A/N: So, we are bad. We've already broken the posting schedule. OH WELLLLLLL. The early bird gets the dinosaur. errr.
Chapter Two: How the Good Guys Lose (the battle)
Teddy imagined being able to draw his heels against the back of his thighs and kicking out, attacking the Muggle way against this Death Eater so against Muggles. But, of course, the Death Eater was dragging him by his legs, so all he could do was squirm from right to left- which only hurt him, ripping up the skin on his face further. He glanced over to Victoire. She was Stupefied, he guessed after yelling what idiots they were to the whole of Hogsmeade the Death Eaters were a bit more upset with her than her friends. He'd heard some crows of victory a few minutes past, but he was praying to Merlin they just burned something down. Not Kyrie, too- Fred would've been smart enough to Apparate to the Potters, Fred was always smart, there was no way-
"We got the other two!" came a deep voice from the forest. "Well, I did. That damned son of mine is a fuckin' pansy. Cryin' about hitting girls or some crap." A man with a dented hat and a beard longer than his mask fought his way out of the forest. Something with Kyrie's hair was dragged after him, with some liquid- blood, Teddy realized with a groan- following. A boy, shorter and slumping underneath his costume, trailed after him, pulling what was obviously Fred with no difficulty. And Fred was not easy to carry, Teddy knew that from experience. Fred was conscious, too, but bleeding more than Kyrie and staring blankly at the sky above the trees, unlike Teddy. Teddy tried to get his attention, but his dry throat barely croaked.
"What was this girl thinking?" Another cloaked figure stepped into the forest. "Idiot girl." The figure flipped Victoire onto her back with its shoe, nudging her in the side experimentally. Muggleborn or halfblood, Ted realized. No wizards ever doubted another witch or wizard was Stunned.
"Her friends aren't much better. This one Splinched. Splinched! Ha. And this whore was like, "Ooooh, we've GOT to go to Mung-achk!" The man that pulled Kyrie into the clearing grabbed his throat before ripping his wand out of a fold of his cloak and casting an orange spell towards Fred. He wheezed in a few breaths after his spell hit, before yelling, "Expelliarmus!" Fred's wand shot across the ground.
"You didn't even take his wand? What kind of moron are you?" a fellow Deatheater asked.
"The best kind of moron," the bearded man sneered. "The kind that can kill you if you don't watch your back." He kicked Fred soundly in the gut to make his point.
Fred didn't make a fuss about it, just rolled to his side and clutched his abdomen. Ted was impressed by this. He caught Fred's eye and nodded in encouragement.
"Got something to say, Whitey?" This was the bearded man's son talking, his wand pointed at Teddy's chest. "'Cause if you do, you might at well say it to all of us."
Teddy considered himself to be pretty smart, and as such, he knew well enough to keep his mouth shut. "No, I have nothing to say sir."
Kyrie, however, had been recently unStunned and couldn't hold her silence. She wriggled angrily at Fred's side, her hair picking up dead leaves from the forest floor. "Like hell, sir! What he wanted to say is that you're all making a big mistake taking us like this, because as soon as you give us an opportunity, we're going to turn around and bite you in the ass!"
"Oh-ho!" The boy crouched down by Kyrie and twirled his wand around in a confident circle before resting the tip in the hollow of her throat. She froze and gazed defiantly up at his polished Death Eater mask. "Biting...very kinky. I don't know about the others, but I'm very open-minded about things of that nature..." He trailed off, and Ted could hear the smirk in his voice.
"You insolent pig," Fred said in a monotone, as though reciting the laws of transfiguration. "While we're at it I might just chop off your-"
"Enough!" This was the ringleader speaking. "I've had enough of this nonsense! Take them out and bring them to our base! We weren't planning for this, but-"
"Where exactly is our base, Boss?" one of the Death Eathers interrupted from the fringes of the circle.
Boss leaned his head back in frustration, then lifted his wand quite suddenly and sent a green jet of light in the direction of the offending Death Eater. The man collapsed without a sound and his mask fell off. It rolled across the clearing until it fell flat in front of Ted's face. He turned away from it, trying not to vomit.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, knock them out and take them to the base. Any questions?" No one said a word, but there was a general shuffling of feet and an awkward cough or two.
"Good," Boss chirped. The Death Eaters took this as the signal to descend upon the prisoners with their wands, ready to stupefy. "And to those of you who have just joined our group, what happened to Mr. Goyle is not uncommon. I shall not put up with stupidity among our clan. I shall not insult the Dark Lord's memory with ignorance. If you want to live, then you stay smart. That means you, carrot-top." He directed this at Fred. "I've heard that the Weasleys are infamous for their dull wits. Perhaps now is the time to break family tradition."
Ted didn't waste the breath it would take to tell them that Fred's intellect threatened Hermoine's Granger's status as a know-it-all. He didn't mention that Victoire had inherited the Weasley stupidity. Instead, he succumbed to a magic-induced slumber.
