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Conspiracy
They did not tell me where the tunnel lead - they had quickly established a policy of 'if you do not have to go through, you do not have to know'. Blaise was terribly upset about it, but I thought it was better this way: the Carrows were not above torturing students for information and the less people knew about a secret escape way, the better. Even though they would never raise their wands against me, I thought it only fair that this rule applied to me, too.
Besides, there were already too many secrets that I had to keep from you.
It was about time that I sealed my mind, either way. Easter was approaching and you had ordered more than invited me home. Home, of course, was once more Malfoy Manor and Draco seemed, once more, very displeased at the prospect of returning there.
"Just stay," Blaise advised both of us, but it barely warranted anything more than the bitter laugh from Draco.
"We can't," I said. "He wants us home, we'll go home. I'm not picking a fight about this."
Blaise huffed. Honestly, I sometimes wondered if Blaise was even placed right in Slytherin - he seemed to have no sense of self-preservation, or at least he did not see the need for it where I was concerned.
"At least grow a backbone before he decides to marry you to each other," he said.
Draco paled even more than usual and turned to me with wide eyes, the unspoken question - 'would your father really do that?' - practically shouted at me from his mind.
"Ha," I said. "Just imagine how angry he'd have to be to marry me to you."
You know, another person might have taken it as an insult, but Draco visibly relaxed. He even grinned back at me.
Honestly, I would have fought tooth and nail before marrying Draco - there was no need to ruin both our lives just for; well, for what reason would you ever want to marry me off, anyway? You thought yourself to be immortal, it was not like you needed heirs.
"All right," Blaise said. "You guys might think this is normal, but I ought to tell you it's not."
Both Draco and I laughed. Of course, we both knew that this was not normal. Nothing about my life had ever been normal and especially not in the past two years.
Lamenting would do us no good, though, and it would certainly not make us any happier. So I decided to pretend that I was normal - just a normal girl going to her normal home like normal students did over school breaks.
Funnily enough, you had demanded that I come home, but were not there yourself. Once again, you had disappeared on a quest of your own and no one knew where you had gone. Bellatrix pretended that she did know, but it was obvious that she did not. Even if I had not guessed, Mrs Malfoy's almost imperceptible shaking of her head would have told me as much.
Christmas had been relatively peacefully, but Easter did not seem to be held in the same high esteem. Bellatrix was striding about the place, ordering people around and cursing them when they did not comply fast enough. More than once, I put myself in the way of her attacks and we both came away with scratches and cuts every time - she profited from experience and the kind of recklessness that came from insanity; I had the advantage of raw talent and your blessing on my side.
I still could not and did not want to be around to protect random Death Eaters from Bellatrix all the time. I had to study for my N.E.W.T.s after all, however crazy it seemed, and I also lost interest in the battles pretty quickly.
I sat over my Transfiguration notes, trying to revise conjuring charms and wondered whether my results would turn out as well as my O.W.L.s - when downstairs a right racket brought out.
Usually, everyone kept their head down; around here, it was half a miracle if Draco dared meet my eyes - he had not spoken a single word to me since our arrival.
Now, there was shouting and shuffling and cruel laughter and I had never abandoned my work so quickly before. I hurried downstairs to see what was going on - something had to be happening if they made such a ruckus.
I came to an abrupt stop in the drawing room door. They had Ron and Hermione - and, to my horror, they had Harry, too. He was easy enough to recognize, or so I thought, even though his face looked as if he had run smack-down into a wall.
You probably cannot imagine the panic that rose within me in that moment; you never cared for anyone but yourself, so I would be surprised if you could. I did care. About my safety and about theirs - and about the fate of the entire wizarding world, which stood and fell with the success of Harry Potter. I also really did not fancy a Horcrux Hunt, myself.
Bellatrix was more giddy than ever. She was clutching a knife - and yes, you read that right. A knife, not her wand. Perhaps she had forgotten that she was a bloody witch, I would not know.
"What's this?" I demanded when no one paid my entrance much attention, disrespectful lot that they were. "Who's brought this riff-raff into our house?"
It spoke volumes that Lucius Malfoy did not tell me that this was his house and not mine, thank you very much. At least, my words were enough to make Bellatrix stop her advancement towards Harry.
"It's Potter!" she cried and pointed wildly with her knife.
"Look," I said in a desperate attempt to deter her. "I think you've got something wrong, Bella. Potter's got a scar on his forehead, not raw meat for a face."
You could probably guess this, but she did not think me to be very funny. Her eyes narrowed and she sneered at me. The knife point turned from Harry over me and finally to Draco, who was trying to back away slowly.
"Draco refused to say," she said. "But I know it's Potter, I know it!"
"Huh," I said. "Well, it's not my head that's going to roll if you call the Dark Lord because you believe whatever that is, is actually Harry Potter."
