Chapter 6
Bellatrix glared at Amycus and said, "She is no niece of mine!" "Niece?" said Draco, bewildered. Amycus and Alecto giggled. "You never told him, Bella?" said Amycus. "You never informed Draco that he has a half-blood cousin who's in the Order and her name is Nymphadora Tonks?" Bellatrix flushed and said indignantly, "Draco has no relation to this filth!" This did not make sense at all to Draco. As far as he was concerned he had one pureblood aunt, Bellatrix, and two pureblood uncles, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. None of them had children. "Draco knows how ridiculous the very thought of it is!" shrieked Bellatrix. "I don't have another aunt and uncle?" asked Draco softly. "Do I?"
Straightaway, he knew that that had been the wrong thing to say. Amycus and Alecto giggled more than ever. Bellatrix flushed even more and glowered at Draco, who had no idea what he had done wrong, for bringing up the subject. Nymphadora Tonks stared at Draco for a few moments. She looked from him to the Death Eaters around her, a look of pure terror in her eyes.
"You never told him." said Barty Crouch, frowning. Bellatrix turned and scowled at him. "Andromeda is no sister of mine!" she said angrily. "I thought that you'd understand! I thought you'd agree that the boy didn't need to know! You're pureblood!" "And I thought that you'd agree that Draco deserves to be informed about this." said Crouch. Draco looked at his mother, who sighed and said, "Bella, I think that Draco should be told about Andromeda."
"Cissy!" screamed Bellatrix. "Surely you don't consider Andromeda…" "I don't," said Narcissa. "But now that the subject has been brought up, Draco should be told about Andromeda. Our family is still pureblood even if Draco knows about her." Bellatrix sighed, and said reluctantly, "Fine. You can tell him once we have all this sorted out."
She turned back to Nymphadora Tonks. "What do we do with this one?" Crouch asked in a low voice. "Maybe we could keep her here until the Dark Lord comes, so that if there's anything that the Dark Lord wants to know about the Order, he'll be able to interrogate her." "I doubt that the Dark Lord will be interested in interrogating Tonks himself," said Crouch. "He'd probably be upset that we didn't kill her."
"And if we keep her here," said Sky Lorrel. "The Order will realize that she's gone. They were probably the ones that sent her here to see whether this is really our headquarters. If she disappeared suddenly and there was no body found, they'd assume that we were keeping her hostage, and they'd want to come and rescue her. The last thing we want is to attract the Order here."
"We'll interrogate her first," Bellatrix said. "Then, after we're sure that we've extracted all useful information from her, I'll dispose of her. We can take the body somewhere else. We can hide in down Knockturn Alley. The Order will think that we attacked her there." "Are you completely sure that there isn't another way to question her besides the Cruciatus Curse?" asked Crouch. "Torturing information out of Order members didn't prove to be very useful the last time you tried it."
Nymphadora Tonks had turned to face Draco. She gave him a long, pitiful and frightened look. He felt a surge of sympathy fill him. Despite everything that he'd been told about the Order, Draco couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She was his cousin; she was family. He couldn't just let his aunt hurt her.
"Why are you suddenly so against me using the Cruciatus Curse?" groaned Bellatrix. "How many times must I tell you that we have no other options?" Crouch shook his head. "If she loses her mind halfway through your little interrogation, don't say that nobody warned you." he muttered. Bellatrix ignored him. She looked down at Nymphadora Tonks with a look of pure rancor and disgust. "Nymphadora Tonks, why are you here?" she questioned. "Who sent you?" "That's none of your business, Bella," Nymphadora replied. "And I'd prefer that you don't call me Nymphadora." "How dare you!" screamed Bellatrix. "Answer me!" Bellatrix raised her wand. Tonks gave Draco another pathetic look. "Don't." said Draco, before his aunt could say the incantation.
Immediately, everyone turned to stare at Draco. Bellatrix was fuming. "How dare you defend her!" she yelled. "How dare you tell me what to do?" She pointed her wand at Draco. "No, Bella!" screamed Narcissa. "Draco's never been in this sort of situation before, and he's never seen an Unforgivable Curse used on anyone before." "He saw me use it on a spider once." remarked Crouch. Narcissa paid no attention to him. "Draco doesn't know what he's saying." said Narcissa quickly. "He should know not to defend disgusting blood-traitors who are in the Order!" shouted Bellatrix. "He should know to keep his mouth shut in times like this!" "Bella, please," said Narcissa. "It won't happen again."
Bellatrix glanced at Draco, and reluctantly pointed her wand back at Nymphadora Tonks. Bellatrix was furious now, and Draco thought that he'd probably only made things worse for Tonks. "Why did you come here?" Bellatrix yelled at Tonks. "Did the Order of the Phoenix…" She was interrupted by a shrill scream. Amanda Annen had crumpled to the ground. Her sister helped her to her feet again, and looked around to see who had cursed her.
"Over there!" shrieked Sky Lorrel, pointing over Draco's shoulder. Draco whipped around to see a group of about eight people. Instinctively, he took out his wand, although he had no idea what spell he'd use if someone attacked him. The other Death Eaters had done the same. The group of people came closer. Now, Draco could see their faces, but he recognized none of them. Tonks grinned. "I brought a few friends with me." she said.