A few hours later, he woke up in a small room. Fred, Kyrie, and Vic were sprawled around him, but none of them were tied up or Stunned. Of course, none of them had wands either. He struggled against a wave of vertigo to sit up, shaking his head slowly.
"You're finally up then?" Kyrie slurred, blinking her eyes up at him. The other two didn't stir.
"How... long... have you... been up?" Teddy forced out precisely. He rubbed his hair, seeing in his periphery that it was currently as red as his blood. He hoped it wasn't hiding any blood.
"A few hours." She tried to sit up, but just fell back down. After a few minutes of staring at Teddy expectantly she held out her hand. "Help me up, you buffoon."
Teddy pulled her up. She sagged immediately. "Did they hit you with a different spell?" Teddy asked, a little worried.
"Chill, I just don't have your tolerance for being unconscious." It was a running joke between the two of them, how many times Victoire had accidentally knocked him unconscious with one spell or another. She took a deep breath, staring at Fred the whole time. "His dad will kill us."
"Why?" Teddy asked. "What about Bill and Fleur? Or even your father?"
"They won't tell my dad, idiot." She shook her head. "Bill and Fleur love you. And George Weasley has already lost one Fred, if he loses this one I'm not sure what he'll do."
"Quit worryin' about my dad, Orlowe," Fred groaned. "He's probably too old for you and definitely too married."
A smile lifted her lips. Teddy was shocked to realize his friend had fallen in love with a Weasley herself- after all the crap she gave him about falling for Victoire!
"But he's so much more handsome than you," she said, rolling her eyes but not dropping the smile.
Fred rolled over to lay on his back and stare at Kyrie from the left corner of his eyes. "Yeah, Orlowe, I'll make sure you're around when I tell him that. Sure he and mum'll be thrilled about it."
"Quit being a drama queen," Kyrie muttered, nudging him with her bare foot. "Did they- they took my shoes? What the fuck."
"It was probably that boy. Seemed right charmed by you," Fred commented, rolling to sit against the wall. Ted thought about scooting back a few feet to sit against the other wall, but decided he didn't want to chance getting sick. "Probably jerked off to the thought of your perrrrrrrfect feet gracing the same soles he held in his very own hands."
Kyrie's face twitched, not in humor, but disgust. "Mention that again and I'll do something interesting with your shoes." No one mentioned, although they all thought, that this insult was very lackluster in comparison to her usual fiery comebacks.
The four young adults remained quiet for a few minutes, all thoughts running along the same train- how exactly had they managed to get here. Then, a rectangle of light appeared and spilled over them, interupting their thoughts with a blinding pain in the eyes. A silhouette swooped above them, its wand clearly visible.
"Anyone moves and they get a Cruciatus Curse in the face." No one moved. "Which one is it, Boss?"
Another voice replied. "The ginger, you know...the one with the bloody arm?" Boss seemed to be in a better humor than before, but how long ago had "before" been?
Ted contemplated this as the goon lifted Fred by the collar of his shirt and and began dragging him into the blinding abyss.
"Where are you taking me?" Fred asked, but got no answer. "Hey, I'm talking to you! Where are-"
"Stupefy." The curse was bored coming from the man's mouth, and Fred went limp. Ted suspected that this was the bearded man from that mysterious "before" time. He didn't like that guy very much.
Fred's shoe was the last that Ted saw of him, and as the party of three turned to the left, he thought idly of shadow puppets. The door slammed shut and it was black again, the puppets gone. Ted figured he was probably going insane or something. Whatever.
"You know," Kyrie said, rather calmly, Ted thought, for a girl who'd just seen the guy she loved being pulled, kicking and screaming, away- or the wizard equivalent of it, anyway. "I think I'd rather have him here and bothering me about my shoes. It's cold without him."
"Yes," Victoire sighed. "His flaming hair does have a fire-like quality that mine can never achieve. Heh, heh." Her sad little joke fell flat on the concrete floor, twitching a few times before dying of blood loss.
Ted had never felt so morbid in his life. "Who's next, I wonder?" His eyes readjusted to the light, and he sat up, glanced over at the two girls.
"I don't intend to find out," Kyrie announced loudly, then she was standing and pounding heavily on what she thought was maybe a door. "Let us out! Let us out RIGHT NOW, or so help me..." She continued in this fashion for a minute or two.
Ted didn't know what to do with her. He stood slightly behind her with one arm hanging in the air uselessly, wanting to pat her shoulder, but afraid he might lose an appendage if he did so. Meanwhile, Vic paced in a tight circle.
Kyrie collapsed in a trembling heap, maybe sobbing, maybe seething. There was a terrible silent moment. The calm before the storm. Then all hell broke lose.
