previously...
"You can do this, Anna," Astoria murmured as Anna took the wand from where Astoria had it clutched to her stomach, and then pushed behind the bushes on her way to the line of trees just a few yards down.
Astoria started to watch her progress, visible by the blurred and opaque-looking sections of wall where Anna ran, but Angelina prodded her hard in the ribs.
"Don't watch!" she hissed. "Don't draw attention to her. Just go inside like she just went ahead of you."
Shaken at this moment of stupidity, Astoria did as she was told and came into the room. Angelina quickly followed and then cracked the door behind her. Peering through it, she said in her normal, unshaken voice, "They've taken them into the main building."
A wave of sickness rolled over Astoria at this.
"I don't see Anna," Angelina said quietly, "so they haven't brought her through the yard and I would have thought we would hear her scream if she got caught."
Angelina turned around to face Astoria, but she closed her mouth to a tight line when she looked at Astoria.
Marie was standing near Astoria, much closer than Astoria thought, and all the color had drained out of her face.
The bushes were overgrown and tore at Anna's robes as she rushed past them, doing her best to stay low so that the guards couldn't see a disturbance among the branches or notice a blurry form racing along the wall. She doubted that the disillusionment charm was very good—three years is a long time to go without practicing a spell, especially something as difficult as that.
She had finally reached the corner and stood on the other side of the trees. Here there was no brush for cover, but she was far away from the guards. She gave the wall a wide berth, just in case the ground surrounding it held alarm charms, too.
Finally at the cover of the tall pine trees, she took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and told herself to say it firmly and confidently the first time. No repeats, in case she were to accidentally hit the wall or draw attention to herself.
"Ascendio!"
She felt herself rocketed from the ground to the sky at a frightening speed. She wanted to scream, but forced herself not to as she flew past the top of the wall where a guard sat at the corner, looking over into the yard. He started, and looked at where she had just flown past, but she was already another fifteen feet above his head by the time he stood up. She could feel the force that propelled her fading, so she whispered, "wingardium leviosa" at herself, and willed herself to float over the wide wall and onto the other side. She was just passing the top of the wall on the other side when she felt the charm give way—it wasn't made to keep a human afloat—and started falling in earnest.
"Wingardium leviosa!" she repeated in panicked whisper as she fell again, and she felt the charm lift her up for a second, and then it started to fade, and she still landed hard on the ground.
She landed in the grass ten feet from the wall, and she was immediately rewarded by the salty smell of the ocean. Looking around, it was easy to see that she was in a pasture. Lush green grass rolled in small hills ahead of her, dotted by the occasional clump of trees.
Stepping away from the wall, she could see where the ground fell away to the left, a thin line of something sparkling revealing the ocean. They were high up. Several hundred feet ahead of her, a gnarly group of trees appeared, and she ran for it, counting steps as she went and doing her best to keep her run completely parallel to the ocean. She ignored how vulnerable she felt and forced herself to keep running, convinced every second that she would hear a curse and feel it hit her.
Two hundred steps later, she arrived in the shade of the tree and gave her first laugh in free air. Looking back, she saw that the walls of the compound had disappeared, but the factory to its right remained visible. She looked at the trees around her, took another longing look at the ocean, and then thought hard about Paris and the black-shuttered building that stood as the entrance to the French Ministry of Magic, and turned.
The familiar squeezing feeling smothered her for a minute, and for a second she thought she had done it wrong and that she would end up in twenty different pieces from the coast to Paris, but then she felt the pressure lessening, and she toppled to the ground on the cobblestoned street. She felt woozy and thought she might be sick, but she didn't let herself think about it. Instead, she thought of Martin and wondered how long it had been since they had stunned him, and how much longer he had until they dragged him out into the yard. Her heart constricted at this, and she broke into a run.
"Excuse me, miss!" Anna said once she had reached the reception desk of the ministry.
The attendant started, then squinted carefully at where Anna stood. "Ah, problems with a disillusionment? That will be the third floor of the hospital, ma'am, This is the ministry." She went back to her paperwork.
"No, it isn't that. I need to see the head Auror. Immediately."
"What's the emergency?"
"I can't say until I'm with the head Auror. It's extremely important and time sensitive. Please! Someone has kidnapped my partner, and I'm afraid they'll kill him if we don't rescue him in an hour."
