Book 4: Astoria Greengrass and the Curse of Quennell Park
Song rec: "Virtual Mima" by Masahiro Ikumi
"Heav'n has no rage, like love to hatred turn'd.
Nor Hell a Fury, like a woman scorn'd."
-W. Congreve
—
enmeshment (n., attr. Salvador Minuchin) - the lack of personal boundaries in families, in which members cannot autonomously develop and become undifferentiated from one another; the members take on roles different from their actual position in the family
There was no sign of Theodore. Astoria stood up in the wind, unsure of what to do with her wand, but determined not to have it taken from her by the new arrivals. Alecto wore a floral dress with a scooped neck and quarter sleeves, which did not flatter her shape but rather the marks on her body. Encircling the base of her neck, a place very painful for a tattooing spell, was a snake with a head on both ends. Its fanged mouths parted over each of the rounds of her collarbone, and its scaled body squirmed. Like the ink on her neck, her Dark Mark moved expressively in the coastal air. Her sandals soaked with ocean water.
Astoria had seen Alecto thrice before. The first time, she had passed by the heavily-bundled Carrow family in Knockturn Alley round Christmastime. The second time was at the funeral of Abraxas Malfoy, when Astoria had been wearing Hestia's appearance, and Alecto had been wearing a black veil. The third time, Alecto had harassed the girls backstage at a Pariah concert. This encounter on the water, though, was the first time Astoria had seen Alecto unobscured and in good lighting. She was in her mid-forties, a bit older than Astoria had realised, yet she came across as jarringly immature. She kept playing with the letter in her chapped-red hands. Her auburn hair was held tightly in an elaborate fishtail braid that women her age seldom ever wore.
Alecto's twin brother, Amycus, poked his thick skull over the edge of the cliff. Astoria dared a quick glance at him to try to evaluate her two threats with only one set of eyes. Amycus was evidently unable to buoy his body with the acrobatic magic that Alecto must have used to descend the cliff. His eyes on Alecto meant that no wand had hitherto fixed on Astoria. Alecto did not have her wand drawn, either. Astoria doubted that the Death Eater could perform half the Killing Curse her mother could without a wand, but there was still no reason to feel safe. It was impossible to speak first, since Alecto had not yet provided a situation to read. In her summer dress, Alecto was doing nothing in particular, yet she was repellent still. Astoria's concussion was still throbbing, and looking at her enemy with injured Legilimency gave her an uncomfortable feeling of presque vu. Alecto's sunlit eyes were a novelty of culpability, and Astoria hated them without knowing how.
"The Ministry can't figure the spell you used, Astoria. Know how rare that is?" Alecto chatted with a voice designed to counteract the mess in her mind, flapping the letter in the breeze. "Mind telling us what happened?"
"You'll laugh, and you won't believe me," Astoria said forthrightly.
"I think we could use a good laugh."
Alecto walked across the water with quiet splashes, coming closer to the shore. Astoria dug her heels in the sand. She was dishevelled and carried a wet suitcase. There was nothing to hide even if she could. She had no idea what Theodore had told these people and did not want to contradict him.
"My wand fired when a seagull startled me. The Ministry caught it."
Alecto's madder-red lips spread with a smile. She had had a tooth replaced; it was whiter than the others. Standing neither close nor far, Alecto turned the letter over and over in her hands, thinking.
"Don't want to go to court, eh?"
"No. That's why I came here in the first place," Astoria answered.
Alecto tore the letter into bits and threw it into the water with flair. Astoria was not exactly surprised. Alecto considered the favour a way to create debt. A false sense of security.
"We're taking over the Ministry today," Alecto said cheerfully, as though she were talking about baking a cake. "You're a witch, ain't you?"
"I am."
"Then riddle me this, Astoria. Why be forbidden from magic? You're in your formative years. It's not wrong to do what's natural for you."
Astoria shivered from the wind but tried her best to play off of Alecto's ease.
"It's certainly more convenient," she coughed.
"Well, just between us, I'd wait until the shift change," Alecto leered. "But then do as you like. We won't stop you from your birthright. Will we, Am?"
"Nah," Amycus called from above, hardly able to play the part his sister could.
It's so you can Trace me instead, Astoria scowled. Without knowing Theodore's fate after the Carrows' stampede into his house, she was at a loss of how to proceed. Alecto enjoyed Astoria's uncertainty and the stiffness of her body language. Though she made no clear threats, Alecto held everything tightly in place as the morning progressed normally in a world just above them.
"We lost a party of thirteen in the attack on your family. Nine had taken oaths. But some losses are greater than others. As Rabastan put it, 'We have plenty of spare Mulcibers,'" Alecto said, and she paused at length.
Don't lose yourself. Not now, Astoria resolved, though the name of Mulciber infuriated her.
"An oath means nothing if it ain't kept. That's the whole point of an oath, right, Astoria?"
"…Mm."
"They broke their oath to the Dark Lord by acting without orders. And they got their due, yeah? You've a strong family, Astoria. It's covetable. It's no surprise to us that Ivory's group failed."
Alecto still feigned her benevolence, acting as though nothing was more important than getting a pebble out of her sandal as she spoke.
"I always been curious how you got close with our girls, since your conduct's been disappointing, to say the least. It's how you were raised, though. You believe what your parents tell you. Your blood-traitor parents ain't here no more."
Astoria wasn't going to argue with Alecto. Not when her life depended on it. Theodore had been right about situations like this. "Fake it till you make it" had been his choice of words, so Astoria played as dumb as dumb could be. That puzzled gawk Daphne often displayed must have had an ulterior purpose. Yet Astoria had a bad feeling that her current threats were used to playing dumb themselves.
"Hmph. I think we've gone and scared her, Am."
"'We?' You're the one who's done it, jumpin' down there on the water," Amycus said.
Alecto tilted her head jokingly at her brother, then returned her attention to Astoria, where it was unwanted.
"Astoria, we're only here to figure out what happened to Theodore Nott Sr. He defied the orders to remain on call for another mission and went to Quennell Park. Did you see him there? About this high. Real old fart."
"I think I saw an older wizard leave the ballroom during the attack. But something happened once he was outside… something in the woods… I was busy trying to help my cousin. I can't say," Astoria said, crafting as much fear and helpfulness as she could into her voice.
"I see. Amycus, bring us back up there," Alecto said.
It was an awful somersault of a charm on Amycus's part. Astoria would have rather traversed the cliffside with her bare hands. Theodore had miraculously held onto his life and was leaning against the back of the cottage with a black eye. The Carrows started chattering to each other, but Theodore's voice rang out:-
"You told me you didn't know anything about my dad, Astoria," he said callously. "Now you tell her you did see him?"
He was acting. Astoria was the other lead in the play.
"Theodore, I'm really not sure," Astoria pleaded with him. "I just told her what I saw. I don't even know if it was him or not… I'm sorry… I don't know…"
"Yeah, right," Theodore spat. "And here I thought you scarpered because they were Death Eaters. Maybe it was because you knew they would find out what really happened to my dad!"
The Carrows lapped it all up.
"Think we found out why Mini-Malfoy couldn't give clear answers," the brother said under his breath. "Astoria's the girl the Snatcher talked about. Nott's kid don't know anything. But Nott's dead. I'll go tell the Dark Lord. Here's your stuff. You headin' out from here?"
"Oh, unfortunately," Alecto responded, taking her bag from him.
"Well, stay safe."
Yes, kindly get the hell out of here, Astoria thought the longer she and Theodore had to keep up the act. Yet in spite of their verbal plans to leave, neither of the Carrows moved.
