November Snow

f i f t y - e i g h t

"Crucio!"

She screamed in pain.

"Where are they?" One of them shouted.

"Go to hell--"

"Crucio!"

She arched her back in agony, then dropped back to the chair she was chained to, sweat dripping from her forehead.

"Tell us, now!"

"I said, go to hell!"

"Crucio!"

-----

Neville, Luna and Ginny didn't know for sure how they worked up the nerve, but five minutes after midnight they found themselves outside the wall where they heard November's screams coming out from. Tonight was one of those rare nights when they didn't have to listen to her painful screams for too long, it stopped around an hour before, maybe the Death Eaters needed a break sometimes.

Luna suggested tapping the tiles with their wands to see how it worked, she thought it could be like Diagon Alley. Not surprised when that wasn't the case. Death Eaters don't do that. Then there was a crazy moment when Neville thought they might be in the Room of Requirement, but that was until few seconds later, Ginny reminded him that they were the ones hiding in the secret room, not the Death Eaters. Ginny went a little ahead of herself when she said that the room entrance was somewhere else, not near the wall where they thought the screams came from. But who knew, right? Anyway, they started looking for other possible places near there until they reached the forbidden corridor.

"At the beginning of the year, they said we shouldn't go here if we don't want a painful death." Neville recalled, shivering at the thought of his own death.

"This is the place." Luna, with her dreamy expression, was the first one to put her feet onto the staircase.

"Luna, hang on!" Neville called out, but she had already skipped her way out of their sights.

Ginny, after one split second of thinking, followed Luna immediately and was soon out of sight into the dark corridor, Neville was the only one left behind. He hesitated, what would happen to them? Then, he nearly screamed when Luna's white head popped out from the dark and stared at him.

"Are you coming or not, Neville?" She asked.

"Coming, coming." He gathered himself and ran after the two girls.

It was dark, way too dark to even be recognized as a part of the beautiful and magnificent Hogwarts they first saw six or seven years ago. The three friends felt their ways down the corridor, they didn't dare to light up even just a little with their wands, yet they were afraid of what they might encounter at the end. Luna, with her bright grey eyes, spotted a sliver of light from afar.

"Are you sure, Luna?" Neville asked "I can hardly see anything."

"I see it too." Ginny said "Come on."

They sped up a little and after a few moments of Neville nearly tripping himself and Luna humming to a weird, eerie melody, they found a wooden door. It looked like it had been there for centuries, like a breath could take it down and a flick could turn it into splinters. It was nearly closed, the cold light escaped through the gap and shone into the corridor.

They exchanged frightened looks before Ginny stepped up and peered into the room behind that door. Luna and Neville held their breath, anxiously waited for Ginny's answer of what was inside the room. Ginny, who had spent nearly a minute squinting her eyes to look, had her eyes widened in surprise and just swung the door opened, making her two friends nearly die in shock. The redhead Gryffindor ran straight into the room and crouched down in front of a girl sitting in a chair.