Told you it would be quick! Didn't want to leave too long a space between them this time, because the last few chapters have been a little lacking of action and suspense. I hope this makes up for it!
The small inn that Neville had brought them to had been packed with muggles. He had apparated them to his room, which was small and bare, then taken them down to where the bar was.
"Then I told him that if he came near my lawn again, I would set the dogs on him!" A rough, ill looking man was saying in the corner to a group of equally disturbing people, who nodded and grunted, grasping on to their pints and some of them raising them up in a toast-like fashion.
"Serves him right!" growled the man next to him, sporting an angry look, a scar over his right eye and several disturbing looking tattoos, one of which looked like a bleeding eyeball.
The bar was full, and the addition of Hermione, Harry, Neville and Luna had not gone un-noticed. There were several hushed conversations going on nearby, commenting on how they were dressed and how they looked suspicious. Hermione clutched onto Harry's arm and whispered "Let's get out of here."
The four of them carried on outside the pub, where Hermione got a good look at the layout of the town. As they had appeared on the map, the buildings all seemed to circle the church in the middle. Hermione shuddered as she gazed upon the church, which sat on top of a hill that lay in the middle of the small village. The wooden buildings around them looked as though they had been over used and falling apart. Almost like slums.
"Homely, isn't it?" Neville grimaced silently. "I've been trying to get clearance to get into the church, but it hasn't been easy. Ministry says it's protected."
Hermione's eyes narrowed on the building suspiciously. "No need to follow Ministry guidelines when you're on the run." she muttered.
Harry nodded, stepping beside Hermione and lowering his voice. "We need to rest first, though. Neville, do you know if there are any free rooms in the inn?"
"No!" Hermione whispered, interrupting Neville as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Hermione, we haven't properly slept for days now. If we find ourselves in the middle of a battle here, we need to make sure we're well rested." Harry shuddered, too. "That church gives me a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Hermione knew the feeling. She felt it, too. She knew Harry was right, of course, she just wanted to charge in and see if she could find Ron. On the other hand, though, she wouldn't be much good in the state that she was in. Her eyes were heavy, muscles weak and her brain was straining to function.
Neville looked back at the inn. "Gregory should be able to get you a room somewhere. He's behind the bar. Just don't stare at him too long, he's a little... aggressive." he warned them, ushering them back inside the busy inn.
About ten minutes later, after fighting their way through the thick crowd that surrounded the bar, they faced the man that Neville had warned them about. He had a huge scar spanning from the top of his cheek to the corner of his mouth. After an awkward exchange where the bar keeper tried to accuse Harry of staring at his scar and Harry attempting to calm the man down by apologising and explaining that he wasn't staring, the man grudgingly led them up the stairs, pushing past the customers surrounding them.
Hermione's room was much the same as Neville's, and she had assumed Harry's and Luna's was too. Luna, much to the protests of Hermione and Harry, had insisted on staying to help them out. Harry had asked Neville to check on Ginny for him, and to let her know they were safe.
The cold, hard bed would have usually been unfit for anyone to manage a good sleep on, but as Hermione closed her eyes she found herself in a familiar scene.
Ron's eyes were bloodshot, red and heavy. He looked frailer, and dangerously close to death. The image stabbed Hermione like a dagger to the chest. The top half of his body, completely uncovered now, was laid with cuts, scars, bruises and dried in blood. The bottom half covered, as earlier, by rags. The torn bottoms barely went to his ankles. His eyelids strained open as the wall opened up, and an unfamiliar looking man walked in with a cloaked figure.
"We've had him here for a year, Mistress. Found him lurking around in the forbidden area." A sleezy looking man with slicked back, black hair and a long pointed nose was speaking to the person in the cloak.
"My master would have been proud." A vile, familiar female drawl came from the cloak. Hermione could feel the chill going down the back of her spine, even though she seemed, like always, to have no presence in the place.
"You." Ron growled weakly. If the room hadn't been so deadly silent at the time, Hermione would have doubted that he had even spoken at all.
"Me." The cloaked witch raised her hands, pulling down her hood and unveiling a mass of black, frizzy hair, and a gaunt face that was staring at Ron with intensity.