"If I'm the one who catches Potter, you owe me a new cauldron, Amycus."
"I'll do you better than a cauldron, but it ain't gonna be you, Alliecat," Amycus laughed.
"Tsk! No faith? Well, it won't be you if you're at home, now, will it?"
"Ah, who knows, if Potter flies over the house, I'll shoot him down and throw him to Hestia's plants. I always said we're going to Turks n' Caicos."
"Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming."
"One of us has to, Allie."
Alecto went quiet for a moment and watched the rippled sea. Astoria had nowhere to move except back over the edge since she was supposed to be Theodore's new enemy.
"Am?"
"Yeah?"
"How much are blood-traitors worth again?" Alecto asked, and panic swept upon Astoria.
"Think it'll be round four or five Galleons," said Amycus.
"That's it?" Alecto snapped.
"Mudbloods're worth more," he shrugged.
"Hm. Well in that case, I think Greengrass needs guidance in these trying times," Alecto said with a slick smile.
By Amycus's wheeze, Astoria knew that what came next would not be good. She and Theodore were in too deep with their ruse of Nott Sr's fate, and a sudden ease of animosity between them would put their safety on the line. Theodore had finally been cleared of suspicion, and Astoria couldn't rip that from his hands. It was going to end poorly for her either way. Alecto moved to make a kidnapping look like something else.
"Where were you going with the suitcase, Astoria? I doubt it was into the Channel," Alecto twittered once her brother Disapparated.
Before Theodore could do something incredibly stupid and give himself away, Astoria did something even worse. Giving one last fake glare at Theodore, she approached Alecto in a desperate huff.
"Could… Could you take me to Flora and Hestia? I wouldn't have had to jump if I'd known you weren't another one of Stretton's."
"Oh, you poor thing," Alecto slurped, thrilled with Astoria's apparent stupidity. "Stretton's never dared to come round us."
She took Astoria's wrist in her thick hand and gripped hard. Astoria silently threw all her thanks Theodore's way, but he was too shocked to catch a thing. Alecto Disapparated, yanking Astoria with her. Everything could go wrong, and they could end up at Voldemort's feet, but Astoria trusted that the witch had other goals. Alecto might have considered herself above Stretton and the rogues, but deep down, she wanted to find unsanctioned ways to impress the Dark Lord as well. Astoria knew that Alecto's methods would be prolonged and indirect. It would become a battle of wills. Alecto wanted to do more than turn Astoria in for cash. She wanted to mould Flora, Hestia, and Astoria into the next generation of Death Eaters.
Alecto and Astoria arrived in the middle of a bustling street. Without the slightest chance to recover from the Apparition, Astoria braced Alecto's side in a stumble. The traffic skidded round them at the last second, horns blaring and arms waving. The wind of the automobiles' motion gave Astoria goose pimples and plastered her wet clothes tighter still.
It's all on purpose, Astoria thought whilst Alecto dragged her across the noise of justified screaming and the danger of traffic. A few rows of traffic converged with each other and the clanging thud of wrecks rang under fire of Alecto's illegal Memory Charms.
It's my fault, Astoria panicked with her eyes on the auto wrecks. If I hadn't let her Apparate me, they wouldn't have crashed.
A few Muggles leapt from their broken machines to yell at Alecto and Astoria for being in the road.
…She would have grabbed me anyway, Astoria remembered.
Once on the pavement, Alecto released Astoria but grabbed her suitcase. Astoria knew too little about Muggle society to trust in the effectiveness of calling for help, but some passers-by were alarmed by her wetness and sudden roadway appearance. They might have concluded she was being kidnapped. In fact, Astoria knew through Legilimency, some people did think she had been kidnapped, so it was deeply shocking to watch them walk away from her and do nothing, nothing at all.
"It could be her mum," or "Someone else will see her" were their favourite parting thoughts. Astoria could not believe it. There was plenty of attention on her and Alecto to warrant someone doing something… But they didn't even need a Memory Charm to forget about the wrecks and the wet girl in the street. They all went on with their day.
At the street corner, Alecto assumed a discordant blend of friendliness and brutality, jamming her wand against Astoria's spine and forcing her through the city. Astoria recalled she still had her own wand. She couldn't think of how to use it.
"One of our favourite apothecaries is up that way," Alecto said nostalgically. "They have the best tansy tea in the country. We would take Hestia there to look at the fanged geraniums when she was a girl. You know her."
"NICE TITS!" screamed a Muggle from half a block away.
He was over forty, but it didn't stop him from staring hungrily at Astoria's wet shirt as he passed by. Another comment of his did not go unheard. Astoria was so terrified that she was nearly grateful to have Alecto there. But maybe that was part of the plan, too. Astoria noticed that she had lost the ability to walk at will under Alecto's wand. Her neck craned.
"Don't worry too much about this spell, Greengrass. It's only temporary. I don't want to chance losin' you out here. Not a good place to be alone."
That much Astoria had discerned, but Alecto's spell made her feel even more defenceless in the throng of people. She caught a few more of their eyes due to her shirt's unkind exposure, and no fewer than three of them suspected by her posture that she was being escorted at gunpoint. They still did nothing and raised no alarm, just stared at her body. What was wrong with these Muggles? For the first time, Astoria stopped blaming herself for not controlling her Legilimency wilfully. Allowing it to get out of her hands had certainly opened her eyes to human nature. She still had her wand, making the Legilimency worse. She could still move her arms on her own.
Run. Escape, she told herself.
She didn't.
They were no longer in the busiest part of the city and seemed to have moved to the dirtiest suburb. Astoria had not bothered to determine where she was because it wouldn't matter. Flora and Hestia were from Cromer. This was not Cromer. There was no one to save her, and breaking away from Alecto on her own would only result in greater danger. Outside a large, red-brick building, Alecto used the Hot-Air Charm to dry Astoria's damp clothes and seared her stomach, whether by accident or intention Astoria could not tell.
Alecto put her wand in her dress pocket, but it could not have been clearer that there was hot magic in her palm. She still held the suitcase and led Astoria in through a greasy, chipped door. Having suspected the huge, old place to be a Wizarding establishment, Astoria discovered it to be a Muggle hotel. The lobby was cramped by chairs with faded upholstery, and the tile they stood on was gritty with dirt from the street. The insect-ridden lighting fixtures flickered slightly when Alecto entered with Astoria, but it was daylight, so neither of the Muggles in the queue noticed.
Astoria felt Alecto's unusual magic in her tailbone and did not dare hint to the Muggles how much danger she was in, lest they become endangered, too. Alecto's lack of an attack felt out of character. Perhaps she simply didn't want a mess to clean up. She was trying to play herself off as an ordinary woman with an ordinary girl. There was music playing faintly in the lobby, seemingly coming from the ceiling. The cheesy ballad mismatched the peril Astoria was experiencing.
"How deep is your love?" asked the ceiling music placidly. "How deep is your love?"
One of the customers got his room key, and the queue moved forward.
"How deep is your love?" the music now played with heavy static, sounding like the noise Rhiannon's amplifier would make.
Astoria located the music speaker in the corner of the ceiling. It, like the personal fan the hotel greeter kept at her desk, seemed intolerant of Alecto's proximity. The distortion worsened.
"— world of fools breaking —"
The next customer got his room key, and Alecto stepped forward with Astoria.
"— let us be —"
"Hello, can I help you?" asked the greeter, a bit distracted by her grossly malfunctioning fan.
"Imperio," Alecto answered without skipping a beat.
