Chapter Three: Their Last Night
March 1998
Fred and George were suddenly, violently awoken as their bedroom door nearly blasted off its hinges. George sat up from his bed and aimed his wand at the door. A sobbing, blonde haired mass in black robes swept into the room. Fred, instantly recognizing her stood and walked towards Jen, taking her in his arms.
"What's going on? What happened? Who's died?" George demanded rapid-fire questions.
Fred sent a reproachful look towards his brother over Jen's head which George returned with an incredulous wide-eyed stare. The twins continued to share a silent conversation.
Jen took a steadying breath and twisted out of Fred's arms and went to sit on the end of his bed. George pointed his wand to the lamps in the room and illuminated them. She dropped her head into her hands and spoke in an emotionless monotone. "I just had to tell Tonk's that her father is dead. Fucking Fenrir Greyback visited the Manor last night and we shared a drink. I was hoping I could hear about what he's been doing with the Snatchers that he follows around like a fucking pathetic dog, but instead he laid that one on me, telling me in vivid detail how he tortured Ted, stripped the skin off of his body, strung the carcass up among the trees. . . " she trailed off giving a shuddering breath. "That fucking mongrel was bragging about it, laughing about it—" She took another steadying breath. "I knew Ted, I spoke with him, stayed with him, laughed with him. Then I had to sit there and laugh at his death so that Greyback didn't tell someone I didn't find what he did funny. Andromeda and Tonks just stared at me. I couldn't even tell them where his body was, just that Greyback ripped him into pieces and scattered the parts over some random woods up north. I got away the moment I could so I could tell them, but I've never felt so fucking useless in my life as I sat there telling them what I knew," Jen finished angrily. She reached for the prototype of a defensive Wildfire Whiz Bang sitting on the trunk at the foot of Fred's bed and threw it angrily against the wall.
A loud explosion reverberated through the house and fire engulfed the wall but did not spread beyond where the Whiz Bang had hit.
A very small part of Fred was happy to see that the Whiz Bang did exactly what he had designed it to do. In the next moment, Ginny flew into the room, her red hair flaring out behind her pajamas and her wand raised.
"What happened?" Ginny demanded breathlessly.
"Where's mum and dad?" George asked Jen ignoring his sister as he pointed his wand at the flaming wall and put out the fire with a stream of water. The wall was charred, but largely undamaged.
Jen gave a sardonic, crazed laugh. "I was sent to fetch your mom after I delivered my news. Tonks couldn't calm down no matter what Andromeda or Remus said. They're worried about the baby, they don't want her to go into labor. Your dad took your mom to help," Jen spat out in one rapid breath. "Apparently letting them know their husband and father had died wasn't enough. I had to try to kill the mother and baby too," Jen's laugh became hysterical. She reached for another Whiz Bang to throw.
"Let's not," Fred said as he took it from her hand. He moved to kneel in front of Jen and placed both of his hands on her legs.
"Ted Tonks is dead?" Ginny confirmed quietly. George nodded at her.
Ginny moved fully into the room and sat next to Jen on her brother's bed. She put her hand on Jen's shoulder. "Take some deep breaths," Ginny directed. Like a small child, Jen followed her instructions as Fred traced soothing circles on her thighs with his thumbs. George conjured a glass and filled it with water, walking it over to Jen who took it with shaky hands. She took a big gulp and then placed the cold glass against her forehead.
"I'll never forget the way that Tonks looked at me when I told her. I caused her so much pain."
"You did not," Ginny said angrily, blinking back her own tears. "You gave them closure. You're not the one who killed Ted."
"Let's go put a kettle on," George said, placing a hand on Ginny's shoulder. For a moment, Ginny looked as if she wanted to refuse. She shared a look with George and stood to follow him. He closed the door behind them.
"Do you feel calmer?" Fred asked after a moment once Jen's breath steadied into a less hysterical rhythm.
"Her face. . ." Jen whimpered, trailing off.
"I can imagine," Fred soothed.
Jen looked up at him. "You have no clothes on," she stated.
Fred was wearing just his pants. He reached past Jen and grabbed his tee shirt that hung from the bedpost and pushed his head through the neckhole.
"I wasn't complaining," she said as he extended his arms through the shirt.
Fred raised an eyebrow and looked at her. Then he rose to sit next to her on his own bed, allowing several inches of distance between them.
She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, that's not—that was completely inappropriate. . . I don't know what I'm saying."
Fred cut her off. "How long have you been awake?"
Jen studied her hands. "Snape arrived on Friday and hasn't left. So. . . I haven't slept for more than an hour since then."
Fred took her hands gently. "You've been up for three days, you need to rest."
