Two For One
Danny Prang was trussed up like a pig on a spit above the dinner table and had an apple in his mouth. Cally was trying to heal a dead Lord Voldemort. Maccario was singing at the top of his lungs, some passionate song in Italian, and Secretan was whizzing around the ceiling on a classic 1957 Lightning Triumph broom and laughing like a little boy on his birthday.
None of them were paying any attention to Ron or the fact that he was being held face down by a gang of Death Eaters. The Puppet Master flicked his wand at him, stripping him naked. He stroked along his bare back all the way down to his bottom with his wand and purred with delight.
"Ah Firebrand, I have been saving you for this moment, this is how I will break you!"
Ron struggled against the many hands that held him down. There seemed to be more hands then Death Eaters now and he spotted Lee standing over them all and watching as the Puppet Master unbuttoned his fly.
"Lee help me!" Ron screamed to his friend but all the dreadlocked young wizard did was shrug and shake his head, "Lee, please!"
"Ron?" Lee's voice was echoing around the room but he hadn't even opened his mouth.
"Help me, get him off me," Ron pleaded before seeing Fred and George appear at Lee's side and lead him away with a smile.
"Don't beat yourself up about it mate," Fred said as he put his hand upon Lee's shoulder.
"You did your best," George patted him on the back and the three of them vanished behind the crowd of jeering Death Eaters who had come to watch the show.
"Don't let him do this to me!" Ron screamed, "Lee!"
"Ron I'm here, please look at me, I'm right here," Lee was saying and suddenly Ron's eyes snapped open and he was a sweaty breathless heap, cowering in the corner of the cell, while Lee frantically tried to calm him down.
"What the hell's going on in there?" McLaggen was shouting.
"'S alright," Tommy called before coughing and wheezing at his own exertion, "ba...bad...just a bad dream."
Lee was holding Ron's arms securely to his sides and shushing him with fearful eyes.
"It's okay mate, I'm right here. You're fine, you're fine!"
Ron squirmed and tried to slow his breathing down.
"Let go of me," he said shakily.
"Okay," Lee released his hold on Ron immediately and watched as he ran a shaking hand through his hair, "it was just a nightmare Ron. That's all it was. I won't let anybody do anything to you alright? I promise."
Ron frowned and looked back at Lee again.
"Was I shouting?"
"Were you shouting? You were fucking bellowing mate!" Lee smiled with a sad shake of the head.
Ron rubbed his face roughly before taking a deep breath and calling out for the others to hear.
"I'm sorry lads."
"No problem Weasley," Fergus Finnegan was the first to call back.
"'S good to know you're not a super human Ron," Ernie MacMillan said, sounding greatly relieved, "I was beginning to wonder y'know?"
Ron laughed and looked back at Lee again.
"Sorry, I didn't hit you did I?"
"No," Lee moved back in a little closer to Ron to give him a bracing pat on the arm, "you were just calling for me."
Ron swallowed and nodded.
"I thought you left me with him," he murmured.
"What was that?" Lee tilted his head to listen a little closer.
Ron shook his head and laughed.
"Nothing, just a stupid dream, I'm fine now."
Lee gave him an uneasy nod and glanced over at Tommy as Ron pushed himself up to his feet and stretched out his stiff arms and legs. He took a deep breath in and almost choked.
It wasn't just the general mustiness of the piss, shit and unwashed prisoners that clawed at the back of his throat but the smell of the previous night's 'meal'. Ron shook his head to try and compose himself again and wandered over to the window, under the pretence of looking out when all he really wanted was some fresh air, any air other then the stench of the cellblock.
He felt a hand taking his where it hung at his side and saw Tommy smiling up at him weakly from his hammock.
"Hey Tom," Ron forced a smile back at him and squeezed his hand.
"Morning Ron," the sick wizard wheezed, "for the record I don't think anybody puked."
Ron cleared his throat and tried to control his own stomach.
"Well that's good to know."
Tommy grinned tiredly and Ron took a moment to test the strength of the two robes that supported Tommy's weight before sitting down on it and putting his hand to his forehead.
"Better or worse today Tom?" Ron frowned as he felt the fever still raging.
