Posting this from my little garbage phone is a struggle and a half. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!
I AM NOT PROFITING FROM THIS. ANY RECOGNIZABLE CHARACTERS, PLACES, OR EVENTS BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING
Chapter 21
When Rose woke up, the first thing she heard was the screaming, so she screamed too. Loud and piercing, something to drown it out. She needed her potions, but when she tried to lift her arm, she couldn't. Rose didn't notice when somebody rushed into her room, but that was also when she noticed that this wasn't her room.
"Come now Rose, quiet down now. Please." the woman pleaded, but Rose could barely hear her. She just kept screaming. Peppers was there eventually to lay his comforting weight on top of her, making the noise manageable. Her throat was raw, and she could feel her hair sticking to her brow. As a cool cloth was draped on her forehead, she tried to say something, but instead it came out as an unintelligible slur.
"Hush now, you're going to be alright. We have you now." was a slightly stern yet soothing voice as Rose was elevated slightly. Warm broth slid down her throat, and Rose couldn't help but hum. It was foreign to her, this feeling of comfort after so long. She laid back, the thrumming of the whispers lulling her to sleep.
"How is she Molly?" Andromeda looked up from her work when she heard the other witch enter the room. Molly rubbed her face, worry creasing her brow.
"Not good Andy. I can send for a doctor that my family knows, if you would like, because this is beyond what we think it is. Whatever reason she had for drinking all those potions, it was probably a good one. All she does is scream and moan about the voices in her head." Molly sat down heavily in one of the overstuffed sofas in the room. Ted had insisted that they bring Rose to his flat, where he had a small spare room for her.
"You visit all the time anyway Andy, I figured it would be best to just have her here." Ted reasoned as they lifted the unconscious witch into the bed and covered her with a quilt. She had quickly passed out after Andromeda landed in a meadow outside the forest, which made the rest of the trip a bit of a hassle. The Slytherin witch couldn't help but wonder what had happened in a few years to cause Rose to look and act this way. She knew what somebody addicted to potions looked like, she had all the markers.
"I might need to ask Bella what this is about. Maybe she'll have an idea of how to fix this." Andromeda said as she and Molly spent time to tediously clean Rose up. It tooks several hours between the both of them, and after they took turns keeping an eye on her. Ted made sure the two women were comfortable as they worked.
They had given Andromeda the cracked vial to examine, and this was something she shook her head at as well.
"Hopefully your sister knows something about this." Ted stared at the glittering liquid with curiosity. It went in a small pile of other things that they had managed to salvage from Rose's shelter. From there, Andromeda had taken the time to sort and clean documents, reading them to see what Rose had been up to, and if she had discovered anything useful about Voldemort. The majority of it was insane rambling, but some of it was actually helpful.
"Do either of you know what a...horcrux is?" Andromeda asked, and both Molly and Ted shook their heads. Andromeda frowned but put that page to the side for further research. Molly sipped from a mug of hot butterbeer before a contemplative look crossed her face.
"Andy, you don't plan on bringing Bellatrix here to see her, do you? And how would you even go about doing that? You haven't told Bellatrix you were trying to find Rose, have you?" she asked the witch, who tensed a little at this. The fight with her sister was still fresh in her mind. She tried not to think about the consequences her eloping with Ted would have.
"I haven't told her, no." Andromeda pursed her lips. Ted stopped stirring the food on the stove, giving his girlfriend a questioning look. Molly also looked equally curious.
"I have reason to believe that Bellatrix is married to these Death Eater people that follow Voldemort. Rodolphus Lestrange. Kingsley hasn't been able to confirm if it was him or his brother, but I'm not willing to risk that. Bellatrix may not be a Death Eater yet, but she's violent and dangerous, no matter what side she's on." Andromeda took a deep breath as she said this. It was a decision she had been agonizing over for weeks, ever since she decided to look for Rose.
"Wait, so us going out to find Rose? After all this, it wasn't for Bellatrix?" Ted asked, a slight frown of concern on his soft face. Andy shook her head.
"Maybe at first, but the more that I think about it, she's our best chance at fighting You Know Who. If Bellatrix gets ahold of her, who knows what will happen? When we were in school, Rose was starting to...become somebody else, she's easily influenced. And nobody had a bigger impact on her than Bellatrix. I just don't want to risk anything bad happening to her."
