I had a flash of inspiration so here's the next installment. Let me know what you think.

Seven, part two, Red
Teddy felt a chill run down his spine. He knew that voice, but it couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. Slowly he turned, still clutching his wand but pointing it at the ground. In the doorway of the drawing room was a teenaged year old girl. He could see a wand pointed at her throat. Her eyes were brimful of tears but she was giving Teddy a burning look. Slowly, she edged out of the room and Teddy saw a large hand clenching her shoulder.

“Wands on the ground gentlemen. I will not tell you again.”

Teddy could now see the man who was issuing the threats. His icy glare was disturbingly familiar, but Teddy had seen the man die, so how was it that he was stood in the hall of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, with his wand at the throat of an innocent child?

*****

Remus ran, trying to keep up with Dora’s impressive pace. At five months pregnant, she could still run faster than him. The Death Eaters had been following them for a fortnight and had chosen the day after full moon to attack, expecting Remus to be weak. He realised too late that they had run into a dead end. They were trapped. Remus only just managed to block the spells raining in on them. They traded spells with the Death Eaters, the air cracking with light.

“You have to Apparate!”

“But what about the baby?”

“We’re both going to be dead in a minute if we don’t go! You first!”

He aimed a stunner at Dolohov and it hit him in the face. He fell backwards into Travers, knocking him off his feet. Travers struggled underneath Dolohov, who seemed to be pinning him to the floor. Two more masked Death Eaters stepped over them, taking their place in the fight, firing off green jets of light. They missed Remus and Tonks by inches. The wall behind them was becoming chipped; bricks were cracking as spells hit them. It seemed that either the Death Eaters would kill them, or the wall would fall on them.

“Those are Killing Curses Dora! Apparate now, please!” Remus tried to keep his mind focused on defending his wife and child, his family, but already there was a whine of panic in his mind. He could not stand to loose his family.

There was a cackle of mad laughter that seemed to cut through Remus’ heart. Bellatrix. She was striding towards them, unmasked.

“Go now Dora! Please! For me!”

Remus knew that Bellatrix wanted to kill Dora because she had married him. The woman was a complete maniac, but she was also a powerful witch who was merciless in pursuit of her quarry.

“Please darling, go now.” It seemed that the tenderness in Remus’ plea coupled with the fact that he usually only called her darling in private made Tonks realise how serious he was. Concentrating hard, so as not to splinch either of them, she gripped her swollen belly protectively and turned quickly on the spot and disappeared.

“Werewolf!” Dolohov had been revived by Travers and they now stood side by side with Bellatrix and the others. “Your shame is never ending! You are guilty and you will die Werewolf! We will make it so! And we will take your woman too!”

Remus shot more stunners at the Death Eaters and Apparated. As he turned on the spot he saw five jets of light heading in his direction.

*****

“Your quarrel isn’t with the girl, just let her go.” Teddy’s tone was resolute and even but his heart was hammering in his chest, pumping the adrenaline around his body. He had not relinquished his wand.

“Put your wands down” The man hissed the command at Teddy, and a tear ran down the girl’s cheek. His grip on her shoulder increased and she winced, but did not try to shrug him off.

Keith asked “Where is Susan?” and the girl began to cry in earnest. “What have you done to her?”

“PUT YOUR WANDS DOWN NOW!” That was the voice Teddy remembered, bellowing orders across the French Ministry at Movement Agents. Teddy had believed Emil Nequam to be dead for ten years and yet here he was, threatening to kill the daughter of his leader. Teddy was desperately trying to think of a way to keep his wand and save the girl. The last thing he wanted to do was to put his wand down. Nequam had issued the order four times without harming the girl. Did he know who she was?

“Let her go Emil. You’re scaring her.” Nequam slackened his grip on her shoulder, but didn’t lower his wand.

“You’re in no place to make demands Cub.” His eyes glittered with malice. “Shall I tell her who her rescuer is? The filthy offspring of a lycan? Maybe you’ll eat her, save me the bother of killing her myself.”

The girl’s eyes filled with horror. She looked from Teddy to Keith desperately. She was no longer crying but she was clearly terrified.

“Yes, my father was a werewolf, but I’m not. Let the girl go. I’m sure you don’t really want to hurt her Emil.”

“How does she know she can trust you? You might be lying.” Nequam seemed to have forgotten his edict; Teddy and Keith were still tightly grasping their wands.

“Well, I’m not pointing my wand at her face for a start.”

Nequam snorted. “This is getting us nowhere! Put down your wands, or she dies.”

“I don’t think you’ll hurt her. You know who she is, or you wouldn’t have gone to the considerable lengths it must have taken to get in here. How did you do that?” Teddy knew that Nequam wouldn’t be able to resist boasting about how he had got past the Fidelius Charm and in to the safe house.

Nequam gave a nasty laugh. “Your Ministry really needs to teach its staff how to recognise when a person has been Imperiused. I had one of your transport people connect this place to the Floo Network just long enough for me to get in. It was ridiculously simple.”

Keith shifted slightly behind Teddy. Unseen by Nequam, who was too busy with self-aggrandisement, he traced a long line on Teddy’s back, starting at his shoulders. He then traced a series of letters; U G G I S N. Then he traced the number three. Teddy flexed his right hand.

“Impressive. So Emil what do you want? You must be here for a reason.”

“I want Hermia!”

“You’ve spent the last fifteen minutes threatening to kill her. What do you want with her?”

“She will take her mother’s place at the head of The Movement. I have spent twelve years searching for her.”

Tears were now flowing freely down the girl’s face. She shook her head. “I won’t go with you! You might as well kill me! I’ll never be like her, never!”

“You will embrace your destiny! You are a powerful witch, just like your mother.” Nequam span her around and shook her. Teddy and Keith took their chance. Teddy wrenched the girl from Nequam’s grasp and pulled her to the floor. Keith sent three Stunners at Nequam. All three hit him and he fell backwards in to the drawing room, hitting the highly polished floor with a loud thud. Keith walked to him and dragged him further into the room, pointed his wand at his lifeless form and muttered “Petrificus Totalus”. Nequam became rigid. Teddy relaxed his grip on Hermia and they both sat up.

“You’d best send Harry a message, let him know what’s happening. He might want to come and see for himself.” Teddy nodded in agreement and gave his wand a flick. Something silver shot out of his wand and disappeared. Teddy turned his attention to the girl. She looked pale, her sleek raven hair was in disarray and her eyes were red rimmed.

“Where’s Susan?”

The girl started to cry again. “She’s in the kitchen.”

“Stay there.” Teddy stood up and made his way down the stairs to the cavernous kitchen. He wondered about his job and how long he could stand up to one psychological drama after another. Shaking his head, he pushed open the door. “Susan?” There was no reply. He stepped into the room, realising immediately that it was a mistake.


Confession time! Those of you who have read my Remus drabbles may recognise the start of the flashback because it is a drabble I liked it and it seemed to fit, so I expanded it.

A non-SS friend who is reading this challenged me to put four lines from her favourite song, Drama! by Erasure in this chapter. I managed two, but they are for her to spot