Chapter 31: Dream Rune, Part 7: Grey Rocks
Hildegard seethed with anger. Narcissa couldn't really tell if it was directed at Erik or not, and Hildegard seemed similarly unsure. Although it hadn't been explicitly spoken during their fight, there was only one other conclusion to reach if Erik refused to leave. He would have to take the Dark Mark.
Outside of their drawing room, Hildegard wouldn't talk to Erik. She had no choice but to act like things were normal when she and Erik headed to the train platform to collect Dagmar. Dagmar was spooked when she found them. She looked around the platform as if she believed someone might be following her.
"Can we go home?" she asked.
"Ja, of course," Hildegard replied. "Come on."
Erik took Dagmar's trunk and Grim at the apparation point. Dagmar stayed where she stood when she and Hildegard apparated next into the manor house's foyer.
"Did you hear what Dumbledore said about Cedric Diggory?" Dagmar immediately asked. "He said that You-Know-Who killed him. He said that You-Know-Who is back."
"Dumbledore's said a lot of things." Hildegard placed a hand on Dagmar's shoulder. "Remember how Sirius Black could never get into Hogwarts? How he could never escape once they had him cornered? How the Tournament would be safe?"
Dagmar still looked unsure. "Draco thinks he's back. I heard him talking to Crabbe and Goyle about it."
"Just don't worry about it," Erik tried. "You're safe here. Nothing will happen to you."
"Nothing should've happened to Cedric either." Dagmar's brow knitted together in the middle. "I'm not stupid. I know that You-Know-Who likes purebloods. But Cedric was a pureblood too. I have Muggle-born friends, Dad. I'm really worried about them."
"I'm sure you are." Erik squirmed a little, even if Dagmar missed that. "Let's wait and see what the Ministry says, okay? If You-Know-Who's back, they'll do something about it. They have Aurors and other people trained for this. This isn't something you have to worry about. It'll get dealt with."
It was sad to see Dagmar take Erik at his word for that. He'd never had to lie to her before. Erik looked disappointed in himself as he further comforted Dagmar with a hug. It was deeply set in his eyes when he and Hildegard looked at each other.
That made it all the worse when the proverbial shit hit the fan. Hildegard was almost made to jump by how quickly and loudly raised voices cut across the manor house. She left the kitchen and headed toward Erik's office.
"Why would you do that?" Dagmar was screaming at the top of her lungs. "You lied to me. You said he wasn't back, but you joined him! He killed someone from school, and he'll probably kill more—people that I know!"
Erik didn't have an answer for her. He stood behind his desk like a kneazle in wandlight. His gaze darted from Dagmar to Hildegard in the doorway. Dagmar's followed.
"Do you know about this?" she demanded of Hildegard, jabbing a finger at Erik. "He's a Death Eater. He has that mark on his arm."
Hildegard hesitated, just long enough for Dagmar's eyes to widen in realization. She looked back and forth between them. "Did you know he was going to come back? Did you help him do it? Did you help him kill Cedric?"
"Nei," Erik finally gave her an answer. "None of it."
"Then why?" Dagmar's voice went high. "What's wrong with you? Do you really believe this stuff? Or are you just cowards?"
"Dagmar, please calm down—"
"Calm down?" she repeated, halting as her breath hitched. "My friends might die. They might be hurt. And you're supporting it. It's not right. You know what's going to happen to you. You're gonna go to Azkaban. Or you're gonna die. Then what will I do?"
Dagmar's face crumpled. She wept quietly where she stood, although was aware enough of her surroundings to take a step back when Hildegard tried to approach her.
"Don't," Dagmar said. "Just stay away from me."
"You need to listen," Hildegard told her. "I get you're upset and that you don't understand. You can't tell anyone, though. They will put your dad and I in Azkaban. You'll have nowhere to go."
Dagmar's eyes widened. Whether it was true or not, she certainly believed it.
"What would it matter?" Her voice shook. "I don't have a family anymore. Go die for him then, if that's what you really want. I hate you."
She passed by Hildegard, who knew better than to try and get in her way. Dagmar's footsteps carried on to the foyer before going upstairs. Dagmar slammed her bedroom door loudly enough that Hildegard suspected it may have come loose at the hinges.
Hildegard closed the office door. "What did you tell her?"
