Harry had, without his friends' knowledge, continued to look into Malfoy's strange behaviour. He was adamant that there was something going on with him, he was certain the blonde had something to do with Katie coming into possession of the cursed necklace and that it had to do with Voldemort. Aside from going to the Room of Requirement, Malfoy tended to spend the rest of his time with Georgia in the Slytherin Common Room (as shown on the Marauders Map), which only helped to solidify his theory that it had to do with Voldemort, seeing as she was his Granddaughter. Either way, Harry was determined to get to the bottom of this.
o0O0o
By now it had been nearly a month since she'd been in a coma and Georgia was getting more and more frustrated. Her only plan thus far to kill Dumbledore hadn't worked and Draco nearly killed an innocent girl instead. What made things worse was that all around her people were complaining about the silly little things going on in their lives, and compared to what she was dealing with they seemed too insignificant and petty for her liking.
From where she was sitting she could hear a Ravenclaw student moaning loudly about his 'woes'. "Merlin, it's just so annoying when Granger borrows all the books we need for an upcoming essay. She's not even reading them for school work, she's just reading them for fun!"
Georgia, at the end of her rope, turned around, looked him directly in the eye and said to the boy, "Shut up you petulant child. Get a real problem to complain about."
The Ravenclaw looked away from her and said to his friend, "You know what I hate more than Granger taking all the books we need? Idiot Slytherins sitting on their high horses pretending they're better than everyone because of their blood status."
At that Georgia almost burst into boisterous laughter, however she restrained herself to a small giggle. "You really think blood status matters to me? What are you, a Halfblood? Even as a Prewett your blood is probably still purer than mine."
The boy looked at her then, "Why do you care? We're all the same to you, Blood Traitors, Half-bloods, and Muggleborns. In the end you're a Death Eater and we're not, that's what it comes down to. The only thing you have to worry about is whether you'll be expelled!"
If Georgia's blood hadn't already been boiling at the insolence of the boy, it certainly was now. "How dare you! You suggest as a Death Eater I don't have anything to worry about, you really have no clue what you're talking about do you, and you call yourself a Ravenclaw? Our Lord is always just, but he is also immensely cruel when he sees fit, Death Eater or not. If he asks something of us it is done without hesitation because we know that whatever consequences we face here are they are nothing like the compared to his wrath. So don't you dare think you sit back at the sidelines and tell me I have it easy, because we don't. Not in any sense of the word."
By this point, most of the Hall was listening to what Georgia was saying. Once again all eyes were on her. Clearly she had rattled some bones because shortly after she finished speaking Ron stormed over to her.
Coming as close as he dared, he spoke his mind. "You talk about fear of your 'Lord' like you actually have any. Stop trying to gain sympathy, and don't pretend that's not what you're doing. Everyone knows that you beat him in a duel, so why would you fear him, you and I both know he would never hurt you now."
Georgia glared at him with cold eyes, "Ronald, don't dare even think about saying what you're about to say. We may be family Ron, but I won't hold back if you do."
"You are no family of mine!" Ron shouted quickly sending a stupefy her way, which she blocked easily and expeliarmus-ed his wand. Wands were drawn all around the room, unfortunately most were aimed at her. Pocketing her wand, throwing Ron's wand to the floor and raising her hands carelessly in the universal sign for 'Fine. I surrender, or whatever', the other wands in the Hall were lowered but not put away.
"You realise that he attacked me, right? Not the other way 'round." Georgia huffed.
"That may be the case Miss Prewett, however you did threaten Mr Weasley before that. Therefore provoking him to attack." Professor McGonagall spoke, her wand still in plain sight. "Now Mr Weasley, what was it you were saying to Miss Prewett?"
Georgia glared at the Deputy Head, but turned to look at Ron once he continued with what would ruin Charlotte's school life as she knew it. "I was saying that Georgia Prewett is no family of mine. In fact, she's not even a Prewett at all!" Ron declared and the Hall gasped.
"Ron please, I know you want to get back at me. I know that and I understand, but please-please, think about what this will do to Charlotte. Think about the repercussions this will have for her." Georgia pleaded, she clearly had no other options.
"What's this? The mighty Snake is begging? You don't deserve a sister like her." Ron turned away from her, toward the rest of the school. "Georgia Prewett is in fact the Granddaughter of Lord Voldemort."
It suddenly felt like the world was collapsing in on Georgia, her chest tightened and she was having trouble breathing properly. Now everyone knew. They'd scrutinise everything she did far more than they already did when she was just a Death Eater. The Hufflepuffs will surely make Charlotte's life even more miserable. Trying to keep a straight face she stormed out of the Great Hall while everyone was busy openly gawking at her or whispering about her.
