jerked back again and stared at the solid looking door.

"I can just walk right through it," he told himself, "it's nothing but a memory."

Just as Fred braced himself to pass through the door he heard a yelping sound and then the voice of Danny Prang that sent shivers down his spine.

"Keep talking to me Ron, it'll be over soon I promise, they'll come and let you down any minute now I'm sure."

Fred felt as if all the blood had just been drained from his body.

"It fucking kills," the breathless and agonised voice of his little brother gasped before Prang started talking to him again.

Fred gritted his teeth and ran at the door to see exactly what was going on in there.

Tommy could hear somebody crying.
Nobody wanted to ask who it was. Nobody wanted to draw attention to it. All the cells were silent.

He shivered and hugged his arms to himself, feeling the two layers of other people's clothing around him and the guilt of taking comfort in Krum and Ron's discomfort. He didn't even want to think about the fact that his hammock was made from the cloaks of two dead people. He felt his skin tingle and his joints ache as he stared down at Lee and Ron on the floor.

Ron still hadn't woken up. Lee had taken it upon himself to be at Ron's side constantly until he did. Every once in a while Ron would shift his weight or groan and wince and Lee would sit up and begin patting the side of his face again and calling his name but he'd just sink back into that deep slumber of his again.

Tommy kind of liked that Ron was getting some rest at long last, some rest and some peace, and smiled to himself slightly before feeling his shivering worsen and searching for the draught he was sure was tormenting him on purpose.

Whoever it was was still crying.

"Lee," Tommy croaked, embarrassingly weakly.

Lee's tired eyed moved away from Ron's body to meet Tommy's own.

"D'ya think we'll get to eat today?" he asked the dread locked young wizard.

Lee shrugged lazily.

"Who knows?"

"D'you think," Tommy pondered aloud, "if we weren't knackered and starving and dehydrated, d'you think we could take 'em?"

Lee's face broke into a smile, the first Tommy had seen for a long time, and his shifted his weight beneath Ron's dead weight before responding.

"You forgot un-armed," he muttered with a slight chuckle.

"Oh yeah, there's that too!" Tommy sighed.

"We could always throw Ron at them, that'd take a couple of them out of the running," Lee suggested with a cheeky smile.

Tommy snorted and looked down at Ron, dead to the world across Lee's lap and propped up in his arms, at the same time Lee's smile faded and he returned his focus back to his 'patient'.

"What do you think it was Cally did that wasn't healing spells?" Tommy asked.

"I dunno. I recognised corroboro, that's strengthening stuff."

"Yeah," Tommy nodded, similar spells had been used on him before he was transferred to the Embassy.

"Thing is he doesn't seem any stronger does he?" Lee's brow crinkled as he looked back into Tommy's eyes, sadly.

"He's resting, I'm positive that's why he still won't wake up Lee," Tommy said before faltering to succumb to a coughing fit for a full minute, "Maybe this is how Cally made him stronger. He shut him down to totally recharge."

"He came round long enough to drink didn't he?" Lee said, a look of bitterness seemed to darken his eyes as he spoke, "But now he's..."

Lee patted Ron hard on the side of the face again and the pale freckled face did nothing more then loll over to one side. Lee sighed deeply.

"What if he's just laying down to die? What if he's given up?" Lee said, choking slightly upon his own words.

"No way," Tommy said with a shake of the head, "You weren't here when he stood up to that bastard Lee. He was exhausted and he had the Puppet Master right in his face and he got to his feet and told the pervert that he'd fart in his face."

Lee broke into weak laughter.

"He said that?"

"Yeah," Tommy nodded with a smile before having to lie his head down as it had started spinning and turning the room, and Tommy's stomach, upside down, "that's why he hung him like that."

Lee's face slackened again and he shuddered.

"I did everything he told me to do and he still...That prick has got no honour," his eyes narrowed into a scowl before the spite left his face suddenly and he stared at Tommy intensely, "I never thanked you for what you did for him did I?"

"The two of you have been supporting me all through this, literally, and I couldn't leave him like that. That was fucking monstrous."

Lee shifted himself and Ron a little closer to Tommy in his hammock.

"We carry each other through this yeah?" he said with determination, "The three of us 'till the end, the three of us against the lot of 'em. We'll protect each other and support each other no matter what right?"

Lee reached up and took Tommy's hand with his own and squeezed it tightly. Tommy let their hands settle upon Ron's head gently, to include him in their pact, and he felt Ron's mass of hair against his fingers.

"Tomorrow's my day Lee," he whispered, his throat dry and hoarse, "I don't want either of you getting hurt trying to stop it."

"Tomorrow is not your day Tom," Lee said firmly, "I don't make promises idly and I am promising you," Lee started into Tommy's face with wild eyes, "you will not die tomorrow."

The faint crying had finally stopped.

The robed figure strode into the Embassy and everybody froze.
Harry lurched forward and found himself grabbed by both Ginny and Hermione and pulled back. Bill and his father were both holding on to Charlie's shoulders with a vice like grip. Seamus Finnegan actually spat at the man as he passed him by, earning him a clip round the ear from his mother.

Moody stepped forward to intercept the man in the centre of the reception area while Tonks raised her wand and aimed at the man's back, Shacklebolt doing the same from a different angle. Just as the Death Eater reached into his robes and the triumphant smile spread across his face there was an almighty roar and a flash of red hair and dragon hide.

"You fucking bastard!" Fred Weasley yelled as he tackled the Death Eater to the ground and set about pounding his fist into the man's face repeatedly, "You evil fucking prick! I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

Mrs Creevey gasped and grabbed Dennis to her, turning away as the Death Eater's lip burst and sprayed blood all over himself, Fred and the Embassy floor. Lupin swore under his breath and ran to pull Fred away from the Death Eater so Tonks and Shacklebolt could get a clear enough shot at him. However Seamus, not to be left out, was running to join the fray himself and Remus had to tackle him to the floor and keep him out the way instead.

"You think it's funny now?" Fred was hollering into the swollen and bloody face of the dazed Death Eater, as two front teeth broke clean off and the man's nose made a deep smashing sound before he began to choke and sputter on the blood welling at the back of his throat.

"Fred no," Molly was screaming as she struggled to get to her son, Darren Thomas grabbed hold of her to keep her out of harm's way and the frantic woman burst into tears, "Please stop, Fred please stop this," she begged him before dropping to her knees, still supported by the Muggle man.

George was about to try and hurdle over the two of them to join his twin when Moody cast an impediment jinx on him and slammed him down onto his back with some force. Ginny yelped and clung even harder to Harry.

"He's going to kill him," Hermione gasped, her voice sounded so tiny as she began to tremble.

"Good," Harry found himself saying before realising that Fred couldn't become a murderer, his parents wouldn't be able to cope with it, "Wait, let me go, let me go to him."

"No!" Ginny said with a deep growl as she stood before him and shoved him hard in the chest, "Don't you dare Harry."

Chiara was crying and hiding her face in her hands while Patrick Callahan seemed to pale and quickly thrust her into the arms of Mrs MacMillan before sprinting across the Embassy towards the one-sided fight.

"Strung him up like a fucking animal and fucking left him there for fucking hours you sadistic scum!" Fred was yelling so ferociously now that it sounded as if he was about to make his own throat bleed.

Moody finally managed to hit Fred with a spell to send him flying across the reception area and into the far wall while the Aurors all ran towards the unconscious and bloodied Death Eater but Patrick Callahan was there first and he swung a kick into the man's ribs and then another into his stomach.

"Patrick stop it!" Chiara wailed as she broke away from Mrs MacMillan and ran to the livid young wizard.

Patrick had dropped to his knees and was now landing his own punch to the Death Eater's pulped face. He pulled back his arm to send his fist back for another blow when he froze and drew in a shuddering breath.

"Where did ya get that?" he said in a low detached tone of voice.

The young Scouser was staring at the floor beside the battered body and he began to tremble. The Aurors had reached them by now but stopped when they saw that Patrick had halted his attack. Chiara pushed her way between them and sank down at Patrick's side.

"Please don't fight like animal, please...What is that?" the Italian witch said as she saw Patrick picking something up with his bloodstained fingers and cupping it in his palm.

"It's his wedding ring," Patrick whimpered.

George ran to Fred's side and helped him to sit up. Fred was staring across the floor at Patrick as he began to shake his head frantically and stare into his open hand.

"Oh Patrick," Chiara said as she curled her arms around his neck.

"No," Patrick said with a blink before his mask, up until that point his face had refused to show comprehension of what this meant, broke and his shoulders fell, "You killed my dad."

"C'mon you two, let's get you out of here and get you a strong drink eh?" Tonks suggested hesitantly, desperate to get Patrick away from this scene somehow.

"You killed my dad!" Patrick bellowed, shocking Chiara into releasing him and falling backwards while he launched himself at the battered Death Eater and grabbed him tightly around his throat, "You killed my dad you fucking arsehole!"

Several people were sobbing, mostly the mothers of the hostages, but Harry felt Hermione's face burrowing into his shoulder and he stopped putting up a fight against his two human restraints to wrap his arms around her and rub her back. She didn't seem to be crying, just looking for comfort. Ginny watched them for a second before Harry reached out for her and pulled her into a three-way hug. They all just held each other.

"Patrick stop," Chiara was begging the irate wizard as he continued throttling the Death Eater, "You can not go to prison. You can't kill him please."

"He killed my dad," Patrick growled as he gripped harder and banged the Death Eater's head against the floor with a jerk of his arms.

"And your brothers and sisters will have no one if you are in Azkaban!" Chiara declared, loud and clear.

Patrick's grip faltered a little and he turned to look into Chiara's almond shaped eyes and they shone with pained tears, then his own began to flood and his head hung.

"What am I gonna tell 'em?" he said, a crack fracturing his voice while his arms went slack.

"We tell them their father was a brave man who looked after people and who loved them very much," Chiara said with determination, "We tell them this together, I will come with you, you will not be all alone Patrick."

He released the Death Eater completely and threw his arms around Chiara, sobbing into her blonde hair and whimpering into her violet robes.

"They killed him."

"And they will pay," Moody said as he nodded for Shacklebolt and Lupin to carry the body to the fireplace to get the Death Eater away from the families who had now had all they could stand.

"I don't want them to pay," Patrick said as he looked up at the old Auror with hurt and pain in his reddening eyes, "I want them to be stopped."

"We will Patrick," Tonks said as she helped the two of them up off the floor, "We're going to put a stop to this."

Harry saw George examining Fred's hand and wincing. He'd lost some skin from his knuckles and broken nearly every bone in his hand from the force of his punches. Charlie, Bill and Mr Weasley ran to them and Bill withdrew his wand to heal Fred. The blood spattered Weasley seemed to be in shock and his injured hand was trembling uncontrollably. Ginny motioned to Harry that she wanted to join her family and the three of them took a shuddering breath in and hurried across the reception area to reach them at the same time Mrs Weasley and Seamus and Kathleen Finnegan did.

"Fred what on earth came over y-" his mother began to chide him nervously before Charlie interrupted her.

"Did it feel good?" he asked Fred.

The shaken-up wizard looked up into his brother's face and shook his head.

"No."

"Do you feel better?" Charlie asked again.

"No," Fred said, a break in his voice the second time around.

"Why did you do it?" Charlie asked again, firmly but gently.

Fred's voice was nothing more then a feeble imitation of itself as he answered the question.

"'Cause I saw what they did."

Chapter 22 Holding You Together

Molly was washing the dishes, drying them, putting them away and stirring the pot on the stove all by magic.

The Callahan boy and the young Italian witch had gone back to Liverpool to look after the little ones, the orphans, and had been saying their goodbyes when she had run into the kitchen to avoid having to look at the two of them.

The witch had lost her fiancÃ©, the wizard his father, and she had just discovered that her baby boy was being tortured. She hadn't been told anything. She hadn't asked for any details, she didn't want to know them, but she had heard enough. Fred had seen Ron hurt, hurting for hours he had said, and now the hexing of Charlie seemed to make a little more sense to her too.

These evil men were destroying her family and all she could do was cook and clean and smile bravely and shut out the idea that her baby boy was suffering. She couldn't think about it. All she could cope with was the concept of alive and dead. Ronnie was alive. Ronnie was alive and she was happy.

So why couldn't she stop crying?

The pot stirred, the sink filled with suds, the dishes stacked in the cupboard and the tears flowed freely down both her cheeks as if a dam had burst inside her. Her shoulders shook and her chest tightened. It didn't feel as if she could breathe properly, her ribs ached from the silent sobs that racked her whole body. She sniffed and chocked back the audible cry that fought to escape her. She wasn't going to do this, she couldn't do this, and if she broke down she would have given up on Ron. If he was going to survive this he needed to stay strong and hopeful and she seemed to need to will herself to do the same.

If she could hold herself together through this then Ron could do the same.

A teacup smashed against the cupboard door and shattered into tiny fragments that scattered all over the kitchen floor. Molly threw down her wand on the counter with an agonised scream of frustration and her legs gave out beneath her. She sank down to the floor, still clinging to the kitchen counter with her trembling hands, and crouched on her knees as if in prayer. Her head hung and the anguished sobs forced their way out of her body in a series of, what sounded like, wheezes and coughs intermingled with exclamations that didn't sound anything like her real voice at all.

"Oh Molly," Marie gasped as she stepped into the kitchen, the shaking woman assumed in search of her, and hurried to her side and clung to her tightly.

She still couldn't stop and she was unable to speak either. All she could do was cry. The tears trickled into the corner of her mouth and she could taste the salt on her tongue. Marie rubbed her back and rocked her back and forth.

"That's it girl, let it all go now," the soothing Irish voice whispered to her.

"I want my boy," she wailed with a raw kind of emotion that seemed to make her constricted voice sound ragged and frail.

"I know love, I know," Marie said, holding Molly's head into her shoulder and maintaining the slow rocking motion, "You cry for your baby. Go ahead and cry all you want."

"Th-Th-That poor family," Molly said through shuddering breaths in and out as she attempted to control herself once more, "They orphaned a whole family!"

"Try not to think about that Molly," Marie said as she squeezed her tightly and then released her a little to look into her puffy red face and give her a sad smile.

"And they killed that boy, he wasn't even a proper Auror yet and they killed him!" she sobbed, "They're going to kill the boys. That's all they have left now Marie, b-boys!"

"Our boys are strong," Marie said firmly as she wiped Molly's tear sodden cheeks with her thumb, "and these animals are weak and scared and they are losing their last battle. Don't you start preparing yourself to lose him y'hear me Mol? Never resign yerself to losing your Ronnie."

Molly shook her head and sniffed.

"N-Never!" she said unsteadily.

"That's my girl," Marie smiled as she lifted Molly's chin and grinned at her confidently.

"They've hurt him Marie," she said, her voice giving as she said the word 'hurt'.

The smile faded and the weary looking woman nodded.

"I know love, I know they have, but you have to believe that he's going to be okay."

The door creaked and both women looked up with a start.

"Mum are you in h...?" Ginny called out before seeing her mother, a crumpled heap on the kitchen floor, weeping into Marie Finnegan's arms.

The young witch looked down at the floor and saw the fragments of china all over the place and then looked back up at the two mothers, clinging to each other for support, before biting her lip and looking over her shoulder nervously.

"Um no Mrs Peakes," Ginny said calmly, "I'm afraid there's been a spillage all over the kitchen floor and my mother and Mrs Finnegan are cleaning it up. Why don't we go around the reception area and ask who wants tea and then come back? I bet it'll be cleaned up by then."

Ginny smiled at the unseen Mrs Peakes before glancing back into the kitchen and giving them a sad wave before closing the door behind her.

"I can't," Molly sighed as she struggled back to her feet, "I can't sit around feeling sorry for myself. My family need me."

Marie held out her hand and grunted as Molly heaved her up to her feet.

"Yeah well you remember to come to me next time it gets too much alright girl?"

Molly nodded and flicked her wand at the mess on the floor, repairing the cup and levitating it into the cupboard.

"Just so long as you come to me if it ever gets to you too," Molly wiped her eyes and sniffed.

"Deal."

Ron's neck felt stiff and something was weighing heavily upon his chest and restricting his breathing. He tried to roll over but he was pressed right against a wall. He sighed as deeply as he could manage and opened his eyes a crack. The grey stone walls were orange tinted with the evening sunlight and the smell of stale urine and body odour hit his nostrils in the most unpleasant way imaginable.

Ron smacked his dry lips and squinted around the cell. He grimaced at the movement, his neck really was stiff, and he groaned before wriggling to sit up. The weight suddenly lifted from his chest and a pair of hands clamped themselves to either side of his face. It was Lee and he looked utterly exhausted despite his eyes being unnervingly wide.

"You're awake?" Lee gasped?

"What?" Ron frowned before lifting his hand to massage his sore neck, he assumed he had slept at an odd angle, and yelped a little at the stiffness in his shoulder.

"Oh thank Merlin," Lee breathed before looking as if he wanted to punch the air or hug Ron so hard that he crushed him to death, but refraining from doing both those things in favour of balling his hands into tight fists and staring Ron hard in the eyes, "are you alright? Where does it hurt? Does it really hurt?"

"I'm just sore," Ron managed to croak before glancing around the cell and seeing Tommy's anxious face staring at him with a nervous smile breaking across his cracked lips, "What's going on?"

Lee looked at Tommy before looking back at Ron and swallowing.

"What do you remember?"

Ron closed his eyes and thought back. He felt his shoulders aching and then remembered the agony of hanging with his arms wrenched up behind him all afternoon. He remembered Prang being taken and...and...

"Prang," Ron said quietly.

"Yeah," Lee nodded sadly and put his hand on Ron's shoulder in an attempt to console him but only causing Ron to give a yelp of discomfort and cower away from his friend's heavy hand, "Shit sorry!"

"Do you remember anything else?" Tommy asked with a raw and painful sounding raggedness to his voice.

Ron took a deep breath and tried to think. Prang had been killed and Ernie had been talking to him. He had been standing on Tommy's back.

"Oh Godric I'm so sorry," Ron said as he stared at Tommy in awe, "How's your back?"

Tommy laughed so suddenly and unexpectedly that he began to choke.

"My b-back," Tommy wheezed, "You're askin' me h-how my back is?"

Ron didn't understand why Tommy was so painfully amused.

"But...I...I stood on you for ages," Ron said shamefully.

"We almost lost you Ron," Lee said as he made another move to give him a pat before pulling his arm back sharply and reminding himself not to touch him.

Ron's blinked and began to ask what Lee was talking about before forcing his eyes closed again and trying to remember the last thing he did. He tried to find the memory of his being let down from the hanging torture. He found it. Lee had come back, everybody had come back and there had been shouting and then the Puppet Master had told him he had to play along with some kind of game of his or hang there all night and Ron had given in.

"He let me down and took me to..." Ron opened his eyes and looked from Lee to Tommy and then back again, he shook his head to clear the thoughts that were buzzing around inside of him and then drew in a sharp intake of breath at the opportunity he had been given and had wasted, "he gave me a wand!"

"He what?" Both Lee and Tommy exclaimed.

"He gave me my wand back and told me to duel with him but I couldn't make my hands work," Ron looked down at his hands and flexed and clenched his fingers a few times.

"That fucking arsehole," Lee hissed and shook his head.

"I couldn't pick it up and he just slammed me with something," Ron said before shifting his weight, feeling almost every joint in his body ache as he did, before putting his hand to his head and feeling a healing scab.

"Cally," Lee began before looking down at his own hands and taking a deep breath, "Cally healed you as best he could Ron. You even scared the Puppet Master, he got Cally in here to help you and put a wand in his hand."

"Really?" Ron frowned, "But the Puppet Master hates me. Why would he help me like that?"

Ron saw Lee go as pale as his complexion would allow and then put his hand to his mouth as if he was going to be sick. Tommy was shifting uncomfortably in his hammock and seemed to be having trouble meeting Ron's eyes as he responded to Ron's query.

"Um, do you remember...Do you remember...?" Tommy struggled before spitting it out, "Do you remember how the Puppet Master was touching you when he sent Lee away?"

Ron's frown remained for a fraction of a second before every crease fell from his face and his jaw hung slack, he looked away from both of them. They were equally unable to look at him either so averting his eyes was pretty pointless but he needed to do it anyway.

"Oh," he said.

"Well, "Tommy forced himself to go on, "W-We think, me and Lee that is, we think that he wants to keep you around f-for...for..."

"Yeah, I get it."

Ron nodded his head and put his hands to his face and tried not to freak out.

"While I can stand and fight," Lee said fiercely, "he's not touching you."

Ron was staring into space and only managed to murmur something in response to Lee's declaration. He suddenly felt revolted at himself and wondered what he had done to get this kind of attention. He'd thought it was just a mind game when the Puppet Master had pressed him up against the wall and called him that bloody nickname for the first time. The touching, no it was stroking, with the wand tip every time he was threatening Ron was uncomfortable but he'd never taken to be anything more sinister. Then there was the humiliating 'get on your knees' thing earlier that day...or whatever day it had been that Ron had been tortured on.

As Ron knelt before the Puppet Master he did have that sickening moment of dread that he was going to be asked to do something a whole lot more repulsive then licking a shoe. he was almost relieved when that was all it had turned out to be.

"Ron?" Lee said as he put a gentle hand upon his knee and angled his head to force him to meet his eyes.

"I heard you," Ron said in a barely audible whisper.

Lee and Tommy shared a glance of concern.

"He licked my face," Ron said in a detached and slightly confused tone.

"That doesn't happen again," Lee said sternly, "I will be dead before he gets to try that again Ron I swear to you. I promise."

Ron shook his head and came back to his senses to a certain degree.

"Wait, no," he said with a frown, "so why did he try to kill me then?"

"Well," Tommy said before clearing his raw throat, "He sent Lee out and he, well he started getting a bit too close didn't he?"

Ron nodded.

"And you were really tired and hungry and thirsty and you didn't seem to be really with us but then he said something about smelling fear or defiance...Yeah, that was it, he liked the smell of defiance."

Ron nodded again and almost smiled as he remembered what he had said to that.

"Well you stood up to him, literally you stood up Ron. You were dead on your feet but you stood up and told him where to go and that really pissed him off and that was when he hung you wasn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah it was right after I got up, he was really annoyed that I got up," Ron frowned and nodded.

"He was in a vicious mood when he came down to gloat over us in the cellar, like he wasn't even enjoying our suffering like he usually did," Lee said.

"Then he lets you down and duels with you until you're practically dead," Tommy went on, "and I think he got carried away. I think he was angry and frustrated 'cause you didn't break the way you were supposed to so he laid into you."

"Too fucking much," Lee said bitterly.

"Yeah," Tommy agreed, "way too much, but the point is he got scared when he came by the next morning and you still weren't moving. He called Cally in to heal you. He put a wand in Cally's hand and stood there without an armed guard and watched him send all these strengthening spells into you."

"I think he's slammed you with a protection spell or something too because...well because of something he said when they took him away," Lee ended the sentence with a mumble.

"Wow," Ron said before looking at his aching shoulders and rotating them in their sockets stiffly, they still hurt but at least he could move them now, and he called out at the cell wall in front of him, "Thanks Cally."

Lee looked almost grey now. There was a sharp intake of breath from another cell and then both Dean Thomas and Fergus Finnegan called out at the same time.

"Is that Ron?"

"Is he awake?"

Lee was staring at Ron and shook his head sadly.

"Ron you were unconscious for a day and a half."

"What did he just say?" McLaggen called out from his own cell.

Lee stood up and looked out at the other faces at their cell doors and shook his head before crouching down again and looking Ron in the eye. He took a deep breath and spat it out.

"Ron when they took Cally out after he helped you, they took him...they took him the same way they took Prang and Maccario and Sec-"

"No," Ron interrupted, "They...But...he had kids. He had little kids and his wife was dead."

Lee shushed Ron and tried to be as physically comforting as he could be without hurting his tender arms.

"Fucking hell," Ron whispered before dropping his head into his hands.

"But he said he'd made you strong and he said he'd protected you and you'd stay protected after he was gone," Tommy said, he was overcome by yet another coughing fit before he was able to go on, "and it might not last too long but you're gonna be safe for now Ron. He made sure."

"He told us," Lee said with a confident nod, "and I believe him."

The cell door banged open and those sickeningly familiar footsteps sounded against the stone floor. Lee grabbed Ron tightly to him and he was about to yelp in pain when Lee clamped his hand over Ron's mouth and whispered into his confused face.

"Close your eyes and go limp in my arms," he hissed frantically before removing his hand from Ron's mouth and cradling him on his lap.

Ron found this extremely odd behaviour.

"What the...?" he whispered back.

Lee shushed him desperately and ordered him to close his eyes again. This time Ron did as he was told.

"If he thinks you're still unconscious he'll leave us alone," Lee whispered into Ron's ear, "Go completely limp Ron, that's it, and trust me okay?"

Ron could hear the footsteps getting louder and felt a little sick. This new information about the Puppet Master's plans for him made him want to curl up in the corner and hide, not lay prone in full view of the madman, but he trusted Lee so he did as he was told.

"This won't work for very long but just for now Ron," Lee whispered one final time, "just play along."

Ron let his head fall right back and did everything he could to ignore the pain shooting through his neck.

"He is still no better?" the Puppet Master's superior purr made Ron's skin crawl.

"What d'you expect you bastard?" Dean Thomas hissed from across the cellblock.

There was a long pause before Ron felt Lee shudder.

"Don't get too comfortable Jordan," the Puppet Master sneered, "I will not share my plaything with anybody."

Hermione was scanning the pages of yet another textbook Professor McGonagall had sent her from the restricted section of Hogwarts library. There were spells to locate somebody via their wand, some to track somebody by their bloodline as long as they were a pureblood, and there was a spell that got her very excited about concerning the depth of feeling for the missing person or object in question.

She had read and re-read that whole chapter of the book as if it were her own personal Bible. A locator spell to find a lost loved one. The stronger the spell-caster felt for the person they were trying to trace the more powerful and accurate the spell would be.

There was a list of flaws in the spell that took up most of the chapter itself however.

One example was given of a caster trying to find their missing true love and being taken to somebody they didn't realise was indeed their true love and who wasn't missing at all. There was the story of the selfish wizard who was trying to find his captured father during the great wizarding war of Dumbledore's youth, that man had been so self-involved that the spell kept leading him in tighter and tighter circles until it was pointed out to him that he was tracking himself, the person he loved most in all the world.

Hermione had read, eyes threatening to overflow with tears, one case of a lover being taken to the middle of a great desert where she died of exposure. Her missing partner had died there years ago and his bones picked clean.

But her hope was bolstered by the success stories. A father found every member of his missing family, each member of which had been scattered all over the globe and had no means of communicating with each other, just by concentrating his energy on how much he loved each one of them individually. The spell was cast and he was led straight to them. There was a magical chord of love that linked them and he was able to follow its unbreakable thread as if he was escaping the maze of the Minotaur.

All she had to do was love who she was looking for completely, openly, unashamedly and beyond measure.

She knew she loved Ron.

She hurt inside without him but they had never got around to changing how they loved each other. Did that mean her love didn't count? Chiara had pledged her love to Auror Maccario, was their love stronger, more real and true? Mrs Weasley and her husband, they had real love, they grew old together and had a beautiful family and still adored each other. What was Hermione's love for Ron compared to that?

It wasn't enough, it was never going to be enough.

Harry loved Ginny. He left her behind. They had problems and they had fights but they had real love.

Hermione wondered if she should ask Ginny to try the spell, Ginny had unconditional love for Ron, if it would work then it would definitely work with a sister looking for her brother. It should work that way.

Only this wasn't just about who loved Ron the most and who felt the emotion the strongest. This was about the need for their presence at the caster's side, the need to share their physical presence immediately. She had felt that need while she waited for him at Kings Cross Station. She felt herself willing him to arrive, reaching out for him and pulling him in.

These Death Eaters could chain him up and lock him in a cell but she could reach out and grab him to her so tightly that no bars or walls would ever get in the way. She wanted to latch on to him, his spirit and strength and life force, and then follow the pull all the way until she could grab him in her arms and never let him go. This was her spell and her spell only.

She would find him. She would reach out and keep on reaching until she located her Ron.

Because Hermione Granger wasn't Ron Weasley's girlfriend, fiancÃ©e, wife or even just his lover. Hermione Granger was the person who longed to touch Ron Weasley more then anybody else on the entire planet.

Chapter 23 Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Harry was sitting with Ginny and nodding furiously at everything Lupin and Tonks were saying about their next idea regarding Charlie and the landscape he would be able to see from inside the penseive. He understood their apprehensions but if this was a way of finding the hostages sooner then he was all for it. Ginny agreed, she knew that her brother's imagination would probably be just as bad as anything he might see inside that memory.

Fred refused to give anybody but George great detail about what he had seen.

Just as Moody was clunking over to them, heavy footed, there was a screech of tyres and Kingsley Shacklebolt was running out of the main doors of the Embassy and into the street. Everybody froze for a second before rising to their feet to follow him. Moody raised his arm and bellowed for everybody to stay put while thundering over the reception area to see Shacklebolt carrying something in beneath his cloak; his face was pale and shocked.

"It's Callahan's body," he said to Moody in disbelief, "Somebody hired a Muggle taxi and threw it out onto the street before being driven away. There are so many toxis out there, we'll never be able to find and follow the right one."

Harry and Ginny looked at each other before moving towards them again. Lupin secured them in place by curling his fingers around their shoulders tightly.

"Don't draw attention to it Harry," he whispered, "The families don't need to see a body at a time like this."

Bianca Robbins and Korin Davies were trotting out of the kitchen , chatting amiably with arms full of laundry they had offered to do for all the families. Moody shoved Shacklebolt into the Ambassador's office quickly and closed the door behind him.

"But," Harry frowned, "Why give us Callahan's body, "They didn't give us Prang's."

"I thought," Ginny was about to say something but she winced and shuddered before continuing, "they were digging graves for the bodies. That's what Fred said to George, that's what you said Tonks."

Tonks looked at Lupin for a moment before he nodded for her to join the others in the Ambassador's office while he dealt with Harry and Ginny. She cast him a look of gratitude and hurried away.

"Well that might just have been a psychological thing to destroy morale," Lupin spoke quietly and guided them into a secluded corner hidden by several potted plants, "or they might suspect that we'd try the locator spell that led us to Secretan and Maccario's bodies again. If we have the body then there's not a lot we can do is there?"

"But Prang's body?" Harry asked.

"Well they're not being careless are they? I have to assume he'll show up or he's been used as another booby trap."

"Maybe he's not really dead," Ginny said with the tiniest bit of optimism.

Lupin gave her a smile and nodded.

"It's possible, yes."

Harry caught the sadness in his eyes and knew that Lupin seriously doubted that was the case. Harry didn't think Prang had been spared either but he knew Ginny needed to believe that there was a chance, and extra chance, that Ron could still be alive even if word came that he had been killed. She needed something more to hold on to and the lack of a body was just about the only thing she had. It was one thing to say that people were dying; it was another to prove it.

"Should we try the locator spell anyway?" Harry asked.

Lupin looked over his shoulder and sighed.

"I think that might be what's being decided right now Harry."

The cells had been quiet for several minutes now. There didn't appear to be any noise coming from outside the main door. Ron still didn't dare speak and alert the Puppet Master to his newfound consciousness. Instead he got to his feet stiffly, assisted by Lee, and peered out of the opening in the cell door at some of the others.

He saw Krum looking back at him, slightly startled to see him there at all, and gave him a small nod and a smile. Krum pointed at Ron and then put a thumb up while raising his eyebrows quizzically. Ron nodded and Krum smiled back before glancing over his shoulder and mumbling something. Ron frowned as he saw Krum move back deeper into the cell and McLaggen replace him at the opening.

Ron found himself overtaken by the amusement of the situation. He was silently communicating with the two people he had always wanted to punch in the face most, after Malfoy that is, as if they had been friends for years. McLaggen pointed at his own shoulder and moved it around before pointing back at Ron.

Ron nodded before furrowing his brow and gesturing to his stiff joint. McLaggen smiled before gesturing to the main door to the cellblock and scowling. Ron knew that was some kind of silent curse upon the Puppet Master and nodded before waggling his finger limply and then making a wanking gesture around it with the other. McLaggen's shoulders hunched as he tried not to laugh out loud.

Dean was chuckling quietly directly opposite him and Ron grinned before looking back at McLaggen and pointing at him. He mouthed the words 'thank you' before pointing at himself and clutching his chest and jerking suddenly. McLaggen understood he was miming hiccups and nodded. Ron frowned before shrugging and pointing at him and then pointing at the side of his head. McLaggen mouthed back to him the words 'my mum'. Ron smiled and nodded at this while McLaggen seemed slightly embarrassed but equally proud of himself.

Ron looked back at Dean again. They did nothing but stared at each other for a while before Dean pointed up at the spot Ron had been hung from. Ron looked over his shoulder and then back at his friend, slightly embarrassed at himself for having been so publicly broken. Dean looked at him sternly and shook his head. He pointed at Ron before widening his eyes and throwing his hands into the air and mouthing the word 'amazing'. Then he pointed at himself and back up at the ceiling of Ron's cell before snorting and shaking his head. Ron laughed quietly before pointing at Dean and lifting his arm in a muscle flexing posture before wincing at the jolt of pain that the movement had caused him and massaging his shoulder.

Dean grinned at this and slapped himself on the forehead and shook his head despairingly at Ron accidentally hurting himself. Sloper was waving at him over Dean's shoulder and Ron waggled his fingers back.

This was an odd feeling. Everybody had seen him at his all time weakest moment and seemed to think he was strong because of it. He didn't feel strong when he was whimpering like a beaten dog cowering from its drunken master. He didn't feel particularly strong when he had been standing on top of a sickly wizard with hypothermia. He didn't feel strong at all when he agreed to a duel with the Puppet Master because he was so terrified at the idea of spending the night hanging like that.

He was a wimp and everybody knew it.

"Psst!" Ernie MacMillan hissed from his cell across the way and to the right.

Ron turned his head and saw that Ernie's face was healing a little more then when he had last seen it. He pointed at him and gave a thumbs up. Ernie struck a pose and Ron silently laughed at him. Ernie pointed at Ron as his smile faded and a serious look altered his features. He pointed at him and then balled both his hands into fists and then nodded over to the main door of the cellblock.

Fight him? What did he mean by that? Ron had already been beaten hadn't he?

Ernie seemed angered at Ron's lack of response to his mime and gave him a hard look of determination and pointing at Ron as if he was trying to poke him in the eye from all the way across the cellblock before pounding his fist into his hand while mouthing the word 'beat' and them pointing back outside again.

You can beat him.

Ron sighed and looked down at his healing wrists before waggling his fingers, something he hadn't been able to do when he really needed to, and then glanced up at Ernie once again. He shook his head.

There was a bang and Ernie disappeared from the cell door. Ron had flinched at the sound and knew that Ernie had just kicked the cell door in frustration. Sam Robbins appeared in his place and gave Ron a sad smile before seeming to crouch down to help his cellmate, no doubt suffering from an injured foot, and Ron turned away from the opening and slid down the cell door to the hard stone floor. He ran his hands through his filthy hair and hissed as he caught his hairline laceration and felt some of the scab come away painfully.

Lee crawled across the floor and sat beside Ron without a word. He put his arm around his shoulders and pulled Ron into him. He leaned against Lee and bowed his head low while the older wizard put his other arm around his cellmate and hugged him as tightly as he could without hurting his sore arms.

"You look after all of them and I'll concentrate on looking after you okay?" Lee whispered, "They need you back the way you were."

"Fat lot of good I was to Prang and Cally and everybody back then," Ron said, muffled into Lee's chest.

"You make everybody feel stronger," Lee said, determined to get his point across it seemed, "You make us all brave enough to stand up and fight. They need to see you keep fighting Ron and whatever that bastard does to try to stop you...I'll be right here for you. I'm going to look after you so you're strong enough to look after everybody else okay?"

Ron found himself hugging Lee back now and forced himself to nod, despite not quite believing that he was going to be able to do this.

"Cally made you stronger with magic but you've got to believe that you were already strong in the first place Ron," Lee whispered, "They're gonna need you pretty soon I bet and you have to believe in yourself enough to carry them through this."

Ron didn't say a word. He told himself that Lee had been without food for too long. He was Ron Weasley, not Harry Potter.

Hermione closed her eyes and swirled her wand around in an intricate pattern before her while she chanted the spell over and over again.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

She felt a golden glow before her and kept on chanting. As she did she focused on Ron.

He was standing on a chessboard and looking back at her with a brave smile. He looked so young. She remembered the way she felt when she and Harry had left him behind, unconscious and bleeding on top of a pile of broken chess pieces, it had been the first time her heart had hurt when she looked at him. The first time it hurt to think of him not being with her.

A tear trickled down her cheek and she tightened her grip on the wand.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

Ron was looking ill and leaning over a bucket while the word 'Mudblood' was being said over and over again. She wanted to give him a cuddle and make him feel better. She wanted to thank him for trying to protect her. She wanted to stop the unpleasantness he was going through on her behalf. He was being punished for defending her honour with nothing but a broken wand. She wanted to thank him and take care of him and tell him that she would do anything to protect him too. She would never let anybody say or do anything unkind to him. He was her best friend. He was her special friend. He was her Ron.

The yellow glow felt warm against her skin and seemed to become a deeper shade now, almost orange, as she maintained her focus and her wand movements and the chanting.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

Ron was being dragged away from her and it felt as if her limbs were being torn away from her body. The huge black dog was pulling him further and further out of reach and she was screaming for him and desperately trying to get through the flailing branches of the vicious Whomping Willow tree to take his hand in hers and never let go. He was trying to stay with her but the dog was too strong and Ron's leg was too weak. Something made a deep snapping sound and it shook Hermione from the inside out as Ron's leg broke and he was pulled out of sight. She stared at the dark hole she had lost him within and tried to project herself down after him. Her physical limitations keeping her away but her need to reach out for him and pull him back to her thrusting her forward.

She would get him back. She was going to get him back.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

She waited, shivering and wet through, at the side of Hogwarts Lake. Harry hadn't brought him back to her. Something had gone wrong. Where was her Ron?

People were talking to her, she was given a warm thick blanket to wrap around her shoulders but she was still as cold as ever. She was cold inside. Why had Harry not brought Ron back to her? Why were they still gone? She stared at the surface of the still lake and willed their heads to emerge. She willed that bright red hair to burst forth from the murky waters. She pulled him to the surface with nothing more then her want, her need, he agonising longing to see him again. Her soul was screaming out across the lake, 'Come back to me' and then she saw them, bubbles breaking the surface of the water. She held her breath and focused upon the spot, willing that Weasley red to appear, before three heads broke the surface and the crowd roared their approval. Ron was swimming back to the shore, helping the little girl Harry had brought with them, and she felt herself warming on the inside.

He was coming back; she could see him coming back.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

The door was closed and sealed and she turned around to see him, to see that he was still safe and still with her, but he wasn't there. Ron wasn't there. She looked back to the sealed door and heard the shouts and bangs and spells on the other side. Ron was trapped on the other side of that door with the Death Eaters. He was trapped with Voldemort. Her lungs felt as if they had been wrung out and her heart felt as if it was about to burst out of her chest. She wanted to blast through that door. She needed to get back to him and protect him. She needed to break through and give him a way out. There were people trying to hurt him and she was stuck inside this empty room. She had to get back to him, had to show him the way out. There had to be a door back to Ron. She would find it. She'd never stop looking for it.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

A warm breeze caressed Hermione's face and the glow was so intense that she could see it despite her closed eyelids, fiery orange like Ron's hair on a sunny day. She could see his hair, she could feel the softness of it, and she could smell it. She could touch Ron again. He was right there, within her reach.

Just a glimpse of his bright hair as the door to the hospital wing opened and closed. Just for one second she saw him. She wanted to scream herself hoarse and pound on that door. Why wasn't she allowed to go to him? He needed her. He was all alone and helpless and so very painfully close. She wouldn't get in the way. She just wanted to be by his side, to hold his hand and stay with him until he was better. She wanted to stay with him until he opened his eyes. She wanted to stay with him until he smiled at her again. She wanted to blast those unlocked doors into splinters and hold him to her. Somebody had tried to take him from her and she would hold on with everything she had. She would hold on forever. Nobody could have her Ron. Nobody could take him away. Nobody.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

The sound of his voice, the smell of his skin, the blue of his eyes, the taste of his cheek beneath her lips, the texture of his hair when she had stroked it in his sleep; it all came together and the light grew so bright and powerful that the portraits shook on the walls. She could feel him. She could feel her Ron, his spirit and his life force and his physical presence, it was all there and she was just about to reach out and grab him when there was a pounding on the door and the light flickered like orange lightning and fizzled out into nothing.

Harry ran to her and dropped to his knees.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded of her fearfully as he grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, "Are you alright Hermione?"

Her face was streaked with tears and her cheeks were flushed. She was shaking all over and she had never felt more cold and empty in her life. She shoved Harry hard in the chest, knocking him backwards. He fell hard onto the floor and she screamed down at him as if he had just put his wand to Ron's head and killed him right before her.

"I almost had him you idiot! Why did you do that? Why did you have to interfere Harry? Why?" she screeched in a way her voice had never done before.

"What?" Harry clambered back to his knees and crawled forward to Hermione with caution, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Why—couldn't—you—just—leave," she hit him in the chest with every word, "me—alone?"

"Hermione please I don't underst-" Harry said as he cowered under her rhythmic blows.

"My locator spell Harry," she said as she raised her hand once again and let it drop to her lap as her head fell and her shoulders slumped, "I could almost touch him. I could feel him. He was right here!"

She hid her face in her hands and burst into tears of disappointment and frustration. Harry leaned into her warily, fearing another frantic beating, before she threw herself into his arms and her whole body convulsed with the sobs she had to let out. If she held them in she would explode.

"He was with me Harry, I swear he was right here with me. I was going to reach him and hold on tight and—and—"

"Hermione I'm sorry, I didn't know what you were doing and I saw this bright light coming from under the door—" Harry said as he rubbed her back and held her tightly.

"I just felt so close to him Harry," she said as she clung to his jumper and struggled in vain to pull herself together.

"You will be again soon," Harry said softly, "I promise you, you'll have him back and we'll put a bloody collar and lead on him so he can never leave our sight again okay?"

Hermione let out a laugh that soon became a sob and Harry rocked her from side to side.

"I have to try again," she said through her straining vocal chords, "I came so close, I have to start again."

"After dinner okay?" Harry said firmly, "Get your strength up and you can try again. I'll watch the door for you so you don't have any interruptions this time okay?"

Hermione laughed again and sniffed as she pulled back out of his arms and wiped her face with the back of her hand. She looked her best friend in the eye and bit her lip as he wiped her runny nose with his sleeve.

"I love him Harry," she said with a quiver in her voice, "I love him and he doesn't know."

Harry lifted Hermione's chin with his hand and smiled warmly.

"He knows."

The door to the cellblock banged open and the Puppet Master marched inside and opened the door to Ron's cell.

"I know you are awake Firebrand, get up!" he barked.

Ron was playing possum just as Lee had told him to and he was slumped in a darkened corner behind Lee, whose voice spoke up strongly.

"He's still unconscious you bastard, back off!"

"Everbero!" The Puppet Master growled and Lee cried out in pain and Ron heard a deep thudding against the stone wall of the cell.

He tried not to react. Lee had warned him not to do anything but it was hard to listen to this and do nothing. Lee was panting and gasping in between agonised exclamations but Ron remained still.

"See, he's unconscious!" Tommy was wheezing, "Leave him alone now you vicious sod!"

There was a fizzing sound and a thud on the ground. The curse had been removed and Lee had fallen to the floor it sounded. There were three short steps and Tommy suddenly gave a muffled yell.

"Don't!" Lee coughed.

Tommy sounded as if he was shouting through whatever was muffling him and Ron cracked his eyelid open just a fraction and saw the Puppet Master staring down at him, a gleeful expression on his face, and a suffocation spell clamped tightly over Tommy's face. Ron's eyes flew open wide and he sat up. Lee growled out a despairing whimper into the floor at his refusal to just lie still and let them take some of the punishment for him instead.

"Okay, stop it!" Ron shouted at the Puppet Master.

"Welcome back to the game Firebrand," the Puppet Master purred with delight, "I never did like solitaire."

The curse was lifted from Tommy and Lee struggled to crawl across the floor to come between Ron and his tormentor but Ron had already pushed himself up to his feet.

"Got the bollocks to give me my wand this time?" Ron snarled.

The Puppet Master took a single step forward and lifted his hand toward Ron's face but Ron batted it away.

"Not that kind of boy Firebrand?" the Puppet Master said with amusement, "Do you wish to be wined and dined first?" he leaned in close and breathed into Ron's face with that sickeningly thick wet whisper of his, "Hard to get?"

"As far as you're concerned," Ron said as he set his jaw and forced himself to stand his ground, "I'm impossible."

The Puppet Master took a step back and ran his tongue across his teeth. Ron couldn't make out if he was annoyed or impressed.

"So the game goes on," he said with a vague wave of the hand, "but tonight, we eat."

The Puppet Master stepped aside and gestured for Ron to leave the cell ahead of him.

"What, no lackeys dragging me this time?" Ron said suspiciously.

"No dear boy," the Puppet Master purred, "my cautious young Firebrand, we will be having dinner together. Just you, I and our guests."

Ron didn't like the sound of that at all.

"Guests?"

"Why of course," the Puppet Master said with amusement, "do you really think I would exclude your friends when they are obviously so famished?"

Ron took a deep breath and took a step towards the door. Lee tugged at his leg and stared up at him with pleading eyes.

"He's playing you again Ron, you know he is, don't go with him."

Ron looked back at Tommy and then at the other faces watching him from their cells.

"Everybody here gets to eat properly?" Ron confirmed.

"Everybody will consume the same dish we will," the Puppet Master smiled graciously.

"What's yer game ya twisted swine?" Fergus Finnegan hissed.

"It's okay Fergus," Ron said as he stepped out of the cell, "let him have his fun and we'll have something to eat."

"Like the time you played along with him for water y'mean?" Ernie snarled.

Ron was about to say something to him when the Puppet Master put his large powerful hand upon his back and guided him forcefully out of the cellblock.

"Don't do anything stupid for the rest of us," McLaggen called out.

"Don't you fucking hurt him again!" Lee was practically spitting as the cell door closed on his livid face.

The cellblock door closed and Ron was faced with the room he had previously been tortured in decked out as if it was an opulent banqueting hall. The wooden table that settled in the centre of the room was full of food, a large roast that Ron guessed must have been a rare magical creature as he had never seen anything like it before, and potatoes and vegetables filling every spare inch of the table's surface.

"Take a seat Firebrand," The Puppet Master said as he motioned to one of the seats around the table.

"That isn't my name," Ron said firmly.

"Ah no, but it is who you are," the Puppet Master said as he pulled out a large wooden chair and Ron uncomfortably sat down.

The chair pushed itself right in to the table and seemed to magically lock into the wood. Ron couldn't push it back again or get out of it and, after struggling for a moment, glared up at his 'host'.

"It wouldn't do for you to leave the table until you have cleaned your plate now would it?" the Puppet Master said with a strange and very uncomfortable hunger in his voice.

The dark wizard took a seat beside Ron and pulled his chair as close as it would go. Ron looked away from him and saw that, while all along the other side of the table there were plates and cutlery, on his side of the table there were none.

"Are you ready to eat Firebrand?" the Puppet Master asked, "What would you like to try first? Potato maybe?"

Ron felt his stomach trying to crawl up out of his throat and throw itself at all the food before him. He had never been so hungry in all his life. He couldn't stop himself from nodding.

The Puppet Master seemed to sigh with delight before scanning the table, looking at every kind of potato there was available to choose from.

"Boiled, Roasted or—" the man had a strange glint in his eyes as he leaned over the table and picked up a large bowl of mashed potatoes, "mashed I think. I would most enjoy it if you ate some mash Firebrand."

Enjoy? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Ron tried to lean across the table to reach for a plate and a knife and fork when the Puppet Master's hand pressed against his chest and forced him back into his chair. As he did, leather straps fixed his arms in place against the armrests and Ron's whole body tensed up.

"Another game then is it?" Ron scowled.

"Not at all," the Puppet Master said as he plunged his finger into the heap of mash and scooped a dollop of it up before moving it to Ron's lips, "I'm just intent upon 'feeding you' myself."

"You've got to be joking," Ron said as the mash-laden finger moved closer to his lips.

"No dear Firebrand. I am not joking at all. Now open wide and eat."

"Don't you use forks in Holland?" Ron winced as he turned his head away in disgust.

The Puppet Master leaned in close and purred in that nauseating way of his.

"Unless you eat everything I offer you, in the way I offer it, your friends will not see one bite of this meal. It is rude to refuse food when your host has spent such time and effort preparing it for you."

Ron took a deep breath in and swallowed his pride before turning back to the finger that was on offer. He grimaced and leaned forward to close his mouth over the Puppet Master's finger and remove the mash from it. The man looked utterly delighted.

"Now isn't that nice Firebrand?" he smiled before looking back at the dishes on the table, "Now what shall I feed you next?"

Chapter 24 Hard To Swallow

Ron closed his eyes and tried not to think about what he was doing.

Harry would tell him to do anything to stay alive, to stay strong, and survive for as long as it takes. Hermione would demand he take no risks and not let his pride get in the way. She would order him to keep himself healthy and not antagonise the people who had power over his life. His mother would beg him to just keep quiet and do as he was told.

Ron thought of all of these things as he ate peas out of the Puppet Master's cupped hands and felt the hateful swine's skin beneath his tongue. He tried not to cringe whenever he heard the satisfied sounds coming from the dark wizard. He would sigh or moan in a mocking way as he pushed a portion of the indecipherable meat between his lips. He occasionally made Ron take a piece of parsnip so deep into his mouth that it hit the back of his throat and made him gag.

"Some wine Firebrand?" the Puppet Master said after Ron swallowed the latest mouthful.

Ron didn't say a word as he watched the Puppet Master reach out for the bottle and fill a glass to the brim with the deep red liquid. Ron tried to shift his immobile arms against the straps that bound him in place. He would sporadically attempt to test them, to loosen them, in the hope that he could break free and suffocate the warped murderer with brussel sprouts.

"Open up for me," the Puppet Master purred as he held the glass before Ron's lips and began to tilt it, "here's to the Dark Lord."

Ron suddenly heard Fred and George in his head yelling for him to spit the wine in his face. Ginny was looking at him with disgust and asking him how he could have forgotten what Tom Riddle had done to her all those years ago. Charlie was calling him a cowering lap dog and a disgrace to the family. The wine flowed past his lips and across his tongue.

Ron thought it tasted sour and bitter. He drank all the same. Behave yourself and find a way back to them to explain, he told himself. He gulped and the glass tilted further, flooding his mouth with even more of the rich red wine. He had to tell Hermione everything he should have already told her. He had been wrong to put it off; he knew that when he was hung in the cell all that time. That was the greatest pain of all, knowing that if he were to die in that cell she would never know.

The glass tilted further, nearly draining completely into his mouth now, as Ron hurriedly swallowed and tried to inhale through his nose before taking in the last of it. Harry would want him to stay alive. His mother would be mortified if he didn't come home. Hermione had to know.

And then there were the messages. He had to deliver Maccario and Prang's messages.

"Divine isn't it Firebrand?" the Puppet Master purred as he pulled the empty glass away from Ron's lips.

"Mmmm," Ron hummed shortly as he swallowed the last mouthful and hoped it was time for the others to be fed soon.

Again he tried to move his arms. The bonds were as secure as ever. He bit his tongue and watched as the Puppet Master peeled another strip of the meat from the enormous platter in the centre of the table.

"Delicious isn't it?" he smiled as he dropped the meat into his own mouth slowly and chewed.

Ron gave a single nod.

The Puppet Master smirked as he chewed and tore off another, larger strip of meat. As the flesh was held before Ron's lips the Puppet Master swallowed and leaned in close to his face.

"Say it Firebrand," he whispered.

"Say what?" Ron asked as he tried to move his head back a little to keep the dark wizard from stroking his lips with the warm juicy meat.

The Puppet Master pushed the tip of the meat between Ron's lips forcefully and purred.

"Suck it and tell me it tastes delicious."

Ron didn't manage to remind himself of Harry, Hermione and his mother in time to stop himself scowling. The meat was pushed deeper into Ron's mouth where it stroked his tongue and pulled backwards over his bottom lip slowly.

"Suck on this delightful flavour and tell me it tastes delicious," the Puppet Master's voice was almost growling at him now, though his face was the picture of ecstasy.

Ron felt the meat slide back into his mouth and he sucked some of the flavour out of it, it tasted like his mother's roast chicken with onion gravy, her face was suddenly as clear as the Puppet Master's before him and she smiled at him and told him to be a good boy and do as he was told.

"Delicious," Ron said as the meat was drawn back out of his mouth slowly, his voice was barely audible but it seemed to have been loud enough for the Puppet Master to swell with joy.

"Well eat dear boy," he said, shoving the whole portion into Ron's mouth and gesturing for him to chew, "eat your fill and drink all you wish and then it will be time for your friends to feast."

Ron ate a little more until he couldn't stomach the Puppet Master's closeness any longer.

"That's enough thank you," he found the nerve to say as strongly as possible.

"You are full?" the Puppet Master asked with an arched eyebrow.

Ron nodded.

"Then you may return to your cell," the sly wizard said as he shifted in his seat to face Ron directly, "after you have cleaned your plate."

Ron glanced down at the table before him. He hadn't used a plate. There was no plate to clean. What was he on about?

"But I didn't—" Ron frowned before his words were lost and his eyes widened in horror at what he suddenly understood.

The Puppet Master was holding up his sticky hands before Ron's face and grinning with sheer delight.

"You have made a mess Firebrand," he said, almost victoriously, "and I can not greet my other guests in this state now can I?"

Ron heaved a sigh of resignation and tried to look anywhere but at the man's jubilant expression.

"Can I Firebrand?" he said again, more forcefully.

"No you can't," Ron snarled back through gritted teeth.

"So we are in agreement!" he said happily before offering his right hand up to Ron, "Clean it."

Ron took a deep breath in and out, gave himself a mental bracing and leaned forward to lick the man's large, sticky palm. He did so over and over again, wiping the residue of the food from the front and back of the Puppet Master's hands. Soon they were wet and shiny and Ron leaned back in his chair and tried not to smack his lips in distaste.

"Done," he said quietly.

"You think that is clean?" the Puppet Master said disapprovingly, "You are not only a blood traitor but also an uncouth mongrel of a wizard?"

"I'm not the one eating with my hands!" Ron found himself spitting back at the wizard's misplaced superiority.

"I asked you to clean—your—plate Firebrand!" the Puppet Master barked back as he rose from his chair and towered over Ron with his intimidating build, "You will not be insubordinate to me jongen. Do not think that I got Callahan to heal you for anything other then to see you break at my hands again!"

Ron realised that he had never seen the Puppet Master lose his temper as badly as this before. He had got to him in some way. He could get under his skin and make him forget his game plan. He could make his lose his composure. He really did have some power in this game after all.

"I don't break at the hands of a coward who attacks and unarmed wizard and calls it a duel," Ron said with a smile.

"You were armed," the Puppet Master snapped back, too quickly and hurriedly to really convince Ron that he had got a handle on his emotions once again, "I gave you your wand."

"You took away my arms though didn't you?" Ron laughed, "You put a wand in a useless hand and you hit me with everything you had and I still didn't bloody die did I?"

Fred and George were roaring their approval inside his head and his heart. Hermione was screaming for him to shut up.

The Puppet Master grabbed Ron's face in his huge clammy hand and snarled directly into it. That sickening purr Ron had grown to loathe was losing its confidence and shaking with anger.

"You will perish when I am done with you and not a second before that Firebrand," he was pressing his powerful fingers into Ron's jaw and the flesh of his cheek so hard that Ron could feel the bruises forming already, "I will use you until you bore me and then I will discard you like the worthless blood traitor you are. Do you understand me?"

"No," Ron said with determination.

"Am I not speaking English jongen?" The Puppet Master growled into Ron's face.

He was so close that Ron could almost scratch his face with his stubble.

"No," Ron said again, "English is a civilised language and all I can hear from you is 'I'm a perverted cunt!'"

The Puppet Master struck Ron with such force across the side of his face that his couldn't hear anything but a high-pitched whistling sound. For several seconds he saw black spots burst before his eyes. They faded to let him see the dark wizard holding his hand before him and blowing across his knuckles before staring back at Ron and pulling his wand from his robes.

"You need a shave Firebrand," he said abruptly and tapped his wand against his grazed knuckles before directing it at Ron's face and casting the shaving charm at him.

"Can you brush my teeth too?" Ron said insolently.

"They still have yet to eat remember?" the Puppet Master said as he nodded towards the cellblock, his old confident purr returning little by little as he reminded himself who had the power.

Something inside Ron made him feel that he was still in a good position in this game now. If he could have the guy reeling after he was literally eating out of his hand and tied to a chair then he was bound to be able to intimidate him on an equal playing field.

The Puppet Master launched himself right into Ron's face and sent his chair rocking backwards ever so slightly with the force of his hands grabbing the front of Ron's t-shirt.

"Are you going to play nicely or do I have to give you a handicap?"

"Some would call being tied to a chair a handicap," Ron said as he sat rigid, determined not to squirm under the Puppet Master's leering presence.

The Puppet Master seemed to swallow another violent outburst and leaned in close to whisper into Ron's ear. The moist heat against his neck was like steam from a recently boiled kettle and Ron wondered if the man was a fire-eater or something of the sort. His breath was always unnaturally hot and made Ron's skin prickle as if it was sunburnt.

"I own you jongen," he breathed, "I have claimed you and I will have my fun until I choose to finish you."

The Puppet Master grabbed a handful of hair from the back of Ron's head and yanked it back hard. Ron hissed and gritted his teeth and the Puppet Master ran his tongue from Ron's collarbone up to his jaw before grinning.

"Good enough to eat Firebrand," he leaned back to take in the sight of his toy strapped into the chair, head pulled right back, exposing his throat, "Remember I told you that won't you?"

The Puppet Master gave Ron a hard pat on the side of his face after releasing the grip on his hair and flicked his wand at the bindings around his arms.

"Back to your cell, I will send in guards with the food for the others," the Puppet Master yanked Ron out of the chair and shoved him hard in the back towards the cellblock door as it swung open.

Ron couldn't believe how well that had gone for him considering the punishments he had taken up to that point. He was slightly unsettled about that as his cell door swung open and he was ordered back inside. Something else was happening tonight and he couldn't figure out what it was.

One thing he was sure of though, he wouldn't have to wait long.

Every cell had been given a huge slab of the meat, several handfuls of assorted vegetables, and as much wine as they asked for. They weren't given plates or indeed anything other then the food itself. The only receptacle they had were wooden goblets for the wine.

Everybody ate quietly, after some reassuring from Ron that the stuff wasn't poisoned as he had seen the Puppet Master eat some of it himself. Lee had been insistent on being told what had gone on between the two of them while Ron was alone with the Puppet Master. Despite his need never to tell anybody about his degradation Lee's newfound lone-protector identity wore him down and Ron had told him about the feeding and the hand licking.

Lee had said nothing. He had just looked at Ron and gripped his shoulder firmly for a second before looking away and tearing off a lump of meat from the bone.

"I'm not going to do nothing while this is going on Ron," he muttered, "I'll get myself hexed, beaten...whatever it takes. I'm not going to let this 'touching' thing go on."

Ron gave Lee a pat on the back before crawling across the floor to Tommy.

"Just eat yer dinner mate," he whispered before picking up a handful of roast potatoes from the floor and holding them out before Tommy in his hammock, "Want some of these?"

Tommy took one of the smallest potatoes from Ron's hands and popped it into his mouth. Ron waited with the handful while Tommy chewed and swallowed painfully slowly. His shaking hand reached out and took another modest sized spud from the pile and began to eat that before Fergus's voice called out from his cell.

"Y'know something's not right about this but while the wine's flowing I'm not complaining!"

"Don't get too hammered Finnegan, they might be counting on a hangover in the morning," Sam Robbins warned through a mouthful of something.

"None of us should drink too much alcohol," Krum was suddenly saying sternly, "we should ask for water. Alcohol dehydrates when you take too much. I have uncle who drinks, I know what I'm talking about."

Ron called out from his position crouched beside Tommy, who was refusing any more potatoes as he chewed.

"Wine was all that was on offer," Ron called out, "I think if we start making requests he might play one of his salt water cards or something."

"I know Ron," Krum said, moodily, "I just don't think we should be getting drunk."

"No, you're right," Belby was saying, "calm down on the wine Fergus."

"Jaysis you lot know how to kill a party don't cha?" Fergus scoffed.

"If you think this is a party you're going to be delighted when you go to one of my parties!" Dean Thomas said.

Fergus laughed and went back to eating noisily.

Ron stripped the last of the meat from the oddly shaped bone they had been feeding from in their cell and broke it up into small pieces between his fingers to make them more manageable for Tommy. He fed Tommy, little by little, and tried not to make a comparison between what he was doing then and what the Puppet Master had done to him before. It was true that being fed by the hand of another was quite an indignity but at least Ron wasn't making it degrading in any way.

"D'ya think you can manage some greens or some carrots or something Tom?" Ron asked as the pile of meat gradually reduced in the palm of his hand, "I think you need the vitamins in them."

Tommy laughed and nearly choked on a piece of meat. Ron jumped up and gave him a firm pat on the back before Tommy lifted his arm to signify that he was fine. Ron settled down with a wince of apology.

"You sounded just like my mum then," Tommy strained to sit while still slightly amused.

Ron rolled his eyes and broke into a grin.

"Oh great, I've become the woman who pesters you to eat your greens before you can leave the table," he snorted.

"You mean we can leave this table?" Fergus exclaimed from the cell next door, "Well why didn't yer say so? Peakes chuck us a sprout!"

Ron, Tommy and Lee sniggered at this, as did others in the cellblock, before Jimmy Peakes spoke up through a mouthful.

"There I was trying to tunnel out with my bare hands all this time and all I had to do was order a portion of cabbage!"

"Stil!" a shout came from the door to the cellblock as a Death Eater with a white streak of hair clapped his hands together and strode up the narrow corridor between the cells and cast a haughty gaze into each cell as he passed.

"Wat is erzo grappig?" he hissed before standing to attention as the huge shadow of the Puppet Master stretched across the floor and grew against the wall, swallowing the Death Eater in it's darkness completely.

"Now, now," the Puppet Master drawled confidently, he had obviously regained his composure after getting flustered during his confrontation with Ron, "Zegtsorry" he said as he stared at the Death Eater before him.

The Death Eater with his white streaked hair, almost like a skunk, made a 'pft' sound. The Puppet master's eyes flashed and the other wizard's voice spoke up clearly.

"Sorry."

"Ga!" the Puppet Master ordered with a scowl and the skunk-haired Death Eater hurried out.

Ron shifted himself to block Tommy from view while Lee did the same thing in front of Ron as the measured treat of the Puppet Master sounded against the stone slabs of the cellblock floor.

"Did you enjoy your meal jongens?" he asked them all lazily.

None of them said a word. The Puppet Master clicked his tongue against his teeth and suddenly all the scraps were vanished from the cells, obviously with the wave of a wand.

"Well do thank the gracious host for a fine dinner," he said, that sickeningly superior tone of his making Ron's skin crawl.

There was still no response.

"You jongen! Thank your host," the Puppet Master was demanding lazily.

"Thank you for the food s-sir," Colin Creevey stammered.

Ron saw Lee's body tense up on hearing the fear in the small wizard's voice and Ron wondered exactly what had happened in the far cell to have frightened Colin into complying so eagerly.

"Good," the Puppet Master sighed before wandering down the cell block, stopping back outside Ron's cell once again but turning to look into the cell opposite, "Now Mr Thomas, Mr Sloper, do thank dear Mr Weasley for his charming presence at my table. If it weren't for his...table manners you would not have been able to share in this feast at all."

"Thank you Ron," Dean said with fierce determination to let the Puppet Master know exactly who it was in that cellblock who really had the respect of the prisoners.

"Yeah, thanks Ron," Sloper said, equally clearly, "you always look after us. Cheers mate."

Lee looked over his shoulder at Ron and seemed to be terrified that this display of loyalty towards his cellmate would lead to some kind of punishment. Ron forced a smile onto his face to let Lee know that he wasn't intimidated. Lee didn't seem to be reassured but turned back to the cell door anyway and lifted his head high.

"And now of course you must give thanks to dear Mr Prang for providing the meat."

The Puppet Master's words hung in the air like a axe over everybody's head and he sniggered before his footsteps sounded against the floor again as he slowly made his way back out of the cell block.

"No," Sam Robbins said with what sounded like a fist the size of Hagrid's in his throat, "we didn't...that wasn't...you didn't."

"Wha...What is he saying?" Cormac McLaggen said unsteadily.

"Oh and Firebrand?" the Puppet Master called out from the doorway, playfully, "You're right, he was delicious!"

"You fuck!" Ernie MacMillan growled as he threw himself at the door of his cell.

"No no no no no no no no no no no..." Marcus Belby began to chant over and over again to himself.

The Puppet Master laughed with utter joy and slammed the door behind him with a boom.

"Oh no, oh no," Rodger Davies said tremulously.

"That was a mind game right?" Fergus garbled out at the other cells, "That was a head game right fellas? We didn't just...We didn't..."

Ron felt his breath catch in the back of his throat as he pictured the huge roast in the centre of the table. How he hadn't been able to identify it. His mouth was suddenly flooded with the flavour that he associated with it. He looked down at his fingers, still greasy from tearing up the flesh for Tommy. He pressed his lips together and forced his eyes shut as the sound of the Puppet Master's voice reverberated inside his head, 'suck it and tell me it's delicious'.

"Oh Merlin no," Dean Thomas whimpered.

There was a gagging sound and before Ron knew what he was doing he was on his feet and bellowing through the opening in his cell door.

"Don't you dare throw up!" he ordered.

The cells fell silent but for the sound of Sam Robbins' panic attack getting rapidly out of control.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, we...we...we, we ate him!" Robbins was straining the horrified words between gasps of air, "Da...D...Dan! We a...We ate him!"

"Sam calm down and shut the fuck up!" Ron growled.

"But Ron," Colin began, his voice sounding so meek and frightened.

"Nobody is going to throw up," Ron said, giving the cellblock a clear order, "If any of you do throw up you are going to scoop it all back up with your hands and swallow it back down again."

"Ron this is fu-" Fergus was protesting.

"This didn't happen to him for us to waste it!" Ron bellowed, "If we all puke that's it, we're dead this time tomorrow and you all know it."

An arm thrust through the opening of the far cell as Krum's voice spoke up.

"And he knows it too," Krum's arm pointed down at the closed door to the cellblock.

"Exactly," Ron said fiercely, "we've been too long without food and if we don't keep this down we're all dead within the day. He's done this because he thinks we're all going to puke and we're not!"

As Ron spoke the words he felt his own stomach churn and forced his mouth shut to concentrate on holding himself together and set an example.

"I ate a fucking person. I ate a fucking person," Robbins was whimpering.

"Sam stop, get a grip," Ron snarled through gritted teeth, "Dan would..." Ron found it almost impossible to talk about Prang by name.

Food wasn't supposed to have a name. He suddenly felt his knees give a little and at that very moment Lee was at his back for moral and physical support. He held him up with one arm around the waist and another hand was on his back while Ron took in a deep breath to compose himself and then stood upright again.

"If it had been me I'd be more pissed off that you wasted food," Ron found himself saying.

"Me too," Lee shouted over Ron's shoulder while rubbing his back firmly, "I wouldn't have eaten it if I'd have known but now that I have I owe it to D- him to stay alive and make what happened to him worthwhile and not just some sick fucker's idea of a joke."

"Prang was not a joke!" Ron found himself growling as his resolved returned with a vengeance, "We are not going to play along. We are not going to be the fucking punch line for a sick Death Eater joke."

"He thinks it's funny?" Robbins' voice broke thought his uncontrollable hyperventilation.

Ron looked at the cell beside the main door and called out with determination.

"We are going to prove him wrong. None of us are going to puke."

"Definitely not," Krum grunted his agreement.

"No puking," Colin said as if he was almost begging his own body to comply.

"Somebody's gonna have to knock me out 'cause I can't...I can't...I can't..." Peakes was stammering frantically.

"Shhh, it's alright, sit down for a second Jimmy," Rodger Davies was saying soothingly, "Just look me in the eye and take some deep breaths with me okay? Breathe with me Jim."

Ron gave a nod of thankfulness for Davies calming presence in his cell.

"It's one thing to say it Ron but my guts...I can't promise...they've, they're gonna do their own thing no matter what I want," Dean frowned from his cell opposite.

There was nothing Ron could say to change this. It was a fact of life. There was only so much a human being could do to hold of the need to vomit. Ron stared into Dean's eyes for a second before thrusting his hand through the opening and reaching out across the corridor for him. His shoulder muscles weren't really flexible enough for this to be comfortable but he did it anyway. Dean copied the movement and without any reasoning behind it, on instinct alone, they took each other's hand.

"We can do this," Ron whispered to Dean with a nod.

"Yeah," Dean agreed, and seemed to reach behind him to take Sloper's hand, "we can do this. This is to stay alive right? This isn't..."

"Don't think about it," Lee said as he placed his hands upon Ron's straining shoulder and began to softly massage it with his fingers.

"Oh thank you," Ron exhaled as he closed his eyes and rested his head against the cell door.

When he opened them again he saw Tommy staring at them from his hammock and gave him a sad smile. Tommy smiled back before closing his eyes. Obviously sleep was the best way for him to control his own instinct to purge. Ron squeezed Dean's hand and he squeezed back.

"You're okay, you're okay, that's it Jimmy. Good lad," Rodger Davies was saying to a now peaceful Jimmy Peakes.

"Yeh gonna be fine," Fergus was saying in as soft a tone as Ron had ever heard him use, "c'mon, we'll all sit and breathe together eh?"

Ron could hear Robbins break down, he sounded muffled and soon Ernie's voice was quietly shushing him and comforting him. Lee leaned in close to Ron and whispered into his ear.

"Is this helping or am I being a pain?" his fingers loosened around Ron's sore shoulder as he spoke.

Ron turned his head and looked into the wizard's dark brown eyes.

"Lee I think I fucking love you," Lee smiled at this briefly before resuming his massage.

Soon the cells were quiet once again. There was the occasional murmur of reassurance. Belby was sporadically seized by the need to gag but Colin was there for him immediately and by the time Ron and Dean let go of each other's hands everybody else was as quiet as they would have been under a silencing charm.

