Trapped
"Oh, stop complaining about your feet, Ron!" Hermione chided him for the twelfth time as they wound their way through the earthy gloom. "No one cares if they're sore; we've got bigger problems to deal with in case you hadn't noticed."
"I was only saying!"
"So," Neville continued his conversation with Harry and Alice as the other two bickered ahead, "does this come out into the Shrieking Shack then?" They had told Neville of their exploits of the previous summer.
Alice nodded.
"Where you met your godfather?"
"Yeah, it was a bit strange I'll admit."
"Neville," Harry said after a moment's thought. "Before, when we were fighting with Malfoy and he said your parents were..."
"Mad?" Neville asked, not flinching over the word.
"Harry," Alice broke in, "I don't think this is the -"
"No, it's alright, Alice. I'll... I can manage." He looked at Harry before looking back down at his feet as they continued to pick their way across the uneven ground. "What did you want to ask?"
"It was... Alice knew didn't she, before just now. Is that what you've been talking about when the two of you have been by yourselves?"
"I'm sorry," Neville apologised. "I asked Alice not to tell anyone when she found out. I hope you don't mind, she promised not to say anything to anyone."
"No, that's fine, please don't apologise," he smiled at his sister. "I'm just glad you had someone to talk to. And Alice is brilliant for stuff like that."
"Yeah, she is. I don't know if I could have gotten through the last few months without her."
Alice felt herself blushing from all the praise.
"Oi, Harry, mate," they heard Ron's yell from up front and the sounds of he and Hermione struggling to shift something, "come up here and give us a hand with this. There's a board fallen against the tunnel.
As Harry rushed to help Alice slipped her hand into Neville's and gave it a squeeze. "Thanks Neville, you didn't have to say that."
Now it was Neville's turn to blush.
Without saying anything else they caught up with the others just as they moved a broken floorboard from what turned out to be the entrance, or exit depending on which way you looked at it, to the tunnel.
Alice was halfway through the space when she heard Hermione let out a soft exclamation and she just had time to brace herself for the inevitable rush of time when the Time Turner threw them somewhere else again. Mercifully, not as violently as it had previously.
"Hermione," Ron moaned as he helped pull the last of them to their feet inside the dusty room, "if that wasn't the only way we might get back to where we need to be I swear I would..." But he didn't seem to know what exactly he would do so simply shrugged and remained silent.
"Right," Hermione announced having waited patiently for a response, "well, let's get down to business shall we?" Walking over to a rickety, old table she thumped the book down upon it creating a cloud of dust in the air as she did so. The others watched as she coughed and spluttered before rifling through the pages to find the right one.
"Right, everybody be quiet for a moment," Hermione threw a warning glare in their direction before returning to study the page in front of her.
"Do you need -?" Alice began to ask, but was cut off by the violent shushing which greeted her. She retired in silence with a grin at her friends.
"Honestly," Ron whispered so softly that only Alice and Neville could hear, "she's worse than McGonagall sometimes."
As Hermione began to mumble quietly to herself Alice wandered over to the window where her brother was standing gazing through a gap in the boards covering it. The view outside was bleak; the grey clouds scudding swiftly past on a vicious wind.
"So, when do you reckon we are now?" She asked.
Harry glanced at her and smiled wanly. "I dunno, it could be anytime I suppose. It looks like spring though, see the trees?"
Alice glanced in the direction of the few scrubby plants she could see clinging to the haunted hillside. Trees. They barely warranted the name. They were more like bushes. Or twigs with aspirations. Still she could see his point, they did have a few green sprouts clinging to them.
"Want to go outside and take a look? Hermione looks like she might be a while."
Harry glanced back at his girlfriend who now had her wand out and was tapping the Time Turner experimentally as she continued to mutter incomprehensibly. Alice caught the occasional snatched phrase, but her grasp of Latin was too poor to work out exactly what she was saying. She might as well have been speaking Mermish for all Alice could understand her.
"Sure," her brother nodded.
The two of them wandered outside, where they were immediately assailed by the biting wind. "Maybe we should find somewhere sheltered to sit?" She yelled the suggestion. Harry's words were snatched out of his mouth as soon as he uttered them, but she saw his nod. Walking slightly further down the hill they found such as spot amongst the rocks and to their back the heather made a soft pillow to lean on. The siblings sat in comfortable silence again for a few moments, each lost in their own thoughts, before finally Harry spoke up.
