/

Chapter twenty two

The anticipated attack

/

Draco was standing by an open window on the first floor of Malfoy Manor, drawing on his second cigarette that evening, as he watched six or so Aurors and a couple of Curse-Breakers helplessly wandering around the border of their grounds.

Together with his father, they secured the whole mansion well. None of those Ministry wizards could see the white house or the hedge around it, but the protective Family-Blood Charm always threw them back a good few meters when they got too close. They obviously did not know how to deal with it, even though they invited some wizarding specialists and it was pissing them off. They kept throwing both their wands and hands around furiously, arguing so loudly he could hear them on his watching spot.

The sun was setting behind the house and the first day after quite a long time during which he was not able to see his Daria was ending along with it.

Although, she would not even want to see me anyway, he thought gloomily. I must look at it realistically. What can she possibly think of me now? What she did not know, Angela certainly told her.

Ever since Lord Voldemort burned the Dark Mark into his arm, which still itched uncomfortably, he thought about his girlfriend, even if it was not very wise. He realized that Daria had to be in a quite bad state of mind at the moment. Yet, he doubted she could feel worse than he did.

I should have known that my happiness would not last long… he continued to muse in a glum mood. Everything went so wrong…

Last night, the Dark Lord decided that the close relatives of the Prescotts, who had once and for the last time got involved in matters they had no business with, would make excellent candidates for his final test. To the irony of it all, Draco himself had a trouble-free access to the otherwise protected house, about which Voldemort had fortunately no idea about.

It was horrible, but… He did not want to even imagine if it would come to it and he would have to complete the task with the poor Merills. How would Daria react if I did not manage to prevent for what he had been sent there? She would probably try to kill him the first chance she got… And she did not even know about other things he was forced to do.

Draco doused the cigarette against the windowsill. He flicked his wand lazily and the window closed. He turned to face the interior of the house, headed for the stairs and continued to ponder.

When he went to see Angela after his initiation, he did not really know what he was going to do. He found that out only when he was standing there face to face with his former friend. She did not seem to be doing well, but that was probably how anyone who became the murderer of his or her own mother would look like…

He remembered the conversation that took place after he returned to the Dark Castle and grimaced…

"I bow before you, Master," Draco Malfoy fell on his knees, a Death Eater mask on his face. "I know I deserve proper punishment for failing to complete your first task."

"I will not punish you, Draco," the Dark Lord hissed surprisingly mildly. "If only some of my servants were half as capable as you, you wouldn't have to seek out and dirty your hands with that traitor Rosier!"

Lucius Malfoy, standing nearby, lowered his head.

"At least you managed to break the engagement," continued the Lord. "I would not tolerate you would have anything in common with her."

"Yes, sir. And again, I am deeply sorry that I was not able to prevent her from calling help and that I had to…"

Voldemort interrupted him: "Enough, Draco. I already said I do not blame you. It´s better that the little bitch got away now, than if you would got caught. It will be her turn sooner or later."

Draco straightened up with quite a relief that the Dark Lord swallowed his excuse. Yet, he was not a fool. He realized that he only got away with it thanks to the fact Voldemort´s mind was full of other thoughts; otherwise, he would have easily detected a lie in Draco. This time, both he and Angela were lucky.

"Lucius, you may leave," Voldemort dismissed Draco's father from a dark room that was located on one of the top floors of the Castle.

Lucius Malfoy bowed deeply, indicated that he would wait for Draco outside, and disappeared. The Dark Lord looked at Draco thoughtfully, while he stood there as calmly as only possible and waited.

"Draco, I suppose you know Rosier pretty well, don't you?"

"Yes, Master," he nodded, wondering where the Lord was going with this.

"And you haven't noticed any signs of her wanting to… switch sides?" the dark wizard asked with disgust in his voice.

"No, sir," Draco replied firmly. "From time to time, she behaved rather strangely and sometimes she spoke about how annoying our training was, but I did not give any particular importance to those talks."

"Wouldn't you at least guess why she did it? Why did she betray me right before her initiation?" Voldemort asked urgently. "How was she even able to kill her own mother?"

"Clearly because of Potter, sir," Draco replied with a hint of surprise in his voice. He still controlled himself.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean, Draco?"

"Hasn't my father or aunt told you yet, Master?" Draco wondered more and more. If Voldemort really did not know yet, he could use it to strengthen his trust in him, so that he would not suspect him from being too lenient towards Angela… The news would blow up sooner or later anyway.

"What were they supposed to tell me?" the Dark Lord raised his voice.

