Ron blinked blearily, looking around. The room he was in was dark and gloomy, and he could just about make out a few incoherent shapes, as well as several other sleeping forms. Squinting, he saw his sister Ginny, his brother Percy, a weird girl he had seen in the village several times before who had dirty blonde hair and protruding blue eyes and a boy about the same age as Percy or perhaps a year or two younger with brownish hair and a good looking face. Just as he blinked himself awake, a lurid white light filled the room, making him wince. He watched as the others awoke, all looking just as confused as him. Ginny instinctively crawled across the floor to Ron, while the rest stayed still, looking around. The light had revealed a small room, painted a horribly muddy brown with no windows. The door appeared to be protected by magic so there was no way possible for them to escape as none had wands with them. A pile of blankets sat on one corner of the room, along with a few pillows, and there was a tap with several plastic cups underneath on the wall. A small toilet sat in the corner, beside which were several rolls of toilet paper. Other than that the putrid room was totally empty.
"I'm Luna, Luna Lovegood, and I'm seven." said the blonde girl in a light, slightly accented voice.
"Cedric Diggory, I'm eleven."
"Percy Weasley, twelve. These are my siblings, Ginerva who is seven and Ronald who is eight."
The children watched each other for a few seconds, the silence totally unbroken.
"Call me Ginny." Ginny quietly requested, slicing the nervous atmosphere open with a knife and her bubbly voice.
"Where are we?" Cedric asked. A sudden, booming voice filled the room.
"You are here to be experimented on. We want to see the effects of magic in children under thirteen, and the physical differences between you and muggles. Stay quiet and obey us and you shall have food, water, warmth and you will be moved to a bigger room. Be to loud or behave adversely and the result will not be pleasant." The room quietened once more.
The silence was broken by crying. Soft sobs. Ginny was crying. That's when Ron knew it was serious.
Percy didn't know what to do. As the oldest, he knew he would have to care for the others, but how could he? Escaping and helping them escape was the only way he could truly protect them, so what should he do?
"Shut up, I hear voices!" He hissed to the others who were talking and comforting and getting to know one another. Sure enough, there were.
"I vote for the scrawny blonde one." said the same smooth voice of the Weasley kidnapper.
"No, the one with brown hair, he talks to much and to loudly."
"Yeah, let's have him."
Suddenly, the slightly smaller than average door opened and two figures stood: the man who had taken the Weasley's and a stockier, shorter man with thinning brown hair.
"You, boy, come here." instructed the shorter man, pointing at Cedric. "We won't hurt you!"
The boy, who was perhaps five foot tall, stood as high as the shorter man. Boldly, he shook his head.
"Come here, now!" snarled the taller, with much less patience than his friend.
"No." Cedric managed to whisper. His bravery was tremendous, despite his circumstance.
"That's it." snapped the taller man, with no emotion in his voice. He grabbed Cedric (being a good six foot six and fairly muscular, he did this with ease) and slapped him hard across the face, before dragging him out. The larger man muttered several spells and the door melted completely into the wall, no longer visible. Cedric's screams were heard as he was dragged off, along with several more slaps and lots of scuffles.
The children sat anxiously together, waiting for Cedric's return. After an hour and he was still not back, they all started to grow scared. But, their childish instincts came first.
"I'm hungry, Percy!" Ron moaned. Percy understood this, as it must have been at least sixteen hours since they'd eaten, but he forced himself to admonish his brother.
"Don't be silly, we only ate dinner a few hours ago."
"Actually, I'm rather peckish as well." Luna said in her dream like voice.
Once again, as if their words were being closely monitored, the booming voice declared,
"It is mid day, so you would normally have had breakfast by now and probably be eating lunch. But you were asleep for breakfast and that Cedric boy has caused us a lot of trouble, so you won't eat until five o'clock this evening."
Ron gave a groan.
The door appeared again. It slammed open, and in carelessly was thrown Cedric. He looked tired, and seemed to have lost the use of his legs. A lumpy parcel was also thrown in, then the door slapped shut and vanished again.
"Are you okay, Cedric?" Luna asked the boy, placing her cool hand on his red forehead.
"No! They made me drink this potion which made me fall asleep, and when I woke up I had a huge scar across my stomach and a pain in my stomach! I got a pain relieving potion from them, but then I started making a noise to try and get some passer's attention. At first they just hit me with their hands, all over my arms and my head and my legs and even on my scar, but then one of them just got out his wand and used Crucio on me!" babbled Cedric nervously. Ron and Percy were both lost for words, but Ginny and Luna bustled into action. Ginny fetched one of the stiffly starched pillows and placed it under his head while Luna got the thickest of the blankets and tucked it around him. Then they fetched him a cup of water, which he gladly drank.
"Thank you." he weakly smiled at them, blinked, yawned, and fell asleep.
"This is going to be a lot worse than we thought." whispered Percy as he placed a comforting arm around his sister.