Shoutouts to:
notwritten: Yeah.. poor Claire :"( but it's okay! She'll get through this! *girlpowerrr* This is for you enjoy! :) Cheers!
MissesE : Yea poor Claire ;( What fate lies her I wonder? Lol I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry if it's short. Thanks for the review ;)
Chapter 10: Consequences
"DRACO."
Severus looked a bit shocked by the appearance of the paled skin, and dark shadows under his eyes belonged to a young Malfoy before him. He had unconsciously jerked, hence, caused the young Muggle sleeping soundly beside him to wake up.
Claire rubbed her sleepy eyes and blinked a few times. She looked up and met with Draco's intense grey eyes.
"Draco." Claire said. Slowly she sat up, stretched her arms and legs and straightened her back. Her bloodshot eyes looked straight at the young man before her.
"Did he...Did my father hurt you?" Draco's voice, filled with anguish and sadness. He did not know whether he should be sad or angry at her, or at his father.
When the Healer had contacted him all the way to Paris, telling Draco his father was in St. Mungo, he had apparate immediately and fearing the worse.
On the way to see his father, he'd met with the Weasley siblings. Ginny had told him off by saying his father was a bastard, and that Draco should be glad that she didn't kill him off or left him there to die. George had been more subtle in his threats. His only comment was that if Lucius hadn't been under the influence of Amortentia, he would have personally Crucio the man for assaulting a helpless young woman.
That had got Draco's immediate attention. When he demanded what the hell were those two talking about, the Weasley siblings had just brushed him away and told him to go and see it for himself.
By the time Draco arrived, he was surprised to see the ex-Potion Master was together with his Father's harlot. Seeing how she dressed made him think the worse of his father.
Surely he couldn't... Impossible! Draco knew his father was many things but rapist was certainly not one of them.
Yet his mind still argued about it.
It took Claire for a while to reply as she had been taken back by his question. Looking into his eyes, she saw his emotions were all jumbled together. He looked like he was already at the edge of losing his mind.
How she answer would determine his reaction.
"He didn't violated me,Draco." Claire finally found her voice. Her tone was soft and neutral.
"But Weasley said-"
"Well, I said he didn't violated me! Who are you going to believe? Me or them?"
Draco slowly sunk into the floor as if all of his energy faded away the moment she spoke those words very strongly. Draco covered his face with both hands and cried unashamedly.
Severus got up from his seat and went over to him. He then pulled the lad closed before he helped him to the bench where he'd been sitting, beside Claire.
Carefully as he could, Severus put Draco down before he released his arms from him. Claire then gently patted his back.
"He didn't do it.. He would never did it... E-Even as Death-Eater, he didn't... participate any of those events..."
"We know,Draco." Severus said. "He'd been under the influence of Amortentia while he was on a mission."
Draco whipped his tears away using his sleeves. He looked so broken that if Claire hadn't been in the state she was in, she would have gave him a big hug herself.
"For Project DEATH?"
Severus nodded.
"You knew about Project DEATH? I'd thought you said it was classified?" Claire asked Severus.
"Father tried to keep it a secret from me. He didn't want to drag me into anything that's related to the Death-Eaters, but I've got my own resources to check on what he's doing."
Draco looked up and turned to Severus. "You've mentioned Amortentia, Sir. That it means he won't remember any of it?"
"He...won't?" Claire looked at the both men, back and forth.
Severus shook his head. "Unfortunately, Miss Rollins, the drinker won't remember any of the event that'd happened." He then with a heavy-heartedly explained to her about the unknown dark-side effects of Amortentia.
"Oh." was all Claire managed to say after the explanation.
"Father will be going to Azkaban." Draco suddenly spoke. He looked at Claire with blood shot eyes. "She'll definitely press charges against him."
"Let's not get to that, Draco." Severus calmly stated. He sighed deeply before turning to the clueless Muggle and began another explanation.
"Lucius won't be going to Azkaban any time soon. The agreement between the Minister and the both of us is that as long as we will help them to catch the other Death-Eaters and give out informations, we will be nowhere near Azkaban, unless stated otherwise. for example, should Lucius chose to run away from his agreement or he'd rebelled against us while he was under the agreement, then he will be put away in Azkaban for life."
"She can still presses charges against him!"
"I'm getting there, boy!" Severus hissed lowly at him. Draco hadn't heard him calling him that since his Hogwart's days.
Sighing heavily, Severus continued. "As mentioned by Draco, you still have the rights to press charges against Lucius for an attempted violence toward you, Miss Rollins. If you do press charges against him, as soon as he is done with his works, Lucius will go straight for trials and from there, it will be decide if he should spend the rest of his life in Azkaban or not. They don't act too kindly with ex-Death Eaters like us. It'll be wise if you could come up with your decision soon before the Aurors came to check on him, Miss Rollins."
"I-I have to decide now? I need time to think things over..."
"I understood-"
"What's there to think about?" Draco abruptedly stood up and shouted. "My father is an innocent man! He's a victim! Why should he be in Azkaban while the real person who's responsible for this, gets away with it?!"