"Don't worry, we'll manage to get back. We'll see Sirius again." He sounded as though he was trying to convince himself as much as her.
Alice put an arm around his shoulders. "Of course we will. Hermione is a genius. If anyone can get us back it will be her. Besides it's her daft Time Turner."
That brought a chuckle from him, but he quickly grew serious. "If we are though, I'm glad you're stuck too. Ow!" He exclaimed as she bashed him lightly on the arm. "What was that for?!"
Alice rolled her eyes at his melodrama. "I'm glad my predicament amuses you."
"No, I just meant that I'm glad we're stuck together, that I'm not, that we're not…" He floundered and glared at her.
Alice softened. "I know what you meant. And for the record I'm glad you're here too."
They lapsed into silence again before Harry asked: "Can you hear someone shouting?"
"It's probably Hermione and Ron again, you know what they're like."
"No, I -"
"So, this is where you got to!"
Ron, Neville and Hermione came trouping down the hill; Ron looking resigned, Neville miserable and Hermione thoroughly put out.
"Did it work?" Alice asked immediately, though she suspected she knew the answer.
"No," Hermione pouted and flopped down next to her. "I don't understand. The spell should have been exactly what we needed. The book said it would fix time. When sand flowed and the time runs out the spell will end. It explicitly said!" Alice wasn't sure whether she was more annoyed at finding herself stranded in time and out of ideas or at the fact a book had failed her.
"Were you two shouting at each other?" Harry cut in.
Hermione gave him a sharp look. "No."
"For once," Ron added.
"I could have sworn I -"
"Never mind about that now, we need to work out what we are going to do!"
"Well don't look at me," Ron countered, "I've no idea."
"We don't even know when we are," Neville added.
"Harry thought it might be spring." Alice told them.
"Well that's helpful, it could be any of a thousand springs."
"Actually it couldn't," she reasoned, "the Shack's not that old really and it looks just as dusty as it did last year when we met Sirius there. I'd say it was a safe bet we're not that far off when we left."
"Yes, but -"
"Will you all shut up! There's someone coming," Harry hissed loudly, grabbing the others robes he pulled them down so they were lying flat next to he and Alice.
Not a moment too soon; no sooner had they all thumped down into the grass and wriggled around to find a more comfortable spot than several figures came into sight around the side of the hill. There were four that she could see, all arguing. Loudly.
"For goodness sake, it's just as well I found you, this is neither the time nor the place."
Alice froze where she lay. She knew that voice, would recognise it anywhere and had last heard it at the Quidditch World Cup. Lucius Malfoy, his robes billowing broadly in the wind and his normally slick blonde hair streaming around his face, was standing less than ten feet away from them. What in Merlin's name was he doing here?
"Oh, don't get your wand in such knot," a cackling, sing-song voice replied. It was a woman speaking, matted black hair was thrown wildly around her haggard face and a thick robe, much too big for her thrown around another tattered stripy set. A set of stripy robes which Alice knew from experience marked her out as an inmate of Azkaban prison. She should know, she had watched Sirius grimly burn his own last summer. All at once Alice knew exactly who this woman was and as though he reached the conclusion at exactly the same time she felt Neville tense beside her.
"Don't be ridiculous, Bella. The Potter brats will be far too well protected to get at them in there." Lucius sounded harassed. "I have it on good authority that they're not even there for the holidays anyway, they've been spirited off somewhere."
"I can wait," the gaunt woman, Bellatrix Lestrange, pouted; an odd expression on such a starved face. "Besides, from what I've heard, my dear cousin Sirius managed to get in there not long ago. If he can do it then we certainly can." There was a murmur of assent from the cloaked men behind her. There were three: one small, dark and skinny and two enormous hulking figures. Seeing them Alice was reminded forcibly of Crabbe and Goyle though she suspected they were infinitely more dangerous by virtue of age and the evil intelligence glinting in their eyes. "And if I manage it then when he returns the Dark Lord will -"
"He would be furious," Lucius stopped her. "What?" He asked at her startled look. "Do you really imagine that he would be pleased? That he would reward you for robbing him of the chance to kill the Potter boy for himself? When he has been responsible for the Dark Lord's suffering all these years?"
