The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later

--------------The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later. chapter eight, "Escape"---------------------

I have one of You!

I don't know where the rest of You are, but I'll come for You.

One by one.

And kill You all!

He was right to give me the potions and to perform the spells on me.

It has made me better than You.

I will succeed where the Dark Lord failed.

And then the world, wizard and Muggle, will be mine!

"Drop the wand! NOW!!" Ron made three curses from Lucius Malfoy's wand bounce off him in his metallic bodyshield and sent a cramp curse that hit Malfoy in the stomach, making him stagger and lean against the wall, sending spells out at random, hitting nothing but inanimate objects.

Neville easily eluded Wormtail's hailstorm of curses as the spell Ron had cast over him made his senses sharper and his body had become four times more agile.

Neville felt like that Muggle superhero, Spiderman, as he jumped and ducked, sidestepped and dodged his way closer to Wormtail.

Dudley's newly found ability, reflexes and musclecapacity superior to any top athlete that made him move in almost superhuman speed, helped a great deal as he ran up and knocked Lucius Malfoy seven times in the face.

All in less than two seconds!

Ron but a full-body-bind on him and just as he turned his attention to what was happening to Wormtail, he saw Neville land a sidekick on his chin, cracking loudly.

Dudley punched Wormtail on the opposite side of his face the split second later, causing Wormtail to loose balance and fall to his knees.

But he was still dangerous.

He raised his wand very fast and aimed at Neville.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!!!!" he screamed out in desperation.

Neville easily dodged it and gave Wormtail a second kick, this time hitting his groin.

Dudley disarmed him and snapped the wand in half and threw it out the window.

"Please, it wasn't my idea!" Wormtail began.

Ron looked at him with more disgust than he'd ever felt for the poor excuse for a wizard.

"It was him! Malfoy!" Wormtail pointed at the stiff body of Lucius Malfoy, lying on the dirty floor behind them.

Ron kicked Wormtail in the face and spat at him.

"Shut up before I decide to kill you off! I've done it before with Dark wizards that pissed me off and you are dangerously close to joining them!" Ron said poisonous.

He waved his wand and put a body-bind on Wormtail too.

"Let's transport these bastards to the Ministry," Ron said and levitated the two immobilised bodys out of the run down theater.

Once outside, Dudley asked whether or not they sould check up on Harry and Grindle.

"They will return to the Ministry themselves once they are finished with Draco," Ron said coldly and took out what looked like a mobile phone.

"What's that?" Neville asked.

"Remote Portkey. It allows us to go back to the Ministry at any time," Ron said and began punching in a code on the little black object.

"So we could have escaped at any time without them knowing?" Dudley said.

"Yeah. But this way we kicked their asses and they'll be sent to Azkaban," Ron answered and held out the Portkey and grabbed Wormtail's bare foot.

"Hold Lucius, Nev. We don't want to loose him on the way," Ron said and they touched the Portkey.

Ron pressed the center button and the tugging sensation behind the navel hit them all and they were on their way.

"Awake!" Harry was slapped in the face by Draco as he slowly woke up.

He felt a numb pain in his wrists and found himself chained to the ground with large chains, each link thicker than a fat sausage.

He was cold and discovered his clothes were nowhere to be found.

He was naked!

The room around him looked like a dungeon, but Harry wasn't sure.

Where could Malfoy have found a dungeon in Sweden?

"Look at me!" Malfoy's voice pierced the cold air and Harry looked him in the eye.

"What are you up to, Malfoy?" Harry asked.

Malfoy kicked Harry in the face, breaking his nose!

Harry fell backwards and could feel the warm blood stream down over his mouth onto his chest.

The metallic taste filled Harry's senses and he felt dizzy again.

The darkness wasn't far away.

"You are mine, Potter! I can do what I want with you," he heard Malfoy say somewhere in the left of the darkness.

"And all I shall do! I decide your fate. If you live or die, breathe or choke."

