Chapter 1 - Mousetrap
Darkness. Black, cold and thick darkness that enveloped her entire body. It went up to her legs, crawled to her torso and entered the cavity of her mouth. Bit by bit. With an exceptional slowness, it filled her lungs. With a desperate mute scream, she asked for help. Nothing. No response. Nobody was going to listen to her prayers and cries for help. She was alone. But yet not entirely alone, she was accompanied by this dense blackness that made her ugly fears emerge.
That was how Hermione saw the war. A raging battle swallowed by desperation and anguish. At 24 years old she had witnessed how Death masterfully performed its work in front of her eyes for years. Just 3 days ago she had to bury Ernie Macmillan along with his parents on a shallow grave. They were killed in an ambush on the outskirts of Perth, where Harry strongly believed some crucial information was hidden.
A group of 6 members of the order was requested to go underneath the Scottish city through sewers led by Dalziel MacMacmillan, Ernie's father. He was familiar with the unusual path to the hidden underground magical community that is Bridviltree because he was born and raised in that unique town. It was decided to leave Grimmauld Place before sunrise. The Macmillan, Tonks, Lee Jordan, and Hermione had walked quietly on the illuminated pebbled street by street lights until they found a safe apparition point. In a swoosh of air, they had appeared in the middle of a birch forest, where the entrance to Bridviltree was located. The gate had been placed in a peculiar tree where its trunk was hollowed and some stairs went down into the earth in a spiral. Immediately they started walking down, wand in hand illuminating the path.
Once they had descended off the wooden steps out of nowhere a flash of green light stuck to Ernie's chest and a loud thud echo followed after his inert body collided to the ground. His mother howled with guttural despair. Five masked black figures had emerged between the shadows. Rapidly Tonk had sent a spell towards one of the Death Eaters but he avoided the attack. A Crucio flew out in the direction of the metamorphmagus however Hermione quickly blocked the curse. Between flashes of spells, chaos as well as swearing words, another killing curse had collided against Iona Macmillian and she collapsed lifeless near her son's corpse.
Lee at the sight had gasped in horror. His back was against Hermione, fighting three dark wizards. Back to back. Spell against curse. A sweating hand pointed to the end of the corridor. Four pops. Four more men. Four more Death Eaters. They were outnumbered.
"Retreat!" had Tonks yelled agitated.
With a quick flicker of her wand, Hermione had stunned two Death Eaters while Lee petrified the other remaining man. They had been near the wood stairs when Ernie's father met his family's faith. Before they could climb the steps, Dalziel's left arm was yanked out of its place.
He screamed in pain. He had tried to apply pressure to the wound in vain. Red tining his hand.
The one that seemed to be the leader of the Death Eaters group had marched towards Dalziel with an air of superiority. Smoothly, he banished his mask. With silver long hair in-display Lucius Malfoy stood proud and tall in front of an agonizing man.
"I think it's time for you to meet your family again, Mr. Macmillian" had said while raising his wand.
"Proudly so" Dalziel had replied looking to his executioner grey eyes, looking to his imminent death.
Before Hermione could manage to move her body, Tonks grabbed her arm and jerk her towards the stairs. They were going up the stairs two steps at the time, running, almost jumping. Everything was dark, besides the light of their wands illuminating the path. When they had reached the exit they looked for Lee. He had gone up the stairs long before us. He was supposed to be there waiting for them but he was nowhere in sight. Hermione and Tonks had to make a difficult decision in mere seconds: wait and maybe be killed or flee and hopefully, he would be back safe and unharmed at the headquarters. Thus, they appeared away back to pebbled street. They entered Grimmauld Place and Jordan wasn't there. They had waited for him until the wee hours of the night.
They hadn't heard from him since.
A couple of days later they had gone back to collect the Macmillian's bodies. Ernie and his mother's corpses had been rotting in the same spot. Flies were buzzing around, maggots were coming out of their mouths eating their rotten flesh. Their eyes were empty sockets. The skin was moving. Worms were crawling underneath it. Dalziel Macmillian's body had been almost unrecognizable. His blood had splashed all over the dirty walls of the tunnel. His left arm was a foot away from his right leg, the left leg was hanging from the roof still dripping, inexplicably, with blood. They had dismembered all his limbs. Well... not all of them. His right arm was still attached to his torso. His head had never been found.
Hermione sighed trying no to think anything else other than Ernie's rotten eyes or lack thereof... She looked around her room. Grimmauld Place was quiet at this time of the night aside from even breaths and little snores that were coming from the cots near Hermione. The brunette shared a cramped room with Luna, Ginny, and Hannah Abbot up on the third floor. She looked over to her best friend and was pleased to see that the youngest Weasley was sleeping peacefully in her bed. She had been suffering nightmares ever since the Burrow burned down last summer.
