He led me outside the room, locking the door behind us. He tied my hands up with a silver cord, and then grabbed the end of it, leading me along like some sort of puppy.
"Just in case, can't have you escaping." He said, smirking at me. He gripped his wand in his hand and then twisted into the air, apparating us away. We reappeared a moment later, and I fell to the floor as I hit the slippery wooden floor. We were in some sort of a shack. It was made completely of wood, the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. There was a fire place in one corner, and two chairs in the middle of the room. A work table was against the wall across from the fireplace. The wizard jerked my cord and forced me up roughly before jerking me towards one of the chairs in the middle of the room. He forced me into it, waving his wand and tying me to it. He waved his wand again, and I was suddenly blindfolded, unable to see or move.
"Where is the keyfinder?" He asked his voice right next to my ear. I jumped before leaning away from him, straining against my bonds. I had no idea who the keyfinder was; I didn't even know what it was for that matter.
A whoosh of air sounded to my right, and then I felt the stinging pain of a slap as his hand made contact with my cheek. My head snapped back and tears filled my eyes at the pain. I refused to let them fall though, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"Do you know where it is?" he asked again, his putrid breath on my left side now. I remained stubbornly silent, my mind racing as I tried to figure out who or what the keyfinder was and how the heck I was going to get Fred and myself out of here. I heard another whoosh and felt another flare of pain as he slapped my left cheek.
"Answer me!" he snarled, and then he slapped me again and again. The tears filling my eyes welled up, threatening to spill over. I fought them back, refusing to cry, refusing to make any sign of pain.
"Fine, perhaps I should try a different method to loosen your tongue." He stepped back, and I heard him walk across the room, his boots echoing across the room ominously. A strange clinking noise came from the far sound of the room, like metal against wood. A moment later, he was back by my side.
"This will elicit a response." He said darkly, and then I felt a piercing pain in my arm like he stuck a needle in it. A heartbeat later my arm started to throb as what felt like liquid fire shot through my veins. He was right, that brought a response, I screamed in pain and thrashed against my bonds, trying in vain to break free and relieve the terrible pain. A roaring filled my ears and I couldn't get enough air. I gasped for breath before my head spun, and then I knew no more.
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"Hermione? Merlin, Hermione, wake up!" Fred's voice echoed in my head, once again pulling me out of the darkness of my sleep. I blinked my eyes open, hissing as I became aware of a throbbing pain in my right arm. The hiss of air agitated my lip, which I realized with a sinking feeling, was split. My nose was stuffed and my ribs stung, but nothing else hurt. I looked around the room slowly, trying not to cry as I became aware of all my various pains, and realized I was back in the dungeon/cell with Fred. He was holding me in his lap with his arm wrapped around me, brushing the hair out of my face gently as he rocked me.
"Fred?" I questioned, fighting back a gasp of pain as my lip started to bleed again. His bright blue eyes found mine and a relieved look filled his face.
"'Mione? Thank Merlin, I was scared you wouldn't wake up!" he gasped out, pulling me to his chest and holding me tight.
"Déjà vu much?" I asked, chuckling softly as I relaxed into his hold. This was far too much like when he I had woke me up earlier. At least now it wasn't dark, the glowing orb was still floating above our heads and lighting the room up.
"What happened exactly?" I asked quietly, looking around the room.
"He took you away, you were gone for hours! Then when he brought you back you were unconscious and bleeding. He froze me so I couldn't move to help you or hurt him. About five minutes after he left I unfroze and came to help you. I managed to staunch the bleeding in your arm with a piece of my robe." He explained, staring at me like he was scared I'd break. I took a deep breath, ignoring the pain in my chest and slowly pushed myself up, trembling slightly as I did so.
"What did he do to you Hermione?" he asked once I was sitting up. I glanced down at my arm before I answered, surprised at how well he had bandaged me up.
"I'm not really all that sure. He apparated me away from here, to some sort of shack. He tied me up to a chair and blindfolded me. He kept asking me where the 'keyfinder' was. I don't even know what the keyfinder is."
"Keyfinder?"
"Yes, I take it you don't know either?"
"Not a clue."
"Darn it, I was hoping it was just because I was muggle born." I sighed, scooting back and leaning against the wall. Fred gave half a smile, as he looked at me, still looking worried.
"Relax, Fred." I said after a moment, leaning my head back against the wall and closing my eyes. "I'm okay. Just a little sore." Well, that was a bit of a lie. I was a lot sore, my whole body was throbbing, and whatever that man had done to my arm, it felt like it was on fire. My stomach growled suddenly and my eyes popped open as I blushed in embarrassment. Fred grinned at me, a knowing look on his face.
