Chapter 9

The time Allegra spent in the room was only defined light filtering through a tiny filthy glass panel at the back at the room.

That first morning she gathered the courage to stand on the bed and try to see out, but not only was she too short but the glass was old and cloudy. She had then tried to will herself to smash it, but it had some kind of unbreakable spell on it. It would not budge.

Three days had passed since, and she had been largely left alone. Someone fed her at lunch and dinner time, but she had been without breakfast. The food was good, not scraps or gruel. Presumably she was getting the same as whoever else was in this house, she knew it was no kind of prison.

She'd had a lot of time to think, naturally, and because of the feeding and no one speaking nor harming her, she assumed that she had been taken as bait for Harry. The mention of Hermione had confirmed that. It was something of a relief – they didn't know about her ability, but it did little to ease her constant stomach ache.

That first night, hours after she had been deposited on the wooden floor, once she needed the bathroom so badly she thought she might wet herself, she investigated the door on the right wall. Inside it was dingy, covered in green tiles and not particularly clean, but there was a toilet, a rather rustic shower, mirror, basin and even a hairbrush.

Allegra tried to sleep as much as she could, but it was intermittent and when she woke she still felt tired. She jumped out of her skin at every little noise for the first three days, thinking that this time would be the one where they took her somewhere to torture her for information.

She worried about Harry. Had he worked out what had happened? Had they somehow found a way to get a message to him to bait him? He would surely try to rescue her. That was the kind of thing Harry would do.

She had shit luck, she'd worked that out too. She'd managed to run into a Death Eater that the others had obviously parked in the Forbidden Forest to get out of the way. They had probably even hoped that something in the Forest would have picked him off.

On the fifth day, somebody came for her. Footsteps approached her door but instead of passing, they stopped. Allegra froze, it wasn't a meal time. Allegra backed up from where she had been pacing, but she had nowhere to go, the door swung open and a scarred man rushed at her.

She screamed and flinched but he didn't grab her. When Allegra opened her eyes she saw him flying back down the corridor in front of her, skidding to a stop on his back.

All fell quiet. Allegra could hear her breathing and her heartbeat but nothing else.

The door was open.

Wide fucking open.

She sprinted forward and darted left, she could barely see ahead of her in the dark, her vision blurred in the panic. She gasped loudly, if she'd been smart she would have been quiet and tiptoed with slow, calculated steps, but she couldn't. She was too desperate to be free of this place. Claustrophobia clawed at her, she felt like at any moment her legs would stop working.

Suddenly she was knocked aside violently, only narrowly avoiding colliding with the wall because her attacker had a hold of her.

"No!" She screamed.

Then the man screamed, primal and let her go, waving his hands around like a fire show – she had somehow set them on fire.

She fell forward, almost to her knees but then she was running again.

That was twice now, twice in two minutes she had – or maybe she should say it had – attacked someone without so much as thinking about it.

That was scary.

A light shone up head, a glow above falling down a flight of stairs. Allegra clambered up them, almost sobbing and then burst out –

Right into a circle of Death Eaters.

Allegra froze, they were as shocked to see her as she was them, and that gave her a second to get a hold of herself.

At once they rushed her, two pulling wands from their sleeves. She threw her arms out towards a tank-sized man and it was like he'd run into a brick wall, his nose exploded in red and he stumbled back.

Allegra's surprise at what she'd done put her off balance and someone grabbed her. She struggled, but more arms were on her.

"What a surprise." Allegra froze, as did the men around her. "When I asked Sherper to bring you to us, I thought he might escort you."

Allegra dared not move, she barely breathed. She tried painfully to resist looking at the source of the voice, but something. Just. Wanted. Her. To.

So she did.

She had known what she would see, but her stomach still lurched at the sight of him. He was every bit as terrifying and gruesome as Harry had described, and so much more. It was all she could do to keep the fear from her face.

She did her best to just look; to keep her face blank. She could not give them any excuse to hurt her.

"I see you might be harder to contain than we once thought," he stood, and Allegra focused entirely on controlling her fear and the power that was building in side her, eager to do something stupid.

He looked at the Death Eaters around her.

"Let's take her back to her room and see if we can find a better way to secure her."

The men once again lifted her off her feet and started to take her back down the stairs to the dark corridors.

She could feel Voldemort's presence behind her.

