Begin to Hope

The ride back to Hogwarts was a long and bumpy one. It seemed to take eons longer to go back than to leave the first time. By the time I made there I was nearly frozen to my broom, shaking almost unbearably, my hands and face numb and cold.

I fell, staggering, onto the front lawn, and threw my broom to the ground. I ran over the lawn and up the stairs leading to the front door, pulling it open and jumping inside.

Immediately I grew warmer. It seemed that the others had been taking good care of the castle -- the Great Hall had been cleaned and cleared and there was a bright crackling fire in the hearth.

I spent a moment in front of the fire, trying desperately to warm my body before departing from the room to find the others.

"Annabelle?" I called cautiously into the darkness that extended beyond the Great Hall. I took a few steps forward before remembering my wand. Lighting it, I continued down the hallway, peering into the halls that branched out on either side.

"Humphrey? Annabelle?" Not seeing anyone, I began to quicken my pace. I didn't know how much time we had before the Death Eaters arrived. Supposing that Orlando told Voldemort within an hour of when we heard that, depending on whether Voldemort decided to go directly after us or take his time, we would probably have anywhere from an hour to three days' worth of time.

I heard a door slam somewhere down the hall in front of me and I jumped, turning about.

"Hello?" I said weakly. "Who's there?"

A figure appeared in the darkness, wearing footie pajamas and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Kerry?"

"Humphrey!" I ran towards my brother and embraced him, nearly sending us both tumbling to the ground.

"Kerry--how did you--we didn't expect you to be back for weeks! Where are the other two? --What's wrong?" Taking a glance at my face, he could immediately tell something was wrong.

"Oh, I don't have time to explain--where are the others?"

"Library. They're having a meeting. Follow me." He led me towards the library and I quickly told him of our exploits since we had left a week ago.

"--But now Orlando has found out that we're missing and you guys are hiding here and we have to get out of here quickly! Only--how could he have found out?"

Even through the darkness, I could see him blushing profusely. "Well--you see--Kimberly might have accidentally let Peter out of the dungeons for a day. And he might have gotten away, and we weren't able to catch him."

I grimaced. "Klaus is going to be really angry at her when he hears that!"

He looked away. "I know. We didn't mean for it to happen--we thought we could trust him."

I patted his shoulder. "Alright, well--" but I couldn't think of anything to say and I let my words drift off.

We reached the library in due time, and thankfully it was well-lit and warm and toasty inside. Humphrey pulled open the door and I was greeted by a dozen shouts of glee.

"Kerry!"

"How did you--"

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Kerry, thank goodness!"

I was attacked by several bodies being thrown at me as they all clamored for my attention. A touch, a glance--just to make sure I was real.

"We don't have much time!" I hushed them up. "Or any time at all, for that matter. You let Pettigrew go?"

They stopped hugging me and looked away forlornly, avoiding my gaze. Kimberly took a step back and her eyes welled up with tears.

"Oh, it's all my fault! I thought he could be trusted! He just looked so lonely down there, and I thought -- well, maybe if I could be friends with him, he wouldn't be bad, and I released him, only for a moment, but he got out of my control, and --"

"Sh, it's okay," I replied, embracing her tightly. I rocked back and forth with her as she began to cry. "Don't worry about it now. We don't have any time to spare. Pettigrew found his way back to Orlando and told him where you're hiding out, and now they could be here at any time. I want you all to run to your rooms and pack up all of your stuff. Just the necessary, helpful items. You have ten minutes. Meet in the Great Hall in fifteen. Go." I let go of Kimberly and off they scrambled, to their separate rooms to gather their belongings. Forced once again to move.

I followed Annabelle to her room, keeping an ear out for any source of noise other than the kids collecting their possessions.

"Did anything else happen while we were away?" I demanded of Annabelle once we were in her room and out of earshot of the others.

She shut the door and pulled out a battered suitcase from underneath a couch. She didn't look at me as she replied monotonously, "No."

I examined the room behind her carefully. She had covered one wall of the room with pictures of us. I stepped closer and glanced over all of them. They were pictures of all of us, from before the attack on our house. Looking closer, there were even pictures of us when we were younger. I even noticed a photograph of my parents, Humphrey and me, standing together, looking ridiculously happy. I smiled at the memory. It was so long ago, yet it could have been yesterday.

I was proud of Annabelle for having remembered to bring something so important along with her when we left. If she would have left the pictures there, I can guarantee they would have been destroyed, and to bring something that contained so much sentimental value--well, I could have almost started crying right then.

I turned back to her as she began to pull down each picture. "Are you lying?"

She packed away a few pictures, tucking each one carefully into a side pocket of her suitcase. "No, Kerry. I'm not lying."

I fiddled with the hem of my shirt. "Then what is it?"

She sighed. "It was hard here without you, Kerry. The kids, they were crying every night. Couldn't concentrate on any of the chores I set for them. Never paying attention--their minds were elsewhere. It was hard. We--well, I may have told them not to expect you three to come back."

