Author's Note: Please review.  I am down to my last resort.  I *will* beg you.  I am desperate, and starved for reviews.  Flames are welcome, as always, if not unfounded.

As this fic was begun before OotP came out, there may be slight references to stuff that has been proven wrong.  Please ignore them, and consider this fic an AU.  I don't think there are many, but just thought I would forewarn you.  

Chapter Ten

            They were hurrying, almost running, down the corridors of Azkaban.  Ariadne kept motioning to them, telling them to go even faster.

"Do Death Eaters normally go that fast?" Ron asked, his voice low.  He had refused to speak in normal tones, convinced Ariadne could hear them.  He had also refused to even try and pretend he liked her, while everyone else pitied the girl and had taken an instant liking to her.  She had charisma.  

"Ron, could you please shut up?" Ginny asked, her tone indicating that if he didn't, she would hurt him. 

"I don't trust her," Ron muttered quietly.  But not quietly enough.

"Shut up!" the others yelled as they whirled around to face him.  Ron shrank back as far as the Water Skin would allow. 

"Fine, but when we get killed, don't blame me.  You can only blame yourselves."

~*()*~

Ariadne sighed, but kept running.  They would never be there in time, if they kept slowing down, or stopping altogether to yell at each other.  True, she couldn't hear what they were saying, but based on their gestures and body language, she surmised they were arguing.  Rather heatedly.

Ariadne motioned quickly once again with her left arm as she turned a corner.

"Hurry up," she muttered.  "We aren't going to get there in time."

~*()*~

"Ron, we need someone to trust.    Without Ariadne to show us the way out, we would be totally lost, doomed to wander until we eventually stumbled across the gate out.  And this place is so massive, we would never find it.  Eventually, word would get out that the prisoner was missing, and guards would be posted everywhere.  Just because no spell can touch us in here doesn't mean we can stay in here forever."

Ron finally nodded, agreeing at last.  "All right, Harry," he said.  "But I still don't trust her enough to be comfortable."

"And that is your opinion," Harry said shortly.  "Now, come on.  Ariadne already turned that corner."

"It's an ambush," Ron said immediately.  "Every single Death Eater in this godforsaken place is waiting around that corner, ready to kill us."

"I'm sure they aren't," Draco said.  "But if it makes you feel any better, we can put you at the back of our safe little bubble."

"Water Skin," Hermione corrected absently.  "Ron, you can go to the back if you like."

Ron grumbled, but stayed in the centre. 

"All right, on the count of jump, we jump around the corner.  Understand?" Hermione said.  "One…two…three…jump!"

They followed her command, leaping around the corner, wands drawn.  It was completely deserted.  There was not a soul in sight.

Not even Ariadne.

"""Where is she?" Lavender asked.  'There's no way she could have gone that fast."

"Unless she sprinted," Draco said.  "And I don't know why she would want to."

"She abandoned us," Ron said, always the optimist.  "That's why she sprinted.  She left us here to die.  We are lost in Azkaban, with no way of knowing the way out."

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, Harry saw something moving.  He whirled, and saw Ariadne standing there with an apologetic look on her face.  She started saying something, and he squinted to make it out by reading her lips.

"She said 'Sorry, I thought you were right behind me'", Hermione said.

"A likely story," Ron sneered. 

"Ron Weasley, if you say one more word, I will strangle you," Ginny said without turning around.  Ron made a slight noise of dissent, but didn't speak aloud.

Ariadne motioned for them to follow once again, and set off. 

"She'd be a great sprinter," Lavender said.  "Any track team would be dying to get her on it."

Those not Muggle-born gave her a quizzical look, but continued on. 

Ariadne went around another corner, and Ron moaned," We're all gonna die!  We are gonna die!  At Azkaban of all places!"

"Ron, listen to me," Harry commanded, taking Ron by the shoulders and shaking him.  "Absolutely no spell known to wizard kind can penetrate the Water Skin.  And we can see out and know what's coming before they even know what we are.  They also cannot hear a word we say.  So shut up!"

Ron shrank even farther back. 

"Can we follow Ariadne now?" Draco asked.  "She must think we're a pack of morons because we seem to be incapable of following her."

"Okay, new rule," Lavender broke in.  "The next person who complains, argues or is just acting like a pig, I am going to curse into next week.  Understand?"

Everyone nodded, not quite willing to test that threat.

They kept moving.  Every corridor they followed Ariadne through grew more and more depressing and/or menacing.  Some had spears and knives decorating the walls, all covered in dried blood.  Others had terrible portraits, depicting men chasing each other through the frames, seeing who could decapitate the other first.

