Lucius stormed into the manor with Travers struggling to keep up. He ignored his wife and sister-in-law's calls and made his way into the study where Bellatrix sat with Tom. He threw the documents at Tom's feet.

"You better have a damn good reason why the money that went to Rookwood and Mulciber came from an account in your name," he snapped.

Tom blinked at him and picked up the papers. He glanced over them, an unreadable expression on his face, and he ripped them in half. He stood up and cocked back his fist, punching Lucius in the jaw. Travers and Bellatrix froze as Lucius dropped to the floor. The hit quite literally knocked some sense into him, and he stayed on the floor. Narcissa and Andy ran into the room. He'd never been more grateful Draco decided to stay with the children.

"Tom!" Narcissa exclaimed.

"Stay out of it, Cissy," Bellatrix warned.

Tom dragged Lucius off the floor and pinned him against the wall. "How… dare you!" he seethed. "Paying them to kill my own daughter? The person I gave up my magic for? The one thing that's kept me going all these years? Lucius, if I were half the man I was, I would slit your throat in front of your entire family for the insinuation."

"I'm sorry," Lucius said. "I- I reacted poorly when I saw your name."

Tom dropped him to the floor and kicked him in the ribs for good measure. He went back to the couch and sat down, his head in his hands. Lucius pulled himself against the wall and caught his breath.

"The account was from Hogwarts," Tom said. "Dumbledore created it for me as my acting magical guardian at the time. I'd completely forgotten about it. I assumed he emptied it once I became the so-called leader of the Dark side."

"He's playing a dangerous game," Andy said, kneeling beside Lucius. She pressed his ribs, testing the bones, and she nodded. "You'll be sore, but nothing's broken."

"Of course not. I was not trying to hurt Lucius. Just make a point," Tom scoffed.

"Next time, can we stick to our words rather than violence?" Narcissa huffed.

"Have you met this family?" Bellatrix drawled.

Narcissa rolled her eyes and went back to the kitchen. Andy ruffled Lucius's hair before she followed after her sister. Bellatrix sat down, and the group sat in silence. Travers hovered around the fireplace before he eventually settled in the chair.

"I think it's time we talk about the funeral," Bellatrix said quietly.

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Because I would rather put her to rest and move on than return to that bedroom and see her lying on that mattress. She looks asleep, and each time I try to wake her, I remember that she is gone. Can you gift me this one request, Tom? You got to bury Rayna. You got to move on. Let me do the same."

"She is my child," he whispered.

"But if the situation was reversed-

Tom held up his hand, halting further conversation. Bellatrix stood and left the room. Travers jumped up and ran after her. Lucius glanced at Tom.

"You know she's right," he said.

"I know."

"So why-

"I promised Rayna I would keep her safe. I promised, and…" Tom trailed off and burst into tears.

Lucius pulled himself off the floor and made his way to Tom. He wrapped his arms and him and let him cry against him.

Bellatrix reclined against the dungeon wall, tossing pieces of her orange peel through the bars at Rookwood. Travers sat beside her, munching on the slices he managed to steal while she wasn't looking. Mulciber paced the cell, hands behind his back, and recited Latin poetry. Bellatrix knew torture wouldn't work on them. Not after Azkaban. Anything Bellatrix did would be child's play. She flicked another piece at Rookwood's feet before sighing.

"I'd ask why you did it, but the reason doesn't matter anymore," she said.

"Doesn't it?" Rookwood mused. "Because we did have our reasons."

"I should rephrase myself. I don't care enough to ask." Bellatrix crossed her ankles and leaned her head against the wall. "Your reasons for murdering my fiancée-

"Oh enough with the fiancée bullshit, Bellatrix. She was a child. You tied yourself to some impulsive brat all because of some prophecy. You're no better than Voldemort."

Travers and Mulciber frowned a little at the comment, but Bellatrix was frozen. She never told him anything about the prophecy. They only knew the existence of one, but Bellatrix never mentioned the details.

"What makes you think I loved her because of the prophecy?" she asked, forcing herself to remain calm.

"Because the damn thing told you to," he scoffed.

She stood from the floor and crossed to the cell doors. She gripped the bars and leaned close. "How did you know that?" she asked.

"What?"

"I said, how did you know that?"

"You told us!" he exclaimed.

Bellatrix opened the cell door and stunned Mulciber with a flick of her wrist. She dragged Rookwood to his feet and pinned him against the wall. "I never told you specifically that prophecy mentioned Calliope, nor did I tell you the details. So how do you know!" When he didn't respond, she lowered him to her level and whispered, "Last chance."

