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Gabrielle could read the subtle signals Harry was unconsciously giving out. His breathing was shallow and forced. His voice, raspy as it was, shook more than it should have. Most obvious of all, he kept regripping his wand, fidgeting with it and grasping it so tightly that it seemed he would break it.
All in all, the signs showed one thing - panic. He hasn't the slightest idea what he will do now, she realized. At least he'd managed to protect Snape. That was one less person to worry about.
And the children? Well, they seemed to be safe; at any rate they'd not been found by the Circle yet.
So all that's left is me, and he doesn't see how he can save me, she summarized mentally. Her mind kept wandering to her spare wand... if only she could reach it! She could Disapparate in a second, save herself that way, without jeopardizing the respect Harry had in the Dark Circle. That was best. But how to do it?
When Harry gestured for her to approach, she sensed that he still had no idea what to do next. She came forward slowly, and decided to again play the damsel-in-distress card that had worked so beautifully the night before. Before he could speak a word, she threw herself at his feet and began weeping hysterically. "Please, please don't kill me, I wasn't going to do you harm, please have mercy!" she wailed.
Harry took a step away from her uncertainly, and she drew herself up to her knees. She couldn't quite reach her wand just yet...She'd need a few minutes fidgiting with her robes...She'd have to keep everybody distracted so they didn't see what she was doing...
"You don't mean us harm?" Harry grated sarcastically, apparently ready to go along with whatever plan his wife had devised.
Still sounding pathetic and desperate, Gabrielle shrieked, "No, no, I didn't! I happened upon you by accident last night, I didn't mean to, please, please don't kill me!" She paused for effect, pretending to gulp back a sob. "And I heard you say you wanted to kill my husband, so I came tonight to find out how, so that I could help him hide, I swear I wasn't going to bother you, please don't kill me, let me live!" Gradually she was worming her way through the folds of robes to reach her target...
"Hmmmm..." Harry said thoughtfully. At last Gabrielle felt her fingers graze the cool smoothness of her objective, and at the same time sensed the eyes of the Dark Circle turn from her to watch their leader make his decision. With the attention drawn away from her, she finally managed to snatch the wand loose and bring it to bear on herself.
A flood of relief washed over her. "Au revoir!" she screeched, and Disapparated.
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From Julien's angle, his view of his mother was totally blocked by the creepy shadow of the Black Center. He could hear her shrieking "Please don't kill me!" and then, "Good-bye!" There was a blinding flash of light, and the Center jumped back several feet to reveal... Nothing.
His mother was gone.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!" Julien went berserk. His sister was trying to hold him still, safe, under the cloak with her, but it was no good. Shaking off Sophie's restraining arms, he charged from his hiding place into the clearing, screaming madly. He killed her, he killed Mama, I don't believe it... his thoughts were barely coherent. He had his wand out and he was ready to blast every last one of them, curse them until there was nothing left...
He was running full-speed towards the Dark Circle, crazy with the need to blow them all away, when he suddenly realized that something was wrong. Nobody was reacting to him.
They weren't moving to curse him or even stare. Matter of fact, the wizards all seemed to be looking in different directions, angry but confused. It's as though they can't see me, he thought, momentarily relieved of his mania.
Then he looked down at himself. He was still covered by the Invisibility Cloak! No wonder they couldn't see him. And they couldn't hear him anymore, either - his sobs had collected in his throat, choking him off, and making him feel about to explode from grief and rage.
He could hardly believe that his mother was dead. Gone. Vanished without a trace. Once he realized he couldn't be seen, he went forward more quietly, determined that no one would perceive him until it was too late. At least he could avenge her…
All at once he stopped dead in his tracks. He was now close enough to hear what the wizards were all saying to each other, and it consisted of things like "What was that sound - could it have been the woman?" "How did she get away?" "I guess she Disapparated...but I thought she wasn't armed..."
Get away? Disapparated? Julien thought. He echoed it quietly, in a disbelieving whisper. "She made it? She escaped?"
He stood still, smiling idiotically, not caring when somebody from the Dark Circle yelled, "Then that shouting must have been her! Let's find her!" The wizards fanned out and began to filter into the woods. He still didn't care.
As a matter of fact, Julien was so relieved over his mother's escape that he didn't care about anything at all… that is, until he heard a loud commotion from where he was supposed to be hiding.
The manly roar could have belonged to anybody, but the girlish shriek… Sophie! He'd left her there alone, visible… and now somebody had found her.
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Sophie stood over the unconscious Death Eater, trying to catch her breath. Was the man dead? He'd snuck up behind her and then grabbed her suddenly. It had been the most scary thing of her life….
