Cursed With Curious Minds | Hp Next Generation

48 - A New World

The ropes were tied around Delilah's wrists quite hard, and they had started digging into her skin. She had sensed her muscles come back to life but thought there was no point in trying to escape, however she could feel James wriggling about behind her. She reached out her hand – as far as she could with it being tied up – and held onto James's, hopefully letting him know to stop trying to escape, and that they'll be ok. But she also really just needed James's hand to hold on to.

James was determined to find his way out of the ropes. 'Find some basilisk venom. Get out of the ropes. Stab the horcrux. Leg it.' He was repeating over and over inside his head. It was a few moments before he felt someone's hand trying to grab onto his, and he knew immediately that it was Delilah's. He wished that he could turn around to look at her, but they had been tied back to back, and this was the closest they could get to communicating. James immediately felt comforted when Delilah's hand touched his, and he stopped moving about. 'We'll get out of this. Together.' He thought.

Ophelia was sitting over by another table leg, having been tied back to back with Toby. She quickly grabbed his hand for reassurance, and he grabbed it back. It was nice to know that she wasn't alone in this situation. Glancing up, Ophelia noticed the door to the vanishing cabinet slowly open and close. 'Astrid's safe.' She thought, and suddenly she was all the more relieved, however she did selfishly wish that Astrid was here with her right now. Although Ophelia had never been in a dangerous situation with Astrid, she assumed that Astrid would be able to keep a level head if they were ever in danger – unlike herself. Ophelia was really starting to panic now, and so she cast her mind to thinking of Astrid coming through the door to rescue her.

Toby felt an anxious hand reach for his. Ophelia. He grabbed it quickly in response, in an attempt to calm her. He knew that she would much rather it be Astrid that was here to comfort her right now, but he was the best she had, and he wasn't going to let her down. Toby leaned his head back on the table leg in frustration. 'How did it get to this?' he thought. If he had his way, Zach would already be on the boat to Azkaban, but – no – James had to do it his way. He wasn't angry at James exactly, they all thought they were doing the right thing, it was just a little bit infuriating that they were currently all tied up.

"I assume you four are the ones I have to blame for everything that's been going wrong this year?" Zach asked, looking between the group.

None of them said anything in response. They were looking at each other, trying to devise a plan, but that was very hard when the only methods of communication were blinking and holding hands. Delilah and Ophelia could see one another, but James and Toby, who were tied to the backs of the other two, were kept almost completely out of the loop.

Zach sighed. "I can't talk to you if you don't talk to me."

"Has it maybe occurred to you that we don't want to talk?" Delilah said.

Zach laughed. "The only way you're getting out of here is by bargaining, sweetie, you're going to have to talk to me."

Delilah fought every urge in her body not to try and get up to punch this guy through the wall.

"How about..." Zach started, "I ask you a question, and you get to ask me a question in return. I'll start."

Delilah and Ophelia looked at one another. They really did want to know why this guy was doing whatever he was doing, and maybe he'd accidentally let something slip, which they could use.

"How did you find this place?" Zach asked, glaring at each one of them in turn.

"You left it open once, or opened it up too early, I don't know." James said. "I was walking around the castle and I just saw this door, I went in it and here I was."