It was in the late evening of 1996 when the news reached me that my brother went to fight in the ministry of magic, wanting to get a prophecy about the Potter boy.
It also was in the late evening of the 18th June of 1996 when I hastily packed my most necessary things to go and save my brother from his stupid decision.
I knew about the Dark Lords return and I grieved my brother Lucius decision to re-join him.
I didn't share my older brothers believes that the Dark Lord would be the saviour to all purebloods. Much to the contrary, if he really valued pure bloodlines that much why letting them confront others in fights and risking their lives instead of trying to preserve it?
"To the ministry of Magic!", I cried as I got zoomed into the floo.
I ran along the corridors that were way too familiar. I still remembered how in the first war my brother was convicted and they held trial for his crimes. I avoided going there since then. How pitiful he tried to wiggle out of punishment, such shame he bring to my family name. To our parents. To all the Malfoys that came before him. Bloody coward.
I heard shouting coming from not too far away. I turned in that direction, wand pointed directly in front of me. I saw a quick glance of Bellatrix Lestrange. That woman gave me the creeps, bloody mental she was.
"Stupefy-", I saw a light flash by me and heard Bella laugh her crazy laugh.
"You stupid child, did you think you'd get me? Just wait until the Dark Lord will get to you!"
I decided that maybe I shouldn't follow her, not wanting to feel the wrath of the atrocities that that woman could commit. Running down the corridor I saw her coming from I could catch a look at white- blonde hair that trademarked my family. I ran forward to it.
"Lucius- You will stop right now!", I cried out catching his arm before he could realise that I was there. "Have you lost your mind?!"
I just now noticed how he had rounded up a group of children that couldn't be any older than 16. Was he seriously fighting children? How pathetic could he become?
"Malfoy, are you that senile that your sister has to come pick you up?!", good- old Avery laughed while holding on to a young red haired teenage witch. A Weasley I reckoned.
"Why don't you shut up?", I snapped at him pointing my wand up at my brothers throat.
"Sybill what are you doing here? You should be in France.", my brother asked me shocked.
"Yes, well your lovely wife informed me about your wrong doings here. What are you doing here fighting against children, do you have no shame?" I spat at him and shoved his arm away from a young boy he held captive who then stumbled to the ground.
"Neville!"- The red haired witch cried out. Neville Longbottom. Great I thought, the whole first- wizarding war offspring seemed to be here.
"Be quiet, blood traitor!", Avery said and strengthened his grasp on the young witch.
"Malfoy, is that how you choose sides? What do you want here after hiding away in France? You better take a leave and we forget about the whole event here, hm?", a deep voice emerged from the shadows, the man behind it I recognised as Rudolphus. Great, where there is a Longbottom there ought to be a Lestrange.
"I didn't hide, I was just smart enough to not make a mockery out of me and stay in England. And for your information, Lestrange, I don't choose sides; I always choose family so why don't you back off?"
Well, that wasn't true. I did indeed kind of hid away. Back in the 70s I felt embarrassed by my brother and I didn't feel like staying in England facing up to my Families actions was what I needed to do. I didn't participate in any of it. As the little Sister and not the heir to the Malfoy estate, fortune and wealth the Dark Lord had no real use for me. A pureblood baby factory maybe. That's why I was betrothed to my late Fiancée Regulus Arcturus Black. That did not end well.
We were both so young and he felt reckless under the Dark Lords rule and the pressure coming from his parents to redeem themselves through Regulus because of his older brothers actions weighted him down. In the end it took a stupid threat to his House- elf coming from the Dark Lord that got Regulus to jump ship and try to bring down the Dark Lord. He died doing it.
Even though it was a forced engagement, I knew him well from growing up among the same social circle. He was a good friend and I had a lot of love for him even after his death all those years ago. Not as a lover, which he never was, but as a dear friend and companion when all others lost their mind in the service to their great saviour, the Dark Lord.
I felt that Lucius was spitting on Regulus memory with re-joining the Dark Lords ranks. I despised him for that. But a Malfoy always chooses Family. A Malfoy will do what is best for them and best for me was to prevent losing my brother and have my nephew prevented from losing his father to a maniac.
I got drawn back into reality when a light flashed by me. The stupid Lestrange had lost his patience and fired a stunning spell in my direction.
"Stop hindering our orders, Malfoy! The Dark Lord will not be pleased!"
"Too bad it seems to be your Dark Lord, not mine. And I dare you to do that again and I promise I won't be standing your behaviour." That got the older Lestrange brother laughing.
"You really think you can threaten me? Crucio!", he bellowed at me .
"No-"my brother screamed at him, the children that they held captive watched on helplessly and fearing the outcome of the fight.
I ducked away and the spell hit the wall behind me making it crack. I fired back a hex that would make his knees face the other direction. I wanted to defend myself, not start something I couldn't win.
The spell missed him but distracted him enough so that he had to let go of a young blonde girl that now made her way over to the young Longbottom on the ground.
Just in that moment I heard other loud cracks surrounding me. The so- called Order of the Phoenix had arrived. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or angry that this now had grown to new dimensions.
"Bellatrix!", Rudolphus called for his wife.
"Crucio!"
"Stupedy-"
Different spells were called, curse and hexes alike. I tried to hide in the back of the room. I wasn't brave, I had been a Slytherin and I tried to slither away.
"Oh no Malfoy you won't!", I heard a voice call out and I immediately recognised it. It was one that I believed to never hear again. It belonged to my supposed to be Brother in law. Sirius Black.
"Stupefy-", he yelled and pointed his wand at me. "- Expelliarmus!", he fired on.
"Protego!", I cried and saw the jets of light rebounding from my shield.
"No, Sirius! She helped us!", another witch I hadn't seen before called him out.
"What?!" he said honestly confused. It was understandable that he was confused, he just knew me as his death- eater brothers younger fiancée.
In that moment I saw Bellatrix point her wand at Sirius shouting out the killing curse. I was kind of charmed; did she try to protect me? Probably not.
But I couldn't let Black die now. Even if he doesn't trust me or has not trusted Regulus, I know that he always meant a lot to his brother and I had the feeling that I owed him that I try to keep his brother, Sirius, alive. Always protect family and I felt like in some twisted way Sirius was a part of it.
I quickly cried out an "Expulso!" and saw it hitting Bellatrix curse mid-air and deflecting it so no one was harmed.
"You traitor!", she called and now focused on me.
"Crucio!", her husband cried out and it hit me square in the chest and I fell to the ground crying out in pain. I never felt anything this strong and hurtful before. I couldn't concentrate on anything but the pain until I finally slipped into unconsciousness, not witnessing anything else of the battle.
I never saw the pained look of my brother as Bellatrix confronted him as well and he had to denounce me as his sister. I, for one, was now a blood traitor. Definitely not what I had wanted and definitely not how I planned this night would go. I wanted to protect my brother who now wasn't my brother no more.
Thank you for reading the first chapter of Sybills' story!