Summary: Snape's daughter, and her half-sister, are in Azkaban, as Deatheaters.
Day 6
Today some big events took place. Our new principal has finally arrived. Guess who it is. After being accused on voluntary helping Deatheaters run the ministry, and taking into account her marvelous work on chasing and feeding Muggle-borns to Dementors, Miss Dolorez Jane Umbridge has been officially demoted as head of Azkaban Prison. With her came her torturous collection of pink-lace tablecloths, cat tea-plates and a pack of Snatchers and tough Ministry-freedom-lovers that suffered a big time during our "kingship" at the Ministry, carrying with them a collection of whips, clubs and chains that Mr Filch would absolutely love.
The first thing she did was to read all our undelivered mail and announce our court days herself, just for the pleasure. My hearing is three days from now. Mirella's too. Tow days from now we are meeting with our "attorney", Harry Potter. He will represent us both. Tomorrow will be our first official interrogation. Some ministry employers, aurors most probably, will show up, give us a "refreshing" glass of water and ask us a few "friendly" questions. I' m talking of course for Veritaserum. Which is a problem 'cause we know a lot. Now, I have to find a way to make Veritaserum antidote in 24 hours, which normally takes 4 months to gather the ingredients and 6 months to make. Quite impossible. But Draco's freedom depends on it.
I have found a way to do it. My father's old potions book, which I keep guarded like treasure, gave me the solution to my problem. It's a devious, extraordinary method, very destructive if it doesn't work, but it's what I need. It shortens the brewing time a lot, by using "parallel" ingredients with fast brewing time. The trick is to find those ingredients. I think I'll use red chimeran mushrooms, which I can find in the corner of the corridor, instead of chimera's teeth. I hope it works.
The potion's ready. It has the perfect color it should, misty black, and the texture of boiled butter. Just as the book describes. I' m not so sure, tough. I'll have to test it. But how?
Lucious Malfoy volunteered to test it for me, today, on one of his classified "sessions" with Umbridge. I don't trust him still, but I know why he does it. He knows that the only ones who know pretty much where Draco is, are me and Ella. He wants to test the potion for his son. Mirella says that she is sure we can trust him.
After waiting anxiously for about two hours, Lucius showed up, a little tired but happily exclaiming that Umbrige did not get a word from him. I sighed with relief and we all run for cover as a pack of Dementors sensed the change in our moods and headed for a "snack". Packed with a dozen other people in a small room to avoid being left behind to the Dementors, Lucius, Narcissa, Mirella and I got a chance to have an honest conversation.
Lucius surprised me. My opinion for him might, (I say might), have changed a bit. Narcissa couldn't stand it, she bursted into tears at some point, some drops even welled up in Lucius' eyes, Mirella was rubbing her nose on my sleeve, making me wanting to smack her, which made the whole moment even more tragically comical. But I believed him when he said he was sorry. If I forgive him, well, that's besides the point. All in all, I could say I "made up" with him, as Mirella said.
When he finished what he had to say, he seemed a bit nervous. I didn't burst my mind, guessing why. We couldn't talk about Draco - too dangerous- and he wasn't going to hurt me, now that he made me his ally, talking about father, so we dived into silence, having nothing to talk about.
Pushing my nightmares/Dementors/memories luck, I asked him to tell me about my father. "Your father. He was a complicated man. He had more sides in him than everyone I've ever met. It was impossible to get to know him completely, you know what I mean? We met at school of course. I was just finishing when he started, so I got to know him when he...well, joined."
"But you were friends, right?" Mirella asked.
"Well, I wouldn't take a vow on it. You see, I trusted him to the very end. But most times I felt that he despised me to no limit, that he blamed me, too, perhaps."
"He said that?"
"It's not what he said, it's how he said it. His irony and sarcasm were present during every conversation we had and I couldn't shake off the feeling that he did mock me, sometimes. He was definitely someone to depend on, but apparently hiding something. He helped me a lot, last time I was in here, by saving Draco and I feel I've let him down by pulling him from the battle, as Dark Lord ordered me to. I did consider him a friend, though."
Narcissa wiped her newly-made tears off her face and said with a shaking voice:
"Your father was an honorable man. Be proud of him."
She bursted into tears again, hiding her face on Lucius' chest. He trembled as he hugged her back. Surprisingly, I was pretty calm after this. After all, I wasn't satisfied. I wanted more.
"What can you tell me about his life?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Let's say, his life as a Deatheater."
Lucius frowned: "I'm not the right person to tell you that. I do not know what he did for the Dark Lord, before and after he came back and I'm not sure I should tell you what little I do know on that matter. He wouldn't want me to."
