Chapter 50: Cause and Effect
"Aww," a beautiful red-headed woman cooed as she held a slumbering baby in her arms, "Isn't she the most beautiful baby you've ever seen, James?"
The man beside her, James, wore a grin as he poked the baby's forehead. The baby squirmed a bit before falling back to a quiet sleep. James looked behind him and saw his shabby looking friend and a auburn haired woman standing next to him watching the scene from a far.
"Come on, Moony, Nat, little Zoey isn't going to bite," James joked beckoning his friends over, "How can you fulfill your rights as godparents if you can't even be five feet away from the girl?"
Remus and Natalie laughed and approached the two. Lily handed Zoey over to Natalie who gently cradled baby Zoey in her arm while Remus lightly touched the little brown hair that grew on Zoey's head. Zoey gave a small squirm and opened her eyes. She looked at the new faces and pouted. She gave a small cry.
"W – what am I suppose to do?" Natalie gave a small panic and quickly gave Zoey to Remus. Remus struggled to carry Zoey but was able to support her like what Lily did. He looked uneasily at Zoey while she returned the look. Her eyebrows knitted in confusion and gave another cry.
"Take her, Prongs," Remus then gave baby Zoey to James who carried her and bounced her a bit in his arms.
Zoey gave a small giggle and waved her arms around before Lily took her in hers. Lily gave small kisses on Zoey's chubby cheeks and foreheads causing her to giggle.
Natalie gave a mocked fearful sigh. "This, my friends, is why I hate children," she laughed.
"How could you hate her?" Lily said in a baby voice, "she's so adorable!"
"To you and James," Natalie folded her arms across her chest, "she wasn't so sweet when Remus and I held her."
Lily readjusted Zoey in her arms and said, "That's because your faces are new to her and it doesn't help that you both looked so scared when holding her."
Natalie stuck her tongue out at her friend while Remus sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck while James patted his back. "You'll get used to it mate," James said comfortingly though with a laugh.
"I hope so," a new voice came. The four friends turned around to see Lucy at the door. Lucy's hair was tied in a messy braid that hung over her shoulder. Her face looked tired but her smile made them think otherwise. By her side was her husband, Sirius. "You both are her godparents after all. I would hate to know that you can't even carry her let alone take care of her," Lucy joked as she approached her friends.
Sirius made a bee line towards James and Remus and childishly ruffled Remus' hair. "She's right you ol' coot. What are Luce and I supposed to do when we pass on and know that you think Zoey here is a ticking bomb!"
"One," Natalie swatted Sirius hand away from Remus, "You wouldn't even know what a bomb was until I told you. Two, we don't think she's a ticking bomb. She just seems like it when she cries in our presence –"
"Who wouldn't cry in your presence?" Sirius muttered rubbing his hand only to receive a whack at his head.
"No violence in front of the baby," Lucy scolded, though she wore a smile, and took Zoey away from Lily. Zoey, knowing that the brunette was her mother, gave a cheerful cry and drooled on her mother's sleeve. "Lovely," Lucy laughed and accepted the rag that James gave Lily to give to her.
"And three," Natalie continued as if she was not interrupted, "Who says something will happen to you and Lucy that would cause Zoey to come to us?"
"She's right, Padfoot," James then put Sirius in a headlock, "You two are pretty strong. I doubt anything would push you down"
Sirius broke free from James and then trapped him in a headlock and began to give him a noogie. James began to squirm, "Gerrof!" his voice was muffled.
"You too never grew up did you?" Lily sighed.
"Nope, they did not," Remus laughed beside her.
Lucy, who decided not to take part in helping to pry of her husband away from James, ducked her head low and gave a kiss on her daughter's forehead. Zoey looked at her with big questioning eyes.
"I know this isn't a type to say this and I know you won't remember this when you grow up but I must tell you this," Lucy then gave a cautious look at her peers. They were now joking around, not knowing what Lucy was doing, "Terrible things would happen and devastating events will occur… you'll be experiencing the worst pain in your life but," Lucy took a deep breath while Zoey looked at her mother oddly, "I want you to know that you are a strong girl. You should be, you have your father's blood and mine as well. I don't know how to say this, your still so young but please be strong. Tell those who can help you your deepest troubles. Let them in, don't lock them out. Learn how to depend on others and," Lucy paused once more, "Know that I'll always love you and I'll always be with you," she then kissed Zoey on the forehead.
"Hey, Luce," Sirius then walked over to his wife. Lucy looked up at him with a smile that hid the fact that she told Zoey things that her father must not know. She noted that their friends have already left to the next room, "Prongs was complaining that he was hungry and wanted something to feast on. We decided to have a celebratory dinner"
Lucy laughed. "Are you sure it was James who was hungry?" she raised an amused eyebrow at her husband.
