It was cold and the little sunlight that had found its way through the thick sheet out clouds was slowly shrinking out of sight. Nightfall was creeping around every corner and groups of Hogwarts students were traipsing back to the castle after filling their bags with sweets, fresh ink and secret bottles of fire whiskey. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary apart from nothing about this setting was ordinary. Sleet was beginning to fall and stray students who’d gotten lost from their friends were attempting to battle through the now quickly falling snow.
A group of shadows kept their camouflage as they scuttled between the alleyways lingering and having a trip jinx ready for the next student to pass. They didn’t care who they got they just needed students. Third years, sixth years, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, smart or stupid. None of it matter just as long as this checked the primary criteria: they had to be students, a little more than four at least.
One by one the stray students fell like dominos as they passed an alleyway, alone and out of sight form the main street lights. One by one their stunned bodies were dragged through the snow into the alley and one by one they were taken up to a cave in a nearby mountain that overlooked Hogsmede. They wouldn’t stay there for long, no doubt people would realise the students went missing on a Hogsmede trip and people would be looking around the area. They would be moved, when the time was right, they would be hidden and held captive.
A large man with a thick neck and muscles the size of Texas paced back and forth in the cave admiring the handy work of his inferiors. A row of six unconscious students buckled and chained to the stone wall. One or two were beginning to stir but that wasn’t an issue, their wands had been taken – snapped – and their hands weren’t free. There was no escaping, sure they could scream and shout but if they did there was a simply solution: rip out their vocal cords.
The scene changed in a whirl of wind and snow. The students were no longer in a cave, they’d been moved before the occasional auror or villager could venture close to cave. Hogwarts knew the students had been missing, the villagers knew that the students had gone missing and evidently the ministry. Unsurprisingly the Daily Prophet hadn’t reported the disappearances. A witch called Pansy Parkinson-Nott had taken over all press related to Hogwarts and she wanted to keep this quiet, under wraps. Not many knew why, in fact only a handful baring the dark mark knew she didn’t want to shine dark like of the new Headmistress, appointed by Robert Lupin. The wizarding world needed to see that Lupin’s decision was a good decision and students’ vanishing right under her nose wasn’t exactly promising.
The students were in what appeared to be underground. A dungeon or sewer of some sort, or was it a basement in a grand house? Wherever they were the scene wasn’t pleasing. Grime was sketched across the cold bricks and the occasional rat scuttled across the legs of the students before nibbling the little food they’d been given. The food wasn’t a lot but it stopped the starvation.
Footsteps thundered from somewhere above and were followed by four large shadows emerging into the room. The Professor hadn’t done her task, she hadn’t managed to lure Khaat Lupin from her secure place and as promised it was time to die.
A slash of a wand, the screaming of students and the soft thump of a third years body echoed around the dingy floor. One had fallen. Mary had three more days before the next, maybe two, the werewolves were getting hungrier.
Her round face was damp as tears glistened in the morning light that had woken Mary from her dream. It had been horrific, yet so clear. Her dream hadn’t been an ordinary dream, for she had them every night, no. This dream had depth, something to be interpreted. If the professor had seen the dream from her own eyes, her own perspective then perhaps she would have thought nonetheless, a nightmare, nothing out of the ordinary for the seer. However she had looked down at the scene which meant only one thing: a premonition. Most seers didn’t remember their premonitions, Mary being one, and this was the case today. Wiping her tears away Mary rolled over and closed her eyes, entering into a dreamless sleep until her clock would cuckoo on the wall telling her it was seven o’ clock and the witch had lessons to soon teach.
***
A week had passed since Sunday evening when Mary had experienced a premonition. Since the night it had gone from her mind, forgotten, discarded in the fire like a crumpled piece of parchment. However little was Mary aware the horror of her dream was about to return to her. Memory was a funny thing, some things stuck, some things were forgotten then there were those memories that appeared forgotten, lost beneath the rubble of every day recollections biding their time before they’d return to the forefront of consciousness.
For Mary that moment had been in the staffroom on Monday evening after dinner. Katrina-Carlotta had gathered all the staff there for a meeting, a warning of caution. Students had vanished over the weekend whilst in Hogsmede. Six students to be exact. Nobody knew where they were, nor why they would have vanished as neither of the six students were known to be ‘friends’, two were possible acquaintances but still that gave no reason for them to run off together. A handful of teachers suggested it may be due to the marriage law, to evade it. This suggestion was eliminated seeing as four of the six were under the age of sixteen. The head of houses had gone off to interview each student in their house, most of them would no doubt say they knew nothing but one could only hope that the tiniest clue would further their investigation. Of course the Ministry would be alerted but Du Hunt had made it clear that the Professors were not to speak to anybody about this incident whilst she wrote to an ‘acquaintance’ at the Daily Prophet and ask them to not publish any report about their missing students.
After the meeting Mary had waited, staring wet eyed at the door as each member of staff left leaving her alone. Her dream was coming back to her, the students trapped in a cave after one by one being stunned in Hogsmede. The sound of screams and a rat scuttling across unwashed trouser legs burned on the inside of her skull. Raising a hand to her throat Mary collapsed into a chair and felt the tears leak. She was used to crying; in fact crying took up seventy percent of her day. Unlike most days Mary didn’t halt the tears, wipe them away with a tissue she simply let them fall.
Was this her fault? Had she made a prophecy and caused this to happen? Surely not, surely it had simply been a dream? No. Mary was a seer, the majority of her prophecies she hadn’t remembered – that always made her cry – but now she remembered one because she’d experienced it in a dream. Mary knew where they were, she knew that if they didn’t find the students one by one they would die and did she have something to do with that? Mary wasn’t sure but something was telling her she was involved. She was the one who needed to find the students in order to save them. Her Grandmother had always taught her not to let her predictions drive her behavior, to allow them to fall into place. Mary didn’t care, she was loyal, protective, and friendly and right now she needed to find the courage to do this alone. Closing her eyes Mary focused on what she’d seen, where the cave was and how to get there.
Twenty minutes later Mary was battling the wind up a hill that overlooked the village of Hogsmede, the tears being blown away from her cheeks. Then she saw it, the cave. Mary hoped it wasn’t too late, she knew that the students would be there, she needed to find out what she had to do – Mary was sure it was only her who could free the students but what exactly Mary had to do she couldn’t extract from her dream.
‘Hello.’ Mary said, stepping into the cave and hearing her own soft, teary voice echo around the walls. The cave was empty. The students had been moved. She was too late… Or was she? A figure stirred in the shadows before stepping into Mary’s wand light.