Chapter 3
Ethan, Trent, Elex, Deco, and Jason were already lined up when we got back downstairs. They stood against the wall, not far from a few of my cousins – Fred and James, who looked like they were up to something, even in the middle of this chaos. Maybe that look of guilt and adrenaline had just been permanently frozen on their faces.
The girls and I lined up on the opposite wall. We faced the boys, but we were far enough apart that we couldn't talk.
Slowly, but surely, the rest of the house came back down into the Common Room and took their spots in line. The guards and their leader then must have the decided that they were ready.
The leader stepped up between the boys and the girls. "Perfect. Now, are you all sure that there is nobody left in the dormitories?"
I skimmed the lines, making sure all of my cousins were there. Rose and Albus were both towards the end of the lines, and Scorpius was with Albus. Lucy and Lily were as close as if they had been tied in a little knot, all other friendships forgotten in their moment of desperation. And James and Fred were on the other side, as were Louis and Hugo. Molly, of course, stood right next to me. Roxanne was in Hufflepuff, and I hoped that she was okay, whatever was going on there.
And that was everybody. Everybody was safe, for now.
When there were no responses of "yes" the leader took another deliberate step. "Great. Now, wands…"
The guards came around and began to collect our wands. A bunch of people attempted to fight for their wands in a game of tug-of-war, but the game always ended when the guards hexed them. Everybody felt extremely uneasy by the end of that. Without our wands, were we even wizards anymore? Without our wands, we had no power. Without our wands, who were we?
But that wasn't even the worst part. Because after the wands had been collected, the leader called out, "Boys! Follow me." And then he began to walk towards the exit.
The boys didn't listen that time. The room once again became a chaotic scene of shoving, hugging, crying, screaming, and every other action you can imagine. Ethan ran forward and pulled me into a hug and soon some of our other friends joined in the hug, so we were huddling in a large circle, waiting for them to come extract the boys. Isolde and Trent were being forcefully removed from each other, their lips wrenched from the others, the curves of their bodies unattached.
My friends and I stood in a huddle.
And Albus and Scorpius and Rose were all talking rapidly, getting in last minute thoughts, saying whatever it was that they wanted the other to know. From the look on Rose's face, she was contemplating the situation, trying to figure out where the boys were going, trying to figure out what we were even doing.
And we stood in a huddle.
I kissed Ethan's cheek. "It'll be okay," I told him, repeating Pippa's words. I could only hope that I sounded more confided than she had.
Ethan nodded grimly at me.
And there were shrieks of despair and cries of grief and sobs of fear.
And we stood in a huddle.
And then I risked a look up, having felt a weight being lifted off of me, and found that the boys had left our embrace. They were being dragged away by the guards, who seemed to have multiplied since the last time I'd looked up.
Each guard had a Gryffindor boy in their embrace and they were dragging them out of the room, while the boys screamed for the girls and the girls screamed for the boys.
Flashes of goodbyes passed before my eyes.
Then the boys were gone, and what remained was a room full of crying girls, trying to comfort each other, and a few guards, standing next to the doorway, preventing us from escaping with the boys.
Ethan was gone. Trent and Jason and Elex and Deco were gone. Louis was gone.
I'd let my little brother leave without saying goodbye.
Suddenly, I was the one marching up to the guards, but rather than using Molly's "I'll talk them to death" method, I started punching one of them in my rage, barely even conscious of what I was doing.
That only lasted until one of the others hexed me. But I bet I managed to bruise that first guy.
Pippa came over and helped me off of the ground. "Violence isn't going to fix this, Dom," she told me as she pulled me away from the men and towards the fireplace.
"Then what is?" I snapped.
Her lip pouted out. "I don't know," she responded, her voice cracking. "But those men aren't going to respond to some teenage girl hitting them. That's not going to make them come back."
Maybe she was right. But now wasn't the time to admit it.
Pippa looked at me for a long moment and then said forcefully, "Now, Isa is a complete wreck right now, so if you could just… sit there calmly for a moment while I go try and get her to stop sobbing, it would be appreciated."
"Pippa," I said, putting my hand out to stop her. But I changed my mind. "Thank you."
She gripped my hand and then disappeared into the crowd.
I sat there for a few minutes, as though I was waiting for something. I think I was really just trying to understand though – trying to understand that the boys were gone and we didn't know if they were coming back and how could they not come back? Those were my cousins, my brother, my friends. How could just they just walk away and not come back?
I don't know how much time passed before the leader returned, with more guards in tow, once again demanding that we form a line, though we were only girls now.
I joined my friends and gripped Isolde's hand with my left and Gretchen's with my right. We stood on line and faced the men, pretending that we were more confident about the situation then we actually were.
