Chapter thirty; The chase

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Olivia pushed her hair out of her face once she felt her feet again. The unexpected had most certainly happened, and the rush of the apparation had thrown her completely, "That grimy little prick." She seethed, gripping to her wand tightly, "The next time I see him I'm going to strangle him with my hair, just you wait."

Ron gave her a sideways glance as he passed her, "Yeah, I don't doubt it."

"It's happened now," Harry told them, "it's over. He was only desperate."

"Is there no one we can trust?" Ron exasperated, out of breath.

Olivia dusted herself off, "He did it on purpose the wanker, spoke his name and everything. He was more than desperate, I reckon."

"They kidnapped her Olivia." Harry turned around to tell her, "Because he supported me, us. Wouldn't you be desperate if that was your daughter?"

Olivia narrowed her eyes, "I wouldn't even give them chance. They'd be dead before they got their slimy hands on my children."

"He was just desperate." Harry said calmly, watching as Olivia shivered again. He stepped forwards with a frown as she paled, "Everything alright."

Hermione swallowed deeply, "I'll start the enchantments."

Olivia shook her head no to Harry with a very uncertain look on her face, "Even now, after we escaped Lovegood's house, I still have a bad—"

"Hello, beautiful."

Their heads snapped quickly to the sound, Olivia having heard it familiar. She stepped closer towards Harry, standing behind his shoulder as she looked around frantically.

Surrounding them was a group of Snatchers plus Fenrir Greyback. The one at the front, who's voice Olivia recognised, was stood metres away from Hermione, wearing the scarf she had tied to a tree stump for Ron when he had left. It was when Olivia looked around a second time that she noticed Hermione had apparated them to that very spot.

Olivia's face was stern as she rocked from side to side while clutching her wand tightly in her hand, her jaw clenched. A brief side glance to Ron answered her silent question.

They were going to run.

They had to.

They had no choice.

"Well don't just stand there." The same
Snatcher had shouted, "snatch 'em."

With Harry still partly shielding her, Olivia lifted her wand over his shoulder and cast the first blasting spell that came to her mind. She threw the spell with such urgency that it bounced of several trees before catching a couple of the Snatchers. Hermione and Ron had already taken off, running for their own lives, when Harry grabbed Olivia's hand and pulled her along.

They ran further into the forest and descended down a steep hill, running as quickly as they possibly could. Olivia was using her wand and her hands to slash tree branches away to prevent them scraping her face while jumping over roots encased into the mud.

She had long let ago of Harry's hand and instead was running in level with the other three. She peered over her shoulder quickly while aiming randomly to fire another spell behind her. The sound of blast hitting a tree barely registered in Olivia's ringing ears, but was did was the retaliation.

Just off her right, on the path she was running past, the first spell of retaliation came. If it had hit successfully, Olivia reckoned it would've been aimed for her hand where he wand would most likely be knocked away.

As the next spell came, Olivia ducked to her best efforts to avoid it. When the one after that came, Hermione yelped.

From the minute glances over her shoulder Olivia could make out the gaining figures belonging to the Snatchers. They were almost right on their tails, only a couple hundred feet away from catching them.

A couple hundred feet was all that separated them from being captured.

The very thought of that, being captured, was what drove Olivia to push her legs to run quicker and she soon ran past the others. She faced the potential of death or torture if she was captured and it wasn't on her list of ways to go. If now, after all the fuss they had gone through to stay safe, they were captured by a couple of Snatchers it would all be for absolutely nothing. It would be the end of their chances to bring down Voldemort from his hierarchy. Their last shot of saving the Wizarding World would be over just like that.

They hit a fork in the forest that forced the four to spilt in different directions. Olivia was running that quickly she was almost tripping over her own feet and the constant echo of spells firing behind her drove her to keep running. She had adopted a 'don't look back' approach as of that moment, as a part of her was scared to face what fate the Snatchers would bring her to.

Her attempt of defending herself consisted of her aiming her spells strategically. Instead of aiming for those chasing her, she aimed for the trees and their thick branches. Her spells created a diversion because as she passed the trees would fall after her, blocking the path she took for the Snatchers to follow her.

Her ragged breaths were laboured as she ran for her life — weaving in and out, and jumping over branches. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ron fall to the ground first, bound in chains. The distraction caused her own footing to fail her and she tripped over a tree root poking out from the earth on the ground. Instead of falling to her face, she rolled and pushed herself up.

Olivia broke out into a short lived sprint as only moments after she had been running, she felt a dozen or so sharp objects pierce her left ankle and drag her down. She went down with a scream of pain, her hands reaching down to the source of the pain as she fell to the ground. Her fall only caused more pain, as she fell on to the base of her left shoulder blade. She groaned once her head hit the floor and was subjected to both dizziness and a deafening ringing in her ears.

Olivia could've laid like that on the floor for the rest of her life, injured, defeated and bleeding — but the tight snap of a chain being pulled & the extreme pain in her foot pulled her up.

"Long time no see, Black." Fenrir Greyback's rough voice greeted as he was dragged her through the mud by the spiked chain wrapped around her left ankle. The pain was immense and tears prickled Olivia's eyes as she screamed for him to stop. She couldn't guess how long she had been dragged, but when Greyback dropped her foot back to the floor Olivia rolled on to her front to try and crawl away.

