Chapter 02:

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Hermione stirred, and opened one eye. She looked around at her surroundings, and was quickly surprised. What was this place? Why was it so dark and dank? She slowly opened up her other eye, and moved her left hand up off the ground. She lifted her head, and rubbed it, sitting up slowly. She was met with dank walls surrounding her; obviously she was locked in there. She quickly scanned the place with her eyes, and saw the magical bars and… Ron and Luna! What happened to them and why where they here? Wherever here was. The last thing she remembered was that she was with Harry and Neville trying to outrun some Death Eaters. Then she remembered getting knocked out by some weird purple flame. It did not seem that Ron, nor Luna, had noticed her awakening.

Ron was glaring out into the opening, his eyes darting from the staircase to what looked to be an empty cell. Luna was huddled on the ground, hugging her knees to her, her head lying on top of her knees. She also seemed to be rocking back and forth. The silence between the two was way to quiet and tense that Hermione felt that the silence between them needed to be broken.

"Hey Guys," Her voice sounded hoarse and her hands flew up to her throat. "Where are we?"

Luna and Ron's heads' snapped up and looked over at the new voice.

"Hermione?" Ron said, grinning at her. "You're awake!"

Within seconds Ron had abandoned his spot glaring out of the bars, and was seated beside her, arm around her shoulders. Hermione looked surprised at this, but shrugged it off. Luna grinned at the two, and slowly stood up and made her way over to the two, sitting down on the other side of Hermione.

"You've been out for awhile." Luna said quietly.

Hermione looked over at Luna, very curious. Ron looked at Luna too, wondering what the Ravenclaw could say, that would satisfy Hermione's thirst for knowledge.

"How long? Where are we? How'd we get here? Where are the others?" Hermione blurted.

Luna sighed and took a deep breath, before getting ready to speak. This was going to take awhile to explain, especially to a person like Hermione, who liked loads and loads of detail.

"We've been here for two hours, I think. You lose track of time after a while. And where are we? We're in a prison," Luna spat out the word, with disgust, a look of revolt on her face. "It's like Azkaban, but more security, spells and more security! We got here, when we lost the battle in the Atrium –"

"The Atrium?"

"Huh… oh! You were knocked out… OK… well… Harry and Neville went down into the room where we had found that arch, and the Death Eaters were there – waiting for them – and they cornered them. But some other people showed up, the, oh, what are they called?"

"The Order of the Phoenix." Ron put in helpfully.

Luna nodded, and continued. "They showed up there to do battle with the Death Eaters, from what I heard, someone died down there, through that veil. But, anyways, Dumbledore and Voldemort were doing battle in the Atrium – that's where that weird statue was, and Harry was there too. All that I know was that Dumbledore vanished without a trace; Voldemort did something to him. Everyone had to get out a quickly as possible. All the Phoenix people apperated, and only Harry and Neville somehow got out. We don't know where they are, though. And, to make it worse, they took everyone's wands. For some reason, they didn't check my pockets, so I still have mine." Luna said, grinned like the Chester cat.

Hermione nodded, satisfied from the Ravenclaw's answer. She was about to ask Ron or Luna where Ginny was, because Ginny hadn't been mentioned by them… but someone fell through that black veil could it have been Ginny?

"Guys? You said someone went through the veil, who was it? It wasn't Ginny, was it?" Hermione frantically said.

Luna shook her head, but didn't know who had fallen through. Hermione looked over at Ron, who wasn't looking at her. Hermione gasped.

"Tell me, it wasn't Ginny!"

Ron shook his head slowly, and then locked eyes with Hermione. "It was Sirius…"

Hermione looked dumbstruck. "Sirius? You don't mean…"

Ron nodded. "He's gone, he fell through the veil, when Bellatrix caught him off guard. I heard they were fighting on the ark, and when he was hit, he stumbled, and fell through it."

"That's terrible. Poor Harry, what did he do?"

Ron shrugged his shoulders. " We haven't seen him."

Hermione nodded, and then Ginny came back to her mind. "Ron? Where's Ginny then?"

Ron's face darkened at the name of his sister. "She's in the cell over there, all alone. To make it worse, one Death Eater has his eye on her; Malfoy."

