She was in a forest and somewhere in the distance, she could hear voices. She walked towards the source and saw two familiar people in the middle of a heated discussion.

Wait a minute. She knew this. She had already done this.

Shivers ran down her spine at the nightmare before her.

"As long as you're with me you can never have that. You would be marked by this. Marked by the stigma of being with someone like me. I could never give you what you truly want," his voice echoed. The man turned and walked away when in reality it had been the opposite. Scared, she saw the woman reach out him.

"Remus- no!" But the man jilted her and faded away. She turned to face Emma with tears pouring down her cheeks. "He'll never accept us."

Emma wanted to walk up to her and comfort her. But she was held back by a small tug on her hand. She felt a small hand curl around her own and warmth flooded her. She turned to her left when…

Emma woke up with a jolt. She could feel the beads of sweat dripping down the side of her head as she looked around frantically trying to see where she was.

What was this place?

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed that only a small ray of light came from the other end of this dark room- something that looked like stairs going up.

"You're awake." It wasn't a question. Emma backed up against the wall at the unknown and saw a blonde girl kneel beside her. "It's okay. We won't hurt you." She was soft-spoken.

"We?" Emma finally rasped. She realised that she was thirsty. When was the last time she had water? She remembered feeling feverish last thing. The rest of the events gradually popped up in her memory. Where were they?

"Ollivander at your service milady" She saw a more familiar face as the wandmaker appeared.

"Where are we?"

"The basement of the Malfoy manor. I'm afraid the snatchers left you here yesterday. You were burning up when they brought you," Ollivander explained. He offered her a hand with which she hoisted herself up. Smoothing down her now dirty clothes she turned to look at the strange girl.

"I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood," she said twirling a strand between her fingers. Emma nodded and introduced herself, "Emma Warrington." Luna smiled and went to sit a little further away against a pillar.

"What do they want from us? Why are we here?" she questioned. Of all the places, she couldn't fathom why she had been brought to the Malfoy manor.

"We're in the middle of a war, Miss Warrington. I'm sure you haven't forgotten," the old man offered a sad smile. Suddenly feeling queasy from lack of food and the horror of her current situation she leaned against the wall for support.

They heard a creak of a small gate being opened followed by footsteps.

"Supper," it was their captor's voice. As the figure became clearer, Emma saw the man she had only heard tales of from Sirius and Remus.

"Wormtail," her tone dripped venom as a mousy man made his way down the stairs. "She's up. The Marauders' whore. Tell me, you probably gave ol' Padfoot and Moony a run at you. Care to finish the lot?" he walked towards them with three plates on a tray.

She looked at Ollivander who shook his head as if to tell her to stand down. Across the basement, Luna stood with her eyes looking anywhere but at the former Marauder.

"Don't want to test me do you?" Wormtail had her backed against the wall. She could smell his garlic-y breath and he trailed his silver hand down one side of her face. Emma felt like retching. But she couldn't tell if it was from lack of food or his body odour.

"Smart choice," Wormtail grinned as he threw the plates on the ground and exited.

She was about to follow him up the stairs when Ollivander held her back with a firm grip on her wrist. "It's not worth it. Miss Lovegood has the scars to prove it." Emma relented begrudgingly and picked up a plate. She wondered if they poisoned the food. She wouldn't put it past the Malfoys. But her hunger won out if she wanted to keep her strength and wits about.

The next two weeks of April passed by too slowly. Supplied with nothing other than a thin blanket and abysmal excuse for pillows, they spent their time locked up. With no sign of sunshine or outside news other than Wormtail, they only had each other. She learned that they all had been brought in as part of the rebel armies. Luna as a punishment to Xenophilius Lovegood for his articles in The Quibbler and Ollivander because Voldemort had use of him that he refused to reveal. Turns out Emma was there because she directly happened to be in the Order.

More importantly, where were Remus and Sirius? Did they make it out too?

She almost gave in and asked Wormtail a few times when he'd come to serve their meals. But his comment about the Marauders made her wonder if there was another reason she had was held here too.

Luna kept quiet most of the time. Emma learned that she was actually close to the trio and Ginny. She was just happy to not be the only woman stuck here. Most days she felt drained to try and incite an escape plan.

Luna had said that she and Ollivander had attempted a few. But with their wands gone now, they were almost certain that their captors were also putting some magic diminishers in their food to stop them from doing exactly that- escape.

Around mid-April, she finally lost patience. She would pace up and down the confined space biting her nails

Luna had many questions about the outside given that she was the most recent captive. Emma tried to go into as much detail about her efforts with Remus and Sirius while trying to stray the conversation away from her former lover when possible. It still ached her heart. Worse now that she didn't even know if he had made it.