Astoria watched in defeat as the hotel employee went through the motions of a normal check-in to remain below suspicion of those surrounding them. It probably would not have mattered what the employee did, since the men outside the door were waiting to meet a prostitute and could not care less. It was like Astoria and Rhiannon had traded places in the world.
"— my deepest, darkest —"
Alecto snatched all of the copies of one room's key from the employee's hands and, since a Muggle had touched them, wiped them vigorously with a spell before any further handling. She ushered Astoria down a grimy hallway to the lift. It ran with questionable electricity with them there; not all of its lights signalled, and it made troubling noises.
Do we really have to get in this thing?
A wand at her back again was Astoria's answer, so she stepped into the stuffy, electric cube. It smelt of sour cigarettes, and the tubelike lights flickered on the inside. Of course, Alecto took her all the way to the top level. A cheap trick, really. Astoria expected Alecto to make the lift malfunction to prove to her that Muggles were inferior. Perhaps because she was weary of the lift herself, Alecto did not do any such thing, and escorted Astoria to a room at the far end of the hall. She didn't need the keys to get in like Muggles would have, but with all of them in her possession, no Muggle easily could. Alecto would make sure of Astoria's captivity through magic, too. She circled round, scratching spells into the walls that ensured no sound would escape and no Muggle would enter.
The size of the room was hardly more than that of the furniture, and it had no adjoining toilet. The carpeting was dated and had more than one stain on it. Fingerprints dotted the wood of the chest of drawers, atop which sat a dusty television. The window had a view only to the dismal housing behind them. There was one bed, and on it was one cigarette burn. Cosmetics aside, the entire room felt damp and reeked of skunks. Considering that Alecto had stolen the room, she had received exactly what she paid for.
"Dirtier than what you're used to? Sit down, Astoria."
Astoria tried to avoid Alecto's noxious eyes as she squeezed into the chair in the corner. The arms of it had a layer of grey dirt. Alecto's wand, which was pointed at Astoria's forehead, was rough-hewn and had very prominent grain lines. But she had to surrender her own wand before she got better ideas of escaping. Astoria felt in her heart that her wand had not changed loyalty, if it had the capacity for loyalty in the first place.
"I want you to tell me all the nasty details of you and Slytherin's Blot. How did our girls end up in her dorm at Hogwarts? Why'd that lead to them becoming public blood-traitors? And what on earth am I hearing about that Mudblood being at Quennell Park?"
Astoria cleared her throat.
"I didn't attend Hogwarts until I was twelve. I tested into my third year. Rhiannon Clarke was in my class. She had gone to the headmaster about her former roommates, and he rearranged the rooms with us. I thought it was the alphabetical order that did it, but that didn't make sense because Alexa Crover would have been there instead of me."
"That right?" Alecto snarled. "Well, we watched old Dumbledore die with our own eyes. Serves him right for trying to pollute our House and our girls. What'd that filthy Mudblood do to make you sing? Brainwash the lot of you?"
"Ms Carrow, I was at the time firm in my position on blood status. Flora and Hestia said they needed money."
Alecto cast a cruel spell across Astoria's face. It swelled up instantly with pain.
"We did need money. My brothers and I can't get jobs 'cause of people like you. I highly doubt my girls would have been as gooey over that Mudblood if not for you. As part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, we done our best to respect you Greengrasses in spite of you bein' blood-traitors."
Haven't given much respect to the Longbottoms and Abbotts, though, have you? Astoria grimaced, thinking of Neville's parents and Hannah's mother. Astronomy class with them seemed eons ago. Alecto leaned away and rubbed the back of her neck from craning so far over Astoria, and her tattoo twisted its body under her hand.
"You were our girls' first friend."
It hurt to hear. Astoria had been cooped up at Quennell Park as a child, so all she had before coming to school were her relatives. Flora and Hestia, though, had come to school on time but kept to themselves. Rhiannon had had too much going on in her own life to befriend them, and the twins had not been able to form close relationships with their former roommates. Flora was terminally private, and Hestia was an eccentric. Astoria was proud to be their friend, even though their aunt was currently harming her.
"They were among my first friends, too," Astoria said, but she didn't know why she had let it bubble out of her.
Alecto practically oinked at the comment.
"Can't imagine anything our girls were able to afford for your Christmases and your birthdays impressed you much, Greengrass."
I never asked for gifts. They wanted to give them, Astoria thought sadly.
"I loved all their gifts," she declared, and Alecto slapped her across the cheek.
"Flora and Hestia both opted to take Muggle Studies once you arrived! They both received E's on their O.W.L. for it. I can hardly be proud of that," Alecto complained.
"Listen, I know what you think of me, but I never bothered with that class because I knew I wasn't going to use it," Astoria said deliberately.
"What I think of you? Oh, Astoria, I'm really wondering what you think of me today."
Alecto waited, biting her lip. If Astoria said any number of the things she thought of Alecto, she would be killed. Alecto, oddly enough, seemed to shy, as if she wished she hadn't asked. She swerved the conversation.
"I'll tell you what I think of you. I never would've known Hestia was trying to go anywhere with that annoying habit in music had it not been for you. And our Flora, I never would've thought she had an ear at all. It's a shame their talent was tainted with the Mudblood's screech and your propaganda."
Propaganda, sure…
"We needed money, Astoria. We had to let it slide. But you're going to sing for me, aren't you? Let's think of your most offensive songs… Oh yes. 'Transfusion' bothered me the most, I think. You implied that Magic and Muggle blood could mix. What was the symbolism behind that? That Muggles would save our lives in the end? That we, as a people, would die out if not for the dirty, lowly, Muggles?"
"No…" said Astoria feebly.
"Let's sing it, then. Let's find the author's intent."
Only once she was at wandpoint, Astoria said the first line in a mere whisper, but was immediately met with one of the worst curses she had ever encountered.
"Celeri epiglottitis."
Her throat felt sorer than when she had been her sickest, and it swelled with such swiftness that she could feel the loss of air. Unable to think of plans or clever fixes, Astoria leaned far forward over her lap, choking and snorting, and groped at Alecto in hysterics.
"Aw. Does that hurt?"
Astoria had to cough, but it made it much worse, and she grabbed her burning throat, rubbing the skin on the outside only to make sure it was still there and not dissolved away.
"I know you think ill of me now, but you oughtta be glad it's us who found you and not the Lestranges," Alecto said.
Astoria yearned for water, for anything, but she also suspected water would make her choke to death. The pain was spreading up her nose, the only other way she could still breathe.
"Listen to me, Astoria. Me and you are of a superior race. Mixing up with the wrong crowd will not end well for you. Your blood is sacred. I think that you could use the self-esteem anyway."
The curse was lifted. There was no other thought in Astoria's mind except that the curse was gone, it was gone…
"I'm sorry, Astoria. You really need to learn one way or another," Alecto said.
Astoria tried to recover from Alecto's next curses as best she could. If Draco could take curses to the face from Voldemort himself, if Rhiannon could survive a basilisk and her parents' beatings, if Uncle Faunus was watching…
Alecto leaned forward to give off the scent of her breath and cheap perfume. She placed her fingers upon the blood dripping off Astoria's chin.
"Pure as a baptism. And you'd sacrifice this to those Muggle men outside?"
"No."
"Let's hope not."
Alecto grabbed Astoria by the hair on the nape of her neck and wrenched her out of the chair, slamming her face to the floor. She sat all of her weight on Astoria's back until she cried in pain. Alecto had the most fun she had had all day, rubbing Astoria's face on the stained, dirty floor and calling her every name she could think of. The abuse felt like it had stretched on forever. Maybe it had not been that long. Alecto got off her back, leaving everything sore and crumpled, and hoisted Astoria upwards. She stared at her face, admiring the rug burn and the swelling.
