Chapter 54: Retaliation
Thursday, 3rd August 1995.
Bellatrix Lestrange had been feeling elated.
She had been sent on a mission and while the target had not been inside the building, she had made sure that they would never return to it either. The dental surgery, whatever that muggle foolishness was, now lay in burning ruin.
And once a job was well done, why shouldn't she have a little fun with the locals? Thirteen muggles she had killed today before the Ministry showed up and spoiled her fun. The delicious sound of their terrified screams still echoed in her mind, sending thrilling tickles of delight down her spine.
But then, she had run into Robbins.
Drenched head to toe, the fool had been standing in the atrium at Yaxley's, beside Holt and Marick. They too had been sent on an important mission. The other stroke of their Master's plan behind her own work. They were to accompany her nephew to the Granger home and capture the filth unawares as they enjoyed their summer holidays.
Apparently, they're mission had been a disaster even before these three were knocked into the North Sea by the house's powerful protections. No others had returned and Bella was left to put two and two together. The Aurors had mentioned corralling her own force 'like the others' when they had finally appeared. It seems little Draco had failed and cost the Dark Lord a number of his new recruits.
Information that she had just finished delivering to the Dark Lord in his shadowy throne room.
She wished that her own home could have housed his majesty. But as an escaped convict, the Ministry would have been keeping it under surveillance. Instead, they had to make do in Yaxley's pitiful home. The feculent worm had not only weaselled his way out of trouble but into the Aurors themselves.
Bella tried to suppress the scowl that wanted to form as she considered the traitor. One of many who had not had the fortitude to find and restore their master sooner. However, she needed to control herself. The Dark Lord deserved her full attention when in his presence. Dwelling would not do. And he would be disappointed with her if she killed his troops without permission.
The Dark Lord turned from the window, his face still cast in shadow. Bella smiled at him, and the presence that now filled the room with them.
When she had entered, the Dark Lord had been deep in thought, and his presence had been slight as a result. But now, after she had passed on her information, it had spread through the entire room once more. And Bellatrix delighted in it bathing her form.
"Summon a trusted force. Our best fighters." The Dark Lord said, his voice carrying his usual power, but also another sound she had not heard from the Dark Lord in years...
Menace.
She smiled again, even wider this time. "Yes, my Lord. Who are we to kill?"
For that was what that tone foretold. Someone had irked the Dark Lord for the last time.
"This nuisance has been allowed to act against me for too long. It is time that I sent them a message. Personally."
Bella felt a much greater thrill run through her. They were off to kill, and the Dark Lord was coming too. At long last she would get to battle by his side once more.
"Yes, Master."
ϟ
Friday, 4th August 1995.
Amelia Bones sighed heavily as she finally tumbled out of the fireplace in her home in the wee hours of the morning.
As always happened when Potter or Granger were involved, she had just spent hours doing paperwork and issuing orders. Cleaning up yet another mess that had been plopped at her feet.
It was unfair of her to suggest that it was the teens' fault that trouble followed them. This had been an attack on their home and workplace. Hardly something they could be blamed for. Yet, the boy had a habit of leaving a bigger job for her to manage than usual.
In the previous war, when the Death Eaters had attacked, the Ministry rarely managed to take any into custody. A few of the real hard cases would refuse to flee, staying and fighting the Aurors. Diminishing the Auror forces further until someone like Moody managed to pin them down or put them down. Whichever Alastor was feeling that day, depending on how many of our own they'd clipped in the process.
While the Ministry response time hadn't been terrible, the Death Eaters seemed to always be prepared to cut the field as soon as they arrived. Leaving them with plenty of dead and wounded to worry about, but few prisoners to lessen the next attack.
She groaned as she slipped out of her robes and hung them in the hall. Amelia popped open the front door and nodded to Simmons as he turned to face her.
"Everything good, Boss?" He asked, standing guard duty.
A position that Amelia had refused several times. But Fudge had insisted. She was apparently vital to their efforts against Riddle and thus had to be protected.
"It will be. Took a few prisoners today. You?"
"I just arrived half an hour ago, Boss. Burrows is doing a perimeter sweep. You'll not even notice we're here." Simmons replied, his accent almost soothing after the day she'd been through.
"Good to know. I'm off to bed."
"Yes, Boss."
Amelia ignored the title. It had spread through the department after Shack had called her Boss in front of some of the longer-tenured Aurors. After that, it had stuck. And she honestly preferred it to ma'am. She simply nodded and closed the door once again.