There was no point insisting on the subject.
"Tell us bout our mother, then" Mirella exclaimed, trying to lighten up the atmosphere between us.
"Your mother. Well, that is a big subject. I knew her from school. She was two years younger than me-no wait. Even before school I think I was introduced to her in a sort of family celebration. Her mother is my cousin-in-law...Well, I guess I can tell you more about her."
"She was Bellatrix's best friend, Sonia, you know. If we could call that a friendship..." said Narcissa, face still buried in Lucius' arms.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, my sister, you could say that she wasn't the type that makes friends."
"We noticed that." said Mirella bitterly.
Narcissa gave her a sad smile but didn't answer.
"I knew her quite well. She was a brilliant young lady. She was very interested in joining the battle-we all were. I brought her in touch with some other people. Eventually, with the Dark Lord. She became a Deatheater when she was still at school. Very dangerous thing that time. She formed a little group of "students", lets say. Training them in Defence against the Dark Arts, or so was the explanation she gave to the teachers. She was teaching them to duel, giving them professional spells and curses. Severus was part of that group. All those who were, either died or joined."
"Talking about Sonia?" said a voice. I turned back to see Dolohov and Avery pushing the people around us to come closer.
"Among other things" said Mirella half-smiling. Interestingly enough, she either was really good in hiding her true goals, or she found it worthy being nice to those people. Friendly "colleagues" if I might say. Anyway...
"That group of hers, what was it called?" I asked the newcomers, making a weird resemblance with Dumbledore's Army.
"We never concluded to one name" said Dolohov.
"Yes, because everyone tried to call it something really dark and gloomy, like out of a horror show."
"But we were supposed to be a Defence class so calling it "Deatheaters junior" would be a BAD idea, wouldn't you say?"
"So, she came up with the idea to call it "Extra lessons". Or just "Extra" said Avery.
"There was a time when the whole school used "Extra" for any kind of activity..."
"Even Quiddich."
"Yeah. I remember asking a girl out once evening. She said she couldn't 'cause she had "Extra"."said Dolohov with a smirk.
"Or she was just avoiding ya." Dolohor poked him on the shoulder to make him shut up.
"So it was pretty confusing."Avery conculded.
"But we all know who was in the club, 'cause we had to give a "Trust vote"." "A what?" asked Mirella.
"A "Trust vote". We had to vote openly that we trust the bastard not to go and rat us out to the teachers" said Dolohor.
"Why openly?" asked I.
"'Cause you had to know your enemies. If you know who they were, you could fuck them easily" he said.
"Like YOU could ever!" Avery teased him.
"Shut the fuck up, Johnny!" Dolohor poked him again. "Like I said, she was the brains behind all this."
'When did she started it?" Mirella asked.
"It was, what, '75 when she started? And she was at her NEWT's" said Avery.
"How many others were there?" I asked him.
"A handful at the beginning. Snape of course, me, Tony, Mulciber, Sonia's boyfriend, what was his name?"
"Tom."
"Tom, James, you know, Travers-"
"But he stayed for a little while" Dolohor interrupted.
"-Travers, Barty junior, old-Crabbe and, who else? Oh , yes, little Regulus Black. I always forget him."
"But Crabbe Sr wasn't a bit old that time?" Mirella asked.
"Yeah! Fucking yeah! He he! He was 21 and still going to school! The idiot failed his exams three times. Plus one time he caught persistent Dragon Pox and had to stay at St Mango's the whole fucking semester!" said Dolohor looking amused.
"Dragon Pox? And I thought Jugson sprayed Gildia Dust on his bed sheets. Well, he must have been doing something else, when I was guarding the door" Lucius said in a sort of skeptical tone.
Dolohor throw his head back and laughed. In here, laughter was muffled, sometimes, shrieky, but this was 100% genuine.
"Fuck man! Old-goat-Slughorn knew who did it!" said Avery.
"And surprisingly did nothing." said Narcissa looked up at her husband. "Remind me, darling, as your father alive at that time?"
"Well, I believe he was" he said with an innocent look. Now Mirella joined the high-pitch laughter which seemed to be contagious. Even I smiled some. We were attracting the others' attention the way we had lighten up the atmosphere.
"What are you laughing about, pirate-boy?" came a voice from behind me.
With one look Lucius gave him, Rabastan Lestrange realized he'd better not say more.
"I am sorry if I interrupted anything" he said apologetically, addressing to me and Ella. "Everyone calls me that" Avery told me, winking.
"It's because of the god-damn bandana you always wear!" said Dolohor, poking his head. Avery made a small protesting sound and fixed his hair bond, sneering at him. Dolohor stood up, saying he wanted to stretch his legs.
