"Shh - have you heard that?" Sirius hissed suddenly.
"What?" Severus hissed back, coming to an abrupt halt.
"Those voices!" Sirius took his comrade by the sleeve and pulled him into the thickets. And not one second too early: Around a bend appeared three figures, two males, one female, and came striding towards them. Again Sirius had a feeling of indistinctive fear, the same as he had felt when fighting the ugly dog.
"We're in serious trouble now, dear friends, believe me!" a small, rather plump man squealed, gesturing wildly. "We don't know what Sue wanted to tell us! Oh no, we'll be infiltrated by them! My God, what will the Lady say? My God, Emmy, just imagine! It's awful, simply awful!"
"Now be quiet, Johnny, will you?" the woman obviously called Emmy interrupted his lamentations. She, too, was rather short, but thin, and wore her dark hair in a slightly lopsided ponytail. Her dress seemed to be made of a bedsheet and reminded Sirius strongly of a house elf's. "They can't be many. We are more powerful. And we are many more."
"Not many!" the little man wailed. "And they are strong warriors! Please, please, have mercy on me!"
"Imagine what the Lady would say to your behaviour now!" the last of the three said coldly. He was a tall, lean, evil-looking man with filthy black hair, a badly scarred face, a wooden leg and one eye missing. "Anonymous is going to report you. So Anonymous will. Watch your tongue, Little Johnny. Do watch your tongue, Little Johnny. Anonymous is going to report you to the Lady and to Great Witch Shudderstone."
"Our gracious Queen Shudderstone will not be disturbed now, Anonymous", Emmy told him firmly. "But you should really be quiet now, Little Johnny."
"Heard that?" Sirius whispered into Severus's ear. "Here we are! Urgh, what's that smell?"
At this moment a hot wind started blowing, accompanied by a somewhat sweetish, foul stench. Through the air a woman in a witch's robes and hat came riding, waving a heavy wand topped with a silver star. "Hooo-eeeee!" she screeched with a voice nearly able to shatter glass. "Talking, are we? Lazy, are we? Heee-yah!" And she landed on the ground next to the others.
"No, no, Lady!" Emmy assured her quickly, bowing deeply.
"Anonymous is never lazy. Indeed never lazy", Anonymous added.
"There are orders!" the Lady announced in her high-pitched, ear-rending voice. "Orders from our Sovereign herself! Anonymous, you put up our marvellous Secret Wall! The Queen of Queens will come to assist you in person. And those so-called Duellists shall be caught alive and kept as slaves. Delicious little foxes! Heeee!" And with a nasty cackle she vanished on another unpleasant-smelling gale. Emmy and Little Johnny ran after her, shouting excitedly and waving their arms, leaving shrewd Anonymous alone on the forest path.
"If I could just get at you, you disgusting Lady Smellstorm!" Sirius muttered. "I'd break your filthy, stinking neck!"
"Quiet!" Severus reminded him. "That weirdo might hear us!" But judging from his expression, he was thinking just the same.
Sirius started fingering his utility belt. "We don't have any stunning weapons with us, have we?" he whispered, trying to keep his voice low. "Shall we simply Stun him the normal way?"
Severus never had the opportunity to answer. At this very moment the dark shape of a tall, cloaked woman appeared out of nowhere with a little plop, stretching out her arms. Sirius, who was looking directly at her, felt a sudden, violent wave of blind panic rush through him, so powerful that it made him believe his head was being slowly crushed by a gigantic, cold hand. With a tortured scream he leaped onto the open path and tried to run, but tripped and fell. As he hit the ground, he heard his own cry echo through his mind in immeasureable pain. AAAAAAAAAAARGGH! NOOOO! No, Sirius! Stay where you are! Stay calm!
Severus, who had been fumbling his own utility belt until now, slowly lifted his head, ready to fight.
No, don't! Don't look up! Turn away! DON'T!
But it was too late. Severus lifted up his head and stared directly at the dark figure in front of him. Again the bodiless voice shrieked in agony, but this time it was redoubled. Calm down, it's alright! Don't you hear? Nobody will harm you! STAY CALM! JUST STAY CALM!
Sirius felt how something started to suck his emotions from him and left an empty space in his mind instead. Do you feel it? the voice whispered to him. It's alright, there's nothing to worry about. NO, SEVERUS! YOU OBEY ME! NO, STOP IT!
Severus, too, had felt how something sucked his thoughts from him, but this had woken a painful memory deep inside him, back in the time when he had still been a boy and his father had forced him into the dungeons of the family castle for stealing a cake from the kitchen.
Obey me, Severus... Stay where you are... Obey me...
There seemed to be mists drifting through his mind. He was losing control of himself. Yet being utterly exposed to the will of somebody else, being a helpless slave of another wizard was one of his greatest fears, and he wouldn't let this happen. He fought with all his power, and the voice grew weaker and weaker...
And there was that wave of panic again, rolling over him and trying to squash him like an insect... The dark shape resembling a woman was waving its long arms, the man at her side was laughing in triumph. They would overcome him and make him their slave. The pressure of the feeling of fear beyond enduring grew stronger, began to strangle him like a fiery web. Desperately he sprang forward, his wand raised. "No surrender!" he roared. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Out of his wand shot a jet of bright green light, a scream rang out, a sudden powerful gust swept through the forest - and then it was all over, and the two Duellists were alone.
Severus staggered and grabbed hold of a branch right over his head to prevent himself from falling. "Gods!" he groaned. "What have I done?" Only now he had spotted the stiff, motionless body of Anonymous lying before his feet.