Hermione looked horrified at the thought, and patted Ron's shoulder. "Well get her out," She whispered, and then looked at the cell between theirs and Ginny's. "Who's in there?" She pointed to the cell.

Ron followed her outstretched hand and sighed. "Some of the Order got caught; Tonks, Shackbolt and Professor Lupin are in there. The shit part is, the full moon's less then two weeks away."

"That's horrible!"

"No kidding. But, we're planning a break out, Luna and I are, I mean."

"I have the wand and he has the 'guy fighting skill' and all we need is your brain." Luna explained.

Hermione nodded. "I'm in. Lets start planning, what do you have so far?"

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Neville was walking for what seemed like hours and hours, and he seemed to be going nowhere. He swore that he had past that rusted dumpster at least once before. But that didn't matter; all of these muggle trash eaters looked the same. All he had to focus on was getting back his fallen friends. He sighed, and slumped on to the ground. This was hopeless. He was hopeless. He needed Harry, anyone to help him.

"I'm hopeless. We're going to lose this whole battle, and we're going to die." Neville muttered, dropping his head down.

What Neville didn't see was a shadow moving around him. The figure had been following him ever since he had split up with Harry. The figure was running down the back alley alone, only having just escaped from Hogwarts, attempting to find those missing and find the old, worn down warehouse located in the deserted factory section of the city. Following Neville was irritating; he was going absolutely going nowhere, only in a circle. He kept missing the fork in the road, what kind of Gryffindor was this? The figure shooktheir head out of irritation, thinking it was about time they were revealed. Neville could be so clueless. The figure sat down on an upside down cardboard box, and smiled from under their hood.

"You're really bad with directions you know?"

Neville jumped a foot in the air. He stood up, frightened, staring in every direction. The figure rolled their eyes, and pushed their bangs out of their eyes. From the sound and pitch of this person's voice, it had to be a girl.

"Who's there? I'm armed!" Neville shouted bravely, attempting to cover up his fear.

"And you don't hide very well, either," The girl laughed. "I've following you for awhile. If I was a Death Eater, you'd be dead," Neville relaxed slightly. "Don't relax, just yet! Just because I said I wasn't a Death Eater, that doesn't mean I'm not dangerous. These are dark times, dark times. You have to trust your instincts about people. I warn you now, so remember. Trust your instincts, even if you don't have a wand, you'll go far. Believe in yourself, and you can achieve anything."

Neville nodded. "So, who are you exactly? You owe me at least that."

The girl nodded, covering her hair with her slipping hood. "I owe you nothing, Neville. We're both on the same side. I know you're going to find the others, so good luck. When you find them, come back to this alley, and turn left when you find the fork in the road, go straight till the end of the alley. By then you'll be an area full of old worn out, about to fall down factories. The biggest one is the warehouse, go in there, and come to the third floor. We'll be there, the rest of us are there."

The rest of us? What did she mean by that? Neville didn't know. But it must be secret, if they all were hiding there. Neville slowly nodded. The girl nodded, and stood up, and started to walk away, melting into the shadows of the alley.

"Wait!" Neville cried, standing up also. "Who are you, and who is 'the rest of us'?"

The girl grinned to herself. "I'm a member of Dumbledore's Army, all of us are. Find the others, and remember where we are. Tell anyone, and you'll be leading all of us: your fellow army members, and yourself to death. Tell Harry about it, so that he can use the Galleon to contact everyone I couldn't find. See you soon." And with the swish of her cloak, the girl vanished into the shadows, leaving Neville alone, again.

"Find Harry. Oh great, this will be easy." Neville muttered, and started walking away to find the fork in the alley, and turn right again and try to find Harry.

Why did the Muggle London have so many back alleys? Why!

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Harry was all tired out. The two younger Death Eaters proved very un-talented for their age, but the two older Death Eaters, that was a different story. They were harder to beat, as they were way more talented then he was. The first one, Harry had managed to catch him off guard, when he was pulling his wand out of his pocket. The surprise of the other two untalented Death Eaters getting knocked out in mere moments, must have surprised him. Harry had then managed to hit him with a jiggly legs curse, and that made his aim go off balance. The second one hit Harry, right off the bat, with an Illusion charm that Harry had never seen or heard about before. The Death Eater took this time to revive his fallen comrades, and get out of there. Those Death Eaters needed more training, leaving Harry there alone, and only seeing Illusions.

