In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter LXXXII: Not Cautious Enough

LUCY:

"Rennervate!"

My eyelids shot open.

A cave. A dark cave.

Several beams of wandlight, all pointed at me.

"Thought you were clever, didn't you?"

I blinked, squinted, swiveled my head to face the voice. But with my hands tied behind my back and my legs bent awkwardly beneath me, I lost my balance and landed hard on my shoulder, my cheek scraping against a sharp protrusion of rock on the way down.

Rough hands grabbed me by the collar and pulled me back to an upright position.

I was too weak, too dazed, too confused to fight back.

How did I end up here?

"I said," the voice repeated, "thought you were clever, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you mean," I managed.

A figure stepped into the middle of the circle of wandlight. I couldn't see his face because of the way he was only lit from behind, but I could see what he was holding out in front of him like a trophy. It was a wand — mine, I realized half a second later.

"Nice hiding place for this you had. Bet you thought you were clever." He spun the wand on his fingers a couple of times. "As kind as it is for the Dark Lord to even consider you for his ranks," the voice continued, "you're going to need a proper wand before you're able to do his bidding. Unicorn hair is the hardest to persuade. Am I correct in assuming that is your core?"

"And what if you are?" I asked. I don't know what was faster, my heart pounding in my chest or the thoughts racing in my mind. "And what do you mean, the Dark Lord? What would Voldemort ever want to do with me? What makes you think I want anything to do with him? What's this about his bidding?"

"It's quite simple, really, or at least as simple as such a lofty goal as the Dark Lord's can be." The voice was maddeningly calm, maddeningly silky. Maddeningly familiar. "He wants you to join us. You're not just any Mudblood. It is not entirely filthy Muggle blood in your veins, after all. You have Fenrir Greyback to thank for that."

Muggle blood? Fenrir Greyback? They know?

I struggled against the ropes, panic rising in my again.

If I can just get my wand-

"Hold her back."

The ropes tightened around my wrists, and hands grabbed my upper arms. I strained, but it was no use. I was small, I was weak, I was exhausted.

My only hope was my wand.

"Yes, Lucy Diggory, we know about everything. Your mother was a cautious one, yes, but not cautious enough."

He said was. Mum is dead. They killed her.

I absorbed his words in shocked silence. I stopped resisting the hands holding me back.

If not even Mum could survive, I stand no chance.

"I know what you did to her," I said, voice shaking, breath coming even faster. "And I reckon you did the same to Dad. But what do you want with me, why didn't you kill me?"

"In all fairness, that many stunning spells could very well have killed a typical Mudblood. It was more of a test, really, to make sure you were in fact a werewolf. We needed to take you quietly, and we doubted you would go without a fight."

"Damn right! Just a couple seconds longer, and I would have-"

"Would have what? Disarmed ten of us at once? Suddenly learned how to apparate? Sent your patronus after us?"