"Poor thing," Alecto whispered. "You poor thing. You must think you're so misunderstood."
Her taunting did little to Astoria, who had distanced herself from the room. She thought of Flora and Hestia's father, who had allowed Alecto and Amycus to run his house. He wouldn't parent the girls himself. What a pathetic wizard.
"Y'know, I didn't go to Hogwarts till I was halfway through fourth year," Alecto said. "It's almost like you and me have something in common, right? Imagine that."
Astoria met Alecto's stare with a careful glance. Flora had been right. Things were worse when Alecto liked somebody.
"My family proudly served Gellert Grindelwald back when, but we were never well-off enough to send our young ones to Durmstrang since you have to pay tuition. Grindelwald came from there, and it'd been a long-time dream of my family's. My parents saved up for years and years so me and Amycus could go there, and we grew up in a miserly sort of way, to tell you the truth. We didn't have much at all. Grandmother made our wands with her own hands. Y'see this wand?"
Alecto held it in a duelling position rather than for show-and-tell. Astoria nodded quickly.
"You'll see it again," Alecto said. "Amycus and I have the same wand. Not just the same type of wood and core, neither. The wood's cut from the same tree. The core's snipped from the same animal. Aspen and Thestral tail hair. They say the Elder Wand had Thestral hair. You know, the bedtime story?"
Astoria nodded quickly again, since the wand was between her eyes.
"It was the greatest gift we ever got. Thestral. You ever met a Thestral wand before?"
"No, I haven't…"
"Well, be honest, how did it feel?"
Astoria didn't know what the right answer was. She went with, "Different."
Alecto liked the word tremendously.
"They are different. And different from the Elder Wand, too. Better. Aspen's the gateway between worlds. Old tales say if you go to the Underworld, you take aspen leaves with you. So you can come back."
Alecto gave an untoward smile to Astoria. When she didn't smile back, Alecto looked at the floor.
"What's your wand, chinaberry? Sour cherry? It don't feel right."
"Cherry, ma'am," said Astoria in the smallest voice as Alecto played carelessly with the twig that had kept her alive thus far. Fortunately, Alecto did not try to damage or break the wand, as she was much too occupied with her own wand scraping across Astoria's cheek.
"Me and Amycus can't cast at each other," Alecto said. "Spells meet in the middle and make fireworks. It was one of our favourite games to play at school."
Astoria had heard of that phenomenon somewhere before, but she couldn't recall when or where.
"We showed Grandmother the trick, too. Made her happy. Grandmother liked us, which was good, because Mum and Dad didn't. They married because they had to, and they had us because they had to. And we grew up bein' told things we had to do, too. Dad was always on Amycus's case to study and get better at magic. Made him duel with him. I felt so bad because Am didn't stand a chance against Dad. And Mum, she was always remindin' me how ugly I was, how no amount of make-up or magic is gonna fix this. How I'd never attract a husband with all my acne, or how fat I was, or how I didn't smile. You name it, she said it. After a while, I just accepted she was right."
Alecto twirled the end of her braid, listening to the sounds in the Muggle pipes with disgust.
"Me and Am were pretty happy to be away from our parents during school. When we were gone, they baked up our kid brother as backup because they thought we were gonna be failures. But even our rotten parents made sure me and Amycus went to Durmstrang. Oh, Astoria, it was such an honour. We was the first in our family! And the school's amazing! They teach Dark Arts there, and there's no Mudbloods. There's students from all over the Continent, so the teachers use magic to write in all sorts of languages on the board. I mean, the other students don't speak English, and they were all richer than us, so we didn't ever have no friends. Well, actually, we were bullied pretty bad… But still, it was luxurious there. We could put up with it, most the time. We'd never been happier or prouder. But do you know what happened?"
The question, Astoria realised after a pause, was oddly not hypothetical.
"N-No…"
"Oh," said Alecto. "Guess."
They stared at each other.
"I don't… know."
Alecto slinked closer.
"Guess."
"I — I'm not sure. I-It got too expensive?"
A curse rammed Astoria's head down hard, and she heard noise in her joints.
"D'you think anyone with less money than you is a peasant, Greengrass? D'you think we're lesser than you? Our whole line is the purest of all the Sacred Twenty-Eight. How dare you! Our family worked to send us there whilst yours sat on your fortune! That wasn't what happened at all! We were sent home!"
The curse still rattling the back of Astoria's head was even more cacophonous in combination with Alecto's chesty voice. Alecto wiped her eyes and brow with her sleeve. Astoria hated her, but it was excruciatingly obvious that Alecto had nobody to talk to. She only ever had Amycus or captive audiences, and right now, Astoria was literally captive.
"Durmstrang never said we were expelled. No one wrote it down, so we could go somewhere else. But we weren't allowed back there. I couldn't believe it. Our whole future had been taken away. Our entire life, everything our family worked for. So the whole damn train ride and the boat trip, we tried to come up with something to say. And there was nothing. There was no explanation our parents were gonna take, truth or lie or anything!
"You know, they say Thestral cores don't work for people who can't accept they're gonna die one day. And did we ever accept it. We decided we'd jump into the North Sea before we'd say Durmstrang kicked us out. We charmed our ankles together and tied our luggage to sink ourselves. We'd go one of the ways our honourable ancestors were martyred — drowning. But we didn't drown, even with the luggage. Even with our legs tied. Death spared us because we weren't allowed to die. We was pure-blood! We had a purpose on this earth together. And d'you know who pulled us out? The Rowle family, long-term Death Eaters. So we understood our purpose, and we went home and went to Hogwarts with all the Mudbloods. But it was the end of what we really wanted. Hogwarts is my least favourite place on this whole ruddy planet. So what makes you like it so much, Astoria? Mudblood boys? Mudblood girls?"
Astoria shook her head.
"I don't… I really don't like it…"
"You're lyin' to me," Alecto said, a curse bubbling at the tip of her wand. "You went to Hogwarts and got close with Slytherin's Blot. Awful close."
Alecto doesn't know about Hestia and Rhiannon, Astoria realised gratefully.
"Is that why the Blot was at Quennell Park, like the Snatcher said?"
"She was there."
Another pang of pain landed right on top of the swelling.
"You stupid Mudsucker! Our kind makes up less than ten percent of the world's population, and you choose to pollute yourself with mud? To give in to the wretched beings that have tortured, imprisoned, and killed us?"
How many witches have you killed under Voldemort? burned Astoria on the inside.
"It's our little Flora I worry the most for…" Alecto softened, and she stroked her chapped hand against the injuries she had caused Astoria. "Hestia's always been our difficult one, but it's Flora that's speaking wrong for the first time."
Astoria looked through the window to the grey-green sky. It would storm soon. She did not know how long she would be in this tiny hotel room, but she was at least keeping Alecto away from Flora and Hestia. If she looked at her circumstances any other way, she might have broken under the woman's grip. After prodding her injured face enough, Alecto amused herself by going through Astoria's pockets. She uncovered counterfeit Muggle money and tutted at Astoria disappointedly.
"Oh. What's this, a mirror?"
Alecto had drawn the Foe-Shard out. Astoria suppressed a smirk at her luck: since Alecto was the closest threat, the Foe-Shard projected her image just like a real mirror. Alecto held it up to Astoria, expecting an answer.
"Oh, that. That broke off one of my telescopes at home. It's part of a honeycomb mirror."