Harry looked around, the beautiful park, taking in the smell and the scenery. The park looked beautiful beyond all words. Harry looked around, past the children on the playground, past the trees and flowers, and onto three figures, walking down a small rugged pathway, leading into a forest. Harry grinned, knowing who the figures were; he quickly broke out into a run. The gap between the two sets of figures slowly grew smaller, until Harry was within shouting distance.

'Mum? Dad? Sirius? Is that you?' Harry called.

The three figures stopped and looked back at who was calling their voices. They took a quick glance at Harry, and turned to keep on walking. Harry stopped running and stared. They had looked right at him, and outright ignored him. What was going on? Harry shrugged, and started running again, this time stopping beside Sirius, sure that they would see him this time, and, they did.

The three stopped and looked at him. That look – he had seen it before… but he never thought it would be Sirius or his parents giving it to him. It was usually a look that Aunt Petunia gave him, when he did something that she didn't like very much.

'What's with the looks? It's me, Harry.' Harry said slowly, unsure of what was wrong.

'Yes… it's you…' James stated slowly, glaring daggers at Harry.

Harry blinked not once, but twice. What was going on here? He looked over at his mum and then at Sirius, they were both giving him the look that James was giving him.


"What's going on? I don't get it… you guys are acting like Aunt Petunia, and Uncle Vernon." Harry asked, desperately wanting to know if this was a head game they were playing.

'What's going on? What's going on?' Sirius started, glaring daggers at Harry. His voice was also starting to get louder and louder, until he was basically yelling.Harry,stood there, frozen, he'd never seen Sirius act like this before. 'This is your entire fault. If you hadn't believed Voldemort and Kretcher – of all people – I'd still be alive! It's your fault that we all ended up in the Ministry of Magic, all because of your stupidity. It's because of you I'm dead, and that Voldemort took over the world, by letting him kill Dumbledore. It's because of your stupidity that you and most of the world are running for lives, and risking being killed by the Death Eaters.'

Harry stood there, horror-struck. It wasn't his fault… did Sirius really think that he, Harry, wanted him dead? Even if he did think that, he was crazy! Off his rocker! Sirius was the closest thing that he had to a family, like he wanted that to die.

'Why?' Harry managed to say.

Sirius was just about to reply, when Harry felt a hand clasp onto his robes. He tried to shake off the figure's hand, to hear what Sirius was going to say, but it wasn't going to happen. The figure dragged Harry farther and farther away from the park and from Sirius and his parents, until he found himself standing in a dark alley.

"HARRY!"

Harry quickly snapped out of his illusion, mere centimetres away from walking head-on into a brick wall. Quite confused, Harry turned to see who pulled him out of his illusion gone-bad nightmare. Upon turning around, Harry saw Neville standing there, hands clasped onto the back of Harry's robes. He muttered a quick thanks to Neville for his quick rescue from his near nose-plant.

"What are you doing here anyways?" Harry asked, as Neville let go of his cloak.

"I came to deliver a message to you, from a member of the DA, it sounded like one of the girls. She managed to round up all the others in the Army and their all waiting for us. She said for us to come only once we have gotten the other members out of the Death Eaters clutches. We're supposed to go back to where I found her, and then go into this area of worn out muggle warehouses, go inside the biggest one and to the third floor. No one knows that they're there, and when we go we can't be followed. She said to send the note out on the Galleon Hermione gave each one of us." Neville explained.

Harry nodded, and fished out the Galleon, and typed a message, hoping that the others still had their Galleon's with them. If they didn't, the others that were waiting for them would be cornered, caught and then all killed. Another one of Harry's guilt's he would have to live with. But, it was a risk he would have to take, unfortunately. He sent the small note away, hoping that luck would be on their side for a change. He turned back to Neville and locked eyes with him, telling him that he had sent the message. Neville nodded and the two quickly set off, attempting to find where Neville met up with the member of the D.A. It turned out they might have a plan to rescue their fallen friends.

