The school year had begun again, and Aurelia was glad to throw herself on the familiar iron bed she called home for most of 2 years, the edge of which painfully dug into the now healed wound at her thigh. The end of the summer had been profoundly memorable to Aurelia and not for nice reasons. There was a new teacher again that year at Hogwarts and to Aurelia the woman seemed too sickly sweet to like.
Aurelia was in her third year and was permitted to take a Care of Magical Creatures class which she felt genuine excitement for, there were books at Malfoy Manor that had often captured a junior Aurelia and delivered her into a world filled with majestic animals and enchanted wildlife. During class she fell in love with new and exhilarating beings that roamed the land she loved, she felt at ease touching Bowtruckles and Lobalugs alike. She learned about Merpeople and Trolls and that was her favourite, she had dreamed of what resided in the Black Lake since the Triwizard Tournament last year and her new class allowed her to dream further and put fact to her fiction. She developed a strange curiosity for Veela, fierce warrior-like creatures with the beauty of a thousand jewels. The notion that these creatures had a power over men was most satisfactory to Aurelia.
The new teacher's name was Delores Umbridge and she took it upon herself to straighten the school out of its usual practises and out of date procedures (in the woman's opinion). The new rules meant Aurelia couldn't roam free as she once could.
Aurelia started to resent the pink toad just as much as the rest of the inhabitants of Hogwarts. Draco had been enticed into one of her schemes, but he only did that as it meant he had positive recognition and praise for being the bully that he was in school. Aurelia couldn't bare the thought of returning to the manor, even given the tight restrictions Hogwarts was under and she didn't go home for Christmas. She locked herself away in a cell in the dungeons, as spooky as it was, chains hung from the ceiling and somewhere water was leaking in, she endured an entire day and night down there. Every letter she received from Lucius during the break, got thrown on the fire without being read but she eventually received a Howler which she was required to open. A Howler was a letter that expressed the displeasure and anger which typical writing cannot effectively convey. Lucius's ice cold but silky voice slithered out of the red envelope.
"Aurelia Lestrange
I expected you home. I am very disappointed in you and as if your little stunt in the summer wasn't damage enough to our family's reputation, now you've embarrassed me further.
Just you wait Aurelia, I will get my hands on you."
After the words loudly protruded from the folds of paper, the paper ate itself slowly on the stone slabs in front of the fire, letters dropped like crumbs onto the stones and spelled out 'disgrace' before being licked up by the envelopes ribbon-tongue and destroyed. "I will get my hands on you" echoed off the walls and filled Aurelia's head for the rest of the break. Apart from one first year and 2 sixth year students the Slytherin common room was empty, they heard the harsh voice of Lucius Malfoy but were smart enough to remain silent. Aurelia was known to have an uncontrollable temper, even to first years and Lucius was acknowledged as to be a man to avoid. Aurelia had begun to wonder if she made the right decision to be alone for the winter because at night her vile memories would haunt her in her sleep.
However, the Christmas break was soon over, and January bought with it more inches of snow fall, the Slytherin dungeons were beginning to freeze. Ice crept along the walls and floors on the inside due to the ever-present dampness and there were many small leaks in the glass windows on the ceiling that supported the bottom of the Black Lake; the drips formed stalactite icicles. Every student found it difficult to sleep at night, shivers and moans vibrated the air, and the lake groaned like an old metal ship that breathed into the pressures of the deep water.
One evening Aurelia was caught after she had walked too far into the white crispy curiosities of the forest in the snow. She was given a detention with Umbridge. The girl loved to disappear into that forest and watch the little twinkles that sat on the branches when the sun shone through the clouds, or how under a tiny leaf on the ground, the tiniest of creatures could find comfort and warmth away from the cold. Although she did have friends she preferred to be alone, she favoured her own company the same as she had done all her life.
Aurelia reached Umbridge's office and recoiled at its pinkness. Aurelia scoffed at the images of kittens around the room and cringed to herself with disgust. The woman was nauseating, she spoke as if she was talking to a child but instead of offering a healthy apple, would ply the child with chocolate and sugar, and while at it, convince the child that he or she was to blame for their bad choice. Aurelia was handed parchment and chewed on her finger nails while she pointed out to Umbridge that she didn't have a quill and ink. The teacher was right at her side with one of her own, Aurelia noticed its colour was very unusual and must have come from an exotic animal.
"It doesn't need ink!" Umbridge barked just before Aurelia thought to ask for some, "you are to write 'I must obey rules' in silence".
