She had never been the most athletic of people. She was pretty sure she had never even run flat out like this for even a short period of time. The stitch in her side grew with each step she took, her breath becoming short and ragged. As much as she wanted to stop and catch her breath, she knew her time was limited. She needed to get there first. If anyone else beat her there, she would be completely and properly screwed.
She was pounding past the entrance to an alleyway when she heard it. A clink of glass and a sharp intake of breath. Someone was hiding here, and she had a very good idea of who. Drawing her wand she cautiously entered the alley.
It was much dimmer in the small space between buildings. The sun was slowly disappearing, casting long, dark shadows. She stood at the entrance looking around as she waited for her eyes to adjust properly to the lack of light. She hadn't survived this long just to make a stupid mistake like that. The person hiding in the alley was no slouch with a wand. She needed to bring her a-game in order to safely deal with this particular person.
Once her eyes had adjusted properly, she slowly moved forward. She kept her wand extended slightly, but not in a way that could be perceived as threatening. She was sure she'd still need to defend herself before she had a chance to convince the person she wasn't actually there to catch or kill them.
"I know it's you. Look, I just want to talk alright. I'm not here to hurt you." She tried to sound as reassuring as she could, but as she had never had a polite conversation with the person hiding behind the rubbish, it was proving slightly more difficult than she had originally thought it would be. Old habits die hard sometimes.
"Just come out Granger. I promise, all I want to do is talk. It's just you and me here." She held her breath, silently begging the runner would come out sooner than later. Her pride was taking a serious hit here, and she was really starting to wonder if this would be worth it in the end. She waited quietly, hoping for a response. None came.
"You realize you don't have many options right now don't you? You can try running some more, but we both know you won't make it very far, especially with how much blood I'm sure you're losing. Not like listening to what I have to say could possibly be any worse than bleeding out in the rubbish." She huffed. Couldn't the stupid girl just come out and listen? There was no way she could keep running with how much blood she was losing. She had seen the cutting hex McNair had hit her with. He had sliced her open from her right shoulder across her back, ending ather left hip. She had to be in a lot of pain too, it had looked pretty deep from where Pansy had been standing.
She huffed again. They really didn't have time for Granger to think it over. She'd either bleed to death first, or be caught by another Death Eater at this rate, and if somebody else came along Pansy would have no choice but took take Granger in and that would completely destroy any hope of escape from this hell.
"Ugh, Granger, I swear on my Magic as a witch, I am not here to hurt you or turn you in, now will you get your arse out here and talk to me?" She had never been a patient person to begin with. The threat of death completely obliterated what little she had.
"I can't stand back up. You're going to have to help me" came a quiet voice, so quiet she almost didn't hear it. Pansy let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding. She moved forward cautiously, making sure she made enough noise so as not to startled the injured witch. Hurt or not, Granger had always been a force to be reckoned with. She held her hands up, palms out to show she meant no harm as she walked around the heap. Pansy couldn't stop the sharp intake at the sight before her.
Granger's left shoulder was propped against a rubbish bin, probably to keep the rest of her back from coming into contact with anything. Even though she probably hadn't been sitting there long, there was already a decent sized pool of blood around her. Everything about her seemed to sag with exhaustion. She was covered in a thick layer of grime, Pansy wasn't even sure what color her shirt had originally been. Hearing Grangers breath hitch brought Pansy back from her perusal.
She reached into a small pouch she always carried with her and extracted two potions vials. She slowly moved closer to Granger until she could kneel in front of her.
"Here, you need to take these. I can heal most of the damage, but it'll take to long for us to keep sitting here. This is a blood replenishing, and pain potion. Just take them so we can get out of here before somebody else finds us." Her words came out harsher than she had meant to, but she was in a hurry and terrified somebody would discover them.
Granger just stared at her, not taking the potions. "Just take the potions, I already swore on my Magic I'm not here to hurt you, that generally includes poisoning." She couldn't really blame her for being cautious, but they really didn't have the time for it right now.
"Fine, here." She opened the first vial and held it to Grangers lips. To Pansy's surprise she actually opened her mouth to allow the potion to be poured in. She repeated the action with the second vial. She leaned back on her heels, noting that Granger's eyes didn't look quite as glazed anymore and there was a little bit more color in her cheeks. Of course, that wouldn't last long if they just sat there and she continued to bleed.
"On your feet, we need to go." She grabbed hold of Granger's arm and helped her up. The bleeding witch leaned on her heavily, but didn't so much as flinch at the contact. She must have been in a lot of pain still if she'd so willingly let a known Death Eater touch her. Just as she prepared to apparate then away, she paused. Pansy turned her attention to the mouth of the alley, eyes and ears alert. She was sure she had heard someone curse. She waited a minute or two before she was satisfied she must have been mistaken. Nobody would have just sat there and waited when they made such an easy target. With one last glance she turned, pulling them into the tight, squeezing tube.
