Ten days. Li wondered by October the thirteenth how ten days could concurrently seem like such a long time and like such a short time, and for completely different reasons.
On the one hand, those ten days were the longest of her life, for despite the fact that she was now living with Theodore, the horrible silence had not ended. They never even exchanged polite conversation over breakfast—or any meal, for that matter—and Li felt that the madness she thought would end with his reentrance to her life would soon consume her.
The only time he had spoken to her since the night of her "kidnapping" was the following morning. Their conversation had been brief.
…
"It seems we've created quite a stir," Theodore commented, laying down the paper across the kitchen table. Li kept a straight face as she read the headline.
" 'Ravenclaw girl kidnapped from Hogwarts by Death Eaters; parents be warned,'" she read aloud, eying a picture of Professor Flitwick trying to herd several students inside. " 'Manasi Patil, 39, chose to withdraw her daughters, seventh years Padma and Parvati Patil, immediately. "My daughters are not safe here. No one is safe here," Mrs. Patil was heard claiming as she left the school with the girls. "Other parents would be wise to take their children out of this terrible place as well." Authorities currently have no leads, and reports of the involvement of former Slytherin student Theodore Nott are unconfirmed.' Well, at least they're using their brains on this one." Li looked up, expecting at least a smirk at her quip, but Theodore did not return her gaze, and simply took the paper back when it was offered him. And that was the last they had spoken.
Theodore seemed wary of even conversing with her politely. Their meals were completely silent—any food to be had was passed without question or comment—and he never bade her good morning or good evening or good anything, as well as she could hear. For her part, Li half felt that she might as well have stayed at Hogwarts until her initiation.
The initiation was the other thing making her nearly mad with worry. Though she was confident that she could handle any trials passed her way, and was not afraid of the curses she would suffer, Li feared that the Dark Lord would see right through her and discover her every secret. Her concern for her brother Jiang Fu and her feelings for Theodore were far too close to the surface for her to hide them, she knew. For hours, every day between her escape and the initiation, she pored over ancient books, searching for some spell to bind the secrets inside of her, but none seemed strong enough to withstand the Dark Lord's power.
When the day finally arrived, Li was numb all over. She was tired of trying to avoid the inevitable and bored with trying to convince Theodore that she was deserving of his conversation. All she could logically do was wait until that night came and pray that she survive. It was nearly five o'clock when she felt a shadow move over her and looked up to see Theodore, looking more intimidating than usual in his black robe, holding a skull mask in his hand and another robe draped over his opposite arm.
"You'll need to wear this," he informed Li, thrusting the robe at her. "It's mine, so it's likely far too big for you, but it's better than nothing."
Li held the robe in her hands silently for a moment before standing and slipping it over her day robes. It was, in fact, far too big for her. The sleeves extended several inches past her fingertips and the hem pooled on the floor like a puddle around her feet. Li knew that she must look ridiculous, but she was able to reach her wand easily enough, and she knew that a simple basting spell would keep her from tripping over the hem before the evening was over. When she looked up from examining her own appearance, she saw Theodore suppressing an amused grin.
She had been silent for so long that she had to cough for several moments before she could speak. "What is it?" she finally asked.
"Nothing." The smile was gone. Theodore offered her his arm. "Come on. You don't know where we're going, and splinching yourself on the way there wouldn't exactly make the best first impression on the Dark Lord."
Li nodded silently and took his arm. In an instant, they were gone from the flat and were standing in the dusty living room of what appeared to be an ancient mansion. She felt Theodore's arm slip from her grasp, and looked sideways just quickly enough to catch him slipping into the shadows with his mask on. She looked at the shadows around her and tried to identify real shapes, but before she could make out the figures of other Death Eaters, an icy voice hissed out, "Crucio!" and Li fell to the ground with a scream. She felt her back arching, her fingers flexing and curling, her very bones burning with a pain that seemed it would tear her apart. She was aware of her own screaming, and vaguely aware of laughter from the shadows (though—perhaps by her own wishful thinking—she did not hear Theodore's laughter), and as she was beginning to think the torment would rip her apart, it ended. For a long moment, she lay on the ground shaking and taking shallow breaths, listening to the laughter that echoed around her. I will not accept defeat so soon, she thought vehemently, and stood, still trembling, with her chin held high.
"Ah. Miss Su has spirit," the icy voice spoke again. Li felt that she was certainly hearing the words of the Dark Lord himself. "Very impressive for one her age."
"Forgive me, my Lord, but I disagree." Another voice from the shadows, this one female. Though Li could not be certain, her guess was that it was none other than Bellatrix LeStrange. She clenched her jaw to prevent herself from speaking out angrily against the other woman. "She is just a girl, and she has hardly proven herself worthy yet. Many have revived quickly following the Cruciatus curse."