"Nothing. I just didn't think before rolling up my sleeve. I didn't even think she'd know what it was."
Erik sat back down, his face even longer than Hildegard's. They'd weathered tantrums in past. They'd put up with a lot of yelling, screaming, crying, and slammed doors. This was different. Dagmar had been mean and rude and everything in-between, but she'd never said that she hated them. Given the circumstance, neither Hildegard or Erik looked like they believed Dagmar was just saying that.
"Why did you have to try and scare her like that?" Erik said. "Telling her she'd have nowhere to go. Isn't that a bit too far?"
"She needs to be scared," Hildegard shot back. "We've talked about this fifty different ways with Voldemort. She'll either be weaponized or killed if Dumbledore or the Ministry finds out what's inside of her. She can be as upset as she wants to be, so long as she keeps quiet. We just need to buy some time."
"And drive her away in the meantime?" Erik ran his hands down under his eyes. He looked tired.
"She'll understand someday," Hildegard said. "We'll find Bjorn, and then we can get Voldemort's soul out of her. He'll let me do it. Then I can destroy him."
Erik nodded, gaze long. "It just kills me to see Dagmar like this."
"I know." Hildegard deflated with that. "We have to think about the long-term."
Dagmar was like a ghost in her own home. Hildegard and Erik still weren't sure what she would do. Neither seemed very relieved by the fact she kept to herself. It wasn't just from them she isolated. No owls left Dagmar's room, and neither did she. She tolerated Hildegard and Erik going with her to the train station come the start of term, but barely said goodbye. She didn't write them unless they wrote her first in a manner that required a response. The only holiday she came home for was the summer, when she had no other choice.
Things from there ran fast in Hildegard's memories. For the most part, Narcissa knew the rest. She too had to adjust to having Lucius involved in all this again. Perhaps because Narcissa and Hildegard dealt with something that the other ladies in their tea group didn't, they started to break away on their own. Hildegard had told Narcissa a little bit about her troubles with Dagmar, enough for Narcissa to get the impression Dagmar would not abide by their affiliations with the Dark Lord. The ball started rolling on the arranged marriage change when Narcissa brought it up.
From this perspective, Narcissa realized that it wasn't something to go back on after that. If Lucius said no, knowing what he did, he would've drawn attention from the Dark Lord as to why that was. Did he not trust that the Dark Lord would succeed in his endeavour for eventual ultimate power? Were Hildegard and Erik content now for their daughter to potentially marry a blood traitor? Draco was a good little pureblood. If Hildegard and Erik wanted their daughter to stay close, they ought to give her a little nudge in the right direction. Above all, when the Dark Lord triumphed, a marriage between Draco and Dagmar would symbolize the myriad of families that had helped the Dark Lord achieve that. Malfoy, Black, Ramstad, and Frejasdottir. . .they would become names to remember in the Dark Lord's domain.
Dagmar cooled toward her parents, turning from a ghost to a stranger. The close call with the Ministry raid at Ramstad Manor was the beginning of the end. Hugo and Everett were a massive liability. The other foot fell when Kingsley Shacklebolt visited Ramstad Manor half a year later. Erik's death was quiet and sudden, but the pain of it followed Hildegard to Azkaban. She couldn't stop crying while Shacklebolt tried to make her understand the situation, but Hildegard understood quite clearly. She had failed. She'd gotten the love of her life—her best friend—killed. She'd alienated her daughter. She'd never managed to find Bjorn.
Hildegard's memories turned into a flash of faces. Dumbledore. Dagmar visited her in Azkaban. Potter. Guards. Aurors. Potter again. Shacklebolt and Dumbledore together, telling her that Dagmar was dead. Dementors. The Dark Lord, peering out of Dagmar's face. Lys. Bella. Narcissa, sitting on the edge of Hildegard's bed with a rune on her forehead and two fingers pressed against it—
Narcissa opened her eyes. She blinked rapidly, disoriented as she tried to quickly adjust to being back to herself. Backtracking through what was essentially the last forty years of Hildegard's life had made Narcissa lose her sense of self. She had become an observer, sitting on the outside.
The sniffling beside her was something real that Narcissa could react to. Hildegard's face was wet.
