Imperio (on hold)

4: Join Us

For what seemed like a couple of seconds but was actually a couple of hours, Melody couldn't see, hear or feel anything. When she eventually saw a dim white light through her eyelids, she thought she may be dead.

Then she heard voices.

Hushed voices.

She recognised some of them from her kidnappers, but she didn't recognise a female voice and a nasally man's voice.

A rush of terror went through Melody's body. Who were these people? What were they going to do to her?

"She's awake", said the female voice.

"Get up", said the voice of the blonde man.

Reluctantly, filled with dread, Melody opened her eyes.

She was in a large, cold, black-tiled room. The five men and one woman were standing around her in various positions. She was relieved to see that they weren't pointing their wands at her.

"Hello dear", said the woman. Melody looked at her. She was blonde and had an upturned nose, like she found something was smelly.

Melody stared at her and looked around at everyone, too scared to move or say anything.

"It's okay", said the woman, "we're here to help you".

"You see", said the blonde man, "we know you ran away from Hogwarts, so we know you must be against Dumbledore, see?".

Melody's eyebrows creased in confusion. What was he talking about?

"The Dark Lord", explained the blonde man slowly, "is also against Dumbledore".

"If you join us", added the wolfish man, "you can help us take down Dumbledore".

Melody's heart was beating really loud and fast now. "D-dark lord?", she whispered, "you know w-who?".

A couple of the men laughed nastily.

"Look", said the blonde man, sounding impatient now, "you can either join us willingly or unwillingly. Either way, you'll be serving our master".

Melody swallowed. "B-but", she stuttered, "you know who's, g-gone, Harry Potter-".

"Do not speak about him", the blonde woman cut her off abruptly.

The blonde man put his hand on the blonde woman's shoulder, "now now Narcissa, maybe he's aware of some, er, useful information on the boy?".

All the people's eyes were on Melody now.

"Er", she muttered, "I've never met him, he didn't like me".

"Didn't like you?", Narcissa asked softly, "why?".

Melody hesitated, these people were obviously crazy but she didn't seem to be in any immediate danger.

"No one really, really likes me much", she said tentatively, then, gaining confidence, "they think I'm a bad person".

Narcissa nodded understandingly. "I see, I understand".

"If you join us", said the blonde man softly, "no one will think you're a bad person. We'll all like you".

Melody looked at them nervously. She wasn't stupid, she knew they were just trying to manipulate her insecurities. "You know who", she said quietly, "he's really back?".

All of the wizards and witch nodded solemnly.

With a rush of courage, Melody looked the blonde man straight in the eye and said "prove it".