"What do you know of the Dark Lord's suffering, Lucius?" Bellatrix spat, she had turned so that Alice could no longer see her face, but she could hear the venom in the woman's voice, "you who did nothing to find him in thirteen years?"
"You do seem to have done fairly well for yourself in that time, Lucius," one of the men added in a soft, rasping voice. Alice could barely hear his words over the wind.
As the older Malfoy stood and fumed silently for a moment Alice glanced at her brother lying next to her. How were they going to get out of this one? The Death Eaters were practically on top of them. Harry's eyes were fixed on their faces, hatred burning brightly. Alice crossed her fingers tightly and wished with all her heart that the Time Turner would suddenly perform one of its random leaps and they would be scooped out of the situation. No such luck.
"I have spent thirteen years putting myself in a position of influence so that upon the Dark Lord's return we can act effectively. I have been loyal."
One of the other men snorted contemptuously.
"Well, once we return the Dark Lord to power we shall see about loyalty," another added.
"And your last attempt at that went so well," Lucius drawled, clearly sensing he had the upper hand again. "You tortured the Longbottoms into St Mungo's and only got a spell in Azkaban to show for it."
Alice felt, more than heard, Neville emit a low growl, the fingers around her arm tightened painfully.
"Yes, well," Bellatrix moved several steps towards the hidden group, "in Azkaban one hears things and for all your supposed connections and influence, Lucius, we seem to have managed what you have not, we have found -" her sentence abruptly cut off for at that moment she had turned, gesturing expansively, and locked eyes with the Gryffindors.
For what seemed an eternity her gaze swept over the group lying huddled in the heather, switching from one terrified face to the next. Seeing her distraction the four men came to stand behind her, astonishment plain on their faces.
"Well, well, well," a cruel smile crawled up her cheeks.
"Run!" Harry yelled.
The five of them scrambled to their feet and whirled down the hill, stumbling and jumping as fast as they could, going in whichever direction they found in front of them. Already hammering, Alice's heart swiftly came close to bursting from her chest. Behind her she could hear cackling laughter and she had barely taken another step when a bolt of light shot perilously past her.
"Get them!"
Alice found herself running with Neville and Ron; Harry and Hermione were sprinting further down the hill in the direction of Hogsmeade, all thought of hiding had vanished from their minds. It was a place of relative safety and their only hope was to get there before the Death Eaters caught up.
"Neville, come on!" She screamed at her slower friend as another flash of green light sped over their heads.
"Careful!" She heard Lucius Malfoy shout. "The Potter boy must not be harmed!"
Trying to block them out Alice grabbed Neville's arm and pulled him along. Ron took his other hand and the three of them helped each other leap and scramble down the rough ground and across the rocks.
"We're never going to make it," Ron panted in between firing spells over his shoulder. The two of them shared a worried glance over Neville's head before being forced to concentrate on their precarious footing once more. Alice fired another spell and heard a woman screech in pain and anger in response. Without looking to see what had happened she kept running. The flashes of light coming from further down the hill she assumed that Harry and Hermione were putting up a similar running defence.
It was only a matter of time before one of them stumbled on a rock littering the path of their downwards flight however. Neville caught his foot on a rock as Alice was twisting to cast a spell, Ron attempted to stop their fall, but was only dragged down himself in a tangled heap of arms and legs.
"Come on, quick." Despite having the longest body to extricate he was on his feet again almost instantly, hauling them up whilst Neville babbled apologies. "Never mind that," he told him none too gently, "they're coming!" He was so pale that each of his freckles stood out starkly across his face.
They leapt a few more paces downhill before Alice felt something hit her squarely in the back with enough force to drive her clean off her feet and send her spinning into the open air.
"Alice!" She heard her friends' horrified yells. The feeling of sickness as she smacked into the ground and tumbled down the hill had almost nothing to do with being hit, her short flight, or the fact she began rolling on impact and everything to do with her snatched sighting of Harry and Hermione who had turned at all the yelling and come running back towards them.
