A/N: Okay, so I left you on a bit of a cliffie last time... so here's the next chapter :3
With one sudden movement, Rachel's eyes snapped open and she was pulled out of her consciousness.
The first thing she noticed was that she was tied to a chair. The next few things were her tattered clothes, the small wounds on her skin, and the unbearable ache in her muscles. Thanks a lot, Mad-Eye, Rachel thought bitterly. She doubted she'd get much information from the pureblood twats now.
"Someone's awake," the unmistakable voice of Lucius Malfoy noted aloud. Rachel looked up and spotted him in front of her.
Rachel looked around clumsily. "Oh, you meant me," she realized. "I thought you had a demon dog hidden around here. Devil's spawn type of thing."
"Why are you here?" Malfoy asked flatly.
"Getting right down to business, aren't we?" Rachel muttered. She moved her wrists hoping that maybe if she got the ropes loosened she'd be able to do something.
"Do you think your ridiculous friends will save you?" Malfoy questioned bitterly.
"You know, all of these things you're saying are very cliché villain," Rachel noted. "I have to say: it doesn't suit you."
The movement was almost too quick for Rachel's bleary eyes to notice. Malfoy whipped out his wand and sent a stream of fire headed towards her. The flame whipped against her flesh and left the skin on her thigh burning. Rachel winced, but bit down on her tongue. There was no way she was going to give him the benefit of hearing her pain.
"Why did the Order send you?" Malfoy roared.
"You want to know the truth, Goldie Hawn?" Rachel asked fiercely. Doubt he'll catch on to that reference, pureblood fanatic he is, Rachel thought to herself. All the better. "I was at the Ministry for field training. I drew the short straw and happened to be the target for the day. Dressed up as a Death Eater and was ready to go on my way to the training room until you twats invaded and were stupid enough to mistake me as one of your own."
Okay, well that wasn't completely true. It wasn't a complete lie either. And why the hell did she care if she lied to some Death Eaters?
"We're not twats or stupid," another voice stated.
Rachel turned towards it and saw Rosier. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, Merlin, I didn't mean you, dearie," Rachel replied sarcastically.
"I think you should let the grown-ups take over now, Lucy," an unrecognizable voice called out from somewhere behind Rachel. Ooh, Lucy, I'll have to remember that one, Rachel noted to herself.
Rachel tried to turn to see who it was, but she was tied too tightly. She looked back at Malfoy and noticed the glaring anger on his face. Whoever it was sure made him angry beyond understanding. The person suddenly came into view in front of her. It was a woman, probably about twenty-eight years old, dressed in a black fancy dress. Her dark long curls were piled onto her head messily and elegantly. A crude smile was on her face as she observed Rachel.
"Well, she's got a pretty face," the woman sighed. "But so scrawny…"
"And who the hell are you?" Rachel asked rudely.
The woman laughed, a sharp cackle. "She's feisty," she said. "I see why he likes her so much. If only she wasn't a Mudblood."
"Oh please, you're all so boring," Rachel said with a roll of her eyes. "It's always the same word with all of you. Can you be a bit creative? It's getting rather old."
"And she clearly doesn't know when to shut her mouth," the woman continued. "But that's my idiot cousin for you. Always picking the less bright ones."
Before Rachel could even voice her disbelief that this madwoman was Sirius's cousin, said madwoman had her wand out and aimed at Rachel. Fear struck through Rachel like never before. Suddenly, she felt a searing pain course through her body. It felt like her blood was boiling inside of her and her muscles were trying to rip from her body. No matter how much she tried to hold it in, it was only a matter of time before a scream of pain escaped Rachel's mouth. She felt tears at her eyes but pushed them back.
"Ooh, and strong too," the woman taunted.
"I think we should just toss her in the cellar now, Bellatrix," Malfoy said through his teeth.
"But I haven't finished playing with my food," the woman whined.
"No wonder the two of you are related," Rachel muttered. "Absolute psychos."
The pain hit her again. It was nothing like she had ever experienced before and in that instant, for only a short second, Rachel just wished she could curl up and die to get away from it. The pain left her again and she slumped over with a heavy sigh. Her muscles were suddenly incredibly weakened and she could barely lift a finger.