As well as the physical pain he was clearly in, the emotional pain was etched on Ron's face now, and Hermione could see the trace of a tear falling from his red rimmed eye and down his cheek.
"What's the matter, boy?" the woman cackled, drawing a wand up to him. "Not happy to see me?"
Ron didn't answer, and instead weakly turned his face to face away from her with a scowl.
"Is it something to do with that Mudblood I tortured?" the woman flashed a malicious grin, stepping closer to Ron. "Or that boy I-"
"Don't." Ron strained, cutting her off. "Don't talk about th- them." He was struggling for breath.
A cold, hard cackle filled the dungeon, filling Ron's face with rage.
"No matter." She grinned the same grin again. "We know where the Mudblood is now. We will have her in a matter of hours. You, on the other hand, have an hour to tell us what we need to know, or your girlfriend will." The woman raised her head to look at the man beside him. "Fetch the others."
The man disappeared, then appeared back in the room with three additional men. It was only then that Hermione noticed they had all been wearing the same cloaks. Black, with dark green trimming, and a V on the chest.
"She doesn't know anything." Ron croaked in a weak, breathless voice. Leave h-her alone." He was shaking now as two of the unfamiliar looking wizards approached him.
"Take him down." The woman was still grinning with an evil expression.
The two wizards that were approaching him held their wands to the cuffs that were binding Ron. Without saying a word, flashes of dark purple light surrounded him as he fell to the floor, the two wizards catching him with a tight, painful looking grip. Ron's eyes squeezed together in agony.
"You have information we want, boy, and you will give it to us."
"Never." Ron cracked.
"I hoped you would say that." the woman simpered, making a swift movement with her wand. "Crucio!"
Ron shook violently in the hands of the two men, still squeezing his eyes shut. He didn't let out a noise, but Hermione could see the agony in the expression he wore on his face.
"I w-won't say anything" Ron whispered in a growl, straining his voice. "I will d-die b-before I tell you."
"That can be arranged." A familiar male drawl came from outside. Ron froze as his eyes shot upwards towards the opening in the wall and a blond man walked in, his messy looking hair drooping down just above his eyes.
On top of it all, Hermione wasn't prepared for what she saw next. She first heard a scuffle just outside, as a familiar voice growled "Get off me." The voice filled Hermione with dread.
Ron's eyes widened. He clearly recognised the voice too. His face went even paler than it had been as his younger sister was pushed through the door in front of him, along with Neville Longbottom.
"No! Ron yelled, his voice clearly coming back to him. "Let her go! Let her go now! I wi-"
Ron stopped as he took in Ginny's appearance, and his mouth fell open. The bump on her stomach was outlined from the moon shining through the tiny barred window.
"Ginny..." Ron whispered, clearly trying to choke back the tears. "Y-you're-"
"Are you ready to speak yet, Weasley?" The blond man spoke gruffly. He had done quite a lot of growing up. Stubble lay on the man's chin, and his messy hair that they were used to seeing slicked back fell down past his eyes. Hermione got the feeling there was something Draco Malfoy wasn't letting on, though.
"Lay your wand on her, Malfoy, and I won't stop until every last one of you suffers." Ron growled.
"Ron, don't-" Ginny croaked tearfully, reaching out for her brother.
"What will we do with them?" Draco turned to face the cloaked, black haired woman, who was now staring intently at Ginny.
"Let's have a little fun." Bellatrix Lestrange replied.
What happened next was a little distorted. A piercing scream echoed in the room, along with flashes of green and red light flying in all sorts of directions. Then she heard a high pitched shriek as the scene once again disappeared.
"Ginny!" Hermione screamed, once again firing up from the cold hard inn bed. "No." She choked, fighting back the tears. She jumped as she heard a loud crash in Harry's room next to her, giving her the impression he had dropped something. Within seconds, Harry crashed through her door panting with a panic stricken expression. He had heard her shouting for Ginny.
"H-Harry," Hermione sobbed. "T-they've got her. They've g-got Ginny."
Just in case this chapter makes you think we're nearing the end, we're really not. We've actually just reached around the middle of the story. As always, please review, especially now. I've put a lot of work into this and it's eating into my spare time from college. While I don't mind that, I do like to know what people are thinking so far. Any theories of where this is going? Of course, I already know, but I'm interested to read your thoughts!