Chapter Twelve

The Waiting Game

"We have to do something," Reuben said in exasperation, banging her fist on the wooden table with a resounding thump.

"Why Is it that you are all so happy to let the battle come to you? Why don't we take it to them?"

"What like you did?" Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. "Yeah, cos that worked out brilliantly, I quite fancy getting mauled and almost killed."

Reuben made a growling sound in her throat and scowled at Sirius.

"Mel's life is at risk here. Why don't any of you want to do anything to help find her?"

She looked around the table at the others, but no-one looked back at her. They all cast their eyes to their laps or their hands, not wanting to voice the answer to her question.

"It is difficult to even know where to start," Dumbledore said quietly, "When we don't know the situation. Assuming they made it out alive, there are any number of possible scenarios. As some of us have already suggested, they could have been split up, could be deep in hiding, or could have been captured by Bellatrix and her companion. It is of course, possible that Lucius has decided that his loyalty lies elsewhere, in which case we are justified in fearing for Imelda, but the fact of the matter is, until we have some idea of which is the case then it is impossible to know where to look."

Reuben closed her eyes and wished that Remus was here to back her up. He had been forced to leave for a few days, having already left it as late as he dared in order to wait for Dumbledore and Sirius to arrive at Hogwarts with Harry, and the second they had set foot in the Hogwarts grounds he had left discreetly to undergo the transformation to werewolf. She needed him now though, and cursed his condition, not for the first time. Suddenly Snape got up, his chair grating against the stone floor as he did so, and he left the room in silence.

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Imelda sat with her back against the wall, a thousand thoughts fighting for space in her mind all at once.

How long would he leave her here before presenting her to the Dark Lord? Where was he now? What had happened to Draco? Had the others made it back OK? Was there anything she could do now to save herself? What would it be like to face Voldemort? How could she have been so stupid as to have trusted him?

He had fooled her most cleverly. She had looked into his eyes and believed that he had changed. But that was silly- who changed from a death eater to a member of Dumbledore's Order virtually overnight? The two carried entirely separate and different ideologies believed in different causes and above all, despised each other. How could any of them have been so silly as to really believe him?

But one thing bothered her. She could still here him uttering the words, "What kind of father am I?" She could still here the remorse and the pain in his broken voice, and could still feel the shame and despair she had felt that night coming off of him. And her answer- "a changed one," he had nodded at with sincerity. It was his eyes. They agreed with her. So how could he have concealed a cold, malicious traitor behind them so effectively?

She drew her knees up to her chest once more, shivering in the cold, dark emptiness of the dungeon, and contemplated her fate once more. Fear was not something she usually allowed herself to indulge in, but at present, it paralyzed and controlled her mind.

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Snape drew his cloak tighter around his shoulders as he strode across a deserted field and came to a halt by a disused, derelict church. The graveyard was overgrown beyond repair- he could see that even in the dark, and those that rested there had been without visitors for many years. He stood for a moment by the main door, rubbing his hands together to keep warm. There had been a definite change in the weather.

"You came."

Snape looked around for the voice, spotting Lucius Malfoy as he stepped out from behind a huge old crypt, covered in vines.

"I did," Snape said, looking past Lucius and around the graveyard.

"Don't worry, it's just us. No-one else." Lucius moved out of the shadows and into the only light in the graveyard, coming from a tired old lamp.

Snape nodded.

"So, have you won your place back yet?" he asked, his eyes constantly searching the darkness.

"Almost." Lucius sounded uncomfortable.

"What's the hold up?" Snape's head snapped back to his old friend.

Lucius turned away from him and looked into the darkness beyond the graves.

"He wants Imelda. Or rather, Bellatrix does. I suppose she wounded her pride the night we got Draco back, and holds Imelda accountable. Bellatrix never was a great one for forgiveness."

"What about Draco? Doesn't he want him back?"

Lucius shook his head.

"No, as far as Draco is concerned, I have learned my lesson. My son is of no use to the Dark Lord, but Imelda is a great prize. An Eastern witch from Dumbledore's team. Bellatrix wants her revenge, and the Dark Lord wants the information she can give us. Plus she'd be another threat…. Extinguished."

Something about his tone and his behavior was bothering Snape.

"And," he asked carefully, "Are you going to give her to him?"

Lucius was silent, his back to Snape.

"Lucius?"

He sighed and looked up at the moon- it was full.

"I keep seeing her face, Severus, frightened and innocent. I recall how Draco was…. Treated, and how Miss Erwin returned from her meeting with Bellatrix, and it complicates things. Last night she discovered her fate, and I keep seeing her eyes in my mind, full of what I can only describe as terror. That, plus a distinct hatred for me."

Snape narrowed his eyes.

"Lucius, I don't need to remind you of the danger involved here. It is a great surprise to me that the Dark Lord has given you a second chance to prove yourself. My advice, old friend- do not push yourself any further than you feel you can go."

Lucius clenched his jaw and closed his eyes.

"It is too late for that, Severus."

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