Rose tried to not show how nervous she was as she started to make the pancakes for lunch. She had noticed that all the Death Eaters seemed to like those, so she made sure to make enough for everyone.
As usual, Lestrange came down and picked a random pancake to give to Albus. She barely even acknowledged him, making herself busy with the pancakes and syrup. She added the finishing touches to the syrup while he was inside watching Albus eat. Why did he still bother doing that? As far as he knew, she didn't have access to anything dangerous. Well, since it meant that Albus got some food, she wasn't about to complain about it.
As she suspected, every Death Eater took at least one pancake with syrup. She took one as well and then sat down next to Scorpius as she always did. He seemed to be back to his now normal dazed state. At least he hadn't kept on telling her that she needed to be careful and fussing over her as he had last night. That would have made it harder to do anything.
For some reason, Lestrange came and sat down next to her. She tried to ignore him, but it did make her slightly nervous. She just ate her pancake in silence.
"We are going out later today." Lestrange said all of a sudden. Rose looked up, alarmed.
"Going out? All of us? Or just some of you on some sort of mission?"
"We have a job planned. I was hoping your husband would join us, which is why we have waited so long. But I think we can do it without him. We found his father, you see. We hoped we could get your husband to kidnap him, but Malfoy has exposed himself. He is starting to get complacent again."
"I see. And why would you be interested in Draco Malfoy?" Rose asked, hoping she spoke clearly enough that Scorpius would hear it and maybe rebel, deep down. But he had already started nodding off. So had many of the others, actually. Had Lestrange eaten the pancakes yet? What would she do if he did not fall asleep?
"I have told you. We are out for revenge. Malfoy betrayed the Dark Lord. He needs to pay for that, and in worse ways than the traitor downstairs. Why do you think we kidnapped your husband from Hogwarts in the first place? He was bait, just as much as the rest of you."
Rose risked a quick glance down on his plate. Lestrange had barely eaten anything. She took hold of Scorpius' wand under her robe.
"So, that is what this is all about?" she asked as she deliberately took another bite of her pancake, hoping he would do the same. "Just revenge? I had honestly hoped for something more original."
"Revenge is just the start. But that is not the point. I am telling you this for one reason. I wonder what I should do with you while we are out. Will you be able to stay put here without someone to watch over you? Or do I need to get you into a cell again?"
Rose felt a spike of panic. If he placed her in a cell now it could ruin everything. She could not let that happen.
Just then, Scorpius' head fell noisily onto the table. Finally! She had started to worry if the Sleeping Powder had been inert after all. Or that she had not been able to get enough of it into the syrup.
Lestrange frowned and looked over to the other Death Eaters. Most of them were already sleeping as well, and the rest had started nodding off. A few of them seemed to realize something was wrong, but it was too late.
Lestrange got on his feet in a moment, then turned to Rose. "What have you done?" he shouted angrily, pointing his wand at her. Rose only replied with a spell from under her robes, catching Lestrange by surprise. "Petrificus Totalus". Lestrange fell over. His eyes betrayed complete surprise.
"It seemed to me," Rose said, looking down on him. "That my husband didn't need his wand in his current condition. I am sure he won't mind that I borrow it for a while."
She bent down and took Lestrange's wand. "Do you mind if Albus borrows yours?" she asked in a mocking voice. "It seems you have misplaced his wand, so he will need another one."
She did a quick check to see that all the others had eaten at least one pancake with syrup. With a regular amount of syrup, they should be out for a few hours at least. But she didn't want to risk them waking up, so she drizzled a little more sleeping powder into their mouths. Well, except for Scorpius. And she grabbed all their wands. She also gave Lestrange a pinch of Sleeping Powder, to prevent him from being released from the Body-Bind curse. She didn't know how long they held, and she didn't like the hatred in his eyes. Then she went down to find Albus. She hated leaving Scorpius behind, but she knew she probably would not be able to make him go with her, and he was far too heavy for her to carry. She didn't know if it would be better if he woke up before the others or not. And she felt that Albus needed more urgent help.
