Twelve Grimmauld Place was our home for the next few weeks as we tried to make plans.

When the first day of September came by, it didn't go unnoticed by either one of us.

"Weird, not being on it, isn't it?" Hermione said as she noticed me looking at the time.

Eleven o'clock.

In my minds eye, I could see the scarlet steam engine puffing out of the station. I wondered whether Draco was on it. Or was he somewhere else?

I fought the familiar fear growing inside of me. I hated to think of Draco being scared. Of being tortured in some way. The need to know he was safe almost suffocated me.

As if understanding my silence, Hermione put her arm around me and nestled her head on my shoulder.

"He'll be OK." She whispered.

But we both knew that she couldn't know that for sure.

***

Despite getting a Horcrux - the locket, our trip to the Ministry didn't end well. We had to leave Grimmauld Place. So we resorted to camping in various places.

We were tired and hungry all the time. The locket was making us all tetchy, and as the weeks rolled by we were getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of ground we had covered in destroying the Horcruxes.

Then, one horrible night, there was an argument that split our group up.

"We thought you knew what you were doing!" Ron had shouted at Harry. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"

Things had turned ugly. Harry and Ron screamed at each other whilst Hermione and I looked on, begging Ron to take off the locket.

Eventually, Ron had wrenched the locket from his neck and thrown it viciously at Harry before storming out of the tent. Instinctively, I ran after him, grabbing his arm right before he Disapparated.

He had taken me with him.

***

"YOU IDIOT!" I yelled, pushing Ron viciously away from me.

Exasperated, I looked round at our surroundings. Ron seemed to have Apparated us into a derelict looking street.

"We need to get back to them - now."

But as I reached for Ron - who had fallen to the ground after my shove - a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind.

"And what do you think you're doing here, pretty?"

Ron's eyes filled with horror. I wheeled round and came face to face with a snarling, gaunt looking beady eyed man. Behind him there stood four others, all grinning at me in the same creepy way.

"Expelliarmus!"

Both my and Ron's wands came flying out of our grips and landed in the beady eyed man's outstretched hand.

My heart racing, I backed away from the sinister looking group and found myself bumping up against Ron, who had by now clambered to his feet.

"Well, well, well, boys," he rasped horribly. "Looks like we got ourselves a couple of runaways."

The four men behind him snarled gleefully, all rubbing their hands hungrily. My skin crawled.

"We- we're not runaways!" Ron said shakily behind me.

The five men all moved towards us, circling us. We couldn't escape.

"Your names, then?" Snapped a greasy haired one to my right.

Shit. I had heard about these people - Snatchers. According to the Daily Prophet, they were handing in Muggle-Borns and blood traitors to the Ministry in exchange for gold.

Both Ron and I were in trouble.

"Stanley Shunpike." Ron answered as I panicked, trying to desperately think of a name.

To my horror, the beady eyed man moved his face close to mine, stroking my cheek with a gnarled yellow fingernail.

"And you, pretty girl? What's your name?" Revolution flooded through me as his breath, smelling of rotten eggs, hit my nostrils.

"Penelope Clearwater." She had been Percy's girlfriend and I prayed that she wasn't Muggle-born.

"That's not Stanley Shunpike. I know Stan, and he is definitely not a ginger."

My heart sank as one of the men spoke up.

"Are you sure? He looks a bit like him." Another one said.

"I said I know him, and it definitely ain't Stan!" There was anger in his voice now.

"But if we hand in the wrong man-"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"

This continued back and forth whilst Ron and I stood nervously in the middle, wondering with continued dread, what our fate was to be.

And then all of a sudden, I felt Ron jerk behind me. The greasy haired man went sprawling to the ground as Ron shouted "Expelliarmus!". He caught our wands which flew out of the beady eyed man's hand, grabbed my arm and turned.

We fell to the ground in the middle of an empty field.

"Bloody hell - that was close." Ron panted, still lying on his back.

"I can't believe you did that!" I laughed in relief, dusting myself off as I stood up.

"They weren't the brightest bunch, luckily." Ron stood up looking around.

"Where did you Apparate us to?" I asked, noticing now that this looked nothing like the place we were camped at with Harry and Hermione.

Ron, spinning on the spot, looked confused. "I must have slightly missed the location."

I looked at him, aghast.

"What?!" He said, seeing my expression. "I was concentrating more on getting our arses out of there than on the destination!"

He had a point, I thought. But then again, it was his fault we were in this situation in the first place.

"Right," I scowled. "Well let's just head in this direction and hope we recognise something soon."

But when we had eventually found the spot, miles later, they were gone.

***