And I finally got around to working on the next bit...enjoy.
Lavinia was startled. She had only heard about guns in passing, never heard one fired, never touched one, never saw one. Was that what was pressed to her back just now?
The voice let more fear seep from its' lips; a male, clearly frightened out of his mind as he spoke again, "Who are you?"
"A...friend, we're not here to…" She tried to stay calm and yet figure out what the hell was going on. Stumbling over words wasn't allowed.
"'We'? You and who else?" The thing at her back was pressed to her harder, digging into Lavinia's back.
"My brother. We're not here to hurt you. If anything, we're in the same boat."
Lavinia was shoved forward, away from the stranger and a bright light was shined in her direction. White light, like a Lumos spell, coming from a flashlight. She aimed her torch back at him, trying to see what he looked like. His light was practically blinding her, preventing her from seeing properly.
"I doubt it. I just saw my home go up in flames and some monsters kill my parents. I very much doubt you're in the same boat as me." She saw his arm rise to shoulder height and the gun was shakily aimed at her.
She had never held a gun, but she did not like the fact that the single hand holding it was trembling. Wands were tricky if the owner was scared and the shaking would throw off the aim and probably weaken the spell. She wondered if it worked the same way. His shaking could cause him to shoot for her leg and hit her head.
Jonanthan, where are you? She thought impatiently. Lavinia calmed her breathing, telling herself not to panic. This was easier than the Snatcher.
"Well, at least you have the certainty of their fate. We don't know what happened except that they were unconscious when we escaped the hands of one of the men." He might very well be a Muggle, best not to use terms to scare him more.
He seemed a little disarmed by her words, lowering the gun slightly. His eyes went to her right hand, where she held her wand tight but pointed at the ground. He must have thought the same thing of her, wondering if she was a Muggle.
"You're a witch." He stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. A Muggle wouldn't have.
This makes things a little easier, then. She thought.
Lavinia nodded. "Ravenclaw. I would have settled for Hufflepuff-less competitive. You?"
She glanced over the stranger's shoulder, and saw that Jonathan had quietly come back. He crept towards the other male.
"Hufflepuff." He replied.
She saw the hand relax, the gun finally aimed at the floor at his side.
Jonathan snatched the gun out of the holder's hand and tossed it to Lavinia, who readily caught it.
"Hey!" The stranger went to strike at Jonathan, who grabbed him by the shirt and held his wand to his neck. The flashlight clattered to the ground, spreading light down the corridor.
"Alright, Hufflepuff, why are you down here? And what were you doing aiming that thing at my sister?" He lit his wand over his head, to see the intruder. "I'm supposed to believe that thing you had is harmless?"
The other man had blonde hair and grey eyes, a little taller than Jonathan. They likely went to school together and he never knew; he didn't recognize him.
Lavinia picked up the bright flashlight (a handy thing to keep, considering she might not be able to risk underage magic) and examined the gun. There was a round thing that, if she pushed it, popped out and held the metal things that went inside. She thought they were called bullets, but she didn't understand what they had to do with bulls. She shook the gun and the little metal things fell to the floor with more noise than she thought.
"It should be now…" She picked up the bullets and shoved them into the pocket of the sweater she had grabbed before she dashed downstairs after her brother.
She went over to her brother, finally seeing who got into their hiding hole. She had a vague recollection of him, a passing face in another House. There weren't many students at Hogwarts, compared to the amount at a Muggle school, especially a public one. But there were enough to not know some of one's classmates, to be certain. He looked older than her, and she knew he at least wasn't in her year. Maybe Jonathan's age, a little older.
If he was here, that meant he must have been living in the village with them. Her brother clearly didn't recognize him. So many faces had passed through in recently weeks.
"So, you were a Hufflepuff?" Lavinia asked.
"I graduated two years ago. Got a job at the Ministry for a little while, and then quit for personal reasons."
"Reason being?" Jonathan prompted.
"Dad was a Muggle. Mum was a Muggleborn. I heard things were getting bad, and with the kidnappings…she said it was like last time, like when she was a kid. I stayed in the Ministry for a little under a year. We moved here before the invasion of the school."
That explained it. They had blended in well, came before the ones who were passing through. A permanent, quiet residence that kept to itself.
"You were hiding." Lavinia surmised.
The stranger nodded.
Jonathan let go of him, stretching his hand out in apology. "Sorry for the shove, mate."
"It's alright." The other man shook it, accepting the apology. "Circumstances and all."
Jonathan started to head back to the end he had come from, where most of the supplies were. Lavinia had followed, and the unnamed man took the nod of her head in the direction they were going as a sign to follow as well.
He stayed at her pace, a little further back from her brother. "I'm sorry about the gun. I have my wand, but I've been around them longer. Seems stupid, but it would help if I ever needed to pretend to be a Muggle."
"It's okay. We're all a little on edge." She gave a kind smile. "I'm Lavinia, and my brother's Jonathan."
"I'm Evan."
Jonathan started pulling out sleeping bags from one of the shelves, and flicked his wand, unrolling and cleaning them. Lavinia aimed the flashlight and dug around another compartment for the lanterns they had down here. They had gotten them years ago, the wick enchanted to burn without oil for several days. She found a small tin of replacement wicks as well.
Evan watched, leaning against a stone wall while the two siblings worked to create a make-shift campsite. They had a bond, working in synch with each other; he lit the lanterns, she set out arranging the bags.
"Why the lanterns if you guys have the hand-torches?" Evan asked.
"Those run on batteries, and they're brighter. Save them for when we need them, we'll use our old supplies up first. You want to take a look down there and make sure no one else is with us?"
The eldest of the three complied, leaving the siblings alone.
Jonathan had explained that he had protected a large area that encompassed both entrances, so they could at least head up to the surface and be safe, hopefully.
"We need food, Jon. Can't last long without it." Lavinia had picked her sleeping bag, only for her brother to drag one bag to the other side of the room, placing Evan across from them.
More to keep him away from his sister than anything. He threatened Lavinia, and while he could deal with an addition to the two of them, Jonathan wasn't keen on having a stranger sleep next to his sister.
"We'll make it work. What do think?"
"Of what?"
"Him."
"He's shaken, Jon. He was still in shock when he was holding this." She had shoved the revolver into her other cardigan pocket and took it out to hold it. "He was playing into his role as a Muggle when they came. But I think we can trust him. We have to. Better to have someone else who can legally do magic. I'm useless unless we want to get caught."
Evan came back, extinguishing his wand as he stated that it was clear. No rats, no bats, no humans except them.
"Good. Now, I think sleep is in order, since all of us had an interruption earlier." Jonathan didn't hesitate to slip into the sleeping bag and turn on his side, facing the tunnel. "That one's you." He pointed across to the empty sleeping bag.
"Thanks. Good night, then."
They gave a reply of the same tiding, and Jonathan dimmed the lantern. The shock had begun to wear off, and he suddenly felt very tired, a weight on his chest that he was sure hadn't been there previously.
