Harry gasped awake, his heart beating like crazy and his breathing quick and shallow. He looked around himself in panic, his plight deepening as his eyes registered the unknown surroundings. His gaze went from the unfamiliar bed he was laying on, to the closet by the far wall, and finally to the second bed in the room, where a brunette woman lay peacefully sleeping, her bushy curls framing her face in the faint moonlight coming through the window.

If Hermione was here then he was safe, his racing mind reassured him, clinging to that thought like a drowning man to a raft. He relaxed somewhat, real events and memories still clashing with the nightmare he'd just had. He was alive, and so was Hermione. Ron was alive too. Sirius was…n't. He felt a pang of sadness at that, Sirius' eyes from just before he fell into the veil flashing through his mind.

He sat up in bed still feeling shaky, trying to calm himself down as best as possible, and not wanting to wake up Hermione. She needed the rest. It took him a few minutes to calm his breathing and to lower his heart rate, but he was still shivering, and decidedly not from the cold. He really wished Hermione was awake. But this wasn't the first, nor would it be the last nightmare of his life, and Harry had always managed on his own before, and he would do so now too.

Sleeping was overrated anyway, he thought grimly to himself, before getting out of bed, changing from his pyjamas and quietly making his way to the living room area, closing the bedroom door behind himself. It was 6 in the morning, so at least he got enough sleep, more or less, Harry thought with a grimace. He pondered for a few minutes on what he should do to keep himself occupied, before turning on the small TV and plopping himself onto the sofa.

The TV program he was on was talking about some nature expedition, but Harry quickly tuned it out, his thoughts turning inwards. How in the everlasting hell had his life come down to this? Just a week before he was still at Hogwarts, surrounded by friends and protected by the faculty, and now he was in the middle of nowhere, with only a single person to rely on.

Not only that, but they were very much on the run as well. Harry was certain Voldemort was going to try and find him – he'd been trying to for the past six years after all – but he was equally as certain that Dumbledore was going to send somebody after him too. And any of the sides finding him, meant death.

The Harry from a week ago would have laughed at the thought of Dumbledore wishing him harm, but the present Harry had heard it with his own pair of ears. He didn't blame Dumbledore for it, not at all, his reasons for doing what he did were sound, but… well, Harry had thought… foolishly thought, that the old headmaster cared about him enough to not go through with a plan like this. But alas, as the old wizard liked to say, he was mistaken.

Then there were the people he and Hermione had left behind. Hermione had said Ron decided to be a sort of a spy for them back at the order, but Harry could tell from a mile away she had been lying. He could almost picture her explaining her plan to Ron, and could even hear Ron's voice saying something like 'are you bloody insane?'. And he didn't blame him either, throwing away one's life for a friend isn't something one usually expected. He certainly didn't.

Then again, Hermione did. It had been clear to Harry for a long time now that she was the one person he could always rely on, above everyone else. Since the beginning of the fourth year, really, when Ron had his little… outburst. He loved Ron, he really did, but it was clear that Ron wasn't the most dependable person in the world. But everybody had their faults, and Harry didn't blame Ron for not coming with them. He'd gotten the bad end of the stick for being his friend too many times anyway. Everybody that got close to him did, eventually.

After getting his parents killed for merely existing, followed by quite literally leading Cedric and Sirius to their deaths, he had now managed to do the same to Hermione too. But she did it herself, argued a side of him, but he quickly battled it down. Hermione was a good person, a good friend, and she probably felt like she needed to do this. And now she'd lost everything. He was just really glad he'd not managed to get Ginny involved in his mess of a life too.

Merlin, Ginny. He'd been so terribly close to ruining her life too. What with his sudden feelings about the fiery redhead, that he couldn't even explain himself. She was pretty, yes, certainly, but it wasn't like he'd ever thought about her like that before. No, he certainly didn't need to destroy any more lives than he already had, and Ginny was too pure of a person to drag down with. But all that was unimportant anyway right now, since he was on the run, with no chance of seeing her anytime soon.

And then there was this whole mess with the fact that he was apparently one of the Horcruxes, which all needed to be destroyed for Voldemort to die. His belief in Hermione was unyielding, and he fully trusted her to get the damn thing out of him, but he knew he had to make a plan B in the unlikely case she didn't succeed. He would then obviously have to die, but th-

He snapped out of his thoughts as some background part of his mind tugged for his attention, directing his eyes to the TV in front of him. His eyes widened and his breathing sped up again as his eyes came upon his very picture, front line and centre on the TV. He scrambled for the remote, increasing the volume. This can't be happening.

