Concealing some evidence

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

Belle apparated onto the top of a small hill with a loud cracking noise and behind her a large burlap sack with a large object inside. As the sack thumped onto the grass a whining noise emitted from within the sack causing Belle to give the person inside a swift kick with her boot. "Shut up!" With her wand Belle levitated the sack behind her as she walked down to the small countryside village. There were a dozen small cottages at most scattered on either side of a dirt path. The occupants of the village were stupid people who were easily dealt with. The previous year Belle had stashed some items and the whole village had sworn silence for a handful of muggle money.

Through the village Belle walked until she reached an old abandoned cottage, it's previous owner had been a fool and talked back to her on her last visit, the result was a slow and painful death which further guaranteed the rest of the villagers silence. Opening the door Belle floated the sack in and slammed it against the wall with a ferocious speed.

Slamming the door shut, Belle then walked over to the sack and opened it up and dragged Parvati out and shoved her against the wall. "Stupid girl, I told you to behave! I told you to stay in your room and you wouldn't be hurt! But no! You had to go sneaking about! Did you really think you could just walk out of my home!? Foolish girl! CRUCIO!" Belle watched with satisfaction as her spell worked on the girl for a few seconds. "Does that feel good?" She asked with a grin before lifting Parvati into the air and spinning her around with her wand before slamming her fast first into the ceiling then dropping her onto the floor. "CRUCIO! CRUCIO! CRUCIO! CRUCIO!" Belle hit Parvati over and over with short bursts of torture and watched with pleasure.

Finally Belle grew tired of her game and with her wand, flung Parvati across the room face first into the wall knocking her out. "Stupid girl, you'll stay here so you don't interfere with my work again!"

Back outside a small ground of villagers had gathered eagerly trying to see or hear what was going on in the cottage. As Belle walked outside the crowd took a few steps back away from her as she menacingly waved her wand from one frightened face to another. "Idiots" She said, addressing the villagers. "Do not enter that cottage, if you see a girl trying to leave it, beat her." She then dropped several hundred pieces of muggle paper money onto the ground before she apparated back to her home to continue her work.

[Parvati Patil]

Parvati had learned to stay silent...

Even through all the kicking, screaming, and bouts of anger, Parvati kept her mouth shut. The less she said, the better. One wrong breath or move could mean the difference between a night of horrors or a night of what she now considered quiet. This day had started like so many others over the past couple of weeks. She would see the lights turn on through her blindfold, and then hear Belle's shrill voice proliferate the room. Normally, the cruciatus curse would follow, but today, she had been immobilized and thrown roughly into a burlap sack. This was better than the day before. Yesterday, several of the Death Eaters had taken turns cursing her. Mercifully, she had blacked out after a few hours.

They were on the move.

After being dragged for a few kilometers, she felt the familiar sensation of being forced through a tube that normally accompanied apparition. The magic subsided as the beast of a woman kicked her swiftly in the face. Blood spurted down her mouth as she felt her nose break. Distracted by the pain, the next few events where a blur until Belle roughly pulled her out of the sack. She screamed and writhed on the floor for a few moments as she heard " Crucio!" several times in succession.

Parvati's arms gave way as she tried to push herself up front the cold floor. " She left," Parvati mumbled as she felt her cheek crash to the chill floor. Tears of relief flowed from her eyes as she caught her breath. Parvati layed like that on the floor four a couple of house before she attempted to stand back up. Pulling herself up by the cottage walls, she stood up on both of her feet. Sighing, she took a step with her right foot. She crashed to the floor. Through everything she had been through, she hadn't realized her ankle was broken.

Composing herself, she lifted herself up on the palms of her hands and began to pull herself across the dirty floor. She could feel her many cuts and scrapes burn as her legs lay behind her, useless. Halfway to the door, she collapsed exhausted. Reaching down, she tried to rearrange her bunched up skirt. It was now ripped completely in half down her left leg. Parvati began to laugh hysterically. She yelled to the empty cottage, " Parvati, this is not the damn time for modesty!" Out of sheer rage, she finally made it to the door. With her back to the door, she reached up with both of her hands. The locked door clicked as she tried to turn it. Screaming out of desperation, she yanked on the knob even harder.

Back and forth. Back and forth. Click, click, click....

