Chapter 17
Voices could be heard. The angry whispers of a man and a woman cut through the silence of the forest.
"How could he do this to his own daughter?" the woman whispered obviously infuriated.
"Patty, just clam down, they won't do anything to her," said a man in a very unconvincing tone.
"William, you know perfectly well that they will if they have to."
"But she was going to become a death eater anyway. She could have died for the cause at any time."
"There is a difference between dying for the cause and being murdered for the cause. I knew that Maximus had a grudge against me but this is going too far. Pansy has never done anything to him to deserve this." The woman sounded close to tears.
"Sshh. Listen to me. If the Dark Lord wanted to kill her he would have done so already. Besides, Potter would not go after her if he thought she was dead, he would be on his way over here to save them." He motioned to the floor where the supposedly unconscious forms of Ron and Hermione lay. "I don't understand why we needed them anyway," he continued, "We all knew that he would choose to look for Pansy instead."
"It was just a precaution, in case my no-good, psychotic ex-husband had been wrong," the woman said irritably.
"Even so, can't we get rid of them now? At least the mudblood?"
"No…we must wait for our orders."
Hermione lay deathly still while listening to the conversation. She obviously guessed that Patricia was Pansy's mother but she didn't know who the other man was. Frankly she didn't care. All she cared about was getting away from them. She opened her eyes just a crack so that she could see if Ron was next to her. He was, and from the look on his face he had also been listening to the conversation. Hermione very slowly, carefully, and quietly moved her hand and grabbed Ron's. His eyes shot open and luckily Patricia and William had their backs to the two teens. Hermione put her other finger to her mouth signaling Ron to be quiet. She was trying t come up with a plan to escape and she could tell he was doing the same. She felt inside her robes and saw that they had taken her wand; Ron did the same and ended up with similar results. They both started to look around and the only thing that even came close to a weapon was a few rocks that lay near them. Hermione pointed to the rocks and then at the two adults. Ron, catching her drift, began to move slowly towards the rocks not making a sound. They each grabbed the two biggest ones they could find, which were roughly the size of a quaffle, and stood up carefully. Luckily, the part of the forest they were in had no leaves or twigs on the floor.
They were a foot away when Patricia and William turned around. SLAM! Ron and Hermione swung the rocks with all of their might. Both rocks made loud and painful contact with the respective adults head and they crumpled to the floor. Ron's had hit William square on top of his head which was now bleeding profusely. Hermione had hit Patricia on the side of the face. With all of the bruising and the blood it was clear that she had broken her jaw possibly along with the rest of her face. Hermione dropped the rock and threw herself at Ron.
"Oh, Ron. That was horrible. I can't believe Harry just left us," she cried.
"He probably figured that we at least have each other, but Pansy doesn't have anyone."
Hermione looked at him slightly shocked. Ron was never the reasonable one. "I must be rubbing off on you, Ron, you're starting to make sense," she said as she hugged him tightly. "We should probably get our wands back," she said. They walked over to the now unconscious Patricia and William and took their wands as well as their own wands.
"Come on, let's go find Harry." They set off into the forest.
Harry stopped just before he entered the dense trees. He shook his head to clear his mind and gave one last glance back towards the opposite side of the clearing. 'They'll be fine', he thought trying to convince himself. He took one step into the trees and it was already considerably darker than the clearing had. He took out his wand and lit it. 'Wait, I have my wand. Why didn't he take it away from me? He's either crazy or…no, he's just crazy. I'm going to make him sorry that he left me my wand.'
He walked with his wand held out right in front of him. He could only see a few feet in front of him at a time. The ground was littered with rocks and twigs and leaves, they would be sure to hear him coming from a mile away. He tripped a few times but hadn't actually fallen until… with out warning, the ground had changed. It was no longer hard and filled with twigs. It was soft and difficult to walk on. Harry tried taking a step with much difficulty. He had to use his hands to get his foot out of the ground. Then he had to do the same with his other leg. It was a minute before he realized he was sinking.
'Sinking?!…oh no quick sand!' He had remembered seeing quick sand once in a muggle movie the Dursely's had watched over the summer. He knew that struggling would only make it worse. He heard Hermione's voice in his head, 'Stop moving, if you don't it'll only kill you faster.' He knew this wasn't devil's snare, but the concept was the same. He tried not to panic, which was hard because he was now stuck up to his waist in the muck, as he looked around for something that might help. He caught the sight of a promising looking tree branch…if he could only reach it. "Accio branch!" he called. Unfortunately the branch was too thin and instead of bending so that he could reach it, it snapped in half.