In the middle of an extremely hot night, some Death Eaters broke the guarding wards of the house and set on fire the Weasley household with fiendfyre. The Burrow since the outbreak of the war had been one of the main headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, where some Hogwarts students, their families and supporters of Dumbledore and Harry Potter were living there to be safer of Bellatrix and her sympathizers. Most of the residents accommodated at the Burrow left the burning building in time before the blazing flames started swallowing the walls up to the rooftop… except for Cho Chang's mother, Septima Vector, Acton Bott (Terry Bott's father) Leanne Hier, Zacharias Smith, Micheal Corner, Amber Noel, Angelina Johnson, and her one-year-old daughter.
Roxanne was born on May 9th at sunrise on the kitchen table of the Weasleys. Molly, with the help of Ginny and Hermione, had assisted the delivery of a healthy girl with beautiful dark skin and stormy eyes. Her birth had been a stream of light in the middle of the darkness, it gave them the strength to keep fighting and win this horrible war. It gave them hope that someday kids could play Quidditch again up in the blue sky, chase Billywigs in the fields and go shopping for school supplies at the bussy Diagon Alley. But when the Burrow burned down and they had to retrieve the dead bodies between the ashes all sense of hope was washed away at the sight of Angelina and Roxanne's remains. With her arms, Angelina had embraced her daughter's frame and turned her body away from the fire to no avail. The red flames had clasped them in a deadly embrace leaving nothing more than charred bones and dust.
Roger Davis was on a mission with Maisy Reynolds and McGonagall on the east side of Peak Forest that day retrieving ingredients for healing potions. When Ginny told him that his daughter and soon to be wife had been killed by the fiendfyre he went extremely quiet. His friendly face turned cold and he disappeared with a crack. He didn't return until one month later. When he came back he was carrying a dirty and bloody sack... inside of it was Gregory Goyle's head, one of the Death Eaters that burned the Burrow down. Nobody dared to ask how he traced down the former Slytherin… or if he killed him.
The war was leaving heavy scars on each one of them. Some of these scars were physical and noticeable like Padma's when she got her fingertips ripped off by a werewolf leaving nasty deformed lumps at the end of her hand. Others were more psychological almost imperceptible like Ginny's permanent bags under her navy blue eyes caused by nightmares, lack of sleep and screams at the dead of night.
Shutting away these thoughts and deciding that it was impossible to keep trying to get some sleep, Hermione grabbed a book and got out of her bed. She tip-toed to the door avoiding the wood panels of the floor that creaked, trying not to wake her friends up. The young witch headed downstairs to the living room where she knew it was going to be empty. But she was surprised to see that someone was already occupying the salon. With his back to her, he was feeding some logs to the roaring blaze set in the fireplace unaware of her presence.
"I'm surprised to see someone else awake at this hour," Hermione said while sitting down on the armchair. "Can't sleep?
"Oi Granger, you scared me there for a second." he said turning around. The fiery chimney light brightened his ginger hair making it seemed a scorching sea of flames and his blue eyes were twinkling along with the sparks that the cracking wood. "No, I can't sleep." he said "Anthoney sleepwalks sometimes and it appears that today is a good night to sing Hoggy Warty Hogwarts. Oliver is with Alicia at the Library doing you know what" his eyebrows started to wiggle with a suggestive note "Nigel is taking dreamless positions now and then so he sleeps all night and with George… an explosion can occur next door and he wouldn't even budge." he smiled "What about you? Is Luna sleep talking again? I heard a couple of times my sister complain about over breakfast"
Hermione chuckled.
"Oh no, Luna didn't talk tonight. Though I can say it doesn't bother me. It's kinda southing because she just murmurs against her pillow and it sounds like a slow lullaby."
Hermione opened her book and started reading, chocolate curls framing her round face.
She didn't answer his question.
Fred understood why she avoided the unanswered question. The war was the principal reason why people couldn't sleep. The desolation sensation of the war weighing on their shoulders, heavy almost impossible to uplift it. The reason why Nigel was taking dreamless potions after witnessing the attack of the werewolfs at Hogsmeade four months ago. The reason why, occasionally, Fred couldn't sleep and stayed up until early morning. Nightmares filled his dreams, bitterness was the only emotion that he could taste, George with his ear hanging off his face, a wall crushing over him in the middle of the Hogwarts battle...
"What is reading the smartest witch of our generation?" the twin asked sitting with his legs crossed in front of her. He started caressing the ancient yet unpolluted carpet. His long fingers ran through the fine colorful strands wondering how could be so soft after all these years sealed away from any living being. He was sure that his mom had done something to keep this clean algon with the whole house.
"Neville found it on his last quest at Knockturn Alley. They were searching for possible dark objects in a suspicious apothecary at the end of a narrow street, and he found this" she said holding a bulky worn booked with slender inscribed words: The world of occult plants and their dark use from A-Z by Elizabeth Burke "He thought it might contain some information that might be useful for contraspell unknown curses... like the one that killed Marcus Belby'' she said somberly.