She considered her options as she stood there, dirty from a day of wrangling prisoners and fighting on the street. She could just fire off a few cleaning charms and climb into bed. It was her usual method when she returned after midnight. Especially on days when Shree was off with her brother. The only one beside her to survive the purge of the Bones family that had occurred in the last war.
The elf often helped out in that house whenever not needed by Amelia. Especially during the summers when Susan was home.
Amelia did feel the call of the large bath upstairs though. She hadn't had a good long soak in a while.
It was decided. She trudged up the stairs, shedding more of the heavy uniform as she went, intending to tidy it up before she climbed into bed. By the time she reached the bathroom and set the water running, she was wearing only her pants and a light undershirt.
Amelia tucked her wand into her hair as she deposited a few of the bath salts that Susan had given her for her birthday into the water as the tub slowly filled with steaming hot water. She could already feel the relief from the warmth as the steam washed over her features.
But her relaxation was halted entirely when she heard the front door blast inwards.
Heavy footsteps followed the sound and Amelia whipped around, her wand back in her hand as she shimmied over to the doorway.
"Come on out Bonesy." A horridly familiar voice Amelia had not heard in a decade cackled out into the house. "We just wanna talk with you."
Bellatrix Lestrange was downstairs.
The lack of any sounds of battle from outside before the door had caved inwards was not a good sign either. There were two Aurors out there. If they had been so easily dispatched, then Lestrange had brought a sizable force with her for this attack.
Amelia glanced down at her attire and cursed herself for her haphazard discarding of clothing on her way up. What she wore bore none of the usual protective enchantments her uniform carried. Nor did she have anything on her with which she could call for backup.
She brought the tip of her wand to her lips and cast the only spell available to her. "Under attack. Bring anyone you can."
She flicked the Patronus spell at the far wall and hoped that it would reach Alastor quickly. Certainly faster than going all the way down to London and the bull pit. And hoping that she'd successfully weeded out any traitors that might receive the call. She could trust Moody to come in swinging with anyone he could grab on the way.
"Check upstairs." Another quiet voice came. One she did not recognize, but that seemed to command the force in her home. Footsteps sounded out and Amelia groaned internally. Not only was she going into this fight mostly unarmoured, but she had left a trail directly to herself.
"Nothing else for it." She whispered to herself as she swung the bathroom door inwards and lined her wand up on the top of the stairs.
The first figure came into view looking away from her, but Amelia could tell someone else was crouched beside them. She didn't hesitate, firing off a powerful blasting curse at the intruder. Amelia wouldn't waste her time stunning here. Unless Alastor brought backup fast, she was outnumbered by a lot.
The standing figure turned at the sound of the approaching spell but thankfully did not have time enough to dodge it. They took the curse to the neck and their body was thrown back off the stairs. Amelia baulked slightly as she realized she may have put a little too much into the spell when the head did not follow the body over the railing, instead heading up onto the second floor.
But she did not pause, firing off a second identical spell on the same line, hoping she might get a little bit lucky.
She did, as the second figure stood at the sudden departure of their colleague and caught the second spell in the back. It did not kill them outright as it had the first, simply firing them into the banister and over the railing to the floor below.
"Well, well." The second chill voice said from below. "It seems that our guest has arrived."
"Guest?" Amelia said before she could stop herself. "Last I checked, this was my home. And you are not welcome in it."
She moved from the bathroom as she spoke, shifting to the edge of the corridor. She peaked around the wall, ducking down so as to see between the railings of the banister at the top of the stairs, hoping to see what she was up against.
And her blood froze.
Lestrange was there, as she had already known, but there were about ten spread around her, paused as they had been dispersing into the other rooms to look for her. But it was the figure in the middle of the entry hall that had her frozen in shock.
The man who had personally murdered her entire family bar herself and Michael in the previous war had come to call.
Voldemort, no, Amelia caught her thoughts. Riddle. Tom Riddle. Just a man.
Albeit a man with a considerable body count and a rabid fanbase of extra wands at his back tonight. Though, as she considered it, that meant he was a coward. The all-powerful monster was afraid to face her alone. Amelia ignored the fact that she too had called for backup. That was just procedure.
"Out to finish the job you failed to complete last time around?" She asked, taunting the man downstairs.
His eyes flicked upwards and she could see that the barb hit a mark, if not the exact one she had been hoping for.
"If you insist, we shall visit your brother and niece tonight as well."
Amelia's blood ran cold at the perfectly delivered threat.
