Chapter 4
The dust settled. A voice rang out in the darkness. It was a female, high pitched with hysteria.
"Harry? Ron! Fred! George! Dean!?" She stumbled forward in the darkness, searching. Someone brushed her arm and she screamed.
"Stop. Stop! It's only me…" Harry's voice rang with more emotion than it had for weeks.
She kept screaming though. "Dad! Mum! Where are you? I can't see!" She crumpled into a ball crying. Ron's voice came through the darkness.
"Hush, Ginny. It'll be okay. Really…" His voice lacked conviction, and he knew their mum would never come. Never again. He knelt down and murmured into her ear reassuring words.
Someone else coughed in the darkness. "Dean? Is that you?"
"I hope so…" he began coughing, gasping for air till someone slapped him on his back.
"It's okay. I'm all right. Everything is fine, fine, fine…"
Harry could hear the panic in Dean's voice. They couldn't panic. They had to focus. "Pull yourself together! We need to get out, and we need to get out now! As I yell your names, answer back if you can."
He knew Ginny was there, but he yelled her name anyways. "Ginny!"
"Here."
"Ron!"
"Here."
"Fred!"
"Sorry mate, only Gred and Forge are here, you must be mista-"
Harry cut him off. "George!"
A sigh. "Here."
"Dean!"
"Here." The panic in his voice was gone, back under control at least.
"Now listen. We don't want to use magic. We don't want to use anything that can expose our situation. So, everyone, I know I'm right behind the bathroom wall, at least where it used to be. Everyone, dig, now!"
They did. Each piece of rocky dirt and crumbling concrete out of their path meant freedom. Panic was a boulder in their path, and they tried to push it out of their minds.
Fred was lagging. He was tired, and a stone had bruised his arm during the shaking. If this really was freedom, then it was freedom from everything. He set it in his mind. Each pit of earth he moved wasn't just freedom from the cell, but from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He dug more with renewed vigor.
The dark was frightening Ginny. To her, she was digging in the dark, searching blindly for away out. Only blind luck could lead them out of the blunders of blind hope. Just do it. Do it for Harry. For Mum and Dad. For Hermione.
Suddenly, the sound of someone striking metal.
"Damn," George muttered weakly, rubbing his head where he had hit the toilet.
They all breathed a sigh of relief. Calm settled. Almost all panic was gone.
Except for Harry. He was already on his feet.
"What made that! What made that noise… what shook everything…?"
The others finally remembered what had got them in that situation in the first place. They all got noisily to their feet, half exhausted from their dig.
Harry weighed his options in his mind. They're tired. If we meet someone from Voldemort, we won't be able to defend ourselves well. But if it's someone else… someone from out side… we could miss them forever.
"Ginny!"
"Yes?"
"Turn to dog, and look to the start of the tunnel, where the subway stairs begin. See if you can see anything. We'll wait at the bottom of the stairs, in case something useful has happened."
He hadn't said to go yet, but everyone knew he meant it. Ginny was worn out, but she slowly turned to her dog form and trotted out of the tunnel, the others close behind.
A watery sunlight filled the rubble filled streets. A part of a building had exploded and…
Ginny changed out of her from as fast she could.
"Harry." She kept her voice low. "Come and see this…"
By the other sidewalk, cement was piled high into a gigantic mound. But that was normal. What wasn't was a pair of feet and an arm protruding from the cement pile. Covered in robes. Death-eaters robes. A head showed itself too as some of the cement on top crumbled and fell away. Harry couldn't see the face, but it was covered in Death Eaters robes too.
"What in hell…?" He whispered.
Suddenly the top of the pile shifted. Moved. An arm extended, followed by a head and shoulders.
"Holy shit, its…"
Who is this person? I want people to guess. Who do you think it is? Percy in Dobby's tea cozy? A weeping Winky? Who? Guess!
Thanks to all my reviewers.
Annie: Hope this chapter explained things for you.
Anna: Thanks for the review! These kind of reviews really keep me going. But you'll just have to wait and see what happens with Hermione…
Evil sticky tape: Wow, Lee Jordan is a good guess. Wait! Evil sticky tape. Evil sticky tape… I know you! Magpie and a Ship's Brother! Update that story; it's good!
JKIJ: Sorry, it's not Dudley. Nice guess though, I like the way you think. As for breaking out their friends from Azkaban… well we'll just have to wait and see won't we?
Hope12: Sorry for it was a cliff. But if you thought Chapter 3 was bad, what do you think of this one?!
JessieRose: Thanks for the hint, I hope it works.
HongMing: I'm fairly sure I said there were six people, but it may have been a mistake on my part. A thousand pardons.
crazy-weasley: Thanks for reviewing, and how's this for an update?
Fairyangel24: I hope this chapter cleared everything up for you.