Malfoy's voice was fading out into a whisper, but Harry still heard the last words before the darkness came over him again.

"And then it's the others turn!"

Strange how poetic a deadly threat can sound when you pass out, Harry thought.

Neville had been met by happy faces, stunned faces and crying faces when the trio returned to the Ministry with their prisoners.

Ron had two other Aurors take Wormtail and Lucius into the cells on the fifth floor and headed towards Hermione's office, closely followed by Dudley and Neville in his torn grey clothes.

He reminded Ron of how Sirius Black had looked that night in the Shrieking Shack in third year, with the beard and the skinny body.

I can't believe he's back, Ron thought and felt both happy and terrible inside.

What did Neville think about what Ron had done that night?

Did he blame him for getting captured?

Ron opened Hermione's door without knocking and stepped inside.

Hermione spun around in her thronelike chair and Ron saw she was about to yell at him.

"Shut up, Hermione!" he said before she'd said anything and she, strangely enough, did as she was told.

"Something incredible has happened and I want you to listen to every word I say," Ron said.

She nodded.

"The four of us split up into two teams to follow two tracks, one belonging to Draco and the other belonging to Lucius Malfoy," Ron said and noticed how Hermione's eyes lit up with excitement of the new developments.

"That's not all! Dudley and I found the lair of Lucius Malfoy and his companion,"

"Compani..." Hermione began, but was cut off.

"Silence, please! I am already telling you. There's no need to ask questions."

Hermione nodded.

"Malfoy's companion turned out to be none other than Peter Pettigrew himself!" Ron continued.

"Wormtail!?!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yes. We arrested both of them, but...." Ron stopped and sighed.

"But what? Continue," Hermione said eagerly.

"We were captured at first, but we met another prisoner during our short captivity. Someone we thought was dead," Ron said lowly.

Hermione didn't say anything.

She waited for him to continue.

He didn't.

Instead he opened the door and let Dudley and Neville in.

Hermione didn't recognise Neville at first.

"Who is...?" she said, squinting with her eyes, trying to recognise him.

Then it dawned on her and she put her hands over her mouth.

"Neville?" she whimpered as a single tear fell down her cheek.

"Hi, Herm," Neville said and waved his hand at her.

Hermione leapt out of her chair and hugged him, crying out loud.

Neville simply hugged her back.

"How did you...?" Hermione breathed through the tears.

Neville put his finger over her lips and shushed her.

"Shh. I'll explain later. We have more important things to do right now," he said and she wiped her eyes and nodded while she took her place again.

"Have Harry and Grindle checked in yet?" Ron asked.

"Not that I know of," Hermione sniffled and tried hard not to break into tears again.

"They should be back by now. We were prisoners for at least a day in the theater and they've had lots of time to nail Malfoy," Ron said.

A knock on the door surprised them all and Dudley, who was nearest to the door, opened it.

Grindle staggered in, holding his ribs and bled from a huge gash in his eyebrow.

"Oh my God! Ben!!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron helped support him and led him to one of the chairs.

"What the hell happened?" Dudley asked.

Ron began putting a binding spell on his eyebrow to stop the bleeding.

"Malfoy surprised us. The floor was covered in blood. He knocked me out," Grindle rambled, sighing in pain from his ribs.

"Wait a minute. Slow down and begin from the beginning. Malfoy caught you off guard?" Hermione said.

"Yes! He knocked me through a fucking hard wooden door. I think my ribs are broken, God it hurts!" Grindle said.

"You didn't catch Malfoy, then?" Dudley asked.

"No! Of course not! All I know is that he is much stronger than any Dark wizard I've ever met," Grindle said.

"We have to get you to the infirmary, immediately! You might have internal bleedings," Ron said and put Grindle's right arm behind his neck and began to help him out of the chair.

"But where is Harry?" Hermione asked.

They all looked at Grindle.

"I don't know."

---------------to be continued in chapter nine, "Us and Them"---------------

the chapter has now ended.