Author Note: Oof its been a little while - my bad!

Life's been a little hectic right now and I've been busy but here's another chapter, though it's still not fun I'm afraid.

I also happen to be working on an original work over on Wattpad which is a queer, dystopian, revolution type thing so feel free to check that out! (User name is still Whyam1writing and the story is called, 'A winding road to revenge')

Also this fic is 2 years old! what the fuck!

Hope you are all doing well xx

Both her parents were silent as they left the party and flooed home, something that filled Ebony with a horrible sense of dread.

"The study, now," Rodolphus commanded and Ebony swallowed. Nothing good ever happened with chats in her father's study. Her knees shook as she climbed the stairs - though she was unsure whether it was more out of fear or the amount of wine she'd had. She hated the sound of the other footsteps that followed behind her.

Ebony had barely stepped into the room before the door slammed closed behind her parents.

"Your behaviour tonight has been completely unacceptable!" Her father roared and Ebony braced her back against the desk, her knuckles white as she gripped the edge.

"Anything to say for yourself brat?"

There was a ball of fury burning in Ebony's chest that she suspected had been smouldering for quite some time. It was getting dangerously close to exploding.

"Alexin Rowle is a prick and I didn't want him near me!" she cried.

And for a moment, Ebony thought she saw a flicker of recognition in her mother's eyes. Her parents didn't love each other - that much was obvious. But Ebony had spent so much time hating her mother that she forgot to consider that perhaps she'd felt the same way a long time ago.

Bellatrix jammed her wand to Ebonys chin. "That's too bad! We don't all get what we want!"

Unfortunately, any possible sympathy from her mother seemed to have long since dried up.

"I won't marry him, I won't!" Alexin's sick grin as he touched her wouldn't get out of her head.

"Oh you will," Bellatrix snarled back. "I am your mother and you will obey me!"

"Funny that, how I only seem to be your daughter when it suits you. The rest of the time you pretend I don't even exist."

"That's because I wish you were never fucking born!"

Ebony's breath caught in her throat. Her mother had said far worse and the statement shouldn't have been surprising but the sentence seemed to tear through her heart all the same. Even her father seemed mildly stunned.

She could do nothing more except fix her gaze to the floor to hide the burning tears spilling from her eyes.

"Well if we've finished with the dramatics," Rodolphus said, breaking the tension between the two women.

Ebony looked over and saw her father had wandered around his desk and pulled out a letter.

"You know," he said, leaning his elbows against the back of his chair as he skimmed the letter in his hands. "I really hoped that this wouldn't be necessary, for once I gave you the benefit of the doubt."

"Your first mistake," Bellatrix scoffed. Ebony just looked between them, her heart hammering.

"What do you mean?" she asked, wondering what on earth her father could be referring to.

"Crouch wrote to me," Rodolphus said and Ebony just frowned. What had their old friend who had died in prison got to do with her? "He was a teacher last year, did you know?"

Her father took far too much joy in her look of confusion.

"In a disguise of course, never thought he would best a top Auror like Moody but there we are." Ebony was struggling to process her father's words, her head hasn't stopped spinning since earlier events in the evening and her confusion was only growing. "He saw some things, things he thought best that I knew."

Then it clicked and her eyes widened. It was her mother's turn to look confused.

"What things?" she snapped and Rodolphus didn't have time to answer his wife before she snatched the letter out of his hand. Ebony watched the fury burning in her eyes as she read the words that Ebony knew were there.

"LONGBOTTOM?!" The scream was followed by a searing bolt of pain that tore through Ebony's body. She collapsed to the floor with a thud.

"Calm yourself, dear," her father said. "I'm sure that Ebony has a perfectly decent explanation for this." He looked at her and as she met his eyes she knew he knew she didn't. He just wanted to enjoy her saying it out loud.

"He's just my friend," she breathed, still reeling from her mother's outburst.

Rodolphus laughed, "Oh, Crouch seemed to think it was far more than that. Yule Ball ring any bells?"

Ebony's heart hammered harder in her chest. It turned out that maybe Draco hadn't been the only one who saw them that night.

"He is just my friend, really," she pleaded. She knew she was fighting a losing battle and that even being friends with Neville was a crime in their books but she was trying anything to get off reasonably lightly.

Her mother grabbed her chin and pulled her from the floor, pressing her back into the desk. Rodolphus pressed his wand to her forehead.

"Let's have a look, shall we? See for ourselves."

"No!"

"Legilimens!"

Her head began to bring thoughts to the front of her mind as if they were a library for someone to browse.

"Seam and Dean have been teasing me about it for years and I've always just told them to shut up but this year, well this year I'm realising that they might have a point." He let out a nervous laugh and swallowed. "And that point being that I may have a small... to medium to blooming massive...crush...on..you."

...

She tried to think of anything else, anything but him.

...

"You cold?" Neville asked.

"Just a little."

Neville slipped off his dark red cardigan and held it out to her. "Here."

"But then you'll be cold."

"I'm fine."

Ebony took it and pulled it on. It fell almost to her knees and her hands had completely disappeared inside. She waved the floppy ends of the sleeves at Neville and giggled. "Fits like a glove."

He grinned, "it suits you."

...

Ebony shook her head and struggled but her mother's grip was firm and her father's spell kept poking around her memories.

...

"What are friends for eh?" he said with a grin.

"Friends?" she said, finally looking up through her curls.

"Me and you?"

Ebony held out her hand to him, a smile on her lips, "I like the idea of being friends."

...

"Can I-can I kiss you?" He stammered and her heart threatened to flutter out of her chest.

Ebony answered with a smile and slipped her hand round to the back of his neck, her fingers brushing the edge of his hair. She gently tugged him towards her. He leaned into her and the next thing she knew their lips were brushing against each other.