Nobody did throw up that night.

Chapter 25 Two For One

Danny Prang was trussed up like a pig on a spit above the dinner table and had an apple in his mouth. Cally was trying to heal a dead Lord Voldemort. Maccario was singing at the top of his lungs, some passionate song in Italian, and Secretan was whizzing around the ceiling on a classic 1957 Lightning Triumph broom and laughing like a little boy on his birthday.

None of them were paying any attention to Ron or the fact that he was being held face down by a gang of Death Eaters. The Puppet Master flicked his wand at him, stripping him naked. He stroked along his bare back all the way down to his bottom with his wand and purred with delight.

"Ah Firebrand, I have been saving you for this moment, this is how I will break you!"

Ron struggled against the many hands that held him down. There seemed to be more hands then Death Eaters now and he spotted Lee standing over them all and watching as the Puppet Master unbuttoned his fly.

"Lee help me!" Ron screamed to his friend but all the dreadlocked young wizard did was shrug and shake his head, "Lee, please!"

"Ron?" Lee's voice was echoing around the room but he hadn't even opened his mouth.

"Help me, get him off me," Ron pleaded before seeing Fred and George appear at Lee's side and lead him away with a smile.

"Don't beat yourself up about it mate," Fred said as he put his hand upon Lee's shoulder.

"You did your best," George patted him on the back and the three of them vanished behind the crowd of jeering Death Eaters who had come to watch the show.

"Don't let him do this to me!" Ron screamed, "Lee!"

"Ron I'm here, please look at me, I'm right here," Lee was saying and suddenly Ron's eyes snapped open and he was a sweaty breathless heap, cowering in the corner of the cell, while Lee frantically tried to calm him down.

"What the hell's going on in there?" McLaggen was shouting.

"'S alright," Tommy called before coughing and wheezing at his own exertion, "ba...bad...just a bad dream."

Lee was holding Ron's arms securely to his sides and shushing him with fearful eyes.

"It's okay mate, I'm right here. You're fine, you're fine!"

Ron squirmed and tried to slow his breathing down.

"Let go of me," he said shakily.

"Okay," Lee released his hold on Ron immediately and watched as he ran a shaking hand through his hair, "it was just a nightmare Ron. That's all it was. I won't let anybody do anything to you alright? I promise."

Ron frowned and looked back at Lee again.

"Was I shouting?"

"Were you shouting? You were fucking bellowing mate!" Lee smiled with a sad shake of the head.

Ron rubbed his face roughly before taking a deep breath and calling out for the others to hear.

"I'm sorry lads."

"No problem Weasley," Fergus Finnegan was the first to call back.

"'S good to know you're not a super human Ron," Ernie MacMillan said, sounding greatly relieved, "I was beginning to wonder y'know?"

Ron laughed and looked back at Lee again.

"Sorry, I didn't hit you did I?"

"No," Lee moved back in a little closer to Ron to give him a bracing pat on the arm, "you were just calling for me."

Ron swallowed and nodded.

"I thought you left me with him," he murmured.

"What was that?" Lee tilted his head to listen a little closer.

Ron shook his head and laughed.

"Nothing, just a stupid dream, I'm fine now."

Lee gave him an uneasy nod and glanced over at Tommy as Ron pushed himself up to his feet and stretched out his stiff arms and legs. He took a deep breath in and almost choked.

It wasn't just the general mustiness of the piss, shit and unwashed prisoners that clawed at the back of his throat but the smell of the previous night's 'meal'. Ron shook his head to try and compose himself again and wandered over to the window, under the pretence of looking out when all he really wanted was some fresh air, any air other then the stench of the cellblock.

He felt a hand taking his where it hung at his side and saw Tommy smiling up at him weakly from his hammock.

"Hey Tom," Ron forced a smile back at him and squeezed his hand.

"Morning Ron," the sick wizard wheezed, "for the record I don't think anybody puked."

Ron cleared his throat and tried to control his own stomach.

"Well that's good to know."

Tommy grinned tiredly and Ron took a moment to test the strength of the two robes that supported Tommy's weight before sitting down on it and putting his hand to his forehead.

"Better or worse today Tom?" Ron frowned as he felt the fever still raging.

"Just a different kind of bad," Tommy said with a wince as he shifted his weight on the hammock to make more room for Ron.

"Sit still you prat, I'm fine as I am!" Ron huffed.

"Lay down for a sec," Tommy instructed.

Ron frowned.

"Huh?"

"Lay down with me up here for a while," Tommy muttered, "You spent the whole night curled up into a little ball in the corner and I want to share my hammock with you for a while."

Ron grinned at Tommy's selflessness before beginning to shake his head to reassure the wizard that he was fine.

"Besides," Tommy continued before pausing to overcome a wave of hacking coughs from deep within his chest, "you'll be keeping me warm."

Ron glanced up at the window above them. Sunlight was pouring though and the morning was a fresh, pleasant one after the stuffy night. He wondered how Tommy could still be cold.

"Jus' for a few minutes Ron, please, c'mon," Tommy said as he shifted over a little more.

"Alright, alright, stop that otherwise you'll tip yourself out ya berk! If it'll warm you up I'll get in okay?" Ron said, trying to give the illusion of annoyance to cover up his discomfort at what had to look to Lee like 'sleeping with his cellmate'.

Ron found it a little precarious as he tried to balance and settle down in the sling of material, but just about managed it smoothly, and pulled Tommy back towards the dip in the centre of the hammock to be sure he wouldn't fall out. Tommy sighed and closed his eyes while Ron rubbed his hands briskly up and down his arms to try and warm him up with the friction. Soon enough though, they were just laying together, Tommy drifting off to sleep again and Ron staring at the grimy stone ceiling.

"He's getting worse isn't he?" Lee asked, keeping his eyes focused somewhere else so as not to make Ron feel uncomfortable, he assumed.

Ron hugged Tommy to him and rubbed his hand up and down his back before responding.

"Yeah, the poor bastard's shivering."

Lee finally met Ron's eyes.

"And how are you doing?"

"It was just a dream Lee," Ron sighed,

"I don't mean that," Lee huffed, "well not just that, I meant physically. How do you feel?"

Ron frowned and wondered exactly what Lee was getting at.

"I feel fine."

"You don't feel...different?" Lee said hesitantly.

Ron swallowed and looked back up at the ceiling.

"You mean about, y'know, dinner?" he shrugged, "I'm no different to anybody else I s'pose."

Lee crawled across the floor and rose up on his haunches to force Ron to look at him again.

"I mean do you feel stronger now? After what Cally did, do you feel any different?"

Ron blinked and thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"Not really, I mean my shoulders are miles better and I don't feel like I got hexed half to death and was out for Merlin knows how long. I don't feel unusual."

"You'd tell me if you did though wouldn't you Ron? You'd tell me if you felt good or bad or anything right?"

Ron had just parted his lips to answer Lee's question when the cellblock door boomed open and he sat bolt upright at the same moment Tommy jerked awake. The hammock flipped and both of them were thrown out and slammed hard onto the floor.

"Oh shit!" Ron hissed as he tried to untangle his limbs from Tommy's and get his weight off his chest while Tommy was seized by a fierce coughing fit.

"Wakker worden jongens," the voice of a Death Eater called out with laughter in his voice.

"Fuck off yeh dickless wonder!" Fergus snapped.

Ron had scrambled out from the tangle of robes and limbs to set about trying to lift Tommy back into the hammock while Lee seemed to be taking up a position in front of the cell door, ready to block anything that might be aimed inside at his two cellmates.

"Zij hebben geen water nodig, breng het weg."

"Where d'you think you're going with that?" Marcus Belby was yelling incredulously.

Ron tried to peer around Lee to see what was going on through the tiny opening in the cell door but Lee had turned around to tell him anyway.

"They bought in the water jug and then took it away again," he whispered over his shoulder before hissing at Ron and waving his hand, "Get down out of sight!"

"Out of sight? I'm in a cell!" Ron scolded him back under his breath, "I'll just duck behind the fucking sofa shall I?"

"Shhhhhh!" Lee said before steeping right up to the cell door to block the view completely.

"Lee don't get in their faces!" Ron whispered urgently.

"I'm not," he growled without turning back, "I'm keeping them out of yours."

"Where did the water go?" McLaggen was shouting.

"Where is man in charge?" Krum asked boldly.

"Shut up," Lee began chanting under his breath, "please shut up."

"Got into trouble the last time you tried to take control didn't you?" Belby was saying in a mocking tone, obviously having taken on leader of cell status after Cally's execution, "Better not step out of line."

Fergus laughed and Lee was almost shaking with anger.

"Shut your fucking mouths you morons!" his voice was a low rumble in his chest and both his fists clenched.

"R-Ron?" Tommy strained to speak.

Ron looked at the weak figure in the hammock and shook his head.

"I dunno what's happening Tom, keep your head down yeah?"

Tommy nodded and grabbed Ron's arm, pulling him down to his knees.

"You too," Tommy spluttered, "you stay out of the way too."

"Bloody hell, not you an'all!" Ron huffed in annoyance.

"Shut up the both of you!" Lee growled over his shoulder, looking mad enough to spit, before turning back to bellow out of the opening, "Don't antagonise them you idiots. They'll take it out on Ron."

The cells fell silent so quickly that Ron's name was still echoing off the walls. Lee was still quivering with rage and footsteps, not nearly as distinctively measured as the Puppet Master's, sounded on the stone floor of the corridor between the cells.

"Keten ze vast," a slightly amused voice said before there was a flash and McLaggen swore loudly and something metal clinked.

"Take them off!" Krum was roaring in outrage.

Ron scrambled to his feet again and ripped his arm out of Tommy's weak grip to try and shove Lee aside to see what was going on. Lee elbowed him in the ribs and glared at him.

"Get away from the door Ron. I told you to stay out of the way."

"What the hell is wrong with you Lee? I just want to know what's going on out there. What happened to McLaggen?"

Lee spun around and grabbed Ron by his upper arms and forced him deeper into the cell.

"I'm keeping you safe now shut up and stay back here!"

"Take the chains off!" Krum was shouting even louder now.

"Gedraag je jongen," the Death Eater said in a playful manner.

"They are crushing him. Take them off!" Krum's deep voice boomed.

"Depulso!" the Death Eater said with relish before a second voice made its own contribution.

"Doleo!"

Ron heard something he wouldn't have thought was possible were he not hearing it for himself right then and there. Krum was screaming.

"Stop it!" Colin Creevey was struggling to make himself heard over the agonised cries.

"Compescor!" one of the cruel voices hissed.

"Enough now" Belby was pleading, "that's enough."

Ron shoved Lee aside and ran to press his face to the opening and saw a spell being aimed into Belby and Colin's cell.

"Captivas!"

There was a grunt and a thud before Belby's straining voice sounded again.

"Oh shit!"

Ron looked across to see Dean Thomas straining to see what had happened to the two wizards in the far cell.

"They're alive," he said with a sigh, "Colin's in some kind of straight jacket thing and Belby's shackled to the floor it looks like." He looked over to Ron, "What did they do to Krum and McLaggen?"

Ron felt Lee trying to pull him away and grabbed hold of the bar which ran through the middle of the tiny opening in the door and held on to it to keep his position as he stood on tiptoes and pressed his face flat to the door to see through the opening of the other cell at the far end of the block.

"I can't see McLaggen, I can hear him though," Ron winced at the strangled sound coming from deep within the cell.

"Come away and shut up will you?" Lee was pulling at Ron's whole body now.

"Impedio!" came the roar from the hooded figure and Krum slammed against the wall, whippy living bonds that seemed to grow out of the stone wall fixed him to it from wrist to elbow, swiftly entangled his arms.

"Ron what's going on?" Sam Robbins called out frantically just as the two Death Eaters sniggered and strode out of the cellblock without a second look at any of the commotion they had caused.

The cellblock door thundered closed and Jack Sloper appeared at Dean's side with a look of urgency in his eyes.

"Did they kill them? What happened?"

Lee wrenched Ron away from the door at long last and glared at him.

"When I tell you to stay away from the door and keep your bloody head down you do it!"

"For fuck's sake Lee you're not my bloody brothers!" Ron hollered into the furious face before him.

For the second time that morning a single voice silenced everything. This time it had been Ron's.

Lee's face drained of all it's anger in a second and fell into a slack gape of pain and devastation.

"I..." Lee almost swallowed the word as it tried to leave him, "...I just wanted to...For Fred and Ge-"

"You can't protect me so stop trying," Ron said firmly, "This is between me and him and when it comes down to it Lee, you're not gonna be able to stop it and the twins aren't going to burst in here and save the sodding day. Stop trying to hide me." Ron lifted his head and felt more confident in himself then he had done in a long time, "I'm not scared of him."

"Like..." the panting and pained voice of Krum called out, "Is like Maccario say. I am not afraid."

Ron smiled and turned back to call across to the battered looking Bulgarian as he strained to loosen his bound arms with no success.

"That's right Kru...Viktor. We're not afraid of them anymore," Ron looked back down at the closed cellblock door, "and they know."

ooo

Harry sat and watched as Hermione repeated the intricate wand movement over and over again, tears streaming down her face, and chanted over and over again while the yellow glow grew more intense.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

Harry felt the need to give her a hug as he watched her shoulders shaking and the tears flowing freely but she had told him not to interfere no matter how intense things seemed to get.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

Hermione's hand was shaking and the yellow glow began to pale into a feint mist and her shoulders shook even more.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...in-in-insignio..." Hermione sobbed as she struggled to continue, "...insignio invenio. I can't do it!" she wailed and threw her wand across the room, the tip of it struck the carpet and a marigold sprouted and wilted immediately.

Harry scrambled across the floor and wrapped his arms around her tightly while she screamed her frustration into his shoulder.

"It's alright, you can try again tomorrow, don't cry Hermione." Harry said soothingly as he rocked her gently.

"But I can't!" she wailed, "It'll never be as good as it was that fir-fir-first time!"

Harry felt his heart become as heavy as led.

"Oh please don't say that Hermione."

It would destroy him if he had interrupted their best and only hope of finding Ron before he was the next victim of the Death Eater's execution squad. Hermione had been so close that time she said she could almost touch him, feel him beneath her fingertips and put the magical marker on him that they could then follow to wherever he was being kept.

"I just keep feeling him being pulled away and I can't get him back again," Hermione sobbed, "he never comes back up from the lake, I can't ever open the door in the Department of Mysteries in time and he falls through the veil, I get to the hospital wing and he's already dead. I can't find him Harry, I can't find my Ron!"

ooo

Lee was sitting on the floor, knees drawn up to his chest and his face supported and mostly hidden by his hand while the other one picked at the fraying hem of his trousers. He hadn't been able to look at Ron ever since their semi argument.

He didn't know how to explain to him that he wasn't just trying to keep him safe from harm for Fred and George, true that was how it was to begin with, he needed to keep him safe because he was his friend. He had suffered to save others from suffering and he was a target for the perverted Puppet Master and Lee couldn't just sit back and not do anything.

Then he had nearly died. He had held Ron's body as he slowly died in his arms until Cally had fixed him up enough to survive. He had vowed to keep him safe after that. He promised himself he would do anything to spare Ron from any more torture. There wasn't much he could do but he wanted to at least try.

The door to the cellblock swung open and slammed against the wall. Lee jumped and saw Ron getting to his feet, standing before Tommy.

"Ron no," Tommy said weakly as he reached for his hand.

"He's not taking you Tom," Ron said as he set his jaw with determination.

The familiar footfalls of the Puppet Master sounded against the cool stone floor and Lee hauled himself up to his feet and met Ron's steely glare.

"Lee don't," Ron warned.

"You're my brother," Lee spoke in a firm but low tone, "and you're my friend, and he will hurt you over my dead body." he looked down at Tommy, "That goes for you too."

"You said it yourself," Ron whispered desperately as the Puppet Master's footsteps grew louder, "Cally did something to me to make me stronger, to protect me from him, and I intend to fight them all the way down there and I'll kill at least one of 'em Lee."

"You're not going," Lee snarled before freezing as the shadow of the Puppet Master passed by their cell and then the large intimidating figure himself.

He glanced into the cell and smiled before carrying on his way to the cells at the far end.

"Ah my dear jongens," he said with an amused sounding groan of sympathy, "you do look uncomfortable."

"Let Colin go," Belby was begging him, "he didn't do anything to deserve it, it was me, please take the mummification jacket thing off him."

"You are prisoners Mr Belby," the Puppet Master said as if Marcus Belby was an idiot, "and prisoners do not need the use of their arms unless I am putting them to work."

"Unless you are scared that we are strong enough to attack," Krum said, braver then he was intelligent Lee thought, "We are locked up like animals and still you are afraid of us."

The Puppet Master sounded as if he was smacking his lips. Lee moved himself in front of Ron, who glowered at him and shook his head slowly. He just nodded back and then looked back out at the Puppet Master as he stepped forward to peer into Krum's cell. The Dark Wizard looked Krum up and down and withdrew his wand idly.

"Have you ever slept on your feet before Mr Krum?" he sighed lazily, "Because, thanks to your insolence, you will be spending the rest of your time here like that. Do get comfortable."

Krum seemed to be growling at the man as he turned the focus of his gloating towards McLaggen on the floor of the cell. He flicked his wand down to the ground, the sound of chains straining penetrated the silence, and McLaggen cried out before gasping and wheezing desperately.

"They are tight enough." Krum bellowed, "Stop!"

The Puppet Master laughed and nodded down to the open doorway of the cellblock before striding quickly over towards Lee. He prepared himself to have to wrestle Ron aside again as the sadistic wizard opened the cell door with a flick of his wand and stood in the doorway.

"Thomas Painter—" he began.

"No!" Ron declared as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Lee and folded his arms across his chest, "Not today you don't."

"I will do as I please Firebrand," the Puppet Master said, the corner of his eye twitching a little.

"His name is Ron and he's right," Lee said with determination, "Tommy's not going anywhere today."

"Breng hem bij me!" the Puppet Master snapped at one of the waiting guards in annoyance.

Two Death Eaters advanced into the cell and Ron stepped forward right into the face of the one with the white streak of hair.

"Nee," he said fiercely.

The Death Eater looked torn between being impressed and being outraged at this and glanced at his master for instructions.

"Neem deze jongen nu mee!" the Puppet Master snarled back at him while pointing at Tommy.

"Not today," Ron barked back calmly, "He can't walk and he can't stand."

"Well it is a kindness of me to end his suffering is it not?" The Puppet Master said, stepping deeper into the cell and drawing himself up to his full height.

The other Death Eater tried to barge past Lee but he was ready for him and elbowed him in the ribs, jabbed him in the windpipe and tried to wrestle the wand out of the man's hand.

"Stop!" the Puppet Master instructed before looking to the white streaked Death Eater and ordering him, "Help hem."

"Back off!" Ron said as he put his hand on the Death Eater's chest and shoved him back into the wall.

A spell shot from the end of the wand and blasted some of the masonry loose from the wall before the Death Eater with his superior strength yanked the wand away from Lee and knocked him off his feet, flat onto his back, with a single punch to the jaw. Lee felt as if his skull had been pulled apart in two different directions. There was a 'sloshing' sound inside his head and his vision flashed as if Colin Creevey had his camera in the cell with him and had started snapping off pictures of the fight. He shook his head to clear it and felt slightly sick.

"Stop, don't," Tommy was protesting through his splutters, "they'll kill you."

Ron stepped in front of the Puppet Master and almost seemed to smile at the evil man.

"Not yet eh? Not unless you want a go now."

"No!" Lee roared from the floor, his jaw felt as if it was completely foreign to his head.

"You are not in control Firebrand," the Puppet Master bellowed, his eyelid twitching uncontrollably as his voice rose.

"And you're a bloody hypocrite if you do this," Ron spat back, "you have your little speech and your cup of potion and that sick little execution ritual of yours and now you want to throw all that out the window and drag a sick man to die. Where's the honour in that?"

The Puppet Master blinked and the Death Eater who had laid Lee out advanced on Tommy. Ron jumped back to stand between them again and the man pointed his wand into Ron's face and his eyes sparkled.

"Cru-"

Ron closed his eyes in readiness to be hit with the unforgivable curse.

"Nee!" the Puppet Master roared at his colleague, "Je mag hem niet martelen."

"Waarom?" the man frowned in disgust, "De bloedverrader..."

"Stil." Ron hissed at the aggravated Dark wizard.

The man raised his hand to strike Ron and Lee launched himself at him. He tackled him to the ground before the other guard, the man with the white streak in his hair, kicked him in the stomach and hauled his colleague to his feet. Lee rolled onto his side on the floor, his eyes watering. He looked up at Ron who looked down at him and smiled in the strangest way that sent a chill down Lee's spine.

"If you take somebody from this cell you'll take somebody who can walk to their death like a man and neither of these two can now so it'll have to be me won't it?"

"No," Lee said, struggling to sit up and reaching out to grab the material at Ron's ankle.

His fingers gripped the grubby denim tightly and his bruising stomach protested his efforts to get back up again.

"It is Mr Painter's turn," the Puppet Master said, fighting to control his emotions.

"He's not," Ron said with ferocious determination, "going."

The two of them stared, unblinking, into each other for an agonising few seconds before the Puppet Master drew in a huge breath and puffed out his chest.

"Very well," the large wizard said before nodding for his cohorts to leave the cell with him.

Ron seemed to waver slightly at having won the face off.

"Thank you," he said, his voice now sounding uncertain and much more like the Ron Lee knew.

The Puppet Master closed and locked the cell door and broke into that dreadful smile. Lee felt sick, something awful was going to happen, and one look at Ron's face let him know that he could sense it too.

"Wij zullen hem in zijn plaats vermoorden" he nodded to the white streaked Death Eater, "Haal Davies." Then he turned to the slightly dishevelled Death Eater Lee had fought with, "Jij, haal Peakes."

"What?" Ron paled as he threw himself at the closed cell door, "No, what are you doing?" the cell door beside them was opened and Fergus Finnegan began swearing and hollering while a scuffle broke erupted out of sight, "You can't!"

"I spare one from your cell Firebrand," the Puppet Master purred with delight, "and I take two from the next."

"No!" Ron yelled, "I said take me, I offered you someone from this fucking cell. Take me you bastard!"

Fergus Finnegan sounded as if he was putting up even more of a fight then Lee had done.

"Get yer mits offa him yer son of a hag. He's only seventeen fer fuck's sake."

"You don't need two, just take me," Davies was pleading with the man with the white streak of hair, "I'll go quietly. Just take me."

A pair of hands thrust forth from the cell opposite the one under attack and, as the Death Eater dragged Davies out and backed into the door, Ernie MacMillan grabbed the man by the hair before putting him into a headlock and bellowing at Davies to run for it.

"Imperio!" The Puppet Master said victoriously as his hit Davies in the face with the curse and the young blonde wizard's face went slack and he walked calmly out of the cellblock.

"Stop," Ron said as he reached out to claw at the Puppet Master's robes, "don't."

The Death Eater who had been freed of his charge dove into the cell once more to help wrestle Jimmy Peakes away from Fergus, who was still fighting bravely.

"He's the youngest, he should be last," the Irish wizard said desperately, "yeh got the wrong one, I should go before him."

There was a flash and a whump sound that shook the walls before both Death Eater's pulled Peakes out, his face bloodied and his legs kicking with all their might in every direction.

"Jim!" Fergus was roaring as the door slammed shut again, "Jimmy fight 'em. You can do it Jim, fight the bastards!"

"Davies run," Ernie was screaming from his own cell hoarsely, "shake it off and run. I know you can do it."

"Now remember this tomorrow afternoon jongens," the Puppet Master bowed at the main door to the cellblock, "Any exchanges will only be made with interest."

The door boomed shut and Ron was still clinging onto the door for dear life, his eyes wide and blank.

"Fucking bastards," Fergus whimpered, "Those heartless fuckin' pricks!"

Lee still had hold of the hem of Ron's jeans and pulled on it. Ron's leg jerked loosely and he glanced down at Lee on the floor at his feet. He sank down onto his knees slowly and helped Lee sit up a little more before putting his hand to the rapidly swelling jaw.

"I didn't mean it," Ron whispered breathlessly.

Lee winced at the pain in his jaw and put his hand on Ron's shoulder.

"Didn't mean what?"

Ron looked him in they eye, his own were bloodshot and shining.

"You are my brother."

Chapter 26 Brothers In Arms

The cells were quiet and Tommy was shaking like never before.

Though the breeze from the window, was warm the draught seemed to be causing him some considerable discomfort and so Ron had climbed into the hammock with him again to give him some body heat.

"Y'okay Tom? Is that better?" Ron smiled as he rubbed up and down Tommy's arm to create some heat with the friction.

"Y-" he had tried to answer but only ended up coughing and Ron decided that conversation wasn't the thing Tommy needed right then.

"That's okay mate, you feel the need in the night just you go ahead and blow your nose on me okay?"

Tommy's eyebrows lifted and the corner of his mouth curled into a smile. Ron grinned and settled into Tommy's side and sighed deeply while watching Lee settling down on the hard floor to go to sleep for yet another night.

"Hey Lee?" Ron called over.

Lee sat up immediately and stared at Ron, ready and willing to give him whatever he needed. He had to smile at his newly adopted 'brother'. Lee really was taking his title seriously.

"Can you do me a favour?" he whispered across the quiet cell.

"Yeah, of course," Lee crawled over to kneel beside the hammock, "What do you need? Are you still sore? Are you coming down with something?" He put his hand to Ron's forehead and Ron frowned and shook his head to get Lee's hand off him.

"I said you were my brother not my mother!" he huffed before grinning mischievously.

Lee rolled his eyes and slumped.

"So what is it then?"

"Tom," Ron nodded down to the still trembling wizard, "I'm only blocking the draft on one side of him. Can you get in and help keep him warm?"

Lee swallowed and looked at the hammock uneasily before taking in the sight of the two wizards cocooned within it already.

"I dunno if there's room for three Ron," he frowned.

"This thing is made from two cloaks, it's huge," Ron said as he tugged at the excess material beside him.

"Yeah but, three of us sleeping right up against each other like that," Lee scrunched up his face, "isn't that a bit weird?"

Ron gave a tut and rolled his eyes.

"Well the thing with huddling together for warmth is that you have to actually huddle together!"

While Lee smiled with embarrassment Dean Thomas chuckled from across the cellblock. They were obviously providing someone with entertainment that night.

"I didn't mean it like that," Lee explained, "I meant that it might be a little claustrophobic in there."

"As opposed to the teeny tiny cell?" Ron said, looking at Lee as if he was a total moron.

"This is roomy this is," Lee said as he gestured to the dank walls around himself.

Ron laughed and shook his head.

"Well it was just a thought," he mumbled before laying his head down and rubbing his free hand up and down Tommy's exposed side again.

He felt Tommy shiver even more. He also felt Lee's eyes on them and knew that he was going to give in at any second. He closed his eyes and smiled to himself.

"Oh shut up you smug git, I'm getting in alright?" Lee grumbled.

"I didn't say anything," Ron said with innocence while Lee attempted to climb inside the taught fabric and lie down flat.

"You didn't have to," Lee grunted as he shifted around to get comfortable in the hammock and try his very best not to catapult the three of them out of it.

As they settled into the most comfortable shape three different sized wizards in a hand made hammock could get themselves into somebody in another cell cleared their throat and the sound of urination echoed against one of the walls.

"UGH!" the collective groan sounded out throughout the cells.

"Well bloody hum then!" Jack Sloper snapped at his cellmates.

"We'd have liked a warning to do it before you started Sloper!" MacMillan said while Dean Thomas seemed to be laughing lazily.

"Oh no," Colin Creevey groaned, "Now I have to go!"

Marcus Belby groaned in disgust as another trickling sound broke the silence. Colin would have to be wetting himself as he was still constricted by his straight jacket. It was too awful to imagine how awful it was for the occupants of the far cells, each trussed up in their differing ways.

"Please someone, drown him out otherwise I'll burst too," McLaggen pleaded, his voice sounding strained and his chains clinking.

"Laaa la la la laaa, la la laaaaaaa..." Dean began to sing to himself.

Ron and Lee both smiled at his diversionary tactic.

"Is that 'I'm forever blowing bubbles'?" Colin called out, far too chirpily for a grown man who had just pissed himself.

"Yeah," Dean chuckled.

"Oh of course, I forgot, you're a West Ham fan aren't you?" he said as he made a shuffling sound.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Marcus Belby said with a grunt that sounded like he was having trouble getting to sleep through the muscle cramps caused by being pegged out on the cell floor.

"It's the song they sing on the terraces at Upton Park, it's the Hammers' theme song if you like."

"Anthem Colin," Dean said proudly, "It's an anthem!"

Ernie MacMillan laughed out loud at this and Sam Robbins gave a tut.

"Oh sorry, were you asleep?" he asked his disgruntled cellmate.

"Fat chance with you lot isn't it?" he snapped.

"Oi Dean," Lee called out, "sing Sam a lullaby."

"Shut up and snuggle into your threesome Jordan!" Dean cackled.

As several others in the cells chortled Lee glared at Ron and huffed.

"See I knew this was weird!"

"Oh shut up you prat and stop rocking the hammock!" Ron said with a grin.

For a minute or so the cells were quiet again. Ron's eyes had fallen closed and Tommy's bony shoulder was digging into his cheek. There were the sounds of breathing and shuffling. Somebody cleared their throat again and all became stiller and silent and peaceful...

"Lads?" Fergus Finnegan's voice seemed so loud that Ron and Lee both jumped as if he had screamed out for them but his voice was low and soft, especially for him.

"Fergus?" Dean called out with concern.

"Yeah, 'sme, sorry it's just...No, never mind. Sorry Dean, g'night."

Ron and Lee looked over Tommy's sleeping form and shrugged.

"Fergus?" Ron called out, "What is it mate?"

"Nothin', don't mind me, everyone jus' go back to sleep."

There was an uncomfortably long pause before Krum's voice called out from the opposite end of the cell to Fergus'.

"You are alone in there for first time yes?"

Ron bit his lip and Lee swallowed and looked into the wall to avoid meeting his eyes.

"Yeah," Fergus answered, his voice sounding a little cracked, "I just wanted you lot to talk fer a bit longer but yer all tired. Don't worry about it, I'm just not used to peace and quiet," he tried to say the last sentence with a laugh in his voice but he hadn't managed to pull it off.

"I can talk for a bit," Ron said, "if you like?"

"Nah, I don't want to be a bother," Fergus murmured.

"'S no bother," Ron said as he tried to sit up a little in the hammock, "What d'you wanna talk about?"

"Nothin', anythin'," Fergus said with resignation, "I just wanted ta hear that ye were all still there y'know. Like I said, it's stupid, don't pay any attention ta me."

Ron didn't like this. He hadn't known Fergus too well before they became captives together but he knew enough to know that this wasn't like him at all. He couldn't imagine being in his cell without Tommy and Lee, he shivered at the thought of it.

"Seriously Ron, are you feeling ill?" Lee said immediately.

Ron smiled and shook his head.

"Nah, I was just thinking about something nasty," he said, the smile fading pretty quickly.

Lee looked down at Tommy sadly and sighed.

"You've not caught what Tom's got then?"

"Hypothermia isn't infectious you twat," he chuckled lazily.

Then he fell silent again and tried to think of something to talk to Fergus about to help him through his first night alone.

"Keep goin'" the Irish wizard called out, "just like that, that was fine."

Ron looked at Lee and realised that he needn't fret so much about having something to say. It wasn't the words, only the comfort of a human voice somewhere in the background. He looked at the cell door and saw the moonlight casting the shadow of the two bars from the window against it with the knot of the home made hammock bulging in the middle. It looked like a rabbit holding two beaters' bats.

"What's the difference between a rabbit and a hare really?" Ron asked the shadow on the door, for lack of anything else to address directly, "I mean who was being so difficult that they decided that one hoppy git with long ears was different to another hoppy git with long ears?"

"Greyhounds and whippets are the same too," Colin Creevey called out.

"No they're not," Ron frowned, "a Greyhound's much bigger than a whippet. That's like saying a giant and a person are the same thing."

"Giants are people," Lee said, staring at Ron as if he was a stranger.

"I'm not talking about Hagrid or Grawp...well yes, I am talking about Grawp but the old Grawp, back before he was civilised, he was not the same as us was he?"

"Well yeah," Lee shrugged.

"No, I wasn't suggesting that Greyhounds and Whippets were the same breed of dog," Colin explained himself further, still sounding chirpy and alert despite his dire and humiliating situation, "I was giving them as an example similar to Rabbits and Hares."

"What Greyhounds chase Hares and Whippets chase Rabbits?" Sloper sniggered.

"No but you've made my point," Colin said, "Greyhounds are a larger animal of the same family as the whippet just like hares are larger than rabbits but they're in the same family too."

"Size isn't everything Creevey," Ernie MacMillan said with a chuckle.

"You would say that Ernie," Sam Robbins muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ernie shot back.

"It means I've seen you pee, and no matter how much of a show you make of using both hands to do it you could hold that with your little finger!"

The cellblock was filled with raucous laughter while Ernie protested loudly that Sam wasn't the least bit funny.

There was a pounding on the main door that silenced them all straight away.

"Stil!"

"Oh still yourself," Belby muttered.

The interruption had shut them all up though. Ron felt annoyed at this; the conversation had just got going naturally.

"So is it true that you brewed your own Firewhisky in your seventh year at Hogwarts Fergus?" he asked as he remembered a story Seamus had told him in the dorm once while tearing up the floorboards in search of said 'still'.

"Nah that was a myth," Fergus said with a chuckle, "it was sloe gin not Firewhisky."

Dean laughed.

"Where was your still? Your cousin went insane trying to find it one Christmas.

"Got found out by Professor Herbert didn't I?"

"Herbert?" Robbins said alertly, "Wasn't he the professor who got sacked for showing up to a lesson drunk out of his skull?"

"Oh yes," Fergus said with pride.

Lee laughed, as did most of the others.

"And didn't he fall out of the window after he packed his things to go?" McLaggen asked.

"He said he wasn't goin' ta walk out of the main doors of Hogwarts in disgrace," Fergus said, getting that lyrical tone in his voice again now, "he'd rather sneak outta his office window and disappear into the night. Seemed to forget his office was three floors up though and broke both his legs."

Everybody chuckled about this.

The cells settled down again and Lee yawned. Ron struggled not to follow suit just as Jack Sloper called out clearly for all to hear.

"I have a question."

"Go on then, what is it?" Dean, his cellmate, said as he seemed to prepare himself for a joke of some kind.

"Has anyone actually tried to Disapparate outa here?"

There was a pause so long and deathly silent that Ron wondered if he'd fallen asleep and missed the ensuing conversation. It was only when the snorts of laughter began to ripple within each cell that he realised that they were all still there and reacting to this embarrassing realisation.

"Well there's got to be wards hasn't there?" Colin said, determined to prove this question ridiculous.

"Well that's why I didn't bother trying too but c'mon, how dodgy is it that none of us has even tried to just leave?" Jack said with amusement.

"You want to have a go?" Dean offered sceptically.

"Piss off, there's gonna be wards up!" Jack snorted.

Everybody laughed again.

"We should play some kinda game or have a bet or something and the loser has to try and Disapparate as their forfeit," Ernie MacMillan said eagerly.

"D'you know any games that can be played from separate rooms?" Belby asked, not sounding like he expected an affirmative answer.

"Well no, I only know how to play Quidditch...and chess, and it's a little inconvienient for either of those right now Marcus." McLaggen said, sounding a little disheartened.

"Oh even if we could play chess I can tell you right now who'd win every time," Dean said with an amused huff.

"Who?" Fergus asked.

"Ron!" Belby, Colin, Lee, Dean, Sloper and Ernie said together before laughing.

"Oh come off it," Ron said, feeling slightly embarrassed and shifting in the hammock to wriggle Tommy's elbow out of his ribcage, "I'm not undefeated or anything."

"Losing to Fred while you were in hospital after the Department of Mysteries doesn't count," Lee grinned, "besides, he cheated while you were getting your bandages changed."

"That git!" Ron exclaimed; sitting up so fast that the hammock almost flipped right over.

Once more there was laughter that gradually died down into nothing until someone found himself needing to penetrate the silence again.

"Come on," Colin pleaded, "games, eye spy? Anything?"

"Eye spy with my little eye some thing beginning with 'W'," Ernie sang out merrily.

"Walls!" everybody responded.

"Correct," he declared.

"Eye spy with my little eye something beginning with 'M'," Sam Robbins announced.

"More walls?" Jack ventured.

"Of course!" he said with amused resignation.

Lee heaved a deep sigh and Ron blinked away some of the darkness to focus on his face.

"You alright?" he whispered.

"Yeah fine," he said before fidgeting a little, "You?"

Ron nodded and changed his own position in the hammock so he was now staring up at the ceiling.

"Okay so eye spy's no good, that's why I was asking for something else?" Colin said with a long yawn.

"Well there was this thing Hermione and I used to do when we couldn't sleep during the horcrux business," Ron said thoughtfully.

Somebody wolf-whistled. Ron decided to rise above it at if it hadn't happened at all.

"It's called five things I have seen and five things I have never seen. It's basically just that," Ron shrugged, "you tell each other five things you've seen in your life and five things you never have. It's amazing some of the stuff people come out with...for both!"

"Okay then Weasley," Belby said, sounding interested, "go ahead, start us off."

"Um, right, well..." Ron thought for a moment to some of the ones he'd used during the times Hermione couldn't sleep and had needed him to talk to her until she drifted off with a contented smile on her face, "Oh right I've got one. Number one thing I have seen is a solar eclipse."

"Oh we all saw that Weasley," Robbins scoffed, unimpressed.

"Yeah but you didn't see it at bloody night did you?" Ron said with a know-it-all tone.

"Bollocks, you never saw a solar eclipse at night," Fergus said with a chortle.

"My dad did it for my birthday," Ron said, the corner of his mouth curling upward at the memory of the proud look on his father's face, "I was ill during the one you all got to see, had scarlet fever, it clashed with my hair." Dean laughed and Ron continued, "Anyway my dad waited until I was a bit better and on my birthday mum let him take me outside to the big field. He did this big temporary pensieve thing with a wire mesh that hung above us and we laid down on the grass and looked up at the stars. Then he took the memory of watching the eclipse out of his head and sent it up into the big pensieve and we watched it again...in the night sky. It was cool."

"You got a great dad there Weasley," Fergus said sadly.

Ron suddenly felt bad, he was sure that Fergus had never mentioned his own father.

"Yeah well anyway, that's number one," he swallowed the lump in his throat, "The second thing I have seen is a Death Eater's toilet."

There were snorts and hisses as people tried to repress their laughter.

"You know how I know it was a Death Eater's toilet?" Ron asked the cellblock, "It had the dark mark on the seat."

"No way!" Ernie MacMillan declared.

"Bullshit," McLaggen said with amusement.

"On my life, it did," Ron protested, "A Dark Mark on the fucking seat that showed up every time you flushed."

"Why the hell would they need it to do that? What could you possibly enchant a bog seat to do that for?" Dean said in amazement.

"Well I thought it was like a 'wash your hands or die!' thing" Ron grinned and Lee's shoulders shook and he laughed into Tommy side.

"Okay I'll buy it, you saw an evil toilet seat," Sloper sighed, "So come on then, what's number three?"

"The third thing I have seen," Ron announced proudly, "is the bare arse of the chosen one!"

Laughter filled the cruel walls once again before everybody who had shared either a dorm or a Quidditch changing room with Harry Potter announced that they had seen it too.

"Hey I didn't say I was the only one to have seen it, just that I had."

Fergus was laughing weakly, as if it was hurting him.

"Okay then Ron, number four," he whimpered.

"The fourth thing I have seen," Ron said as he cleared his throat, "is Professor McGonnagal laughing at one of my jokes."

There was an awed silence at that. It was only broken by Colin Creevey's whispered gasp.

"Wow!"

"And finally, the fifth thing that I have seen is," Ron's face broke into an enormous grin, "the Malfoy family bouncing on a bouncy castle!"

"No fuckin' way!" Dean yelped.

"You'd making that one up right?" Lee's head jerked up and the whites of his eyes shone out in the darkness bright as the moon itself.

"I swear, I saw it, it was at a Ministry function when I was a little kid. They had this inflatable and Draco was frightened to go on alone so his mum and dad went on it with him," Ron's voice was degenerating into giggles as he spoke.

"Oh you're kidding me?" Marcus Belby said, enviously.

"When we get out of here you are putting that memory into a pensieve and letting me see it first hand Weasley. Do you understand?" Ernie demanded.

"Agreed!" Ron laughed.

Jack Sloper was seized by the most out of control laughter anybody had ever heard. It was almost as bad as it would have been if her were under a ticking charm.

"Shit Jack, try to breathe okay?" Dean said with audible amusement.

"Sorry, s'jus...I can see it in my head," Sloper giggled weakly, "Lucius M-Malfoy with his hair flying all over the place going 'Weeeeee!'"

The cells were overtaken with another wave of laughter. There was another almighty bang against the main cell door. The boom echoed off the walls and shook them all into remembering their current circumstances and becoming subdued.

"Thanks fellas," Fergus said quietly, sounding a little more relaxed and a lot less lonely now, "you have a good night yeah?"

"Night Fergus," Dean called.

"Night Fergus," the rest of them repeated.

For a moment that all too familiar silence weighted down the atmosphere and Ron snuggled into Tommy, who had slept through the whole thing shivering, until a high voice began to hum.

"Go to sleep Colin," Belby mumbled wearily.

"Sorry," he said softly.

"Was that the Hammers' song?" Dean asked, it sounded as if there was a smile on his lips.

"The anthem you mean, yes it is," Colin responded.

"Don't cha know the words?" Dean called back as low as he could.

"Not really, not all of them," Colin answered.

Ron listened for a moment and heard nothing more. He closed his eyes and tried to drift off to sleep.

"I'm forever blowing bubbles," Dean sang out softly, "pretty bubbles in the air. They fly so high, nearly reach the sky, then like my dreams they fade and die." Despite his East London accent Dean had quite a gentle voice, he continued without embarrassment, "Fortune's always smiling. I looked everywhere. I'm forever blowing bubbles. Pretty bubbles in the air."

Ron heard Lee's voice muffled into Tommy's back.

"Lucky Bubbles eh."

Chapter 27 Babies

Caroline Peakes was on her knees, cradling the cold dead body of her son.

He was just a little boy. Seventeen was no age to die in a war, especially a war that had already been won. He was younger than her Ronnie, Molly thought to herself as she hugged her daughter close to her while the young witch wept for her old Quidditch team-mate, and this whole horror was finally hitting every family left behind in that Embassy. They wouldn't shirk from killing the babies; they'd revel in it.

Molly looked over to Korin Davies as she nodded blankly and followed the floating stretcher that carried her own son towards the fireplace to take him home. She hadn't screamed when the sneering Death Eater had handed his discharge papers to her. Poor Rodger, that was his name, had been released from duty and was free to go. His war was over and he was going to come home, probably with Ron, the following morning, the morning of the attack.

This wasn't fair. This was cruel and heartless and horrifying. That handsome blonde man was dead and his mother was an emotionless shell, following his corpse towards the green flames to lay him to rest at twenty-one years old.

Babies, all of them babies.

Then Death Eater had handed Korin Davies the private letter of her son's and been struck down by Tonks in an instant. The search revealed young Jimmy Peakes' schedule for the week following his capture. That was how the softly spoken witch from Manchester discovered her baby was dead and began to scream. She hadn't stopped.

Just as the Embassy reception area was clearing out to give the women some privacy to grieve their boys body's had slammed down onto the floor, via a portkey, and the screaming from one mother worsened while the silence from the other sent stabbing pains through Molly's chest. The need to scream and the need to shut down and block the pain out were both so familiar to her.

When her brother's had died she hadn't said a word. She had started making a stew, then a roast beef, then a loaf of bread before starting on a bread and butter pudding before Arthur had forcibly removed her from the kitchen and made her let out her grief and pain.

When she thought she had lost her children she had found herself screaming and crying until her head pounded. The owl that came from Hogwarts to tell her that her one and only little girl had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets she had been gripped by fear and terror and grief that shook her bones. The time she had wandered past the family clock and seen Ronnie's hand swing violently around to mortal peril during the time that the search for and fear of Sirius Black was at it's peak she had screamed the house down to get Arthur to go with her to Hogwarts immediately. The Death Eater's at the Quidditch world cup, her whole family in danger while she was sitting alone in the house almost having heart palpitations with every spark of the fireplace and every bird that passed by the window.

She began to flinch when an owl came in the night.

Her babies, her baby girl and boy, attacked by Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. That owl had come early in the morning but she had been waiting for it. Arthur had been called upon to go and she was told to wait behind in case the children tried to escape back to Grimmauld Place. Nobody ever came back through that fireplace though. All that came was an owl. Her babies were in hospital and she was being instructed not to panic.

Don't panic?

The loudest screams had come within mere months of each other however. Albus Dumbledore sitting her down in his office and telling her that Ronnie had been poisoned. She had nodded, determined to remain calm. He had told her the name of the lethal poison, not just fatal to ingest but a poison that delivered a slow and painful death, and she had screamed so loud that the portraits ran from their frames. She screamed herself hoarse. Her baby boy had died, she had thought. He had died in agony on the day he came of age. Somebody had taken him from her.

Who had the right to do that? Who had the right to take her boy?

Then there was Bill. That was a scream. He was her oldest, her firstborn, but still her baby all the same. She didn't recognise him as he lay in that hospital bed. His smile, those twinkling eyes, that beautiful face of his just torn away. Would he live? Would he want the life he was left with? What would she do if the animal that attacked him consumed her oldest baby? She screamed for the loss of the face she adored and the risk of losing the only thing more beautiful, the man that was inside.

Having a big family only made the odds stack against them. There were more targets to hit, more lives to lose, more babies to grieve and bury. She had seven happy healthy children and two wars had come and gone and she still had all seven. The odds couldn't be that kind to her. This was going to be the price for sparing the rest of the family.

She was going to lose her Ronnie.

She was going to lose her baby boy.

They were going to murder her baby.

ooo

Somebody was making a snarling sound. Lee guessed that it was Krum, the cramp must be agonising by now, and he had been on his feet strapped against the wall for hours. He blinked and smacked his dry lips before looking down at Tommy. He was making a strange wheezing sound as he breathed and his skin was so hot it almost burned Lee to touch it.

"He needs water," Lee mumbled before looking across the hammock to Ron, who was sleeping with his mouth wide open and his head lolling over the side of the hammock, "Ron? Ron, Tom's no better."

"Foam!" Ron blurted as he snorted awake and looked around himself urgently, "What?"

"Ron, it's Tommy, he's...foam?" Lee suddenly frowned at Ron and lost his focus.

"Tommy's foam?" Ron repeated with a look of utter bewilderment on his face as he leaned over to look down at the wizard between them in the hammock.

"Tommy's worse," Lee said as he wiped some of the sweat away from the sick wizard's face.

"You said foam," Ron said as he put his hand to Tommy's forehead and looked slightly alarmed at the heat he felt coming off his cellmate.

"No you said foam," Lee said as he tried to wriggle out of the hammock without tipping Ron and Tommy out.

"I didn't say foam," Ron looked at Lee as if he was crazy.

"When you woke up you shouted the word foam!" Lee said impatiently as he toppled out of the hammock and landed heavily on his knees.

"Why would I say foam?" Ron exclaimed.

"Please stop saying foam!" Krum roared from within his cell.

Ron and Lee jumped and stared at each other before glancing to the opening in the cell door.

"Kr...Viktor," Ron said, pausing to correct himself, "are you okay?"

There was a deep rattling exhalation before Krum replied.

"I sorry, I have no sleep and my joints hurt. My temper is...how you say?"

"Don't worry about it," Ron said as he too tried to extricate himself from the hammock.

Lee stood at the cell door and could see the side of Krum's face through the opening in his own cell door.

"Yeah mate, sorry, it's our fault. We're not the best of morning people, Ron and me, we'll shut up okay?"

"No don't be silly," Krum grunted as he clenched his teeth against another seizure of pain, "I just angry at these."

Krum pulled against the tight vine-like bindings.

"Frustrated," Ron called out over Lee's shoulder.

"Yes, frustrated, that is it." Krum nodded.

"Yeah well I wanna know why Weasley was dreaming about foam," Fergus said lazily.

Colin Creevey seemed to be laughing.

"How you doing in there Colin? Jacket's not giving you too much trouble is it?" Lee asked.

"No, I'm fine," Colin said, he sounded chirpy enough considering his situation, though not nearly as breezy as his usual self, "it's just like giving yourself a really tight hug and you can't complain about that can you?"

Lee looked over his shoulder at Ron and they shared a chuckle and shake of the head before Ron moved alongside Lee to call out.

"Well I've had really tight hugs from Hagrid and I found plenty to complain about after that I can tell you."

Colin chuckled and Lee noticed Dean Thomas getting up and stretching his arms and legs.

"Mornin' lads," he yawned.

"Alright Dean," Ron nodded before looking back to the far cells, "How's Belby doing Col?"

"Marcus?" Colin's voice asked timidly, "I think he actually managed to go to sleep. I'll leave him be for the time being I think."

"Yeah, you do that," Ron said immediately.

Lee put a hand on Ron's back to reassure him that he was doing a good job with 'morning welfare checks' before calling across to Krum.

"McLaggen alright is he?"

"Seems good, hard to see under chains but seems to be more comfortable asleep then he is awake."

Lee turned to look at Ron but he was gone. He spun around on the spot and saw Ron leaning over Tommy and holding his shaking hand. Lee took a step closer to them while Ron nodded his head and took a step back. He glanced at Lee and then sent his eyes all over the cell urgently. Then he looked down at himself and patted at his body before huffing and running his fingers roughly through his hair and casting his attention towards the window.

"What is it? What d'he say?" Lee said as he wandered over to Tommy's side while Ron launched himself up at the barred window and tried to pull himself up with one hand while reaching out with the other.

"Shit," Ron grunted before dropping back down, just that little bit of exertion seemed to have been tiring for him, "It'll have to do I s'pose."

Lee looked from Ron down to Tommy, who seemed to be fast asleep again, and back to Ron as he tore the sleeve of his t-shirt clean off and held it between his teeth before grabbing the bar at the window and lifting himself up once again.

"Ron what are you doing?" Dean called across from his cell but Ron didn't reply.

He hooked his arm around the bar and snatched the material from his moth and reached out with it, moving it around awkwardly and grimacing at the apparent discomfort he was suffering in this odd position. Then he yelped and swore. He pinned his body hard against the wall and held his breath, before sighing and pulling his arm back inside the cell and hopping back down to the floor. He cast a relieved glance at Lee before waving the damp fabric before his face.

"Nearly dropped the bloody thing," he huffed before draping it over Tommy's forehead and patting the side of his sweat drenched face.

"Is it wet outside?" Lee frowned out of the window at the brilliant sunrise.

"Nah," Ron said with another concerned frown down at Tommy, "it's dew."

"D'you think we should take off the extra jumpers?" Lee said as he crouched down beside Tommy in his hammock.

"No," Ron said with absolutely no certainty at all in his tone, "I'm sure we're supposed to keep him warm but give him lots to drink," Ron seemed to be struggling to remember something, "I think that's what my mum used to do for me when I was ill."

Lee watched as Ron rubbed his face roughly.

"I can't soddin' remember," he muttered.

"No mate, don't worry about it, that sounds about right to me," Lee nodded, "we'll share our water with him this morning okay?"

"You're assuming we're getting some are you?" Ron snorted, "We didn't get any yesterday did we?"

Lee stood back and watched Ron pace up and down a couple of times. Ron growled under his breath and blew air out of his cheeks while looking up at the ceiling before throwing Lee a sideways glance.

"Sorry."

"'S okay," Lee smiled and nodded.

"I was trying to remember my mum," Ron said as he folded his arms and leant back against the wall behind him, "what she'd say and do when any of us were poorly and for...for a few seconds there," Ron lowered his head and looked at his bare feet, "I couldn't remember her, at all, anything about her."

Lee moved forward and put a hand on Ron's shoulder. He lowered his own head to look up into Ron's eyes and the redhead laughed a little before lifting his head again.

"Don't mind me, I'm just not with it this morning," Ron shook himself out and straightened up again before frowning and staring at Lee in amazement, "Did I really say foam?"

ooo

Molly was passing by a softly glowing room on the second floor of the Embassy with Julie Painter when she heard Hermione's voice.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio in-in-Oh Ron!" the young witch said before bursting into floods of tears, "I can't find him again. Why can't I find him?"

Molly stared at Julie for a moment before reaching for the door handle and beginning to turn it.

"Molly maybe we shouldn't," Julie was saying nervously but she had already stopped turning at the sound of another voice.

"Shhh, come on Hermione don't do this to yourself every time," Harry was saying comfortingly, "Maybe you need to take a longer break between trying again. The strongest one was the first one wasn't it? Maybe you should wait a couple of days before trying again."

"What if he doesn't have a couple of days Harry?" Hermione yelled roughly, he voice aching with pain.

"What if he has three and you can't get through in time because you didn't take a break?" Harry relied firmly.

Molly felt Julie gripping her around the shoulders and moving her away from the door. She let herself be led on down the corridor while the sound of Hermione Granger breaking down into tears faded into the distance.

"A locator spell Julie," Molly found herself mumbling, "a spell to find him and leave a trail to follow it sounded like, didn't it sound like that to you?" she asked eagerly.

"I don't know magic and spells Molly, I really don't know," Julie said sadly as she guided the pair of them into an empty side room and sat molly down.

"Insignio, that's a marking spell," Molly said shakily, "if you c-can find your target you can put a mark on them and then you just have to follow the trail to what you've magically marked."

"Well if it makes them feel better to try then we'll just let them try shall we?" Julies said with a sad smile.

"No but you don't understand," Molly said as she gripped Julie's arm urgently, "you heard them didn't you? It works best on the first try. They can't do it in time for today's...today's...execution, or tomorrow's."

"Molly don't," Julie said as she held the frantic witch to her tightly and rubbed her hand up and down her shaking back.

"I can try it Julie," Molly said hopefully, "I can try to find him, my baby, I can reach out for him and find him in the ether I know it. He's mine, he was mine before he was young Hermione's, I'll be able to do it won't I? I'll be able to find my little one wherever he is."

Julie hugged Molly and rocked her from side to side.

"Don't do this to yourself Molly, this isn't a competition to see who loves your Ronnie more, please don't put all your hope in this. Please Moll?" the Muggle woman begged her.

She understood what the woman was asking of her. If she threw herself into this spell and it didn't work then...well then she would have no hope left. She would just be waiting at the Embassy for a body.

"I need you Molly Weasley," the thin woman said shakily, "I know it's selfish but I need you strong, you and Marie and the rest of them, I can't do this alone. I won't be able to hold myself together if you give up."

Molly hugged the woman back and stroked her hair, shushing her gently, as she told her the lie she needed to hear.

"There there Julie dear, don't upset yourself, it was just an idea. I won't interfere with the children's plans alright? I'll leave the spell alone. Now what's all this talk of me giving up on my Ronnie? That'll never happen will it?"

Julie sniffed and shook her head into Molly's body.

"No," Molly smiled to herself as she thought of how she was going to get to Hermione's notes to mimic the spell for herself, "I'll never give up on my baby when there's even the slightest fighting chance of getting him back."

ooo

The cell door clunked open and a Death Eater with a square jaw and greasy slicked back brown hair stepped inside and strode to the two cells deepest in the cellblock to gloat over the restrained wizards wordlessly.

"Fuck off you prick!" Dean spat angrily as he saw the smirk on the man's face on turning away from Colin and Belby's cell.

"Still jongen. Ik zal martel je."

Ron recognised the word martel from another time and nothing good had come of it.

"Dean shut it," he hissed urgently and Dean glowered at him before seeing the fear in Ron's expression and lowering his head.

The Death Eater grinned and patted Dean on the side of the face, making him step away from the door and scowl at the Dark wizard.

"Gedraag je!"

The Death Eater continued down the partition between the cells and Ron couldn't help himself.

"Stop!" he called out after the departing figure, he felt Lee at his back immediately cursing him and demanding he take his own advice and keep his mouth shut.

Ron shrugged Lee off and watched as the amused Death Eater stepped back towards his cell door.

"Waarom?" he said smugly.

Ron tried not to smile, he knew that word too.

"Je haal de water nu?" Ron chanced, hoping he was remembering the orders he had had to listen to day after day correctly.

The Death Eater seemed to be torn between taking great offence at Ron's butchery of the Dutch language and showing how impressed he was at the boldness of the move.

"Nee."

The man sniggered and turned to leave once more. Ron thrust his hand through the small opening and grabbed the man's robe.

"Ja," he nodded defiantly.

Merlin he hoped he was saying the right words; this would be really embarrassing otherwise.

"Laat me gaan bloedverrader!"

"Nee," Ron said, feeling electrically charged at understanding exactly what had just been said to him.

"Ik zal je vermoorden!" the man snarled as he tore his robe free of Ron's grip and raised his wand to Ron's face.

Lee tugged at Ron's arm and tried to wrestle him out of the firing line.

"No Lee, he can't do anything to me, I've been reserved," Ron said with a smile as he pressed his face up against the opening and looked at the tip of the wand tip that shook between his eyes, "Je zal niet."

The wand was jerked away from Ron's face and the livid wizard growled into his face.

"In jouw plaats zullen we hem vermoorden."

Ron didn't have a clear handle on that one but he was sure that something was being threatened to happen in place of it happening to him. He thought for a moment before going back to his original goal.

"Geef ze water."

The Death Eater and Ron stared at each other for an uncomfortably long time before the Death Eater's lips curled upwards into a smile and he sniggered while taking a step back.

"Zeg alsjeblieft."

Ron had no idea what that meant.

"Wat?" he said, trying not to loose his advantage in this standoff.

The Death Eater laughed and put his wand away with a shake of the head.

"Zeg alsjeblieft, dan zal ik ze water geven."

Ron watched as the man left the cell block and the door slammed shut behind him with a loud boom.

"Ron what the fuck are you playing at?" Lee demanded as he spun him around on the spot and glared at him with livid eyes.

"I'm trying to get Tom some water!" Ron hissed back in annoyance.

"You're trying to get your fucking head blown off!"

Ron's cocky smile came back on hearing that and he pointed over his shoulder at the close cellblock door.

"They don't have permission to do anything to me, I'm out of bounds," he grinned.

"And what about the rest of us Ron?" Sam Robbins called out from his own cell, "I've been picking up a bit of the lingo as well y'know and I didn't miss the killing us instead of you part."

"That was what he said," Ron whispered to himself before calling across to Robbins, "Hey Sam, that last thing, d'you know what that was about?"

"The ajle-blab-lab-lub thing? No idea."

Ron bit his bottom lip and tried to think back over every conversation he'd heard the Death Eaters having amongst themselves. He still couldn't place it.

"Listen Ron, you might have immunity with the other Death Eaters but pissing them off doesn't help us does it?" Jack said nervously.

"I'm not trying to piss 'em off," Ron said with some annoyance, the second he took on the duty of unofficial leader of the group they had started to question him and he found that slightly aggravating, "I'm trying to get us all water. I'm trying to get Tommy water, the fucking guy's dying on us in here!"

"Is good you stand up to them Ron," Krum said with a grunt of discomfort, "You do nothing before and they almost kill you and torture us all. Now they scared of you."

"He's right Weasley," Fergus said, the first he had spoken in some time, "after that Puppet Bastard you're the second most powerful wizard in this place and they all bleedin' well know it."

Ron had to smile at the Puppet Master's new nickname.

"And did ya see the look on that one's face when you understood what he was saying?" The Irishman continued, "They didn't count on that. They didn't count on ye having a brain in yer head Ron."

Ron felt his ears flushing red beneath his lank greasy hair.

"Yeah well, Dutch ain't that different to English is it?" he mumbled before turning away from the cell door and looking back at Tommy.

His eyes avoided meeting Lee's; the dread locked wizard was standing to one side with his arms folded across his chest and a very annoyed expression on his face.

"Zeg alsjeblieft," Ron muttered to himself thoughtfully.

That didn't sound like anything in the English language at all.

"Tsk," Lee huffed as he marched over to check on Tommy again.

"Don't start that again," Ron whined at the back of his cellmate's head.

"If I'm not watching one of you dying I'm watching the other and I'm fucking sick of it Ron," Lee snapped, his back still turned on his best friends' brother, "You antagonise those bastards like that again I'll punch you out myself."

"You fuckin' want it Lee?" Ron blurted, "You be the leader!"

"There is no leader," Lee spun around and snarled at Ron with hurt in his eyes, "there's us and them and we've got to stick together and stop putting all the weight on one person's shoulders."

"I'm not putting any weight on anybody," Ron said as he shoved himself off the cell door and stepped towards Lee.

"Oh really?" Lee scoffed, "You honestly think I'm the only one worried about you? I'm the only one who can see how this ends for you?"

"Lee..." Ron began before the older wizard shoved him backwards into the cell door again.

"Do you really think it's just me and Tommy that have worked out you're lined up for a buggering before he eventually kills you?"

The cells echoed with the end of Lee's sentence. Nobody said a word. Ron and Lee stared at each other and Ron wondered if he was supposed to speak first or not.

"Ron?" Dean's voice sounded from behind him, "I..."

"For the record lads," Ron called out loud and clearly, "this is going to be one of those things we don't ever speak about."

"Okay," Dean said softly.

"Sure," Colin's voice said, sounding very small.

"Didn't hear a thing," Fergus said innocently.

Ron took a step toward Lee who stepped forward himself. They were still staring right into each other.

"I don't want to fight with you," Ron said as low as he could to keep the conversation between the two of them.

"Neither do I," Lee responded in a similar tone.

"So you're going to stop trying to act like a human bloody shield right?"

Lee shook his head slowly.

"Not on your life you stubborn bastard."

Ron smirked and Lee broke into a smile.

"Git," Ron said with a wicked grin.

"Prat," Lee chuckled back.

"Pillock."

"Twat."

"Wazzuck."

"Plonker."

"Tosser."

"Wanker."

"Well yeah, that's true," Ron shrugged.

Lee laughed and grabbed Ron to hug him tightly.

"Sorry mate."

"Me too; again."

They broke away from each other and couldn't meet the other's eye.

"I just get a bit..." Ron waved his hand dismissively, "about being babied all the time."

"I'll try not to okay?" Lee muttered.

"Thanks shagwit!"

Chapter 28 Shields

Harry and Charlie were flying around the outskirts of Venlo on their brooms, a Disillusionment Charm hid Charlie while Harry's invisibility cloak kept his presence in the sky from Muggle eyes. Together they were trying to find the landscape that matched the one Charlie plotted out.

Charlie was quiet and focused ever since Fred's violent episode that had left a Death Eater half beaten to death and his own hand a shattered mess. Charlie was still livid with fear and fury at what was happening to his brother but he seemed to be channelling it into flying for miles every day in an attempt to see something familiar. There had to be something that could narrow down their search and help them find Ron and the others before it was too late.

Harry gulped. Too late, it was more than he could bear to think about.

The one thing that burned inside Harry's gut was the confidence that Ron could stand up for himself when his back was against the wall, sometimes that was the only time he would do so, and he could come back from terrible things happening to him. Ron had been hurt before, physically and mentally, and he was tough enough to bounce back and still be Ron. Harry remembered him as a twelve-year-old taking a beating for him on a chessboard had to grow into a nineteen-year-old who could recover from hours of torture and still be the same funny, cocky bloke Harry knew as his best friend.

Harry felt the wood of his broom handle creak and glanced down to see that he was gripping it so tightly that it was leaving indentations with his fingers. Thinking about Ron being tortured was a thought Harry found he wasn't able to dwell on for more than a fleeting second for fear of bursting a blood vessel and trying to Apparate into Azkaban prison to throttle Ron's whereabouts out of the sacrificial messenger boys.

The Death Eaters were confident that they'd win, get their way, and their followers freed so the Ministry could save the hostages. They had to think that otherwise why would the most selfish group of wizards in recent times give themselves up for the cause?

A world where the Death Eaters were free to murder more people's parents and possibly take more innocent hostages once they knew that it was the way to get the Ministry to give them whatever they wanted, or a world where all the evil people in the world were safely locked away and Ron was tormented to death.

Harry should have been put into Slytherin after all. He was selfish, too. He would risk the rest of the Wizarding world's safety to get Ron back alive and well.

There was nothing he wouldn't do.

ooo

The cell door boomed open and the Puppet Master strode in and paused directly in front of Ron's cell door.

"Firebrand," he smiled as Lee stood at Ron's side and puffed out his chest.

Ron glanced over his shoulder and then back at the Puppet Master with insolence.

"Are you talking to me?" he asked.

The cell door swung open and the Puppet Master took a step inside, his wand drawn at Ron's chest.

"I understand you are becoming bi-lingual jongen, very impressive, but you don't seem to understand the meaning of the word alsjeblieft. Such a shame," the Puppet Master sighed as his wand lifted up to stroke along Ron's throat and lift his chin. "I so want to hear you saying it to me."

Lee smacked the wand away from Ron and was seething.

"You don't touch him anymore, you bastard!"

"Lee, watch yourself," Dean said warily as he watched from the cell opposite.

The Puppet Master let out a small laugh and flicked his wand at Ron speedily.

"Obtineo adstringo!"

Ron felt his arms bound tightly behind his back and magical ropes constrict around his chest, pinning his arms to his body from elbow to shoulder. Ron grunted as the spell hit him but pressed his lips together to keep himself from letting out any other kind of exclamation of alarm. Lee had taken a step forward and spread his arms defensively but the Puppet Master hit him hard with another spell.

"Depulso!" he snarled as the burst of red light slammed into Lee's chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him.

"Stop, don't!" Dean called out as the Puppet Master motioned to flick his wand down at Lee once more.

"No," Ron gasped as he stepped forward. "Whatever you want with me that's fine, but no more for him okay?"

The Puppet Master grinned widely and his wand pointed back at Ron's throat.

"Zeg alsjeblieft," he purred as the wand tip glided along Ron's collarbone and up to stroke along his jawbone.

Ron closed his eyes and cursed internally. What the hell did these two words mean? Why did they keep taunting me with them?

"No?" the Puppet Master's voice said, sounding between amusement and disappointment as Ron's eyes opened again and he shrugged in response. "Very well, I shall amuse myself with Mr Jordan until you do."

"Do what?" Ron snapped as he sidestepped to try and block the dazed Lee, slumped behind him on the floor.

"Zeg alsjeblieft!" the Puppet Master growled.

Ron would have thrown his arms into the air if he were capable of moving them in any way. Instead, he rolled his eyes desperately and searched his brain for anything he knew in Dutch from his time in Venlo and the cells.

"Uh...Laat hem gaan?" Ron said cautiously, " and, erm, Je sla me in ekkl...no, elka...shit!"

"Nearly there jongen," the Puppet Master said in a low voice.

He was impressed, but also slightly uncomfortable at Ron's growing grasp on his mother tongue.

"Neem me," Ron said, giving up on trying to say anything too complicated. "Whatever you wanted to do, let's do it, let's go play the next game, just stop now okay? No more for him."

The Puppet Master nodded for Ron to lead the way out of the cell and followed him, the cell door banging closed behind them.

"Ron?" Ernie was asking cautiously as he passed him.

"I'll be fine," Ron smiled. "Don't let Lee upset himself too much."

Ernie nodded and Ron felt a large hand shove him out through the main door and back into the 'games' room.

ooo

"Insignio invenio..." Molly was attempting the spell with the notes she had stolen from Hermione and Ginny's room under the guise of making the beds, "...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

She was screaming and sweating and gritting her teeth. Arthur was clutching her hand and a calm woman was muttering soothing things and waving her wand, sending soft yellow mist between Molly's open legs. The woman was telling her not to worry. Arthur was looking pale. Another Healer, and another, and another ran into the room and the still baby was torn from her womb.

She was craning her neck and trying to see the child but everybody was ignoring her. All she could see were backs and elbows as she saw a shining blade being brought down and then removed, covered in blood. She began screaming for her baby. All the previous times, the baby had been born and set upon her chest and everybody would smile while the baby would scream, every baby except Percy had screamed to high heaven at being born. The only time she hadn't been given her baby right away had been her last pregnancy.

She began to plead with the Healers not to let that happen again, not another stillbirth; she couldn't stand it. It had barely been a year ago since they put that pale, lifeless little body into the ground and her heart couldn't take another. One of the Healers swished their wand and a sudden scream shook Molly back to her senses.

Her baby was crying.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..." Molly chanted as she relived that moment with her Ronnie, squirming and blue, as the life and colour came back to him. He was bright pink and screaming his lungs raw and the Healer brought him over to her to hold at long last.

Her baby boy, another baby boy, she could never have too many baby boys. His eyes opened and squinted against the harsh light before taking a better look at the big new world he was now a part of. He had blue eyes. They were stunning. She cried and kissed him and kissed Arthur and thanked all the Healers and rocked her newest baby boy to sleep.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

Ronnie was screaming and crying as he ran to her, his skin as white as the petals of a snowdrop, clinging to her legs tightly. He was shaking and sobbing and somewhere upstairs her terrors, Fred and George, were roaring with laughter. She felt her aching knees grinding as she crouched down to gather her littlest boy up in one of her smothering embraces and felt Ron wipe his snotty nose against her apron. She rocked him, kissed his sodden cheeks and lifted his chin with her finger to make him look her in the eye and tell her what his nasty brothers did to him this time.

He blubbered something about teddy bears and spiders before trembling even harder and she lifted him up, clean off the floor to pace up and down the kitchen bouncing him and singing a happy song to cheer him up. Ronnie's pudgy little legs wrapped around her waist as best they could and he sniffed and snuffled and whimpered every now and then until he was just holding on to her and listening to her voice. He was a little firecracker, that one, but he was so easily upset, too. Her Ronnie was an emotional roller coaster.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..." she chanted, a warm shimmering glow swirling before her and a smile on her face as she felt the warmth of her little boy's body snuggled tightly into her.

Ginny chased her twin brothers down the stairs, throwing building blocks and Arthur's rubber ducks at them, and she was screeching that they were bullies and she didn't like them anymore. The twins ran into the kitchen and skidded to a halt as they saw their mother cradling their blotchy-faced little brother and spun around to run back the other way but Ginny was reaching for a ruler to throw at them with a livid look on her angelic face.

She launched the wooden ruler at her mean brothers and it splintered into fragments and became a flashing silver blade. Molly screamed, the twins ducked, Ginny gasped and Ronnie held up his hand as he saw the shiny blade hurtling towards his mother and the knife turned into a fish. The sardine flopped around on the kitchen floor until Fred picked it up and dropped it into the dishwater.