"No one!"

Bellatrix dove into his mind without warning. She tore through his memories until she reached the one she wanted. She watched herself and Rookwood in the hall of prophecy. He pointed her in the right direction and walked away. That much she remembered, but instead of leaving, he opened the door and closed it before hiding behind a shelf. He poked his head around the corner, watching Bellatrix pick up the orb, but there was no sound. Not until Bellatrix repeated it out loud, believing she was alone.

"From the trees, a child is born with darkness at her fingertips. Bound to the eldest daughter of the night, aided by time on the back of a dragon, their power combined with douse the light. The daughter of the trees shall cleanse the world in fire?" Bellatrix scratched the back of her head in confusion. "What the hell does this even- oh shit. Shit, shit, shit. Fuck!"

Bellatrix smashed the orb on the ground and ran from the room, too distracted to notice Rookwood hiding in the shadows. Waiting for a few moments, Rookwood left as well. He stopped in an office long enough to grab parchment and a quill. He scribbled out a letter and sent it off with an owl. He paced for nearly an hour before a response returned. Opening the letter, Rookwood read it, then tossed the parchment in a nearby fireplace before running from the office. The memory shifted into Rookwood standing in the trees. A house sat on a hill almost a hundred feet away. Bellatrix recognized the location immediately. It was Riddle Estate, where Calliope was born.

A hooded figure appeared.

"Do you have it?"

"No, she smashed it, but she said it out loud, thinking I was gone."

The hooded figure cocked his head. Nothing was said until-

"I see."

"You got it? That quickly?" he asked.

"Indeed."

Rookwood held out his hand, and the hooded figure passed him a small bag of galleons. Rookwood took the money and counted it. The hooded figure turned in the light, and Bellatrix exited the memory.

"You!" she screeched. "You were the one who told him!"

"I- I didn't know he was going to attack, I swear!"

"What did you think Dumbledore was going to do with that information!" she shouted. She narrowed her eyes. "What else did you tell him?"

Rookwood said nothing, but she could see it in his eyes. Everything. She grabbed his neck with her nails without hesitation and ripped out his throat. She walked over to Mulciber. She wrapped her hands around his head and gave it a quick twist. She dropped the body and stalked out of the cell.

"Bella?" Travers called out hesitantly.

She ignored him. Blood dripped from her fingers as she went up the stairs.

"Bella!" he called out again.

Travers grabbed her arm.

"Bellatrix, wait-

She yanked her arm away and ran up the stairs, leaving Travers behind, and entered the room where Calliope still laid on the bed as if she were asleep. Bellatrix slammed the door and dropped down beside her. Bellatrix couldn't shake the guilt creeping through her heart. She said the prophecy out loud, and now both Rayna and Calliope are dead. Bellatrix dry-heaved on the floor.

It was all her fault.

Tom heard Travers shouting and left the study, Lucius right behind him. A door slammed upstairs, and he frowned at the blood droplets on the floor. Travers plopped down on the stairs with his head down. Tom didn't even have to ask before Travers started speaking.

"Rookwood was being an ass down in the dungeons. He mentioned something about Bella and Calli being bonded through a prophecy. Bella got upset because she never told us the details. Next thing I know, she's got him pinned on the wall, and he's whimpering and jerking. Whatever she saw in his head pissed her off. Afterward, all I heard was that Rookwood told Dumbledore about the prophecy. She asked him what else he told him, but he didn't respond. She- she ripped out his throat and killed Mulciber too. Then she ran upstairs. I tried getting her to tell me what happened, but it was like she was in a daze."

By the end of the story, most of the adults were in the hallway. Even Severus, who had come over to escape the Order. Narcissa quietly called for an elf and told them to clean the blood from the floors and stairs.

"Why would Bellatrix be so upset with Rookwood over this?" Andy asked.

"He was the one who led Bellatrix to the prophecy in the first place," Tom said.

"But only the one the prophecy is for can hear it," Lucius pointed out. "Bellatrix would've had to tell him what it said."

"I doubt she would. Plus, Rayna said she repeated it from memory when she got here because she smashed the orb."

Narcissa and Andy looked at one another before Narcissa asked, "Are you sure she said Bellatrix repeated it from memory?"

"Yes. She came into the room and told her the entire thing."

Narcissa and Andy glanced at one another again. That time, it was Andy who spoke.

"Bella may have said the prophecy out loud without realizing it."

"Why would she do that?" Lucius asked. "A prophecy is the most sacred source of information. I can't see her repeating it out loud in the presence of someone else."

