PineappleBearr: Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, I'm glad she finally told McGonagall too! Hopefully he won't find out!

Hawknest143: Thanks for reviewing! She needed to finally open to someone for sure, and I'm glad it was McGonagall. With any luck, her meeting with Voldemort won't be too too bad. Haha, I understand! I have given you many reasons. Maybe it'll happen? We'll just have to wait and see lol

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CHAPTER 22

I'm vaguely aware of a warm hand on my cold shoulder, but it takes me a moment to actually waken to consciousness. Severus is kneeling beside me, his eyes sad. "It's time to get up, Charlotte," he says kindly.

I sigh. "Why? It's so early." At least I think it's early—it feels early. I'm exhausted.

"You have to leave at eight. The Dark Lord wants you there all day."

"Psychological torture."

He almost laughs, then helps me to my feet. "You're free to use the bathroom here if you'd like."

I nod and head that way, planning to pull myself together when I'm alone.

A short while later I take up a spot on the sofa, cross my ankles beneath me, and close my eyes. "I don't want to do this," I groan.

"You'll be fine," he says from the desk that still sits beside the sofa.

"What makes you so confident?"

"I believe in you."

Tears spring up in my eyes again, but I do my best to bite them back. Pride grows in my chest at his statement, and I doubt if I could ever feel this way without him. I stay like this for a long while before breaking the silence with, "His Imperius Curse will be stronger than yours, I'm sure, which means I might lose my mind if I fight too hard, yeah?"

"But he would not risk you in that way because he needs you healthy. You'll be fine."

"He sent me to Azkaban."

Severus sighs, conceding my point, and walks over to me and pulls me to my feet again. "You'll be fine." Before I Disapparate to Malfoy Manor, he places his hand oddly on my shoulder in a way of encouraging me and says once more, "You will be fine."

Then I leave.

As instructed, I Apparate to the drawing room, expecting to see Bellatrix—kind of hoping to see her because it would be a lie to say that I have not missed her—but she isn't there, and I remain completely still, not knowing what to do. A few minutes of nothing pass, and my nerves start to set in again. Why would they leave me alone like this?

"Forgive my delay," a deep voice says. A shrill yelp escapes me, and I turn to see a man standing in the doorway of the drawing room. My heart drops terribly when he laughs quietly and approaches me. "My apologies, Miss Rodgers, I didn't mean to startle you."

I look into my father's icy blue eyes, eyes like mine. "No—I—don't worry about," I stammer. He wears the same low, loose ponytail and well-trimmed beard that he had in the Death Eater meeting last summer. And when he helped abduct me and Zoe.

"Rodolphus Lestrange," he greets me, offering his hand. "It's an honor to officially meet you. I—I truly apologize for what happened in August."

I look away and drop my hand, clearing my throat to try to get the burn out of it. "I don't really want to talk about it."

He nods.

I don't really know what else to say to him. Talking to my father without actually talking to my father is wildly uncomfortable, and I can't make my gaze meet his, instead looking behind him and beside him. "Where's Bellatrix? She's usually the one who is waiting for my arrival."

"She's away on orders of the Dark Lord."

"And Narcissa?" Despite the fact that he tried helping Zoe get away, he was involved in her capture, and I don't think I can handle holding a conversation with him for long under these circumstances—I might break and say something I'm not supposed to.

"It seems you are disappointed with our arrangements," he says good-naturedly.

I glance at him briefly before having to look away. "I can't separate you from the…situation."

He places his hand on my shoulder, and I flinch, and he quickly pulls his hand away. "And I will do all that I can to make it up to you. I know it'll never be enough, but I'll do my best to protect you and ensure that you'll never be attacked by another Death Eater."

"Like Avery and Mulciber and you and your brother."

He clicks his tongue. "In all fairness, Miss Rodgers, Avery was not under the orders of the Dark Lord when he attacked you." He makes another noise and bobs his head from side to side. "But I suppose you're right—the rest of us were under his orders, which I wish wasn't the case. I had wanted to…give her more time." Finally I meet his eye. He would have let a Muggle-born witch get away? Why? Are his eyes misty, or are mine? Why would he be upset about her death? "But currently the orders of the Dark Lord are to protect you at all cost. No Death Eater will harm you."

"Hmm. I don't quite believe you."

He smirks. "Besides, after what you did to Avery's father and that Jesse bloke, I can't think of a single person in their right mind who'd be willing to do that."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Like how I slid the Avery's father thing in there?" he asks with a wink. "No worries, I honor what you did to avenge someone you loved." His hand rests on my back as he leads me from the drawing room. "Avery, of course, did not discover that for himself. Why don't we get you something to eat? I'm sure you must be hungry."