"Very true, Bella, though I was not exactly going to grant her entry based on her survival of one curse." It was the Dark Lord, to be sure. Li managed to keep her breathing soft and even, despite her sudden excitement. It wasn't every day that a person met the Dark Lord himself. He was still speaking, now addressing the entire room. "Can anyone attest to her strengths, besides young Master Nott?" he asked. Li felt her lips tighten slightly. Theodore would hate being called that.
There was some shuffling, unsurprisingly, and Li was almost certain that no one would step forward, until a voice spoke from one of the back corners. "She is an exceptional witch. Very wise and mature for her age. My interactions with her in the journals have proven that much." Theodore's father. Li struggled to keep a look of disgust away from her face.
"Wisdom, maturity, all very important. She is your student, Severus. How is her work?" Li only barely managed to keep a straight face at that. Professor Snape—a Death Eater! This night was certainly proving to be revelatory, if nothing else.
"Her charms work is exceptional," came the familiar nasal drone Li knew so well. "I have never seen her attempt any sort of hex, but I can only assume, from her performance in my class and in others, that she would excel at any curse to which she put her mind."
He couldn't have given a more glowing recommendation. Li cleared her throat softly. "If I may be permitted to speak, my Lord...?" She felt it wise to ask permission to speak before doing so.
"You may."
"Professor Snape has never seen me attempt any sort of hex, but that does not mean that I am unversed in the art of cursing and hexing. My studies in Egyptology have resulted in my knowledge of a wide array of particularly potent curses and hexes that are relatively unknown outside of the field." A brief smile touched her lips. "You could call them my specialty."
There was some murmuring from the shadows, and the icy voice continued to speak. "Indeed. But now is not the time for showing off. Let us get to it, shall we?" A creak came from the shadows in front of her, and Li watched in silence as the imposing figure of the Dark Lord stepped out from the shadows, his red eyes boring into her. "Su Li Zhen, daughter of Su Leung Mei and Su Jing. You have four brothers, correct?"
"Three," Li answered, standing tall, knowing that she would have to admit to Jiang Fu's existence...at least, in a sense. "Jiang Fu is dead to us."
"Yes, he is a Squib. Your parents must have been pleased that you were not born so similarly unfortunate."
"Yes, my Lord."
"You think of yourself as witty. And you do not find yourself particularly inclined to declare your loyalty to me outright. Why is that?"
Li paused a moment. "I hardly think it wise at this point in time. With the Ministry still intact and things the way they stand, declaring my loyalty outright is more likely to earn me a lifetime—or almost lifetime—sentence in Azkaban, and I believe I am a great deal more useful when not in prison." She paused before adding, "My Lord."
"Logical and admirable, wouldn't you agree, Bellatrix?" The silence that followed the question was distinctly uncomfortable, and Li fought the urge to smirk at it. Bellatrix, she knew, had been sent to Azkaban for nearly fifteen years, and though she had not intended her response as an insult to Bellatrix, it gave Li a sense of power to know that she could cause such an uneasy silence. Yet the triumph was short-lived. Bellatrix stepped out of the shadows with her wand drawn.
"Admirable yes, my Lord, but worthless if she cannot perform." Bellatrix removed her hood and glared at Li. "I want to see her dance."
This time, Li was ready for the curse that was thrown her way, and met it with a decent shielding charm, or at least one that blocked the curse long enough for her to figure out what to do next. They weren't dueling exactly, but Li knew this was her chance to show what she could do. When the curse had been successfully deflected, she sent a bolt of blue light at Bella, just grazing the other woman's cheek and causing a jagged cut to appear. Before Li could react positively or negatively, Bella sent another, more powerful hex her way. Li jumped out of the way just in time and landed on her wand arm with a sickening crack. Fortunately, her wand was fine. Unfortunately, her arm was not. As Li began to sit up, groaning in pain, another Cruciatus curse came her way, and she found herself on her back again, screaming. No sooner had it been lifted than she was under another one, and another, and another, for she didn't know how long. When it was finally over, she stayed on her back, shaking and sweating for a long minute, before standing, clutching her left arm with a pained expression. Bella watched her with a triumphant smile as if to say, "I will always be the best, and you will never be."
Li did not support that thought. With a fury she had previously not realized she possessed, Li raised her left arm and pointed her wand at Bella. A murmur of surprise ran through the other Death Eaters, but Bella remained nonplussed. "What are you going to do with me, little girl? Perhaps a leglocker or jellylegs jinx?" she asked, laughing. Li shook her head.
