Chapter 10: One of us
Snow danced down the sky outside. It must have been very cold when the thick layers of white cotton grew bigger, yet the coldness was nothing compared to the atmosphere inside Malfoy Manor. Once dinner was over, Voldemort excused himself and withdrew. Soon, Misses and Mister Malfoy did the same. Draco looked at his aunt and uncle for a couple of seconds and watched them grinning as they drank some wine. Edenia stared to her glass of water in disbelief. Nobody said a word; the only sounds came from the fireplace and its burning wood in the back of the room- until Bellatrix cleared her throat. "Well. What a fine evening, was it not?" She asked and her eyes swept over to Edenia but the latter just bit her bottom lip and kept quiet. Draco glanced back and forth, shook his head and got up. "Come on Edenia. I will show you to your guest room." He said and earned a slight glare from his aunt but he didn't seem to notice or care. Edenia got up and left wordlessly.
The room was quiet and the girl couldn't be more thankful when Draco left without a comment, just wishing her a good night and telling her he would be seeing her in the morning. She sat in front of the black Victorian vanity and brushed her hair, looking into the mirror's reflection and felt like she did not know the girl sitting there, imitating the movements. She was her own stranger. Half an hour passed and Edenia sat where she was, staring into the mirror until she could see the door handle pushing down and in walked Bellatrix. Edenia watched her through the mirror but did not turn around to the dark witch, not even when she strode over to her with that victorious smirk drawn on her face; the same smirk she carried ever since the Dark Lord made the life-changing announcement. She sat down behind Edenia on another stool, pulled the girl's hair behind and grabbed the hair brush as she began to tend to Edenia's head quietly. The minutes passed and Bellatrix started braiding the girl's hair, then turned her around and kissed her forehead.
"Don't you worry. Rod and I will take good care of you..." She grinned and looked down to Edenia's bottom lip that twitched in discomfort.
"Why...?" She whimpered and her voice was shaking and tiny, almost not audible, and if Bellatrix had not been as close as she was, she would not have heard it.
"I fear you are close to becoming one of those twigs we once talked about, dear. And I cannot let this happen under my very nose, can I? I will take over everything that is your future now. Everything shall happen on my will and command. And you will listen."
"I...I am not a pet...!" Edenia squeaked and tried to turn away but Bellatrix grabbed her hair and pulled her back to where she was.
"You are mine now. Mine to take care of. I can do with you as I please. You have heard the Dark Lord." Whispered Bellatrix dangerously, narrowing her eyes and Edenia knew something else was going to come now.
"We will start right away with the rules. First off. You will never ever talk back to neither Rod nor I. You will abandon that attitude of yours and be a good girl. You will not see any of those miserable friends, let alone look at blood traitors! You will not go out without permission and someone trusted close to you. You will do as we expect from you, have I made myself clear?" Asked Bellatrix and raised an eyebrow, daring Edenia to protest.
"Also." She continued. "You are to never be disloyal to the Dark Lord...again. Should I, once more, find out that you have done it...we will get there, Missy..." She growled now, the fire brooding in the back of her throat. Edenia's eyes just widened.
"Blaise told you..." She uttered and glanced to the side. Bellatrix merely looked down at her in passive aggression and Edenia knew now that this could not go unpunished. She bit her bottom lip, trying to suppress the tears and squeaked softly when the grip in her hair tightened.
"Torture me if you must!" Yelped Edenia but Bellatrix laughed.
"No. I will not. That did not work." She grinned but her eyes clearly told that she had something better in stock. It took some time to understand but it hit the girl and then her eyes widened and she jumped up. "Where is Blaise! I...! I thought you would kill him once you have learned that he...he...touched me! I thought! I thought he was gone because...because you did something I..." Edenia cried and blabbered fast, the thoughts in her head were flying around and she was unable to grab and arrange them. Bellatrix laughed even harder. She looked up to Edenia in amusement.
"Ah! I wanted to finish him, baby...when I found him, ready to kill him...he had some very nice information for me...oh I was so disappointed in you...here I thought you truly learned your lesson..." The dark witch now got up and cupped Edenia's head, holding it in her hands. She leaned closer and whispered against the girl's lips. "And then...I told him...to find the red head...and not come back until he hadn't killed the filth..." Edenia gasped and her eyes almost exploded. She tried to reach the door but Bellatrix cackled and pushed her backwards so she fell onto the bed and cried, talking gibberish in between her tears but nothing was comprehensible. The dark witch just guffawed and crawled over to her little toy, cuddling down against her while playing with her hair.