Once we're finally in the kitchen, he drops his hand from my back, and I ask, "How'd you know about Avery?"

"He didn't go looking for you on his own," Rodolphus says. "My father was with him, witnessed it actually."

"He didn't try to stop me?"

"It wasn't his place. You were supposed to be brought back to Malfoy Manor, not attacked. At least, that's why he claimed he didn't do anything."

"Did he not fear punishment for disobeying an order to bring me back?"

"There wasn't much that my father feared. Besides, you were supposed to have another year at the orphanage before going to manor."

"Then why were they looking for me early?" He glances at me but doesn't answer. "What happened to him? Your father, I mean," I ask quietly, taking a seat at the table.

He bustles about, gathering the food that had presumably been prepared prior to my arrival. "He was killed." He swallows. "Recently, actually."

My grandfather died recently, and I don't really know how to handle this information or this situation I've found myself in.

"But he made sure that we knew what you had done—and by 'us' I mean myself, my brother Rabastan, and unfortunately Avery. He thought Avery deserved to know. He regretted it at the end—telling Avery. Especially when he found out what he did to you. Twice."

"What happened to him? Your father."

Rodolphus places a few platters of food in front of me and sits down. "He was murdered," he says airily. "He had enemies. He was a Death Eater, after all."

"Why didn't he go to Azkaban with you and Bellatrix and your brother?"

He raises his eyebrows slightly as if surprised by the question. "Not every Death Eater went there. Some of them worked more in the shadows. He was stealthy. He never showed his face to anyone. Only the Dark Lord was really aware of his missions."

"But the Lestrange name didn't put him on the radar automatically?"

"No, he wasn't around when the Dark Lord fell. He was away on a mission and didn't return after that night the Potter boy—lived."

I look at the food before me and grow queasy at the smell. I stick with just taking a large swig of water. "Who else knows about Avery's father?"

"By now? I'd be surprised if it isn't common knowledge among the Dark Lord's followers—or the Inner Circle at least."

The thought chills me.

"No one will harm you now," he says, obviously reading my pale face. "We each hold you to a certain amount of respect, some of us a certain amount of fear."

"Fear?"

"You stabbed a man to death when you were ten, Miss Rodgers."

"Call me 'Charlotte.'"

"Charlotte," he repeats, a strange twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"They don't hate me for killing one of their own?"

He shakes his head, smiling. "You shouldn't worry about that. None of us hate you."

And yet I find myself growing to hate him, despite his kindness toward me right now. Zoe is dead because he and his brother came after us. I fight back my anger and take another gulp of water, purposefully keeping my eyes off of him as I attempt to find a way to forgive him for the role he played in Zoe's murder. If you can forgive your mother for holding you back, Charlotte, you can forgive your father for capturing you because he tried to let Zoe escape.

"Are you not going to eat?" he asks kindly.

"No, I'm not feeling well today. The nerves."

He frowns and looks away from me. After a few minutes of silence, he asks, "How old are you, Charlotte? There's a lot of speculation being spread around. Are you truly the age to be at Hogwarts, or has the Dark Lord taken liberties to put you there, out of the eyes of most of the Wizarding World, for your own protection?"

My breath nearly catches. "I…I'm truly…I'm the right age to be at Hogwarts." I take a drink of my water. "I…I'll be eighteen in November."

The man clears his throat. "Eighteen in November?" he asks, more to himself than me. He meets my eye. "I had a daughter once. She'd be turning eighteen this November as well."

"What…what happened to her?"

"She was killed nearly seventeen years ago. She was a few days shy of being a year old."

"I'm so sorry," I whisper, not so much apologizing for his daughter's death as apologizing because I can't tell him the truth about who I am.

"It was all an accident," he continues as if I hadn't spoken. "She was killed by mistake. She wasn't the intended target; she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was meant to be safe there, which is why she was there to begin with."

I have to look away from him. "And she was Bellatrix's daughter?"

"Bella is the only witch I would've wanted to share a child with."

A new weight presses on my chest, a lump forming in my throat. "When did you meet her?"

He smiles. "Our first year at Hogwarts. We were in the same group of friends, those attracted to the Dark Arts. We became close friends throughout our time at Hogwarts."

"You loved her?"

"With all my heart."

"So it wasn't just a respectable, pureblood marriage?"

"No."

I smile. "So…your daughter wasn't…an occupational hazard, then?"

"No."

The thought brings a smile to my face as well.

