Chapter 53: Ready?
*Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters therein.
It wasn't going to work.
Rosaria kicked the man who held her as he climbed into the van. She could hear his grunt and the other adults shushing her friends... then everything went black. She blinked her eyes and realised there was something blocking all the lights outside and tested the grip of the man holding her.
She could hear her deep, anxious breaths, and those of her friends...feel the tension in the van rising. Finally, she could stand it no more and felt her ire rise. She knew the man's arm was near, holding her shoulders to his chest.
So she bit him as a light above them flickered on.
"Raah! Ow, goddammit! Let go! Sonofabitch, ow!" The man shouted through clenched teeth. She refused, until the retribution she expected came.
She did not expect it to be a simple bop to the nose.
Rosaria felt her jaw fall open in shock. That was it? No torture, arms being wrenched, hair pulled? Nothing?
The arm, bleeding slightly, moved from in front of her face to pet her hair-while simultaneously getting out of reach of her canines. "Ssh. A little snake in the grass, you are. Calm. Ssh. We're trying to help, child." The man continued petting her, which should have pissed her off but began to comfort her against her will instead.
"Who...Why should I trust you? You've kidnapped us!"
The low, molten voice came from her left and she looked up into icy blue eyes that captured her attention and soothed her nerves. They were eyes that looked into our soul and smoothed everything over, left you feeling seen. Her bristling nerves softened further as she saw the five year old Madilyn safe in his arms. Something buzzed in the back of her mind, but refused to surface past the frayed ends of her nerves. His long, black hair looked silky like her brother's.
She shook her head of the thought of her lost brother and glared until the man did more than laugh at her.
"We rescued you, little firecracker. The boss has had us watching for a group of children for days. As soon as we felt your magics surge we came for you."
Her heart froze. "Magic? You've gone round the bend!" She could see the whites of widened eyes all around her. These men couldn't know about what happened to them. They'd lock them up! Experiment on them even more! "There's no such thing as magic!" She turned her head and tried to bite the hand that moved into her peripheral vision.
"It's real, little snake. Everyone in this van has magic. You, me, all of us." The man holding her from behind shifted and she tried in vain to wriggle free. "Sssh. We are gifted with magic. We may not know your story, but I need you to take me at my word that we are here to take you to safety."
"I don't believe you!" Rosaria screeched, squashing the hope flaring up in her heart before it could take root. She felt the man holding her move, but heard only a whisper before the dark van lit further. She saw before her the tip of a stick, lit as if holding a tiny light bulb. She'd seen these sticks before, though this one was lighter than the ones the bad people had used on her and her friends.
Rosaria quieted, staring at the light until her eyes burned, watering dangerously. Light. On a stick. It had to be magic. Her thoughts began to spiral faster and faster as realizations she had kept at bay all this time reared their ugly heads.
Magic was real.
It couldn't be.
It had to be, but oh, did it hurt.
Mum said magic is a tool of the Devil. Mum said magicians died terrible, awful deaths for using it.
Were these people devils? Did she care? They seemed nice. Nicer that those other people in the dresses had been…
But if magic is real...did that mean she was a magician?
Was she evil now?
If magic was real, then happened to Reid?
What happened to Miles?
And with that thought, the mass of what ifs flooding her mind focused on that one thought and Rosaria DeLoach broke down in tears.
Matteo Dare groaned as he felt more than saw the little girl in his lap crumble to pieces. He knew from Harry's missive that whatever these children had gone through was horrific, but none of them had been given more information than that a group of muggles were being held by the Death Eaters and Voldemort. They had been keeping a watch on magical fluxes in muggle London after finding seven or eight boys in an old warehouse days before. What information that could get out of them led them to believe that more groups of children would be appearing in the coming days.
But with no more information than that they did their usual rounds and kept a closer watch for magical children just as they always had.
Matteo and his crew had never expected to find a dozen or more magical children huddled in the alley while on a food run. The van they had taken was one that they gutted of its interior. It had no seats belts, not even seats-there was only open space from behind the front seats. They were driving as slowly as possible, every adult scared of what could happen if the van was hit. He could see his friends holding their charges as tight as possible, though none had as fiesty an armful as he.
He wrapped his arms tighter around the little spit fire, hoping that if he kept her together physically it would give her strength to pull whatever pieces she had lost in her ordeal back to the forefront.
She was so little. They all were. Starved and malnourished, their joints were swollen and faces too thin. Matteo imagined that he would be able to count ribs on more than a few of the kids, and none of them looked to be older than eight or nine.
Sometimes he hated his job. Not always, but some days were much better than others.
Rescuing abandoned children was the highlight of his day, but he knew the next few weeks of building trust and ensuring their care would be accepted were going to be tough ones. Measurements were always put in place to ensure the children could not leave the safe houses until they truly knew how much they were wanted and loved by the staff…
And by that point they no longer wanted to run away.
He hoped that this group took to their magic better than the group they'd found in an abandoned warehouse days before. Even after careful, one-on-one tutelage in magic and its uses he still had a few refusing to acknowledge that they had any.
He was already getting tired of ordering new household items with how he many found exploded by untapped cores creating emotional accidental magic. Pillows and cushions...even a toilet and shower door had taken the brunt of a child's emotions last week!
And now they had a whole new crop to start teaching.
