No Pain, No Glory | Tomarry

18: Panic room

And what happened to Walburga and Adrian?

Well, they woke up and found themselves tied up on some chairs, in the middle of a pitch black basement.

Walburga regained conscience first.

Her eyelids feel heavy, but she knows she must open up her eyes if she is to establish a sense of her surroundings.

Alright, alright... There's a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Also, lots of boxes and... glittery dresses, what the hell are these for?

She blinks.

She glances down and sees that she is not in her nightgown anymore, but instead wears grey muggle pants and a yellow shirt.

Wait. Does that mean that Tom undressed her to put these clothes on while she was knocked out? Ew. What a creep. And here she was, thinking that the asshole could not be any more scary.

Okay, what else...? She's tied on a chair with some black plastic tape... Oh, Merlin. Where's her wand? Where's her bloody wand?!

She looks around, tries to spot anything inside the paper boxes or the plastic bags or on that desk with an electric lamp on (which is off)... and nothing. Her wand is most definitely not here.

She makes an attempt to move, even if that means moving with the chair.

The creek sound wakes up a blond boy, whom she hadn't been aware of before because their chairs were placed against each other.

"Walburga? Is that you?"

She leaves a groan out. "Yes, Adrian. It's me. Wakey wakey."

"Oh." He sounds a bit relieved at that. "Thank the Gods. Do you know why we're here?"

She clenches her teeth. "We're here because Tom's insane, that's why."

She hears him gulp. He is anxious as hell, but who can blame him?
"Do... do you think the others are looking for us?"

She has to calm him down. He cannot panic, for it will not help any of them.

"Yes. Yes, of course they are. They must have moved earth and heaven to search for us. If I know Tom well, which I do, after all of this, he did this as a challenge to test us. Like a game. Which means Harry and the others know about us and they're trying to find us, as we're speaking."

It works out pretty well, because when he moves his own chair around with three hops, in order to be able to look her in the face, he is smiling faintly.
"Right. You're right, of course, yeah. Of course they know about this."

"Do you have your wand?" She asks, after a couple of seconds.

He surveys his body, the pockets of his jacket and pants, his hands. No, nothing. He too tries to spot any familiar stick in the room. He doesn't turn out fortunate.

He shakes his head, before looking up at her. "So... he took our wands and we're tied up. Any luck with the food?"

"I see some cans over there." Says the girl, motioning at a box filled with tuna cans. Near it there's another one with bottles of red wine, perfectly sealed.

"Alright, that's good." Adrian chuckles painfully. "If only we could actually open them."

His attention is caught by a song playing machine, that is placed on the dirty floor, two steps away from him. It's way too... precisely put in that position.

Something isn't sitting right with him.

"Hey, check this out." He mutters and jumps with the chair close enough for his left foot to press down a red button.

There are a few seconds of silence before -

"Hello, Adrian, Burga. How are you faring up till now? I hope that small mechanism on Burga's left, the one with the many lights and wires, doesn't alarm you. I will explain its purpose to you shortly. But first, there are few things to be made clear."

The share a look of mutual horror.

Fuck.