"I always…I always loved her—Bella," Rodolphus says, almost more to himself than to me. "Well, from our fifth year, I've loved her. Of course, she didn't feel the same way until the following year." He shifts in his seat. "Some things happened early in 'seventy-nine. She was hurting. One thing led to another, and she conceived our daughter—Aurelia Celaeno was her name"—he smiles his charming smile—"and she was so beautiful. Her eyes were dark, like her mother's. Her hair was light brown. Her smile and her nose"—he taps his nose—"favored that of her mother."

His eyes blank as he gets lost in his thoughts. "She giggled a lot—our Aurelia. She was always a happy child." His gaze land on me. "Bella could get her to smile at just about anything. I used to watch the two of them. Bella would make these little flames with her wand, and Aurelia's eyes would light up, like she could sit there and watch it for hours. She was so precious. I remember…I used to watch the two of them together…in our little cottage…and think to myself how lucky I was to have this family. I believe that was the closest Bella and I ever were."

His gaze become sad. "But we had to send her away for her own protection. And she was killed." His eyes narrow as he looks at me. "Sometimes I find myself wondering what she would be like had she survived."

I take a deep breath. He needs to know who I am, but as I open my mouth to speak, I am interrupted by a loud pop!

Bellatrix has just Apparated into the kitchen of Malfoy Manor, and she stops when she sees me sitting at the table with my father, her estranged husband. "Charlotte," she says, almost choking on the name, "I didn't expect you to be here so soon."

I glance at Rodolphus then back at my mother. "The Dark Lord required me to come here early."

"Bella," my father says quietly. I watch him for a moment, but he is so intently watching his wife that I believe he's forgotten I'm here. "I didn't expect you back so soon."

"And I didn't expect you here." Suddenly the room becomes charged with an uncomfortable static, and I'm left looking at my hands in a feeble attempt to ignore what is happening around me. Then her hand rests on my shoulder, and I have a sudden impulse to hug her tightly. "Come along…Charlotte." I don't know where she wants to take me.

Rodolphus revolts against this idea and abruptly stands to his feet, gently but firmly saying, "The Dark Lord commissioned me to watch over her."

Her grip on my shoulder increases. "I'm sure he won't mind if I take her from here," she says, not looking at him but me. "After all, I'm the one to whom he turns when it comes to watching after the girl."

"Well, he's turned to me now, and I am enjoying my conversation with her. So you can either stay with the two of us, or you can go about your way. Both options are fine with me."

She watches him for a moment before leaning down and whispering in my ear, "He cannot know." Again her grip tightens on my shoulder; then she leaves the room.

Rodolphus sits back down, somewhat deflated. "She hasn't been the same since we lost our daughter," he says softly. "Our relationship has grown colder and colder."

"Why…why do you think…why?"

He exhales. "She threw herself into serving the Dark Lord. She became obsessed with pleasing him. That's all she's cared about since."

I know too well that this is all she has cared about, so I have to change the subject. "You said that your daughter—"

"Aurelia."

I clear my throat. "You said that Aurelia had dark eyes like her," I say. "But Bellatrix says she had blue eyes, like your family."

"You've spoken with her about Aurelia?" There's a strange look in his eye. Then he takes a breath and says, "With the Lestrange family, if a child is born with dark eyes, he or she will usually end with deep blue eyes, sort of like those of my brother Rabastan. But if the child has deep blue eyes as a baby, the final eye color will be icy blue, like mine."

I can almost feel my heart slow down. What if he realizes that I have the same blue eyes as he? Why don't I take this moment to subtly change them? You know why. "What color eyes do you think Aurelia would have had?" I ask quietly.

"I think she would have had eyes like Rabastan. He would've loved that. He adored her. But I would have wanted her to have dark eyes, like her mother. That's how I picture her, which is why I say she had dark eyes." He squints at me. "Who are your parents?"

"What?"

"Just wondering," he says. "You have beautiful blue eyes."

I feel the heat flush to my face. Is he prodding? Does he know? "I don't know who they are."

"Does anyone know?"

"The Dark Lord."

"So you're sure that you are a pureblood?"

"Yes. But I don't know who my parents are. In fact, my father doesn't know that I even exist. And my mother checked out of her mind many years ago. That's when I was placed in the orphanage with a false name."

"That's a shame," he says quietly. "A child should not grow up without their parents."

"Yeah, I know."

"If your parents were here," my father questions, "what would they think about your duty to the Dark Lord?"

I pause for a moment. "Well," I say, "my mother would be proud. My father… He would probably be unnerved by what I must do, but ultimately proud that it was I who was chosen."

"Are you quite sure about that?" he asks seriously, his eyes burning a hole into my head. I open my mouth to answer him but close it back, unsure what to say. "Because, as a father, I cannot imagine my daughter having to do something like that." He shifts, still watching me closely. "You might be right in the sense of me being proud that she was chosen of all the young witches that there are in the world, but I believe I would go mad with the thought of my daughter giving birth to the Dark Lord's child, going through the pain of that."