"I'm sorry," Hildegard told Narcissa as she wiped raw cheeks. "I didn't intend to put so much emphasis on Erik. It probably didn't really help explain too much, but it was so lovely to see him again."
"It was."
Narcissa shifted closer on the bed and pulled Hildegard into a hug. That she melted so quickly into it showed just how badly she needed one. Her body wracked a few times when Narcissa stroked her hair.
Hildegard's head was heavy on Narcissa's shoulder when the tears tapered off. Narcissa lapsed into thought about something she'd seen toward the end. "You said you were going to destroy him."
Hildegard stiffened a little.
"You have a plan, then?"
Hesitantly, Hildegard nodded. "He won't survive it. Just because I take his soul out of Dagmar's body doesn't necessarily mean it has to go into Bjorn's. If I can just get that far, I can shatter him."
Narcissa nodded. "Okay."
Dredging up so much, not to mention the weight of the memories, left Hildegard tired. Narcissa stayed with her for a little longer before Hildegard decided to call it an early night. For as much as Narcissa had seen, it had only actually eaten up about an hour of real time. She headed for her own room, thinking about a bath. Some dirt remained on her forehead from when Hildegard had dispelled the rune.
A yearning tugged at Narcissa's heart as she occupied the quiet bathroom. Things used to be so much simpler. To see Erik again so vividly and to hear his voice made it almost hard to believe how things wound up. How had they all gone from sipping wine on the terrace of Malfoy Manor to indentured servitude? Had it reached a point where that carefreeness was hopeless to dream for? It didn't sound like the Dark Lord would prevail in the end, if reaching his goal would actually be what triggered his downfall. The kids might be okay, but would the parents? Would there be forgiveness in the eye of the law for those that worked against him on the inside?
Narcissa had to believe that there would be. She couldn't allow herself to feel doubt, no matter what she'd seen from things like Draco spending a month in Azkaban. Maybe Narcissa would just have to do the same before things could be all right.
That wasn't really what she wanted to think about as she tried to fall asleep. Narcissa had things she needed to do now if she wanted her future to be worth anything at all. It was with new motivation when she got up in the morning that she headed for the kitchen to start breakfast.
Hildegard came in as Narcissa was just getting things ready to put on. The two of them had fallen into an easy flow in meal preparation, and it seemed even better this morning with new understanding between them. Narcissa made a point to place a hand on Hildegard's back if they came close enough for it. Her maternal instincts didn't much care that Hildegard was centuries her senior. It wasn't age that correlated with wisdom, but experience. Hildegard didn't have that, however old she was. She'd shielded herself away from the world instead. On this side of all the mistakes she'd made, it very clearly showed.
Other people started to file into the dining room to visit over tea and wait for breakfast. It was a Monday morning now, which perhaps subconsciously fed into the collective mind that work ought to begin again. Narcissa was glad to have something to do in order to exercise that feeling. Bella especially seemed restless, considering she kept coming into the kitchen for no specific reason. She was pacing.
The energy in the dining room changed when the Dark Lord joined everyone. Narcissa and Hildegard shared a glance about it, but no more before returning to their prior focus. A chorus of thanks came up when Narcissa and Hildegard started levitating massive platters of sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, mushrooms, and tomatoes onto the table. There was a collective tongue-in-cheek groan from everyone that had ever served time in Azkaban over the pot of beans. Those ones chose to drink coffee over tea, as well.
While Narcissa ate, she couldn't really help her glance travelling intermittently over to Lucius. He just listened while everyone else chatted around him, focused in a distracted way on his breakfast. He'd cleaned up at some point over the weekend. He'd shaved, and his hair shone again after being cleared of grime. Its length had fallen victim to clumps, although not as severely as Hildegard's since his was finer. Lucius had been able to salvage enough that it could still be pulled back. Narcissa realized anew how nice his eyes were, even if Azkaban still weighed them down.
A jolt like panic hit Narcissa when Lucius raised his gaze while she was looking at him. She dropped hers back to her plate. The feeling remained that she was being watched. When Narcissa looked again, sure enough, Lucius was studying her. Narcissa did the same right back. She was curious where exactly Lucius' mind was about everything. He'd come to her right away after the breakout. Was he still just as eager to settle things between them, knowing now what he did? Narcissa figured she could be open to discuss things anew after everything Hildegard had shown her. What a shame it would be to not get that chance now because she'd cocked up.