She was counting on Alecto having no idea what a Foe-Glass was and that no other enemy would approach them.
"Specialis Revelio," Alecto said, and Astoria pondered the consequence of having lied.
Oddly enough, the Foe-Shard did not give off any indication of being a charmed object. It was so small, heavily traded, and damaged that Alecto's big bad spell had not worked. In the scope of things, losing the Foe-Shard would not have been that bad, but Astoria was glad when Alecto threw it to the floor indifferently. Then she pulled Astoria's suitcase forward. It had been slightly Extended, but it hadn't been made Impervius to water, so what few clothes and necessities she had were sodden. Alecto Vanished the wet food away. She kept Astoria's toothbrush soiled with ocean water. She pulled out Uncle Faunus's pipe, though, and Astoria went rigid.
"Is this also sentimental? Specialis Revelio," Alecto cast, and nothing suspicious happened.
"It's just stuff that was left in the house," Astoria admitted.
"Aw, stuff from your family?"
Astoria was now certain Alecto was going to break all that she had left, so she was shocked when Alecto dropped the pipe back into the suitcase. She then lit her own smoke, a heavy herbal cigarette to cloud the room. She didn't even bother to disturb the other items, which looked like rubbish to her, and kicked the suitcase under Astoria's chair. After casting a shimmering, blanket-like barrier atop the nasty hotel bed, Alecto sat down, straddling the corner.
"Our parents were not the family I'd pick," Alecto reiterated.
Astoria marvelled at the irony. Flora and Hestia despised Alecto and Amycus. The elder Carrows hadn't learned what not to do based on their own experience. They just repeated the cycle of abuse. Alecto blew tricks into her smoke until her cigarette shrivelled down. Astoria braced herself for Alecto to burn it sadistically against her skin, the way Rhiannon's mum used to do to her. But Alecto burnt the butt out on her own wrist instead.
"It was made clear to us that we wasn't Mum and Dad's notion of ideal pure-bloods. Once Grandmother died that's when their true colours showed. We was almost seventeen when they said we'd been a waste of food. A waste of their sacred name. You're pure-blood, too. Were you ever told things like that? No? I didn't think so, not a Greengrass…"
Alecto shut her eyes and wrung her hands close to her face.
"We didn't last too long at Hogwarts, neither," she breathed into her fingers, and Astoria's reaction was more a bad taste in her mouth than a thought in her mind.
"We were in sixth year when Mum and Dad offed themselves in one go."
Alecto peeked open her painfully clamped eyes and watched Astoria closely for any sign of support. Astoria was frightened and took the cue to eek out an "I'm sorry."
"We were sorry, too," Alecto said with strain. "We were of age, but they left our kid brother behind. He was only five years old. I know they did that to us on purpose. Our lives really stopped then. We had to come home. We raised our brother. We were out of money by the time he could've gone to Hogwarts, but we tried our best teachin' him magic. We honestly tried, Astoria. And he hated us. He never appreciated us. We dropped everything and raised his sorry arse. And one day he came in and blamed us for Mum and Dad's deaths, and then left the house. There was nothing worse he could've said to us after all we did for him. He had no idea what we sacrificed. He ran off with some Blodwyn girl. All I could say was thank Merlin she was pure-blood, but she thought she was above me and Amycus. Wouldn't talk to us. Well, she got pregnant like she might have got the morning paper. She didn't want us involved at all. She was trying to distance our brother from us. Well, she bleedin' died, too! So there we were again. Raising her twins."
Alecto wiped her contorted face.
"I know it's hard for you to picture, Astoria, but you can't keep a family of five fed on Knockturn money. We had some left over from our work in the First War. We could send the girls to school. We wanted the best for them, 'cause we couldn't do it for our brother. Now Flora and Hestia don't like us, neither. Everyone thinks they're better than us the second they step out the door," Alecto sniffled.
Something struck involuntarily, because Astoria was a nice person.
"Alecto, I—"
"SILENCIO!" Alecto screeched, and she kept it that way.
Astoria soon realised that even though life's circumstances had not been kind to Alecto, she revelled in them where others might re-evaluate their lives. Alecto used her woes not as a point of resilience, introspection, or development, but as a pile of excuses. Superficially, Alecto was able to excuse all of her present and future actions by simply pointing a finger at her past. However, she didn't truly believe in her innocence; she sought approval of her actions by turning them outward.
"What would you have done?" she kept asking the now-speechless Astoria, and Astoria's muteness would allow Alecto to make up whatever answer she desired.
"What would you have done," "what would you have done."
Astoria did not know what she would have done in Alecto's circumstances, but she knew it was not this, or not that — and most often, she doubted she would ever find herself in such situations at all. Though Alecto could not control her parents' behaviour, she could have controlled her own violent rages whilst raising her younger brother. She could have adopted a more empathetic worldview and refused to become a Death Eater. Had she done this, she might have had a healthy relationship with her younger brother and his twin daughters. By supporting them, they would have supported her. But Alecto had done none of that. She made no effort to control her violent temper. She never tried to do good by others. She had woven herself into what was comfortable so that she would never have to change. Alecto's comfort came from being a victim; she felt special that she and her twin had been chosen by the gods to be smited.
"What would you have done?"
I would not have hurt others for fun.
That night, Alecto bound Astoria to the chair with magic and went down the hall to shower. She was gone for over an hour; Astoria deduced that Alecto was using Aguamenti the whole time rather than using the Muggles' water supply. Alecto came back with red blotches all over her skin, so she must have conjured the water hot. She Scoured the hotel bed and hard surfaces nonstop for twenty minutes and used a Hot-Air Charm that made the room stifling. She then picked up a dark, plastic device from the chest of drawers and pressed it. The television awoke. It was loud with static, and the picture warped with striped bands of colour. The light from it glowed bright on Astoria's skin. Alecto stepped away from the machine, and the picture and sound both cleared up. It looked like there was a news report on the screen. There was a Muggle lady in a blue blazer standing with an oblong microphone. She talked a lot about Northern Ireland. Then she switched to local happenings, none of which were good.
"You're right in front of the electricity, and it's working," scoffed Alecto from the bed after the graphic news reports were over. "I doubt it's 'cause you're wandless. I never would've thought electricity'd work round a Greengrass. Must be because you're full of Squibs."
She shut the television off and walked back over to Astoria, snatching her right wrist up. Alecto shut her eyes, exhaled slowly, and rubbed her thumbs over Astoria's veins and tendons.
"Your magic is very diffuse," Alecto concluded, and released Astoria's kneaded wrist.
I think I knew that, reflected Astoria.
"Your life's been easy. Don't worry. It'll wake up," Alecto both reassured and threatened.
The television buzzed in distress with Alecto nearby even though it was off. She ripped out the plug so it would be quiet.
"Me, I've got honey magic."
Astoria hadn't a clue what that nonsense was supposed to mean.
"It's why you didn't run when you had the chance."
Astoria had to sleep on the dirty floor. Alecto had not spared her a pillow or blanket, so Astoria rolled up the jacket from her suitcase to lift her head. She had no voice and no hope, but dammit, she wasn't going to get a neck cramp, too. Her family always came first in her thoughts, naturally followed by Draco and Rhiannon, but it also dawned on her what sort of anxiety she must have given Theodore. It felt like a poor decision to leave with Alecto when she had been so close to getting to Professor Sinistra, but then again, she knew Alecto would have taken her hostage in a dangerous fight if she had not come quietly.
