Hello everyone! I'm so so sorry for the late post, again, but I had the flu! Plus, it's getting to the hard part - the part I had planned out from the start and don't quite know how/which order to put everything in. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one!
lizy2000, Blue Luver5000, creelluka, Guest, Nik1804, malecftw (you're welcome), Cae-Leigh Anne, Sunny (love the crackship, but for me James will always look like a messier, happier version of Harry), Ash-Caro-Lynn, Guest x2 (x3?) and BlueOcean24124437, thanks for reviewing!
Guest, I have no idea if this is one or two people (please write something other than guest if two!), so I'll reply to all of what was written here:
review 1: Sirius doesn't really know for a fact, he just thinks so and James constantly tries to tell him otherwise. He knows Regulus is a sympathiser, but doesn't know how far in he is, and doesn't want to hand his own brother to the Aurors either... so that's why he wouldn't say anything. A bit like Dumbledore and Malfoy.
review 2: I feel like you understood the whole of Charles and Emma's relationship in those first two sentences. Bella would kill Sirius on sight if she could, so she wouldn't have time to tell Sirius Emma's a Death Eater. Even then, he can't be sure if she really is one, or just a sympathiser. It really would be tragic if Emma took Peter's place, just have to wait and see! Emma is a bit thick, but I think she's also refusing to see what's in front of her, because it would mean accepting all of her sacrifices were for nothing. You're right, Amelia's cleverer than that! Glad you like Alecto, and more darkness coming soon.
review 3: Hahaha no, Lucinda is just taking them to Bertie Bott's as a gift - her family's in the sweet business! Alecto is kind of going off the rails, isn't she?
review 4: So glad that you felt everything they did and it's all coming together. I love your comments on the future, and the fact you think Reg/Emma are good together!
Also, thank you Ash-Caro-Lynn and Fluffy for beta-reading! I swear I'll get on that soon...
Before you go too far, I feel obliged to mention: it was pretty hard making the Death Eaters seem like the good guys here, and I hope it doesn't look like I actually believe this kind of thing in real life! (just in case).
'Merlin, what am I going to do?' Emma asked herself, pacing in front of the fireplace.
She had picked up Regulus's habit of running a hand through her hair and was currently twisting it into knot upon knot, trying not to panic. She had held it together throughout Care For Magical Creatures and Potions, but was thankful for her free period. Though it was meant for homework, today she had allocated this time to more important things. More specifically, finding a solution to the father problem that just seemed to be getting larger and larger. The Dark Lord's words floated through her mind, "take care to make the transition smoothly". Of course in theory, the easiest thing would be…well, that spell, the one the Dark Lord was so famous for.
She quickly shook her head, driving the dark thoughts from her mind. To do that would only prove her father right, and she was under no illusion as to her capacity to perform the spell. That leaves the Memory Charm, she thought, coming to a conclusion. The problem was, would she really be capable of it? More capable than the Killing Curse, Emma... Besides, how would she be able to perform it without James or Sirius suspecting something? She supposed that the visits would be highly regulated at first. In any case, she would have to act quickly - her time was running out. James was probably writing to the hospital at that very moment.
Making her decision, she raced down the stairs to grab the Invisibility Cloak, only to run back up almost as quickly, earning her several odd looks from the sixth years in the common room. She couldn't betray her father using his most precious gift. That, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for.
Relax, she told herself. The Memory Charm is reversible. Even if it wasn't, you could explain everything. Even better, if you do it well, you'll be solving two problems at once.
Briefly, Emma imagined regaining the trust of her father, his last memory of her making amends with her mother. She almost smiled. Who am I kidding? It'll feel like a lie. She would have to wait until this war was over in order for him to understand. Plus, technically, he isn't your father any more.
'Woah!' Rabastan broke through her thoughts, massaging his arm. 'Where are you going in such a rush?'
She had closed her eyes upon that painful last thought. Coupled with her haste to get through the common room exit, she hadn't noticed Rabastan leaning on the wall in front of her, chatting with the usual crowd of seventh years.
'She can probably feel the burn more than you, Lestrange,' Mulciber sneered. 'Girls are sensitive like that.'
'What?' Emma asked, nonplussed.
Even as Regulus meaningfully looked towards her arm, she realised that her left forearm was burning hot. Pulling back her sleeve slightly, she saw that her tattoo had turned to an inky black - the sign that the Dark Lord was calling them. Cursing her luck, she remembered that the Dark Lord had planned a sortie for Halloween - he was adamant on the significance of things. Halloween was a symbol of evil witches and wizards for Muggles - let them see what real witches and wizards would to in retaliation for their quashing of magic.
'This couldn't be a worse time,' she muttered between her teeth. Out loud she said, 'I thought the event was planned for nightfall?'
