The Fallout by EveryThursday (reposted)

Twenty-Seven

Day: 1456; Hour: 20

"Something is wrong."

"What is?" Angelina whispers, though they have already cleared the cabin.

"I don't know," Harry mutters, his eyes tracking something only he can see in the light of their wands. "There's dust all over the place."

"I doubt they clean without their servants to do it for them." Seamus pokes at an old cloth on the table, covered in dust with black splotches of stains.

"No, I think you're right, Harry. They wouldn't be using magic for fear we could trace them in the Muggle world - so where are their light bulbs?" Hermione asks, the stream of light from her wand trained at the empty socket above their heads.

"Maybe they don't get electricity out here. Torches, candles--" Fitz starts.

"Then where are the torches and the candles? There is one mattress in all the rooms, and a chair in here. It's practically empty." Harry puts his light out suddenly. "Put out your wands."

"Harry--" Ginny starts.

"This place is a setup."

"There's no one here though--" Simon starts.

"Shut up," Hermione whispers, putting out her wand as well. "Sorry."

She didn't mean to snap at him, but the bad feeling that had started tingling at the bottom of her spine has now become The Very Bad Feeling. Fear raised the hair along her arms, it sent her hearing to every squeak of the house, it waited anxiously for the others to plunge them into darkness. Simon is the last to extinguish his light, and it takes her eyes a couple seconds to adjust to the lighter shade of darkness out the window. A rush of panic hits the room, and whispers climb one another to form too much sound.

"Where's the map?"

"Can't see it without light."

"Find our location."

"No one is in here."

"Outside? We're surrounded by woods."

"Easy enough for them to hide."

"Where are the exits?"

"To wait, you mean."

"Do we...what are we doing?"

"Harry?"

"Portkey out?'

"Call for backup."

"We don't retreat."

"They won't know the plan."

"They will Apparate right in."

"We don't know the plan."

"We have a plan?"

"They can't Apparate, they have never been here."

"Open for attack."

"Harry?"

"Be quiet," Harry hisses, and she can hear the denim of his jeans as he moves.

"We can't stand here like fools. If they are waiting they would have seen the lights go out and they will know we're on to them." Fitz whispers this harshly, but Hermione had known before this that the man didn't agree with putting Harry in charge. She would like to tell him that Harry killed what was possibly the most powerful wizard alive, after Dumbledore's death. She would like to ask Fitz if he knew what that meant, what that made Harry now.

"They would have been waiting in here--" Harry tries.

"So you've got us all freaked out over nothing?" Seamus says this in a way that reminds her too much of Draco. The redhead would probably strangle her if she said this out loud.