"Shhh..." She purred and massaged Edenia's scalp by running her fingers along her head. "Traitors aren't worth your tears. Oh it will take some time changing you...but you will see. Look at me. Edenia! Look at me. They do not have a future. Not with the Dark Lord. Not as long as I stand! Leave them in your past!" She demanded as if she expected Edenia to nod and agree right away. The girl just sniffled, thick droplets of tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn't understand why these things were happening. Whatever she tried, everything just got worse.
"Bella..." Edenia suddenly whimpered. She turned around and looked into the dark witch's eyes, searching for some warmth and comfort in them. "Why...why are you so...so evil...?" She asked, still crying bitterly. Bellatrix just stared at her for a couple of seconds, continuously running her hand through Edenia's hair before she finally answered.
"See, that is what happens when you hang around the wrong people. They tell you we are the evil ones. They tell you we are wrong." She kissed Edenia's forehead by now but the girl tried again. "They are human beings, too-"
"But we are better human beings than them, dear. And we must preserve the elite for we are endangered to die out. We are merely fighting back after all the attacks that our kin had to endure..." Bellatrix whispered and pulled Edenia closer again but the latter said "I am no elite! If elite is what needs to be preserved and being elite means pure...I am not...I-"
"You have heard what the Dark Lord said! You heard it! You will marry a pureblood! And you will have children! They will marry purebloods! They will have children and they too marry purebloods! It will go on! Until the blood is clean again! Do you see now? See now how much trouble a single Mudblood is?! How many purebloods have to sacrifice themselves in order to cleanse a family again?!" She hissed and Edenia shook her head. This was sheer insanity. How did this make sense to them?
"But that is...is not how biology works! It's just a theory! There is no such thing as dirty blood! It's a construct! Blood isn't something that can be cleaned! This is biologically imposs-"
"Enough with that muggle nonsense!" Yelled Bellatrix and her grip on Edenia's hair tightened. Naked anger was spread across the dark witch's features, making her even darker. She gaped into Edenia's eyes intensively, as if she waited on another wrong tone but nothing aside from sobbing was audible.
The moments passed and Edenia felt tired, all the crying and negative emotions sucked the energy out of her, energy that she needed to stay awake. She looked around the room drowsily and noticed that the door opened yet again. Rodolphus Lestrange walked inside and exchanged looks with his wife but Edenia didn't see what kind of looks. He sat down by the edge of the bed and watched his newly gained daughter-like student curling up underneath the blanket and tried to block herself from the Lestranges but of course that was doomed to failure.
"Well. We can stay until tomorrow, I suppose." He grumbled and Bellatrix nodded. Edenia glanced at them, not knowing what he meant. He seemed to understand, judging by her questioningly gaze.
"We will go home. Bella and I live elsewhere." He informed and Edenia rubbed her eyes while saying "I thought you live here at Malfoy manor…because of…him…" She said and Bellatrix nodded. "Yes, until today. But now that we have you…we will return to our own manor. Don't worry. We have been taking care of everything."
"You must have planned it for some time, huh…" mumbled Edenia and Rodolphus smirked. "Well, it was Bella's idea some days ago and I quite liked it. We never had a daughter. This is the closest we can get to something like that." He brushed some strands of hair away from her face so he could look at the girl. Bellatrix grinned and watched but said nothing when Rodolphus got up to leave the room quietly, then snuggled down to Edenia and kissed above her temple while declaring. "Life will change a bit for you. Of course it has to. Tell me baby. Where were you staying after Hogwarts? After the year was over, hm?" she asked and rubbed a hand through Edenia's hair again. The girl tried to look for a story quickly. She could not tell Bellatrix the truth.
"With a cousin here in the wizarding world." She said and Bellatrix inhaled deeply, pursing her lips sharply and shook her head. "You have one minute to tell the truth."
Edenia gulped. How did she know that it was a lie? Was she so obvious? Or was Bellatrix perhaps, and now that Edenia thought about it unsurprisingly, able to use Legilimency? On any note, she knew that lying was no option anymore and so she had to tell the truth.
"In the muggle world in a flat-sharing-community, it is called."
"What is that supposed to be?" Frowned Bellatrix and rested on her elbow now, looking at the girl.
"Well at some point a child is too old to stay in the orphanage and when they are mature enough, they can go live on their own with other people that have a similar background. Every once in a while there is a community-worker looking after us. Other than that, we are quite free. I mean…of course we have to stick to rules but it is okay." Bellatrix's eyes widened, not finding it okay at all.
"What! What kind of insane concept is that?!" She growled and the word insane was simply ironic coming out of her mouth, Edenia thought. The girl just shrugged and answered.
"I met nice people there. They are my best friends now."
"What people!" Demanded Bellatrix.