'It is,' Regulus replied, before Mulciber could get in another word. 'Lucius wants us to go over the plan first.'
'And he wants us to come now?' Emma asked, exasperated.
'Hey, I would gladly take your place!' Barty piped up from behind Regulus. Emma hadn't noticed him before.
'You'll get your moment, kid,' Rabastan laughed, ruffling Barty's hair.
Barty wrenched himself out of the older boy's grasp angrily. 'I'm almost sixteen! I'm only a year and three months younger than Regulus!'
'You're underage, Barty,' Regulus reminded him. 'You'll be traceable.'
'S'not fair,' Barty mumbled, pushing his way through the doorway.
Emma made a note to herself to cheer him up, make sure he felt useful. After all, it wasn't fair, when she and Regulus had gotten their Dark Marks at sixteen. Meanwhile, she had to find a way to erase her father's memory before it was too late. As luck would have it, it was Friday and she was certain Dumbledore would allow James to see Charles the next day, if not that very night. But no amount of cajoling would help her. In fact, it only made Mulciber doubt her even more.
'You're just jealous you got your Dark Mark six months after I did,' she snapped at him. 'Everyone knows you're just here to swell the ranks now that the Aurors are on the prowl. We need cannon fodder if we're going to win this war.'
'Hey,' Regulus tried to intervene, but Mulciber already had his wand out.
'Say that again, you filthy Blood-traitor,' he snarled, sparks flying out of his wand.
'At least I can control my magic,' Emma replied condescendingly.
'Why don't you tell that to your friend here,' he turned, mocking Alecto instead. Mulciber wasn't known for staying on topic. 'She's the one who got herself banned because the sightings of a redhead became too suspicious. Or was that on purpose so big brother can do all the work for you?'
Alecto had been banned from going out that night. Though they wore their masks, there was always the risk of them slipping. Bellatrix was now on the run, having been identified as Voldemort's right-hand woman, and the Daily Prophet had posted pictures of Alecto and Bellatrix together whilst they were on a mission. Though the pictures dated from before Bellatrix had been branded a killer, and weren't incriminating in the slightest, Dumbledore's Order - including Professor Bones - had been taking a special interest in Alecto recently.
Just as Emma was about to retort, an idea occurred to her. There was no one better than Alecto at Memory Charms, plus Emma knew she knew about the Invisibility Cloak. A little rummaging around would see her find it, and Emma trusted Alecto to find a way to get into St Mungo's.
'What? Got nothing left to say?' Mulciber was getting impatient for a fight.
'You Muggle,' she taunted back, wildly improvising. 'Didn't you know Alecto is being used for espionage today? Oh, well…Maybe you just weren't trustworthy enough, but are you really so dumb as to think she would just be sitting in the Great Hall twiddling her thumbs tonight?'
Rabastan and Alecto's faces took on a puzzled look, but Regulus didn't even twitch. Luckily, he was the only one within Mulciber's line of sight, as his eyes were now riveted on the wand Emma had pulled out of her pocket.
"What?" Alecto mouthed, but before Emma could reply, Lucinda came striding out from behind her.
'Alright children, let's break it up. Honestly, you're lucky only fifth years and up are in the common room at this time of day - you're shouting like a bunch of Gryffindors. Why don't you just save those wands for the Muggles, and keep you mouths shut about Death Eater business until you've safely passed through the seventh floor, alright? Honestly, call yourselves adults.'
'But it was getting so interesting,' Severus replied dryly, the only sound that had come out of his mouth during the entire conversation.
Ignoring Severus and with an expression warning them to heed her speech, Lucinda shoved Regulus and Emma out of the way of the door, simultaneously reaching behind Mulciber to grab Alecto.
'My father,' was all Emma had time to whisper to Alecto as she passed by, but the steely look in the red-head's eye told her that her friend had understood all she needed to.
So she allowed Lucinda to shut the door and shoved her wand in her pocket, following the grumbling seventh-years to the hidden Room of Requirement, where it was possible to connect an unregistered Floo gateway.
'Building down!' someone shouted from afar.
It was impossible to tell from which side the shout came, what with all of the flashes of light, smoke and bangs. Emma could barely see five feet in front of her as she ducked. She thanked Merlin that spells couldn't be both soundless and invisible. Merlin had nothing to do with it, a rational voice said somewhere in the back of her mind. She pushed it away, it was not the time for a philosophical discussion.
It was her first battle. Lucius had instructed Rabastan and Emma to try and stay out of the conflict, as it was their first mission on the front. Usually their roles weren't quite so…in the thick of it. But this time, they were out to get a group of Muggles notorious for their hatred of witches and wizards. It had started off as a community of Squibs, that could see magic, but not practice it. The talent was passed from generation to generation; the knowledge was not so fortunate. They had somehow managed to convince themselves that manifesting magic was a sign of the devil's work, and would often abuse children, trying to "beat the magic out of them".
