The Other Prisoners of Malfoy Manor

"Luna! What are you doing here?" I asked, running up to my blonde friend from Hogwarts. She was dirty, and in some old overalls, but she didn't look too beaten up. Good. If anyone had hurt Luna Lovegood, I'd kill those bastards.

"They came to our house because of the things my father posted about Harry Potter in The Quibbler, and they took me. I think they're trying to use me to get to Harry."

"We have to get you out of here, Luna. You can't be here. Your father must be going crazy." I said to her, but she didn't look all that upset to be here.

"It's not so bad, actually. They haven't really done anything to me since I got here. And, the company is quite lovely." She said, and turned to the corner of the room where a figure sat.

"Is that… Mr. Ollivander?" I asked, and Luna nodded. I looked over at Draco, who looked just as shocked as I was. I walked over to him and crouched down, and sure enough, there was Mr. Ollivander. And he looked miserable. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Hello, Miss Jackson. It's been far too long."

I smiled. "Six years, when you gave me my wand." I put my hand oh his, which was resting on his knee. "How long have you been here?"

"They took me a few weeks before you're sixth year started last year." He said, and my eyes watered up a little bit. I had almost forgotten about how me and my friends visited his abandoned shop last year. "Don't be sad, my dear. This all will be over sooner than we know it." I patted his hand and then stood up, walking back over to Luna.

"Why are you here, Talia?" She asked me. I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Well, It's sort of a long story—" I started, but she cut me off with the most astonishing thing I'd ever heard her say.

"Is it because they found out you were a Siren?" She said, and my jaw dropped.

"Wh—bu—how did you know that I was a Siren, Luna?" I asked her, but she just shrugged.

"There was a quiz in The Quibbler last year that told you if someone's a Siren or not, so I took it for you." She said, as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

"Why me?"

"I just thought it would be fun." I was going to ask more questions about it, but I decided to let it go and pursue another topic.

"We need to talk about how to get you out." I said.

"You don't have to do that." Luna said, and I stared at her.

"You want to stay here?" I asked her.

"Not especially. But trying to break us out could be dangerous for you, and you need to stay safe so you can help Harry." I almost started to cry again.

"But Luna, they could kill you down here." I turned to Draco again. "Will you help me?" He opened his mouth to answer, but the answer didn't come from him.

"No." Ollivander said from across the room, and I walked so I was closer to him.

"Why not?"

"Miss Jackson, The Dark Lord is not an idiot. He'd know it was you who helped us."

"But I can't just sit here and do nothing anymore! You guys don't understand! Every day, I wake up, and I die a little inside because I can't do anything! Harry and Ron and Hermione are out there, fighting for their lives, and all of ours, and you guys are in here, sleeping on the cold floor, and I'm living in a mansion, sleeping in a warm bed, doing nothing but cleaning. It's killing me!" My hands were balled into fists, and my face was hot with fury. I was breathing heavily, and by their expressions, my eyes were glowing. I felt Draco grab my shoulders and pull me back towards the party, but I resisted. "Let go of me!" I snarled at him, but he kept his cool.

"We can't stay gone long, Tal, Aunt Bella and the others will start to wonder." I knew he was speaking the truth, so I gave in.

"This isn't over, you guys." I said to them, and left with Draco. But the second we were back at the party and sitting at a table, with our voices lowered, we started talking again.

"Talia, what was that about?" Draco asked me.

"I want to get my friends out of here, that's all." I said, looking down at where my hands were playing with the table cloth. He kept looking at me, seeing right through me.

"That's not everything." He stated, sensing what was going on deeper. I looked up at him for just a second, but it was long enough for him to see the hurt behind my eyes. And then I looked back down.

