Into the Midst

Chapter 2

My breath got caught in my throat as I felt the colour drain from my face. Hermione shot a jinx at Harry and I saw his face swell up. I caught Hermione putting her wand away quickly and assumed she shot a stunning jinx.

We all slowly walked forwards and out of the tent until we were in front of the snatchers. "Well, well, well, lookie what we haves 'here. What da ya think you're doing saying his name, heh?" Harry tries to say it was an accident but that didn't go too well. After all, how could you say the most feared name on accident. "I 'ardly believe it was an accident. What's your name precious?" The man who seemed to be the leader asked Hermione as one of his long skeletal fingers stroked her cheek.

"Penelope Clearwater, Pureblood." Hermione stated trying to keep a strong solid voice but I detected a little quiver.

"And what about the rest of you?" I wasn't able to hear what Ron said but I did hear Harry state that his name was Vernon Dudley. Another one confirmed that there was a Vernon Dudley at the ministry. I almost thought that we would get out of this easy but a man, shuffling through papers showed one to the man holding Hermione. "This 'ere picture looks a lot like the girlie. Ya know, dirty mudblood Granger. You know what?! I be thinking that this be the mudblood."

"I think yous is being right! An' if this 'ere is Granger, than this must be th' ginger Weasley. An' those two's ia always withs Potter. Well, is you Potter mate? What happened to your face?" A man demanded turning to Harry.

"Bee sting," Harry responded, or at least tried to, the jinx made it difficult to talk.

"I don't thinks so." The leader said taking in Harry's appearance very carefully. "We's not taking this lot t' the ministry! C'me on, boys!" A woman in the back of the group made a noise that sounded like something between a cough and a huff. "An' Shirley." He added.

They all turned to leave, ruffly forcing the trio to move when the man holding me spoke up. He had a long, narrow face, bald with stubble on his face for a beard, and a giant underbite. Either that or he just had a huge chin. He looked like he would either have a growly voice or a super deep voice. Surprisingly, he had neither. He had a particularly high voice. Not squeaky or as high pitch as a girl, or child, but definitely not one to match his appearance.

"What 'bout this one, eh?" he asked pushing me forwards with a force that was more than necessary.

"Bring 'er along too." The leader responded. The man holding me suddenly squeezed my upper arm a lot tighter and we appreciated. We landed in front of a gate to a huge mansion. The men knocked and explained that they might have found Harry Potter. We were let in but we had to walk up a long walkway through the middle of the front yard that separated off from the gardens by hedges. When we got through the large french doors, we went left a little, just past a wall that separated the sitting room from the entry hall, we were escorted into the sitting room. There were a few people in there, one lady who looked crazy with unruly black hair, one lady with long straight platinum blonde hair, one man with platinum blond hair, and his mini-me that looked to be a few years older than me.

The lead snatcher spoke up. "This 'ere we reckon is Granger, Weasley, and Potter." he said pointing to each of them in turn. Crazy lady called the child, Draco, forwards to make sure it was Harry before calling You-Know-Who. Draco couldn't be sure and as crazy lady was badgering him she caught sight of the special sword that the trio had. She went crazy. I didn't think it was possible for her to be crazier but it was. Before I know it, the boys are in the basement and Hermione is getting tortured, I was forced to watch. I hoped that they wouldn't notice me when the snatcher holding asked what to do with me. Crazy lady, who I now know is Bellatrix because the man addressed her with it, stopped, silver knife positioned above Hermione's left arm, waiting to break the skin. My snatcher pushed me forwards harshly until I stumbled next to Bellatrix.