"Fuck." She mumbled to herself before she twisted her right hand until the tip of her wand was just sticking through the banister and she cast a siege charm.
She had no delusion that it would take out Riddle, but perhaps it might help thin the odds against her for the moment. She had to survive this and ensure that Susan, Michael and Rebecca were safe.
The white spell ripped out of her wand, the aim uncertain thanks to her odd positioning. It whistled its way downstairs and Riddle simply cocked his head in contempt before he raised his wand. Amelia pulled back behind the corner as the spell struck the wall at the front of the entryway, blasting out the left side of the front door.
"Oops," she whispered as she glanced back around to assess the damage. "Sorry, grandad."
The shrapnel from the explosion, however, had done as she had hoped. Several of the cloaked figures were now on the ground, groaning and bleeding. Though Riddle and Lestrange still stood tall.
"Bella, dear." Riddle said, finally catching sight of her and smiling viciously. "Bring her to me. Alive, if possible."
"Yes, master." Bella cooed, heading gleefully for the stairs. Three other figures quickly regained their feet and joined the mad witch.
Amelia flicked her wand twice at the top of the stairs and retreated down the hallway behind her. She was a talented witch, but even she would struggle to take four at once. Especially when one of those four was Lestrange. The crazed woman had been a force to be reckoned with in the previous war. And Amelia knew from the reports that the woman's years in Azkaban had not soothed her.
She considered her options as she heard the first figure to the top fall into her trap, slipping through the missing floor and into the room below the illusion she had cast in its place. All that was down this hall were a few guest bedrooms that rarely saw use. No additional weapons or defences were to be found within. The best she could hope for was to hide, but that was not the kind of person that Amelia Bones was.
And yet, getting into a shooting match with this lot was a very poor idea as well. While Amelia was certain she could take most of her opponents in a duel, this was not such a regimented affair. Death Eaters fought dirty and they definitely had the numerical advantage here. Her only advantage was the home ground, and that was not serving her as well as one might think.
Weighing her options, she ducked around a bend in the hallway and readied herself against the wall. At least this bend favoured her right-handed nature. Peaking around its side, she noticed the three other figures that had chased her had successfully mounted the stairs, avoiding the trap that had taken their fastest runner.
Not waiting for them to settle, Amelia fired off a throng of spells as fast as she could manage down the hallway.
She did not watch to see if they had hit though, as a slew of spells immediately came back at her from the mad woman now fixated on her position. Bellatrix cackled as she and at least one other were still advancing down the hallway towards her.
Amelia felt trapped, and she hated it. Casting a few more spells down the hall before casting her eyes around the space, she tried to find anything that she could use to level the playing field. But only one thing stood out.
The large window at the end of the hall.
Amelia tossed out another set of spells, barely missing the ones being fired at her. She needed to give Lestrange pause as she considered this crazy option. She was only on the first floor, so any drop would be minor. A cushioning charm aimed underneath her would deal with most of that risk. But she had no way of knowing what kind of enemy force might be waiting for her out there, and even a moment of unsteadiness could spell her doom.
However, the back of the house did have a good amount of tree cover between the house and the ward line. Meaning that if she could make it out there, she would be pretty much free to run to safety, and no one who followed would be able to pin her down at a distance by firing from the window.
Another hail of spells against the nearby wall helped her to make up her mind. It was either risk the jump or be stuck in either the hall or a bedroom, hiding and waiting as superior numbers boxed her in and wore her down. At least at ground level, she had options in which way to travel. And she could transfigure the ground after landing to discourage or injure anyone who dared to follow her.
A final flurry of spells roared back up the hallway from her wand and she heard a couple make contact. Though far closer than she would have liked as she stood from her crouch and rushed towards the window.
A quick flick of her wand emptied the frame of glass and wood, meaning there would be no debris at her landing site. A bare-footed jump had her push off the small end table tucked under the window frame and out she soared, into the dark, early morning air.
With her extremely light attire, Amelia was grateful that this attack had come during the warmer summer months, but her focus now moved downwards as she tried to figure out exactly where she would impact the ground. A rushed cushioning charm did its job as her feet made contact with the grassy ground and her body immediately rolled as Alastor had embedded into her brain during her training all those years ago.
She came up, wand at the ready and was about to charge into the treeline when she stopped.
Somehow, her way was blocked. Not by one of the Death Eaters, but by Riddle himself.
