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Chapter Quote:
"It is our choices that show us what we truly are far more than our abilities."
~Dumbledore

Chapter 26

Ziva

For late August, the air was bitter cold. The wind nipped at Ziva's face unyieldingly, causing her to hunch her shoulders up higher as she made her way over to Jade's house. Draco had tipped her off that Death Eaters were coming for Jade, her mom, and her little sister Jennel. Ziva needed to convince them to leave before it was too late. Despite what was going on between her and Jade, she didn't want her old friend dying.

She reached Jade's house in a short amount of time. Knocking on the door, she was greeted by Ms. Carter.

"Ziva! How are you dear? Come in, come in! I haven't seen you in ages!" Ms. Carter exclaimed, ushering me in. "Nasty weather out there, isn't it?"

"I'm good, Ms. Carter. How are you? And yes, it's terrible," Ziva replied.

"Good, good. Where have you been? Jade barely speaks of you and you never come over. She's not here right now. She's at Elliot's."

"Um, we've all been kind of arguing about things. Don't worry though. Not about us at least. Ms. Carter… has Jade told you what's going on in the wizarding world? About the Dark Lord coming back?"

At this, the mother's face paled. "Yes. I'm extremely worried about her safety but then again, I know there's no safer place than Hogwarts, even with Dumbledore's death. Are you and your parents safe?"

"We are. We're in hiding for safety measures. Death Eaters want all purebloods on their side but we don't want to join him. Listen, this is going to sound strange and terrifying and please don't ask me how I got this information, but the Death Eaters are coming for you. You, Jade, and Jennel need to leave and go into hiding."

"Why are they coming after us?"

"Because of Mr. Carter."

"I know he's a Pureblood. Wait, is Jai all right? Is he alive? Are they going after him?"

"He's fine. He's alive from what I know. They're going after you to get to him because I think they found out he's left them."

"What do you mean he's left them? Jai… Jai was a Death Eater?"

"You didn't know?"

"No. I had no idea…"

"He's not anymore. Excuse me for asking this, but didn't he tell you he was leaving you and the girls for your protection when he divorced you?"

"No. He said he didn't love me anymore."

"First off Ms. Carter, that's a total lie. I know because he told me. Second, he's not a Death Eater anymore. He's working against them, relaying things to the Order."

"When are the Death Eaters coming?"

"In two days. I know it's short notice but my informant only just found out. I got here as fast as I could. When is Jade going to be back?"

"She's supposed to get back later tonight but I'll call her and get her to come home now. Jennel is here, I'll get her to start packing. Ziva, where are we supposed to go? I have no idea."

"I've already talked to my parents. They said if you needed a place to hide, that you could hide with them. With us."

"Until we can find our own hide out, I'll take them up on their offer. Go call them and tell them. I'll go-" Ms. Carter stopped speaking when the front door opened. She glanced at the kitchen counter where a pair of keys were. Ziva recognized them as Jade's, which meant it wasn't Jade who'd just come through the door. Ms. Carter grabbed a knife while Ziva pulled out her wand. Just because she was underage didn't mean she wouldn't use magic to defend herself.

"Sienna?!" Jai's voice hollered out. "Jennel?!"

"Jai?" Ms. Carter breathed. Still gripping the knife, she walked into living room. Mr. Carter was looking frantic until he saw his ex-wife. Jade stood behind him, appearing frightened. Ziva figured Jade had been alerted of the Death Eater's intentions.

"Jai, what are you doing here?" Ms. Carter asked. "How did you get in here?"

"Jade forgot her keys so I unlocked the door with magic. I came to help you pack. We need to get you out of here," Mr. Carter explained. He glanced over at Ziva, as if just realizing she was there. Scrunching his face up in confusion, he asked, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in hiding?"

"I heard from my own informant about the Death Eaters coming for Ms. Carter, Jade, and Jennel. I came over to warn them the moment I got word. My parents offered to let them stay with us," Ziva informed.

"There'll be no need for that. I have my own place for them. Tell your parents thank you though. We need to hurry though. Ziva, can you help Jade pack? Jade, go alert your sister. Sienna, I think we need to talk while you pack."

"Yes, sir." Ziva and Jade headed upstairs. Ziva went ahead to Jade's room and started grabbing clothes from her closet while Jade told her sister what was happening. When the eldest Carter daughter entered her room, she shut the door and said, "You don't have to help me. I can do it myself. Besides, I know you don't want to be around me."

"Whether I want to be around you or not right now does not change the fact that I'm helping you get out of here. Now get packing. I'll start grabbing stuff from your bathroom."

Ziva left Jade to pack her clothes. In ten minutes, Ziva had collected shampoo, conditioner, soap, hairbrushes, hair product, and anything else she could think of that Jade might need. It helped knowing what to take in the first place as Ziva was going through the same process.

"Jade, you almost ready? We're running on a tight schedule here," Mr. Carter asked, poking his head in her doorway. She nodded. "Good. Look, when we get to the safe house, I think it's time you and I had a talk. About everything." He turned to Ziva and said, "Thank you for helping my daughter."

"I'll always be there for her," Ziva replied. "No matter what."

Mr. Carter left. Jade bit her lip before saying, "Ziva… look, what I did to you, I was doing what I thought was best. For me it was, for you it wasn't. I know if it wasn't for Malfoy, you never would've found out about the Death Eaters plans to come attack me and my family and my dad might not have been able to get here in time. I don't regret what I did, but I regret hurting you and saying I thought you were turning into a Death Eater. I was wrong. I'm sorry, Ziva. I know things between us won't go back to being exactly how they were before, but I hope one day, things will."