The twins, Ron and Ginny had all used magic for the first time that afternoon. Her babies were growing so fast. The twins using their gift for mischief, Ginny discovering her ability through rage at her favourite brother being picked on, and Ronnie finding his natural gift. Ronnie liked to protect people.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..." Molly felt her voice getting stronger along with the intensifying yellow light.

The light was becoming golden and humming with energy. It was Ron's strength, she could feel it, and she could feel him. He was so close.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

The Hogwarts Express had disappeared and now she only had two little ones left at home with her. Ron and Ginny were standing on the platform, holding hands, while Ginny cried and waved to the plume of steam in the distance. She called her two youngest back to her while she and Arthur took charge of one each. Arthur comforted Ginny who was sadly bemoaning that she called Fred a bad name before he went away and now he wouldn't like her all year. Molly carried her lanky nine-year-old boy in her arms and felt a pang of sadness that she wouldn't be able to manage it for much longer.

He stared at her and blinked his bright blue eyes before wiping her tears away with his grubby hands and pulling a filthy tissue out of his sleeve and holding it to her nose, demanding that she blow. She did as she was told and chuckled. Ron smiled in his crooked little way and told her he would make her a cup of tea when they got back home. He said he would make tea and she could have a biscuit, too. She asked him what she had done to deserve such special treatment. Ronnie sighed thoughtfully and told her he didn't know but he was sure she did deserve it.

Nice people should have nice things happen to them, he had explained.

"Insignio invenio..." The light was growing orange now and her wand was vibrating as she tried to move it in the broken figure eight motion.

It felt as if she was using it to stir five-week-old porridge.

"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."

But this wasn't right. Nice things don't happen to nice people. Dreadful things were happening to Ron and he was her angel, her blue-eyed boy, her hero. He didn't have armour and he didn't have noble blood but he was as much of a knight as any great wizard could ever hope to be and what did he get for it? What has become of him for all his nobility and selflessness and sacrifice?

What was happening to that loving, caring, sensitive boy of hers?

"Insignio invenio!" she screamed angrily.

She saw it all, the visions in her head, every single one of her nightmares. Ron was in pain. He was terrified and starved and beaten. He was tormented, brutalised, and abused.

"INSIGNIO INVENIO!" she roared as a ball of red flame exploded from her wand tip and set the heavy velvet curtains alight.

The baby was dead. The Healers were walking away. Arthur was holding her close to him and telling her how sorry he was.

"Mum, what the bloody hell are you doing in here?" Bill yelled while Fleur extinguished the blazing curtains.

Molly was seething and shaking as she clamberered to her feet while Arthur and the twins rushed into the room on hearing Bill's raised voice.

"Get away from me all of you!" she said as she waved them away and hurried from the room and down the hallway.

"Molly, love, what on earth...?" Arthur was calling after her.

"No more dead babies, Arthur!" she screeched at him from the end of the hall, "Now leave me alone to make some tea."

ooo

"You were asking for water, Firebrand," the Puppet Master said with a self-satisfied smirk as he ran his large, strong fingers through Ron's hair and gripped a handful tightly.

"What about zeg alsjeblieft?" Ron winced as he felt some of his hair coming loose at the roots.

The Puppet Master leaned in close to Ron's face and breathed his vile words directly into his face. That hot layer of clammy moisture settled on his face and Ron twisted his lips away from the steaming putrid breath while trying to free his hands. He was still bound tightly and there were two other Death Eaters watching his humiliation. One was the man with the white streak of hair at the front, the other was the brown-haired man Ron had been trying to converse with earlier that morning.

"I'm still waiting for that, Firebrand," the Puppet Master purred.

"What? I don't und-" Ron began before the Puppet Master put the index finger of his free hand to Ron's lips and pressed hard.

"Stil jongen, stil."

Ron considered biting the bloody finger off but not only was he outnumbered and unarmed, but also tied up so tightly that he couldn't feel his own fingers. Instead, he tried to turn his face away from the Puppet Master but his sick tormentor simply pushed his finger into Ron's mouth and pulled him back around by hooking his powerful finger over Ron's bottom row of teeth.

"In time, young one. I'm sure you will understand in time," the man smiled before looking across to his aides and snapping with annoyance. "Water, nu!"

The Death Eater with the white streak of hair looked quite disgusted at his master 'perving' over one of the vile blood traitors while his colleague seemed to be delighted about something. He flicked his wand.

"Orno water!"

A large barrel of water appeared in front of Ron and the Puppet Master hauled Ron up to his feet by his hair. Ron was in the middle of letting out a yelp when he was plunged, head first and shoulder deep, into the barrel by the Puppet Master's powerful arms.

Ron kicked out his legs and tried to throw off the man's grip while his bound arms fought to get free. He gasped and grunted and swore until he realised exactly what he was doing.

He was gasping and grunting and swearing.

His struggling stopped. He stopped kicking and squirming and his eyes widened as he looked around himself at the water that surrounded him.

"What the fuck?" he said in confusion before feeling himself wrenched back and out of the barrel again.

The brown haired Death Eater was laughing, the white streaked one looking annoyed, while the Puppet Master was pulling Ron's dripping wet hair back and growling with pleasure into Ron's ear.

"Oh how I love to feel you squirm, Firebrand. I do hope you still have some of that fight in you when our time comes. I do like to feel a little thrashing."

"I'll thrash you with a bullwhip if ya like," Ron hissed, still not quite understanding what had just happened to him under the water.

"Oh, now, dear boy," the Puppet Master chuckled. "You don't want to go giving me ideas do you?"

Ron felt his head thrust back down into the water. This time he didn't fight it. He just held his breath and kept his eyes open. His face broke the surface of the water and the cool liquid rushed through his hair and moved against his face before being forced away from him. He blinked. His eyelashes had droplets of water on them and a larger drop of water fell from the tip of his long nose and into the water below him.

But the water wasn't below him; he was in it.

There was something pushing the water back from his face, only by an inch or so, but it was enough for him to breathe. He turned his head and the air bubble moved with him, He stuck out his tongue and dipped it into the water. The pull of his hair at the back of his head wrenched him back out again and Ron felt the water rushing against his skin again and splashing as he came back up and blinked in shock.

"No struggles, Firebrand?" the Puppet Master said with undisguised annoyance. "You can hold your breath for a long time I see?"

Ron tried to work out what to do. Should he rub the Puppet Master's face in it and tell him that he couldn't drown? Maybe the man would try something else that he didn't have magical immunity from.

"Je," the Puppet Master snapped at the watching Death Eaters. "Sla hem in elkaar. I think that's what he was asking me to do earlier."

The grip on his hair was finally released and Ron was thrown to the hard stone floor. The brown haired Death Eater ran forward and swung a kick into Ron's gut before pulling back his arm and sending it hammering down into the side of Ron's face. Ron wheezed and fell backwards, landing heavily on his side, before the Death Eater pulled him up by the front of his t-shirt and punched him in the face again.

It felt as if Ron had his head inside a giant bell beaten upon by a sledgehammer. Every blow shook him to the bone and made him feel slightly seasick but he wasn't getting hurt. His head pounded but it was only as if he had loud music playing inside his skull. Each punch was a deep drum beat. There was another kick to his stomach and his body was actually thrust along the floor a little way by the power of it but the worst it felt was uncomfortable.

He wasn't in any pain at all.

He wasn't bleeding either.

The Puppet Master looked livid and seemed to have realised that this was what Cally had done for Ron before he died. Ron looked up at him and grinned.

"Hould hem in bedwang!" the Puppet Master bellowed furiously and the Death Eater pummelling Ron yanked him up from the floor and thrust him down into the water barrel again.

Once again, the water hit him full in the face and then was sucked away from him just a fraction. He actually laughed out loud to himself.

"Cally, you wonderful fucker!" he said into the echo of the barrelful of liquid.

He wondered how long this spell would last and when exactly it had started working. It hadn't been immediate, Ron knew that much. When the Puppet Master had hit him a couple of days ago, it had definitely hurt. What did it cover? When it wore off would all this punishment come back on him?

He found himself pulled back out of the barrel and blinked the water out of his eyes to look up into the Puppet Master's.

"Got any more bright ideas, ya great prick?" Ron sniggered.

The Puppet Master launched himself at Ron and held him under again. Ron heard shouting and there were flashes lighting up the room. Something hit him across the back and made his ribcage rattle but he didn't feel a thing. He just half knelt, half hung, in the overflowing barrel of water and stuck out his tongue to lap up some of the water while he was down there.

ooo

Lee pounded on his cell door and bellowed his outrage at the yells and curses that were flying around outside the cellblock.

"Leave him alone, you cowardly fucking bastards!" he roared.

"What the fuck is going on out there?" Dean asked fearfully.

"This isn't what you were saying is it Lee?" Colin asked nervously. "This isn't that thing we're not supposed to talk about is it?"

"It had better feckin' not be!" Fergus snarled as he sounded as if he was trying to shoulder his own cell door open.

The main cell door suddenly banged open with such ferocity it came loose from its hinges. Two Death Eaters barged in and unlocked Ernie and Sam's cell door, grabbing them and dragging them outside.

"Ron?" Lee called out through the open door. "Ron can you hear me?"

Dean pressed his face against his own door. "I can't see him."

"Ron, mate," Fergus called out. "If ye can hear us, make a noise, bang somethin'. Do anythin'."

Lee listened frantically but he couldn't hear anything other than what sounded like splashing.

Soon a group of other Death Eaters came charging into the cellblock and everyone was restrained and dragged out of their cells, even Tommy was carried over one man's shoulder.

"He's fuckin' unconscious, you spiteful swine!" Jack Sloper said as he squirmed and struggled against the man pulling him through the open doorway and across towards the cellar they had been taken to dig graves.

"Leave him," Lee grunted as he head butted his assailant, breaking his nose. "You're not taking him. He's not well."

Lee was trying to kick the Death Eater's legs out from under him and Dean was kneeing his own guard in the groin before being hit in the face with a hex and collapsing in a heap on the ground. Fergus was being lifted off the ground by his upper arms just behind the Dark wizard lugging Tommy's limp form over his shoulder. Fergus took advantage of this by landing a two-footed donkey kick into the base of the Death Eater's spine and the man dropped Tommy on top of Lee, slamming him down onto the ground.

Lee winced and squinted through the crowd of struggling bodies fighting and losing against the well-fed and fully armed men dragging them down to the cellar. The cellar where the graves were dug. He saw the Puppet Master through the flailing legs of Marcus Belby and the unconscious form of Viktor Krum dragged past him.

Lee saw the evil bastard holding a limp, still body headfirst in a barrel full of water.

It was Ron.

Ron was shoulder deep in a barrel of water, arms tied behind his back, and not even struggling. Not fighting. Not moving.

"You killed him," Lee whimpered.

The Death Eater he had been fighting with recovered and kicked Lee in the side of the head. It felt as if his skull was cracking like an egg and it hurt like hell but Lee let himself be dragged away with the rest of them.

He'd failed Fred and George.

They'd killed him.

They'd killed Ron.

Chapter 29 Earth to Earth

Ron felt a tug at the back of his head and he was hauled out of the barrel of water flung flat on his back with a wet slap.

"Impervious are you, Firebrand?" the Puppet Master said with great annoyance.

"So it seems," Ron panted with that 'screw you' grin on his face.

"That will not last," he snarled, "and I have other games we can play until I can make you whimper again, jongen."

Ron glared at the imposing form of the Puppet Master, water dripping from his own hair and down his nose, his dirty and worn t-shirt clinging to his body while trickles ran down the back of his neck and down his spine. Ron tried to test the ropes around him while fixing his gaze on the intense eyes that travelled over his body as he sat up with a grunt.

"You want to play some more?" Ron said, shaking out his wet hair. "Let's play. Let's see if there's a game you can beat me at."

"Oh I will beat you, jongen," the Puppet Master said with a growl as he leaned over Ron and pulled him up to his feet by his hair, growing more livid when Ron didn't wince and cry out in pain. "This spell Callahan shielded you with will fade soon enough and I will make you hurt."

"Who's to say you won't be dead by then?" Ron smiled defiantly.

The Puppet Master threw Ron into the wall behind him with great force and held him still by the throat. Ron pulled at the magical ropes again but there was no give. The vile pervert held Ron's face in place and leaned in close enough for Ron to taste his breath. Ron forced his mouth closed and tried not to inhale as the sickening words were sent into his face like warm slugs crawling up his neck and onto his face.

"You seem to think people are going to come for you, Firebrand," the Puppet Master growled with a sickening smile as he pressed his chest against Ron as the young man tugged at the ropes again. "They have not come," he said into the left side of Ron's face. "They are not coming," he breathed into the right side and then angled his head to lean in so close Ron could almost count his eyelashes. "They will not come. You are mine."

Ron pulled out of the Puppet Master's grip and spat in his face.

"Like fuck I am!" he said angrily.

"Expedio!" The Puppet Master pointed his wand at Ron and the ropes fell away.

Ron tried to lunge forward and make a grab for the wand when a second flick hit him and he swayed on the spot and blinked.

"Imperio!" the Puppet Master said as his lip curled and his eyes flashed. "There is no shield that can beat that, Firebrand."

Ron felt his arms hanging limply and a light feeling making his mind float away from him. He couldn't let this happen. He had to shake it off. Harry could do it. He could do it, too.

"Step forward Firebrand," the Puppet Master purred.

Before he could order himself not to he was moving forward and gave a soft grunt of protest. The Puppet Master's mouth split into a wide smile and he extended his free hand to Ron.

"Stroke my face, sweet boy."

Ron felt sick. His arm lifted and his hand cupped the Puppet Master's face. The man gave a moan of pleasure and closed his eyes. Ron tried to tug his hand away but it wouldn't budge. Ron looked at the wand and willed himself to snatch it out of the Puppet Master's hand while he was distracted but again, his arm hung limply at his side while the other caressed the face of the person he hated most in the world.

The Puppet Master's eyes opened again and he turned his head to kiss Ron's hand. Ron didn't even have enough control to shudder at this.

"Open your mouth, jongen."

Ron wanted to kick and punch and fight but instead his head screamed in protest as his mouth slowly opened to the utter delight of the Dark Wizard before him. He heard himself make a yelping sound at the back of his throat. The Puppet Master arched his eyebrows while Ron blinked in shock.

"What was that dear, Firebrand?" the Puppet Master leaned in closer and turned his head to listen for the reply they both knew Ron couldn't give.

Ron was still standing with his hand upon the Puppet Master's cheek and his mouth open stupidly, his embarrassment demanded he stop it right now.

As the self-satisfied smirk of his tormentor returned to his face, the wicked eyes glinted. Just as Ron felt panic growing inside him his arm dropped away and swung heavily at his side and his mouth closed a little. His lips were still slightly parted but he didn't feel quite so vulnerable anymore.

"Who told you to do that?" the Puppet Master growled.

Ron tried to get his trick to work again and make himself go for the wand but he wasn't sure how he'd got it to work in the first place.

The Puppet Master held his wand, firmly directed at Ron's chest, and made sure the curse was still strong. He lifted his hand and stroked Ron's bottom lip with his thumb. Ron felt that nausea from that evening he had to eat from those same fingers, the hands that had fed him the flesh of a friend of his, and the hands that lingered far too long with every touch. He told himself not to do it. He didn't want to touch the murderous bastard. He didn't want to feel that hand that he ate from not so long ago.

The Puppet Master's thumb pushed inside Ron's mouth and the wizard sighed.

"Suck."

He couldn't stand it. His lips closed over the large powerful thumb and felt the pad pressing down on his tongue as he sucked it. He felt himself gag and the Puppet Master's forefinger stroked the underside of his chin while pushing his thumb in even deeper.

Bite the fucking thing off! What's wrong with you, Weasley? What are you doing?

The Puppet Master pulled his thumb out of Ron's mouth and dragged it across his own lips before sucking on it himself.

"Mmmmm—a little taste of what I am to expect, Firebrand," he purred, "and it was exquisite."

Ron knew he could beat this, beat him, and tried to remember what Harry had told him in DA meetings.

"Take my hand."

Ron hesitated for one second...two...three...

On the fourth, he took the large hand on offer before him and closed his eyes.

"Look at me!" the Puppet Mater ordered.

Ron's eyes snapped open again and he was staring directly into the Puppet Master's evil eyes. There was a tug on Ron's arm and the Puppet Master pulled Ron's body and spun him around placing his own arm across Ron's throat. Ron's back was pressed hard against the Puppet Master and he could feel something poking him and his head ordered him to move.

"Move!" Ron heard himself say out loud.

He was so shocked at himself that he stopped fighting and the spell sank in a little deeper before he pushed it back and tried to reject its influence again.

"Stil!" the Puppet Master hissed into his ear, "Do you understand me, jongen?"

Ron nodded his head.

"Ik zal je krijgen."

Ron gritted his teeth and shook his head.

"I will have you!" the Puppet Master snarled before pressing hard into Ron's back. "Say it!"

"You will have me."

Ron felt like kicking himself. Suddenly his foot jerked and the Puppet Master didn't notice it. Ron's eyes moved downwards and tried to see his feet but he couldn't see past his own twisted arm. Ron suddenly gave himself an order.

Click your fingers.

He felt the finger and thumb of his free hand click and his eyes widened. The Puppet Master released Ron and looked over his shoulder.

"Wat gebeurde?" he called out.

He paused to listen, his wand still aimed at Ron, holding the curse and then thought nothing of the sound and looked back at Ron's blank face. Ron's heart leapt.

Tap your foot.

Ron felt his right foot begin to tap against the floor. The Puppet Master saw this and ordered him to stop. He did so immediately.

"Gedraag je."

Ron understood that. He'd heard it several times now. He'd been told to behave. But as the words had been spoken, he had told himself to translate and that had seemed to overrule the order to obey. He told himself to nod for the Puppet Master. His head moved up and down slowly and the Puppet Master smiled broadly once again.

"It is noon, dear jongen. Do you know what that means?"

Ron nodded again.

"Why don't you do the honours?" the sadistic wizard said, eyes bulging with delight.

The Puppet Master pulled Ron's wand from his robes and handed it to him. Ron reached out and curled his fingers around the handle, ordering himself to fire a curse at the man before him. Any curse would do, anything to break the connection and free him from Imperius, but as hard as he concentrated he couldn't do anything but wait for his next instruction.

"Go into the cell block, young Firebrand."

Ron felt himself turn and step through the main door, which was hanging on its hinges. He felt the wand in his hand and told himself to tap it with his thumb.

"Keep walking, jongen," the Puppet Master called after him with amusement.

Ron's thumb twitched and he knew he could do something about this. He might not be as good as Harry about throwing off the curse, but Cally's shield gave him a little control of his own. All he had to do was order himself in the same way the 'Puppet Bastard' was doing rather than just trying to enforce his free will. He glanced to his left. Fergus' cell door was open and he wasn't inside. As panic seized him he glanced right and saw another empty cell where he was used to seeing the closed door and peering at the faces of Ernie and Sam.

"Keep going."

"Make a fist," Ron whispered to himself.

He felt his left hand ball itself up tightly while he walked deeper into the cellblock and drew level with his own cell. He looked inside and saw Tommy's empty hammock.

"Fuckin' bastard," he hissed.

"Stil!" The Puppet Master yelled. "I ordered you to be quiet jongen."

Ron's mouth was forced closed tightly and he clenched his jaw as he realised that Dean's cell was bare, too. Where had everybody gone? How long had he been underwater? What had they done with Lee and Tommy?

Ron said the next order to himself inside his own head as clearly as he would have done if he could speak.

Blink three times.

He did it; he blinked three times as he reached the last two cells. No Colin, no Belby, no Krum...but McLaggen.

Ron's eyes widened as he saw McLaggen crushed in heavy chains on the floor of the cell. The wizard's pained eyes stared up at Ron, as they both suddenly understood what was about to happen.

Ron shook his head.

"Yes, Firebrand," the Puppet Master said, a change in his voice, his tone now triumphant. "You chose him yourself, after all. It would be rude not to let you do the honours."

Ron fought to hold himself together. His wand arm trembled and McLaggen shook his head sadly.

"Don't let him get to you," McLaggen said, his voice strained because of his tightly constricted chest. "Don't blame yourself. None of this is your fault, Ron."

Pinch yourself in the leg.

Ron felt his fingers digging into his thigh and he knew he could do this.

"Recite the death sentence for the condemned man dear boy," the Puppet Master said with a satisfied purr.

"Cormac McLaggen," Ron heard himself saying.

"Oh Merlin," McLaggen whimpered and looked away from Ron as his body slumped hopelessly.

"Uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners," Ron continued, hating every damn word of that speech he had memorised over the past few days.

McLaggen lifted his head suddenly and looked as fierce as a cornered dog. He turned to shout down into the direction he knew the Puppet Master must have been.

"You're a bloody coward!"

Ron told himself to lift the wand a fraction and he saw his aim deviate from McLaggen's central point.

"Kom vreedzaam..." Ron said while McLaggen continued his abuse of the Puppet Master.

"You can't make him a killer this way!" McLaggen bellowed before turning to look up at Ron. "What you do under Imperius isn't down to you, Ron. This isn't your fault. You're not a murderer."

"...of lijd in de dood." Ron said unsteadily.

"You're only one who can win his game. Ron," McLaggen said with determined sorrow. "Don't concede the whole game because you lost another pawn."

"Kill him!" the Puppet Master snarled.

Wink at him.

Ron's aim was back on McLaggen's body and the wand held steady...and then he winked at him.

McLaggen stared for a moment before smiling in amazement, then laughing.

"I said kill him now, jongen!" the Puppet Master screamed furiously.

Say the freeing spell.

"Expedio!" Ron said, he didn't recognise his own voice, it sounded as if he was in pain as the bright blue light shot out from his wand and hit the chains binding McLaggen.

"No!" The Puppet Master roared before sending a surge of red light from the tip of his wand that slammed into Ron's body and thrust him into the wall.

"Leave him alone!" McLaggen yelled as his numbed arms and legs tried to work again and reach out for Ron's fallen wand.

The hex lifted and Ron hit the floor hard. He was panting heavily but still protected by Cally's shield and not in any pain. He felt very sluggish, however. McLaggen dragged himself out of the cell a little and tried to reach for Ron's wand again.

"Accio wand!" the Puppet Master snapped and Ron's wand flew away from them both.

McLaggen dropped his head for a moment before looking back up at Ron and forcing a smile onto his face.

"Don't give up, no matter what. Don't give up, Ron."

Ron was about to open his mouth to say something when he was blinded by a blood red flash and sank deep into the void of unconsciousness.

---

There was something gritty beneath his cheek and he could hear his heart beating in his head.

Ron opened his eyes and blinked into the darkened room. There was a musty smell that he couldn't place and the floor appeared to be nothing but recently dug soil. He groaned and sat up. His brain banged against the inside of his skull. He thought that if he hadn't been shielded he would have the mother of all headaches.

"Oh Merlin, what happened?" he groaned before looking around at the small dank room.

There were no windows and the only light available was from the glow of a torch burning outside what was a solid iron door. There were piles of earth and little white sticks poking out of the ground, no bigger than pencils.

Ron rubbed his face roughly and suddenly felt his most recent memories hit him all at once like a lightning strike.

"McLaggen?" he called out. "Cormac are you here?"

Ron got to his feet and felt dizzy. He grabbed the nearest wall to steady himself before shaking his head and hurled himself at the door. He pounded on it with his fists and yelled as loud as his muddled head would accommodate.

"Oi, you arsehole! What did you do with McLaggen? Where is everybody?"

He thumped the door one last time; the vibrations began to make him feel a little sick and turned around to rest his back against it.

"Where the hell am I?" he muttered as he looked back at the mounds of earth with tiny white bits of plastic poking up out of them.

They looked like drinking straws or something. He frowned at them as he trudged wearily over to get a closer look at them. He dropped to his knees, before he fell down, in front of the nearest mound and pulled the straw out of the ground to examine it.

The straw was about a foot long and the end of it was wet and warm. Ron's eyes widened and he looked back at the mound of earth and blinked.

"Oh fuck no," he shuddered before throwing the straw aside and scrabbling at the loose earth where the straw had been. "Merlin no, please."

His fingers pulled back the earth, deeper and deeper. He cut and scraped his skin on stones and gravel but he couldn't stop or slow down. He had to keep digging. He had to dig fast.

"Hold your breath! I'm coming!" he shouted down at the mound he was pawing through frantically. "I'm sorry! I didn't know," he whimpered.

More and more soil fell away and more and more time had passed since he'd pulled the straw out of the ground. His fingers bled and his body was shaking but still he kept on digging.

"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't b-" he chanted over and over until his fingers clawed at warm flesh. "Oh thank Godric! I'm through! Just a sec! Hold on a little bit longer."

He saw that he'd hit a forehead and pulled away more earth to expose wide hazel eyes. He felt the relief hit him as he saw that whoever it was they were still alive and cleared the soil away from the nose and then the mouth. He finally recognised the face.

"Jack, shit, I'm so sorry! I didn't know," he yammered as he pushed and pulled more clumps of earth away from Sloper's body.

Sloper was gasping and coughing. He still looked utterly terrified but as soon as Ron had managed to free one of his arms and he joined in with thrusting the earth off him and found his hoarse voice.

"The others...help the others."

Ron's eyes bulged as he cast them across the floor at the dozen or so straws sticking up out of the ground.

"They're all down here?"

"They buried us all," Jack said frantically. "Buried everyone! Get them out!"

Chapter 30 Too Late

Four pairs of feet landed heavily on the grassy verge and Charlie threw his broom roughly to the ground as he stomped forward and looked at his watch, the sun and then the trees and hills surrounding him.

Harry had been flying on landscape surveillance with him long enough now to know that it was best to just stand back and keep quiet and that was exactly what he did. Seamus and Tonks were looking around with confused looks on their faces, wondering why Charlie had stopped. Seamus opened his mouth to say something, but Tonks tugged at his elbow and shushed him under her breath.

Harry had followed Charlie as he stormed out of the Embassy when the Death Eater had arrived and casually thrown a Selene pendent at the McLaggen's feet.

Mrs McLaggen had dropped to her knees and picked up the gold pendent and glittering chain and put a shaking hand to her mouth before saying, "No, my little Maccie, no." Mr McLaggen turned a striking shade of red and raised his wand to hex the Death Eater before Geoffrey Belby disarmed him. Damocles managed to wrestle the man into a chair and tried to get him to calm down before he gave himself a heart attack.

"You killed my son, Moody!" Mr McLaggen was bellowing. "You should have let me pay, you should have let me buy him out of there! I knew you had no control of this situation!"

"Mr McLaggen, please," Lupin said as he, too, tried to calm the livid wizard down.

"Get off me, you abomination!" Mr McLaggen snarled, growing even redder and shoving Lupin away from him. "There is no rescue, there is no plan, the Ministry is doing nothing," he hollered to the other shaken families. "They're keeping you all here so you don't alert the Wizarding world to the fact that they're sacrificing your bloody children!"

"Henry, stop it," Damocles said stiffly as he struggled to restrain the man in his seat.

"Tell me what they've done to stop this? Tell me what any of them are doing other than transporting bodies home?" Mr McLaggen had shouted into Damocles Belby's face.

"Shut up!" his wife screamed, looking ferocious, still clutching the gold pendant in her hand.

Marie Finnegan had gone to the woman's side and was holding her close when she had exploded at her husband and the Irish woman had actually fallen backwards with the shock of it. Mrs Jordan rushed over to help her up and try to subdue the dead boy's other parent from going into a hysterical fit.

"Do you even know your boy, Henry?" she hissed. "Do you even know anything about our boy other than he failed to become a prefect and he failed to become Head Boy and he failed to even get onto the Quidditch team, let alone captain it like you did?"

"Sally, you're hysterical," Mr McLaggen had blustered before pointing at Delitia MacMillan rudely. "You, get my wife a stiff drink."

"How dare you?" Mrs McLaggen screeched as her perfectly applied make-up streaked down her distraught face, Marie Finnegan and Mrs Jordan. "You may have other boys from your other marriages but Cormac was my only child and you don't even care that he's dead. All you care about is that you look like you lost. You and your ego failed to bully your way into getting what you wanted."

"Don't start with that again, Sally, not in front of all these...people." Mr McLaggen had looked at the other families and spat the word 'people' as if it was the nicest thing he could think to say about any of them.

"They killed my boy and you just want to get Alastor fired. That's all that matters to you. What's wrong with you?" Mrs McLaggen choked out.

"Neither of you are in a fit state to be getting into this now," Marie said as she clutched the sobbing woman to her and rubbed her back.

"Exactly, you're d-" Mr McLaggen began before Damocles Belby grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and shook him.

"Stop this. Attacking your wife isn't what you want to do right now is it Henry?" Damocles asked him roughly.

Mr McLaggen shook his head and reached into his for a handkerchief to mop the sweat from his face. The two witches comforting Mrs McLaggen stayed with her on the floor and talked to her quietly about the pendant that she held in her hand. Apparently, it had been hers and she had given it to her son for good luck. Mrs Weasley had asked Ginny and the twins to help her in the kitchen and they followed her without protest.

That was when Charlie had summoned his broom without a word and stomped out to the main door of the Embassy.

"Charlie, Muggles—" Tonks had called after him before grabbing her own Auror broom from the storage cupboard beside the door.

Charlie grunted and smacked himself on the head with his wand to Disillusion himself. Harry flicked his own wand over his shoulder.

"Accio broom!"

Hermione pulled at his sleeve and her eyes pleaded him not to go.

"Charlie needs company and I need to do something," Harry said before hugging her quickly and rushing after Charlie and Tonks as she put the Disillusionment Charm on herself.

"D'you mind?" Harry asked as he reached her and she sighed before tapping him hard on the head and sending that cold trickle down his spine. "Thanks Tonks."

"Do me, too," Seamus said as he stepped beside Harry and looked in no mood for an argument.

"You haven't got a broom," Tonks said, almost resigned to the fact that wouldn't matter to Seamus at all and he would indeed be coming with them.

"I see one goin' spare in that cupboard you got yours from," he shrugged.

Tonks huffed and hit Seamus especially hard with his Disillusionment Charm before stepping out of the door and kicking off from the ground. Harry and Seamus had followed her and headed out to the countryside before seeing Charlie's charm lifting and zooming off to meet with him.

They had flown farther then they had done before and Charlie kept on coming back to the same spot and frowning. Once all four charms had worn off and they were now very visible in the sky they landed and were now waiting for Charlie to say something.

"It should be here." Charlie ran a nervous hand through his hair as he paced back and forth.

"What was that?" Tonks asked cautiously.

Charlie growled and spun around to point over their shoulders.

"Those mountains over there are exactly the right distance apart and that line of trees," he gestured to some woods to his left, "are exactly the same and in exactly the right position. Even the shadows are the right length for this time of day."

Harry marvelled at how Charlie could have such a great mind for detail. Then he remembered Ron and his great mind for chess and figured that it must be a gift in all Weasleys that manifested itself in slightly differing ways.

"It's around the same time of day," Charlie was saying, almost sounding annoyed with himself. "The sun's in roughly the right place, the clouds aren't getting in the way, so I can match the patterns of the shadows and everything. It should be right there!" He spun around and pointed into the lush green valley ahead of him.

"Could it be a Disillusionment Charm, y'think?" Seamus offered, not holding out much hope in his theory.

Charlie and Tonks shook their heads at the same time and Harry bit his lip and looked around himself.

"How would you hide a place as big as that?" Harry muttered to himself as he squinted around as if narrowing his eyes could make him see clearly.

"Especially in bloody Holland," Seamus snorted. "I mean, the whole country's a flat as a pancake, isn't it?"

Harry sighed and Tonks twirled a cerise lock of hair around her finger thoughtfully. Seamus waggled his wand in that way that often led to him accidentally blowing things up at school while Charlie kicked out at a pebble on the ground. It rolled along the even ground before stopping just short of the valley plunging downward ahead of them.

It was at that moment that all four minds began to click and think as one.

Charlie looked at the pebble and then the valley and then back at Seamus. Seamus looked back at him with wide eyes and down into the valley below. Harry and Tonks had bulging eyes and while she slapped her hand to her forehead, Harry clamped his over his mouth as he swore aloud.

Charlie turned back and marched towards the valley.

"A bloody valley in the flattest country in Europe? I don't fuckin' think so!"

"Charlie wait, you don't know what a false front is hiding," Tonks said as she chased after him, wand drawn.

"It's hiding my bloody brother, Tonks, and I'm going in!" Charlie snarled.

"But wait up a sec there," Seamus said as he ran after the rapidly departing group. "What's with the mountains if the land's supposed to be flat?"

"Those mountains are bloody miles away Seamus," Charlie said without even looking back. "We're on the border. That's a whole other country over there."

"So we need to dissolve the spell hiding it and allow ourselves to pass through at the same time," Tonks said as she stared at the empty space before her thoughtfully.

"Solvo permeo!" Harry roared as he pointed his wand into the valley and the open space filled with a towering ruin, the wall of which they were almost close enough to stub their toes upon.

"How the hell did you know how to do that, Potter?" Seamus gasped.

Harry shrugged.

"Needed to learn a few tricks on the Horcrux hunt."

Charlie smiled at him before setting his jaw with determination.

"Right, lets go get 'em out."

"Charlie, Harry, Seamus," Tonks called after the hot headed wizards as the mounted their brooms and kicked off the ground to fly up to one of the windows. "We're gonna need reinforcements, y'know. We can't hope to get all the hostages with just four people, now can we?"

"Well, you go and do that and I'll go in there and see how those arsewipes like having their arms torn from their sockets." Charlie said with a friendly nod.

"Too feckin' right," Seamus said angrily.

"Get as many people as you can Tonks, and get then quickly," Harry said, "and while you do, I'm going to be looking for my brother."

Harry darted off and heard Tonks swearing from the ground behind them. Charlie and Seamus were at his side within the blink of an eye. After a moment, Tonks was bringing up the rear.

"I thought you were off to get more people?" Seamus smiled.

"I did," Tonks huffed. "I sent a Patronus to the Embassy. Now stick together and don't give me any lip. I'm the Auror!"

"Yes, Miss Tonks," Charlie said with amusement.

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Seamus grinned.

"Whatever you say," Harry nodded as he drew level with a window and sent in a Stunning Spell without even pausing to peer inside.

He was getting Ron back.

---

Jack was left to shift the rest of the compacted earth from his body while Ron scrambled over to another mound of earth marked with a straw and started digging.

When Jack was free, he had crawled over to help but Ron had told him to make a start on one of the other 'living graves' and the two of them had been silently digging for nearly ten minutes before Jack cried out and began talking to somebody.

"Belby, it's me, it's Jack! Don't worry I'm getting you out."

Ron frowned and began tearing at the ground beneath him with a grimace. Why had Jack, who had started digging much later, found Belby already? Was he, Ron, digging too slowly? He gritted his teeth through the discomfort of tearing up his fingernails and the nasty sight of his bleeding fingertips and raked at the ground with abandon.

"Try to push your arms through, Marcus," Jack said as he shoved more soil away from Belby's chest.

"Can't..." Belby said before coughing and straining, "...move...so heavy."

"S'okay," Jack said with a smile and Ron wrenched a large clump of soil away and threw it at the wall where it broke into pieces. "Ron?"

"I can't fucking find him!" Ron said hopelessly. "How deep did they bury this one?"

"S-S-Some..." Belby was breathing heavily until Jack managed to take all the pressure off his chest and Marcus coughed again and took a deep breath to continue. "Some of 'em are empty. They thought it'd be funny."

Ron's face fell as he realised there were more graves than prisoners and kicked at the wall of the hole he had just dug while Lee, Tommy and the others were slowly dying underground.

"Fuckers!"

"Ron, no," Jack said fearfully. "Make sure."

"What?" Ron frowned as he dragged his filthy, bloodied hand through his hair.

"I dunno, I just...just make sure it's empty before you give up on it," Jack advised him.

Belby had an arm free now and shoved Jack away before moving more soil away from him.

"Go help him, I'm alright now, go."

Jack crawled out of the uncovered grave and began to dig deeper down until they both reached the bottom of the straw and found no mouth at the end of it.

"It really is empty," Ron said as his shoulders fell and he heaved a tired sigh.

"Sorry Ron, I just thought...I wanted to-" Jack frowned.

"No, you were right," Ron nodded. "We don't give up digging until we know for sure right?"

"Right," Jack nodded with determination. "So which one next?"

Ron scanned around him for the two closest graves to them and pointed them out.

"You listen at the end of that straw," he said pointing at one straw, "and I'll have a go at this one. If you hear breathing or feel it on your face, then start digging."

"But what if it's somebody?" Jack said paling.

"What if it's nobody?" Ron said sadly. "We'll open every one of these fucking graves, but for now we'll open the ones we know have people still alive inside, okay?"

Jack nodded and dragged himself over to the breathing straw and let his hand hover over it before turning his head and listening. He looked back at the straw and shouted down into it.

"Hold on, I'm digging you up!"

Ron put his ear to the straw and bit his lower lip, willing the whooshing sound of hot breath to blow against his skin. There was nothing. He listened again and huffed before moving away to try the next straw over. Something stopped him, though. It was Jack's voice from a little while ago telling him he had a funny feeling and not to give up until he was absolutely sure. Ron looked back at the straw and leaned back towards it.

He put his lips over the straw and blew into it.

Suddenly, there was a plume of hot air blowing back at him and he drove his ravaged fingers deep into the soil and began to dig.

"I knew it," he whispered to himself. "I fucking knew it. I knew there was someone down there." Ron did the same thing Jack had done and shouted down into the straw, "I'm coming!"

---

The four of them burst in through door after door, one empty room unused for years after the other, and no sign of anybody.

"This is it. I know it is!" Charlie said angrily before running at a door and kicking it wide. "It has to be."

"We shoulda brought Fred. He saw the inside, didn't he?" Seamus said as he covered the rear while Tonks and Harry followed Charlie through.

"I saw what he saw and none of this is fam-" Tonks began before Seamus walked into her as she stopped abruptly and stared at a large iron door hanging off its hinges, "-iliar."

"Tonks?" Harry asked her nervously as she held up her wand and walked past Charlie towards the open door.

"Wait there," she said, unnaturally subdued as she made her way across the harsh looking room and stepped through the doorway.

Charlie was looking at Tonks as if she was crazy before turning to shrug his shoulders at Harry and Seamus. It was then that something caught Charlie's eye and his face fell. He stepped toward the window and looked out at the landscape visible from it.

"Two mountains, that tree formation over to the left and the shadows are all in the right places," he whispered to himself before turning to the door Tonks had gone into and looking both terrified and livid. "Ron!"

He ran into the next room and Harry followed in a heartbeat. The smell of stale urine and week-old unwashed clothing hit Harry hard in the face as he saw Charlie shoving Tonks to one side and dropping to his knees in front of a crumpled body, hair obscured by dust and debris.

"Ronnie?" he said with a shudder as he reached out to roll the dead wizard over and shook his head, begging the Gods not to be so cruel.

"Charlie, no," Tonks said but the body flopped over onto its back and the dead glassy eyes of Cormac McLaggen stared up at the ceiling.

"Oh, Godric," Charlie said as he threw himself back into a wall and put his head in his hands, relief taking all his strength from him before he shook himself out of it and pushed himself back to his feet. "So where is he then? Where are the rest of them?"

Seamus went looking into each cell with his hand clamped over his mouth and nose all the while, his wand drawn before stepping back and coughing.

"I've no idea but they couldn't have survived fer very long like this. Animals couldn't survive a day in this!"

"That's probably why they moved 'em," Tonks said before pausing to look into one of the middle cells and up at the wall with a wince.

"That's where they hung him, wasn't it?" Harry said as she moved toward him and nodded for him to let her pass.

"Harry, c'mon. Let's get out of here," she said with a smile as she put her hand on his shoulder to guide him out of the cells where his friends and colleagues had been kept prisoner.

Where Ron had been tortured.

"It's this one isn't it?" Harry said as he pushed past her and stepped inside. He looked up at the wall and couldn't see anywhere that chains could have been fixed. He made a wild guess. "Was he here? Did they do it here?"

"Harry, mate, c'mon, don't to this eh?" Seamus said uncomfortably.

Harry looked at the tiny cell and inhaled the foul smell of vomit, blood, sweat and human waste. Ron had been here and they hadn't managed to find this awful place in time. He took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He felt Tonks firm hands on his shoulders and she pulled him backwards out of the cell. He bumped into Charlie's shoulder as he was dragged out.

The broadest, strongest Weasley of all the brothers was shaking slightly and pointing into the cell at a rag tied to the bar in the window, he choked on a laugh and a sob at the same time.

"It's a hammock."

Tonks blinked and looked back inside the cell.

"They're cloaks Charlie," she said sadly as she reached out to pull him away from the cell as well. "C'mon."

"It's a bloody hammock!" Charlie said as he pointed to it fiercely. "That's Ron that is!"

Charlie's eyes were shining with tears but his voice resonated pride.

"This is the only bloody cell with a hammock. He's done that."

Harry nodded and slapped Charlie on the back.

"That's definitely Ron's doing."

"Well, teh be fair," Seamus smiled sadly, "our Fergus is a right lazy git and he coulda come up with somethin' like tha...if he was sober, y'know?"

Tonks chuckled and followed Seamus out of the cellblock just as Moody and Lupin arrived, followed by Aurors and several family members from the Embassy. Fred barged his way through the crowd to run to the cell he knew to be Ron's and stared in at the empty space. Moody was thudding over to McLaggen's body and swearing under his breath about being two steps behind the Death Eaters all the time.

"We were too late?" Fred said emptily.

Charlie put his heavy arm around Fred's shoulders.

"Yeah Fred," he said with a single nod. "We were too late."

Chapter 31 Behind the Wall

"Ron mate, take a break now, yeah?" Dean Thomas said tentatively as he tried to pull Ron away from the grave that he was unearthing. "There's enough of us now to take over. You just take a breather for a minute, okay?"

"Not until we've got everybody out," Ron said stiffly.

He'd stopped looking at his shredded hands and focused on how deep he had got, measuring every grave's progress by the foot long straw.

"Ron, come on, let me take this one for you," Dean said insistently.

Ron looked up at him and wiped his dirty face with his arm.

"You wanna finish this one off?" he asked.

"Yeah," Dean said enthusiastically.

"'Kay then, I'll make a start on this one."

Ron pulled his weary body over to the next grave to be exhumed but Dean grabbed his ankle and tugged.

"Ron you know I didn't mean th-"

"He did it because of me!" Ron snapped as he wrenched his foot free and set about shifting more earth with his raw and bleeding hands.

Jack's hands were just as bad, if not worse due to lack of a protective shield, and Colin Creevey had already forced Jack to stop and let the others take over the last couple of graves. At the moment, they kept digging up red herrings and frustration was getting the better of them.

"He couldn't drown me so he buried all of you. I have to do this," Ron said grimly and scraped more soil aside.

Dean shook his head and continued with the digging. Ron sighed, thankful that the arguments were over for another few minutes at least. But a large powerful arm picked him up bodily and carried him away from the grave.

"What the fuck? Put me down you git!" Ron squirmed and kicked before Krum dumped him heavily onto the ground beside Sloper and pointed a stern but mangled finger down into Ron's face.

"No more digging for you. Is enough now."

With that, Krum turned and marched over to the grave he extracted Ron from and dropped to his knees to take over.

"But..." Ron shifted to push himself back up to his feet again.

Jack Sloper held on to Ron's arm and made sure he stayed sitting at his side. Ron looked at him, the very first person he had dug up what felt like a lifetime ago, and shuddered.

"I need to find them, Jack."

"They'll find them for you, Ron," Jack said with confidence, "But you've got to stop now."

Ron nodded shakily and Jack pulled him into a one-armed hug before pointing at the seven people scrabbling around in the dirt to find the two who remained underground amidst all the fake graves.

"You see all those guys?" Jack asked and waited for Ron to nod his head. "They're all still alive because of you."

"This is my fault," Ron said as his head fell.

"Shhhh." Jack said as he gave Ron a pat where his rested against his arm.

"I wound him up too much. I got too cocky."

"And that's what we want to see Ron," Jack said with determination. "We want to see you getting under his skin and making his bloody eye twitch like you did last time. Don't you dare back down."

Ron hugged his arms to himself and leaned into Jack as they watched the others digging, trying to find the last two missing prisoners. Trying to find Lee and Tommy.

---

Arthur followed Bill along the dark corridor with his wand drawn. So far, the entire ruined fortress had been totally deserted but it didn't appear that all those hostages and the number of Death Eaters required to guard them could have evacuated at such short notice. It had been short notice. The kitchen still had steaming hot mugs of coffee waiting to be drunk. The armchair had a warm indentation on it. The cells still smelled of fresh urine.

Arthur snarled inwardly. He had never been a violent man, only when it came to protecting his children, but right now, he wished he could see one of those hate-filled Dark wizards who caged his youngest boy as if he was nothing more than an animal.

Bill was sending spells down every corridor to break through any shields or concealment charms that might be there. They hadn't found any hidden doors or rooms yet and now they were on their way downstairs to the cellar.

"Dad look," Bill pointed his lit wand at a wall. "See these charred bricks?"

"Yes," Arthur frowned as he ran his fingers over the old bricks until they reached the blackened area that looked as if a stray hex had struck it. "This wasn't done too long ago either." He glanced at the wall on the other side but saw no marks there.

"So there was a fight down here," Bill said, his scarred face made it difficult to decipher whether his expression was one of optimism or dread.

"It would appear so, son," Arthur said before nodding onward down the darkened corridor. "Let's find out how it ended shall we?"

They walked further down until they came to a dead end and a pile of Muggle tools and some kind of sandy goop Bill got on his shoe. Arthur frowned and looked up and down the narrow corridor.

"I've never heard of a flight of stairs leading down to nothing have you, Bill?"

"No, I haven't, Dad," Bill said before sending his 'reveal' charm against the walls, floor and ceiling.

The charm bounced off everything and fizzled out.

"Huh," Bill said before pressing against the walls to either side of him. "They seem to be solid."

"Yes, they're definitely real," Arthur nodded. "But something just isn't right here. I can't put my finger on it but..."

Arthur looked around at the narrow corridor and then at his feet before turning to frown at Bill.

"Can you imagine Charlie down here?" he asked his oldest son.

Bill snorted and shook his head.

"He'd get jammed in unless he walked sideways!"

"Exactly," Arthur nodded before extending both his arms a little way to touch the wall on either side of him. "I mean unless you deliberately wanted to keep broad people out of here, why would you build such a narrow walkway?"

"I think the question is why build it to nowhere, Dad?" Bill said with a huff.

"Well, I think it was an exit they blocked off before they even attacked the safe house." Shacklebolt announced from the far end of the corridor, at the foot of the stairs. "There are a few others like it. Bricked up windows and doors. I think it was just a non-magical security measure."

"Unlike the Death Eaters to do anything non-magical, isn't it?" Arthur said, his brow furrowing. "I mean really, building walls the Muggle way?"

"Well, there's no way they herded all those hostages through here," Bill sighed as he lowered his wand.

"I know," Shacklebolt said before turning to head back up the stairs. "Can you imagine them fighting with Krum in a tight space like that?"

Arthur pushed himself against the wall to let his son squeeze by and lingered in the cellar that wasn't for a moment.

"Why have a duel down here?" he asked himself as he rubbed his fingers up against another burn mark on the stone wall. "You'd work it out in a second wouldn't you, Ron?"

Arthur pushed himself away from the wall, the bricks he had been leaning upon uncomfortably warm, and he assumed it must have been part of the chimney, before heading upstairs to secure the rest of his son's old prison with the others.

---

This was it. This was what it felt like to die.

Lee felt the enormous weight that had been crushing him from above lighten. He knew this was death taking him. The weight, the lack of air, the pain of the pressure on his bones, it was all falling away and he was finally going to get some relief. He could see Ron again. He could say sorry, sorry for letting him down so badly. If his eyes weren't so clogged with grit and grime he would have cried.

He only hoped Ron was dead before the Puppet Bastard got to have his way with him.

He'd sworn to protect him and instead he'd let him die. He'd failed the twins, his best friends in the world, and now he could at least die rather than have to face them and tell them what he'd done. Telling them what he hadn't been able to do would really have hurt.

He really hoped that Ron hadn't felt anything, he deserved better than that.

There was a rough scratching against his skin and then something soft and firm poking and scraping at his body. What was happening? This wasn't the soft warmth of the afterlife his nana had told him all about after Papa Jordan had died.

"I have Lee!" a heavily accented voice cried out.

He cracked his eyes open just a fraction and saw the dim glow of orange torchlight behind several shadows. There were mumblings, mutterings, all kinds of sounds and sensations and none of them made any sense to him.

"Ron! Ron, he's here! We've got him."

They were calling for Ron, they didn't know. They hadn't seen him.

"Dead," Lee wheezed but the voices and dark shadows didn't seem to be listening to him.

Lee gulped a lungful of thick, stifling air, choking a little before his eyes stung with dirt and grit falling into them as he was hauled up out of the earth by his numb arms and more weight left him. He could breathe, he could see. He recognised Colin Creevey's ecstatic face and then saw Dean Thomas holding his head and staring into his eyes.

"Lee, are you with us, mate? It's all gonna be okay now. Everybody's going to be fine."

Lee's chest heaved and he shook his head. Nothing was going to be okay. Everybody wasn't fine. Ron was dead and he'd let it happen. How could this be? How could he still be alive after all this, after being put in the ground near starvation, while Ron was drowned?

"Lemme through," a frantic voice was saying as the faces moved back and Lee put his hand to his face and yelped out a sob.

Two sticky hands grabbed his arms roughly and shook him.

"That's where you've been hiding!" said the voice with a shuddering weak laugh.

Lee thought it sounded so familiar. It could almost have been Ron himself. Lee choked on more tears and felt himself hugged tightly. This made him panicky and he pushed against the person holding on to him.

"Oh Merlin, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...I didn't think...I'm sorry."

Lee knew that voice. It was exactly like Ron's. Lee blinked his eyes and tried to focus on the blur, backlit by the warm glow of the flaming torch somewhere behind the crowd gathered around him. The torch illuminated the hair of the person talking to him until his hair was the colour of fire just like Ron's. Lee felt his insides ache and he lifted his dirty hand to touch the hair.

He was seeing a vision of Ron. Ron had been sent back to say goodbye to him.

"I'm sorry," Lee said, his voice mangled and strained beyond recognition.

"What are you sorry for?" Ron's ghost asked with a gentle laugh.

"I saw you, and it was too late, and I swore...I swore that I wouldn't let him...I broke my promise!" Lee said as he crumpled in despair.

"What is he on about, Ron?" Fergus Finnigan asked.

Somebody shushed the Irishman and Lee wondered why Fergus could see Ron, too. Maybe it wasn't Ron at all. Maybe he was hallucinating.

"Ron's dead," Lee said, closing his eyes and dropping his face into his filthy hands.

Sound was sucked away, leaving Lee with silence. Nobody was speaking anymore. They'd just lost their leader, their champion, and their inspiration. They knew that Lee hadn't been able to save him like he'd vowed to.

"Lee...mate, I'm here," a single voice echoed out.

Ron. It was Ron again. Lee couldn't look up and see the person he was confusing with his newly adopted brother. He kept his head down and answered the voice.

"I saw you dead. I saw him. He...he drowned you!" Lee choked out.

There was a deep exhalation followed by a firm hand gripping his chin and lifting his head.

"Look at me," the voice that was once Ron's instructed him.

Lee shook his head. He wasn't ready to face the world without his brother in it just yet. He wouldn't be ready for that world ever.

"Lee, it's me. Please look at me. I'm here."

Lee reached up and grabbed the hand to pull it away from his face. He felt blood oozing beneath his fingers and opened his eyes to see the bloodied hand he was holding.

"What did they do to you?" Lee said as he tried to wipe away the dirt and the blood.

"I've been digging," Ron's voice said. "I've been looking for you, ya git!"

Lee flinched; this wonderful hallucination was so very like Ron. He didn't dare lift his head to face the disappointment of not seeing his friend's face. Lee concentrated on the hand before him. He turned the hand to one side and the arm, hanging limply, turned toward the light with it. Lee saw silvery white scars snaking around the wrist and all the way up to the elbow. He shuddered, Ron's poor skin butchered forever by those brains.

Then he blinked and trailed his finger along one of the scars.

"Ron's scars," he whispered.

"Yeah," the nervous voice that sounded so very like Ron said hesitantly. "Ron's scars on Ron's arms which hang off Ron's body which is right in front of you, Lee. Please look at me."

Lee lifted his head and gulped as his eyes, now better accustomed to the dim light, saw Ron's face looking back at him.

"Ron?" he said with nothing more than a squeak.

"Yeah," Ron nodded and smiled a little, "it's me."

"But he killed you," Lee blurted out. "I saw. I saw you dead and drowned in that barrel of water."

Ron glanced around at the others before looking back at Lee and smiling sadly.

"Cally's spell started working. He couldn't drown me. Cally gave me air."

Lee felt himself shaking while Colin Creevey gasped and Marcus Belby said 'wow'.

"N-No," Lee shook his head. "I saw you! I saw you dead!"

"Lee," Krum was saying as he gripped Lee's shoulder firmly and gave a bracing shake. "Is Ron. I know it is him. He say Cally helped him then it is true."

Lee threw Krum's hand away and shuffled backwards.

"It's a...he's a Polyjuiced..." he pointed at the Ron kneeling before him looking worried. "That's not Ron! It's one of them! They killed him! I saw it! I saw him dead!"

Lee's anger bubbled up so rapidly that he was taken by surprise at his own adrenaline rush, flinging himself at the person claiming to be Ron and threw him onto his back.

"You killed him, you fucking bastard!" Lee pulled back his arm to punch the impostor in the face but both Krum and Jack Sloper grabbed him and dragged him away.

"Lee, I swear, it's me," the Ron-look-alike said while Ernie Macmillan helped him up and murmured something about giving Lee some time and for him to go back to Tommy.

"Tommy!" Lee blurted as he looked around until he saw the dirty body of Tommy lying still and unconscious on a mound of earth, supported by Sam Robbins. "Get away from him!"

Lee scrambled over the uneven floor to Tommy's side and turned back warningly at the impostor posing as Ron.

"Don't you touch him you, bastard," Lee hissed.

The Ron looked hurt. Oh he's good, Lee thought to himself, and Dean put an arm around him and guided Lee away from them.

"You might have them fooled but I know you killed him and I'm gonna make you pay!" Lee spat at the murderous bastard wearing Ron's skin.

Chapter 32 Almost There

Molly waited with Ginny at the Embassy for everyone to come back.

The others were called away so quickly and nobody had any idea what was going on. All they knew was that Tonks' Patronus had bounded across the room to rear up and rest its front paws on Remus' shoulders, delivering her message.

Charlie had found the place the Death Eaters had Ronnie.

The Belbys, Dennis Creevey, Bianca Robbins, Hermione, Arthur and all her boys had gone rushing out with Moody and the rest of the Aurors. Lupin had stayed behind to protect the Embassy in case it was a trap. Ginny had wanted to go along but Molly had needed her to stay at her side. She didn't want to be alone, not while this horror was going on, and her daughter had stayed at her side despite much protest.

Kathleen Finnigan was pacing up and down and muttering about her Seamus going off on a rescue mission without even saying goodbye to her. Her sister Marie was making tea; it had become the thing to do whenever anything unpleasant was happening, merely something to occupy their time while they were waiting for news to arrive. Jannette Creevey and Delitia Macmillan were standing on the steps outside the Embassy hopefully awaiting the return of the triumphant rescue mission. The Thomases simply sat quietly in armchairs, glancing across to Molly and Ginny, smiling at this little ray of hope that this would all be over soon.

There were cracks of Apparition and several brooms arrived, under the Disillusionment Charm. Everybody rushed forward; Marie was out of the kitchen so fast Molly wondered if she hadn't Apparated herself. Molly held her breath and clung to Marie as she stood at her side. Ginny used the opportunity to step forward and peer into the crowd of witches and wizards as they gradually made themselves visible again. The Belby's walked in from outside where they had Apparated, followed by an Auror or two, and Arthur shimmied into view after tapping himself on the head with his wand.

"Dad?" Ginny said as she tried to examine her father's expression.

Molly saw it immediately though, there was no good news.

"The McLaggens. Are they still here?" Arthur asked her.

"Yer man went to the Ministry to file a complaint about Moody," Marie said, leaning to look over Arthur's shoulder to catch sight of her lost boy.

"Mrs McLaggen's sister came to take her home a little while after they heard the news," Carol Thomas said as she got to her feet, joined by her husband. "So the boys weren't there then?"

Arthur hugged Molly close to him and she saw Kingsley Shacklebolt stepping out of the now visible crowd carrying a bloodied bundle covered in a couple of cloaks knotted together.

"Harry, who?" Ginny said as she rushed forward to pull the cloaks away.

Hermione grabbed her wrist and shook her head.

"Don't look Ginny, it's Cormac's body. That's all we found."

Julie Painter let out a shuddering sigh and steadied herself against a wall. Charlie and the twins had thrown themselves down onto a sofa and were staring at their feet, shaking their heads in shock. Molly saw Moody clearing his throat and raising both his gnarled hands.

"We found the place the hostages were being kept. We found the body of the McLaggen boy. We found cells...the cells the hostages had been living in all this time. But we were too late. The hostages and their captors had already moved out."

There was a groan from all those who had remained at the Embassy; a haunted look took over the faces of those who had seen the cells.

"What was this place?" Floella Jordan asked. "Where were they?"

"What were these cells like?" Darren Thomas asked as he put a strong arm around his wife's shoulders.

Molly noticed Bill rubbing his scarred face roughly before leaving the crowd and marching over to the fireplace. Molly was about to call after him when Arthur shushed her and hugged her a little tighter.

"He's going to talk to Fleur. Let him be for now, Molly dear."

She sighed and nodded. She hated being the second choice with all her children now. Bill would always take his troubles to his wife; Charlie would rather talk to his animals or better still, Hagrid. Percy still wouldn't spend much time talking with his family; Penelope was his confidant of choice. The twins had each other. Ronnie always chose Hermione and Ginny's first stop was Harry.

She saw Harry pulling Ginny close to him, staring blankly into space.

"Oh Gin, that place, the smell, if we'd only found it an hour before...I'm so sorry."

Ginny gripped handfuls of his robes and trying to comfort him in return.

"It's alright Harry, he's still alive and we'll find him. We'll get him back, I know it."

"Um, Arthur, Molly?" Jannette Creevey said hesitantly. "Where is my boy? My Dennis I mean?"

Arthur broke away from Molly and smiled at the fearful Muggle woman.

"He stayed behind to do one final sweep of the place, looking for clues and what-not. He's not one to give up hope easily." Arthur said warmly as he guided the woman over to a chair.

Marie and Kathleen were both firing question after question at a tired looking Seamus. The crowd thinned to show an utterly bewildered Hermione standing lost and alone. Harry and Ginny had obviously wandered away to be together. Molly wove her way through the small gatherings or Aurors and family members to get to the young witch, offering the comfort she knew Hermione needed.

Snippets of conversation were like needles in her heart and she did her best to ignore them as she met the bushy-haired witch's eyes and saw the girl force a sad smile onto her face.

"...sleeping in their own filth..."

"...animals mistreated like that let alone people..."

"...blood, shit, piss, flies..."

"...those kids have got to be wishing they were dead by now..."

"Hermione, come with me," Molly said bracingly as she took the young witch's limp arm and pulled her along with her towards the kitchen.

"I don't want any tea, Mrs Weasley," Hermione began her tired little protest.

"Bugger the tea. I'm having a brandy and you won't let me drink it alone, will you dear?"

---

Krum and Robbins stood at the cellar door and peered through at the source of their only light, the flaming torch just outside. They would frown and mumble occasionally before shaking their heads and huffing as they looked back outside.

"Hey, Weasley," Sam said just as Ron was chancing another glance over at Lee and Tommy on the far side of the cellar. Lee scowled when he heard, what he believed to be, the misuse of Ron's name. "You're a strategist, right?"

"What?" Ron blinked as he looked away from Lee's death glare and back at the two large figures at the locked door.

"C'mere," Sam said with a nod of his head.

Ron got up and clambered over a pile of earth to join them.

"You see vhat has been done?" Krum pointed at the door, the torch and the wall so close that the cell door wouldn't be able to open without jarring against it.

"Um, yeah," Ron nodded.

"Were you conscious when they brought you down here?" Sam asked hopefully.

"No," Ron shook his head and looked from Sam to Krum and back again.

"So, what's your take on them bricking us in then?" Sam asked anxiously. "Is this another kind of game or are we down here to die and never be found?"

Ron sighed deeply and gestured for them both to get out of the way. He pressed his face against the small opening and squinted around.

"Well, it's a Muggle built wall and I wasn't unconscious long enough for them to manually build a bloody wall."

"This vhat I say," Krum nodded. "So?"

Ron puffed out his cheeks and blew as he gave his best guess.

"Okay, so if you wanted to have a non-magical wall built like that," Ron clicked his fingers, "you'd build it the Muggle way long beforehand and then magically destroy it."

"Of course," Sam said as he slapped his palm to his forehead.

"So they just leave vall broke until the need and then Reparo?" Krum asked.

"Exactly," Ron nodded. "So they wanted to be able to hide a door from wizards who were looking for a door hidden by magic.

"They do the bloody revealing spells and there's nothing to reveal because this is a perfectly legitimate Muggle built wall!" Sam said, almost in admiration for both the Death Eater's wiliness and Ron's ability to work out such a complex puzzle as if it was plain and simple.

"So we are hidden to die?" Krum asked with no emotion in his voice.

"Could be," Ron nodded, "but the straws and chucking me in here knowing I'd dig you all up—that's not a death thing. That's a torture thing. I know that Puppet Master well enough now to know if this was his finale and it really doesn't feel like it."

"Oh you know him well, alright," Lee growled from across the cellar.

"Oh, will somebody shut him up!" Jack Sloper snapped before turning on Lee fiercely. "You might have seen him dead but I bloody well saw him dig me up with his bare hands." Jack pointed to various other embarrassed prisoners as he continued. "And him, and him, and him..."

"While impervious to pain! Big bloody deal!" Lee snarled.

"Ignore him," Sam said as he turned Ron's focus back to the door. "He doesn't know what he's saying; he was down there longer than any of us and it's messed with his head, that's all."

Ron took a deep breath and gave a single nod.

"So the wall is for?" Krum said a he tried to push his arm through and press against it but there was a magical barrier on the door itself.

"Right," Ron said, shaking his head to clear it of thoughts of Lee's mistrust. "So they want us in here, magically locked in so we can't pick the lock the Muggle way. They probably put a Silencing Charm on the door, too, 'cause I can't hear that torch crackling, can you?"

The three of them listened. Sam and Krum shook their heads in unison.

"They never silenced our main cell door," Sam said thoughtfully.

"And they silenced this one, so logic tells us that when we were upstairs they wanted us to be heard so they could tell if we were up to something. Down here they don't want us getting out, being heard, or being revealed by magic." Ron broke into a slight smile.

Sam's eyes widened and he looked to the wall.

"Somebody's out there looking for us."

"Somebody's in there looking for us," Ron said, feeling stronger for this knowledge. "They found the place so the Puppet Bastard had to put his quick hiding place into action. I reckon they all locked themselves in here, buried you all and took a Portkey out of here to wait it out until whoever came looking figures they've moved on and leaves. Then they come back and move us for real."

"So there could be people out there right now, on the other side of that wall, Aurors?" Ernie Macmillan said optimistically.

"Aurors looking for us behind magical illusions and not a hand built Muggle wall that looks as if it's been here for a good long while," Ron shrugged. "I'd say they're not gonna find us today but if they can work it out, one of them must be able to work it out..." Ron said as he stared at the wall.

"They will. They'll come and blast the wall down and they'll see us," Sam said with more hope than Ron had seen in his eyes in a very long time.

"Yeah, hopefully," Ron said with a nod.

"Definitely," Krum said with confidence. "We just wait little longer. They find us."

"You seem to know an awful lot about this plan from just a wall, Ron," Lee said sarcastically. Ron turned around and sighed deeply.

"Look, ask me a question or something, ask me something only I would know and let me prove it to you," Ron said as he staggered over the uneven ground towards Lee who was on his feet and standing protectively before Tommy with a wild look in his eyes.

"And how do I know you didn't go into his head and steal everything, all his memories, before you finished him off you, bastard?"

"Because it's me!" Ron said as he threw his arms into the air, at a loss as how to convince his friend he wasn't a Polyjuiced-Puppet Master-Ron but just plain old Ron Weasley.

"Prove it!" Lee roared.

"How?" Ron bellowed back into his angry face. "The only way I can prove that I'm not bleedin' dead is by standing in front of you being alive and that doesn't seem to be good enough for you!"

Lee swung his arm back and landed a punch to Ron's jaw. He took the punch, his head rattling and something made a loud deep clicking sound inside his skull, but Ron felt no pain and shook it off, stepping up to Lee, determined to prove his point.

"Cally's bloody spell is protecting me for the time being," he said, fighting his urge to grab Lee by his shirt and shake some sense into him. "You were the one who told me about the spell in the first place. How would anybody but us know there was some kind of protection on me?"

"Get off me," Lee said as he shoved Ron backwards. "He fucking hit you at dinner, you told me. You said it hurt and showed me the bruise after Cally's spell."

"Hold on, he's got a point," said Belby, getting up and stepping away from Ron cautiously.

"Oh, don't you bloody start, too!" Ron huffed.

"Fellas, fellas, come on now," Fergus said as he put a hand on Ron's back gently to let him know it wasn't an attack from behind. "This is our Ron, I know it. I'm sure of it, so stop givin' the poor bastard a hard time."

"You don't know him as well as I do," Lee hissed. "What do you know?"

"I know him better than you do," Dean said as he too took up position behind Ron and folded his arms across his chest. "You only knew him as your mates' little brother before this and I've been his dorm-mate since we were eleven. This is Ron and you are off your rocker from lack of oxygen!"

"Look, don't," Ron said as he tried to wave Dean and Fergus back. "Leave him alone to calm down. I don't want to upset him anymore than he i-"

Ron's sentence was cut off by all the air leaving his body and his body doubling over with the force of Lee's fist in his gut. There was still no pain and it was incredibly uncomfortable for a moment before he felt his stomach recovering quickly and the air pulling itself back into his lungs. Lee charged at him and knocked him off his feet onto his back.

Dean, Fergus and Krum threw themselves into the fray to try and pull Lee off Ron but Lee had his hands around Ron's throat, growling with genuine hatred.

"Change back, you evil bastard!" Lee screamed. "Change back and fight me with your own bloody face. Let me kill you looking like you, ya worthless fucking coward!"

Ron felt as if he had a strong steel pipe for a throat and no matter how hard Lee squeezed the air still came with ease. Unfortunately, his voice was hindered and every time he tried to communicate with Lee to stop or the others not to hurt his livid friend all he could do was make a gagging sound.

"Lee, get off him, you don't know what you're doing!" Colin said, fear in his voice.

"He killed him!" Lee roared just as Krum and Sam lifted him off Ron and flung Lee to the ground."He killed him," Lee said again, his voice breaking slightly now as he curled up on his side and forced his eyes shut.

Ron sat up and massaged his throat before trying to crawl across to Lee. Fergus' hand was on his shoulder, holding him back.

"Give him time, Ron," he said sadly. "You gave him a scare and he can't get over it. Just leave him be fer now eh?"

Ron nodded and let Jimmy and Dean pick him up and stand him on his feet before smiling and guiding him back to the locked cellar door.

"I let him die," Lee whimpered while Colin crawled to his side and rubbed his back while Ernie moved to sit with the unconscious Tommy while Lee had his little breakdown.

They had people looking for them, people who could save them all, right on the other side of that simple Muggle wall and there was nothing they could do to let them know they were there.

---

A fracas broke out in the main entrance of the Embassy and increased in volume as Tonks and Dennis ran into the room. Moody growled as he tried to make sense out of what Dennis Creevey was gibbering about. Mrs Creevey clung to her youngest son, eager to hear the news.

"Tell him Den," Tonks said eagerly. "Tell him what you just told me."

Moody looked at the timid looking Muggle-born boy and tried to change his face into as warm and accommodating an expression as he could manage, given the scars, a missing piece of nose and his false eye.

"Did you find something at the old hideout, boy?" Moody said much more gruffly than he had intended, he'd obviously spent far too much time focusing on his expression to think about sounding approachable.

"Sir, Mr Moody," Dennis puffed as he sat down. "I found a clue, the new hideout, sir. I know where it is!"

There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room and Charlie and Harry were on their knees before Dennis within one second, the twins in two and Seamus Finnigan and Remus Lupin joined them faster than you could say full moon.

"Dennis where?" Harry demanded.

"How?" Lupin frowned.

"Muggle methods," Tonks said proudly. "Tell 'em Den!"

"We were looking around one last time before leaving and I saw a fireplace with lots of burned up paper smouldering in it."

Charlie's shoulders slumped and Bill made a disappointed sound from the back of the group.

"No kid," Shacklebolt said with a sigh, "we tried to salvage the papers from the fire already. It was too late."

"But the blotter didn't get burnt!" Dennis said triumphantly.

"The what?" Moody blinked while Dennis' mother looked delighted.

"Ooh, just like that ransom note in that film we saw on television!" Mrs Creevey fairly glowed with pride.

"That's where I got it from!" Dennis said excitedly and he beamed at his proud mother and shook with joy at seemingly having done something to be of help.

"So tell us!" Charlie said impatiently.

"Oh right!" Dennis jumped, still grinning. "Well, whatever got burnt was written with a quill and fast, too. The quill needed to be blotted and blotting paper gets re-used over and over so nobody ever throws that away do they?"

"Of course," the Weasley twins said in unison while smacking themselves on the foreheads.

"So the Death Eaters drew a map with different Apparition points and took off with a prisoner each. The last one burnt the map but didn't think to get rid of the blotting paper," Dennis pulled out a large, flat, green blotter and held it up in front of Moody's face, "which was brand new and pretty easy to piece together when you hold it in front of a mirror."

"Oh, Denny!" Mrs Creevey said with glee as she flung her arms around her son and squeezed him until it looked as if the lad's cheeks were going to burst.

Moody took the blotter and called for his Aurors to follow him into the Ambassador's office. Several others, mostly Weasley men, forced their way in as well. Moody also noticed the absence of three bolshy witches who should be fussing around at this new information. His magical eye scanned the building while the crowd gathered and a mirror was fetched from the bathroom. He soon spotted the missing witches in the kitchen.