My jaw dropped. "You actually told them--my brother included--that we were most likely going to die?"

She nodded, not meeting my gaze. "It's better to expect the worst, isn't it?"

"Yes, but not like that!"

"But I didn't want them getting their hopes up that you three would save us. It's not like there's really any hope of that, is there? I mean, what are we doing now, just running away, aren't we? Running away to another place where we'll hide out for awhile, until they find our trail again and then it'll just keep happening, we'll keep running away, they'll keep finding us, and then one day -- they'll catch us, and kill us, and that'll be the end. Won't it, Kerry? That's what's going to happen. There's nothing you can do--no plan that you and Klaus can cook up-- that could change that!"

"Annabelle, that's not true! Klaus and Maverick are working on a plan right now, that's why they're not here; they're coming up with a plan and putting it into action, but we just have to get you guys safely away, and then we'll attack Voldemort!"

I stopped, breathing hard, glaring at her, nearly shaking.

She spoke softly. "I think your plan is crap." She finished packing and zipped up the suitcase, picking it up and making her way to the door with it, resting one hand on the doorknob. "And I think you're going to get us all killed." Just as she was about to open the door, Princeton opened it from the outside, peeking in his head.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, looking from Annabelle to me and back again.

I shook my head. "What is it?"

"Well, we're all packed up and ready to go, so--" He stood there looking at us nervously, waiting for a reaction.

I clapped my hands together, putting on a joyous face. "Then let's go! We haven't time to waste!"

The three of us tramped back towards the Great Hall, where the rest of them were waiting patiently, talking amongst themselves while they waited for our return.

"So where are we going?" Tally piped up when she saw us approaching.

I shook my head. "I actually don't know. And I don't know how Klaus or Maverick is supposed to get in contact with us. But we do have to leave, that's all I know."

We picked everything up that they had gathered during their stay at the castle, which didn't amount to much, and we went outside while I explained what had happened during our short visit to Voldemort's castle. They gasped, laughed, and looked concerned at all the right places. I felt like I had a planned audience with me.

Getting outside, I shivered in the cold and realized it wasn't very smart of us to travel on foot, but we had no other way to go, and no brooms or Floo powder or anything else with which to get around.

Talking very little, and only stopping for minutes at a time to rest or eat quickly, we made good progress. We traveled until the next morning, heading back down south towards England again, determined to hide out in London somewhere. We had breakfast as a wayside inn, and continued on our way. We didn't stop again until the next day, when the children were breaking for a rest, as their weary legs didn't seem able to carry them any longer. I stayed up and watched while they took naps in a clearing. I was exhausted, but I didn't deem it wise for us all to be asleep, even for a moment.

Once we had made it safely into England, about a week later, I had us set up tents in an abandoned clearing somewhere outside of London. It was wet, and we were cold, and we had to live with it.

Consulting with Annabelle, we decided that we would send an owl to Maverick and Klaus, finding out where they both we re and what they were doing, and then we'd base our plan upon that. I wanted to storm back to the castle and find Klaus and see what was going on, but Annabelle warned me against it, telling me I really would die if I tried to go back, and that the best thing to do was wait.

And so wait we did. We waited two weeks, and all we got a scribbled response from Maverick, saying, "Making progress. Can't talk. Will reply in depth soon. M.", which did nothing to satiate me and my growing worries.

I sat alone many hours of the day, going over and over everything that had happened at the castle, and every word Orlando had spoken when we met him in the forest, and everything Klaus had told me to do. I didn't want to leave Annabelle and the others there in their cold, wet tent, but I was so terrified of missing out on some action back at the castle. What if Maverick had already returned? What if he had found people to follow him, and they were fighting Voldemort right now, and they needed me to help, but couldn't send an owl to notify us? Worse yet, what if Maverick hadn't found anyone that had wanted to fight him? What would we do then? Give up? Run away? Or would we fight away, even though we'd be pretty much doomed from the start?

By the time we got an actual response from Maverick (and still not a single word from Klaus!), it was Christmas, and we were shivering around a campfire, acting thankful for being alive and yet still as miserable as can be.

I gathered the children around me so I could read it out loud to all of them.

"K, I've found them! There was a group of about two hundred living here. They are ready and eager to help, but they want to get started quickly. I've sent numerous letters to K, but he has not responded. Have you got anything from him? Write back and tell me when we can meet up. They're getting restless! -M." I looked around at everyone's faces. Penelope and Tally, looking fearful, while Humphrey, a hand on his belt loop, which I knew was hiding a knife, looked ready to attack.

"Well?" Annabelle asked, a hand over her mouth. "Are we going to--?"

"We're definitely going to fight, but we need to wait up and meet Maverick." I quickly wrote a response back and sent it off. The fact that Maverick hadn't heard from Klaus either had me worried. We had sent him at least three letters, and if Maverick had sent one, maybe two, that was a lot. Not all of those could have been lost in transit. Either he was ignoring them, or he was in trouble and couldn't reply back...

And so we waited for Maverick's reply.