Albus was awake. His pancake hadn't had any syrup on it. She had counted on that and was relieved to see him alert. The cell door luckily opened with Alohomora, then Rose removed Albus' chain, and helped him to his feet.
"How did you manage this?" Albus asked. He was weak but tried to move out towards the kitchen. "Where are the Death Eaters?"
"They are upstairs, asleep." Rose said as she held onto Albus to prevent him falling over again. "I suspected they wouldn't bother giving any syrup to you on your pancake. So, I laced the syrup with the sleeping powder, hoping they would all take some of that. It worked. I put some additional powder in their mouths now and took all their wands. Now I really hope that I can actually get the secret door open, and that it is a passage, and not just a hidden room."
Albus didn't reply. He just groaned, trying desperately not to pass out. This was probably more movement than he had done in two weeks, he wasn't prepared for how much it hurt to move.
Rose put him down on a chair in the kitchen. She did not like how pale he was. But she could worry about that when they were out of here. She went over to the place where she had seen the smoke go in. "Dissendium", she tried. "Revelio". Nothing. Sometimes, a plea for help opened secret doors. "Please, help us" she said "The enemy is coming; we must get away. They have found us, we must leave. Open the door. Reveal the exit. We need to get out." She tried for a while, with different words and orders. None of those words seemed to be the right one and no spells seemed to make any difference. In the end, she didn't have time for subtlety. She had to revert to the brute force plan. She pointed the wand at the wall. "Depulso!" she said. A rather large hole appeared in the wall. There was definitely an opening behind it. She peeped in. It was a passage. She smiled in relief. She used Depulso a few more times and made a hole that was large enough for her to crawl through. Then, remembering Albus, made it a little larger so she could help him through as well.
"Come on Albus!" she cheered. "Let's get out of here!"
Albus didn't reply. He seemed to be almost unconscious. Rose quickly ran back to him. She didn't know much about healing spells. Albus was losing blood and could barely walk. He seemed to have broken some ribs as well. She tried fixing those with Episkey and other spells, but she wasn't sure how well she succeeded. Eventually however, Albus seemed to at least recover enough to be able to walk out through the hole she had made. With her assistance. She concealed the hole she had made as best she could. It would probably not be visible unless someone tried to lean on the wall in that exact spot.
Later, thinking back, she wasn't sure how she and Albus managed to get through to the end of the corridor. Luckily, it sloped slightly downwards. At the other end there was a small room, about the same size as the kitchen.
Please, let there be a door, Rose thought. Please, let us not have walked all this way for nothing. She did not want to have to go back up to where the Death Eaters were. And she didn't know if she could get Albus up those stairs to the other blocked exit.
Thankfully, she saw the door. She ran over to it and tried to push and pull. It had clearly not been opened for many years, but at last it did open. Only at the sight of that open door did she remember that she had no idea where she was. She couldn't just run out into nothing!
"Homenum revelio". Nothing. That meant that no one was directly outside, if she had done the spell correctly. She risked a small peek out of the door. Looking at Albus, she knew she didn't have a lot of time.
The location was unmistakable. She had never been here, but she knew it.
It was Knockturn Alley. She was in London. "The last place anyone would look" Lestrange had said. Well, he got that right. Well, now that she knew where she was, they could Apparate away, and still be able to lead others back here again. She ran back to Albus.
"We're in Knockturn Alley," she said to him. "Come. Let us Apparate to safety."
Albus shook his head. "I can't do that, Rose. I can barely keep conscious. I would collapse completely if I tried to Apparate now. I'll just wait here for you to come back."
Rose started to protest, but she saw that Albus was right. He was not in a condition to Apparate. She considered taking him to St. Mungo's first, but she didn't know the way. She took out the wands she had taken from the Death Eaters and handed them to Albus.
"Choose the best one of those. That way, if any of them do wake up and follow us, you can knock them out. Here, hide in the corner here, so they can't see you." Albus sagged down in the corner. She did not like how pale he had gone. She made sure he sat in an upright position, where he would not simply drop down, unable to breathe if he fell unconscious again. She found a ragged blanket in a corner to put over him. That was all she could do for now.