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"That's the plan you guys made up?" Hermione hissed.

Ron and Luna nodded. Hermione rolled her eyes, not the most brilliant one. Planning to make the guard watching the three of them unlock the cell for some reason that was currently unplanned, tackle him to the ground and knock him out with Luna's wand. Then take the guards cloak and have Luna climb up on Rons' shoulders, because she was the lightest, to gain the same height as the guard. Then Hermione would simply stand with Ron at the bottom of the cloak.

"It could work…!" Ron shouted, indignantly, crossing his arms.

Hermione glared at him with disbelief and Luna looked from them to the guard watching them. When Ron had shouted, he seemed to hone in on them. Luna locked her gaze back to the two bickering Gryffindors.

"Guys! Shut it! You're getting us unwanted attention." Luna hissed, face half hidden under her blonde hair.

Ron and Hermione stopped shouting at each other and glanced at Luna, who now had her back to them, looking deep in thought. They heard shuffling behind them, and Ron and Hermione turned to see who was there. It looked like the guard decided to make his 'rounds' to the cells, and of course due to the yelling, he headed in their direction first.

Now was their chance! Ron quickly glanced at Hermione who was frozen in shock and to Luna who wasn't paying any attention to what was happening. He quickly darted towards Luna, hand outstretched, focused on Luna's pocket. He quickly reached his destination, took a fleeting look at Luna, and upon seeing that she was day dreaming again, he stuck his hand down her robe pocket, trying to graspthe thin wand.

"RON!"

Luna jerked out of her daydream and glanced down at Ron, hand clenched around her wand. She quickly glared at him, and snatched her wand out of his hand.

"What's going on in there?" The guard snapped.

Luna hastily attempted to stuff the wand back in her pocket, but the guard caught her hasty movements. He saw something dark clenched in her hand. In an instant he had his wand out pointed straight at Luna. Luna just looked dazedly at him, as if in wonder. Ron and Hermione looked anxiously at each other. What were they going to do? The guard was deciding whether to open the cell to teach the blonde brat a lesson or let her keep the useless piece of wood. What would Lord Voldemort think? Well, he wants to get rid of all the brats that follow Dumbledore… might as well get rid of the loony one. He muttered an incoherent spell under his breath and the door opened large enough for the guard to slip in. After the guard had entered the cell, the door started to close behind him. Hermione noticed this, and locked eyes with Ron, motioned towards the cell door. Ron nodded, and made a dash for Luna. What happened next surprised them. An alarm went off somewhere in the distance, bringing the guard back to reality, and Luna blinked out of her state of dreams.

"LUNA! GO!" Ron yelled, the alarm stopping him mid-run as he turned back in Hermione's direction.

Luna nodded, and being skinnier and more agile then the elder guard managed to skirt around him, making a break for the opening of the cell that was slowly growing smaller, as the spell made it close. The three grinned at each other, and then remembered the alarm. When the alarm went off, it probably went off in this whole place.

"We have to get out of here, now!" Luna hissed; clutching her wand, darting towards the stairs Malfoy went up. However, Luna stopped when she put her foot on the first step, Ron and Hermione weren't behind her. She quickly turned around, looking at the two. "What. Are. You. Waiting. For?" She asked; eyebrow's risen.

"We can't… we can't just leave them here…" Hermione whispered to herself, shaking her head as she stared at the other two occupied cells.

Luna opened her mouth to say something, but then closed her mouth. Now wasn't a good time to try to reason with them. Instead, she shook her head, and walked down to where they were standing. She didn't know the people in the other cells as well as Ron and Hermione did, but still felt compassion for them.

"We can't rescue them all… if we do… we'll be caught and… and…" Luna broke off, not wanting to say the rest of the sentence. 'We'll be slowed down by the injured and our chances of being caught will double.' Luna thought within her head.

Footsteps could be heard on the floor above their heads, the alarm was drawing people's attention to the dungeons. Hermione was the first to react to the footsteps overhead. "We're cornered… they're coming. What are we going to do?" Hermione moaned, staring at the ceiling above.

