With their bowls of porridge, Harry and Snape sat at the makeshift table in the large, but low ceilinged cave. Not many of the twenty odd people paid much attention to the newcomers, though they sat around the fire and table as well for their breakfasts. It appeared to be a regular occurrence, for new people to just show up. Harry listened intently to the conversations around them. Evelyn appeared to be in the midst of a heated debate with the men.

      "We need to get out of here," she said, waving her spoon at the people nearby. "If we don't go soon McTavish will have strengthened the wards further and put more men on lookout. He already suspects we're hiding in here anyways. The only thing that's stopping him from coming after us is that he can't drive us out without revealing himself. I say we start planning an escape today."

     "It's too dangerous," said one of the younger fellows. "Besides, even if he can't use magic around the muggles we're still in trouble. Have you seen McTavish shoot a bow and arrow? He almost never misses the mark. Even if the arrow just scrapes you going by you'll die of the poison he dips the arrows in!"

     "Which is why I think we need to get to work on an antidote to the poison before we make an escape," said an older man with greying hair.

      "We don't have time!" cried Evelyn desperately, standing up. "Do you know who they took to the square this morning?"

      The cave became silent. The few bleary eyed children looked up with frightened expressions. A little girl still in her nightgown had her arms wrapped tightly around her rag doll.

      "Evelyn," warned Maria, who was glancing at the children.

      "Sorry Mother," she muttered, sitting back down and continuing in a whisperer. "They took a little girl. She was six ... she was Maggie's age."

       Everyone around Evelyn paled; a few put their faces in their hands.

      "How did McTavish get her?" said the younger man, eyes cold as steel.

      "Accidental magic," Evelyn whispered. "He had a lot of witnesses. She didn't even get a proper trail; the town went mad."

      There was a moment or two of silence before Evelyn could continue.

      "My point is that the longer we stay here, the more danger the children are in. We can make it easier for them and their parents to escape by distracting McTavish and his followers. I will help create a diversion, along with any others without children to look out for. We have to go soon."

      "No, we don't," said the grey haired man firmly. "Ellery says he's working on summoning help."

      "Yes, and Ellery also said that he found a nest of glowing purple doxies at the other end of the cave," Evelyn said, lowering her voice. "He's not as sharp as he used to be; he's gotten old. What I'm trying to tell you is that we should take action rather than hope that he is right this time. It isn't just livestock or crops at stake this time, it's our lives. "

     "But if we wait it out it will just-"

     "No John, this isn't going to pass over," she said loudly. "Get it into your head! McTavish has gone completely mad, and you know just as well as I that he will stop at nothing until he has slaughtered the entire magical community!"

      With that she slammed her spoon to the table and disappeared to the other end of the cave, quite likely brooding. Maria in the meantime looked highly embarrassed about her daughter's outburst.

      "If anybody's crazy, I think it's her," said John loudly, earning him a glare for Maria.

      Harry looked at Snape quizzically, wondering what exactly that had been about. Snape looked rather confused too, but also intrigued.

     "You're new," said the young man from earlier, gesturing at Harry and Snape.

     "Yes, we were travelling and stumbled upon this hideout," Snape replied.

     "I'm Kevin," said the young man with a smile.

     "Severus," replied Snape, "and this is Harry."

     "Is he your son?"

     Snape coughed slightly, looking extremely shocked and quite frankly unable to speak.

     "He's my professor," Harry supplied, equally mortified.

     "Sorry," Kevin said lightly. "It's the hair colour."

     "You don't suppose you could fill me in on what is going on?" Snape asked, having recovered from Kevin's assumption. "Who is ... McTavish?"

     "I guess you wouldn't know about him, would you?" grimaced Kevin. "He's not very popular ..."

     "I could tell," Snape said.

     "There are a few things I must say that aren't for young ears," Kevin warned.

     "Leave us alone Potter," Snape said bluntly.

     "But-" Harry spluttered.

     "You don't need to hear the horrors McTavish has committed," said Kevin gently. "Why don't you go say hello to the others?"

     "I guess," Harry muttered.

       On his way across the cave Harry spotted a large stalagmite. It was the perfect width to conceal him. He knew that Snape would never tell him what was going on, and he was a little afraid to talk to the other people in the cave. Making his mind up in an instant he ducked behind the stalagmite and stood stock still as Kevin began to speak.

        "Blaine McTavish is the head witch-hunter in the town these days," Kevin began, his voice drifting over to where Harry was hidden. "The worst part is that he's not a muggle; he's magical like us."

       "Then why is he hunting down magical people?" Snape said quickly.

       "It's a long story, but I will try to shorten it for your sake," Kevin said wearily. "What the muggles in town don't know is that McTavish used to be a big part of the magical community. He was our friend, someone we all looked up to. Until about a year ago, when he turned on us.

      "It all started a little over a year ago when his daughter was kidnapped by a group of dark wizards that Blaine had gotten on the wrong side of. She showed up three days later in McTavish's barn. The dark wizards ... well, t-there was an old rope attached to the rafters ...a-and ..." He didn't appear to be able to finish.

      "How old was his daughter?" Snape asked, sounding every bit as grim as Kevin.

      "Two and a half," Kevin muttered, clearing his throat before continuing. "Kate's murder really got to Blaine. I can just remember him pacing out in his farmyard when I dropped by to see how he was doing. He was muttering like a madman.

        "After a few months he seemed to be getting better, until his wife decided she didn't want to go on living. She drank a slow poison and took a little over a day to die. There was nothing any of us could do but watch, as there wasn't an antidote. Not long after, McTavish snapped for good. The last time Evelyn visited him before he turned on us she said he had drawn all over the walls of the barn with black ink. There were plans and images of his daughter on the walls and pictures of poisons carved into the dirt floor. A couple days later he cleaned himself up and marched into town to tell some of the richer muggles that he had proof of witches and wizards living in the community, and that we were a danger to them all. 