Someone on the other side of the door banged on the window loudly with a stick. Terrified, Parvati scooted away on the palms of her hands quickly till her back felt wood. She now realized how pointless her endeavor had been. To think, she could get out of this situation. Rubbing the blood away from underneath her nose with the top of her hand, she began to cry profusely. She pulled her knees up to her chest, she put her arms around her cut legs. She then began to muffle her sobs by placing her face into her knees.

[Molly Weasley]

Molly had been in the kitchen trying to prepare dinner when an owl flew through her open window, and landed right in front of her on the windowsill. Giving the owl a treat that she had taken from a bowl next to the sink, where she had been standing, she took the letter off of it's foot, and unfolded it. Reading the letter, she discovered that it was from Alastor and was very very urgent. "Fleur, Fleur." She called knowing that her son's wife was home. " Could you possibly finish dinner, I have to meet Arthur somewhere, and it's very urgent."

After hearing Fleur agree to finish dinner, Molly hurried outside of the house, quickly taking hold of her wand, she apperated to the point that the letter had told her about. As Molly arrived at the cottage, she noticed that there was a mob of what appeared to be muggles gathered around it. This made her wander why muggles would gather around such a building. Hoping that she blended in, Molly joined the crowd, keeping her wand well hidden so not to startle the crowd. She was fairly sure that the crowd would get startled if they new that there was a witch or wizard among them.

Molly pushed her way through the crowd up to the window, looking in she saw young Parvati Patil inside. Gasping, she imagined what had taken place. The crowd here was to stop anyone from going in or out of the cottage. Backing out of the crowd, she decided it would be best to wait for Arthur.

Molly stood at a distance from the group, and awaited Arthur.

[arthur]

Work. What a hassle. Arthur loved his job, what he did, but nothing could stop the feeling of being overwhelmed. Ever since the kidnapping of Parvati Patil, everyone had been questioning ministry workers and making the officials here very frustrated and weary. Arthur himself was somewhat low on sleep, especially with Order meetings on his mind. The whole thing seemed horrible, but one thing was sure in Arthur's mind and probably in others; the kidnapping of Parvati had been a mistake. What would the Death Eaters want her for? She was in Harry's year, but as far as Arthur knew, Harry had no relationship with her that could drive the Death Eaters to attack. He didn't know whether this was the truth or not, but it had probably been Harry the Death Eaters had wanted. After all, it had been just another scheme to get Harry trapped with the Death Eaters, and again it included kidnapping.

Arthur's jumped when he heard an owl swoop in to his room. After staring into space, Arthur had to rub his eyes quite a few times to make them focus on the owl, which was by now hopping from foot to foot impatiently. Carefully Arthur unwrapped the letter off the owls' foot, his fingers nearly trembling. What could this be about? In a flurry of feathers the owl took off, and Arthur fumbled through the note, re-reading it quite a few times to understand what was really going on. When it occurred to him what the possibilities of this was, Arthur jumped up from his seat, hitting his knee on the table. Grunting with pain, Arthur limped away from it, trying to ignore the now rhythmic thumping in his knee.

An abandoned cottage. Arthur looked over the letter once more from Alastor, making sure he knew exactly where to go, and then apperated, not expecting anyone at work to miss him any. A loud crack announced Arthur's arrival to the small village, and as he looked around an expression of mingled fear and frustration swept over his face. A crowd was surrounded around a small cottage. What was this? He expected this to be the cottage Moody had told them about, but why the crowd? He tucked his wand away carefully and daringly approached the crowd. Muggles, the whole lot. Very smug muggles. Arthur blinked a few times, not even pausing to observe what a muggle mob was like. He would rather not know now.

He didn't see Molly yet, but since she had probably been at the Burrow at the time of receiving the news, it was a good chance that she was already here. Arthur moved through the mob, trying desperately not to shove but it seemed that the mob was trying not to let anyone get through to the cottage. While trying to understand why they had all gathered there, Arthur made it the window, peering in only to see what he had hoped to see. Parvati Patil. Well, maybe it was bad she was here, surrounded by a mob who appeared to have a clear meaning of being here. Not letting anyone get in or out. He shook his head, staring at the young girl until he had to move on, getting roughly shoved by another man.

