A little girl screaming, men in shining armor dragging her to the stake.
A father mourning, head bowing over a pile of ash.
A mother fading, too much blood after the baby.
A daughter hiding, killing the man who had seen her eyes before he could move.
A brother raging, the world his to burn for the pain it had put on his family.
Evanna locked herself into her bedroom when she returned from spending the day with Harry. When she slept, her dreams were wild, confusing. She paced most of the night, thoughts racing. Her father had left the country, had left her in charge, and yet she had not known there would be an attack. Had it been at random? Some Death Eaters blowing off steam? Or was something more sinister at foot?
Answers came by way of the owl post the next morning. The Daily Prophet reported the entire bridge had collapsed. Over two hundred muggles dead or injured. But the most telling was the picture on the front.
Bellatrix, shooting a Dark Mark triumphantly into the sky.
This had been no random Death Eater attack after one too many at the Leaky Cauldron. No, this had been planned by the Dark Lord's lieutenant. Except, she was not that any more. Evanna was the one now at her father's right hand; she was the one who was supposed to speak with his voice when he was away. But her birth mother had undermined her.
Icy rage poured through Evanna's veins as she watched Bellatrix point her wand in the sky and shout the spell to shoot the Dark Mark into the air over and over. Without consciously doing it, Evanna's hands crumpled the sides of the newspaper before it simply disintegrated into ash.
She quickly dressed herself, choosing some pure black robes that Professor Snape had spelled with protective shields of all sorts. Carefully, she strapped her wand holster to her wrist before yanking the door open. She stormed down the stairs, her robes billowing behind her like storm clouds.
Bellatrix was eating breakfast in the formal dining room, sitting across from the head of the table. Evanna's anger ratcheted up another notch.
"What the hell were you thinking?" she demanded.
Her birth mother carefully finished the scone she had been working on, carefully licking a smidge of jam off her finger. Evanna pursed her lips, tracking every movement.
"Dumbledore was officially reinstated as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. We could not sit by and do nothing," Bellatrix said.
"So you attack the muggles?" Evanna demanded. "When we are trying to convince the magical world at large that it is time to come out of hiding-you're giving them reason to still hate us!"
"The filth can no longer even fathom magic as being real-"
"And that is excuse to murder innocent children on the street?"
"Careful, daughter," Bellatrix said, a cruel light in her eyes. "You sound as though you are concerned for the vermin beneath our feet. I would hate to think that your time spent with that boy has corrupted you."
Barely a thought, and Evanna was inside her birth mother's mind. Though Bellatrix did not know it, Evanna turned over every memory from the past months since the woman's escape from Azkaban, determining quickly that what Bellatrix knew only came from the rumors that had always surrounded Harry and herself, things that her father was already aware of. Still, she could not stop there; barely registering that she had done it, Evanna had Bellatrix kneeling before her.
"I am the Dark Lord's heir, not you," she hissed. "I don't care that you birthed me; I have the blood of Slytherin. I have the Gift of Violet Eyes. I rule when he is gone. Not you."
"I have been around longer and proven my loyalty many times-"
"Then why sneak around my back when he placed me in charge, Mother?" Evanna demanded, all but spitting out the title. "The Dark Lord and I wish to see a return of Camelot. Wizards and witches able to live as they were meant to do; using their gifts without fear."
"You are a naive little girl, seeing the world through rose-colored glasses," Bellatrix snarled. "There was never Camelot with wizards and filth skipping through fields of daisies. We will only rule when the muggles properly fear us."
"They will start the witch hunts all over again!" Evanna hissed, Bellatrix's mind still firmly in her grasp. She saw the long fingers of dementors, still here even months later, infecting the woman's mind with madness. But, there were older memories too. A sister running away. A boy taking what he wanted, then leaving in fear. Her parents stern disapproval and harsh punishment. And finally a tall, dark-haired handsome man, promising her vengeance and a return to the glory she had once known.
Suddenly, Evanna found herself ripped across the room, pinned to a wall. For a moment, she was back in the training room with Lucius, the man refusing to release her from his magic's grip until she could do it herself. Then she was back in the dining room, staring up at the Dark Lord with a face like thunder.
She's almost too powerful.
"What," he hissed in a low voice, "is going on?"
It took Evanna a moment to regain her voice, but in that moment Bellatrix had already spoken.
"Milord, she does not wish for muggles to be hurt. She would prefer us all continue living as cockroaches, hiding when our rightful place-"
"I never said that!" Evanna interrupted. "Father, you left me in change and she ran off to an unprovoked attack in muggle London that could undermine everything we are trying to do!"
The look on his face was unreadable. He seemed to look both Evanna and Bellatrix up and down several times, studying them each. Finally, he held a hand open to her, lifted her from the ground.
"Leave us, Bella," he said. "I would have a word with my heir."
"Master-"
"Leave."
The look on the Dark Lord's face must have been terrible indeed for Bellatrix did not argue again and instead all but fled the room. Evanna fought to focus her mind away from the fear and anger of the day before as he studied her intently. When he finally turned away, Evanna felt her knees go wobbly at the sudden lack of the weight of that stare.
