Hola, amigos! Hay nubes en el cielo! Es muy lindo.

-coughs- Anywhos, sorry it's been a few days since I updated. D:

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The New Dawning

Chapter Eighteen: The Games

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February 21, 2000

"It'll be okay," Harry shrugged a little bit, smiling gently. "It's not all bad."

Draco narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him , ready to scream and rant about how of course it's 'all bad' because he didn't have a choice in the matter and apparently being away from his imprint would be painful for both him and the other person, but then he didn't. He just closed his mouth, looked at the floor, and shook his head.

It wasn't worth it.

"Why don't you stay with me," Harry suddenly said, smiling lightly. "I've got an extra room – or three – you can use. Seth's really nice, Draco. Why don't you give him a chance?"

"Because I'm not gay comes to mind," Draco mumbled, and then shrugged. "I guess there's no harm in it. As long as you use silencing charms."

"Great," Harry grinned. "Why don't you go pack up some of your things and then bring them here?"

"Alright," Draco nodded, standing. "I can do that."

He slipped to the Floo, tossing in some powder from the bowl on the mantle.

Draco had only been gone for five or ten minutes when Harry, who was bustling about the kitchen making breakfast, heard his Floo go off again. He went back to the living-room, eying the fireplace before allowing the group of people behind the flames to come through.

"What's happened?" he wondered as he traveled back toward the kitchen. Ron and a few of his Aurors sat down in the living-room.

"She's got someone."

Harry looked up in shock as he heard Ron's voice answering him. Had the man stopped being a dolt already? It never happened this fast! But maybe...

"Who?"

Ron looked at the floor and Harry was surprised to see a few tears on his longtime friend's face. He wiped them away angrily, shaking his head in that stubborn way that was purely Ron.

"Hermione."

Hermione!

"We have to go!" Harry shouted immediately, startling Paul, who was coming down the stairs. "We have to go save her, Ron, we have to-"

"It's not that simple," Ron snarled. "We don't know where they are!"

Harry's fingers tightened around the rag he held in his hands. "What do you mean, you don't know where they are? I thought they were at the Lestrange Manor."

"Bellatrix saw us when we were putting up the anti-apparition wards," Ron sneered. "She Disapparated and took Hermione with her."

"But don't you – you always make her wear that bracelet-" Harry protested, mind immediately flashing to the thick black band that Hermione wore on her wrist, infused with more runes than anyone would think possible. Tracking runes, communication runes, shield runes.

"You mean this bracelet?" Ron asked bitterly, dropping the very same band down on the coffee table. It looked like it had been sawed off. "It was in the Manor."

Harry shook his head and punched the wall. It wasn't a smart decision, of course, and he knew that as soon as his knuckles touched the cement walls of the kitchen. He'd forgotten that most of the house was cement and not drywall. The bones in his hand fractured with sickening cracks and his knuckles split, spilling blood.

"Fuck," he muttered.

"Fuck," Ron agreed, not looking at him. "We need to find her, Harry, she's-"

"-Pregnant, I know," Harry snapped. "We need to find a tracking charm. Send your squad out searching for any clues, and then you and I will go up to my library and search."

– – –

Hermione whimpered a little bit as her hair was yanked and she was forced to follow the crazy witch in front of her. She wasn't sure where they were going, Hermione could only gather that it would be somewhere public – very public. 'A public execution', Bellatrix had sneered.

The worst part of it all was that the bracelet with the tracking charms on it had been ripped off. Bellatrix hadn't known what it was, but she'd known that it was dangerous to her. Ron was probably worried out of his mind.

Sunlight from above her alerted Hermione to the fact that they were underground. How or when that had happened was beyond her – but it didn't matter, anyways, as she was shoved up a ladder. Hermione fancied making a run for it, but she didn't have a wand and Bellatrix was not against taking her down from behind. That was what would happen if she tried to run.

They were in the middle of nowhere. Hermione wanted to ask what was going on, but Bellatrix just tied her up with a flick of her wand and then pressed the very same wand to a faded mark on her arm.

No, Hermione thought, eyes huge. The Dark Mark, faded brown, flared the brightest black before fading out again. Within seconds, the sounds of apparition could be heard all around her – and she was surrounded, once again, by Death Eaters.

It was amazing to realize how many were still left. It was a small number compared to their previous masses, but it was still a rather large number overall..

"Look who I caught," Bellatrix sneered, knocking Hermione backward onto the ground. A round of jeers started up from the Death Eaters. "Ickle mudblood. Perfect bait, don't you think? Let's go."

She was pulled up by her hair and wanted to scream and ask why she'd been knocked down if, thirty seconds later, she needed to be on her feet again. Someone prodded her hard in the back and she stumbled forward before obediently walking.

Best to do what they want for now, right?

The back of a brick building was seen and she only had time to realize what was going on before she was shoved through an opening that someone had created by tapping their wand on the bricks. This was the back of the Leaky Cauldron.

"You're taking me to Diagon Alley," she muttered, exasperated. Didn't they realize that, as soon as they all went through, everyone would have their wands trained on the Death Eaters? That someone would notify the Aurors?

Bellatrix grabbed her as they came through to the Alley, wand trained on her throat. People began noticing them and a hushed silence fell over the whole Alley as people stopped what they were doing. Then, someone screamed:

"THAT'S HERMIONE GRANGER!"

Weasley, Hermione mentally chided, wishing she had her wand with her. But she didn't, and her wandless magic was testy at best. She thought of trying to get away again now that they were in the public eye, but Bellatrix's wand was digging into her throat and any movement made would just dig it further in and probably puncture her jugular.

Not-good, that's for sure.

It was disconcerting to have every wand in the Alley trained on you, even if it was only seemingly at you. In fact, they were all pointed at Bellatrix and the Death Eaters around her.

"Now, now, be good little sheep," Bellatrix giggled. "As soon as Potter gets here, everything will be okay."

Hermione grunted and closed her eyes as Bellatrix jerked her hair again. She hoped Harry hurried up and got here – Harry could get anyone out of anything.

It looked she didn't have to wait long. One of Ron's Aurors stepped out from Flourish and Blott's just then, and then Disapparated on the spot.

Let the games begin, then.

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Review? C: Poor Hermione.

We're coming to the end...D:

NEW QUESTION: Favorite TV show?