Characters: Susan Bones, Hestia Carrow, Rodolphus Lestrange Setting: Diagon Alley/ Lestrange Manor Rating: PG? Content: None Summary: Susan disappears from Diagon Alley Status: Complete
Heading out of the Ministry of Magic Diagon Alley exit, Susan walked quickly along the cobblestones as she headed toward the usual grocery store. It was the end of her day and she’d promised her Auntie Amelia that she would pick up a few groceries before heading home. With Amelia as Minister for Magic, she tended to pull much longer hours which meant that it was now often up to Susan to cook their dinner. She didn’t mind much, and actually rather preferred cooking, so it worked out quite well, as far as Susan was concerned.
Stepping out of the shop a half hour later, laden down with a cloth carrier bag with a variety of goods, Susan headed out of the shop and further down the street. Not really sure what she was going to make for dinner, Susan was going over various recipes in her head as she walked, not paying all that much attention to the people milling about her.
As the minutes ticked down, Hestia stood in position between two buildings and went over the plan in her head for the fiftieth time. She was uncomfortably aware of Rodolphus lurking just out of sight, watching her and judging her on how well she pulled this off. She took a deep breath and readied her wand as she saw Susan draw near. It was now or never.
With a slicing hex, Hestia caused Susan’s bag to split, the contents rolling everywhere - but none of them in the right direction, she noted with dismay. Glancing over her shoulder, unsure where Rodolphus was, she quickly recovered, casting accio and charming one or two of the items toward herself. Every muscle in her body was tensed, waiting for the exact moment when Susan would follow her groceries down the little alley, close enough for the next step.
Susan almost didn’t notice as her bag split. It was unexpected, given the material, and as she took a step, then a second and realised the bag felt much lighter, she paused, looking immediately down at her bad, only to realise that most of the items were already all over the street. Frowning, Susan gathered what she could, hoping to at least have everything in one place before figuring out how to carry it home.
Only as she reached out for some one the errant oranges, the thing started rolling away! Reaching for it, Susan frowned as it rolled further away. She started toward it on her knees, but as it headed toward an alley, Susan got up and started after it. It was like the buggery thing had a mind of its own.
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Hestia was proud of both her timing and the way she’d managed to cast the spell without raising her voice loud enough to be heard outside the alley.
Susan didn’t even have enough time to react. Leaning down to pick up the orange, she heard a voice and then froze suddenly. Her body straightened and she felt her limbs fly to her side. Within a second she’d frozen in place, her body toppling backward with momentum. Susan didn’t know what was going on. One moment she was picking up an orange and the next she was flat on her back, staring up at the sky. Her eyes seemed to be able to move, but no other muscle in her body was cooperating as she willed herself to move.
Hestia would lying if she said she wasn’t a little bit relieved as Susan landed on her back in front of her. The plan was going off without a hitch. She reached down and awkwardly hoisted the prone girl to an upright position so that she could disapparate, clutching Susan tightly to her. In moments she was standing at the Lestranges front gate, breathing heavily with the effort of keeping Susan’s dead weight upright as she waited for Rodolphus to come and let her in.
So far, Rodolphus had been very impressed with what he'd seen the young Carrow do. Oh, it wasn't so very perfectly elegant, he had to say a quick spell to clean up the spilled shopping before apparating back to his manor, but she was rather good. She got the Bones girl, and that was the important bit. He had a smile on his face as he landed inside the gate, swinging it open to admit Hestia with her charge. "This way," he indicated, leading them inside. He lead her down to his basement, though stopped for a moment. "As I told you yesterday, this room is a secret. Its contents are a secret. You will end up much worse for the wear if you speak of this place to anyone. Is that understood?" He waited for her assent before he nodded and made his way inside the wine cellar portion. "Turn around," he commanded. The entrance incantation was known only by himself - even Bella did not know how to enter here without him. Once the door was unlocked, he opened it and smiled. He was quite excited to see what the young Miss Carrow would be able to do here. "Alright then, you may enter."
Though she had attempted to carry Susan as she followed Rodolphus, the effort had made her start to perspire. Disgusted, Hestia dumped the girl’s prone form to the ground, levitating her with a flick of her wand and letting Susan trail behind her. “What was I thinking?” she muttered under her breath. “Manual labor, like I’m some sort of...”
While she waited for Rodolphus to open the basement door, she amused herself by sending Susan drifting gently around the little corridor, smirking as she bounced off the walls.
Odd didn’t even begin to describe just how weird it was to know that things were going on around her, see that she was being taken and yet be completely unable to do anything about the matter. She wanted to kick, scream, run the other way, but instead she was completely still. Incapable of even blinking. She was soon pushed up right, then felt the familiar and stomach-twisting tug as she was disapparated, Merlin only knew where.