He turned again when he reached the head of the table. He gestured at the seat to the right of him. She slowly took a seat next to him. Silently, he reached for the pot of tea, pouring first himself a cup and then her. As she knew to be his habit, he then dropped no less than four cubes of sugar into his cup.
"What, did I once tell you, is the purpose of having an heir?" he said softly as he spread marmalade onto a scone.
The memory was at the forefront of her father's mind, so the answer he was looking for was easy to grasp.
"To secure your power, Father," she said.
His mouth quirked. "You cheat, daughter," he said.
"I use all resources given to me. I would think you would appreciate that," she said lightly, falling back into the role she had played last summer-not rebellious, simply spirited enough to entertain.
"That being said, it is time you do more than undermine my followers' less than savory pastimes," he said. "It is time that you secure my power. Who, child, is our most dangerous enemy in this war?"
Green eyes flashed in her mind and her heart somewhere in her throat. A memory floated towards her, of Professor Snape telling her that the Dark Lord could have her lure Harry to his death and-
"Harry Potter?" she murmured, hoping against hope that she was wrong.
Her father snorted. "The whelp is a useful symbol. But, he will be of no concern once his puppeteer is dead."
Evanna felt her mouth go dry.
"Albus Dumbledore. You want me to assassinate the headmaster."
"I had hoped it would not come to this," her father leaned back in his chair. "But, you must prove yourself and your loyalty to my followers. And, we need rid of the meddlesome old fool for good."
Suicide mission. This was a suicide mission. She was not yet quite fifteen-still three years before she would even be of age. Albus Dumbledore... Albus Dumbledore was over a century old and the most powerful Light Wizard in more than a generation. Evanna would one day be his equal, if not more powerful, but she was a child in comparison to him-an infant.
"How-when do you expect me to do this?" she said, her voice coming out a little hoarse, as her mind was going a million miles a minute. "I have OWLs this year."
The Dark Lord actually started laughing at that. "Though I appreciate your devotion to academics, Evanna, you can pursue all the scholarly wisdom you desire after we win the war. Once you do this to secure my power, I will teach you how to secure yours."
There were odd thoughts floating at the forefront of her father's mind. A dark cave with an underwater lake. A vault in Gringotts. A room full of forgotten objects.
"How?" Evanna asked.
"Did you not ever wonder how it was that was able to escape death?" he said. "My body was blasted to dust that Halloween at the Potters, but I found methods to safeguard my essence. You will learn to do the same, that the Slytherin dynasty will rule for a thousand years."
Something about the gleam in her father's eye terrified Evanna more than even Lucius ever had. It was madness, pure madness.
"But," her father added, seeming to come back to earth for but a moment. "You must first rid us of Albus Dumbledore."
"Father, how-"
"Or do you have some loyalty to him?" her father said. "I told you, Harry Potter is a pawn. A useful symbol, yes, but a pawn. You wish to take…. A more subtle approach to this war, yes?"
"I believe it best to show the world we are the reasonable side, yes," she said carefully.
"That cannot be done while the old man lives. Perhaps with him gone…. Potter would be just as effective for our cause should you bring him to our side, yes?"
Evanna could not help but picture it for a moment. Harry, who had known the cruelties of muggles better than she, standing beside her and her father to welcome a new age. Not a war, but a revolution, where powerful children would not be left to be abused by those too weak to see that power as a blessing.
"He has been manipulated by Albus Dumbledore for a long time," Evanna finally said, shaking herself out of such fantasies.
"Nearly as long as he's been infatuated with you," her father said.
"That would still require killing Albus Dumbledore," Evanna replied, a little hysterical. "I have three years before I come of age, Father! And has had over a century of practice!"
"Did you think my heir would sit idly by, going to balls and weeping over muggle whelps until she came of age?" Voldemort hissed, a cold light in his eyes. "I would suggest, daughter, that you focus less on schoolgirl matters and find a way to end Albus Dumbledore belt the end of the school year, or else do not come back."
"Father!" she cried, chasing him as he swept from the room. "Please! If I have done something to displease you-"
Lord Voldemort whirled on her, brandishing his wand, fire in his eyes. Fear gripped her as she dropped to her knees, images of Lucius filling her mind. She put her face to the ground, hands protecting the back of her head.
"I am sorry. I will do as you say. I am sorry. I am sorry.*
She had not realized she was crying until she felt her face being lifted up. Her father was still angry, but somehow it had shifted. It was once again her father behind those eyes, not Lord Voldemort.
"Lucius did not suffer enough," he hissed. "He nearly destroyed my legacy. But you will set it right, Evanna."
Evanna found herself shaking as Voldemort wiped a single tear away.
"I do not expect you to do this task completely on your own, Evanna," he said softly. "In fact, I would most like for my Death Eaters to see your utter loyalty to me when you end Dumbledore."
"I-thank you, Father," she said softly.
"Go, clean yourself up," he said. "Then come to the training grounds. It would not do for you to be wholly unprepared."
Evanna nodded as her father stood her up. Right before she entered her room, she saw her birth mother watching her in the hallway.
"I did warn you," was all Bellatrix said before turning and leaving. Evanna said nothing as she closed her door behind her and locked it wandlessly.
She had to find a way to kill Albus Dumbledore.