Severus paced the offices with his fellow leaders and Heads of House as the stood over the unconscious bodies of the Slytherins. They had taken those named by Theodore Nott as partaking in Voldemort's instructions and had them in custody fairly quickly. Harry knew it was not all of the marked Slytherins in the school, Crabbe and Goyle for one were marked, but refused to take part in hunting down their friend. Dark Lord or no, it was Draco who gave them a purpose in day to day life, and they honored that.
A ward currently kept the leaders and Hogwarts Champion alerted to any who fought the charms keeping them asleep while they deliberated on where to go from here. Remus and Lucius had been called to the former Headmaster's office-thankfully it had taken little time to transfer Declan and Draco's care to Winky for a few hours.
Harry lounged in an arm chair, a coin in his hand as he called all those he needed to him, not worrying about the plans made by the adults around him. They meant well, but he trusted in his team to get him through. The idea was set in his mind regardless.
They would get the Dark Mark off of his lover and it would be before the cretins out cold in the corner awoke. By crystal or brute force he would have his way. Harry clued into the conversation going on as his friends were called into question.
"I understand much research has been put into this topic," Augusta began. "But what proof do we have that this is feasible? Books and clever logics are fine, but against the impossibilities that magic can create? I have to wonder if this is safe!"
"You question decades of Hogwart's finest, Madame," Harry said softly, rising from his chair. "You forget that the Ravenclaw lions have been researching this since it the existence of a Dark Mark was made aware to the public. I made a team whose direct focus was Dark Mark research, including muggle and magical forms of bonding, as soon as I took charge of the Pride. We've had our best on it, and have made great strides since Lucius Malfoy was added as a source of information."
A knock sounded upon the door, stopping Harry from further speaking. He was not angry, but neither would he stand for anyone disregarding the hard work and effort of his lions.
Hermione and her team stepped into the room accompanied by Neville, who held their crystal trunk in his hands. He gave them a small smile from his position before giving them a rundown of their situation.
"The Slytherin Death Eaters and children of Death Eaters made their move. We must make ours in return. I want the Dark Mark off those who I call mine by morning light, understood?"
His Pridemates gave their agreement in a nod and stood ready for their orders.
"We're going to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said authoritatively. "Assemble all you need and plan for all eventualities."
"Harry?" Mya began calmly. "We have no tests to make sure these theories will bear fruit. I-"
"You question me?" Harry's eyes flashed.
"No, Alpha" Hermione said calmly, head tilted to expose the side of her neck, but no more. "I want to know what your plan, as I cannot see you putting forward your own mate as our first tester!"
Harry blinked at her, surprised that she had not already seen the particulars of the path he had chosen. Maybe he was making logical leaps the others could not see.
"Oh, no. Of course I wouldn't do that to him...or Lucius, for that matter." Harry grinned and gestured to the sleeping bodies of the 7th year Slytherins that had been separated from the others. "These conveniently of-age and marked Death Eaters have been subdued by our side. We needed Death Eaters with Dark Marks in order to test our theories, as well as perfect our technique and now we have them."
Arthur looked at the uniformed students then back at Harry, a shocked look in his eye. "You would use them? Delegate mere children as pawns on which to practice? As if they are sheets of paper to draft upon, Harry?"
"No," he said. "They are no 'mere children.' They, each of them, are adults who have made their own decisions in life, one of which was to give their life source to a madman. I am rectifying this decision on their behalf, regardless of their thoughts. This is a War, Mr. Weasley, and I will take any tool I can out of the hands of their Master. If, in the process, I give them back their futures then so be it. I should think they would thank me for my service, but that would mean having expectations of those who have none for themselves."
Thus saying he turned and moved out of the office, tired of having his motives questioned. His soulmate's life was at risk and he had a clear path before him. No course would stay his foot, not even if he had to destroy lives to get there.
As long as he walked out with his lover and life intact, he would bear the burden of anything it took to get to that point.
Severus watched his bondmate prepare himself to enter the Dark Mark of the Jr. Death Eater before him. Antonin Flint, ring leader of the Hogwarts Death Eaters, was still and pale on the table. His body was strapped to a slab of rock at arms, chest, stomach, hips and legs. His navy robe sleeve torn to reveal the inky mess of a Dark Mark upon his arm. Severus watched the mark coil and writhe and grimaced internally. This was the mark of a madman, one he had once willingly followed. A man he had given his trust to. A Lord he could follow until he darkened and twisted to the creature they now opposed.
Severus questioned, in moments like these, whether he could truly say he possessed a sound judgement. From one raving Master to another, he had transferred his loyalties between two evils of this world. Servitude from one man had been cut, severed by his bondmate of all people. But still his soul held the mark of damnation just as black as his forearm. The smudge that develops like a callus for a worker, but for him it was a distortion upon his very being. A survival mechanism that kept him sane and relatively safe, if lonely. One that pushed away all those who cared for him, lest he make the mistake of gaining even one more Master.
He did not think his soul could take much more.
Severus glanced over to see Harry with a powerful red crystal in tow. He lay his hand over the Dark Mark and felt the connection to Harry flare to life.
But then again, with a love this pure, who was he to decide if he was worthy or not.
'Ready for this, Severus?'
'Always.'
Thanks for reading!
A/N: So sorry for the wait. This chapter has been giving me some big issues, but as soon as I started the chapter after this one got mad that I deigned to skip it and just poured out of me!
If you're friends with me on Facebook you've seen all the work issues going on in my life. Thankfully they're fairly settled. Now I just have a big move in 2 weeks (new house and out of an apartment) and putting in an application to join a teacher preparation program. Wish me luck!