"I really do want to get them out of here. Seriously. But, also, it's about earlier. With Greyback." I said, and he waited for me to continue. "I used to be such a strong person. I never let anyone in, never cried, and I most certainly never backed down from a fight. But whenever he's around me, when he's so close to me, I freeze up. I'm paralyzed by the overwhelming fear that he gives me. I just wish that I still had the strength to fight back." I said, hastily wiping the tears from my face so no one else saw. Draco swiped a drink from a waiter passing by, and handed it to me. Then he got up, and walked to someone over on the other side of the room, talked to them for a few minutes, and then came back to me.

"I'm about to pretend to be a little harsh and annoyed with you, okay?" He said, and I nodded my agreement. He grabbed my wrist, the drink-free one, and pulled me out of the room. But once we got outside the door, his hand left my wrist and made its way around the small of my back. "Now that's better." He said. I sipped my delicious drink.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"I just thought we'd both had enough of that party, so I told Aunt Bella that I was tired and was going to put you back in your room so I could go to sleep."

"But you're not really?" He smiled.

"Oh, I am. I'll be putting you in your room, and I'll be sleeping, but there are a few details in between that I failed to mention to her." I laughed.

"Oh, how you make me laugh." I said, and we walked up to my room together. I finished my drink by the time we walked through the door. I could tell we were both too tired for other bedroom activities, so it looked like sleeping was really all we'd be doing. Also too tired to bother putting pajamas on, we stripped down to our underwear and crawled under the covers just like that. I flicked my wand to turn off the light, intending on going to sleep in my boyfriend's arms, but the second my head hit the pillow, I realized that it wasn't as simple as that. We were tired, but neither of us seemed to be able to sleep. After a while, Draco talked.

"It won't always be like this with you. You're going through a rough time, without your friends or family, but soon things will be back to normal. I promise." I smiled again.

"You seem to be making a lot of these promises lately." I said.

"Well, I just feel like things are going to change pretty soon."

…

The next day, I was down in the ballroom, cleaning up from the night before. And of course, I was the only one. Big surprise. That Crazy Bitch didn't even have the house elves helping me! I swear, those elves were having the greatest vacation of their lives with me around doing all their work. I was trying to learn how to control my temper better, but I hadn't done a very good job. Of course, I'd only been trying for less than a day, but still. Also, since last night, I'd been strangely depressed, which was making it hard to concentrate on my chores. And when the note flew into my hand from out of nowhere, what was left of my concentration flew out the window.

Meet us in your room ASAP

K

Short, but I still got the message. Deciding that it had been long enough that it seemed like I'd done all this by hand, I whipped out my wand and it was clean within seconds. I somehow had managed to keep me having my wand from Bellatrix, so I didn't want to push it. Why did Kay want to meet in my room? And how did she get there? And who was this "us" I had to meet? Oh, the curiosity. On my way up the stairs, I ran into Draco, who was heading the same way, coming from a hallway.

"Fancy meeting you here." I said, grabbing his hand.

"Come here often?" He said, smiling.

"Well, seeing as how this is the way to my bedroom, yes I do." I said, matter-of-factly, and he laughed. "Where are you heading?" I asked him.

"Well, I got this note…" He said, and handed it to me to read.

Meet us in Talia's room, ASAP

K

"What's all this about?" I asked, but he just shrugged. "It sounds serious." He smiled mischievously, randomly pulled me through a little passageway where we were out of sight, and I laughed. "What are you doing? I just said it sounded serious! We should get there!"

"In a minute." And he started snogging me. And don't get me wrong, I was totally getting into it, but my curiosity was winning me over.

"Draco, come on. We'll have plenty of time for this later." I said, giving him a smile.

"Promise?" He said in that low, sexy voice he only does for me. I nodded, and we started making our way to my room once again. When we got there, we found Kayla and Blaise pacing around the floor. They looked both excited and annoyed at our arrival.

"Where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for twenty minutes!" Kayla said, dragging me to the bed with her so we could sit.

"Well, we got distracted." I said, giving Draco a secret look. "How did you get up here, anyway?" I asked.