Jen shook her head. "You didn't hear Greyback. I could imagine everything he did to Ted, he kept him alive as long as possible, maximized his suffering. Someone like him shouldn't be allowed to walk this earth after what he did. I should have killed him right there, blown my cover. Tonks deserves vengeance."
"You weren't in a place where you could give it," Fred said quietly as he reached for her hands.
"I could've tried," Jen argued.
"No, you couldn't have. They would have killed you the moment you did. You did the only thing you could do, you got out of there and told those that needed to know what happened."
Jen stood suddenly and shook his hands away. "And it wasn't fucking enough, what I could do," she hissed. " I didn't help anyone. I hurt people tonight. The only thing I'm good for is telling the Order things after they've already happened. I'm not protecting anyone, I'm not helping anyone." She paced, searching the room for something else she could throw.
Fred stood in front of her and blocked her path. "Calm down," he ordered.
She pushed past him and continued to pace.
"Jen, stop," Fred said more forcefully. She continued to ignore him until he stood in front of her and placed a hand on either side of her head, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were wide, shocked, and unable to focus. "Jen—" he started trying his best to use a soothing tone.
She leaned forward, wrapping her hand around the back of his head and kissed him, hungrily.
He pulled back. "Jesus Christ, Jen," he said, removing his hands from her face and taking a step back.
"I need to be reminded of who I am," she said purposefully. "I need to do something."
"I. . . no—you're exhausted, you're upset," Fred protested.
"I'm well aware of what I am," Jen said as she angrily shrugged out of her robe. She reached for the hem of her tee shirt and ripped it off of her body.
"You're not in your right state of mind," Fred protested again lamely as he watched her unbutton her jeans and wriggle them down over her hips. She sat on his bed and began to untie her boots. "Will you stop taking your clothes off and listen to me!"
"Are you seriously going to make me ask again?" Jen told him as she rolled her socks off her feet. She stood and walked towards him, now only in her underwear. "I need to feel like me again, I need to do something that doesn't hurt another person. Don't make me beg."
"Fine, fuck it," he said as he pushed her towards the bed. She leaned back and he climbed atop of her, reaching towards the night table for his wand. He pointed it to the door and quickly whispered a series of privacy charms under his breath as she made quick work of her bra and underwear and started warring with the elastic of his shorts. He placed his wand back on the table and then kicked out his shorts. He trailed his fingers along the sides of her stomach, her breasts and then he pushed her arms above her head as he moved to suck at the hollow of her neck.
"No, don't touch it," Jen hissed.
"Excuse me," Fred said as he sat back on his heels. He blinked at her. The sheer surface area of her body that he had touched left him confused as to what she could possibly be referring to.
"You know," she mumbled as she pulled her left arm out of the pillowcase that her hands had been tangled in above her head.
"Oh, right," he leaned down to the pile of clothes next to the bed and fumbled until he felt soft fabric. He rose back up and showed her the tee shirt. "Here, we'll wrap this around it," he said. She extended her arm towards him and he bundled the tee shirt around the Dark Mark, careful not to touch her skin. He instructed her to ball her hand into a fist as he wrapped the tee shirt around her fingers and ten tucked the hem into her fist so it would not budge.
When he was done, Jen held her arm out in front of her and they both looked at it then erupted in laughter.
"It looks ridiculous," Jen said, trying to catch her breath.
"Hey, I made do with very few resources," he shrugged.
"It looks like a beater's bat," Jen mused.
"I can try again," Fred said.
Jen pulled it back. "I'm okay with it, as long as you put some effort forth to make up for my lack of available fingers. I'm left handed you know," she thought aloud as she placed her useless hand back on the pillow above her head.
Fred laughed loudly. "Challenge accepted," he said gruffly as he lowered his face back to her neck.
"So here's the deal," George said as he entered the bedroom in the morning, his hand firmly placed across his eyes. "You two have roughly five minutes until mum cottons on. Ginny already told her that Jen spent the night in her room because she didn't want to be alone, and Gin did a fine job of setting up that camp bed in her room to make it look like Jen was sleeping there. Also, at some point, I'd love to have access to my own wardrobe."
"You know, there's such a thing as a summoning charm, right," Fred grumbled as he stirred awake. He could still feel Jen's deep breathing against his chest. He was glad George had not woken her up.
"Yeah, I'm sure mum will be completely oblivious if my pants start flying across the kitchen," George said.
"Piss off," Fred mumbled to his brother.
"Five minutes," George warned as he closed the door.
Fred sighed and started rubbing gentle circles on Jen's back. He whispered to her. "Hey, you have to wake up."
He could feel the feather-light movement of eyelashes gently blinking against the skin on his chest. She rolled away from him and blinked, slowly recognizing where she was in the morning light.