"You see, Miss Boone, you just need to be patient until we need you to bring Harry Potter to us." One of the men told her, almost pleasantly. Like he was asking her to wait another ten minutes before an appointment.

They pushed her back into the room and parted so that Voldemort could stand in the doorway. He slowly drew his wand and Allegra watched as he pointed it at her.

The floor began to shake again, as it had done when she'd been faced with Bellatrix, but this time they all ignored it. He slowly traced symbols in the air, and softly spoke an incantation that Allegra had never heard before.

"Takethet memorado confinum spocefinite."

Everything went dark and Allegra dropped, falling through the floor and down, down.

"Why would You-Know-Who want her? There's no way he knows about her," Ron said, whispering as best he could over a mouthful of roast potato.

"Well, if he doesn't know, then it's to get to me," Harry said.

"That's what it is," Hermione nodded, "think about it, she's taken from the forest when there was no guarantee that she would ever have gone there. If Alicia hadn't started she would have gone back to the common room."

"So, what, they'd parked someone in the forest just waiting on the off chance that someone went stumbling down there?" Ron said.

Hermione nodded, "I think so. Just waiting for anyone remotely useful. Harry would want to go after anyone, they just managed to hit the jackpot."

"Damn right," Harry sighed, "so, what do we do?"

Hermione shrugged helplessly, "nothing for now." Harry looked like he was about to erupt. "Harry! We have nothing to go on; no clue where she is, or how she's defended. If we did something reckless it may backfire: on her." Harry closed his mouth and decided on being quietly angry. "We wait until he puts her in a place that is meant to draw you in, and we try to get her out from within his own trap."

Harry nodded, appeased.

"That's if she doesn't do something herself," Ron said absently, the other two looked at him, blinking. "Think about it, she's like a bomb waiting to go off. She might get herself out."

Hermione couldn't say that filled her with confidence. "Or killed."

Neither of the boys said a thing. Hermione watched as Draco and Blaise walked in for dinner, and she thought again about how Draco had come to find her.

Allegra landed heavily on her back. She groaned and rolled over in pain. Once it had subsided she looked at the grass beneath her fingers, it felt real, but it was darker – more blue than real grass.

She found her feet and stood up, everything around her covered by an unnatural blue-grey tint, like the eerie darkness before a storm or the world at twilight. Silence hit her like a brick; there was no noise of wind or birds chirping.

She recognised this place. But it couldn't be ... she looked around at the garden of her childhood home, where she had lived before her mother had died and her father still played quidditch. Allegra had the sudden urge to hold a wand in front of her - something was wrong - and she needed something to protect her. She tried a simple Wingardium Leviosa on a plant pot, it rose a couple of feet off the ground and then replaced itself. She sighed, at least that was still intact.

She couldn't stand still forever. She walked onto the path that ran down the side of the old Victorian town house and towards the back door. She hesitantly pushed it open with a finger. Just like the garden, the inside of the house was a dark and still version of how she remembered it. Cassia would normally in the kitchen making lots of noise and her mother and father would be chatting happily. But no noise met Allegra's ears. Everything was deathly still.

Allegra's mother rounded the corner and faced her.

"There you are!" She said smiling cheerfully. Allegra stood, mouth agape, staring back at her. "Oh, Ali, you will get your own wand when you start at Hogwarts, but you have to stop bringing sticks into the house. We have muggles on either side and they give me strange looks when they see you playing with sticks."

Allegra looked down, there was a twig in her hand. She threw it behind her, half because her mother had told her to and half in shock.

"Good girl, now come on, I'm late enough for work as it is and I was lucky to be allowed to bring you." She took Allegra's hand and pulled her through the house as though she were a nine year old.

Wait ... now she remembered.

That day, that day she preferred to forget, Allegra had gone to work with her mother because Cassia was away. Adrenaline hit Allegra's veins so fast she shuddered.

"You cold?" She smiled down at Allegra, and Allegra quickly realised that she wasn't herself anymore, she had shrunk. "Mike! Have a good day, Honey! We're off."

"Okay, you too!" Allegra heard her father reply from upstairs. Then she was pulled out of the door and down the steps onto the London streets.

On the street it was still filled with the blue-grey tint and lack of wind, however out here it looked like normal everyday London. Bustling people off to work, a sea of black, grey and blue with splatters of colour here and there where someone was wearing something more exciting than a suit. Cars, cabs and buses passed, and the familiar noise of wheels and engines reached Allegra's ears. Her mother walked briskly in front of her, holding her hand and pulling her through the oncoming pedestrians.