With that feeling came guilt. Narcissa wanted to prove Wes wrong about how he saw things going, but maybe she couldn't. Would Wes even want her if it was Lucius that put the final nail in the coffin for their marriage? Wes would be completely right to feel that he was Narcissa's second choice. Narcissa cared enough about Wes to not do that to him. He was worth being someone's first pick. Narcissa wasn't in a position to give him that.
She would just have to see how things played out. It made Narcissa feel tired all over again as she prepared for the meeting called by the Dark Lord. She took a seat between Hildegard and Alecto in the library.
"We could open this meeting with an update on our location," the Dark Lord said once everyone settled. He stood so that he could reach the stone he was using to mark their progress. "If my math serves right, we ought to currently be west of Nantes. We're far enough away from Britain now that I'm comfortable we have no concerns about being happened upon. We're certainly far enough from land to not be visible from the French shoreline.
"We'll still keep an eye on the skies, just in case." The Dark Lord resumed his seat. He looked around at everyone, a slow smile creeping up. "I have to say, I'm enjoying having you all here again. We've sat meals together this weekend, but this is different. Welcome back."
Narcissa looked around the table as well. Rod grinned in response. Malcolm and Walden looked well-rested and eager. Hildegard and Lucius didn't really react at all.
"For the most part, I believe everyone here knows what's currently happening," the Dark Lord continued. "We can discuss that more fully over the next ten days or so. I'm mostly interested today in finding out what exactly the opposition knows. Rodolphus, you mentioned a few days ago that visitors came through Azkaban?"
"Not for me, personally." Rod sat with his arms folded on the table. "Hildegard and I were close enough together that whoever visited her had to pass my cell."
"You had a few, then?" The Dark Lord turned his attention to Hildegard.
She nodded. "Plenty of Aurors trying to get information out of me. Dumbledore, a few times. Dagmar came once. Harry Potter, maybe about a handful of times. He was training to be an Auror. Er, I suppose you're well aware of that."
"Mhm." The Dark Lord's amused tone pulled some chuckles around the table. "Before we get into that, let's go back a little bit first. What exactly happened, the night you were arrested? What prompted Erik to summon me? The Auror office came down again on the two of you, did they?"
"When Kingsley and his team showed up, he said that they were just following up from the summer raid." Hildegard started quietly, then cleared her throat before continuing. "Kingsley took tea with Erik and I while the rest cleared the house. At the end of it, he asked to see Erik's left forearm. He wouldn't get off of it.
"He said he already knew Erik was marked, so it didn't even matter if Erik showed him. Hugo and Everett turned on us. They had told Kingsley about Magnus."
For something so serious, the Dark Lord didn't look overly concerned. "Did he tell you what Hugo and Everett told him?"
"It wasn't a lot. Just enough." Hildegard tucked some loose hair back behind her ear. "I wasn't asked about Bjorn until quite a while later. But we'd never told Hugo and Everett about him, did we?"
"Not specifically. I just asked for any travel companions to be brought back with Norheim if they managed to get their hands on him."
"Kingsley said they knew Magnus had taken something of significant value from you. I eventually had to go with the locket story."
"Did Shacklebolt know anything else on the night of your arrest?"
Hildegard hummed. "I don't think so. Was there really anything more than that Hugo and Everett were aware of?"
"I suppose not." The Dark Lord leaned back in his seat and rubbed his chin. "They kept on asking you things in Azkaban?"
"Just poking and prodding for information, ja. They didn't ask about anything specific beyond how Magnus was involved and what he had stolen. They tried to make deals with me and all that. I eventually went along with one, with Potter. He'd found out about Bjorn and that I was a druid, so I figured it was best to lead him astray."
"That's what the locket story was used for?" The Dark Lord turned his attention to Lucius. "Did you get the same sort of visits?"
"To some degree." Lucius sat up a little straighter. "Dumbledore and Shacklebolt, certainly. Draco came once."
"Potter?"
"Also once." Some sort of life came back to Lucius—amusement in his eyes. "He said that he was out there to visit Hildegard, but she wouldn't give anything up. In the interest of making a deal, he asked if I wanted to talk first about whatever Hildegard had made with you. But how did he know you two had necessarily made anything if Hildegard hadn't told him about the locket?"
