The Potions Master's Daughter (Book Five)

Chapter 1

Running through the forest I swiped some leaves out from in front of my face and turned around, "Hurry! We've almost made it to headquarters."

I ducked to avoid red sparks from a Stunning Spell that came flying from behind me. I spotted Blake and Draco just a few yards behind me. They were busy glancing behind them as they ran through the forest at full speed. I waited a moment for them to catch up to me, sending Stunning Spells back at the people chasing us. The three of us began to run together until I could see a slight shimmer ahead-Headquarters at last.

The three of us ran straight through the shimmery spot and fell to the ground. Immediately we could see much more than you could looking at it from several feet away. The whole area was protected with a charm to keep out invaders. There was a row of 8 tents to my right that were for sleeping, and another large, canopy tent in the middle where there were tables and chairs set up for meetings and for daily operations.

I stood up and offered Blake a hand up, "Good job guys," I said, "We got away."

I took a look at Blake. His hair was an inch longer than it was when we started, he had slight stubble appearing on the sides of his face. The bags under his eyes made his lack of sleep obvious, and there was a thin film of dirt covering his whole face, body and clothing. He had a large gash in his forehead that was starting to close up. Draco looked the same, except his major injury was hidden by his shirt. He had been the victim of a stabbing spell, and even though he had avoided most of it, there was still a large gash in his side.

It had been a little over a month since Severus had dropped us off, and we were finally getting close to catching Rodgers and Allen. They were both Death Eaters in the last war that had decided to try to go on the run instead of coming back to answer Voldemort's call. As soon as we returned both of them to Voldemort we were done. They had been working together, always staying just a step ahead of us for the last month, but now we were closing in on them. They had a lot of help, people they paid to act as decoys or mercenaries to fight us while they escaped but we had convinced their most trusted one to secretly work for us less than a week ago. He was sending us information on their true whereabouts, and now we were working to get to the locations he sent us before they were gone.

"What did you find?" came the now familiar voice of Fenrir Greyback.

I scowled at him as we walked over to the main tent, "There are four fighters in front of the gate and from the way they were willing to leave the gate, I'd expect there are just as many, if not more, past the gate too."

We had finally cornered Rodgers and Allen, or we thought we did. They were in this forest we were pretty sure, staying at this abandoned mansion in the middle. We had gone out on surveillance this morning to see how best to get into the mansion and try to get them. It was going to be our biggest hit if we were able to get in, and if they were there. I had gone last night when we first arrived to put an anti-apparation charm in place around the house and surrounding area, so they couldn't escape like they had last time. If they were really in there they were going to have to escape the house to be able to get away, and we had lookouts positioned around the house to alert us if they tried to leave.

He nodded and called over his head Snatcher, "David, take two men and get ready to go tonight. You're going to try to get past the gate by going over the fence in the back of the house. No fight, I just want to know how many people are in there."

David nodded and took off to some of the personal tents to get people to take with him. There were 20 men here, four in a tent, then one tent was for Blake and Draco, Fenrir got his own and I got my own as well.

"Good job not dying," he told the three of us, "Get some food and some training in then get some sleep early. If all goes well, I want to attack tomorrow."