The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

A Very Important Matter

Maryrose Jenkins lay under the brush midway up the mountainside that led to the cave, perfectly still. The petrificus totalus Wendy Brighton had cast upon her had frozen her muscles and she stared blankly through the dark, nearly black contrast of the branches of the trees high above. The snow hadn't fallen where she lay, the cover of the trees had shielded the ground, and she lay on a pile of frozen leaves and bracken, her teal-blue hair splayed about her head in a halo that was starkly bright against the dead fauna around her.

She heard the explosion, but could not move to investigate it anymore than she'd been able to jump up to warn Alabaster or Jackson about Wendy as they'd come talking nervously up the path together, anxious for the battle they thought they were going into. She'd been able to do nothing as Wendy had petrified them as well, levitating their bodies into the brush alongside Maryrose.

Perhaps Wendy didn't intend to murder them, or perhaps she was too much of a coward to do it. Maryrose didn't know which it was, only that she hadn't killed any of them. There was still hope to get out of this... if only the spell would wear off, or else that someone would come looking for them, would find them...

Maryrose heard someone on the path, just moments after the explosion, running, their feet hitting the slippery sloping path with a thunderous beat, and she thought very, very hard, wishing that they might hear her mind somehow, might come and save her from where she lay... There was a great crashing as the person on the path leaped through the brush, the branches and bracken breaking under their weight, and for a moment Maryrose thought she may really have managed at sending her message with her mind, for the person crashed though right over her, their body leaping past like a dark shadow over the stark shapes of the tree tops... but they kept going, deeper into the woods.

Then she heard Wendy Brighton's voice, "You've gone too far. They're here."

The crashing body that had passed her by must have turned back for the crashing that had gone away was getting louder again and soon the shadow had returned, a silhouette against the darkness, features she could barely distinguish, but were too fearsome to be unrecognizable...

Fenrir Greyback grinned down at Maryrose Jenkins's frozen form, a hungry expression on his face. He studied her a moment. "Yeah, that's the one," he said after a few moments, nodding.

"I know she's the one," Wendy snapped, "I've told you - I know Regulus Black, personally. We're both in the Order of the Phoenix."

"The Order of the --" Greyback snickered. "That a little playclub at your school, then? What do you do? Play checkers? Gobstones? I've heard Regulus is fond of Gobstones, the little twat."

"No, we do not play Gobstones." Wendy's voice was annoyed. "We're students in opposition of the Dark Lord. Like the Resistance is. James Potter leads it, along with Sirius Black and all the others that the Dark Lord despises. Regulus Black is our spy on the Death Eaters."

Greyback's teeth showed as he grinned at her in amusement. "If you say so," he replied coolly. He looked at Alabaster and Jackson, laying on the ground on either side of Maryrose. "These extras?" he asked.

Wendy nodded, "You said you required payment for the pick-up, yeah?"

Greyback's grin grew larger. "I did. I do." He waved his wand, and there were two cracks as Alabaster and Jackson disappeared from the forest floor. "I'll enjoy them profusely."

Maryrose's blood ran cold through her body, and she would have shouted, would have cried, would've done something if only she'd been able to move...

Fenrir leaned closer and inspected Maryrose, his breath stinking as he did, and he looked her over, "It's too bad I don't get you, you pretty little thing. Sure you taste sweet as a tart, don't you now?" and he laughed a low, barking laugh that rumbled in his throat. Then, having only just gotten his wand back from Remus Lupin before he had disapparated out of the cave, he raised it now, aimed it at the girl's face, and breathed, "Finite Incantantum." Unpetrified, Maryrose's body's muscles let go and her arms and legs went limp for a moment before she'd regained control on them and she kicked violently the moment she had, only to have Greyback use the incarcerous, a nasty-smelling rope wrapping it's way around her body, tightening like a boa constrictor, and binding her up. She screamed, but a quick flick silenced her, too, and she lay as immobile as she'd been before.