Part Two, Chapter Fourteen

At the sound of the man's voice the snake stopped advancing towards Gwen and reared up to hiss at the newcomer. Even though Gwen was wary of taking her eyes off it, she wanted to get a better look at who it was that had just walked in, and turned so that she was able to see the man standing behind her. Even though she didn't recognise him she knew who he was instantly. He had Sander's long nose and dark blue eyes, and his copper coloured hair was just slightly lighter than his brother's (albeit cut a lot shorter). However, in contrast to Sander's usually cheerful expression, he looked serious and his angular jaw was set in a solemn line that looked like he meant business. Gwen also thought he seemed slightly taller and stronger built than Sander, and she immediately felt a lot safer. Martijn Westerbeck didn't look like the kind of man to be messed with.

Gwen quickly glanced back round at the snake and the man behind the counter, both of which had paused and seemed to be weighing up the situation. As she turned back to Martijn he gave a slight nod of his head to indicate for her to get behind him, and quickly she began to walk back in the direction of entrance. She'd only gone a couple of paces before she heard the snake hiss behind her again, and as she turned her to see what it was doing it launched itself at her. Gwen gave a short scream and dived to the floor to try and get away, but the snake didn't get far before there was a bright burst of orange light, and the next thing Gwen saw was the 'shopkeeper' duck as 250 pounds of legless reptile flew through the air and smashed into the shelves behind the counter.

A moment later, he appeared again and leapt over the counter with a snarl, thrusting his wand out in front of him as he shouted a curse, which Martijn quickly countered with a yell of "Reducto!" Several more things smashed in the shop as the spell was deflected, and Gwen shielded her head with her hands as shelves began to collapse around her. Glancing up she saw Martijn cast another spell in the shopkeeper's direction, but the man dodged it and then used a repulsion charm to hurl several objects in the shop at Martijn, who was forced to dive out of the way.

Determined not to be left lying here helpless, Gwen quickly looked around to see where her wand had ended up. She found it lying on the floor only a couple of metres away, and crawled over to it and snatched it up. As she looked back to the fight, she saw the shopkeeper duck down behind a cabinet containing rodent skeletons as Martijn directed a stunner at him, which instead collided with the glass windows of the cabinet and send shards of glass and small animal bones flying everywhere. When the shopkeeper reappeared he was already preparing to deflect Martijn's Impedimenta curse, but as he waved his wand to send the curse hurtling towards the few shelves that remained standing he was surprised to find it wrenched out of his hand as Gwen yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

Both he and Martijn turned to stare at her, as if they'd forgotten she was even there and were amazed that she'd joined in the fight, and for a couple of seconds Gwen just stared back, still in shock. Then there were several loud cracks as a swarm of aurors apparated into the room and half a dozen voices yelled "Stupefy!"

The shopkeeper was knocked back several feet by the force of several stunners, and his head collided with the foot of the counter as he fell to the floor. After that he lay still, completely out cold.

Realising the fight was over, Gwen gingerly picked herself up of the floor and straightened up to see what was going on. One of the aurors, who Gwen couldn't help but notice had rather large ears, turned to Martijn and gave him a nod. "Nice work, Marty."

"Don't call me Marty, Frank," Martijn responded, and although there seemed to be a note of irritation in his voice he was grinning. Even with just that brief sentence Gwen could tell his accent was noticeably thicker than Sander's. "Anyway, it's her you want to be congratulating," he said, looking at Gwen. "Nice litter disarmer that was, and perfectly timed. If only more of you English could shoot spells like that." He was still grinning, seemingly on a high from the adrenaline rush.

The big eared auror rolled his eyes. "If you think we English can't shoot spells you should see my wife in action."

Martijn laughed. "Now if it was her saying that about you I'd be tempted to make a rather inappropriate joke at this point…"

One of the other aurors interjected. "Oh, will the pair of you pack it in!" Gwen was still surveying the scene before her in silence, not quite recovered from the shock of what had just happened. She vaguely registered that the auror in question was a female with close cropped platinum blonde hair and wide, bright blue eyes. She looked more like a pixie than a dark wizard catcher, although from the look on her face and the way she carried herself she still seemed like the kind of person you wouldn't want to cross.

Gwen was a little surprised when the woman turned to her and she found herself being addressed by her. "Are you alright?"

Gwen gave a short nod. "Um, yeah. I'm fine." She glanced at the unconscious wizard on the floor, and then back at the aurors. "Who is he? A Death Eater?"

"We think." It was another auror with thick, black curly hair and an Italian accent who answered. "His name's Matthew Hanson and he's a zoologer specialising in magical reptiles. He's had contracts with various potion breweries and apothecaries over Europe as a venom supplier, but when some of his clients started to go missing we decided to keep a closer eye on him."