"Maybe it was Remus," Sirius said with a thoughtful look, "Wait – no – I'm pretty sure it was Natalie. You know how that woman can eat"
"Uhuh," Lucy handed Zoey over to Sirius, "Please watch over Zoey while I help Lily prepare dinner for you"
"And James, Remus and Natalie!" Sirius called over since Lucy was already out the door.
"Mostly you!" his wife called back.
"We could always eat out!"
"But I thought you love my cooking?"
"I do!" Sirius laughed and looked back at his daughter while he listened to his wife's retreating steps. Zoey blew spit bubbles and giggled. Sirius gave a low chuckle and readjusted his daughter in his arms and then kissed her forehead.
"Whoever said Lucy and I made the wrong decision to be parents early was lying," he said to his daughter, "I say we did a pretty good job. Don't you agree?"
Zoey laughed and clapped her hands.
Zoey inwardly winced as she felt her head pounding. Everywhere she looked all she could see was darkness and everything she felt was a numbing pain. She felt her temples throb and her vision blurred though all she could see was black, she knew something was going wrong with her eyes. Zoey's head pained like she had been hit by a Bludger or worse. She winced again. What could feel worse than being hit in the head by a Bludger? Oh, loads.
Zoey, though at the moment unconscious, knew that she was slowly recovering from her Aunt's beating. She knew that though her body was asleep her mind was awake and was fighting off the pain the Cruciatus curse inflicted on her. The numbing pain that felt like being hit by a Bludger felt much better now that she compared it to the pain she felt when her aunt crucio-ed her.
Crucio. That was the last thing Zoey heard before she was blinded and deafened with pain. What happened after that? Did her aunt find the box or did she just disappear? Zoey did not know. She wondered if she was still pinned against the wall or if she was slumping against the wall as she sat on the ground. How long was the curse used on her? Was she in St. Mungo's at the moment? Zoey knew that if the curse was used on an individual long enough he/she would succumb to insanity. Was Zoey insane right now? Had she lost her mind?
She did not know.
A soft groan came from Zoey mouth as she forced herself to wake up. She did not know how long it has been since she passed out and frankly she did not want to waste anymore time. Her body objected to the idea of coming out of rest but Zoey ignored it. Her limbs were stiff but she forced them to move, her head throbbed but she tried to focus on what she was doing, her vision blurred yet she just blinked her eyes multiple times till it cleared up a bit. Zoey furrowed her brows as she sat up and used her arms as support when she looked around the room. It was familiar to her. She's been here before. It was Ginny's room.
Ginny. Zoey's eyes widened even though it caused her head to buzz and make her see black spots. She closed her eyes and opened them again to remove the spots from her vision. If she was in Ginny's room that meant she was in the Burrow and that caused Zoey to come to the conclusion that the Weasleys came to her house to pick her up. Zoey's head throbbed when she thought about what events occurred that caused her to be at the Burrow. If the Weasleys came to pick her up, and succeeded in bringing her to their home, that meant that they saw the mess she was in. They most likely saw Zoey passed out by the wall. Did that also mean they saw Damiana? Did they force her to leave Zoey in peace? Did they capture her? Throw her in Azkaban? Was Zoey finally free?
A moan of pain came from Zoey. She was over thinking things. Of course she was not free. Her Aunt probably escaped and even if she was captured she has connections to keep her away from Azkaban. After all she was "buddy-buddy" with Malfoy who was in exceptionally good terms with the Minister of Magic.
Zoey began to see more black spots and she felt a painful buzz in her head causing her to sway a bit. Her head felt heavy and she felt herself crash back onto the pillow. She screwed her eyes shut and tried her best to force the pain away. Zoey took an iron grip on the bed sheets and let out an uncomfortable sound and squirmed. Her head pounded and the buzzing became more painful by every passing second. Zoey wondered if this was the side effects of the Cruciatus curse. Was it finally taking a toll on her mind? Was this pain a sign of her mind slowly deteriorating? Zoey tried to open her eyes but it only came so far as a squint for all she could see was the black spots and even then her vision blurred.
"Zoey," came a soothing voice. It was soft and filled with concern. It belonged to a woman Zoey felt a firm grip on her left shoulder and another one at her back. The girl was slowly helping Zoey up. Zoey did not object the help even if her head ended up lolling to the side because for whatever reason the headache made her head feel heavier, like she could not support it. She just let the woman do whatever she was doing because in truth Zoey could not even move her arms and legs. She felt like a doll.
"Ginny," the woman said, "Please support Zoey's head – yeah, like that. Now please get the pillow and place it on the wall so I can help Zoey up – thank you dear now get the wash cloth, she's sweating."