"-pected of a triple homicide in London, on Sunday morning. The suspect, police say, a 20-year-old Harry James Potter, is armed and dangerous." His picture disappeared then, replaced by one of Hermione, and the TV remote cracked from how hard he was holding it. "He is also suspected of kidnapping 20-year-old Hermione Jane Granger, on that same day. Police warn the public to be vigilant, and to report any information or whereabouts regarding the suspects to the following number."

Harry had stopped listening by this point, his breathing erratic and his thoughts a mess. They thought he kidnapped Hermione?! That was… that was completely God damn mad! Not to even mention the triple murder thing. It was clear to him the wizards that were after him, had figured out he'd hide in the muggle world. This was them pulling that option from underneath him. Not waiting a moment more, he walked straight to the bedroom, already starting to pack things as he spoke;

"Hermione, wake up, now!" The sleeping woman in question jumped up with a yelp, her hair sticking up in several places and her wide eyes searching for danger. She recovered quickly, grabbing her wand off the nightstand and sitting up.

"W-what's happening? Harry?" There was confusion in her tone, but also a hint of fear. He quickly explained the gist of it, watching as her expression shifted from confusion to dismay.

"T-this is… How can they do this?" She asked shrilly as she jumped into action, pulling off her pyjama top and causing Harry to quickly turn away, his cheeks red. He remained turned away until the sound of her clothes shuffling ceased, and as he turned to face her, she was already mostly dressed, just in the middle of pulling on her hoodie.

"They're trying to flush us out." She deduced almost immediately what took him a minute, and he nodded to show her he agreed. Having finished packing all their things into the two backpacks, Hermione stormed into the living room, immediately going to the TV. Frustratingly for the frazzled brunette thought, the news had moved on to discussing the upcoming handover of Hong Kong to China.

Hermione huffed loudly, blowing a piece of hair away from her face, looking beyond angry. But before Harry could say anything else, there was a loud knock on the door of their hotel room.

"Lothian Police, open up." Harry's gaze met Hermione's; terror written in her features. There were a few more loud knocks as the two teenagers simply stood there as if petrified.

"Shit, shit, what do we do?" Hermione's tone bordered on panic, while Harry reached into his backpack, fishing for the piece of fabric he knew was there.

"Open the door, now!" Whoever was outside was sounding more impatient by the minute, and Harry knew they had only seconds to act. Finally, he found what he was looking for, pulling his invisibility cloak and unfolding it.

"Quick, come." He hurriedly whispered to Hermione, who complied without question, letting him cover them both with the thin cloth. Barely a second later, the door flew inwards, the upper hinge giving away and causing the door to hang sadly from the lower one. The opening of the door was followed immediately thereafter by the barrel of a rifle.

Harry just about managed to pull Hermione behind himself and flatten them both up against the far wall, as the police officers entered, their movements calculated and their eyes scanning the surroundings. Hermione gasped behind him, and he quickly pressed his hand against her mouth, trying to stay as quiet as he possibly could.

The four officers took a quick sweep of the living room, before one pair moved towards the bathroom and the other towards the bedroom. As they did so, Harry placed a hand behind Hermione's back, guiding them both towards the open door. They shuffled more than walked to conceal the sound of their footsteps, but they made it out of the room without being noticed.

They also made it down the first four steps without any issues, but then Hermione's foot missed the fifth one. With a quiet gasp, she stumbled, grabbing onto him to save herself from falling. But Harry wasn't ready for the sudden change in balance, and her additional weight simply toppled them both.

They went down head first, but Harry had the mental capacity to roll them so that he was underneath as they hit the bottom, his shoulder making the first contact with the ground, the rest of his body and then Hermione's following. He was aware right away that he'd dislocated his shoulder, but that was the least of his worries at the moment.

"You okay?!" He asked in a panicked voice, relaxing somewhat as he saw Hermione nod quickly, the brunette already pulling the invisibility cloak from where it was tangled between them. She immediately jumped back to her feet, giving him a hand as he struggled to stand.

"Stop! Hands in the air!" They both spun to face the voice, a pair of policemen standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at them, their rifles pointed directly at Harry. Harry shared a split-second glance at Hermione, before grabbing her hand with his working one and sprinting for the exit. He heard the thumping of boots down the stairs behind them, but his entire focus was on the witch beside him and on the rapidly approaching hotel lobby door.

They ran full tilt past the screeching receptionist, bursting through the front door and into the cold winter morning. There was a pair of police cars parked in front of the hotel, but to Harry's relief, there were no additional police officers to be seen.

