Chapter 35
AN: Thank you so much for the response to the last chapter. As I am finding it easier to write Reading (the story I am emailing out if you would like to be on the mailing list email charmed4lifekaren ( ) gmail . com (remove space and brackets) than this story there may be times where I update more of that than this, but I will do my best.
Knowing that he is going to get a far from good reception, but refusing to let that apprehension show, Gellert follows Albus into the backroom of the Hogshead. Just like Albus said he would Gellert sees Aberforth, who he recognizes even with the years that have passed since they have seen each other, and Minerva and Moody who he recognizes in passing, and a lot of young people he doesn't know who he assumes are Mie's friends.
"What the bloody hell is he doing here?" Aberforth asks angrily, as even though he suspected what his brother was going to do it is another thing all together to see it, and while he puts his hand around his wand, he doesn't draw it.
"Albus, what have you done?" Minerva asks in a shocked, but gentle voice as she knows what her friend is going through.
"Aberforth," Gellert greats, watching him carefully as he is sure that out of everyone in the room, including Moody, Aberforth is the most dangerous to him.
"I need to get Annemie back," Albus tells everyone as that's what matters to him right now.
"And how exactly is this….. person going to help with getting Mie back?" Aberforth asks his brother, the fury he feels towards Gellert being perfectly clear, but controlling his language because things will get a lot worse if he doesn't.
"Weren't you the one who was meant to prevent Annemie from being taken in the first place?" Gellert asks, not being able to resist it.
"Why you…" Aberforth says, sounding furious, pulling his wand, and pointing it at Gellert, causing the students to move back out of the line of fire, while both Moody and Minerva look for signs that they should intervene.
"Gellert, Aberforth," Albus says, in a warning tone of voice, stepping between them and having an awful sense of déjà vu which he does his best to push down, as he will not let those horrible memories influence his actions, which is why he doesn't reach for his wand. "I went to Gellert because I know how Tom thinks, and I know he will want me in return for Annemie, and while I know that I cannot count on Tom to be above board I also know that agreeing to what Tom wants is the best option," Albus explains, his eyes on his brother as he knows he is more likely to do something. "Gellert is the one person strong enough, that I know I can count on, who will do whatever it takes to get Annemie back," Albus explains, and Gellert smiles as it means everything to him to hear Albus say those words.
"You're going to sacrifice yourself," Lily realises, and everyone around the room take in just what Lily is saying.
"If I have to," Albus responds, looking around as his words sink in, and due to shock Aberforth lowers his wand, which Albus feels is progress.
Far away from her father, her friends, the people Mie desperately cares about and knows she has to protect Mie is in a dirty, dark, room with Voldemort. Ever since coming back to the past Mie knows this moment was coming and so she is doing her best to control every single reaction and she is putting in place the Occlumency shields she has spent the last few months developing.
"Where's Peter?" Mie asks, as even though she knows he sold her out she still wants to know what happened to him.
"Do you really care? He's the reason you're here," Voldemort tells Mie, not displaying that he is surprised.
"That may be, but I still want to know," Mie responds, as she knows the role Peter played in the other timeline and how important that makes him to this timeline, and even knowing all that she doesn't want anything to have happened to him.
"He's dead," Voldemort tells Mie, his voice perfectly even.
As Voldemort says those two words Mie feels horrified, but for a fraction of a section she can't help but think that it means that he can't betray James and Lily, he can't help Voldemort return to power, and she feels a slimmer of relief, and then guilt for feeling that.
"What was that?" Voldemort asks, and Mie realises that she must have let what she is feeling show through.
"Nothing," Mie responds.
"You looked relieved…. Why?" Voldemort asks, and Mie just smirks as she isn't going to give anything away. "Answer me!" Voldemort exclaims, though he keeps his voice calm.
"I have nothing to say," Mie tells Voldemort, staring him down and Mie feels him try to invade her mind and so she focuses on her shield, a library maze, to cause Voldemort to become so lost that he can't see or sense anything.
"Impressive," Voldemort says, despite himself, as he pulls himself out of Mie's mind. "I see your father has taught you well," Voldemort tells Hermione.
"He has," Mie confirms, knowing that she cannot show weakness to Voldemort, even though she is feeling very far from strong.
"Then I assume you that he has taught you to be honest, so you should tell him what I want to know," Voldemort tells Mie, and because of all the things she knows about her father, in both timeline's she has lived in, Mie can't help but laugh, and it takes her a split second to realise how much of a mistake that is.
At the Hogshead while it is clear that everyone is shocked by Albus words everyone can still feel the tension that exists between Aberforth and Gellert, even though Aberforth has lowered his wand, and everyone is feeling apprehensive.
"Have you heard anything?" Albus ask Regulus, as he knows that Regulus is the most likely to have heard something.