The leader paced in front of us, looking over us like we were pieces of meat at a deli, from the shortest first year to the tallest seventh year.
"You there. Red," he finally said.
All of the Weasleys looked at him expectantly.
"No, you."
He was pointing straight at me.
I dropped my friends' hands and made a small gulping sound.
Why me?
It was the curse of red hair, obviously. It makes you stand out in a crowd. Why did Louis and Victoire get lucky enough to have blonde hair? Why did I have to be the one with hair as red as dad's?
But even any of my cousins…
No.
I didn't want my cousins to have to take this one.
I stepped forward.
"Name."
"Excuse me?" I asked, staring at the man.
He stepped right up to me so that his nose was but inches from my nose. I wondered if he could hear my heart pounding in my chest. His deep brown eyes were narrowing on my face, like I was a specimen that disgusted him.
"What is your name?" he repeated.
"Dom."
"Your full name," he growled.
"D-Dominique Weasley."
A smirk rose on his lips and he stepped back from me. "Dominique Weasley. A Weasley, eh? How many other Weasleys do we have in the room?"
My cousins slowly raised their hands and he looked at them.
"Interesting," he drawled. "Now… Dominique Weasley. Please explain to me why it is that you were sorted into Gryffindor."
I was silent.
"Was it because you are brave? Tell me about how brave you are, Dominique Weasley. Are you brave enough to withstand this?"
He raised his wand at me and before I even had time to shield myself, he was screaming, "Crucio!" and the pain took over.
It was like nothing else in the world existed. It was just me and this pain, this pain that was crushing me. I wanted to die. I wanted the pain to just end.
And then, slowly, the pain subsided.
Feelings slowly came back to me and I found that I was laying on the floor in the Gryffindor common room. I wasn't even on a rug – I was lying on the cold stone floors. My whole body ached, but I didn't seem to have any real injuries.
"Isolde Slughorn," I heard a voice say and I gathered my energy to look up.
There, standing in front of me, was Isolde, her body between mine and a man –the man. The man who had caused all of that pain. He was lying across the couch, his body positioned as though he had been thrown there.
There was Isolde, her blonde hair sticking up in every direction, with a wild look in her eyes as she glanced back at me to make sure I was okay.
Oh… oh, no. Isolde had pushed him there.
"So, Isolde Slughorn," the man said, "Do you consider yourself brave?"
"I would risk my life in order to save the life of someone I loved. If you consider that brave, then yes, I suppose so," she said formally.
The man nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. You may return to the line now."
"No."
"No?"
"I want you to bring the boys back. Now." When the man didn't respond, her anger bubbled up. "Go get them, right now."
Pippa stepped out to console her, but Isolde pushed her away.
"NOW!" Isolde yelled.
When he still did nothing, she pounced. Her whole body leaned back towards me, and then leaped through the air, landing on the man.
Before her hand could connect with his face, the guards had surrounded them, shooting spells at her that didn't register in my mind.
In my mind, everything seemed to have gone into slow motion.
Isolde froze and slowly rolled off of the couch.
Pippa screamed.
The girls on line gasped in horror.
Molly grabbed Pippa as she attempted to run out and grab Isolde.
The guards took Isolde.
And then Isolde was gone.
And so was the man, with a promise that he would be back later.
A promise – a threat.
Gretchen came over and tried to help me get to my feet, but when it proved that I was in no state to walk up the staircase by myself, she enlisted Rose's help in half-carrying me.
Rose helped me into bed, the opposite of the way it should have been. She was the younger cousin – I should have been helping her.
Gretchen escaped down the stairs after blabbing some story of going to help Pippa.
"Are you okay, Rosie? You seem awfully quiet."
Rose sighed as she pulled my shoes off. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm as fine as any of us are."
"I'm sure Al and Scorpius are fine. They're smart."
Rose looked at me for a long moment. "Yeah, they are. Look, I have to go… Uh, I promised Lily I would tell her a story before she goes to bed. You know, like…" Rose choked on the end of the sentence.
"Like Grandma Molly did."
"Does," Rose corrected "Like she still does."
I nodded. "Of course."
Rose walked quickly to the staircase, over clothes and papers and books that scattered the floor and had seemed important yesterday, but suddenly didn't matter anymore. When she got to the doorway, she paused. "Do you think Uncle Harry knows what's going on?"
Considering that Uncle Harry was the Head of the Aurors, I sincerely hoped so. "Of course," I lied.
Rose gave me a small smile. "Get some rest, Dom. And feel better."
"I'll be fine," I reassured her, and her small red head disappeared around the corner.