The girl began to write her lines, immediately after one line was written her hand began to ache, her fingertips went numb and fizzy when the veins in her wrist emptied. The back of her hand stung and she slapped it with the other hand and upon lifting to see underneath, Aurelia's sparkly blue eyes widened in alarm; etched into her skin was 'I must obey rules' written in her own hand writing. It didn't bleed out onto the back of her hand but from the tip of the quill she held, a small droplet of crimson ink fell to her page. She was scared, this woman was a teacher and teachers were supposed to be good to their students, yes some of them were not but they were never barbaric like this. She looked to professor Umbridge, who sat at her desk and watched Aurelia intently.
Even with the restrictions and backwards education policies this woman had recently sanctioned in Hogwarts, the nature of those detentions just wasn't right. Aurelia argued with Umbridge that night. She tried to snap the quill, but it was built like steel and she threw her chair across the room in her wrath. Umbridge was tranquil as she stirred her cup of tea while the carnage around her increased, she sent an Immobulus charm into the air and the girl's protests stopped. With the threat of expulsion from school Aurelia reluctantly sat back in her chair and continued calmly, although inside she seethed.
By the time Aurelia had finished her detention her face was salty and stiff with tears and her hand never bled until she was on the walk back to her bed at 1am. She was approached by Filtch the caretaker and his cat, just outside the downward staircase to the common room but his beady eyes lowered to see her hand and allowed her to continue without a word spoken. By morning her hand had stuck to the underside of her pillow, a couple of students noticed her anguish but took no action and after a shower the words were just a weeping red scar.
The Great Hall flourished with students at breakfast. Owls flew overhead, they dropped papers and parcels onto the benches below. Heads turned and watched Aurelia when she entered, she only noticed one or two because her mind was too busy and too tired from her detention with Delores Umbridge. She sat at the Slytherin table and took a piece of toast from the rack, the few people who were sat near to her stopped eating and stared at Aurelia, they were waiting.
Aurelia's sapphire eyes looked around at those looking back at her before one of them shoved a copy of the Daily Prophet under the girl's nose. On the front page was a furious woman with hair as wild as her eyes and she wrestled with the chains at her wrists. The witch screamed and struggled in the moving photo but never moved from the small space she was stood.
It took Aurelia a few seconds longer than it should have to recognise who this person was. The pair resembled each other, they had the same raven hair and similar facial features. Aurelia lost all the oxygen from her lungs, her legs felt as though they were non-existent under the table. As she read the headline her chest burned with her accelerated heart rate.
'Mass Breakout'
Aurelia stood and wailed, her hands grasped in her hair. The entire hall fell silent, they already knew what Aurelia had just seen and realised. The next sound that filled the air was the girl's shoes as she ran from her spectators with the newspaper clutched firmly in her hands. Aurelia didn't have a direction or a clear train of thought, all she knew was that she needed to run. A growling sensation grew in the pit of her stomach as her feet pounded to the damp ground outside the school. Students followed and began to gather and watch her, some of them wondered if someone was going to stop Aurelia but none of them had the stomach to do so, but then Professor Mcgonagall pushed her way through the ever-growing crowd while she held her hat in place, and began to pace after Aurelia.
Aurelia had run so hard and fast that her knees buckled, and she fell. She dropped the newspaper in front of her and sobbed into her hands, its pages mimicked her hair and waved in the wind. Her screams of anguish and fury echoed in the valleys as she rocked back and forth on the floor. Professor Mcgonagall reached the girl, the air around Aurelia fizzed. Mcgonagall was taken aback by the magical activity that expelled with each cry, but she found courage and placed a soothing hand on Aurelia's shoulder. Aurelia didn't have the energy to push her away and continued to sob with heavy cries with staggered breaths. Up in the crowds of students Draco Malfoy was stood. His expression was sombre, but he was the first to leave for class.
Aurelia spent the rest of the day on one of Madam Pomfrey's beds in the hospital wing, she didn't stop crying until the evening when she picked herself up out of bed and walked to her common room, despite the nurse's recommendations. Once there she found another copy of the Daily Prophet with the same demonic looking woman screaming out of it. Aurelia's mind was vacant after she had spent the day thinking too much. She wanted to be alone and grabbed the paper and hot-footed it to the library to avoid getting caught out of bed. A small Lumos spell illuminated the tip of her wand as she sat on the floor in a hidden corner of the library. Everything about the witch on the front page broke Aurelia's heart, the only thing that kept her hopes alive was that her mother was now free from Azkaban, albeit illegally. Aurelia used to dream of a nice lady walking up to Malfoy Manor in whimsical pale robes, boasting of the cottage she owned far away with blackberry bushes and blue skies. Aurelia visited that safe spot in the library every night for three days but by the fourth day, she walked into classes looking noticeably haggard and stressed. When nightfall came she returned once again to the library, to stare at her mother in the slightly damaged and dog-eared newspaper she had cradled.