"Just a different kind of bad," Tommy said with a wince as he shifted his weight on the hammock to make more room for Ron.
"Sit still you prat, I'm fine as I am!" Ron huffed.
"Lay down for a sec," Tommy instructed.
Ron frowned.
"Huh?"
"Lay down with me up here for a while," Tommy muttered, "You spent the whole night curled up into a little ball in the corner and I want to share my hammock with you for a while."
Ron grinned at Tommy's selflessness before beginning to shake his head to reassure the wizard that he was fine.
"Besides," Tommy continued before pausing to overcome a wave of hacking coughs from deep within his chest, "you'll be keeping me warm."
Ron glanced up at the window above them. Sunlight was pouring though and the morning was a fresh, pleasant one after the stuffy night. He wondered how Tommy could still be cold.
"Jus' for a few minutes Ron, please, c'mon," Tommy said as he shifted over a little more.
"Alright, alright, stop that otherwise you'll tip yourself out ya berk! If it'll warm you up I'll get in okay?" Ron said, trying to give the illusion of annoyance to cover up his discomfort at what had to look to Lee like 'sleeping with his cellmate'.
Ron found it a little precarious as he tried to balance and settle down in the sling of material, but just about managed it smoothly, and pulled Tommy back towards the dip in the centre of the hammock to be sure he wouldn't fall out. Tommy sighed and closed his eyes while Ron rubbed his hands briskly up and down his arms to try and warm him up with the friction. Soon enough though, they were just laying together, Tommy drifting off to sleep again and Ron staring at the grimy stone ceiling.
"He's getting worse isn't he?" Lee asked, keeping his eyes focused somewhere else so as not to make Ron feel uncomfortable, he assumed.
Ron hugged Tommy to him and rubbed his hand up and down his back before responding.
"Yeah, the poor bastard's shivering."
Lee finally met Ron's eyes.
"And how are you doing?"
"It was just a dream Lee," Ron sighed,
"I don't mean that," Lee huffed, "well not just that, I meant physically. How do you feel?"
Ron frowned and wondered exactly what Lee was getting at.
"I feel fine."
"You don't feel...different?" Lee said hesitantly.
Ron swallowed and looked back up at the ceiling.
"You mean about, y'know, dinner?" he shrugged, "I'm no different to anybody else I s'pose."
Lee crawled across the floor and rose up on his haunches to force Ron to look at him again.
"I mean do you feel stronger now? After what Cally did, do you feel any different?"
Ron blinked and thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"Not really, I mean my shoulders are miles better and I don't feel like I got hexed half to death and was out for Merlin knows how long. I don't feel unusual."
"You'd tell me if you did though wouldn't you Ron? You'd tell me if you felt good or bad or anything right?"
Ron had just parted his lips to answer Lee's question when the cellblock door boomed open and he sat bolt upright at the same moment Tommy jerked awake. The hammock flipped and both of them were thrown out and slammed hard onto the floor.
"Oh shit!" Ron hissed as he tried to untangle his limbs from Tommy's and get his weight off his chest while Tommy was seized by a fierce coughing fit.
"Wakker worden jongens," the voice of a Death Eater called out with laughter in his voice.
"Fuck off yeh dickless wonder!" Fergus snapped.
Ron had scrambled out from the tangle of robes and limbs to set about trying to lift Tommy back into the hammock while Lee seemed to be taking up a position in front of the cell door, ready to block anything that might be aimed inside at his two cellmates.
"Zij hebben geen water nodig, breng het weg."
"Where d'you think you're going with that?" Marcus Belby was yelling incredulously.
Ron tried to peer around Lee to see what was going on through the tiny opening in the cell door but Lee had turned around to tell him anyway.
"They bought in the water jug and then took it away again," he whispered over his shoulder before hissing at Ron and waving his hand, "Get down out of sight!"
"Out of sight? I'm in a cell!" Ron scolded him back under his breath, "I'll just duck behind the fucking sofa shall I?"
"Shhhhhh!" Lee said before steeping right up to the cell door to block the view completely.
"Lee don't get in their faces!" Ron whispered urgently.
"I'm not," he growled without turning back, "I'm keeping them out of yours."
"Where did the water go?" McLaggen was shouting.
"Where is man in charge?" Krum asked boldly.
