Chapter 27

Malfoy marched Genny away, leaving Emily to mourn her friend in silence. Would Genny give in to Voldemort? Would they come for Emily too or leave her down here as bait? Would Emily ever see any of her friends again?

'How can she like Draco Malfoy? He's evil!' thought Emily frustrated. 'She's still somehow convinced he's good. What's wrong with her?'

'You have no evidence that she's not right,' said a nagging voice in the back of her mind. Emily banished the voice and stared reproachfully at the bars of her cage. If only there was a way out.

Emily sat down and began to think…

It had been almost an hour and Emily still hadn't thought of any way to escape. She had considered tackling Lucius Malfoy when he came back with Genny- if he came back with Genny- but had decided that he would just overpower her and throw her back into the prison.

Footsteps bounded off the cold, rock walls as somebody came down the hallway. Emily scampered into the far corner of the cage which was in shadows.

A dirty man with a twitching nose, hunched over like a rat, and very jumpy scurried to Emily's cage and peered in at her as if she were an animal in a zoo. His eyes grew.

"Dumb rat man," muttered Emily, her eyes narrowing.

"Nice to meet you again, Miss Lupin. The Dark Lord wanted to see you and sent me," he explained hurriedly in the squeaky voice of his.

"How can he trust you now? You failed last time you saw me, didn't you? Isn't your 'lord' angry at you?" Emily taunted.

"He was," started the rat man with a squeak of fear.

His nose twitched as if he had no control over it. 'It's a very distracting nose' thought Emily amused.

"But he forgave me eventually. I couldn't bring Remus's wife to him if she wasn't there." He looked a little guilty. "I'm almost glad of that. She was very pretty when she was in Hogwarts with your dad and I."

Emily was disgusted. Was her kidnapper hitting on her mom? "If you were in school with my parents they must have hated you."

The man twitched, "No. I was your dad's friend back then. He trusted me with even his deepest secret. Along with Sirius Black and James Potter. Of course, once Sirius and Remus realized I had betrayed James they tried to kill me. Harry Potter stopped them, thankfully," he sighed, his eyes wide as if even the memory still scared him.

"You're lying!" Emily shouted, throwing herself at the bars of the cage. "You wouldn't be his friend! You're evil! You're a Death-Eater! And Harry would never have saved someone as worthless and trashy as you!"

He shook quickly. 'He's a twitching maniac,' thought Emily angrily.

"Stop it!" he cried. "I am in charge here. Don't threaten me." This coming from his shaking, uncertain voice wasn't much of a threat.

"Oh yeah?" mocked Emily. "Whatcha gonna do, huh? Throw me in a dungeon and let me starve? It's the new fad diet you know. The get-locked-in-a-cage-and-starve-to-death diet! Works every time! It's sooooo much better than Atkins diet."

"Huh?" the rat man asked, shaking with confusion.

Emily rolled her eyes. How oblivious was this guy? "What, never heard of a diet? I guess I can understand that from the looks of you but-"

"Silence!" roared a voice. Somebody was approaching the dungeon. With a squeak, the rat man threw himself to the ground and began to grovel. Emily stood straighter, prepared to look whoever it was in the eye and tell them off. The person who came she was not prepared for.

"You-Know-You!" She stumbled as she saw his horrible face; those burning red eyes seemed to look into her very soul. There was not even a small sign of pity in his face. This was the face of a man who had murdered hundreds, leaving children parentless and ripping apart families…like Emily's family.

"So you know who I am," Voldemort smiled, mocking her.

"Y, y, yes. And I'm not afraid of you either," Emily bravely declared. He voice grew stronger after she managed to hold back her original stutter.

Voldemort smirked. "Leave, Wormtail." The rat man left with another twitch if his bulgy face. "So now it is just you and I; The most powerful wizard in the world and the daughter of a good for nothing but forcing information from werewolf."

Emily gawked. She didn't know what to say to THAT. "Professor Lupin's not a werewolf!" she finally managed to sputter indignantly.

Voldemort looked amused. "You don't even call him your father?"

"No, I don't, thanks to you, you stupid, evil-"

"That's enough," snapped Voldemort. "In case you haven't noticed, you are my prisoner. I will get information from you; you will sit in my dungeon and starve unless your father comes to save you. And when that happens…" Voldemort smiles, "Well, you'll see. Let's just say it'll be a good day indeed for the dark side with the information he has. I will finally be able to kill Harry Potter and my path to victory shall be cleared."

"Just leave Harry alone!" shouted Emily. "You've already ruined his life enough. You don't need to kill him just to take over the whole darn world. Leave him alone and Professor Lupin too! I won't believe your lies and I will never let you do anything to my friends and family!"

"Am I sensing…feelings…for Potter from you?" Voldemort asked, with a small, evil smile.

Emily coughed. "Of course not! Now let me out!"

Voldemort shook his head playfully. "No, I don't think I will. I'm having far too much fun to just let you leave. And I'll need you to be my bait." With a small wave, he turned his back on Emily and left her to worry alone.