Professor Snape joined Aurelia on the fourth night, he had followed her after growing concerned for her during Potions, but he stood in front of the girl who was curled up on the floor for half an hour before she noticed anyone was there. Aurelia screamed with a jolt. She wiped away tears but didn't bother to get up, she looked pathetic; her eyebrows raised to the centre of her forehead and the sorrow within her poured from her bright blue eyes.
"Miss Lestrange... tell me what is written on your hand" came Snape's monotone drone into the cold air, to which the girl rubbed her scars with her thumb. "So why are you again, up here ...breaking the rules?" he continued.
Aurelia didn't provide an answer to him, so Snape spoke again, but he was cut short.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she whined in barely a whisper "You must have known. I'd heard stories about her when I was small. I'd forgotten her name though".
Snape's mouth tightened, he hadn't ever considered himself to be the right person to console a crying teenage girl.
"I hoped...I just hoped things would be different. I really wanted to be different from them. I wanted..." she paused for a deep breath, but she didn't have the energy to carry on. Tears ran slowly down her cheeks as she slumped in the corner. Her eyes ached to close for some rest, but her brain refused. Severus Snape knew what Aurelia meant when she spoke. Considering that he knew of the life she had in the hands of Lucius Malfoy, she was mourning the loss of a lifelong dream. He picked the exhausted girl up by the tops of her bony arms and walked with her, Aurelia staggered to keep up with her professor. His cold eyes looked to the small white hand clasped around his iron grip on her body.
Aurelia found herself being tucked into bed once again by Madam Pomfrey. Through fatigue her mind was just as vacant as her expression. Madam Pomfrey was informed of the girl's recent discovery and truly felt pity for her, after all most the witches and wizards in the land knew of what a terrible woman Bellatrix Lestrange was.
Snape left the hospital wing and swiftly left the Hogwarts Castle, he marched across the grounds with determination, his black woollen cloak swished and flowed behind him with his strides. His face was stern; he knew where he was going and why. He didn't think it was wise to bother Umbridge for permission to leave the school and Snape knew that once he was out of the boundaries he could apparate freely anyway. As soon as his sleek shoe touched the dirt outside of the gates he was gone in an instant. His destination? A dark Manor that resided in Wiltshire, home to a family that gave Snape a foul taste in his mouth, but a family whom he was obliged to acknowledge none-the-less. A small flick of his wand opened the locked doors to the home and the professor walked in. Severus knew his way around this house, he gracefully elevated up the stairs and found the owners sat in small conversation by the fire in the drawing room. Severus burst in unannounced and raised his wand to meet the startled face of Mr Malfoy. The blonde-haired man raised his hands in response and flexed his palms to Severus. Narcissa gently placed her china cup down and faced their intruder. Snape stood a couple of inches taller than Malfoy, he stared straight into his eyes of evil and greed. Neither men twitched or wavered in that moment. In the pit of Snape's stomach there was innate desire to attack the man who frequently hurt a child. Remnants of a memory that contained a smaller Aurelia sat at a desk in his classroom so desperately trying to find a way to tell her teacher that she had been abused. Which obviously had never stopped in the two years since either, and now the man responsible was an inch from the tip of his wand and unarmed.
"How may we help you this evening Severus?" Narcissa spoke with ease, she did not care for the dangerous predicament her husband was in.
Severus straightened himself up with a roll of his shoulders. His wand arm never relinquished its height. "The girl needs to be at home, she needs the truth" he stated, and his eyes moved back to Lucius; narrowed and displeased. "It is my request that she be collected and cared for ... constantly" as he finished his sentence his coal eyes never moved from the depths of Lucius's.
Severus apparated back to Hogwarts. Both Lucius and Narcissa turned their heads to a darkened corner behind them and out sauntered Bellatrix Lestrange with her tongue in her cheek and hands on her hips.
"My daughter?" her voice was raised, and her slender fingers gestured to where Snape was stood seconds before, indicating that she was asking if that was who Snape spoke of. Narcissa gave her husband a concerned look before nodding and waiting for her sister's response. Narcissa was certain Snape knew of their secrets and was just then becoming aware of just how close they were to being found out. She hated herself for thinking it, but her husband had to find a way of silencing Aurelia. Now that mother and daughter were to be reunited.