"Shut up," Lee began chanting under his breath, "please shut up."
"Got into trouble the last time you tried to take control didn't you?" Belby was saying in a mocking tone, obviously having taken on leader of cell status after Cally's execution, "Better not step out of line."
Fergus laughed and Lee was almost shaking with anger.
"Shut your fucking mouths you morons!" his voice was a low rumble in his chest and both his fists clenched.
"R-Ron?" Tommy strained to speak.
Ron looked at the weak figure in the hammock and shook his head.
"I dunno what's happening Tom, keep your head down yeah?"
Tommy nodded and grabbed Ron's arm, pulling him down to his knees.
"You too," Tommy spluttered, "you stay out of the way too."
"Bloody hell, not you an'all!" Ron huffed in annoyance.
"Shut up the both of you!" Lee growled over his shoulder, looking mad enough to spit, before turning back to bellow out of the opening, "Don't antagonise them you idiots. They'll take it out on Ron."
The cells fell silent so quickly that Ron's name was still echoing off the walls. Lee was still quivering with rage and footsteps, not nearly as distinctively measured as the Puppet Master's, sounded on the stone floor of the corridor between the cells.
"Keten ze vast," a slightly amused voice said before there was a flash and McLaggen swore loudly and something metal clinked.
"Take them off!" Krum was roaring in outrage.
Ron scrambled to his feet again and ripped his arm out of Tommy's weak grip to try and shove Lee aside to see what was going on. Lee elbowed him in the ribs and glared at him.
"Get away from the door Ron. I told you to stay out of the way."
"What the hell is wrong with you Lee? I just want to know what's going on out there. What happened to McLaggen?"
Lee spun around and grabbed Ron by his upper arms and forced him deeper into the cell.
"I'm keeping you safe now shut up and stay back here!"
"Take the chains off!" Krum was shouting even louder now.
"Gedraag je jongen," the Death Eater said in a playful manner.
"They are crushing him. Take them off!" Krum's deep voice boomed.
"Depulso!" the Death Eater said with relish before a second voice made its own contribution.
"Doleo!"
Ron heard something he wouldn't have thought was possible were he not hearing it for himself right then and there. Krum was screaming.
"Stop it!" Colin Creevey was struggling to make himself heard over the agonised cries.
"Compescor!" one of the cruel voices hissed.
"Enough now" Belby was pleading, "that's enough."
Ron shoved Lee aside and ran to press his face to the opening and saw a spell being aimed into Belby and Colin's cell.
"Captivas!"
There was a grunt and a thud before Belby's straining voice sounded again.
"Oh shit!"
Ron looked across to see Dean Thomas straining to see what had happened to the two wizards in the far cell.
"They're alive," he said with a sigh, "Colin's in some kind of straight jacket thing and Belby's shackled to the floor it looks like." He looked over to Ron, "What did they do to Krum and McLaggen?"
Ron felt Lee trying to pull him away and grabbed hold of the bar which ran through the middle of the tiny opening in the door and held on to it to keep his position as he stood on tiptoes and pressed his face flat to the door to see through the opening of the other cell at the far end of the block.
"I can't see McLaggen, I can hear him though," Ron winced at the strangled sound coming from deep within the cell.
"Come away and shut up will you?" Lee was pulling at Ron's whole body now.
"Impedio!" came the roar from the hooded figure and Krum slammed against the wall, whippy living bonds that seemed to grow out of the stone wall fixed him to it from wrist to elbow, swiftly entangled his arms.
"Ron what's going on?" Sam Robbins called out frantically just as the two Death Eaters sniggered and strode out of the cellblock without a second look at any of the commotion they had caused.
The cellblock door thundered closed and Jack Sloper appeared at Dean's side with a look of urgency in his eyes.
"Did they kill them? What happened?"
Lee wrenched Ron away from the door at long last and glared at him.
"When I tell you to stay away from the door and keep your bloody head down you do it!"
"For fuck's sake Lee you're not my bloody brothers!" Ron hollered into the furious face before him.
For the second time that morning a single voice silenced everything. This time it had been Ron's.
Lee's face drained of all it's anger in a second and fell into a slack gape of pain and devastation.