"No!" She tried to shout and scramble to her feet. She struggled vainly for a moment, trying to get her legs and her jaw to work, but neither would cooperate. She was entirely frozen and, as she came to rest with her face to the ground, blinded. Whatever spell had hit her she was stuck good and fast. With a horrible flash she was back in second year toppling through the tapestry to meet almost certain death at the fangs of the Basilisk, but unlike on that previous occasion she didn't lose consciousness. She could hear her friends yelling her name, feet thudding across the ground as it jumped and rattled, deranged cackling, a yell of pain followed by Ron swearing in a fluid stream, Hermione was screaming something and suddenly Harry was there, his hands turning her over allowing her to see him take one agonised look at her before his eyes flickered upwards, masking his fear with hate and speaking in a voice much calmer than she was sure he felt. "Let them go."
"Now Potter," if Alice could have moved a muscle she was sure she would have flinched at the sound of Lucius Malfoy's voice so close to them. "Let's all just be reasonable."
From where she lay Alice could see Harry's wand switching from one target to another as he stood protectively over his sister. Hearing someone moving through the rustling grass towards them she strained, trying to move her eyes in vain, the pain nearly blinded her, but not before she saw Bellatrix Lestrange walking into the corner of her field of vision. The woman was bleeding from the temple and looked madder than ever. Her eyes locked with Alice's and narrowed bitterly.
"Hold him," she barked never glancing up once. Arms suddenly appeared to encircle Harry's pinning them to his side so that no mater how hard he kicked and struggled he couldn't break free.
"Bella," she heard Lucius' warning voice. "The Potter boy is not to be -"
"Oh, calm down," she drawled, "I'm not going to touch him. I'm just going to have some fun with his sister." Her wand flicked up to point straight at Alice's face as she took another step towards her and in that second Alice was convinced that was it. Her life would end on that wind tossed hill with her friends screaming around her. No one would even know what had happened; she would simply have disappeared in time.
"Finite."
Alice felt her body relax as though something had melted. Although the jinx vanished her fear still kept her pinned to the ground. Now that she could focus her eyes properly she saw from the corners that the other Death Eaters each had a tight hold on her friends, wands trained to kill in an instant if required. Her gaze darted to Harry for a split second and she registered his face full of stubborn anger and fear before she was drawn back to Bellatrix now advancing on her. It was impossible to look away from her for long, that expression was so deranged and hypnotic that it seemed to pull you in.
"Bella," Lucius warned again as she flicked her wand and Alice felt herself being pulled to her feet. She hadn't imagined the feeling of constraint either, although she was free to move slightly she was still rooted to the spot, unable to run even if she wanted to.
"Well, well, well, well, well," Bellatrix swayed towards her speaking in a strange, baby voice, "now here's a conundrum. You're meant to be dead if I'm not mistaken. Imagine my surprise when I heard you weren't; I thought you died as a baby."
Alice found her tongue had dried to the roof of her mouth and couldn't think of anything to say.
"Well, we can always fix that."
"You leave her alone!" Harry screamed, kicking ineffectually against his captor.
"Don't worry Potter, I'm only playing. You should learn to control that temper, it's a bad habit you've picked up from my dear cousin Sirius. How is Sirius?" She asked Alice in a stage whisper. She was so close now that the girl could feel her breath as it tickled against her cheek. "Life out of Azkaban treating him well? He never came to say goodbye, then again he was never one for family loyalty."
"With you as family I can hardly blame him," Alice's voice was barely a whisper, but the Death Eater was so close now that she still heard every word, "Sirius is a good man."
Bellatrix snorted pointedly before shoving her face so close to Alice's that she could feel every fleck of spit which flew forth. "What do you know about family? Poor, little orphan Alice, she's got no one that loves her, no one that cares."
Alice did her best to summon up a contemptuous glare, or disdainful comment, but none was forthcoming. The most she could do was continue to watch Bellatrix and try not to look as terrified as she felt. This was a task she struggled with as Bellatrix raised her wand and gently drew it down Alice's cheek. "Oh dear," she observed with mock sincerity, "it looks like you've cut your lip." She turned to her companions behind her who were watching with various degrees of caution and amusement. The caution Alice would have noticed with interest if not for the proximity of a mad woman waving a wand in her face, was largely that of Lucius Malfoy. "Look everyone, the Potter girl is bleeding. Such as shame to mark that pale, perfect skin." She pinched Alice's face between hard, sharp fingers and squeezed painfully against her teeth. "Such as shame," she muttered distractedly and Alice felt a sudden flair of heat and stabbing pain beneath her eye, just at the point where Bellatrix's wand connected. With excruciating cruelty the wand was drawn from her cheek to her jaw, the wand tip trailing almost longingly down to her chin as Alice tried not to shriek or writhe in pain. She refused to give the woman the satisfaction. Instead, nearly blinded by tears and pain, she gritted her teeth and tried to stare her out as her friends' screams reverberated around her. She could hear Harry's voice, full of all the pain she felt herself, as he attempted to wrench himself from his captors, hollering madly all the while.
