The next day was the same as the day before, only this time Greyback came for Fred. He barged into their tent as early as he had the previous day and woke everyone up before grabbing Fred by the collar. "Your turn," he said with an ugly sneer.

"Please don't," Auden begged, a look of fear in her eyes. She knew just what Greyback was going to do to torture him and she couldn't bear even thinking about all the pain it was going to cause Fred. She also knew her pleading wouldn't get her anywhere, but she had to at least try.

"Sorry," Greyback shrugged, a smirk crossing his face. "You and I had a nice little chat yesterday and I think it's only fair that I give everyone equal treatment."

"Why can't you just leave us alone and let us go back home?" George demanded, crossing his arms. Auden agreed with him. This was ridiculous. Keeping them there and torturing them was simply a game to these Snatchers, but it wasn't funny to Auden, Fred and George.

"I don't want to just yet," Greyback answered, pulling Fred away. "Like I said, it wouldn't' be fair, would it?"

"I'll be okay," Fred mouthed to Auden and George as he disappeared, roughly pulled from the tent by the collar of his shirt.

Auden stood facing the tent flap for a moment, just staring at where Fred had disappeared. When she turned around, George was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. Auden sat down next to him, her stomach fluttering with nerves.

"What did he ask you yesterday?" George asked quietly.

"He just wanted to know about Harry because he realized that I was close to him. It was the same stuff the Death Eaters asked after the wedding. I don't know what he's going to ask Fred, though. He might ask the same kinds of questions now that he realizes Fred is close to Harry, too. Or he might not. I don't know."

"So...when you didn't give him the answers he wanted, he tortured you?" George asked. It seemed to Auden as if he were trying to get some sort of blueprint in his mind of how Greyback was operating so that he would know what to expect when Fred came back.

"Yes," Auden said. "And if I gave him attitude. He was being an idiot. I knew it would get me in trouble, but at that point I didn't care."

"I wish we knew how we could sneak our wands back," George said, running his hands through his hair.

"George," Auden said slowly. She tilted her head towards the tent flap. "Do you think he would help us?"

"Who, the guard?" George asked, raising his head.

"Yeah," Auden answered. "I mean, he helped us yesterday."

"Yeah, but that was just to help heal your injuries. I don't know if he'd help us escape. He might get caught and who knows what Greyback would do to him. I doubt he'd risk his life that much."

"Greyback would think it was us that stole the wands," Auden argued. "He wouldn't have to know that a Snatcher did it. He probably wouldn't expect one of his own 'friends' to help us escape."

"Maybe," George said, now looking thoughtful. "We've got to get out of here soon so it's worth a shot."

"After we get our wands back, we can just Apparate out of here," Auden said. "We can go home. We can escape."

"So we're getting the guard to do our dirty work, huh?" George asked.

"Basically," Auden shrugged. "When do you think we should ask him?"

"Later tonight, after Fred comes back and we've told him the plan."

Auden nodded and stood up from the couch. She blew out a puff of air and began pacing around the tent while George sat on the couch, looking pale and worried.

"What's taking so long?" Auden asked a few minutes later. "How long was I gone for?"

George glanced at his watch. "It was around this time that Greyback came back from the woods yesterday."

"I hate this," Auden said, sighing in frustration. It was absolute torture waiting for Fred to come back. She was almost expecting him to have injuries, but she wasn't sure how bad they would be or even if she and George would be able to heal them. What if the guard decided not to help them this time? Essentially, she was anxious, nervous, scared and worried all at once.

"So do I," George whispered, agreeing with her statement.

Auden stopped pacing and looked at George. He was probably more scared than she was. Fred was his family, his twin brother. He had a deeper connection with Fred than Auden had. "I can only imagine how hard this must be for you," she said, sitting down on the couch again.

"I feel so helpless," George said. "I mean, my twin brother is in danger and I can't do anything to help him."

"I know," Auden said, patting George's knee. "Well, I kind of know. I mean, I'm not Fred's twin and I don't have that connection like you two do, but I do love him."

George smiled weakly at her and she smiled back. "Don't undermine it, Aud," George whispered. "You don't have to do that. You have just as strong a relationship with him as I do. Like I said yesterday...he loves you very much."

