Cruel

It wasn’t even eight that following morning when the five of them were off running the forest. The sun was barely able to shimmer through the thick branches of the trees, forcing them to use ‘lumos’ at some moments. Twigs and plants were crushed beneath their boots, although none of them took the time to notice.

Greyback was off to the front, sniffing the air as he went along while Amelia and the other’s were following behind, keeping their eyes and ears open.

“We should go this way,” Scabior said quietly, pointing off towards the east side of the forest. The two other men nodded, while Greyback was still nowhere to be seen. Amelia though, didn’t say anything as she had thought she heard something. At that precise moment, there it was, something. The rustling of feathers, of maybe two or three birds.

“No,” she whispered, mentally urging the group not to make a sound as she tried to listen for another moment.

She could feel Scabior’s stare on her back as she looked over to the west side of the forest.

“Love, I’m almost certain that I’m the better Snatcher here. Come on.” He grabbed her by the elbow, twisting her around making her fall back on her feet inches from his face.

Amelia bore her eyes into his, noticing the intensity in them while his hand that was still on her elbow seemed to be burning a print on her. The young woman could feel the sexual frustration running through the air around the two, while the rest of the group stood staring. She couldn’t help but notice how soft his lips looked, and the fact that it looked like he hadn’t shaved in a week, giving him a scruffy look. In a moment she was biting her lip, unsure of what to do or what to feel. Eventually, she found her answer.

“Fuck off. Didn’t you hear that? A pack of birds were flying away, it’s a lead and we should go before this Daniel fellow gets away,” Amelia spat, wringing her arm back to herself. Scabior glared at her, loath clearly floating in his dark eyes, although the woman could sense that he was beginning to think that she was right.

He let out a sigh, gave her one last dark look and started stalking towards the west while the three other men, (Greyback had returned from his quest with nothing), stared gawking at Amelia. The latter took no notice to them and walked off in the same direction, pleased yet wildly confused with what had happened moments prior.

It took them no longer than ten minutes to find the place where leaves had clearly been disturbed and less than a minute for them to hear a shouted ‘Avada Kedavra’ coming from in front of them. The curse hit Arthur right in the chest, and he dropped to the ground, dead as a stone. It took the rest of the Snatchers no more than two seconds to get out of their shock and attack. In this business death wasn’t a rare friend.

Curses flew everywhere, although most of them didn’t hit any target except trees or unlucky animals. The gang had no idea where the attacker was and they could only hope that it was reciprocated. Sneaking off to the side while Scabior and the two other men stood in the small clearing, Amelia hoped to find the culprit of this ambush. With her unfailing sense of direction and gut, it didn’t take her long to find the man they were clearly searching for.

He was abominably dirty, traces of mud and blood all over his face, and he was crouched behind a tree snickering to himself while he cast spells at the three unknowing men. Rolling her eyes a bit at how easy this job was, Amelia muttered ‘Petrificus Totalus’ and watched as the sparks stopped flying from his wand as he became as still as a statue.

“Got him!” The young woman yelled as he took a hold of the man’s wrist, dragging him where the rest of the party was.

Scabior sneered at her while the two other men looked quietly relieved that she had found the man. The male leader of the group knelt in front of the stunned man, fumbling in the latter’s pockets to see what he could find. Pieces of blank paper and some coins were thrown to the ground until Scabior found what he was looking, letting the rest of them know with a small smile. He pulled out a muggle license from his pocket, the name Daniel Helling clearly written on it.

“Seems like we got our guy,” Greyback said smugly, although he had done almost nothing in the capture.

“Yeah, now we can go get the bloody money and go home.” But even as Amelia spoke those words, she knew she wasn’t being completely honest. She adored being on the run, looking for mudbloods, and being with Scabior’s gang had been quite amusing.

“Guess so,” she heard Scabior mutter. “How about I bring him to the guy, and we’ll meet up somewhere so I can give you the cash?”

Amelia smirked at this, but craving a steaming shower she accepted. “Just a thought though, I could find you in the middle of a wood with a blindfold on. So don’t try anything funny, a’ight?”

“Anything for you love,” he replied with a wink, leaving her lacking a proper response.

After according a date and a place, the three men disappeared without a further look at their fallen companion while Amelia sighed and apparated back inside of her house.

Her head titled back to press against the wooden door as she pressed her eyes closed. The young woman had no idea what she had just gotten herself into, but she certainly wasn’t sure of how it would all turn out although she had quite a clue that her visits with Scabior wasn’t going to end with that.