"Andy, I'm not really fond of Bellatrix...but maybe that's not for you to decide?" Ted looked at the spare room as he said this "Rose is an adult, like the rest of us. When she gets better, she can make the decision herself."
"Ted with all due respect," Andromeda's temper simmered under the surface a little bit "No. Rose was my friend, and if anything else happens to her that I could easily prevent, I couldn't live with myself. So she stays with us. I'll make sure she gets better. And Bellatrix won't hear about it." Andromeda said firmly. Molly, who had been privy to a conversation that sounded like it should have been private, stood abruptly and put her mug down.
"It's getting late, I should probably…" she didn't finish as she apparated out of the room. Andromeda gripped her quill tightly.
"Ted, when I said yes to you, it was because I love you unconditionally. But when I also said yes, I have endangered us, as well as my younger sister. I'll be burnt off the family tree, shunned from high society. That wouldn't matter, except now we're going to be another target for this stupid crusade." panic welled up in her voice, and Ted went to comfort his fiancee.
"Andy, I already figured that when I proposed. I'm just worried about how this will affect your relationship with your sisters. You've always been there to help Bellatrix, you talk about her so much. Did something happen?" Ted tried to ask, but Andromeda just buried her head in his shoulder.
"Nothing happened. She's just...being Bella. I can't help her, and I'm afraid that if Rose tries. she'll get sucked into it. She has to realize that she's her own person. This has become so much bigger than what she thought it would, I mean we were all just a bunch of kids…" Andromeda sighed.
The second time Rose woke up, she could still hear screaming, but it wasn't as pronounced. Squinting against the early morning light coming in through a window, she remembered that this wasn't the forest. Peppers was piled haphazardly on an old dresser, trying to soak up some rays. Groaning, she reached feebly for something that looked like a bottle.
"Just for the voices." she moaned when she picked up the bottle in the nightstand, only to realize it was actually a flower vase. She drank the water numbly, just wanting to soothe the scratch in her throat. Putting the vase back, Rose looked at her wrists. They were thin, each joint visible in her hands. And she was disturbingly pale, almost translucent. Peppers lifted his head when he saw Rose getting off the bed, but he didn't follow her out of the room.
Looking around, she saw a kitchenette, two lumpy couches in front of a small hearth, and two closed doors on the opposite side of the room. To her left, a door with a chain on it. One thing that struck her was how...No-maj the whole place looked. She frowned in confusion.
"Was I kidnapped by campers?" she wondered. The sound of a toilet flushing made her jump, and she stepped backwards into the spare room, barely peeking around the frame. After the sink shut off and the door opened, Andromeda Black stepped out of the bathroom, her mahogany curls untamed and clear exhaustion evident on her face. Rose's breath caught in her throat, because she really did look an awful lot like Bellatrix. Andromeda blinked sleepily before she saw Rose staring at her with wide eyes.
"Oh, you're awake! And moving, I can see. That's good." Andromeda gave her a warm smile. Rose could feel her heart slamming against her ribs, an unnecessary level of panic causing shivers to bloom across her skin, but she pushed the feeling down.
"Andy...why are you living in an apartment? How did you find me?" Rose asked, still not moving from the spare room. She gripped the door frame with one hand, while the other clenched and unclenched. Andromeda saw her hesitation.
"Rose, what's wrong? Do you want to come and sit down? I can make you some tea." the younger witch patted the back of a chair closest to her before she went into the kitchenette to put a kettle on.
"We got a tip from a wizard living with his family near the forest, saying that he had seen you near your tree. Not too many people have a giant python with them, you know." Andromeda chuckled. While her back was turned, Rose slipped into a chair and fiddled with her fingers, looking around the small apartment. There were pictures of a young man with his family, as well as a few with Andromeda in them, but not as many.
"Why don't I remember coming here? I remember you and some others showed up, but that's it. My head hurts when I try to think…" Rose mumbled as she winced.
"I'm surprised you knew it wasn't just me. Although you were a little out of sorts." She got a plate of scones from the counter and set them down in front of Rose "How are you feeling now?" she rested her head on her hand, watching as Rose snatched up a scone without hesitation.
"Hungry, my head hurts." she said as she wolfed down the pastry.