He simply stood there menacingly grinning at her. Arms crossed in front of his body, wand angled down. He did not seem worried to be standing alone out here with her.
"Bravo, Bones. A valiant attempt." Riddle hissed. "But I am af…"
Amelia didn't bother letting him finish. She was not going to stand here and die to his need to gloat. The first spells left her wand before she had even moved a muscle, her position after the roll having left her in an advantageous stance.
Riddle's smirk merely deepened as he battered away her first attacks while returning several of his own between the deflections. Sharp bolts of violent energy passed back and forth between the two of them and Amelia was considering that she had been somewhat accurate in her earlier assessment. One-on-one with Riddle, she was actually holding her own for the moment.
The trouble was that she was still on her own, while Riddle had ample backup. Backup that had arrived at the still-open window above her. And was now firing down at her position in the small strip of lawn between the house and the nearest trees.
Amelia had known they would do so, but had hoped her leap and a quick dash would have taken her into the protection of the trees before they had made it to the window. Her little duel with Riddle had delayed that, and now she was stuck under fire from two angles.
Unhelpful despair filled her body as she realized that she was losing ground to Riddle now that she had to worry about a second set of spells. Her gamble had failed, and now she was going to be trapped here. She was going to die here. A warning to all those who would dare to stand against Riddle. An example of the power of their enemy. And the rest of her family were next.
Dropping to her knee to avoid one of the spells from over her shoulder, Amelia took a bludgeoning curse to the stomach and her body launched backwards from the power in the spell. She tumbled several times over the grass before she impacted the solid rear wall of her home, the wind knocked out of her. She was stuck there, gasping at the air, trying to get fresh oxygen back into her body as the smiling menace of Riddle advanced on her once again.
In her present state, she was unable to cast anything. Even non-verbal spells would not work for her with the pain in her chest and back right now overloading her brain.
Riddle came to a halt, standing over her as that mad cackling laughter sounded from above before it disappeared from the window. Evidently, Lestrange wanted a ground-level view of Amelia's imminent demise.
Amelia was still struggling in vain to get her body working again, and her mind was searching her surroundings for anything that she could use to try and fight or flee. But she was trapped, gasping for air against the wall of her home, dressed in nothing but her knickers, a shirt and that silly little trinket that Potter had given her a few days earlier at the party.
Her mind locked onto the small bracelet on her wrist, though her eyes did not drift from the imposing pale figure looming over her. Potter had said something about the bracelet. Something her mind wasn't quite grasping in her agony. Something about safety.
"And so ends the true leader of the fight against me. Pity you couldn't be smarter. It is always a shame to spill magical blood. But you're as stubborn as your brother when he refused me. Perhaps, with your example, others won't be so foolish." Riddle monologued.
Amelia barely paid him any mind. Either he would kill her before she could act, or she would recall what she needed. A code word of some sort that activated what she now recalled was a portkey. Supposedly a portkey powerful enough to work through wards designed to stop them. Like the ones that the Death Eaters had used to keep her trapped within her home. Their standard M.O.
"Goodbye, Bones. I'll give your regards to your niece in a few minutes."
The monster raised his wand as several footsteps sounded nearby. She had the audience to her final moments.
She coughed, the sound ripping from her lungs as air finally started passing through normally once again and she spoke aloud the odd phrase Harry had given her as her sole defence.
"Blues and twos!"
The strange words croaked out as a green light formed at the tip of the wand pointed at her face, but it mattered not anymore as the swirling magic of the portkey engaged, and Amelia Bones was whisked away from certain death.
ϟ
"Missy needs to wake up now!" A frantic voice said, breaking Susan Bones out of her pleasant dreams.
Tiny insistent hands were practically shoving her body and Susan blinked off the drowsiness she was feeling, sitting up in her bed and rubbing her eyes. The room was still dark, but there was an elf by her bed. The house-elf was unfamiliar to her, and was now standing back wringing her hands.
"What's going on?" Susan asked, still half asleep, though her mind was slowly trying to gather the clues around her.
"Use passcode, please. Miss Amy said you need to use passcode now."
"Passcode?" The word reminded her of something, but she was still too tired for her brain to make the necessary connection. "What?"
"Trinket passcode from Master Potter."
"Huh?" She lifted her arm and noted the slightly dangling silver chain around her wrist. It looked like it would be loose enough to fall off, yet somehow stayed in place even as she tossed and turned in bed. "Jenga?"
Her mind spun rapidly before she realized that it was her entire body doing so. Harry Potter had given her a portkey as a gift? Where was it taking her?
