[Chapter Eighteen] What Was Right Is Wrong
In the Yavari household, you couldn't just have a Death Eater meeting. It had to be a celebration of some sort or another.
This time, the meeting was disguised as a pureblood young women and men's gala. Which would allow pureblood witches and wizards to find a suitable partner. Lena was just thankful that she didn't have to come in disguise. Her Dark Mark was nearly exposed, though nobody would likely see it as her arms up to her elbows were covered in silky black tight gloves. She walked down the stairs slowly, behind, none other than Pansy Parkinson. Who wore a sickly green dress than clung to her lumps pathetically. The tips of her hair looped out like a little girls and her makeup made her look sickly.
Lena slowed a few paces so people could admire a woman who truly knew how to dress herself. She held her dress near her hips as she glided down the curved staircase gracefully. The dress she wore was black, and the bodice was trimmed with glamorous silver. The skirt was tight and shimmered against her legs as she moved down the steps, showing off a million diamonds that looked like the stars scattered in the sky. And though not visible, her heels gave her confidence, as they too, were trimmed in silver and diamonds to match.
She found Draco in the crowd as she stepped down from the last step and she was announced. Though she knew that they would not be able to dance to talk to each other this night, she longed for his touch, and found some amount of satisfaction just from looking in his eyes and imagining it.
His eyes seemed to light with fire as she bit her lip and headed in the opposite direction.
She grabbed a glass of wine from a passing server, and swirled it before taking a small sip. She looked to see Draco approaching, with Crabbe and Goyle at his heels.
"What's going on?" Lena asked quietly, only notified by their solemn expressions.
Draco shook his head and gestured for her to follow. A few curious bystanders gazed at them as they broke through a section of the dance floor. Lena replaced the glass of wine after another hasty sip before setting it on an abandoned table.
They were headed out of the ballroom toward her father's office. Her stomach churned and her head felt light, though not from the alcohol.
Through the library, they entered a small sitting room, were two men in masks guarded the door to the office. Draco approached them coolly. Lena saw how confident he had become in his actions, but nothing as cool as this. As though nothing was wrong. As if the two of them weren't exposed. Of course, Draco had some secrets he had not exposed, just as much as Lena had keep from him. For example, he had mentioned nothing of his task, though Lena knew it must be something absolutely brilliant just from its secrecy.
He spoke to the two men for a moment and they opened the door, allowing Draco inside, he glanced back for just a second, and Lena recognized the slight trace of terror that hung in the clouds of his gray eyes, and the guards were closing the doors before anybody else could enter.
Lena waited anxiously near a bookshelf as Crabbe and Goyle lazily sat on one of the couches. Her fingers brushed the titles, but her eyes were focused on the things in her mind. Nothing dreadful will come, Draco will be fine.
After nearly ten minutes the doors opened and Draco emerged. As the doors remained open for a moment, a voice cooed out, and the name lingered on the air.
"Yavari."
Lena immediately headed inside the doors, and the snapped shut behind her before she could look back at Draco, or run away from this. Everything is fine, I will not be discovered. She didn't allow the thought to cross through her mind.
She looked up at him. The Dark Lord. He towered above her, and the only light in the office was dim candlelight. The curtains were drawn, though the moonlight clung to the edges of the velvet curtains.
Her eyes dropped to the floor beneath his feet, and her knees plumeted to the ground. She felt his gaze piercing the back of her neck, she felt the probe in her mind. Searching every crevise. She didn't allow the fear to control her. She breathed calmly as he examined her mind. Pushing thoughts aside sharply, giving Lena a headache, but the Dark Lord continued his desperate search.
She relived her earliest childhood memories, her most embarrassing moments, her proudest moments, as the Dark Lord viewed them.
"Yavari, How are you feeling since last year?" The probing ceased immediately.
"Very well, my Lord." Her eyes met his for just a moment.
"Is there something you wish to tell me, Yavari?"
"No, my Lord. Nothing important, at least."
"Good. You may go for now."
Lena nodded and left the room. As she exited, a chilly breeze hit her as well as the Dark Lord's voice. "Goyle."
Goyle stood up and headed in, a clear fear clung to his face. He had not yet completed his training, had had not the inured aptitude that Lena and Draco now possessed. But he would soon.
Yavari, he had called her. Not Lena, as he once had. He had called her Lena when he cared about her, now he only saw her as a follower, but she recognized that it meant something else. The trust was gone. The Dark Lord had always called Lucius by his first name. His most beloved follower. Lena sat across from Draco and Crabbe at the couch and when Goyle came out, Crabbe went in. Another long few minutes passed until finally, the Dark Lord called them all in, and the rest of the Death Eaters appeared, clad in their masks.
Finally, the Death Eaters were in full circle around the four teenagers and the Dark Lord standing in front of them, Lucius just behind him and to the left.
"I am sending the four of you out to recruit some of our old friends. Hopefully some of you have experience with diplomacy. You will recruit from the Veela, the Rebel Trolls. If you find any one that is interested in earning back their freedom, let them know the date of our next meeting, and the location. Fristone Fields just outside of Villeporta, on March 13th."
"My Lord, we cannot send children for this task." It was Lucius, and he was the only one who would dare speak so to the Dark Lord. Lena saw as her parents nodded in agreement.
"I would not send any of my followers into certain death. They will be fine, if it is meant for it to be so."
Lucius nodded and silenced himself, but Lena could almost see his scowl beneath his mask.
"Godspeed," The Dark Lord said, and every disappeared in a poof of black smoke.
"Do you oafs even know where we're going?" Lena whined after Goyle, Crabbe, and Draco took yet another right turn. The rebel trolls had been easy to persuade, Lena had the feeling that they had saved the harder mission for last.