She slumped into the corner of her prison and began to cry. "It's all lies!" she told herself. "He's not going to use me that that. The Order and my friends won't let him. And Professor Lupin's NOT a werewolf. He would tell me something like that," Emily sobbed to herself. She shuddered and cried for a while until she finally fell asleep in her cold, dark dungeon cage.

"Emily?" asked an uncertain voice. It sounded to be on the border of tears.

Emily's eyes slowly opened. If only she were safe in her bed at home!

"I'm awake," Emily replied slowly. She turned to Genny, only to see her panic-stricken and upset. Her eyes were red and wet. "Genny, are you okay?"

Genny began to slowly nod, then quickly shook her head and threw it into her hands. "It's awful. Awful. Emily, I wanna go back to Hogwarts. I wanna be normal. I want to see Gabrielle and Luciana again. I want to be anywhere but here!" she was sobbing uncontrollably now, barely knowing what she was saying.

Emily patted her on the back, comfortingly. "I want all those things also, but we can't right now. Right now all we can do is wait here until help arrives."

Genny looked up, her eyes wild, "No! That's even worse. Anyone who comes to help us will only be killed or tortured. It's no use. We'll be in this stupid dungeon for the rest of our lives."

"You may be," said Emily coldly. "But I have a feeling I'll be killed off as soon as he's done with me."

This wasn't the best thing to say as it only made Genny cry harder.

"It's all my fault," Genny sobbed. "All of it. If I hadn't run away after they gave me the dark mark. If only I had realized that Seamus wasn't being himself. If I had told McGonagall or someone…none of this would have happened."

"Yes it would," interrupted Emily without feeling. "You couldn't help being born to those awful people you call parents. I couldn't help being the daughter of someone who had information Voldemort could use. He would still be after Harry and he'd still be trying to rule the world. He was taking over for years before we were even born. None of this is really our faults. The only person we can blame is You-Know-Who. He's the one who formed the Death-Eaters. He's the one who's trying to take over. He's the one killing everyone," she shuddered and paused. Quietly, she added, "He's the one who took apart my family and kept what was rightfully mine from me. My whole life is his fault. It had nothing to do with you or me, Genny. He would be evil no matter what."

Genny began to calm down a little, although she was still crying slightly. "I suppose…suppose you're right, Emily." Genny's voice was wobbly as voices always are after a person cries. "But that doesn't help. We're still here and everything's still hopeless. It's all over now."

Emily hugged her. "It's not over until the Fat Lady sings, and since Madame Maxime is all the way in Beauxbatons, we won't be able to know if she's sung yet."

Genny chuckled. She took Emily's hand and was lifted to her feet. "So what's you plan?" she asked.

Emily's face fell. "Ummm…I was still working on that…"

"We're going to save them," Harry declared, ignoring Hermione's protests that there was nothing they should do.

They were inside of Grimwauld Place, and the Order was meeting downstairs. The group had told them about Genny and Emily's kidnapping and had been immediately banished to upstairs while they "let the grown-ups handle it." It was unbearable, especially for Harry who felt it was all his fault, but there was nothing they could do. Mrs. Weasley had been shocked to tears when the kids burst in and had told her what happened.

"Oh, poor dears," she had cried, worriedly. "And they're just Ginny's age. I'll call the Order into a meeting right now. Now let's get you all warm and fed." Then she had sent them upstairs with some snacks.

"Lupin's probably panicking also," Hermione pointed out. "Emily is his daughter and he probably feels he needs to rescue her, but if he does then Voldemort," (she shuddered as she said the name), "will capture him and torture him for information. He's in a no-win situation."

Ron, on the other hand, didn't really know what to think. "We were standing there and we didn't even do anything!" he kept pointing out breathlessly.

"We're not just leaving them there," Harry decided. "We should get Gabrielle, Luciana, and Jon to come too." He thought for a second. "And maybe Seamus. He felt so bad for what he did, not that he could have helped it. He still doesn't know who put the curse on him in the first place."

"Harry," Hermione started, "we can't put all these students in danger. Especially not Jon. My aunt would kill me! The three of us and the Order can handle it…."

"The Order would never let us go," Ron shrugged. "It's us kids or no-one. Think, Hermione, it's Emily and Genny we're talking about. Not some strangers that we've never met!"

"Still," Hermione bit her lip, anxiously."

"We'll give them a choice," Harry said, scrambling for a quill and some parchment from one of the drawers. "If they want to help us, fine. If not…that's their problem." His scratching quill silenced Hermione for a while. Nothing else could be heard, not even the important meeting that the Order was holding downstairs.

Genny and Emily sat in their cage, thinking.

"We could blow this place up," suggested Genny.

"With what?" asked Emily bursting into laughter.

Genny shrugged with a smile. "Just a suggestion, but it made you laugh and that's good."

"Oh, yes, I'm very bubbly when I'm happy," Emily agreed.

"You're happy? About anything in particular?" asked Genny.

Emily thought for a minute and grinned big, "Nope, but there's hope for us and no use moaning so I might as well be happy, eh, mate?"

"Surely, good chap. Now where's that tea you promised, mate?"