He felt bad that he had asked. It was known that Hermione had a fling with Belby, they have never been official but they had been quite closed. He had been located at the safe house of professor Flitwick on the outskirts of Norwich, and Hermione was staying at the Burrow with the Weasleys. It had been difficult for them to see each other Ginny had told him and his twin the afternoon of his death. Because of that, he sneaked out that day to go visit Hermione. They didn't know what happened just that he appeared at the doorsteps of Fred's house with his hands clutching at his stomach spilling blood out of his mouth. The golden girl had rushed to his side muttering every single healing curse that she knew. But unfortunately it had been too late, he had died that afternoon gasping for air and spitting blood. An autopsy had to be done to discover the reason for his death, and it had been horrifying. A worm had eaten his entrails and buried itself inside of his lungs suffocating him.
A slow agonizing death he had suffered. He died only 21 years old, he was only one year younger than George and him.
"I'm so sorry Hermione, I shouldn't have asked".
"It's okay," she said looking up from her book staring at his gaze "It's been four years already and we didn't even have a proper relationship"
It was true. Hermione didn't consider the relationship that she had with Marcus real. Maybe a serious fling. They had been seeing each other for only three months when he passed away. It had been painful for a short time but she learned to cope with it. She had feelings for him however they weren't essentially deep, he wasn't exactly the love of her life to be honest. They weren't the type of feeling that a protagonist of a romantic novel usually had for their love interest.
He opened his mouth to ask if she found something interesting between those yellow pages when the distinctive sound of the Floo network filled the silent room. Hermione's eyebrows frowned at the noise, she stood up and walked towards the kitchen. Fred followed the young witch.
Hush voices entwined with the smelled freshly brewed coffee flew through the crack of the kitchen.
"You can't be serious, Remus" Molly said frantically "What you are saying… what you are implying…"
"That might be a spy among us?" a low voice responded with a severe tone that Hermione could identify easily to be the professor's "I'm mostly certain of if. The issue is I really don't know who he or she is. Bellatrix isn't like He Who Must Not Be Named, she is short-tempered and impulsive. She won't hesitate to take action as soon she has some valuable information in her hands"
After the anticipated battle between the Dark Lord and Harry Potter was culminated by Voldemort's death the Order was triumphant to have won the war. However, they had been wrong. Amist of celebration and mourning of the loss of their loved ones, Bellatrix gathered all the surviving Death Eaters and started plotting against the Order and it's simpetizers. Only a couple of months later Muggle borns' rotting corpses began to appear in Hogsmeade and South London under the distinctive Dark Mark up in the skyline. Constant attacks occurred near magical communities. The panic was settled once again to their hearts and fear was ringing into their ears. Fortunate families were able to escape to foreign countries searching for shelter and a new life. Sadly for some of them, their suffering hadn't ended once they left the British island and crossed the sea. The former Black gained total power over Wizengamot and with little persuasion obtained Spain and Italy as her allies thanks to similar pure blood prejudices. These two nations provided essential knowledge to the whereabouts of british refugees, and brought back to England where a certain death was waiting for them.
"If what you are suggesting is true we are in grave danger. Measures must be taken if we want to ensure the safety of the people living under this roof. It's our duty to provide them protection and cover. Remus, we should-
Another loud sound announced the presence of someone coming through the Floo and cutting Arthur at mid sentence.
"The Ministry blocked international magic travels and in a few days they are going to start tracking nationwide apparitions."
"What the hell is he doing here?" Fred said looking through the little crack of the open door.
"Percy! What are you doing here? You are putting your life in danger coming in this place" his mother's voice was filled with concern.
"Sending an owl was too risky, they are intercepting flying mail" he said hurriedly "Dad, it's getting bad in the Ministry. This afternoon they shut down all out of state travels and Portkeys that transport you out of the island. They are preparing to start controlling nationally apparition points and they are planning on destroying Floo networks also. We are getting completely isolated from any outside contact. It seems they got agitated after our mission in Bridviltree. Harry was right, something important must be in there."
"This is terrible…" Hermione clasped her hand over her mouth "We are no longer safe all together in Grimmauld Place, Fred. If there is a spy among us and they are controlling all means of transport that means Bellatrix is trying to trap us in here. They are going to trap us like rats in a mousetrap…"
"Percy are you sure about that?" Remus asked and Fred saw how his older brother bowed his ginger head in a sad nod.
"Something must be done and quickly, Arthur. Innocent people are living in this house, our family is here… we have to do something" his wife implored him.
"Molly, we have to keep a cool head and think thoroughly about all the possible options."
With solemn voice Percy uttered "I think I found a solution".
Hello there!
I'm super exited to start writing this fanfiction. I had this idea for a while, and I thought: What a hell let's do this!
So here I am, writing in English, when its not my mother language but with enthusiasm. Feel free to review this story, I'm open to critics and kind words!
Thank you so much, until next chapter!