AN: Fair warning, it gets a bit darker.
Bill, Charlie, and Percy appeared inside a shack. It was darkly lit and Percy noticed many strange shapes. 'Lumos,' he said quietly. The three brothers looked around themselves. They were surrounded by broken magical objects and various other detritus of the magical world.
Charlie moved to pick up a cracked sneakoscope, but Bill grabbed his arm. "Let's touch nothing, shall we." Percy considered Bill's greater experience with curses and silently agreed that now was not the time to be cursed, although he also secretly wondered if any time was good to be cursed.
Percy's wand revealed a door on the far wall. They looked at each other. "I don't suppose this is where we were supposed to appear?" Charlie asked Bill.
"No, we were supposed to appear in the middle of a bright road. There are several street cafes and Fleur's friend is the daughter of the owner of one." Bill chanced a step forward and when nothing happened, he began to move forward cautiously. "Follow my footsteps." Charlie moved behind Bill and Percy went last.
When they arrived at the door, Bill cast "Alohamora." They heard a click that seemed somehow magnified in the muffled quiet of this junk room.
Bill took a deep breath and all three brought their wands up. "Wait!!" Percy whispered. He cast "Incantatum Revelo" to reveal any spells, to no reaction. "I don't suppose anyone has some extendable ears."
Charlie grabbed some flesh colored string from his pocket. "Do you think they'll work on this door.?" He said, handing it to Bill.
Bill shrugged and ran the string under the door. Bringing the other end of the string to his ear, he paused and listened for several moments. He looked back at his brothers and nodded. The coast seems clear. I can't hear anyone on the other side. He retrieved the extendable ears and handed it back to Charlie. He grabbed the door handle and the brothers again held up their wands as Percy pushed open the door cautiously. They entered an empty chamber.
There was nothing in it to indicate where they might be. The floor was a gray stone, as were the walls and ceiling. The chamber was very cold and damp. It felt to Percy as though they were underground. It reminded him of a camping trip with his friend from Hogwarts, Gordan Chen. They had climbed down into a cave and Chen had fallen and broken his leg. Thankfully Percy's levitation spell worked fine and the duo returned to camp safely.
The door on the far wall was wooden and glowing slightly from Percy's spell. It must have been just within the radius of the spell, Percy thought.
Bill almost ran to the door and stopped a couple feet shy. Charlie and Percy were slightly slower, but still managed to reach the door. The trio stared at it. "I wonder what spell that is." Charlie wondered aloud.
Bill made a gesture in the air and the door turned a bright green. "Cursed" He said shortly. He approached the door and started examining it with his eyes. "I think this is the Tomb-raider's Curse. It's extremely popular in America. If anyone touches this door, it will send a bolt of lightning through us until we fall unconscious. It won't kill us, but we will fall unconscious and make plenty of noise. We will be discovered."
Percy said what he and Charlie were thinking. "And the solution is…"
"Be quiet while I try to remember." Bill rubbed his wand against his head. "Katamaran" He said and gestured to the door, the green light faded into gold. "Well, the curse is gone, but there's still some sort of magical enchantment on it." Charlie and Percy moved forward for their own examinations. Percy noticed a string, light as spider web running from the top of the door to the ceiling. He waved at it and both brothers looked up.
"Aha!" Charlie said, "The byproduct of the flitter fly. If we touch it, we will fall asleep. I suppose it will fall down if we open the door. Incendio." He said languidly.
Percy and Bill grinned at each other and Charlie. The door had lost its light and now looked like a normal door.
Percy reached forward to open it. Bill and Charlie hang back, wands at the ready and nodded to him. As Percy opened the door, he was aware of a rush of hot air hitting his face before he noticed the caverns beyond the door. He quickly closed the door, to where it was only slightly open. There was a group of wizards dressed in black talking together not 10 feet from the door. None seemed to notice its movement as they were embroiled in rather a heated debate.
"Plans are proceeding as expected, there is no need for more drastic measures." One tall witch stated.
"No need, but since when do we need a reason to kill mudbloods?" A heftier witch cackled and gestured to a small group of obviously abused prisoners. Percy hadn't noticed these wretched creatures until the witch gestured to them. They were wearing dirty rags and matted hair and none had any life left in their faces. They stood before the powerful witches and wizards and stared at the floor.
"Target practice, eh?" An older, somewhat sinister wizard said. "We should let them lose and get them moving so we can practice hitting moving targets."
"Oh, have it your own way." The first witch said and threw her hands into the air. She stalked off, mumbling to herself. She moved toward the door behind which the brothers stood. They moved away from the door and to the side quickly. When the witch walked through the door and after closing it. She hesitated and looked up. "That Barnabus never remembers to reset the curses." She was still shaking her head when Percy gestured to her and yelled "Imobilius" in his head. She crumpled to the floor and Charlie used another silent spell to tie her up.
"Alright." Bill said. "There's 3 wizards left. Fleur may not be with the mudbloods, but her friend is. She's the one with the brown hair toward the back of the group."
Percy was vaguely aware of the impression of a tall, dark haired girl hanging back and staring at her fellow prisoners rather than at the floor.
"You go right," Charlie told Percy. "I'll go left and Bill should go down the middle. Aim for the wizards on those sides." Bill and Percy nodded and all moved toward the door. Charlie grabbed the handle and took a deep breath before thrusting it open.
Percy aimed for the witch on the right. "Imobilious" He said and the wtich fell. While he took care of his witch, Bill took care of the wizard and Charlie the other witch. Within seconds the deatheaters were laying on the floor, unable to move, barely able to think. Not that they really do think, Percy thought, smirking.
Charlie tied them up as Percy and Bill approached the disheveled group cautiously. "Mariseille" He said. The dark haired witch looked up with hope in her eyes.
"Bill." She said, "Bill." She ran to him and threw he arms around him, jabbering all the time in French.
"Mariseille, please speak English, my French is poor and my brothers' nonexistent." Bill pushed her away gently.
"Of course." She spoke with a heavy accent. "Fleur and I were eating in Father's shop when these hooded figures came in and stunned us. When I woke up, we were in this cavern and there were many others. Most are now dead." Her eyes became arctic. "We will gain vengeance" she said, kicking one witch. "After they found out who Fleur was, they took her away. I don't know where. They left through that door." She gestured to another door, to the right of the one they'd just walked through and bent to take the wands from the fallen wizards, kept one, and gave the other two to fellow prisoners. "You may leave us here." She turned to her compatriots and continued jabbering away.
The three looked to each other, torn between leaving the prisoners here, where they might run afoul other deatheaters, and insisting they go to safety with all haste.
Never one for not giving his opinion. "You don't have time for that." He told the girl. "You need to get out of here and go into hiding." She quirked a brow at Percy and turned to him.
"You have no idea what we've been through. We've been threatened and tortured for the last two days, seen most of us destroyed. There was a little girl in our group. One of them cast the cruciatus curse on her for 2 hours. She couldn't take in anymore and started banger her head against that rock." The rock was covered with blood. "She did not survive." If possible her eyes became colder. "They will suffer before they die." She gestured to the wizards. Percy looked to Charlie, who was still staring at the rock. Then he looked to Bill, who met his glance and nodded.
"I understand." Bill said. "We will leave you to your vengeance." Percy pulled Charlie away, he was still staring at the rock. They stopped at the door.
"Revelo" Percy said and the door continued to look relentlessly mundane. This time, Charlie opened the door, a look of renewed purpose on his face.