She glared at me and then turned to stride across the room to Ron and Hermione, who were struggling against their bonds, but shrank back visibly when she approached.
"But that's the Weasley boy!" she said, her voice shaking as if on the brink of madness. "And the Mudblood right there!"
"Language, Bella," I chided. You know, she fumed every time I called her 'Bella' and I enjoyed doing it even more now that she was already bristling.
Look, I knew that she knew she had caught Potter and his friends. Everyone knew, even though both Draco and I refused to say - what a rare act of bravery and compassion from Draco, too, not that you would have any appreciation for it.
She looked erratically from one of her captives to the other and then suddenly started. "What is that?"
The knife now pointed at a raggedy looking man who stood by Fenrir Greyback and whose eyes widened when Bellatrix addressed him.
"Sword," he grunted, and indeed, he held a long, bejeweled blade that seemed strangely familiar. Where had I seen this before?
"Give it to me."
"It's not yours, Missus, it's mine, I reckon I found it-"
Bellatrix stunned him in an impressive display of nonverbal magic - the man swayed and fell and the sword fell down on his chest reminiscent of an ancient king's tomb.
"That sword," Bellatrix said in a shaking voice. "Snape sent it to my vault in Gringotts!" And she walked over to Greyback as if he had actually pulled off a break-in at Gringotts. Not that I thought a break-in done by Potter to be any more likely. Gringotts was about the best guarded the place in the world, the safest place to store anything - the only one who had managed to break in was you and you had certainly not given Potter any memorabilia.
"The prisoners mus be placed in the cellar," Bella muttered. "We have a serious problem..."
I looked to Draco and his parents, who all seemed both terrified and confused. Bella meanwhile accidently burnt a whole in the certainly very expensive carpet. There was no doubt, though, that she indeed thought this situation to be very serious and very dangerous.
"All right," I said. "I'll take them."
Bellatrix regarded me from head to toe and it was telling that she did not make a biting remark, but only nodded sharply. I waved my wand to drag the group by their bonds but Bellatrix jumped in between in the last second.
"All except for the Mudblood," she said.
The knife gleamed again in her hand and my stomach twisted violently as she cut Hermione lose. Oh, this was not good. Ron started yelling, calling for Bellatrix to take him instead, but I knew it was futile. Once she had made up her mind to torture, there was no way to deter Bella.
This time, I could drag Ron and Harry with me, even though they did their best to stay.
"Hey," I called to Bellatrix just before we left the room. "Leave her alive, will you? I'd love to do the honours."
I loosened the bonds slightly when I lead them down the stairs, but not enough to enable an escape - all I needed them to know was that not all hope was lost. In that moment, I was not entirely sure how to free them, but if one thing was for sure, it was that Harry Potter would not give up.
From above sounded a terrifying, blood-curling scream. Ron tried to wrench himself away, but my spell had fast. Nevertheless, my own skin prickled at the sound.
"You can't barge in there," I said hurriedly. "She'll kill you, she'll kill her."
Ron seemed about ready to explode."You said-"
"To make sure she contained herself!" I shot back. "Do use your brain, Weasley."
There was a heavy wooden door at the bottom of the stairs and it struck me suddenly that I had never been down here before - and, that Luna Lovegood was behind that door and I would now have to explain why in Merlin's name I had never freed her.
"Why don't you just tell her to leave Hermione alone?" Ron demanded. "If you have so much sway... bloody get us out of here, why don't you?"
I tapped my wand against the door and it sprung open. "Where did you get that sword?" I asked. "You didn't break into Gringotts, did you?"
"Who's not using their brain now?"
Harry's voice was slightly distorted, even though his face was steadily returning back to normal. It was still pleasant to hear him speak - I had been starting to wonder whether he had gone mute.
I smiled slightly. Of course they had not broken into Gringotts. "She seems to think so," I said as another scream echoed from upstairs. Ron flinched. His freckles stood out painfully against his pale skin.
"It's Gryffindor's sword," Harry said. "The real deal. We found it."
"Found it?" I repeated. "It's supposed to be in Gringott's vault, why on earth would it just be lying around somewhere for you to find?"
There was some rustling in the back of the room as I ushered the two of them inside. I hesitated, but only shortly, before I followed inside. So I needed to make a plan to free Harry and Ron - I might as well take Luna along, too.
Merlin, I had to find a way to sent them off on their own... I did not want to go camping in the woods, I did not want to be on the run.
"Cassie?" Luna's dreamy voiced spoke from somewhere in the darkness. "Harry?"
"Luna," I said. "Are you okay?"
"Oh," she said as she stepped into the small beam of light my wand produced. "I should think so, yes."
Above us, another scream sounded and Bellatrix shrill voiced reached us even through the heavy stone ceiling. "How did you get into my vault?" she screamed. "Did that dirty little goblin in the cellar help you?"