"When we almost got them in that room near your Apparition place, we found out that Rosier has a crush on Potter, sir. She did it… out of love for him. Not out of loyalty to the Order or that werewolf."

Voldemort stared at Draco and remained silent.

"I thought you already knew, Master," Draco added, waiting tensely.

"For love?" Voldemort hissed contemptuously. "Those two, these very two, have some kind of relationship?"

"Yes, both of them revealed themselves back then," he replied confidently, but with a significant amount of resentment, to not even hint to Voldemort that he knew and covered up for their relationship long ago.

"And you had no idea about it?"

Draco gulped down and lowered his eyes, pretending to feel guilty: "No, Master."

The Dark Lord stood up from his chair covered in black velvet, walked over to the small, unglazed window and looked up at the dark clouds that had been lingering over the Castle area for some time now.

"How long can this thing between them last already?" he asked suddenly, with his back to Draco.

"It's hard to say, but for a while, sir. And it must be serious. Why else would Rosier do such a thing?"

"Yes, you're right. The little cunt must really love him. And what about Potter?" the Lord asked, and the tone of his voice began to slowly change to a calmer tone.

"When my father slapped her, Potter was red with rage and even in his unenviable position he dared to defend her and threaten us. So, I would say it's safe to assume he's head over heels with her," he replied.

"Hmm, yes, yes, good," Voldemort muttered, still looking up at the dark scenery. "So, after all, something we could use successfully…"

He turned back to his newest servant. "You will meet Pansy Parkinson on Sunday at half past one and tell her everything you know about the two of them. She will know how to deal with it. She will be waiting for you at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. I'll take care of it."

"Yes, Master," Draco nodded.

"We'll make our little traitor's further studies a little uncomfortable," the Lord hissed ominously. "Until I get my hands on her, of course," he smiled in a way that sent chills down Draco's spine. "Now go," he released Draco, who bowed deeply and headed for the door. "And… call your father back for me, will you?" Voldemort added maliciously.

"Sure, Master."

/

Convincing his father, who was quite suspicious about him being able to break off his engagement, yet letting Rosier escape from him with help of the Order, was somewhat harder. Draco admitted that to himself, as he descended the carpeted stairs. Nevertheless, he managed to persuade Lucius thanks to the fact that his thoughts were also wandering somewhere else. Probably because, he did not tell Voldemort about Potter´s and Angela's relationship, when he should have. This could not pay him off. Later, he heard that his father had guessed right. The Dark Lord was a bit angry that he had not told him about it sooner.

Draco descended into the hall and strode toward the hidden entrance to the underground passage. However, no matter how much he thought about his new position, or his father, or Angela, or the Dark Lord, or his upcoming meeting with Pansy Parkinson, he just could not shake off the horrible, gnawing guilt that he had caused Daria, the only person he had ever loved, such a pain. That he betrayed her trust and love and condemned himself to suffering of knowing that she hated him.

/

In the Room of Requirement, a fire crackled in the fireplace, lightening up the faces of two girls present.

"It's strange how much things can go wrong during one weekend," Daria said thoughtfully, taking a slow sip from her steaming cup of tea. Little did she know that at the exact same moment, her former great love was dealing with very similar considerations.

"Yeah, it is," Angela agreed, sitting across from her in a comfortable armchair, also holding a half empty cup. Then she glanced at the watch on her wrist. It was three quarter to seven. She sighed unhappily and Daria raised an eyebrow in question.

"I'll have to go soon," she explained her mortified expression. "I have a detention with Snape. The first one of the two-month-long punishment," she added gloomily.

"Two months?" Daria's eyes widened in surprise. "What did you do to him for Merlin's sake?"

"Well…" Angela muttered. "I spat in his face."

"What?" Daria was horrified for a change. "You really did? And you're still alive?"

"As you can see, yes. He didn't manage to utter a single word. But before that, he… he said some dirty things about my mother."

"Ah, now I understand a bit," nodded Daria, who knew the basic content of Mary Rosier's letter to her daughter. The identity of Angela's father was a big surprise to her, but she did not wonder that her friend had not told her earlier.

Angela spilled to her everything that had happened between the moment she left the Great Hall on Friday night and the morning Draco let her go. However, she purposely shortened the passage of their confrontation as much as possible, because she could see that the slightest mention of him caused Daria pain. Her friend was the only one she could tell all of this without fear.

They started confiding to each other already in the hospital, but after the head Healer almost forcibly escorted them away to rest, they continued at Hogwarts in the privacy of the Room.

"I've never liked Snape, but to think that he's such a scum..." Daria did not finish and just shook her head in disbelief.

