She felt jittery all over. Her heart was pounding every time she heard footsteps outside the opening of the tent. She'd hear the girl's screams coming from his tent, loud and clear. Whenever it stopped, it was like a calm right before the storm. She never knew when it might start up again, but part of her hoped it wouldn't happen again...
"I'll ask you one more time, Sarah, have you seen Harry Potter?" His voice traveled through the air, unaware of how loud he was.
"I-I-I don't kn-know! I s-swear!" Sarah would respond through broken sobs.
"I don't believe you!"
More screams echoed through the trees. Isabella trembled, squeezing her eyes shut and wrapping the scratchy blanket tighter over herself.
It'd been going on like this for hours. He kept asking her where Harry Potter was, and each time, it was the same answer.
But he wouldn't give up.
If there was one thing Isabella learned about Scabior in these past few weeks, it was that when he really wanted something, he was determined to get it.
"Want some dinner?" Isabella jumped when Jon entered the tent with a plate covered in steaming food. "Whoa, take a deep breath, he doesn't want to see you anyway, remember?" He crossed over to the other end of his bed and sat on it, hungrily digging into the mysterious looking food.
"I don't care." Isabella said softly, staring at her feet.
"Do you want something to eat?" He asked again.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm not hungry, Jon." She snapped. He shrugged, putting up his hand in defense. "How much longer is this going to go on?" She beckoned in the direction of Scabior's tent.
Jon shrugged again. "Could be all night, or it could be just another five minutes. Who knows?" He was so nonchalant with things that Scabior did. He showed no emotion talking about it.
She stared at him, from his mousey, brown hair, to his baggy, dirty denim jacket. It was then, that she noticed he had a dark, red scarf wrapped around his arm. She remembered seeing Scabior with the same thing the first time she got a close look at him.
"What's up with that scarf around each one of your arms?" She asked curiously.
He looked up with his huge, chocolate brown eyes. "These?" He lifted his arm, looking at it. "It's basically a mark of the Snatchers. We all wear it so people will know we're the real deal."
Another scream broke through the air, causing her to wince. "I can't take it." She got up but Jon grabbed her wrist.
"Isabella, sit back down right now." He threatened. His eyes were serious. She'd never seen him like that. It sort of frightened her, so she sat back down, re-wrapping the blanket over her. "If he sees you, he'll throw a fit. When you don't do what he tells you to do..." Jon shook his head, shaking. "Trust me, Isabella. You don't want to be on his bad side."
She scoffed, half a smile appearing on her face. "If his bad side is that terrible, then what side am I on?"
Jon pursed his lips. "Don't know. He's iffy about you."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I told him everything last night. I poured out the biggest secret I've been keeping for weeks that no one else knew about...and he just shoved it right back in my face."
"What exactly did you tell him?" Jon asked, finishing his dinner and putting it on a small, wooden table next to the bed.
"How I killed my mum and ran away from home before being captured."
Jon's eyes widened. "You—wait, wait, wait...you killed your mum?"
Isabella nodded. "I made it look like my dad did it...after telling Scabior, he asked me to join the Snatchers." She laughed.
"Are you?"
She looked at him like he had grown three heads. "Are you mad? Of course I'm not!"
"Why not? You'd be a great Snatcher."
She smiled slightly, shaking her head. "No. I'm only here because I have nowhere else to go. But I'm going to find Anna. I'm going to get away from here when we find each other again and I'm never speaking to him again once I do." She pointed outside the tent. Anger surged through her veins just thinking about him.
Jon kept a straight face, twiddling his thumbs. "But...if you became a Snatcher, you could take out all the anger you have on Scabior out on others. That's what he does."
"I'm not him."
"We get rewards for turning people in." Jon smiled crookedly.
Isabella just shook her head and looked away from him, listening to the cold, whistling wind. "Money is not something I'm worried about. What am I going to do with it? I'm miles away from home, and I don't plan on going back. We're in the middle of fucking nowhere!"
It was quiet. Jon didn't speak. The only thing Isabella heard was their own, steady breathing along with the wind outside. She pulled the blanket around her more when she felt a chill.
"Do you want more blankets?" Jon asked, noticing how cold she must have looked.
"No, I'll be okay."
Jon paused. "Listen, I'm not going to force you into anything...and I don't mean to crush your hopes...but the chances of you finding Anna are very small."
