Harry Potter and the Blind Seer of Durmstrang

Chapter 32

Harry and Adrian crouched outside the door, hardly daring to breathe. Inside the room, there was silence, and Harry counted his heartbeats. 29. 30. 31. 32.

Then, a voice spoke. Low and sinister, it hissed at Wormtail, "what do you mean 'gone?'"

"I mean, it's not there!" said Wormtail, his voice rising with his panic.

"Not there? And why would it not be there, hmm?" The menacing voice grew softer.

"Errr, I, I-I must have lost it," stammered Wormtail.

"Why don't you go find it again then," purred the voice, now almost a whisper.

"Yes, yes, quite right. I shan't be... Shan't be a minute." Wormtail's shuffling footsteps neared the door again, and Harry could feel Adrian tense with fear and anger. He clutched at the other boy's arm, but it was too late.

As Wormtail reentered the corridor, Harry felt Adrian's body jerk with the movement of his wand arm. "Petrificus Totalus!" Although he spoke in an undertone, he flung his words toward Pettigrew as hard as his shaking hand pointed his wand.

"Fool," Harry ground between clenched teeth. "They'll find us for sure now."

Wormtail's body hit the stone floor with a dull thud. Harry scrambled toward him, reaching for his wand as he did so. His wand that wasn't there.

"And just what have we here?" The sardonic voice of Bellatrix Lestrange sliced down the stone corridor and bounced its mocking echoes back into Harry's face. He froze in a crouch, a hunted animal caught in the glare of a searching torch beam.

Two sharp steps and she had reached him. Harry felt her thin, strong hand on his right shoulder as he crouched, pulling him around to face her.

"Harry Potter?" Her voice, laced with amusement, held a note of incredulity. "Harry Potter, here? How did you get here? How did you find this place?"

Her hand gripped his shoulder tighter and he felt her lean forward, looking into his face, his eyes. His stomach twisted and his mind fought for something to say, something to tell her that would explain his presence here, that would stall her.

More people had rushed to the door of the meeting room and now stood, pushing and gawping at him, whispering to one another.

"I thought you couldn't see," she said, her breath now just in his face as she peered at his eyes. Harry said nothing. "He told us you were blind," she said, more to herself than to Harry. "And yet, you're here?" Her foot jiggled impatiently.

She apparently made up her mind about something, because she gave his shoulder a push backward that nearly unbalanced him, and grabbed his left arm, just above the elbow, spinning him, and roughly pushing toward the door and the whispering, shuffling knot of Death Eaters. "Come with me," she said, pushing him ahead of her into the room. Harry felt the stone and wood of the corridor wall rise out of the darkness to smash against his right cheek and shoulder simultaneously. He'd missed the doorway.

"Looks like it's true," snickered one of the Death Eaters, as Harry winced, reaching up a hand to rub his cheek. As he did so, Bellatrix reacted, jumping backward, and Harry realized she'd drawn her wand. He let his right hand fall slowly from his face, and with his left, felt for the door frame behind him to try to gain some sense of orientation and balance. He moved slowly, carefully, listening hard. The hammering of his heart sounded loud in his ears.

He had no idea where Adrian was.

"Stay there, Harry Potter," said Bellatrix. "Don't move if you value your life." She grabbed his school bag from his shoulder, searching quickly inside. "Knitting?" Harry heard her sweep his ball of yarn out, and heard the click of the metal needles as she held it up. Laughter erupted from the assembled Death Eaters.