"I'm sure they're alright. They would be here if they had been caught too," Luna tried to reassure her newly distraught friend. Emma gave her a smile in return. "At least you seem to be doing better now. Tell me and forgive me if I'm intruding but- how many months are you?"

Emma scrunched her face in confusion. Before she could respond though there was a huge crash upstairs followed by the opening of the basement lock and several pairs of footsteps.

Wormtail threw two young boys on the ground; one with shaggy black hair and the other who could be nothing but a Weasley. "Harry! Ron!" Emma rushed to the boys to help them up. "Hermione! They got her upstairs!" Ron sounded desperate as he glared at Wormtail who had his wand pointed at the boys to keep them in line. Before Ron could continue he was cut off by another figure making an appearance.

"What's that smell?" a tall burly man appeared in the doorway. He looked dangerous. Not quite human as if he had given up on all aspects of society for decades now. He stood at the entrance sniffing the air looking around until his eyes landed on Emma.

"You," he looked at her and stalked over. "You're coming with me upstairs. You shouldn't be here like this," he grasped her by the upper arm and started tugging her. Emma protested with both Harry and Ron trying to hold the man back.

"Greyback you can't do this. Mistress Bellatrix will not be pleased," Wormtail also tried to stop him.

Greyback. Fenrir Greyback. Emma's blood ran cold as she realised that this was the man responsible for traumatising Remus' entire life. With more anger in her blood now, she protested vehemently and even tried to hit his arm, but his grip only tightened instead.

A failed attempt she felt herself being hauled out of the basement followed by the sound of Harry and Ron's protests. She looked around the room to see Hermione on the ground in pain with Bellatrix Lestrange standing over her. The three Malfoys stood to one side of the room watching: the youngest one looking guilty while the other two looked haunted.

"What is this?" the fury was visible in her face at being interrupted. "You dare interrupt me?" her wand was still pointed at Hermione making Emma bring her hands to her face in horror.

"She cannot be down there," said Greyback.

"Is she your concubine? I didn't realise you lay with humans, werewolf," Bellatrix spat the last word.

"No," he gritted his teeth still holding her in his hands. "But she has the scent of another and from what I can smell she's-"

"It's not your place to decide such a thing Greyback. Stick to your tasks-"

A soft noise crept on them from above. Everybody paused and looked up slowly to see an unknown house-elf hanging from the grand chandelier in the room. The two boys came running upstairs infuriating their four captors even more.

"You! Traitor!" Bellatrix screeched at the tiny elf.

"Master Malfoy and Mistress Lestrange hold no power over Dobby anymore. Dobby is a free elf."

Commotion ensued. Harry shoved the younger Malfoy snatching his wand and Bellatrix dodged Dobby's spells. Emma rushed to grab Hermione off the floor, cooing her that it was going to be okay as blood trickled down her wrist. The boys hurried over to them followed by Dobby who held on to them only to apparate them away with a crack!

Landing on a sandy shore, Emma finally retched her guts out. The combination of being kidnapped and elf apparition did not agree with her. Ron rushed to Hermione's side to check her and Harry was keeling beside Dobby.

Wiping the side of her mouth, the weight of recent events fell on her and she felt herself slump against the sand. "Remus?" She saw someone with scars on his face make his way to her as her vision became hazy.

Once again she felt herself being lifted before she lost consciousness.

ϟ

"They found them Moony," Sirius announced as he finished reading the letter. Remus appeared at the kitchen door and all but snatched the piece of paper in his friend's hand. Remus' eyes scanned the contents and he sat down on a chair in relief.

"She's safe," he looked up to Sirius who smiled. "And so are the kids, not sure if you missed that part of don't care," Sirius tried to joke.

"Either way, that's about the best news we will get in the middle of this war dearies. Now you can finally stop harassing my neighbours with the screaming prisoners in the basement Remus," Andromeda Tonks entered behind Remus and patted him on the shoulders.

"You think she will forgive me?" he ran his hand over his face.

"For what?" Sirius asked.

"For not finding her sooner?"

"You mean the part where you captured and questioned every known associate of the Snatchers and Death Eaters we encountered since?" Sirius gave him an appalled look.

Merlin was Remus tired. It had been two weeks of endless searches.

"Or the part where you waterboarded them into revealing details? I mean on the bright side we did find out other relevant information," he continued. All in all Remus had gone ballistic trying to locate Emma and had even resorted to muggle methods.

He got up and made to grab his coat when Tonks' mother stopped him. "She needs to rest. And we still have a war to fight," the older lady said.

Restless he threw the coat on the chair and made his way upstairs to brood in silence.

He'd wait until this was over.

And then she would be safe for real.

Soon.