Tom didn't speak to her for the rest of the meal. Danielle was sure he was trying to make her feel ashamed and apologize to him—which was, of course, not going to happen.

When they went back into their room to gather their things, he still refused to acknowledge her presence as he arranged his luggage into a neat pile, leaving hers strewn messily about the floor.

Danielle sighed loudly. "Look, Tom, I don't see why you're allowed to mock me all you want but when I try to do it you act like a—"

He looked up at her for the first time, his glare rooting her to the spot. "I act like a what, Clara?"

"I don't know!" she burst out. "You're just so—so irritating! I can't even joke without you taking it seriously and acting like you have a stick shoved up your arse! Of course, the great Tom Riddle is allowed to do whatever he wants, but I'm just supposed to shut up and obey you."

Tom's eyes darkened with every word she spoke until she was afraid they were going to turn red. "I see you are still clinging on to the idiotic hope that you can change me—"

"So you think I'm an idiot?" Danielle yelled, secretly grateful the Silencing Spell he'd cast that morning was still in effect. "I'm not! I have changed you, Tom. You just don't want to admit it. We both know that you care for me, which was a damn lot more than you thought you ever could with anyone. You even said that I was the one life you remember caring for. You can't kill me. You just don't like feeling weak and vulnerable, do you? I've complicated everything. You've always been used to having a plan and following it until I came into your life and screwed everything up!" She narrowed her eyes at him, fully aware she was getting herself into a potentially life-threatening situation but somehow not doing anything to prevent it.

She expected him to retort right away, but as she waited, bristling, for his comeback, his head snapped around to the window and he raised his wand. Danielle watched in confusion as his gaze fixed on something over her shoulder, presumably out the window. "Run, Clara," he ground out, his tone urgent.

"What do you—" she began, but Tom reached out and pushed her behind him just as the door was blown off its hinges and the world exploded around her. Danielle screamed as she fell to the floor, shards of glass from the broken window embedding themselves into her legs. Blood trickled from her arms and mouth as she struggled to get to her feet again.

It was as if an air-raid had just occurred, and a bomb had landed directly on the cottage. The entire northern wall was now a pile of rubble, and the bed had been destroyed. Shaking, Danielle got to her feet and peered around Tom, who was standing protectively in front of her.

"They discovered the house," he said in a low voice, stepping through the gap where the wall used to be into the sitting-room. All traces of their recent argument forgotten, Danielle followed him and immediately wished she hadn't as her eyes landed on two blood-soaked bodies on the floor.

Cepheus and Sylvia Black were dead, their eyes squeezed shut as if they had known what was coming. Their bodies were lying in front of a cabinet, inside of which a boy's screams could be heard. Tears filling her eyes, Danielle knelt down and gently pushed the old couple's bodies out of the way before opening the cabinet. Perseus was rocking back and forth with tears pouring down his face. When he saw Danielle, he crawled into her arms and began to wail, burying his face into her chest.

She was numb with shock and disbelief as she pulled him out, positioning her body in a way so that he couldn't see his parents, who had died trying to protect him. "How were they found?" she asked in a high-pitched voice. "They've been living here for yours…"

"I do not know," Tom replied shortly. "But we must leave—."

"It's a bit late for that, boy," a voice cackled, and one of Grindelwald's men suddenly appeared in the middle of the room accompanied by a loud crack. "I bet you wish you hadn't taken that Hippogriff now. It led us right to you."

Danielle had completely forgotten about Fleetwing—how could she be so stupid as to think that the guards wouldn't notice a Hippogriff wandering around the forest?

There were several more loud cracks and the room was surrounded by guards. They were obviously able to get past the Anti-Apparition wards, leaving her and Tom at a disadvantage. She instinctively pushed Perseus behind her in the same way that Tom had pushed her behind him. Thankfully, the little boy's cries had subsided and he was now staring around them with a look of utter terror on his face.

A jet of green light flew at Tom and Danielle began to shout out a warning—but he'd repelled it even before she'd made a sound. He stared at the guard for another second before they began to duel. Of course, all the others were immediately upon them, and soon the room was filled with at least twelve men all shooting curses at Tom, who was repelling them with spell after spell, occasionally throwing in a curse of his own.

Powerful though he may be, Danielle doubted Tom was able to repel twelve of the most highly trained Dark Wizards for an indefinite period of time. Perhaps Voldemort might have been able to, but right now Tom was dueling on raw skill. Danielle saw the shock and rage in the guards' faces as the boy dueled them like a master. "You need to run away, Perseus," she whispered into the boy's ear, kneeling down so they were at eye level. "See if you can find the nearest town."

"What about you?" he asked, his brown eyes wide and streaked with tears.