"You can take her down now," she heard Bellatrix say. "I got bored quite easily this time."
"Okay, you have five seconds to tell me you're just joking around and that she's completely safe," Sirius threatened.
"She's not gone but she's not safe," Moody repeated.
Sirius felt his teeth grounding together. He stood up suddenly, grabbing his wand from the coffee table, and headed for the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" James called out, stopping Sirius.
"I'm going to save her arse, obviously," Sirius replied, turning to look at James.
"Look, we'll get her, but a team of us will go," James suggested, standing up and walking over to Sirius. "You're one guy and we don't know what to expect."
Sirius paused and regarded James, his mind processing what his friend had suggested. He turned his attention to Moody. "I swear to Merlin that if she isn't safe…" he trailed off. "Doesn't matter," Sirius concluded. "Let's call an Order meeting."
"All right, so if she's not dead already, where would they be keeping her?" Dorcas asked.
Sirius glared at her. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it might be the newer Death Eaters taking care of this," he said. "They like to go big to impress You-Know-Who."
Sirius and James had arranged their own little team to handle Rachel's rescue. Remus, Peter, Dorcas, Mary, Marlene, Lily, Alice, and Frank had all come over to Sirius's flat and immediately started strategizing on how they could save her.
"So that leaves what?" Mary asked. "About twenty, gigantic estates?"
"Not exactly," Lily answered. "Wouldn't the bigger families be in charge of all of this?"
"Right," Sirius confirmed. "So that leaves two."
"Two?" James asked. "And you want us to raid both?"
"Ah, no, because it's technically one," Sirius replied. "The Lestrange Estates and Malfoy Manor. However, the Lestranges and the Malfoys are related by marriage now and the Lestranges have been Death Eaters for awhile now, while Malfoy …"
"He was in our year," Marlene finished. "So Malfoy Manor, eh? Still leaves a gigantic manor."
"Yeah, how do we downsize that?" Alice thought aloud. "I mean, there's quite a few of us, but we'll get caught pretty easily if we're running around the whole place trying to find her."
"Well, from what I remember, the Malfoy Manor has quite a large dungeon," Sirius remarked. "Cellar, if you will. They're other keeping her there and waiting for further orders or…" Sirius trailed off.
"Or what?" Remus asked.
"Or Bellatrix is playing with her food," Sirius finished quietly. His cousin was simply too easy to predict. "Anyways, there's a direct passage from where she would be if she was in Bellatrix's hands and the cellar, so it makes everything quite a lot easier."
"Well, there's ten of us and two locations," Frank started. "We could split into groups of five and go from there."
"That could work," Sirius said. "The first group to go in will go the hall where they'll most likely be. If Rachel's not there, distract them and we'll sneak into the cellar. If she is, we'll come in and help out."
"I'll be in the first group," Dorcas said.
"Me too," Alice agreed. "They won't know what hit them."
"I'm coming to then," Frank said.
"I'll come along as well then," Remus joined.
"Count me in," Peter said.
"And that leaves the five of us," James said, looking around at Dorcas, Lily, Marlene, and Sirius.
"All right, everyone ready?" Sirius asked. "The first group will go into the main hall. As far as I know, the only anti-Apparition charms are on the cellar. It's hard to cast a spell powerful enough for a place that huge. So you can Apparate right to the main entrance and go from there."
"How do we tell you if she's there or not?" Marlene asked.
"The spell you use," Lily suggested. "We'll keep an eye out and try to get a view of you guys. I'm sure there's somewhere we can see a flash of light. If it's Expelliarmus, we know she's not there. If it's Stupefy, we'll come in and help out."
"Pretty straight forward," Dorcas said. "Everyone fine with that?"
"Sounds good to me," Alice said. "Now let's go save that fluffy ball of stubbornness. I miss her already."
YEAH SORRY ABOUT THAT ENDING.
-Grammar/spelling?
-Do any of my wonderful readers watch Fullmetal Alchemist? (just out of curiosity)
-How do you think the rescue will go?
Thanks for reading :)