The two girls collapsed in fits of giggles. It was good. The tension had been bugging at them for a while and now they needed to laugh it off.

"How about we offer some of that tea to our good friend You-Know-Who," laughed Emily.

"Yes, and we'll put a poison in it that will make him die and undo everything he did," suggested Genny with a laugh.

"And he'll taste it and say 'mmmm…this is good. Whatever do you call it?"

"And we'll reply," Genny snorted, "YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!"

"What a thing to be laughing at," said a happy, familiar voice from outside. Emily's heart soared. But it couldn't be…

"Harry!" shouted Genny as he came into view. "You're here! But where's everyone else?"

Harry motioned behind him and following him was Hermione, Ron, Gabrielle, Luciana, Jon, and Ryan.

Jon sidled up to the cage near Emily, "Sorry I yelled before," he whispered so no one else would here. "I was a little surprised."

Emily smiled, leaned through the bars, and kissed him on the cheek. "It's all good," she chuckled as Jon blushed.

"Ryan," Emily said suddenly, "I thought you had other stuff to do than come."

Ryan shrugged, acting as cool and smooth as always, "I heard from Luciana that you were You-Know-Who's prisoners. I couldn't have that, could I?"

It was Emily's turn to blush, but she turned away from Jon as she did so that he wouldn't see.

"I'll get you out," declared Hermione determinedly. She whipped out her wand and waved it. With a loud boom the bars on the cage began to melt on themselves, as if there was a scalding hot fire under them. Emily put her hand on one. It was cold.

"Nice piece of magic, that," said Ron impressed.

Hermione shrugged. "Voldemort probably puts charms on to keep people from messing with the locks and walls or blowing a way out, but I bet he never even considered the bars melting. It was a spell I found in a really old book in Hogwart's library, Spells for Tough Spots and other-"

Gabrielle cut her off, "Not now. We need to find a way to get out." The normally quiet Gabrielle was suddenly confidant and ready to take charge. She placed them in groups in case they had to suddenly split up, as if she had been planning rescue missions from Voldemort's dungeon her whole life. Luciana winked at Emily when Jon, Emily, and Ryan became a group. Emily rolled her eyes back and mouthed "How does she know to do this stuff?" as to not disrupt Gabrielle's stern lecture to Ron on why it made more sense for he and Hermione to be in different groups. "I'm trying to split it evenly by levels, now stop arguing or I'll curse your mouth shut."

Luciana mouthed back, "She reads way too much adventure stories."

Emily choked back laughter which earned her a disapproving glance from Gabrielle ("We have to be as quiet as possible or the Death-Eaters will hear us").

Soon they were ready to go, Gabrielle explained the plan, "We're gonna sneak out through a side door. There's got to be one somewhere. If not, there's always the waste chute in the kitchen."

"You're right. She does read too many adventure stories," said Gabrielle. Everyone (except Gabrielle of course, who was looking rather sour at this) laughed. Jon nudged Emily and she was glad to see him happy after how he had been back at Hogwarts.

They set off, towards the door of the dungeon, ready for anything. That is, until the bumped into the people they least expected to run into. They certainly weren't ready for…half of the Order of the Phoenix standing in the doorway with their wands out.

The two groups stood for a second looking dumbfounded. Finally Lupin broke out of the group and ran forward to greet the students. Soon everyone meshed and quietly proceeded back into the dungeons where they could talk with a little less worry.

"How dare you seven go to rescue them? You put your lives at stake when you should have left this to us. Ron, if you're mother was here she'd shout at you 'til you wished you were never born," scolded Kingsley Shacklebolt. He smiled guiltily, "Luckily, we had told her to stay behind and call for backup if we didn't return so you're safe with us… until we get back to Headquarters."

"I can't believe you're okay," exclaimed Lupin to Emily. "I was so worried…you can't imagine." He was standing in front of her, looking relieved. It was an awkward moment. They weren't sure whether they should hug or just stand there.

Emily smiled back at him. "I'm glad you're here too. Maybe you can help us. You-Know-Who said some awful things about you," she shivered, "But I never believed him for a second. I just wanted you to be safe. If you had come alone you'd be his prisoner. How did you get here anyway?"

"Long story," Lupin sighed. "Emily, what lies did Voldemort tell you about me? Are you sure they were…lies?" he asked seriously.

Emily made a face. "Of course I am. What he said was ridiculous. I…"

"Everyone, we need a plan to get out," Gabrielle said loudly to everyone. The dungeon was quiet. Gabrielle quivered a little to be in charge of so many people." She took a deep breath and with an encouraging nod from Tonks continued, "We should get out of here soon before anyone comes to check on the 'prisoners.' I have a plan," she suggested.

"No time." A man Emily didn't know shook his head. "Death-Eaters could be here any minute. We have to run and jump- improvise if we have to do anything drastic. We need to get out."

Everyone nodded. Sneakily, the wizards and witches began to climb out of the dungeon.

"When we get outside," whispered the man who Emily hadn't known, "make a run for it. It's almost a full moon so we'll be able to see where we're going. Don't risk yourself for anything stupid. Got it, let's go."