So if Ginny was helping the woman then the woman was Mrs. Weasley. Zoey thought to herself as she felt a nice cool cloth on her forehead. She felt her entire body relax and she was able to open her eyes. She felt like she had just woken up from a restless sleep and when she caught sight of Mrs. Weasley and Ginny they wore relieved looks on their faces. Ginny placed a hand on her heart and gave Zoey a smile while Mrs. Weasley continued to wipe Zoey's forehead.
"Hey," Zoey weakly greeted. Ginny gave a small laugh.
"How are you feeling?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she placed the cloth into the basin of water. Zoey winced a bit when she bent a forward a bit as to get away from the pillow behind her. Her neck was already stiff and she wanted to get the feeling out as soon as possible.
"Better," Zoey muttered and placed a hand on her neck carefully rubbing it. Her hand felt tingly, it was numb as well.
"Better as in you feel like total crap?" Ginny raised an eyebrow, "Come of it. You look like you just been out drinking"
"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley scolded.
"It's true, mum! Look at her, she looks like she has a hangover," Ginny pointed at Zoey.
Zoey gave a small laugh. She guessed she looked horrible. She didn't even want to look at a mirror at the moment. After all, she already knew what her 'hangover' look looked like. "Inside voice, please," she said.
"She even acts like she has a hangover," Ginny muttered under her breath.
Mrs. Weasley chose to ignore Ginny's comment and sent her out to get Mr. Weasley. Ginny agreed with no argument and Zoey listened to Ginny's fading footsteps as she descended down the steps in search for the Weasley father.
"Why does she need to get Mr. Weasley?" Zoey asked when she could no longer hear Ginny's footsteps.
"He wanted to talk to you," Mrs. Weasley took out the cloth, wrung it and wiped Zoey's forehead once more, "I told him to wait so you could rest some more but he insisted he speaks to you the moment you get up," Mrs. Weasley sighed, "Honestly, that man"
Zoey felt the soothing feeling past through her body once more and thought that it was not regular water Mrs. Weasley was applying on her forehead. She closed her eyes to enjoy the cool feeling before looking back at Mrs. Weasley.
"Why does he want to speak with me?" Zoey asked.
Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted when she heard fast, stomping feet going up the stairs. She pinched the bridge of her nose before leaving the room. Zoey bit her lip as she listened to Mrs. Weasley's scolding voice.
"I told Ginny to get your father and your father only," Mrs. Weasley said with a stern voice, "No Fred, George, Ron you cannot see her right now. She needs her rest and frankly seeing all of you would be overwhelming for her. Don't deny it. Now let your father through!"
Zoey held in a laugh when she heard the grumbling of the under-aged Weasley boys and listened to their descending steps. She then straightened up when she heard a knock at the door.
"Come in," Zoey said slightly awkward.
Mr. Weasley softly opened the door and came into the room with a smile. Zoey noted that he looked slightly stressed and had small dark circles under his eyes. She suddenly felt a pang of guilt.
"How are you feeling?" Mr. Weasley repeated his wife's question.
"I'm fine," Zoey replied and gestured towards the edge of her bed for Mr. Weasley to sit on seeing as there were no chairs in sight, "How about you?"
Mr. Weasley gave a chuckle, "Fine, just a little tired but I'll live," he paused and his face turned serious, "I don't want to make you uncomfortable but I need to know, Zoey. How long has your aunt been treating you that way?"
"What way, Mr. Weasley?" Zoey replied out of instinct. It was obvious that Mr. Weasley was talking about her aunt's use of the Cruciatus curse and nearly suffocating her but Zoey avoided the question.
"Fred said you'd avoid answering me," Mr. Weasley gave a crooked smile as Zoey blushed.
Zoey apologized.
"No worries," Mr. Weasley held up his hand, "But you must see that I have to know. What your aunt was doing is illegal and I must know how long this has been going," he paused, "This is child abuse, both physically and mentally, Zoey"
"I know," Zoey ducked her head low. She blinked her eyes and thought tears would fall but no tears came. Her eyes were dry and Zoey only felt a lump in her throat. Her secret was out. She could no longer hide such things. She could no longer keep her life hidden from those she cared about. The fact that she was being abused was revealed to the Weasleys and she knew that they would stop at nothing to get every ounce of information out of her. Either by her telling them or them leaving her alone to wallow in her guilt, they would know what has been happening. Zoey figured it was easier to tell him now rather than later when she felt guilty about keeping it inside.
"It has been going on for as long as I can remember," Zoey said after a long pause. This was it. "I – I moved to the house when I was about nine and she came one day and began to call me tons of offensive names. She even insulted my family… I guess that's where it began."