Auden smiled a little wider this time. "Thanks, George," she whispered. It was then that the tent flap opened and Fred was thrown into the tent roughly. He hit the ground and lay there, his breathing ragged.

Auden and George looked at each other before racing to his side. "Fred?" Auden squeaked, putting a hand on his cheek as her eyes scanned his face.

"Fred, say something," George whispered. "Tell us what he did to you."

Fred opened his eyes, one of which was turning black and blue. He let out a small groan and sat up with difficulty. His nose was bleeding and crooked. Auden suspected it was broken.

"Fred, talk to us," Auden said, helping him sit the rest of the way up. Fred groaned with pain again and Auden saw why. One of his legs had a gash on the side running from the knee to the ankle and it was bleeding pretty badly.

"Is there anything else besides your nose, eye and leg?" George asked. Auden saw him wrench his eyes away from his twin's bleeding leg, looking sickened.

Fred took a shaky breath and reached up to touch his nose gingerly. "No," he whispered.

"Did he use the Cruciatus Curse?" Auden asked.

Fred nodded weakly. "Yeah."

"Help me move him to the couch," George ordered Auden. "I'll get his arms, you get his legs."

Auden nodded in agreement before examining Fred's injured leg, wondering how she was going to touch it without hurting him. She picked up his ankle as far down as she could before grabbing his other ankle with her other hand as George grabbed his twin under the arms.

"Okay, ready, set, lift," George said.

Auden lifted as carefully as she could, but Fred inhaled sharply anyway. "I'm sorry, Fred, I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"Don't worry about it," he managed to choke out.

As soon as they had placed Fred on the couch, the tent flap rustled and the wand and another bowl of cleaning potion slid through. George and Auden looked at each other before George scrambled to retrieve the items. Auden sighed with relief. They would be able to heal Fred. She wouldn't have to see him like this anymore. She was glad. It was almost painful for her to look at the injuries Greyback had given him.

"Fred, you're going to be okay," Auden said, moving to kneel by his head. She ran her fingers through his hair. A moment later, George returned and handed her the wand.

"Want to get his nose?" he asked.

Auden nodded and pointed the wand at Fred's nose. She performed the spell, and with a small cracking noise, Fred's nose was snapped back into place.

Fred sighed and ran his hand over the bridge of his nose. "How does it look? Am I still better looking than George?"

"Not with blood all over your face," Auden smiled as she stood up. She retrieved a damp towel, knelt back down beside Fred, and began gently cleaning his face.

George was examining the cut leg. He let out a low whistle. "Wow, Fred, this looks a lot deeper than Auden's cuts, and it's a lot bigger. What'd you say to make him so angry?"

Fred gave a weak chuckle. "Nothing, I just didn't tell him everything he wanted to hear."

"Fred," George said. "I know there's more." He dipped a rag into the cleaning potion.

"Fine," Fred said. "I told him that nothing he was doing was going to make us tell him anything about Harry or our families and we weren't going to crack. I may also have yelled a few...choice words at him and called him a few not so nice names."

"Fred!" Auden exclaimed, half-scolding him. What had he been thinking? It wasn't a good idea to push Greyback. He meant business. He could cause them much more harm than a few cuts and a broken nose. He was a werewolf for heaven's sake.

"What did you want me to do, Aud?" Fred asked, looking at her. "He was torturing me. He tortured you yesterday and tomorrow he's coming for George. I'm not going to sit back and let him do that without letting him know how I feel about it. Besides, every bad thing I said to him was true and you know it."

"I think he knows how we feel," Auden said, pursing her lips. "He knows what he's doing is upsetting and unfair. That's why he's doing it, I think. He's twisted like that. But we can't push him. What he's done to us so far is nothing compared to what he's really capable of."

Fred said nothing. Instead, he let out a puff of air through his mouth. "You told him off yesterday," he said.

"Yes, but I didn't swear at him. I-look," Auden sighed, running a hand through her hair. "How about we all just try our very best to hold our tongues with him from now on? We want to get out alive."

Fred nodded. "Fine," he muttered.

The tent was silent for a moment. "So he asked you about Harry then?" Auden finally asked, setting the towel down as she finished cleaning Fred's face.

"A little bit," Fred answered quietly. His breathing was still kind of shallow and ragged, but not as bad as it had been. "He mostly just used the Cruciatus Curse on me. I swear I was so close to passing out, but luckily he stopped."