"Thank you, Jade. I know you were trying to protect me by doing what you did. As for things between us, as far as I'm concerned, we can start on a clean slate. Make everything that happened water under a bridge. If you'd like," Ziva said.

"I'd like that very much."

"Good. Now come on, your father needs to get you all out of here to the safe house and I need to hurry home myself. Death Eaters want my family to join since we're purebloods. Not happening. But we also don't want to die if we don't join, you know?"

Jade chuckled. "Totally understand."

Jade lifted her trunk off the bed and Ziva carried her friend's backpack. Sienna, Jennel, and Jai were all waiting downstairs for them.

"All right, I have a portkey in the yard in the form of a garden gnome. Had to make it indiscreet. Jade, give me your suitcase. I'll hold onto it while we travel. Is everyone ready?"

When everyone nodded, they began to leave. However, they stopped short when the front door blasted open. Ziva yanked Jade and Jennel over into the kitchen while Jai pulled Sienna over to him, covering her with his body.

"Death Eaters!" Ziva shouted. A curse flew past the entryway to the kitchen. Mr. Carter stood up in the doorway, putting up a blocking spell. He yelled at Sienna to get over to the girls. She scurried over.

"Girls, listen to me. Go to the portkey! It'll take you directly to the safe house. I'll meet you there if I can. Whatever you do, don't look back! Ziva, take care of them!" Mr. Carter ordered. "I'll hold them off!"

"Jai, come back. Promise me you'll come back!" Sienna demanded.

"I promise. Now go!"

Ziva had to drag Mrs. Carter along with Jade to get her to move. They threw the suitcases out a window before jumping out themselves. Ziva went ahead to the front and peered around the corner. It appeared that all the Death Eaters were inside battling Mr. Carter. She hated leaving him. It would be nothing for her to sneak around to the front door and ambush the Death Eaters from behind. It'd catch them by surprise. But she'd also promised him she'd take care of his family, and that meant getting them to safety, even though that meant leaving him.

Motioning for the Carter girls to hurry, they grabbed onto the portkey. Suddenly they were spinning and spinning. Ziva waited until she was sure they'd been taken away from the house when she ordered everyone to let go. They bumped to the ground right outside of a tiny cottage camouflaged by trees, vines, and bushes. It would be difficult to spot if you weren't looking for it. Ziva also figured Mr. Carter had put other protection spells around the place.

"Oh god, Jai… he's all alone battling those… those horrible people!" Sienna cried.

"Dad can take care of himself," Jade consoled. "We'll see him soon."

Ziva helped the girls get their luggage inside. The place had had an extension charm placed on it. It was much bigger on the inside than the outside let on. The girls slowly unpacked their things in an attempt to waste time and distract their mind from the grim thoughts about what happened to Mr. Carter. Ziva helped Jade, if only by talking to her friend to distract her.

They'd been in the safe house for two hours when Mr. Carter finally made it through the door. He was had a busted lip and a few bruises but otherwise, he looked unharmed.

"Jai!" Sienna exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. Jade and Jennel ran up to hug their dad. Ziva looked away out of respect of their privacy. She felt like she was intruding. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"A little beat up but nothing some dittany and rest won't heal. Are you all okay?"

"We're fine. Come, sit." Sienna ushered her ex-husband over to the couch. He collapsed onto it.

"Jade? Jennel? You two okay?"

"We're fine dad," Jade replied.

"And Ziva?"

"Here," she said. "Um, I'll head out. It looks like you all need to talk. Jade, I'll see you when at King's Cross?"

"Will you be okay getting home by yourself?"

"Yeah. My safe house isn't far from yours. I'll be fine."

"Ziva, let me apparate you there. I don't want you to be by yourself," Mr. Carter said, standing up.

"Are you well enough to do it?"

"It doesn't take a lot of energy. Just tell me where to go."

Mr. Carter and Ziva said goodbye to Sienna, Jade, and Jennel and left the safe house. Once out of the protective boundaries, Jai apparated the two of them to a street one over from Ziva's safe house.

"Thank you for taking me here," Ziva said. "And thank you for holding off the Death Eaters by yourself. That took a lot of strength."

"I would do anything to protect my family, and considering what I've done to them in the past, it's about time I show them what I'm willing to do. I would die for them. I need to thank you for getting them out of there. I don't think they'd be alive if you hadn't been there to help me. Did Draco tip you off?"

"Yeah. He overheard some Death Eaters talking about it and called me to warn me. I'm not quite sure when he learned to use a phone. I thought most bigoted pureblood families wizards tried to avoid using muggle technology as much as possible."

"It's incredible what we'll do for people we love," Jai told her with a smile. "I've seen a change in Draco. He seems happier. You're his light Ziva, just like my family is mine. Just promise me if you find out what he was supposed to do for the Dark Lord, not to judge him for it. He was forced to."

"You mean killing Dumbledore?"

"You know? He told you?"

"I figured out the night Dumbledore died. It was the only thing that made sense about why Draco refused to tell me what it was he was supposed to do for the Dark Lord."

"You're a smart girl. I'm glad you're sticking with him. He needs you, whether he realizes it or not."

"Well we're kind of fated to be together."

"Ah, I see you heard your prophecy."

"How do you know about the prophecy? Did Draco tell you?"

"No. The prophecy was given to me by Elliot when she was so little she doesn't remember it. That's what the 'EKT' and 'JBC' were for. My name and Elliot's."

"Did you know it'd be about me and Draco?"

"No. But once I heard you two had a thing, it all came clear. Now go home. Be careful. And again, thank you for taking care of Jade."

"You're welcome Mr. Carter. Take care of yourself."

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