Well, I did defeat Lofthouse, Astoria considered, but she couldn't keep picking off Death Eaters if she wanted them to stop being so interested in attacking her. The only noise she could make was to exhale. She was trapped. Alecto did indeed make the room Muggle-proof, so housekeeping wouldn't notice the room had ever existed. Astoria zoned out at the brown water damage on the ceiling. There was no reason to expect sleep with the loud machine that cooled the air buzzing and clanging constantly. The electric lights never went out outside, leaving the room unbearably bright and the sky sadly hazy. Alecto had quite the arsenal of spells for someone who had only passed three O.W.L.s in her day and rested peacefully in spite of the constant noise. If Astoria moved too much, of course, Alecto would be ready to make some more bruises. It must have been between four and five in the morning that Astoria got any rest whatsoever. Then, at eight A.M., she went back to being under Alecto's thumb.
"Aw, Astoria, you've barely taken off the sleep," Alecto sneered, hovering over her.
The rules were beaten into her over the course of the day. She was only allowed to walk to the lavatory with Alecto, and this was a privilege awarded only four times a day. The first time Alecto left the room, Astoria did everything in her power to get out, but her power consisted of two scrawny arms against a barricade of magic. The skunk smell wafted in through the grate in the floor constantly. After Alecto went out again for another patrol of the city, a man pounded on the room's door so hard that it shook. Alecto must have weakened the Muggle-Repelling Charm on the room just enough to let this happen. The stranger was not part of the hotel staff, nor was he a policeman. He said, "I know you're in there, and I know you're cheap." The event frightened Astoria worse than Alecto herself could.
When Alecto returned, she had brown paper bags full of canned Muggle food. The majority of it was oxtail soup, which required water to eat. Astoria watched, hungry but without any appetite, as Alecto cut a metal can in half with a spell and sloughed the contents into a bowl. She chose to add tap water from down the hall, stirring the chunks without a word, and handed it to Astoria cold. Not two hours later did Astoria get very, very ill. Alecto gave Astoria back her wand to clean up the room, simply daring her to try to fight in her state. From a piece of parchment, Alecto read all the things found in Muggle water. She had made Astoria sick on purpose.
"Lead seems to be the big one," Alecto said as Astoria scrubbed the floor. "I can hardly pronounce the rest of these. Let's see… aluminium, anti-mony, arsenic, boron, ch-chromium, cyanide, nickel, nitrate, erm, pesticides, er, tetra-chloro-ethene… and tri-halo-meth-ane. If it's any comfort, I do think that if faecal matter gets into the water, the Muggles try to do something about that, but back in the day, they just drank it and hoped for the best. Like fish! See, illnesses float about their water. They feed their children with this stuff. That's why they grow up to be so daft."
Just shut up, Astoria begged, not wishing to know what any of those words meant as she continued to be sick.
"Clean as you go, Astoria," Alecto said, immune to the view of human suffering.
Eventually, Alecto got tired of the smell, took Astoria's wand back, and locked Astoria in the lavatory to vomit, where Muggles pounded on the door all night and maintenance was unable to unlock the room. The door had been thoroughly cursed, and there was no indication that Alecto was outside at all. It was no mystery where Hestia had developed her claustrophobia anymore. The Muggles could not get in, and Astoria could not get out. She would die here, in a little botched corner of reality.
Astoria washed her clothes in the sink and showered in the cold, dirty water. Alecto stormed in later when Astoria was still in a towel. She walked her all the way down the hall like that, so that the sleazy men at the top of the grimy stairwell might entertain thoughts. Astoria had no voice and no clothes. She couldn't take it, and she spit at them. The men all ignited with ugly words for her, came down, and grabbed Alecto. Something very, very bad happened to them the second they touched her, and Astoria did not care to take a second glance. They deserved it. Alecto scrubbed the spots where they had come into contact with her clothes as Muggle emergency automobiles arrived outside.
The smell of the oxtail soup instantly made Astoria nauseated again, and she opted not to eat. Alecto Vanished Astoria's food and ate a nicer, boxed meal she had picked up on her outing. She held out a clear bottle, shook it, and spoke to Astoria like she was a toddler.
"This is a bottle of water. It ain't much cleaner than what comes from the spigot. It comes in plastic. Plastic can't be destroyed once it's made without polluting everything. But can you blame the Muggles? Of course you can. They know better."
I don't care. I don't care. I just don't care.
"You probably wonder how I know all this. I been working hard to make lesson plans. I'm gonna be your new Muggle Studies teacher. Yes, at Hogwarts. What, you didn't think I'd put you in school? What kind of monster do you take me for? A young witch needs her education! And this year, there won't be any Mudbloods overcrowding our school and holding us back. The student-teacher ratio is much better. It'll be like Durmstrang. I'm so excited! Here, have the bottle."
Astoria dropped it into her suitcase for when her thirst would overcome her fear of the water. She had already learnt to read Alecto's moods, and this was one of the better ones. Alecto chatted about Voldemort's Ministry takeover and departmental changes.
"We're tryin' our best to make a government that actually serves its people. It doesn't make any sense to have all them laws in place for the sake of the Muggles. You don't even realise it, but so much of our behaviour is dictated by staying out of their way. It's idiotic. Here, I forgot to give this to you. You'll like it! It's just as I've promised."
It was another letter from the Ministry.
Dear Miss Greengrass,
I am writing to redact an earlier communication requesting your presence at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic. We are in the process of amending the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, and your offense falls within the timeframe of those to be excused. No further action is required on your part.
Hoping you are enjoying the lovely weather outdoors,
Yours sincerely,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic
Astoria was indifferent to the news by this point. She did not care about things like going to court. She wanted clean water, real food, a bed, a place to walk, and fresh air. She wanted to stop having flashbacks of her sister's Splinched arm and her cousin's crumpled corpse.
This was only the second of August. Well, if Alecto kept her promise, then Astoria had twenty-nine days until school started. Then what? She didn't know, but whatever it was, it wasn't this. Alecto put the television on again and started shuffling through the programmes. She left it on an unsettlingly graphic film.
"This is Muggle entertainment," Alecto said in disgust.
But my suffering entertains you, Astoria thought.
When the violent film ran its ugly course, Alecto turned the machine off. Because of Astoria's intolerance to the Muggle water, Alecto gave her the condensed soup without any water at all. Astoria smushed the cold, gelatinous brown down in her bowl as flat as she could. This continued each morning and night. Alecto had two wands and would not conjure her a single drop of water. Unlike Alecto, who took scalding, hour-long showers each night with clean, conjured water, Astoria was only allowed to shower in the Muggle water every third day. Alecto removed any hope of escape; she sealed Astoria off thoroughly to the world and went about her workday. Astoria hoped that her captivity was still giving the twins time away from Alecto. It was her only consolation.
It became apparent that Alecto did not want to be here, though not to the same extent as Astoria. The order from Voldemort to remain onsite in the city in search of Harry Potter must have still been in effect. One night, Alecto woke Astoria's sore-shouldered slumber with the sound of phlegmy, snorting cries. Under any other circumstance, Astoria would have been the first person to reach out to someone and offer support, yet this was Alecto Carrow. Initially, Astoria thought this was an insincere display intended to wake her. Thus, she was unnerved when Alecto met her open eyes with shock, hid her red face in her sleeve, and cast the Bewitched Sleep Spell, "Somnodurus," in Astoria's face. It was the best sleep Astoria had yet. The next night, Alecto jolted awake again in tears, only this time, she would not bless Astoria with the spell.
"You like watching me cry, Greengrass?" Alecto spit as Astoria looked at her with tired and confused eyes. "You cry all the time. You're not above me."