So what else could she do? Too panicked to cast a spell, she'd stuck her wand into his eye as fast as she could. Then, when he howled and clutched his face, she'd tripped him and shoved him to the ground. After cracking his head on a tree root, the man went unnaturally still and showed no sign of recovering.
She heard someone else break through the trees and she screeched again, then covered her mouth and dove for the ground. Maybe they wouldn't see her…
The person gave a strangled whisper of "Oh, jeez," and was panting for breath. She stood up instantly and looked around.
"Julien?" He didn't answer, and she started to get nervous. "Yo, 'En, Where are you?!"
She hoped that hearing his nickname, (which was originally devised to annoy their French mother, who insisted on pronouncing Julien's name without the final consonant), would help him snap out of it. She was right. From the look on his face when it first became visible as he whipped off the Invisibility Cloak, Sophie could tell that Julien had probably been standing in shock for several minutes. When he suddenly ran full speed towards her, she caught him in her arms and tried to listen as he babbled, "Sophie I was so scared, I thought somebody'd killed you, and right before that I thought they'd killed Mom, but she's ok, she's not there, but this is all awful and I-"
Finally she cut him off. "Quiet down! Let's get rid of this body and then hide - the Dark Circle is all over the place. I think they're looking for us. Take a deep breath and let's decide what to do."
At this moment, soothing Julien and trying to think how best to save them both, Sophie seemed ages older than her brother. He noticed with a wry smile how adultlike she sounded when she ordered him to calm down…and even more adultlike when she began to take charge of the limp-Death-Eater problem.
"Right. We'll have to take this guy away and get rid of him."
"Let's just throw some leaves over him. He doesn't seem about to wake up…"
"But what if he does come round, Julien? He'll be right next to us. No way."
She was right, he saw. It would be better to move him someplace else - that way, if he did regain consciousness and raise the alarm, at least the Dark Circle would come swarming to the wrong place. Julien sneaked a sideways glance at her and saw that she didn't much relish the idea of dragging her attacker all about the forest, so he offered, "I can do it myself, Sophie… you don't have to come. I'll get rid of him."
Sophie hugged him gratefully. "Thanks, 'En. He gives me the shivers. Just take him someplace… but be careful - he's still breathing so theoretically he could wake up any second. Take the cloak."
He nodded and set off slowly, dragging the Death Eater by the feet through the woods as quietly as he could. He set the man down someplace relatively far away, then began to make his way back to his sister. He was almost there when a voice spoke up very close to him. "I hear you," the person hissed. "Show yourself! Where are you?"
Julien froze instantly as he saw the figure in a Death Eater mask barely five feet away. Go away, go away, assume you heard the wind not a person, he willed the wizard silently. He watched the masked face turn this way and that, as though trying to sniff out his invisible quarry. Finally the man gave up, sighed, and turned to go off in a different direction.
Sick with relief, Julien raced through the brush back to Sophie. She was crouching motionless in the shadows behind a tree, and even knowing where she was, it took him awhile to make her out.
"All right, Soph, I'm back," he said breathlessly, taking off the cloak. He'd decided not to tell her about almost getting caught. Why scare her? She was probably terrified enough already. "So now we have to hide. I think if we can stay hidden, Dad and Snape can get rid of the creeps again, make them go home or something."
She whirled around at the sound of a twig cracking… but it was only a squirrel. Nervously she shook her head around and demanded, "Is my hair really that shiny? Mom's hair is what got us caught before… maybe we really do need to cut mine off…"
"That's crazy."
"Good," she said with a smile, "because I don't want to. Now let's bury the camera in the leaves someplace so the magic doesn't mess it up, then get under the cloak and go back where we're supposed to be."
"Ok. They seem to think the noise I made before was somehow Mom's fault, so in a few minutes when they don't find her or us, they'll probably give up."
After hiding the camera, they sat down on the ground, back to back, and covered themselves with the Invisibility Cloak. Julien could hear his sister's breathing, and the far-off sounds of wizards breaking through the forest in their mad search. Other than that, the night was totally quiet until Sophie whispered tremulously, "So...um...'En...Are you sure Mom's safe?"
This made Julien uncomfortable - so far, Sophie had sounded calm and collected, as though she knew exactly what to do. Her fear made him more afraid, but he answered with false cheerfulness, "Yeah, of course - they said she Disapparated."
She, too, wanted to hide her nervousness, so she pretended to feel more secure. "Perfect. Then if we stay where we're supposed to be until Snape comes back for us like he said, nothing else bad can happen."
Nothing else bad could happen? Yeah, right.
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Bigtime apologies for taking so long with this chapter. I've been on vacation. I hope you liked this part...the next part shouldn't take nearly as long.
Feedback, please....?
Thanks.