Angela finished her cup with a gloomy expression. Daria looked out of the window, where the evening calm had already reigned.

"Doesn't that seem strange to you?" Angela brought up unexpectedly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the healers did say that your grandmother is in a deep unconsciousness and they didn't know when she would wake up, but… That's not the effect of the curse… well, of Cruciatus. We learned about that, didn't we?"

"So?" Daria glared at her.

Angela took a breath: "What exactly did your grandfather see or hear? Maybe that Draco…"

"You want to stand up for that bastard again?" Daria interrupted her immediately.

"No, no, I just… It´s hard for me to believe he would actually do it. That he would… torture your grandmother," she quickly finished what had been itching on her tongue the whole time.

"Then what did he do to her that she´s not waking up, huh?" Daria was getting angry. "Tell me when you're so smart! After all, it doesn't matter what he did to her! But he did it!"

"That's right," Angela agreed hastily. "Sorry…"

"It's my fault anyway," Daria sighed suddenly, placing her already empty cup on the table.

"What?" the brunette did not understand. "How can it be your fault?"

"If I hadn't started something with Draco, he´d never have been able to get into our house! My grandma would be fine!"

"You can't know that," she contradicted her not very convincingly.

"But I can! I kept the door wide open for him! It couldn't have been easier for him! This is my fault. Just mine..."

"Well... Seems that both of us worked the things out in quite a way," Angela guessed after a moment of tense silence.

/

Harry had spent most of Sunday afternoon tap dancing at various places in Hogwarts Castle that he assumed Angela might appear at. However, he had not seen a hair of her since breakfast and he was starting to worry again. Lately, anything to do with Angela was causing wrinkles on his forehead.

He had almost given up when he finally saw her coming down the main staircase to the Entrance Hall and immediately headed toward her with relief.

"Angela! Where have you been?" he blurted out in a low voice as soon as he was within earshot.

She looked around the immediate area and answered him just as quietly.

"I´m sorry, Harry… First, I went after Daria to the hospital and then we were in the Room. We talked for a bit," she replied, still heading quickly to the next staircase.

"Ah, so… And where are you rushing so much now?" Harry wondered, barely keeping up with her.

"For Snape´s detention and I'm already late," Angela explained.

"I see…" Harry grasped her elbow, stopping her rush. "Fuck Snape," he stated rather harshly and pulled Angela close to him.

They staggered back, hiding behind the dark corner in a tight embrace.

"You always know how to cheer me up," Angela smiled lovingly, when he let her speak again.

"Always at your service," he assured her.

"Glad to hear that," she whispered before he kissed Harry´s cheek and pulled back. "I must go or he´s going to strangle me…"

He let her go only very unwillingly and watched as she started descending the stairs to the underground passage.

"But… When we´re going to see Remus?" Harry called after her in a hushed voice.

"Sorry, tomorrow! Greet him from me!" she called back.

Harry wanted to ask why she got that punishment from the Bat, but she was already gone. He sighed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and headed upstairs to the Hospital Wing alone.

/

Angela stood in front of the door to Snape's lair and slowly counted in her head while breathing deeply. Before saying all the numbers from one to ten to herself, twice she overcame the urge to turn on her heel and bolt while there was still time. Not just because of what that bastard had done to her mother, for which she would most happily claw his eyes out, but also because she did not trust Snape for a second to be on Dumbledore's side and that meant he could attempt to take her to his master. She actually wondered why he had not tried yet…

Finally, she made sure her wand was ready in her pocket and knocked loudly. Snape was taking his time. There was no sound from his office. Therefore, Angela knocked for the second time and waited again. It was a test of patience because she knew very well that the Bat was there. Finally, a lazy ´come in´ was called, and Angela entered with her Occlumency mobilized.

"You're late," snapped Snape coldly as a welcome. "Yet, it's an achievement that you're here."

Angela closed the door and greeted dryly. Snape brushed it off as if she had not said anything.

"I expected you not to come at all."

"I wasn't far away from such a decision," she stated, glaring at him.

"Are you afraid of me?" Snape smirked smugly.

She gritted her teeth to keep her angry tongue at bay. When the Bat did not get an answer, he briefly gestured to the chair across from him.

"Sit down," he said tersely.

She settled in the creaky chair as if it was a comfortable seat and crossed her legs. Snape glared at her bluntly. She repaid him with the same. Now the question was who would last longer. It seemed endless to Angela before Snape finally averted his eyes and leant back in his chair.

"I've wondered for a long time what led you to such foul behaviour, Rosier," he spoke in a hiss.