Her mother had always been well dressed, even for a pureblood witch, and took advantage of the days where she was at her desk for the day to look particularly good. Today, she was wearing red high heels, black pencil skirt, white shirt and a suit jacket. Apparently all of her clothes were in the loft but Allegra hadn't had the heart to go up and get it yet.

A little while later she found herself walking through the main entrance hall of the Ministry of Magic. Her mother pulled her in tightly behind her so she could not be swept away by the crowds. They came to an empty lift and went to the back to allow others to get in.

"Here we are," her mother smiled and they made their way out and down the corridors. Eventually they found the Auror's Office. If there was a better place to work within the Ministry, Allegra would like to see it. It was full of happy people, joking, working and flirting. At Hogwarts career day would be upon the fifth year students soon, and Allegra wasn't upset to be missing it. Allegra's mother sat her at her desk and suggested she do some colouring while she went to talk to her boss.

Allegra started, but was more interested in looking around the office. There were a few people that Allegra recognised, and she took a brief moment to look for Tonks before remembering that she would still be at school. Allegra spotted her mother talking to a man who she was sure was a much younger and hipper looking Kingsley.

And then darkness hit her: she was going to have to watch her die all over again.

"Come on, we need to walk, quick." Allegra's mother pulled Allegra from her seat. "You have to keep where we go a secret, Kingsley needs something and mummy has to get it as she is working with him today, so follow me." Allegra nodded and followed her deeper into the Ministry.

It was a constant struggle for Allegra to realise that the woman in front of her was not her mother. It couldn't be, it wasn't possible.

But she seemed so real.

The strange blue tint the world had was not quite obvious enough to persuade Allegra's mind that nothing here was real. But it wasn't real. She knew that, at least in part.

Allegra's mother locked the door behind her, she was holding a brown paper bag with a circular shape inside it.

"What's in the bag?" Allegra asked.

"A prophecy," she half-whispered as she started down the corridor, "a prophecy is something that foresees someone's future."

"Do I have a prophecy?"

"A lot of people do. I've not had a chance to find out if you, me, or dad has one. I've been meaning to, though."

Allegra swallowed hard. She'd never had the chance to go back and check. Allegra focused on her breathing; what would happen if she broke down now? Would anyone notice?

Allegra spent the day at her mother's desk, watching the clock tick closer to the time of her mother's death. Each tick was like a pinprick. Watching her mother so alive at work was both joyous and torture, Allegra was so happy to have a chance to observe her mother again, even if she wasn't real, but there was no denying what was going to happen later that night.

On the desk were two framed photographs, one of the family together, laughing and cuddling in front of the camera. The second was of Allegra's parents in the distance, kissing passionately on a snowy moonlit street corner. The latter had probably made Allegra gag at nine but now she had to turn it away for a different reason.

"Mum, I don't think we should go home," Allegra protested at the end of the day.

"I honestly don't know what you're fussing about."

Her mother walked ahead of her out of the office.

No, Allegra didn't want to do this again.

She ran in the opposite direction as fast as her child-sized legs would carry her.

Nothing was stopping her. No one grabbed her, she didn't freeze in place. She was actually getting away.

At the end of the corridor was a huge black door with golden metalwork. Allegra grabbed the handle, turned and –

Appeared in front of her front door at home. Not the mansion in the country, but the London townhouse, her mother in front of her with her key in the lock.

"Fuck!" Allegra shouted, but her mother didn't acknowledge it. Anxiety started clawing its way from her stomach to her chest.

Something forced Allegra into the house with her mother.

Hate surged through her veins, what was this place? Why was it doing this to her?

The next few hours were emotional agony. She constantly watched the clock, the hands moving ever closer to eight-thirty, when everything would crumble.

At eight her mother came into the living room where Allegra was perched on a sofa pretending to watch television.

"Ali, Dad's running late so he won't be home in time to put you to bed tonight."

Allegra nodded solemnly, and looked out of the window. It was starting to get dark outside. Her mother crossed the room, sat on the other sofa and opened a muggle fashion magazine, blissfully unaware that she only had a little over thirty minutes of her life left.

Allegra thought she might throw up. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, she could see it in the movement of the hair around her face. God knows how she'd be in half an hour.