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
As soon as their feet met solid ground again Granger collapsed with a groan.
"Oh no you don't, just a little further. You are not bleeding all over this carpet. It was very expensive and impossible to replace." Pansy made sure she had a good hold on the other girl before hauling her back up and pulling her down the hall to the guest bedroom.
For such a tiny, malnourished body, it was a rather difficult and awkward haul. Of course, her guest bedroom had to be at the very end of the hallway. Pansy really didn't have the muscle mass for this, she never did much of the grunt work. Voldemort was much more interested in her Gringotts vaults.
Upon reaching the bed she allowed both herself and Granger to flop onto the comforter. Merlin, being helpful was exhausting. She was already anticipating a nap and she still had a lot of work left to do. Starting with making sure Granger didn't bleed to death. With a groan, she pushed herself upright.
"Alright Granger, let's take a look here." Using a careful slicing hex she ripped the back of Granger's shirt open. "Merlin, Granger, you're lucky he didn't cut you in half!" She was indeed very lucky. Pansy could see deep muscle and even the white of bone beneath all the blood. How she wasn't dead already was anybody's guess.
"Alright, I need you to hold as still as possible. Feel free to scream though, I've got silencing wards up, it's going to hurt like a bugger." She braced her hand against Granger's good shoulder, trying to make the girl remember to hold still. As soon as she began the incantation Granger tried to pull away. Getting muscles knit back together was never comfortable, but this level of damage had to be excruciating. Pansy continued on, running her wand back and forth across the wound, trying to hold Granger down.
Before she could finish, the wall behind Pansy was blasted apart. She was thrown across the room, slamming into the far wall before sliding down. All she could make out were shadows and vague shapes in all the dust floating in the air. She was sure she probably had a concussion from the impact as well.
"Well, well, well. I never would have guessed you'd be the traitor Pans, but then again, you always loved to go against the grain just because you could. So what was it this time? Daddy not paying enough attention to you?"
She was finally able to focus on the body that accompanied the voice. Sweet Circe she hated him and his smug face. The troll had never gotten over her rejection. Apparently, it wasn't a common occurrence.
"If I wanted my father's attention Pucey, you really think I'd do something quite so life threatening? I'd have just cut up all his ties again if that were the case." She spit out some blood that was pooling in her mouth. Pansy was pretty sure she'd bitten her tongue on impact. She tried assessing for any other damage while Pucey continued to drone on. It was difficult to draw a deep breath so she guessed at least a couple of her ribs were broken. A quick glance down also showed a shard of wood from her blasted dresser was now making itself right at home in her left thigh. Wonderful. This should be interesting then. She hadn't been listening but zoned back in when Pucey brought up Granger.
"We never would have caught her if it hadn't been for you Pans. Avery saw you turn down that alley. You really should be more aware of what's going on around you."
Of course, it would be Avery. He wasn't in the best standing with their Lord at the moment. He was also too stupid to come up with a plan on his own to regain favour. Naturally, he would latch onto someone else and ride their coattails.
Pucey stepped forward grabbing Pansy's arm and throwing her back on the bed beside Granger. Looking at her, she could tell the poor witch hadn't moved at all. She must have passed out from the pain and blood loss finally. Pansy wished she could pass out just so she wouldn't have to keep listening to Pucey's voice. Merlin, it was grating.
"Well, now that we know who the traitor is I suppose there's nothing left to do but bring you to the Dark Lord for punishment. Or execution. It's anybody's guess at this point." He motioned for Avery and McNair to come further into the room so he could discuss where to take them. Pansy began to panic, looking around the room desperate for something, anything to help them escape.
She flinched when she felt something brush against her hand. Looking down she saw Grangers fingers near hers. Looking up into her face she saw that Granger was looking back at her. Not passed out then. Slowly Granger moved her arm up to her neck and began gently tugging on a chain there. None of the other Death Eaters in the room were paying them any attention. As far as they were concerned, the girls on the bed were incapacitated.
As she watched, Granger finally reached the end of the chain and pulled something out of the front of her robes. Lying in Granger's hand was a golden time turner. Oh, brilliant Granger had done it again. She had never doubted the witch's intelligence, nobody who shared classes with her could, but she never would have believed she'd manage to get her hands on a time turner.
Meeting Granger's questioning gaze, she gave a subtle nod. Still moving slowly so as not to draw attention, Granger reached over and placed the chain around Pansy's neck as well.
"Oi, what do you have there? I'm sure it's something the Dark Lord would love to see."
Times up, their movements must not have been as subtle as they had hoped.
As quickly as she could she grabbed the timepiece, "how many Granger?"
"Two, two turns!" Her words were slurring, they needed to get her done medical treatment as soon as possible.
Just as the first Death Eater neared them, Pansy spun the delicate hour glass twice and everything around them began to blur.