"Come on!" Hermione shouted to him, pulling him along towards the houses across the road. They just about got to the front yard of the house across the hotel, when the hotel's front door opened, and their pursuers gave chase. Harry, being a seeker and all, considered himself to be in a rather good physical condition, and Hermione was keeping up with him surprisingly well as the pair ran for the woods.

They were quickly making ground on the four officers; their head start and the heavy gear the officers wore made it very hard for them to keep up.

"Stop!" The shouts were now beginning to fade into the distance, as the pair entered the thick forest, the branches and ground covered in a layer of old sticky snow. The terrain didn't slow them down too much, but Harry could see Hermione was starting to tire, her breaths coming in quick short gasps.

But they were now completely out of the policemen's line of sight, and Harry slowed his run to a brisk walk, pushing through the branches surrounding them. A whirring sound became audible in the distance, and Hermione tightened her hold on his hand.

"Helicopter." He deduced and Hermione nodded, seemingly too winded to speak. This was bad, Harry knew, they could surely not outrun a helicopter. They could maybe try and hide behind one of the trees, but if that thing had thermal vision, it would certainly spot them. It was then that he realized Hermione was tugging on his hand, trying to speak through her breaths.

"The cloak." She managed to say, and Harry understood immediately. Hermione took the invisibility cloak from where she'd stuffed it in her pocket, covering them both with it. That solved one issue, but Harry instantly spotted another.

"Our footsteps, Hermione!" He whispered hurriedly, pointing to the snow where their prints stuck out clearly. Hermione didn't answer, pulling out her wand and pointing it towards the snow. She whispered some spell under her breath, and immediately the footprints disappeared.

And it wasn't a moment too early either, as the two leading policemen burst through the foliage just behind them. Their rifles were still drawn, and Harry could hear the first one swear as he realized the footsteps ended abruptly. He and his partner paused in their chase, both seemingly catching their breaths.

"They can't have gotten far." The bearded one said, his eyes staring almost directly towards where Harry and Hermione were hiding, huddled under the cloak.

"The helo'll snuff them out. We need to set a perimeter." The other one replied, at which point the remaining pair had caught up, both also breathing heavily.

"Kirkwood. You lost them?" Asked one of the newly arrived men, swearing loudly as a pile of snow fell on him from one of the trees.

"The footsteps end here. But they can't be far."

"Right, we'll split off. Kirkwood, you take Rodgers and go to the right, me and Jackson'll go left." Harry willed himself to remain as quiet as possible as the four men continued their pursuit, the second pair passing only a yard or so past them. He could hear Hermione's breathing stop as they passed, restarting as the men disappeared in the forest's thick foliage.

"You think the cloak will hide us from thermals?" Hermione asked him quietly, her breath hot on his freezingly numb ears. He had absolutely no idea, and tried shrugging to tell her that, but yelped in pain as he forgot about the state of his shoulder. Right. That happened. His shoulder was clearly dislocated, the appendage underneath the joint hanging uselessly.

"Your shoulder is dislocated." He looked at Hermione drily at that, wincing as the motion pulled at his shoulder.

"You think?"

"We need to get out of here before they set up a perimeter." She ignored his sarcastic remark altogether, and he could see she was already making up a new plan.

"Yeah, but where can we go now? We're wanted everywhere, in both worlds." Harry said feeling disheartened, the feeling only intensifying at Hermione's lack of an answer.

"I… don't know yet. But we need to get out of this forest or we'll freeze, that's for sure." There was a lot of merit in her words, both of them only dressed in their hoodies, their jackets left behind in the chaos that had just unfolded. Then again, had he still been wearing his pink jacket they probably wouldn't have escaped.

"Can you walk?" There was concern in her tone, her eyes directed at his injured shoulder, but Harry had lived through much, much worse injuries. He nodded confidently, and the two set off, Hermione charming their shoes so that they didn't leave any footprints behind. The helicopter continued whirring somewhere above them as they walked, but the cloak did indeed seem to hide them from its thermals, at least Harry assumed it did seeing as they didn't see any additional officers.

They eventually emerged from the forest a bit down the road from the hotel, which was by now surrounded by police cars. They were both shivering at this point, their closeness under the cloak only giving them a limited amount of heat. He turned to face Hermione, intending to ask what the plan was, only to be met by her chewing on her lower lip, looking deep in thought.

"We're going to have to rob the store we've been to yesterday." He felt a hint of surprise at her words, but he'd learned by now not to question her decisions. She seemed almost surprised that he didn't comment.

