Author's Note: This is EveryShadeOfDeath's reward for writing a story for the You Then Me Challenge. The first part is being posted for starting the story; the second part will be posted somewhere in the middle of the story; and the last part will be posted when the story is completed. So basically, it'll be a while before I get back to this.
Part 1: The Choice
"This is sick."
Katie, who has been sitting at the door to their cell and surreptitiously tugging at the rusted metal bars, takes a moment to realize that Seamus said something. She's saved from coming up with a response when Angelina speaks up.
"Keep talking like that, Finnigan, and you'll be wolf meat for sure."
"I thought we were all wolf meat anyway," says Katie. "Isn't that what the lottery is supposed to decide?" She shudders. The scene of this year's lottery is probably burned into her mind forever.
"Not completely," says Angelina. Katie knows her decently well; they've played Quidditch together. Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. Last year they lost because Cedric Diggory caught the Snitch – Cedric, whom Katie knows is one of the Hufflepuff sacrifices.
"Now that they've got us all here, they'll pick some people to go out the night of the full moon, and some to go out the night before." Seamus is a year below Katie at school. She doesn't know him well at all. In fact, she's pretty sure this is the first time she's ever talked to him. "The full moon, people get chased by wolves. The others…"
"They send out the most rabid werewolves in their human form," says Angelina, "and let them at it."
Katie shivers. "Merlin. I don't want to know what they do then."
"At least they send you back to school if you aren't dead or turned," says Seamus. He shakes his head. "Or mad."
Katie wraps her hands around the bars and pulls fruitlessly. Now she really wants to get out, but she knows it's just not going to happen. She's been chosen as a sacrifice and it's going to go down, one way or another.
They're waiting there for a long time. Katie can't tell how long, because the Death Eaters took her watch along with her school badge and everything else except the clothes on her back. Angelina takes to pacing the tiny cell, back to front, side to side, seemingly unable to sit down. Seamus appears to go to sleep on the ground, but when Katie looks more closely at him, she can see how tense he is. Katie herself stays at the door, waiting for someone to come and tell them their fates.
The Death Eater who arrives at last is one of those who attended the lottery and brought them here. His name is Rabastan Lestrange. Out of the corner of her eye, Katie sees Angelina retreating to the back of the cell. That's right – Rabastan was the one to Apparate Angelina here, holding on to her in a way that was most definitely too intimate for comfort. Katie was Apparated by Rabastan's brother, Rodolphus, who was only marginally better.
"We've made our decision. Johnson, Finnigan, you stay here tonight, you'll be attending the wolf-fest tomorrow." Rabastan grins evilly. "Bell, you get to come out and play tonight."
Katie feels the bottom fall out of her stomach as Rabastan opens the door and grabs her arm none too gently. She follows him mutely, her body going slowly numb with disbelief and shock.
I don't want to know what they do then, she remembers saying just minutes before – or was it hours? Well, now she's going to find out – whether she likes it or not.