"What's your point?" Isabella asked, glaring at him.
He chewed on his lower lip, thinking the words through carefully. "If you want to survive, you're going to have to learn to defend yourself...if you became one of us, we'd teach you everything there is to know." He smiled lightly.
Isabella stared through him, as if she didn't hear what he said. Then, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "If it comes down to that point, I'll think about it."
Jon smiled wider. "I know it's not the best job in the world, but it'll be worth it in the end."
"I didn't say I was joining yet." She snapped.
Jon laughed. "I know, I'm just saying."
Isabella rolled her eyes. Joining a bunch of bounty hunters was the last thing on her to do list. She knew that the chances of her running into Anna again were highly unlikely, seeing as she and the other three were trying to stay off the path of the Snatchers but she still had some hope. If it were at all possible, she'd learn to apparate on her own. She didn't want to stay with Scabior and his men forever. That just didn't belong anywhere in her book.
Scabior came in to the tent suddenly, making Isabella jump. He looked as angry as last night; he stared at both of them. His lips were pressed tightly together and his eyes looked dark.
"What's the matter? Sarah won't take off her pants for you?" Isabella mocked, smirking. She gasped, feeling a hand slap her across her face. She rubbed it gently, staring at Scabior hatefully.
"You aren't allowed to talk to me for the whole night, remember?" He said, menacingly pointing his finger at her.
"No, you just said to stay out of your sight and I have. I'm not the one that walked in your tent." She spat.
He smirked. "Your tent? This is Jon's tent, love."
"Maybe I want to stay here from now on." She threatened.
"Sure, if you don't mind that he snores like a monster."
"It's better than being with a monster."
Scabior just smiled at her. "This is only a temporary stay, lovely. Tomorrow night, after we turn miss Sarah in to the Ministry..." he cupped her chin, forcing her head up to look at him as he inched closer to her, whispering "you're mine again."
"Again? I never was yours to begin with."
"Yeah, keep thinkin' that." He let go of her chin, looking at Jon. "Be sure to be up early tomorrow mornin' to change into a different set of clothes."
"Oh, right." Jon said, getting up and walking across to the other side of the tent.
Scabior looked down at Isabella, winking at her. "See you in the mornin', beautiful."
"Bite me."
"I would," Scabior smirked. "But that's Greyback's job." He laughed at her terrified reaction and walked out.
Jon came walking over with a pile of clothes in his hands.
"Now, how could you possibly think I'd want to spend the rest of my meaningless years with him!" Isabella said to him.
He shrugged. "You don't seem to cringe when he touches you and when you guys make eye contact, your eyes sort of sparkle." He smiled.
Isabella's jaw dropped. "No they do not!"
Jon laughed. "How would you know?"
She crossed her arms. "Because, that's disgusting and every time I look at him, I want to claw his face off."
"Stop kidding yourself, Isabella." Jon said, smirking. Then, he put down the set of clothes on his bed, patting Isabella's knee. "I'm going to let you get to sleep. You have a big day tomorrow."
"I do?" She asked as he started walking out.
"Yeah, pretending to be me." He grinned widely.
She looked at him, bewildered. "Excuse me?"
He laughed. "You'll see in the morning." He left before Isabella could ask anymore questions. He was learning not to stick around when she was confused.
Isabella woke up to a very nasty smell wafting through her nose. When her eyes fluttered open, Scabior was hovering over her with a small flask in his hand. She sat up, moving away quickly, surprised at how close he was to her.
"Oh, great, you're up." He said, getting off the floor. She glared up at him. She hated being woken up abruptly in the morning. "We need to leave as soon as possible, so get up." He grabbed her arm, dragging her out of the tent.
"Do you mind letting me wake up a little bit?"
"No." He said, smiling. Jon came out, with a different shirt and pants on, his regular daily clothes in a folded pile in his arms.
"Here." He handed over his clothes to her.
"What do I need these for?" She asked, grimacing at the thought of how long he must have been wearing those clothes.
Scabior turned her to face him, holding the flask up in the air. "Love, this is a potion called Polyjuice. It morphs you into the physical bein' of another for a limited amount of time."
She furrowed her eyebrows together. "So...I'm taking this to become...Jonathon?" She asked slowly.