"You're not going to argue?"

"No, I trust you." He responded simply, receiving a small smile in return that warmed his insides somewhat. Wordlessly, the two walked to the town's shop, the pain in his shoulder increasing steadily as they constantly bumped into each other under the cloak.

They managed to enter the store as one of the customers left, sneaking in before the automatic doors closed behind them. The warm air immediately hit them in the face, and Harry felt his frozen nose and ears begin to slowly defrost. Hermione didn't seem inclined to wait for them to warm up though, pulling him along and towards the back part of the shop.

When they had reached the back corner of the shop, Hermione checked for any security cameras, before pulling the cloak off of them. Seeing as the shop was nearly completely empty, and that they were standing in the middle of the clothes section, Harry wasn't too worried about being spotted, but he was still curious as to what she was planning.

"Here, sit down." There was no arguing with that tone, and he obediently sat on the chair she'd pulled up. She scanned the aisles on either side of them one last time, before dropping to one knee in front of him.

"We're going to steal some winter clothing and food, and then we'll find somewhere to stay." He nodded at her plan of action, "But first we need to get your shoulder back in." She continued, and while Harry would trust her with his life, he couldn't help but gulp nervously.

"You do know what you're doing, yeah?"

"Mhm, once saw them do it to dad when he dislocated his." She answered without pulling her eyes from his shoulder, using her wand to prod and poke at it whilst muttering under her breath.

"Take your hoodie off." She commanded him, and whilst he knew it was necessary, he couldn't help but argue.

"In the middle of the store?"

"Nobody's here. Plus, I can't put it back if I can't see it properly." She countered and he sighed, trying to pull the hoodie over his head. To his immense embarrassment, she had to help him with it in the end, but soon Harry was sitting in the middle of some shop naked from the waist up, his best friend eying him critically.

"I should probably cast a silencing spell on you." It sounded like she was speaking more to herself than to him, all her attention on his injury.

"What? Why? Hermi-" His words came out silent after that, and he could only glare at the brunette witch as she took his arm carefully between her own. She twisted it upwards, doing almost a full circle with it before the ball of his shoulder jumped back into his socket, the pain of it happening making Harry shout silently. Huh, seems the silencing charm was a good idea after all, Harry concluded, deciding not to doubt Hermione again.

The scary brilliant witch in question was once again regarding his shoulder with the utmost attention, and it took her a few seconds to realize he was glaring at her, and a few more to figure out the why.

"Oh, sorry Harry." She sounded embarrassed as she dispelled the silencing charm.

"It's fine. Thank you." He rolled his shoulder a few times, the joint still aching but the arm was at least usable now.

"Ideally we would have gone to the ER, but…" She was chewing her lip anxiously, and Harry stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione, relax. You did great. But we should probably get going before the entire Auror department or whoever Dumbledore has sent shows up." Hermione's look darkened at that, clearly agreeing with Harry about who had gotten them into this pile of shit. The muggles would flush them out, and then the wizards would do the rest. It was such a Dumbledore move Harry almost had to laugh. He would have, had it not been his and Hermione's life on the line.

As it was, Harry got dressed and they got back under the cloak, sharing a meaningful look as they began their career as thieves. They first nicked a pair of warm, fluffy jackets, hats, scarves and gloves, followed by some canned food, a pan and a large pressure pot. Lacking space where to put all this, Hermione shrunk most of the larger things so they fit in their backpacks. Last but not least, they stole one of the two-man tents, which Hermione like ways shrunk and stuffed into her backpack.

Now ready to scale Mount Everest, or survive the Scottish winter, the two snuck back outside, the police helicopter still audible in the distance. They walked alongside the main road for a while, their pace slow due to wearing the invisibility cloak. At least the freezing to death problem had seemingly been dealt with, as Harry was actually beginning to get rather warm under the new clothes, and with Hermione's warm body pressed next to his under the confines of the cloak.

"I can't believe they reported that I'd kidnapped you." He commented after a few more minutes of silence, causing Hermione to start and nearly topple them both to the floor.

"They what? You didn't tell me that!" She sounded about as scandalized as he felt, which ironically made him feel a bit better.

"Yeah. Now the whole country believes I'm a murdering kidnapper." He grumbled kicking at a pebble in front of him, hoping beyond everything that his classmates back at Hogwarts weren't fed the same crap. 5th year had taught him most of them would probably have believed the story, and he'd suddenly become the Boy-Who-Kidnapped-His-Best-Friend-After-Killing-3-People.