"That would imply she knew Rookwood was still in the room," Narcissa pointed out.

"And when we were younger, Bellatrix would have to read these massive tomes every night and recite them to our father in the morning at breakfast. The only way for that to happen was for her to read the entire thing out loud. She repeated it over and over again until she could say it without needing the book," Andy said.

The hall went quiet.

"Are you saying she heard the prophecy, and to memorize it, she repeated it out loud?"

"It became a habit of hers, even when she's not consciously aware of it. If ever she read something that she wanted to remember, she would repeat it out loud and would never forget it."

"So if Rookwood was in the room when she said it…" Lucius trailed off.

"Then he wouldn't need to say a single word," Severus murmured. "Dumbledore could pluck it right from his memories."

It wasn't hard to put the rest together.

"Shit," Travers sighed.

Tom knocked on the door. He didn't have his magic, but he could still feel it. When no response came, he knocked again.

"It's me, Bellatrix."

There was a pause, and the door opened. He entered the room and closed the door. Bellatrix wiped away her tears and cleared her throat. Tom glanced at the bed and put his hands into his pockets.

"She looks so peaceful," he said.

"I know why you're here. So skip the point, yeah?"

"Rayna was always going to die that night," he said.

"What?"

"You see, my wife, Pandora, and Apolline were very adept in seeing things they were not supposed to. As was Jean, in a way. They made an effort to keep it hidden, but sometimes it got impossible. Rayna saw her future one night. It was a complete accident, but she saw it; all fifty versions of it. So many different variations, but the one that happened was the one that she made happen."

Bellatrix was still confused, so Tom chuckled and looked up at the ceiling.

"My wife knew the attack was coming. It took a long time for me to come to terms with that. And she planned it down to Lucius being the one to take Calliope away. She wrote it all in a letter. The night I went to the Potters was on purpose. You needed to leave with the Lestrange brothers. Calli needed to be raised by Dan and Jean. It was all destined to occur. Even me losing my magic. Everything that's happened was foretold by the hands of fate, as she used to say."

"But…" Bellatrix swallowed roughly and looked down at Calli. "Why?" she asked.

"Had Rayna not died that night, Calli would've died before she ever made it to Hogwarts, and you would've lost her a long time ago."

Bellatrix slid down the wall. Tom crossed the room and kneeled in front of her.

"None of this is your fault," he said softly. "Yes, you said the prophecy out loud, but in what world would you think Rookwood would run off and tell Dumbledore? In what world would you think it would lead to the attack, to the deaths, and to Azkaban? You couldn't have known any of that. This is all a shitty hand dealt by fate." He stopped and shook his head. "I was wrong to do what I did earlier. I'm afraid a funeral would be the end. It would be final. Keeping her like this gives me some sick form of hope that it's all a dream. That she'll wake up one morning as if nothing happened. But… just like with Rayna, I have to move on. So. Whenever you're ready, we can talk about a funeral. We can do it together, and we can honor her by putting an end to all of this. Okay?"

Bellatrix nodded, and Tom put his hand on her knee before he stood and left the room. Outside, he ran into Narcissa and Andy. Tom stepped to the side and held the door open for them. The two sisters went inside, and Tom shut the door. He heard it lock and took his leave.

Luna stirred the tea and looked into the murky water. She was alone in the kitchen, the others outside soaking up the rare warm weather. The tea was nothing but leaves and herbs, nothing she planned on drinking. It was a spell. The magic came from the way she stirred and the intent. She found the spell in her mother's book a long time ago and had no idea she would need to use it. Especially not with Calli. But she kept stirring and kept looking until she found what she was looking for. She smiled a little as Calliope and Rayna walked through the gardens. The images swirled with every stir of her spoon, but she saw it clear as day.

"You're running out of time," she whispered, not knowing why she needed to say them.

Rayna glanced upward as if she could see Luna and gave a subtle nod. Luna blinked in shock and canceled the spell. She dumped the liquid down the sink and prepared a new cup. The part of being a Seer she hated the most was the waiting, the knowing something else was going to happen, and not being able to stop it. The other part was the not knowing, the not being able to predict everything. Calli wasn't supposed to die so soon, so violently. Rookwood and Mulciber altered the course a lot faster than Luna could manipulate it. Because of that, Luna struggled to ignore what she dreamed. Draco had been patient, but she owed him the truth. Dumbledore was only just getting started. Death was coming to those least expected, and his allies would come from the most unlikely of places.

Luna sighed.

They were all running out of time.