Astoria had no voice. She rubbed a knot in her neck and rolled over. Alecto blew her nose loudly, and Astoria was frankly too afraid of her to try to sleep through the sound. Astoria wished the dedication it took to hold her prisoner would bore Alecto and interfere with her orders. In spite of Alecto's obvious emotional instability, it never did. She merely kept Astoria cursed during the day and went about her duties. It was intentional that Alecto kept Astoria in a rundown Muggle hotel as opposed to any number of nice places she could have Imperiused her way into. Alecto was optimistic that Astoria would develop distaste for Muggle society. On the other hand, the Ministry might increase the cash reward for blood-traitors any day, and then Astoria would be sent to Azkaban whilst Alecto went home rich. Well, maybe not.
The Death Eater-run Ministry was more concerned with rendering Muggle-borns jobless, homeless, and imprisoned than with one teenaged blood-traitor in Alecto Carrow's possession. Did that make Alecto release Astoria? Oh no. Quite the contrary. Alecto started to force her "friendship" upon her in earnest. Alecto's idea of friendship was to alternate between beating Astoria and forcing her to have her hair brushed and plaited. All this time she kept her Silenced, and Astoria wished Alecto would go occupy herself with a toy doll so she wouldn't be forced to be one anymore.
Astoria's Silent-but-living state was addicting to Alecto, who still used the opportunity to overshare. Alecto was a pathological approval-seeker, so no matter Astoria's actual opinion, Alecto would charm her head to nod at things she would never endorse. She spoke about the Muggle-borns she was rounding up, telling Astoria that her favourite thing was to separate them. She relished in taking Muggle-born children away from their clueless, helpless parents. She targeted mixed couples so that one would go to Azkaban and one would be left behind. Alecto responded to Astoria's tears by hoisting her entire body up over her shoulder and patting her back, which was utter mockery. Astoria had but a sliver of Alecto's magical strength, so when she struggled in misery, Alecto nearly strangled her. She was so messed up.
About thirteen days in, Astoria got ringworm all over her feet from the mildewed floor. At fourteen days, Astoria learned her helplessness and stopped trying to get out. At fifteen days, Astoria saw some of the things Alecto wrote home, and she stopped saying her nightly prayers.
On the eighteenth night, if Astoria had counted right, she was not able to fall asleep at all. Usually, she got about two hours on the floor and another three hours on the bed once Alecto went out for the day. This night, Alecto had rolled onto her back and snored louder than the variety of Muggle motors outside. Although Alecto's sleep was not undisturbed (she kept snorting and hacking), Astoria's was non-existent, and being awake for so long had left her in need of the facilities. After an hour of trying to pretend that it was quiet, that she was somewhere else, and that her bladder wasn't full, Astoria couldn't take it anymore. If she didn't get Alecto to take the charm off the door and let her down the hall, she'd pee on the floor. Astoria stood up and walked to the lumpy lady on the lumpy bed.
"Erm… Alecto…" Astoria muttered, feeling completely stupid.
Alecto was probably going to wake up and strangle her to death. Oh well. At least she'd get to pee.
"Alecto. Hey," Astoria said, giving a gentle nudge considering how evil the bitch was.
"Alecto."
"Bah! Merlin!" Alecto shouted, her eyes flying open at the last nudge.
Astoria withdrew her hand faster than a mosquito from a swat, but Alecto still grabbed her by the shoulders and dug her nails in. If possible, her glare was even worse when she was tired.
"Please. I need to go to the lavatory, just for a minute. I wouldn't have woken you, but I'm trapped in here, and—"
"Don't you think I bloody know you're trapped in here, you stupid bitch?" Alecto seethed, and she hit Astoria clean across the face. "You used your privileges today, and now you think you can wake me up at any old hour? You think I'm your slave or something, you ugly little toff?"
Astoria fended off the contagion of Alecto's anger. She could have responded with any number of things. Instead she said, "If I don't go, it'll be in the corner of this room. I've been holding off waking you for an hour. I didn't do this on purpose."
"Right you didn't!" Alecto spat in her eye. "I've an early patrol shift. Must be a foreign concept to your rich, lazy arse."
She grabbed Astoria roughly by the arm, dragged her to the door, and undid the curses on it. Alecto had cut off Astoria's circulation by the time they reached the lavatory down the hall. She shoved Astoria inside and slammed the door. Alecto then cast curses into the door, and Astoria knew she was trapped again. It was so tiny and gross here, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about the humiliation of peeing on the floor. Astoria heard Alecto stomp back down the hall.
She'd be here forever, so she set some small, paper-like towels on the floor to sit on and leaned against the wall, crying quietly. Maybe by the time this was all over, she wouldn't feel the need to cry anymore. She wouldn't feel anything. The thought that she was permanently becoming someone else bothered her deeply. The only hint that she ever fell asleep was the nightmare she had. She jolted awake, knowing the pain in her hips, shoulders, back, and neck the moment she was conscious again. A thunk at the door had been the interruption of her poor sleep. Astoria first thought it must be a Muggle staying in the hotel, and of course, there would be the whole event with them trying to break into the lavatory again…
No, wait, it was Alecto. She was undoing the curses that kept Astoria trapped. It must still be night, and that frightened Astoria, for it meant that Alecto was not able to go back to sleep. Was she coming to kill her? Was death merely a long time coming? Astoria had thought she was growing impassive to the abuse, but for some reason she was terrified of the consequences that awaited her. Her skin prickled as Alecto cracked open the door, and Astoria saw the wand in her face.
"Out. Now," Alecto said grumpily as Astoria stood frozen with fear.
Astoria was, at first, relieved when Alecto merely Mobilised her out to the hall. However, Mobilising her wasn't the only spell she cast. Astoria found her body rigid and her hands and legs unusable. She started leaning towards the torn-papered wall from lack of balance and tried to use her knees to not fall flat on her face.
Alecto walked into the lavatory. Astoria's body made a noise on the way down, and she grew fearful that somebody — no, damn it, not just anybody, a male Muggle — would find her here, paralysed. For as little as she could actually move, she seemed perfectly able to shake in fright. How dare Alecto. How dare Alecto put Astoria in these situations where she looked at Muggles like savages. How dare Alecto make Astoria want her instead of the Muggles.
A blood-curdling scream came from the lavatory, and Astoria jumped in response. It was the jump that made her realise she could move again; Alecto's magic had broken. The screaming continued, a hybrid between fear and pain. Whatever was making Alecto scream like that could be something that would hurt Astoria, too. Had Voldemort Apparated straight into the sink? Was that really Alecto? She hadn't imagined Alecto Carrow could make sounds so aggrieved. What in the world happened? Astoria stood up uncertainly.
Alecto's was the only voice coming from behind the door. With no binding magic on her, Astoria was strongly tempted to start running and never look back. However, she was practically a Muggle without a wand. A teenaged Muggle in a big city at night.
Alecto's screams blackened into weeping. There was no other sound in the lavatory, but Astoria heard a few Muggles stir in their rooms. She had to think fast. She was going to take the chance that Alecto was alone. She would take advantage of Alecto's crying to get her wand back and run. Astoria widened her stance.
The door had never had the chance to be locked, and when Astoria opened it, she wanted it closed again.
What is this?
As hypothesised, Alecto was alone. She was slumped on the floor with her hands on either side of her head, heaving out breath, tears, and shivers. Astoria, too, found herself shivering all over again as another seam in her old world tore open. Alecto buried her death-white face in Astoria's clothing. Astoria realised that she had her voice again. She could barely use it. She could barely move.