"Sit down, Malfoy." Severus's tone was sharp as a nail and poisonous at the words he said next.
"Miss Rollins has every rights to press charges against your father, and you will respect her for that. True, your father had been under the influence Amortentia, but the fact remains that he had almost violated her. I couldn't possibly imagined what would happened to her should the Weasley siblings didn't show up in time. And I highly doubt anyone could understand how Miss Rollins is feeling right now. So shut up and try your best to calm yourself down."
Draco stayed silence and bit his lips. He tried so hard not to talk back at the ex-Potion Master, fearing the consequences. He focused his gaze on the Muggle woman instead.
Just then, the ward in Lucius' room lightened, indicating the patient was now awakened.
Both men were on their feet instantly. A Healer apparate before them. She greeted them briefly before quickly she entered the room.
From inside, they could hear Lucius asking the Healer what had happened to him and why was he here.
Severus looked at Draco before focusing on the Muggle woman on his left.
"You should head to the Fifth Floor, for now."
Claire thought for a moment before she mutely nodded. Severus too nodded. He walked toward the door, gave a couple of soft knocks before turning the knob and he entered with Draco followed behind him.
Claire didn't go to the Fifth Floor immediately like she was supposed to. She walked over to the wall that separated Lucius' room with another and stood there with her back facing the door.
She listened as Severus carefullu explained to him what had happened from the beginning until the very end.
Then, she heard it.
"WHAT?!" Lucius loud voice boomed from his room, followed by the sounds of something breaking and rattled on the floor.
Claire heard the Healer tried to calm him down while asking for backups, but Lucius' voice was the loudest one to hear.
Lucius screamed, shouted and yelled at everyone and destroying everything in the room in his fit rage.
The rest were unheard of as Claire left and making her way to the Fifth floor, with tears running down her cheeks.
An hour and half later, Claire was once again awaken from her slumber in the waiting room at the Fifth Floor when somone shook her shoulder rather roughly.
She slowly opened her eyes, expected to see Severus' black eyes. When all she saw was grey pair of eyes, Claire immediately straightened her back.
Darco looked at her not amused at all by her reaction. He had never seen his father reacted so wild and outrageously before except today, when Snape had delivered the news to him.
"The Ministers are here. They would like to see you now." She didn't need to be told twice.
Claire got up from the comfortable chair she was half-laying on it and stretched every muscles in her body. Yawned, she nodded and followed him back to the Third Floor.
When she arrived, immediately she saw Severus was talking to three people dressed in robe. None of them were familiar to her at all but she could recognised one based on what had been mentioned several times by Severus.
"Ah, Miss Rollins. Good to see you're up and about. This is our Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt."
"So this is the famous Claire Rollins?" Shacklebolt shook her hand. "I've heard interesting tales about you, my dear. It's a pleasure to meet with you."
"Likewise, Mr. Shacklebolt." Claire smiled. " I hope it wasn't anything bad said about me."
"Moving along." Severus interrupted. He pointed at the Golden Trio. "Miss Rollins, these three here are known as the Golden Trio; Hermione Granger whom you've already met , Ronald Weasley, and finally..."
"Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived." Claire cut in as she shook hands with the younger man with a wide smile. "Boy, have I heard so many tales about you!"
Harry blushed at the comments but smiled nevertheless. "We haven't properly met before. But I'm glad to see you again, Miss Rollins."
"The three of them are here because they are members of project DEATH and also, they're in charged of monitoring both Lucius and I. They, including Minister Shacklebolt would like to ask you of your decision, Miss Rollins. Have you made up you mind yet?"
Claire noticed how far off Draco stood with his arms crossed his chest and one leg crossed on the other. He was fuming at her.
"I have." She turned her view from Draco to thet rest of them.
Severus nodded. He gestured her to come inside as he turned the knob and opened the door.
Claire took a long deep breath. She clenched her fists as she moved, into Lucius' room.
When she entered the room, her heart almost stopped at the sight. Obviously there had been chaos that went on the room after he'd been informed as there were actually less ornaments in the room. What caught her attention the most was the man on the bed.
Lucius looked far worse than he'd been while he was still unconscious. His face was red, his long blond flocks were in a mess, and exhausted and his eyes were bloody red.
He looked nothing like the proud, confident, and self-assured Malfoy. In fact, he looked far, far older than his actual age.
Claire sympathized with him.
When their eyes met, he looked slightly stunned by her appearance but calmed down nevertheless. Draco immediately took his place beside the bed.
"He's been given a high dose of Calm Draught earlier." Severus explained. "He shouldn't be able act outrageously toward you. Though I doubt you wanted to be anywhere near him at the moment." He whispered at the last sentence.
Claire slowly nodded. She didn't move from the spot when Shacklebolt addressed to her.
"Miss Rollins, please know that whatever decision you've decided on, no one is going to judge or blamed you for it. Not even Lucius himself would curse you to hell and back for sending him to Azkaban for the rest of his life. We'd discussed this beforehand and he has agreed to accept whatever punishment and conditions that you are giving him."
At the mentioned of his name, Lucius lifted up his head.
"Tell us your decision, Miss Rollins."