Once she was in the safety of the girls toilets she let everything go, her blank mask came down, tears poured out of her eyes like rivers, and she sat with her arms wrapped around her legs.
o0O0o
Harry was late to breakfast that morning. He'd been following Malfoy as he once again went to the Room of Requirement. When he entered the Great Hall shortly after the blonde he noticed something was happening and everyone was whispering about Georgia, it appeared Malfoy had noticed too. Malfoy made eye contact with Harry as he passed him, running out the massive doors. Forgetting about lunch, Harry followed quickly behind him.
It seemed that the Slytherin didn't really know where he was going. Finally Malfoy decided on a destination. Running into the girls loo. Not really caring why he was in the girls toilets, Harry followed.
When he walked in he looked around for the Slytherin. Not seeing the boy when he glanced around quickly. Walking further into the room he saw something he wasn't expecting. Georgia was breathing frantically, curled up with her arms hugging her legs close to her chest. Malfoy's arm was around her shoulders, whispering into her ear with a desperate look on his face. As though, if he didn't calm her down now she would be like this forever. Not wanting to give himself away, Harry hid behind a stall where he could here little bits of what Malfoy was whispering.
"Georgia... I know you don't... Dumbledore... You can't disappoint... He's not just your Grandfather... Dark Lord..." By now Harry was more confused than when he'd walked in, what did Dumbledore have to do with this?
After more whispering Malfoy finally snapped. "You need to seriously pull yourself together, Georgia Prewett. You've been given a task from the Dark Lord as a test of your ability, neither of us can afford to fail."
'A task?' What on earth could Voldemort have wanted her to do that would've put her in this sort of state?
Georgia was mad at Malfoy's words, that much was clear from her words. "This has nothing to do with the task, I know what I have to do and I've accepted it."
"Then what's the matter?" Concern filling the blonde's voice.
"Ron... The stupid fucking Weasel that he is, thought only of revenge when he told the entire Great Hall that I'm the Dark Lord's granddaughter. I know that he's aware of what' seen happening with the Hufflepuffs, and this would clearly only make life worse for Charlotte. How could he do this to her? He may not think of me as family, but surely he still considers her family." Through the whole rant Georgia had tear running down her face, not that Harry could see them at this moment of time but he could hear the clogging of her throat as she spoke.
Georgia cried out in frustration, "Why can't my task be to kill Ron instead? Why did it have to be Dumbledore?!"
At this Harry froze. Georgia's task was to kill Dumbledore? Surely Voldemort knew that was basically impossible... Malfoy had said her task was a test of ability, maybe she'd be disowned as his granddaughter if she failed. Can you even disown a granddaughter? It was then that Harry decided to step out to where he be seen.
"I knew it, I knew there was something shady going on."
Malfoy and Georgia looked up at him, both wearing looks of shock and anger at his presence. However the Slytherins quickly schooled their faces into cold indifference.
"If you continue to speak like this, Potter, someone's going to think you're barmy." Malfoy sneered, helping Georgia up from the floor. "What exactly do you think is going on here?"
"Voldemort's ordered Georgia to kill Dumbledore, and it was you two who cursed Katie!"
o0O0o
Charlotte sat surrounded by red and gold, she had begun to panic at the thought of her housemates knowing about her heritage. Seeing how she started to crumble where she sat, Gryffindors formed a circle of protection, turned away from to give her a small amount of privacy and allow then to glare at anyone who dared even look their way
After she had exhausted herself both emotionally and physically, she tried to stand up and tell the lion's she was okay now and didn't them to be her body guards anymore. Tried being the operative word. Charlotte's knees gave out underneath her and she toppled to the ground and into several pair of legs, pushing them to fall backwards and therefore on top of her. Making her groan both in embarrassment and pain, wishing the ground would swallow her up to save her the shame, she would likely feel on her way out of the Great Hall.
"Here, take my hand." Charlotte blushed heavily as she looked up realising the weight on her back had disappeared and Hermione was holding out a hand to help her off the floor.
"Th-thanks, 'Mione." She stuttered feeling her face heat up in a very Weasley-like fashion, which hadn't seemed odd until now, since they weren't actually related… 'Huh.'
"I– uh, I guess I'll see you at Slughorn's party then?" She asked in an effort to get away with at least some of her dignity intact, which was looking less and less likely every second she was here. She knew there was a reason she stopped coming to the Great Hall during meal times, there were far too many people around to see her make a fool of herself.
"Yes, see you then, Charlotte." Hermione smiled kindly at her as she turned and practically ran out of the hall. It was only when the bushy haired girl sat back down at the table that she realised all the food she had given Charlotte to eat was sitting untouched on her plate, with a finished cup of coffee. She really did need to speak to that girl about her eating habits.