"Two guys and a girl. Well two girls including me."
"YOU LIVED WITH TWO MEN UNDER ONE ROOF AND NOBODY WAS THERE TO WATCH OVER YOU?!" Bellatrix screeched up in sheer wrath before announcing. "Filthy muggles! Uneducated pack! You are to never see them again! You will never set a foot into the muggle world! Ever! Again!"
Edenia knew this would happen, which was why she did not even want to tell Bellatrix where she truly stayed all the time, whenever the year was over. Lowering her head, defeat radiated from her very being and Bellatrix recognized it as such, pulled her closer and kissed her cheek a couple of times on the same spot.
"Sleep now, dear. Tomorrow…your new life will begin." Declared Bellatrix and got up. She stared down at the girl for some seconds but then walked off with a content look on her face. Edenia heard a click and she was sure that the door wasn't only closed but locked. She did not bother thinking of a way out; aware there was none without a wand at hand. With these thoughts, she trailed off to sleep.
"Hahahah! We got her! We got her! Look! Ginny is dead! She is dead! Hahah! Now what do you say? Blood-Traitors! They will die, they will all die! Yes Blaise, that's right. Of course you can marry Edenia, you are a pureblood. Draco? What do you want here?"
"Edenia. Hey, Edenia. Wake up…Pssst…hey …" Opening her eyes, Edenia looked around and glanced at Draco. Wasn't Blaise here a couple of seconds ago and wasn't Bellatrix announcing their wedding? Looking around yet again, she realized it was all just a stupid dream. But Draco? What was he doing here?
"Hmm?" Asked Edenia drowsily, rubbing her eyes.
"Shh…don't be so loud. Are…are you okay?"
"Okay…hah…" She chuckled derisively, shaking her head. "No, I am not okay. What time is it?"
"It's almost four in the morning."
"Four in the morning? What's up…?"
"I came to talk to you. Because you will leave early later…Mother told me. I had no other chance but to do it now. Look…what. What do you think..." He started and sat down on her bed while Edenia sat up as well, attentively looking into his eyes or trying with the shrill light of Draco's wand.
"Nobody will rest until you marry a pureblood. That plan, you know…" He continued and Edenia sighed with a heavy nod, lowering her head a little.
"Look…I thought if. I mean. What if we just…? You know? You and I? It makes sense, doesn't it?"
Edenia stared at him in disbelief. Did he truly say what she thought he just said?
"Are you proposing to me, Malfoy?" Asked Edenia with eyes as round as marbles.
"Well! No…In a sense, probably… it's just…would you prefer to be forced to marry someone else?" He asked defiantly and crossed his arms.
"It's not like I want to marry at all, you know?" She sighed and ran her hand along her forehead in stress.
"They are probably going to force you go with someone worse!" He spluttered out through his whispering sounds and Edenia frowned back.
"You slapped me. Remember?" She asked and his eyes softened, widened, then narrowed again.
"I had to…you kept…kept doing what you wanted, Edenia. You see where doing whatever you want gotten you, see it? Had only you listened when we said you should. See where you are now…It's best. If you just…did as I said. For once." He put his hand on her shoulder gently, trying to comfort her or stress the point that he was doing the right thing but Edenia just shook her head in even more disbelief.
"You and I. Will not. Marry." She declared with a determined tone and Draco bit his bottom lip again before saying with as much determination.
"Yes we are. It makes sense. Trust me. I will tell Mom and Dad tomorrow. That I want to do it."
"You will not! You are just doing it to get on good terms with the Dark Lord again, right? So he sees how ambitious you are! How selfish…You don't do this because you want to help me!" She squeaked softly, trying to remain quiet but it was hard. Draco glanced to the left and right.
"Shh! Of course it helps you, too! You just don't see it. You never see it!" He got up as well; both of them were facing each other now. Draco bit his bottom lip, shook his head once more before he suddenly pulled her against his body, trying to kiss her but Edenia gasped and slipped away at the right moment, dashed towards the door and out. She ran down the large corridor, hearing Draco calling out for her. "EDENIA! STOP!"
"What's the noise?!" Came a voice from a door next to where Draco stood after running a few meters, Bellatrix was standing there in her nightgown and saw her nephew pointing ahead to a running figure that aimed downstairs. She gasped and dashed on after her, yelling in her fury.
"EDENIA! YOU COME BACK RIGHT NOW!" She ran as fast as she could but Edenia was already close to the fireplace in the dining room. Taking a last glance backwards, she saw Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Draco running towards her and Bella's last screams before green flames engulfed her body.
"TRAITOR! YOU WILL NEVER BE ONE OF US!"