"Well don't choke. Here, tea's almost done." Andromeda didn't want to immediately barrage Rose with questions, but she did want to get the ball rolling. Sitting down with the two mugs, Andromeda watched the ghost-like woman in front of her pick up a mug and drink deeply, apparently not paying attention to the temperature.
"Rose, I had Ted and the others gather some of your things...we were curious about some things, if you don't mind us asking." she stood and went over to a little shelf near the kitchen counter and removed the cloth wrapped vial. Having all too quickly finished her breakfast, Rose focused on what Andromeda held with startling intensity.
"Wow, I haven't seen that in a hot minute." Rose held out her frail hand and grasped the vial earnestly, but then she immediately frowned.
"What? What's wrong."
"Nothing too serious...but my vial is cracked, I don't know if the enchantment will still hold on this old thing." Rose uncorked the small bottle and poured two drops onto her tea spoon before putting it in her mouth.
"Rose, wait what are you-" Andromeda panicked before she watched as Rose lurched from her seat and ran to the bathroom. Before the other witch could ask what was wrong, Rose was vomiting. Ted at that moment came out of his room and looked around sleepily.
"Whazzat?" he mumbled, but Andromeda just moved past him to see if Rose was alright.
"Hey, are you alright?" she asked, but Rose held up a hand to stop the other witch, who backed away. After a couple minutes, Rose was slumped over the tub.
"I'll run a bath." Andromeda patted her on the shoulder.
"You're looking a lot better. But are you sure you're ready to just get back into things like this?" Andromeda asked as she watched Rose pull a baggy shirt that Ted loaned her over her head.
"If my intuition is correct, I don't want to waste any more time than I have." Rose said shakily as she got dressed.
"And you're sure you're feeling better?" Andromeda looked dubious, arching an eyebrow. It reminded Rose of how Bellatrix used to give her the same look. She smiled at the memory.
"Positive Andy. That's pure unicorn tears, baby. Purged my system of all that garbage I'd been using. But now I have to be careful; the vial didn't refill itself, so this stuff is literally one of the most precious substances on earth." Rose kept the vial on her chain, where it had once been when she was in school. As she laced her boots, the taller witch felt Peppers come up next to her on the bed.
"Hey buddy. Sorry to do this, but I don't want people freaking out when they see you." she gave him a loving pat on the head before transforming him into a silver ring. This time, she wore it on her hand, placing it on her middle finger. Staring at her shaking hands for a moment, Rose stood and gave Andromeda a resolute nod.
"Alright, lead the way. It will be good for me to get back to civilization. Maybe this will do me some good.
She quickly decided that it was not doing her any good. As soon as Andromeda had apparated them to Hogsmeade, she quickly hurled into a nearby barrel. The younger witch gave her an uneasy pat on the back as Rose wiped her mouth.
"I'm fine," she whispered as her face turned a little green "Let's keep going."
Rose found that as they walked, the sparse plants growing between cobblestones or the ones eking out an existence in unkempt gutters looked like they were moving with her, the new green blooms bending towards her every movement. Rose felt like she was being watched. Rose gripped Andromeda's wrist suddenly, getting the other witch's attention.
"Rose, what is it?" Andromeda asked with a hushed whisper. Rose gave her a wild eyed stare.
"If you ever have the chance to read a cursed book about ancient and forbidden nature magic, don't read it. Put the book down, and run." Rose said. Andromeda just nodded and led Rose to the Hog's Head, putting the advice down as something a slightly insane person would say. Perhaps her time alone in the woods had messed her up a little.
"We're going to the back room Aberforth sets aside for us. You might see some familiar faces, but I'll be right here with you if you get overwhelmed, alright?" Andromeda said softly as she made sure she kept a solid grip on the wiry witch. Rose nodded hesitantly as she regarded disinterested patrons warily. Aberforth didn't give the pair a second glance as they moved to the back left of the smoke filled bar. Pulling out her wand, Andromeda pointed it at a panel at the end of the hall and waved it around.
"Peppermint bark." she said, and the panel slid to the side to reveal a door hidden behind the wall. Andromeda turned the handle and led Rose inside.
"Good to see you all again." Andromeda said as she entered the hidden room. Rose followed the shorter witch closely, and felt immediately like she was being judged and scrutinized. Andromeda stopped momentarily in surprise, but continued forward.