Bella was the first one to snort among the table. Narcissa smiled more for the reminder of how sharp a man Lucius was with things like that. It was good to see he hadn't lost that spark.
"So you confirmed it?" The Dark Lord grinned in similar amusement.
"Not then." Lucius gave a short wave of the hand. "I didn't want to look too eager about corroborating. Potter's smart enough, he might have seen it as suspicious. I waited a while. Pretended to think about whether or not I wanted a deal."
"Nice touch," the Dark Lord commented. "Was there anything of substance to Draco's visit?"
"I had a feeling he was being shadowed, probably by either Potter or Dumbledore." Lucius met Narcissa's gaze briefly. She resisted the urge to look away. "The guard left us alone, probably to try and make it look like we wouldn't be overheard. Draco told me he had no choice but to turn to Dumbledore after I was arrested. If Draco had to go along with whatever they wanted to stay out of trouble, I don't know that our conversation could really be called genuine."
"What did you talk about?"
"Narcissa." Lucius looked at her again. "I had to be really careful about what I said. I told him that Bella probably got to her before the Ministry could. I had to say it in a way that he knew Narcissa was fine, but that whoever was listening would hear it as that Narcissa likely didn't choose it for herself. I didn't want her in trouble, nor for Draco to worry."
"I'm assuming that if someone was listening in, they had other things they wanted Draco to ask you?"
"He asked me about Norheim." Lucius folded his fingers together on the tabletop. "It didn't sound like he knew anymore at the time than Shacklebolt did when he talked to Erik and Hildegard."
"What did Draco ask, specifically?"
"Who he was and what he stole." Lucius shrugged. "I warned him as best I could with an eavesdropper that he shouldn't pursue that. I tried to sow some doubt in whoever was listening that Draco might not be a good tool for them to use. I didn't hear anything about Draco after that. As far as I know, they realized that Draco wasn't impartial enough to fully act on their behalf."
"Potter mentioned him to me once in a while," Hildegard contributed. "I'm not sure if they were in some sort of contact, but Potter had a good idea of things going on in his and Dagmar's life. He told me when they'd gotten engaged and what they were doing for work. Things like that. He knew that Dagmar and Draco had been arranged. He was curious why."
"Sounds like you two got a little cozy," the Dark Lord commented, amused again.
Hildegard shrugged with a small smile. "It was easier than antagonizing him. He believed everything I told him, as far as I know. He might have wised up after everything happened in Bergen. He visited me one more time after that. I forgot to mention he also knew about Chelone, but only as an island. He said that I needed to think really hard on where she was because he figured Bella and whoever else was hiding here."
"How did he know about it?" the Dark Lord asked.
"He must have talked to someone from Trondheim," Hildegard said. "He called her Fantomøy. That's what the locals called her there. My best guess is probably Magnus' sister, or possibly he tracked down some of his old mates. That's how Potter found out about Bjorn too. Whoever Potter talked to told him that I had two children."
"And what did you tell Potter about Bjorn?"
"That Magnus had killed him on accident."
"He believed it?"
"I couldn't tell you anything to the contrary." Hildegard toyed with her fingers. "Every time Bjorn came up after that, Potter was running off the assumption that he was dead. If we talked about what you were looking for abroad, we discussed the locket."
The Dark Lord nodded mindlessly, his eyes slightly narrowed in thought as he digested all that.
"Potter found out I was immortal too," Hildegard added, pulling a little more into herself because of the looks she realized she was getting around the table. Narcissa hadn't really thought about how privileged she was to already know all this. To everyone but Bella, Rod, and Lucius, things like Bjorn and Hildegard's role in everything was brand new information. "He seemed to assume I was a lich, so I just went with that."
"How did he find that out?" the Dark Lord asked.
"Dagmar visited the druid city in Scandinavia. A member of my old clan had actually survived and was living there."
"They told Dagmar you were a lich?" One of the Dark Lord's eyebrows rose.
Hildegard shook her head. "She must have just told Dagmar that we went back a long time. Potter based his assumption about me being a lich on the locket, I think. Takes one to make one, you know?"
"I see." The Dark Lord paused. "You said Potter came again after everything happened in Bergen? What about that situation was he aware of?"