Anna's voice had trembled at this, and the receptionist's expression went from skeptical to alarmed.
"How long has your husband been in captivity?"
"It's—been a long time. Over a month. I just escaped…" Anna was momentarily distracted as she looked at a clock. It read 12:15.
"Your name?"
"I'd—I'd rather not give it just yet. Please." Anna wondered briefly how many friends or spies Jasper had in the ministry.
"I have to have a name and search you. It's policy."
This was taking too long. She needed them to let her through. "Fine. Anna Hepswell. Please hurry!"
The receptionist's eyes got wide at the name. She whirled around and grabbed a young intern working on papers near her.
"Take this woman up to the Auror department immediately. No excuses. You march straight into their office as quickly as possible. You understand?"
She had already turned back to Anna and tapped her head so that Anna slowly appeared from under the disillusionment charm. Before she'd fully appeared, the receptionist ran her wand over her, declared her of no threat, and turned back to the young man.
"What are you waiting for, Al? Run with her!"
The young man's friendly smile faltered, and jumped, "Oh, oh right! Come on, miss. This way!"
He stopped, just on the other side of the desk. "And—and which way is it to the Auror Office?"
The receptionist rolled her eyes. "Section Five! Now go!"
"Right!" Al said, and he rather unprofessionally grabbed Anna's hand and they raced towards a row of identical doors.
"Section Five, section five," the kid was saying to himself as they skidded to a halt. "So that's this door," He ran headlong towards the apparently closed door with the Roman numeral V over it, and Anna stifled a scream as they came in contact with it. But instead of crashing painfully against it, the door simply disappeared and sent them into another significantly smaller lobby. Anna's guide didn't stop running until they were nose to nose with a very annoyed looking older witch, who apparently acted as receptionist for Section V.
"How can I assist you?" she asked, not looking up from her papers.
"We need to see the Head Auror."
"He's in a meeting. Please take a look at the calendar to your right and we'll schedule a meeting with an available Auror."
"This is an emergency. We need to see him right now. We don't care about any meeting!" Al said, still holding tightly to Anna's hand.
"Please," Anna said. "We're running out of time."
Unfortunately, the woman remained unfazed by this and still argued that no Aurors were available.
"Didn't you hear to woman?" her guide was saying. "You let us see an Auror—any Auror—right now!"
As they continued to argue, Anna looked around the lobby, noticing that two hallways split off in opposite directions. If only she knew which way led to the Aurors, she could just run down that way.
The receptionist and her new friend were now arguing loudly, the receptionist apparently relishing in frustrating them.
A mousy-looking witch had just appeared through the doorway from the main lobby, her eyes glued to a stack of papers in her hand. Anna reached out a hand to stop her, trying her best to look friendly and calm.
"I'm sorry, but can you tell me which way to the Auror's office? Those two are arguing and I've just got to drop something off."
"Oh, it's that way, all the way down the hall." The witch waived vaguely to the left before continuing down the right hallway, still reading her papers.
Anna began walking briskly towards the left hallway. The receptionist saw her and screeched at her to know just what she thought she was doing. Her guide, however, simply ran up to her.
"Found where the office is?" he asked, bouncing into step beside her.
"All the way at the end of the hall, I think." She stared intensely at the door she could just make out at the end of the hall.
"Well come on, then! Let's not waste time!" And he grabbed her hand and started to run. He didn't seem to care about making a scene and didn't bother to stop for carts of papers, groups of Aurors in conversation, or anyone else who was also using the hall. Instead he brushed past them and knocked them over, dragging Anna with him.
Anna reached the Auror office door first—her guide was tangled up in the mess of an overturned beverage cart and a very distressed attendant.
The office was quiet, filled only with the sound of scratching quills, rustling parchment, and quiet conversations. Anna walked silently through this first room and its rows of desks to the office doors along the back.
As she approached the Head Auror office, she heard shouting. She steeled herself to be very insistent and demanding, still thinking of Martin and that too-quickly moving second hand she'd seen on the main floor.
At the door, she realized that the shouting was in English. She pushed it open and to her disbelief saw Harry Potter on his feet and red in the face, shouting with the person who appeared to be the head of the department.
"I don't care what protocol you think you have to go through," Potter was saying, "I want access to those files and an exact location for that factory right now!"