The three halted and looked back at her. Draco waved his arm for everyone to continue without speaking. As Goyle and Crabbe took the lead, and Draco waited for Lena, he rose his fingertip to his lips, shushing her. Lena rolled her eyes, but continued following Crabbe and Goyle. Finally, Draco pointed.
Lena looked through the jagged rocks that surrounded her into the cloudy black horizon. She saw nothing. She looked back at Draco and back to where he had pointed. A cloud slowly dispersed and the view was cleared.
A tower! The shingles on the circular tower were a faded blue, and the stones looked almost bronze. A single circular window was in sight. Lena rushed after Draco, who had started down a particularly treacherous cliff side. He was waiting for her, as she looked over the edge, Crabbe and Goyle were making their way down, though miraculously had not fallen yet.
Lena took Draco's outstretched hand and nimbly treaded the loose rocks. Draco held her steady and she forced herself to look at the semi-vertical rocks instead of down in the deep crevasse.
It seemed like nearly a hour later before Lena reached the bottom, and Crabbe and Goyle were waiting behind a rather large boulder. Thankful to be on solid ground, Lena gently kissed Draco's cheek. He pulled her over to Crabbe; who began gesturing wildly.
The four crouched, just out of sight of anyone who was walking on the path. After a rather slow wagon, with a threshal pulling the hold, Draco and Lena led the way as Crabbe and Goyle followed with less nimble steps.
Lena suddenly wished that she had been responsible for holding the map, instead of Draco. Though each of them carried a small backpack of food and water, Draco was the only one given the map, and almost as though he wanted to torment Lena, he wouldn't let her look at it, only mentioning that, "Women are rubbish at reading maps." Crabbe and Goyle had chuckled and Lena had blushed, not mentioning the map again.
Finally the door was in sight, a monstrous wooden barricade. Lena pulled out an invisibility cloak and saw Draco doing the same. Unfortunately, they had only brought two. Draco turned to them. "You two stay out here. You goons would only expose us," he whispered.
They nodded and found a hiding place among the rocks. Draco nodded to Lena and she donned her invisibility cloak. They headed toward the door, and waited close by as another trader emerged on the road.
The gates opened without question, and Lena and Draco crept in.
Nearly losing sight of the quick flicker of Draco's cloak, she keep a keener eye and followed him down a stone staircase just past the front gate.
They entered the dungeons and Lena realized that they had many prisoners.
Draco took his cloak off in front of the first cage, and cooed to the occupant, who had hidden in the shadows. "Hey!"
The creature came forward. Lena blushed and began to stammer. "Hello," she whispered subductively to him. He was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Draco slapped Lena and her eyes met his.
"Keep your task in mind, Lena, and begin to question the females."
Lena did as she was told and avoided the attractive men. Veelos.
She and Draco freed all of them and made their way back up the staircase. It took them nearly four trips to get each of the Veelos and Veelas out, but finally, a large pack hid near Crabbe and Goyle in the rocks.
Suddenly a horn was sounded in alarm. A language Lena did not recognize echoed through the mountains.
No! There's still some inside! Lena began to panic and her eyes frantically found Draco's. He simply shook his head, and Lena almost caught a glimpse of sadness in his eyes, but they became solemn again and he commanded the group to make their way away from the castle.
The horn sounded again and the gates opened. The group scattered out of Draco's organized line. Only a few of the creatures remained hidden. A rain of black arrows crashed against the rocks, unseen now that the ominous gray skies had turned black.
Lena's wand was out in a second and she saved the five creatures that were in her stead, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle lead each of their own, and made their way further from the castle, hardly able to cast the spells to protect each of the creatures and run at the same time.
A straggler behind Lena tripped, another rain of arrows and Lena didn't look back , cooing the others in front of her. Finally the arrows ceased, and they counted their remaining numbers.
Thirteen. That's all they had saved. Draco's eyes frantically looked around, as if expecting the others to jump out and surprise him. Dismayed, he gestured the others and they walked for a long time until they ended up on a beach hidden by an overhanging cliff.
They set up camp without words and Lena allowed Crabbe and Goyle to accommodate the saved prisoners while Lena made her way into the Captain's tent. Draco had his hand against the hard walls, which billowed diligently from the outside, but no drafts came through.
"There's no way we could have saved them all. It was a manner of luck," Lena began, but Draco interrupted, the tent door billowed from the wind outside sparatically.
"We need to save as many as we can, Lena. Do you realize the consequences of what will happen if the Dark Lord loses this war?" He paused, but left no time to answers. "We need every single man we can get for this war. Dumbledore outnumbers us almost three to one."
Lena saw the panic in Draco's eyes. She searched for anything to calm him. Even a lie. Her fingers grazed against the hidden locket, when she touched it, she felt complete.
"We won't lose this war, Draco."
These goons have been going in circles for hours. Do they know I am following them?
The brunette looked back and wiped her steps clean once more. She knew it was impossible. They couldn't know. She had been too careful.
She hid behind some rocks as she watched them enter the castle, escorting out the prisoners. According to them, everything is going perfectly.
The brunette's eyes followed Lena as she appeared for the last time, with yet another prisoner. The alarm sounded and the group scattered in panic.
Luckily, I only need to follow one. She smirked and watched carefully.
Her silent steps no longer need to be covered as she crept slowly after them. They made camp, and the brunette took the potion in her pocket.
As she disappeared, she moved toward the largest tent, where her target had just entered. She waited for a while, unable to hear the resounding voices inside. She withdrew her wand and cast a tornado of wind. She lept inside quickly, and to the corner.
"...three to one," Malfoy said.
The target touched her chest. The brunette smiled, unseen. So, that is why it wasn't in your trunk. Nearly two months in vain spent trying to break the locking mechanism, and now you've brought it to me.