A white dress floated like an ethereal ghost in the middle of the hallway where Aurelia was stripped of her clothes moments earlier. Its shoulders hung centimetres from the ceiling and the length of the dress flowed down to coil on the carpet below, the sleeves fluttered in an invisible wind. It had a spooky elegance to it, but Aurelia feared that despite its beauty, it meant danger for her. Although nobody had told her the reason she was abruptly pulled from school, she knew that her time had come to become a follower of The Dark Lord. Aurelia placed her bare foot onto the last step of the staircase in Severus Snape's house and paced two steps to the dress. A body twice the height of her, stepped into the space behind Aurelia, the vicious and wolf-like face of Fenrir Greyback sneered down at the top of her head, the girl sensed she was being watched, her eyelashes fluttered with the fear that rippled across the skin on the back of her neck.
Peter Pettigrew walked around from behind the floating garment and into Aurelia's eye line, but she still had the overwhelming sense that someone was behind her. She watched as the rodent-like man cowered and held his hands behind his back and repeatedly bowed his head and upper torso. Aurelia whipped around ready to throw a punch at whoever was stood uncomfortably close to her. Her forearm was immediately stopped in its path by the large and intense grasp of Greyback's left hand. His shoulders jolted with a malicious chuckle, Aurelia roughly pulled herself away from him and backed away. Greyback took a large step forward and caressed the skirt of the dress, his giant paw of a hand meandered around the length, and let it hang over his forearm, the top half of the dress still stood in mid-air.
With dress in hand Fenrir advanced on Aurelia who was backed up against the inside of the front door to the house.
"She sold me to the highest bidder didn't she!... I won't do it" Aurelia protested.
Although the girl was physically at a disadvantage she tried her best to stand her ground and deny the werewolf. He persisted and Wormtail nervously edged around the corner to get a better view of the pair. The length of the dress trailed down the short hallway to the door.
"My mother?" Aurelia questioned again, the beastly man became so close that she could see nothing but the coils of his chest hair. She quietly attempted the door handle behind her, but it was locked. Fenrir smirked.
"Don't go" he grinned. "Come on" he whispered and caressed the cheek of her face with the pad of his thumb.
Aurelia glared up at him, his canine like eyes glowed with malice.
"I told you...you don't frighten me!" She loudly and firmly spoke and lifted her chin away from his sweaty hand.
"Oh, but you'll find I can be very persuasive" he growled and lowered his face to be level with hers. His breath was offensive, and he roughly gripped the back of her neck hard and although she flinched and whimpered he marched her back up to the wider area of the hall where the dress originally hovered. Pettigrew cowered away from the pair but continued to watch as Bellatrix Lestrange lowered herself down the stairs.
"Put that on" Bellatrix had her arms folded across her body but motioned to what Fenrir held on his arm with her middle and forefinger. She had an aura of boastful elegance about her, she almost looked as if she was rejoicing about something. Aurelia folded her own arms across her body in defiance, she felt the pressure on her neck increase as the werewolf increased the tightness of his grip.
Bellatrix raised an eyebrow at Fenrir, it was an indication that she wanted his methods of persuasion to continue and increase. The mans' rough paw-like hand swivelled around to the front of Aurelia's neck. The girl took a sharp intake of breath and blinked as though she had something that irritated her eyes. She avoided lifting her eyes to meet the ones that were now so close to hers. A growl came from the hollows of his throat, he placed his lips to her forehead and buried his nose in her hair, his teeth slipped from under his wiry top lip and pressed against her skin. Aurelia tried very hard to resist her instincts to grab at his hand. Thankfully she was saved.
"Don't damage what is valuable, you fool!" Bellatrix shouted and wrestled the white dress from the tangles of his large arm. Fenrir growled a sigh of annoyance and moved his face from the younger Lestrange to the older one. "Do not mark her, release her now!" Bellatrix hissed again.
Bellatrix yanked the werewolf's hands away from her daughter and silenced the predictable protest she was about to receive from Aurelia. She then pushed Aurelia into the living room and cast the dress over the back of an armchair. Bellatrix summoned unbreakable bars across the windows which darkened the room slightly and then cackled as she slammed the door, Aurelia was left alone.