Molly was on the other side of the mob. Arthur found her after he had back out as inconspicuously as possible. "Well, this is just fantastic!" Arthur muttered under his breath, taking a position besides his wife. Fantastic indeed. The whole thing was brilliant, no doubt another idea of the Death Eaters. "Any ideas on what to do?" Arthur asked Molly quietly, his eyes only on the crowd. He could always do something like a distraction, perhaps lift up something over by the buildings near by and make the crowd go over there to check it out. Although they would probably be back in a few minutes time. Another possibility was to wave his wand around and perhaps do something to make the whole mob scared. The ministry would be more then happy to modify some memory's if they got the Patil girl kidnapping solved. Or so he hoped. "Once we get inside, we just have to apperate with the girl. The only problem is getting inside without having trouble...."

[Parvati Patil]

Parvati pressed her hands up against her ears. The crowd outside the cottage was getting louder. The symphony of screams and bangs echoed about the empty rooms making it unbearable to hear. The dirt on her face streaked as she wiped away tears that refused to dry. She was helpless. She couldn't even begin to devise another means of escape even though she knew that this would probably be her last chance. Screaming in vain, she rocked back and forth on the floor. Why did the Death Eaters want her? She was no one important. Hell, she wasn't even close to Harry Potter. It had been almost three years since their date to the Yule Ball, and even then, it was only because he didn't want to lose face in front of the entire school.

Looking up, she could see hands beat up against the dirty windows. " Ugh!" she cried out as her mind began playing tricks on her. A flash of Weasley red hair had appeared in one of the windows. I really couldn't be that lucky. How could the Order know I'm here? A small bit of hope flashed in her chest. Do they know I'm in here? How can I get their attention?

Parvati swept her hands in the dirt around her as she searched for something, anything desperately. The small cottage was almost bare with no furniture in any of the rooms. Since she had come here, she had only seen a small collection of building materials in one the back rooms. " Of course," Parvati gasped.

With her remaining strength, she pulled herself up and dragged herself to the back room. Parvati's body made a trail in the dirt as she pulled herself across the floor. After what seemed like a lifetime, she found herself in front of a pile of what looked like trash. To Parvati, it was a gold mine. Rummaging through the pile of mortar, she eventually found what she had been looking for. Blood squirted from her fingers as she pried a brick from the pile. With great effort, Parvati made her way back to the front room; pushing the brick in front of her with the palm of her hand, and then pulling herself along after it. It was a terrible sound. The mortar would make scraping sounds against the floor, followed by the squeal of Parvati's already torn up legs.

Another eternity passed. With her back pressed up against the wall, Parvati weighed the brick in her hand. The window was only a short distance away, but she only had one shot at this. Scooting forward a bit, her breathing heavy, she said a little prayer. " Please, God, you've got to get me out of this one." Parvati heaved the heavy object toward the window. The force of the motion sent her sprawling on her back.

Glass shattered. Roars of anger came from the outside of the cabin as she felt bits of the broken crystal cut into her face. It was on now. She knew that this act would send the crowd into a frenzy. Hopefully, they would be distracted long enough for the Order to get inside to her. They could then apparate to safety. She only hoped that she had not guessed wrong. If they weren't really out there, the mob would probably storm the building and kill her.

[Molly Weasley]

Molly had been trying to think of a way into the cottage when she heard the cracking sound that was made when another wizard or witch apperated. She began to look around for the person whom had made the sound, and spotted recognizable red hair. It had to have been Arthur. Molly didn’t want to run back down toward the crowd just yet, because she wasn’t sure of the orders that the muggles had been given to make them act the way they were.

“I’m not sure what measures we should take here. We have to get in there, that’s all I can think about.” Molly said to her husband as he asked if she had any ideas yet. “I do wish that I had brought something from Fred and George’s shop. Surely they would have something we could have used if only we had known what we were up against.” Molly said somewhat softly. She knew that it was only wishful thinking, and it wasn’t very helpful. She began to try to think like her twins. What would they do, in a case like this, and no supplies with them? She asked herself.

Molly stood there looking at the crowd and thinking when suddenly she heard a loud scraping sound. It was a bit louder than the sounds of the crowd. For a moment, Molly thought it was only her imagination, but as she listened more carefully, she thought for sure that the sound was coming from inside the cottage. That meant that the young girl knew that Molly and Arthur were there. Suddenly Molly heard the sound of breaking glass, and looked up just in time to see a brick come flying out of the window. “Arthur, look. Do you think that will make good enough distraction for us to get in? Maybe we could get the crowd to believe that we are going in to make sure that she’s still tied up. Should we try, because they are surely going in there after her, for fear that she has gotten loose.” Molly wanted to run down and fight off the whole crowd to help the girl. She knew that the feeling to fight off the whole crowd was just what everyone would call “Motherly Instinct” but if it was what rescued the girl, than at least it had helped.