"Cris," said the blonde woman, sounding irritated.

He looked at her quizzically, "What? Was I not supposed to tell people that?"

"No."

"Oh." He shrugged. "Well, nobody told me. Perché gli inglesi sono così disorganizzata?"

The woman ignored him and instead crossed to the unconscious form of the wizard lying on the floor. The other aurors joined her and stood in a semicircle around him, one of them casting a spell so that ropes appeared from the end of his wand and began to wind themselves around the man's ankles and wrists. Gwen hung back, realising she was probably in their way.

"Ok," the woman said. "Let's see what he's got to say." She pointed her wand at him. "Enervate."

They all watched as the man began to stir, and slowly blinked his eyes open. As he stared up at them a look of confusion spread across his face.

"Mr Hanson..." one of the aurors began, but was interrupted by the man beginning to speak.

"Wh..what? Who are you? What happened? Where's Mr Robinson?" he looked around him in bewilderment, "I was with Mr Robinson, and then there was...oh God," a look of terror spread across his face as he remembered whatever it was.

"Then there was what?" the auror called Frank prompted.

"There was the snake. Oh God, it was so...I've never seen any like it before. Those eyes...it was like...it felt like...it was speaking to me inside my head. Oh God, what happened?" he was babbling, the expression on his face one of pure horror.

Gwen noticed that a similarly horrified expression was spreading across Martijn's face. "Oh shit," he muttered, "The snake! Get after the snake!" He barked the order as he whipped his wand out and ran behind the counter.

"What snake?" one of the others asked, but had already begun to follow Martijn.

"Where the fuck did it go?" Martijn growled as he realised the reptile was nowhere in sight. Spotting the stairs leading to the basement, the Dutchman headed through the door leading to the back of the shop and began to descend them. The other aurors exchanged glances with each other for a moment, before simultaneously deciding to abandon Hanson as he babbled incoherently on the floor and go after their colleague.

Gwen was just about over the immediate shock by now, and as she heard voices coming from the basement she took a few tentative steps forward, curious to see what was going on. She thought she probably shouldn't go any further and that it would be best to stay put, but her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to know how this Hanson person had ended up running the shop. What had happened to the Robinsons? And what was so special about the snake? Part of her didn't want to know, but at the same time she definitely wanted an explanation as to why she'd just been attacked in her grandmother's old store.

As she walked steadily forward and began to descend the stairs into the basement she began to make out more of what was being said.

"Where can it have gone? I mean, unless it's fucking disapparated then there is no way it could have gotten out of here..."

"Well, I wouldn't rule that out."

"It's a snake, for crying out loud, Petya. Snakes don't disapparate."

"You heard what Hanson said. I think we're onto something really bad here..."

Gwen reached the foot of the stairs and began to creep forward through the first dimly lit room in the cellar, heading towards a doorway from which an eerie yellow light was spilling through. She could make out the figures of the aurors standing inside, but couldn't see much else of what was in the room.

Their voices got even louder.

"And what do you imagine that is?"

"I think the question is more likely who that is, Petya."

"Are you serious? I mean...how big was that snake, Martijn?"

"Big."

"And that's...? Oh Merlin, that's just wrong."

As Gwen reached the doorway she tentatively peered through, unsure as to how they'd react to her having followed them. As she glanced round the room she saw Cris and another brown haired auror checking out the far wall, tapping it in places as if searching for a hidden exit. Another auror was pacing up and down impatiently while speaking with the blonde woman, whereas the final two aurors were simply staring at a spot in the far corner of the room. Gwen peered at Martijn's face, and noticing his grim expression she followed his gaze to where he was looking.

She couldn't really tell what it was at first, but as she worked it out she gagged. There seemed to be a nest of sorts on the far corner of the room, comprised of used cardboard boxes, old copies of the Daily Prophet and various worn and dirtied robes and blankets. In the centre of the nest, there was a lump of a congealed substance that seemed to be mostly red in colour, but with a slightly browny-yellowish tinge in places, and sticking out of it were white pieces that were most definitely shaped like human bone.

Gwen turned away and vomited.

A/N: Ok, be honest. How many of you thought it was Sander and how many guessed it was Martijn? I know I caught a few people out, that was the idea :P

I do hope none of you were eating when you read that last bit. I learned quite a bit about snakes when researching this chapter. The average weight of an anaconda is 500 pounds and they can be over 29 feet long. Snakes also have really good digestive systems and can digest bone provided they don't regurgitate their food before it's been digested properly, but if they do regurgitate it's pretty nasty.

So, now you have met Martijn, although he doesn't know who Gwen is yet. What do you all think of him? I'm trying to make him similar to Sander but at the same time different. I'm looking forward to writing more about him, even though I think next chapter's going to be Barty-centric as I haven't had one of those in a while.