"He knew there was a connection between you and Dagmar. He knew I'd been treating you for the burns you got from Dagmar before I was arrested, and he told me that she had been treating you at her and Draco's home. There was a witness when Bella took her to Paris."
"I'm well aware." The Dark Lord waved it off while Hildegard's gaze at Bella across the table turned into a glare. Bella didn't look bothered. "What else?"
"That's it. He just told me what had happened."
"What Potter told you was what Bella told Dagmar to explain why we were at their home," the Dark Lord replied. "I assume Potter got it from Draco through Dumbledore. Quite the little game of wizard whispers."
The jest earned a titter through the room, although Narcissa grew nervous. She looked over at Lucius, who was looking right back at her. Lucius cleared his throat when everyone's amusement subsided. "My Lord."
"Yes?"
"About Draco divulging that—"
"Not to worry." The Dark Lord raised his hand again. "I already knew he did. If that information hadn't somehow reached the Ministry, they wouldn't have declared me dead."
"It's not the information itself that concerns me," Lucius replied. "It's that he talked at all. Does it displease you?"
"You're asking if I would punish him for it?" the Dark Lord asked, to which Lucius nodded. "No. I curated the information I gave to Draco and Dagmar so that it wouldn't compromise our operations if it fell into the wrong hands. Things didn't go as expected, but it worked out in our favour anyway. He believes I am dead."
"That's irrelevant, with all due respect, because you aren't dead."
"Fair," the Dark Lord conceded. "He's doing like you did, when I disappeared in '81: blending in. Draco was passive to me when I needed something from him. Our goals don't hinge on him, so it's not as if I need Draco to directly serve me as all of you do. He'll be fine to fall in line once the war is over, especially since he has much to gain from our success. His family is all here, including his fiancée."
Lucius' brow unknit itself at that. "She's still alive, then?"
"Signs seem to point that way." The Dark Lord indicated Hildegard and Narcissa with an upward nod in their direction. "Narcissa noticed prior to your arrival that I occasionally lose control of my body. I lose time. Hildegard was able to confirm that Dagmar's soul is still in here. If it's fully intact, I see no reason at this time she won't be able to carry on as normal once I'm in a body of my own again."
"Okay." Lucius paused. "I hope so."
"So do we all who have a personal stake in the matter." The Dark Lord's gaze met Narcissa's again before returning to Lucius. "Did you have discussions like Hildegard with Potter?"
"No," Lucius said. "He only came by the one time, and all we discussed was the deal he was trying to offer."
"All right." The Dark Lord bowed his head, fingers curled against his mouth. "I'll need time to think about everything they learned from the two of you, to see how it all fits in to the bigger picture. I'd like a gauge on how close to the truth they are, and if they have any avenues to reach any compromising conclusions. Was there anything else we needed to discuss?"
Thorfinn raised a finger to get the Dark Lord's attention. "You spoke a lot about this Bjorn. I also haven't heard an explanation yet as to how you wound up in Hildegard's daughter's body. Would it be beyond me to ask for one, just to clarify the situation?"
"I could," the Dark Lord agreed. "I should, really. Unless there's something else pressing to address first?"
Bella spoke up. "What about Shacklebolt?"
"Oh, right." The Dark Lord smiled at Bella in that way the two of them had while giggling over their plans for Azkaban and the Ministry. "He's so quiet, it's easy to forget he's here."
Another titter went around the table.
"I know where your mind's gone about him, for sure." The Dark Lord spoke to Rod as much as he did Bella, for Narcissa too could see the hunger in their cold eyes. "I have a better idea than risking him going the way of the Longbottoms. Shacklebolt is no ordinary wizard. He's able and proud. He'll never tell you anything under duress. I think it would be more interesting to do a little experiment."
"Like what, my Lord?" Although Bella looked disappointed that she wouldn't get a crack at Shacklebolt, there was still some hope there.
"Let's see if we can't turn him. He's already been treated much better here than the Ministry treats their own prisoners, yeah?"
"Way better," Rod agreed. "Warm bed, his own bathroom, regular meals that are actually good. . ."
"We'll keep on with that," the Dark Lord said. "For now, the only person I want near him is Narcissa."
Narcissa's stomach flopped as everyone looked at her. "Why me?"
"You have a way of making people open up to you. See if you can't draw some blood out of that stubborn rock."
