Sarah and Diego were on their feet at once. Barnaby grunted with the effort of picking himself off the couch. "I'm coming too."
"Don't be stupid, you haven't even got a wand," said Diego.
"I can still hit things!" Barnaby's eyes met Sarah's, giving her a silent plea.
"We'll be right back," she told him. "Promise." She grabbed onto Talbott's arm as Diego grabbed the other. "Take us there."
There was a loud crack and then they were gone.
Barnaby flung himself back on the couch, furious. "I might as well be back in Romania for all the good I'm doing here."
Penny joined him on the couch. "I know how you feel," she said. "Ever since we found out I was pregnant, I've been shut away from the world. Once the baby is born, I want to do my part to help fight You-Know-Who too, but Talbott's determined to keep me out of it. He says he doesn't want his child to grow up without parents, like he did."
"At least you can still do stuff," said Barnaby. "You're smart, you can make potions and stuff."
"You can do stuff too, Barnaby. Once you're healed, you can go out and risk your neck to your heart's content."
"I just don't like knowing she's--they're--out there, without me there to protect them."
"Believe me, I know," said Penny. "Why don't we distract ourselves with some television?"
"With what?"
"Television." She pointed to the strange box-thing sitting across from the couch.
"I thought that was some demented, foggy window," said Barnaby.
"No," said Penny, fighting a laugh. "Muggles watch it for news and entertainment. Didn't you learn about it in Muggle Studies?"
"I didn't pay any attention in that class. I only took it to sit with a pretty girl."
She smiled. "Are things back to normal with you and Sarah, then?"
"I think so," said Barnaby. "We haven't really had a chance to talk."
"It'll all work out for the best," said Penny.
"Yeah."
"Penny picked up a rectangular black object with colorful buttons from the coffee table and pointed it at the vele-tision. It sprang to life in a flash of sound and colors.
"Woah!" He nearly rose from his seat.
Penny laughed. "Muggles are just as magical as wizards, in their own way."
***********************************************************************************************Sarah, Diego, and Talbott materialized a hundred yards above the village, near the top of a heather covered mountain.
"They were headed this way when I saw them," said Talbott. "I would have followed them myself but there were five of them."
They made their way around the hill, quickening their pace when they heard voices. Not long after the village had fallen out of sight, they rounded the edge of the hill and saw a sickening sight.
Four wizards and a witch were surrounding three muggle boys. They looked to be around fourteen or fifteen. The wizards cackled as they shot sparks and jinxes at the boys, who couldn't yell because their mouth has been jinxed shut, but they all quivered with fear. Any time one of the boys made a break for it, a wizard or witch would levitate them in the air and shoot them back toward the others, so that they slammed together and fell over like bowling pins.
"Enough of this," said one of the wizards, a man with a thick blonde beard that still had bits of egg in it from his breakfast and yellowing eyes and teeth. He seemed to be the oldest. "We're only accepted into the Death Eaters once we've brought back the hearts of this filth, so let's get a move on."
Together, the dark wizards raised their wands.
Sarah and the others shot forward, shouting spells at the group. Two of them were hit; the witch's wand flew out of her hand, and a young, pocky wizard hit the ground face first, stunned. Blood trickled from his nose. The remaining three shot back spells of their own. Sarah found herself dueling the older wizard who'd spoken.
They needed to deal with this quick; the noise was sure to attract the villagers soon. The muggle boys were laying down on the ground, shielding their heads with their arms. One of them shot up and tried to run back to the village. "Impedimenta!" Sarah shouted.
The boy's movement slowed, as if he were moving through quicksand. Sarah couldn't let him get back to the village to tell the muggles what was going on.
Her lapse in concentration left her open to attack. The wizard hit her with a jelly-legs jinx. Sarah's legs became flimsy as parchment, and she fell to the ground. The dark wizard grinned and thrust his wand at her again.
"Protego!" Diego stepped in front of her and blocked the spell, giving her enough time to perform the counter-curse. Legs solid again, she stood up to resume battle with Egg-Beard. Meanwhile, the dark witch had found her wand, and she shot spell after spell at Diego, too. Now, it was four against three.
Sarah found herself wishing Barnaby was there. A skilled duelist, he could have easily taken two of their attackers at once. She also felt safe and confident when he was with her. She'd nearly forgotten how much she missed that feeling until he wrapped his arms around her in that hospital bed.
Even so, Diego was arguably as skilled as Barnaby, and Talbott was specially trained by the aurors. Sarah had always been a natural duelist herself. The dark wizards soon realized they were outmatched.
"Getting out of here!" Egg-Beard shouted, then disapparated with a crack.
"Stun them!" Sarah shouted, but it was too late. The other wizards fighting them cast shield charms, given them the split-second they needed to disapparate too.
That left the witch. She hesitated for an instant, looking like she wanted to help her fallen comrade, but Talbott fired a stunning spell she had to jump out of the way to avoid. With a wail of anguish, she disapparated as well.
The three of them stood there for a moment, breathing heavily. Sarah jumped when she heard the wimpering of the muggle boys. Two of them were still hunkered on the ground. The third was still trying to run, but Sarah's spell had only let him travel about a foot in all the time they were fighting.
"Any good at memory charms?" Sarah asked Talbott and Diego.
Diego shook his head, then bent over the dark wizard that still lay stunned on the ground.
"No," said Talbott. "We've got professional obliviators at the ministry for that."
"Rowan would be able to," sighed Sarah. She wished for the billionth time that her best friend were with her.
"You put a memory charm on me back at school," said Talbott. "You can do it."
