Thank you to the three that did review. To those that didn't: Please, please, please, please do. So thanks and enjoy this next chapter:o)
Oh and LilReader1492, he did not try to escape in his dreams. Try chapter 7 for more info. ;)
Chapter 16: Rival to Rival
Hermione struggled to become unbound from her captors strong clasp, but it merely was a waste of time. Sighing with defeat, she grimly allowed them to throw her around like a sack of potatoes.
Unbeknownst to Hermione, the two deatheaters conversed quietly with the other.
"When did she say the child was going to be born?" the one to Hermione's left queried.
"Something about the seventh of the eighth of twelve." the other mumbled. "Whatever that means."
"Maybe at seven o'clock on the eighth?" the other speculated.
"Don't be a prat." The other chewed out in exasperation.
"Well do you have any guesses?"
"Yeah and I bet they're all better than yours."
"Hey you son of a –"
"WILL YOU TWO QUIT ROWING LONG ENOUGH TO PUT MRS. MALFOY WHERE SHE BELONGS?" a voice roared.
Both deatheaters recoiled with surprise.
"Ms. Chang we weren't doin' nothin' you see," the deatheater to Hermione's right sputtered.
Cho rolled her eyes.
"Who do you think I am?" she asked snappily. "Amnesiac Harry? Nice try but you're wrong. But thanks for joining "Trying to Deceive Cho". Try again next time, but please don't. Now move your sorry butts and get her in confinement!"
"Wait a minute there," Hermione barged in. "What about Harry with a loss of memory?"
But Hermione's words did not trigger a retort out of the three.
"Now get going!" Cho dictated, giving the left deatheater a brutal thrust.
The deatheaters nodded obediently and ferried Hermione down a dark and gloomy passageway. At the ending, rested several pens, yet only one occupied a person.
"In you go," the right deatheater said spitefully, bolting the door in place. "Enjoy your stay Madam. I hope our accommodations aren't too …… morose."
The deatheaters laughed viciously as they departed the room. Hermione fired a livid look of daggers at the retreating pair before crumpling onto the floor to cry.
Why was this lifelike nightmare turning into realism? Why did so many people want to crush Harry and Luna? So many questions, but no answers.
It was like trying to ask the climate why it snowed on particular days. The more you asked, the less answers you got.
Hermione groaned. Where was Luna? Was she all right? Getting upon her feet, she knew it was of no use to just sit and gripe. She needed to walk, to pour the trauma from within her.
Luna groaned, her body rigid with pain. Exposing her eyes to a world of darkness, she learned that her arms and legs were bound with thick twine, making it out of the question for her to get loose.
Where was she? Where was Tonks? Where were the deatheaters and that offensive woman?
Luna shifted her head and realized she was in a box. A long, wooden box, such as a coffin.
A coffin! Luna's heart skipped with terror. Were they going to bury her alive? Were they going to chuck her into the sea and watch her drown? Were they-
Light speared at her eyes as the top was detached. Luna instantly shut her eyes, defending them from the scorching brightness.
"Look like someone's awake." A male voice announced.
"Just get her out of the box like Miss Chang said." another voice uncaringly authorized.
Cho Chang! Luna's fear matured into resentment. So she really had been the one behind this madness! When she got her hands on that Cho …..
"Good morning Mrs. Potter, did you sleep well?" a deatheater mocked, peering down at her with a crazed insanity glowing in his masked eyes.
"Just perfectly." She said through gnashed teeth.
The deatheater gurgled with amusement before tipping the box over and forcing Luna to fall onto the floor.
"Last time I checked, I was pregnant here!" Luna retorted.
The deatheater laughed once more.
"Do you really think I care what happens to you?" he asked, antipathy buried within his voice. "Because I –"
"Do." The woman's voice was cold, framed with an noticeable detestation.
The deatheater gasped, stooping on one knee.
"My apologies milady." he expressed.
Cho rolled her eyes.
"Oh save it for the piteous village residents." she said, aggravated with the deatheaters senseless performance. Turning to Luna, she smiled.
"So Luna Lovegood," she said nastily. "After 5 long years, we still do not come to equivalent agreements."
