Chapter Thirty Three

Gemini read over the latest letter from her mother and let out a scream of frustration. Thankfully she was alone in the dorm room, her voice echoing off the stone walls.

Luna still hadn't shown up, Severus and Umbridge had had to report her officially missing the morning after Umbridge's panic. There had been no sign of her since. Her father had put a missing poster in the Quibbler and the Daily Prophet had written a very long article about her being a good pure blood who had been kidnapped by the anti-Ministry forces, and goodness knows what they were doing to her.

The Daily Prophet had also set up another donation fund.

Gemini couldn't work out how Luna had known she was in danger, but it was far to much of coincidence to think that she hadn't known.

Her mother was in trouble, they all were. The Quibbler was still pumping out pro-Harry, anti-Voldermort crap and they didn't have Luna to make scream to get it to stop.

Rodolphus was in a huge huff, he'd been betting on being put forward as Luna's future husband. Sure she was off her head but he could beat that out of her, literally if needed, and she was pretty, they'd have pretty kids. She was gone now, one less pretty blonde he had a chance with.

Gemini thought that Voldemort was over reacting, although her brain screamed painfully at her every time she thought it.

She rubbed her eyes with her palms. Her head never seemed to stop hurting at the moment, it was always so loud, so bright. She'd cried the other day, cried until she was about to throw up. It had been years since she'd cried.

She was also worried about her memory. She's had a conversation with Rodolphus the other day, she was sure of it. But Rodolphus had said it hadn't happened, she asked Corvus but he'd simply shrugged, no help as always. Rodolphus had mocked her that she was loosing her mind…

Gemini forced herself to take several deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart and screaming head.

The letter said that Umbridge and Severus had taken the brunt of the Dark Lord's anger over Luna going missing. Her family was mostly intact after the whole thing, but when the Dark Lord was angry, everyone suffered and he was most certainly angry.

Corvus knew that Gemini was struggling to stay calm; she was always fidgeting now, she normally read several books a week, but now she'd been reading the same book since Luna went missing two weeks ago, and she'd been half way through it then.

His mind never seemed to stop racing, he wasn't sure what Thomas had done but he managed to make Luna vanish somewhere and Corvus had not expected that.

Corvus had been ignoring Thomas's friendly waves since they last spoke, he couldn't help it. It had been years of growing stress and now it seemed like his mind had just completely shut down. He felt nothing but never ending tiredness any more.

It wasn't the greatest of feelings, but it was somehow better, or at least easier to deal with than everything he'd been feeling before and the sudden panic attacks he'd started having.

The common room was too hot, too loud, too… everything all of a sudden. Corvus snapped his book shut and gathered together his homework.

It was yet another essay from Alecto on the horrors of muggle parents. Nearly everyone thought they must have been faked, that no parent could really be so horrible but Corvus knew that wasn't the case.

They were real, everyone of them. He was sure of it. Not because he thought that muggles actually were all horrible parents, but there was more of them than magical families meaning statistically there would be more abuse cases.

How many time had he and his siblings been smacked around over the years? Ignored or forgotten? And they came from one of the 'best' wizarding families that there was. No it wasn't unique to muggles but he wasn't stupid enough to point that out.

"Where are you off to?" Rodolphus demanded, untangling himself from a blonde in Corvus's year that Corvus ignored at all costs as she was bitchy as they come.

"Where's Millicent?" Corvus counted back.

"Studying or something." Rodolphus shrugged, not putting the pieces of the point Corvus was trying to make together in his mind.

"Do you think she'd be happy to find you snogging Mary?" Corvus said as simply as he could, desperate to get out of the choking atmosphere, feeling like he was starting to drip with sweat.

"Your brother can do better than chubby old Milly, who doesn't know one end of a mascara brush from another." Mary snorted.

Rodolphus didn't jump to defend his 'official' girlfriend, but at least he didn't laugh.

"I need to study. Tell Gemini I'll be in the study hall if it's not too busy." Corvus sighed.

"And if it is too busy?" Rodolphus asked, feebly pushing off Mary's next round of kisses.

"Then she can come and find me!" Corvus snapped, leaving the common room before Rodolphus could try and stop him again.

Outside the air was cold and clear. It was always cold in the dungeons, they were dungeons after all. That happened to be right what Corvus needed at the moment. He didn't fancy going up two flights of stairs to the study hall that would almost certainly be busy and noisy.

Instead he wandered the bottom floor corridor until he found an empty classroom that wasn't locked and settled himself in there.

His mind kept wandering though, jumping to Rodolphus and Mary as Millicent's voice sounded in the corridor just outside the classroom. She sounded happy, totally unaware that her boyfriend was kissing another girl.

There was a myth about this old mirror that showed you what you wanted most in the world. He'd never really believed it was a myth though. There had been far too many arguments about it when he was little between his mother and father.

Bellatrix had been obsessed with finding the mirror and it showing her Voldemort again. His parents had never had lines they didn't cross when arguing, apart from physically attacking one another and causing permanent damage. Fights over the mirror had all been especially vicious.

Corvus had often laid in his depressing, soulless room listening to them scream every insult they could think of at one another, wondering what he would see in the mirror.

It hadn't changed really, although how it looked had.

Now, as it had been then, was family. But then, many many years ago he'd imagined his actual family, happy together always wanting to spend time with each other, never arguing. Giving one another hugs and kisses, being proud of the terrible paintings the children did.

Corvus felt tears drip down his nose and splash dramatically onto the parchment. He wouldn't see that any more, he didn't know when he'd worked that out but it came rushing, fully formed into his head just now. It felt like it was slicing him up inside.