She suddenly sat up straight, pushing herself up by pressing a hand into Fred's ribcage in a way that made him wince. "Tonks," she whispered. "Where are my fucking clothes?" She began rapidly unwinding the tee shirt from around her arm. She held it out in front of her and then pulled it over her rumpled hair. Fred sat up and reached over the edge of his bed and passed her jeans to her. She began wriggling the denim over her hips as quickly as she could. Fred had found her socks and went to pass them to her, but she had already run out the door. "Thanks," she called over her shoulder to him.
"Tonks is fine, the baby is fine," Fred heard Molly reassuring Jen as he followed her down the steps. Jen released a breath. "You did the right thing, dear," Molly assured Jen as she patted her shoulder. "She'll stay on the bedrest for a few weeks until the baby comes, but she's okay." Molly placed a plate in front of her. Jen swept her hair out of her face and twisted it into a bun on the top of her head. She began shoving food into her mouth hungrily. "I should get going, head back to the Manor," Jen said as she washed down her breakfast with a big gulp of pumpkin juice. "I left in a hurry last night without an explanation."
Fred sat down next to Jen at the table. He bumped her leg to get her attention as he passed her shoes, socks, robe and underwear to her under the table. She pushed herself away from the table so she could lace up her shoes. Fred thought she was being a bit obvious in front of his mum, but he did not say anything. Fred gratefully took the plate his mother offered him and tucked in as an owl soared through the window. Fred took the rolled parchment from the owl's extended leg and quickly read through the heavily coded letter.
"I'm heading to Tonks's," he stated as he ate faster. "Remus still wants to do the Potterwatch broadcast, but he doesn't want to leave Tonks alone." Fred stood and grabbed the piece of toast from his plate and placed it in his mouth. He grabbed a robe from one of the pegs by the kitchen door and then shoved an assortment of defensive objects in his pockets.
"I'll follow you out," Jen said as she stood. Her black robe and underwear were still rolled up in a crumpled ball under her arm. She joined Fred at the door and reached for his hand and gave it a familiar squeeze. "So, I'll see you in two weeks," she said as she pulled her wand from the black bundle under her arms and cast a disillusionment charm over herself.
"I'll pencil you in," Fred said. "You first," he indicated as he opened the door. He watched the slight disturbance she created in the air as she stepped out and made her way to the property boundary so she could apparate. He followed her path and then apparated to Tonks's.
Jen followed Bellatrix through the door into the main sitting room, then she froze in her tracks. Greyback with some of his slovenly snatcher friends stood in the middle of the room, a clump of prisoners behind him as he spoke with Lucius Malfoy. Jen hardly paid attention to the prisoners as anger flooded her senses at the sight of Greyback. If she could only somehow get him alone, kill him, and then toss the body before anyone else. . .
Bellatrix spoke next to her. "But surely," she said quietly, "this is the Mudblood girl? This is Granger?"
Jen gasped. She noticed Draco looked at her, turning away from the prisoners. She was quick enough to plaster a gleeful smile on her face as she studied the prisoners.
Now she saw it, the shock of familiar, bright-red hair. She realized, with horror, that she had seen that boy before. She's seen his photograph plastered all over the Burrow, and she recognized the shape of his blue eyes as he stared with horror at Bellatrix.
Absently, she registered Bella's shriek. Something had set her off again; it was hard to keep up with her moods. Without thinking too much about what she was doing, Jen spun on her heels and left the room, exiting through the same door she had just come through with Bellatrix.
She headed for the library. Once inside, she closed the door and locked it quickly behind her. It was not a strong locking spell and she did not bother with hominum revelo as she moved near the window. She paused before casting a patronus. How many should she do? She thought to herself. She knew Fred was in a safe house, Arthur was probably at the Ministry, Kingsley and McGonagall could be anywhere. She decided to go with one. Once she got the first out, she would feel more calm and could think about who else she could tell.
She cast her patronus and breathed quickly, focusing all her energy on her happy thought as the black bear took form.
Dolohov entered the room through one of the secret doors in the bookshelves. She saw him out of the corner of her eye, but she kept her wand trained on the black bear, praying that Dolohov's confusion would buy her a few seconds. She did not even entertain the idea of abandoning her patronus and putting up a defensive spell.
She whispered rapidly to her fully corporeal bear. "Harry, Hermione and Ron have been captured. They're at Malfoy Manor, send hel—"
She underestimated Dolohov. "Expelliarmus!" he roared. She watched in horror as her black bear dissolved into a shapeless white mist. She had failed.