Claire cleared her throat and took a deep breath.
"I've decided not to press any charges against Lucius Malfoy."
There was a sharp gasp coming from the Golden Trio and one Draco Malfoy. Even Shacklebolt and Severus were in shocked.
Severus looked at Claire sternly. "Are you sure about this? No one is going to blame you, Miss Claire should you choose to-."
Claire firmly nodded. "I'm certain." She looked up to meet with Severus' gaze but refused to meet with Lucius' hard gaze on her.
Clenching her fists, she spoke in a neutral and calm tone.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking about this... It's definitely not an easy one."
Taking a deep breath, she said, "I-I knew deep within my heart, Lucius Malfoy wouldn't have done such heistous thing to me, should he'd not be under the influence of Amortentia. He may be once a Death-Eater, and a persistance one from what I'd heard, but nevertheless, I knew he wouldn't even hurt a child if he could help it-"
"He'd almost killed my sister!" Ronald Weasley shouted.
Claire coughed dryly. "I may not know what he'd done in the past, but I believe he would never intentionally hurt me."
This time she looked up and met with his dark guilty grey eyes. "That's why I won't press any charges against him."
"Well. I guess this settles it then." Shacklebolt's voice broke the unknown spell between them.
" has a proposal for you Miss Claire." Shacklebolt turned to the dark haired man.
"Yes. As stated by Shacklebolt, I've made few proposals that might ease your worries, Miss Rollins. Bear in mind that this is only temporarily and it's entirely up to you to call it off whenever you are ready."
Claire nodded. "Go on."
Snape looked at Lucius and then back at her.
"My proposal is that Lucius will not be anywhere near you. The both of you will be keep separately from one another for as long as you wish to be. Should there be any urgency that need for the two of you to meet, you must be accompany by me or one of the Golden Trio. Or even Draco, in worse case scenarios. But you must never be alone with him - those are the ultimate conditions that I've set. I know you trust him, Miss Rollins, but should anything like this ever happened to you again while he was under influence of something, you wouldn't be so lucky. In fact, you were definitely lucky when Miss Granger had been the one to point out the obvious question and had the Weasley siblings to check on you earlier."
"Obvious question, Snape?" Draco asked in confused.
Claire once again avoid from looking into Lucius' eyes as the next words spoke out from Severus' mouth.
"The thing about Amortentia that not most people are aware off is that it can be used to control people's mind to fullfill one's darkest or strongest inner desire. In other words, someone had been controlling Lucius in order to fullfill his inner desire. That being said..."
"You're sick!" Draco spat at Lucius. "You're sick, father! Lusting after a young woman who is not only enough to be your goddamn daughter, but a Muggle?!"
"Draco..." Lucius' weak and strained voice filled with shame and guilt, was reaching out for him. "I will always loved your Mother.. But I'm... I'm just a man. A weak man, Draco..."
"No! Just, shut up! How could you? After Mother had died not too long ago?! How dare you!"
"That will be enough coming from you, young man." Shacklebolt raised his hand and cast a silence charm on the still raging Malfoy.
Turning to look at the elder Malfoy, he then said with a gentle voice.
"Lucius, I think what Severus is proposing has benefits. Furthermore, you need to rest. We all do. Miss Rollins?"
"Y-Yes?"
"Do you have any place to stay for the night?"
Well, I have been staying at Malfoy's manor for a while now. But..."
"But?"
Claire clenched her fists. "I don't want to sound particularly rude or ungrateful, but I would like to spend some time away from the manor... That is, if it's okay with everyone?"
"She can stays with us at 12 Grimmauld Place!" Hermione said. "You wouldn't mind would you, Harry? She'll be a lot safer there anyway."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Miss Granger." Snape replied sharply. " , and yourself are currently busy with your own mission. In the meantime, Miss Rollins will be staying with me."
"But Ginny and George are there! Surely, they are capable enough to provide some sort of protection for her, ." Hermione argued, crossing her arms on her chest and raised one perfectly eyebrow.
"That will not do either. Potter," Snape stared sharply at the Wonder Boy. "As the leader of your band of mischiveous, I expect you to be wise in leading your little team. Do NOT do anything foolish without informing me first of your plans, Harry. Or I swear to Merlin, I will crush you myself with my own bare hands. Is that understood?"
Understood, Sir." Harry simply nodded, unfazed by Severus' threats.
When everything was said and done, one by one left the room, starting with Draco who stomped off as soon as the Silence Spell had lifted from him.
Then, the Golden Trio excused themselves, stating they'd been exhausted and would be seeing the others again soon. Followed by Shacklebolt.
Finally, it was just the three of them.
Severus looked unsure of what to said and neither weret his two companions.
Stratching his head, Severus decided the best plan was to separate those two for now so that they could be with their own thoughts after a very long night. Also, Severus himself was exhausted from today and desperately needed to get some well deserved rest.
"Miss Rollins, let's go."
Claire blinked her eyes from her thoughts before she nodded. She didn't need to know that Lucius was watching her every moves with guilty and shameful eyes as she walked toward the door and out before shutting the door.