Running AIAOY 7

Chapter 8

"They're coming!"  Ron shouted, understanding what was happening.  "His name, it'll bring them!"  The others knew, but they hadn't had a run-in with the Snatchers, they didn't know how quickly they would show up.  He looked out the window Harry was just as Harry shoved Ron down beside the table nearby.

The windows were blasted in, the shattering the first noise of the attack.  Hermione and Rebecca were the first two to their feet, their wands out to defend against the curses the Death Eaters flying around the outside of the house sent in.  

Xenophilius dodged the flying furniture and crumbling stone to run to the door, holding his hands up at the arrivals.  "Stop!  I've got them!  I've got them both!  I can have Luna back now!  That's all I-"

Hermione pulled Rebecca back to the floor.  Harry and Ron were caught in the middle of the house and they were calling for the girls to get to them so they could apparate to safety.  The blasts from his house sent Xenophilius sprawling down the steps, his voice raising higher for Luna to be returned at last.

The Death Eaters in the air coordinated their next move, raising the top of the Lovegood home away from the bottom to bury those inside in the rubble.  

Rebecca closed the circle by grabbing one of Hermione's hands and one of Ron's.  The four disapparated as the first rocks began to fall.

Ron jumped to his feet in the trees they landed in.  "That treacherous little bleeder!"  He was shocked that someone so close to home, literally, could have betrayed them.  "Is there no one we can trust?"

Harry grabbed Hermione's arm to make sure she was alright.  Then he held his hand out for Rebecca to get up from where the stayed.  "It was because he supported us so proudly."

"He was desperate.  Luna's been gone a while, especially-"  Rebecca's voice cut off abruptly.  They weren't alone.

The Death Eaters had followed them.

Fenrir was with the group, his teeth bared as they recognised their presence.  "Hello there, beauties."

The little one, the leader who had been with Fenrir months earlier, waved at them.

Hermione took a half-step back, her mind running through options.  There were too many Death Eaters there to fight there way out.  And the Snatchers hadn't done anything yet--they were just staring at them.

Rebecca and Harry launched into simultaneous motion, sprinting with Ron and Hermione just steps behind.

Scabior grinned.  He loved a good chase.  "Don't just hang about, snatch 'em!"

Rebecca pumped her arms and legs faster than she thought possible, her feet flew on the leaves passing under her feet.  Harry turned his head to make sure Ron and Hermione were close behind, and the first spell broke out.  The Snatchers sent jinxes ahead of where Harry and Rebecca were leading their escape, the Death Eaters hoped to slow them down enough to grab the four madly running undesirables.

Hermione cried out as the tree less than a foot ahead of her shattered into pieces.

Rebecca sent a counterspell back over her shoulder blindly, catching one of the Snatchers chasing after them in the chest.  He flew through the air and landed on a Death Eater farther behind.  

The path Harry had chosen brought the four runners to the top of a hill.  Once over the crest, gravity propelled them faster.

"Incarcerous!"  One of the Snatchers' curses caught Ron in the back.  He let out a grunt as the chains that wrapped around his ankles and wrists sent him to the ground in a pile.