They sat in a circle, turning their wands in a broken figure eight motion while chanting in synchronisation. A powerful orange light swelled around them and Moody turned his attention back to the gathering in his temporary office.

What harm could it do to let Molly, her girl and Granger try their little locator spell while they used the more practical approach? he thought.

Chapter 33 Unseen

Ron lay huddled in the far corner of the cellar by himself. Lee cradled Tommy and occasionally glared across at Ron, silently warning him not to even dare trying to come near them. Ron turned his head away and rested it against the wall to try and get some sleep.

"Hey there, Ron," Fergus said as he crawled across the uneven ground to sit at Ron's side with a sad smile. "You want somebody to talk to?"

Ron looked back at the Irishman and sighed deeply."I'm alright; thanks, Fergus. I'm just gonna get some kip."

Fergus looked at him thoughtfully before shifting his legs beneath him and crossing them, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward slightly, and he lowered his voice so only Ron could hear. "It was you who kept me goin' on my worst night. I'm gonna be here fer you until Lee gets his senses back right?"

Ron lifted his eyes to look over Fergus' shoulder and watch Lee huddling close beside Tommy. "He really thinks I'm a plant, doesn't he? He really fucking hates me."

"He doesn't hate yeh. He hates them, those bastards who did this to us; he can't believe his luck tha's all. He can't believe yeh didn't die and he didn't die and Tommy's still not dead."

Ron rubbed his face roughly and hugged his arms to himself. "Bet it's making the rest of you think twice about trusting me though eh?" he said heavily.

"Not me, not fer a second," Fergus smiled confidently. "I knew yeh without ever getting ta see yeh. I couldn't see into your cell, I could just listen to yeh talkin' an' I know what ya sound like. I know what kinda fella y'are. I know you and I know yer sittin' right in front of me now."

Ron smiled at Fergus and drew his knees into himself.

"Cheers mate."

"I know it's you, too, Ron," Jack said from the shadows. "I saw you digging us all up with your bare hands and I saw you worrying about everyone. You can't fake that. Polyjuice can't copy that, that's character that is." Sloper moved into the light and Ron saw the sincerity in his expression.

"Don't tell him anything," Lee snapped. "I know Ron Weasley and I know that isn't him. I know what I saw and I saw him dead." Ron turned away and faced the wall again while Lee continued. "That fucking bastard killed him and he's got you all fooled. Even charmed himself so we can't hurt him. How stupid are you all?"

"Shut up, Lee!" Dean hissed from the lumpy ground that he was trying to fall asleep on and failing miserably.

"You need sleep. See clear in the morning," Krum grunted from somewhere in the darkness.

"Leave him alone," Ron said uncomfortably. "He's just being careful."

"Fuck you murderer!" Lee snarled before turning his attention back to Tommy once more.

Ron nestled himself further into the corner and forced his eyes closed in an attempt to will sleep to take this sod-awful day away for good. He heard shuffling and cracked his eyes open a little to see Fergus settling himself down to sleep beside Ron.

"What are you doing?" Ron frowned.

"What you did fer me a couple a nights ago," the wizard said matter-of-factly before speaking clearly and breezily. "So where did we leave off? Oh yeah, right, five things I have never seen."

Ron broke into a smile as he watched Fergus staring up at the darkness above him and began thinking aloud.

"Well I've never seen me da, not that I remember anyway so that's one."

Ron shifted away from the corner he huddled into and laid himself down beside Fergus, propping his head up on his elbow.

"What happened to him?" Ron asked.

"Him an' his brother, our Shay's da, they both died when we were young'uns. Shay remembers his a bit, he's lucky. I just know what mine looks like from pictures and tha'. He was caught by some Muggle-baiters, Death Eaters too cowardly to actually fight but spiteful enough to maim and kill. They did him in. Me ma won't say how it happened. Aunt Kath, tha's Shay's ma, she won't even tell him the truth about his da. He thinks he died of a heart attack."

"Shit," Dean said from behind Fergus.

"This isn't fer discussion after we get out, y'understand lads?" Fergus called out.

"It's on the never speak of list, Fergus," Sam said with a yawn.

"Right, so the second thing I've never seen is..." Fergus squinted in deep thought before nodding to himself and then delivering his next unseen sight with total sincerity, "a pair of tits I didn't like." There were chuckles and sniggers from all over the cellar.

"So you're not picky then?" Ron grinned.

"Not at all," Fergus said proudly. "Right, number three...let's think...ummmm... I've never seen this bloody country we're in out of war situations."

"Me, neither," said Belby.

"Snap," Jack said sadly.

"I came with Quidditch team for game with Netherlands three year ago," Krum said. "Amsterdam, it was nice. Saw strange women with ping pong balls."

Fergus clamped his hand over his mouth and Dean's shoulders shook. Ron groaned and lay flat on his back. There were several other stifled sniggers until Colin piped-up.

"You saw a ladies table-tennis match?"

Sam Robbins and Ernie Macmillan almost died laughing.

"What?" Colin asked incredulously. "What's so funny? Women can play table tennis. I've seen them!"

"Col...please stop!" Ernie begged him, eyes streaming with tears and both arms clutching his sides.

"What's so funny about women's table tennis?" Colin said, adamant that he was going to get to the bottom of this apparent source of mirth. "My cousin Sheila can send a ball flying with her backhand."

"Oh Merlin no!" Ron gasped, as the laughter grew louder.Even Lee's shoulders were shaking a little, Ron noticed.

"Please, somebody stop him!" Dean whimpered.

"Okay," Fergus called out over the laughter, "the fourth thing I've yet to see is..." he narrowed his eyes and looked around himself, "a Minister for Magic who didn't have his head up his backside."

There were jeers and murmurs of approval at that. Ron rolled his eyes at the thought of the two Ministers he had met in person and the ineffectiveness of both of them to handle the Voldemort problem. He heard the noise die down and turned his head to see Fergus staring at him intensely. He frowned and sat up on his elbows. Fergus smiled at him with something like determination set in his eyes.

"The fifth and final thing I have never seen...and will never see...is Ron Weasley dead at the hands of a Death Eater." Ron swallowed and stared into the fierce eyes boring into his skull.

"Fer-"

"I've given up on a lot of things in me time, Ron," Fergus said with a proud smile, "but I never once gave up on you."

Ron didn't know where to look but had to look away. He lay back on the ground again and stared up at the dark ceiling before responding with a cracked voice. "Thanks, Fergus."

Fergus settled back down to sleep. "Don't thank me, thank the fella who dug me up today."

Hermione, Ginny and Molly were almost blinded by the bright orange light swelling around them. The doors and windows rattled while their hair blew wildly; they could feel Ron in the room with them. His smell was so vivid and Hermione was so sure she could even hear him breathing. The spell had finally worked.

Hermione could see, hear and feel the emotion behind every memory and image Molly and Ginny put into the spell. They must have been able to experience hers, too, and for a moment, she was embarrassed to share some of her more intimate memories of Ron. It soon became apparent that her desire to find Ron overcame her sense of modesty and let herself open up to the spell completely.

Ron's lips brushed against Hermione's in a dark, dank cave in the middle of winter. She leaned in for more and they both opened their mouths to receive the other.

--

Ginny held hands with her brother as they found their way out of the woods near The Burrow. They had been lost all afternoon and their mummy would be cross with them. Ron led her back to the house and they cringed at their mother's screams and tales of worry. They wouldn't get to play outside for a week. They wouldn't get sweeties for two weeks. They had to do housework for three. Then they pouted and nodded and said they were sorry. The twins peered around the corner and giggled at them getting into so much trouble. Still, through it all, they held hands.

--

Ron was rolling his eyes and treading on Molly's feet. She would dance with her son at this wedding if it were the last thing she did. Harry was laughing behind his hand and Arthur was taking a photograph, much to Ron's dismay, but she danced with her youngest son and loved every moment of it. Her littlest boy, this strapping man, finally gave her a grudging smile and when she told him how handsome he looked in his dress robes, he dipped her to shut her up and when he pulled her up they were both laughing.
--

Ron's dress robes were in a heap on the bedroom floor and Hermione was pulling off her summer dress while he kissed her neck and asked her if she was sure this was what she wanted. It was all she wanted. If they were to die on this mission of Dumbledore's at least she would have that one day, that one glorious day, when she are Ron were together exactly how they should have been.

--

Ron was going to Hogwarts and Ginny had to stay behind on her own. She was running after the shiny red train as it puffed out of the station, taking her best friend and her favourite brother away from her. He was leaning out of the door and waving to her. She waved back, tears streaming down her face, and yelled out to him.

"Come back soon!"

Ron frowned and put his hand to his ear. Ginny took in a huge lungful of steam from the dispersing cloud on the platform and hollered across the growing distance between them.

"Come back soon!"

Ron shrugged and shook his head.

"COME BACK SOON!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Ron nodded his head and waved to her again just as she reached the end of the platform. He drew a cross over his heart and then pulled his head back inside the window.

--

Ron had stepped out of her fireplace, so horrifyingly thin that Molly burst into tears immediately. He didn't even brush himself down, just threw himself into his mother's open arms and hugged her tightly.

"You're home! You're back! Oh my little boy!" Molly sobbed before pulling back and holding him at arms length to take in the sight of him, "Are you hurt? Have you eaten? You look so tired dear, why don't you go up to bed for a rest?"

"Blimy Mum, I just got out of hospital. I'm sick of being in bed!" Ron protested.

The final battle was over and You-Know-Who was gone for good. Harry had done it and the Wizarding world celebrated. Ronnie had been hurt and she hadn't been able to see him due to the security around those present at the end. Harry was whisked away to become a living legend. Hermione had gone home to reassure her parents that she was safe and well. Ronnie was allowed to see only his father and Percy, as they were security cleared Ministry officials.

Now he was home and she could hold him again and see for herself that Arthur's reassurances were indeed true. He was still her Ron. No scars, no new scars at least, and all his limbs. He still had that sparkle in his eyes and he was alive and smiling at her.

"Oh but you do look ever so tired," she fussed, running her fingers through his hair to feel for hidden bumps.

"Mum..." Ron tried to calm her down and pull his head out of her grip.

"Sit yourself down and I'll make you some tea...and a sandwich...I'll make a rhubarb crumble!" she said excitedly as she realised she had all the ingredients necessary for Ron's favourite summer dessert.

"Mum calm down for a sec-" Ron said as he was forced into a chair at the kitchen table.

"Is the curse really all gone, Ronnie, dear? Are there potions you need to tell me about? I was thinking I could get some of my special ointment and rub it into your chest just to e-"

Ron rose from his seat and grabbed her with both hands. His hands were so strong and his piercing eyes lowered to bore into her own.

"Mother," Ron said clearly and firmly. "I...am...fine."

"I know Ron bu-"

"I'm not hurt anymore. I'm not in trouble anymore. I'm home for good and all the bad stuff is over with. Everything's going to be alright from now on." He broke into a smile and she flung herself at him and squeezed him tightly.

"Promise me."

"I promise, Mum," Ron said with a soft chuckle. "I've come back to you and I'm staying put."

The orange glow exploded with an almighty crack just as it became Hermione's turn once again and she found herself drawn forward into the blinding golden light that ripped through the centre of their joint spell and plunged her head through in the same way she would do to make a Floo call.

She gasped and blinked until the light faded away and she was staring into the darkness. She felt the energy of the spell fizzing and crackling around her and then saw a soft warm glow following her through the split to illuminate the darkness around her slightly.

That was when she saw him.

The glow made his vibrant red hair shine and his pale skin lit him up from within. She let out a strangled sob of pure delight as she saw Ron, curled up on the ground, sleeping.

"It worked," she said breathily, trying to push forward a little closer.

He looked so small. He never used to look small. He was always so big and sturdy and reliable and now here he was, laying in the foetal position in the dirt, with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. He was lost and she'd found him. At last, she'd found him.

"Ron," she called out with what voice she had.

He sighed and stirred. His eyelashes fluttered and a frown crinkled his brow. Hermione reached out with her free hand and his eyes cracked open just a fraction. Her face was streaming with tears now and she smiled at him as he opened his eyes wide and looked more shocked than she'd ever seen him in her life.

She was just about to touch him when he flinched and threw himself backwards. Couldn't he see that it was her? She stretched her hand out further and was nothing more than a fingertip away from brushing the magical marker against his bare foot.

"Ron, it's me."

"No," Ron shook his head and looked frightened. "That's not funny, you bastard."

He thought it was a trick. She felt herself being pulled backwards, away from Ron who was already scrambling away from her and looking as if he'd throw up if he could.

"Ron, please, take my hand. I can't stay with you much longer. Take my hand!" she pleaded with him, as the pull grew stronger.

"Hermione?" he said in disbelief.

"Yes, it's me. I've found you and I need to touch you so we can follow the magical trail. Take my hand Ron, please!"

Ron looked around him before leaning back towards her slightly and squinting into the orange light.

"You're not real," he said sadly.

"Touch me, I'm real," she said with determination to make this work and get him back with her where he belonged.

She was almost all the way out of the rip in the spell now, her hand still outstretched.

"Where are you going?" Ron crawled forward. "Why are you leaving me? Hermione wouldn't leave me. It's you isn't it, you sick fuck?"

Suddenly, there was a thrust forward as Hermione felt the memory of Ron pushing his body inside her, telling her he loved her. She felt all the love, pain and need from that moment and had to feel that closeness again radiating out of her. She flung her arm forward and tried to curl her fingers around his bony wrist.

Ron looked down as she did and they both gaped at the sight of her glowing fingers being held back by an invisible force that wouldn't let her touch him. She couldn't mark him.

"No!" she cried out before looking into his eyes, feeling a scream building up from within. "No! Please, no!"

Ron leaned forward again and swallowed before putting his hand to her cheek as closely as he could manage against the inch or so that forced them apart like opposing ends of a magnet. He didn't seem to understand what was happening and looked at her with pain in his eyes.

"What are you?" he whispered.

Hermione's tears flowed freely and she tried to touch the hand at her face and push it into her cheek but she couldn't make contact no matter how much she wanted it.

"Where are you?" she said as the pull began again and she was pushed away from him.

"I don't know," Ron said sadly with a shake of the head. "It's an old ruin or something. I don't know, don't leave me here."

Hermione was tugged farther away and Ron tried to grab her arm to pull her through but she just slid through his grip He couldn't penetrate the invisible force.

"Stay alive," she said with determination. "I'll find you. Don't give up."

"Don't go!" Ron begged her with shining eyes.

"We're going to find you. Keep fighting for me! Keep yourself alive until we find you, Ron. I love you!"

Hermione felt the glow fading and the split sealing itself.

"I love you, too," Ron said with panic-filled desperation as he tried to push his hand through the narrowing opening but hitting a solid barrier and banging against it. "I'm sorry."

What was he apologising for? she asked herself before the brilliant light cracked once more and she fell flat on her stomach, trembling.

"Did it work?" Ginny asked frantically.

"Did you do it?" Molly said as she tried to help the weeping Hermione up into a sitting position. "Did you place the marker?"

"I'll tell Moody we found him," Ginny said, her voice full of hope and excitement.

Hermione shook her head and let out an anguished sob.

"No," Molly said as she shook Hermione by the shoulders. "It did work, I saw it. I saw you go through to place the marker."

"What went wrong?" Ginny said, looking almost angry with Hermione.

"I couldn't touch him," Hermione gasped before falling into Molly, weeping into her shoulder. "There was something between us and I couldn't touch him."

Ginny whimpered and dropped to her knees. Molly held Hermione tightly and her own chest heaved with the weight of their failure.

"I was so close," Hermione shook, "he was right there. Why didn't it work?"

"We'll find a way dear," Molly said as she began to rock Hermione back and forth before reaching out for Ginny, who joined them in their commiserating embrace. "We'll find another way."

They had to. She'd made a promise.

Chapter 34 Diversionary Tactics

Lee put his ear to Tommy's mouth and listened carefully. Please breathe, please breathe, please breathe, please breathe...

There was a slight, shallow breath that brushed up against his skin and Lee almost buckled with relief. He bit his lip and stroked his palm across Tommy's sweaty brow.

"You made it to another morning mate," he whispered shakily. "You're doing so well. Strong as an ox you are."

Tommy didn't even flutter an eyelid. He was still very much unconscious in dire need of a Healer's attention. He gathered Tommy up in his arms and held him close to share his body heat. Lee's fingers gripped the jumper Ron had forced Tommy to wear. His thumb stroked across the wool and his throat began to dry with the hot rage swelling inside him.

"Ron's with you Tom. He's looking after you. You've got an angel on your side," Lee whispered before forcing himself to hold it together.

He lifted his head and glared across to the impostor. It was so hard to let Ron go when that Polyjuiced scum was sitting only feet away wearing Ron's skin. Lee swallowed and closed his eyes. He saw the slumped body, head down in the barrel of water and not even struggling. Ron's fight was finally gone and he was dead. Lee knew that Fred would take this the worst. It was always him who did the most teasing as far as his little brother was concerned. George's heart would break for both of them, his loss and Fred's guilt. If it weren't for Tommy, Lee would just fling himself at the murderer and fight him to the death right then and there.

He remembered Ron's last words. Ron had asked the others not to let Lee blame himself for letting him be taken by the Puppet Bastard yet again.

Ron never once fought for his own life, only those of the others. Ron knew he was up for something dreadful at the Puppet Bastard's hands and must have let himself drown to escape the final torture, the humiliation, the degradation.

Lee clutched Tommy even tighter and narrowed his eyes, watching the impostor shaking off the other's attempts to talk to him and trying to sit on his own, facing the darkened corner.

"What's wrong you, bastard?" Lee called out with a smug bitterness. "Polyjuice wearing off, is it?"

"Lee, shut it!" Dean hissed before turning his concerned face back to Fergus and carrying on with their whispered conversation.

"What?" Lee protested. "He's not talking is he? Maybe the voice is going, maybe he's scared we'll hear him talking with a Dutch accent. He won't look at any of us either."

"Lee, we've been over this," Ernie was saying with cool, even, tones. "Keep your mouth shut until you come to your senses otherwise you're going to feel a right prat when you realise how badly you've been treating your brother."

"My brother's dead," Lee whispered and lowered his head.

Ernie huffed and got up to stumble across the uneven ground and join Fergus and Dean in their conversation. Jack Sloper crouched beside Ron, the not-Ron, and put his hand on his back. The hunched figure flinched a little before running his hand through his, no Ron's, red hair. The impostor shook his head and Jack rubbed his hand up and down Ron's back kindly.

Lee looked back down at Tommy and pressed his fingers to his neck. He still had a pulse. He could still look after Tommy. Tommy was still alive; Tommy was still with him at least.

"He is weaker yes?" Krum's voice said from above him, casting a shadow so broad that both Lee and Tommy were plunged into darkness.

"He's fine," Lee said. "He's going to be fine."

Krum crouched down and stared right into Lee's face. Krum was almost impossible to read, expression-wise. When he was angry he looked livid. When he was happy he looked angry. When he was sad he looked furious and when he was content he looked grumpy.

"Ron is upset this morning, he needs you, he needs brother." Krum grunted his words and nodded over his shoulder to the corner Ron and Sloper were huddled in.

"He needed me yesterday when he was murdered, Krum," Lee said, his voice breaking slightly but his eyes still burning with hate as he glared into the impostor's back.

"He needs Lee Jordan!" Krum said, grabbing Lee by the arms and shaking him, Tommy's head rocking from side to side in his lap with the force of the movement. "If anybody is dead and gone is you! Where you go? Why you abandon your friend?"

"He's not my friend!" Lee roared into Krum's face and saw the impostor cringing and shoving Jack away from him to walk over to the bricked up door and look out through the tiny opening at the flickering torchlight between the wall and the door.

Something twisted inside Lee's stomach. Something about the posture, it was just like Ron. He'd seen Ron in the cell standing just like that once before, his brother Ron, at the cell door needing to be supported. He gritted his teeth and tried to remind himself not to be fooled like the rest of them. It wasn't Ron. Ron was gone. Ron was dead. Ron was beaten. That thought twisted his stomach once more. Ron - beaten. Ron never lost without a fight.

"He think he going mad," Krum said, glancing over at Ron, leaning heavily at the door. "He see Herm-oh-ninny. They send trick of light to break him. Trick of light or he hallucinate. It upsets him. He needs you."

"Good sob-story," Lee said coldly. "Don't bother telling it to me. I'm too old for fairy tales, Krum."

The door to the Ambassador's office banged open and Moody stormed out, followed by Kingsley Shacklebolt and Tonks, all striding across the reception area of the Embassy with wands drawn. Bill was on his feet and running before he could even ask his wife aloud what was going on. Fleur was rushing after him and drawing her own wand.

"You've got news?" Bill was calling after the Aurors.

"Beel, zlow down and wait for me," Fleur said as she caught up and took his hand in hers.

Moody kept walking towards the main door as he spoke. "Finally. We have a location from the blotter thanks to Creevey."

"I'm coming," Bill said fiercely.

"I weel come too," Fleur said with determination.

"You're all bloody coming!" Moody said. "We are not losing those boys this time."

Bill was bolstered by Moody's ferocity and confidence that they would be getting the hostages back; they'd be getting Ron back. Moody bellowed over his shoulders at the top of his lungs. "Charlie Weasley! Get your arse down here now!"

"Uh, Tonks?" Lupin stepped out of the kitchen with a bemused frown on his face as he jogged across the reception area to speak to his friend and lover.

"Remus, get ready for a fight," Tonks said with a smile on her face.

"You found them?" Remus' face lit up.

"We hope so," Shacklebolt said before nodding to Charlie as he sprinted towards them, followed by his twin brothers, his father and sister. "Are you all battle-ready?"

"Ready for anything, Kings," Charlie said, rolling his shoulder like a boxer about to go for a first round knockout. "What are we waiting for?"

"More people," Moody growled before hollering to the rafters of the Embassy. "Do you want your kids back or not?"

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were running and eating at the same time, followed by Seamus Finnigan and Percy Weasley. Bill was slightly startled to see Percy there as he had still been trying to carry on as normal with his job at the Ministry. Bill assumed that he must have been checking in with their mum and now felt the need to join them when the call went up.

All three of the Belbys mother, father and uncle came running. Bill saw his mother; she was pulling on her cloak and batting away Julie Painter's hands as she tried to talk the woman out of joining the attack.

"I'm going for my boy," the maternally outraged witch declared.

"We're all going," Marie Finnigan said gruffly before glaring at her sister, "and don't you dare tell me to stay here and wait!"

Kathleen Finnigan pulled her own wand from her pocket and cast her sister an insolent look.

"I'd be a hypocrite telling you te stay behind when I'm bleedin' going now wouldn't I Marie?"

"Wait!" Jannette Creevey called out. "Dennis is in the shower, he'd want to go too. Let me fetch him."

Moody flicked his wand and a roll of parchment appeared in the palm of his hand. Soon a map was burned into it. He sent it floating through the air towards Mrs Creevey. The tiny Muggle woman caught it and held it to her chest, biting her lip.

"We can't wait. We won't wait," Moody said, straightening up and lifting his craggy chin, "Tell any others who want to follow on to take a broom and disillusion themselves and follow that map. The rest of you, we're making a Portkey to the edge of the woods and we're going in wands blazing."

Bill felt like growling. He was so hungry to exact some revenge on the Death Eaters making his wolf side want to snarl and protect his pack. One of the cubs was being threatened and he was not going to allow it.

"Gonna fucking kill 'em," Charlie was saying under his breath.

"There's a room with dirt on the floor. It's dark and small and there's soil on the ground," Hermione was saying. "That's where they're keeping them."

"It's got to be the ground floor or underground," Harry said with a huff as he thought fast.

"I'll search the ground floor downwards," Arthur said immediately.

"I'll cover you, father," Percy said stiffly.

There was a screech and a new body slammed into them, a dark haired witch around Ginny's age.

"I'm here, I'm coming, what do you want me to do?" she panted.

"We're going to cover the staircases, Demelza," Ginny said with a smile. "Dad and Percy will look for them, everybody else will go upstairs and fight the Death Eaters and we'll make sure nobody sneaks out or tries to stop the rescue."

"Fantastic," Demelza said happily.

Moody thundered out of the Embassy and everyone followed him, winding up for the fight of a lifetime.

Ron tried to push his hand through the magical barrier that kept the cellar door locked and soundproofed. It was like trying to force his palm through a wire mesh. There was a little give but it wasn't possible to reach out any further than the width of the door itself.

Ron stared at the flickering torchlight. He wished he could put his hand in the flame. He wanted to see if Cally's protection charm was still working. He wanted to see if he could still feel. He needed to know that he could be touched again.

What had that dream meant last night? Hermione was on his mind, he was feeling lonely without Lee's trust and companionship, but there was something about not being able to touch her in the dream. He knew from Harry's experience that dreams could mean something. What if this dream meant that he was in a magical bubble now? He couldn't touch, he couldn't burn, he couldn't drown. He couldn't kiss or hug or...

The hand resting on his shoulder stopped his thought. Jack was back again. "Stop thinking about it," he said firmly as he squeezed Ron's shoulder. "You're tired, fuck Ron, you're exhausted and you haven't eaten for ages. It was just a dream or a hallucination or something."

"A nightmare," Ron sighed, lowering his head.

"Yeah," Jack nodded, "it must have been. Or maybe it was a message. Maybe she is coming to find you. Maybe it's just a dream to reassure you that she's looking for you."

Ron felt a lump in his throat that almost choked him. "I didn't show up."

"What?" Jack said, moving around to Ron's side with a frown deeply lining his young face.

"She was waiting for me and I didn't show up. Then she asked me to hold her hand and I couldn't do it. I can't touch her. We're not s'posed to be togeth..." Ron swallowed and then drew in a bracing breath before continuing. "We're not meant to be."

"That was a dream, Ron," Jack said strongly. "Don't tie yourself up in knots over a dream."

"I don't want it to have been," Ron said, his voice shaking. "I want it to be real. I told her I...I promised her... and she said she'd find me."

"Come here," Jack said as he gave Ron a hug.

"Don't," Ron said, pulling away and backing into the wall.

"Why not?" Jack said fiercely.

"'Cause what if Lee's right?"

"What?" Jack barked so loudly that everybody jumped and turned to look at them.

Ron ran a hand through his hair and turned his back on them all, facing the wall and folding his arms across his chest. "Leave me alone, stay away from me." Ron mumbled, unable to look Jack in the eye.

"No." Jack said, punching Ron in the shoulder so had that Ron's arm went slightly numb. "Tell me what you meant by that."

Ron shuddered. "What if Lee's not wrong? What if I can't be trusted?"

"Ron," Jack seemed to be saying in total disbelief, "you're not fucking Polyjuiced, you great prat!"

"But what if I'm under Imperius still?"

Jack fell silent and Ron shifted awkwardly from foot to foot and stared at the brickwork in front of him. There was another shove, this time he was being forcibly turned around to face Jack.

"Do you feel strange then? Do you feel like you might be?"

"I dunno," Ron shrugged and shook his head, "what I do know is he did it once to me. I know that people under it don't act like themselves; I've seen it. Mr Crouch was a totally different bloke even when the curse wasn't on him; it fucked up his head, Jack."

Jack blinked and grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him over to a mound of earth and ordered him to sit down. He joined him and thought for some time before responding. "So this...vision last night, what do you think that is if you're so sure it's a result of the curse?"

"Well, Harry spoke to Mr Crouch and he was having imaginary conversations with imaginary people."

Jack's head fell momentarily before he threw back his shoulders and lifted his head, nodding confidently. "Was Mr Crouch locked in a room without a wand or with nowhere for somebody using a wand to hide?"

Ron looked at Jack and blinked before shaking his head.

"And how long did it take before Crouch went all gibbering wreck on Harry?"

"Well it was a few months but-"

"And you got cursed yesterday afternoon and, correct me if I'm wrong, you threw it off didn't you?" Jack said, looking determined to make his point.

"Well, when you say it like that..." Ron said, suddenly feeling incredibly foolish.

Jack smacked Ron around the side of the head. "Pillock!" he scoffed.

"Ow!" Ron said, rubbing his head and staring at Jack as if he was off his rocker. "What would you do if I told you my leg hurt? Poke me in the eye to take my mind off it?"

Jack grinned and Ron found himself laughing for a moment. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lee watching them. He turned his head and Lee looked away, back down at Tommy who was eerily still and pale.

"He'll see it's you," Jack said confidentially. "Give him a little longer and I bet you he'll see that it's really you."

"Hope so," Ron said, distantly.

The fireplace at the Embassy blazed with emerald green flames and Patrick and Chiara came rushing out, followed by a burly Auror who shoved his way between them and marched across the empty conference room towards the reception area. Dennis Creevey skidded to a halt.

"Patrick!" he said, startled. "You're coming to fight, too?"

"We were sorting dad's stuff out at Auror HQ when the message came," Patrick nodded. "Where is everyone?"

"They've all gone on ahead but I've got a map from Moody, don't worry," Dennis beamed excitedly.

"They've what?" the burly Auror said, looking furious. "Moody's not here? None of the Auror teams are here?" The huge man was looking appalled and angry.

"Well, no...Everybody went to get them out. To get the hostages back." Dennis said nervously.

"You're the only one here?" the man shouted down at Dennis.

"Excuse me but what is the problem exactly?" Dennis' mother asked as she stepped out and stood at her son's back, a hand on his shoulder.

"The problem is this," the Auror yelled, "I have intelligence from a Death Eater informant at Azkaban, I'm the one who spoke to him."

Dennis' face drained of all colour and Floella Jordan gasped and clamped her hand to her mouth, realising what this meant.

"But," Dennis said, holding up Moody's map, "Mad-Eye gave me this to follow. He knew where to go from a blotter I found. He's gone already."

"I've got their location boy," the Auror said as he held up a map of his own, totally different to the one in Dennis' hand. "This is where the cowardly scum told me to look. I was bringing the information to Moody personally."

"No," Darren Thomas said as he and his wife appeared at a doorway and Bianca Robbins and Delitia Macmillan stepped out through the kitchen door.

"They've been set-up," Dennis whispered to himself. "I've got to go and warn them!" Dennis ran for the broom closet again when the Auror boomed after him.

"Meanwhile, there's just over an hour before noon and we're going to lose another bloody hostage. Are there no other's here but you lot?" the Auror said with disgust.

"I can use a wand young man," Floella Jordan said, "and read a map!"

"Well, I can't do either," Mr Thomas said, "but if there's a way I can contact the others while you go to the real place and get the boys out tell me now and I'll do it."

"There are owls here?" the Auror asked.

"Yes." Dean Thomas' mother nodded eagerly.

"You know how to use them?"

"Yes, all the time, we've used them for years." the woman said with a nod.

"Send every owl you've got out to as many of the people at the decoy target, do it now!" the Auror said.

The Thomas' ran off immediately. Patrick stepped forward, fidgeting with his wand impatiently.

"We're going on ahead right?" he asked the Auror.

"I am, if you and Auror Maccario's missus want to come and liberate the kids you're more than welcome." The large man nodded.

"I'll come, too," Dennis said with determination to make up the numbers on this undermanned mission. "I was in the D.A., sir, I can fight."

"I'll come," Bianca Robbins said, shaking slightly at the realisation that her son was in danger in one place while her daughter was lured into a trap in another. "Improve your odds a bit to have another wand covering your back won't it?"

"Very well," the Auror nodded. "Anyone else with magical capabilities want to come?"

A throat cleared and the clerk, the only remaining member of staff from the original Embassy set-up stepped out of the former Ambassador's office.

"Sir, I'm just an office worker but I'll come along if you think I'll be of any use to you."

"Good lad," the Auror grunted before unfurling the map and holding it out to all the volunteers. "Do we have enough brooms for all of us?"

"For a group as small as this sir? Of course." The clerk said with a nod.

Dennis flicked his wand at the broom cupboard and the door flung itself open.

"Accio brooms!" the Auror yelled and the brooms flew towards the gathering.

Everybody caught a broom; Mrs Robbins and the clerk handled theirs a little awkwardly and carefully mounted them.

"Disillusion yourselves and stay close together," the Auror instructed before whacking himself on the head with his wand and vanishing gradually.

Dennis did the same and hoped that the 'V' formation of owls that had just left the Embassy would find the others in time and get them the reinforcements they needed fast.

"Tom?" Lee said fearfully. "Tommy?"

Everyone got to their feet and rushed over to the two of them, slumped on the ground in the far corner of the cellar. Lee was shaking Tommy.

"What is it?" Sam asked urgently before dropping to his knees before Tommy's still body and putting his ear to the weak wizard's chest and shushing everybody.

Everyone held their breath. Ron lowered himself down to the ground and crawled forward to reach out and take Tommy's limp hand. Lee looked at him pointedly for a moment before turning his attention back to Sam.

"Well?" the dreadlocked wizard asked.

"H-Hearts beating but he's not breathing," Sam said, shaking his head.

Lee and Ron's eyes widened and they stared at each other for a moment before Colin pushed his way through the crowd and flung himself down at Tommy's head. He pinched the sick wizard's nose and tilted back his head before taking a deep breath and blowing it out into Tommy's open mouth.

"What the hell is he doing?" Marcus Belby said in disgust.

"It's Muggle resuscitation," Ernie said with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Colin's breathing for him."

Lee held one of Tommy's hands and Ron, the other, neither looked at the other. Colin kept breathing into Tommy's mouth and the gathering became more and more anxious as time passed. After a short while Colin paused and put his ear to Tommy's mouth to see if he was breathing by himself yet.

"Is he...?" Dean asked nervously.

"Shhh!" Colin hissed and leaned in closer to listen again. Just as Colin's eyes widened a little and his mouth opened to speak the cell door boomed open and a Death Eater stood in the small space between the wall and the doorway.

"You!" Krum snarled and ran at the man, who simply stood and sneered.

Krum slammed into the invisible barrier and hit the ground on his back, hard.

"Water?" the Death Eater asked with a sickening smile.

"Heler!" Ron said, jumping to his feet. "Haal de heler!"

"Nee." The Death Eater shrugged carelessly.

"Laat hem gaan," Ron shouted once more, feeling a lot more confident in his Dutch now but realising that it would only make Lee's belief that he was a Death Eater in disguise all the stronger.

"Nee," The Death Eater said again, almost laughing at Ron's anger.

"Neem hem nu!" Ron roared furiously.

"Okay," the Death Eater nodded and pointed his wand at a rock on the ground. "Portus!"

"What's he doing, Ron?" Dean asked nervously.

"I told him to take Tom to a hospital but he's smiling. I don't like that he's smiling," Ron said and stood before Tommy's body protectively.

"Ik zal je martel." the Death Eater threatened Ron with torture.

"Can't touch me, you bastard. Didn't your master tell you?" Ron hissed.

"Crucio!" the Death Eater snarled and his spell slammed Ron in the chest and flung him into the wall behind.

It didn't hurt, not in the way the curse had almost crippled him with the agony of it last time, but it didn't feel good either. It was like too tight a hug while wearing wet, sticky clothes. His skin felt as if it was being paper cut all over without actually bleeding. He slumped to the ground panting heavily. The protection was wearing off.

Fergus ran to him with frightened eyes but Ron was trying to sit up and call out for somebody else to block Tommy from the Death Eater. The Dark wizard spat a charm to push the crowd of prisoners off their feet and shove Colin and Lee away from Tommy before levitating the rock that he'd made into a Portkey and sent it flying at Tommy.

"No!" Lee shouted but it was too late, the rock hit Tommy in the chest and he was gone in a second.

Ron tried to stand but fell forward and caught by Fergus. Lee raged at the Death Eater now. Krum was on his feet and pounding against the magical barrier between them before he created another Portkey and transported himself away.

"Where did he go? Where did they send him?" Lee was shouting before turning to Ron and forcing his head up to look him in the eye. "What did you tell them to do to him?"

Ron opened his mouth, ready to tell Lee that he'd done nothing but demand Tommy be seen by a Healer, when all the lights dimmed and Lee's face disappeared before his closing eyes.

"Ron?" he heard Fergus calling and he felt his body shaken hard. "Oh shit!"

He'd just have a sleep for a while. Ron really needed some sleep.

Chapter 35 Please and Thank You

Julie Painter was making tea with Delitia Macmillan while the Thomas' stayed up in the Embassy Owlery, keeping a look out for any sign that their warnings had reached the rescue mission in time.

It had been ten minutes since the revelation that the Aurors and the many volunteers had Portkeyed directly into a trap. Julie hoped that the tiny group that had gone on to the real target were going to be okay. She hoped they had enough determination to bring her Tommy back to her.

"Julie!" The door burst open, causing both Julie and Delitia to jump while their tea cups clattered, their nerves pulled as taut as they could stand without screaming, and they spun around to see a panting Carol Thomas leaning against the doorframe.

"Are they coming back? Do they have the boys with them?" Delitia asked, clutching her chest with her shaking hand.

"Tommy," Carol said before pointing over her shoulder. Julie felt herself sway on her feet and Delitia grabbed her, holding her up.

"What?"

"Tommy!" Carol shouted, excitement and fear taking over completely. "They sent him back."

Julie pushed herself away from Delitia and shoved Carol aside as she ran from the kitchen to see Carol's husband, Darren, on his knees before a filthy frail-looking body sprawled on the Embassy floor. Darren blew deep breaths into Tommy's lungs before pumping on his still chest.

"Magic!" Darren shouted fearfully. "He needs magic. His heart's not beating and he's not breathing and an ambulance won't get here in time."

"Tommy!" Julie gasped as she skidded and dropped to her hands and knees at her dying son's side. "What? When did he get here? Did that Auror send him back?"

"Oh my God," Delitia Macmillan said heavily.

"What?" Carol asked as Julie took Tommy's hand and tried to warm his cold fingers while Darren breathed into Tommy's mouth again.

"This was...this is..."

"What?" Carol screeched at Delitia's dumbstruck face.

"This is the next execution," Delitia said hurriedly. "They set up a false target so all the witches and wizards would go off to battle and then...then..."

"Then they sent a Death Eater posing as an Auror to make sure there was nobody but Muggles left here so when the body arrived. There'd be nothing we could do but watch him die," Carol said with a hollow voice. Julie tore her eyes away from her son to stare at the clock. It was three minutes to noon.

"No," she exhaled and shook her head as she spoke, her whole body slumped over Tommy's limp arm, holding his hand to her chest, willing her own life force into her son's body.

"It's okay, Julie," Carol said quickly and was soon at the other woman's side, supporting her with a firm arm around her shoulders. "Darren's been trained in first aid. He knows what he's doing. He got a certificate and everything. He'll keep Tommy with us until the magical people come back."

"Carol!" Darren glared at his wife breathlessly. "This only helps for so long, and you know it."

"Long enough, Darren!" Carol said before hugging Julie tighter.

"Please, don't give up on my boy," Julie said through a wavering voice as she watched Darren Thomas pump on her son's frail-looking chest once again.

"Not a chance, girl," Darren winked, his usual chirpy demeanour hidden behind an unfamiliar grimace of seriousness.

"We can Owl for help!" Delitia said suddenly, needing to do something to help.

"We sent all the bloody owls away just like that bastard told us to!" Carol growled, obviously cursing her own gullibility.

"That fireplace thing," Darren panted between blowing in Tommy's lungs, "anyone know how that works?"

"Ooh!" Delitia exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "That powder, you throw the powder in and shout where you want to go."

"Is there powder there?" Carol asked urgently.

Delitia ran across the reception area to the fireplace. "I see a bowl!" she called back. "Shall I try it?"

"Yes!" both Darren and Carol shouted back.

Julie felt a little hope coming back to her now. Tommy could be brought back to her by magic. He could be saved by magic. Potions and spells and all sorts of things could help him if they got here in time. Darren was keeping Tommy's heart pumping and helping him to breathe. Tommy wasn't gone. He wasn't dead. He wasn't going to be the next executed.

"What are you waiting for, you silly cow?" Darren snapped as he pumped on Tommy's chest again.

Julie looked over her shoulder and saw Delitia holding a handful of the powder and biting her lip anxiously.

"I can't remember what the name of the magic hospital is," she said desperately.

"Its..." Carol began before her face fell and she stared blankly ahead of her. "Its...its a person's name..."

"St Pancreas!" Darren barked before blowing into Tommy's lungs again.

"That's a train station!" Carol hissed at her husband. "And it's Pancras not pancreas!"

"It's a bloody saint!" Darren puffed. "Sorry love but I'm a little distracted here."

"Saint...you're right. It's a saint."

"Shall I just say saint and then mumble something and hope the fireplace works it out for itself?" Delitia offered hopefully.

"No!" Julie said. "Tommy got lost once because he said an address backwards. You have to be exact."

There were groans all round before Carol mumbled something about nine-nine-nine being easy enough to remember.

Darren stopped his resuscitation and Julie's head snapped around in alarm, her mouth open, demanding he keep going, but she calmed once she realised he was listening to Tommy's chest. She held her breath. Darren squinted and then forced his eyes all the way closed before growling and shaking his head. He resumed his methodical pumping and breathing, looking exhausted.

Julie lifted Tommy's hand and patted the back of it.

"Come on, my old soul," she whispered. "Don't you leave me by myself. I'm no good on my own, Tommy. I need my wise old man and my sweet little boy."

"You're out of there now, kid," Darren was grunting. "You're free. Don't pack it in now, not now."

"Where the hell are they?" Carol ran to the Embassy door. "We sent those owls fifteen minutes ago. Why have none of them come back?"

"There's got to be a way for people like us to speak with to magic people without owls or fires," Delitia said, throwing her handful of Floo powder back into the bowl. "You people!" she shouted at the portraits. "You must know."

"Wat is er gebeurd?" answered a portrait of a rosy-cheeked old man who frowned before looking at the ornately framed milk maiden in the picture beside him.

"De dooddoeners hebben deze jongen gedood."

"Breng hem naar de helers."

"They're all bloody Dutch!" Delitia screeched and threw her arms into the air.

"Where are you all?" Carol huffed from the doorway, her arms folded across her chest and her eyes scanning the sky.

"But I don't understand why Patrick and Chiara were with them."

"It wasn't them," Darren grunted as he pushed against Tommy's ribs. "We should have been more suspicious when they both went off to fight."

Darren blew air back into Tommy's lungs and his wife blinked and then kicked out at something imaginary at her feet.

"The kids, of course!" she exclaimed. "The two of them wouldn't have gone rushing off while those kids were back home without any living parents."

"We've been so stupid," Delitia Macmillan whimpered.

The clock began to chime twelve. Julie began to sob. There were footsteps on the staircase and everybody held their breath in the hope that just one witch or wizard had made it back in time to save the still body sprawled on the floor before them.

"Noon, we made it to noon without anybody getting ki-" Jannette Creevey was beaming as she ran down the stairs before she saw the small gathering in the middle of the reception area.

Darren swore and went back to his resuscitation. Carol began pacing and muttering. Delitia ran to the Ambassador's office, saying something about looking for a Floo book or a directory with Floo addresses in it. Jannette ran to Julie's side and held her as she wept.

Still the clock kept on chiming.

Ron opened his eyes and immediately felt dizzy so he closed them again and groaned.
"Hey mate," a voice said, far too loudly for Ron's liking. "That was amazing. You took Crucio and didn't scream."

"Back off, Dean," a concerned voice said before a cool hand pressed against Ron's forehead. "Ron how are you feeling?"

Ron took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Ernie Macmillan was staring into his face, a crinkle between his eyebrows and a smile growing on his face as he met Ron's gaze.

"Dizzy, bit sick," Ron mumbled before shaking his head, feeling his skin tingle and itch. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Dean asked as he scanned Ron's body hurriedly.

"My skin's...It's like pins and needles with red hot needles."

"Cally's shield can't stop the curse but it must have filtered it to some extent," Colin said.

Ron looked up at Colin's thoughtful expression and then noticed a worried-looking Lee over his shoulder. He was about to call to him when Fergus pushed his arm beneath Ron's and tried to lift him up to his feet. "Get up and come into the light, Ron. Let us get a good look at yer."

Ron's bones ached and he winced. Another wave of dizziness hit him and he fell heavily against Fergus. He struggled to clear his thoughts. He remembered what had happened when the Death Eater had tested Cally's protection spell. He suddenly remembered Tommy too, and tried to spot him on the ground. "Tom?"

"Shhh, just walk with me, mate," Fergus said quietly.

"No wait, what happened?" Ron tried to stand on his own but his head spun and Krum grabbed him from behind and dragged Ron across the dirty floor as if he weighed nothing.

"You sit and let curse wear off," Krum instructed before moving back a step so the torchlight from the door illuminated Ron.

Colin was on his knees before Ron, turning his head from side to side, checking for injuries.

"This is amazing," the tiny wizard gasped. "Cruciatus and he's hardly affected."

"I wouldn't say hardly, Colin," Belby said.

"Well, comparatively, then," Colin huffed.

"Come on, you lot," Sam Robbins said with his most authoritative tone, "let's not gawp at the bloke. Give him some space and some air."

Ron looked around for Lee but couldn't see him . Ron closed his eyes and searched his mind for his last memory of Tommy. His eyes opened and he shuddered.

"Tommy! They took Tommy."

"Yeah," Fergus said sombrely as he rubbed Ron's arm comfortingly.

"It was supposed to be me today," Jack Sloper said heavily. "It was my turn."

"Look, I think the order went out the window when they killed Jimmy and Rodger together," Ernie said as he slapped Jack on the back.

"Yeah, Jack," Ron nodded, feeling as if he'd missed a step, his stomach lurching, "Tommy was too ill to make it to his turn. He'd have been glad to buy you some time." Ron realised that he was accepting the fact Tommy had been murdered while sick and unconscious, his hand rose to his face, rubbing roughly. The three of them had sworn to stick together and look after each other. They were going to see to it all three of them survived this nightmare and now Tommy was dead and Lee didn't trust him.

"Ron, lie down and rest for a bit," Dean said.

"No, I'm fine. It's just like being seasick. It'll pass." Ron said, trying to shake himself out of it.

"Look, just do as yer told for once, yeh git!" Fergus said as he gave Ron a shove into the wall and held him there with a grim smile. "There's nothing you can do fer Tommy anymore and we need you teh look after yerself. You're our bleedin' translator."

"Speaking of which—" Belby said uneasily, stepping backwards and swallowing, his eyes fixed on the cellar door.

"Jongens," the Death Eater with the white streak in his hair smiled and nodded.

"Coward," Krum snarled. "You hide behind your shield even though you are armed and we are not."

"Stil." The Death Eater said carelessly before looking down at Ron and raising his eyebrows. "Je vriend is nu vrij."

"Vrij?" Ron frowned and his throbbing head searched for another time he'd heard that word and couldn't find anything.

"Leave him alone," Colin said, stepping in front of Ron and trying to block the Death Eater's view with his small body.

"Depulso!" the Death Eater said with a lazy wave of his wand and Colin was thrown across the cellar, hitting a mound of earth with a thud.

"Stop!" Belby shouted with his arms raised.

The Death Eater sneered and looked back down at Ron again. "Water?" he asked as if he didn't really care if they wanted water or not.

"Ja," Ron nodded.

"Zeg alsjeblieft," the man's smirk became and broad smile.

"Oh, not you, too," Ron grumbled before dropping his head into his hands and rubbing his sore head.

"Look you...skunk-haired bastard," Fergus spat with disgust, "either give us water or feck off!"

The Death Eater was still looking at Ron and waited until Ron was looking back at him before repeating himself. "Zeg alsjeblieft." He said firmly and clearly. It was as if he wanted Ron to understand him.

Ron frowned and tried to think of what that bloody word meant. It didn't sound like anything he'd ever heard before. With a sigh, he quickly realised that he did know what the first word meant.

"Say," Ron said aloud as he suddenly realised that if he was being told to say something then all he had to do was repeat the word he didn't understand.

"What?" Dean asked Ron out of the corner of his mouth.

Ron tried to stand himself up on his own but Fergus and Krum grabbed him quickly to keep him from falling back down again.

"Geef ze water," Ron said fiercely.

The Death Eater grinned. "Zeg alsjeblieft."

Ron lifted his head and went for it. "Alsjeblieft."

The Death Eater's smile remained and he sniffed, flicking his wand twice, providing ten floating pints of water that moved slowly around the cellar. Ron looked at the water droplets, turned back to the Death Eater and blinked.

"Drink," the Dark wizard grunted as if he couldn't care less.

"Dank je," Ron said quietly.

"What was that about?" Dean whispered into the side of Ron's head.

"Just manners," Ron said with a weak laugh before his legs buckled and Krum lowered him down to the ground again. Ron knew how to say please now.

Harry was livid. Everyone was frustrated and angry but Harry was absolutely furious. It was as if he was craving to hurt one of Ron's captors. Even Percy looked as if he wanted to do more than just write a formal letter of complaint to someone.
The whole thing had been a hoax. The place was empty and just as they were going to investigate deeper into the ruin, a barrage of owls arrived, telling them they were at the wrong place and to return to the Embassy where an Auror had left the correct map from back home.

The tightly wound group left the ruins to put their heads together, trying to think around the deceptions and keep clear heads. Moody still wasn't satisfied that the ruin was as innocent as it appeared, despite what he saw with his magical eye. He was about to send the civilians back to the Embassy while leading the remaining Aurors back inside for a thorough inspection when the place had exploded into flames before them. It had been a trap after all.

"Fucking arseholes!" Charlie snarled and threw off his robes as soon as he stomped into the Embassy.

"So, we missed noon," Tonks sighed heavily. "I take it that means..."

Tonks' face fell and then froze, the hand massaging her shoulder fixed in position as if she'd been magically immobilized. Ginny turned and looked into the centre of the reception area and saw a very weary looking Mr Thomas pushing both his hands on the chest of a thin pale body on the floor.

Mrs Painter, her mother's new friend, looked up from the body with bloodshot eyes and called out to the crowd of stunned onlookers. "Help him, please!"

"Out of my way!" Kathleen Finnigan bellowed as she shoved her way through the group and rushed to the woman's aid, drawing her wand as she did. "Marie, girl, I need yer magic."

"He's not dead?" Marie gasped in disbelief.

"It was a trick," Delitia Macmillan said as she rushed over to Moody. "They sent you all away and then tricked the other magical ones into going with them and then they sent the boy back dying. They knew he'd die here with us. They let us be the executioners!"

"Move," Lupin ordered as he pushed between Harry and Ginny, sprinting to help the Finnigans while Dean's father slumped on the floor tiredly, embraced by his wife as she tried to haul him out of the way.

"You did everything you could, love," she was saying shakily. "I'm so proud of you."

"Still not breathing. I thought I felt a heartbeat but it might have been mine," Mr Thomas panted to Lupin before turning to his wife. "I can hear my own heart pounding in my ears, Carol."

"It's okay," Ginny heard Seamus saying to somebody behind her. "Me ma used to be a nurse, Muggle and magical. It'll be okay."

"Mr Moody," Jannette Creevey rushed over to grab Mad-Eye urgently. "My Dennis, he went with the other man, the man who said he was an Auror only I don't think he really was and my Dennis went with him."

"Calm yourself, woman," Moody said with confused aggravation. "Tonks, Shacklebolt and the Belbys will come with me to find them."

Delitia Macmillan still gripped Moody firmly by the arm with a vice-grip. "Floella went, too. She could do magic, so she went, and Bianca Robbins..."

"My mum?" Demelza yelped beside Ginny, who released her tight hold on Harry and pulled her friend into a hug of restraint. "My mum's gone? They got my mum, too?"

"It was just a hoax like ours was," Ginny said as soothingly as she could manage. "Don't get too upset. I bet it's fine. I bet it's nothing and she'll be back soon."

Ginny caught her mother's eye and they exchanged smiles. Ginny could nearly feel her mother's admiration of how she was handling her terrified friend, feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude that she still had her own infuriatingly overprotective, yet supportive mother with her.

"Sir, can I go?" Harry asked Moody.

Ginny wanted to punch Harry in the back of the head and have a blazing row with him but she was still clinging onto a weeping Demelza, trying to calm her friend's fragile nerves. She didn't want to lose both Ron and Harry in this mess.

"Yeah, Dennis is a good little fella but not bloodthirsty at all. He needs some muscle to come and help him out." Seamus said with a nod.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Shacklebolt huffed. "If we all charge off, we'd be making the same bloody mistake yet again, won't we?"

"Kings is right," Tonks nodded. "Aurors, Geoff, and Damocles Belby, Re..." Tonks glanced over to Lupin, still working over the dying body along with the Finnigan women. "Harry, Seamus and two...I repeat, only two Weasleys!"

"Me!" Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Percy, Arthur and Fleur all piped up.

"Right," Tonks nodded defiantly to the testosterone-drenched family. "Fleur and Percy."

"What?" the twins declared with horror.

"She's not going!" Bill said with bulging eyes as he pointed at his wife.

"I am a Weezlee!" Fleur said as she drew herself up to her full height and stepped forward to join Tonks.

"Tonks is right," Moody said after he'd finished talking to Mrs Macmillan and Mrs Creevey. "I need a strong fighting group back here at the Embassy while we're gone and you Weasleys are like a bloody army in itself. You stay!"

"I have the fake map," Shacklebolt said, "and I've been to this place on the border when I was searching landscapes early on. I can make us a Portkey and we can put together an attack from there."

"Good man," Moody nodded. "Everybody selected by Tonks come to the Ambassador's office and we'll travel from there."

Moody thudded off with the group rushing after him. Ginny tried to tug at Harry's robe to say goodbye before he went but she was tangled in Demelza's long black hair. Hermione stepped up beside her and took Harry's place with a deep sigh.

"Every time we think we're getting closer, it just gets even worse, doesn't it?" the bushy haired witch said as Harry closed the door to the Ambassador's office behind him.

"They sent somebody back alive," Ginny said shakily while Demelza sniffed and turned her head to look at Ginny, while spells glowed, fizzed and popped around Mrs Painter's son.

"Is he going to be alright?" she asked muggily.

"I don't know but it's better than nothing, eh?" Ginny said with a forced smile.

"Girls," began Mrs Weasley while she stroked Ginny's hair, "come and sit in the comfortable chairs with me. Come and sit for a while and let's gather ourselves together again shall we?"

"There's a book I should check," Hermione said as she began to moved for the staircase.

"Hermione, dear, no books, no tea, no silly thoughtless words," Ginny's mother said softly. "Let's just sit together in that nice quiet corner and take a break for a few minutes."

"Yeah," Ginny said as she stroked Demelza's hair in the same way her own mother was stroking hers. "Let's just have a sit down for a while, eh?"

Demelza nodded and the three witches walked as one to the soft armchairs and sofas surrounded by potted plants. Ginny heard her mother call out to Hermione, who hesitated and cast a lingering look at the stairs.

"The books will still be there in ten minutes, Hermione dear. Please come and sit with us."

Hermione silently followed them to the chairs.

There was an exclamation of surprise from the group working on Tommy. To everyone's surprise, he floated into a side room, his mother wiping her eyes and hurrying after Lupin and the two Mrs Finnigans.

Ginny hoped that the boy didn't die. If one person got out of that hellish place, wherever it was, there was hope for the rest of them. There would still be hope for Ron. There was a loud sobbing and Marie Finnigan supported Mrs Painter as she left the room she had just entered.

"Oh, thank you." The Muggle woman was crying so hard that Ginny almost felt the ache within her own body. "Thank you Marie, Kath-Kath-Kathleen!"

Mrs Painter reached around blindly for Mrs Finnigan's sister but she was still inside the room.

"She's with yer boy, Julie. Calm down and come splash some water on yer face alright?" Marie Finnigan said kindly.

Ginny bit her lip as she saw Mrs Finnigan make a hand gesture to indicate 'so-so' in regards to the boy's condition. Ginny's mother smiled and nodded before turning to hold Hermione's hand and pull Ginny and Demelza into a warm embrace.

"You see, girls. You just have to keep on hoping."

Chapter 36 Back From The Dead

Lee lay hunched in a darkened corner of the cellar, watching Ron sleep in the pool of light cast by the flickering torch on the other side of the door, and thinking to himself.

Polyjuice would have worn off long ago. He had been suffering grogginess and was considerably weakened by the curse that had hit him. If this was indeed Ron, then his protection was failing and the Death Eaters knew it. If the Death Eaters knew it then the Puppet Master would know, too.

Godric, what if this really was Ron and he was still in line for who knew what at the Puppet Master's hands?

Lee didn't know if he hoped Ron was alive or not because of that horrific encounter looming over him. He had seen Ron apparently drowned and Lee himself had died a little inside. He had given up and refused to believe that the familiar red head before him could possibly be the real Ron, his Ron, his brother. Lee shuddered and drew his knees into his chest tightly. What would be worse, he asked himself, losing Ron for a second time or the fact that he'd given up on him in the first place?

But still there was that niggle at the back of his mind. That feeling that he could never hope to be that lucky. Ron couldn't be alive because that would mean Lee wasn't alone, hadn't failed the twins, and still had a job to do. He would still have a purpose in this struggle. He would still have a promise to keep and a brother to fight for. He would have a reason to go on as the hope in that place just kept on dwindling.

"It can't be you," Lee whispered to himself.

Everybody else was either sleeping or trying to rest, conserve some energy for a fight Krum was planning the next time somebody appeared on the other side of that magically barricaded door. Lee hadn't been involved in the planning, neither had Ron...if it was indeed Ron. The huge Bulgarian, Ernie Macmillan and Sam Robbins had agreed to coax the next Death Eater into the cellar with some kind of ruse and attempt to disarm him and make themselves a Portkey.

Despite Ron's protestations that he was fine and his dizziness was passing, he'd still fallen back into a deep sleep very rapidly with both Fergus Finnigan and Colin Creevey sitting with him for both comfort and protective reasons.

Marcus Belby snoozed beside Jack Sloper with Dean Thomas in another shadowed corner grunting and huffing as he tried to dig underneath the wall. He was already eight feet down but the wall still stood between the tall black boy and possible freedom.

Lee squinted through the darkness at the sound of a soft moan and saw that Ron was stirring and neither Fergus nor Colin had woken up to see to him. Lee bit his lip and wondered if there was a problem. He glanced around at the other figures in the cellar. Nobody else was alert enough to go and see to Ron...or not Ron. Lee huffed at his own inner confusion. His suspicions and paranoia were battling with his logical, yet empathetic, side and neither part of his psyche was winning.

All he knew was that he didn't like the redhead being neglected by the others in his present state. Plant or no plant, he really had taken the Cruciatus curse and it had done some harsh damage.

"Dean," Lee whispered over to the deep hole beside the wall. "Pst! Oi Thomas."

The sound of the digging and Dean's puffing and grunting continued without a pause. Lee didn't really want to raise his voice and wake everybody else up. He looked back to see the body that looked and sounded so much like Ron sitting up. The pale freckled face winced and let out a groan before slumping heavily against the wall behind him, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palms.

Lee watched and held his breath. Ron looked around at his fellow prisoners and shifted into a different position. It was as if his bones were grinding together painfully with even the slightest movement. Ron's sunken eyes were searching into the darkness, probably trying to work out if anyone was missing, looking for Dean, most likely.

"Lee?" Ron whispered, frowning about six feet to Lee's right and then turning his head to look into the light.

That was when Lee saw it.

Ron saw it, too, and suddenly Lee felt the need to run to him and reassure him that everything was going to be fine. If this was really Ron this would be terrifying him; he'd be a nervous wreck. Lee also knew that if the Puppet Master discovered how to get such a reaction of terror from Ron with such a simple thing, he would use it and use it with relish.

How would an impostor know that Ron was scared beyond measure of spiders?

Lee watched the person who might be Ron pressing his back flat against the wall and breathing rapidly as his whole body tensed. Was he putting on a show for Lee? He hadn't been able to see him. Lee hadn't spoken to him when he called. For all Ron knew, Lee was sleeping just like the rest of them.

"Sh...sh...shi...oh shit!" Ron began to pant through gritted teeth and his legs tried to push him up to his feet but the loose soil beneath simply gave way and churned at his feet.

Lee found himself standing up and realised that he had been about to run to Ron and calm him down. No, this might not be Ron. This might just be the next cruel trick.

Ron's chest rose and fell as if he was in the middle of a sudden sprint but he was still doing nothing but squirming against the wall, trying to push himself through it. Lee saw Ron's sore fingers fumbling for clods of earth to throw at the spider but his panic caused him to grip them so hard they disintegrated before he could raise his hand to throw.

"Getthefuckawayfromme!" Ron garbled as both his legs coiled inwards and the panicking wizard was now in the foetal position and on the verge of total hyperventilation.

Oh Merlin, what if it was Ron?

Lee was striding forward now, coolly, calmly into the light and he didn't pause to look at Ron or the spider as it scampered over the slight mountain of earth Ron's legs had churned up during his terrified scramble to get to his feet. Lee looked straight ahead at the flaming torch visible through the small opening in the cellar door and 'accidentally' stepped directly on the spider as he passed Ron.

There was a strangled yelp from the ground to Lee's left but he simply peered out through the opening, tested it with his hand and then sighed as if he'd genuinely got up to try out a theory before turning and heading back to his darkened corner.

He didn't meet Ron's eyes as he set off back into the shadows and something in his chest hurt as he heard Ron's voice, nothing more than a choked squeak, garbling his name. He sat back down on the still warm earth and looked back to see if Ron's panic-attack was any better now the spider was dead. He saw his friend, staring right at him but not able to see him staring back, shaking and holding his knees to his chest.

"Go back to sleep, Ron," Lee heard himself calling out. "I'll stay awake and make sure there aren't any more."

"P-Promise?" Ron stammered in shock at being spoken to in a kind way again.

"I swear. Go to sleep, mate." Lee watched for almost ten minutes before Ron had managed to settle down enough to lie back down. He curled up tightly into a defensive ball between Colin and Fergus. Soon Lee couldn't hear his staccato breaths and knew that Ron had managed to relax enough to drift off to sleep again. There was thesound of a throat clearing and a grunt as Dean Thomas pulled himself out of the deep hole he'd dug against the wall.

"Any luck?" Lee asked, not taking his eyes off Ron, despite only being able to see his shoulder and a shock of red hair illuminated by the torchlight.

"Nah," Dean said, crawling along the ground and slumping beside Lee wearily. "I'll have another crack at it in a couple of hours or so. I'm knackered."

Lee nodded but knew it was too dark to be seen. He decided to take a chance and close his eyes. Now that Ron was sleeping, he didn't have to worry about staying on the alert.

"Oh and Lee?" Dean said tiredly.

"Mmmm?"

"Welcome back, mate."

Lee smiled to himself and closed his eyes.

As soon as his feet thudded heavily onto the ground, Harry had his wand out and threw himself to the ground beside Tonks and Percy. There were spells whizzing not far away followed by more grunts and thumps behind him, letting Harry know that Moody and the others were also diving for cover to avoid the stray curses.

"Everybody stay as low as you can!" Moody ordered, as Harry watched his face as his magical eye scanned the landscape thoroughly. "Right, it's two Death Eaters duelling with a witch, looks like the Jordan woman. There's nobody else around."

"Let uz ztop le fight zen," Fleur said as she drew her wand and prepared to jump out from behind her cover.

"Hold yer horses, Frenchie!" Moody said before rotating his eye one more time, as slowly as possible and then nodding confidently to himself. "Right we're definitely not expected.Either that or they didn't expect Mrs Jordan to put up such a good fight. We're not going to barge out bellowing our heads off."

"Indeed," Percy said with a nod. "The second the brute realises he's outnumbered he'll just Disapparate. If we ambush him from behind we could question him and find out what all the red herrings are in aid of."

Harry stared at Percy as if he was a different person to the wizard he once knew. "You sounded like Ron just then." Harry said blankly.

Percy seemed to take this as a compliment, which was how Harry had intended it but not how he imagined Percy would react to the statement. "Ronald had to learn chess from somebody, didn't he? Even if he did surpass me alarmingly quickly."

"So, we are closing in on the Death Eater from behind?" Damocles Belby asked Moody.

"We will take up positions directly behind, you and Geoffrey can do that. Off to the left, that can be me and Potter. To the right I want Tonks and the Weasleys. Shacklebolt and Finnigan, I'd like to remain here to give us all cover."

"Good plan." Tonks nodded. "Who attacks first?"

"I do, of course," Moody snorted. "It's my bloody plan!"

Floella Jordan was duelling amazingly well but she had no back up. Fortunately, neither did the Death Eater so they were equally matched apart from the fact that the witch was sending hexes to seriously injure while the Death Eater was on the defensive.

Everybody moved within the trees to get into their positions before getting down low and moving forward.

"Right, Potter," Moody said in a low tone. "When I immobilise the two of them you advance and shield Mrs Jordan." Harry nodded. "Finnigan will be shielding you from the verge over there. I've briefed him already, and as soon as the both of you are covered, the rest of us will snare the Dark Scum and drag him back to the Embassy for some of our own questioning."

"How do you mean?" Harry blinked as he stared at Moody.

"I mean, Azkaban and the Ministry aren't getting any information their way so I'll keep this little victory a secret and have a go at extracting the information the old fashioned way."

"Sir, you aren't going to torture..." Harry began to ask, startled at being privy to such a break from protocol.

"I am going to get the location out of that swine and I am not going to be hindered by red tape, boy. You know what they've done to your mate Weasley. You think they deserve compassion and restraint from us?"

Harry suddenly felt the desire to hear the Death Eater screaming in agony for all he had been a part of. He should suffer for Ron's pain and degradation. Harry wanted to be the one to inflict that pain on him. Then he felt a little sick inside and wondered what Hermione would have to say about vengeful fantasies like that. "I think we're better than they are sir." Harry said to Moody. "I don't think you're mad and I don't want to see you live up to your name."

Moody nearly smiled as he clapped Harry firmly on the back, almost knocking him flat on his face into the mud, drawing his wand. "Don't you worry about me boy. Just you cast a good strong shield over that good strong woman and let's get this business over with shall we?"

Harry nodded and gripped his own wand tightly.

"Right, let's go, Imobulus!"

"But I don't want to alert the bastards to the fact I'm digging!" Dean protested as he stood before his ten-foot deep hole defensively.

"Dean, there's obviously no way you are ever going to be able to tunnel out of here without a cave-in," Belby said diplomatically.

"How is it obvious?" Dean said, his feelings severely hurt.

Well, Ron guessed, so would his have been if he's worked himself like a House Elf for hours on end only to have somebody dismiss it as a waste of time.

"I hate to say it Dean, but Marcus is right," Jack cringed as he spoke. "We're already underground and you're just digging further down to get past the foundations. By the time you start tunnelling upwards there's going to be a hell of a lot of weight pressing down on any hollow you create. All you'll do is crush yourself to death."

Dean looked thoroughly annoyed and folded his arms across his chest.

"Go on then. Do what ya want with it," he said sulkily.

"So, as many as possible fit down hole," Krum said, "and when Death Eater come he sees people missing. He comes in."

"We jump him," Sam said almost as if he was talking about partaking of a blood sport.

"Take wand, escape," Krum finished.

"Easy as that, eh?" Fergus said with cynicism.

"Easier than waiting to die here." Krum said without emotion.

"Well, he's blunt and to the point isn't he?" The Irishman smirked down at Ron on the floor, cheerfully. "Think he can get us out, Ron?"

Ron lifted his eyebrows and looked at Krum as he very nearly broke into a blush. "I've seen him play Quidditch. He can do anything." Ron smiled.

"So, Ron down hole, you not strong enough to fight yet," Krum began.

Ron feigned hurt feelings while Fergus chuckled and Dean rolled his eyes. "See what I get for taking his side?" Ron nodded towards Krum.

Krum actually smiled before spotting Lee standing off to one side, his arms folded and head bowed as if he was ashamed of himself about something.

"Lee," Krum called out to him, Lee looked up. "You want to fight or take care of brother?"

Ron gulped before holding his breath and looked at Lee. Everybody else seemed to turn and stare at the dreadlocked wizard as well.

"I'll um..." Lee shifted uncomfortably under everyone's gaze. "I'd like to look after my brother if that's alright Viktor."

Colin almost squealed and began to bounce on the balls of his feet happily. Dean seemed to swell and the whole room seemed to relax and gain confidence in the plan now that the atmosphere had changed so rapidly.

"Good," Krum nodded before gathering some of the others together to go over the amended plan, which now incorporated Dean's hole on the corner of the cellar.

As the gathering moved away from Ron, Fergus lingered until Lee crouched down at his side, and Ron saw that old familiar look of trust in his friend's eyes again.

"Hello, stranger." Ron smiled.

"Hiya, Ron," Lee said as he ruffled Ron's hair stiffly. "So how've ya been?"

Ron laughed as Lee sat down heavily at his side. Ron watched as Lee's face crumpled and dropped into one of his hands.

"Look there's nothing wrong with being careful. I'm not angry with you," Ron said as he pulled Lee's hand away from his face and lowered his head to force their eyes to meet.

"But you should be," Lee said weakly. "You needed me."

"Tommy needed you more and you were there for him." Ron said strongly.

Lee snorted derisively. "Fat lot of good I did him."

"You looked after him." Ron said fiercely.

"I really—" Lee began before stopping and swallowing down his emotions. "I really thought he had more time."

Ron gave Lee a pat on the back. "Tommy was really sick before all this even happened. This wasn't about anything you did or didn't do okay?"

Lee shook his head and let out a short laugh of disbelief. "You're incredible, d'you know that?" He looked at Ron and broke into a wider grin. "After everything, you're still looking after me."

Ron shrugged. "'S a two way street being brothers, ain't it? You helped me with that thing, that problem I have. You killed it and I know you meant to do it. Thanks."

Lee slung his arm around Ron's shoulders and gave him one of those jerky, one-armed manly hugs; they were back to awkward physical contact apparently. The closeness of their brotherly bond still requiring repair.

"I trod on a bleedin' spider. You came back from the dead." Lee mumbled.

"I didn't die. Cally saved me."

"You died for me. I saw you dead and I believed it for so long." Lee spoke into his chest in a low rumble, "I grieved for you and now...now you're back. Now you're back and I'm fucking shitting myself that I'll lose you again. That fucker will take you away from me again and you'll be dead for real. I don't want to feel like that again, Ron."

Ron looked at Lee and finally understood why he had been so adamant that Ron couldn't be who he claimed to be. He returned the one-armed manly hug and Lee looked up at him and smiled apologetically.

"Lee I..." Ron began but there was a loud crack outside the cellar door and Krum ran to block the view from the opening while everybody made a mad dash for the hole in the ground.

Lee heaved Ron up to his feet and they stumbled over the uneven earth to the edge of the hole while Krum's voice boomed out aggressive insults to the Death Eater and refused to let him open the door. Fergus jumped down the hole and reached up with both arms.

