Warning - scenes of sexual assault.
There had been no clear destination in her mind, Tansy was sure of that, but somehow, it was no surprise to her when she opened her eyes to find herself standing in the large, overgrown garden of Brooklyn House, her old care home in the centre of Cardiff. There had never been another destination really; it had all started here so it was only fitting that she return here now.
She'd just apparated for the first time by herself and she'd done it while carrying her new-born daughter in the baby sling, attached to her front. Panic-stricken, Tansy glanced down at baby Hope, convinced that she would be hurt, or worse, dead in the carrier. To her surprise, however, the baby was fast asleep, breathing softly and contentedly, her tiny face pillowed between Tansy's breasts. She appeared not to have noticed a thing. Tansy took a deep breath and felt her knees giving way, her relief making her temporarily weak. There was definitely a deep, twisted part of herself that wanted to give her hell for apparating with her daughter but now was not the time. Tansy struggled back to her feet and looked around her.
The house had clearly been empty for some time; the windows were either boarded over or covered with yellowed sheets of old muggle newspaper and the garden had turned into a wilderness of overgrown hedges and bushes and knee-high grasses and weeds. The place had the unkempt air of somewhere lost and abandoned. Tansy took a difficult step forwards, the long grasses tangling around her legs, until she was close enough to read the printed date across the top of one of the newspaper sheets over the closest window, the one that she knew had belonged to the downstairs girls' toilet.
November nineteenth 1997
The house had been empty for nearly two years.
Tansy took a step backwards and sank down on the low wall that had once run round the side of the house, separating the path from the flowerbed. She ignored the large hydrangea that tried to push her off again and focused on trying to order her thoughts so that she could think properly. She couldn't seem to process what had just happened. Couldn't comprehend how her life had just spiralled out of control again just when things had started feeling more in her grasp. But, surprisingly, she also didn't seem to care; Tansy wondered why she was no longer panicking: Even her heart rate had slowed now that she was alone in this quiet, overgrown place. Things might just have escalated out of her control but the truth was finally out. The truth that she had been barely holding onto with her fingertips had finally escaped. The feeling of relief was bittersweet and almost overwhelming.
Tansy glanced down at her sleeping daughter and then up at the dilapidated old house and then back down at her daughter again and again and again. She had no idea what to do.
Harry's POV
Harry was practicing in the training gym when a slight commotion over by the door made him look over in time to see Kingsley Shacklebolt entering the room at speed. Kingsley gave the gym a cursory sweep, spotted Harry over by the target range and hurried over to him.
'Ah Harry. I'm glad I've found you.' Although his deep voice seemed incapable of betraying any degree of agitation, Harry could tell that the other man was in a rush.
'Is everything okay, sir?' He asked.
'It's Kingsley, Harry. It always has been.' Kingsley reminded him, before plunging on. 'Look Harry, some new intelligence has just arrived from Gawain Robards. He visited Azkaban today to oversee the Malfoy-Lestrange visit.' Kingsley lowered his voice and gave the room another sweep with his eyes, as if he was ensuring they were completely alone before he continued. 'I'm telling you this in the strictest confidence Harry and I'm afraid that it concerns your friend Tansy Laverstock. Bellatrix Lestrange has apparently denied killing George Weasley and is pointing the finger at her daughter instead. I…'
'That Is Total Rubbish!' Harry said forcefully, interrupting the other man before he could continue.
'Harry, I thought so too but… but I'm afraid that she is insistent that she has proof. She claims to have recorded the murder on a sort of muggle device; a type of camera that stores moving pictures. A vimeo camera?'
'A video camera?' Harry said slowly and disbelievingly. 'She thinks that she has taped Tansy murdering George?' He felt himself turning pale at the thought and turned to the other wizard in desperation. 'Surely this is a wind-up Kingsley? You can't possibly believe that lunatic? She's been out to get Tansy since she escaped from Azkaban the first time! She's totally deranged!'
'Well actually Harry, I'm not sure…' Kingsley replied unhappily, raising his hands in front of him in a pacifying gesture, as if he knew that Harry was about to interrupt again. 'Apparently Mr Malfoy has also corroborated the story to a degree. His mother informed him in letter last January that the girl attacked Mr Weasley. Malfoy assumed Lestrange had placed her under the imperius curse.'
'That's… that's even more ridiculous!' Harry sputtered, but an icy feeling had started to creep through his chest. 'Bellatrix Lestrange is clearly trying to pass the blame and stir up trouble and Malfoy…' He trailed off; he knew just how hard Draco Malfoy had been cooperating with the Ministry of late. 'And Tansy wouldn't do that! Even if she was cursed!' He finished, somewhat lamely.