One of the Unspeakables working with the Dark Lord had discovered this information. It turned out a small branch of the Ministry was dedicated to observe at what stage magic "snapped", and would carry out tests as to how far was too far. The justification was that it was all for knowledge, and that somehow it would help those in St Mungo's unable to control their magic, but Emma found it sick. She had heard too many stories about this kind of thing before. Lucius suspected that the Dumbledore's Order would be watching for the Dark Lord's targets, so here they were.
The word "Order" says so much, she thought in disgust. That's the way things are, they can't be changed. The order of the world. Well, the Dark Lord wants to break that Order down and redefine it.
'Emma!' Rabastan crawled his way towards her. 'Are you alright?'
She nodded in response, just as another door crashed past them. They covered their heads, coughing with the dust. One of the problems with the Death Eater mask was that it was hard to breathe in this sort of situation. Emma pulled hers off, making sure she remained hidden behind the car she had been using as a cover. She took a few deep breaths, feeling the cool air dry the sweat on her forehead.
'Emma!' Rabastan said urgently. 'Put it back on. You can't be discovered, you know that.'
'In a minute,' she waved him off.
Without the mask, she could see the battlefield a little more clearly. She recognised the rapid green shots and high-pitched giggle that carried through the air as Bellatrix, and guessed that she was fighting a couple of the most senior Order members. Her kill count was phenomenal, her duelling without equal. Perhaps Dumbledore himself could have assisted his Order, but he was nowhere to be seen or heard of in the fray. Coward, Emma thought in disgust.
She scanned the moving bodies, but couldn't find Regulus in the crowd. She spotted Wilkies, sending stunner after stunner from behind a wall at a Shield Charm. Those were the easiest to pick out: the shimmer of silver could be seen better than the bodies of the duellers. Spotting a pair moving towards their hiding spot, she quickly reattached her mask, the magic sealing it onto her face.
'Bast, on the count of three, look,' she moved closer to her fellow Slytherin and pointed.
As the smoke cleared, they could clearly make out a burly figure that could only be Mulciber or Amycus Carrow - they recognised him as one of their own by the cloak and mask. Rabastan clenched his wand so tightly Emma could see blood trickling down his palm. Her own heart was thudding harder than it ever had before, and she felt like she could be sick at any moment. Her blood seemed to have turned into electricity; she could feel the current running through her fingers, through her feet, hear it whistling loudly through her ears. Her stomach itself had been flooded with adrenaline and she could barely concentrate on the spell at hand.
'The Reductor Curse,' Rabastan shouted, close to her ear. The din had grown so loud she could hardly hear him.
She nodded to show she had understood and held a hand up, counting to herself as she did so. One. Two. Three. They let off the spell at the same time, but somehow, the curses collided and split into opposite directions. The tree they had been aiming at behind the Death Eater's partner stayed intact, but one of the flashes of light definitely hit the person, because their own spell went flying off-target.
'Damn it!' Rabastan swore, only noticing the collision.
The Death Eater didn't even look around, just made a break for it as soon as the Order member's attention was diverted. Emma was about to congratulate Rabastan on their success, but just as she was going to point towards the Order member, a flash of light illuminated him, clearly revealing him to be staring in their direction.
'Run, Rabastan,' she said instead, shaking her friend's arm. 'Run!'
Emma had managed to stumble into a graveyard, losing Rabastan along the way. She was so far beyond panicking that if she had thought of her reaction to the news about her father, she would have laughed. Though it was the dead of night and most of the street lamps had been knocked over – or put out by some spell or other – it was as if she could see clearly wherever she looked.
'Ouch!' she couldn't help but yelp as she stumbled over something in the dark.
The downside was that she could hardly see anything else at all. It was as if she was wearing James's glasses again, except that the blurriness was on the outside. As she tried to right herself, her foot caught on a body and she fell, hitting her face and cracking her front tooth on one of the tombstones. The agony was unimaginable, the tangy taste of blood sharp in her mouth. She was just about to let off a string of swearwords when she heard someone shout.
'What was that?'
Quickly, she rolled behind the gravestone and clamped her hands to her face, stuffing her knuckles into her mouth in case she couldn't hold herself back.
'Fabian, Gideon, is that one of you?' a gruff voice asked. 'Constant vigilance, remember!'
Emma knew no Fabian, no Gideon and couldn't remember ever having heard the phrase "constant vigilance". She took her hands away, fearing that she would start to choke before long, but the pain when the pressure was released was unbearable. Against her will, she let out a whimper. Immediately the voice changed, and she imagined she could hear every blade of grass crunching under heavy boots.