"Blaise snuck us up here. He's brilliant." She said, and gave him an adoring look. Those two were absolutely adorable. "Anyway, we need to get to the point. We're busting you out, Tal!" She said, all excited and stuff, and she appeared to be waiting for me to share in her excitement. But I just stared at her with sad eyes. I shifted my gaze to Draco, who also looked sad, and he nodded, urging me to speak. I turned back to Kayla.

"How, Kay?" I asked, knowing it didn't matter. I just wanted to know. She got even more excited, which just deepened the crack in my heart.

"It's brilliant! I just took this little handbag and put an undetectable extension charm on it! We can put all our stuff into it, anything we might need, and the four of us, plus mum and dad, can sneak out at night when everyone's sleeping! Blaise says he has brooms we can use, and we can go to the camp where I grew up!" My eyes started to water a bit.

"Kay, mum and dad are magically bound to the room they're in. Only Bellatrix can get them out." I said, and her face fell a bit. I didn't want to have to tell her the big truth, so I told her a smaller one. It didn't faze her, as she got excited again with a new idea.

"Well, one of the Werewolves is bloody brilliant with undoing magical enchantments. We can come back with him and he can get them out!" I quickly thought of something else.

"A few of my friends are being held in the dungeons here. I can't leave them." I said. It was a lame excuse, but also the truth. This time she didn't even have to pause.

"That's okay! They can come too! Blaise said he's got plenty of brooms!" She said, and I saw Blaise nod enthusiastically out of the corner of my eye. I sighed.

"Listen, Kay—"

"It's going to be great! You're finally going to be free!"

"Kay, there's something I have to—"

"I can't wait for you to meet my friends! And then, of course, we can find your friends and help them—"

"KAY!" I yelled, which I shouldn't have. But I couldn't help it. I needed to get her attention. She looked surprised that I'd yelled at her. I sighed again, closing my eyes, preparing to tell her what I should've told her minutes ago. When I opened my eyes again, everyone was looking at me, waiting for me to explain.

"Kay, there's something I have to tell you. Before I went to the party last night, Bellatrix cornered me and threatened me about escaping." I saw both Kayla's and Blaise's eyes widening in surprise.

"But, I still think this could work…" She started, less enthusiastic than before.

"No, Kayla, you don't understand. She said that if I make any attempt of an escape, even if it succeeds, she'll... kill our parents, Kay." I said, and someone in the room gasped. It must've been Blaise, because Draco already knew this information, and I was looking at Kayla's face the whole time. Her eyes were watering, and I thought her heart might be breaking. She laid back on my bed, trying to hold back her tears. I laid next to her and threw my arm around her.

"It's okay, Kay. Really. We'll get out of here eventually." I said softly to her. She turned to face me.

"How do you stay so calm? You're a prisoner!" She said. I felt the bed shift under more weight, and saw Blaise crawl behind her. Draco did the same, so we were all snuggling on my bed. It was nice. My little family of weirdos. Well, my second little family of weirdos. I still hadn't forgotten my other friends out there.

"Because I'm used to it. Trust me, at first, it wasn't so easy." I felt Draco give a short laugh, rather than heard it.

"Sometimes she still loses her cool." He said, and we all laugh a little, the tension diffusing slightly. "But we are getting out of here. We just have to wait. Well, except for Blaise, who has to go back to school in a few days." Kayla suddenly looked sad that he would have to leave, but Blaise looked a little frightened. "What?" I asked him.

"School isn't how it used to be." Was all he said.

"Well, I know that, what with Snape being headmaster and those awful Carrows running around the place." I said, and Draco shuddered. He hated those two.

"You don't understand. I mean, they've been sparing the Slytherins, of course, but it's still a nightmare. They're torturing people, Talia, and calling it discipline. Your Gryffindor friends are getting the worst of it." My eyes were wide with horror. My poor friends.

"Now I really have to get out of here." I said softly. Trying to lighten things up again, Blaise started talking again.

"Plus, now that Malfoy is gone, Pansy has moved on to me." He said, and shuddered with disgust. We all laughed. Except for Kayla, who had a hilariously jealous expression on her face.