"You've got that right." Luna replied in a tone just as nasty as Cho's.
Cho clicked her tounge.
"Of course I do," she scorned. "After all, between the two of us, I was constantly the upper hand."
Luna snorted.
"Really!" she questioned with great disgust. "Then do please clarify your appalling behavior all those years in Hogwarts, especially in your seventh year."
"Really now, I was just helping Harry out."
Luna snorted again. "And how did you help him out?" she questioned curtly.
Cho smiled again.
"You really are as obtuse as you were back then," she smirked. "But let's not talk about time's past. We have work to be achieved."
Two deatheaters squandered no time, grabbing Luna's arms and pulling her onto her feet.
"Put me down you – ooohhhhhhhh." Luna exclaimed flabbergasted. For some unexplained reason, as soon as Luna became perpendicular, a fluid hurried down her leg, over her foot, and waited patiently at the bottom.
"It can't be –" Luna gasped.
Cho, who appeared to have had the same impression, said, "Perfect. It's earlier than we anticipated. Just perfect. Well, don't just stand there like mannequins; move!"
The deatheaters started to follow, but Luna stopped them, her mouth overflowing with pained screams.
"No, it's too early, IT'S TOO EARLY!"
Luna crumpled, pulling her captors down with her. Pain gushed through her abdomen, streaming up her engorged belly and back down again.
But as promptly as it came, it died out as a flame on a candle.
Luna panted, bowled over from the abrupt pain.
"See? She's all right. Now come!" Cho directed severely, turning her back on the struggling trio.
Come what may, they somehow did get Luna downstairs into the blustery dungeons. Luna cringed at the sight of jeering skeletons and columns hued with brittle, blood tarnishes. More than once she whimpered with fear, but Cho and the deatheaters pay no attention to the horrified woman.
It felt like hours, but the agonizing pain soon returned. Luna withered and quavered from the pain, but the three evil cahoots only looked on, enjoyment pasted to their faces.
The pain was longer than the previous, but like it, it too left her fragile body.
As the pain receded, one deatheater came to Cho and muttered into her ear. She glanced at the moaning Luna and nodded.
"You're right." she said in conclusion. "She can't be in these accommodations. Davis! Get us a stretcher for Miss Lo-, oh yes I forgot, Mrs. Potter. Go now!"
To this day, Luna could only hazily remember the deatheater leaving and returning. She couldn't remember how a third and longer pain birthed while waiting and how Cho had grown exasperated with the deatheater's slothfulness. But he came and Luna was elevated onto an enchanted stretcher.
"Let's move." Cho announced once they had lifted her onto the stretcher.
"Tonks," Luna feebly whispered.
"What was that?"
"Where's Tonks?" Luna wheezed.
"She is not of any concern right now. We'll worry about her later." Cho sniffed indignantly.
"No, I want Tonks with me, now!" Luna cried.
Cho opened her mouth to silence that fair-haired fool but the deatheater christened Davis, spoke up.
"Milady," he said, breaking off whatever she was going to say. "It might be best if we grant her wishes. After all, she is falling into labor. The last thing expectant women need is the extra strain or it will trigger injuries upon the newborn."
Cho glowered at Davis, knowing that he was right.
"Fine!" she snapped. "Get that Tonks! But don't let her out of your view and don't release her or you will replace her!"
Davis gulped uneasily, but left on his mistress's orders, soon returning with a female in shackles.
"Tonks!" Luna cried wearily
"Luna!" Tonks rushed to Luna as far as Davis would let her. "How are you? Why … what … huh?"
"She is going into labor and you will be by her side. If the baby is stillborn, you will pay in the same consequence."
Tonks scowled at Cho, but returned her attention to Luna as she screamed once more.
The fourth pain held its burning grip on Luna for the longest time yet before starting to decrease.
"Tonks, I know I've had pains before, but …." Luna's eyes shimmered with tears. "I think this is it, Tonks! I'm going to have my baby!"
Well that's finished. Tune in next time to find out what gender Luna's baby is and a reencounter with Harry! Anyways, do you know what time it is? It's time to …………………………………………
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