His family was too far gone to ever be happy. No one talked about their lost sibling from three years ago, except when Rodolphus screamed at Bellatrix it was all her fault. Rodolphus the younger had no idea of what family was and no desire to learn about it either. Gemini was losing her grip on reality day by day, not that she understood what a family was either.

If Corvus wanted to have a happy family, he was going to have to make one himself. Starting from scratch.

He felt everything become that much clearer in his mind in a moment. He quickly measured his homework and wrote a very basic finishing paragraph, in slightly large handwriting. It was far from his best work, but it was long enough and school work just didn't seem to matter any more.

Homework and books stuffed in his bag, he set off to find Thomas, the one person he could see himself making a family with.

Half an hour later, Corvus was sure he was heading in the right direction. He could hear Neville's voice in the classroom up ahead, and Neville would at least know where his brother was.

Corvus knocked quickly on the door out of politeness before walking in. He'd not been expecting to find Thomas and Matthew in the room with Neville.

They all looked slightly panicked at him.

"Oh… sorry…" Corvus said, the wind quickly dropping from his sails as his normal anxiety began to take over, "I… I was just looking for Thomas."

Thomas smiled at him, "No worries. You found me."

"What were you doing in here?" Corvus asked, frowning slightly.

"It doesn't matter." Neville said, he was smiling but his voice sounded tight, like he was worried about something, "Can we help you?"

For all Corvus really wanted to speak to Thomas, he did not want to speak to him in front of people.

"I just wanted a chat." Corvus shrugged, "I can come find you later?"

"Yeah su…" Thomas began, as the door flew open, slamming against the wall.

"Well, well well…" Gemini hissed, flashing a nasty smile, "What is going on in here?"

"We're studying." Matthew said, jutting his chin out at her.

Gemini snorted a laugh, "Well goodness knows you need all the help you can get. But then, the Longbottoms have never been the brightest."

"Oh pack it in Gemini." Corvus mumbled.

"So… what were you studying? I mean it's a little odd don't, you think? Just the four of you in here… Where are your books?" Gemini asked, it was a simple enough question but loaded with implications, "Oh look…" She turned behind her and waved out of the door, "Professor Carrow, could you come here for a moment?"

All three Longbottoms bristled as Alecto marched over, blocking the doorway, Corvus shrunk back further against the wall.

"What is it Miss Lestrange?" she barked.

"I was just looking for Corvus and found all three Longbottom brats in here. They said they were 'studying' but it's clearly a lie." Gemini purred sweetly.

Alecto glared around the room, "What's Mr Corvus doing here?"

"He was studying with us." Thomas said quickly, looking at Corvus for confirmation.

Corvus willed his head to nod, or his mouth to speak, but he seemed to have no control over his body. Instead he just stood there, staring at the ground. It seemed to be stealing all his energy just to keep himself from hyperventilating, there just wasn't enough left to back up Thomas.

"Right… I see." Alecto huffed, rolling her eyes.

"I think they were plotting something." Gemini grinned, loving watching the four boys before her squirm.

In truth she thought they almost certainly had been just studying, she didn't think they had the brain power to come up with any 'cunning plans' but she'd told Corvus to stay away from Thomas, she hated the way they looked at one another and he hadn't.

They'd all disobeyed her and now would pay the price.

Alecto rolled her eyes again, "Do you have any proof? What where they all saying before you came to the door?"

Gemini opened her mouth, her normally brilliant brain failing her for a second, a second too long which only increased her anger.

"Did you hear them plotting?" Alecto asked, rephrasing the question.

"Ye… yes." Gemini said, her brain unfreezing, although her temper was growing and the annoyance coming out in her voice, "Of course I did!"

Alecto glared at her, she grabbed the pale girls arm and dragged her from the room, "You will not talk to me like that."

Gemini pulled herself free, "Get off of me! Don't you know who my mother is?!"

"Yes!" Alecto hissed back, "And I am a hell of a lot closer to her than you are, little witch who the Dark Lord didn't want." She taunted cruelly.

Gemini's eyes grew wide before she stormed off down the corridor, looking for a wall or door to hit.

Alecto straighten up and went back into the room holding the four boys, "Mr Longbottom, Mr Thomas, Mr Matthew, you will all miss one meal for being out of bounds."

"We've always been allowed to study in empty, unlocked classrooms." Neville pointed out, he didn't think it would be wise to admit they had unlocked the door to get in here.

Alecto narrowed her eyes, "Rules change. I suggest you all study in your own age groups from now on, to avoid confusion. Mr Longbottom you will miss two meals for your cheek, on top of the one you and your brothers are already due to miss."

Silence hung heavily in the air until Alecto's footsteps disappeared down the hall.

"Why didn't you say something?" Thomas asked, more harshly than he'd meant to, rounding on Corvus.

"I… I couldn't move." Corvus said, groaning inwardly at how pathetic is sounded, "I did want to-"

"But you didn't want to upset your sister." Neville snapped, running his hands through his hair.

"No… no it's not that-" Corvus started to explain.

"Forget it, it's fine." Neville hissed, cutting him off.

"It's not him that's going to have to go hungry." Matthew grumbled, glaring at Corvus who was fighting the feeling of numbness from over taking him again.

"I just-" Corvus didn't know what to say.

Thomas looked at him with eyes filled with hurt.

Thomas sighed heavily, "We should get back to the common room."

Corvus watched Neville, Matthew and Thomas walk out of the room, leaving him alone. He hoped that Thomas would look back, but he didn't. Corvus sunk down to the floor, hugging his knees to his chest.

And just like that the dream of a happy family number two began to drip away.