Potter had seen her now, and for a second he looked ashamed at himself.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," said the French Auror, looking unperturbed, "I'm not sure who told you I was available—" he looked pointedly at her escort who had just appeared at her side covered in splotches of tea and coffee— "but I am unavailable."
But Anna didn't hear him. She was looking at Harry Potter. She walked up to him and said in English, holding out her hand, "Hello, my name is Anna Hepswell, and I need you to help me rescue George Weasley and Angelina Johnson."
"You're—you're Anna?" Harry said as he grabbed her hand in a handshake after a moment of astonishment. "I've been looking for you. We got your note—with your signatures."
"You did?"
"Yes, why do you think I'm here? And George's brother, Ron, is with me. He was in Auror for a few years and insisted," he stepped aside so that Anna could see a tall and lanky man who was instantly recognizable as George's brother. She shook his hand, too.
"So you know where George is?" Ron asked.
Anna's stomach fell a little as she remembered how little time they had. "Yes. What time is it? We have to hurry. They will kill him if we don't."
"What?" said Ron.
And Anna impatiently explained about their plan for her to escape, and how they had to switch a fake wand with a guard's real one, and how he, Draco, and Martin were caught and would be killed.
"Wait, you're telling me that Draco Malfoy—Malfoy—sacrificed himself so you could get away and possibly bring back help?"
But Harry had seen how much recounting the story and explaining the danger Martin was in had cost her, and shushed Ron.
"No," Anna said, lifting her head higher and focusing her eyes and all her persuasive energies on Ron. "We were surprised too. After all, he is so careful. But something happened—several weeks ago. He hasn't been the same. He's desperate. We all are."
She looked from Ron to Harry to the still unknown head Auror behind them.
"But we have to hurry, please. I can tell you everything about the building. I have it here." She pulled a small notebook from her pocket and opened so that Harry and Ron could see Draco's fine handwriting and Astoria's detailed sketches.
Astoria had drawn a painstakingly to-scale map of the compound, detailing how many rooms and who lived where. Draco had listed the guards and detailed where they worked, what they did, and how they guessed they could best be overcome. Astoria had also included a picture of Jasper with Draco's description.
"The wards are going to be harder to learn," Anna recited, remembering how they had talked about this important fact early on. "We all know the inside of the compound very well, but the outside—we never saw it. I only know that about two hundred steps from the compound, it becomes invisible. Although the factory next to it can still be seen."
"So they had you working at the factory?"
"After a while, yes."
"So what did they take you for, anyway?" Harry asked, looking up from the map.
"Well, we all have families now. They matched us into families."
"What?" Ron asked.
"The children, see?" Anna pointed at the list of names Astoria had written out. "We all have children. Draco and Astoria have two, Martin and I have four, and George and Angelina have one, but Angelina is pregnant again."
Harry and Ron stared at her incredulously.
"They talked about blood purity and a reborn wizarding world," Anna waved away their look as she said this. "But none of that matters, although the children make it harder for us to get away, we know that very well. How can you get to the compound through the wards? Do you know?"
Harry Potter frowned and stared at the map, then began asking her questions about what she had seen at the wall, how the air had felt. He discussed the wards with George's brother and the French Auror, who was now very accommodating and incredibly helpful. They also sent Auror after Auror in and out of the office with messages to other departments or to the British Auror department.
"How long did you guess we would have to get Martin and the others out?" Harry stopped and asked Anna after fifteen minutes of planning.
"Draco guessed one hour, assuming they would gather us all to watch, and that they would torture them first." Anna said, and she refused to acknowledge that a half hour had already passed and that the Aurors still didn't seem to have a clear idea of how to organize a rescue of about fifty men, women, and children without getting all of them killed.
"Yeah but mate," Ron said, turning to Harry, "Can we really trust what Malfoy is saying?"
"Yes you can," said Anna angrily. "It is very important to him that you would get us out. He would not lie. He would not be careless. But he said it might be shorter. And it has already been a half hour, so please, would you go?"
Harry looked at Ron and at the French Auror, whose name was apparently Befort. He looked grim.
"Let's get a team of a dozen Aurors together, and make sure each of them have about ten of these," Potter held up what looked like a button. "You push it, and it turns into a portkey that will deliver you and whoever you are touching to the Ministry of Magic in London—I'm sorry, Befort, but this is the easiest way to get everyone out, and we don't have time to reprogram them to send everyone here."