From there, the meeting turned more into things that Narcissa already knew. She had thoughts of slipping out and doing something else, but it didn't seem proper. Instead, she started thinking about how exactly she of all people was expected to crack someone like Kingsley Shacklebolt. It hadn't worked so far when she took meals up to him. Her bids for a good morning or afternoon got nothing in return. Even if Shacklebolt looked well and was indeed taken care of, it still bothered Narcissa to see him in captivity. It wasn't right, and she had no idea what the outcome would be.
The Dark Lord ended the meeting once everyone's questions dried up. Lunch was coming up quickly enough, so Narcissa headed for the kitchen to start shredding the chickens she'd baked ahead of time yesterday. She and Hildegard finished a little sooner than expected, so Narcissa put together a sandwich with some leftover beans on the side.
"I'll be right back," she told Hildegard.
Narcissa didn't have any sort of plan yet about how to approach Shacklebolt, but she figured for now that was probably all right. The Dark Lord likely based her ability to squeeze information on the conversation they'd had while she helped him put his runes on. Considering the nature of it, Narcissa doubted the Dark Lord had intended to share any of that. He was clearly uncomfortable with things like his youth and origins. And yet, he'd talked openly about them with little prompting from her.
For the sake of being polite, Narcissa knocked on Shacklebolt's door before heading in. At some point over the weekend, Shacklebolt had put enough of a dent in whatever sleep debt he owed to become bored of laying supine under the covers. He sat up against the wall by the window.
"Afternoon," Narcissa greeted him while closing the door behind her. "I have lunch for you."
Shacklebolt looked back out the window. Narcissa headed over to the slot at the bottom of the bars. Shacklebolt had set his cleared breakfast ware on the outside.
Narcissa lingered after picking it up. "If you're bored, I could bring you something to read."
"Okay."
"Do you want some fresh clothes?"
"Okay."
Although Shacklebolt replied, his gaze remained steadfast on what Narcissa guessed was the tree line. She wasn't sure what else Shacklebolt could see from here.
Narcissa hesitated, then lowered her voice. "We just had a meeting downstairs. If it's any consolation, the Dark Lord doesn't intend to harm you. He wants me to talk to you, to see what I could get. He mentioned something about turning you."
Shacklebolt exhaled like a spurt through his nose. His cheeks tightened against a humoured smile, but it showed in his eyes.
"I'm not really going to try," Narcissa continued. "You have allies under this roof. You know I'm not here by choice either, right?"
Shacklebolt shrugged.
"Neither is Wes." Narcissa leaned her shoulder against the bars. "Did Dumbledore get his letter?"
"Yes."
"Corban Yaxley beat the Ministry to him after it looked like the Dark Lord was killed. The Dark Lord also took him off doing supply runs since he was Wanted. Otherwise, he would've shown you where the island was."
Shacklebolt pursed his lips. Although he was trying to remain tight-lipped, Narcissa could see that he was tempted by all that information to respond.
Narcissa dropped her voice to a whisper. "Hildegard has a plan. She has ever since the Dark Lord first came back. The Dark Lord won't survive it, but he hasn't realized that yet. He trusts her."
"Okay."
"You aren't curious about anything? You don't want to know what the Dark Lord is looking for? Or how he survived Potter's Killing Curse?"
"Figure I caught on with how he survived," Shacklebolt replied. "That wasn't a ghost of Dagmar I saw in Azkaban."
"No." Narcissa quietly sighed. "You were looking for a locket?"
Shacklebolt shrugged.
"It's not real. Hildegard and Lucius had it ready as a story in case anyone got too close to the truth," Narcissa told him. "Bjorn is alive. The Dark Lord thinks Magnus abandoned him somewhere in the Balkans. We're on our way there now to try and find him."
"Okay."
Narcissa readjusted Shacklebolt's plate to get a better grip on his cutlery. "Thought you'd like to know. If you have any questions, I'll answer them best I can."
"Okay."
"Did you see Draco after his trial?" Narcissa asked. "Is he all right?"
Shacklebolt shook his head. "He's crushed about Dagmar."
Some weight came up behind Narcissa's heart. "It's more likely than not Dagmar is still alive."
"Okay."
"I'll bring you some books and fresh clothes, then."
"Okay."