KANA POV
"NO, we can't pitch here, the camp will flood. Scarlett told me you should never camp near a lake." I screeched, as Izzy tried to put down the tent near a stream. Amateur.
"But we need a water supply—"
"Yes, yes, but not that near!" Dawn yelled, "I'm agreeing with Kana here, that's too close to the edge."
"Fine, fine." Izzy sighed in defeat and gathered the tent in her arms to stuff back into our bag.
The twins and Charlie were climbing the trees. Their climbing was so skilful that they were already at the top and were now jumping across like monkeys. The rest of us followed below, jumping over fallen trees and rocks. Suddenly, there was a yell from above and I looked up so fast that I almost got whiplash.
"Guys, I see a building. It looks like it's empty! There's no cars or anything! We can pitch around it!" Charlie shouted down to us.
"Lead the way, Char!" I hollered. She nodded and began swooping from tree to tree so quickly that she was a blur.
*
We arrived at the clearing and Charlie leapt down from the canopy, landing right in front of me. The twins followed, smirking to themselves. What had they done now?
Charlie knelt down to tie her shoes and I noticed a large sign on her blue jumper; kick me.
Ollie put a finger to his mouth, motioning us not to say anything. I rolled my eyes at him but obliged. Charlie stood up again and rolled up her sleeves, still not realising anything was wrong.
"Right," she said, "Should we unpack now?"
*
We split into groups to get everything done. Dawn was busy 'revamping' the little cabin. Her words, not mine.
The twins, with Ethan, had gone to get food. There were plenty of lakes and bushes in this area to get all the supplies we needed, and we still had money from our mentors. None of us were old enough to apparate so if we wanted to buy something it would have to be a day trip because of how long the walk would take. Charlie and I were putting up charms with the two wands that Scarlett had stolen from some death eaters who tried to infiltrate her camp.
"Y'know, you should probably be aware that the twins—"
"Yeah, I know. They stuck a sign to my back. I felt them do it, but I'm not going to spoil their fun. Let them have this."
I was surprised that she was aware of it and hadn't gone after them with a rock or something. Charlie wasn't a pretty sight when she was mad.
"Oh, okay then," I said, putting up another spell.
When we were finished, Dawn called us over and showed us what she had done with it. It was very...colourful.
Yeah, when I say that I just mean pink. Dawn was obsessed with it.
The cabin was only big enough for four people, so the rest would have to sleep in a tent. I guess it was subconsciously agreed that Dawn, the twins and I would have it. Scar had chosen us to lead the others, so it was only fair. And our tent was perfectly fine anyway.
"So what do you think?" Dawn asked, fiddling with the case of a sleeping bag.
"Um...it's a bit pink..." I said.
"Yeah, too much for me. Call me back if you've got any green." Charlie said mimed throwing up as she left the room.
Dawn looked slightly hurt at our comments, as she'd clearly taken a long time decorating.
"I'm not saying that it's not nice," I said quickly, "It's good for someone like yourself who loves pink but it's not as appealing to people like Charlie who aren't so keen on the colour scheme. Maybe we can change some things to some darker tones? Or we can split the room into four so people can decorate it as they like?"
"Yeah, I guess...why four corners though?" Dawn frowned.
"Oh-I just assumed that you, me and the twins would have the cabin because Scar told us to protect the others. Well, besides Charlie. She can look after herself."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense..." she said, "Are the boys back yet?" Dawn began vanishing all of the pink ribbons from one area of the room. As we weren't of Hogwarts age yet, we could still use our hands to do magic without getting caught or it being dangerous. Well, Alice couldn't because she was twelve but she was good with a knife so it was fine. And Dawn probably shouldn't be either because she had recently turned eleven but we assumed that it would be fine. It was worth the risk because of how good she was.
"I think so...I'll go get them," I replied, leaving the cabin.
*
The twins were down for having a corner each so it was settled. And everyone else was cool with having the tent.
At around ten, everyone went back into the tent. I stayed there with them for a bit because Dawn was busy in the cabin and she didn't want to be disturbed while she was cleaning. The boys had gone off on a walk with Ethan earlier to find tomorrow's breakfast. No one had noticed the charms go down, not even me. No one knew that nothing but the tent was protected.
The Ministry had finally caught up with us.
Charlie was the only one outside, standing watch for Dawn, wand laced in her fingertips. Ready to strike.
The footsteps startled me, but everyone around me didn't look disturbed at all. Had I just imagined it?
But then I heard voices. I wasn't imagining anything at all, unfortunately.
"Ah, mudblood. We've finally caught up with you."
I turned around to the others and shh-ed them, before carefully opening the tent. No heads turned so I guess some charms had worked.
There were snatchers, two of them. Since the ministry was under the control of the death eaters, I could only guess they were working for them.
"Caught at last," One of two said, who had long matted hair. I'll call him Dreadlocks. "Did you really think you could get away from us? That you could outrun the law?"
Dreadlocks grabbed Charlie by her hair and pulled her aside. My friend was too in shock to do anything.
The cabin door was in plain view now, and Dawn had no idea what was happening.
"Right..." The tallest one said (I'll call him tower), "You're gonna call out whoever's in there and act like everything's fine, got it?" he growled. Charlie nodded stiffly.
"Dawn!" she said calmly, "Can you come out here for a sec?"
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute! Are the boys back yet?"
Oh god. Now they know that there's more people.
"What others, girl?" Dreadlocks said quietly. Charlie shook slightly and could only look down. Tower beckoned her to answer Dawn.
"No," My friend winced at the amount of pressure being put on her red, thin hair, "Not yet."
"Oh, okay! Almost finished in here... Okay, I'm coming out now..."
I grabbed my knife from my boot quickly and drew it, making sure Tower couldn't see me. I could probably strike him over the head and then Charlie and Dawn could handle the other one. And the boys would be back soon, so they could help.
Dawn came into view in the doorway and I saw fear immediately strike her face. "What-what's going on?"
"Another mudblood, aye?" Dreadlocks said, dropping Charlie to the floor. He didn't realise that she still had a wand. It was just out of reach.
"Um-"
"STOP!" I yelled, jumping out of the protective zone of the tent. All eyes turned to me as I tried to take down Tower by jumping on his back. Big mistake.
He pulled me off like I was simply as light as a cat and threw me to the floor, kicking me in the stomach. He saw my knife too and picked it up when it got knocked out of my hands.
"Damn..." I muttered, "This isn't how this was supposed to go..."
*
there we go! sorry to leave it like that but i've got to go do some homework now! part two of this little adventure will hopefully be up next week.
thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed.
ty,
penny <3