"There's an empty place at Rookwood's table" said Rabastan, pointing at the back corner of the room.
I glared at that direction. Rookwood's "table" was a dirty blanket on the floor with some, even dirtier, cards on it. Travers was dealing. Rabastan sat heavily next to Lucious, as the others left, after waiting for Mirella to nod that he could.
"How was the game?" asked Narcissa.
"Horrific! I've won myself a month's laundry duty in less than an hour." he groaned.
"Serves you right for gambling with him" she solded him.
"Well, somehow, you need to kill time in here." he shrugged.
"Did you know my father?" I asked out of the blue.
Rabastan blinked some. "If I knew Severus? Well, I suppose I did know him a bit. Why do you ask?"
"Is there anything you could tell us about the first war?" said Mirella, trying to save the situation without receiving another harsh answer. She has a "thing" with harsh answers. A "thing"- she cannot hold her tongue. Lucius and Rabastan exchanged a look.
"Why do you want to know about the first war? And why now?" Lucius was being reluctant to answer.
"Oh, you know, we're just interested" she said, as innocently as she could.
"The First War was a mess. A huge, brilliant, bloody mess. Damn me if I knew who was on my side and who wasn't. Dark times, even for us. The Ministry falling apart, bit by bit. The Order sending groups of youngsters trying to pass of like Deatheaters-to-be. Us trying to wipe out the Order by tracing its members. A mess. Did you know that the McKinnons actually helped Roddy and me, trace themselves? I'm telling you, the Second War was WAY more organized" said Rabastan.
"What had happened? Who was winning?" I asked.
"Well, I suppose we were-if you could call it that. The only thing the Ministry did was struggling to cover themselves from the Muggles. The Order, on the other hand, was quite a pain in our ass. We lost a lot of people, but they lost more. I don't know why this seemed so relieving at that time..." he said.
"But it was AFTER the Dark Lord's disappearance that things got really tough" said Lucius.
"Yes. Everybody was practically running to get out of the country. You see, it wasn't sure that we'd get transported here."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, the laws stating that every suspect deserves a trial, an attorney and all that stuff, didn't exist back then. When they hunted you, the aurors aimed to kill" said Rabastan.
"Indeed. There was a little thing they called "escape arrest". So you could as much as talk badly to your captors-"
"-and they'd make it look like an escape attempt blasting your head all over the wall" Rabastan concluded.
"No doubt that everyone was running then" said Mirella.
"And it wasn't just that. We were officially in a war, even after the Dark Lord's disappearance, since he wasn't there to sign up the peace treaty, so we were treated like prisoners of war." said Rabastan.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"Well, there were rumors that the Ministry was planning something about us. Something big. In the Department of Mysteries. We had people there looking into it, but even they didn't know exactly what was it they were planning."
"The suspense is killing me..." I said ironically.
Lucius cleared his throat, exchanging a look with his wife.
"Well. Let's just say that,ehm,the... archway was being tested back then. And there was a reason they had a theater built around it. They were planning to use it."
The Archway. The one Sirius passed through and I never get to see him again. My expression must have given away my thoughts.
"My dear" said Narcissa, leaving her husband's side, closing her arms around me. It felt strange, weird. All eyes drawn at me, looking at me as if I might break in half. Me, surprised that I didn't. I looked at her, realizing, for the first time really, that she was his cousin, that she knew him. She withdrew awkwardly after the moment ended, a couple of seconds later.
The horn sounded. We'd had to get to our cells, break time was over. As Mirella got up, she bumped onto Augustus Rookwood, who was glaring oddly at her.
"Might I help you up, sweetheart?" he asked smirking.
She shook her arm violently from his grip, staring coldly at him. That didn't discourage him, though. He grabbed her arse forcefully, as she turned to leave, digging his dirty nails in her flesh. She slowly turned to face him. She was smiling shyly, flinking her eyelashes. She took a slow step towards him. Somebody laughed, said something to him. As he turned his head to laugh back at his mates, she moved really fast, kneed him in the groin, making him double over, cursing, and gave him a hit with elbow at the back of his neck. He fell down, cursing more. She used her good foot to kick him in the face, breaking his nose and hurried to the exit, disappearing in the crowd. He was still shouting while we were walking the dark hallway. She chuckled, despite the danger.
"He likes me" she said.
I blinked."What?"
"He was hard when I hit him."
_
I was given the warning too, later that day. "He likes them young and innocent. Be careful". Ok, young I am-but innocent? Us innocent? Oh please! Let me laugh!