She tasted blood in her mouth, but couldn't tell if it was spilling from her cheek or from the tongue she was biting almost through in an effort not to cry out in pain, as Bellatrix watched her with evil glee she refused to let out so much as a whimper. Seeing that she had achieved all the entertainment she would from that particular stunt Bellatrix allowed her to drop, like a discarded doll onto the ground. Through her haze of pain and fear Alice could feel the warm trickle of blood down her neck and see it patter onto her hand as she sat hunched trying to find a way out of the situation.
"Leave her alone you evil cow!" Where Neville found the courage to speak up Alice would never know, but she felt an immense swell of affection for him as he did so. And a tremendous amount of fear for his safety.
"Shut up you," the Death Eater holding him shook Neville roughly as Bellatrix's eyes lit up and she moved towards him leaving Alice behind her.
"Another hero over here, have we? What's your name then, my dear?"
"Neville," he spat, a rage Alice had never seen in him before, twisting at his face, "Neville Longbottom."
There was a moment of silence as Bellatrix's gaunt and maddened face filled with glee and her companions chortled in amusement. Alice watched helplessly as she advanced on her friend and at the same time tried to wordlessly convey to Harry and her friends that she was fine. It was a difficult task considering blood was still steadily dripping slowly from her chin.
"Bella," Lucius spoke again and Alice glanced to where he stood, Hermione held firmly in his grasp. The bushy-haired Gryffindor stood stiffly, her wand in Lucius' hand and the broken remains of the Time Turner clutched in her own. If only it had worked; now they were trapped, injured and more than likely going to be killed unless they could think of a way out.
Alice watched the blood trickle through her fingers mingling with the earth below, the wind had blown her hair into her face where it had become a matted, stinging mess. She cursed the stupid Time Turner, cursed Malfoy for breaking it, cursed herself for walking into this and most of all she wanted to curse that stupid, gloating smirk right off Bellatrix Lestrange's face.
"Time's up," she was cooing in Harry's face now, "it's all run out for itty, bitty, baby Potter."
Alice didn't know whether it was Bellatrix's words, the sight of the blood between her fingers or the delirium induced by the blood loss, but she suddenly found herself having an idea that was either genius or madness. Hermione's words outside the Shrieking Shack came back to her in a spark of inspiration and she felt energy surge through her.
"…when sand flows," she muttered to herself, "and time runs out…" She had it. "Hermione!" She suddenly screamed, feeling her lip split all over again as it was pulled violently open. "The Time Turner! You need to smash it!"
Hermione gazed at her blankly for a moment, the usual intelligence in her eyes clouded by fear and confusion as the Death Eaters looked from one girl to the other trying to work out what was going on.
"Smash it!" Alice repeated. She could see the golden fragments glinting through Hermione's fingers as grains of sand continued to trickle between them in short flurries. All Alice wanted to do was lift herself up and sprint across to do it herself, but she knew she'd never make it in time; everything relied on Hermione.
"What is she talking about?" Bellatrix demanded just as Hermione's eyes seemed to clear and understanding flooded her face. "Someone shut her up - wait, what is she doing? Lucius, stop her!"
But he was too late. As Mr Malfoy made a grab for the golden chain Hermione threw it to the ground and stamped on it violently. At the same time she snatched her wand from an uncomprehending Malfoy's fingers before summoning the others to her. Alice watched with bated breath as the wind shifted the sand from the obliterated remnants of the Time Turner and carried them off. Nothing happened, the world failed to move and for a long minute they continued to stare at the remains willing something to happen. Irate at being disobeyed Bellatrix advanced on Hermione wand raised to prevent the girl attacking and her other hand raised to strike her.
A/N: Since it's been two weeks since I updated I thought I'd give you a nice, dramatic chapter with a good old cliffhanger at the end of it! Aren't I nice? Anyway read, enjoy and review if you can!