CRUSHING DARKNESS (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter 32

Hermione's POV

Harry, Ginny and I looked at each other for a moment, and stepped into the room. I guessed this was where Abby and Vanessa had been sleeping for the past two nights. The two beds were neatly made and the windows were wide open, admitting a cold wind. The fact that the room was icy cold and Abby and Vanessa were in there was kind of ironic since usually when something evil was lurking in a room, the room tended to be cold and dark and this room fit the description of a cold, dark, murky room perfectly, even-though I knew this room did not actually belong to them.

Abby and Vanessa still had a couple of sweets clamped in their palms and were both leaning against the opposite wall. I realised that since we only had seven minutes, we would have to start asking questions now.

"Hello," said Abby and Vanessa in unison with impish grins. I looked at Harry and Ginny and they shrugged indicating I should be the one to start.

"Er, hi guys," I began, walking further into the room.

"Want some candy?" Vanessa asked.

"Uh what?" I asked, confused. They were acting a little strange. They were supposed to be under a spell after all, I told myself. But were they supposed to act like this? Wasn't Veritesserum supposed to make you sound a little different from the way these two were acting? But then again, George had said that there was something else in the sweets too...

"No thank you," I said, and the others shook their heads too. I sat down on one of the beds but Harry and Ginny remained standing.

"What are your real names?" I asked.

"Oh, that's a hard one, that is!" Vanessa grinned."Not!"

"Ignore her, won't you?" Abby said. "I'm Erin Hunt and she's Cassie Williams."

Erin Hunt. A chill of fear ran up my spine and settled in my heart. Any little doubts that I had previously had about Abby were now erased. That book really was hers.

"Do you know who we are?" I demanded.

"Let me see," Vanessa giggled. Huh? These sweets were different alright. "You are all Gryffindors. Scum, in other words. You," she pointed at me. "Are the oh-so-smart Hermione Jeen Granger: the filthy mudblood." Next she pointed at Ginny, and Abby said,

"Ginny Weaseley. Oh you're that other blood-traitor's sister. You're the boy who lived, Harry Potter," she leered and pointed at Harry. "Stupid excuse for a human if you ask me."

Harry stepped forward. Are you two Death Eaters?" he questioned.

"Yeah, we are," Abby answered.

"Who are you working for?" Ginny asked. "Fenir Greyback?"

"That would be correct," Vanessa smiled. "That guy needs to control his emotions on full moon night though,"

George poked his head in at that moment and muttered, "You guys have only four minutes left." I nodded curtly and continued looking at Abby and Vanessa who were both now looking like they might start jumping up and down from excitement.

"Were you the ones who put Ron under a spell?"

"Duh!" Abby rolled her eyes. "You guys are dumber than I thought. I thought you had it figured out by now, but I guess not."

I ignored her last remark and asked. "What spell did you use on Ron?"

Vanessa grinned and there was a mad gleam in her eye. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"That," she began to say. "Is a hard question. The spell is an ancient one and not many people know about it. Mr Greyback taught it to us. He has been very kind to us by the way. Anyway, he taught it to us, like a year ago?" She turned to Abby.

"I'm pretty sure it was less than that," Abby put in. "We met him after that battle of Hogwarts thingie, right?"

"Oh yeah," Vanessa remembered. "By the way, there's a spy there. It's one of the teachers. Yeah so he taught it to us." She smiled a strange smile that was downright creepy.

"He was pretty shaken up when we found him, wasn't he, Cass?" Abby asked.

"Oh yeah, his whole left leg! Oh My Gosh! Two words: Bloody mutilated!"

Abby broke our laughing and Vanessa followed. Harry cut through their laughter. "Where is Greyback at this moment?"

"Umm,". Abby glanced and Vanessa.

"Could be anywhere really. He keeps moving about. We don't exactly ask him every day about his whereabouts, now do we? That would be weird."

George looked in on us and put up two fingers. Time was running out.

"Why did you put Ron under the spell?" Ginny inquired.

"We had to break you guys up." Abby said simply.

"Eww, that sounds wrong, Erin!" Vanessa cut in. "Uh, what she means is that we had to break up the whole golden trio. Make you turn on each other. Mistrust each other. Misunderstand and misjudge each other, get it?"

"And of course we wanted information about you guys from that ginger blood traitor too, but so far, that part is not working out for us," Abby said.

"But it will all work out soon!" Vanessa argued

Abby answered, "I told you we should have gone for the girl," she pointed at Ginny. "That way we could have broken Potter too!"

"Whatever," was Vanessa's reply.

George held up one finger. Oh no.

"How do we take Ron out of the trance or whatever you put him in?" I asked anxiously.

"Okay, so Greyback taught us the spell a long time ago right?" Abby said. "The spell is sort of like imperio, only cooler. Like we made some improvements on it. It can now be extended to many days."

"How do we take it off?" I asked frantically.

"You don't," she said simply.

"What?" I asked incredulously. "You have to tell...."

"What she means is this," Vanessa started. "The. Mudblood is not meant to break the spell. The Chosen One has to cure his best friend. It sounds cheesy, I know. But y'all should know it's true. The curse is the Lethus Curse...."

She did not continue. Her eyes dilated for a second. Abby gasped and then spoke in a deadly cold tone, "What are you guys doing in here?" The effects of the sweets had worn off. This was our cue to leave. I noticed that George was pounding his fist hard on the door. We had not noticed the time, I guessed.

"Yeah, why are you here?" Vanessa put in.

"This happens to be my house," Ginny said evasively.

"It happens to be mine too, and I say get out of here. You're disturbing my friends," said George. He was saying it because of Vanessa and Abby of course.

"Isn't it your bedtime already?" Abby sneered at Ginny.

"Er, we were leaving," I said hastily, shoving Harry and Ginny towards the door.

It was pretty clear that our audience with Erin Hunt and Cassie Williams was over. But at least we were one step closer to saving Ron, and that thought was enough to make me smile.

********************************************

A/N

So I hope this chapter cleared some stuff up for you. I tried to make it good. Thanks for reading! Please VOTE and COMMENT :-)