"Jordan, lower him down teh me."

Lee grabbed Ron's wrists and Ron climbed down the sides of the hole until he felt Fergus take his weight, arms curling around his waist until his feet dropped to the gritty earth at the bottom of the pit. Ron lifted his arms up.

"C'mon, now you," he whispered.

Sam Robbins lowered down Lee. Fergus told Ron to step aside and he helped Lee down to the bottom of the ten-foot deep hole. Lee turned to Ron and smiled.

"Y'okay?" he asked.

"Yeah fine," Ron nodded back.

"Not feeling woozy?"

"Nah, that's all passed. I'm okay. I mean it."

"Got room for another one?" Dean called down into the hole.

"Yeah, c'mon down Thomas. You can give us the tour!" Fergus grinned.

Both he and Lee reached up to help Dean down while Ron steadied him as he lost his footing in the crowded hole in the ground.

"Well, welcome to my hole," Dean said with a shrug. "If I'd known you were all coming I'd have dug outwards."

The four of them laughed and Ernie Macmillan shushed them urgently before disappearing from view. Ron guessed he had run to assist Krum at the door. Sam was out of sight, too.

Ron looked around and realised there wasn't space for another person standing, but if the four of them worked together, they could carry somebody Colin's size.

"Pst," Ron hissed upwards, "we got room for a little one."

Before Colin could say anything, Marcus Belby was lowering him down the hole by his wrists.

"Agh, mind me head Col!" Fergus grumbled as Colin's flailing legs connected with the sandy-haired wizard's skull.

"Here, sit him on my shoulders," Dean said as he crouched down a little.

"I'm not a toddler!" Colin exclaimed.

"Shut up down there!" Belby snapped before turning to Jack. "Stand in front of the hole with me so he can't see it right away."

The five down the hole listened anxiously.

There was a loud booming noise and Krum yelled furiously while Sam swore while several brightly coloured flashes illuminated the cellar. Ron guessed that the Death Eater was trying to fight Krum and Sam off with hexes but the two strong wizards were wrestling him for control of his wand.

Then there was another crack and even more flashes.

"Oh shit, another one!" Jack hissed and Ron heard running footsteps that he could only guess was Jack jumping into the fray.

"Keep your heads down." Marcus ordered before he too ran off to join the fight.

"Two against five. That's still good odds right?" Dean asked them nervously.

"Hold on, I'll stand on your shoulders and have a look over the edge," Colin said as he fidgeted on top of Dean.

"Colin, you twat!" Fergus whispered. "You heard yer man there, head down ya bloomin' eejit."

There was an almighty bang and Sam roared "No!" before a second explosion went off and the only sound was of falling debris.

Ron and Lee stared at each other, eyes wide and dusty air stinging the back of their throats. They heard slow steady footsteps approaching and everybody huddled together, perfectly still. Ron blinked away some falling soil that toppled over the edge of the hole before seeing a huge silhouette peering down at them.

"My dear jongens," the Puppet Master's voice said, sounding utterly delighted, "I didn't expect you to have missed me so much you would fashion a torture for yourselves in my absence."

"Oh, fuck," Dean exhaled fearfully.

"Now, I will know where to look for my Firebrand when I come to continue our game tomorrow."

"No," Lee whispered.

Ron took his hand and gave a squeeze."It's okay," he said just low enough for Lee to hear him.

"Enjoy your new sleeping quarters, jongens," the Puppet Master said, pointing his wand down at the opening to the narrow hole. "Occludo profundum!"

Thick iron bars criss-crossed over the top of the hole and fused together magically, sealing themselves against the soil and setting like metal cement. The Puppet Master stepped onto the barred mesh and looked down at the five trapped wizards with a twisted smirk.

"Thank your friends for your newfound privacy." The Puppet Master stepped off the bars and began to walk away before calling out to everyone, "Oh and jongens, don't ever attempt to escape again. Avada Kedavra!"

"No!" Ron yelled.

"Bastard!" Fergus bellowed.

"Oh fuck!" Dean whimpered.

"What?" Colin gasped shakily.

"Merlin, what happened?" Lee shuddered.

There was a dull thud as all those trapped in the hole exclaimed at once. Krum seemed to snarl against a gag. There were protestations from two separate voices that cancelled the other out and Ernie Macmillan spat the word 'coward' at the Puppet Master as his slow measured tread departed.

The cellar door banged shut followed by cracks of Disapparition before the cellar was plunged into stunned silence.

There was not a sound for quite some time before Colin squeaked out timidly. "Who...Who...Who did he...?"

"Jack," Sam Robbins hollow voice answered. "He killed Jack."

Chapter 37 Hickory Dickory Dock

As soon as Moody had stunned and tied up the Death Eater, Harry dropped his shield around Mrs Jordan and fell to his knees beside her.

She was exhausted and had a cut on her cheek but seemed to be fine otherwise. She smiled at Harry while panting.

"It does feel good to dish out a little punishment to those cowards, boy!" she puffed.

Harry forced a smile back in return and tried to help her up.

"It was a set-up, Mrs Jordan," he said with a grunt.

The woman raised one eyebrow in an elegant curve before brushing herself down.

"I guessed as much when the 'Auror' tried to kill me, Harry."

"Oh well, yeah, sorry!" Harry shrugged.

Moody was manhandling his prisoner roughly and Seamus accidentally trod on the man's fingers, breaking them with a crunching sound that set Harry's teeth on edge. Tonks and Shacklebolt were making sure their surroundings were secure while Percy and Fleur joined the others as they crowded around something on the floor.

"Meezter Moodee!" Fleur called out, looking pale. "Over 'ere, zere eez a bodee!"

Harry's face paled and he lurched forward but Mrs Jordan held him back sadly.

"It's the Clerk," she said before sighing deeply. "The Killing Curse. He was the first. The Death Eater who tricked us here attacked him first and then others came and took Bianca and that sweet chirpy little boy."

"Dennis," Harry said blankly.

Mrs Jordan nodded. Seamus jogged over to them and gently put his hand upon the shoulder of the witch who had been so determined not to go down without a fight.

"Come back teh the Embassy with me, Mrs Jordan. Me ma will take a look at that cut for yeh."

Mrs Jordan put her hand to her face and hissed as her fingertips touched the cut on her cheek.

"Mrs Jordan," Harry called as the woman nodded to Seamus that she was ready to go with him. "You said that the clerk was the first, does that mean...? Where are the others?"

Mrs Jordan drew in a deep breath and shook her head.

"They weren't killed Harry. They were taken."

"C'mon," Seamus said as he guided the woman away slowly.

"Did anybody know his name?" she said suddenly, turning around and looking at the startled crowd surrounding her.

"What?" Moody grunted, throwing the bound Death Eater over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"The clerk, that young man who came with us and lost his life," Mrs Jordan said, looking fierce as she pointed to the body at the Belby's feet. "Did anybody know his name?"

Harry and Seamus looked at each other and then to the ground. Percy cleared his throat and Fleur put her hand over her mouth as her eyes widened.

"Jamie," Tonks called out as she emerged from the trees with Shacklebolt. "He introduced himself to Remus and showed him where the bathroom was on our first day here. He said his name was Jamie."

Mrs Jordan gave a slight smile and a nod before turning back to Seamus and moving away with him again.

Harry shuddered.

What if Ron was just 'that tall guy with red hair'?

What if Ron died alone and unappreciated?

What if Ron, like the clerk at the Embassy, died thinking he didn't matter to anyone?

"Let's get to work on this brute, Kingsley," Moody said bracingly as he stepped beside Harry with the unconscious body dangling limply over his shoulder. "And Damocles, Geoffrey, would you be so kind as to bring the...Jamie back with us?"

The Belbys nodded silently.

That was when Harry made his decision. He supported whatever Moody was about to do if it meant getting Ron back.

Lee pressed himself flat into the ragged wall of the hole, their newest prison, and winced at the sensation of Fergus' elbow poling him through the shoulder as everybody crushed together.

Dean steadied himself so Colin could stand up and grab hold of the bars above and pull himself up enough to see what state the others were in.

Lee glanced at Ron as he squinted around at the walls, possibly looking for a foothold, and felt thankful that at least Ron couldn't be snatched away from him without him knowing. Not down there, it would be impossible.

Colin made a straining sound before beginning to speak.

"Hello? Hey you lot, it's me...Colin."

Lee threw Dean a smile of sympathy as the tall wizard rolled his eyes.

"Down here, in the hole!" Colin stuck an arm through the bars and began to wave frantically.

"They know where we are, you prat!" Dean grumbled, looking uncomfortable with a foot on each shoulder and dirt toppling down sporadically onto his head.

"Hey, Col," Ernie Macmillan's voice sounded close by and very subdued.

Lee looked up and saw the silhouette of Ernie's head leaning over the hole.

"He didn't hurt any of you did he?" Ernie asked; his voice was quite calm compared to his usual gung-ho attitude to adversity.

"We're fine, Ernie," Ron called up. "What about you lot?"

Ernie's head turned to look back at something and his shoulders fell with a deep exhalation before he returned his focus to the five trapped down the hole.

"Krum got his hands and feet tied together so his body's all twisted up unnaturally. Marcus is trying to cut through the ropes with a stone. I should really go and help him."

Lee grimaced at the mental picture he had in his head of Krum and hoped it wasn't as bad as that in real life. Ron nodded rapidly, seemingly eager for Ernie to go where he was needed. Colin reached through the bars and patted Ernie on the arm.

"Chin up, Ernie," he said, that eternal Creevey optimism still burning brightly. "We'll just keep fighting, eh?"

Ernie stiffened for a moment before his shoulders moved back and his chest puffed out a little. "Yeah," he nodded, "I'll go and help Krum."

"Um, Ern?" Fergus called out as the dark shadow rose into a standing position.

"What?"

"Sam?" Fergus enquired nervously.

"He's with Jack." Ernie said, emptily.

Dean looked as if he was about to drop Colin and stared up at the opening to the hole with wide eyes.

"He's still here? They left him here?"

Colin looked down and bit his lip before nodding. Ron squeezed Dean's shoulder.

"I'm sorry mate," he mumbled.

Lee knew what it felt like to lose a former cellmate. He glanced at Fergus, who knew how it felt to lose both.

"It's good he's here with us," the Irish wizard nodded. "We can bury him or something."

"Not here," Ernie interrupted with determination. "Jack Sloper will not be buried in a cellar!"

Fergus' jaw flapped, mouthing wordlessly for a while, and Ernie's footsteps faded as they thudded against the earth above.

"I didn't mean...I meant he gets a respectful send-off. I wasn-" Fergus said when he finally found his voice again.

"S'okay Fergus," Lee said getting cramp in his arm from where the Irish wizard was still leaning against it in the tight confines of the hole. "There's no right thing to say anymore. We know what you meant."

"Gah, Col..." Dean suddenly grunted, "I'm gonna have to let you down. It's killing me here!"

Dean tried to crouch but there wasn't enough room to bend his knees and only got about a third of the way down before Colin yelped and squealed, falling against Ron's chest and sending the two of them sliding down the wall and hitting the uneven ground.

"Oof!" Ron exclaimed as Colin thudded down onto him heavily.

"Shit, you alright?" Lee hissed, feeling blindly with his mobile arm for Ron or Colin.

"Get off me, Col!" Ron strained to speak.

"And go where?" Colin squeaked.

"Just do anything to get your knee out of my rib cage!"

Lee felt a foot kick him in the ankle, both Colin and Ron apologised before Fergus swore under his breath and hopped directly onto Lee's foot.

"Agh, blessed be to Merlin! You're wearing boots you bastard!" Lee cried out in pain.

"Right stop!" Ron yelled from the ground. "Everybody stop everything!"

For a moment there was no sound or movement at the bottom of the deep hole in the ground other than the heavy breathing and moaning of five uncomfortable wizards. Ron took several calm breaths to compose himself before speaking.

"Colin," he said, still sounding as if Collin had a foot in each of Ron's lungs, "lie back and wriggle along the ground through Fergus' legs. There a space for you to sit up and lean against the wall there."

Colin moved and Ron seemed let out a relieved moan as the pressure was gone from on top of him. Lee felt Colin's arm brushing past his leg and saw Fergus tense up as the small wizard made his way between the Irishman's legs. Colin let out a little huffing noise and then called out cheerfully.

"Done it!"

"Right, pull your knees right up into your chest for the time being so there's room for everybody else to move about," Ron instructed.

Lee felt Ron sitting himself up and pressing himself against the dirt wall behind him. He glanced down and saw Ron was pulling those long legs in towards himself as much as he could.

"Right. Fergus, you can take a step back now and you won't be treading on anyone." Ron sounded very tired; Lee thought that he still wasn't fully recovered from the hexing.

Lee reached down and settled his hand on the back of Ron's head. Ron glanced up and smiled, mouthing 'I'm fine' and looking back at their limited space with a frown of concentration.

"Dean, you can side step to the right about four inches."

Dean did as he was told, managing to straighten his stiff back with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Bloody hell, Ron, I'd love to see you play Tetris one day," Dean chuckled.

Fergus and Colin laughed. Lee and Ron stared at each other blankly.

"Why, what does he play?" Ron asked.

Dean waved his hand dismissively as much as he could in such a confined space and shook his head.

"Sorry, Muggle stuff. I forget sometimes."

"Oh, okay," Ron said with a frown before shaking his head to regain focus. "Right, does everybody have a bit of wall to lean their back against?"

"Yeah." Lee answered.

"Yup." Dean said, flinging himself backwards to illustrate his point.

"Err...no." Fergus said from his spot in the middle of the hole.

"Okay, well Dean and Lee slide down the wall and tuck your legs in the same as me and Colin." Ron ordered, rubbing his face roughly.

Dean and Lee were now sitting down. Lee was squashed beside Ron and Fergus was still standing in the space in the centre looking down at them all.

"So what do I do?" Fergus frowned.

Ron shrugged before grinning and clapping his hands like an emperor.

"Dance for us!"

Colin chuckled and Lee elbowed Ron in the ribs. Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Think yer funny, do yeh?" Fergus huffed. "Me 'erse y'are!"

"You're the most Irish person in the world aren't you Fergus?" Lee grinned up at the disgruntled wizard.

"Shut it you. I watched yer brother fer ya while you were off in cloud cuckoo land remember?" Fergus snapped impatiently.

Lee's face fell and Ron gave Fergus a disparaging look.

"Now, now let's all stay civil shall we?" the redhead said before shifting along a little, right into Lee's side. "'Kay so you sit down in the middle and put your legs between me and Dean, just here."

Ron patted the small space he had created to the side of him. Fergus squatted down and did as he was told, after much shuffling, swearing and grunting. Then Ron scrunched up his face in apology to all the others.

"Then we all kinda spread out all over each other, I'm afraid." Ron shrugged before stretching his legs back out and draping on over Fergus' shins and another behind his back.

Dean stretched his legs out next and one of his legs criss-crossed with Ron's and the other reached all the way over to Colin's ankles. Colin lifted his legs so Dean could stretch the rest of the way while Colin's own short legs slid down to scuff against the side of Ron's knee and his other leg crossed over it. Finally, Lee straightened out his legs to make a kind of bridge over both of Colin's and he slid a little further down the wall to make it more comfortable.

They looked like a bunch of spare parts at a mannequin factory, and mostly legs at that.

"Well, isn't that better?" Ron said sarcastically.

"Anything's better than having Colin on your shoulders," Dean said, fidgeting a little to get comfortable. "I never want to feel another man's groin pressed against the back of my neck for as long as I live."

Somebody outside the hole chuckled softly.

They all looked up at the sound and listened for a moment before looking at each other once again. Now they had the problem of coping all jammed together in the confined space sorted out they were faced with an even bleaker prospect.

They had to get through the night.

Julie ran her hand over Tommy's shaven head. It was so furry feeling. He was cleaned up now. He wore a fresh set of clothes. He wasn't dirty or bleeding. His lips were still a little chapped and his fever still worryingly high but he was alive.

Her Tommy was alive.

She held onto his hand as the Belbys carried the dead body of the young, nervous clerk inside. They looked very solemn. Julie had to look away. As her head turned, she saw one of Molly's many boys standing in the doorway and cleaning his glasses on his robe. This one was the quiet one who didn't stay at the Embassy; he only dropped by from time to time. Julie's own family hadn't been able to stand the waiting either.

Evil witches and wizards and dead children showing up every day was too much to bear.

She looked down at her boy again and leaned over him to plant a kiss on his forehead. He was her miracle, her Houdini, and he had fought all the odds to stay alive for her.

"Moody hasn't arranged the transfer to St Mungo's yet?" Molly's boy said as he pushed his glasses back onto his face. "I'll speak to my superiors and get him the best care available, Mrs Painter."

He suddenly lifted his chin and swelled in stature, as his officious side kicked back in like an autopilot.

"Mr Lupin said something about the Finnigans being more than capable of taking care of him here and keeping his survival a secret for now," Julie called after him as he turned to leave.

The young man seemed to think that this was ridiculous and stepped inside the temporary hospital-cum-morgue with an authoritative look on his face.

"Well Mister Lupin is hardly in the chain of command here, is he?"

"And you are are you, Perce?" Fred and George said, appearing behind him and folding their powerful looking arms across their broad chests.

The man, Perce, seemed to shake with annoyance and spin around to face his brothers.

"I have contacts in high places," Perce snapped at them, "and I want this fellow taken good care of and recovering quickly so he can tell us exactly where our brother is. Now if you want to waste my time with petty family feuds, then wait until Christmas comes around and you can ruin everybody's day."

George looked as if he'd just been hit in the face with an ice-cold jelly while Fred looked like he wanted to pound Perce's face into a pulp. The bespectacled Weasley turned back to Julie and smiled graciously.

"It really is not rouble to get Thomas the very best of care. The Ministry want to do everything they can to help as far as this situation is concerned."

"Situation?" Fred exclaimed with disgust. "You're calling your brother being kidnapped and tortured a situation?"

"I am calling the unconsciousness of the only person who might know where Ron is a situation. Now shut up for once in your life, Fred Weasley!" Perce snapped, his whole body shaking with anger as he spoke.

"Boys," Julie called across the makeshift ward softly.

The three fiery redheads turned, faces flushing crimson, and Perce managed to smile at her again. Julie was stunned at his handle on his anger; she'd never known somebody so gracious and polite in her life.

"Mrs Painter?"

"The idea is that there could be a leak of information if Tommy were to be taken to St Mungo's alive. We don't want it to get back to the Death Eaters and have them kill somebody else in his place. If the Death Eaters think Tommy is dead then a life is spared for one more day...maybe your Ron."

Perce's Adam's apple bobbed in his throat and the red rage that burned in his cheeks drained so fast Julie feared that he might pass out.

"Well," Perce said, his voice sounded lost and vacant, "um...no, that's fine. I'll see if the Finnigans need me to stealthily liberate any potions or...anything from St Mungo's for them, to make him better you know?"

"Stealing from St Mungo's, Percy?" George said, clapping a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You're not qualified for something like that."

Percy, or Perce, turned around to face his brothers with a weary sigh just as Fred smiled defiantly and nodded.

"Yeah, you need professional mischief-makers for something like that."

"Very well," Percy sighed, his shoulders falling. "Let me speak to the Finnigans and find out what we'll be borrowing."

"Borrowing," Fred smirked and shook his head. "Whatever you say Perce!"

"Fuck!" Lee mumbled grumpily as he tried to roll over unsuccessfully. "Foot gone numb."

Ron couldn't see a thing. He shifted a little but was trapped under a mass of legs and one of Colin's feet was pressing into his bladder making him ache for a pee.

"We're gonna need to dig a toilet," Ron whispered, so not to wake the others.

Lee, who was resting his head on Ron's shoulder lazily, smiled as his hands tried to pull his leg out of the limb soup and move it on the top.

"Y'know I came up with a plan?" the dreadlocked wizard said softly.

"You did?" Ron raised his eyebrows.

"Uh-huh," Lee said with a nod. "We pull all the dirt off the walls and throw it on the floor, filling the hole, and then step up on the new floor and pull more dirt off the walls and on and on until we dig ourselves out."

Ron snorted and his chest shook with stifled laughter. The movement made Lee lift his head off Ron's shoulder, the jiggling being too much to ignore, and looked at Ron wearily and shrugged.

"Not worried about the walls collapsing on top of us then?"

Lee scrunched up his nose and shook his head.

"Already bin buried alive. I'm looking for a new challenge."

Ron looked around at their present circumstance and sighed.

"Well mate, I think you got it."

Lee cleared his throat and closed his eyes before settling into Ron's side again. Ron fidgeted and snuffled and Lee gave a tut.

"What is it now?" Lee grumbled.

"Your dreads are tickling my nose."

"Maybe your long nose is sticking into my dreads."

"Oh shut up, ya git!"

Lee was chortling when a squeak made him swallow the sound and hold his breath.

"S'only Colin," Ron tutted as he squirmed against the wall behind him, his back begging him to lie down. "Squeaks more than a rusty gate that one."

"No," Lee said, body rigid against Ron's side. "Colin's asleep. What made that noise?"

Ron listened for a moment and heard nothing.

"Maybe it's somebody's nostril. Harry gets this thing sometimes where his left nostril squeaks while he's sleeping. Annoyed me so much that I got out of bed and crossed the room to shove his finger up his nose to shut him up."

Ron was about to chuckle at the memory of a sleeping Harry with his own finger jammed up his left nostril and his mouth hanging open when he heard it. It was a squeak, a definite non-Colin squeak.

"You heard that one?" Lee said hurriedly as he squinted into the darkness anxiously.

"I heard that one." Ron said distractedly as he leaned over, pushing his arm behind Lee and running it along the edge of the hole.

"What are y-" Lee began.

"Shhh," Ron said as he wriggled his shoulder behind Lee and felt further along, almost touching Colin's limp arm before feeling something soft and fury. "Got it!"

"Got what?" Lee said, flinching nervously.

Ron withdrew from behind Lee's back and the soil wall with great difficulty while clutching a squirming mouse in his hand.

"'S a mouse." Ron smiled as he picked the mouse up by it's tail and set it upon his thigh before cupping his hands around the little dark coloured mouse, letting it scamper over his fingers and over the palms and the back of both hands while Ron turned them to keep the mouse from falling.

"How d'you know it's not a rat?" Lee said, uneasily.

"Well, funnily enough Lee," Ron said, dripping with sarcasm, "I happen to know what a rat feels like."

"Oh right." Lee said, relaxing slightly. "What d'you think it's doing down here?"

"Dark place isn't it? Probably looking for food. Crumbs or whatever." Ron held the mouse up to his face and tried to get his eyes to adjust enough to the darkness to make out the mouse's face. "You're out of luck mate. We're all out of cheese."

"Oh don't say cheese," Lee groaned. "I'd love some bloody cheese."

"I want some chocolate," Ron muttered into the darkness wistfully.

The little mouse squeaked and ran up Ron's arm and to his shoulder.

"You want chocolate, too?" Ron smiled, trying to turn his head to see where the mouse was now.

It ran around the back of his neck, under his shaggy hair, and onto his other shoulder. Ron shivered at the sensation and smiled.

"Is it tickling you?" Lee sniggered.

"Yeah," Ron nodded as he lifted his hand to his shoulder to try and gather up the mouse, "look you can search me all you want but you won't find any shocolate!"

Ron yelped and half swore, half spoke, as the mouse dove for the neck of his t-shirt and scurried inside. It scampered against his skin and made its way down his chest to his stomach. Ron managed to clamp his hands over it before it burrowed into his jeans. Lee was laughing quietly as Ron struggled to hold the mouse under his t-shirt with one hand while gathering it up under the material with the other.

"You little git!" Ron huffed as he lifted the mouse in front of him again.

"You said it just wanted to be somewhere dark. Maybe it's looking to nest for the night." Lee suggested, greatly amused.

"Well it ain't nesting in my underpants!" Ron snorted.

"Where did your rat used to like to be?"

"It wasn't a rat," Ron mumbled darkly.

"But where did it like to sleep at night?" Lee persisted.

Ron thought for a moment.

"In my bed. I don't have a bed right now little fella," Ron said sadly to the mouse. "Little Shocolate mouse."

The mouse squeaked again and dropped off Ron's palm and scurried into the pocket of his jeans.

"There ya go," Lee said. "Everybody's happy now."

"What d'ya mean?" Ron huffed. "If I roll over I'll squish it!"

"And you have room to roll over, do you?" Lee asked.

"You have a point." Ron conceded with a nod. "'Night Lee."

"'Night Ron."

There was a short pause before they both sniggered.

"You want to don't you?" Lee laughed.

"Yeah, you?" Ron smiled and looked at Lee.

"Yep."

They both leaned in to the other and settled into as comfortable a sleep as they could manage. Both of them muttered two more words before going to sleep.

"Night, Shocolate."

Chapter 38 Family

A smattering of soil fell upon his face and Lee opened his eyes and blinked up at the opening to the hole.

Krum was gripping the bars that blocked the mouth of their accidental prison, grunting deeply as he tried to lift them away. Lee knew it was useless; he'd watched as the bars fused to the soil as if they were being welded, but he thought Krum didn't need to hear anything negative at that moment. He was, after all, sharing the cellar with a dead body and obviously needed a distraction or some kind.

"You got free then?" he called up to Krum as he began sweating and panting.

Krum had obviously not noticed Lee waking and jerked with a start before nodding and changing his grip and pulling again.

"Others cut through ropes, take shifts all night, they sleep now."

Lee nodded and looked beside him at Ron.

Ron was leaning on him heavily; sleep weighing down his body, and his head resting upon Lee's chest. Somehow during the night he'd put his arm around his friend protectively. He didn't feel awkward about Krum seeing them in their strangely intimate pose though. Glancing around, Lee smiled to see Dean curled up on the floor almost wearing Colin and Fergus' legs like a blanket over him and his face buried into Ron's upper thigh. Fergus was holding onto Lee's leg as if it was a comforter and Colin had both his arms around Fergus' waist and his head practically in his lap.

Limited space had created something of a five-way hug involving arms and legs. And what stiff legs they were going to be. Lee squirmed and felt his back ache. He winced and Krum paused and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"You slept?" the Bulgarian said.

"Kind of." Lee shrugged and changed his weight from one buttock to the other.

Ron mumbled something and kicked out, almost breaking Dean's nose but still not waking him, and leaned even further into Lee's side.

"My-nee," the slumbering redhead muttered.

"Oh great," Lee tutted. "If you have a wet dream I'm going to kill you, Ron!"

"His protection," Krum said solemnly. "It stop now?"

Lee looked down at Ron and thought about the pain point Cally had told him about when they had been trying to wake Ron. He grabbed Ron's earlobe and pinched hard.

"Agh bloody hell!" Ron yelped as he batted Lee's hand away and huffed at him angrily. "What the fuck are you doin', ya dickhead?"

"Good morning to you, too." Lee smiled sadly.

Ron, the worst morning person on the face of the earth, rubbed his face grumpily and then arched his back into an almighty yawn, arms splaying wide above his head. As he slumped against the wall of the hole again he frowned, bottom lip jutting out comically at the sight of Fergus clinging to Lee's leg.

"What's going on with that?" He pointed at Fergus.

Lee laughed and shrugged. Ron suddenly looked startled and his whole body went rigid. He looked down at his pocket and blinked before sighing with relief and gently taking out the little brown mouse that had taken such a shine to him during the night.

"What is that?" Krum asked, trying to see through the darkness of the hole.

Ron hadn't realised Krum was there and looked up at him with surprise.

"Oh hi, Viktor," he rubbed the mouse behind the ears and then held it up to the minimal light. "It's a mouse. It finds me comfortable!"

"Is not the only one." Krum smiled and looked to Dean.

Ron chuckled, allowing the mouse to run up his arm and start chewing at the collar of his t-shirt.

Hermione pulled Mr Weasley's cloak around her tightly as she padded downstairs, barefoot.

She hadn't been able to sleep well at all. She kept seeing Ron, weary and terrified in the dark, reaching out for her and hitting a barrier that kept them apart. She had pounded on it with both fists and Ron had faded away into the blackness until she could see nothing of him anymore.

She was going to make herself a cup of tea in the kitchen and sit in peace before hitting the books again.

Yesterday had been a very frustrating day. The adrenaline had been pumping in all of them. There was a wonderful feeling of hope that they were going to get their loved ones back. What they got was a dying boy and an ambush. Poor Demelza was so frantic when Floella Jordan had revealed that she and Dennis had been knocked out and Apparated away that Tonks had to sedate her to get her to sleep.

The Belbys took the clerk away, taken home for the Ministry to contact his relatives. Those poor people wouldn't have even known he was at risk. He was just a paper pusher at an official building and the war was over. How would they understand why he was now dead, murdered by Death Eaters in the field of battle?

Hermione thought she heard a noise coming from the side room and frowned as she paused to listen carefully. There it was again. She drew her wand and tiptoed across the reception area towards the open door. Peering in, she saw Mrs Painter sitting with her sick son and stroking the back of his hand softly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mrs Painter," Hermione whispered, putting away her wand. "I didn't know you were up yet."

"I haven't been to sleep yet." Mrs Painter smiled tiredly.

Hermione felt a Mrs Weasley moment coming over her as she spoke.

"I'm making a cup of tea. Can I get you one?"

"No, thank you, I'm fine."

"Some toast? Anything for breakfast?" Hermione pushed.

"Nothing for me, thank you."

"A glass of water?" Hermione tried to stop herself saying.

Mrs Painter chuckled and beckoned Hermione over to her with a wave of the hand.

"Sorry." Hermione smiled, her eyebrows crinkled with her embarrassment.

"Don't be. It's very kind of you to be so attentive." Mrs Painter smiled back at her.

Hermione Summoned a chair and sat at the woman's side.

"How is he?"

"Still far too hot, yet far too cold," the woman sighed heavily. "But he's been mumbling some words."

"Really?" Hermione said, hope widening her eyes as she sat forward.

"Nonsense words I'm afraid, swearing and oddities. He talks about puppets a lot."

"Puppets?"

"Puppet this and puppet that, usually 'this' and 'that' are abusive words."

Hermione bit her lip and looked at the frail-looking young wizard.

"Nothing coherent?"

"Names. He calls out for people." Mrs Painter pointedly looked away from Hermione.

"Who? Mrs Painter who does he call for?"

"Listen, you poor thing, you're in your night things and you've nothing on your feet. Go and get your hot drink and try to get a little more sleep. It was a tiring one yesterday, wasn't it?"

Hermione leaned forward and closed her hand around Mrs Painter's wrist.

"Who does he call for?"

"He called for Floella's son several times. Lee, isn't it?"

Hermione nodded.

"And he sometimes sounds frightened, panicked, especially when Kathleen was trying to get him to drink a potion during the night. He was saying the Prang boy's name, the boy they never gave back."

Hermione squeezed Mrs Painter's hand.

"Maybe he can tell us what happened and his family can finally put him to rest." She smiled hopefully.

Mrs Painter looked away from Hermione again and her head dropped.

"He calls for Ron, too."

Hermione felt her heart lodge itself in her throat and tried to swallow it down.

"Ron? Really?"

The older woman nodded and looked back at Hermione sadly.

"He says Ron and Lee's names whenever anybody is taking care of him." Mrs Painter smiled sadly. "He thinks it's them. They were obviously the ones who looked after him in that awful place."

Hermione felt her eyes burning with tears. Ron had been caring for somebody else all the while he was starving and beaten and frightened. He was still the Ron she knew, the Ron she had fallen in love with, the Ron who once stood on a broken leg to protect his best friend. How would Tommy being sent away to die have affected him? What would it have done to Ron's fragile morale?

Mrs Painter shuffled a little closer to Hermione and put her arm around her comfortingly.

"I want to thank them both," she said, her voice wavering as she spoke. "I don't want to have to tell Tommy that the friends he made, the people who kept him alive and strong enough to battle back and survive, have been lost to the Death Eaters. I don't want to see Molly or Floella grieve for their boys and I don't want to see your heart broken, you poor soul."

Hermione leaned into Mrs Painter and sniffed.

"I can't stand it Mrs Painter!" she sobbed. "I can't stand the thought of anybody hurting him."

The two women sat together in silence.

The five at the bottom of the hole in the ground were holding their breath, tension so thick in the air they could almost choke on it, as the three cracks of Disapparition made them all flinch against each other.

Ron heard some heavy sighs of relief as a pair of thudding footsteps grew louder as he squinted up at the bars. Ernie was looking down at him, out of breath and white-faced.

"They took Jack's body and they brought us food," he said, a concerned frown etched deep into the lines of his face before looking over his shoulder at something, "We're...we'll work something out about how to get the food to you."

"What d'you mean how to get it to us?" Dean said, struggling to his feet and gasping as frozen muscles and creaking bones jarred painfully.

"Well it's gruel, in one big bowl made of ice."

"A bowl made of what?" Ron blurted while trying to nudge a couple of foreign legs off the top of his own.

"Ice," Ernie said before Sam Robbins joined him.

"I figure they don't trust us not to fashion a weapon with a bowl of clay or glass or wood even," the dark haired wizard shrugged his narrow shoulders, "so they gave us a container that would melt into nothing."

"So, hold up here a sec boys," Fergus said as he dislodged his elbow from Lee's ribs. "Not only do we have nothin' but gruel to eat but we've got cold gruel?"

"You got it in one, Fergus," Sam said with a sympathetic nod.

"And we have nothing to get it down to you in other than our hands," Ernie huffed, grimly.

Ron found himself laughing a little. Lee and Colin stared at him as if he was insane. He shrugged and shook his head.

"I was just thinking," Ron explained, "that if ever we get out of here and are presented with a knife and fork we won't have a bloody clue what to do with 'em!"

The others laughed and heavy footsteps sounded as Marcus Belby and Viktor Krum carried the slippery ice bowl over to the side of the hole and sat down.

"We eat together, like family." Krum grunted.

Ron smiled before looking beside him at Lee.

"Yeah," Lee nodded and whispered under his breath, "family."

Krum plunged his hand into the bowl and scooped up a handful of beige slop. Ron thought it looked like something Eloise Midgen would squeeze out of her face and shuddered. He felt Lee squeezing his knee before straining and getting to his feet.

"Food's food, Ron," his brother said firmly, "and you are going to eat it."

Ron sighed and extended his arm to Lee. The dreadlocked wizard hauled him up with a grunt.

"Hey, I never said I wasn't going to eat it."

Dean lifted his hands up and winced as Krum dropped the thick gooey mass of oats and water into his waiting hands.

"God, this is a bit Oliver Twist isn't it?" Colin said with chirpy grin.

"Why?" Ron frowned. "What happened to him?"

"Muggle story, Ron, don't worry about it." Dean said as he tried to work out how to go about eating the gunk from his hands.

"Well, he had to eat gruel and they didn't give him enough at this orphanage, workhouse type place he lived at and he asked for some more and got into all sorts of trouble and got sold to an undertaker but things didn't work out there for him and he got set up by somebody else who worked there because he was jealous of how well-liked Oliver was so then..." Colin jabbered as Fergus caught his own splat of gruel and turned to face him with an impatient huff.

"Bleedin' Nora Col! We don't need Dickens stories on top of everything else we have to bloody live through."

Colin pressed his lips together in shock before opening them again at the corner of his mouth and squeaking.

"I'm sorry!"

Ron looked from Colin to Fergus to Lee and his mouth hung open in a silent 'huh?' before he was shoved forwards to receive the next portion of gruel. Ron cupped his hands and turned his head away just in case Krum's aim was off and he caught in full in the face. Krum was a hell of a Quidditch player though and he never missed. With a sound that could only be written down as 'squmph' the ice cold wet globule of mush thwacked down into his waiting hands.

Ron gave an involuntary shudder before lowering his arms and forcing himself to look at his meal for the day, or maybe for a few days.

"Tuck in, Weasley," Fergus said grimly before following Dean's lead and lowering his head to eat out of his own hands.

Something about this made Ron think of pigs eating from a trough and he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reminded himself that his mother, Hermione and Harry would demand he ate whatever he could.

Soon everybody was eating and snuffling into their hands and Ron had to admit that as unappetising as it was gruel did a good enough job of filling the hole in his empty stomach. It was only as Ron started to lick one of his hands clean did he remember that only a few hours earlier, he was letting a mouse scamper all over it. He froze, mid-lick and shuddered at the thought of the diseases he may have just caught before telling himself that 'Plague' was the least of his worries.

What a sad state of affairs it is when Plague is the least of a person's worries.

Ron flicked a thumbnail-sized globule of gruel onto the ground and wiped his clean hand on his jeans before gently easing it into his pocket and scooping out the mouse. Dean watched, his chin and the tip of his nose covered in splotches on gruel, with a frown on his face and swallowed his mouthful.

"You got a pet there, Ron?"

"More like a stowaway," Ron shrugged. "I either let him live in my pocket or he tries to get into my undies."

"Maybe it's a she?" Fergus said with a waggle of the eyebrows.

Ron rolled his eyes before setting the mouse down beside the blob of gruel.

"Well, I'm not bloody well looking to find out!" Ron snorted.

Fergus and Colin chuckled and Ernie sniggered and began to choke a little on his mouthful.

"Family has pet," Krum said with the merest hint of a smile.

Ron grinned up at him and sucked his own thumb clean.

"So I can keep him, can I, Dad?"

Lee almost snorted gruel out of his nose.

Chapter 39 Amends

"Mrs Robbins? Mrs Jordan? Mr...Clerk?" Dennis called out through the rusty bars of the six-foot by six-foot cage he was locked inside.

He was in a cavernous old ruin of grey stone. Spears of sunlight pierced the murky space around him, making particles of dust visible and showing him the moss that grew in the cracks of the stone floor beneath him.

The last thing he remembered was fighting a Death Eater along side the others. The Auror who came to the Embassy had hit Mrs Robbins with something and she had fallen down. Patrick had begun to fight with them and Chiara seemed to morph into a swarthy bearded man around four times her size.

They had been Polyjuiced. It had been a trap. He was an idiot.

There was a bright green flash and a woman screamed. Then Dennis had felt as if he had been stabbed through the chest with an icicle just as a brilliant white light left the Death Eater's wand and hit him with the force of a runaway train. Everything had gone black and he had woken up alone and seemingly abandoned.

Dennis shook at the bars in his hands but, despite being rusty, they weren't weak in any way. He fumbled for his wand without much hope of finding it, huffing when he found every pocket empty.

Had the first location not been a trap after all? Had they called the others back from rescuing Colin and the rest of the hostages?

"Idiot!" Dennis grumbled aloud before kicking at one of the bars and feeling the bones in his leg vibrate like those old cartoons he used to watch on Saturday afternoons.

Hopping up and down on one leg and clutching his aching foot with both hands, he pressed his lips together to hold in the tirade of swearing that wanted to come pouring out of him.

Something about being alone was very unsettling. Was he bait for another trap? Could it be a trap his mother was going to fall into?

"No," Dennis said with determination, "not the whole family." He gripped the bars of his cage and shouted out into the emptiness around him. "You won't fool them again and I won't play along. They're going to get the hostages back and then they're going to throw you all to the Dementors!"

"Stupefy crebro!"

There were thuds on the soil above them and soon five beams of light bounced off the walls of the hole and all the way down until each of them were each struck down.

Ron had flung himself in front of Lee and dropped like a stone. The hex aimed at Lee had knocked Ron silly but he was still vaguely aware as he blinked his heavy eyes. He watched as the Puppet Master melted away the seal around the criss-crossed bars that blocked the entrance to the hole in the ground, levitating it away. Lee tried to move his arm to reach for Ron and grab hold of him but could only manage sporadic spasms.

"Accio Firebrand!" the Puppet Master said, almost vibrating the walls of the hole around them with the depth of his satisfied purr.

"No," Lee managed to whimper pathetically as his fingers snatched at the space Ron had occupied.

Ron floated up into the air and slammed into the Puppet Master's chest. The Dark wizard caught him and threw him into the arms of a waiting Death Eater.

"He seems to have lost his protection doesn't he, boy?" The Puppet Master smirked down at Lee.

"Bastard!" Lee gasped as he fought to sit himself up but his arms gave way immediately and he slumped to the ground again.

"You see yourself as his protector don't you, Mr Jordan?" the Puppet Master said with amusement.

Lee scowled weakly at the wizard, features shadowed and presence looming even larger over Lee from the depths of the hole. The Puppet Master crouched down and blocked the minimal light that illuminated the hole with his body as he leaned over and drummed his fingers together in a sinister fashion.

"The Firebrand is my plaything, Mr Jordan, and you are insignificant and replaceable."

Lee felt himself shake with anger but his body was still heavy and tired. He saw the Puppet Master nod to his companion and then Ron's vivid red hair shone in the wand light behind the huge silhouette before him. The Dark wizard's large hand reached down and stroked Ron's hair as the Puppet Master laughed, looking back down the hole at Lee.

"He has many brothers, my Firebrand, and a friend who is a living legend. What are you to him, Mr Jordan?"

"Fucker!" Lee choked on his desperation to get the word out.

The Puppet Master gripped a handful of Ron's hair and pulled his head back to expose his throat. The control-freak drew his wand on Ron and pressed it to his jugular.

"What can you do to stop me, young protector?"

Lee's eyes burned and he forced them closed as he winced with the effort to sit himself up again. As the Puppet Master's laughter rang in his ears, his arms gave way once more and he fell heavily with a grunt of frustration. Lee didn't want to look back at the smug Puppet Bastard but needed to see what was happening to Ron.

"He is mine. I took him from Potter. You, Mr Jordan, do not come into the equation."

Lee saw Ron being dragged away from the edge of the hole and lost sight of him.

"No wait!" Lee yelped fearfully. "Don't take him. Whatever you want from him...I'll do it. Please, don't hurt him. Take me and leave him alone."

Lee's stomach churned and his whole body shook, his wide eyes stared right into the Puppet Master's darkened face. The vile sadist sniggered down at him and aimed his wand down at Lee.

"You think you can amuse me in the same way my young Firebrand does? You are merely one of many pawns in this game while Mr Weasley and myself are the players. I have no desire to play against you, Mr Jordan. I want only to destroy you in a way that cripples my opponent's game."

"He's too good a player, you evil shit!" Lee hissed, shaking even more violently now. "He'll beat you. He'll wipe your pieces clean off the board!"

"Accio Jordan!" the Puppet Master snarled and Lee was magically pulled from the hole and towards the Puppet Master.

The intimidating figure stepped aside just as Lee was about to strike him in the chest, just as Ron had done before. Lee whizzed past and hurtled into the wall, hard. He felt the pain of the blow, followed by another dull impact as his back slammed down onto the loose earth. The air left his lungs and the huge shadow of the Puppet Master towered over him, growing until all light, shape and colour was swallowed up.

Then he saw only darkness.

Harry sat on the front steps of the Embassy and picked at a loose thread on the sleeve of his jumper. Charlie huffed and sat down heavily beside him.

"I've been sent to bully you into coming inside for breakfast," Charlie said lazily.

"Yeah?" Harry responded in a similar fashion.

"Mmmmm," Charlie nodded. "Apparently breakfast is the most important meal of the day and if you don't eat healthily during times of worry, stomach ulcers and anxiety warts can become a real problem."

"Where d'you get the warts?" Harry said, watching a Muggle man walking his dog on the other side of the street.

"Under the armpits, behind the knees, around the inner thighs and all over your nuts. Apparently the warts love dark sweaty places."

Harry nodded and pulled another inch of wool away from his sleeve.

"I'll be on the look out for it."

"Cool," Charlie said simply.

The two of them sat in silence for several minutes before Harry turned to look at Charlie's profile and nudged him in the side with his elbow. Charlie blinked and turned to face Harry with a half-hearted smile.

"What?" the broad shouldered young wizard asked Harry.

"Shouldn't you eat breakfast yourself?" Harry said roughly.

Charlie looked away again, straight ahead into space and smiled with a little more ease.

"Maybe at lunch time."

Harry sniggered and drew his knees up to his chest. He folded his arms over them and rested his chin upon his forearms with a deep sigh.

"Yeah, cornflakes for lunch sounds good." Harry watched as Charlie nodded.

More silent minutes passed them by.

"He was such a great little kid," Charlie suddenly said out of the blue.

Harry actually jumped and turned his head to frown at Charlie. The older wizard still stared directly ahead and his eyes looked so very far away from that cold, hard step in Venlo.

"Who was?"

"Our Ron," Charlie replied, it was as if he was only vaguely aware that Harry was still there with him. "Fantastic little kid."

"Yeah?" Harry smiled before resting his head upon his arms again, hypnotised by Charlie's expression as he reminisced.

"We'd fight, Bill and me, over who got to occupy the twins and who got to occupy Ron and Ginny." Charlie gave a half laugh before sighing deeply and pressing his lips together. "Gin was a little mimic. She'd just copy whatever you did so if you wanted to read, she'd get a book and read with you. If you wanted to swim, so did she. If you were in the mood to climb a tree and become a human swing for her, she'd giggle her head off and swing on you all day long."

Harry hugged his arms to himself and tried to nod for Charlie to go on but he had made himself so compact that all he could do was make a sound of encouragement.

"Ron," Charlie said before shaking his head and blinking his eyes rapidly. "Ron was..." Harry had to look away as Charlie laughed sadly and his eyes began to glisten brightly. "He came up to my room once, so bloody proud of himself, and gave me this model he'd made out of mud and twigs in the yard. 'I made you a Hedgepig, Charlie' he said with this massive grin on his face."

Something was happening to Charlie's voice that sounded very painful to Harry. It sounded as if there was gravel lodged in his throat that he was trying to swallow down while telling his story. Harry still couldn't look at him.

"He'd traipsed muddy footprints all the way up the stairs and along the landing to my room and was dripping it all over the floor. Mum was screaming when she saw it and he gasped and dumped this Hedgehog thing into my hands and ran for his bedroom, leaving little Ron-sized footprints all the way behind him as he went, screaming 'It wasn't me'!"

Charlie gave a laugh that was like a choke. Harry listened while there was a brief pause. He wondered if he should say something. He considered giving Charlie a pat on the back or something but he couldn't stop hugging his own legs.

"I was sick once and Ron read to me from one of his books about dragons and asked me which ones I'd seen and which ones I wanted to see and if I'd take him flying when I was feeling better," Charlie said wistfully. "He'd...He'd..."

"Hey, Weasley, d'you know where th-" Shacklebolt began to ask from behind them somewhere.

Harry turned sharply and snapped at the approaching Auror over his shoulder.

"Go away!"

Shacklebolt froze and glared at Harry for a moment before his face register that this really wasn't the time, holding up a hand and nodding before silently retreating into the Embassy.

"Go on, Charlie," Harry said, finally looking at the hunched man beside him.

"He'd come to me crying. He'd come to me to kill the spiders and he still kept on crying after they were gone." Charlie sniffed and wiped his face with his rough-looking hand. "So I said to him, 'All gone now Ronnie, what 'cha still grizzlin' for?', and he...and he said..."

Harry finally put his hand on Charlie's back and rubbed it just a little.

"What d'he say Charlie?"

"He said, 'You're so brave Charlie. You can do anything. I can't even squish a spider. You must be so disappointed.'"

Charlie's shoulders shook and he dragged his hands through his hair.

"Shhhh, come on," Harry said as he rubbed Charlie's back a little harder.

"He doesn't know!" Charlie huffed suddenly. "I'd take risks and be foolhardy and daring for kicks. I'm a thrill-seeker. I shit myself if things are for real, Harry!"

"Come off it." Harry smiled uneasily. "You?"

"Think about it!" Charlie turned to look Harry in the eye with his own bloodshot ones. "Risk taking Quidditch player, hanging out with Hagrid to play with dangerous animals all through school, covered in cool scars from all these cool things I did for larks and went off to work with dragons with some other adrenaline junkies. I'm this brave, bold, admirable hero Ron doesn't think he's up to scratch with. The whole bloody time I'm having fun wrestling trolls and riding Moldovan snap dragons bareback to impress the ladies my baby brother is facing off with real danger."

Harry bit his lip.

"Fucking eleven years old, Harry, and he's walking with you into who knows what for the sake of my freedom to go on being a poser. And to this day, right now, wherever the fuck he is...he thinks he's not good enough."

Charlie's head dropped into his hands and Harry shuffled a little closer to sling his arm all the way around Charlie's huge shoulders.

"Look, Charlie, Hermione and me, we've been working on that inferiority complex of his. He's not going to give up before we find him, I know he's not!"

"But why haven't we found him yet?" Charlie growled. "Why haven't I found him yet? With all the stuff I can do, he's still bloody missing. What good am I to him other than a show off who can kill fuckin' spiders?"

"Charlie," Harry said, amazed at how calm he sounded when he was screaming on the inside, "he still needs you to help him crush his demons. We all need you and your confidence and bravado. You make us all believe it's only a matter of time before we get them back and make those bastards pay."

Charlie took a minute to compose himself before smiling weakly at Harry and gesturing over his shoulder into the Embassy.

"Moody won't let me question the prisoner. Says I'm too unstable."

"He said the same thing to me," Harry laughed with a shake of the head.

"Fancy a fly?" Charlie shrugged. "See if we can spot anything unusual?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "Let's go work up an appetite for our cornflakes!"

Something shook Lee awake from the inside out, making him blink as he came back to his senses. He was facing a stone wall.

"Ah, now we have both my young friends back with us," the Puppet Master's drawling voice said before calling out to somebody, "Ga!"

Multiple pairs of footsteps sounded against the stone floor and a door creaked closed and locked with a 'thunk'. Lee felt something cold cutting into his wrists and looked up to see he was suspended by a rusty set of shackles hanging from the ceiling. He hissed and pushed against the floor with his bare feet to take the weight off his aching arms.

There was heavy breathing coming from somewhere. A chain was clinking against wood but it wasn't the chains above Lee's head. He turned to look over his shoulder and felt a fearful fury as he thrashed against his shackles.

"No!" he yelled at what he saw behind him.

"Lee, don't!" Ron pleaded with him before grimacing as the Puppet Master pressed his wand into the side of his face with apparent glee.

Ron was bent over a large wooden dining table. He was face down and his arms were chained together underneath the sturdy table. The Puppet Master gripped a handful of Ron's hair with his free hand and dragged the tip of his wand across Ron's throat as if it was a knife.

"Stil my Firebrand, stil," The Puppet Master purred with a sickening pleasure.

Ron's body bucked against the table and the chains clanked again. Lee had never felt more furious in his life. He gritted his teeth as he heard Ron's panicked breathing once again and witnessed the Puppet Master chaining Ron's legs apart, each ankle fixed tightly to a leg of the table.

"Don't you fucking dare, you pervert!" Lee bellowed. "Leave him the fuck alone!"

"Lee, please," Ron shook his head desperately, "shut up please."

The Puppet Master laughed with delight and stroked his wand down Ron's back. Lee stared into Ron's wide, desperate eyes and saw what he was trying to warn him. There must have been some threat to Lee while he was unconscious to make Ron comply. Lee felt sick and shook his head with determination. Ron slumped flat against the table and gave a soft whimper just as the Puppet Master flicked his wand at Ron's back.

"Abduco!" He said with a groan of satisfaction and Ron's tattered t-shirt tore away from him and fell like confetti to the stone floor.

Lee realised now that they were back in the torture room outside their old cellblock. They were out of the cellar. His eyes widened. Ron had said there were people on the other side of the wall.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US!" Lee hollered at the top of his lungs. "WE'RE IN HERE!"

"They left, Mr Jordan," the Puppet Master said with amusement. "They left you all behind."

Lee shook his head, not the twins, not Fred and George. They'd never leave Lee behind and they definitely wouldn't abandon Ron.

"Liar," Lee spat before calling out again.

"Lee, stop it, please stop it!" Ron begged him.

"Now now, Firebrand, this is hardly fair is it?" the Puppet Master said, running his huge hand up Ron's bare back and flicking his wand at Ron's face. "Occludo!"

A thick, leathery gag wrapped itself around Ron's head and reduced Ron's protests to muffled grunts. Ron banged his head against the table in frustration and bore into Lee once again with wide pleading eyes.

"They came, they searched, they found nothing and they left." The Puppet Master sighed carelessly as he leaned over Ron's struggling body and sneered into the side of his face. "I've been using diversionary tactics so I can still have my fun. Isn't that right, Firebrand?"

Ron forced his eyes closed and his chains clanked again. The Puppet Master laughed and straightened himself up once more, dragging both hands along Ron's back as he did and letting his strong, powerful fingers settle at the top of Ron's jeans.

"Don't. Touch. Him," Lee growled as he tried to rip his hands out of the shackles above his head.

"What else do you propose I do, Mr Jordan?" The Puppet Master smirked.

Ron shook his head frantically and roared something inaudibly into his gag.

"I have nobody to kill today thanks to young Mr Sloper. Where else may I find amusement for the afternoon?"

Ron was breathing raggedly again, whimpering and staring at Lee with wide blue eyes. Lee knew he was going to regret this but he couldn't let the Puppet Master defile Ron. Even if it meant his own life, so be it.

"Have your fun with me," Lee said with a shaky determination.

Ron's eyes scrunched closed and thrashed wildly against the table while letting loose a string of muffled exclamations of protest.

"But Mr Jordan," the Puppet Master said with delight, "I think you and I have already established that there is no fun to be had with you."

"Anything!" Lee said urgently as he saw the Puppet Master hooking his thumbs into Ron's jeans and arching an eyebrow wickedly. "Anything you want. I'll do anything if you leave him alone. Please don't do this, please."

"Alsjeblieft?" the Puppet Master said with genuine amusement.

Lee looked at Ron while the bound redhead shook his head furiously. Lee looked back at the Puppet Master and nodded. Once again Ron cried out into the leather that wrapped around his head and stifled his entire mouth. His head drooped and his eyes looked devastated.

The Puppet Master looked back down at Ron with a sad smile and slid his hands around to Ron's stomach.

"Ah well, my Firebrand, maybe next time," he purred as his hands slid further down and Ron squirmed.

"I said don't touch him!" Lee yelled as he saw the area the Death Eater was reaching for before the man jumped back and hissed.

Both Lee and Ron froze and stared at each other. The Puppet Master put one of his fingers into his mouth and sucked upon it while glaring at the floor and aiming his wand at something small, brown and squeaky that was scampering away to hide in a crack in the wall.

"Die muis heeft me gebeten!" the incredulous-looking Puppet Master exclaimed before sending several spells after little Shocolate mouse.

Lee looked back at Ron and saw that he was trembling all over. Lee had had enough and Shocolate's distraction had done the trick.

"Oi you sick bastard, are you going to see to me or what? Rather shove a little mouse up your arsehole instead, eh? I thought you were the type you perverted fu-"

"Crucio!" the Puppet Master boomed as he sent the curse into Lee's back.

Lee's knees rose up to his chest, his body fell and once again the rusty shackles cut into his wrists. He screamed in agony, as everything from his dreadlocks to his teeth to his toenails hurt. His skin seared with the heat of a million flames and his eyes felt as if they were melting in their sockets. He could hear Ron fighting against his chains and shouting himself hoarse against his gag as soon as the curse lifted, leaving Lee hanging limply from the chains above his head. He was sweating and panting, barely able to stand and take the weight off his arms.

"You will learn respect and fear this afternoon, Mr Jordan." the Puppet Master said fiercely., "You will also learn pain. But one thing you will not learn about from me is mercy. There will be none."

Ron was still crying out in muffled bursts to draw the Puppet Master's attention. Lee tried to turn around and tell him to stay quiet and that it was all going to be alright. His eyes passed by Ron's struggling body when he saw the movement of the Puppet Master throwing off his robe and unbuckling his belt.

"No, you agreed, you said Ron wasn't going to be...Keep away from him!" Lee roared.

The Puppet Master's cruel eyes glinted and he took a step towards Ron while pulling his belt away from his trousers. Ron was shaking so hard now that the table also rattled beneath him.

"No mercy, Mr Jordan. Just as I said."

Lee owed Ron so much already. Ron had taken so much pain, so much punishment; Lee had abandoned Ron once already. This was not going to happen. Lee had made a promise. He was sick of breaking his promises to Ron. This one, just this one he would keep.

"For me, no mercy for me. Do everything and anything you want to me!"

Lee saw Ron swallow against his leathery gag, his breathing frantic and his eyes unable to blink. The Puppet Master slipped his belt from his trousers completely and gripped the end of it, leaving the silver buckle dragging along the floor as he approached Lee.

"You try to interfere," the Dark wizard said coolly, "you attempt to come between me and what I want. You think you can save your Ron from becoming my Firebrand? He will be and you will do nothing next time." The Puppet Master twisted his body and brandished the belt like it was a whip and grinned with great satisfaction. "I will see to that."

Ron yelled out and Lee turned away to face the wall as the leather belt cracked against the air and the buckle sliced through his skin between the shoulder blades. Lee gritted his teeth and his back arched away from the blow instinctively. He felt warm blood gushing down his back.

"The first," the Puppet Master said with satisfaction, "of fifty."

Ron bellowed against his gag from the table, Lee clenched his teeth and forced his eyes tightly shut, and the belt cracked in the air once again.

Chapter 40 Hurt

Moody thudded across the floorboards menacingly while Shacklebolt and Lupin tied the captured Death Eater to the Ambassador's chair in his old office.

The door and the walls, even that shaft the Weasley boy used to access the room, were charmed multiple times over with silencing spells and reinforcement charms. The door was locked, both physically and magically. The Death Eater knew what was coming and put on a show of bravado for them. Moody didn't need a magical eye to see the fear in his eyes, though.

The Death Eaters obviously never thought for a second that the Aurors would breech protocol like this. Moody liked that the man was scared.

"Thought we'd let you see just how those young boys have been feeling," Moody growled with a bitter smile.

Lupin grew edgy. Shacklebolt hadn't been overly enthused with a civilian's involvement in the interrogation but Moody had put his mind at ease with the news that Lupin wasn't there to interrogate. Remus Lupin was there to threaten the man.

"Jij kan me niet intimideren. Ik ben een volgeling van de Heer van het Duister, ik wordt niet bang. Jij bent niets anders dan een verrader van je eigen soort."

"I'm sorry," Moody growled as he bent over to snap into the Death Eater's face, his mask of false confidence fighting to stay put, "ME NO SPEAK-O GIT-O!"

"Which brings me to the point I was about to raise, Alastor," Remus said, clearing his throat anxiously. "How exactly are you planning on getting a confession out of a man you don't understand?"

"Oh, he'll confess," Moody nodded. "He'll tell us everything we need to know and reciting Shakespeare by the time I'm done with him."

Moody grabbed the Death Eater by the back of his hair and yanked his head backwards sharply. The Death Eater winced and grimaced before forcing his smug smile back onto his twisted face.

"I'll have you singing like Celestina Warbeck by the time I'm done with you." Moody released the Dark wizard's hair and leaned forward towards one of the man's bound hands.

He grabbed the middle finger of the wizard's wand hand and pulled it all the way back with a sickening snap.

"Alastor!" Lupin exclaimed as the Death Eater screamed and thrashed in the Ambassador's chair.

Moody ignored the 'civilian' and cracked his knuckles happily before walking around to stand directly before the prisoner.

"Speak English yet?" The Auror, who had come out of retirement just for these moments of old fashioned interrogation, beamed wildly.

Shacklebolt stepped behind the chair that held the man secure and waited for Moody's nod.

"Where do we go to find the hostages?" Moody barked.

"Wat?" the Death Eater said with defiance.

Moody flicked his eyes up to Kingsley and jerked his head sharply. Shacklebolt drew his wand and jammed it into the Death Eater's mouth. He pressed the tip of the wand against one of the man's molars and yelled out a spell.

"Abrumpo!"

The Death Eater cried out and soon began gurgling against the rush of blood that filled his mouth as a tooth was broken away from his gum. He writhed in his seat and Lupin muttered something under his breath before Shacklebolt jabbed his wand into the back of the choking man's earlobe and repeated the spell.

"Abrumpo!"

The bottom of the Death Eater's ear was severed completely and the prisoner screamed and thrashed wildly.

"Stop! Nee!"

"Now stop—sounded like English to me," Moody said casually as he smiled at his partner in torture. "What do you think, Kingsley?"

"I think he was asking for us to attend to his knee, Mad Eye."

Moody's real eye flashed with animal blood lust and he jabbed his own wand into the side of the Death Eater's kneecap.

"Stop, alsjeblieft stop!" the terrified prisoner begged them.

"Perfringo!" Moody snarled as he said the shattering spell.

"Oh, Merlin, Alastor, what are you doing?" Lupin said, sounding sickened. "Kingsley, come on man, we are better than these people. We are above their tactics."

"And look where it got us!" Shacklebolt snapped back. "Dead kids, Remus. Teenagers under torture that hardened Aurors would break under."

"Indeed," Moody agreed as he grabbed one of the prisoner's little fingers in either hand and stared the man in the eye. "Speak English yet?"

The Death Eater whimpered.

"Oh come now," Moody smiled with a grimace as he snapped both the man's fingers backwards and towered over the wizard as he bucked in the chair in absolute agony. "How about you draw us a picture while you still have fingers left?"

Ron flinched with every blow of the belt buckle against Lee's shredded flesh.
His hands felt sticky from the dried blood pooling in his cupped palms. With the adrenaline rush of fear and then fury, he struggled violently against the chains that held his wrists and now they were raw and painful. He could hardly feel bad about cut wrists when he had to watch Lee go through such torture to spare him a buggering, however.

He was still racked with the tremors that shook his entire body as if he was freezing to death. His prone position, chained flat on his stomach over the side of a sturdy table with his t-shirt torn away and his jeans the only thing between him and the Puppet Master, only made his full body terror worse.

The belt snapped through the air and a spatter of blood flicked off the buckle and hit Ron in the face. He forced his eyes closed and whimpered against the vile tasting gag while Lee's agonised screams rang in his ears.

It felt as if it had been going on forever. The Puppet Master had only counted the first three lashes aloud. Ron had counted a further ten before feeling himself retching against his gag and trying to keep from drowning on his own vomit.

"Open your eyes, Firebrand," the Puppet Master said, panting heavily from the exertion. "He is suffering for you, after all. You at least owe it to him to watch."

"Lea-Le-Leav'im alone!" Lee strained with an exhausted yelp.

"Look at him, Firebrand!" the Puppet Master yelled.

Ron opened his eyes and winced at the sight of Lee's back, scored with deep jagged cuts and missing chunks of flesh. He averted his eyes and blinked back the tears. He pulled painfully at his chains again and the table groaned beneath him before he slumped hopelessly against it.

The Puppet Master turned his attention back to Lee before his arm, along with the bloodied belt held ready to strike again, fell to his side. He laughed and shook his head before looking back to Ron as if he'd made a faux pas at a civil dinner party and nothing more.

"My dear jongen, your interruption has caused me to lose count."

Ron felt the terrible trembling that overwhelmed his whole body become a full-blown convulsion as he gasped against the gag and widened his eyes desperately. He shook his head frantically and whimpered against the obstruction over his mouth. He could read the Puppet Master so easily; he knew what he was going to do before he did it.

"Well, if I've lost count there is nothing else to do but start all over again is there?"

"Oh Merlin, no!" Lee choked in agony as he hung limply from his shackles.

Ron was breathing raggedly as the Puppet Master arched an eyebrow and licked his lips, grinning back at him with fire in his eyes.

"Unless, my Firebrand, you can tell me what stroke I had reached?"

Ron tried to control both his breath and his temper as he swore through his gag with pure rage.

"What was that, dear jongen? I didn't catch that, I'm afraid." The Puppet Master cupped his large hand to his ear and delighted in his little game.

Ron's muscles tensed, his chains tightened and his back arched away from the table as he tried to shout through his gag to stop.

"Do speak up, Firebrand. I will not tolerate mumbling here."

Ron's body slumped back down onto the table and he closed his eyes with a desperate groan of defeat.

"So we begin again from the first stroke," the Puppet Master said with relish as he drew back his arm and prepared to strike with the belt again.

Ron roared his protestation against the leather that covered his mouth and the Puppet Master paused and tilted his head with interest.

"Was that a no, Firebrand?"

Ron pulled at the chains again before gulping and saying an 'Mmm-hmm' in response.

"You do not wish me to complete Mr Jordan's discipline?"

Ron shook his head and fixed his eyes with the Puppet Master's.

"So he doesn't complete our agreement," the Puppet Master said with a satisfied sigh of victory. "And I can do as I please with you?"

"No!" Lee said, pushing himself back to his feet again. "He doesn't get to decide, this is b-between me and you."

Ron whimpered again and dropped his head sadly.

"You wish me to start again, Jordan?"

"Do it from the beginning," Lee nodded with a shattered grimace of pain as he braced himself for more punishment, "and I-I'll count them off to f-f-fifty."

"Very well." The Puppet Master nodded, almost disappointed at Lee's resilience.

He swung the belt and the buckle gouged into the flesh at his lower back.

"One!" Lee cried out.

Ron closed his eyes again and tried to remember to keep breathing.

"This little piggy went to market," Moody yelled over the screams of the prisoner as he broke the big toe on the man's right foot, "this little piggy went to town," another deep snapping sound followed by ragged screams, "this little piggy had roast beef..."
SNAP!

"Y'know, Mad Eye," Kingsley said as he leaned casually on the writhing man's shoulder to address his colleague as if they were in an every day briefing at the Ministry, "I always did wonder about that line. I know it's not cannibalistic but still...pigs eating cows, it's wrong somehow."

"...and this little piggy had none!" Moody continued as if there was no interruption at all.

The fourth toe broke and Moody pinched the prisoner's little toe between his thumb and forefinger, waggling it playfully.

"Now this little piggy, this one right here, he squealed his heart out and kept us from having to leave this room and let you spend the night of the full moon with our friend Remus the Werewolf."

Moody knew that Lupin was shifting uncomfortably behind him but didn't blink. He didn't tear his eyes from the desperately pleading ones of the Death Eater in front of him.

"Ik zal...ik zal..." the Dark wizard panted, almost gagging on his own fear and pain, "Ik zal je meenemen. Neem me mee, ja? Ik weet waar— Bianca Robbins!"

Shacklebolt stood up straight, his face stunned at hearing the name.

"Where is she?" Lupin demanded.

The Death Eater flinched, he must have recognised the word 'werewolf' Moody guessed.

"Ik moet — ik zal je Bianca Robbins geven."

"Well that's a start." Moody said with satisfaction.

"F-F-Forty-one!" Lee said, his breath jarring and voice juddering uncontrollably.
The Puppet Master grunted as he pulled the belt back to strike again. Ron was still lying on the table, shaking so hard he was making his chains rattle and occasionally making pained sounds of sympathy for his brother as the damage continued to shred Lee's ravaged back.

Lee realised that pain came to a certain point when it wasn't something you felt but something you acclimatised yourself to feeling. He was in pain, incredible pain, but it was becoming something that wasn't happening to his body.

It was similar to the feeling he had when a Hogwarts' ghost passed through him in the hall or the corridors. He felt what it was to be dead, exactly what it was to be cold and still and detached from his own body, without actually being dead himself. At that moment, Lee knew what the pain felt like but that ghost had passed through him and gone on its way. He was shivering with the sensation and the recent visceral memory of how it felt but it was drifting away from him.

Drifting away.

Drifting.

Crack!

"Forty-two!" Lee shouted out, another fleeting ghost of pain passing through him and following the previous forty-one into obscurity.

There was a loud bang and Lee was jolted out of his shocked state of self-hypnosis as he realised that the door had been flung wide open.

"Ik zei dat je me niet mocht onderbreken!" the Puppet Master bellowed furiously.

Lee heard Ron's chains clinking and then clattering to the stone floor. Lee looked over his shoulder and almost screamed as the movement made him feel as if his skin was being wrung out like a wet flannel. He saw Ron sliding off the table and hitting the floor hard. He was breathing heavily and curled up into the foetal position, as his full-body tremors seized his entire body.

The Death Eater with the white streak of hair kicked the chains away and dragged Ron to his feet while snapping urgently at the Puppet Master.

"Meester, wij kunnen hier niet langer blijven." The Skunk-haired Death Eater dragged Ron across the floor towards the door, ripping the gag away and throwing it to one side as he went, "Ze kunnen terug komen. Een tweede keer kunnen we niet aan ze ontsnappen."

"Wat is er gebeurd?" the Puppet Master said as he flicked his wand at Lee's shackles and caught him as he fell limply and clumsily.

The arm at his back, the rough material scratching against his exposed tissue, was too much to bear. Lee's whole body weighed down under a blanket of darkness. He was shutting down. He was losing the fight to stay conscious.

He angled his head to see Ron hauled back down the stairs to the cellar, still white and trembling violently, and found one last reason to call out before falling away from the world completely.

"Ron?"

Chapter 41 Comfort

Ernie was still frozen, rigid in the position the Petrifaction spell had struck him, arms before his face defensively and mouth hanging open in shock.

The Death Eater with the streak of white hair at the front had hit all four of them, Ernie, Krum, Belby and Sam, before dragging Ron inside and over to the hole.

Ernie followed the two of them with his eyes. Ron was breathing as if he was sprinting but his legs trailed limply behind him, not moving at all. Ron's hands were balled up into tight fists and his arms were drawn close to his chest, which was now bare, as the Death Eater dropped him to the soil beside the hole and began to melt away the seal over the metal grid over the entrance.

"Ron?" Colin Creevey's voice was calling out from the bottom of the hole.

"Is that Ron and Lee?" Dean Thomas gasped. "Are they back?"

"I see Ron's hair. I don't see Lee." Fergus said, sounding as if he was straining to peer over the brim of the hole.

"Ron, where's Lee? Are you alright?" Colin called up.

Ernie heard more calls from the hole, mingling with each other in panic while Ron lay on his side next, shivering violently and still breathing with frantic speed. Ernie guessed that Ron was in shock. Immediately, the fact the Lee wasn't there made Ernie wonder if Ron's present state was due to witnessing Lee's execution.

No sooner had that thought crossed his mind, it was banished as the levitating body of Lee Jordan floated through the door and dumped face down onto the ground by the Puppet Master. Ernie almost vomited at the sight before him; if he had more mobility in his throat he might have done. The shirt on Lee's back was torn to shreds and the skin beneath was torn up in the same way. There were whole strips of flesh gone. There was blood, so much blood, and Lee wasn't moving at all.

Ernie turned his eyes back to Ron as the Death Eater pulled him up from the ground and threw him down the hole, on top of the others, grunting in unison as they caught him, before hurriedly sealing the grate over the hole. The Puppet Master turned and left the cellar. As the skunk-haired Death Eater followed, he glanced down at Lee's body and flicked his wand at it idly and mumbled.

"Scourgify sano!"