There was some rustling as the goblin in question shuffled further away from the door. A wise move, I thought - everyone should try to keep out of Bellatrix' reach right now.
"We need to get out of here," Harry said desperately. "We need help..."
It's a copy! Just a copy! came the desperate wail from upstairs. Oh, Merlin, she was going to send someone down here to get the goblin, I had no doubt... we truly had to find a way out.
I had one.
"I need an object," I said. "Something, anything, a shoe-"
"Look at that," Weasley said and shook his head. "She's gone mad after all."
"No, I haven't," I said. "We're going to make a portkey. I'll get you all upstairs where it'll work and you'll be out of here in no time."
"That's handy," Luna said. "Where did you learn?"
I stared at her, flabbergasted, but I had learnt it while fixing the Vanishing Cabinet - in a way, those things were very similar and I had thought it might work (it had not.). I did not tell them.
As I had guessed, the door soon opened again and Draco stumbled inside, startled to find me there still. For the second time that day, I was told I had gone mad.
"I'm not mad," I said. "We can't just let them die, can we?"
Draco nodded faithfully - of course he did. I had not missed his earlier attempt to dissuade his family.
"Just take the goblin and make sure you get him and Granger into the hallway."
"But-"
"Do you trust me?" I asked.
Draco raised an eyebrow at me, almost as if to say that we had long since moved past that question. He seized the goblin by the arm, but he came willingly and only just so nodded at Harry in departure.
The door closed behind him with a loud bang.
"You can really do this?" Harry asked.
"Yes," I said. "But we need to get you all upstairs and the others into the hallway, there's a trapping spell down here."
"Can we take Mr Ollivander, too?" Luna asked and skipped back into the darkness. When she returned, she steadied an old, skinny man that I just so recognized as the old wandmaker from Diagon Alley. My stomach turned - I had not known that he, too, was imprisoned here.
"Let's get them out first," Harry said. "And then we go and free Hermione. You can make two, right?"
Of course I could. I just needed the right object and I also did not want to leave it lying around for longer than need be.
There were footsteps on the stairs again. Ron and Harry exchanged a look an fell back besides the doors. My fingers tightened around my wand and I reached out with my mind to see who was coming. It was not Draco; by the time I had figured out who those timid thoughts belonged to, the door had opened once more.
Wormtail stepped inside, his wand stretched out in front of him as if ready to attack. Both Ron and Harry jumped forward and tackled him, bringing him to the floor in seconds.
"Silencio!" I whispered, afraid that the fight's noise might carry up into the drawing room.
But their struggle was short - it was Harry who held him at bay, who moved his lips, gazing imploringly at Wormtail.
There was a moment's hesitation, in which I was almost entirely sure that Wormtail would stop, that he would let them go and not warn you - and then it was all for naught.
The hand, the bloody silver hand replacement for what Wormtail had given you, turned against its owner. His eyes widened as mine while the silver fingers wrapped around his own throat. He struggled - his mouth opened in silent gasps. He dropped to his knees and fell forward, twitching on the floor.
Hatred welled up inside me like never before - deep, seething hatred for you, who could turn even the slightest mercy into an act of terror and death. Without thinking, too, as if it did not matter when someone died.
And in that moment of uncontainable hatred and anger, I knew that this was my chance.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Wormtail's body stopped switching the moment the green light hit; it was not the first time, but the way he just stilled was surprising nonetheless.
Weasley sat back and Harry turned to me with a look of angered confusion.
"Just go get Granger," I said. "Take his wand and get her, I'll have the Portkeys ready for you."
Weasley shook his head, but Harry pulled him upwards. "Did you see what she did?" Ron asked as if he could not believe that we would just move on now.
I could not believe it, either, but I did not have time to sit back and ponder whether I did the right thing. I just had to save these people. What would I tell you when you came back?
As Ron and Harry rushed upstairs, I pulled the boots from Wormtail's feet - not like he needed them anymore.
"C'mon," I told Luna, who was still steadying the wandmaker and watched me with wide eyes. "I'll sent you off upstairs."
Even as we ascended the stairs, screams and bangs echoing from the drawing room, I enchanted the boots - and thought of the park by the children's home I had grown up in for their destination. No one would search for them there.
"Portus!" I whispered urgently and put them down in the hallway. "Portus!"
Bellatrix screamed another curse, I heard Weasley send a Stunning Charm in her direction - and knew that I had to go down, too, else you would suspect my involvement.
"Stun me," I said and pressed my wand into Luna's and.
"I-"
"Do it," I said. "Just think of how I left you down there and do it."
Harry ran out of the room, followed by Weasley and Granger, who had to be half-carried and was bleeding heavily from the arm - any second, Bellatrix would follow and see me-
"Stupefy!"
The last thing I saw before hitting the floor was Potter reaching for the portkey.
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