This was all she had time to consider before she landed on a soft squishy mat at the destination of the portkey. Another dozen elves were standing around nearby staring at her and she was a bit embarrassed that she was sitting there in just her pyjamas in front of so many strange faces. She was moments away from panicking when her mum appeared and hauled her to her feet.
"Mum? What is going on?" She asked in a daze, her brain finally kicking in properly after the shock of the transportation.
"It's alright, Susie. We're fine now. Amy is fine." Her mother said softly, holding her in a tight embrace.
"What is going on?!" Susan asked, quite fiercely this time.
She had been in the middle of quite a nice dream. She'd been on a date with that nice Beauxbatons lad who had danced with her at the Yule Ball. He was a few years older than her, sure, but he had been very charming. And Susan had been left with a bit of a crush on him when he left. And now, she was in a strange place in her jimjams, a bunch of strange elves watching her.
"Your aunt was attacked, Susie." Her father said, standing behind her mum and looking at her with a smile that helped to allay the fear that statement should have produced.
"Is she alright?" Susan asked.
She was very close to her aunt. Not only was her middle name a reference to her father's only remaining sibling, but they were the only extended family that either of them had anymore. Susie knew that the rest of the Bones family had been killed by You-Know-Who himself in the previous war. So Aunty Amelia had always doted on her a bit more than was proper.
"She will be fine." A strange voice said, and Susan leaned back in her mother's embrace to see who it was.
Standing nearby, holding out a purple dressing gown, was one of the people who she had seen through the year cheering Potter on as he performed in the tasks. The older looking of the two men that had often been spotted out on the grounds training with the strange boy.
"This is quite some place you've got here Lupin." Her father noted, as she extended a nervous hand and took the gown, slipping it on and fastening it around her nightclothes.
"Harry wanted the best for them. And with all the protections around this place, it just made sense to set all the emergency portkeys to come here as well." Lupin replied. He turned to the elves gathered around as if the comment had reminded him of their presence. "Speaking of, thank you all for helping, but this is meant to be a place for you all to relax. So off you pop. Go enjoy yourselves."
With the immediate oddity of the situation drifting away, Susan found herself considering what she had been told. And the question popped out before she could properly form it. "Can I see Aunty Amy?"
Mister Lupin smiled at her and just stood to the side of a doorway, indicating the way out with his arm. Once again in her mother's embrace, Susan allowed her mum to guide her as she moved into a long curved wooden hallway with a half dozen doors on the longer side. She guessed that they were rooms similar to the one she was exiting. The one with the odd squishy mats for flooring across the entire room.
Mister Lupin led the way as they weaved back and forth once or twice before they came to another open room. Inside, a few more elves were moving about as they brought potions and blankets over to the frustrated figure in the bed.
"I've got enough blankets, thank you. I just want to see…" Her aunt cut off as she noticed them standing in the doorway. "Michael, you're safe."
Aunty Amelia instantly deflated down into the bed and several of the elves looked worriedly at her, as if she had just fainted.
"I was so worried. Thank you." Susan's aunt continued, directing the statement at Mister Lupin.
"Nothing to thank me for. All of this was his idea."
"You are the one standing here at three in the morning dealing with a frantic family and a hundred elves running about, Remus." Her father said. "Take the thank you, lad."
Mister Lupin just smiled and shrugged.
Susan finally pulled free of her mother's grip and moved quietly over to the bed. Her aunt tracked her the entire way and smiled brightly at her, despite looking like crap. She had cuts and bruises forming all over and was dressed no better than Susan herself.
"Are you ok, Aunty?" Susan asked, worried that she might be losing her aunt.
"I am now I can see you are ok. The bugger promised to visit you all next. I'm sorry I couldn't stop him." Amelia said, the last directed at her dad.
"It's only stuff, Amy. I'm not so bad at my job that we can't afford to replace some stuff. It's what is in this room that's important, sis."
"Too right," Amelia replied, gesturing for Susan to climb up onto the bed.
Susie smiled at her aunt but complied nonetheless. She was feeling very out of sorts right now, and a hug with Aunty Amy sounded really good.
Her aunt pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and Susan felt a little of the dread that had welled up upon seeing her in the bed drifting away. Aunty Amy was a pretty scary lady when she wanted to be, bossing around Aurors and criminals all day long. She never shared any details about her job with them, but Susan knew that it was rough from her aunt's demeanour whenever she came by after a long day of work.