The muck was passed his belly button. He tried his luck again, as he set his sights on a thicker branch. "Accio branch!" and this time it worked. The branch bended just enough that he could grab it, but the battle was only half over. He now had to pull himself out of the quick sand which was still trying to eat him alive.
He pulled with all of his might and the branch creaked ominously. He pulled and pulled until he was out of the sand. He heaved a sigh of relief as he lay face up on the ground trying to catch his breath.
Then Voldemort's voice rang through the forest. "Bravo, Potter. I didn't think you were going to make it. That would have ruined the rest of the adventure that lies ahead."
"Why don't you just come out and face me!" yelled Harry still lying on the ground. "Not scared of the boy-who-lived are you!?"
"Like I said before, I'll kill you after you've had your little adventure. Have fun." Then his high pitched laugh was heard through out the forest once more.
Ron and Hermione jumped when they had heard Voldemort's voice. He sounded as though he were standing right next to them. However, Harry's reply was very distant and they couldn't really hear what he had said. They did, however, begin to move in the direction they had heard his voice coming from.
Harry picked himself up off of the ground for the second time and kept walking straight ahead. This time he was pointing his wand at the ground and being very careful where he stepped. This was a big mistake. He didn't see the arrow that had narrowly missed his arm but he sure heard it. He looked around and saw with horror that a centaur was approaching him, arrow and bow ready. He couldn't have been much older than Harry himself and he had a glazed look in his eyes. He shot another arrow. Harry ducked and the arrow hit the tree behind him and stuck. He hid behind another tree while he thought of a plan. Just then he heard Voldemort's voice once more. "Ah, the imperious curse. One of my favorites don't you agree?"
Harry realized that the centaurs were supposed to be helping. Had Voldemort managed to kill them all? Not wanting to waist any time, Harry jumped out from behind the tree and yelled "Impedimenta!" The centaur froze right as it was about to launch another arrow. "Stupefy!" Harry yelled. He didn't want to take any chances, as he didn't know how long the spell would wear off. He walked over to the unconscious centaur and conjured ropes from his wand. He tied him up and before he left took the bow and arrow. Another weapon wouldn't hurt.
He continued walking as he wondered what else the Dark Lord had in store for him. He saw a light up ahead. It wasn't any bigger than a snitch but it was almost as bright as the sun. It lit up a beautiful little stream with green bushes and flowers around it. Harry had never thought that part of the Forbidden Forest could be pretty. He slowly walked to the stream and saw that the light hovered a few inches above the water. He looked left as he heard a rustling and saw a baby deer emerge from the bushes and begin to drink out of the stream. Harry was just about to sit down and enjoy the view when a voice in the back of his head yelled.
'What are you doing?! You need to find Pansy!' He clamped his eyes shut and shook his head. When he opened them again he saw that the entire scene that was there had disappeared. There was no stream, no bushes, and most certainly no deer. 'It was an illusion. So that I would forget about Pansy,' he thought. He mentally kicked himself for almost falling for it, and continued to walk through the forest.
Pansy woke slowly and found herself on the dirty floor of the forest. She shifted herself to move away from a rock that had been painfully digging into her back. She raised her head a little to look around and saw that she was in the middle of a dense clump of trees. She stood up and swayed slightly. Once she had her balance she took a few steps forward only to be knocked back by some sort of force field. A few tries told her that there was only about a five foot radius that she had to walk in. She tried once more, had landed hard on her butt and was just about to get up when she saw three figures walking towards her. The three cloaked figures walked right through the force field with ease.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked her voice shaking.
"Don't you recognize your own father?" said the figure to the right as he took off his hood. Pansy gasped in horror as Lucius pulled down his hood followed by none other than Voldemort himself.
The three men eyed her with disgust and hatred, but none more than her father. She looked at him with tear filled eyes but he simply laughed. "Don't expect any pity from me," he said venomously.
"Do not worry," said Voldemort, "You're dear Potter will be here soon to rescue, excuse me, to try and rescue you." Pansy let the tears roll down her face silently. She knew it was a trap and there was no way to warn Harry. She would probably be dead before Harry even got there. 'I'm never going to see him again', she thought miserably, 'I'm never going to be able to kiss him again, and I won't be able to tell him-'
"AAAHHHHH!" Her thoughts were interrupted by the blood chilling scream that came from Lucius.