      "The trials started slow, as he couldn't draw too much attention to himself just then. He needed to pretend to build up his skills and methods for witch-hunting. He found out from another witch-hunter down the way that they sometimes used something called ‘pricking' to figure out if someone is magical.  The point is to prick someone with a needle, and if they don't bleed and the cut heals over really quickly they're a witch or wizard. He knew it was a muggle method and it wasn't accurate at all, so he decided to add a trick or two of his own. All he had to do was dip the needle in essence of dittany and then prick the person and it would heal over instantly. That created a lot of stir in the community.

     "Sometimes, to make sure he's not executing everyone that is tried, he brings in a muggle and makes sure they are let off. That way he isn't accused of being one of us. If they suspected that he was one of us, and that was why he was so good at finding real witches and wizards, he would be the one hanged. Because of that he covers his tracks really well. Though I don't think it's because he's afraid to die. I think it's because he doesn't want to be caught before he convicts every witch or wizard in the area. As his whole reason for witch hunting is that he believes that all wizards and witches are guilty for his daughter's death. He's gone completely mad. To him it doesn't matter how many witches or wizards he has to kill off before he finds them. Our biggest problem is that he knows who we are."

     "How come he does not have the people he convicts burned?" Snape asked. "I heard that burnings in Scotland were ... are more popular than hanging."

      "Can you not think of a reason why he would want to see us hanged?"

      "His daughter ..." Snape muttered.

      "Correct," Kevin replied bitterly. "The poison he dips his arrows in is the same poison his wife took too. He's pretty easy to figure out sometimes. It is smart of him though. We still haven't figured out an antidote, and bezoars do not do anything to it for some reason. It's a very difficult poison to make, but it's worth it for McTavish." Kevin sighed heavily. "He's killed too many of us with that poison.

     "We've had to go into hiding because he's gotten too smart. It used to be that we could escape really easily. He's put up enchantments now, making it really hard to escape the area, and he's got men stationed all around the town. McTavish is working on getting men around the forest too, but a lot of the muggles have gone into hiding too and so he's had to call in farmers from around the area. Which is why he is taking so long. It's lucky for us he isn't very good at finding magical signatures, otherwise we would have been found out long ago."

       Harry sneezed suddenly, before he could even try to stop himself. He stood still, holding his breath and hoping that Snape hadn't heard him. He thought he heard Snape mutter something to Kevin, but couldn't make it out from the sound of his pounding heart. He had nowhere to go. Harry yelped when someone grabbed the back his robe and dragged him out from behind the stalagmite. He was face to face with a very angry Snape.

     "Potter," he said, voice dangerously low, hand still grasping tightly to Harry's robe. "What, were you doing? You had better not lie to me either."

      Harry tried to speak but only managed to cough a little.

      "I thought so," Snape said furiously. "Now get out of here. Why don't you go bother that old man instead; he looks bored."

     Snape gave Harry a slight push in the direction of the old man, and Harry walked over to him with legs of jelly. He was amazed he hadn't gotten in more trouble, and was wondering what Snape was planning to do to him later.

         The man looked friendly, sitting calmly on a rock at the end of the cave. Even if he had looked the opposite Harry probably would have talked to him anyways, for fear of feeling Snape's wrath. He figured there were lots of crevices in the cave Snape could somehow trap him in, or something of that nature.

      "He looked mad!" said the old man, laughing merrily. "Eavesdropping eh?"

      Harry looked down at his feet.

      "It isn't a shame to be curious," said the man. "But be careful how you use that curiosity.  The name's Ellery by the way."

       "I'm Harry," said Harry shyly. 

      "Well Harry, why don't you take a seat," replied Ellery. "Where are you from Harry?"

      "Oh, well ..." Harry said, "sort of far away."

      "Hmm, I could tell. Both of you dress quite differently from us. Is he your father?"

      "No," Harry said peavishly.

      "I'm sorry," Ellery apologised. "Who is he then?"

      "My professor," Harry said grumpily.

      "I take it you two don't get along so well then."

      "He's really mean," Harry replied, picking at his sleeve. "And he's bossy and grouchy and never has anything nice to say and always has to stick his nose where it doesn't belong."

       "My, that's a long list of things," said Ellery, deep brown eyes twinkling. "Isn't there anything good about him?"

       "No."

       "Perhaps you should try looking some more," Ellery told Harry. "Maybe you're too busy looking for the bad that you can't find the good."

       "Maybe." Harry frowned.

      "Well, enough talk. Would you like to see my latest invention?"

      "Sure," Harry said curiously.      

       Ellery led him over to a flat rock nearby, where a few tools were spread out.

       "I've finally perfected a device to bring us help," Ellery told Harry, gesturing to a small wooden crate. "It's designed to find someone who is advanced in magic and has the power to help us, and bring them here. It is similar to a portkey, though much more accurate than any I've seen these days."

       "How does it work?" Harry asked as Ellery reached into the crate, which was lined with burlap sacks. He reached into it and pulled something out. Harry couldn't quite see what it was, as it was covered with a dark piece of cloth.

      "There's a magical compound inside it designed to take the holder to our town," he said. "I plan to plant it in a place where wizards and witches go frequently so that we have a greater chance of being helped."

       "How does it bring someone to the town?" Harry asked.

       "It's a rather complicated process," he said vaguely, pulling the cloth off to reveal the object. "But you already know that don't you?"

      Harry stumbled backwards, glancing at the carved piece of metal in Ellery's hands. It was shiny once more, not worn from age at all.  Before Harry was a gleaming metal ball, with cracks built into the sides, quite deliberately. At that moment Harry couldn't help but wonder what he and Snape had gotten themselves into.