Molly wandered if Arthur would want to try to make their way down through the crowd, and try to get into the building while the crowd was still in an uproar. She looked over at him, and tried to read his facial expressions.

[arthur]

Arthur chuckled a little under his breath even though this situation was not the best to laugh in. Fred and George surely could have something useful that they could use for a distraction, perhaps one that would over-achieve the goal, but still, it was better then hopelessly standing here hoping that something would happen. "So do I." He agreed, glancing at his wife before turning around to face the small village. Some cans stood on the edge of the road. Interesting. What were they there for? What did muggles put in them? His interest in muggles was starting to over come all his worry for the scene he was standing in. Honestly, he couldn't avoid it when it was inside of him. Arthur sighed. He disliked doing nothing very much, but what could he do when he and Molly were out numbered and very much unlikely to hurt anybody to get what they wanted?

He jumped when a noise shot through the air. Turning around just as Molly told him to look, Arthur saw that the crowd was chattering and making a fuss over something. The something had to do with the window, which was looking quite intriguing. Shattered glass was on the ground where Arthur could see it between the legs and feet on many different people, and the window had a hole in it. Molly was saying something. Drawing himself away from the scenario unfolding right before his eyes, Arthur turned to look at Molly while the mob's noise became a little out of hand. "Yes. We have to try at least. If we didn't, well... We have to try." Arthur repeated, giving Molly a strained smile. Order business was always very difficult on the body and the mind.

Gathering his wits together, Arthur nodded as a motion for Molly to follow him and began to push his way through the uproar of bodies. It was a rough time getting to the doorway. Quite a few people blocked his way, and each time Arthur had to explain he was going to check on the girl (if he mentioned his name it would surely cause devastation.) When he finally reached the doorway, Arthur tried the knob, only to find it locked. Muttering a random curse of frustration slip his lips, Arthur heard the noise around him begin to settle down. Not much time left. "I'm going to check on the girl!" He called desperately over the den as a man asked him rather roughly what he was doing. Taking out his wand as inconspicuously as possible, he whispered "Alohamora!" Hearing a click, Arthur stuffed his wand up his sleeve for the moment, and rushed into the cottage, closing the door behind Molly and locking it. No need to worry about the mob anymore.

A sigh of relief rattled Arthur as he made his way to Parvati Patil. She looked a wreck, but at least she was alive. Knowing that Molly wouldn't enjoy seeing the sight of her on the ground, bleeding in some spots and where there was not blood, there were bruises. Grimacing at the sight. Arthur crossed the room as he heard angry outbursts from outside. They had apparently caught on to something. It was easy now. Upon reaching the girl, Arthur bent to put his hand on her shoulder, getting a firm grip on her torn clothes. Apparation was a nasty business, and you most certainly did not want to get lost in it. Waiting for Molly to join him, Arthur gave her a weak smile. "To St. Mungo's then. Shall you do the honors?" There was no worry in his voice anymore, no strain or fear of the mob, which was now getting very frustrated outside. This was it. The only thing ticking was Parvati's wounds, which needed to be attended to right away. Not only that, but the traumatic events that had taken place would probably scar her for live. But she was alive, and safely in his grasp. That was all that mattered right now.

[Molly Weasley]

Molly was somewhat glad that Arthur had agreed that the two of them must try to use the distraction to their advantage. She followed him, pushing her way through the crowd as well, and from time to time, having to point out to some of the women in the crowd that she was only going to help her husband make sure the girl had not freed herself. Some way, the people that had questioned them, believed them. Molly was relieved to hear this.

As she followed Arthur into the cottage door, she found the sight none to appealing. "Well, my dear, at least you are still alive. Now let's get you out of here." She said to Parvati as she followed Arthur over to her. Looking once more out the window, wondering how much longer the crowd would stay outside, before realizing that the couple wasn't going to exit through the door, the way muggles do, Molly prepared for the apperation.

"Well off we go then." She said as she waved her wand and prepared to apperate the three to St. Mungo's Hospital. Molly knew that the girl must be in pain, but that the healers at St. Mungo's would help with that.