Angela was tensely waiting to see what else would come out of him.

"And I could think of only one thing that would make you suddenly hate me so much," Snape continued and Angela's throat tightened. "Yes, that hatred is in your eyes and sometimes even on your face. You're not that good of an actress," he commented her expression. "Your dear mother probably told you before her miserable death what our relationship was like."

She clenched her hands into fists and remained silent, even though it was starting to cause huge problems for her.

"And she probably spiced it up with a lot of lies and half-truths, didn't she?" Snape sneered, curling his upper lip. "You know, Miss Rosier," he addressed her ironically. "You should not feed your remorse by being convinced of how great your mother was to sacrifice herself for her own daughter."

"I'm warning you, sir," Angela said suddenly and coldly. "Shut up or you'll regret it."

Snape leaned across the table toward her again: "You dare to threaten me?"

"That was just a warning, sir," she snapped.

The professor smiled wickedly.

"She moaned like a whore every time I took her," he hissed into her face. "And it's perfectly clear to me that you…" he trailed off; whatever it was what he wanted to say, was not supposed to be finished.

At first, Angela froze completely, but then she slapped Snape's face, causing his greasy hair to fly around his head. She jumped out of the chair she had been sitting on, grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on from the table, which was a tall glass with a greenish and rather disgusting contents and poured it all over his head.

"I warned you, you can´t deny it!" she blurted out between sharp inhales, while Snape watched her hatefully and shocked through the drops of slime. "Feel free to go and complain to the Ministry itself, I don´t give a shit! But don't ever talk about my mother again!"

Then she turned on her heel and stormed out into the corridor, slamming the door behind her so that three bottles spilled from the shelf next to them onto the stone floor.

/

"But I'm perfectly fine!"

"Yes, that's what everyone I treat here says. Lie down again!"

"No way! I'm tired of rolling around on the bed when I'm not sick!"

"Not sick? You must be crazy! Just this morning you threw up again, your body is weak and you do not sleep well! So don't tell me you're fine!"

The loud, arguing voices of Remus Lupin and Madam Pomfrey were coming from the infirmary. Harry walked in and found the pair by sight.

"Lupin, please, you must stay here and rest! What you've been through has left consequences that won't go away so easily!"

Remus mumbled something under his breath, but he was running out of arguments.

"Remus, you know it's no use arguing with Madame here," Harry stated loudly, closing the door behind him. Only now did they notice him.

"You see, even Mr Potter is smarter than you!" snapped the Matron. "Now lie down or I'll get really pissed off!"

"Well, all right," Remus finally relented, sitting on the bed behind him. Madame walked away, still checking on her patient from a distance as she prepared some potions.

Harry sat down on the next bed.

"You've really helped me, thanks," Lupin accused him grumpily and Harry grinned.

"If you stop telling her how well you are, she'll let you go sooner," Harry advised him from his own experience.

"Well, if only," Lupin sighed.

"Don't you know how Tonks and Moody are doing? I don't normally learn anything," Harry complained.

"Moody is still in the hospital, but stable and Nymphadora is fine. She even came to visit me," Remus replied calmly.

"In fact? And? What it was like?" Harry smiled widely.

"What? Nothing, what would it be?"

"But, please, Remus," he looked at him reproaching. "Do you think no one can see how you're looking at each other?"

"Harry, please stop it or I'll get up and gag you personally!" Remus bristled.

"Okay, okay, I´ll be quiet for now," Harry agreed with a laugh.

He was relieved to see that Lupin was indeed much better.

/

Harry gloomily observed the strangely noisy group of Slytherins outside the Potions classroom, completely oblivious to Hermione and Ron arguing with each other over some essay. Some of them kept peeking at him and sneered cynically. The biggest debate was burning in the centre of the pack, where Pansy Parkinson was.

At the other end of the corridor, Angela appeared slowly approaching. She was pale from lack of sleep and kept looking at the ground beneath her feet. Therefore, she did not notice the full attention of the Slytherins on her as they began to quiet down.

She had almost reached them before she finally noticed the suspicious silence, stopped and raised her head in surprise. All the seventh years from Slytherin stared at her mockingly and hatefully, and the Gryffindors waited to see what would come of it.

Angela took two more steps, but stopped again when that cow Pansy came out of the crowd with a bunch of her friends. She was already stressed out from yesterday's detention issue than to silently endure this treatment now.

"What is it?" she snapped grumpily. "Why are you staring at me?"

They looked at each other with knowing smirks, some glancing toward the group of Gryffindors. Pansy stepped forward, stopping directly in front of her and folded her arms.