George didn't say anything and Auden just bit her lip. George lifted the rag from the bowl and gently put it on Fred's leg. Fred scrunched his face up in pain as the rag made contact. "Sorry," George whispered.

Auden took Fred's hand and noticed the scars from Umbridge's quill still just visible on the back of his hand. Auden still had hers, too, and do did George. It seemed like a small injury compared to what they were going through now and almost miniscule compared to what Greyback was really capable of.

After George had finished cleaning Fred's leg, he waved the wand and the cut cleared up. George continued to stare at the spot where the injury had been until Auden gently took the wand from his hand.

"And now for your eye," she said, aiming the wand at Fred's bruised eye and chewing on her tongue. She muttered the incantation and the bruise faded away to nothing. "As good as new," she sighed, setting the wand down.

"I just thought of something," George said. "What happens if Greyback sees you two completely unharmed? He knows we don't have wands or any way to mend the injuries."

Auden thought for a minute before picking the wand up again. She waved it over her shoulder and bandages appeared. Then, she did the same for Fred's leg. "I'm going to leave your jeans ripped like that for now so it's more believable," she said.

"What about Fred's eye and his nose?" George asked. "And how will we explain where we got the bandages if we're asked?"

"We'll tell him that we found the bandages in the tent. And as for Fred's eye, it only really started to bruise once he got back here, so I doubt Greyback noticed."

"And my nose?" Fred asked.

"I don't know about that," Auden said. "We'll just have to hope he doesn't say anything."

"Have we figured out a way to get our wands back?" Fred asked.

"Yeah," Auden said. "We're going to ask the guard to help us. He's been helping us to mend the injuries."

"Do you think he'll steal our wands back, though?" Fred asked, trying to prop himself up on his elbows, but falling back from weakness.

"I don't know, but it's worth a shot," Auden said.

"We were going to ask him today," George added.

"Do it now," Fred urged. "Go bring him his wand and ask him."

"Just like that?" Auden asked as George stood up.

Fred nodded and George walked towards the tent flap. He paused before leaving the tent. "Excuse me," he said, stepping out of the tent and looking at the guard, who glanced over at him and held out his hand for his wand.

George placed it in his hand, but didn't move.

"Do you have something to say?" the guard asked, still looking straight ahead.

"Er, yes, actually," George said. "I, all of us, actually, wanted to thank you for what you've done for us."

The guard gave a small nod. "I take it you'll be needing everything again tomorrow. Greyback's going to take you next, right?"

"Yeah, I think so," George said. "But there's something else I wanted to ask."

"What would that be?" the guard asked.

"Do you think you could somehow get us our wands back?"

The guard looked at George for the first time. "Why would I do that? Greyback isn't ready to let you go yet. If I help you escape, who knows what kind of trouble I'll be in?"

George sighed. "He's keeping us for pointless reasons."

"He wants to know about Harry Potter," the guard said.

"We don't know where Harry is. He's in hiding. It's stupid to ask us. He's not getting anywhere. He'd get further by just looking through every forest in England."

The guard didn't say anything for a moment. "Do you want to know why I joined Greyback?"

"Er, sure," George said.

"He threatened to take my kids and, you know…" the guard didn't finish his sentence, but George knew what he was going to say.

"So you joined him to save your kids?" George asked.

The guard nodded. "It seems like I joined the Dark Lord when you look at the big picture, but what happened was that Greyback said that he would leave my family alone if I joined his group of Snatchers rounding up blood traitors and Muggle borns."

"How old are your kids?" George asked.

"Nine and ten," the guard said. "So close to starting school. I want them to enjoy school and not be afraid to go there. The war isn't really allowing that to happen, but being taken by a werewolf would definitely not allow them to have a happy childhood."

"Wow," George breathed.

"Yeah," the guard said. "Anyway, I'll have to think about helping you escape. I want to, but if I'm caught…"

"I know," George said.

"I don't know if it'll be me or my family in trouble. It might even be both."

"I understand, but you know, Greyback might think we stole back the wands. He might not think it was you."

The guard was quiet. "I'll think about it," he said finally.

George nodded. "Oh, and one more thing. On the full moon…"

"Greyback never changes around us, but he forgets who he is, and we're in the woods. He usually tells us to put up protective spells for the night, but I don't know now that you're here."