"We have to move, now." Luna stated, putting her hands on the small of Ron and Hermione's backs' and pushed them forward. "We… we can't stay here. We have no plan to rescue them," She cast a fleeting look at the Phoenix members. "And, without a plan… we stand no chance what-so-ever. We'll have to come back with the others and a plan. Right now, it's suicide staying here." Luna dropped her hands from their backs to the wand behind her ear, and quickly put it in the folds of her robe pockets.

"But what about Ginny?" Ron half-hollered, wheeling around, trying to get out of Luna and Hermione's reach.

Hermione remained silent, that was a question she didn't have an answer for. She knew that Ron was protective of Ginny, and wouldn't leave her behind. She looked over at the blonde, who seemed to be thinking and daydreaming at the same time.

"I have an idea…" Luna said quietly. "But we might not get out of here, she has a broken ankle right?" Ron nodded, seething about that. "You two – go ahead. I have a wand, I can get her out." Luna said monotone, turning her back to them.

Ron and Hermione nodded numbly at what Luna said. "But how will you get out? Won't Ginny slow you down?"

"Never mind about that. I still have a wand, I can think of something. But, while I do that, you get out of here."

"OK then…" Hermione said, unsure.

Ron couldn't speak, so he simply nodded. Luna looked at them in a state of somewhere between reality and dreams, then quickly turned, and hurried down the few stairs, pulling her wand back out of her pocket. Ron and Hermione stood there, stunned for a second, before Hermione started ushering Ron up the stone stairs, and the two broke out into a run. As it turned out, running up the stone steps was harder then they thought. With the many curves of these stairs, and them being made out of stone, they had to run slower, so that their footsteps wouldn't echo. Reaching the archway of the stairs, the two stopped.

"Which way do we go?" Hermione hissed, darting a quick glance at Ron.

"Left? No right? Where's Harry's Invisibility Cloak when you need it?" Ron replied, glaring into the darkness.

Footsteps and the shout of one voice were heard, coming along the passageway. Ron and Hermione looked in the direction the voice was coming from the left. Quickly calculating this all, Hermione quickly muttered to Ron, "If their voices are coming from the left, that must lead further into this – this place. The right, it might lead to the exit." With a sharp nod from Ron, the two tore off, running in that direction; the idea that the stones beneath them would echo every step, banished.

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"Alohamora." Luna whispered; wand outstretched.

The sound of the cell creaking open was all that was heard throughout the silence, as Luna slipped inside the cell, her wand falling back into her pockets. She quickly strode across the distance of the cell, and crouched down on the ground, resting all her weight on her feet and her lower legs. She placed a hand on the younger Weasleys' shoulder, shaking her gently.

"Hey… you," Luna said, lamely, not knowing this girls' name. "You have to wake-up. We can't stay here – you're brother's waiting for you. Up. Up." Luna urged, shaking her shoulder a bit harder.

No reaction. Luna sighed, pushing a loose blonde strand out of her eyes. She grabbed onto the girl's two arms (retching them free of their death grip on her ankle) and hoisted her over her shoulders. She had a harder time standing up with the dead weight she now had to carry, and looped her hands under Ginny's legs. After Ginny was securely on her back, Luna walked out of the cell, not bothering to magic it shut behind her.

"Up the stairs, find the others and get out. Can't be that hard." Luna muttered to herself, forming a plan to find Ron and Hermione again.

She had gone no more then five steps when another voice joined her – this time it was a man's. "Quite the contrary, actually."

Luna's eyes narrowed, it was dawn outside, so light was streaming through the small windows. Even though there was some light reflecting inside the small stone dungeon area, the corners and the stairway leading out were all shrouded in darkness. She could hear footsteps coming towards her, and as each step hit the stone stab it made a noise – and if her ears were working properly, she was cornered.

As the people stepped out of the shadows and into the light, she gasped, taking an involuntary step backwards. Unfortunately, Ginny's un-occupied cell was behind her, and she backed right into it – dashing away all plans she had for an attempted escape, as the black cloaked Death Eaters surrounded her, wands out and ready to strike.