She found Harry already running in the direction towards her and knew it was over for him too. He wouldn't have the time to change his pattern, especially with the Snatchers chasing both him and Hermione. They would be trapped in a circle with no where to go. They might've noticed her, but one of them could still be saved.

Harry realised his mistake when he saw the two Snatchers stood with Fenrir Greyback in front of him. He sharply realised his fate when he saw a black haired mess on the floor next to them. A large silver chain had been stained red from where it had dug into the skin of their ankle.

In complete shock, he slowed his run as Olivia lifted her head to look to him through her unruly hair. Her cheek harboured deep scratches and the left of her forehead was smudged red. What scared Harry the most, however, was the raw and unmistakable look fear in her eyes.

He barely had time to dig his heels into the ground to stop himself as he watched her lift her wand in his direction. The small jinx flew towards him but knocked him off his feet as it hit him square in the face.

Harry landed a few meters away from her and Hermione skidded to a halt in between the two. She fell to her knees and looked to Olivia, "What'd you do to him?" She yelled in a whisper to her as she looked to Harry in shock, "His face—"

"—He'll be unrecognisable, so wherever we go he'll be safe until he can escape. They won't recognise him like this, take his glasses." Olivia panted, "Hermione you should go, they don't know who you are."

"I'm not going to leave you here."

"If you were smart you would." Olivia muttered, "They'll take us to the Ministry, you're a wanted Muggle-born. Think about it."

"Ron and—" Hermione stuttered.

"They'll be fine." Olivia assured, "Just go while you still can."

At that moment Harry sat up and Olivia saw the damage she had done to his face. It had swollen in different places, some larger than others, but he was hardly recognisable. His eyes were wide as he looked to them both, "The Hallows, they exist—"

"You let him in?" Olivia scolded through gritted teeth.

"Now isn't the time." Hermione told them, "What else?"

"He's only after one, The Elder Wand—"

"—We already knew this." Olivia groaned.

"You did, I didn't." Harry told her, "He knows where it is and he's going to have it by the end of the night."

Hermione was suddenly pulled up and away from the two as Olivia was pushed back on to her back. She heard Ron shouting over as one of the Snatchers stood on her arm while another pulled her wand away from her.

"Get off her!" Ron shouted as one of the Snatchers manhandled Hermione to her feet, restraining her.

A punch in his stomach silenced Ron as the head Snatcher spoke to them, "Your boyfriend will get much worse if he doesn't know how to handle himself."

Olivia struggled to push the mans large and heavy boot off her arm as it started to go numb, even hitting him did nothing. She cried out in frustration as water slipped from her eyes, "Get off me you fat bastard!"

In a second the foot was removed and Olivia felt herself being dragged by the chain before she was tugged to her knees by her hair. Fenrir Greyback breathed down her neck as he fisted her waves around his wrist, holding her arms and upper body with his other hand.

The leader of the group, the one who Olivia thought to resemble the lead singer out of The Weird Sisters, turned to a deformed looking Harry who was next to Olivia, "What happened to you ugly?" Olivia bit into her lip to prevent a whimper as Greyback tightened his grip around her hair, "Not you." The Snatcher had told the werewolf dismissively, "What's your name?"

"Dudley." Harry told them, "Vernon Dudley."

Had she not been in enough pain, Olivia would've reacted to Harry's choice of identity, taking his uncles muggle name. She briefly made eye contact with him as the Snatcher left and wandered to Hermione, "Check it."

Olivia grew tense seeing how close he came to her while asking her name and fought against Greyback's hold on her. Hermione held her head high as he stood inches away from her and through the wind Olivia caught the name she gave, "Penelope Clearwater." She uttered, "Half-blood."

"There's no Vernon Dudley on here." One of them said, holding up a small book.

The Snatcher handling Harry shook him as he held his jacket in his fists, "Hear that? Your not on the list, how comes you don't want us to find out who you are."

"It's wrong, I told you who I am." Harry stated confidently.

The leader of the group took his attention from Hermione to look over in the direction of Harry and Olivia. He walked over to them both and crouched down in front of Olivia curiously.

"I know this one, she—"

Greyback was cut off as he lifted his hand to silence him. Olivia's black tangled hair covered the right side of her face for the most part and blood covered the left, "Why'd you have to mess her face up?" He looked to Greyback irritably as he lifted his wand to push back her hair. Olivia gritted her teeth when she saw his face change and glared at him as he grinned, "Oh, it looks like we've hit the jackpot here. Not even a week after the break in at Hogwarts and we catch her out in the forest with a bunch of nobodies." He leaned closer to her, "Looks like your not so special after all."

Olivia bit into her bottom lip to prevent herself from commenting, they were in a bad enough place and she didn't need to make matters worse for herself. He stood
upwards to walk to Harry and eyed him curiously. Olivia watched with bated breath as he slowly raised a hand to Harry's forehead and pushed his hair back. There was no doubt that over his swollen features Harry's scar would be somewhat deformed although visible and it would ultimately decide their future.

"Change or plan." The Snatcher muttered, "We're not taking this lot to the Ministry after all."

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I hope you're ready for the next chapters to come. Reunions, reunions and did I say reunions??