"No!" she screamed. The gravity of her failure hit her full force, and she started to run at Dolohov. He hit her with a full-body-bind curse to which she was completely vulnerable without her wand. As her body fell stiff to the ground, she hit her head and slipped into unconsciousness.
As Jen awoke, all she felt was pain, a burning sensation in every single cell of her body.
"Ah, there she is," hissed Bellatrix. "Welcome back to the land of the living," Bellatrix continued. Jen had never heard Bellatrix speak to her in this way. Jen wanted the screaming to stop so she could figure out where she was and what had happened. With a jolt of recognition, she realized it was she who was screaming. She tried desperately to focus on anything other than the pain in her body.
"So, who were you contacting?" Bellatrix hissed as she lowered her wand.
Jen blinked up at her, trying to place what had happened. As the pain from Bellatrix's cruciatus curse was replaced with the dull ache of her head, it all flooded back.
Jen tried to rapidly piece everything together. She was still in the library, they had not bothered to move her to the sitting room or the dungeon. Did that mean they were trying to keep her away from the other prisoners?
No, that did not fit. Jen studied Bellatrix. She was angry. If they had captured Potter, if they had killed him, she would be over the moon. Something was wrong.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix roared. "I asked you a question, girly."
"Stop! How do you expect her to answer!" Narcissa ordered her sister.
Shocked at her sister's outburst, Bellatrix lowered her wand.
"Do you have any idea the danger we're in if we let a spy into this house?" Bellatrix hissed at her sister.
"We just let Potter and his friends escape," Lucius mumbled in a defeated voice. "I'd say danger is a relative term at this point."
Jen kept her eyes slammed shut. Potter was safe—although the Order was not safe for long if Bellatrix tortured her and then called the Dark Lord here. They would beat her down until everything she knew came pouring out of her. There was only one option, only one thing she could do.
"The Order of the Phoenix," she said hoarsely. When was the last time she had spoken.
The other Death Eaters had not heard her, instead they had continued arguing amongst themselves.
"She said something," Draco mumbled to his father.
Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Lucius stopped arguing at once.
Jen cleared her throat. She tried to move, but she found that there were thick ropes tied around her body tightly.
"I was contacting the Order of the Phoenix," she said loudly.
"I knew it," Bellatrix hissed. "Crucio!" Jen took a deep breath before the spell hit her. But, perhaps it was her determination in the face of how she knew this needed to end, but she felt like the cruciatus curse did not stick as long as the last one had.
"Stop!" Narcissa ordered her sister again. "Why were you contacting the Order of the Phoenix?" Narcissa asked in a trembling voice as the effects of the cruciatus curse left Jen's body.
"Because they sent me here," Jen spat. She studied Narcissa's face as she spoke. She did not see what she needed to see there, she knew Narcissa would not fall for it. So Jen turned towards Bellatrix who had gone to raise her wand again, but Lucius had caught her wrist and held her arm down.
"They sent me here for you," Jen spoke directly to Bellatrix. Jen laughed at the older woman's face. "They knew how vulnerable you'd be, how easy it would be to convince you to take me in."
Anger flitted across Bellatrix's dark features. Jen chose her next words carefully. Anger would not be enough, she needed to make Bellatrix hurt.
"They knew that I'd have an effect on you," Jen spat, speaking only to one person in the room. "There I was, a girl alone in the world, just old enough to be your daughter. I was someone who was willing to learn, someone you could take under your wing. I could become a Death Eater and then recruit others, and for each recruit I brought in you could tell the Dark Lord how you had trained me to grow his ranks."
Bellatrix's eyes were growing darker. Jen almost had her.
"Because, you see, the whole Order knows that you can't do what you truly want to do for him, for your Dark Lord. We know you're desperate not to feel like a failure," she snarled.
"How dare you!" Bellatrix screamed. Jen smiled. She had her, she found that raw exposed nerve, and she knew she could push Bellatrix right off that edge.
"You were so vulnerable to me because you've failed to do the one thing you were told to do, haven't you Bella: you've never been able to make a pure-blood and carry on the line."
"Shut up! Crucio!" Bellatrix screamed. But Jen welcomed the pain this time, and she knew Bellatrix wouldn't be able to hold the spell for long.
"Sure, you're an amazing witch," Jen said evenly as the pain fell away. "You've gained favor unlike anyone else with the Dark Lord. But that doesn't truly fix your daddy issues, does it? You've failed at the one thing you've always been told to do. You can't create a pure-blood! You're weak, you're broken, you're wro—"
The green light flashed, erupting from Bellatrix's wand and filling the room. In the moment before she died, Jen smiled victoriously. Who needs a cyanide pill when you have a loose canon like Bellatrix Lestrange at your fingertips?