The Dark wizard left, the door banged shut and the wall magically repaired. Ernie heard two cracks and nothing more. Nothing else made a sound other than the frantic conversation down in the hole.

"Where's Lee? Why didn't we get Lee back, too?" Colin demanded his voice even higher than usual.

"Colin, calm down. Ron doesn't need this right now!" Dean said shakily.

"Say somethin' Ron," Fergus repeated over and over again. "C'mon Weasley, give us a nod or a wink or somethin'. Just look at me fer a second, c'mon Ron."

"He's in shock," Colin said meekly.

"No fucking shit!" Fergus snapped harshly.

"God his wrists," Dean was hissing so low that Ernie had barely been able to make the sounds out as words. "They're sliced up."

"They cut him?" Fergus asked hoarsely.

"Chained him up, like last time. Marcus was cut like that when they did it to him," Colin said, his voice cracking.

Ernie looked across the uneven earth at Marcus Belby, also frozen in an awkward position on the floor, and then to Krum who faught against the effects of the spell a little. He had something of a grimace on his face and toppled over from his sitting position. He landed on his face heavily and grunted. He'd fallen in Lee's direction. He was trying to get to Lee. Ernie looked down at his clawed hands and willed his fingers to move.

Come on you bastards, move! Twitch just a little bit. Just a little wriggle and then some more and a bit of room to get the blood pumping. It's just like getting the feeling back after pins and needles. Just a little twitch at first and then it all comes flooding back.

Just fucking MOVE!

"There's blood on him," Fergus' voice exclaimed numbly.

"Where? I can't see anything other than his wrists," Dean said urgently. "Where else is he hurt?"

"No," Fergus was saying before falling silent.

"That's—" Colin began before stalling and struggling to continue. "That's blood spatter. He got hit with blood from somewhere else."

"Oh, fuck!" Dean whimpered.

"Ron!" Fergus shouted. "Ron get a grip on yerself and calm down. Stop feckin' shaking and tell us what happened out there? Tell us what they did with Lee."

"Here!" The stifled sound made Ernie jump.

He found himself torn between two emotions, shock that he had just physically flinched at the sound of Krum's voice and pride in Krum at fighting hard enough to actually be able to speak already.

"Lee...here!" Krum said through a stiff jaw.

"Krum?" Colin called out.

"Quick, Col, get on my shoulders," Dean instructed followed by a shuffling movement and a small hand grabbing hold of one of the bars that blocked the entrance to the hole.

"Viktor?" Colin shouted, trying to see over the mounds of soil that blocked his view.

"Lee!" Krum grunted again.

Ernie felt his hands moving down from his face a fraction and set about trying to wriggle his toes while watching Krum push himself along the ground, closer to Lee's body, as if his knees and elbows wouldn't bend any further or straighten ever again.

"I can't see him," Colin said, another hand clutching the bars and his face trying to push itself through the tiny space between the criss-crossing iron. "Marcus? Sa- ERNIE!"

Colin spotted Ernie looking at him and waved frantically to get his attention.

"I gan zee oo!" Ernie answered, like a bad ventriloquist speaking through a locked jaw and immoveable lips.

"Lee's there?" Colin asked him.

"Eeez urt." Ernie would have winced if he had been capable of that much facial movement.

"Bleed," Krum grunted gruffly, his ankles and wrists loosened up enough to give him some purchase on the soil and semi-crawl closer to Lee's still form. "He bleed. Tortured...his back."

"Tortured? What did they do to his back? His back is bleeding?" Colin said, panic in his wide eyes.

"Is he conscious?" Dean called up, straining beneath Colin's weight.

"No...move." Krum grunted again

"They've all been Stupefied and Lee's not moving. His back is bleeding and they can't get to him to help," Colin spoke down into the hole before looking back at Ernie again, the only face he could actually see at that time. "Ron's...Ron's not...well."

Ernie and Krum didn't attempt to say anything. There was a dull thud and suddenly Ernie saw Sam Robbins had toppled over as well. Sam was coming back to himself, too. Ernie flexed and clenched his fingers and managed to swallow before trying to call out to Colin again.

"Ig ee oghay?"

"He's—" Colin shook his head before looking down and biting his lip. "Ernie I think that bastard finally did it!"

There was a snarl from Krum and a gagging sound from Belby. Sam spat out a very laboured sounding 'fuck'. Ernie found himself almost able to shake his head, pleading with Colin for this not to be what they all thought he was talking about.

"Noh...Noh..." Ernie couldn't annunciate to ask the question but he didn't really want to either.

"He have Ron?" Krum's deep harsh voice grunted.

Colin's eyes were shining.

"I think...He was tied, chained, and he has bruises on his chest like he was forced face down onto something hard!" Colin was failing fast, his voice descending into emotional gurgles. "His shirt is gone and he's freaking out. He won't talk to us. It's like he doesn't see any of us but his eyes are open. He's not listening to us and won't stop shaking—we don't know what to d-"

"Col stop!" Fergus shouted. "Don't you go off on one as well. We need yeh mate. Yer the clever one."

Ernie saw Colin's knuckles whiten as he clutched the bars tightly and his head fell.

"But he...he..." Colin whimpered, "...he broke Ron! We can't do this if he broke Ron. We need him."

"Ron's going to be fine, Colin." Dean spoke, sounding thoroughly determined. "If he saw Lee get hurt and couldn't help he would have got a little upset about that. So we're going to take care of him for a bit until he calms down okay?"

"He never gave up on us, Col," Fergus said. "Don't you write him off. We'd still be in the ground if it weren't for Ron..."

There was a very pregnant pause and Ernie saw Colin staring down into the hole, a small smile playing across his lips.

"In a different way to how we are now!" Fergus said with a painful chuckle.

"Let me down," Colin said with a soft voice. "I want to help. I can wrap something around his wrists to keep the dirt out of the wounds."

Ernie heard a ripping sound and Colin disappeared from view.

"Here, use me sleeves." Fergus was saying. "I'll keep a hold of 'im and keep tryin' teh calm him down."

"Lee?" Krum said in a low voice as he leaned, stiffly, over Lee's body. "Is Viktor, I help you."

There was a deep grunt and Sam Robbins began pushing his contorted body along the ground with nothing more than one fully mobile leg.

Ernie thrust against the wall behind him and rocked forwards, landing on his hands and knees. He set about stiffly crawling over to join them. Somewhere in the shadows, Marcus Belby was making sounds.

The doors to the Embassy boomed open and Moody stomped inside, carrying a bundle in his arms.

Everybody froze.

Mrs Creevey broke the silence and made a yelping sound.

Moody leaned in close to the bundle and appeared to be listening to something before nodding. He held the bundle close to him and called out at all the anxious faces that were rapidly appearing in the main reception area to the Embassy.

"Demelza! Your mother wants to see you."

There was a shriek and the young, dark-haired witch sprinted away from Ginny and towards Moody.

"Mum? That's my mum? Is she alright?"

Tonks stepped through the doorway, looking relieved but weary, and grabbed Demelza before she clattered into Moody and Bianca Robbins.

"Hold up there, don't fret, yer mum's fine. She's just a little shaken up and needs to have a lie down. Come with us and you can talk to her and give her a cuddle, okay?" Tonks said warmly, throwing an arm around Demelza's shoulders and guiding her after Moody towards the improvised hospital wing of the Embassy.

Ginny was alone again and searched the room for Harry without much hope. He had been out flying with Charlie for hours now and she wished that she could be more than a temporary friend and comfort to different young witches at the Embassy. She wanted to get into the thick of things and fight for her brother and her friends.

A familiar touch settled upon her back and she instinctively leaned into it with a sigh.

"Hi, Mum."

"Hello Ginny, dear."

"Tea?" Ginny said with a weak chuckle.

"Oh, that'd make a nice change." Her mother laughed lightly.

They both sighed and turned into each other for a tight embrace. They broke apart and Ginny let her mother tuck a long strand of red hair behind her ear. Ginny straightened her mother's apron and giggled to herself.

"What is it?" Her mother smiled quizzically.

"Nothing, just something Ron said once." Ginny smiled.

"Oh yes?"

Ginny nodded and straightened her back, lifting her chin as if there wasn't a major family crisis going on at that moment.

"He told me that he thought you wore your apron on your wedding day."

The two Weasley women laughed and hugged again before walking, hand-in-hand to the kitchens to put on a brew.

"Maybe I'll buy you one for Christmas, dear."

"Don't you dare!"

He was on fire.

Somebody had poured lamp oil over his back and set light to it. It was agony. His skin was burning so intensely that even breathing hurt him. Breathing made his skin stretch and contract; it felt like boiling water was being thrown onto his back to douse the flames.

He yelped and clenched his fists tightly. There was a hand on the back of his head immediately.

"Lee?"

"Oh Merlin, it kills! My back's killing me! What's wrong with my back?" He whimpered as he scrunched his face up tightly and gritted his teeth.

"You are cut," a thick accented voice said from somewhere close by. "They tortured you but we take care now. Don't move."

"K-Krum?" Lee tried to blink his eyes into focus but everything was a blur from his eyes being forced so tightly closed.

"Shhhh," somebody said from his other side, a hand was soon in his, squeezing tightly. "You're back in the cellar with us. You're with me, Krum, Marcus and Sam, okay? We're making bandages for you so don't move okay?"

"Bandag-" Lee frowned before being seized by a flashback of a pair of terrified blue eyes staring at him from a wooden table. "Ron!"

A hand pushed him back down onto his belly and the pressure on his back sent every nerve in his body screaming as if they were split like hairs.

"Lee, please don't move," Sam Robbins' voice was hovering above him somewhere. "For one reason or another that Death Eater cleaned your wounds for you and I don't want to get dirt in them. Now hold still."

"Ron," Lee said again, imagining the Puppet Master leaning over him and whispering vile things into the back of Ron's head while he struggled to get free. "No, he didn't...we had a deal. Where's Ron?"

There was a shuffling sound and Belby knelt in front of him and smiled at him, his eyes looked mortified though.

"Ron's here, too. Don't worry okay. Ron's back with the others down the hole and they're taking good care of him for you, okay, Lee?"

Taking care of him? Why did Ron need taking care of?

"No, we had a deal!" Lee screamed hoarsely. "I held up my end, he wasn't to touch him, I took fifty lashes and he was supposed to leave him alone. Ron!"

"No moving!" Krum snapped down at him while Marcus glanced to somebody else and bit his bottom lip. "Sam, give more shirt."

There was a ripping sound and Lee tried to crane his neck to see what was happening. His skin felt as if even the slightest movement was mincing it and he yelped in pain, burying his face into his forearm to hide his agonised sob.

"Please, don't move, Lee," Marcus begged him, the hand that held Lee's squeezed even tighter.

"I'd offer my socks but they'll just infect the wounds wouldn't they?" Ernie said with a sigh.

"Wait," Krum said. "I have vest beneath this. I use that."

"Shit," Sam hissed, "does anybody have any sleeves left?"

"We can't take anything from the lads down the hole. They might need to change Ron's dressings," Marcus said anxiously. "Colin said he was cut up pretty badly."

"What?" Lee's head snapped up again and his shoulders tensed.

There was a hand on the back of his head, firmly pressing back down, suggesting he stay flat on his stomach and as still as possible. Ernie's voice accompanied it.

"Lee, please," Ernie appealed to him softly. "We're all worried about Ron, okay? We're worried about both of you but right now you are the one who's worse-off so let's concentrate on getting you bandaged up as best we can, eh?"

There was pressure and material stretched across his raw flesh around the shoulder blades. Lee forced his eyes closed and tried to growl his way through the pain. The air against his burning skin was the only comfort he had but these makeshift bandages were tight, rough and pure agony. He didn't realise he was crushing the hand that held on to his until Ernie cried out and swore.

"Not long now, Lee. Not much more and you're all done mate," Marcus said to him, soothingly.

There were feet in front of him and then Sam Robbins crouched down, smiling at him grimly. He had no sleeves on his shirt and a huge chunk torn off the bottom as well. Even the collar was gone.

"Skunk Head cleaned you up and cast a really basic healing charm on you. We just want to keep you from getting infected, okay?" the pale, dark-haired wizard said.

"Ron," Lee whimpered. "What did he do to Ron?"

Ernie and Sam looked at each other and then back at Lee. Marcus looked over to the hole in the ground and shrugged, shaking his head.

"We were kind of hoping you could tell us mate," Sam said.

"He's really upset and won't talk to any of us." Ernie's voice sounded as if it was about to fade away completely. "We thought—we don't know but...the Puppet Bastard, he didn't, did he?"

"Done," Krum said dully.

Lee felt his mind rushing with sounds and images as memories collided with each other and the blood pumped through his veins and burned just as much as the open wounds on his back.

Ron's muffled screams. The cracking of the belt and the clinking of the metal buckle in the air just before gouging itself into his flesh. The chains above his head as he thrashed against them in agony. Ron's chains against the underside of the wooden table. The foul breath of the Puppet Master as he sneered into Lee's face and the sight of the huge man looming over Ron and stroking his hand down Ron's back, bending over him and trying to...to...

Lee growled like an animal caught in a trap as he rose up to his hands and knees and set of on an agonising crawl over the loose earth toward the hole.

"Fucking hell, Lee, just lay down, will ya?" Sam cried out.

A powerful hand grabbed Lee around the ankle and pulled him back.

"You cannot help brother now. You help self!" Krum barked.

"He needs me!" Lee cried, hearing nothing of their pleas other than Krum saying the words 'help' and 'brother'. "He needs me," he repeated, with total determination the second time around.

He set off crawling again and gasped, yelped and moaned with every movement. He felt like he was being cut into with a potato peeler, strips of skin curling away from his back and leaving him raw and exposed. Nothing, no amount of pain and discomfort, was keeping him from making sure it had all been worth it.

He had to know he had stopped the worst from happening.

Falling desperately at the mouth of the hole, he panted and kicked the ground as he rode out a spasm of pain. The others were at his side, trying to keep his wounds clean. He winced as he stretched his neck and peered down the darkened hole. He couldn't make anybody out at all.

"Ron?" he cried out, sounding more broken than he really wanted to appear to the others.

A pair of white eyes with dark irises looked up at him through the blackness of the deep hole.

"Lee?" Dean Thomas gasped. "Oh my God mate, you're alive!"

Lee licked his lips and forced a smile onto his face.

"Can't get rid of me that easily, y'know?" Lee's coarse voice responded.

"Hey," an Irish voice was saying with the kind of gentle tone Lee had never heard Fergus use before. "Look who's come teh see ya mate. Ronnie-boy? Lee's here."

"What's wrong with him?" Lee asked, his chest tightening as if trapped in a giant vice.

"He's just...he's—" Dean was said before the whites of his eyes disappeared as his head dropped.

"He's very quiet at the moment, Lee," Colin called up.

"Why is he 'very quiet?" Lee said fiercely before leaning over further and gasping with another wave of pain rippling through his back. "Ron? Ron, it's me. It's Lee."

He listened and heard rapid breathing.

"Say something to me."

The breathing became more ragged and shook as well. Lee realised that Ron had been convulsing with a panic attack the last time he'd seen him, when the Death Eater had dragged him away. Lee felt sick at the thought that Ron was still in the same state after all this time.

"Ron, look at me," Fergus was saying firmly. "I know yeh can hear me. Y'were listening t'me fer a while earlier weren't yeh? Y'were breathin' slowly with me fer a bit, weren't yeh? Remeber us breathin'?"

The breaths were even louder now.

"Yn-Y-S'L-S'L..." the frenzied panting escalated.

"No!" Fergus was saying harshly. "What did we talk about? No more of this. Y're calming the feck down now, yeh promised me, d'ya remember?"

The breathing was even shakier and a humming noise sounded. Fergus sounded satisfied with this as a response and Lee assumed that Ron had nodded.

"Lee's here," Fergus was whispering. "Lee's come teh see yeh."

"L-Lee?" Ron panted meekly.

"Ron," Lee called down into the blackness of the hole. He gritted his teeth and moved his arm to push through the bars and reach down to them. "I'm here. I'm okay. Krum and the others, they all fixed me up and I'm all okay now."

"Lee!" shouted a voice. Sounds of a disturbance from the bottom of the hole made their way to Lee and Fergus swore in apparent surprise.

"Here," Dean said, "on my shoulders. Just like Colin."

Lee squinted into the darkness before jumping slightly as Ron's face was thrust out of the darkness and something grasped desperately at his arm.

"Lee?" Ron panted in disbelief.

"S'me, I swear, I promise. It's okay." Lee nodded and smiled.

He felt Ron shaking as he clung onto his arm. Staring into Ron's wide blue eyes, bloodshot and swollen, Lee's heart broke a little. Ron had never looked so scared before. He'd seen Ron scared in so many ways since their captivity but this was just disturbing. This was pure terror.

"I'm sorry," Ron whimpered, his face falling, his head dropping to hide his tears.

"This isn't your fault. I owed it to you after the way I treated you before, didn't I?" Lee said, feeling Ron's shakes transfer into him. "Look at me Ron. This is not your fault!"

"I could have done it for you. I would have done it for you. I wanted to!" Ron looked up at him again but soon averted his eyes in shame.

"No!" Lee growled furiously, gripping Ron's arm so hard he might have drawn blood. "Don't you ever give into him like that, not for any of us, not for anyone ever, okay? Do you understand me, Ron?"

"He could have fucking killed you," Ron choked, still breathing frantically.

"He will have to!" Lee said with ferocious determination.

"Too feckin' right!" Fergus chipped in from the bottom of the hole.

"But..." Ron's tremulous jaw clamped shut and he swallowed down whatever he was planning to say, his face full of pain.

"But nothing," Lee said sadly, letting go of Ron's hand to put it around the back of his head and cradle some of the weight on the redhead's mind tenderly. "You must never stop fighting him, Ron. Never!"

Ron hiccupped and shuddered.

"Look at me," Lee demanded, waiting for Ron's eyes to meet his again before going on. "He can kill us all, torture us, eat us, whatever that sick perverted mind of his comes up with. But you will never give him what he wants so you can spare any of us. That is an order Ronald Weasley!"

Ron swallowed and his shoulders fell.

"He can take it whenever he wants," Ron said sadly. "He just proved that. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants."

"That may very well be but he is not going to make you ask him to do it like he did today. You are never going to beg him to do that to you to protect me ever again. If you do, I will fucking kill myself! Understand?"

Ron looked up at Lee with wide eyes.

"You f-You what?"

"If that cunt rapes you, I will let myself die."

Chapter 42 Release

"Mummy?"

Molly sat up in bed and looked over to the open door to her bedroom. Arthur slept soundly at her side. Ronnie was in his pyjamas and clutching his teddy bear.

"What is it, poppet?" Molly frowned as she extended her wide arms to her baby boy and welcomed his embrace as he ran to her eagerly.

"Ghoul's makin' noises," came the muffled reply into her stomach, "and something's scratching on my floor."

"Oh no, that's inconvenient when you want to sleep isn't it?" Molly said as she rubbed his back and grabbed her dressing gown from the top of the bed covers to drape around the tiny body that clung to her tightly.

Little Ronnie shook his head and sniffed.

"'N I had a frightmare." He sniffed as he pouted up at her with those insanely big and intensely blue eyes of his.

"A frightmare?" Molly gasped dramatically. "Dear me that sounds nasty. What was it about, little one?"

"The Dead Eaters." Ronnie shuddered. "They wanted to eat me to death!"

Molly hugged Ron tightly and sighed. As much as she adored how the twins loved to hear all the tales of their Uncles' heroism during the war, she hated how they would terrify Ron and Ginny with the stories before they went to bed.

"The Death Eaters are all gone now, Ronnie dear. All locked-up far away," Molly said soothingly as she rubbed her tiny son's back tenderly. "They won't be able to hurt anyone anymore, my love."

Suddenly, the body in her arms shuddered violently and became that of a fully-grown man. Molly gasped and jumped back to see her Ronnie, all grown up yet still as lost and terrified as he had been as a little boy. His eyes were flooded with tears and his voice was a pitiful squeak as his lip trembled.

"Mum," he whimpered as a tear fell down his cheek, "make it stop."

She felt as if she had just plunged into ice cold water and sat bolt upright in her bed shaking.

"Molly!" Arthur shouted, grabbing her to him and talking into her hair. "Molly my love it was only a dream. Please, calm down dear. Come on Molly, love."

"My baby," Molly sobbed into Arthur's shoulder, "I told him he'd be safe. I've lost my baby, Arthur. I've lost another baby!"

Hermione sat with Harry in the kitchen as he chewed on his huge mouthful of sandwich greedily.

He and Charlie had returned from their daylong fly with the body of Jack Sloper. Charlie said they found him dumped on the other side of Venlo. They had brought the body back to the Embassy for the Aurors to send back to his family and gone straight out to comb the area surrounding the place they found Jack. Hermione and Ginny had decided to wait up for them to return but Bill had insisted his sister go to bed.

Harry was chewing so hard that Hermione feared he would choke and reached out to rest her hand upon his.

"Slow down, Harry, you'll make yourself ill."

Harry forced his partially chewed mouthful down and his eyes bulged with the discomfort of such an action. He grabbed his glass of water and took a swig to lubricate his throat before responding to her.

"Jack was starved Hermione. He was battered and filthy and dead!" Harry snapped at her before lowering his head in shame. "Sorry. But that's the state Ron's going to be in and I really don't care if I get indigestion while he's waiting to die out there."

"I've seen him, Harry," Hermione said firmly. "I've spoken to him. I saw the kind of place he was being kept and that state he was in..." Hermione got up from the table and walked away, hugging her arms to herself tightly. "I made him a promise and I want to see it through but this isn't the way to get him back."

"Well, I'm not allowed to beat it out of that scum in the Ambassador's office so it's all me and Charlie have right now. Charlie can't sit around doing nothing, it's killing him."

"Torturing somebody in the name of interrogation isn't you, Harry!" Hermione spun around and glared at him.

"It got us Demelza's mum back alive didn't it?" Harry shoved his plate away from him and rose from the table, his chair scraping against the kitchen floor noisily.

"Oh, don't you see Harry?" Hermione huffed. "Those Death Eaters would have just murdered them all if they wanted them dead. They're using Ron and the others to distract us from looking for them. Why do you think it is that the first name Moody gets out of his victim is Mrs Robbins'?"

"What?" Harry blinked.

"I'll bet today we find out where Dennis is. While that information is being discovered and the Aurors get him back another hostage dies and we're still no closer to finding their location. This whole thing has been a diversion because we were getting so close!"

Harry seemed to be searching his own mind and fast-forwarding through his memories.

"So...the set-up wasn't to blow us all up but to-"

"To drive us away from the place they're keeping Ron!" Hermione completed his sentence.

"We were close and then we followed that clue on the blotter," Harry groaned and his shoulders fell. "That perfectly preserved clue on the bloody blotter!"

"Convenient wasn't it, Harry?" Hermione said, relief at finally getting Harry to start thinking logically.

"So we almost had them and went off on a wild goose chase while the others got taken and...We're getting them back one at a time while nobody is getting any closer to the hostages."

"Where were we before the red herring, Harry?"

"Um..." Harry thought fast and ran his hands through his unruly hair roughly. "We'd found the first place they kept them. We were too late."

"And has anybody been back there since?" Hermione asked with a quiver in her voice.

Harry's face fell as he stared at her.

"You don't think they're still there do you?"

"I think not Harry, not any more, but I also think that at the time we gave up on that site...I think they still might have been."

Harry fell against the wall behind him and sank down to the floor. His dropped his head into his hands and visibly deflated.

"He was still there when we were there and we just gave up?" Harry spoke in barely a whisper before shaking his head in denial. "No, we looked. We covered every inch of that place. We searched every foul-smelling corner of every God-awful room."

"Remember how well hidden the place was Harry?" Hermione said as she crouched down before Harry and took one of his hands with hers. "That wasn't a half-arsed job. They are good at hiding things and making it look as if there's nothing to hide."

Harry drew a deep bracing breath and pushed himself back up to his feet.

"I'm going back there now. I'll go and find Charlie and we'll tear the place down if we have to!"

"Harry wait!" Hermione snapped. "You both need a little sleep to sharpen your reflexes and we'll fair a lot better if we go at sunrise. We'll have plenty of light but everybody else is more than likely to be fast asleep."

"But Ron..." Harry said as he tried to argue with his friend.

"Ron has until noon at the very least, Harry." The words stung at the back of her throat. "We have time. Use it to rest."

Lee's back itched.

He'd never wanted to scratch his back more in his life. A couple of occasions during the night, he had tried to reach around and rub at his improvised bandages and had cried out in agony. Of all the tortures he had endured so far and that one most likely to drive him insane was the one he was enduring presently.

Itching so badly and not being able to scratch made him feel like he was being flayed alive.

"Lee?" Krum's voice said, keeping low so as not to disturb the others.

"I'm fine," Lee muttered, closing his eyes again to feign sleep.

"Dirt is too lumpy at side of hole. Come away and sleep on flat here."

Lee jerked his head up so sharply that every nerve ending seemed to rip away from his bandages like two strips of Velcro pulling apart.

"No!" He grimaced. "I'm staying here. I want to stay with Ron."

Lee looked back down the deep dark hole in the ground and heard Ron's ceaseless whimpering echoing back up at him.

Nightmares. Ron was having fierce panic attacks in his sleep. In the close confines of the hole in the ground, it was impossible for the others not to be touching Ron. Physical contact seemed to terrify the trembling redhead. Lee had heard Ron fighting Fergus a couple of times during the night when he awoke, gasping for air and disoriented. Colin had attempted to rub his back to make him feel better in an attempt to calm him down, but Ron had gone into a full-blown flash back and kicked poor Colin in the side of the head.

Lee had to be there for him. Ron needed to hear his voice; Lee's voice was the only thing that could bring Ron back to his senses.

"He sleeps again now," Krum said, looking down the hole with a deep frown indenting his forehead. "They will take care if he wakes again."

"He will," Lee said, his voice shaking slightly. "I can hear him, he's going to loose it again and I need to be here for him."

"You need to be healed for him," Krum said firmly. "Rest back, lay flat and let wounds close."

"I'm staying here," Lee said firmly.

"You mus-"

"He tried to rape him, Viktor!" Lee snarled through gritted teeth, "He was going to do it. He was touching him."

Krum looked sickened. He turned back to look down into the dark hole in the earth.

"He is strong," the Bulgarian said after a lengthy pause. "He nearly die from torture before and he come back stronger. I see him fight with no wand while he is starving. He will be strong again."

"I won't leave him down there," Lee said with determination. "I won't have him wake up without me to be there for him, not again."

Krum took a deep breath and let it out heavily before settling down next to Lee at the side of the hole. They looked into each other's dark eyes before smiling sadly.

At the bottom of the hole Ron yelped.

Julie slept in her chair while Marie Finnigan administered another strengthening spell to Tommy as he lay in his bed.

Kathleen had finally gone up to bed and Marie was going to stay up to do 'the night shift' and make sure that both Tommy and his mother were as comfortable as possible. Julie Painter hadn't left her ailing son's side since he had been returned to her. The Finnigans and Molly Weasley had prepared a bed for her next to her son's so she could sleep properly and not have to sit in a hard backed chair.

The boy's fever had broken earlier in the evening and he had taken some water through a straw but was still incoherent. Molly would freeze and pale when she heard her son's name being called out desperately by the sick young wizard. Marie had felt a niggle inside her that there was no mention of her Fergus from, what was so far, the only survivor of the Death Eater's raid on the safe house. On the other hand, it brought Molly and Floella no comfort at all to hear their sons' names cried out in such a desperate fashion.

Marie and Kathleen had sworn never to say a word to any of the Weasleys about some of the things Tommy had been muttering while delirious.

Pervert...buggering...don't touch...fuckin' sick...fuckin' stop!

There was so much more but those words were the ones that would come out the clearest, always alongside Ronald's name.

"Mum?"

Marie sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes. She thought about stoking up the fire again to keep the sick wizard warm.

"Mum, is that you?"

Marie jumped and spun around to stare at Tommy. He was awake. He was awake and staring at his mother, sleeping beside him in amazement. Marie rushed to his side and took his hand as it reached out for the sleeping witch.

"Tommy, don't worry yerself my love, she's just worn herself out with worry over you. Leave her be to sleep, won't you lad?"

Tommy's eyes were wide and he swallowed dryly before nodding.

"You..." Tommy's voice abandoned him and he coughed painfully.

Marie sat him up and rubbed his sweaty back. She reached out for a glass of the water and brought it to Tommy's lips. He missed the straw three times before finally being able to take it between his lips and drank hurriedly.

"That's it, slowly now boy, take yer time there. You've all the water in the world now. Yer out of that place fer good."

Tommy gulped and stared at her in shock. "It's over?"

Marie couldn't help but hug the lost soul. He leaned into her limply.

"It's all over," Marie rubbed small circles upon his back and rocked his from side to side.

She could feel his head moving urgently.

"Lee? Ron? Where is everyone else?"

Marie clung to him so he wouldn't be able to pull away and see the devastation in her eyes. This ordeal was only over for him. His friends, her boy, they were all still in danger and there was nothing they seemed able to do to help them.

"How long have I been sleeping?"

"Well I wouldn't know that poor lad. Yeh were sleeping when I met ya!"

Tommy let out a shaky laugh before trying to pull back again.

"But they, the others, they're all okay, yeah? We all got away, right?"

Marie wasn't able to meet the wide eyes that bored into her skull.

"I have potions I have teh feed yeh," she said, trying to get up from the bed to busy herself and distract the boy from his painful questions, "Let me just..."

"You're Fergus' mum aren't you?" Tommy said as he grabbed her by the wrist and clung on weakly.

Marie finally looked at him. His face shattered like a pane of glass on seeing her welling eyes.

"Where are they?" Tommy said, shaking his head and looking all around him again. "Where is everybody else? Ron! Lee!" he yelled croakily.

Julie jumped in her bed and almost broke both her arms as she threw herself out from under the covers and stumbled over to her son.

"Oh, Tommy!" she exclaimed, grabbing him and holding onto him for all she was worth.

"Mum, where are the others? What happened?"

"My Tommy, my beautiful boy! Oh thank you Marie! Thank you so much!"

"Julie, my love," Marie said sadly as she stepped towards the bewildering reunion and stroked the back of Julie Painter's hair, "he's askin' after his friends."

"Mum, please tell me what's going on," Tommy begged, his voice breaking with terror as he realised he was alone with the two shaken women.

"Oh, Tommy, sweetheart," Julie said, cupping her son's face with one of her hands and biting her bottom lip, "they sent you back. The Death Eaters thought you were dead and they sent you back to me."

Tommy shook his head violently.

"But, th-" his hands were trembling as Julie took them in hers and squeezed. "No... They're not still there! They can't all still be in that place. Please tell me they're not Mum, please?"

"We don't know where they are," Julie said sadly, her eyes darting up to look at Marie.

Tommy followed her gaze and looked into the woman's face.

"You are Fergus' mum aren't you?"

"That I am." She nodded.

"He...He's funny. He makes us all laugh...made us...me...sorry."

"Don't be," Marie smiled. "It's good to know my trouble maker is still doing his thing."

Tommy nodded and looked back at his mother, his expression still seemed shattered beyond recognition.

"Mum, I left them."

"Shhh, you didn't leave anyone, Tommy. Don't upset yourself," Julie said tenderly.

"No, you don't understand, we said...we promised! When Ron was dying, we promised each other, the three of us, until the end. I can't have left them there, I can't!"

Marie felt her stomach flip. She knew that she had to tell this to Moody and the others—'when Ron was dying'. She looked at Julie and the tearful woman was looking right back at her with the same devastated expression on her face.

Molly.

"No! No, please don't, please!" Ron begged the Puppet Master as he was forced face down on the table, the huge hand gripping his hair from the back and holding him firmly in place.

He could see Lee out of the corner of his eye. Lee was tied to a chair, his arms bound to the wooden arms of the chair and his feet kicked out wildly as a bald Death Eater clamped his hand over his mouth to keep him from calling out to Ron.

"Now, now, Firebrand." the Puppet Master was breathing into the side of his face. The smell made him feel sick and his skin crawl as if it was alive with warm slugs. "Let's not ruin this by letting Mr Jordan interfere again."

Ron breathed erratically. The Puppet Master's weight was on Ron's back and forced his bare chest down hard onto the wooden table.

"Merlin, no," Ron whimpered, "don't. Please don't, not that. I'll...I'll...anything else you want, I'll do it, please!"

Lee thrashed in the chair wildly while the Puppet Master's large strong hand stroked down the freckled back beneath it and slipped inside the jeans to grab a handful of Ron's arse cheek.

Ron forced his eyes shut tightly and whimpered. He could feel hips pressing into him and he tried to rip his hands free from the chains that held him in place.

"I'll suck you off!" Ron gasped as the Puppet Master moved back and drove his other hand into Ron's jeans and began to ease them down slowly. "I'll give you a blow job instead okay? I swear I won't bite you, I swear!"

Ron felt his jeans slipping down to bunch around his knees and banged his head against the table, trying to knock himself out.

"No!" the Puppet Master snapped before flicking his wand at Ron. "Intoxicate!"

Ron suddenly felt giddy and dizzy and almost carefree. He saw Lee's mortified eyes bulging as he bellowed against the hand covering his mouth.

"Lee?" Ron frowned before feeling a little confused and blinking his eyes to clear his vision.

"Now come here, my young Firebrand," the Puppet Master purred as he gripped Ron's hips so hard they almost bruised instantaneously. "If you impress me enough I might take you up on your generous offer of fellatio."

Ron felt his breathing hasten again and his head unfogged a little more. There was a snap followed by muffled screaming. He looked up and saw Lee in a great deal of pain As he pulled so hard against his bound arms that one of his bones had broken with the force of the struggle.

Lee.

Ron promised Lee he wouldn't let this happen. If he let this happen Lee would give up, Lee would die.

But he couldn't move.

"Wait," Ron managed to blurt as the Puppet Master pressed into him and tried to wriggle himself free of his underwear.

"No more waiting jongen. I will take you now. Ik zal je krijgen!"

Lee screamed out again and Ron tried to squirm out from under the body on top of him. His chains tightened and held him flatter to the solid oak table.

"Lee, help me," Ron pleaded his desperate friend.

"Ron, I'm here, open your eyes. I'm up here mate."

Suddenly Lee was free and standing over him. He stared at Ron and the Puppet Master in disgust.

"Please...stop him!"

The twins were there again. The each put a hand upon Lee's shoulder and led him away.

"Where are you going?" Ron cried out after the departing figures. "You can't just leave me here with him!"

"Shit Ron, calm down, will yeh? Nobody's leaving ya. We're right here with yeh, okay? Wake up. Wake up and look at me, Ron."

There were dozens of hands on him. Bodies crushed him and he couldn't move. He could still smell the Puppet Master's breath on his neck. He felt filthy and disgusting. Somebody held him down, gripping his legs while strong arms pinned Ron's arms to his sides while voices rang inside his head that he couldn't pick one of them out to understand it.

"Get off me!" Ron snarled as he thrashed and cracked something solid with his head.

"Agh shit!" one of the voices hissed.

"Dean? What happened?"

"He just fuckin' nutted me!" Dean Thomas shouted in annoyance.

"I really don't think holding him like this is helping," Colin's voice said nervously, struggling as he spoke.

"If you don't hold him he'll kick yer feckin' teeth out!" Fergus snapped harshly.

"Seriously, Fergus," Dean said worriedly. "I think we're freaking him out."

"What?" Ron panted as he tried to work out where he was.

"I'm keeping a bloody hold of him even if you lot don't!" Fergus yelled close to one of Ron's ears.

Ron cringed at the sound and panted uncontrollably.

"Fergus?"

"Yeah," Fergus said, suddenly sounding softer and kinder. "I've got you okay? It's me that's got you. Don't you worry anymore okay? Don't fight me. Don't fight us, we're all yer mates, aren't we?"

"Yeah, Ron," Colin's tiny voice spoke up, "we won't hurt you."

"Where's Lee?" Ron wheezed frantically.

"I'm here, mate," Lee's voice called down from above. "I'm right here with you, okay?"

Lee sounded upset. Ron began shaking and Fergus' hold on him loosened enough to rub up and down his arms.

"We're all here and yer okay, Ron. That bastard's nowhere around. Yer alright, yer with us."

"Sorry," Ron panted. "I'm sorry."

"Don't mate," Dean said uneasily. "Don't worry about it. You just calm down for us, yeah? Nobody's touching you if you don't want to be touched, okay?"

"But you let them look after you for me, y'hear?" Lee called down the hole. "I'll be right here all the time but you let them take care of you down there for me, okay?"

Ron felt sick and very stupid. He wondered how pathetic he must look to them all. He wasn't in control of his emotions yet but he couldn't let that nightmare go yet. He couldn't release all that fear and pain. He'd already lost so much self-respect.

"Ron?" Colin spoke out of the blackness.

"Mmm-hmm," Ron muttered, unable to say anything else.

"I'm going to give you a cuddle...okay?" the timid voice said clearly.

Ron gave an involuntary shudder and Dean began to dissuade Colin from his course of action when Fergus spoke up.

"Yeah, I got ya on this side and Col's gonna hold onto ya from the other side. You'll be safe with us, we've got yeh alright?"

"Yeah," Ron heard himself saying before he could even think about whether he wanted so much physical contact or not.

"Don't you let him make you scared of us," Lee said unsteadily from way up above. "I'd be holding onto you if I could."

Ron felt Colin's small body tentatively leaning into his side and curling his arms around his waist.

"This is me, okay, Ron? Colin."

"I'm okay." Ron nodded.

"No, you're not," Dean said darkly, "you're the type who goes off alone to let all the crap come flooding out. Well, there is no alone down this bloody hole so you'll have to do it here."

"What are ya on about, Dean?" Fergus sounded confused.

"Ron," Dean was closer to him now, but Ron still couldn't see him in the darkness, "you're the one who makes me think I might not die in here. You're the one who makes me think, maybe tomorrow...maybe tomorrow the Calvary will come and this'll all be over."

Ron swallowed. He had no idea where this was going, all he could do was listen and breathe.

"Listen to him, Ron," Lee called down raggedly.

Dean took a deep breath and let it out.

"I don't think any less of you for taking a moment to just let it all go. I will never think less of you if you lose it or freak our or break down," Dean reassured him. "I won't think any less of you if you were to cry right now...because I am."

And that was it...the damn was broken.

"But how am I going to face people?" Ron gasped as his voice broke along with the tears that flooded his eyes and spilled out over his cheeks. "If I ever get out of this alive what kind of life am I gonna have? I'm going to be the bloke the pervert wanted to fuck!"

Dean held Ron as he dissolved into tears and Dean felt his own chest tighten and ache as he choked on his emotion. The four of them clung on to each other in a mass of arms and legs and held each other, silently weeping. Ron had finally found his release.

It was the only release they could hope for any more.

Chapter 43 Fighting Back, Breaking Through

"They will come for one of us today," Sam said to the gathering inside the cellar. "Now those guys down there are sitting ducks. You saw how easily they got Ron and Lee yesterday."

"Look, I don't just think we're facing one visit this afternoon," Ernie said with an anxious glance over to the hole in the ground. "That swine knows the state he put Ron in yesterday and he knows this is his best chance he's gonna get to...to..."

Krum put his strong hand on Ernie's back attempted a smile that looked more like he had been kicked in the groin and was trying not to double over in pain.

"Ron does not go without fight. They kill me before they take him," Krum said with a nod of determination.

"Be realistic, Krum," Marcus said with a frown. "There's not much any of us can do to stop it, is there? We have no wands and they used a shield when they hit us all with an immobilising spell."

"Will be different!" Krum growled at Belby.

"Krum's right," Ernie said with a nod. "This is going too far. We're all still dying and now our strongest member is a gibbering wreck."

"We're gonna die anyway," Sam shrugged. "We may as well die fighting." Krum puffed out his chest while Ernie marched over to the door and pressed his lips together in deep thought.

"We need cover so they have to come in to hit us with a spell," he said as he turned around to face Krum, Belby and Sam. "I'm pretty much standing where they will be and I can see everything except...down the hole."

The four pairs of eyes widened.

"You're not suggesting we try to get into that hole and hide inside?" Belby addressed Ernie as if he had lost his mind completely.

"Of course, I'm not," Ernie snapped. "It's not possible to break that seal without a wand. Do you really think we could, do you think Lee would still be up here with us?"

Sam and Krum turned around to look at Lee, sleeping on his stomach, his improvised bandages dark with dried blood.

"He can't fight," Sam said, his eyebrows knitting together as he looked back at Ernie. "You're right; we do need to make some cover, even if it's just for Lee."

"Well, we've got big mounds of bloody dirt but the Death Eaters can blast that away in a second." Marcus frowned as he scanned the floor of the cellar for anything of use.

"There were slabs of stone," Krum said gruffly. "I pull them up myself before graves dug. They leave them here?"

Krum suddenly turned on the spot to look along the bare stone walls for slabs of stone leaning against them but there was nothing. Sam huffed deeply and Ernie ran his hand through his hair. Marcus scrunched up his nose and eyes in thought, his thin lips twisting as if he was sucking on a bitter lemon. Ernie surmised that thinking itself was causing Marcus pain.

"What is it, Marcus?"

"The graves," Marcus muttered. "Did we fill in all the graves we opened?"

"Walls collapsed in after we all free," Krum said with a gesture to the small valleys and hills on the ground before them.

"Yeah, we were all walking about so much that they just levelled out a bit. Why?" Sam stepped toward Marcus curiously.

"Well, when I was digging, I kept coming across stones and rocks, tore up my hands, remember?" Marcus' face ironed out and he looked into Sam's eyes with a flicker of hope.

"Yeah," Ernie nodded, holding up his own hands in front of him as he spoke. "When I clawed my way out, there were jagged stones and stuff."

"What you say?" Krum frowned at Marcus.

"Well," Marcus said before pausing to take a deep breath and exhaling sharply, "if we pile up a big load of dirt in front of the door, we'd block their progress instead of hiding behind it. And if we fill the middle with all the stones and rocks we can find—"

"They'll use a light blasting spell because it's nothing but lose earth but the stones and rocks will all fall in on them when the soil's gone!" Sam said as his face lit up.

"They'll either get buried in a mini landslide or dazed enough for us to leap out and try to get their wands off them," Marcus said with a broad grin, proud of his idea now that Sam agreed with him.

"We do this," Krum nodded fiercely. "We do now!"

The moon was almost gone and Remus was still in his animal state.

Tonks sat outside his secure room and waited patiently.

She was glad Moody hadn't gone through with his threat of using the werewolf to intimidate the prisoner. Even though Remus had taken his Wolfsbane Potion and was quite pleasant and docile for the night, she knew how much it would devastate him to play up to the bloodthirsty beast myth he had spent so long trying to shatter. Kingsley was working on sleep depravation techniques with the prisoner all night and a slight fuss had occurred when the sick hostage had woken in the early hours of the morning but other than that the Embassy was peaceful.

Peaceful enough for her to hear an anxious whisper.

"Keep low! This thing's not meant to cover so many people!"

Tonks smiled to herself, it was like the good old days. Well, not the good old days, but maybe the slightly less horrific old days.

"Wotcher 'arry!" she called into the supposedly empty reception area.

"Oh nice one, ya great prat!" one of the twins huffed.

"Accio Invisibility Cloak!" Tonks called out as she flicked her wand toward the voices.

There was a whoosh, revealing six people crouching tightly together and looking thoroughly annoyed. Harry, Hermione, Charlie, Fred, George and Ginny all stood upright and lifted their heads as if being caught had been their plan all along.

"Morning, Tonks!" Harry beamed cheerily. "We were just off out for the morning paper."

"All six of you?" Tonks smirked.

"Um—yeah." Harry nodded.

"At sunrise?" Tonks got up out of her chair and folded her arms.

"The early bird gets the—news." Hermione said, trying and failing to act bright and breezy.

"The news," Tonks said, throwing the invisibility cloak over her shoulder and strolling towards the defiant group before her. "In Dutch?"

Charlie punched Harry in the shoulder and rolled his eyes.

"See I told you we were in Holland!"

Harry smacked himself in the forehead and shook his head with apparent amusement.

"So we are, I totally forgot. Oh well, back to bed everyone."

The six of them waved at Tonks and turned to hurry back up the stairs. They immediately bounced off Moody's chest. Ginny almost fell flat on her back but Harry caught her in time.

"I take it you lot think you have a lead, do you?" the hardened Auror sneered.

"No, not at all," Fred said with the most transparently dishonest expression on his face as he shook his head.

"Not us sir," George mirrored his twin as he spoke. "We were just using the cloak because we didn't want to disturb Tonks here."

"And how did you know she'd be here?" Moody demanded.

The six guilty faces all looked to one another for help. Hermione spoke for them.

"Not Tonks specifically, sir, but knowing you so well, there had to be somebody on duty down here. Constant vigilance at all times, isn't that right, sir?"

Moody went bright red and took a step towards the group, his wooden leg banging loudly on the floor, echoing around the quiet building.

"I want an answer and I want it now. Where in Merlin's name do you think you're going?"

"We think the first sight was abandoned too readily, sir," Charlie spoke up in a clear, almost military fashion. "We wanted to head back out at daybreak to investigate the site properly and be back before noon so we could be here for our family at execution time, sir."

Moody nearly toppled over from looking at Charlie at such an extreme angle. He chuckled and teased, "Not going to salute me are you lad?"

Charlie looked a little stunned before pushing back his shoulders and puffing out his chest.

"I can if you think it's necessary, sir."

Ginny stifled a giggle and Hermione rolled her eyes impatiently. Harry stepped away from the small group and looked up into Moody's craggy face.

"Look, you have your prisoner and we have our reconnaissance mission. What harm are we doing you?" Harry declared, boldly. "I mean you won't let us in on the interrogation. We have to do something and if you really think there's nothing of any consequence at the first place, what's the harm in letting us go and take a look?"

"Just you?" Moody asked, his real eye on Harry and the Magical Eye swivelling upwards and into the back of his head.

Harry's shoulders fell.

"Come on," Charlie called up the stairs dejectedly. "He can see you, so you may as well come out."

Seamus, Demelza, Bill, Fleur, Delitia Macmillan and Arthur Weasley all stepped out from the landing at the top of the stairs and let out groans of displeasure.

"Arthur! Delitia!" Tonks exclaimed. "I'd have thought better of you both!"

"What about me?" Bill asked.

"What about you?" Tonks chuckled.

Bill looked thoroughly annoyed while Fleur giggled behind her hand.

Arthur took in a deep breath and set off down the staircase to address Moody man-to-man. The others skulked down after him, making sure to hang back a little and stay out of trouble. It reminded Tonks so much of being caught out of bed at Hogwarts that she wouldn't have been surprised if Moody had given them all detention and sent them back to bed.

"Alastor, look," Arthur said as he stepped before the disgruntled Auror, "we weren't trying to go behind the Auror Department's back, I promise you."

Moody raised a mangled eyebrow and snorted.

"I give you my word," Arthur continued. "It's just that I felt very strongly about that place and, though I couldn't put my finger on it, something was definitely amiss there. I could feel it. There was a corridor down there that made no sense at all and I—Bill was there too," Arthur beckoned his eldest son towards him. "Tell Alastor about that staircase and corridor to nothing."

"Well, there had been a fight down there," Bill nodded at Moody over Arthur's shoulder. "Hexes had been let loose and if that place served no purpose, then why have a duel down there? Why take the hostages down there at all?"

"We've been over this," Moody huffed. "The Aurors combed that place thoroughly."

"Not thoroughly enough to find that blotter!" Ginny blurted out.

"The blotter that turned out to be a trap?" Tonks reminded the young witch.

Ginny pouted and looked away from Tonks pointedly.

"Look." Moody began, letting down his defences as he spoke, "I'm this close—" He held up his finger and thumb ever so slightly apart— "from breaking that bastard and when I do, I'll need the back-up and support of all of you."

"What if we have to make a move on a target and you lot are all off looking at a dead end?" Tonks added sadly.

"Oh, so we're in on it, then?" Harry blurted defiantly. "Charlie and me, we can come along this time?"

Moody drew a weary breath and hissed it out grumpily.

"You go if you bloody please, but if you lot get taken hostage, I won't bloody well look for you!"

The Auror turned and stormed off to the Ambassador's office and slammed the door behind him. No sooner had he disappeared than the door behind Tonks opened with a soft creak and a bedraggled looking Remus stepped out with a tired smile.

"I'd rather come along with you than stay for that awful business again," the transformed werewolf said as he gestured to the 'torture' room.

"You're more than welcome," Arthur said with a smile.

"Remus!" Tonks stared at him with wide eyes.

"You can't go," he said to her as he stroked her cheek. "You have to follow orders and Moody doesn't want Auror involvement in this mission."

"But—"

"But nothing, Tonks," Remus said sternly. "I will make sure that we don't miss anything important this time and you—try to keep some humanity in your department."

Remus looked away sadly before waving the group towards the main door of the Embassy.

"Thanks," Harry said with a smile.

"Oh, don't be silly," Remus waved a hand dismissively. "Now show me this corridor Arthur."

Krum was sweating, grunting and growling as he shifted the dirt in front of the door. He was like a shire horse, powerful muscles within thick limbs shouldering and compacting soil against the door.

This plan darkened the cellar completely but they had spent so much time in that place, with such minimal light, that they could find their way around with ease. Lee awoke and been ordered to lie still and not interfere. He hadn't taken that well at all. When Ron began fighting another nightmare however, his attention soon focused completely down the black hole in the earth.

Between Krum's deep grunts of exertion and Lee's soft words of comfort, it was a strange environment to be working in.

"Tell us about the best hugs you've ever had, mate," Lee said, receiving nothing in return other than choked sobs and ragged breathing. "I bet your mum's great, eh? The twins always used to complain but I could see them grinning when she crushed them together at the station before they left for school."

Krum staggered back and threw himself against the wall beside the door for a break. That was the cue for Sam, Ernie and Marcus to begin building their core of jagged shrapnel. They had been filtering the stones and rocks out of the earth and setting them aside before shoving heaps of soil Krum's way.

Despite not having Ron in top form, they were doing pretty well strategy wise, they thought. They packed the centre of the mound of earth with the smaller sharper stones and the heavier and blunter rocks and stones were staked up from the ground upwards like a dry stone wall.

They worked and worked and worked. All the while, Lee talked and talked and talked.

"What was that mate? I didn't hear you then, you were stuttering."

Lee sounded so tender and patient. He was still in incredible pain but concentrating on Ron drew his mind away from his mutilated back. Lee knew plenty of stories of people gaining extra strength in times of peril. A tiny Muggle woman could carry her fifteen stone husband from a burning building and a little child could pull their drowning parent from the sea. Lee was in agony but it didn't mean anything while he was talking to Ron while he was upset.

More stones and rocks quickly piled up. Krum wiped his dripping wet face with what remained of his shirt and looked into the darkness in the direction of the hole.

"C'mon Ron, talk to me. Please stick with me," Lee pleaded with Ron.

"H-H-Ha—" Ron stammered breathlessly, "Hagrid!"

Lee laughed, it sounded painful, and Krum smiled to himself.

"Hagrid?" Marcus called back over his shoulder while heaving up a lump of rock and pressing it into the side of the mound of earth.

"Painful b-but—helluva h-hug!" Ron called up from the depths of the hole shakily.

"Y'sister's a great hugger," Ernie yelled as he stacked a rough piece of rock on top of the pile and scooped up a handful of smaller stones to fill in the space between earth and stone. "What about her?"

"When d'you hug my sister?" Ron blurted clearly.

There was a tapping at the window and she sat up in bed to see an owl on the window ledge of her temporary bedroom.

"Oh my," she gasped before turning to call for her husband but he wasn't there.

He must be in the bathroom. It's too early for him to be out and about yet.

She climbed out of bed and crossed the room to open the window and let the bird in. It flapped past her and perched upon a filing cabinet that had been transfigured into a chest of drawers. As she closed the window and took a step towards the owl, it hooted at her and held out its leg impatiently.

She didn't feel very comfortable approaching the owl. It almost looked at her with distain. She reached forward hesitantly, fearing the severe looking bird would lunge at her hands and peck her spitefully. The dark-coloured creature ruffled its feathers and tried to shake the roll of parchment off its leg. She pursed her lips and pulled at the leather tie, sending the roll tumbling to the floor.

Crouching to pick it up, she heard the owl flapping its wings and gliding over to the window ledge. The animal seemed affronted that the window was closed and began tapping at the pane.

She saw nothing on the parchment other than the family name. Resolving that, even if just by marriage, she was just as much the addressee as her husband, she unfurled the note.

The handwriting was poor, and the language not the writer's own, but she understood enough of the contents to shake as she read silently to herself.

Our master lost sight.

This boy pure blood.

We give back for good price.

Meet, no Aurors, at Van Der Sarr's. Nine this morning.

Tell none. Bring Galleons.

We know how much Belby's worth. We know how much son is worth.

You pay, you get son.

She clamped her hand to her mouth and choked on a sob.

She heard her husband's voice outside the door; he was talking to his brother.

"—thinking of assisting Moody if he'll have me. We'll get that coward telling us everything in no time, Dam."

"Well yes, I— The thing is Geoffrey," Damocles replied, "I have a standing in the Ministry and this is entirely unethical."

"So is murder Dam!" Geoffrey said indignantly.

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

"It's called giving somebody a taste of their own medicine."

"Well, give me an hour and I'll see if I can pass the bill to force Veritaserum on a prisoner if it can be proved that lives will be saved by doing so."

"And you can get that done in an hour, right?" Geoffrey snorted.

"No, I need day upon day of pressure and calling in every favour ever owed me, dear brother. In an hour, we'll be ready to start questioning him legally and infallibly."

"What if we don't get the clearance before twelve? What if the boy we lose is Marcus?"

She didn't wait to hear Damocles' answer. She opened the window and shooed the owl away before hurriedly dressing.

She needed to Floo to Gringotts to make a withdrawal.

Chapter 44 Paying the Price

The sound of three cracks filled the room, muffled behind the huge mound of earth stacked against the cellar door.

Ernie, Sam, Marcus and Krum looked at each other and froze before springing into action.

Sam ran across the cellar toward Lee, giving him an apologetic wince before dragging him backwards behind a small mound of earth they had left to shield their immobile friend.

"Keep your heads down!" Sam whispered down the hole.

"Cover Ron," Dean instructed the others as the sound of Ron's increasing panic attack began to drown him out.

"Don't you dare hyperventilate on us!" Fergus said sternly.

Sam looked at Lee worriedly before rushing back to join the others as they braced themselves against the wall on either side of the pile of soil and rock. Each of them held their breath but there was still the faint echo of Ron's breathing and strangled gasps of panic.

"Keep him quiet!" Marcus hissed across the room.

"He can't help it, Belby," Ernie muttered nervously.

They could hear voices on the other side of the door and some dull thumps. There was another crack, and another, more Death Eaters were arriving. Krum was going to call over for Lee to stay down when he heard the dreadlocked wizard whispering down the hole reassuringly.

"Hey, Ron, I'm here okay? They're not touching you again. Stay still and quiet for me, yeah? Hold Colin's hand and think about breathing slowly."

Krum swallowed as he heard raised voices on the other side of the mound and clenched his jaw. Ron began to put a lid on his anxiety.

"Oh God, this is i-" Ernie cringed just as the earth was blasted away.

Soil scattered over the floor, hitting the four wizards and bouncing off every wall. There was an exclamation of alarm from those down the hole. That hadn't been a consideration, earth tumbling down on top of them, and Krum flinched. He instinctively wanted to run to the trapped hostages but Sam put a hand on his chest and gave him a determined look before shaking his head.

They pressed flat against the wall and squinted through the flying dirt to see Lee dragging himself over the metal bars in an attempt to block the falling earth from burying them alive. Marcus tried to call out for him to remain hidden but Ernie had his hand clamped firmly over the wizard's mouth.

There was a low rumble and a cry of shock as the rocks and stones tumbled forward onto the Death Eaters.

"Ga!"

"Stop!"

"Nee!"

One voice sounded to be in some considerable pain but another sounded as if he had a purpose apart from defending his fellow Death Eaters.

"Protego!"

An arm clutching a wand extended and Ernie lunged at it and pulled the Death Eater through the door. The two of them fell to the ground hard and Marcus pounced on top of both of them to try and uncurl the Death Eater's fingers from his wand.

"De Belby jongen, breng hem bij me!" the pained voice cried out.

Two dark robed figures emerged through the dust and debris and Krum grabbed the nearest one in a headlock. Sam ran forward to tackle the other one but was blocked by Krum's struggle and the dark-haired fair skinned wizard had to jump over the three-man fight for control of the wand on the ground.

A curse hit Sam in the chest before he hit the ground.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"No!" Ernie yelled, distracted enough to allow the Death Eater on top of him to slam a punch into the side of his head.

A deep thud accompanied Sam's landing. He hit the ground like a rag doll and didn't get up.

Krum tightened his stranglehold and stepped in front of the door with the struggling Death Eater before him as a shield. The bald Death Eater fought on, cut and bloodied on the ground, his leg crushed beneath one of the larger rocks. He had his wand aimed at Krum's human shield.

"Sorry Jordi," the bald Death Eater smiled with a shrug before blasting a blood red curse into the man's stomach, forcing him backwards into Krum and hurtling them across the cellar and into the far wall.

Krum was winded by the impact of the stone wall hitting his back and the limp Death Eater cracking several ribs as he thudded into his chest. Krum saw spots and gasped for air as he slid down the wall and hit the lumpy ground hard.

"Expel-" Marcus strained as he tried to point the wand at the Death Eater he was fighting, with little success. "Stupe...Stup...Stupefy!"

The spell whizzed between the two struggling wizards' faces and another Death Eater, who was attempting to pull Belby off his colleague. Marcus was lifted off his feet and kicked out wildly.

"Keten ze vast!" the bald Death Eater said enthusiastically.

"Obtineo!" the Death Eater fighting to keep hold of Marcus growled, pointing his wand at the young wizard's body.

The spell hit Marcus and chains shackled his hands and feet.

"Neem hem nu mee!" The bald man grimaced as he tried to get to his feet, still in obvious agony.

The Death Eater carried Marcus towards the bleeding Dark wizard at the door. Ernie was coming back to his senses and lunged at the Death Eater's trailing leg, clinging on to it like Devil's Snare and pulling him back.

"Where d'you think you're going, you bastard?"

"Ernie, help me!" Marcus cried out fearfully.

Krum wheezed as he pushed the dead Death Eater off him and tried to get to his feet. Ernie reached up for the wand with one hand while straining to hold the man back by his leg with the other.

"Laat hem los, jongen!" the Bald Death Eater said furiously before pointing his wand at Ernie and snarling, "Avada Kedavra!"

"No!"

"Merlin, what's happening up there?"

"Oh fuck!"

The terrified exclamations from the hole made Krum glance over to see Lee staring back at him with tears in his eyes. His hands clung to the bars over the hole so tightly that Krum could've sworn they'd never be able to let go again. Lee's body was shaking. Krum looked back over to see Ernie lying still and glassy-eyed on his back while the Death Eater took an unhindered step towards the door and his wounded comrade.

"Dank je wel, bloedverraders," The bald Death Eater smiled and waved at Krum.

"I won't let them," Lee was whimpering down the hole. "I won't let them. I won't let them, Ron, I swear. They'll have to kill me first. I won't let them take you."

The Death Eaters stood with a horrified Marcus Belby in the doorway as they looked for something to turn into a Portkey. A sound resembling that of air being sucked out of the room via a tiny hole filled the cellar, stilling all motion.

The Puppet Master and the skunk-haired Death Eater appeared in front of their colleagues, holding a glass bottle. The Puppet Master was furious and Skunk Head glared at his colleagues, tossing the bottle away where it smashed against the rocks.

"Wat is er gebeurd?" the Puppet Master seethed slowly.

"De jongens, wij hebben--" the bald Death Eater blurted before being silenced by the raising of the Puppet Master's index finger.

"Stil vriend, stil," he said coldly.

The two Death Eaters holding Marcus stood fearfully and waited as their master took in the sight of the cellar. He looked at the bodies of Sam and Ernie, then at the dead Death Eater beside Krum, and finally settled on the stupefied Death Eater on the ground beside Sam.

"Waarom de moorden?" the Puppet Master said darkly.

"Meester, deze jongen..." the bald Death Eater pointed at Marcus, "Ik moet hem hebben."

The Puppet Master smiled and lifted his wand. The Death Eaters before him cowered like scolded puppies. The intimidating wizard's wand pointed directly between the bald Death Eater's eyes.

"Je wil Belby hebben?"

"Ja," the bald man nodded meekly, terrified of his master.

The Puppet Master smirked and gave a nonchalant shrug before turning his wand on Marcus.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Krum growled; Lee whimpered; Marcus yelled but his cry was cut off before it left his lips completely. There were gasps at the bottom of the hole. Fergus swore under his breath.

"What der feck is happenin'?"

"It's a massacre!" Colin squeaked.

Marcus hung limply in the arms of two Death Eaters.

"Neem hem maar." The Puppet Master smiled.

"Je hebt hem gedood!" the bald man exclaimed as his companion dropped Belby to the ground as if he was utterly worthless now.

"Ik zal jou ook doden."

"Meester...Nee! Alsjeblieft!"

Krum closed his eyes tightly together as the killing curse was sent into the chest of the bald Death Eater. When he opened his eyes he saw the smile left the Puppet Master's face. He glared at the remaining Death Eater, trembling before him. The Puppet Master strode past him as if he wasn't even worth disciplining.

"Firebrand!" the wild-eyed man bellowed as he made his way towards the hold in the ground.

Lee clung to the bars for all he was worth and there was a whimper from the bottom of the deep hole. Krum managed to move forward in a useless attempt to come between the Puppet Master and the opening to the hole.

"You," the Dark wizard said, pointing his wand at Krum, "were the boys down there killed also?"

"No," Krum answered edgily.

The Puppet Master looked relieved.

"They still don't dare to deny me my Firebrand," he said with a purr in his deep voice.

"I bloody do!" Lee snarled through gritted teeth.

"Oh, Mr Jordan, you do look a mess. This filthy dark place isn't what you need to heal, now is it?"

"Leave him," Krum said, trying to feel around on the dark ground for the wand of the dead body that fell at his side.

"Accio wands!" the Puppet Master said lazily.

Three wands flew into his waiting hand. The Puppet Master snapped them all, single handed, and let the broken wood fall to the floor. Lee clutched the bars over the hole and winced in pain at the tension in his raw back. The Puppet Master stepped up to stand at the edge of the hole and called down playfully.

"Oh Firebrand, I will not be denied by your friends pathetic attempts to escape or my colleagues selfish plan to sell you all while my back is turned. You're coming with me this time."

"No!" both Krum and Lee yelled before being blinded by and intense flash of light from the tip of the Puppet Master's wand.

"Okay, Fred," Harry said, wand at the ready and primed for action as they stood in the cellblock, still wreaking of stale urine and excrement, "you said you came from a room underground all the way up here to see Ron?"

Fred nodded and looked a little sick.

"And you," Harry turned to Hermione, "said you saw him underground, a dark underground room with dirt on the floor."

"Yes, it was small and dark and Ron was filthy, sleeping on loose soil it looked like," Hermione replied as she glanced around the room, senses on high alert for yet another ambush.

"That was it!" Fred blurted enthusiastically. "It was a little underground room with no windows and they were digging graves down there in the dirt."

"But all the bodies but one have been retrieved," Charlie frowned. "What were they digging graves for?"

"Lower morale, I think was the Aurors' opinion." Arthur said, slapping Charlie on the back.

"Fuck the why's," Bill snapped. "Let's get to the where's. Where was this bloody hole in the ground, Fred?"

Fred gave himself a moment to close his eyes and think back before exhaling and straightening up, pointing to the doorway in the corner of the room.

"Those stairs," he said confidently. "I came into this room from those stairs."

"Well, lead the way and everybody be ready to put up shields," Harry said to the tightly wound gathering.

"Sod shields," Seamus mumbled, "I'm hexing the bollix offa anyone I see!"

"I'm sure your cousin will thank you for that," Bill snorted.

"Are we going to find them or not?" Ginny huffed, glaring at her brother and Seamus.

"Yeah, come on," George said as he followed his twin down the narrow stone staircase.

"Hey, Dad, this is th-" Bill began before his father looked at him tensely and nodded.

"The staircase leads down to the corridor without any point to it. Light your wands, everybody, it's pretty black down there," Arthur said as he put a protective hand on Ginny's shoulder.

The group made their way down and down, deeper and deeper, until they were underground. Fred frowned and marched up to the far end of the extremely narrow corridor and stood at the end of it, glaring at the brick wall in front of him.

"This wasn't here before."

"It was here when we were," Arthur said as Harry pushed past him to join Fred, leaning heavily against the wall.

"I tested it then," Bill said as he tried to squeeze past Charlie, the broadest of the Weasleys, before giving up and calling over from behind his brother. "I tried all kinds of spells to reverse any magical concealment."

Arthur's eyes widened and he looked into space.

"But what if the magic had already been reversed?"

"What?" Harry frowned as he turned to face Arthur.

"Think about it," the balding man said as he paced back and forth before the brick wall. "You build a Muggle wall, smash it down with magic giving you a hiding place for anything you wish to hide fast. Put it behind the wall and then magically repair it. That leaves you with a one hundred percent Muggle-built wall with no magical tinkering in an instant. A repairing spell just puts things back to the status quo, there's no residual magic to reveal."

"I'm not following this," Seamus said as he looked from one Weasley to the other.

It was Hermione who seemed to get the idea enough to explain it to him.

"He's saying you could have a door to a room that you don't want anybody to know exists. What better way to hide that room than building a wall in front of it."

"But that would take too long," George said as he examined the wall in front of him. "This was done by hand by a pro, which would have taken a while."

"And the mortar would have to have time to set." Fred added.

"Do you think they would have rushed Ron and the others out of those cells and down here to stick around to hand-build a wall?" Charlie said sceptically.

"You're not listening," Hermione huffed. "If you'd built it long before and broken it with magic then you'd just have to flick your wand and you'd have a wall."

"A wall where you'd expect to see a door." Arthur said as he looked at the wall and looked devastated that he'd abandoned his instincts and hadn't kept testing the suspicious wall the first time around.

"Exactly," Hermione said with a nod.

"All of you get out of my way!" Charlie ordered as he charged forward and flicked his wand at the wall. "Dirvo!"

The wall crumbled into dust, blinding everybody with its' red dust that thickened the air. They coughed and spluttered, fanning the air before their faces with their hands, until Ginny cleared the air with a non-verbal spell. They looked at where the wall had been and found a second wall behind and, at the very end of the passageway, a solid metal door beside a flickering torch.

"This is it!" Fred said, flinging himself at the door and looking through the bars. "Ron? Ron!"

George was at his side and began calling through the bars as well.

"Hey, Ronniekins, it's us! Ron? Lee? Come on!"

"Out of the way," Arthur said as he moved forward and tried to push his arm through the bars. His arm met with an invisible barrier. Harry deduced that there were silencing, locking, and imperturbable charms on the door and lifted them with an all-purpose spell. Arthur opened the door and jumped inside, pointing his wand around the corner to make sure there was nobody to ambush them.

"All clear," he said. "I can't see anybody."

"No, he's here," Hermione said as she ran inside. "This is what I saw. This is where I saw him. He was here, I know it!"

"I know it, too," Harry said tensely as he put his hand on Hermione's shoulder. "But..." God he didn't want to say it, but he had to. "Fred saw graves. Maybe they're underground."

"Oh, Merlin," Bill said before swishing his wand repeatedly over the lumpy surface of the soil and muttering something in Egyptian, which Harry guessed was something from Bill's days excavating in Egypt for Gringotts. He would have been called into all sorts of cursed ancient sites to make them safe and was used to looking under ground for booby traps or mummies or...

The word corpses made Harry feel sick, even though he was still only thinking to himself. Goodness knows what would happen if anybody said it out loud.

"Fuck me!" Seamus exclaimed as he looked behind the open door.

The sandy haired wizard jumped backwards and aimed his wand at the ground defensively before going slightly green and clamping his hand to his mouth. Ginny was about to swing the door back so she could see what Seamus had seen. Harry leaned over and spotted the dead bodies of Marcus Belby, Ernie Macmillan and a bald headed Death Eater slumped together in a tangle of arms and legs.

He pushed Ginny away and held her back outside the room. She looked very cross with him and tried to shake his grip off until her father called from inside the room that she was to stay outside.

"We've dead hostages here," Charlie said, sounding hollow.

Ginny stared into Harry's eyes pleadingly. Lupin's eyes widened and he rushed to hold back Delitia Macmillan.

"Not Ron, please not Ro-"

"No," Harry said, pulling her into him and hugging her tightly, for his own sake as much as hers. "Belby and Ernie and one of theirs. They took one of them with 'em. They fought back, Ginny. If Ron's still fighting, you know he'll be okay. You know it!"

"But where is he?" Ginny said into Harry's robe.

There was a scream causing Harry and Ginny to spring apart and run into the cellar again.

Bill was on his knees with his arm around Demelza and his face as white as Nearly Headless Nick.

"Demelza's brother," he said shakily. "It's Demelza's brother!"

"Oh my word," Arthur said as he rushed over lumpy ground to get to the young witch on her knees before. "Come away poor girl. Come away and don't look."

"S-Sam," Demelza wailed, clinging to her brother's lifeless body and shaking all over. "Sam say something! Get up! Stop it now, just get up!"

Harry felt as if ice-cold water had just trickled down his spine. Ginny was clinging into his right side and Hermione soon grabbed hold of his left as she looked away into the wall behind her with a sob.

Sam Robbins looked very much like his sister and mother. Dark, almost black hair and very pale skin. His eyes were open and his face looked surprised. He was grimy and his clothes were ripped up. He looked painfully thin.

"There's a..." Fred began before standing up at the far end of the cellar and kicking something very hard, "...dead Death Eater down here, too. They took two of 'em out."

George patted Fred on the beck before stooping to pick something up from the floor.

"Broken wands," he muttered. "I've got three tips here, three wands."

"Why would they break the wands?" Charlie frowned. "Why wouldn't they fight their way out with them?"

"Maybe they did, maybe the Death Eater's broke these fer some reason," Seamus said with hope.

"But if they escaped, why was the wall still up?" Harry asked as both Hermione and Ginny released him.

Ginny went to help her father with Demelza while Hermione walked over to an empty corner and crouched down, staring into space. Harry didn't know why but he found himself walking over the lumpy ground towards the twins. But he wasn't going towards the twins at all; he was edging off to one dark corner flush against one of the walls. He saw several footprints around a deep, narrow hole in the ground.

