Running AIAOY 7

Chapter 9

The sand crunched under Harry as he and the others landed where Dobby apparated them.  The sand was damp and he still had the wand Draco had thrown towards him before Bellatrix had had Hermione by the throat.

"We're safe!  We...we're all-"  Harry turned in a slow circle.  The realization hit him with a wave of nausea.  "Where's-"

"Dobby could not wait."  Dobby wrapped his hands around his ears, wringing them tightly.  "D-Dobby had to!"

"Take me back, Dobby!"  Harry shouted, too afraid to care that Dobby flinched.  "Take me back right now!"

Ron grabbed Harry's arm before he could move any closer to Dobby.  "Mate, Bellatrix said You-Know-Who was on his way."

Harry yanked his arm from Ron's grasp and stepped backward.  "You've already written her off, haven't you?"  The hurt shooting through Harry forced his voice back into a shout.  "Haven't you?!"

Hermione held onto Harry, partially holding herself up with the front of his shirt--leaving splotches of blood where her cuts had opened back up.  "No one's written anyone off, Harry.  But we need a plan, we need to-"  

Harry was frightened by the pallor creeping over Hermione's face.

"Oh no."  Hermione's eyes focused on something in the distance.  

Fred and Sirius had become much closer in the months the others had been on the hunt for the horcruxes.  They made it their goal to go for a walk along the beach a couple of times a week.  Arthur joined them when free, but he spent most of his time alternating between safe houses with information and supplies.

On their walk back to Shell Cottage, neither Fred nor Sirius expected to see a collection of people appear--let alone a gathering familiar.  Fred took tally over the group, allowing himself the momentary hope that they had finished their mission and Rebecca had come home.

Except, as he counted, someone was missing.

Hermione's breathed out as Fred broke into a spring directly for them.

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"Rebecca?"

"Okay.  Draco?"

"Okay."

It was their ritual, the new prisoners.  Whenever one of them came back from the torture upstairs, they spoke the others name.  It reminded them that they weren't alone in the cold and dark.  

The afternoon the others had escaped was a haze Rebecca struggled to recall; she wasn't sure she wanted to.  Bellatrix used she and Draco as an outlet for her anger at losing her wand, which had gone with Dobby's apparation.  Even with the difficulty of using her sister's wand, Bellatrix made her fury at Harry's escape known and felt entirely with only fear for her own life keeping her from killing the both of them.  The Dark Lord, after all, would still arrive.

"Rebecca?"

"Draco?"

What had at first been only making sure the other was still conscious became their routine.  When the other was shoved back down into the cellar, they spoke the other's name.  Reminded them of who they were, that they weren't alone.

The afternoon that the others had disapparated away was a haze Rebecca couldn't entirely recall.  Bellatrix used her and Draco as an outlet for the loss of her wand, and her embarrassment at having played a role in losing one of the Potter twins. The only recompense Bellatrix had was that she had managed to keep Rebecca.  The Death Eaters all had their orders--Harry was to be brought to Voldemort to be killed.  Rebecca was supposed to be brought to Voldemort for other reasons.