"No, but I'm not surprised," Regulus admits, as he can't push harder without putting both himself and Mie in danger. "Having Mie is a huge deal and Voldemort would be worried about something going wrong," Regulus explains, and Albus nods, as that's what he suspected.
"Albus you cannot turn yourself over," Minerva tells Albus, as while she wants to get Mie back just as badly, she knows that Albus handing himself over to Voldemort is one of the worse things he could do.
"If it is the only way to protect Annemie I will," Albus tells everyone, as he will do whatever it is he can to save his daughter no matter the cost to him, and no one is surprised by that.
"And you really think you can trust him to get Mie back?" Aberforth asks, glaring at Gellert, as he certainly doesn't. While he is feeling incredibly guilty about Mie being taken, he is sure that Gellert cannot be trusted to help get her back.
"I do," Albus says, keeping his voice calm. "I trust Gellert, he will do whatever he can to get Annemie back," Albus explains, looking around at everyone, wanting to make it clear that he completely trusts Gellert, and he hopes that that will help everyone else to trust him.
"I will," Gellert says. "I understand that, for good reason, Albus is the only person who trusts me, but you have my word that I will do everything I can to get Annemie back," Gellert assures everything, and with the exception of Albus no one knows what to think and whether or not they should believe him; Aberforth for one has no intention of trusting him.
"We need to get Mie back, we need to get her away from Voldemort," Regulus says, interrupting as he feels like they don't have time to dwell on whether it's a good idea for Grindelwald help them, right now the only thing to focus on is Mie.
"Reg is right, getting Mie back is what we need to focus on, she's matters, not old rivalries," Sirius tells everyone, knowing that considering what happened in Mie's timeline it is pretty ironic for him to be the one to say that.
"Sirius and Reg are both right," Severus says, and others around the room nod in agreement.
"Reg, do you know where Voldemort is?" Amelia asks, trying to get them to focus back on the task, as they know that with every second Mie is with Voldemort the worse things get for her.
"There are a couple of places he uses as his base of operations," Regulus reveals. "I know which is the more secure of the locations, I believe that would be where Mie would be," Regulus explains, doing his best to focus on the information he has and how it can be used to help Mie as right now that is the only thing he can do.
"Okay, then we need to know everything you know about the location," Moody tells Regulus, who nods, but before he can explain Gellert gasps, and Albus feels his blood run cold as he knows that Gellert would be feeling Mie's emotion.
"Gellert? What is it?" Albus asks and as he sees the look on Gellert's face he knows that his love is going to tell him something truly awful.
"Annemie's alive," Gellert assures him, needing to do that before he says what he is about to say.
"But?" Albus asks, knowing there is bad news coming.
"She is in… indescribable pain," Gellert reveals, only looking at Albus so he doesn't see the horrified look on the others faces, though the look that is on Albus's face is so much worse than anyone else's.
"She's being tortured," Remus realises, as a feeling of dread takes over the room as everyone, with the exception of Gellert, knows the effect that curse has on Mie, and as he can feel Mie's emotions even Gellert has a bit of an idea.
Doing her best not to show how much pain she is but failing due to the intensity of the pain Mie is thrashing on the ground in front of Voldemort, screaming, despite the fact that she is doing everything she can not to let the amount of pain she is in show. Even though she isn't able to think completely clearly it does draw on Mie that Gellert will be able to feel the pain she is in which means her father will know, and because of what she is experiencing she isn't able to think about that.
For close to a minute Voldemort, feeling no emotion whatsoever, watches as Mie writhers in pain as she screams due to his spell. As he watches her Voldemort can tell that Mie is trying her best not to react, but because his spell is so strong, she has no choice but to portray the pain she is in.
"Are you going to answer my questions now?" Voldemort asks, removing the spell.
As Voldemort removes the spell Mie no longer screams in pain, but she feels her nerves working overdrive, she feels the aftereffects, to her it feels like every cell of hers is shaking, unfortunately it is a sensation she is all too familiar with.
"No," Mie manages to say, stuttering a little as she has a little bit of a hard time focusing due to the aftereffects of the spell.
"Pity," Voldemort says, though he doesn't actually feel that way, and he once more casts the Cruciatus Curse on Mie.
Just like last time Mie screams in pain, as she feels like very single nerve is on fire, but this time rather than putting her energy into not giving away how much pain she is in Mie puts all her energy on focusing on keeping her Occlumency shields up as she knows that as she loses control, she cannot let them faulter as it will give Voldemort information that he cannot have. Despite her pain Melinda knows that even her life isn't worth Voldemort finding out what she knows.
For almost a minute Voldemort uses the spell on Mie, but then a knock on the door causes him to stop, and Mie feels incredibly relieved about that, and uses the precious time she has to focus on strengthening her Occlumency shields.