There was melted iron or steel, hardened against the dirt, and he noticed a familiar smell coming from the depths of the hole. It smelled just like the cellblock. Harry put his hand to his face to block out the stench of faeces and directed his wand light to the bottom of the hole.

It was empty.

He could hear footsteps, movement, getting closer.

Gripping the bars and squinting across the deserted room, he wondered if this was it, the moment he had been dreading. He felt himself shaking. There could be nothing worse than what he had been imagining in his sleep. He was amazed he had managed to sleep at all.

The footsteps grew louder.

"Oh God, this is it," he said to himself in a broken voice.

He closed his eyes and thought of his mother. He wondered where his brother was, if he was alright or if the Death Eaters had butchered him, and then he tried to keep a grip on himself.

"Don't let them see you scared. Face this like a man. Just grit your teeth and take it. It'll be quick. It'll be over."

He still had no idea how he got here, wherever here was, and knew that he wouldn't be leaving alive. He stepped back from the bars and hugged his arms to himself. Then he realised what he was doing and let his arms fall to his sides. He refused to be afraid anymore. He was not afraid. He was not afraid to die.

It was just the stuff before dying he could do without.

The light of a wand illuminated the empty corridor outside the cavernous room that held him and he held his breath, biting his lip and standing tall. If those bastards had murdered his brother he'd see him again soon. They'd be together again.

"Oh God, poor Mum."

"Hello there," a deep voice said as the footsteps echoed across the large room and the wand light illuminated a familiar face.

"Mr Moody?" Dennis gasped.

"Thought I'd come and take you back to the Embassy, son," the old gnarled Auror smiled. "Show 'em that I can do something right for a change."

Chapter 45 Firebrand

It was a pain like no other.

It was unimaginable. Unfortunately, Lee didn't have to imagine it; it was all too real. His back felt as if his bones were burning him. Burning from the inside out and then splitting his skin open, cracking fresh scabs apart and that whole side of him body exploding like a blister.

He was lying on his back.

Why, dear Merlin, am I lying on my back?

He yelped as he tried to move, to roll himself over onto his side for some relief, but his flesh felt as if it was stripping from the bone like tender roast chicken at the mercy of a ravenous dog.

There was sunlight on his face. He cracked his eyelids open a fraction and squinted. There were bars on the windows, much like his old cellblock. Lee clenched his jaw and forced himself to lift his head and look around properly. It wasn't the cellblock. This was a new place. It appeared to be an attic customised to hold an unwilling guest.

Lee drew in several deep breaths and gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up into the sitting position. He cried out in agony. His skin folded, like a concertina, in on itself. He didn't dare question what the remaining flesh was holding onto in order to stay attached. Maybe it wasn't attached. Maybe the homemade bandages were all that held him together anymore.

Lee Jordan, the wizard with more fabric than skin on his bones.

Sputtering sounds made him turn his head sharply, wincing as he did, and saw a bizarre sight. There was a large metal tub, about two feet deep, with a wooden ladder balanced over it. Tied to the ladder with magical bindings was Viktor Krum. He was hanging, face down, in what Lee guessed was water filled to the brim of the tub.

Krum coughed and shook his head. He could only keep his mouth and nose out of the water if he turned his head to either side. Lee was about to call out to him when he heard Colin's anxious yelp.

"Don't move!"

Lee jumped with fright and looked over to where Colin was hanging.

Hanging.

Colin hung by his feet from the ceiling and looked very red in the face indeed.

"Col, what happened? What's..." Lee's eyes suddenly widened and his blood felt as if it had frozen solid in his veins. "Where's Ron?"

"Leave 'im be," a tortured voice blurted. "He's blocked 'em out at last. Leave 'im be fer now."

Lee saw Fergus bent over backwards, a wooden barrel beneath him, and his wrists and ankles tethered together. It looked agonising. For all the sympathy he had for the others, all he wanted to know was what had happened to Ron.

"What do you mean?" Lee grimaced as he crawled around on his belly to look over to the other corner of the room.

Dean was sweating and shaking under the strain of holding back a large metal spike that hung over him on the end of a pulley system chained to his arms. If Dean let his arms be pulled upwards by the heavy weight, the spike would drop down and impale him fatally. It took so much effort that Dean wasn't even able to talk. His contorted face simply nodded to the far corner of the room.

Lee drew in a harsh breath that almost cut through his windpipe with the severity of it.

Ron was staring blankly ahead, holding his knees to his chest and trembling all over, while glistening spider webs shone in the sunlight all around him. He was trapped by nothing stronger than a gossamer cage. Hairy spiders, the size of Hagrid's hands, crawled over the fine strands and Ron pressed himself hard into the corner of the room in the two feet of web-less space he had.

"Oh, Godric," Lee whimpered before looking to the others. "How did he find out?"

Nobody answered him.

"How did that bloody bastard find out about the spiders?" Lee roared furiously.

"I'm sorry," Dean said, under terrible strain. "I thought...thought I was helping him."

"Helping who?" Lee snapped.

"Ron, of course!" Dean snarled, the spike shuddering above him.

Dean had to brace himself and pull back against the chain to regain his fight against the weight that threatened to skewer him. Lee couldn't help but vent his rage at Dean for betraying Ron's biggest phobia, the thing that crippled him when he was strong let alone when he was already a wreak about almost being raped, and he glared at his fellow Gryffindor through tear-filled eyes.

"He's fucking catatonic, you prick! How did that help?"

"Lee, stop!" Colin cried out, his voice sounded strange upside down, but just as high-pitched as ever. "There were webs and spiders in here when they first brought us. Ron freaked out and Dean tried to get them to put us somewhere else. The Puppet Master saw what was wrong with Ron and that Dean wanted the spiders to go." Colin took a deep breath before continuing. "The bastard engorged them and put them under Imperius to make them trap him Ron the corner."

Lee looked back at the wall of web, a translucent veil over his friend and brother. Ron's only choice had been to turn in on himself and to block out all the horror he'd faced of late. Lee gritted his teeth. He'd crawl over broken glass on his shredded back if it meant tearing down those webs and getting Ron out of there. He began to pull himself forward.

"Lee, no, oh God, please no!" Fergus cried out fearfully.

Lee froze and stared at the painfully bound Irishman.

"You can't move from that spot," Colin explained. "You've been magically bound to one end of the ladder, Lee, so if you move towards Ron you pull the ladder off the edge of the tub and Viktor will drown."

Lee gaped at the ladder as it shuddered a little. Quickly, he moved back into place and the ladder settled again.

"What the hell is all this for?" the dreadlocked wizard said aloud to himself as he took in all the various devices to keep them separate and immobile.

"This, Mr Jordan," the delighted voice of the Puppet Master crowed, "is to keep you all from causing me any more trouble."

Lee turned to the open door and scowled at the Puppet Master, willing his look to be enough to kill the vile man stone dead there and then.

"You evil fucker," he snarled through gritted teeth.

The Puppet Master crouched down before Lee and smiled serenely.

"It will also ensure that when I come back for my plaything, there will be no interference from you, jongen." The Dark wizard looked over at Ron and sighed deeply. "I made that boy my Firebrand. I broke him in." The grey eyes turned back to bore into Lee's and the corner of his mouth curled upward. "And tonight...I will have him exactly how I want him."

The Embassy shook with the explosion of human emotion inside its walls.

Dennis returned to his mother, who was sobbing with relief, and Mr and Mrs Belby were having a devastated row that Mr Belby's brother, Damocles, was trying, and failing, to control.

"After everything I said to that idiotic McLaggen fellow, you went ahead and tried to buy Marcus out of there?" Geoffrey Belby bellowed, almost purple in the face.

"What would you have done if you had opened the letter?" she screeched at him through tears of pain and rage.

"I would have taken it to the Aurors right away!" Mr Belby boomed. "If that transaction had gone through every other hostage in that place would be dead for sure."

"What do you call three bodies, Geoffrey?" The woman gestured to the three shapes, covered in robes and ready to be moved. "Three boys dead! Our boy dead!"

"Because you agreed to this ransom, you foolish bloody woman!" Geoffrey boomed into his wife's face.

"Enough!" Damocles said as he physically removed his brother from the confrontation.

The brothers wrestled with each other until they were outside the Embassy, on the main steps, and Damocles set about calming his distraught brother. Kathleen Finnigan and Floella Jordan guided Mrs Belby into the kitchen for a brandy and some female comfort.

"I just wanted my Marcus back," she choked on her grief. "I did everything they said and they killed him anyway!"

Bianca Robbins, still in shock from her own capture and rescue, now had a traumatised young daughter screaming into her shoulder and a dead son to bury. She looked like she was viewing a photograph of the scene before her, the three covered bodies laid out on the Embassy floor while people wept and hugged each other, as if it was a staged tableaux of what a tragedy looked like. She could see it all and she could understand what it all meant but part of her believed the boys would sit up and everyone would congratulate each other on such convincing performances and get back to normal.

Harry understood that feeling completely. He had been waiting for Sirius to jump back out of the veil in the Department of Mysteries for so long that when reality finally hit him, that there was no coming back from beyond the veil, he had no idea how to control his tidal wave of emotions and almost drowned himself and those around him.

Demelza would hopefully recover but Harry doubted that Mrs Robbins ever would.

Molly and Carol Thomas supported Delitia Macmillan on either side as she finally allowed herself to be guided away from Ernie's body. The woman, her dark brown, slightly curly hair covered her face, said something that pierced Harry's heart like a rapier over and over again.

"I never thought it would be him. It was never going to be Ernie. He was always going to come back and I was going to help him grieve for his friends. Ernie wasn't supposed to be one of the dead. He's not supposed to be dead!"

Every time a new body arrived Harry had felt the opposite.

I always thought I'd lose him like this. It was always going to be Ron. He was never going to come back and there was nothing I could do to help him. Ron was always going to die because of my friendship. I marked Ron for death.

Marie Finnigan walked into the improvised 'hospital wing' and Harry followed her for no other reason than to get away from all the devastation. Mrs Painter sat on her son's bed, trying to keep him from getting up.

"Tell me who it is," he said as he strained to throw his mother off him, but his body was still too weak. "Mum, tell me, I have to know!"

Harry folded his arms across his chest and hung back in the open doorway. The wizard, Tommy, caught sight of him and yelled across the makeshift ward.

"Harry Potter? You're Harry Potter right?"

Harry averted his eyes and nodded his head.

"It isn't Ron is it? Not Ron or Lee or...Who the fuck is it?"

"Tommy, lad," Marie said sternly, "will telling you will relax you will it?"

"No, of course not!" Tommy said incredulously.

"So telling will you bring them back to life, will it?" Marie said again, her tone much sadder this time around.

Tommy's anxious face fell and he stared, wide eyed at the Irish witch.

"Them...he...he killed all of them?"

"No Tommy," Julie said as she held her son in a tight embrace and rocked him back and forth gently, "not all of them. Please try to calm down, love."

"Calm down?" Tommy almost laughed at the suggestion but the cough of derision looked painful enough as it was.

The sick wizard stared at his mother with pleading eyes, eyes that shone with burning tears, and he gripped her hand tightly.

"Mum, they're my family. I have to know what's happened to them please!"

Harry felt the need to sit down. His legs could hold him up no longer and leaned heavily against the doorframe, trying to keep a grip on himself. Ron was part of a family unit. They were all taking care of each other. Every hostage in that situation with Ron was looking after him and vice-versa. Harry looked back over his shoulder as the bodies of Marcus Belby, Ernie Macmillan and Sam Robbins were levitated towards the fireplace.

What would losing them have done to Ron?

He remembered Arthur and Bill's analysis of the situation down in that cellar. How they had assumed that a Death Eater breaking away from the mission for the sake of greed was taking Belby. He was caught in the act and killed. Belby was murdered to negate the deal. A fight had broken out and Sam and Ernie had died along with one of the Death Eaters. The hostages had obviously lost that fight and were taken away.

Taken away for what purpose, though?

Security...punishment...execution?

"They had a fight with the men who took you and they killed two of them," Mrs Painter said softly to her son, trying to put a positive spin on something like murder.

"They did?" Tommy's eyebrows lifted hopefully, his face lined with worry. "Did they get the Puppet Master?"

"The Puppet what?" Julie said as she glanced at Marie. "He was talking about puppets when he was delirious, Marie. What i-"

"Who is he?" Harry said as he strode over to Tommy's bed with determination. "Is he the leader? Is he the one behind all this?"

"He's..." Tommy began before Harry found himself interrupting him with his eagerness to know more about what was going on in that dark place.

"What does he look like? Is he bald?"

"Harry, lad, please!" Marie exclaimed.

"Bald," Tommy frowned. "He has a bald crony. He's a spiteful one that one. Egged the Puppet Master on when he was dishing out the discipline. Got told off a couple of times, I think."

Harry bit his lip. That could mean there was no uprising from the hostages at all. This Puppet Master bloke could have just got sick of an insubordinate.

"Baldie's dead?" Tommy asked as he looked from Marie to his mother.

"Yes, love," Marie nodded and patted his shoulder. "Him and another fella."

"Two Death Eaters and three of the hos--three of your friends, Tommy." Mrs Painter stroked her son's hair soothingly.

"Three?" Tommy gasped. "But you told me they just killed Jack. Why did they kill three of them? Which three?"

"Ernie, Sam and Marcus," Harry called out as he stepped closer to the wizard's bedside.

Tommy's shoulders fell, as did his head, and slumped into his mother's chest and cried.

"Oh don't, Tommy. Please don't let this crush you sweetheart." Julie patted her son's back and shushed him softly.

"It's...not that," Tommy said as he shuddered into his mother's jumper. "I'm just...I feel like such a shit."

"Why on earth do yeh say that, son?" Marie said sadly as she sat on the other side of Tommy's bed and put her arm around both Tommy and his mother.

"'Cause...'cause I'm relieved!"

"Well, so am I so I'm a shit, too!" Julie said firmly. "I'm relieved that you survived this and that I have you in my arms now and I'm not sorry about it, Thomas Painter!"

"No...Not that," Tommy sniffed as he pulled his face out from its hiding place and looked up at her.

His mother wiped the tears from his eyes. Tommy turned his head and looked at Harry.

"I'm relieved it wasn't Ron or Lee," Tommy said raggedly., "They're my...we're...We're supposed to be looking out for each other and I left them."

Harry made the last few steps to Tommy's bedside, shaking his head as he went.

"Ron would be happy that you got out alive. He'd be pleased you're with us. I know what he's like, Tommy. All he'd want is for you to get better."

Tommy nodded and leaned into his mother.

"They looked after me. Ron gave me his jumper, Krum too, and Prang and Cally gave me their cloaks to sleep in." Tommy's face turned a worrying shade of grey. "Oh God, Prang! How am I gonna explain to his family?"

"What's this, son?" Moody said from behind Harry. "You know where Prang's body is?"

Ron's voice was so foreign to them after all this time that every one of them flinched as he spoke, staring glassily into the cobwebs before him, "Doden, vermoorden, ombrengen..."

"Ron?" Lee called over to his brother, "Can ya hear me?"

"Dood," Ron said, still apparently in a state of total detachment.

"C'mon mate, stop it with the Dutch and say something in English to me," Lee persevered.

"Je hebt hem gedood."

"Is he—?" Colin squeaked, his voice sounding very throaty due to his topsy turvey position hanging from the ceiling, "Is he under Imperius or possessed or something?"

"No," Lee said immediately.

"He's got his brain workin' differently." Fergus grunted in discomfort. "Me ma told me about people comin' back from the war like it."

"What, shell-shock?" Dean grimaced as his aching arms trembled against the weight that pulled against them.

"No, like..." Fergus closed his eyes to think, either that or he was hit by a painful cramp, "...like when yeh sleep walk or talk. It's you but yer not aware yeh doin' it. Ta do wi' stress."

Dean snorted. Lee almost did the same thing. It was one thing that wasn't just a theory; Ron was definitely suffering from extreme stress.

"Koppen dicht Dooddoeners!" Ron hissed under his breath, still looking into the strands of overlapping cobwebs before his eyes.

"Ron, stop it!" Lee called across to his friend.

It pained him to be unable to go to him. He looked back at Krum sputtering on the water and obviously suffering from a painful crick in his neck from turning away from it for all that time.

"Leave him," Krum choked. "Is better he speak Dutch than not speak at all, yes?"

"But he's going insane, Viktor," Lee said sadly.

"Crazy man would act normal," Krum panted.

"He's got a point," Dean winced with a smile.

"Ron's brain's always worked different than normal people's Lee," Colin spoke up again. "Have you seen him play chess?"

"Ronald Weasley, uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners."

Lee recognised what Ron said immediately and didn't like it one bit, but Ron continued with the last rites.

"Kom vreedzaam of lijd in de dood."

"No more!" Lee shouted anxiously.

"Je hebt hem gedood," Ron said with the slightest of shrugs.

"Bloedverrader!" Colin cried out, his strangled chipper voice making Lee jump with fright.

Ron blinked and frowned for a second. Then he glazed over again and exhaled deeply.

"Colin!" Fergus gasped as he tried to look over his own arched chest to gape at the upside down wizard. "You too?"

"I figured he might listen if we all spoke Dutch as well," Colin flapped his arms in what Lee guessed to be a shrug.

"How am I the only one who hasn't picked up this bloody language?" Lee huffed.

"Well, I only know that one word, blood traitor. Oh and I know stil as well!" Colin grinned.

An intensely red face grinning was an unsettling sight to see, Lee thought. Colin was thinking pretty clearly for somebody with all their blood in their head.

"We all know that one, Col," Dean said stiffly.

The fight to hold the weight was getting to him now. Lee couldn't stand watching another one of them die that day.

"Gedraag je!" Ron blurted before looking a little confused and shaking his head and laughing. "Klootzak!"

Everybody stared at Ron in shock. He was still smiling to himself.

"Lol nu," Ron spoke to one of the spiders, still highly amused about something.

"Is he...?" Fergus frowned before looking back at Ron. "Ron?"

"Uw dood wordt uitgevoerd in naam van de Dooddoeners," Ron yelled at the top of his lungs before snorting derisively and bellowing one final word with venom. "Klootzakken!"

Heavy footsteps banged against the floorboards outside the room and Lee drew a sharp breath in as he twisted his body to look over his shoulder, hurting his ravaged back. Eyes watering, he glanced back at Ron and saw he was glassy-eyed and inanimate once again. Just as he was about to call out to him, the door banged open and the Puppet Master stormed inside.

"Wat is...?" the Puppet Master began furiously before looking shocked that there was no Death Eater in the room. "Waar...? Jongen, where did the guard that was just here g-"

The Puppet Master froze in mid sentence and turned his head to look at Ron.

"Firebrand!" The huge man called with curiosity in his tone.

Ron was still staring at the webs, knees drawn up tight to his chest and eyes lifeless and unblinking, as the Puppet Master took slow even steps across the room to crouch before him.

"Jongen?" The Puppet Master clicked his fingers before Ron's face several times and nothing happened.

The Puppet Master looked over his shoulder at the watching hostages. They were all as confused as he was, but none of them was going to give up the information that Ron had just been, not only articulate but bilingually so.

"There was shouting, one of my men."

"Bastards the lot of yeh!" Fergus spat from his vulnerable position, bent backwards over the barrel.

"You will all concentrate on your own predicaments and leave me to concentrate on my Firebrand. Am I understood?"

"Stay the fuck away from him!" Lee snarled from his spot curled up on the floor like a dying house cat.

"He not your Firebrand!" Krum sputtered furiously.

The Puppet Master thundered across the room with long booming footsteps and roared with fury at Krum's insolence.

"Ik zal je vermooden jongen!"

The Puppet Master kicked the ladder and Krum's body slipped into the water, the weight of the ladder holding him under. The Puppet Master glared around the room at the others as they swore in protest and stormed out of the room once more, slamming the door behind him so hard the floorboards shook.

There were deep gurgling sounds and Lee could see Krum's legs thrashing wildly. The ladder had fallen into the deep tub at an angle and Krum's head was right at the bottom while his legs were still above the surface.

"Oh Merlin, Lee, do something!" Colin whimpered as he tried in vain to swing himself over to try and help but only succeeded in knocking the other end of the ladder into the tub too.

Lee tried to get to his feet. He cried out in agony as he felt his skin slipping around on the raw and exposed flesh on his back. He stumbled and fell flat on his face hard. Just as he was going to drag himself closer to Krum, the sound of loud running footsteps, bare feet on the wooden floor, came from behind him.

Something jumped over his prostrate body and landed deftly at the side of the tub. It was Ron. He plunged his arms deep into the water and hauled Krum back out. Panting heavily, he heaved the ladder back against the wall while Krum coughed and gasped for air desperately. The Bulgarian's eyes were wide and his mouth gaping open. He was like a grounded fish begging to be thrown back into the river.

Ron put his hands on Krum's chest and looked him in the eyes breathlessly.

"Ron! You are..." Krum exclaimed before Ron put his finger to his lips and shushed him.

Lee stared at his friend, his brother, and watched as Ron's face looked down at him and smiled.

"Stil jongens," Ron whispered as his formerly dead eyes sparkled. "Firebrand's got a plan."

Chapter 46 Uprising

While Ron set about freeing Krum from the ladder, he answered the dozen questions his fellow prisoners threw at him.

"Were you faking it the whole time?"

"What was all that shouting in Dutch about?"

"What plan?"

"Are you really okay?"

Ron waved his hand to silence the latest wave of questions before turning his focus back to the ropes binding Krum.

"I wasn't faking, I was just—clearing things up in my head." Ron muttered, avoiding their gaze. "Thanks, by the way, for looking after me before. I'm—I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be," Lee said as he crawled painfully across the floor towards Ron.

"You stay still!" Ron ordered his brother. "Lie on the floor and do as you're told, understand?"

Colin chuckled in a kind of nasal way. Lee huffed and propped himself up on his elbows, watching Ron continue freeing Krum.

"You scared me, y'know?" Lee said eyes fixed on Ron.

"I didn't mean to," Ron mumbled. "I just needed to block out the spiders and the first thing that came into my mind as a distraction was all the Dutch I'd picked up. It was like my way out, y'know?"

Lee didn't know at all. Dean strained against the weight that pulled against his arms and grunted a response.

"Like the rule about getting out of mazes. You stick to the left no matter how wrong it feels and you find your way out eventually."

Ron smiled at his old roommate and nodded.

"Well yeah, I s'pose that's it. I was finding my way out of the Labyrinth and all those words I've slowly learned were like my ball of string."

"So what's a klootzak when it's at home, eh?" Fergus said as he shifted over the barrel.

Ron smiled to himself before looking at Krum and answering.

"It means dickhead."

Fergus and Colin laughed. Dean shook his head and lifted his eyebrows a little while Lee whimpered, laughter obviously causing his back some pain.

"Where you learn that one?" Krum asked as one of his arms was freed, groaning with satisfaction and beginning to move around to regain the use of the numb limb.

"I remember the last arrest we made before heading back to the safe house." Ron grinned. "One of the prisoners grumbled it at me after I said the English version to them. The Ministry translator had a good laugh about that."

"Ministry translator?" Colin frowned. "I don't remember there being a translator. I used to talk to them all using my English to Dutch phrasebook."

"Yeah Col," Fergus grinned, albeit uncomfortably, "but when ya want to tell the gobshites to shut the feck up it's not much use having eight different ways of asking the price of Brie is it?"

"Oh shut up!" Colin tutted with an upside-down smile.

"Don't cha mean 'stil'?" Fergus cackled wearily. "So what happened teh this translator fella then?"

Ron shook his head blankly. Lee made some kind of sound to indicate he hadn't a clue either. Krum wasn't really listening. Dean's voice broke the silence.

"He got three Killing Curses in the face trying to reason with the Death Eaters when they stormed the safe house."

Nobody said anything. There was nothing to say.

Ron freed Krum's other arm now and the Bulgarian muttered something to Ron about helping the others while he untied the rest of Viktor's body. Ron stepped away from Krum and gave him a lingering look to make sure the dripping wet wizard really was okay to be alone. The duck-footed Bulgarian gave him another nod and Ron turned around to decide between getting Colin the right way up, helping Dean with the pulley on his arms or getting Fergus off that damn barrel.

"I'm fine. Help them first," all three of them said at once.

"Oh well, thanks for your help lads," Ron huffed before looking at the three of them with no emotional attachment and nodding to himself. He strode over to Fergus.

"No seriously, Ron, I'm fine fer a few minutes more," the Irishman began to protest.

"That's lovely Fergus but I need your barrel, preferably with you not attached to it!"

Fergus smiled and stopped protesting. Ron set about untying Fergus' bound wrists and ankles. Ron's fingers were sore from fiddling with the wet ropes around Krum but he worked fast all the same. Soon Fergus was groaning with satisfaction as he was able to straighten his back and roll the barrel away from him.

"Jaysis it's better than sex!" Fergus sighed euphorically.

Colin chortled.

"Well, I'd rather try sex if you don't mind?" the short wizard, dangling from his feet, said cheerfully.

"Sure little fella," Fergus said, still moaning and wriggling his stiff spine with a delighted look on his face. "I'll take yeh to a brothel in Amsterdam and show ya what Krum means when he talks about ping-pong balls!"

Ron almost did a double take as he heard Krum actually laughing. Colin looked shocked and ever so slightly outraged.

"Are you suggesting I lose my virginity to a prostitute?"

"Well, he ain't suggesting you fuck a ping-pong ball, is he?" Dean panted with a weary smile.

Ron rolled the barrel over to Colin and climbed up onto it. He set about work on the tight rope that strained with the weight of the wizard beneath it. This was going to be impossible without a knife, Ron thought.

"Look, Colin I'm a bit stuck for ideas here so I'll just pull you up to drain some of the colour from your face for now, okay?"

Ron reached down and Colin took his hand. Heaving the smaller wizard upright with a grunt. Ron managed to pull Colin's hand all the way up to the rope at his feet. Colin grabbed hold tightly and hung in a wonky 'U' shape. He was both relieved and dizzy as he smiled at Ron, shaking his flushed head to help clear it.

"Is that at least a little bit better?" Ron asked apologetically.

"Much, thanks Ron," Colin said with a nod and a chirpy grin.

Ron stared at him for a moment before blinking and laughing in astonishment.

"How do you manage it?" the redhead asked Colin.

"Manage what?"

"Just—this—keeping so positive all the time. How do you do it?"

Colin looked Ron directly in the eyes and his smile melted from being manically optimistic to naturally at peace, almost blissful in fact.

"I could ask you the same thing, Ron."

"What?" Ron asked, suddenly feeling his own face flush uncomfortably.

"How do you keep getting up again and again after being knocked down?"

Ron stared at Colin and they both shared a reverential silence before Ron smiled and shrugged.

"I dunno, I s'pose I'm just uncomfortable on the floor."

"It's not that," Lee said from down below the two of them.

"Nah," Fergus agreed with a grin. "Yeh can't keep a Weasley down fer long."

"It's got nothing to do with being a Weasley, either," Lee said, "and it's not because he's Harry Potter's mate or a red head or a pure blood—It's because he's Ron."

Ron gulped and stared down at Lee, lying on his stomach, bandages oozing with blood, feeling his heart swell to double its size inside his chest.

"That bastard doesn't call you Firebrand for nothing," Lee said fiercely. "You're incredible, you're unique, and the only person who can knock you down and keep you down is you."

The prisoners were all caught up in a moment of silence before Ron cleared his throat and shook his head.

"Um, well hold on there, Colin. I'll see if I can get that spike of Dean's and cut you down with it alright?"

Colin nodded, in silent awe at Lee's sincere declaration. Ron climbed off the barrel and crossed the room to get to Dean. As he passed Lee on the floor, Ron nodded once and Lee smiled back at him silently.

"So Dean," Ron began, his voice suddenly hoarse, "want a hand, mate?"

The Embassy was eerily quiet compared to the way it used to be when this whole horror first started. The only place that was still vaguely active was the kitchen.

Kathleen and the Creeveys were preparing lunch. Dennis hadn't left his mother's company since they'd been reunited. Jannette had come so close to losing both her boys that she wouldn't let Dennis out of her sight once she got him back. Dennis, too, had been incredibly relieved to see his mother after being alone for all that time. He hadn't even seen a Death Eater during his captivity. He had been used as a distraction to keep the Aurors from looking for the real hostages. He hadn't said anything but he obviously felt guilty about the hostages that had died while he was took the attention with his disappearance.

Marie Finnigan occupied herself by taking care of Tommy, who was improving incredibly well now that he had access to potions and spells. Julie Painter still wouldn't leave her son's bedside and recently had become quite a popular place for Weasleys to visit.

Molly had spoken to Tommy for some time about Ron. It was obvious that there was a lot Tommy was keeping from her, things that Tommy himself wouldn't have wanted his own mother to be told had the roles had been reversed. Molly was content to just be around somebody who had been near Ron. It had certainly made Marie feel a little warmer inside to hear that her Fergus was keeping everyone's spirits up with his sense of humour.

Right at that moment, Tommy was giving Tonks a run-down of everybody's state from his last memory of them.

"So the very last thing you can remember is all of you still in those cell blocks?" Tonks confirmed.

"Yeah. I was in my hammock and Ron and Lee were with me."

"And Ron was okay was he?" Tonks asked with a anxious glance in Molly's direction.

Tommy frowned and looked from one witch to the other. He racked his brain for something to say before turning to his mother, whispering fearfully into her ear.

"What did I say while I was out of it? Why are they asking about Ron like that?"

Molly reached out and set her hand gently upon Tommy's knee.

"Don't worry, Thomas, dear," she smiled. "You just said something about Ronnie—dying when you first woke up but you said he was still alive when you lost consciousness so we know that you didn't mean it."

"Oh," Tommy swallowed and looked at Tonks again. "He's fine, well not fine, but better. The Puppet Master tor—I mean he—"

"Tommy, lad," Marie said sympathetically, "Molly knows that Ron was tortured. You can tell us."

Molly put her hand to her face and her eyes shone as she forced herself to smile. After a nod of encouragement from the woman, Tommy closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"He hung Ron up by his arms. They were yanked up behind his back, and he hung there for hours—it felt like hours." Tommy opened his eyes and took his mother's hand, squeezing it tightly before going on. "I tried to help him but I was too sick. I made him stand on my back for a while but his arms, he couldn't use them when he was let down again."

Marie saw Tonks put a hand on Molly's shoulder as she wept silently. Marie reached down and took Molly's hand while Julie encouraged her son to carry on.

"As soon as he was down, he was taken out to the torture room and forced to duel. He couldn't even pick up the wand. That bastard hit him and hit him hard. When he got back, Ron wouldn't wake up. He wouldn't take water and didn't respond to pain. He just started fading away."

There was a low growl from the doorway and Tonks knew that Charlie was standing there fuming.

"When the Puppet Master came in to torment Ron again he saw that Ron wasn't waking up and called Cally in to heal him. Cally helped Ron with a couple of spells and then—then they killed Cally."

Julie hugged her son close to her. Marie wondered what scenario she would prefer. Her son was clearly not a focus of this Puppet Master fellow's attention and therefore expendable in his eyes. Molly's boy, oh that poor young lad, was being kept alive and would probably be the last to die. He had the most time; he had the best chance of being saved, but at what expense?

Marie had heard Tommy's nightmares. Tommy had called for Ron in his sleep. Marie knew what Julie knew, what young Auror Tonks had guessed but kept to herself for now. Something deeply disturbing was happening to Ron Weasley in those cells. What would a good mother choose for her child? Death or molestation and survival?

If Molly ever got her boy back, Marie wondered what kind of boy he would be.

Tommy had obviously been deeply affected by being so helpless during this persecution. It sounded as if Floella's son Lee became obsessed with protecting the boy and was now tied to Ron's well being as if it was his own. Marie knew what Fergus was like. He was a joker, an optimist, and he would never let people around him give up. One thing Fergus hated was to see a head drop. Many a time had he winked at his mother and grinned that winning grin of his and said, 'Chin up ma! Why are yeh lookin' at the floor when you've a face like mine to gaze upon?'

Tommy shifted around in his bed to look his mother in the eye with determination.

"Mum, Cally's kids—he had kids and they're orphans now. We promised him we'd make sure they were okay."

Julie patted the back of her son's hand and nodded.

"His son, Patrick, he has help from Chiara."

"Maccario's Chiara?" Tommy interrupted, his face lighting up.

"Yes," Julie said with a startled laugh, "you know Chiara?"

"Only from Maccario talking about her." Tommy smiled. "He was really head over heels for her. He talked about her until the end. He gave Ron—gave Ron a message to pass on for him."

Marie felt the need to take Molly away for a while. She thought that Tommy needed to let go of a lot of information about Ron's condition and treatment in the cells and couldn't discuss it with Molly there.

"C'mon Moll'," Marie said as she puffed out her cheeks briskly. "Let's leave Tonks to finish up with her questions and see how the rest of yeh brood are doin'."

Molly looked up at her, clearly reluctant to leave, and allowed Marie to pull her to her feet by the hand. As they stood before each other, beside Tommy's bed, their eyes met. In a single moment, they both understood everything that had been weighing on their minds.

What if the boys survived? What if they died? What if they were damaged physically or mentally? What if they baulked when they were hugged? What if their minds were broken beyond repair? What if they were driven insane by physical and mental torture?

What if they were better off dead?

"Secretan and his Wynx Triumph!" Colin called out as Krum braced himself to take the young wizard's full weight when Ron finally cut through the rope that suspended him.

"Was it a Wynx or a Minx?" Fergus frowned with a chortle.

"It was broom that gave him smile on face like fool!" Krum grunted.

Dean laughed from his spot at Lee's side on the floor. He was re-dressing Lee's home made bandages as best he could while the others worked to get Colin down without dropping him on his head, reminiscing about their old comrades.

"Maccario and his big speeches about love," Fergus said. "If I had an accent like that I'd have the girls fallin' over themselves te ride me!"

"Fergus!" Colin said, appalled.

"Finnigan, you old romantic you!" Dean laughed.

"Ernie's the one that shocked me," Ron said as he worked. "Used to be so pompous at school and yet, when the safe house was hit he was fighting like an Auror. The two of us almost got away because of him."

"Balsy little git, that Ernie," Fergus nodded, looking impressed.

"How 'bout when we were first in here and snapping at each other and Cally shut us all up?" Dean chuckled.

"I am not going to become 'the dad'!" Colin said, doing quite a good Scouse accent as the rope snapped and he fell into Krum's arms.

The room fell silent for a moment.

"Callahan's children," Krum said in a low murmur as he set Colin down.

"Yeah," Ron nodded sadly.

"We'll do what we said," Dean patted Krum on the shoulder. "We'll see them alright when we get out of here."

"So we're all free. What's the plan then Ron?" Lee said, attempting to direct the conversation away from the maudlin turn it had taken.

"Right," Ron said as he slapped his hands down onto his thighs. "Well, the Puppet Bastard said he was coming back for me tonight, didn't he?"

"Over my dead body," Lee growled.

"You die--I get buggered. We have a deal remember?" Ron said fiercely.

"Don't say that," Colin said, cringing at Ron's tone.

"I am going to fight him. You are going to get Lee out safe and Viktor—if you don't mind—Would you fight alongside me?"

Krum puffed out his chest so much he almost knocked Colin over with it.

"I fight in front of you. I fight to death. You save my life and suffer so I eat and drink. Anything for you, Ron."

Ron swallowed and smiled uncomfortably.

"Yeah well, lets not go dying just for the sake of it okay?"

Dean smirked and rested his arm on Colin's shoulder.

"So you're sure I can't fight with you?" Dean asked.

"I'd love to have you with us, mate," Ron shrugged sadly. "But Col's only a shortarse and Lee's a heavy bastard. He'll never manage him on his own!"

"Oi, you cheeky sod!" Lee grumbled from the floor as he tried to sit himself upright. "I can walk. I don't need to be carried."

"We won't be carrying you; we'll be supporting you," Colin said as he crouched down, trying to keep the dreadlocked wizard still.

Lee looked up at Ron with deep brown eyes. Ron crouched down before him and took his hand with his own.

"I don't want to leave you and Krum to fight. I want to stay and p--" Lee began shakily.

"I don't want to split up at all," Ron said sadly. "I want the six of us to all stay together but somebody has to hang back and hold them off."

"Not somebody," Fergus said with determination. "Me!"

Ron looked up at the Irishman and rolled his eyes.

"We need you to cover their escape but hang back from the fight, Finnigan," Ron said firmly. "Escort them out and stop anybody who gets past us and goes after them."

"Escort them out and come back fer you." Fergus nodded.

"I didn't say that," Ron huffed.

"I don't care!" Fergus said as he folded his arms across his chest.

Ron's shoulders slumped and he shook his head as he turned back to Lee, whose hand he still held tightly.

"I can't win with him, can I?"

Lee grabbed Ron and hugged him tightly. Ron was shocked at first but soon hugged Lee back, making a lot of effort to avoid touching his back.

"Don't make me go without you!" Lee pleaded him desperately.

"Hey mate, c'mon," Ron said soothingly. "Going ahead isn't going without."

"You know what I mean!" Lee growled into Ron's shoulder, "I want to stay. I want to defend you."

Ron pulled back from Lee and gestured to the bandages, stained with dried blood, sweat and grime.

"You already did."

Lee's eyes welled with tears and his head dropped.

"I won't go home without you. I won't go back. I'm not going to face the twins if you're not with me Ron, I mean it."

Ron cupped Lee's face in his hand and leaned in close to look his brother hard in the eye.

"I'll be right behind you, I swear."

"You promise?"

"On my life, my family, Harry and Hermione. I promise I will be right behind you all the way on your life Lee."

This appeared to have worked, making Lee appear more confident. He nodded his head and choked on the emotional lump at the back of his throat.

"We should have a secret word," Ron whispered to Lee, "so you'll always know it's really me. I don't want you thinking I'm dead again and giving me the evil eye do I?" Ron smiled sadly.

"Ron, I'm sorry abo-" Lee began with a shake of the head.

"Shhh," Ron said as he squeezed Lee's hand hard and leaned in to whisper into the dreadlocks that covered the wizard's ear, "if you need to know it's me, call me a dickhead and I'll call you a klootzak!"

Lee laughed as Ron pulled away and grinned. Ron looked up at Colin and gave a nod so the smaller wizard would swap places with him. Colin crouched by Lee's side and Ron stood.

"Okay," Ron said to Krum and Fergus, "he's coming for me and he's an obsessive fucker so he'll still have my wand on him."

"That's two wands." Krum smiled with grim satisfaction.

"One for me and one for you," Ron nodded and slapped Krum on the back. "All we have to do is get them off the bastard. I have a distraction in mind."

"Yeah?" Fergus raised an eyebrow enquiringly.

"There'll be no natural light when the sun goes down." Ron nodded as he looked to the barred attic window. "There's no artificial light in here, magical or otherwise. He'll light his wand when he comes for me."

Krum's face darkened at this but Ron continued regardless.

"So, we'll be able to see what to grab as the git's going to have it out and lit up like a Christmas tree."

"Please tell me you're still talking about the wand, Ron?" Dean begged before grinning mischievously.

Ron rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Glad to know you're just as funny as ever, Thomas!" Ron muttered before becoming serious again. "Well, I'll block the wand light and distract his attention. I know some pick pocketing from Fred and George, so I should be able to find my wand in his robes—"

"Whoa!" Lee snapped with wide eyes. "You're blocking the wand light and distracting him while your hand's in his robes? What is this distraction, Ron?"

"It'll be dark," Ron went on, avoiding Lee's hard stare. "I'll get his hopes up and hex the fucker before he knows what's going on. He won't be able to see that you're all free. Viktor will be positioned so he can get a clean grab at the Puppet Bastard's wand and as soon as I give the word, the three of you make a run for the door. Fergus will be covering you in case Skunk Head is around. He seems to be the only Death Eater their master can trust these days."

"Right," Fergus nodded, winding himself up for a punch-up at any moment.

"Ron, what are you going to do? You promised me you wouldn't let him—you weren't going to give him what he wants for us."

"And I'm not. Viktor will be right there and he'll make sure of it."

"Definitely!" Krum nodded fiercely.

Ron smiled at Krum before addressing him individually.

"We're going to kill him, okay? No binding spells, no impediment jinxes. We kill him at the first opportunity. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Krum nodded again.

"He'll put up a fight," Dean said, biting his bottom lip and looking Ron up and down.

"Well, we'll have the element of surprise and Viktor is pretty strong, even if he is malnourished." Ron shrugged.

"I didn't mean that," Dean frowned before gesturing at Ron's body from top to bottom. "You're only wearing those jeans and you've lost so much weight they're practically falling off you."

"So you're saying a belt is in order?" Ron pulled a thoughtful face jokingly.

Dean huffed while Colin chuckled from his spot on the floor.

"I'm saying," Dean persevered before dropping down to the floor and unlacing his grubby trainers, "you can't fight barefoot. Take my shoes."

Ron felt a lump in his throat as he watched Dean yank the trainers off both feet and place them before him with determination.

"Thanks Dea-"

"I'd give you my t-shirt but most of it's on Lee's back," Dean winced apologetically.

"No, it's okay." Ron shook his head and offered his hand to help his friend up again.

Dean looked Ron in the eye for several seconds before letting go of the breath he held.

"You kick the shit out of him," Dean looked over Ron's shoulder at Krum. "Both of you!"

All they had to do now was wait for the sun to go down.

Chapter 47 The Last Stand

The footsteps were slow and even. Ron would recognise them anywhere. The room was pitch black and the sounds of his fellow prisoners' breath halted as they held their breath collectively.

Ron got to his feet and braced himself. He was glad that Lee wasn't going to be able to see this and that nobody would be able to see this, not even the Puppet Master himself. The only other person who would know what had even happened would be dead soon enough. It would be worth it. If he saved even one of the others it would be worth it.

The door creaked open; there was no light outside. The Puppet Master stepped inside with a rustle of fabric. Ron guessed that the wand was about to illuminate the room.

"Lumos!" the deep voice purred and Ron lunged forward and blocked the light with his body.

The attic behind him was still totally black and his chest felt the warmth of the spell as the wand tip pressed against his skin. Ron's hands clamped onto either side of the Puppet Master's face and he forced his lips against those of the Dark Wizard.

The Puppet Master was slightly stunned by this. His lips were parted with shock but soon the heated wand tip grazed up Ron's bare chest and jabbed into the side of Ron's neck while the Puppet Master thrust his sickeningly large tongue into Ron's mouth.

The lit wand tip was still buried into Ron's skin and obviously not visible enough for Krum to make his move. Ron reached for the wand to try to push it aside, but the Puppet Master drove it into Ron's throat roughly, jabbing deeply beside his Adam's apple. Ron winced and pulled his lips away from the Puppet Master's with disgust. He breathed heavily as he leaned into the side of the Puppet Master's face to whisper into his ear.

"Anything you want if you promise they won't see. Let's go to another room and I'll do everything you've wanted to do."

Ron fought not to shudder as the Puppet Master licked Ron's neck and breathed that sickly hot breath into Ron's mouth.

"So you surrender?"

"Yeah," Ron nodded and squirmed a little. "I'm your Firebrand. I'll do whatever you want." Ron decided this was his moment and slipped both hands beneath the Death Eater's robes."Just don't let them see. Don't make them watch." Ron whispered shakily as he felt the Puppet Master's hard-on pressing into his hip.

Ron's hands stroked the Puppet Master's back. He felt the man's pristine tailored shirt beneath his palms and the inner lining of his robes with the knuckles of both hands. His right hand knocked against something that could only be his wand and his breath hitched at the back of his throat.

"Show me where you want me to touch you," Ron whispered, the excitement in his voice almost electrifying the air between them as the Puppet Master growled with triumph and pulled his wand away from Ron and directed it down between his legs.

Ron's curled his fingers around his wand and twisted his body to one side so the wand light was clear to Krum.

"Now!" Krum yelled and Ron pulled at the wand concealed inside the Death Eater's robe while Krum lunged at the lit wand accompanied by the sound of grunting and hurried footsteps heading for the open door behind the Puppet Master.

"Everbero!" the Puppet Master yelled furiously and a brilliant red spell burst from his wand and passed over Krum's shoulder.

Ron pulled at his wand, tearing the fabric of the robe as he did, and struggled to aim it at the Puppet Master. Krum was wrestled for control of the wand, no longer lit and causing the three of them to fight in the darkness.

Ron finally had his wand free and tried to light it so Krum could see the Puppet Master well enough to strike properly.

"Lumos!" Ron yelled.

His wand pointed directly at himself, Ron held it the wrong way round, discovering he had done nothing but make himself very visible indeed.

"Shit!" Ron cursed before trying to turn the wand on the Puppet Master who now had him by the throat.

His grip was a hindrance but not enough to choke Ron as the Puppet Master struggled with Krum for control of his wand.

"Jij verraderlijke slet!" the Puppet Master snarled before Ron heard Krum grunt and a heavy blow being landed.

Ron was pulled backwards as the Puppet Master stumbled. Ron controlled his wand and elbowed the Puppet Master in the ribs, stamping on the other man's foot. The grip on his throat was gone and Ron turned and aimed at the sound of the Puppet Master's wheezes.

"You got a wand, Krum?" Ron panted.

"Not yet," Krum answered before there was a thud on the floorboards Ron guessed was Krum making another bid to disarm the Puppet Master.

"No, stand back! I'll see if I can hit him blind!" Ron cried out frantically over the sounds of the scuffle.

"I...have..." Krum was straining and a green spell spiralled out of the darkness and right towards Ron.

He flung himself onto the floor to avoid getting hit and aimed his wand at the source of the spell.

"Viktor move away!" Ron called out.

Something behind him crashed to the ground and Ron turned sharply, wondering how they had got behind him without him noticing.

"Avada Kedavra!" a deep, heavily accent bellowed as a burst of green light sliced through the darkness and struck something that hit the ground with a dull thud.

Ron flicked his wand immediately.

"Lumos!" Ron said frantically.

He saw Krum standing over a figure on the ground panting heavily.

"Is Colin," Krum gasped as he looked up, his eyes widening in horror. "I kill Colin."

Krum lifted his wand and pointed it at Ron furiously. Ron raised his own instinctively, ready to cast a shield, when Krum roared out across the room.

"Ron! Behind you!"

An arm clamped around Ron's neck and something solid jabbed him in the back. Ron's wand arm twisted back painfully so the lit wand pointed away from both of them.

"He was just a Muggleborn. His loss is no loss at all!" the Puppet Master growled into the back of Ron's head.

"He's twice the fuckin' wizard you are, you wanker!" Ron growled furiously as he tried to kick the Puppet Master's legs out from under him.

"Let him go, duel like man!" Krum demanded with wide furious eyes.

"I prefer to duel like this, you foolish boy," the Puppet Master sneered and twisted whatever it was that jabbed so deeply between Ron's ribs.

"Just finish him off, Viktor. Like we said. Just fuckin' kill him!" Ron yelled.

Krum looked at Ron's wand, still in his hand albeit useless at the end of Ron's twisted arm, and then the Puppet Master's wand in the Bulgarian's own hand. Krum looked down at the dead Death Eater on the floor and saw the shattered wand in his lifeless hand.

"You," Krum said triumphantly as he aimed his wand at the Puppet Master, "have no wand."

Ron looked at Krum and both their eyes sparkled as victory was finally in sight. Ron pushed his back into the thing poking him in the ribs and heard a knuckle crack. It was the bloody bastard's finger! Gripping his wand tightly, he smiled at Krum and called out two spells.

"Nox! Expelliarmis!"

The light was gone from the room and Ron managed to release himself from the Puppet Master's chokehold. As he hit the floor, he called out to Krum.

"Viktor, I'm free!"

"Avada Kedavra!" Krum's voice yelled out.

The Puppet Master dove away and fell over Ron's body on the floor. The green light of the spell lit the room with an eerie glow for a second before they were plunged into darkness once again. Ron could hear his own heartbeat and heavy breathing. There was a single footstep on the floorboards and ragged breathing coming from somewhere else. Ron didn't want to call out and give away his position. Krum wouldn't strike the Puppet Bastard down if he ducked behind Ron again. There was another footstep on the far side of the room.

The breathing several feet away from the walking wizard grew more ragged. Ron closed his eyes, gripped his wand, and listened carefully. The breathing was on his left and the footsteps were on his right. He couldn't make either out. Both Krum and the Puppet Master were big blokes. There was a third footstep on the right, even closer this time.

"Ron?" a thick accent panted from Ron's left.

"Avada Ke-" a vicious sounding voice roared from his right as the footsteps boomed into a run.

Ron turned his wand onto the sound of the running man and sent the only curse he and Krum had agreed upon.

"Avada Kedavra!"

There was a brilliant flash of green lightning and Ron saw the curse hit something and then fade into nothing as a deep thud shook the floorboards. Ron was shaking all over. His wand felt as if it was humming in his hand. The frantic breathing from his left was the only other sound in the darkened room.

"Ron? You did this? Speak?"

"I killed him," Ron whispered, "we...we did it. You okay Viktor?"

"I not hurt. You are okay?"

Ron felt himself in shock at the whole nightmare finally being over at last.

"Yeah."

"Good," Krum answered.

Ron frowned. Something was weird about Viktor's accent.

"Lumos!"

Ron's eyes widened as he saw the Puppet Master sprawled across the floor, fingers prying his wand back out of Krum's cold dead hand and grinning wildly at Ron.

"Just you and me, Firebrand," the Puppet Master growled territorially at him while flicking his wand and disarming Ron before he could even inhale to exclaim his horror at what he had just done. "No one is watching," the evil sadist smiled lasciviously, "just as you wanted."

Ron lunged at his wand where it landed on the floor but the Puppet Master was too fast for him and Ron's wrists were bound behind his back. With all that momentum and his arms unable to brace against the fall, Ron hit the floor hard on his side. His eyes burned as he stared across the wooden floorboards directly into Krum's lifeless eyes.

The Puppet Master got to his feet and nudged Krum with his foot, laughing idly as he did so.

"You are a murderer just like me, Firebrand."

"No," Ron whimpered as he slumped against the floor and cursed himself for his stupidity.

"You do not accidentally fire a Killing Curse, jongen," the Puppet Master hissed with great mirth, "and a Killing Curse that has the power to kill is fired with intent."

Ron shook his head and looked away from Krum's body.

"No," Ron choked.

"Intent...and hate...and passion!" the Puppet Master said euphorically as he stepped over Krum's body and advanced on Ron.

Ron gritted his teeth and pulled at his bonds. He was going to die at the hands of this bastard, worse maybe, or go to Azkaban for murdering Krum. There was nothing left to lose. There was nothing to do but fight.

"You put anything in my mouth, I'm biting it off!" Ron snarled as he kicked out at the Puppet Master's legs desperately. "You want to play games with me? Well, I'm not bloody playing!"

"You will do as you are told under the influence of the Imperius Curse jongen!" the Puppet Master crowed triumphantly as he crouched before Ron and gripped a handful of his flaming red hair.

"I can beat that remember?" Ron spat back in disgust as he tried to shift away from the Puppet Master. "I've beaten you already. Viktor, and me we both beat you. We saved the others. They got away, you lose."

Ron was pulled up by his hair and his face was held beneath the Puppet Master's as the Dark Wizard licked his lips and directed Ron's face over towards Colin's dead body just inside the doorway.

"Not quite all the others, Firebrand," the Puppet Master sneered smugly. "Tour Viktor is a murderer, too."

"It was an accident," Ron gave a dry sob and closed his eyes.

Why hadn't Colin gone with the others like they'd planned?

"I have the prize. The prize is what I have been playing for. The Potter boy, the Ministry, the blood traitors, they all destroyed our master and us. They lost the prize though, young Firebrand. They lost the pureblood warrior, the right hand of the great Potter. They might still have their great champion but the champion doesn't have his trophy." The Puppet Master leaned in close and sighed into Ron's revolted face. "I have the ultimate prize. I win."

Ron spat into the Puppet Master's face just as the door was smashed off its hinges with the ferocity as Skunk Head arrived.

"Meester, de Shouwers, de Orde, ze vallen aan! Die Finnigan-jongen heeft ze hier naartoe geleid. We moeten vluchten!"

Ron almost threw up with relief and smiled weakly.

"Fergus! He made it! You're a fucking dead man!"

The Puppet Master struck Ron across the face with a backhanded blow and Ron slumped down onto the floorboards and tried to keep control of himself. This wasn't over yet. He looked over at Krum. Oh Merlin, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Viktor.

Ron forced his eyes closed and cursed the Bulgarian for not killing him and the Puppet Master when he had the chance.

"Is dit weer vals alarm, net als de vorige keer dat je me stoorde toen ik mijn jongen had?" The Puppet Master snarled furiously.

"Nee meester, ze zijn hier. Ze breken door onze verdediging heen en ze zullen snel het landhuis bereiken. We moeten ons terugtrekken," Skunk Head replied imppatiently.

"Nee!" the Puppet Master snapped as he yanked Ron up to his feet and shoved him toward Skunk Head, who caught him with some distaste. "Ik zal de mannen bij elkaar roepen en dan kom ik mijn Firabrand halen. Jij houdt hem hier tot ik terug kom."

"En als je niet terugkomt?"

"Dan dood je hem. Als ik hem niet kan hebben, krijgt niemand hem." the Puppet Master said, as he looked Ron up and down before turning with a billow of his robes and striding out.

"I understood that, y'know?" Ron panted. "He doesn't care about any of you lot. He'll slaughter you all and for what? Not for your cause, not for your Dark Lord, but for a piece of blood traitor arse!"

The Death Eater looked at Ron and then looked away, holding Ron both physically by the arms at wand point.

"You don't understand me?" Ron laughed nervously. "I learned your language quick enough. What's wrong with you?"

The Death Eater dragged Ron over to the door and shoved him through it. Ron was marched over to a window at the end of a short walkway. The Death Eater glanced out before hissing and glaring at Ron.

"Losing are ya?" Ron grinned, his voice still shaken from the events of that night. "All ya mates are dying for no other reason than your master wants to fuck a pure blood who isn't inbred?"

The Skunk Head shoved Ron's back against the wall and pointed his wand into the redhead's face.

"I know how you feel mate," Ron smiled sadly. "All your mates dead and for what? For one perverted fucker to get his end away. This wasn't about honour or money or liberation of your fellow Death Eaters, this was all about nookie!"

"Stil!" the Skunk Head growled nervously.

"You kill yer own kind, your brothers in arms, and now what? He's left you babysitting his bitch!" Ron spoke with disgust at his own plight and the Skunk Head stared at him with something akin to understanding.

"Ik heb mijn broeders verraden uit loyaliteit naar de meester. Ik heb gezien hoe de meester hen vermoorde, en onze strijd voor rechtvaardigheid negeerde. Ik heb hem een jongen zien misbruiken. Hij wijkt af. Hij is een schande. Niemand van ons kan hem tegenhouden." The Death Eater spoke with menace and pent-up rage.

"We kunnen aan hem ontsnappen."Ron was as shocked as the Skunk Head at his reply in a foreign tongue.

"Ik ga jou niet helpen, bloedverrader!"

"En ik help jou ook niet. Maar gaan we hem helpen, jouw meester?"

The Skunk Head looked at Ron and furrowed his brow thoughtfully before an explosion outside made them both jump and come back to their senses.

"Aljeblieft?" Ron pleaded with the man's humanity and willed there to be some of it left inside.

"Op je knieÃ«n," the Skunk Head said suddenly as he shoved Ron ahead of him towards the top of the staircase.

"Wat?" Ron frowned anxiously.

"I said get on your knees!" the Skunk Head spoke firmly and clearly.

"No, wait, don't!" Ron said as he fell down to his knees and the Skunk Head stepped to one side, still holding Ron at wand point.

"I will not help you," the man with the white streak in the middle of his dark hair said as he backed away slowly, "but I will not help him, either."

"I don't understand," Ron garbled as he watched the Death Eater backing further away, lowering his wand.

"I did not become a Death Eater to kill other Death Eaters. I did not join the Dark Lord to murder purebloods. Go."

Ron stared at the man in total shock, still on his knees with his hands tied behind his back.

"You...Bu...Wh-"

"GA!" the man snapped before creating a Portkey and disappearing from sight.

Ron couldn't believe this. He was free. Well, in one way at least. He pushed himself back up onto his feet and stepped through the ropes until his hands were in front of him. He stood at the top of the stairs and looked down. What if he bumped into the Puppet Master as soon as he got to the bottom? What if he bumped into Harry or his Dad or Fergus?

Ron felt hope come back to him again.

Fergus had brought the others back for them. He got out alive which meant that Lee and Dean most likely got out, too. There was another explosion from outside and the ceiling began to crumble above him.

"Oh shit!" Ron hissed.

He had no wand, it was back in the attic room with Krum's body, and the roof was falling in on him. His choice was made for him. He had to go downstairs.

The Puppet Bastard had come into the blackness of the attic room but Ron and Krum hadn't attacked.

Lee was still holding his breath and biting his lip with both anxiety and pain from his back. Dean and Colin were holding him up at the ready to run. The room was still silent. Lee listened carefully and heard the rustling of fabric. There was a whispering and then...then something that sounded horribly like...

No it couldn't be.

Ron wouldn't go that far to distract the Puppet Master's attention surely. Lee found himself shaking his head to himself, setting his jaw with determination. Ron's picking the Bastard's pocket, not anything else, and that sound is nothing like lips smacking Lee thought resolutely.

"Now!" Krum's voice yelled out and before Lee could cry out in pain he was being partially dragged across the floor towards the place Dean and Colin knew the door was. Fergus was running behind them.

Lee felt sick to be leaving Ron in the dark with that pervert but he was of no use any more. All he had to do was get out alive. He'd get out alive and Ron wouldn't be sexually assaulted and this whole ordeal would be over at long last.

"Keep goin', lads," Fergus panted. "I don't see anyone after us so tread carefully."

"Are you fucking joking?" Dean puffed over his shoulder while Lee's feet banged against the floorboards.

"Lemme run, I can run," Lee pleaded with them.

"Not fast enough yeh can't," Fergus said before grabbing Colin and pulling him backwards, flattening Lee and Dean to the wall with him. "I see stairs."

"Yeah, me too, Fergus, well spotted." Dean huffed sarcastically. "Do we need to formulate a plan to go down them or shall we just try the one at a time approach?"

"Why are you two being like that?" Colin yelped as Lee's weight fell awkwardly on him.

"Maybe because we just left two people with a sadist on their own Col!" Fergus snapped.

"They'll be fine!" Dean said through gritted teeth, nodding very indiscreetly at Lee in a way that suggested they shouldn't speak negatively in front of the injured wizard.

"Stop talking to me like I'm an idiot," Colin said with annoyance while his eyes bored into Fergus.

"Look, I've got to get the three of yer's outta here in one piece," Fergus looked at Lee and winced. "Well...two and a half anyway, and it's a little feckin' stressful!"

There was a flash of light from the end of the walkway and Ron's voice called out.

"You got a wand Krum?"

"Not yet!"

"We've gotta go back," Lee said desperately.

"No, we promised them we'd get out and keep going," Dean urged, with an expression that clearly showed he wanted nothing more than to run back inside and tackle the Puppet Bastard to the ground and throttle him.

"Fergus, take Lee!" Colin said with determination.

"Why?" Fergus frowned in alarm as Colin ducked out from under Lee's arm and the Irishman lunged forward to catch Lee before he fell.

"I'm going back to help them," Colin said fiercely.

"Colin don't be...I didn't mean teh have a go alright? Yeh can't!" Fergus panicked.

"I'm too short to support Lee properly. I'm slowing you down and they need help in there!"

"Colin don't, we promised them! What if you get in the way?" Dean said fearfully.

"I'm small," Colin smiled with a resigned shrug. "They won't even know I'm there!"

"That's not necessarily a good thing," Dean said.

" Col, listen to me!" Lee winced. "I want go back, too, but Ron's planned this for three people in a darkened room. If you mess up his plan, who knows what could go wrong?"

"I'm not going to hold you back and I'm not going to leave them behind," Colin spoke strongly before patting Fergus on the arm and smiling nervously. "No hard feelings, eh?"

"Yeh can't," Fergus pleaded with the short wizard as he set off back the way they had come. " Col, don't!"

"Fergus, the stairs," Dean said, beginning to panic. "We need to get help."

Lee watched with Fergus as Colin disappeared into the darkness.

"If you two try to leave me, too, I'll fucking kill ya," Lee said sadly.

Fergus looked back at Dean and lifted his head.

"Let's get down those stairs then."

The three of them struggled down the stairs for three flights before reaching a door. Fergus supported Lee totally as Dean ran over and tried the handle.

"Locked," Dean said, not the least bit surprised.

"Try the window," Fergus nodded to an ornate looking window little to the left.

Dean hurried over and tried to open it.

"Nope," he grunted before glancing around. "Wait there."

"No way, not you, too, ya git!" Fergus protested as Dean ran off out of sight.

"Did he not hear me saying about killing people who leave me?" Lee hissed furiously.

"I think—" Fergus leaned forward a little and squinted, "I think he's checking the coast is clear."

Sure enough Dean came back, panting lightly.

"There's no one here!" he said excitedly. "I think that bastard's lost all his supporters. He's here alone, lads."

Dean's eyes sparkled triumphantly.

"What are you thinking?" Lee asked suspiciously.

"I'm thinking Fergus' doing a really great job holding you by himself, Lee."

"Don't you dare!" Fergus barked.

"No fucking way!" Lee cursed. "We stick to what we agreed. We get reinforcements and bring them back to stop the Puppet Bastard."

"Stick teh the plan, Thomas!" Fergus ordered the younger wizard.

"The plan was for us to fight our way out through hoards of Death Eaters and there are none!" Dean said happily. "Take Lee back and bring Aurors with you. Lots of Aurors, Fergus."

"And what'll you be doing? Running back up after Colin to fuck up Ron and Krum's ambush for sure?" Lee said, almost scornfully.

"I'll wait for you, keep the coast clear and make sure that when Ron, Krum and Colin come running down those stairs they've a friendly face waiting for them."

"What if somebody else comes running down those stairs?" Fergus asked with annoyance.

Dean looked around himself and snatched up a rusty poker in his hand.

"Then, I'll see to them so you don't walk into a trap when you come back for us." Dean smiled.

"No," Lee said fiercely. "There will be no more splitting up!"

"Fergus, Ron and the others need the Aurors now. Go and get some help."

"And how are we going anywhere?" Fergus huffed. "The door and window's locked and we can't Disapparate.

Dean brandished the rusty poker and swung it behind him. He thrust it forward through the locked window and shattered the glass noisily.

"Shit, Dean!" Lee cringed at the amount of racket caused.

Dean winked mischievously. "Well, if they weren't coming before they definitely are now! Bring in the back-up, boys."

Fergus handed Lee over to Dean and clambered up onto the ledge. Lee gritted his teeth as Dean lifted him up, putting an unfortunate amount of pressure on his agonising back, and handed him up to Fergus. There were a few apologies and cries of pain before Fergus hopped down from the ledge onto the grass outside and carried Lee as far from the mansion as he could before attempting to Disapparate.

"Lee, mate," Fergus said with a sad look on his face, "this could really hurt."

"Do it!" Lee clenched his teeth and forced his eyes shut as Fergus turned on the spot and hoped for the best.

Chapter 48 The End

"Somebody!"

The raw yell shook the doors in their frames and plaster from the ceiling. Harry and Hermione almost fell over each other getting out of their seats while Seamus ran like the wind toward the door and smashed it clean off its hinges as soon as he heard the voice.

It was a voice very much like his own.

"Fergus?"

There were footsteps and cracks of Apparition echoing all around the entrance to the Embassy but Harry gripped Hermione's hand as they sprinted behind Seamus all the way down the stairs towards the two bloodied and filthy figures that dropped to their knees heavily. One looked like a broader, slightly taller version of Seamus, and the other was unmistakeably Lee Jordan.

"I need some Aurors now!" Fergus Finnigan bellowed to the rafters before turning to attend to Lee, whom he was clearly supporting completely.

"Fergus?" Marie Finnigan gasped as she ran from the side room where Tommy was recuperating. "Oh my God, oh my boy, you're alive!"

"Ma?" Fergus exclaimed in bewilderment. "What the bleedin' hell are ye doin' in Holland?"

Without thinking Mrs Finnigan smacked her son about the back of the head.

"What the feck d'ya think I'm doin' in Holland, ya stupid little gobshite?" the woman screamed before falling to her knees and choking on her sobs as she grabbed her son and hugged him as tightly as a Boa Constrictor it's prey.

"Get me the Order and every available Auror at HQ now, Shacklebolt!" Moody boomed as he stomped across the floor towards the three figures slumped against each other.

"Sir, Mr Moody, sir." Fergus was wrestling his mother away and trying to hand off Lee to her to take care of. "Ma, his back, he needs help, please. Ye can have me bollox in a jar later alright? Sir, I need to go back fer the others. We made a break fer it, but nobody would go without Ron and Krum and last I saw they were fighting the Puppet Bastard—I mean, the ringleader, sir. Come on!"

"You broke out?" Moody said, his chest puffing out just as Seamus flung himself at his cousin and shook him like a rag doll.

"It's really you, ya bastard?" Seamus snapped into the grubby face before him.

"Warts an'all, Shay," Fergus said as he gave his cousin a slap on the arm. "I left yer mate Dean watching the door fer the others and waiting fer me to bring the cavalry with me. Are yeh in?"

"'Course I'm in!" Seamus said with a grin. "Dean's okay then? Ron, too? What's wrong with Jordan?"

"Get them out of there," Lee growled as what looked like a patchwork quilt stained with dry and fresh blood was revealed by Mrs Finnigan's examination. "They're outnumbered, you've got to go now!"

"He's right, I'm goin back," Fergus said as Seamus hauled him back to his feet.

"Fergus Finnigan, you're goin' nowhere!" Kathleen snapped at her nephew. "Yeh only just this minute came back to ye mother and yer plannin' on leaving again?"

"Aunt Kathleen—" Fergus protested.

"Ma!" Seamus huffed.

"He has to show us where they are, Mrs Finnigan. Now come on and tend to the Jordan boy. Somebody needs to fetch his mother," Moody said as he grabbed the Finnigan boys and shoved them towards the doors of the Embassy.

"She's in the kitchen with my mum," Ginny said as she set off running. "I'll fetch her."

Harry and Hermione were trotting behind Moody as he frog marched the Finnigans ahead of him, while Aurors and Order members began to appear as if from nowhere at their side.

"Lee!" Mrs Jordan cried out. "Oh Merlin, what happened to him? Is he bleeding? Why is he bleeding?"

There were thundering footsteps as the Weasley men came charging down the stairs, some of them looking as if they had been about to shower. Charlie was pulling on a t-shirt as he ran down a flight of stairs. The twins actually vaulted over the banister because Fleur and Arthur weren't descending the staircase fast enough for their liking. They skidded across the smooth floorboards on their knees towards Lee and his mother with terrified eyes just as the home made bandages were cut away.

"What the f—?"

"Where's your fucking back?" Fred demanded as he reeled back and clamped his hand to his mouth in revulsion.

"I didn't want to leave him," Lee began to whimper as he grabbed for George's sleeve. "I wanted to stay and fight. I wanted to get him out for you but I couldn't—I can't fight like this."

"Lee, it's alright sweetheart," Mrs Jordan was saying as she cradled her butchered son as delicately as she could while an almost green with nausea Kathleen Finnigan set about trying to clean and heal the deeply gouged flesh of Lee's back, if there was any flesh left.

"But I left him with him. I left him with that bastard," Lee grimaced and scrunched up his face tightly. "Fred, George, I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Fred said, his own face paling. "He's alive isn't he?"

"I couldn't stop him," Lee choked back the emotion that was forcing its way out of his throat as he gritted his teeth and kept his eyes tightly shut. "I tried everything but he was too—I didn't have a—I thought while I was there I could protect him but he did this to me and I had to leave him. He's my brother and I left him with that pervert!"

The twins gulped and looked at each other as they stood up straight, fearing for Lee's sanity. Mrs Jordan's eyes shone with tears and she looked at the Finnigans.

"He doesn't have a brother. Oh Lee, what have they done to you?" Floella said as she lowered her head and kissed her son's cheek.

The twins ran for the door after the rescue party without a second glance back at their best friend and his screeching mother.

"Leave it to the professionals boys, please. I can't lose any more of you, my dears. Come back this instant!" Molly cried out after her departing family.

Hermione wasn't saying a word. She gripped Harry's hand tightly and they followed Moody and the Finnigans down the stairs. Harry knew she was thinking the same thing he was at that moment. Lee and Tommy had been in a cell with Ron, they had been close to Ron, and both had come back to the Embassy physically and mentally damaged. Just speculating on what state Ron would be in when they found him was making Harry's legs feel weak. He shut off his brain and emotions as best he could. Ron needed him to be strong. Hermione needed him to be strong for her if—if the worst had happened.

"Ron stayed ta fight, Ron and Krum," Fergus said while Moody prepared a special Portkey that would draw the location from the Irish wizard's memory and transport them en-mass all at once. "Then Colin went back, wouldn't leave them teh fight alone."

Dennis was somewhere in the crowd calling out for news of his brother but he was far too short to see and the Weasleys were too loud for his high voice to be heard.

"Me an' Dean got Lee out through a window but Dean wanted the wait fer Col and the others, wanted the cover the stairs fer them, and he said he'd keep the doorway clear fer us when I brought ye all back with me."

"Portus viator accelero!" Moody said as he created the Portkey from the length of rope and sent it hovering before everyone like a floating snake. "On three, I want everybody to grab the rope, not a moment before, right?"

There were many mumbles of assent. Hermione looked up at Harry, forcing a smile onto her face. "Whatever has happened to him Harry, it finally stops now—one way or the other."

"There's only one way I can live with, Hermione. I'm getting him back alive. What good was saving the world if Ron doesn't get to be in it?"

"One—two—three!"

Ron was running as fast as he could with his arms bound together in front of him. Dean's trainers weren't laced properly and he tripped and fell forward, slamming down onto the burgundy carpet very hard. Ron's bare chest burnt, the rough carpet was quite abrasive against his skin, and he grazed his chin as a result of his awkward fall.
Winded, Ron lay still for a second before straining to get up again. The floor shook suddenly while ornate picture frames on the walls shook their residents awake. There were yells and flashes of spells being shouted in battle. Ron hoped the Aurors would get through alright.

From a long corridor, a door creaked open and a deep Dutch voice called out angrily, "Neem hen ook!"