"That you still have the audacity to ask like that," she drawled with a wry smile. "You're an even bigger traitor than we thought!"

The rest of Slytherin hummed in agreement.

"Tell me directly what you're talking about or shut up!" Angela snapped.

Harry became slightly nervous. Ron and Hermione stopped arguing.

"As if you don't know! You could have guessed that this would happen one day, right? That everyone will find out anyway!" Pansy retorted with disdain.

"What?" she asked, having just had enough.

"That you fuck Potter!" Parkinson declared triumphantly.

There was a murmur among the Gryffindors and they began to look around for Harry.

Angela was out of breath for a moment and felt a freezing cold rise from legs to her whole body. Pansy watched her with a smirk, as did the rest of Slytherins.

"You're not going to tell us anything about it?" her mocking classmate continued.

Well, here it goes… both Angela and Harry thought at the same time.

"You´ve lost your hearing?" Pansy snorted. "Answer me, you whore!"

In any other situation, Angela would not have stand such insults and talked back, but Pansy completely paralyzed her with her loud statement, although of course both she and Harry had been expecting it. Someone boasted to the Dark Lord about their new knowledge…

"Is he that good in bed? Or why do you keep that dusty Gryffindor dog?"

Harry blushed and Hermione grabbed his sleeve. Angela stared straight ahead with a rather pale face, almost as if she had not even seen Pansy. A flock of Slytherin geese behind her chuckled derisively.

"Still nothing? You disappointed me, Rosier! You played such a beautiful comedy on everyone for so long and now you can't even answer? You're such a coward," Pansy cooed.

Harry broke free from Hermione and was at Angela's side in no time.

"One more insult like that, Parkinson, and I'll personally shut your unwashed mouth once and for all!" he snapped at her, his hand sliding down his robes to where his wand was.

Pansy shot him a look of disdain.

"I'm so scared of you, Potter," she snapped ironically, turning back to Angela. "So, your lover has already publicly confessed to us here, and what about you?"

Harry yanked his wand out of his pocket, but Angela placed a hand on his arm.

"No, Harry," she said seriously, keeping her eyes on Pansy. With him on her side, she finally gathered her composure and will to defend their relationship. She managed to address the cocky girl in a fairly normal voice. "Then I'll tell you the truth, Pansy. To everyone else, too," she declared aloud, and the students who had been giggling or whispering urgently among themselves until now became tensely silent.

First, Angela looked into Harry´s eyes, searching for his approval. He nodded encouragingly and grabbed her from behind around the waist.

"I'm not fucking Harry, I'm dating him. And for quite long already," she announced, while almost everyone stared at her in disbelief. "And it's none of your business, or anyone else's, so stop insulting both me and him immediately, or I'll scratch that pig face of yours so that you won´t be able to recognize yourself."

Stifling silence fell upon their surroundings after this statement. The Slytherins watched the pair with hatred, the Gryffindors with disbelief. They were interrupted only by the opening of the door to the underground classroom. Nobody even moved. Snape, not understanding why no one was coming in, stepped out into the corridor and looked around sullenly.

"What's going on here?" he hissed in his usual tone, glancing over the students until he stopped at the hugging couple and widened his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he barked, heading toward them. Angela could tell from his expression that he did not know about them yet.

Nobody said anything.

"Someone explain this to me right now!" Snape demanded.

There was only grave silence again.

"Great! Everyone to the classroom! Immediately!" he snapped at the silent crowd.

The students slowly stirred. Only Harry and Angela were still standing and Snape was burning them with his gaze.

"What about you two? What do you think you are doing? To the classroom at once!"

Paradoxically, Angela had a lot to do not to burst out laughing. Snape did not really know how to behave. They walked hand in hand into the classroom, Snape breathing right behind their backs.

"Twenty points off Gryffindor!" he hissed angrily.

Harry went to sit in the back of the room with Ron and Hermione without comment and Angela headed to her seat. She tried hard to ignore that the whole class was staring at her. Before she could even sit, Snape hissed in her ear: "I told you that you were just like your mother!"

She left it unanswered this time. She just wondered how Snape would handle the two-month detention after their clash the previous evening. She got the answer sooner than she would have liked. For after the Bat gave them a task, as he passed by her, he said: "Your punishment is postponed for the time being, as I have no desire to endure your scenes!"

She was incredibly relieved, even though this information did not improve her mood in general much.

/

As usual, when something happened, the Hogwarts´ invisible news network went into action and by the time afternoon classes started, the whole school knew that Angela Rosier was dating Harry Potter.