The girl plucked her hands from the overly long length sleeves of the cloak she held clutched around her naked body, she lodged her fingers into the black hair at her scalp and closed her eyes. She had struggled to make sense of what had been happening to her, she felt as though the days' events had flashed by so fast but at the same time it felt like she had been there all-day long. The truth was she had only been inside Snape's residence for approximately 45 minutes. Aurelia's eyes popped open and she threw herself over to the window, her hands reached forward in hope but met with the tubular cold and clear air that meant the invisible bars were indeed there and did in fact hold her hostage. Her mind raced with all the possible outcomes of the day and each one of them ended with the excruciating pain that the mark of the snake and skull would inflict as it slithered its way under the skin of her arm. Rain began to pat on the window and Aurelias vibrant blue eyes glanced from spot to spot as more rain fell. Her face was as glum as the weather had turned. There had to be a way out, she thought. She had worked to hard for this to be the fate she would end up with, but she had to be smart.
The rain became heavier along with Aurelia's mood as she let the cloak fall off her shoulders and to the floor in a heap. The girl held the white dress in her small hands and gracefully stepped into the neck opening. She lifted the dress and it travelled smoothly over her hips, rounded stomach and finally her breasts, she flicked her arms through the sleeves and the dress came to rest perfectly around her shoulders. Her hands pressed smooth the fabric along her body but the sting of salty tears in her eyes prompted her to bring her hands to cover and rub her eyes. She held her hands over her face until her knees buckled, she fell, cried and cursed into the carpet.
Nobody came to her, she was left until the sunlight was fading. By that time, she had stopped crying and also began again and then stopped for the final time, she had also nosed about the living room. She craved to read the books Snape had hoarded and thumbed through one before eagerly plucking another one from the shelves. The curios and statues in the room caught her short attention and she would check the invisible bars that continued to barricade her in the house intermittently. Aurelia was sure she could hear someone outside the room and her heart raced when she thought the door was about to open.
The girl was locked in the front room of the house for the entire afternoon, however the door eventually opened. Bellatrix Lestrange stood and looked down her nose at her daughter before a large but evil smile spread between the dry lips of her mouth. Behind her, her sister Narcissa Malfoy stood with no emotion or expression on her face at all. Bellatrix flexed her right hand in the direction of Aurelia, from the sleeve of her arm a brown rope snaked its way stretched out towards Aurelia.
Aurelia panicked and backed away, but she tripped over a low foot stool and landed on her behind and hit the back of her head against the wall. The rope tied itself around her ankle and sharply pulled her body out into the doorway but unravelled and retied itself around both her wrists. She was hoisted to her knees by her hands and sat at the feet and mercy of her mother. Aurelia shouted and screamed and struggled against her restraints. She was tired of being an object for those around her to use as they please. She had plans of her own and none of those involved being used as a financial pawn for her mother. The air around Aurelia bubbled with rage, the ears of those in the house fizzed with the pressure of her emotions.
The three women apparated under Bellatrix's command, having been forced to undergo this twice in such a short amount of time, Aurelia vomited. Her hair barely dodged the strings of stomach bile hanging from her mouth. She crudely wiped her face along the coarse rope wound several times around her wrists. The rain that came down on to the top of her head was cold and as it trickled down the back of her neck, her chin began to shiver. Within minutes she was soaked through as she sat and heaved the damp air into her lungs to recover from the way of transportation she just took. The ground beneath her hands was a blanket of sharp twigs and leaves, and above her the trees hung low and the branches crossed the pathways.
The clouds were so thick with rain that it was hard for Aurelia to tell the time of day or whether the day had started to turn to night already. The rain drops patted the leaves around and the noise began to irritate her busy head. She still felt incredibly nauseas and tired. Her body jolted as Bellatrix jaggedly pulled on the rope, she was forced to her feet. Narcissa was present but walked on ahead of the pair, Aurelia began to panic, her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to dislodge the lump that made her mouth distort with sorrow. She wanted to run, she had to run. Aurelia's ears pricked, she thought she could hear another set of footsteps that came from behind her.
She looked back but cautiously and kept an eye on her mother and Narcissa in front. She was certain someone was there behind her. Aurelia kept walking, her dress snagged on branches and rocks, her bare feet slipped on the wet ground and were becoming sore painful. She then became aware that her arms were no longer being pulled on. The rope had been clean cut, she was free. Aurelia knew Bellatrix would hear her run on this loud crispy ground, but she had to take a chance and by now the daylight had lowered so much that if she was to be successful, she needed to go now before dark truly descended.
Aurelia took a step directly to the right, and then another one. She paused and watched the two women continue, and then she ran. She had no idea in which direction she was going, the rain was so heavy she could barely see. Her hair had fallen into rat tails that swung around her as she looked behind her for followers. The bottoms of the dress had ripped, the garment had been rendered see-through in the rain and was frayed and stained at the bottom. She fell over repeatedly, and her knees and the palms of her hands were grazed. Aurelia propelled herself as fast as she could down a steep hill until she landed knee deep in water. Her heartbeat and breathing were so loud in her head that she couldn't possibly hear if she had company.