'I can hear you,' it called angrily. 'Come out and you'll be put in Azkaban. Resistance will mean death. Surrender, and the Ministry will make sure you are not harmed.'
Emma blinked the tears clouding her vision, snot and blood dripping from her nose. She must have broken it when she fell. Without relinquishing her death grip on her face, she tried to crawl away from the voice. Instead she found herself face to face with the person she tripped over, his wide eyes staring at her in terror, inches away from her face. Impossible to tell whether it was a Muggle, or a wizard. The tears started flowing down her face as the horror of what was happening sunk in, and she anxiously tried to push the body away in order to clear a path.
It was too heavy though, and she didn't dare use her wand for fear of revealing her position. So instead she steeled herself, lay flat on the ground and tried to commando crawl her way to the nearest shed. Once inside, she could try to Apparate away, if possible. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her arm and she was hauled behind one of the fancier tombs, with a weeping angel to watch over the dead. She was too shocked to scream, but obviously her companion didn't want to take any chances, clamping a hand over her mouth.
She cried out, unable to stop herself as a searing flash of pain across the front of her mouth threatened to knock her into unconsciousness, her vision blinking before her. The bobbing light of the person searching for Death Eaters drew nearer, and another wave of adrenaline brought her senses back.
'Shhh, Emma,' Rabastan was whispering. 'It's me.'
Relief washed over her, though she had suspected that the person grabbing her had also been hiding from the Auror. Though it may have been an Order member too, since it was an illegal organisation. How was the Ministry to know who was on whose side?
'Bwoke my deeth,' Emma mumbled quietly, almost too softly for her to hear. She could only hope Rabastan could hear properly, what with all of the explosions from earlier.
'Come on, we have to get out of here,' Rabastan cupped his wand in his hands and raised it above her head.
Emma didn't hear the incantation, but the trickling sensation running down her scalp told her it was a Disillusionment Charm. She berated herself for not having thought about it earlier. Rabastan repeated the action on himself, but the Auror must have noticed the movement, because he gave a shout of triumph and started running towards them, not bothering to check other places where the sound may have come from.
Rabastan was just as fast though, grabbing her hand with his, slicked in her blood, and pulling her away, racing towards the edge of the graveyard. They would have to trust on the Auror not being to hear them over his own footsteps. Thankfully, another explosion resounded from the main area of the battle, loud enough to set their ears ringing again. Immediately, Rabastan changed course, towards the battle. He dragged them into the first building they saw, a shop, judging by the huge entrance and the amount of glass on the floor.
'There, that should give us a bit of cover,' he said, gasping for breath. He turned towards Emma. 'Merlin you're a mess. I would offer to help, but I know nothing about Healing magic. I would also advise you not to try it yourself, who knows how your spells would turn out. Actually, try not to talk at all.'
It seemed that Rabastan was a nervous talker under pressure. Thinking hard, Emma made a sound to attract his attention, then snapped her fingers and twirled.
'Apparate?' he asked, after a repeat performance without the Disillusionment Charm. 'Don't you remember what Lucius said? If Aurors come, you can be sure that they've cast Anti-Disapparition wards all over the place – Gaah!'
His voice cut off suddenly as he was pulled backwards into a staircase by an invisible force. At the same time, five streaks of light hit the wall behind where he had been standing in quick succession, reducing it to a pile of rubble.
'Rabathdan!' Emma dived after him under the stairs, only to find him unharmed and accompanied by none other than a furious Regulus.
'What are you two idiots doing?' he hissed. 'Anyone could have seen you or heard you. You didn't even bother to check the area before racing into the house. What if I was Dumbledore? What would you have done then?'
He looked as though he was about to say more, but quickly silenced himself when the bust of an angel burst through the newly-made hole, hovering in the middle of the room. As if by reflex, Emma wordlessly levitated part of the rubble towards the stairwell, creating a sort of shelter for them. It wasn't good, but it was inconspicuous, and the best she could do in the circumstances. In fact, she was surprised at her body's reaction before her mind could even comprehend the situation.
Regulus quickly pulled her to the ground, muttering a quick Episkey as he did so. Her nose repaired itself with a small pop, removing most of the pain. Before Emma could thank him, an Auror with shaggy ginger hair entered the room, dragging one leg behind him. He held his wand aloft, keeping the statue in place. When he turned towards them, Emma had to stifle a gasp. It was the same one she and Rabastan had been aiming at earlier.
As the heavy clunk of his boots drew nearer, she couldn't help but recoil, grabbing the first thing her hand came in contact with. Judging from the wince, it was Regulus. He didn't let go though, merely pulled her closer, and the three of them huddled together, waiting to be found.