Susan loved the fact that Amy liked to come to her when she'd had a really rough one. It made her proud that she helped her aunty shake off whatever horrible thing she'd been dealing with before that.
"What happened?" She found herself asking. A question that often slipped out whenever she saw her aunt after a big day.
"It doesn't matter, Susie. All that matters is that you are safe. Is Shree with you?"
"She's with the other elves. They insisted on showing her about the place." Mister Lupin replied. "Unfortunately, this place is warded so that only Potter elves can bring passengers here with them. Which meant she could not rescue this lot. Well, she could, she just couldn't bring them directly here. They needed to use their portkeys. It left her a little frantic until she knew you were all safe. However, if you need anything, just ask. Everyone here is happy to help. No orders required, just ask nicely."
"Thank you, Remus. And thank Harry for me." Amy paused, glancing at Susan for a moment before she continued for the first time ever. "I'd be dead if not for him."
Susan's eyes went wide at the comment. She had nearly lost her aunt for good. She suddenly realized why the strange elf had appeared and demanded that she use the passcode. The portkey she had been given matched the one her aunt wore. That portkey had saved her life. If they hadn't attended a birthday party on the weekend, her aunt would be gone.
Susie threw herself at her aunt and wrapped her up tightly.
"Ouch, Susie." Aunty Amy said, groaning under the strong grip. "I love you too."
Susan let her grip loosen, sorry for hurting her aunty with her overeagerness.
It seemed that she was going to be thanking Harry Potter a lot any time she saw him from now on.
ϟ
Narcissa knocked on the door and cast her eyes quickly around to ensure that no one was watching her.
Her time here was limited as she could already feel the throbbing in the Mark on her arm. A dull pulsing ache that signalled she would soon be summoned back to the manor. Today would be difficult enough without rushing why she was here.
This was quite probably the only remaining chance to save what remained of her family.
The door opened suddenly and Narcissa froze as she was confronted by the man of the house. His normally jovial face fell instantly the moment that he set eyes upon her, and Narcissa's hope dwindled.
"What do you want?" He asked, a tightness to his speech.
"Hello, Edward." She offered. The nicety no longer cost Narcissa her pride to give as it would have in the past. Pride was no longer a trait she could afford.
It did seem to have an effect on Edward Tonks as well, as his eyebrows raised quite high up under his fair hair.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" He asked again, his voice less restrained than the first time, but still with a degree of suspicion.
Narcissa knew that was warranted. She had made her bed, but now she was desperately trying to avoid spending the rest of eternity in it.
"I was hoping that I might speak quickly with my sister. It is important." Narcissa replied.
"Andromeda isn't home." Edward bit back, his normally pleasant voice now nothing like usual. "She is busy tending to those who were visited by your friends last night."
Narcissa sunk in on herself. She had hoped that Andi might be home, that she might help to rescue her and Draco from the impending doom looming above them. If her boy even still lived with the sheer enormity of the task he had been assigned. But it seemed she must face whatever was coming without that partial comfort.
She knew that Draco had been sent out on a mission of his own and he had not yet returned. Narcissa's other sister had accompanied him, but they had different objectives. When Bella had returned, she had simply sneered at Narcissa and headed upstairs to deliver her report. When a large force, including the Dark Lord, had left less than an hour later, Narcissa had been left mostly alone for the first time in days. Narcissa had seen that as a glimmer of hope upon which she had leapt, only to have it snuffed out now that she was here.
"I'm sorry, Edward." She whispered, her voice still carrying despite the mild noise of the street behind her. "For all of this. For shunning her because of you. For being such an impossible bitch. For treating you as something lesser than. Andi chose well. I wish that I had done so."
Edward continued to glare at her as if he was trying to discern her intent with such comments. But Narcissa had no ulterior motive anymore. These may very well be her last words, and for once, she was speaking honestly with the man her sister had married.
Edward stared in silence for a long drawn-out moment. "I can give her a message if you like."
Narcissa looked up into his eyes and gave a small smile. "Just tell her that. I'm sorry, and she was right all along."
She did not wait for him to acknowledge her message, simply turning on her heel and walking down the narrow garden path to the small gate in the front fence.
Narcissa glanced back once she had stepped through the gate, looking back up at the warm and inviting home that Andromeda had made here with Edward. It looked happy, despite the man still glaring at her from the doorway. Perhaps, in another life, she might have had the courage to seek out the same. Instead, she had resigned herself to a darker fate.
One she now went to face, alone.