Twenty-five past eight. There was a tap, tap, tap at the window. Allegra's mother closed her magazine and went to the window. An owl flew in and left as soon as it had dropped the note. Allegra's mother picked it up and as she read it her eyes grew wide. She scrunched it up, stuffed it into her back pocket, and picked her wand up from the side-table.

"Allegra, I need you to run as fast as you can and get June," she said quickly, finding a scrap piece of paper and searching for a pen on a desk in the corner of the room.

Allegra was surprised to find herself on her feet and running up to her parents room to fetch their owl. Was she playing along or was something forcing her to again? She wasn't quite sure. June leaped off her perch and Allegra chased her back down the stairs to the living room.

"To the Auror office at the Ministry," June took the letter and leapt from the open window into the night sky. Allegra's mother rushed to Allegra.

"Mum, no!" Allegra screamed, the panic had overwhelmed Allegra, she shook and tears sprung from her eyes. "No, mum, run now!"

Her mother pushed her around to the back of the sofa, she didn't hear her screams.

"Quick, darling, I need you to hide behind the sofa," she said calmly, but there was no hiding the urgency in her voice. Allegra squeezed into the tiny gap between the wall and the sofa, a space that only looked large enough for a housecat. "Stay here, sweetheart, don't come out until everything is okay." She crouched down in front of Allegra's hiding place. Allegra sobbed uncontrollably, and she felt the familiar loss of control. The room began to shake, as if a child had just picked them up and was using the room as a rattle.

Allegra held her mother's hand, she was oblivious to the inside-a-snow globe-feeling Allegra had.

"I love you too, sweetie, don't make a sound no matter what happens. Promise me."

Allegra couldn't speak, but her mother nodded like she had received an answer and Allegra backed up further into her hiding place.

The living room door burst open hand hit the wall violently. Allegra jumped, then tried to steady herself but the vibrations hadn't calmed down any, and now it sounded like walls and furniture were being destroyed, like an earthquake was ripping the house apart.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Allegra suddenly found her feet and she burst from her hiding place in time to see the beam of green light hit her mother in the chest and she collapsed to the floor.

"NO!"

The Death Eater turned to look at Allegra, and all the shaking and noise stopped dead. In a part of her mind that was in more control than her, she remembered that she had not seen her mother's killer that day, only heard him.

She had wanted to see who he was, but now standing up didn't seem like such a good idea. She couldn't see his face properly, only what was lit from his noise to his chin.

He was grinning.

He laughed, the sound was so dark and evil it made the depths of Allegra's stomach shift and she clutched her tummy.

Crack! He was gone. Apparated out like nothing at all had happened.

Allegra screamed in rage and pain, then sat on the floor by her mother's crumpled body.

What happened next was still a blur experienced the second time around. At some point her father came flying in, pulled Allegra up and into a hug so that she could no longer see the body. Michael shook as he held her, and shortly after that there were Aurors everywhere.

Michael picked Allegra up and sat her down at the bottom of the staircase. Then he sat down beside her and sobbed uncontrollably.

Allegra hadn't been able to do anything for him last time, and she couldn't do anything this time, either. She clutched at his leg and occasionally he would reach out and stroke her hair.

After ten minutes Michael dried his eyes, took a deep breath and stood up. He kissed Allegra on the top of her head and then went back down the hall to the living room.

A tall blonde lady, only old enough to have recently become an Auror, walked past him to Allegra.

"Hey honey, do you think you could talk to me, please?" Allegra just looked at her. "Thank you, sweetie. Did you see who came in?"

"A little," Allegra whispered.

"Can you remember anything about them?"

Allegra shook her head, "I couldn't see him."

"That's okay." The lady didn't pressure her further, but she did stay to comfort her.

"Honey?" Allegra looked up at her dad and watched him smile solemnly at the blonde, and she took it as her cue to leave. "We are going to stay with the Weasleys for a little while. I know it's late, but I need you to go and pack anything you want for a week or two, okay? I'm sure Ginny can lend you anything you forget."

"Okay," Allegra agreed, finding the best smile she could muster at such a time.

"Try to get enough underwear and your toothbrush."

Allegra took a shuddering breath, "I love you."

"I love you too, Princess."

Allegra got up and turned to climb the stairs, but instead of her foot meeting a carpeted surface, she fell through and was engulfed into silent darkness once again.