Ron tried to launch himself forward again but lost his balance as another explosion shook the whole building. He thumped back down on his shoulder with an 'oof!'. There was a something, a golden brown something that caught the corner of Ron's eye. He blinked and squinted to focus his eyes on the blur as it scurried along the floor, tight against the skirting board.

If he wasn't mad before, he knew he had to be now.

"Shocolate?"

The little brown mouse kept on running. Ron swallowed and pushed himself up with his bound hands and shook his head at the stupidity of what he was about to do, figuring that this was the closest thing he was going to get to a sign. He followed the mouse down the plush narrow hallway and around the corner. He saw a regal-looking staircase to his left but the mouse headed for what looked like a service stairway, plain and narrow, heading to the ground floor.

Biting his lip, Ron hurried after the mouse as it disappeared through the doorway and wriggled through a crack in the wall. Just as Ron passed the massive flight of carpeted stairs, they exploded into flames and he ran down the servant's stairs so fast that he feared he wouldn't be able to stop.

His momentum caused him to slam into the wall at the bottom of the stairs and he staggered down the last three steps, falling onto the hard, tiled floor.

Well, he would have done if two hands hadn't grabbed him and righted him firmly. Ron breathed heavily and took a moment to register that it was Dean, wearing a concerned smile on his face.

"I got ya, Ron. We're almost out. You did it, eh? Nice one ma-" Dean looked from Ron's face down to his bound wrists and then up at the empty staircase. "Why are you tied up?"

Ron's shoulders fell and he shook his head with a shudder. Dean shook Ron roughly by the shoulders.

"Come on, don't get like that again! Where's Krum and Colin?"

Again, Ron shook his head before crumpling into Dean's shoulder and shaking violently.

"Oh, shit no," Dean exhaled as he rubbed his hand up and down Ron's bare back. "But—you got out. You made it and Lee and Fergus are okay. Four of us made it, Ron. That's better than we'd hoped, right?"

"B-But," Ron winced with frustration at his stammer having returned. He pulled away from Dean and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "S'my fault! K-Krum! V-V-Viktor, it was me! I did i-"

"Stop it!" Dean said fiercely as he stared into Ron's reddening eyes. "Krum wanted you to make it, I know he did! He told me so himself. If you were the only one of us to get out he thought death would be worth it! Now sort yourself out and stop talking like a nutter!"

Ron took a few more deep calming breaths while Dean searched for a knife to hack through the ropes that tied Ron's wrists together.

"I'm okay now," Ron nodded breathlessly. "I'm fine. Sorry."

"Alright then." Dean nodded with relief as he began sawing through the ropes,forcing Ron to meet his eyes by lowering his head. "Lee got away, Lee and Fergus; you saved 'em, Ron."

"W-Why are you still here?" Ron winced with frustration at his lingering stammer.

"Waiting for you, mate. I'm going nowhere without you. Y'think I could ever face Lee again if I left his brother here with that sick fuck, eh?"

Ron's eyes widened and his breath hitched painfully in his chest. "We didn't get him. He's still out there, Dean."

"What?" Dean's face fell.

"Colin and Viktor—" Ron began before his voice gave way and his head dropped. "He played me perfectly. I—I—"

"He didn't come by me Ron; he's not around here, okay? We're going to get out of here and the Aurors will come storming in. They'll finish him off for us, alright?" Dean spoke with such confidence that Ron actually smiled when he nodded back at his old roommate.

"They'll rip 'im to a p-p-p—What the fuck is wrong with me?" Ron blurted angrily. "I just had a whole conversation up there and I was f-fine."

"Don't worry about it," Dean said as he tugged on Ron's elbow to guide him over to the smashed window and crouched to give him a leg up. "Let's just run for it."

"And they c-call me a strategist!" Ron laughed weakly before closing his eyes and concentrating hard. "Ik ben geen moordenaar. Ik zal hier niet sterven. Ik kan normaal praten." Ron opened his eyes and smiled. "Okay, lets go."

"What the hell was that you were saying?" Dean frowned as he pushed upwards, launching Ron part of the way through the window.

"Just t-testing something out." Ron grunted as he pulled himself through and swivelled on the ledge to reach back and take Dean's hand, ready to pull him through.

"Oh, maar je bent wel een moordenaar, mijn beste Firebrand." The Puppet Master grabbed Ron's forearm tightly and pulled the knife from behind Dean's back. "Misschien kan ik de Dementors evan overtuigen ons een cel te laten delen. Voor altijd samen in hel."

Dean's eyes were wide and he coughed up blood before gurgling something to Ron as he slid to the floor. "Run!"

"One of us'll be d-dead before this is over!" Ron said as he kicked the Puppet Master in the face and fell backwards out the window.

"We zullen allemaal dood gaan als het speeltje left!" a thick Dutch accent shouted as Ron fell heavily into the arms of a dark-robed figure who dragged him backwards and threw him into a small gathering of other hooded figures. The Death Eaters apparently had enough of their master's obsession with his 'plaything' and decided to take some security with them while they made their escape and abandon the Puppet Master to face the attack from the Aurors and, no doubt, Ron's furiously protective friends and family.

The Puppet Master glared through the broken window as Ron was dragged away, kicking and punching with everything he had left in him. The Death Eater who had spoken pointed his wand at the master he was abandoning and backed away after his retreating colleagues.

"Jij zou ons allemaal laten sterven voor je slaaf. Hij zal ons de grens over helpen en daarna vermoorden we hem zodat niemand ooit zal horen van jouw perversiteit."

The Puppet Master pointed his wand at his follower. Rons' captor wasn't fast enough to counter attack and caught the green spell in the chest and thudded to the ground, dead. The other Death Eaters crowded around Ron, some spitting, some hitting and one actually hiding behind him from the Puppet Master's spells, sent out shields until they were under the cover of some nearby woods.

"Okay, you can go now," Ron said, struggling against the many hands that continued to drag him along the forest floor. "You can Disapparate over the border and leave me here. I've not seen any of you. I can't tell them anything about y-you."

A steel toe capped boot swung a heavy kick into Ron's stomach and another pair of hands dropped him heavily to the ground and poked him in the throat with a wand.

"Ik ben van zuiver bloed, net als jij!" Ron wheezed as he rolled onto his side and gasped for air.

"Je bent een bloedverrader. Je bent niets meer dan ongedierte," one of the Death Eaters snarled before kicking Ron in the small of his back. "Je bent een schande voor je bloedverwanten!"

There was a yell followed by a loud explosion from the mansion, distracting the crowd of Death Eaters who were beating Ron. He struggled to his feet and tried to push between two heavily robed figures. One of them grabbed him in a choke hold while the other kicked his legs out from under him.

"Over here!" Ron yelled raggedly at the top of his lungs before being silenced by a blow to the side of his face, making him feel as if he had been spun around on the spot without actually having gone anywhere.

"Dood hem nu!"

"We gaan, we hebben geen gijzelaar meer nodig!"

"I can hear people in the woods, Kingsley—come on!" a voice cried out over a blaze of orange flame that looked like five spells crashing together in midair.

One of the Death Eater's drew his wand and pointed it at Ron's face. He ducked before he knew what he was doing and the Death Eater that held him was struck down dead. Ron acted on his instincts and turned to jump over the body at his feet and sprint into the thick wooded area behind him.

Spells and shouts followed him, but his slight build and days of starvation had made Ron wiry enough to weave in and out of the compactly smug tree trunks. The spells grew fewer and the pounding footsteps behind him reduced to a single pair.

"Je bent zo goed als dood jongen, sterf op zijn minst eervol!" his pursuer called out from the darkness of the deep woods.

Ron slammed into a low branch, scratching his face and causing him to stumble a little but still he kept on running. He ducked and jumped, weaving in and out between tree trunks, shrubbery and thorn bushes. All the time he heard the words of his friends telling him to keep going, to survive at all costs. He saw Krum's face when he told him he would happily die for Ron in order for Ron to escape.

All those people were dead.

He couldn't give up now. He couldn't let them have died for nothing. He had to get back to Hermione. He had to see Harry. Harry would be in a right state if anything happened to him. He had to live through this so Harry wouldn't turn into the person he had become after Sirius left him. His mum and dad, they couldn't outlive him. They needed him to keep going. Then he thought of his brothers, even bloody Percy, and Ginny. What if the twins stopped being funny because there was nobody to laugh at them anymore? What if Bill thought he hadn't done his duty as the big brother? Who was Ginny going to sit up with late and talk to about stupid things? What would Charlie do when the brother he'd promised to protect from all the horrors in life died and it all came out, the stories about what had been done to him? Charlie would do something stupid. Charlie always did stupid things when it came to Ron.

And Lee—

Lee would die.

He promised Lee he'd be right behind him. He had to be there for Lee.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The spell splintered the bark of the tree Ron was using for cover. Ron set off running again, not pausing to draw breath. His lungs burned and his legs felt heavy. He hadn't eaten enough to sustain this level of exertions but somehow he found the energy to keep on running.

He had messages to pass on.

Auror Maccario was not afraid to die and he loved his Chiara more than life itself. He loved her so much his whole face lit up the dark cells just talking about her.

Danny never told his girl. Ron had to find her and let her know, he'd promised. Danny had been with him in body and spirit and he couldn't stop fighting now, not so close to the end, not when he was so close to freedom at last.

"Nghh!" The grunt from behind took Ron by surprise and he felt himself being tackled to the ground.

Both Ron and the Death Eater fell and rolled down a slight slope into a muddy ditch.

"Jij moet dood!" the Death Eater roared into Ron's face as he kneed him in the chest and rolled over so that Ron was pinned beneath him.

Ron spat into the man's face, his hood fell back and Ron saw that his assailant was in his late thirties, early forties at best. The man had a scar over his left eye and dark reddy-brown stubble that matched his closely cropped hair. The man punched Ron, fracturing his cheekbone in the same place it had broken during the attack on the safe house all that time ago. It felt like years now. The Dark wizard drew his wand and growled the Killing Curse.

Ron thrust the heel of his palm upwards and smashed the man in the mouth. His bottom lip burst open and he grabbed Ron by the throat and punched him in the face again. The Death Eater spat out a mouthful of blood onto Ron's face and raised his wand again.

Ron's head was spinning but he reached up for the man's wand arm just as the Killing Curse was yelled, thickly but completely.

There was a brilliant flash of green.

Harry and Charlie had followed Fergus and Seamus to the window where they were supposed to find Dean and the others waiting for them. Instead, they'd found Dean's body. He had bled to death from a stab wound, Charlie had said before shaking a stunned Fergus back to his senses enough to direct them up the stairs. Seamus knelt at his best friend's side before roaring a string of obscenities and running off towards sounds of a distant fight on the lower floor of the building. Fergus had followed him.
Harry felt dreadful leaving Dean just lying there, but he couldn't be helped and Ron could. Ron had to still be alive.

"Ron!" Charlie hollered as he thundered up the stairs. He trod so heavily on the step second from the top that when Harry trod on it moments later it gave way and he fell through up to the middle of his thigh and found himself unable to follow Charlie up into the small room that led up to an attic room.

"Ron, answer me!" Charlie boomed out fiercely.

"He will not respond," an amused sounding voice with a Dutch accent said from somewhere out of Harry's line of vision.

Harry tugged at his leg but jagged pieces of splintered wood dug into his skin painfully and he could only draw his wand in readiness to stun the man who addressed Charlie with such an amused, yet sadistic tone. Charlie looked murderous as he pointed his wand at the part of the room Harry was unable to see.

"You're the Puppet Master, aren't you?" Charlie snarled as he took a step closer to the voice, his face bright red and his eyes wide and wild.

"My reputation precedes me. You have to be a sibling of my Firebrand."

"Your what?" Charlie said with great disgust, his eyes darting around quickly. "Where's my brother?"

"He is yours as much as he is mine now," the Puppet Master said with what sounded like a grimace of pain, "taken from both of us by my men for execution."

"You fuckin' liar!" Charlie growled and launched himself out of view, a deep red spell sparking the tip of his wand, lighting the walls of the room.

Harry pointed his wand down at the broken step and blasted the rest of the splintered wood away into dust before clambering out of the hole and crawling onto the landing to cover Charlie. He saw a very large man in dark robes. It was really something for somebody to look huge and intimidating in Charlie's company but this man managed it somehow. Harry's green eyes flashed with rage as he recalled Tommy's words about the Puppet Bastard, the cruel Dark Wizard who was doing unthinkable things to Ron, sick things—perverted things that Harry hoped could be wiped from Ron's memory when they got him back to England. Charlie was punching the man but the Death Eater was smiling.

"Where is he? Where did they take him? What the fuck have you done with my brother, you vile shit?"

"What would I do with that glorious young boy?" the Puppet Master chortled with a delighted look on his face before laughing manically. "What I have done already and what I would do when we are reunited again, my dear Weasley."

"You won't ever," Charlie spat as his powerful fist pounded into the Puppet Master's face to wipe away the sick smile with a fountain of blood, "go near him," Charlie slammed his fist into the man's haughty nose and broke it with a crunching sound, "again!"

"Charlie, don't we need to find him?" Harry screamed as he struggled to his feet, keeping his wand on the Puppet Master at all times.

"Ah, Potter!" the Puppet Master said, abnormally pleasant for somebody with a battered and bloodied face. "One might wonder why the great Chosen One of the Prophesy would associate with the mongrel of the Weasley brood but I saw it as soon as I had him against the wall that first day—"

"You shut up!" Charlie hissed as he grabbed the man about the throat and pressed his thumbs down on his windpipe.

Harry had never seen a human turn into an animal before, not this way. He'd seen Lupin transform into a werewolf, Sirius turn from man into dog and McGonagall change into a cat but this was something very different indeed. Charlie clenched his teeth and his eyes were feral. The muscles in his shoulders, neck, arms and hands pulsed beneath the skin and the Puppet Master's face was almost purple.

"You dared to touch my brother, you fucking pervert? You put your filthy hands on him just once and it's too much. Just once and you're a bloody dead man!"

"Charlie, we don't know where he is, please stop!" Harry begged the livid Weasley.

Charlie let out a yell of fury as he released his grip on the Puppet Master's throat and ripped the man's wand out of his hand. Harry watched as Charlie pointed both wands into the Puppet Master's chest and growled a curse.

"Crucio!"

The Puppet Master's back arched and Charlie was bucked off the man like a rider on one of those mechanical bulls Harry had seen on television. As Charlie fell away, the curses were broken and the sweating, panting Death Eater rolled onto his side and coughed some blood up from his lungs.

"Either kill me or send me to Azkaban, jongen," the Puppet Master's ragged voice strained. "Neither will save the Firebrand. He is slaughtered by now."

"Where?" Harry demanded, lunging towards the Puppet Master before Charlie could get to him. Harry kicked the man over and pushed down on the Dark wizard's injured chest with his foot as hard as he could.

"Where is Ron? Tell me where to find him or I'll let him loose," Harry nodded over his shoulder to Charlie, "to do what he wants with you."

"I would have preferred the tender meat of the young one but I'll take the more matured variety if it's on offer, dear boy," the Puppet Master smiled with a wince of pain. The Death Eater's teeth were pink from the blood in his mouth and it only made him appear less human as far as Harry was concerned.

"There is no offer," Harry snapped furiously. "You can say what you like, but in the end, we're still going to kill you. Do you want to die quickly or slowly?" Harry pointed his wand down at the broken and bloodied form at his feet.

"You think I have just words to taunt you with, my boys? I have two dead in the attic, neither at my hands but your own men, and one in the pantry—I did have a hand in that one, or rather a knife."

"You fucker!" Harry snarled as he swung a kick into the man's ribcage. The Puppet Master grabbed Harry by the front of his sweatshirt and pulled him down to purr into his face with sickly rust-scented breath.

"I would never have known such a boy as my Firebrand existed if it weren't for you bringing him to my attention, Mr Potter. I thank you for that."

That had been the trigger for Harry. To be told that he and his friendship had been a factor in Ron's torment at the hands of the sadist before him was too much to bear. Harry drew his wand and moved it in a slashing motion across the Puppet Master's chest.

"Sectumsempra!"

The Puppet Master yelled in pain as the front of his robes darkened with deep red blood. Harry realised that the man had just told them there were two bodies in the attic and found himself sprinting past Charlie to get to the room before the roof fell in completely.

The last remaining group of Death Eaters, the only members of the 'brotherhood' left, found their missing member cleaning blood off his fist and putting his wand back inside his robes.
One of them took a step forward and looked down at the thin battered body on the ground. The red hair was matted with blood and the face had been beaten to a pulp. The boy was clearly dead, both by physical beating and dark magic, and there were a crowd of Ministry official approaching through the thicket after them. The closest Death Eater extended his hand to pull his blood-stained colleague out of the ditch with a grunt.

"We zullen zien hoe aantrekkelijk de jongen nu nog is voor de Meester."

The Death Eater slapped the man on the back and turned to his cohorts.

"We moeten Verschijnselen naar het afgesproken punt over de grens."

"Wacht!" the battle-fatigued Death Eater said before turning and jumped down into the ditch and rummaged in the pockets of the dead boy.

"We zullen niemand meer opofferen voor de Meester's oude ritueel. Vergeet het aandenken en kom."

The man removed a gold watch from the dead hostage's jean pocket and fondled it with apparent satisfaction.

"Ik wil een souvenir van deze, voor mijn prijzenkast."

"We hebben hier geen tijd voor, ze zijn er bijna!" one of the more panicky members of the brotherhood said from the back of the group.

"Ga nu!" The new 'Master' ordered.

The robed figures all turned on the spot to Disapparate but stumbled and fell to the ground with a series of groans and cries of discomfort. There were wards up. The Aurors had warded the woods when they had followed them inside.

"Rennen!" the Master said as the Death Eaters scattered.

As soon as the brotherhood got to their feet and scattered a voice hollered through the trees.

"Stupefy!"

The hex bounced off tree trunks and rustled leaves but within a second of the spell leaving the Auror's wand every Death Eater hit the ground, stunned.

Kingsley Shacklebolt led his team through the undergrowth and kicked an unconscious Death Eater with disgust. Remus Lupin pushed past the man to step over several bodies and look down into the ditch. It may have been the smell of blood or the smell of death that alerted him to the spot the dead hostage's butchered body laid.

"Oh no," Lupin said as his knees gave way and he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to cover his mouth and his horror. "Oh, Ron, no."

Kingsley crouched down and felt for a pulse without much hope. He stood again with a growl of frustration.

"Still bloody warm. Those bastards just killed him for the sake of it. One final victory over us."

"Ron wasn't a victory! He was a boy!" Lupin said as he glared at Kingsley.

"I'm well aware of that, Remus," Shacklebolt said darkly, "but, as the person who is going to have to look Arthur Weasley in the eye and tell him he can't identify his murdered son because his face has been pounded into a pulp, I am going to have to detach myself from this as much as possible!"

Lupin's eyes fell and he looked at the body once more before wincing and turning his head away with a shudder. He removed his cloak and draped it over the half naked boy.

"I'll have to tell Harry. Oh Merlin, Harry! Hermione, too! This is worse than anything, Kingsley."

Kingsley flicked his wand and levitated the body off the ground.

"I'll get him back to the mortuary in HQ. There's no way I'm letting Molly anywhere near him until we've cleaned him up."

Lupin tried to control his nerves and nodded before turning to summon some of the others who called for them through the trees. Kingsley sighed audibly and Lupin glanced at him as the lifeless body floated between them.

"Kingsley?"

The Auror didn't look up as he answered. "I sat next to him at his brother's wedding. Nice lad, loyal, funny—asked me if he could be an Auror without NEWTs."

"What did you say?"

Kingsley looked at Remus at long last. "I told him to worry about that when he'd finished being a kid, enjoy his freedom while he had his youthful energy. How old was he again?"

"Nineteen."

The two wizards went their separate ways without another word.

Chapter 49 Our Boy

The sounds of battle raged on outside. Harry had gone to find out whose bodies were in the attic; he hoped and pleaded to Merlin it wasn't Ron, while Charlie was left alone with the Puppet Master.

"Why do you do this to me, Weasley?" the Puppet Master sputtered through his mouthful of blood. He paused to spit out a tooth before smiling crookedly at Charlie. "I won't have been the first to look upon that sweet meat that way; I will not be the last. I was merely the only man to act upon my desires."

"Shut up!" Charlie boomed as he slammed his fist down into the man's face again. "Stop talking about him, you freak!"

The battered wizard shook his head, looking almost drunk as his remaining senses came back to him. His sickening smile returned and he lifted his bloodied hand to Charlie's face before the stronger man knocked it away with disgust.

"You think you can save a boy already dead by killing me? You think you can erase what I have done and he has endured?" The Dark wizard continued to sneer at Charlie. "You think by killing me and never discovering where I have touched him, it would never have happened?"

Charlie yanked the Puppet Master up by the front of his robes, sticky with drying blood, and shook him roughly.

"You fucking bastard!" he snarled raggedly. Again, the broken Dark wizard laughed thickly.

"The things I had that jongen do for me. My Firebrand on his knees before me—I know how his skin feels beneath my tongue. I can taste him now." Charlie threw the man back down and drew back his fist in fury as the bleeding man continued. "I tasted him only today, his lips and tongue and b-"

The punch broke two front teeth and one of Charlie's own fingers with the force of it.

"You fucking lie! If you—If I find out you touched—"

"Begging me to have him!" the Puppet Master said, both eyes swollen shut and lip burst and gushing with blood. "Bent over my dining table, letting me strip him—and I didn't hear a word of protest from my boy."

Charlie didn't think he'd ever be able to unclench his fist again but he managed it. He managed to open his hands enough to grab the Puppet Master about the throat and then tighten that vice-like grip once again.

"You tell me to stop this," Charlie snarled through his gritted teeth. "I will let you go if I hear a word of protest from you ya vile pervert!"

The Puppet Master made some wet choking sounds, scratching at Charlie's fingers feebly. Charlie's eyes flashed and he began to smile in a twisted detached way as he watched the man die at his hands.

"Was this how it was for him, eh?" Charlie said, his voice filled with hate. "Was this why he didn't tell you to stop? Did a great big hulking fella like you pick on a scrawny little kid like Ron for fun?"

"Charlie, don't!" Harry's voice called out.

"Look at the size of him, Harry!" Charlie roared. "What chance did Ron have against this fucker? And you were armed weren't you?" Charlie shook the man by the throat and yelled down into his still face. "Weren't you?"

"Charlie—"

"DID YOU FUCK HIM?" Charlie bellowed into the dead man's face. "ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING PRICK. DID YOU RAPE MY BROTHER?"

"Oh God," Harry whimpered as he slid down the wall, hiding his face in his hands. The two bodies he had brought with him hung bobbing in midair.

Charlie couldn't bear to look and see who they were. He pulled back one of his arms again, the fist clenching and the broken finger cracking painfully, and his eyes burned red while tears flooded them, clinging to his fair eyelashes.

"You don't get to die yet!" Charlie choked as he slammed his fist down into the man's face. "I want you to feel this! I want you to feel more pain you, fucker! Come back to life so I can kill you again, you evil shit! You don't get to die yet—you need to hurt more! I have to hurt you some more!"

Harry turned away from the heartbreaking brutality of Charlie's display while more punches rained down on the corpse of the man who had tormented Ron all this time. This was the man Harry had hated, the man Harry wish he could get his hands on, and the person he had indulged so many revenge fantasies about.

Dull, wet thumps shook the walls as Charlie grunted and pounded again and again without mercy. "Just a fucking kid—hardly anything of him—sick perverted wanker—twice the man you are—"

Charlie wondered why Harry wasn't joining in. Why wasn't he kicking and punching and screaming at this vile bastard? So what if he was long dead? It was still satisfying. It was still justice. It was still—

—still better than having to go and look for Ron's body.

It was better than having to see his mother when she heard the news.

It was still better than going home to see that clock on the wall. Ron's hand on that little pile of hands at the bottom where it would have fallen. Ron's hand gathering dust with Uncle Gideon and Fabian, Grandma Weasley and Nana Prewitt, Grandpa Edward and Granddad William.

If he stayed here forever Ron would never be dead and his tormentor would always suffer.

Admittedly, Charlie would suffer as well, but he deserved to. He had let this happen. He hadn't taken care of his baby brother like he always promised, like he used to. He knew there was going to be a time when Ronnie was a man and he wouldn't accept being taken care of any more, even when faced with spiders, but that time hadn't come yet. Ron wasn't even twenty. Ron still needed him. Ron had still needed him and he hadn't been there in time.

Why wasn't Harry kicking this bastard?

It was simple, really. Harry had always been with him, and he had nothing to atone for.

"I'm sorry!" Charlie sobbed as he punched the Puppet Master's still form again. "I'm sorry, Ron. I'm sorry—I'm sorry—I'm sorry—I'm sorry—I'm-"

"Charlie, please don't!" Harry cried out weakly.

"He got off too lightly!" Charlie screamed at the room, through floods of tears, before fixing his face back into that mask of hate and silently resuming his merciless blows to the man's head.

Tommy fought against his mother as he struggled to get to Lee's bedside.

"Oh God! Lee, your back, what happened? Where's everybody else? Where's Ron?"

Lee gaped at Tommy with wide eyes and an open mouth. He almost turned white with shock.

"Lee?" Tommy said again, nervously, as his mother stepped up behind him and gripped his shoulders for support.

"You're alive!"

Tommy nodded dumbly.

"You're really alive!" Lee said, clinging to his mother's hand tightly while the Finnigan's treated his ravaged back.

"So are you." Tommy smiled sadly. "Shit, Lee, what the hell happened?"

Lee reached out and grabbed Tommy's arm, pulling him closer and then curling it around his waist. The dreadlocked wizard grimaced in pain and buried his face into the pillow for a moment before looking back up at Tommy.

This was a miracle. Tommy had been taken. He was dying and taken for execution and now he was standing beside him, giving him comfort in the same way Lee and Ron had done for him.

Ron.

"I couldn't take care of him any more," Lee said meekly, "I tried to look after him but the bastard did this to me and I was useless to him."

"Never," Tommy shook his head and felt himself pressed into a chair that had been conjured behind him. "You were never useless to him, Lee. He needed you same as I did."

"He needed me and I left him!" Lee growled through his teeth, both the physical and mental pain releasing through his exclamation.

"What could you have done in this state, Lee?" Tommy said sadly as he cast his horrified eyes over Lee's back. "Did this happen to Ron, too?"

Lee shook his head and closed his eyes, trying to block out what had been happening to Ron during that particular 'game' of the Puppet Bastard's.

"It was this or—I had to take this to keep Ron from—from—"

Tommy nodded and put his hand on the back of Lee's head tenderly. "He didn't, did he?"

"Not while I was taking care of him, he didn't!" Lee growled. Tommy smiled sadly and lowered his head to look Lee in the eye.

"Don't write him off, eh? Never write Ron off. You know that better than me."

"It's too much though, Tom," Lee whimpered. "The poor sod can only take so much. I think—I'm worried that—"

"He didn't let himself get killed, Lee," Fergus said from the door to the makeshift hospital ward.

"Fergus, you're back! You found them!" Lee garbled hurriedly as he tried to push himself up off his stomach and climb off the bed.

"No, honey, please lie still for us," Lee's mother pleaded with him as she tried to ease him back down onto the bed with as little force as possible.

Marie Finnigan rushed over to her son and hugged him tightly.

"Oh yeh back! Ye came back safe again. I'm not havin' yeh goin' off any more, you let the others do it. Y'stayin' with yer old mother until my nerves settle and my hair stops greying!"

Fergus broke into a short smile that shattered into an expression of despair as he hugged her back and hid his face in the side of her neck.

"Ma!"

"Shhh, love, it's all over with now. Y're away from it all now."

"Fergus, where's yeh cousin?"

"He's talkin' to Dean's ma and da. He wouldn't let the Aurors tell 'em." Lee and Tommy's bodies stiffened and they stared at their friend, willing him to explain that he wasn't saying what they assumed he was saying at all.

"Fergus?" Tommy called meekly. Fergus flinched and stared at Tommy.

"Jaysis shite, is tha Tommy?"

Marie kept a tight hold on her boy and led him over to Lee's bedside with a relieved smile, whispering gently, "They thought they'd finished the lad but yer Aunt Kathleen has the touch of the angels about her and he's gettin' stronger and fitter by the day."

"Touch of the angels," Kathleen Finnigan said as she clasped her hand to her chest. "Sweet Merlin, Marie, I think that's the nicest thing y've ever said te me in me life!"

"Well," Marie shrugged as she looked over her shoulder to her sister, "ye still have the gob of a banshee!"

Kathleen didn't even look insulted at this. She darted across the floor to embrace her sister and her nephew before muttering something about taking care of her Shay and leaving the ward without a backward glance.

Julie and Marie shared a mournful look with each other."Poor Carol and Darren, just when we all dared hope," Julie said sadly, absentmindedly reaching for Tommy and squeezing his hand for reassurance that she really did still have him.

"Dean," Lee said in a whisper, "he stayed behind to wait for Ron and the others."

"Wait," Tommy said fearfully, "if Dean didn't make it and he was watching their backs then—"

There was a scream that made their insides squirm and then a crashing sound. Moments later an unconscious Jannette Creevey was levitated into the room by an Auror and set down onto a bed. She was closely followed by her son Dennis, shaking violently and as pale as one of the Hogwarts ghosts.

"No," Lee moaned, his eyes closing and his head fell forward onto his arms.

"Colin?" Tommy blinked before looking up at Fergus for an explanation.

"Dean, Col, Krum—all dead when we got there," Fergus explained weakly.

Lee's head lifted sharply. "Not Ron? You didn't say Ron's name."

Fergus swallowed and squatted down so he was at eye-level with Lee, flat out on his bed. "He made it as far as the woods. Put up a hell of fight Lupin said." Lee's eyes flooded with tears and Tommy made an indescribable sound at the back of his throat that made his mother crush him tightly into her slightly built body as if she was stronger and sturdier than a troll. "I'm sorry."

He could hear it and recognised the sound immediately.

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

It sounded like glass and cold thick porridge in a sack being smashed against a wall, a deep, wet breaking sound, the sound of a skull being punched repeatedly.

Moody struggled over the missing top step to follow Tonks into the room that led to the attic and saw an awful sight. Harry Potter was a pale green colour in the face as he levitated two dead bodies ahead of him, Krum and the Creevey boy, while leaning heavily against the wall and staring in horror at Charlie Weasley, continuing to beat the Death Eater's skull with his large fist. Teeth were scattered across the floor; the man was sprawled in a pool of thick dark blood. Charlie had killed the man some time ago but still kept on hitting.

"Charlie—" Tonks spoke in a hollow voice as she approached the exhausted wizard.

"I hate him. I hate him. I fucking hate him!" Charlie was grunting with every punch.

"Yeah but Charlie," Tonks said before glancing at Harry sadly, "he's gone now. He's dead."

"You don't know what he did!" Charlie bellowed up at her, making her jump back with a gasp.

Charlie's shoulders fell and he wiped his sweating face with the back of his hand.

"Weasley, we can't meat out justice, no matter how much the swine deserved it." Moody fixed both eyes on Charlie as he stepped forward to take in the sight of the fatal beating.

"Did you—" Charlie looked up at the Auror and cleared his throat. "Did you find my brother?"

"Kingsley's Patronus came with a message," Tonks began.

"Tonks, not now," Moody muttered as he looked from Charlie to Harry with his magical eye, his real eye staring at the young Auror warningly.

"No," Harry said, his voice clear in the empty room. "Tell me what Kingsley said. Did he find Ron? Is he okay? Where is he?"

"He said they'd killed him," Charlie said as he nodded down at the body on the floor before him.

"Weasley, your family are going to need you back at the Embassy. Leave that useless corpse be and go with Tonks." Moody said as he looked away and wondered just how bad it was going to be back there when the news was broken that the rest of the boys had been lost.

"No," Harry said before his legs gave out from under him and he dropped to the floor in defeat,."He's not dead. He's not dead, he's Ron, and Ron can't be dead."

"Shhh, Harry," Tonks said soothingly as she hurried to him to offer some comfort. "It's all over now. He's not in any more pain. He died escaping. He was fighting to the end, that's how he would have wanted i-"

"Of course he wouldn't have wanted it!" Harry yelled furiously. "He wanted to go home to his family. He wanted to be with his girlfriend. He wanted to start a normal life with no war and no death and no more evil bastards with vendettas against decent people!"

Tonks bit her lip and hugged Harry tightly. "I'm sorry Harry. I'm really sorry."

Charlie gave a massive roar of pain and fury and slammed his fist deep into the pulped face of the dead Death Eater.

"He's my baby brother and you treated him like a bloody animal!"

"Weasley, stop!" Moody said as his magical eye swivelled and he saw one of the heads of the Auror department, a man called Ambrose Legumen ascending the stairs to join them. "You're not supposed to be here. You're not an Auror; you're classed as a vigilante. They'll have you before the Wizengamot. You could go to Azkaban for murder!"

"I don't fucking care!" Charlie shouted, his vocal chords straining with emotion before looking down at the bloodied dead body and gripping either side of the unrecognisable head tightly and twisting sharply.

Snap!

It was utterly pointless but it seemed to have been enough to put an end to Charlie's bloodlust. The stocky redhead slumped back on his haunches and dropped his head into his hands. Tonks rushed to his side. Moody flicked his wand at the body, making it burn intensely and fade into dust. Harry stared at the three people in the room, his face pale and uncomprehending.

At that moment, Ambrose Legumen arrived and Moody intercepted him with a firm slap on the back and shook him in a rough one-armed welcome.

"Two hostages dead, I'm afraid, but Weasley here managed to see to the ringleader," Moody grunted, nodding to Charlie as he leaned heavily into Tonks, shaking slightly in shock. "I saw the whole thing. The man was about to hex Potter into the next life and Weasley sent out an Incendiary Curse. All that's left are ashes, I'm afraid."

"Oh, well good—that he's dealt with, I mean, not the—oh dear, that's Viktor Krum isn't it? Dead youngsters were one thing but dead celebrities are-"

"And Colin Creevey!" Harry said fiercely as he gripped the shoulder of the small wizard and glared into Legumen 's eyes."Dean Thomas is downstairs, too, not enough of a celebrity for you, is he? What about Ron? What about Ron Weasley? Do sidekicks to celebrities warrant your sympathy?"

"Now Potter, I didn't mean—"

"The lad's upset, just leave him be, eh? Let me deal with him." Moody said, both eyes looking at Legumen in a way that made sure the wizard knew this was not up for negotiation.

"Yes, of course, Mad-Eye. I mean, you know the family. You know all the families now. I don't want to impose authority where it isn't needed."

"Just like you didn't impose yourself when they were all still alive and we could have helped them," Harry muttered to himself.

"Harry, don't," Tonks said wearily as she continued to rub Charlie's back in an attempt to comfort him to some degree.

"What?" Harry yelled. "Don't what? I've never seen this man before and yet he's going to be the one dealing with the people who were slaughtered while he sat behind a desk in London - or the 'important' people anyway!"

"Alastor, I really think I should go now," the flustered wizard said with agitation. "Um, I will need a witness report to the death if you could, just to keep this young man from being inconvenienced with hearings and the like. You did say you saw the whole thing, yes?"

Tonks looked up at Moody and pressed her lips together tightly.

"I did. You'll have my statement on your desk the next time you sit at it, I assure you."

"And mine," Tonks said, startling herself slightly. "I saw it too. I'll submit my statement as well, sir."

"Ah, good, two sworn statements from Aurors should tidy this away easily enough. We don't want to trouble the Weasleys any more than—well, you know?" Moody slapped the man on the back and shoved him on his way with amiable force.

"You see to the others. I'll get this lot back to their families," Moody grumbled.

The wizard left and Charlie drew in a shuddering breath and looked up at Moody with bloodshot eyes. "You didn't have to do that," he said to the old Auror. "I'd have taken whatever punishment they saw fit to give me. I deserve it." Charlie looked across the room to Harry. "I let him down."

Harry clutched Colin tighter to him. "We both let him down."

---

Lee's eyes were spilling over with tears but his face was empty. He had no words, he had no fight, and he had no spirit left to crush. All the hope he'd been clinging to vanished with his hope of seeing Ron again.

"The ringleader," the familiar voice that spoke up from behind the small gathering around Lee's bed sounded detached and empty, "that Bastard Master bloke, he's dead too."

Tommy and his mother moved to one side, allowing Lee to see Fred and George standing side by side, several feet away. It had been Fred who spoke.

"Charlie killed him," George spoke in a similar manner, just a little more emotion seeping through his unsteady voice.

"We've got to find Mum. Dad's gonna tell her and we all want to—" Fred began before drawing a deep breath and looking down at his feet.

"Ginny, too. She doesn't know. Hermione was storming another part of the building. Harry wanted her to be back here before she found out," George mumbled.

"Lads, I'm—I'm—" Lee began to squirm his painful way off the bed again.

"We'll come back in a little while. You stay here and get sorted out, mate," Fred said firmly, coming back to himself a little more now.

"I'm sorry Fred, George!" Lee chocked. "Oh Godric, I'm sorry! I tried to keep him safe for you both. I wanted to bring him back to you bu-"

"Lee," George said, raising his hand in a lazy dismissive wave, "we've spoken to Tommy. We know what you did for him. Thanks mate."

"We'll never forget it." Fred said before turning abruptly and walking out with long strides.

"Never!" George said fiercely before setting off after his twin and calling over his shoulder. "We've just got to—we can't be here right now."

The last groups arrived back at the Embassy just as the twins stepped out the door. Lee had had enough. If Ron, after all he'd been through, had managed to fight his way out of the building then he could at least hold himself together to get as far as his best friends when they needed him most,especially after he'd let them down so badly.

With the protestations of his mother and Tommy ringing in his ears, Lee staggered to his feet and grimaced before setting off towards the twins. He felt Tommy grabbing his arm and pulling it over his shoulder for support as he tentatively walked across the room.

"Oh, Tommy, you're hardly strong enough to hold yourself up, let me-" Julie was fussing after her son.

As the two weakened wizards staggered sideways slightly, Fergus lunged for them to hold them steady before ducking under Lee's other arm and joining the mission to get to the main entrance. They made somewhat noisy progress, grunts and yelps of pain and discomfort along the way, which alerted Fred and George to their approach. The twins' eyes widened and each of them grabbed for a supporting wizard and began to chastise Lee for his stubbornness.

"I won't let you go through this alone!" Lee growled bitterly.

"But—" George began.

"He was my brother, too!" Lee interrupted.

His voice echoed around the entrance hall as the Embassy fell silent at the arrival of the prisoners from the woods with the last of the Auror squad, along with Ginny, Hermione and Bill. The group froze and stared at Lee, at his whole support party, before looking at Molly and Arthur and then at each other.

There were hurried footsteps and Harry shoved his way through the crowd to get to Hermione and Ginny but Bill was already running forward. He passed Harry as if he wasn't even there. There was only one person who had Bill's complete and full attention: Charlie.

"Charlie, what's wrong?" Bill said as he skidded to a halt before his shell of a brother. "Don't tell me we were too late. Tell me he's here. Tell me we got there in time!"

"Harry?" Ginny said blankly at her boyfriend. Hermione shook her head and batted Harry'a hand away as he reached to hug her.

"Hermione—" Harry said but the young witch was marching over towards Molly and Arthur Weasley.

"He isn't dead. I looked everywhere," Hermione said with confidence. Molly smiled at her and nodded while Arthur turned a sickly grey colour. "He's just hiding. He'll turn up here any minute now. Ron's great at stealth--you can't find him if he doesn't want you to."

Ginny let out a cry of anger and pain, punching Harry in the chest before falling into his arms and sobbing. Hermione turned and looked over her shoulder at them. Molly frowned and was about to hurry to her distressed daughter's side but Arthur held her to him forcefully.

"Molly. my love—Hermione, you too, come and sit down for a moment."

"I told you, he's not dead!" Hermione snapped. "He'll be hiding. I know he's just hiding. It's what he would do when he didn't know who to trust. You can't just write somebody off as dead without a body!"

"Yeah!" Bill said as he gave a brotherly shove to Charlie to bolster his confidence. "Ronnie's laying low. We should be out there looking for him, ya great git!"

Charlie lifted his devastated eyes to meet Bill's, making Bill back away and set his jaw with determination. "No."

"Beel," Fleur said as she flung herself into his side and sent a wave of her Veela pheromones to calm her husband's nerves. Bill's face fell.

"He isn't."

"Je suis d-" Fleur began to stroke Bill's hair but he fell to his knees before Charlie and gripped his arm.

"Not our Ronnie. Tell me you didn't see him, Charlie. Tell me it's not for sure!"

"I didn't but—" Charlie began.

"Arthur?" Molly looked up at her husband. Marie Finnigan, Floella Jordan and Julie Painter all hurried to Molly's side for support.

"Molly, my love, please come and sit with me while I explain what Remus and Kingsley told me," Arthur said with a heartbreaking attempt at a smile.

Hermione spun around on the spot and looked at Lupin as if he was a helpless mouse and she was a bird of prey looking for food.

"Professor Lupin, what are they talking about? Where is he? Was he badly hurt? Did they take him straight to St Mungo's?"

"Hermione," Lupin said wearily, "please come into the hospital room so we can talk privately with you and Molly."

Hermione looked over to Ginny, still crying in Harry's arms. Ginny wouldn't have given up on her brother easily and Hermione seemed to know that as their eyes met.

"They beat him to death in the woods, Hermione," Ginny said with a sniff. "Lupin and Shacklebolt found the body."

"NO!" Molly screeched into Arthur's chest while Hermione's whole body started shaking as she stared at Ginny dumbly.

"Those fucking bastards!" Bill exclaimed as he struggled back up to his feet. "Which one was it?" The scarred wizard glared at the slumped forms of the stunned Death Eaters, lying in the corner of the room.

"We'll find that out and they'll be dealt with accordingly," Moody said as he restrained Bill., "Er, Tonks, some kind of temporary holding cell if you would?"

Tonks nodded silently and swished her wand around the stirring bodies and created a cage of crackling white energy around them.

Harry led Ginny over to Hermione and forced his shaken friend into their consolatory embrace.

"They—" Lee shuddered as he physically deflated. "They just beat him up?"

"It was over and they—they still—" Tommy sighed before tailing off and shaking his head, hopelessly.

"It took all of them though." George jerked his head towards the groaning and shifting Death Eaters. "He was just a scrawny little git but it took the lot of 'em to take him down."

"Fucking cowards!" Fred hissed as he reinforced his grip on Tommy to keep the group upright.

"You just beat him to death?" Lee yelled across the entrance hall. "You laid into him like he was nothing? He was more powerful than all of you scumbags! He was more of a bloody man and a better warrior and he was a real pure blood!"

"Lee, stop it now," his mother said as she stroked the back of his head sadly.

"No, he's right!" Hermione sobbed as she spun around to scowl back at the rousing Death Eaters. "He was a decent person and he was unarmed and it took how many of you to kill him?"

"You heard her," Charlie said fiercely. "How many?"

One of the dark-robed figures struggled to his feet and lifted up his right hand. Then the tall wizard lifted up one finger.

"Was it you?" Harry asked sharply as he drew his wand, his knuckles white.

The figure looked over his shoulder at the others behind him. Two of them pulled back their hoods and were frowning up at him in confusion. The standing figure sniggered softly.

"Wat is erzo grappig?" a round faced, pug nosed Death Eater with thinning white hair asked.

"Shut up, all of you!" Moody snarled at the group.

"Het was me," the tallest Death Eater said with a shrug before turning back to look out at the others, reaching inside his pocket causing several Aurors and Order members to draw their wands on him.

"He's armed!"

"Put the wand down, ya bastard!"

"Hands in the air where I can see them!"

The wizard withdrew his hand from his robes and a gold pocket watch was dangling from his fingers by its chain.

"You fucker," Fred gasped before running toward from the group, causing some of the group to stumble.

Harry ran for the magical cage as a breathless Kingsley Shacklebolt bounded into the room. Upon seeing Harry and Fred dashing toward the captives, he cast an Impediment Jinx..

"What are you protecting them for?" Seamus demanded from the Thomas' side, ignoring his mother's 'shushes'.

"I'm not protecting them," Kingsley panted before turning to look at the standing Death Eater. "I'm protecting him."

The room fell silent and Lee looked at the Auror as if he were insane. George and Tommy were struggled to pull him back onto his feet. They watched as Shacklebolt strode over to the cage and cast a spell around the Death Eater, allowing the Auror to pull him through the white bars of energy. Moody looked at the figure with both eyes and drew in a quick breath.

"You see, Alastor?" Kingsley said excitedly.

"But, you saw—" Moody lowered his wand and took a step forward.

"I saw a caved-in face with red hair and ragged jeans," Shacklebolt said as he reached for the watch in the Death Eater's hand.

"That's my Ronnie's," Molly blurted shakily from within a consolatory embrace that included her husband, Fergus' mother and Tommy's mum. "You stole that from my boy!"

Kingsley smiled and let the watch drop back into the man's hand. He nodded over to Molly and the figure moved towards her.

"Kings, what the hell are you doing?" Tonks yelled.

"Kingsley!" Lupin said frantically, keeping his wand on the Death Eater as he approached Molly Weasley before pleading with Moody for sanity. "Alastor, I saw what they did to Ron! You can't trust them."

"Wat gebeurt er?" asked one of the Death Eaters still in the magical cage, sounding livid as he flung himself at the bars, receiving a nasty shock for his trouble.

The robed figure was getting closer to Molly. Harry and Fred looked furious while a vein pulsed in Charlie's neck, making Lee thing the elder Weasley's head would explose form fury.

"Now that's close enough, you," Arthur said, his lips tight and colourless as he tried to step before his wife and reach out to take the watch. "Give that back and keep away from us before I let my sons rip you to pieces."

Molly suddenly shuddered and pushed her husband aside, staring at the shaking hand that clutched the watch chain. She lifted her hand to her mouth and gasped. The figure raised his other hand to push back his hood.

At the same moment the hood fell, the room began to spin around Lee. The air was sucked out of lungs, leaving him in a vacuum and floating in space. There was no pain, no anger, no life or death, there was just one thing.

Red.

The hood fell to reveal dirty red hair, a long freckled nose and a badly bruised face, a face Lee never thought he'd see again.

"M-Mum?"

"Ronnie!" Molly screamed as she flung herself at her son and crushed him so tightly he melted completely into her.

"Bloedverrader!" one of the Death Eaters roared in outrage.

Kingsley turned on the group and stunned them into unconsciousness once again. Molly was shaking so hard that Lee could almost feel the vibrations through the floorboards. 'Ron' clung onto the small woman as she gripped him tightly, stroking his hair and back in disbelief before leaning back to take in the sight of his face.

"Oh my baby, my poor Ronnie," she sobbed as her aged hand glided gently over his bruised face and hollow cheeks. "Look what they did to you."

"Molly don't. This might be a cruel joke like the last t-" Arthur tried to pull his wife away from the robed figure while unable to tear his own eyes from the sight of the young wizard.

"The body I found," Shacklebolt called out with a smile, "his hair changed. It wasn't red, it wasn't shaggy—it wasn't Ron. He swapped, Arthur."

Molly was weeping profusely as she opened Ron's robes and gasped in horror.

"Marie, he's starved! Oh Merlin, look at you, look at these marks," Molly held one of Ron's hands up to her face and gaped at the bloodied and skinless knuckles that looked so much like Charlie's. "What happened to your hand?"

The wizard Lee knew in his heart of hearts to be Ron Weasley looked blankly down at his trembling hand and swallowed before looking back into his mother's eyes, struggling with his words, mouthing silently for the first attempt at speech.

"C-couldn't make him l-l-look like me," Ron stammered. "Shit at Transfig—figuration!"

"Oh no," Julie Painter whimpered from behind her hand while she rubbed her son's shoulder with the other.

"Had to sm--smash it away!" Ron blurted before letting Molly drag him back into her all-enveloping hug.

"It's alright, Ron. It's all alright now, baby. You did what you had to, to come home to me; we'll take care of you now. We'll feed you and get you into something clean and warm and we'll heal all th-"

"How do we know it's really him?" Dennis called out, his voice unusually strong and clear,."I saw people I thought I knew and it turned out to be Death Eaters! How do we know it's really Ron?"

Lee staggered away from the group surrounding him and called out to the redheaded figure crumpled against Molly Weasley.

"Oi, dickhead!"

Fred and Harry turned their heads, glaring at Lee in shock while George lunged for him and tried to pull him back into the hospital wing, fearing for Lee's mental state.

There was a muffled gurgle of a gasp from 'Ron' as he turned around and followed the sound of Lee's voice. He stared at him with bulging eyes for a moment before letting out a mixture of a choke, a sob and a laugh all at once.

"Ja klootzak?"

Lee gave a weak giggle and fell into George's side. Ron spotted Tommy behind Lee and pointed, his breath catching in his throat before hastening in shock.

"It's y- It's y- Tom!" Ron gasped before his legs buckled and he collapsed into his mother's arms.

"Marie, get your sister! Somebody get him some Healers!" Molly snapped urgently as she lowered her limp son to the ground and cradled his head in the crook of her arm while her family surrounded them as she stroked his face tenderly. "It's alright now sweetheart. Everything's going to be fine. You're safe now."

Epilogue

"Well, obviously he's extremely malnourished and dehydrated. We're dealing with that easily enough. There's going to be a specialist coming him to look at his arms. There's extensive damage internally and we can only do so much as far as that goes. His wrists, the fractures, and most of the general injuries we've healed completely but he's had an awful mess made of his shoulders. There was some partial healing but we'll get somebody in from Nepal to administer the charms needed to repair the muscle and tendon damage. Our man from Nepal really is the best in the world and will be here this evening.

"He's suffered under the Cruciatus curse. That we can fix with a potion as there's just some residual nerve damage. Now, he was struck down by something rather nasty, a duelling curse. This, too, has partially healed during his captivity but if left unattended it will grow worse as he gets older. We have counter curses and potions for that and he'll be receiving treatment for it four times a day while he's with us.

"Head injuries—well, we've got a lot to sort out old and new. Superficially, he's fine but there's some swelling from the most recent beating to reduce. There are two skull fractures, one about three weeks old and a fresher one in almost exactly the same place. Both seem to have occurred from falling on a solid surface without having his arms free to break the fall.

"Hairline fractures on the back of the head and retina damage have been healed with no problems at all. Headaches are likely but nothing to worry about.

"Now to the main problems. He has several trophic ulcers and a peptic ulcer, trench foot, several nasty diseases caught from—well from unsanitary conditions. He was living in his own and other's faeces, I understand. That obviously led to him contracting several unpleasant things and we're dealing with them all. Due to vomiting and diarrhoea, we're not going to see much weight gain for several days I'd say.

"Whatever we do, Ronald is going to need a lot of attention over the coming months. I have no idea how long the psychological effects of this are going to manifest. He may never lose the speech impediment he's developed. It might come and go. It may get worse during times of stress or anxiety or perhaps it will just become a constant problem, we can't know that now. He could be susceptible to seizures due to the brain injuries he suffered but there are so many factors I can't even begin to list them now.

"We couldn't carry out a full physical examination because of the nature of the abuse he suffered in that place. There's no internal damage in that area but we also can't get a proper examination done while Ronald is conscious. He has been sexually assaulted and I don't know how far this assault went. I'm guessing that any number of physical conditions could come into play due to the stress and anxiety."

"I am he-here y'know?" Ron said from his bed in St Mungo's.

"Just ignore 'em Ron," Tonks said as she rubbed her hand up and down his arm reassuringly. "Keep putting the memories into the Pensieve and pay no attention to them."

Hermione left the Wizengamot to get to St Mungo's and see Ron before his family descended on him.

He and the other three survivors were testifying against the Death Eaters via Pensieve memories projected onto the back wall. After each day's proceedings, the families would rush to the special ward to see the quartet. It was as if they needed reassurance that they were really still there, free, alive.

The things Hermione had seen so far, projected onto the back wall, were becoming too much to bear. Ron had asked his family not to go but they all needed to know what had happened to him. It made Molly weep, it made Charlie livid and intolerable and it caused the twins to march up to Lee's bed every day and give him a bracing hug that was agony on his healing back and whisper thanks into his ear.

Hermione saw the Ron she had always known. The brave, selfless, funny young wizard she had fallen in love with. She saw the Ron she always knew he could be, the leader, the tower of strength, a force to be reckoned with. She also saw him chained to the wall and screaming under the Cruciatus curse. She saw him drinking water from other people's mouths to stay alive. She saw him lick the shoe of a sadist and had never respected him more.

"Is he awake?" Hermione smiled as she asked the same old question to the Auror on duty.

"I dunno. They're quiet," the burly blonde man shrugged with a grin. He looked like a bear but he was as gentle as a teddy. "I did look in a couple of hours ago and saw 'em on the floor again."

Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled before heading towards the door and muttering the password. Ron, Tommy and Fergus had taken to sleeping on the floor at the side of Lee's bed. It was a concern at first but soon everybody thought it was best to allow them to work through their sleeping issues themselves.

Harry and Bill had tried to push the beds together but Fergus was unable to sleep on a soft surface and as soon as he got down onto the floor, Ron and Tommy were down there, too. Occasionally, they'd nap in the afternoon, on the floor, and then sleep in their beds for most of the night. It was progress at least, Hermione thought.

She pushed open the door and stepped through quietly, not wanting to disturb them if they were asleep.

"—so shall I read it then?" Tommy asked in a reluctant voice.

"If you want to," Lee answered, his voice was also very low.

Hermione guessed they must be huddled very close together.

"It's just," Tommy said. Hermione moved around to see the group all slouching on Lee's bed and frowning. "I'm not all that much of a public speaker y'know?"

"Yeah, well I can't feckin' do it, can I?" Fergus huffed.

"I don't see why not!" Tommy said as he tossed a piece of parchment at the sandy-haired wizard.

"Oh yeah, it's what they all need at a memorial service isn't it? My accent butchering a bleedin' poem!"

Ron laughed and gave Fergus a dig in the ribs with his elbow."I-I'd do it but we haven't go-got all day!"

"I dunno," Tommy smiled, "I think you sound great!"

Hermione pressed her lips together to hold in the whimper of gratitude she felt towards Tommy at that moment. Ron snorted while Lee winced, sitting himself up against the cushioning charms on his back.

"There ya go then," Fergus said with a satisfied nod, "it's decided. Ron's doin' it!"

"Don't be out of order, Mr Funny," Lee said ruefully before casting a protective look Ron's way.

"I'm not takin' the piss, Jordan," Fergus protested. "Why shouldn't he speak in front of people?"

Ron's eyes widened and he tried to scoff at the idea but couldn't quite manage it."D-Don-Don't you t-t-tr— Don't try t-t-—"

"Woah there, calm down," Lee said uneasily as he sat forward and gripped Ron's shoulder tightly.

Ron shook his head and laughed before closing his eyes and muttering to himself without a single stammer. "Keten ze vast. Sla hem in elkaar. Hould hem in bedwag. Ik zal je krijgen—"

"Stop it!" Lee demanded fiercely, his eyes wide.

"Lee don't worry. He's just clearing a blockage," Tommy said as he tried to pacify the worried wizard while Fergus patted Ron on the back.

"I don't like it!" Lee huffed as he shook Ron by the shoulder until he opened his eyes.

"'M back. Got stuck," Ron smiled.

"Don't do that anymore," Lee said roughly as he let his hand fall from Ron's shoulder. "I really don't like you talking like that."

"Oh, be fair Jordan! The language ain't evil!" Fergus said.

"It just resets me when I g-get jammed," Ron grinned cheerfully.

"Yeah, Lee, no harm in it is there?"

"What were you sayin'?" Lee said sternly.

Ron's cheery grin faded and he looked away."Doesn't matter," he mumbled as he picked at the bed sheets.

"What did you say?" Lee demanded again.

"Just— stuff, chain 'em up, beat 'em up—just stuff they used to say. Stuff I know in D-Dutch."

Fergus looked at Ron and drew in a deep breath. "Ya need teh learn some other phrases Ron."

"Yeah like," Tommy looked to the ceiling thoughtfully, "'Excuse me, I believe there is a ping pong event happening on this street. Could you direct me to it?'"

Ron and Lee looked up at Tommy and sniggered. Fergus almost fell off the bed laughing. Hermione didn't get the joke but smiled all the same. She liked to see them in their lighter moments. They came with more frequency every day.

"Look, okay then," Tommy said as he waved his hands in front of him to beckon for silence. "I'll do the reading."

They stopped laughing but remained smiling at each other.

"Cheers, Tom," Fergus said as he punched Tommy in the arm lightly.

"Sor-Sorry," Ron said as he looked at Lee with those bright puppy dog eyes of his.

"Nah, I'm sorry," Lee shrugged. "I overreacted. You say what you want if it irons out the creases in your English."

"Listen to him!" Ron said as he pointed to Lee and looked at Tommy and Fergus with amusement. "He's the poet, I think he sh-should do it."

"Sod off!" Lee grumbled.

"Nah, Tommy's dulcet tones are gonna do them justice," Fergus said as he picked up the piece of yellowing parchment and tossed it into Tommy's lap. "G'wan, give us yer best."

Tommy looked slightly reluctant but picked up the parchment anyway and cleared his throat.

"'They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.'"

Hermione drew in a painful breath through her tight throat and clutched her hand to her chest. Ron, Lee and Fergus all sat on the bed and stared at Tommy as he folded the parchment and put it back down on the bed.

"That's perfect, Tom," Lee said, barely audible.

"Yeah, mate tha-tha—" Ron took a breath and let it out before continuing. "That's spot on."

"Good on yeh Ma fer finding that, mate. That's just the right—it's just right y'know?" Fergus added, his voice choking up a bit.

Hermione straightened herself up and knocked on the door. She saw all the boys jump and fix the 'Look how fine we are' grins on their faces.

"Hello, everyone. What's been going on while I've been stuck in that stuffy old Ministry?"

"W-Well," Ron smiled proudly, "I ate three Chocolate Frogs."

"Without even chewin'" Fergus muttered mischievously to Tommy.

Hermione smiled and took Ron's hand in hers.

"Isn't that an accomplishment, eh?" Hermione said with a smile.

"Indeed, yer a lucky girl Miss Granger!" Fergus said, waggling his eyebrows.

Ron cuffed him across the back of the head and Fergus looked enormously disgruntled.

"Why is everybody always cloutin' me about the head? You get a cuddle from yeh Ma." He pointed at Lee. "You get a cuddle from yeh Ma," he said waving his hand at Ron. "Tommy lad, what did yer Ma do when you came back to her?"

"I don't know," Tommy blinked. "I was unconscious."

"Well, I bet she didn't bleedin' hit yeh!" Fergus exclaimed while Lee and Tommy guffawed and Ron led Hermione away to a secluded area of the private ward and pulled a curtain across for privacy.

Ron was still chuckling as he turned to face Hermione. His eyes shifted uncomfortably for a moment down to her hands and then back to her face with a nervous smile. It was one of the hardest things about this for her; she couldn't just fling herself at him the way she so desperately wanted to. Ron had almost kicked Ginny in the face for stroking his hair in his sleep and then had been violently sick. The family had all agreed amongst themselves that nobody was to touch Ron without asking him first.

She bit her bottom lip and held her hand out to him gently. Ron's cheek twitched a little as his smile grew wider and he took her hand with his own and stroked her skin with his thumb.

"So w-what did you see today?" he asked, his voice soft and his eyes staring down at their hands.

Hermione took a small step towards Ron and lifted his hand, setting it on her waist gently. She wanted nothing more than to take his face in her hands but she resisted and waited for him to relax a little more.

"I saw you," she said as she stared up into his deep blue eyes. "I saw my Ron."

Ron swallowed and drew a shuddering breath before leaning in toward Hermione a little, not stepping any closer though, and gliding his hand up her arm from wrist to just below her shoulder. He rubbed her upper arm softly before nodding. Hermione smiled and placed her hand upon Ron's cheek.

"So it wasn't a bad day today?" Ron asked her as he shuffled forward just a fraction.

"Nothing's bad as long as I know I have you to come back to," Hermione sighed as she slid her fingers around behind Ron's ear to play with his hair.

Ron closed his eyes and leaned into her hand. "Keep talking and you can m-move closer," he said, visibly bracing himself for close physical contact.

Ron and Hermione had a little trust routine they had to enact just so they could hug. It wasn't that Ron didn't trust Hermione, not at all; it was that he was determined not to think of that vile Puppet Master whenever they were together.

Ron was prone to flashbacks when anybody other than Lee, Tommy or Fergus touched him. His back was always a sensitive issue; he had several nasty flashbacks brought on by something as simple as a hand sliding down his back. Lee had taken Ron's parents aside and explained something to them. Back at The Burrow the 'rules' had been created.

No touching Ron without invitation.

No sneaking up behind him.

Avoid touching his back, his lower back in particular.

Try not to breathe in his face or on his neck.

And Hermione was asked, very sensitively of course, not to try to kiss him.

Ron had attempted it once, tilting his head and leaning in close, a couple of days ago, but he had suddenly been seized with anxiety and began to shake. He had apologised to Hermione and sprinted off to the bathroom.

Soon enough, the day would come when the horror of Ron's attempted rape would be played out on the wall of the Wizengamot and they would all know exactly what he had to endure. At the moment, all they had was what Ron and Lee had told them. Ron hadn't been subjected to the full horror of a sexual assault but he had been touched in ways that had been psychologically damaging. The fact that Ron wouldn't even let the Healers examine him below the waist or above the thigh spoke volumes.

Hermione stepped closer to Ron and kept on talking as she lightly rested her head upon his chest."Five things I have seen and five things I have never seen," Hermione spoke softly and calmly as Ron let his arms slide around her and hold her loosely to him.

"Go for it," Ron said into the top of her head.

"I have seen and not seen a Thestral. That's a two for one!" she chuckled weakly into Ron's jumper.

"Ch-Cheat!" Ron chuckled breathlessly.

Hermione's instinct was to rub Ron's back to calm him down but she stopped herself and just clung on to him and rocked slightly from side to side.

"I've seen you earn the respect of hardened Aurors and I've never seen you stop fighting no matter how hopeless things get." Hermione felt her eyes burning with tears as Ron's hands found their way into her bushy hair and looked up at him as licked his lips."I've seen you keep a promise to a dying man," Hermione whispered as she recalled the visit Chiara made to the survivors and Ron's struggle to deliver Auror Maccario's message to his fiancÃ©e despite his stutter, "and I have never seen you look at me the way you're looking at me now before."

Ron tried to smile but his nerves seemed to prevent that action. All of Ron's concentration was focused on him leaning down towards Hermione's face.

"I've seen you at Harry's side through thick and thin and I've never seen you think about leaving him for a second." Hermione struggled to continue as Ron parted his lips and his hands started to tremble. "I've seen you naked and I've never seen you as exposed as you are right now," Hermione sniffed as her hands gripped Ron's jumper in tight fists.

Ron brushed against Hermione's lips with his own as a fat tear fell down her cheek and she whispered into his mouth. "I don't want you to force this, Ron. Please don't do this before you're ready."

Ron gulped and moved away a fraction, blinking and staring into Hermione's eyes with his intense blue ones. "I have to," he said sadly before brushing a stray hair off her face.

"You don't have to do anything," Hermione said, moving to kiss him on the cheek, "don't you dare force yourself just because you think it's what I want from you. I just want you to feel comfortable again."

Ron pressed his lips together and shook his head hopelessly before cupping her face with both hands and holding her mouth before him gently. "I c-can't feel comfortable again while he was the last person to kiss m-m-me."

Hermione's face shattered into an expression of pain and sympathy for her Ron. "Oh no, you poor— my poor Ron!" she sobbed as she curled her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly while Ron held her and burrowed his face into her hair.

"Please kiss me," he said, muffled against the bushy brown mass. "I'm n-not ready but I never will be while I st-st-still—"

Hermione pulled back and pushed her closed lips to Ron's mouth. Ron gave a shuddering sigh before nudging her lips apart with his own and easing into a tentative kiss with her. Their tongues touched briefly and Ron's muscles tensed. Hermione pulled away and forced him to look at her.

"It's me, look. It's Hermione kissing you. It's your girlfriend, your Hermione—"

Ron nodded. "M-My girl."

Hermione felt more tears grow as her smile widened and Ron took her lips back once again. She hummed softly into the kiss to reassure Ron it was still her. He stroked her tongue with his and opened his mouth a little wider, pushing forward a little firmer. They were both trembling now.

"It's just me," Hermione whispered before sinking into another brief kiss. "It's always going to be me," she sighed again before pushing her tongue deep inside Ron's mouth and drawing it back slowly. "It will only ever be me from now on."

Ron rested his forehead against Hermione's and shuddered. "You promise?"

"I promise."

Ron stroked against Hermione's lips with his once again and she opened up to welcome him inside. As he pushed his tongue inside her mouth and she sucked upon it, Hermione could feel the tension still present in Ron's body. He still wasn't ready but he needed to get rid of the last lingering touch and taste of that awful Death Eater.

This would be their last real kiss for some time but it was more than enough for Hermione. She could wait. She could wait forever as long as Ron was safe and well beside her.

The final kiss ended and they stood, bodies flush against each other, rocking from side to side and arms tightly wrapped around each other. Maybe now she could at least hold Ron properly. Maybe they had broken down one barrier between the two of them.

"There's still one m-more," Ron stammered into the side of her head.

"Sorry?" Hermione said with a frown.

"One more thing you ha-have and haven't seen to g-go. First one didn't count."

Hermione smiled and pressed a kiss into Ron's chest.

"I never saw you at Kings Cross station for our first date," she whispered, "and I've seen you make up for standing me up just a second ago."

Ron's chest rose and fell with a deep sigh and he squeezed her a little tighter. "I d-didn't forget y'know?" he said, with what sounded like a smile on his lips.

"I know you didn't." Hermione smiled.

They stood in silence for some time. There were voices on the other side of the curtain as the families returned from the Ministry. There were mumbles from the Weasleys and Harry asking after Ron. Still they didn't move.

"I l-l—" Ron began before huffing with frustration at his speech impediment. "I lo-love you."

"I love you, too."

"I wish I could s-say it properly."

"You said it beautifully, Ron."

The twins stood on either side of Lee with George standing between him and Ron, not knowing which of them he should be smiling at supportively. Harry caught George's eye and nodded to him to concentrate on his friend. George looked away and Harry cleared his throat to get Ron's attention to let him know that he was putting his hand on his shoulder.

Ron gave him a sad smile before looking back up at the elderly wizard who was delivering the speech about fallen comrades whose sacrifice gave the world their freedom. Tommy had recited a Muggle poem of remembrance and Ron, Fergus and Lee had spoken to the choir about what song would be appropriate. There was some kind of problem getting the choir to co-operate but Fergus asked his cousin to bring Dean Thomas' family in on the discussion and the chief chorister agreed immediately, causing everybody returned to their seats, satisfied with the decision.

The McLaggens were sitting apart from each other, the Belby's together and holding hands. Delitia Macmillan sat with the Creeveys. Dennis had opened the service with a reading and displayed some of Colin's photographs on the walls.

There had been talk of candles or doves to accompany the closing song of the service but Ron and the others had also had a hand in deciding that final detail.

Hermione stood in front of Ron, his arms curled around her waist and his chin settled on top of her head. Harry watched his best friend and marvelled at how strong he was, how strong everybody knew him to be now. Ron had always had it in him to be a great wizard. He never had an exceptional gift for magic or his studies. He wasn't a living legend at the age of one. Ron Weasley hadn't even been the stand out member of his own family.

That was all different now, though.

In the Ministry lobby, an elderly witch grabbed Harry's arm and stared up at him with awestruck eyes. "Are you Harry Potter?" That question was nothing new. He got that a lot—more than a lot, but when Harry had nodded in reply, the woman had pulled Harry down so his ear was in front of her mouth and whispered, "You take care of that boy. Death Eaters tormented my Alfie like that during the first war—he never recovered. You look after your friend dear. It's when nobody's looking that the cracks start to show."

The witch had let Harry go and dabbed at her eyes with a grey hanky before hurrying away into the crowd of Ministers leaving en masse at the end of the day. That encounter had shaken Harry so badly that he had been watching Ron with the same intensity he would watch a Snitch during a vital Quidditch match.

Ron had noticed obviously, but he didn't think much of it. Everybody watched Ron these days. Everybody was hovering around him as if ready to catch him when he finally crumbled into pieces. It wasn't just fear of what the old witch had said to him that made Harry follow his friend with his eyes everywhere he went, it was admiration.

Ron had survived against all the odds. Ron was alive because he was incredible. Nobody rescued Ron. He wasn't saved, and there was nobody to owe his life to other than Ron himself. Ron had saved himself.

Harry always knew he had it in him.

Ron and Lee had kept Tommy alive. Ron had sat up all night after the double execution of Jimmy Peakes and Rodger Davies and saved Fergus' sanity. Ron had given Lee a reason to keep fighting. He'd degraded himself to get them water. He'd allowed himself to be humiliated and defiled to get them food.

Harry squeezed Ron's shoulder as the remembrance service concluded and magical bubbles began to float skywards.

Ron shifted his eyes to meet Harry's and smiled.

"Dean came so cl-close," Ron said hoarsely as his eyes shone brightly.

Harry nodded and swallowed down his emotion to stay strong for Ron. The band began to play and the choir begun to sing while Demelza Robbins burst into tears and ran outside, followed by her mother.

"I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air—"

When Ron woke in the night, he would be in a state about one of the hostages or the other. Harry would be out of bed and by his side with the same speed Ron was always there for him at school. Last night it had been Dean's turn.

"They fly so high, nearly reach the sky—"

Ron had been shaking and short of breath as he babbled in English and Dutch, with and without his stammer, before looking Harry in the eye and telling him that Dean didn't ask for help when the Puppet Master got hold of him. Dean didn't think of himself as the knife went into his back at all. Dean had told Ron to run.

"—then like my dreams they fade and die."

The bubbles floated upwards, shimmering and changing colours, and most of the people in the congregation cried. Several people smiled though. Carol and Darren Thomas got some relief from this moment at last. Seamus, too, was smiling for the first time in ages. The Painters and Mrs Jordan were with the rest of the Weasleys. The Prangs chose to sit at the back; none of the survivors had it in them to look them in the eye yet. Harry heard Hermione sniff and Ron must have, too, because he leaned forward, into her hair, and began to sing to her.

"Fortune's always hiding, I've looked everywhere—"

Ron could sing perfectly—not a stammer to be heard. Hermione pulled Ron's arms tightly around her and laughed softly. Lee exhaled deeply, letting go of something deep inside him in the process. The twins felt it, too, and both began to sing even louder, out of tune and not caring a bit.

"I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air!"

Everybody was going to be okay.

Eventually...
The End