Kassandra Bauer and the Deathly Hallows. (Book 7)

Chapter 10: Witch Hunt.

(Kassandra P.O.V)

If Kreacher could escape a lake that was full of Inferi, I was confident that the capture of Mundungus Fletcher would take a few hours at most, and so I waited in the house. Except Kreacher didn't return in the morning, or even in the afternoon. By nightfall, I felt discouraged and anxious, and a supper composed of an un-largely moldy bread, on which Hermione had tried a variety of unsuccessful Transfigurations to try and make it fresher, did nothing to help. 

Kreacher didn't return the following day, nor the day after that. However, two cloaked men appeared in the square outside House Number 12, and they remained there into the night, gazing in the direction of a house they could not see. 

"Death Eaters." I said as we looked down from the drawing rooms. 

"Reckon they know we're in here?" Ron asked. 

"I don't think so." Hermione answered, though she looked frightened. "Or they'd have sent Snape in after us, wouldn't they?" 

"D'you reckon he's been in here and had his tongue tied by Moody's curse?" Ron asked. 

"Maybe he tried. Though if he did, he would've told that lot how to get in, wouldn't he? But they're probably watching to see whether we turn up. They know that Harry owns the house after all." Hermione assumed.

"How do they-?" Harry began. 

"Wizarding wills are examined by the Ministry, remember? They'll know Sirius left the place to Harry." Hermione explained.

The presence of the Death Eaters increased the ominous mood inside the house. We had not heard from anyone beyond Grimmauld Place since Mr. Weasleys Patronus and Ethan's message. And the longer we went without new information, the more anxious we became. And Ron developed an annoying habit of playing with the Deluminator in his pocket; This particularly infuriated Hermione, who was willing away the wait for Kreacher by studying The Tales of Beedle the Bard and did not appreciate the way the lights kept flashing on and off.  

"Will you stop it!" Hermione cried on the third evening of Kreacher's absence, as all light was sucked from the drawing room yet again. 

"Sorry, sorry!" Ron clicked the Deluminator and restored the lights. "I don't know I'm doing it!" 

"Well, can't you find something useful to occupy yourself?" Hermione asked. 

"What, like reading kids' stories?" Ron shot back.

"Dumbledore left me this book, Ron-" Hermione shouted

"-and he left me the Deluminator, maybe I'm supposed to use it!" Ron went on. 

"Oh, Malaka!" I left the room unable to stand the bickering. 

Then again, Ron and Hermione usually bickered their shit all the time. And I was so glad that Neville and I never bickered or anything like that. Speaking of Neville, he would be going back to Hogwarts soon. It wasn't like I could communicate with him via letters this year. I still held one where he called me his little angel. He wasn't a poet like Homer or anything like that. He was Neville. 

But that was when there came a sound from the door. A tap on the front one. The metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain. I pulled my wand and moved into the hallway hiding in the shadows. Ron and Hermione were by my side when they reached the top of the stairs. I could also see Harry below hiding in the shadows of the decapitated elf heads. 

The door opened. I caught a glimpse of the lamplit square outside, and 2 cloaked figured edged into the hall and closed the door behind us. The intruders took a step forward. And Mad Eye's voice called: "Severus Snape?" Then the dust figure rose from the end of the hall and rushed them, raising it's dead hand.