"Do you know why he wants the child?" I ask quickly.

"Very few of us know why, even fewer of us are allowed to speak of it. I am in neither of those two groups, unfortunately. If you want to know, you must ask him yourself."

I nod silently and whisper, "I understand."

"I wish I could be of more assistance."

Rodolphus and I leave the kitchen and go to the sitting room, where we continue to speak, but not about his past or my past. We simply "chat." And it kills me that I cannot bring myself to tell him that I am Aurelia. But as I listen to him talk, I feel myself forgiving him for what happened to Zoe. It wasn't his fault—he tried sparing her. I still don't understand why this Death Eater tried to spare a Muggle-born, but I appreciate the attempt. I just wish he had been more successful.

Never before in my life have I wanted to speak of my true self this badly. Granted, I've never really want to speak of my true family. So this is difficult for me, one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do.

The next few hours are torture, and I'm angry when Voldemort enters the room all too soon. "Rodolphus," the Dark Lord greets my father, "I take it that Charlotte has been agreeable."

"Indeed, my Lord," Rodolphus says, a strain in his smile.

We fall silent when Bellatrix enters the room. I catch her eye, but before I have a chance to say something to her, Voldemort turns to her and says something softly in her ear—Rodolphus huffs quietly—then walks from the room, leaving me with my estranged parents and yet another uncomfortable feeling in the air.

The corners of Bellatrix's lips are still turned up in a grin when the Dark Lord leaves the room, and I quickly ask a question to diffuse the awkward tension. "Where's Draco?"

"His room," she says, finally coming closer to me

"Could…could I see him…before…?"

"I don't see anything wrong with that," she says kindly. Looking past me, she commands, "Rodolphus, go fetch Draco."

He nods and leaves without a word, and once he is gone, my mother takes me into her arms. "You didn't tell him, did you?" she whispers.

I rest my head on her shoulder. "Of course not, Mum." She tightens her hold on me, and I return the favor, another bout of weeping threatening me. "I've missed you," I admit.

"I've missed you as well," she says, pulling away from me. "How are the Carrows treating you?"

"They fear me," I say with a devious smile.

My mother's eyes light up with pride. "And Snape?"

"He's treats me really well."

"And I partially thought I'd have to kill him."

"That's not necessary."

"Charlotte!" Draco calls.

I turn and smile at my cousin. "Draco!" I greet him happily. Even though the circumstances bringing me to Malfoy Manor are terrible, I love being able to see Draco.

"How's Hogwarts?" he asks.

"Different. I'd prefer it if you were there."

He says quietly, "Please stop pushing everyone away. Don't isolate yourself."

"I'm not—Astoria wrote you."

"Yeah, she told me."

I frown at him but don't have a chance to say anything before Bellatrix takes my arm and tells me to come with her.

She takes me by the arm with the intent to lead me to Voldemort, but I stop in front of my father and offer him my hand. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Rodolphus."

He accepts the gesture, covering my hand with both of his, a certain sadness on his face. "Likewise, Charlotte. Perhaps we'll meet again some time."

"I hope so."

Then my mother pulls me out of the room, and we make our way to the Dark Lord. "Got along well with your father, I see," Bellatrix comments.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"It's dangerous. He can never know who you are. The Dark Lord will kill him if he knows the truth."

"I wasn't going to tell him. I was just trying to be polite and nice. Besides, it was the Dark Lord who made me stay with Rodolphus. That wasn't my first choice."

"And your first choice would be?"

"Draco," I say without thinking. Her face drops as if I smacked her, so I quickly add, "It's nice to have someone my age on whom I can lean. But I would want to be able to see you as well." A few moments later something occurs to me. "Mum."

"Yes?"

"Why does the Dark Lord want a child?"

We slow down. "I am not at liberty to say. I'm afraid that the only way you can know is by asking him yourself."

"I need to know one thing," I continue. "Does he plan on killing my baby when I have it…like, as a sacrifice?"

"No," she says firmly.

"Then why does he want a child if he doesn't plan on sacrificing it in some weird Dark Magic ritual?"

"I cannot tell you," she says in a low voice.

When we finally reach the door to the room, Bellatrix stops and takes me into her arms. "Aurelia," she whispers gently, "you will be fine." She pulls back and kisses my forehead before pulling me closer to her again. "When you have this child, you will not be alone."

I just tighten my hold on her, not trusting myself to speak right now.

Bellatrix releases me, and in enter the room again.