'Can we vouch for anybody's actions whilst they are under the influence of the imperius curse, Harry? Can we even vouch for our own?' Kinglsey asked, his deep voice tinged with pity. 'We will soon know if there is any truth in the matter as I had all of Bellatrix's and Malfoy's possessions taken from their house in May for the investigation. They are here in the Ministry archives. I've sent a couple of apprentices down to sort through the boxes to see if we can find this vimeo camera. Come now.' He gestured towards the door.
'Video,' Harry corrected automatically, following the other man. He ignored the persistent, nagging thought at the back of his mind but Kingsley's words still bothered him.
'Can we vouch for anybody's actions whilst they are under the influence of the imperius curse?' Harry knew that Tansy could fight the imperius curse as well as he himself could.
'Ah Gawain!' Harry jerked out of his thoughts to find that they'd been joined by Gawain Robards, the newly appointed head of the Auror department.
Harry had met Gawain several times and had even trained under his direction twice in the training gym. Although the grim, bespectacled man gave off the aura of someone stern and forbidding, Harry knew that it was just an act – the man certainly took his job very seriously but in other environments he could be extremely droll in a sarcastic kind of way and he had a wicked sense of humour. Today, however, he was frowning and he looked stressed and upset.
'Good afternoon Kingsley, Harry.' He nodded at both of them in turn. 'I've just sent Mr Malfoy back to Hogwarts. He was becoming increasingly distressed and I'm afraid that he was in no fit state for any further questioning today. We can catch up with him tomorrow although I suspect that we've exhausted everything he knows already.' Gawain took off his spectacles and wiped them before turning to Harry. 'I'm really very sorry about this turn of events, Harry. I know that Tansy Laverstock is a very good friend of yours. What she has suffered is beyond imagining.' The three men winced in unison and then stared at each other in silence for several seconds, each lost in thoughts.
'I've sent someone to fetch the vimeo.' Kingsley finally said to Gawain. 'We can wait in my office.'
'Video,' Harry corrected again, under his breath; Kingsley seemed hell bent on pronouncing the word the wrong way.
'Harry, I know that this is out of procedure and extremely irregular because you are not an employee here yet but I wonder if you would like to sit in?' Harry was nodding enthusiastically already. 'Wait up, this is not compulsory to your Auror training, I know this subject regards one of your closest friends and also one of the Weasleys so I understand if you'd rather not.'
Harry's heart was beating so fast it felt as though it would burst right out of his chest; this was about Tansy. Of course he would sit in. There were questions that needed answering and Tansy clearly needed help, help that he could only give if he had all of the information; the whole truth.
'No, I want to, I need to. Tan-…' His voice ended on a croak and he found that he could not say Tansy's name out loud.
'If you are sure that it won't be too distressing for you,' Gawain Robards put in quietly. Harry tried to pull his face into a calm expression so that the two men would agree but it was almost impossible to contain his boiling emotions. Kingsley gave him a long, hard look and finally nodded.
'Ok then, Harry, if you're sure you can handle it.'
'I know this is very personal Harry but I need to remind you to be discreet with any information until we are ready to act on it.' Gawain said quietly.
Harry nodded vigorously, not trusting himself to speak and was pleased when the two men turned away so that he could follow them down the corridor towards the lifts. He wanted to rage and scream but he knew that wouldn't do anything to convince the two older wizards that he could handle what he was about to see on tape. If the tape even existed. There was still a very strong part of Harry's mind that thought the whole thing might be Bellatrix stirring up trouble with a little sprinkling of Draco Malfoy to add some spice.
The three wizards barely had time to install themselves in Kingsley's office before a breathless intern appeared in the open doorway, carrying what Harry immediately recognised as a top-of-the-range muggle video camera. He felt himself turning cold; this was actually happening. He wanted to grab the camera and run before it could do any more damage.
'Ah thank you Carolina.' The intern gave the prime minister a shy smile, set the video camera down on the desk and exited the office. Gawain pointed his wand to the door and it swung gently shut behind her retreating form.
Meanwhile, Kingsley was struggling slightly with the camera.
'I'll do it.' Harry heard himself saying, his voice strangely calm despite his boiling emotions. He reached over to take the device and pressing the on switch on the top. Immediately a small red light started to glow and both Gawain and Kingsley gave exclamations of surprise.
'So how will we see these moving pictures?' Kingsley asked, looking into the camera lens in confusion.
'They will play on this tiny screen here…' Harry turned the camera so that the screen could be seen by the two men. 'But I can also project it up onto the wall.'
He took the camera back and scrolled through the settings until he found the saved files. There was only one, unnamed but clearly important; someone had taken the trouble to edit the footage and it had been viewed multiple times.