"I see you've brought a friend with you today, Andromeda." a rough Scottish voice grated on Rose's ears and immediately made every warning bell in her head go off. She looked over Andy's shoulder to see a formidable looking wizard standing at the head of a table next to Albus Dumbledore. Rose took a deep breath, her pulse quickening.
"This is Rose. Ted found her with the help of a local two weeks ago. I think she'll be an enormous help in all of this. She might have knowledge of things that can help us get a leg up." Andromeda moved forward to allow Rose to walk into the room, the door and panel closing behind them. Dumbledore looked at Rose, his wizened face still not betraying any sort of malice. In fact...he almost looked guilty. The pale witch regarded him with a cold glare as Andromeda led her over to a couch near the table.
"It looks like we're all here, so I'll get down to business. We can have tea and crumpets later." the Scottish man growled, though not in a necessarily mean way. Rose watched from the couch as the man, who she learned was Alastor Moody, laid out several maps, as well as profiles with people's photos on them.
"Thanks to the help of these kids, we've located some potential candidates for supporters of You Know Who. They're mostly upper class, wealthy blood purists. Because of this fact alone, it makes things a little more difficult if we want to collect evidence on them. They can afford the best lawyers and protection money can buy." Moody said gruffly.
"So what do you propose we do? We can't just keep waiting for people to go missing in order to search for them." Ted pointed out.
"Ted's right, is there any way we can figure out their moves before they make them? I mean, they're reckless with their attacks. Just the other week, they attacked a muggle neighborhood. The Ministry sent a whole load of Aurors to cover that mess up." Arthur said glumly. Rose listened intently to what everybody was saying before eventually she noticed more people were looking at her. She shrank slightly into the couch, but Andromeda gave her a comforting pat on the arm.
"It's alright, we just want to hear what you're thinking about all this." Rose frowned...she didn't have too much to offer for information, but she guessed she could analyze the situation well enough.
"It looks like he might be trying to thin out resources as much as he can. For example, he'd probably increase attacks on No-Majs over time, and the threat towards other witches and wizards will only increase. We should root out who's who before it's too late. Weaken them instead." Rose said quickly, her voice coming out a little hoarse. She noticed one witch at the table giving her a curious look before Rose caught her, and she turned her head bashfully. Moody considered this advice, and glanced at Dumbledore, who had been silent the whole time.
"That makes enough sense to be plausible," Shacklebolt spoke up"so the question is, knowing what we know, what should we do?" he looked around at everybody until the short dark haired witch with rosy cheeks spoke up.
"I actually have the profiles that the boys sorted, and it looks like we could catch most of them at the annual Christmas charity ball that the purebloods host." Hestia spoke up, and Rose noticed how Andromeda seemed to tense a little at the mention of this.
"So what, do you suggest that we sneak into the ball? I hope that isn't what you're suggesting, because my family is hosting this year. It's going to be impossible to infiltrate." she explained, but that just made everybody look at her incredulously.
"Andromeda, that means it's the perfect chance for us to get in! You'll be our ticket in, and you can quite literally give us a detailed map of the whole place." Kingsley looked excited, but Andromeda looked even more upset and uncomfortable.
"I understand that much, but it's...I don't know. This could go horribly wrong too." a dark look crossed Andromeda's face, and her and Ted shared a look. Moody slapped the palm of his hand on the table triumphantly.
"Well, you don't have to worry about it being too dangerous, because you have a whole team of relatively talented witches and wizards. We can handle a little bit of espionage, no problem." the wizard seemed confident. Rose, on the other hand, couldn't help feeling a little anxious herself. If three years had truly passed, that meant Bellatrix was married now. And after three years, maybe she had a child. Rose knew she would never do that willingly, but if she had no other options…
"So then we infiltrate the ball. We should start planning that maybe?" she asked the group, and they seemed surprised by her sudden willingness to help out, despite only having walked in the door about an hour before. She locked eyes with Dumbledore, feeling like she had something to prove to him now.
Maybe it was because she was invalid for so long, or maybe she felt now she had a different purpose, but somehow, helping Andromeda felt like the right thing to do.
"She was the one who came to find me, after all." Rose thought a little bitterly "I can't expect Bellatrix to be totally in love with me after all this, I would understand if she wasn't interested anymore. Maybe…" her face darkened and her chest hurt a little at the thought, but she stopped thinking about it.