Must. BELIEVE!

Chapter 3 The sacrifices you make

Chapter 3 The sacrifices you make

They apparated in a dark and smelly alley between two scruffy shops.

"Why on earth would they visit Nocturn?" Ginny whispered the very same question Hermione has been asking herself since Kingsley had given them the coordinates. Hermione only shrugged in response. She looked around in great heist; some of the strands of her bushy hair, which escaped the ponytail, covered her face now and then. She brushed them away angrily.

"Are you sure he hasn't tricked us?" she heard another question and yet another she herself came up with a while earlier.

Of course she wondered. Of course she considered Kingsley as an intelligent man, and, if necessary a good liar.

"Yes" she said firmly instead. "I'm quite sure actually. It's not in his nature to just play people on purpose. He would do this to an enemy, yes. He would do this if he'd considered us traitors...' they stopped as the short, dark alley ended, joining the main street of Nocturn. "But think, Ginny," Hermione lowered her voice to just a shadow of a whisper. "If he wanted to get rid of us, he had so many other means at Grimmauld Place. He had his aurors, he had other members of The Order."

"I suppose you are right," Ginny mumbled, not at all satisfied with the answer she got from her friend. She even looked suspiciously at her, supposedly assuming that Hermione had kept something to herself.

The older witch sighed.

"Come on, Ginn. You wanted to help them. I know it looks like a trap! And, probably, it is! But it's not been set on us. I'm sure it's for them!"

Ginny frowned.

"Lead the way then." She murmured.

And so they went.

The Nocturn Alley looked completely deserted: although it was the middle of the day, most of shops and bars were closed. The windows were covered, shutters shut, and the showcases of chemist's and cobbler's seemed gloomy and uncared for.

Not that Nocturn ever was a happy and neat place. But now... It has become even something else.

Something wasn't right – Hermione noticed. Something other than the state of decay which left an imprint on everything around them.

It was the silence that seemed unnatural and made the place more hostile.

"I think he directed us perfectly," Hermione whispered; she had to look over her shoulder to see the focused face of her friend. "Can you hear anything? Like ANYthing?"

Ginny shook her head.

"No, nothing at all."

Hermione nodded.

And then they heard a shriek. Not a cry not scream but a shriek.

The colour left their faces the moment they recognised the voice.

"Harry..." Ginny wanted to run but Hermione managed to stop her.

"Let me go, Mione!" Guinevere yelled, but luckily, her friend was stronger.

"If we want to make a difference" she whispered, still fighting with yanking witch, "We have to be careful Ginny. Even more now than before."

"They are torturing him!" She could hear that the girl was crying.

Angry, desperate to help one friend and not lose the other, Hermione growled. Before she properly thought through what she was going to say, she snapped:

"At least we know he is still alive, Ginn!"

Hearing this, the youngest Weasley came to a standstill, but the look she gave Hermione was one full of pain and antipathy.