"I..." Lee almost swallowed the word as it tried to leave him, "...I just wanted to...For Fred and Ge-"
"You can't protect me so stop trying," Ron said firmly, "This is between me and him and when it comes down to it Lee, you're not gonna be able to stop it and the twins aren't going to burst in here and save the sodding day. Stop trying to hide me." Ron lifted his head and felt more confident in himself then he had done in a long time, "I'm not scared of him."
"Like..." the panting and pained voice of Krum called out, "Is like Maccario say. I am not afraid."
Ron smiled and turned back to call across to the battered looking Bulgarian as he strained to loosen his bound arms with no success.
"That's right Kru...Viktor. We're not afraid of them anymore," Ron looked back down at the closed cellblock door, "and they know."
ooo
Harry sat and watched as Hermione repeated the intricate wand movement over and over again, tears streaming down her face, and chanted over and over again while the yellow glow grew more intense.
"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."
Harry felt the need to give her a hug as he watched her shoulders shaking and the tears flowing freely but she had told him not to interfere no matter how intense things seemed to get.
"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...insignio invenio..."
Hermione's hand was shaking and the yellow glow began to pale into a feint mist and her shoulders shook even more.
"Insignio invenio...insignio invenio...in-in-insignio..." Hermione sobbed as she struggled to continue, "...insignio invenio. I can't do it!" she wailed and threw her wand across the room, the tip of it struck the carpet and a marigold sprouted and wilted immediately.
Harry scrambled across the floor and wrapped his arms around her tightly while she screamed her frustration into his shoulder.
"It's alright, you can try again tomorrow, don't cry Hermione." Harry said soothingly as he rocked her gently.
"But I can't!" she wailed, "It'll never be as good as it was that fir-fir-first time!"
Harry felt his heart become as heavy as led.
"Oh please don't say that Hermione."
It would destroy him if he had interrupted their best and only hope of finding Ron before he was the next victim of the Death Eater's execution squad. Hermione had been so close that time she said she could almost touch him, feel him beneath her fingertips and put the magical marker on him that they could then follow to wherever he was being kept.
"I just keep feeling him being pulled away and I can't get him back again," Hermione sobbed, "he never comes back up from the lake, I can't ever open the door in the Department of Mysteries in time and he falls through the veil, I get to the hospital wing and he's already dead. I can't find him Harry, I can't find my Ron!"
ooo
Lee was sitting on the floor, knees drawn up to his chest and his face supported and mostly hidden by his hand while the other one picked at the fraying hem of his trousers. He hadn't been able to look at Ron ever since their semi argument.
He didn't know how to explain to him that he wasn't just trying to keep him safe from harm for Fred and George, true that was how it was to begin with, he needed to keep him safe because he was his friend. He had suffered to save others from suffering and he was a target for the perverted Puppet Master and Lee couldn't just sit back and not do anything.
Then he had nearly died. He had held Ron's body as he slowly died in his arms until Cally had fixed him up enough to survive. He had vowed to keep him safe after that. He promised himself he would do anything to spare Ron from any more torture. There wasn't much he could do but he wanted to at least try.
The door to the cellblock swung open and slammed against the wall. Lee jumped and saw Ron getting to his feet, standing before Tommy.
"Ron no," Tommy said weakly as he reached for his hand.
"He's not taking you Tom," Ron said as he set his jaw with determination.
The familiar footfalls of the Puppet Master sounded against the cool stone floor and Lee hauled himself up to his feet and met Ron's steely glare.
"Lee don't," Ron warned.
"You're my brother," Lee spoke in a firm but low tone, "and you're my friend, and he will hurt you over my dead body." he looked down at Tommy, "That goes for you too."
"You said it yourself," Ron whispered desperately as the Puppet Master's footsteps grew louder, "Cally did something to me to make me stronger, to protect me from him, and I intend to fight them all the way down there and I'll kill at least one of 'em Lee."
"You're not going," Lee snarled before freezing as the shadow of the Puppet Master passed by their cell and then the large intimidating figure himself.
He glanced into the cell and smiled before carrying on his way to the cells at the far end.
"Ah my dear jongens," he said with an amused sounding groan of sympathy, "you do look uncomfortable."