"Cheerful place," Draco commented.  Lavender turned around, ready to hurt Draco and perhaps speed him along to meeting his untimely demise, but Hermione cut her off.  "Can we please just keep going?" she begged.  "We're almost there."

"How do you know?" Draco asked. 

"Because we are taking so much longer to get out than we took to get in, because we are stopping so much to argue.  The less we argue, the faster we get out of here."

That shut everyone up.  The idea of getting out of Azkaban, and back in open air where it was safe, appealed to everyone.  So they finally followed Ariadne in silence, no one arguing or protesting, but unknowingly quickening their pace and moving faster and faster.

~*()*~

Ariadne grinned to herself.  They were almost there.  Then she would be rewarded for all the abuse she endured for fifteen years.  For everything she had gone through in life, she would be rewarded. 

That is, if the group behind her would finally hurry up.  She stopped, again, waiting for them to finish their argument. 

She watched as the blond boy, Draco, began speaking, a pleasant look on his face.  She was pretty sure each word out of his mouth dripped with sarcasm.  Everyone got angry, until about five minutes later, when they calmed, wearing determined and hopeful looks on their faces. 

"Finally," she muttered.  She motioned, once again, and took off, at a quicker pace than before.

Surprisingly, they kept her pace, even when she moved faster and faster, until she was almost at a sprint.

"Well, at least they're keeping up," she whispered, before turning down another corridor, this even darker than the previous ones.

~*()*~

"Oh, no," Ron muttered under his breath.

"What now?" Ginny asked wearily, ready for an onslaught of complaining.

"I am telling you, were are going to die.  There is no way we will survive."

"No, we aren't!" Hermione shouted.  "Ron, you are really getting repetitive.  We have heard this, over and over.  Can we just keep moving?"

"We can, but I have a terrible feeling about this," Ron said. 

"Oh, you are your 'terrible feelings'," Lavender sighed.  "Come on."  She grabbed him by the wrist and literally dragged him along behind her.  He made no protest, only groaned once more. 

Hermione sighed, and began walking.  Draco, Ginny and Harry took up the pace, and Lavender followed suit, dragging Ron with her.  They rounded the corner.  And screamed. 

~*()*~

They were right where she wanted them.  They were hesitant, which made them even easier to convince.  Ariadne grinned even more widely.  She was sure she looked maniacal, but didn't care.  It was her chance to win the favour, her chance to gain credit for what she had done.  For she had led them here by herself. 

She had deceived the Potter boy.  Made him think she wanted to rid herself of the Death Eater life she had led.  Ariadne snorted in disgust.  Why would she want to get rid of this life?  She lived and breathed to be accepted as a Death Eater, to win the Dark Lord's favour.

She had gained the trust of all six of them.  Oh, how sweet vengeance is.

~*()*~ 

Death Eaters.  Hundreds of them.   Masses gathered, hundreds of them, wands drawn and pointing right at them.  Ariadne had led them right into a mass of Death Eaters.   

"Oh my God," Hermione said.  "She betrayed us.  All of us."

"You know," Ron said.  "This would be the perfect opportunity to say 'I told you so'.  But being the person I am, I won't."

"Thanks," Draco snapped. 

Harry only stared at the scene of horror in front of him.  "I can't believe this.  I trusted her.  And look what she did.  Ron, you were right.  Why didn't we listen to you."

"That is exactly what I have been asking myself since we stepped out of that dungeon," Ron said.  "Though I will admit I was being irrational.  She never gave us any reason not to trust her.

"Except the fact that she was living on Death Eater territory!" Hermione said.   "Why didn't we realise it?"

"Realise what?" Ginny asked.

"That she was a fraud!  Why didn't we see it?  She's a Death Eater, obviously.  She lives here, and fed us some story about being forced to be a Death Eater.  If you refuse to become a Death Eater, you're killed.  You don't hang around Azkaban doing odd jobs.  Oh, we are such imbeciles!"

"You can say that again," Harry said.  As Hermione opened her mouth again, he quickly added, "It's an expression."

"So, as much as we would like to argue about this," Draco cut in, "we really   have to think of a plan, preferably one that gets us out alive."

"It's simple," Hermione said.  Her voice shook, but she stood resolute.

"Come again?" Ron asked, blinking. 

"No spell can touch us.  We're safe in the Water Skin."

"I hope you're right," Ginny said, looking over the hundred of Death Eaters, brown eyes wide.  "I truly hope you're right."