"Oh thank Merlin, I didn't want to have to repeat it!" Scabior said. Isabella rolled her eyes and sneered at him.
She heard a high pitched squeal behind her and when she turned around she saw Greyback carrying out Sarah.
"Get off me! You promised, Scabior!" Sarah said, her eyes red and puffy from crying all last night.
Scabior walked over, smirking. "Love, you really must not know me. I don't always keep my word."
"Bastard." She spat in his face, causing him to draw back, slowly wiping his face. He slapped her hard across the cheek, but she hardly reacted. He walked away from her, motioning for Greyback to follow. "You'll pay for this, one day. Harry Potter is going to kill Voldemort and you will be put back in Azkaban, if not, dead."
Scabior stopped in his tracks. Isabella looked at him, his face filled with sheer horror, but he quickly put a smirk on his face, regaining his composure and turning back to Sarah.
"Beautiful," he drawled, causing Isabella's bubbling feeling to rise up inside her again. "Harry Potter is not your hero. Don't get your hopes up...the Dark Lord is stronger than he was before...and you'd never stand a chance against him."
Sarah's eyes widened, alarmed. This made Scabior laugh. He turned his back on her, walking toward Isabella. "Get changed in those clothes, then I'll give you this. Jon, I need your hairs." Isabella wandered into the tent alone, quickly pulling off her clothes and putting on Jon's. His denim jacket covered her hands completely and his jeans were baggier than they'd looked on him. She walked outside, holding her regular clothes in one hand. Scabior was adding Jon's hairs to the foul smelling drink. Once he saw Isabella, he handed her the flask. "Drink up." He smirked.
She grimaced, downing the whole drink in one gulp. She felt her stomach bubbling, and she thought she might throw up. She fell to the ground, coughing and gagging...then, she noticed her hands. They were getting longer and thicker, her nails shrinking slowly. Her hair slowly disappeared before her and suddenly, that sick feeling inside her was over.
She stood up slowly, looking at Scabior, who still smirked. She ran her hands through her hair, expecting to feel long, soft, wavy hair, but instead it was short, messy and grimy feeling. She was suddenly taller too, a few inches higher than Scabior. When she looked down, she noticed she had the same body build as Jon.
"All right, next stop, Ministry of Magic." Scabior yelled. Greyback disapparated with Sarah immediately, others following after. Isabella looked at Jon, unsure of what was going on. He gave her a reassuring look and she breathed deeply, holding Scabior and disapparating through the air. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in a large, marbled room with hundreds, maybe thousands of people. A huge fountain with a statue of what looked like people holding a large stone that read: Magic is might.
Her heart beat fast in her chest as they walked through the people quickly. She tried not to make eye contact with everyone and just kept following Scabior. She saw green flames in the corner of her eye and saw people coming out of fireplaces—which were all lined along the wall. She shook her head, looking forward again. People seemed to move out of the way when they saw them walking through, mumbling when they saw Sarah.
Scabior looked back at Isabella and slowed to her pace. "We have less than an hour to get in and get out. Stay by me and if we run out of time, you better hope your feet can carry fast in those clothes."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"Long story short—if you get seen in your normal form, people will go after you. You're wanted as much as any other missin' witch or wizard out there." Scabior said. Isabella was about to say something but her attention was taken away by hundreds of newspapers with moving pictures before her. She saw Harry, Ron and Hermione and a ton of other wizards...underneath that, she saw her own picture, with one picture of Jasmine, with a large, red X over her face, on her left and Anna on her right.
Jasmine Robbins, blood-traitor, deceased.
Isabella Robbins, blood-traitor, missing as of December IF FOUND: 1000 galleons
Annabelle McCarthy, half-blood, missing as of August 29. REWARD IF FOUND: 800 galleons
Scabior wasn't kidding.
A/N: I've been really busy with school and such, so I've been trying hard to write as much as I can every day. I feel like I've been losing my touch, but thanks everyone that reads and reviews! It means so much! Until the next one, guys!
The song inspiration for this chapter is "Faint" by Linkin Park. I had a hard time deciding what song I felt fit with this chapter the most, but I figured this one is the closest and yes, I know, most of the chapters are from the same artists haha, that's because before I wrote this fic, I made a playlist of all the songs that inspired me to write the story and most of them are Linkin Park, Three Days Grace & Evanescence. Get used to it. xD