"Why did you have to move in? Where are your parents?" Mr. Weasley asked.
Zoey gulped, "My mother's dead and my father…he's well… Sirius Black…"
Mr. Weasley's eyes widened and did not say a word. Zoey took his shock silence as a chance to continue. The sooner she finished telling him her sob story the better.
"I don't remember when the abuse began. I hardly remember anything anymore. All I could remember was the pain she inflicted on me with several curses. The abuse I got was both from magic and physical beating. She wasn't the only one who 'bullied' me… no there were other… Sorry, Mr. Weasley… I can't mention their names. I fear that if I reveal who they are something bad will happen," Zoey paused,
"The abuse began to worsen when she found out I had something she wanted. At first I didn't know what she was talking about but then…when I did she did numerous things. She did loads of things just to get the answer out of me. I was splinched when she apparated us to a tower that was even taller than the ones back at Hogwarts, almost thrown me off the said tower, threw me against the wall… caused me to bleed in several places," Zoey took in a shaky breath,
"She just did a lot of things that caused me to have the scars I have now and when she didn't feel like causing me physical pain to get the answer she used the… curse…"
"The Cruciatus Curse," Mr. Weasley offered, "I've – We've seen it."
"Mr. Weasley… who else saw what happened?" Zoey asked
"All of us except for Ron, Ginny and Molly," Mr. Weasley said, "We'll talk about that later. So is that everything she has done?"
Zoey nodded. It was the general pain she has caused.
"What was the thing she wanted from you?"
"A box," Zoey said in a soft voice, "It was a box that belonged to my mother."
"What's inside the box?" Mr. Weasley asked.
Zoey licked her lips. "There's loads of things. Everything belonged to my mother. I'm guessing there's an undetectable extension charm on the box because… it seemed almost endless to me and I can swear that if I jumped into the box I would still have room to jump around. It's very deep and there's things that I have yet to find inside… so far I've found a jewelry box, photo album and some Emeraude books and the like"
Mr. Weasley nodded his head. "Last question, was your aunt the one who destroyed your house? The turned furniture broken glass, was she the one who broke them? Did she throw them at you?"
"No," Zoey shook her head, "I was the one who broke them. I… when I first came to the house everything was clean and orderly and I don't know… I snapped and next thing I knew it was like that. Well not exactly. To be honest it's in the worst state possible. Nothing could be fixed by the looks of it."
"I see," Mr. Weasley said, "Well, thank you for your time Zoey, I would ask Ginny to send your tray up so you can eat," Mr. Weasley stood up and headed for the door. He was just about to leave but Zoey stopped him.
"Please, Mr. Weasley, I would like to come down to eat. I don't want to disturb Ginny," Zoey said.
"Ginny won't mind –" Mr. Weasley began
"No, please, I need to stretch my legs anyway," Zoey smiled and slowly got of her bed. She wobbled a bit when she tried to walk, "See? I can't have this now, can I?"
Mr. Weasley smiled. "I'll tell Molly to prepare lunch, then"
Mr. Weasley knows! How about the rest of the Weasleys?
Sorry if this chapter is WAY short compared to the last. It's the middle of the night and I wanted to update it and dedicate most of the next chapter to a ZED moment.
Special thanks to:
wHaT's In A pEn-NaMe
for the idea for the last bit in the previous chapter!
You are TOTALLY AWESOME!
I also want to thank those of you who reviewed and the like :D
Uberly much appreciated :P
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and for those who are wondering about Bridgit please be patient. All will be revealed in due time.
Same with Echo. IN DUE TIME!
Oh~ And I added little Miss Perfect, Mary Sue to the story because she is needed for the plot of this year!
No, she is not a sudden Idea. I've had her character in mind LONG before this chapter as in when I was still typing up the first... TEN chapters of this story so you can see she's been in my idea box for quite some time now.
Another OH! the "Natalie" girl from the little flash back at the beginning of the chapter is Zoey's "Aunt Maria" also known as her godmother.
Natalie's full name is "Maria Natalie Hunter"
You know, just in case some of you forgot. She was mentioned a few chapters back :)
ZoomSkater14 = I'll message you when I need you okay? That will be very soon I hope :P
Hmm... what else do I have to say?
Right, there isn't much reaction from the Weasleys yet because Zoey's is still recovering and they wanted to keep things "mellow" for a bit. You know, don't scare a sick person kind of thing... yeah...
I walked a lot today! :D
Sorry, just wanted to keep the conversation (?) going...
OKAY! Imma shut up now.
Don't forget to review and the like
Stay tuned for the next chapter
Sorry for any typos or grammatical errors
and
I only own what I own!
