Charity tore her gaze from the wands to look at the woman.
She seemed sincere, but Charity doubted she would ever forget their visitation. For a minute she toyed with the notion off keeping the wands and preventing them from leaving the farmhouse. She wanted to find out who they really were and why they came. She wanted to find out about the man in the dark cloak.
"This must be how Joe feels," she thought remembering the way he stalked off at her insistence that he let them go. Charity sighed, "You know the right thing to do," she thought further.
Charity started to hand the wands to Mcgonacall, but jumped at the sound of a vicious snarl from directly behind her. She screamed as someone unknown force slammed her to the ground.
"Professor Snape...No!"
"Severus.."
Charity heard the cries of the other three in the background and realized she was being attacked by the man who'd been unconscious, except he wasn't unconscious anymore.
"Get off me!" She screamed again and with much effort managed to roll over to face him.
He wasn't looking at her but was instead focusing on the wands she held in a death grip.
He features were cast in sharp relief due to the pale light coming from the kitchen. Anger...no rage contorted his lips into a snarl and his eyes were two black orbs slitted by his eyelids.
"Give it back!" He growled, reaching to pry he fingers loose from the wands.
"No!" Charity yelled. She grabbed one of his wrists with her free hand and held on.
"Professor...No, stop it!" Charity turned to Harry coming up behind the man. He grabbed a hold of the man's other arm..
"Shut up, Potter. He's not getting away with it," the man snarled, little flecks of spittle flinging from his mouth as he spoke.
"Sir," Ronald yelled. He came up on the man's other side and was pulling on his shoulder, "it's not Karkaroff. Get off of her."
The man stopped straining towards the wands in Charity's hand. He glanced down at Charity's face and for the first time their eyes met. She could have laughed at the absurd look on his face as he realized she was not the person he thought, if it weren't for the fact that he'd just attacked her.
His lips were still curled back in a snarl but his eyebrows had shot straight up and his eyes themselves were as wide around as quarters. The man's grip loosened from Charity's hand and in a split second she did the only thing that she could think of in retaliation.
She took advantage of his distraction and jabbed him in the neck with the ends of the wands as hard as she could.
He moved off of her in a hurry, gagging and choking. The two boys stood around him nervously. Ronald turned to Charity a now familiar look of fear on his face. "You probably shouldn't have done that," he said. Charity only frowned at him in response.
"Are you alright?" Mcgonacall said, hobbling over. She bent to inspect the both of them from behind her spectacles. Her face a mask of stern indecision.
"I bet she can't decide whether to be angry or worried," Charity thought. She sat up making sure she still had possession of the wands. "Yep," she thought," four intact wands."
"I'll...erg...mmm...live." The man managed to respond to Mcgonacall's question.
Mcgonacall frowned at the man. "As comforting as that is Severus. I'll ask you next time to look before you leap," Mcgonacall straightened, "I presume you thought you were attacking Karkaroff."
"So the mystery man has a name," Charity thought. She'd heard them yelling his name during the struggle but was unable to decipher it at the time. She wondered if his name implied anything of his character. If first impressions meant anything. Charity thought the name must fit him to a tee.
"Who on Earth is Karkaroff?" Charity blurted out.
Both Mcgonacall and Severus turned to Charity. The man's eyes narrowed as he looked up and down Charity's form, taking in her old jeans and flannel jacket. It sent shivers through her. Charity frowned at him, fighting the decidedly unfeminine urge to jab him again with the wands.
"Minerva, why haven't you obliviated this muggle?" He asked softly, suddenly recovering enough to speak normally. His voice sounding like the velvety hiss of a snake to Charity.
Sorry these last two chapters have been so short. I'm just starting school so my updates might take longer. Also here's an advance apology to everyone who likes Joe, you're not going to like me after I upload chapter five.