"B-Boggart," Alecto wept.
"Okay, Alecto… I'll need my wand…"
"Boggart."
"…Okay, Alecto."
Cautiously, in half an embrace, Astoria drew her wand from the spare pocket of Alecto's night-robes. Alecto put up no fight, only made sound. With her wand back in her hands, Astoria's magic crackled like a hearth. Her first instinct was to fire a curse and escape, but Alecto, so helpless, was proving psychologically impossible to curse. A boggart could make sense, Astoria considered. Boggarts were created from human fear, and Astoria had spent enough time in terror in this tiny, dank bathroom. Sure, it was the right environment, the right conditions…
Astoria's proximity to the chaos and the fact that Alecto's face was buried in fabric led the boggart to change to fit Astoria's fear. That rendered the being thankfully invisible. Nothing else happened. Astoria most feared deception, but she was already in the company of a professional liar.
Alecto continued to cry on the floor. Astoria was used to Alecto holding her violently tight, but she had never been held tightly in desperation. Astoria shook free. Her escape was almost in reach. She couldn't tell where the boggart was anymore, but from her home lesson with Professor Lupin, she knew it had to be right in front of her. The boggart wouldn't pursue Astoria, though; it was no fun to be invisible, and Alecto was an easy victim. Astoria backed away enough for it to change again, but even without Alecto's renewed, raw screaming, Astoria didn't want to see the other form, either.
She said, "Riddikulus." It was an inane attempt, for there was no way to fix this. Yet Astoria felt that she was the responsible creator of this particular spirit. Oh, God, why couldn't she just leave Alecto?
Hardly processing what she was doing, Astoria held her breath and stepped closer than she cared to so that the boggart would simply have to change back to her own fear again. Before it could evade her aim, Astoria fired her wand with all the pent-up magic she had been carrying in this hotel.
"RIDDIKULUS!"
There was a swishing sound, and the boggart was transformed into a bottle labelled "Veritaserum," which rolled across the floor and turned to dust. Alecto remained sobbing on her hands and knees.
"Thank you."
Were Astoria's ears still playing tricks on her after the boggart? Did Alecto say what she thought she said? It didn't matter, Astoria told herself, it didn't matter. Anyone would thank her for that. Astoria suddenly freed herself from those non-existent, inexplicable chains and zipped down the hall. She burst into the room that had been her prison, grabbed her suitcase of pitiful contents, and ran back out towards the door labelled "EXIT" in glowing red. Her footsteps were thunderous down the stair, and the night's coolness was startling compared to the humidity of the building.
It only took a moment of quiet thought for Astoria to regret not cursing Alecto, to regret not taking her aspen wand. Alecto was sure to attract the attention of Muggles. They would be slaughtered. Maybe everyone in the vicinity would be slaughtered.
How could I be so careless?
Thinking fast, Astoria did the safest thing she could. Pointing her wand dead at the building behind her, she said, "Repello Muggletum." Shortly after, the windows lit up. The guests were waking. They would walk out, go somewhere else. Hopefully, lives would be spared. Astoria couldn't stick round to find out. She picked a road and started running. Her wand was out, teeming, ready to smash any threat against the pavement. Perhaps less expected than the threat of Muggles was the threat of wizards. One had Apparated right into her beeline, likely having Traced her underage magic.
"Bombarda!" she screamed, throwing down her suitcase.
"Protego!" the wizard, a Death Eater, responded.
"Celeri epiglottitis!" she cast, but he dodged it, and it hit an obnoxiously bright street lantern.
"Petrificus totalus!"
"Protego!" she met the blast angrily. "Diffindo!"
"Ach! Cruci—"
"Expelliarmus!"
Damn it to hell.
Though biffed across the shoulder, the wizard dodged her spell. Something about his magic seemed familiar, and yet it was not. Astoria was very poor at "sensing" magic. They circled closer in their duel. She could only hope that no more Death Eaters would arrive, especially Amycus, or she'd have to try her best to blow up the whole street.
"Cru—"
"BOMBARDA!"
The wizard went airborne, soaring backwards like a piece of paper to the wind, and the force of her spell knocked his hood off.
Oh my God.
A long, white-blonde ponytail flung out from the cloak. Astoria aimed again in the city's brightness and caught the fool before he could crack his back on the concrete. He floated there for only a split second before cutting himself free of her Levitation and getting ready for a deep curse. Then he recognised her the way she recognised him.
"Merlin's magic."
"Yeah," Astoria snapped. "Who'd you think I was, Lucius, Harry Potter?"
"Shh, do not say that name, you thoughtless—"
"Thoughtless? Me? Let's talk about you, about twenty-five years ago, sealing your family's fate," she sneered. "So how are we going to do this? You take me to Azkaban, or you bring me to the Death Eater social?"
"Would you be quiet."
Astoria was having none of this. She had her wand in one fist and her anger in the other. Lucius ruffled his feathers and sauntered on over to her, looking down each alley and roadway.
"Oh, lower your wand, Greengrass. Heaven's sake."
Lucius drew his hood back up and came within four feet of her, bringing the smell of Malfoy Manor with him that Astoria didn't know she needed. Based on his robes, Lucius had been stripped of his rank. Like Alecto, he was apparently relegated to Muggle-born round-up and Harry hunting. The bastard.
"Are there others of your kind?" she asked, for it was certainly a relevant question.
"No others in this area."
Astoria picked her battered suitcase back up.
"You knew I was round here, didn't you?" she glowered. "You're working with Alecto. Theodore saw me kidnapped. I'm sure Theodore told Draco. So you knew Alecto had me."
"I knew Alecto did have you at one point," Lucius corrected, but his correction made her angrier.
"You would've let me—"
"Shut it, girl. Be quiet," Lucius said, looking over his shoulders. "Where is it that you need shelter?"
It took no thought.
"Aurora Sinistra's. Hogsmeade."
"Take my arm."
As Death Eaters went, Lucius was, at least, far more helpful than the Obliviated Nott Sr. Had it been any other Death Eater, Astoria might be dead.
But this doesn't make up for— she started to think; however, the heave of Apparition took most of her thoughts for a spin. They Apparated a considerable distance outside of Hogsmeade, and Lucius hurried her along.
"Caterwaul at night," Lucius explained tersely. "I'm exempt, but I need to get you through."
Astoria's skin embraced the mountain air, however chilly. There was no more city, no more hotel. They hurried to the doorstep of a picturesque log and weatherboard house on the edge of town. It had a black-shingled roof slanted so sharply that one could ride a sled down it in the snow, if not for the many skylights. There were more skylights in the roof than windows on the house, and a familiar warmth enveloped Astoria's heart. The number of rooms could not have been surmised from the outside, for the house had many bows, bays, and mismatched additions, some piling around a handsome turret with magical telescopes sticking out of the top. Less charming aspects of the house were its unkempt brambles of roses and the upside-down ram's skull over the painted purple door. Those could be ignored easily, at least by Astoria. Lucius was masked, though his offended scowl could be felt.
"Never mention this, not to a soul," Lucius said.
"I won't. I swear," she answered.
However deeply thankful Astoria was, she could not bring herself to thank him. Lucius Disapparated, back to make others' lives miserable. The pair had gone unseen in this final corner of Hogsmeade. Even the Death Eaters who were evidently patrolling the village avoided this place, and Astoria remained well beyond their detection. With one last look over her shoulder, she knocked on the purple door. Deep inside the house, muffled bells tolled in great numbers for the purpose of alerting only one occupant.