"I think that's when we're planning to escape," George said. "So you have until February 7th to think about helping us."

"Are you mental? Escaping with a werewolf running around?"

"If we get our wands back, we can just disapparate. None of us will have to leave the protective spells," George reasoned.

"What if he doesn't use them?"

"We'll still be gone, and you could put up protective spells anyway and take them down in the morning before he gets back," George's answer came easily.

"How am I supposed to get past the others if I do decide to help?"

George nodded towards the guard's own wand. "I don't know. Unless you're willing to hand that over to one of us and we'll go do it on our own."

"Like I said, I'll think about it," the guard said, before gazing straight ahead once again.

As George walked back into the tent, Auden looked up. "What did he say?" she asked.

"He said he'd think about it," George answered. "I told him he had until February 7th to make up his mind because that's when we're escaping, while Greyback isn't here."

"How do you know he won't be here?" Fred asked.

"The guard told me. He said Greyback's never around on full moons and he usually puts up protective spells to protect the other Snatcher's in case he comes across them, but he doesn't know what he'll do now that we're here."

George then quickly told them the story about the guard's worry for his children.

"That's awful," Fred said quietly, his voice still hoarse.

Auden nodded. Now it all made sense why the guard was helping them. After a few minutes, she spoke again. "Should we have a back-up plan? You know, in case he decides not to help us."

"I have no idea what we can do if he doesn't help us. At least he can get into the Snatcher's tent. We can't even get in there without being thrown out immediately."

"Not if we go when they're asleep. Have you forgotten how to prank people, George?" Fred asked, a smile appearing on his lips.

"We aren't pranking anyone, Fred. This is serious," Auden told him.

"I know it is, but sometimes the best pranks have to be pulled on somebody when they're asleep."

Over the next few weeks, George, Auden, and Fred developed a back-up plan. They would sneak into the tent while the Snatchers were asleep and steal back their wands. Then, they would disapparate. It sounded easy enough, but the hard part would be stealing their wands back without waking anyone up. It probably wasn't the greatest plan either, but it was all they had.

If the guard did decide to help them, he would use his wand to Confund any Snatcher that woke up when he stole the wands.

Greyback had come for George the day after he had questioned Fred. Every day, he would take one of them each to question and torture them. Each day, they never told him anything, and each day they were tortured horribly. If it wasn't for the guard providing them with his wand, they would've been in too much pain to come up with any plan of escape, much less follow through with it.

All three of them, oddly enough, also had one cut that had been too deep or severe to be cured completely and had resulted in small scars. Auden's was on her left shoulder, opposite the one she had gotten on the first day of torture. Fred's was on his stomach, and George's was on the side of his nose. It was as if Greyback had wanted them to have one injury that never went away and reminded them of their capture.

On the morning of February 7th, they sat in the tent, each of them sitting on the floor in a circle. They had been talking, but had fallen silent. The guard hadn't gotten back to them yet, so they were prepared to sneak into the tent on their own.

"Psst," said a voice from the tent flap, and the flap wiggled as if someone was tapping it.

Fred, George, and Auden looked at each other before Auden stood up and went to the tent entrance to stick her head out. Only the guard was sitting there.

"I've made up my mind," he said.

"And…?" Auden asked.

"I'm going to help you."

"That's great! Thank you so much," Auden said excitedly.

The Snatcher nodded. "I'm worried about my own kids, but really, no kid should have to be tortured or attacked by Greyback."

Auden said nothing, but nodded in agreement.

"So, do you have a plan?" the guard asked.

"Yeah, all you need to do is once the guards are asleep, sneak into the tent and steal our wands back."

"You do realize I have this, right?" The guard held up his own wand.

"Yeah…" Auden said.

"Well, I know that they don't usually fall asleep until late at night. How about I charm them to fall asleep quickly at around seven. Greyback will be gone by then. Anyway, after they all fall asleep, I can get your wands easily."

"Wow," Auden said. "That makes our original plan look stupid."

The guard cracked a small smile. "So seven sounds good? Come outside so I can hand you your wands and you can get out of here."

"Perfect," Auden answered, returning to the tent to tell the others the plan.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed or added any of my stories to their favorites or story alert :)

The song I used for this chapter is Halfway Gone by Lifehouse.