She looked up and almost threw up at the sight of Lucius with an arrow straight through his chest. Blood was everywhere. Maximus had turned around looking for the source but had no luck. Another arrow came whizzing out of the trees narrowly missing his head. Voldemort was gone with a swish of his cloak leaving Maximus to fend off the attacker solo. Pansy had flattened herself to the floor for fear of being impaled. He was whirling around crazily sending random curses flying at the trees. It seemed like he made himself dizzy because he stopped moving. The attacker taking advantage of the moment of weakness launched another arrow at Maximus. This arrow found its target. Maximus was shot though the neck. He would have screamed in agony had the arrow not ripped his vocal cords. Pansy was sprayed with the blood of her dying father as his body hit the floor. She was crying harder than she was before. What if they attacked her next?
She crawled on her stomach to the edge of the force field and tried to put her hand through. She pulled it back sharply as she felt the same burning sensation she had felt when she had first tried to go through. Not wanting to make herself an easy target she stayed on the floor and buried he face in her arms. Then she heard a voice yell 'diffindo'. She looked up to see the force field disappearing around her. Just as she was about to get up, she saw a figure walking towards her. At first she thought it was Voldemort so she started to crawl away from the figure. As it neared, however, she noticed that it was too short to be Voldemort. She looked up at the figure curiously as it came out from behind the trees.
She saw black hair…black unruly hair. Instantly she sprang up and ran towards Harry who still had wand and bow in hand. She hugged him with all her might, so hard in fact that he actually said 'ow' and pulled away. She pulled him right back and kissed him, again and again and again. He literally had to wrench her off of him.
"I thought you were dead. I thought they were going to kill me too, and it was a trap and I knew I couldn't warn you, and-
Harry silenced her rambling with a soft kiss. "We really need to get out of here first," he said with a small smile. Looking around he said, "Where did Voldemort go?"
"I don't know. He disappeared when you started shooting."
"Do you have your wand?"
Pansy felt her robes and shook her head. Harry walked over to the bodies of Lucius and Maximus and searched their robes. He grabbed both of their wands and handed Pansy's back to her.
"Come on, we're leaving."
"What about Ron and Hermione? Where are they?"
"I don't know. When they attacked they stunned all of you and Voldemort did the cruciatus curse on me. I only saw your mum and some man floating Ron and Hermione some where and your father and Lucius took you in the opposite direction."
"And you came to look for me?" Pansy said as though she didn't believe it.
"Yeah, I figured at least they have each other but you only have…well, me."
Pansy smiled and said, "Watch that ego, you almost sounded like Draco."
Harry looked disgusted at the thought. He took Pansy's hand and began to lead her in the way he hope was out of the forest.
Ron and Hermione had heard Lucius' scream, followed shortly by Maximus'. Although they didn't want to, they started walking in that direction. They thought they heard whispers but figured it to be their imagination. Then they came upon the unconscious centaur that was tied up. Hermione gasped at the sight. Ron made the observation that he didn't have his bow anymore and they silently kept walking. Before long they had reached the clearing where Pansy and Harry had been. At the sight of the two bodies, Hermione almost broke down. They quickly kept walking through the forest trying to forget the sight they had just seen.
Harry heard footsteps behind him. He grabbed Pansy's arm and pulled her down. She was going to question him but he put his hand over her mouth. The watched silently as two figures approached.
"Do you think we're going the right way?" one of them whispered.
p"I hope so," the other one answered.
Pansy thought the voices sounded familiar. It was obvious that Harry didn't because he was readying his bow again. Pansy tried hard to remember the voices. It clicked just as Harry was about to fire the arrow.
"Wait!" she yelled.
Ron and Hermione jumped as they heard a voice call. They looked at some bushes and before they knew it, Pansy and Harry had jumped out from behind.
"Harry! Oh my goodness," Hermione yelled as she threw her arms around him.
"Good to see you too, Hermione," said Harry smiling bow still in hand.
Ron looked at the bow, comprehension dawning on his face. "Harry, back there, Lucius and Maximus, you didn't-
"Yeah…I did," he answered. Hermione answered by saying 'oh, Harry' again and hugging him even harder.
"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to see you two," said Pansy.
Ron faked a look of surprise and put an arm around Pansy's shoulders. "We know you love us," he said.
"Better you than Voldemort," she said removing his arm playfully and standing next to Harry again.
"Did someone call?" said a high, cold voice behind them.
The four teens slowly turned around and found themselves face to face with the most feared dark wizard in fifty years.