"I am going to show you my specialty," she answered and flicked her wand, not flinching at the jolt of pain that ran up her arm. Bella was still smiling calmly until she noticed a sizable lump underneath the skin of her leg. It was rock hard and it was moving, causing a most peculiar and uncomfortable sensation as it did. "That, Mrs. LeStrange, is a scarab beetle. He feeds on human flesh, and particularly enjoys feasting on the brains of any given victim..." At that, Bella clamped her hand down over her skin right above where the scarab crawled. "...but he will settle for whatever he can get." A cry of surprise and pain issued from Bella's mouth as the beetle began to burrow. "He will never stop being hungry and will continue to eat you from the inside out until I stop him."
"Or until I do." The Dark Lord's voice rang out again, and the pale and shaking Bella stopped squirming. "I see you are quite talented in this area, Miss Su. This is not the only ancient Egyptian curse you know?"
"I know almost every one, my Lord." Li was still in a rage and not afraid to brag on her accomplishments.
"Do you know one that kills a person immediately? One that does not depend on the whim of a beetle?"
Someone in the room choked a laugh into a cough, but Li stood as tall as she could and answered the question. "I do."
"Tell me, then: are you loyal entirely to me?" His red eyes bore into her, but Li did not flinch.
"I am."
"And you will do what I ask, no matter how difficult, emotionally or physically?"
"I will."
The Dark Lord looked away finally. "Bring him in," he told two Death Eaters in the corner of the room, and Li heard them going out of a doorway that she couldn't see. Turning back to Li, he said in a terrible voice, "Now, it is time to see where your loyalties lie."
The Death Eaters returned, and between them was a man, screaming in a very familiar voice. Li felt a horrific shudder go through her body as the man was brought in front of her and looked up at her in desperation. Li stared back at the face of her dearest brother, Jiang Fu, and felt a wave of nausea wash over her. It was impossible. It couldn't be him, and yet it was. She clenched and unclenched her jaw for several moments while the Dark Lord continued to speak.
"Li, your loyalty to me is to come above all else, even above the lives of the family you hold dear. For this reason, I ask that you do what your father should have done years ago, and kill your Squib brother, so that your family's good name will no longer be tainted with that stain."
The entire room was silent, except for Jiang Fu's desperate screams. Li was at a loss. She had expected something like this. She thought she had prepared herself for it, but when it came down to the moment, her hands were trembling and she found herself at a loss for words and the power to use them. She stared silently, intently at her brother for a few seconds and, for the first time, listened to what he was saying.
"Please, Li, I've done nothing wrong! I just live different! That doesn't mean you should kill me, no matter what he says! Please!" he begged. Li inhaled sharply. Jiang Fu had always been as much of a stickler for grammar as she was; he would never make even the smallest mistake, even under such dire circumstances. Shaking, Li lifted her wand and pointed it at the impostor.
"Differently. You live differently," she told him. "Avada Kedavra."
When the curse had been performed, the effects of Polyjuice potion wore off. Li didn't care to know how they had found a sample of Jiang Fu's hair, or how they knew that she still loved him very dearly. She wanted to feel relief that the dead body on the floor belonged to someone in his late thirties with ginger hair, but had no time. As the body slumped to the floor, the Dark Lord was upon her, holding her right arm in an iron grip. She cried out as his wand touched her skin, burning the mark deep beneath, practically to her bones. It seemed to take an eternity, but when it was finally over, Li looked down at her arm in awe. So this is what it feels like to be something more, she thought.
It was only then that she realized she was trembling violently. Her legs felt as though they would give way at any moment. Li staggered and swayed, and just as it felt as though she would collapse, something outside of her forced her legs to remain stock still and strong. Something that had come in a warm rush from the right side of the room.
She accepted her mask and robes dutifully and the Dark Lord said some more things about loyalty and honor and such. And then Theodore put her hand through the crook of his arm and they apparated back to his flat.
Li was aggravated when they arrived. "Why did you do that?" she demanded.
"Do what?" He was still wearing his mask, but Li could tell that he knew what she was talking about.
"Lift it. Lift the charm right now."
"Fine." Theodore waved his wand, this time where Li could see it, and she fell to the ground, shaking violently. "Though if you think it would have gained you any respect to collapse like that in front of them, you're very desperately mistaken."
Li pushed herself into a sitting position with a huge amount of effort, her left arm still screaming in pain. "I prefer to rely on my own strength," she growled, trying to stand, but falling again and landing on her injured arm with a cry. Theodore was at her side in an instant, and with a wave of his wand, the bone was mended.
What happened next took Li far longer to process than it did to happen. Before she could say anything more to Theodore, his lips were pressed against hers in a fierce kiss and she, quickly getting over the shock of him kissing her after months of silence, could only respond in the same way. She never realized before that moment that one kiss could set off such vibrant fireworks inside of a person, or that the fireworks could consume a person so entirely that the entire world disappeared in a blaze of golden light.
…
But when she awoke the next morning, tangled in only the blanket he'd pulled down on top of them when the fireworks had faded into a gentle glow, he was gone.