10) Trapped
Selected Listening: The Demiguise and the Occamy
Anastasia awoke in a cage. A small cube of a wrought-iron cage where she could barely move. Her legs were bent up to her chest, and the toes of her boots stuck out the cage between the bars.
It was dark. So dark she could only see the vague outline of other cages around her and soft rustling movements. She didn't know where she was or how she got there. All she wished in that moment that she stayed in the suitcase with Newt even after their fight.
Damn her fainting spells. Why did they always happen when she was doing something important?
Realizing she might never escape, she let out a wail and began to panic. Her chest contracted over and over and her breaths short once again. No, I won't let this happen. She told herself. I won't faint again. It's not helpful. She did her very best to control her breathing, sucking in as much oxygen as she could to fill her lungs even though it felt like needles being pushed through her chest. As she breathed more deeply her head began to pound, but she controlled it and waited quietly.
Someone would have to come back eventually.
She did manage to keep her eyes open, although they threatened to close several times, and after about an hour, two men entered the room. They laughed at a shared joke Anastasia knew couldn't possibly be funny to a reasonable person. They turned on the light. It wasn't a lantern or torch like she was used to, but a lavender bar that stretched around the room and glowed hazily. The lavender light illuminated the cages beside her. Each held a demiguise of a slightly different size and shape, but most were gigantic adult demiguises with cages that stretched to the ceiling. One smaller cage sat beside her with an adolescent demiguise, only twice Anastasia's size. They made no noise, as they were silent as they were invisible.
It would be the course of things, she thought pathetically to herself, that she would be locked away with all the other invisible creatures never to be seen again.
The demiguise tried to grab the bars, but their curved claws, much like that of a sloth, were too large to fit through the cross-hatched metal. They lavender light bounced off the ripples of their silky hair as they shook, trying to break free.
The two men, with brown baggy shirts and pants and worn sneakers, walked around the room, examining all the demiguise with greedy smiles. They asked each other questions and groped strands of the creatures' hair from between the bars to scrutinize, searching for blemishes or faults.
Finally, when they walked around the entire room, they came to stare at Anastasia.
"Wǒmen yīnggāi zuò shénme?" One asked the other. But she couldn't discern what he said.
"Děngdào lǎobǎn huílái. Tā huì zuì liǎojiě. Mài diào tā shì zuì róngyì de."
And then they laughed again.
Anastasia tried to remember the words for magic and muggle that Newt taught her, but she could only remember the symbol hanging above the old couple's door. Maybe if the poachers were muggle, they wouldn't be too difficult to handle. She knew her magic sometimes kicked in unexpectedly, even without her wand, when she wanted something very badly, but she wasn't sure exactly how it worked. She had saved herself when she fell from the ceiling rafters, but she had been unconscious at the time. It wasn't really something young magics could control.
"Hey, hey let me go!" She tried. They looked at her, and then each other. They laughed again.
"Wǒmen bù huì, chúfēi yǒurén gěi wǒmen qián." The taller man with at least three gold teeth said and poked his finger in at her. She snapped her teeth and bit down hard. He yelped and dragged his finger away. She spat at them to get the taste out of her mouth.
"Chòu xiǎozi!" He shouted. The other, stouter one leaned forward and shook her whole cage threateningly. She leaned away from him and held her breath to keep from whimpering. The one she bit said something even more angrily at her and they both walked out of the room, slamming the door behind them.
She supposed they were muggles. A wizard would have sealed her mouth shut with a spell.
Anastasia fell asleep for a while, although she wasn't sure how long without any windows. When she woke up, she was hungry and shaking, but there wasn't any food around. She looked over to her neighbor adolescent demiguise, who was laying on its side,staring straight ahead with no hope of ever escaping. She figured she might as well befriend her cellmate.
"Hi." She tried. Some of the adult demiguises looked over to her curiously.
The demiguise made a low echoing sound that she supposed it meant to recognize her attempt at conversation.
"So you can talk?" She said. Her neighbor stared at her again, but did not make another noise.
"My name is Anastasia. Do you have a name?" She asked. It continued to stare. It made one more echoing noise and then laid its head back down. She sighed and then turned to stare at the door.
They would have to come back sometime.
She didn't know how long she was in the cage. The men came by every day and gave her a few small fruits to eat, but she was always hungry. In the midst of the day, when her eyes were glued open and she couldn't sleep anymore because it was all she had to do, her stomach grumbled incessantly. Her cell neighbor, the adolescent demiguise, reached across and handed her a grub, showing her how to break the head off and suck out the insides. She stared at the grub squirming between her fingers and politely gave it back.
"No thank you." She said…but eventually she would have to accept.
She tried to use her magic. She stared at the lock for ages trying to open it with her mind.
"Alohamora. Alohamora!" She thought, even shouted out loud, but it was no use without her wand.
One day, and she couldn't tell what time of day, a man, who looked much more in charge than the other two men, came in the door. He opened her cell and dragged her out by the collar, shouting angrily. The other men cowered and begged the boss to have mercy on them, but she didn't know why.
The man took her to another room of a warehouse, sat her in a wooden chair, and tied her up with a spell. The boss was a wizard. In front of them was a sort of oven stove.
The man took a bit of floo, threw it into the stove and said some words in Chinese.
A familiar looking man appeared.
"Um, hello? Who is this? Where is this floo request even from?" He asked, staring around at the boss, his two lackees, and Anastasia tied up on the chair. The boss man brought a wand to his throat and said the spell Newt had a few days ago when they were visiting the old couple.
"It doesn't matter who I am." The boss said in English. "But I believe this young witch is one of yours, is she not? Someone you would want back?"
The man in the flames stared at Anastasia for a moment, and then looked back at the boss.
"I'm not really sure…I haven't seen her before…What is your name, girl?"
Anastasia didn't know what to say. Obviously, it was someone important. Someone from the ministry, maybe. He had dark skin and eyes and a circular embroidered hat close to what her father wore on occasion.
"What's yours?" She asked. Even if her father knew this man, she knew the rules. Don't tell anyone your true identity. Maybe she should use a name like the one she told the Malfoy boy …
"My name is Kingsley Shaklebolt. Assistant to the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. If your family lost track of you on vacation or something…" Shaklebolt. She knew that name. He was a member of the Order. She saw his image in the picture frames of her father's office.
"No. No, my name is Ana. Ana Green. Call Albus. He'll know who I am." She said.
"Albus?" Kingsley asked. She nodded.
"If this…Albus wants the girl back…I suppose he'll pay a lot of money for her, won't he?" The boss asked.
"We don't negotiate with terrorists." Shaklebolt said resolutely.
Anastasia felt a sharp knife hit her throat.
"Really? What if I said she would be dead otherwise?"
"Okay, okay easy…how much do you want, exactly?" Kingsley asked.
"It depends…how much are you willing to give me?"
"We'll see…I'll talk to him…until then, leave the girl alone." Kingsley said, fear glowing in his eyes. Anastasia looked back and forth among her captors realizing very quickly that these may be her last days among the living.
"Wait…wait Kingsley. Could you tell him one more thing for me?" She asked desperately.
"Yes, what is it, child?" He asked, now very confused. The boss dug the knife further into her throat, and beads of red blood ran down the blade.
"Tell him I'm sorry." She said, tears running down her face.
"Sure…sure I will." Kingsley said, and disappeared into the flames.