"That's preposterous!" Hermione exclaimed angrily beside him, "I kidnapped you if anything!" He couldn't help but chuckle at that, bumping her with his good shoulder. "I should call them and explain they have it wrong. You see, it was actually Hermione Granger who murdered three people and then kidnapped me." He was glad to see her roll her eyes at him in that familiar way of hers, before biting her lip, the look of concern reappearing.

"I wonder who fed this to the muggles."

"Dunno, but I wouldn't put it past Dumbledore." Harry shrugged as he shared his theory, but Hermione didn't seem to agree.

"I actually think this smells more like something the Ministry would pull." She said darkly, and Harry knew her thoughts probably wandered to a time when the Ministry of Magic had tried a similar attempt to destroy Harry's reputation. "Regardless," Hermione continued, "This place and its surroundings will soon be swarming with Aurors, Death Eaters and Order members, none of whom can catch us. We need to put as much space between us and them as we can."

Harry nodded along half-heartedly, his stomach churning at being chased by the entire country. He looked over at Hermione, his closest and only friend left, and he made an instinctual decision. He felt physically ill as he opened his mouth, but he wasn't about to ruin another life.

"Hermione…" She seemed to pick up on his unease, stopping again to look at him curiously.

"Yes, Harry?"

"As far as most people know, I've kidnapped you. You could still go back, you know. You have your parents to worry about, Ron, your whole life in front of you. You don't have to throw it all away for me. I wouldn't blame you, I really wouldn't if you did." There was not even a millisecond's pause between his sentence ending and her fist hitting his uninjured shoulder, with some power too.

"Shut up, Harry. I told you before and I'll tell you again. We're in this together. I'm not leaving you alone." He breathed a sigh of relief he didn't even know he was holding, feeling terrible for being so relieved at her staying, "Besides," She said in a lighter tone, "I still need to get that soul bit out of your head."

It was clearly evident to Harry, that this woman he was currently on the run with, was the best person he ever did, or would ever know. And he resolved himself to make sure she made it out of this alive and well.

Albus Dumbledore was angry. No, scratch that, he was furious as he threw the floo powder into the fireplace in his office. The fireplace lit a bright green, and Dumbledore stepped into the flames, muttering the address as he did so. His arm throbbed painfully as he stepped out on the other end, his eyes aligning on the person responsible for his fury.

"Minister." There was no warmth in his tone as he greeted the Minister of Magic, who himself seemed thrown off by the cold greeting.

"Albus. You wanted to talk?" Rufus Scrimgeour asked motioning with his head to a chair facing his table, but Dumbledore remained standing.

"You got the muggles to hunt for Harry Potter." It wasn't a question, and Dumbledore was incredibly miffed to see Scrimgeour smile like he was proud of what he'd done.

"Oh, yes, I talked with Prime Minister Blair and explained our little… situation. He agreed to help, and we've concocted this little strategy. Brilliant isn't it, now Potter can't hide in the muggle world, and soon our Aurors will capture him." Scrimgeour sounded genuinely proud of his plan, while Dumbledore's mood soured even further, a scowl now present on his face.

"What you've done is foolish. You should have let me handle this." Dumbledore said doing his best not to show how angry he was, but Scrimgeour merely quirked an eyebrow at his disapproval.

"What are you talking about? Giving You-Know-Who Harry Potter was your idea in the first place." Scrimgeour said heatedly, standing up and extending a finger towards him, "I may have been willing to do a lot of things to buy us more time to win this war, but sending a child to his death wasn't one of them. I wasn't going to agree to You-Know-Who's terms. But you accepted them." Scrimgeour threw his hands in the air at that, looking almost betrayed at Dumbledore's sudden anger.

Scrimgeour's words did give Dumbledore pause, his anger at the Minister lessening by the second, being redirected towards himself. Scrimgeour had done the logical thing, he knew, it was something Albus would have done himself had he wanted to capture Harry. But he'd had a sudden change of heart, and he didn't want to find him anymore. He had one last problem with Scrimgeour's plan though.

"What about the girl, Miss Granger? This plan of yours puts her in a lot of unnecessary danger." Scrimgeour's smile only got wider at that.

"That is exactly why we claimed she was kidnapped by Harry Potter. Thus, we minimize the chance of any muggle policeman accidentally shooting her. She'll be quite safe, I assure you." Dumbledore had nothing more to say after that. Scrimgeour had well and truly outmanoeuvred him, and the success of the mission he'd given to Remus was now vital. If they didn't get to Harry first, he was going to die.