His lips were soft and warm and, like everything about him, they were so unbelievably gentle.

...

Stop it, stop it, stop it.

...

"I hadn't even thought, finally we get to spend Christmas together!" He exclaimed.

"And it's going to be the best Christmas I've ever had. No parents, just my best friend."

...

"Well, I was wondering, um...of course, you don't have to but well-" he was flushing a very deep crimson and Ebony's heart pounded as she predicted what he was going to say-"would you, you know...want to go to the um ball? With me?"

She let out a shaky breath and smiled, feeling her own face burn a little, "yeah, I'd um... I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

...

She only looked up when she heard footsteps retreating. She watched him wander back into the hall.

That's when she noticed 3 slices of toast on a napkin next to her on the floor and the corners of her mouth twitched into a smile.

...

"Come on," she said, hopping down from the wall and tugging him by the hand. They moved into the middle of the courtyard. Neville slipped his arm around her waist, clearly having gained a new burst of confidence. Ebony placed her hand on his shoulder and rested her head on his chest, listening to the rapid thud of his heart.

...

Ebony let out a huge gasp as if her head had been held underwater. She breathed heavily as she regained control over her thoughts. Her father had let go, he was pacing by the opposite bookshelves, pinching the bridge of his nose. Bellatrix was still gripping her chin, her gaze sharper than ever.

Ebony didn't want to know what vicious thoughts were swirling behind her eyes

"You are never to see that boy again," her father announced, stopping his pacing as he spoke. "I will write to Dumbledore tomorrow and demand you be moved to Slytherin where we can keep a proper eye on you."

"I don't want that," she said, her heart aching at the thought of being ripped away from the one place she felt safe. "What about what I want!"

I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU WANT! He roared and she flinched away from him, "You have a duty and you will fulfil it. It's not like you'll be good for anything else."

His words stung her more than his belt ever did.

"I just want to be happy," she uttered.

"I do not have the energy to deal with your childish notions of love and happiness. You will not see this boy again, do you hear me?"

"Why do you take away everything that I care about?" She knew she sounded like a whining child but she didn't care. Ebony was beyond fed up.

"Name one thing."

"Dotty."

"Oh, that ruddy elf!" Rodolphus said, pinching the bridge of his nose again. "It's gone, forget about it."

"SHE was more than a ruddy elf to me! She was my best friend!"

"Well that's just a bit sad isn't it?" Her mother said with a frown of mock pity. She dug her nails in the soft skin on Ebony's chin. "Ickle Ebony all alone except for an elf and a chubby, loser of a boy that no one else wants to be friends with!"

The fire inside her had reached a temperature that it never had before.

And that's when Ebony did what she hadn't done properly in fifteen years.

She fought back.

She gave her mother a hard shove in the chest, catching her by surprise and making her drop her grip. As she started away from the desk, Rodolphus seized her by the shoulder but she twirled around and booted him in the shin. He dropped his hand and let out a grunt.

Ebony darted for the door.

"Diffindo!"

Then there was a searing pain across her back that made her legs give way. Still, Ebony continued her efforts and desperately crawled towards the doorway but then the spell came again and she collapsed on the floor completely.

"Valiant effort," Rodolphus said, his voice thick with mockery. "You made it all of about three metres."

Ebony could do nothing but groan in pain as she lifted herself into a sitting position, which was a struggle against the pain and the large amount of fabric of her dress.

"I've had enough of this nonsense," Rodolphus muttered and began to make his way past her to the door. He turned to his wife as he reached for the doorknob. "You deal with this."

His words increased the already panicked beat of her heart.

Ebony hated both her parents but she was terrified of her mother.

Rodolphus was cold, distant and had words that could slice you open but he wasn't especially violent. Not usually, not when sober.

But Bellatrix was a monster. She was cruel and took far too much pleasure from others' pain. She was disgustingly creative and the sound of screaming was like music to her ears. She loved nothing more than someone cowering from her.

Rodolphus was the buffer - he stopped his wife before she went too far, before they had yet another thing to cover up from the ministry with a donation or Galleons exchanged behind closed doors.

So as Ebony watched her father leave the room, she lost all sense of her pride. "Father, please!" He turned, a hint of surprise on his face. He looked into his daughter's pleading eyes and then to his wife.

"Try not to make a mess, darling."

Then he was gone.

Bellatrix turned to her daughter with a wicked glint in her eyes.

Ebony bit her lip and shook her head, shuffling backwards on her bottom. "Please, mother please!"

Bellatrix only grinned.

"You know what begging does to me."

Her mother's bejewelled dagger glinted to the low light of the study.

"You're about to learn what happens when you don't heed warnings."

Then there was only pain.

...

Sirius watched Remus smirk as he lay down the last of the cards in his hand.

"Again?" Tonks cried and threw her hand down in a huff. The three of them had been playing cards since Molly and Arthur went to bed and Sirius had to admit that he was beginning to feel like himself again. There was comfort in cards(Remus winning as usual), firewhiskey, and friends, all paired with the gentle pattering of rain outside. It was almost enough to forget where he was currently stuck.

That was until the doorbell rang and his mother's screams filled the house.

"Who on earth could that be?" Tonks asked and Remus looked at him with a frown. Sirius rose from his seat slightly, trying to remember if anyone said they'd be dropping by late. He couldn't, the people that stayed at Grimmauld Place were currently all within its walls.

The bell went again.

Unless...

Sirius quickened his movements, ignoring Remus' suggestions to proceed with caution. He would prefer to find a death eater or the ministry at the door compared to who he thought it was.

He made his way through the various charms on the door and tore it open.

Sirius wished he'd been wrong.

"Jesus fucking christ."

A drenched Ebony collapsed into his arms.