"Let Colin go," Belby was begging him, "he didn't do anything to deserve it, it was me, please take the mummification jacket thing off him."
"You are prisoners Mr Belby," the Puppet Master said as if Marcus Belby was an idiot, "and prisoners do not need the use of their arms unless I am putting them to work."
"Unless you are scared that we are strong enough to attack," Krum said, braver then he was intelligent Lee thought, "We are locked up like animals and still you are afraid of us."
The Puppet Master sounded as if he was smacking his lips. Lee moved himself in front of Ron, who glowered at him and shook his head slowly. He just nodded back and then looked back out at the Puppet Master as he stepped forward to peer into Krum's cell. The Dark Wizard looked Krum up and down and withdrew his wand idly.
"Have you ever slept on your feet before Mr Krum?" he sighed lazily, "Because, thanks to your insolence, you will be spending the rest of your time here like that. Do get comfortable."
Krum seemed to be growling at the man as he turned the focus of his gloating towards McLaggen on the floor of the cell. He flicked his wand down to the ground, the sound of chains straining penetrated the silence, and McLaggen cried out before gasping and wheezing desperately.
"They are tight enough." Krum bellowed, "Stop!"
The Puppet Master laughed and nodded down to the open doorway of the cellblock before striding quickly over towards Lee. He prepared himself to have to wrestle Ron aside again as the sadistic wizard opened the cell door with a flick of his wand and stood in the doorway.
"Thomas Painter…" he began.
"No!" Ron declared as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Lee and folded his arms across his chest, "Not today you don't."
"I will do as I please Firebrand," the Puppet Master said, the corner of his eye twitching a little.
"His name is Ron and he's right," Lee said with determination, "Tommy's not going anywhere today."
"Breng hem bij me!" the Puppet Master snapped at one of the waiting guards in annoyance.
Two Death Eaters advanced into the cell and Ron stepped forward right into the face of the one with the white streak of hair.
"Nee," he said fiercely.
The Death Eater looked torn between being impressed and being outraged at this and glanced at his master for instructions.
"Neem deze jongen nu mee!" the Puppet Master snarled back at him while pointing at Tommy.
"Not today," Ron barked back calmly, "He can't walk and he can't stand."
"Well it is a kindness of me to end his suffering is it not?" The Puppet Master said, stepping deeper into the cell and drawing himself up to his full height.
The other Death Eater tried to barge past Lee but he was ready for him and elbowed him in the ribs, jabbed him in the windpipe and tried to wrestle the wand out of the man's hand.
"Stop!" the Puppet Master instructed before looking to the white streaked Death Eater and ordering him, "Help hem."
"Back off!" Ron said as he put his hand on the Death Eater's chest and shoved him back into the wall.
A spell shot from the end of the wand and blasted some of the masonry loose from the wall before the Death Eater with his superior strength yanked the wand away from Lee and knocked him off his feet, flat onto his back, with a single punch to the jaw. Lee felt as if his skull had been pulled apart in two different directions. There was a 'sloshing' sound inside his head and his vision flashed as if Colin Creevey had his camera in the cell with him and had started snapping off pictures of the fight. He shook his head to clear it and felt slightly sick.
"Stop, don't," Tommy was protesting through his splutters, "they'll kill you."
Ron stepped in front of the Puppet Master and almost seemed to smile at the evil man.
"Not yet eh? Not unless you want a go now."
"No!" Lee roared from the floor, his jaw felt as if it was completely foreign to his head.
"You are not in control Firebrand," the Puppet Master bellowed, his eyelid twitching uncontrollably as his voice rose.
"And you're a bloody hypocrite if you do this," Ron spat back, "you have your little speech and your cup of potion and that sick little execution ritual of yours and now you want to throw all that out the window and drag a sick man to die. Where's the honour in that?"
The Puppet Master blinked and the Death Eater who had laid Lee out advanced on Tommy. Ron jumped back to stand between them again and the man pointed his wand into Ron's face and his eyes sparkled.
"Cru-"
Ron closed his eyes in readiness to be hit with the unforgivable curse.
"Nee!" the Puppet Master roared at his colleague, "Je mag hem niet martelen."
"Waarom?" the man frowned in disgust, "De bloedverrader..."