Ted wasn't sure but it sounded like, "YOU SON OF A HINKYPUNK I'LL GUT YOU WITH SPOON IF YOU SO MUCH AS!" before Victoire managed to tackle her and give her a good slap in the face. Ted stuffed his knuckles into his mouth so he couldn't burst out laughing. He was going crazy, they'd taken Fred, but Victoire hit Kyrie, and he didn't know why it was funny but it was.
"Kyrie, listen to me," Vic said calmly. "Pounding on that wall- which is probably not even the door- it will not help anything at all. And if he's dead then not even your undying love for him is going to help him. So you need to shut the fuck up and collect all these marbles that you've spilled on the floor. That is the only way you will help any of us." And with that, Victoire scooted away to sit in the corner.
"Thanks," Kyrie said. "I needed that." She rubbed her head, totally ignoring the red spot developing on her cheek. She scooted back and leaned against the wall that, minutes earlier, Fred had leaned against. "We need to figure out where we are." She cracked her back and shook her head. "It's cold. It's wet. I'd assume a basement, but only if these wizards are idiotic enough to have forgotten to put a climate control charm on the place."
"I think we can assume they just didn't think it mattered," Victoire drawled, rolling her shoulders backwards. "We don't have wands anyway."
"Well, sorry for trying," Kyrie grumbled.
Ted wasn't paying attention, his right ear was pressed against the damp wall. He slid a foot to the right before coming to a rest, leaving his ear against the wall. There were grunts and yells, but he couldn't make out anything distinct. He moved his ear away from the wall. Nothing.
Kyrie had joined him at some point- had he noticed? Why didn't he? She was right in front of him...
"An awful Silencing spell," Kyrie grumbled. Ted was still thinking about not noticing her. "Good job, Teddy." She pressed her ear against the wall again.
"I bet if it was me, you two would be celebrating," Victoire announced from her corner. That woke Teddy out of his stupor- an argument. That was normal.
"Oh, yeah, you're right. We'd sit, all three of us together, roasting marshmellows above a fire, talking about how smashing this place is," Kyrie replied, scoffing. "Shut up."
Victoire didn't pay her any attention, instead crawling forward and sitting in front of Teddy. "What do you think, then, Mr. Lupin? Would you rather it be me in there, screaming?"
Kyrie shuddered, but stayed out of the fight.
"No?" Teddy asked, still completely out of it. "Did I... leave you behind when you taunted these idiots in Hogsmeade? I should have, but I didn't."
"You should have?" Victoire shrieked. Teddy thought her eyes were pretty, as they flashed in the dim light.
"Well, yes, had I not been totally in love with you, I might have had some common sense and realized that we were drunk and they'd come after you first. Then maybe I would have realized Harry keeps me in shape with his biweekly family Quidditch games, and that I could outrun them if I got a headstart, but nooo, I looove you and I had to be an idiot and wait for you to catch up! As if holding my hand would help you at all!" Teddy rambled, throwing his arms up in the air and catching Kyrie in the shoulder. "Oh, sorry," he whispered meekly, losing energy.
"You... what?" Victoire asked.
Oh...shit. "I uhh-I can't remember," Ted floundered, in search of a distraction."Listen, do you hear that?"
Dubious, Victoire tilted her head to the side, her knowing smile plain in the darkness. "I don't hear anything, Teddy, but what were you saying?"
Ted had the sudden urge to be sucked up in a black hole, or maybe shrivel up on the concrete floor and die a quiet death. While contemplating this, he was rudely interrupted by a series of shouts and one loud crunching sound on the other side of the wall. Someone was about to have the biggest headache of his or her life. Ted hoped it was the bearded man, or maybe his son. He prayed that it wasn't Fred.
Minutes passed. Kyrie's feet tapped against the floor while Victoire's paced the twelve by twelve meter room. Ted sat, with his ear against the wall. The yells subsided, but before Teddy could assure Kyrie it wasn't death silence, the rectangle of light fell over Teddy and part of the floor, just for a few seconds. But those seconds were enough to throw an unconscious Fred Weasley on the floor in front of the three teens.
"Oh, Merlin, he's dead, MerlinMerlinMerlinMerlin," Kyrie hissed, falling to her knees and grabbing his arms. She rocked back and forth, rubbing her hands over his hairy forearms. "But he's still warm and he's dead and-"
"Healed," Vic mumbled from across the unconscious Weasley. "Sick bastards want us to be healthy before they chop us into tiny little pieces."
Ted scoffed at them. "Not necessarily. They might not chop us into pieces. They might bleed us dry or feed our souls to a Dementor..."
"I would choose death over this," Kyrie snarled. "This uncertainty is just...awful!"
Some things were worse than death, they knew. Harry told them once, at a quiet Christmas gathering, about a flayed, sad little bundle at King's Cross station. He relayed to them horrors of its helpless cries, and its sickly immortality. Tom Riddle's fate was worse than death. Worse, perhaps, than a Dementor's kiss, for at least those souls were whole as they faded into oblivion. Yes, some things were worse than death.
But sitting there in that dark room, the trio had difficulty thinking of any.