"We'll be fine," Danielle said. "Go!" With that, she pushed him away, as if trying to give him some momentum. Perseus obediently began to run—but one of the guards dueling Tom had noticed, and just as Danielle screamed, a Killing Curse shot directly at the little boy and he fell, almost seeming as if he had tripped. But he didn't get up again, and a piercing cry sounded in her ears as she began shrieking, unable to tear her eyes away from the prone body lying in the grass—

Something grasped hold of her arm and she tried to yank it away, but she was too weak: there was a burst of agonizing pressure on her body for a split second before the world appeared again. When Danielle's vision sharpened, she realized she was sprawled on the grass in front of the grim fortress that was Nurmengard. Tom's hand was tightly clamped over her mouth. "I found a crack in the wards and Apparated us here," he explained, and she noticed that there was a badly bleeding cut slashed under his left eye. "You need to quiet."

Danielle nodded, and he hesitantly took his hand away from her lips. Tears spilled over her eyelids, and she choked, "Perseus—I tried to save him—"

"It was not your fault," Tom said, pulling her to her feet and casting a Disillusionment Charm over them. "You could not have done anything to prevent it."

Deep down, Danielle knew that he was right, but she couldn't stop the guilt from churning away at her insides as they trudged up the path that led to the immense front doors. "Most of the guards went to investigate the cottage," Tom explained, businesslike again. "There will be some left here, but luckily not many."

Danielle raised her wand, trying to prepare herself, but she was too shaken and disturbed to defend herself properly at the moment.

The doors were wide open, but there was still a guard left standing just inside the entryway. Before Tom could kill or otherwise incapacitate him for life, Danielle sent a Stunning Spell flying at him, where he collapsed against the wall, his wand hanging limp in his hand.

The interior of the prison was what she had always envisioned Azkaban to be like, minus the Dementors. Everything was cold, dark and bleak. The cells were small and windowless. Most of the prisoners were huddled in the corner of their cells, staring blankly at the walls. Danielle inspected each one carefully,but didn't see Georgina. In this timeline, Dylan had spent years in here, all because he'd married a Muggle…

As they hurried up countless flights of stairs, Danielle sent Stunning Spells at each of the guards that were left to guard the prison, hoping that the ones currently at the cottage would remain there for a while longer.

When they reached the top floor, she instinctively knew that they had found what they were looking for. Not one, but two guards stood blocking the entrance. Danielle hesitated—could she cast two Stunning Spells before one of them noticed they were there? But Tom had already taken action and sent two curses flying directly at the guards. One jet of light hit its target, who fell down immediately, but Danielle gasped when the second guard deflected the spell, and she felt the Disillusionment Charm tear away from her body with a painful shudder.

"I should have known you would come to save your friend," the second guard began, a sneering tone to his voice. "I must admit, I'm surprised to see you here…but no matter."

Tom sent another curse at the guard, but instead of a retaliation Danielle suddenly found herself frozen, unable to move. "My apologies," the guard drawled, and Danielle caught a smug grin from beneath his hood. She tried to catch a glimpse of his face—why was he acting as if he knew them? "This isn't playing fair…but you don't play fair either, do you, Riddle?"

Surprise crossed Tom's face for a second for a split second. "You're welcome to use Legilimency on me," the guard mocked. "I strongly doubt you'll be able to find anything of interest, however. Oh, and I'm not going to kill your little pet girlfriend just yet. Poison has always been my preference of choice."

"Who are you?" Tom asked in his most commanding voice. When the guard continued to sneer, he ordered, "I will kill you."

"You think yourself skilled," the guard answered. "But your problem has always been underestimation of those you deem unworthy."

Tom's anger finally boiled over, and he yelled the next curse so quickly Danielle barely had time to process what had happened: "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light shot at the guard, but to Danielle's amazement he actually repelled it—but instead of sending it back to Tom, he deflected it toward her.

She was unable to dodge out of its path or do anything other than stare, immobile, at the green light shooting toward her with a rushing sound, her life flashing before her eyes—

But Tom was quicker: he conjured a shield so powerful that the curse actually reverberated off it, hitting the wall behind them and blasting a hole in the stone. Cold fury such as Danielle had never seen before was literally radiating off him, creating a barrier of magic that crackled and shimmered around him. If she had been able to move, she would have taken several steps back.

The mysterious guard, however, just laughed. "Quick thinking, Riddle," he sneered. "I'm impressed. But your pet won't be so lucky if you aren't there to save her."

All of a sudden, he was on the ground yelling in agony. Tom was standing over him—in his rage, he'd managed to cast a nonverbal Cruciatus Curse. Danielle felt the Body-Bind Curse lift, and she staggered forward, heart pounding.

"Tom, stop it!" she cried, tugging on his arm and staring at the guard writhing in pain. His hood had fallen off to reveal a wizened old man with a shock of white hair and dark eyes streaming with tears of anguish. "Please don't kill him."

"He tried to kill you," Tom retorted, but just as he raised his wand again there was a distant cry from below them—the other guards were back. They didn't have much time left. Danielle pulled Tom over the bodies into the cluster of cells beyond the door. To her dismay, most of them were empty. "She's not here," she moaned, whirling back around. "We did it for nothing—"

But Tom was staring at one of the cells in the far corner, his eyes oddly wide. Danielle followed his gaze until she saw a familiar figure gripping the bars and staring back at them—but it wasn't the person she expected to see.

Her mouth dropped open, astonishment erasing all other emotions as she cried, "Skender?"