Chapter 13

There was a loud noise from the fireplace, gusting the hair back from Adrienne's face. A woman stepped through, clutching onto her hat.

"Ah, Minerva!" she exclaimed, hastily brushing the soot from the ends of her petticoats. Her hat nearly fell off when she attempted to do this. To Adrienne, she appeared as someone who had stepped right out of the Middle Ages. She snatched her hat up, placed it on the table, revealing braided glossy silver hair underneath. Her face was ascetic, with just enough of everything required for a face, but not much more. The only thing she appeared to have more than enough of was clothes. She pulled a crocheted shawl from her shoulders, dumping it next to the hat on the table. Minerva then ducked in for a polite kiss on the cheek, as her friend tugged at her gloves.

"Lovely to see you again, Ruth. But I've been rude- allow me to introduce Adrienne Granger: daughter of Hermione Granger, of whom I'm sure you've heard. Beside her is Lianna Granger, also a daughter of Hermione, and the cause of my desperate call for help." Ruth turned her deep blue eyes onto the girls in turn, somehow seeing more than the outer of each.

"Nice to meet you, Adrienne," she said warmly, allowing Adrienne to kiss her on the cheek. She felt to Adrienne like a grandmother, or a great aunt who was only seen once in five years.

"And Lianna- now, let me see." She peered down into the girl's face, grasped her shoulder to keep from falling, balanced her elbow on the table and finally blew in her face. Apparently satisfied with this, she shuffled herself into a seat.

"Is there anything you can do, Ruth?" Minerva asked worriedly, hovering at her friend's elbow.

"Not right now- she's too far away. I'll look again in a few minutes. In the mean time, how have you been, dear?" Ruth started chatting with the flustered Minerva, and Adrienne returned her gaze to her sister.

In a few minutes, indeed.

~*~

"Ugh…" Hermione winced at the flash of blinding light that pierced its way into her eyes, despite her tightly closed lids. "Wannasleep, takei'away," she groaned, trying to roll over to keep the light out. A rough hand pushed her back to the way she was. Hermione raised a hand to try to push away the rough handler, but somehow she still remained under the bright light. Wincing, Hermione forced her eyes open.

In front of her sat a tall dark stranger. "Have I been abducted?" Hermione heard herself ask. There was a snicker from the tall man. His intense dark eyes pinned her, whilst crinkling at the edges with humour.

"No, just strangled," he replied. His lips twitched as though he wanted to laugh, but refused to give in to the urge. Hermione struggled to sit upright, her head swimming for a few moments. Then her vision righted itself, and she could see where she was.

All around her were pieces of blackened vegetable matter, savagely chopped. "I don't think you'd make a good chef," Hermione remarked. She could suddenly feel the creeping tendrils of the Devil's Snare reaching for her again, and she moved to brush them off, only to realise that they were merely echoes of a memory. The sunlight blazed bright into her face, making her hair warm and her head uncomfortable.

"Thankyou. I never did aspire to a life in the kitchen." The tall man pushed strands of dark hair out of his face.

"Where do I know you from?" Hermione asked, sure that the face was familiar. The man seemed to ignore her question. He offered her a hand up after standing himself with feline grace. Hermione took the hand and clumsily stood, brushing off withered, burned leaves and normal forest debris from her clothes and hair.

"You don't know me." The man finally replied, turning away from her. He looked intently at the dark, dank spot where the Devil's Snare had been situated, and moved to investigate further. He fossicked around for a few moments before exclaiming with glee and prying out a tiny whistle.

"I thought so." He pranced back to his 'captive' to parade the whistle before her. Hermione took the silver object from the man who had yet to identify himself and examined it.

"This is a normal whistle- what's so exciting about it?" Hermione asked cautiously. She felt out of her depth here, sure that she ought to know something, yet somehow lacking the knowledge. The man just twinkled his eyes at her and motioned for her to follow him. Hermione stared at his back for a moment before following the strange man.

After all, what choice did she have?

~*~

Psspsspsspss… psspsspsspss… ssssss… ssswirl… swirl… twist… writhe… harder… softer… echo of consciousness… glimmer of light… what am I… a girl… I am a girl… I have a name… I am… I am… a glimmer… an echo… writhe… twist… swirl… sssswirl… ssssss… psspsspsspss… psspsspsspss…

~*~

A/N: Thanks again to all my beautiful reviewers! Let's see where this ride takes us!

Happy reading!

*kitten