Sarah wanted to say that she'd only done it once and it had been years ago, that the memory she had to erase then had been much simpler, but she knew there wasn't time.
She crouched down beside the two boys on the ground. "Hey there," she said soothingly. "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you."
One of the boys raised his head to look at her. He was a freckly redheaded boy that reminded her of Charlie. "Obliviate."
The boy's muscles relaxed and a look of pure bliss swept over his face. Sarah hoped upon hope she'd only removed the last hour or so from his mind.
The other boy, sensing the change overtake his friend, glanced over at him then looked curiously at her. He had jet-black hair and glasses that were broken. "Obliviate." The same careless expression overtook the boy's face.
The third boy, a boy with black hair who may have been the second boy's little brother, nearly plowed her over when she removed the impediment jinx on his body and he was allowed to move at full speed again. Talbott helped her calm him down enough to place a memory charm on him as well.
Sarah grouped the boys together. They stood there, grinning stupidly. It looked as if they were listening to beautiful music no one else could here.
"You boys came up here to play with..." What were those muggle explosives called again? She'd learned about them in Muggle Studies. "Fireworks. And you got a bit carried away. You didn't see anybody else. That's...that's what happened."
The redheaded boy nodded. "Yeah, that sounds right."
His friend's grin widened. "That sparkler bomb blew me off my feet. It broke my glasses."
Sarah and her friends left in a hurry, but stayed close enough to watch the boys come out of their fog and walk back to the village. Diego was levitating the dark wizard to follow behind them.
Once the muggles were gone, he asked "What are we going to do with him?"
Sarah and Talbott regarded him. He looked to be around their age, with dark hair and skin. "We can't take him back," said Sarah. "We'd be letting him in on the secret."
"We shouldn't stay here, either," said Talbott. "If those Death Eater wannabes don't come back to look for their friend soon, the ministry will still come snooping around to see who's been using magic in a muggle village."
"We could take him to Grimmauld Place," Sarah suggested. "Someone there will no what to do with him."
"Not a bad idea," said Talbott. "Assuming we can take along someone unconscious without splinching them."
"I was able to disapparate from Lee Manor with a stunned Diego and a barely alive Barnaby, without a wand," said Sarah. "This should be easy enough."
"Alright, let's do it then," said Talbott, but he was looking longingly in the direction of the house they were staying in.
"You go let Penny know we're all safe," said Diego. "We'll take this rubbish to headquarters." He wagged his wand so that the unconscious body shook, his head lolling from side to side.
Talbott gave Sarah a questioning look. She nodded encouragingly. "Go ahead," she said. "Penny and Barnaby will be worried. We can handle it."
"Thanks," he said. He transformed back into the handsome eagle and took off toward the village.
Diego took ahold of her hand and she had to repress a shudder. Yesterday, the feel of his hand in hers would have been comforting--like she'd always have a friend by her side--but now she only felt awkward and confused.
Diego didn't sense any of this. "Ready?" he asked.
She nodded, and they disapparated.
Sirius was the only one at home when they arrived at Headquarters, unless you counted the house elf, Kreacher, who muttered insults at the newcomers and skulked upstairs as soon as he saw them.
"What the devil is going on?" Sirius asked, jumping up from the sofa when he saw them.
Sarah quickly explained what had happened, being careful not to give any details about their location. She trusted Sirius completely, but the less people who were in on the secret of the fidelius charm, the safer they all were.
While she was speaking, the dark wizard awoke. Sirius was quick to magically behind him to a chair. "What's going on? Where am I?" he yelled in a panic, fidgeting and whipping his head around the room, like a wild animal caught in a trap.
His eyes fell on Sirius, widening in recognition, before he relaxed a bit. "What's going on?" he asked, speaking to Sirius. "Is this part of the initiation?"
Sirius's eyes flashed with rage. He thrust his wand in the young man's face, his voice coming out in a dog-like growl. "I'm no Death Eater, you sorry piece of filth!" The man winced. "Where are you from anyway?"
"Romania," he said. "A group of us snuck over here to join the cause." The man gasped, realizing he'd said too much. "And they'll be coming to get me, so you better just let me go now."
"Who sent you to torture those muggles?" asked Sarah. "Where can we find them?"
"I'm not answering anymore questions!" he yelled, his eyes threatening to pop out of his skull in his fear.
Sirius grabbed hold of the man's shirt and poked his wand into his throat. "You'll answer if you want to see the light of day again."
"Sirius, no!" said Sarah.
"Sarah, he's not going to be any use to us if we treat him nicely." Sirius gave the Death Eater a disgusted look. "Pain and misery's the only thing they understand."
"So, you want to torture him?"
"They did worse to your friend."
"Yes, but if we resort to their level, how are we any better than them?" She didn't like the look on Sirius's face. It was a look that made it easy to believe he was a mass murderer. "Can't we just hold him here until Dumbledore tells us what to do?"
Sirius stared at the quivering man a moment longer. "Fine."
He dragged the man to the nearest room, shoved him inside, and shut the door, locking it with his wand.
"I'll send a message to Dumbledore now. You two want to stay and here what he says?"
Diego nodded, but Sarah said, "No, we should get back and make sure the others are okay."
"You don't want to see this through?" asked Diego.
"You can stay if you want."
"You mean, if I'm gone for an hour you won't assume I've killed Sirius and joined the Death Eaters?"
Sarah gave him a dirty look. "Are you staying or not?"
"I'll go with you," he said. "I don't trust anyone at the house to be much good in another fight if it comes."