She couldn’t really see her captor, only a vague shape as she was brought in, but she heard every word as the man joined her, and she got a brief glimpse of that face; tried to commit it to memory, if she ever got out of this alive. Susan wasn’t really sure what was going on, but it was clear as they moved to wherever it was she was being taken, that it would mostly be luck that would get her out alive.
Suddenly she was back on the ground, this time her nose squished up against the floor, before she felt her body lifting, weightless into the air. Even as she was floated around, her head crashing against the wall, she tried to struggle. It as useless, she knew it, but it was something to do, and right now, trying to escape was better than taking it all in.
Hestia glided down the stairs into the cellar with her usual grace, letting Susan slide down behind her. There was a rather satisfying soft “thud” sound as her head bounced off every stair on the way down. At the bottom, Hestia flicked her wand, letting the stiff form of the older girl land on a pile of sacks.
She walked over to her, placing shackles around her wrists with some difficulty - they were clamped to her sides, after all - and then lifted the hex.
“Hello, Bones.”
“Let me go!” The first words came tumbling out of Susan’s mouth as the spell was released and she could move again. Her head was killing her, having hit so many steps on her way down, but that didn’t matter. She needed to get out of there right now. Despite the shackles, she tried to reach into her pockets, going immediately for her wand before trying to struggle to her feet.
Hestia smirked. “Expelliarmus,” she drawled lazily, and no sooner had Susan got her fingers around her wand than it was spinning gracefully through the air and landing in Hestia’s outstretched palm.
“You don’t really think I’m going to let you go, do you?” she asked. “You didn’t even say please.” She let her lips curl into a smirk, settling down next to the girl delicately and leaning in close.
“Let’s talk,” she began, her tone conversational and completely out of place given the fact that they were sitting in a dungeon and Susan was shackled to a wall and wandless. “The world is... going to hell. Somehow, some way, people have deluded themselves that Mudbloods and Muggles are decent human beings, and the current Minister for Magic is only encouraging this nonsense. I - that is, we - would like her to step down.”
She leaned in even closer, speaking softly into Susan’s ear. “I rather think that when she starts receiving... pieces... of her niece... in the mail, she’ll agree that it’s in her best interests and yours to acquiesce to our request.”
Slowly, gently, Hestia trailed Susan’s wand over the girl’s face, down the curve of her cheek, across her lips, back up her jaw to her ear - then quick as lightning, she grabbed a handful of Susan’s hair, yanking her head back and casting a simple slicing charm. Her hand came away clutching a thick lock of hair.
“Let’s see how we do with this for a start,” she said, releasing her grip.
Susan nearly cursed at her wand flew out of her hand. She tried reaching for it, but her movements were obviously fruitless as it landed safely in her captor’s hands. She could now see her face, but although it was vaguely familiar, and Susan was sure she’d seen her before, she wasn’t really sure where. Susan didn’t want to concentrate on that though, not when she needed to worry more about getting out of there.
Susan glared at the girl. “Let me go.” She repeated. Easily ignored, Susan tugged at her chains again as the girl stepped closer. She wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying, though Susan quickly bristled at the use of the word ‘mudblood’. “Let me go now, and I won’t tell anyone. You can’t keep me here.”
When the girl leaned close to whisper to her, Susan shuddered. Pieces. She pushed her off. “Let me go! I have nothing to do with my auntie, and this isn’t going to help anyone!” Susan moved away from her, her head turning away as the her wand moved across her face. She winced in pain, and the girl grabbed her hair and for a moment she waited for the cuts on her skin, only not to feel them, and Susan couldn’t help but sigh in relief.
“Let me go,” Hestia mocked. “Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said? You’re not leaving, not until I say so.” For a moment, she wasn’t sure whether to be amused or enraged at Susan’s assertion. “I can’t keep you here?” she asked incredulously. She leaned in again, right in Susan’s face. “I. Already. Have.”
She began to pace leisurely in front of the girl. “It doesn’t matter whether or not you have anything to do with her - it matters only that she cares enough about you to save you from what is about to happen,” she said casually. “Do you think she does?”
Susan’s eyes narrowed at the girl. She didn’t dislike many people, and it was in her general nature to be as nice as possible, but she was making this impossible. She said nothing as the girl leaned close to her, Susan struggled again, wishing she could get loose. As she started talking again, Susan didn’t bother answering. Yes, her Auntie Amelia cared about her, but it was daft to think she’d give in. After all, who was to say that Susan would ever be freed.
“Suit yourself,” Hestia shrugged. Nodding to Rodolphus, she made her way back up the stairs, summoning an owl as she did so. “Perhaps,” she said to him, “a couple of days down here alone with no food will put a more civil tongue in her head when she addresses her betters.”
“Just let me go!” Susan called after her, deciding she needed to speak again. She struggled against her chains. “Please! I won’t tell anyone, and it’ll be okay!” She called out toward the retreating figure, even as she was getting the sinking feeling that nothing she could say or do was going to make this any better.