'Are you ready?' Harry barley recognised his own voice. He took a deep breath and pointed his wand at the small video camera, projecting the image up onto the wall in front of him. Kingsley flicked his wand at the curtains and the light levels in the room immediately dimmed.
The projection showed them a black and white scene of a small, shabby bedroom. A bare mattress lay in the centre of the room and on it lay the unconscious form of an emaciated young girl. Even with the poor resolution, Harry recognised Tansy immediately.
'Shall we have some fun then?' The voice from the camera speakers was faint and tinny but recognizably that of Bellatrix Lestrange. The girl on the mattress stirred and her hands clenched into fists. As the door to the room swung open with a crash, she tensed, appearing to be pushing herself across the mattress and away from the door as two people entered the bedroom. It wasn't hard to recognise the first as Bellatrix Lestrange; her wild hair and heavy features were obvious, but it wasn't until the camera caught him in profile that Harry recognised George Weasley as her companion.
'Fun?' George appeared to stare levelly at Tansy, who was still fighting to sit up. Even through the small, tinny camera speakers, the three men could hear the lack of emotion in his voice.
'Lucius doesn't want her anymore so I want you to have her. Why should your brother get all the action?' Harry swallowed, suddenly feeling horribly sick at the implications of Bellatrix's meaning. He felt himself tensing.
'No!' Harry jumped and looked over to Gawain, who immediately apologised and put a horrified hand over his mouth.
'Shh!' Kingsley said unnecessarily.
'…should he?' The exchange in the office had drowned out some of George's reply but the excitement in his voice was clear and so was the way that he immediately approached the girl on the mattress, swiftly unbuttoning his trousers.
'Is he imperiused, Kingsley?' Gawain whispered, the words almost unintelligible because his hands were still over his mouth.
Bellatrix's insane laughter rang through the speakers.
'I believe he's being compelled yes.' There was a slight tremor in the prime minister's usually infallible voice.
Tears clouded Harry's eyes and he bit down on his bottom lip, trying to suppress the howl of misery that threatened to escape. His eyes were glued to the screen, unable to look away but desperately not wanting to witness what he knew was about to happen.
'George stop it. This isn't you.' Tansy's voice was so faint they could barely hear her. 'Please. Stop it!'
'I want you. I want you!'
'No you don't! It's just the curse. Fight it George! Fight it! It isn't real!' Harry felt his nausea peak and he leaned forward and vomited onto the floor in front of him. Kingsley flicked his wand at the camera and the attack stopped, the black and white image blurred and frozen in place.
'I'm sorry!' Harry croaked, using his wand to vanish the vomit from the carpet. He was too upset even to feel ashamed of his weakness. Tears were flowing fast and freely down his cheeks. 'No wonder Tansy has been struggling so much,' Harry's voice cracked, 'she can't even bear to be in the same room as Fred, can't even look at him.'
'It's…' The scene had rendered Gawain almost speechless. Harry looked over in time to see a single tear escaping under the lens of one of his glasses. 'I wasn't expecting this.' The Auror finally said, shaking his head.
'Nor was I.' Kingsley's deep voice cracked slightly. He appeared to take a deep breath. 'Do you want to leave Harry?' Harry wiped his glasses and shook his head resolutely. 'Are we all ready continue then?' Kingsley continued. He waited for conformation from the other two before he flicked his wand to resume the video.
As Harry watched the assault continue, it was suddenly as if he was watching from a great distance or having an out of body experience. The people on the video had stopped being his friends and he was no longer emotionally attached to either of them. He saw the girl fighting back at last, pushing her attacker away and slamming his head against the floor, again and again, harder and harder. Impassively Harry noted the way the man tried, at first, to fight back but then he weakened and finally the girl seemed to be slamming the head of a corpse wildly against the floor.
The door opened and Bellatrix Lestrange returned but the girl continued to smash her opponent's head into the floor.
'Petrificus Totalus!' The fight stopped abruptly. Bellatrix strode over to them and kicked the girl off the man's body. Even on the poor-quality video, Harry could see a dark stain rapidly spreading across the floor under him. Blood.
'That was excellent, darling daughter. I had no idea you had it in you. Very entertaining.' Bellatrix crouched down and she forcibly turned the girl's face towards the camera. As Harry saw Tansy's blurred face he suddenly snapped back into himself.
'Crucio!'
Tansy was still staring straight into the camera and her features didn't appear to change as she was hit by the torture spell. Bellatrix's spell still paralysed her so she couldn't even move her face muscles. She couldn't scream, even if she'd wanted to.
The scene went black.
The three men stared blankly at the wall where the image had been projected, each struggling to comprehend the truth.
So the truth is out! Thank you for my review! Definitely inspired me to start on this chapter!