"She better keep her grubby little paws off. I'm not above threatening to eat her." She said, and we laughed even harder.

…

I spent the next few nights either with Draco, or with Kayla. Things went back to their relative normality, except for the fact that I had to be extra careful when visiting my parents. Bellatrix seemed to be keeping an even closer eye on them, which made it harder for me to get to them. But I had to see them. There was something I had to ask them, what I'd been burning to ask them ever since the Christmas party. Draco had been helping me by telling me whenever she was out on an errand, but every time I took the opportunity, it turned out that she had taken them with her. What the hell was going on? What was she doing with them? One day, when I was cleaning in the hallway by the front doors, I saw Bellatrix leave without them. I watched out the window as she walked to the edge of the property, and then disapparated to somewhere else. I bolted.

I ran down the "Forbidden Hallway of Doom" That my parents lived in, and knocked on the door. My mother let me in, and I saw my dad on the couch. They both had their usual, warm, welcoming smiles for me.

"Why are you out of breath, honey?" My mum asked me as I walked into their room and sat across the couch from my dad. He put down his book to listen.

"Because I don't know how much time I have. But I have to ask you something." I said, and looked at both of them. My mum was still smiling, but my dad looked a little strained, as if deep down, he knew what was coming.

"You can ask us anything." She said. But what I said next wasn't a question.

"I saw you at the Christmas party." I said, and they were both shocked.

"I didn't see you. We assumed that they wouldn't let you go." My mum said. I smiled a little at her, but it was a sad smile.

"Well, of course you wouldn't see me. I was wearing a mask. Kayla was their too, she snuck in." They both laughed a little with me. That was so like her. "Why were you guys at the party? What are you guys really doing here?" Was what I'd been wanting to ask this whole time, and finally it was out there. They looked at each other as if deciding what to tell me, and finally I think they settled on the truth. All of it. They sagged in defeat.

"Bellatrix Lestrange has been using the Imperius Curse on us. She's made us Death Eaters." My dad said.

My whole world shattered. Death Eaters. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could that evil monster make my parents into something so horrible?

"But… Draco never mentioned seeing you at the meetings…" I said, my mind still whirling.

"That's because he doesn't know. We don't go to the meetings, because we're not willing Death Eaters. Since they're forcing us against our will, they only use us for the dirty work. Some of it, anyway." My mother said, and I saw the sadness in her eyes for the first time.

"But, doesn't it hurt? The Imperius curse? When it's being used for something so awful?" I asked, and they both nodded. "So, why don't you guys do it willingly and spare yourselves the pain?" I asked. My dad straightened up and looked like the Superman I knew he was.

"Because they make us kill people, Tal, and other terrible things, and we're not those kinds of people. We're not like them. We'd rather be tortured and forced than do something like that willingly." I looked at my mum and she had that same look to her. Determined. I admired them so much.

"You guys are so strong." I said, fighting back tears. My parents were doing the same. It made me think of a few years ago when I had fallen off the broom I was riding, playing Quidditch out behind the Burrow with Fred and George and Charlie, who was on vacation from Dragon training in Romania. I had fallen right into a bush, which was probably the only thing that had stopped me from breaking any bones. I had tried my hardest to fight back the tears. A few seconds after the fall, I felt long, strong arms lift me up and carry me inside where Molly could heal me. I looked up into the brown eyes of Fred, and one single tear escaped through my eye lid and ran down my cheek. He must have seen the betrayal in my eyes.

"You know, it is okay to cry once in a while. Georgie over there cries like a baby almost every day." He said, smiling, and I laughed. George made an offended noise.

"I can't. I hate weakness." I said back then.

Thinking back on that memory, I knew he had been right. He was right about a lot of things. I missed him so much. I missed all of them. But I promised myself that I would see them all again, and soon we would all be one big happy family again.

A.N. Sorry it's been taking so long! I haven't had much time to update, because I've been working so much more lately. Plus, me and my sister have just gotten into this Justice League cartoon, and it's really good.