Remus Lupin landed awkwardly in a large snowy bush, his apparition seemingly a bit off in his hurry to arrive at his destination. As he – in the midst of much grumbling and swearing – got out of the bush, the rest of his 'team' materialized around him, Tonks unable to hide her amusement at his predicament. The two older wizards in the group, Kingsley and Alastor were already focused on the main road just in front of them, and the hotel that stood next to it.

They all cast a few muggle-repelling charms on each other, before approaching the hubbub of activity surrounding the hotel. Remus didn't exactly know what the Ministry of Magic had told the muggles, but whatever it was it had to be pretty bad, seeing as the hotel was surrounded by a horde of muggle policemen.

There had to be more of them here than there were students at Hogwarts, Remus thought, the sound of helicopters a constant background noise. The news they'd gotten was that Harry and Hermione escaped though, which meant that finding them quickly was now the top priority. But they barely got close to the police tape surrounding the hotel, when they walked straight into a second decidedly non-muggle quartet.

"Shacklebolt, Nymphadora. What are you two doing here?" Asked the man at the front of the quartet, their red robes and Ministry of Magic logos identifying them as Aurors. The Order members shared a quick glance before Kingsley stepped forth.

"I suppose the same as you. Trying to find Harry Potter." His deep baritone rumbled as he spoke, and the lead Auror narrowed his eyes.

"You're not in uniform though. And Alastor's retired." He listed off, before his eyes found Remus, "And… who are you?"

"Relax Cavendish. We're off duty, working with Albus Dumbledore to find Harry." Tonks said in a placating way, and that more than anything seemed to calm the Aurors.

"Fine with me, as long as you don't slow us down. Come on boys, let's go." The lead Auror, Cavendish, said to his colleagues, but before they could depart a new voice carried into the mix.

"Well, well, well, lookie who we have here." It was a melodic, female voice, and a split second later 8 wands were pointed in that direction, both the Order members and the Aurors entering combat stances. Because approaching them casually was none other than Bellatrix Lestrange, flanked on either side by Yaxsley and Dolohov, MacNair following just behind.

"Oh, relax boys, we're on the same side. Isn't that just great!" Not a single member on their side relaxed, and Remus was very close to casting a curse, but just about managed to hold himself back.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with clenched teeth, very afraid he knew the answer already. Bellatrix cackled at that, looking like she was enjoying herself greatly.

"Trying to find Potter, what else. My Lord really wants to have him." He felt his stomach drop at that, knowing just how high the stakes were now. He had hopes he could have convinced the Aurors to hand Harry to them if they found Harry first, but there would be no convincing these lot. He would have cursed them all had the truce not been in place. What joke, this truce, protecting these murdering bastards from paying for what they'd done, Remus swore inwardly.

"You better not put a toe out of line, or we'll deal with you, truce or not." Cavendish hissed towards the death eaters, receiving a sneer in return from Dolohov.

"You think we're afraid of some Aurors? Hah!" But Cavendish merely smirked at Dolohov's response, turning to face the young, bearded Auror to his right.

"Hey Kenneth?"

"Yes, sir?"

"After killing Rodolphus last month, aren't you just itching to complete the family set?" Bellatrix's easy-going smile disappeared instantly, and suddenly their wands were joined by those of the death eaters. Bellatrix looked to be barely restraining herself from firing off a spell at this Kenneth, but then again, each and every wizard present had that same expression. The tension could be cut with a knife.

Remus almost wished the Death Eater scum fired, as he was beyond confident that they'd wipe the floor with them. Just Kingsley and Alastor alone would probably be enough. But sadly, just as Bellatrix's wand tip began gloving a green colour, Dolohov placed a warning hand on her shoulder, harshly whispering something in her ear. And as if a switch was flipped, she pocketed her wand and went back to looking cheery.

"Anyways, we've lost enough time." She said aloud, before stepping close to their group and leaning in, four wands tracking her every movement, "By the way, I'm going to enjoy watching Potter die once we capture him." She spun on her heels, now leaning in towards the Aurors, a frankly terrifying look in her eyes, "See you around, Kenneth. Bye!" And then they were gone, their retreating forms quickly swallowed by the chaos of people around them.

"We need to find Potter before this lot. Come on." Cavendish said after a short pause, and the Aurors departed as well, leaving the four Order members standing alone in the middle of the muggles rushing around.

"We can't let Harry fall into their hands." Remus said softly, his voice barely carrying over to the others. He felt Tonks place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but the action didn't cheer him up much.