"You have precious minutes to rethink your decision not to answer my questions, use that time wisely," Voldemort says, before heading out of the room, his robes flourishing behind him.
As Voldemort heads out of the room Mie, using her last remaining bit of strength that isn't being used to keep up her Occlumency shields, Mie pushes herself up so that she is on her knees. After a few moments, as her body practically screams at her to stop Mie pushes herself from her knees onto her feet.
Once she is on her feet, even though she would very much like to collapse Mie stumbles towards the door that Voldemort has left open. As Mie stumbles towards the door Mie sees the bookshelf across the room, and right in the centre Mie sees something she cannot believe. Drawing strength from the desire to know if she is actually seeing what she believes she is, Mie continues to stumble towards the door, and just as she gets to it slams shut, the few seconds are enough for her to confirm what she suspects.
"Slytherin's locket," Mie says to herself, feeling overwhelming relief, even with everything else she is feeling, as she cannot believe that she has gotten that lucky, and she knows, without a doubt, that she has to make sure that no matter what she has to get the locket, and get it to her friends, even if she cannot get back herself, before she does anything.
At the Hogshead as he feels the pain Mie is feeling Gellert is doing his best not to let it show as he doesn't want Albus to feel more worried, be in more pain, that he already is.
"Mie's being tortured?" Amelia asks, pain in her voice, and Gellert nods.
"Can Mie handle being exposed to that cures much more considering how much exposure she has already had?" Lily asks worried, looking towards the pure bloods for explanation, as she can't help but think about what happened to Alice and Frank in Mie's timeline.
"Impossible to say," James admits, like his girlfriend he is doing his best not to think about what happened to Frank and Alice in Mie's timeline and how close Mie is to being exposed that much.
"It's not good she's experiencing it again, especially not when Voldemort is likely putting a lot of power behind it," Sirius admits, glancing worriedly at his brother, having no words of comfort even though he desperately wishes he did.
"We need to get Mie out of there," Regulus says, and everyone agrees with him.
"It's stopped," Gellert tells everyone, to their relief.
"Annemie's not being tortured anymore?" Albus asks, needing to know.
"Not at the moment," Gellert tells him, doing his best to reassure Albus. "But I can feel how week she feels," Gellert admits, and everyone feels incredibly worried about that, and he forces himself to stand up. "Annemie is alive Albus, she's defiant," Gellert tells his love, needing to do the little he can to reassure him.
"That's Mie," Aberforth says, founding rather proud of his niece, while he is still feeling a lot of anger towards Gellert, and would much rather he not be standing in his bar, Aberforth knows that right now they need to focus on Mie, and getting her back.
"Mie cannot defy Voldemort forever, and every second she is with him we risk Voldemort breaching Mie's mind protections and finding out where she comes from and what she knows," Moody tells everyone, knowing that there is nothing more dangerous to the entire world than Voldemort having Mie.
"We cannot allow that," Minerva says, knowing that.
"Every minute counts, we need to get Mie back," Frank says, and everyone nods in agreement, as they do Albus notices Gellert get a strange expression on his face.
"Gellert? What is it?" Albus asks his love.
"Mie's feeling relief," Gellert explains, feeling confused by what he is feeling.
"Because the torture has ended?" James asks, as that's what he assumes.
"No, I don't think so," Gellert admits, closing his eyes so he can focus on the emotions more. "It's like she cannot believe what she is seeing, she feels determined," Gellert says, looking at Albus for the answer as he figures that Albus will know what is going on, but it's not Albus who speaks.
"Mie's seen a Horcrux," Regulus says, not even hesitating about saying so in front of Gellert as he knows they have more important things to focus on, causing everyone to look at him, and Gellert realises things make a lot of things make sense.
"You think so?" Sirius asks his brother.
"It would make sense. Mie is likely at the most secure place Voldemort has, it would make sense if there was also a Horcrux there," Regulus comments.
"It would," Frank confirms.
"Which one do you think it is?" Alice asks, as it could honestly be any of the remaining ones.
"I don't think it matters," Amelia tells her. "It just means that Mie is going to focus more on making sure she gets the Horcrux rather than protecting herself," Amelia says, knowing that because she knows her friend.
"I think you're right," Severus confirms, looking concerned.
"Which means we have to make getting Annemie back is our first priority because she won't," Albus tells everyone, knowing that the others are right and that if Mie has indeed found a Horcrux she will focus on that.
"It is," Aberforth assures his brother. "We'll get Mie back, Albus" Aberforth says, as he hears the door to his bar open which is strange as he though he locked it, planning on doing everything he can, except put aside his feelings towards Gellert, to get Mie back, partly to make up for the fact that he feels that his screwup is why Mie was taken, and Albus nods at that.
"Dumbledore you here?" the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange says from the main area of the bar. "If you want your daughter back, you're gonna have to talk to me," Bellatrix says in a sing song voice.