"Stil." Ron hissed at the aggravated Dark wizard.
The man raised his hand to strike Ron and Lee launched himself at him. He tackled him to the ground before the other guard, the man with the white streak in his hair, kicked him in the stomach and hauled his colleague to his feet. Lee rolled onto his side on the floor, his eyes watering. He looked up at Ron who looked down at him and smiled in the strangest way that sent a chill down Lee's spine.
"If you take somebody from this cell you'll take somebody who can walk to their death like a man and neither of these two can now so it'll have to be me won't it?"
"No," Lee said, struggling to sit up and reaching out to grab the material at Ron's ankle.
His fingers gripped the grubby denim tightly and his bruising stomach protested his efforts to get back up again.
"It is Mr Painter's turn," the Puppet Master said, fighting to control his emotions.
"He's not," Ron said with ferocious determination, "going."
The two of them stared, unblinking, into each other for an agonising few seconds before the Puppet Master drew in a huge breath and puffed out his chest.
"Very well," the large wizard said before nodding for his cohorts to leave the cell with him.
Ron seemed to waver slightly at having won the face off.
"Thank you," he said, his voice now sounding uncertain and much more like the Ron Lee knew.
The Puppet Master closed and locked the cell door and broke into that dreadful smile. Lee felt sick, something awful was going to happen, and one look at Ron's face let him know that he could sense it too.
"Wij zullen hem in zijn plaats vermoorden" he nodded to the white streaked Death Eater, "Haal Davies." Then he turned to the slightly dishevelled Death Eater Lee had fought with, "Jij, haal Peakes."
"What?" Ron paled as he threw himself at the closed cell door, "No, what are you doing?" the cell door beside them was opened and Fergus Finnegan began swearing and hollering while a scuffle broke erupted out of sight, "You can't!"
"I spare one from your cell Firebrand," the Puppet Master purred with delight, "and I take two from the next."
"No!" Ron yelled, "I said take me, I offered you someone from this fucking cell. Take me you bastard!"
Fergus Finnegan sounded as if he was putting up even more of a fight then Lee had done.
"Get yer mits offa him yer son of a hag. He's only seventeen fer fuck's sake."
"You don't need two, just take me," Davies was pleading with the man with the white streak of hair, "I'll go quietly. Just take me."
A pair of hands thrust forth from the cell opposite the one under attack and, as the Death Eater dragged Davies out and backed into the door, Ernie MacMillan grabbed the man by the hair before putting him into a headlock and bellowing at Davies to run for it.
"Imperio!" The Puppet Master said victoriously as his hit Davies in the face with the curse and the young blonde wizard's face went slack and he walked calmly out of the cellblock.
"Stop," Ron said as he reached out to claw at the Puppet Master's robes, "don't."
The Death Eater who had been freed of his charge dove into the cell once more to help wrestle Jimmy Peakes away from Fergus, who was still fighting bravely.
"He's the youngest, he should be last," the Irish wizard said desperately, "yeh got the wrong one, I should go before him."
There was a flash and a whump sound that shook the walls before both Death Eater's pulled Peakes out, his face bloodied and his legs kicking with all their might in every direction.
"Jim!" Fergus was roaring as the door slammed shut again, "Jimmy fight 'em. You can do it Jim, fight the bastards!"
"Davies run," Ernie was screaming from his own cell hoarsely, "shake it off and run. I know you can do it."
"Now remember this tomorrow afternoon jongens," the Puppet Master bowed at the main door to the cellblock, "Any exchanges will only be made with interest."
The door boomed shut and Ron was still clinging onto the door for dear life, his eyes wide and blank.
"Fucking bastards," Fergus whimpered, "Those heartless fuckin' pricks!"
Lee still had hold of the hem of Ron's jeans and pulled on it. Ron's leg jerked loosely and he glanced down at Lee on the floor at his feet. He sank down onto his knees slowly and helped Lee sit up a little more before putting his hand to the rapidly swelling jaw.
"I didn't mean it," Ron whispered breathlessly.
Lee winced at the pain in his jaw and put his hand on Ron's shoulder.
"Didn't mean what?"
Ron looked him in they eye, his own were bloodshot and shining.
"You are my brother."