"I'm hungry too." He laughed. "I'm actually thinking about eating that puking pastille." A smile lifted my lips and I let out a giggle, not even minding that my split lip was protesting my grin.
"Care to split it?" Before he got a chance to respond to my question a loud siren sounded above us, echoing around the room and growing louder until we were both hunched over with our hands pressed against our ears in an attempt to muffle the painfully loud noise.
The noise grew louder, and a roaring filled my ears as the room spun around me. For the third time in a far too short period of time, I found the world growing black as I slipped into unconsciousness.
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I blinked my eyes open and rolled over, ignoring the throbbing pain in half my body. I laid my hands down flat on the dirt floor and pushed myself up into a sitting position. This whole passing out thing was starting to get extremely old. I looked down at my feet and instantly moved, Fred was lying in a crumpled heap beside me. I crawled over to him, rolling him over gently before pulling the upper half of his body into my lap. I held him tightly, rocking him back and forth as I looked around the room quickly, trying to determine just what had happened, and if anything had changed.
There was a tray of food about a meter to my left. It had bread, cheese, and some sort of soup on it along with a pitcher of water. There were no cups or silverware.
I let my eyes drift back to Fred, looking him up and down to see if he had been injured while we were unconscious. He was okay, I didn't see any injuries. "Fred?" I whispered, brushing his hair off of his face. "Wake up, Freddie." He stirred underneath me, woken by my voice or touch. His eyes fluttered open, hazy before they focused in on me.
"Morning sleeping beauty." I said softly, helping him sit up. He swayed slightly, gripping my shoulder for support.
"Well, while I agree with you about my dashing looks, I would appreciate it if you used something a little more masculine next time." I laughed at that, earning myself a smile from him.
"Okay, how about sleeping stud?"
He turned his head back towards me, a big grin on his face now. "Much better."
I grinned back, feeling slightly odd, my heart fluttered a little as he smiled and I had the urge to blush.
"They brought us some food." I said after a moment, just for something to say. He nodded his head before turning towards the indicated food.
"No silverware?" he asked with mock disgust. "Do they expect us to use our hands?" He grabbed a piece of the bread off the platter and took a bite. "Must know me pretty well." He said through a mouth full of bread. I grinned again and scooted towards the plate. He handed me the other piece of the bread and I took it, nibbling a bit off the end. It wasn't bad considering we were trapped in a dirt cell. It wasn't even all that dried out.
"Guess we should go ahead and eat the soup, that way we'll have something to put the water in." Fred said picking up the soup and poking it with his bread.
"What type is it?" I questioned fearfully.
"I'm not sure we should be asking what it is so much as what it was." He replied, pulling the bread back out of the soup and watching the creamy, chunky, yellow liquid fall back into the bowl.
"I'll try it first, I'm more resilient." I said grabbing my bowl and bread. Fred stretched his hand out to stop me but he was too late. I swallowed the bite quickly, trying not to let it linger on my tongue.
"The bread's better by its self." I choked. He stared at me for a few moments before a grin erupted on his lips.
"That bad huh?"
"That bad."
"Well," he said as he picked up the cheese. "At least the cheese isn't moldy."
"Yeah," I said, watching him take a bite of the cheddar. "At least it's not moldy." We finished the meal and drank the water eagerly. I didn't realize how tired I was until I finished the water. Fred must have felt the same way because he let out a big yawn.
"Where and how do we want to sleep?" Fred asked once he stopped yawning.
"I think we should sleep over in the far corner away from the door." I said, shivering slightly. It had gotten colder in here since dinner. He nodded his head and stood, offering me his hand. I took it and let him pull me up. We walked to the other corner hand in hand, neither of us thinking about dropping the others hand. We made our way to the other corner before we stopped and looked down at the dirt floor with disinterest. Fred dropped my hand and sat down before stretching out. He tucked one arm under his head to use as a pillow. I stood still for an awkward moment before lowering myself down too. I laid about half a meter from him, wrapping my robe around myself tightly. We laid there in awkward silence for a moment, both of us shivering in the chill. I wanted to scoot closer to him but I didn't want it to be awkward. I honestly wanted to be near him so that I knew he'd still be there when I woke up, I was scared and really wanted some comfort.
"Oh bugger this." Fred finally said, turning his head towards me. "Would you mind scooting closer 'Mione?" I shook my head no, and scooted closer to him eagerly. I wrapped my arm around his waist and leaned my head against his shoulder. I took my robe and wrapped it around us, trying to block out the chilly air.
"That's much better." He breathed out, leaning his head against my hair. It was much warmer over here and much softer than the cold dirt. He wrapped his other arm around me, holding me against him gently.