He handed a selection of the buttons to George's brother and to the French Auror. "If we need more, our office can have them here in under a minute, they're already on standby. So that's how we'll get them out. As far as the wards, we've got some new equipment that we've been meaning to try out. Ron, you think it could protect us?"
"I—I think so, but it really needs some more testing, you know. The shop's only got about four prototypes ready—"
"Lets risk it. It'll help, anyway. Now, let's organize how we'll take out the guards." He bent over Astoria's map and sectioned off the gathered Aurors—several of whom had just arrived and looked windswept from their portkey trip—to every guard outpost. In five minutes they were holding on to Anna's hand and Apparating to the clump of gnarled trees.
As they landed, Anna pointed to what looked like more pastureland just to the side of what was clearly a factory.
"It's two hundred steps away," she told them again. She watched as the Aurors mounted their brooms and then put a small silver band at the top of each. Instantly, the broom became invisible. Next, each Auror tapped their heads while muttering the same disillusionment spell Astoria had cast on her earlier. The space that had seconds ago seemed crowded with the presence of Aurors now suddenly went empty, except for a shimmer here or there when a less experienced Auror moved.
"All right," said the disembodied voice of Potter to her left. "Let's hope Anna here is right, and that they're getting lazy and think no one can find them. Let me go first, and I'll break the wards down.
Meanwhile, back in the yard…
Marie was staring wildly at Astoria and Angelina as Angelina hastily shut the door so that they were alone in the room.
"What—What have you done? Where is Anna?"
"Anna is in another room. We're afraid that she could be in trouble, that's all," Angelina said smoothly.
"But you said—you said you would hear you if—"
"Don't worry," Angelina said. "I'm sure she's fine. We're just concerned. Martin, Draco, and George are in trouble, that's all."
"Trouble?"
"Did you see what happened?"
"No" Marie shook her head. "I stayed away. It's safer…"
Angelina nodded.
The three of them milled around the room, not talking and distractedly staring at the door as the children played on the floor around them. Every few minutes Angelina would check to see if anyone was in the yard again. The eleventh time she did, she hurried away from the door as a guard forced it open.
"Why aren't you in your room?" Bernard asked.
"My son is in here, and I didn't want to go back into the yard."
"Where is he?"
Astoria noticed that Angelina's hand shook as she pointed out the dark-haired baby sitting on the floor.
"And you?" Bernard looked threateningly at Astoria.
"My children are here, too. Scorpius is by Fred+, and this is Cassie." She gestured to the baby she was holding.
The guard looked swiftly around the room. "This is the Dubois room?"
"Yes," said Astoria, and she thought her voice sounded higher.
"Where is the other woman? Anna?"
"She's using the toilet," said Angelina. "You want to wait for her, or—?"
He shook his head. "Next time, go to your own rooms. Even if you don't 'want to go back into the yard,'" the guard said. He stepped out of the door, and Astoria breathed a sigh of relief.
"And," Bernard said, stepping back inside, his hand still on the door, "When you hear the bell, open the door and you'll see your blood traitor husband, Weasley." He closed it.
Astoria sank into the chair next to her. They hadn't discovered Anna. They were still checking rooms. They hadn't killed Draco, Martin, and George yet.
These euphoric victories were interrupted by a stream of incoherent French and sobs from Marie. Finally, she choked off, "You—you lied. You lied. What have you done with Anna? What will they do when they find out? What will they do—?"
Angelina was already next to Marie, telling her to shush and that everything would be fine if she just pulled herself together.
"We have to tell them—we have to, or they'll kill us, or—"
"Marie, stop it," commanded Angelina. "We are not going to tell them, and you are going to be quiet. Wherever Anna is, we should give her as much time as we can. Maybe she'll make it back here."
"But—"
Angelina shushed her again, using every reason and every persuasion she had to keep Marie calm. She talked about not scaring the children, about not making it worse for Martin, about thinking instead about how Astoria and she must feel about their partners being taken away.
Marie finally quieted down to a whimper. Just as Angelina stood up, sure that Marie wouldn't give them away, they heard the bell.
I always read these sections for the final edit and think THAT'S where I left it?! My poor readers. But I promise you'll hear from Draco, George, and Martin next chapter!
Now tell me…did you expect Harry Potter to show up in Paris?