star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Finally, the Christmas holidays had arrived, but Arabella was unfortunately in no fit state to be celebrating.

The Carrows had been punishing her and her friends' insubordination for a long while now, but what had happened the day before had been one of the worst cases yet.

As had happened many times over the course of the last seven years, Pansy Parkinson had managed to anger Arabella by ruthlessly insulting her, her family, and her friends until eventually, the hot-headed ginger had shut up the pug-faced Slytherin by magical means, causing antlers to grow from Pansy's head. It had been quite humorous in the moment (for Arabella, that is), but Pansy had run off crying and within minutes, Arabella had been hunted down by the Carrows, dragged down to the dungeons as she struggled and fought, and tortured with the Cruciatus Curse for what felt like hours. Because it hadn't been a scheduled detention but rather spontaneous family fun for the Carrows, none of the DA knew that anything was happening and therefore did not come to rescue her. However, someone else had.

From what Arabella had been told after the fact, it had been Draco that had heard her screams of agony from the Slytherin common room, which he was in while skipping out on dinner. He had gone to investigate, something that he usually didn't do simply because this kind of thing had become very normal recently and he was, after all, on the side of those who were causing the screams, but for some reason he had, and thank Merlin he had. Once he came upon the scene, he must have told the Carrows that he could take over or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it got the Carrows to leave so that he could help Arabella, who had been unconscious at the time. Thankfully, the corridors were empty thanks to most students and faculty being at dinner, and he had managed to get her to the Room of Requirement, where he knew she would be safe. He then left and hurried down to the Great Hall, and by this time, dinner had just ended, so there was a crowd of students leaving. He had been able to find Ginny among them and quickly and discreetly informed her of what had happened and where Arabella was, and she, Evelyn, and Luna had rushed to the seventh floor.

When the three girls arrived to the Room of Requirement, they found Arabella still unconscious, and they used whatever spells and healing methods they knew to get her to come to, for they could tell she was still alive by the rise and fall of her chest. Much to their relief, she did, but for hours, she did not speak, and she seemed very fatigued and pained. They stayed with her until the morning, and by that time she was speaking, though she didn't remember anything from the day before past feeling the indescribable torment of the Cruciatus Curse.

Currently, the four girls and their friends were boarding the Hogwarts Express to go home for the Christmas holidays. Arabella was still feeling exhausted and sore, and was so shaky that she could hardly get around on her own, so Neville and Seamus were helping her to walk while all of their luggage levitated behind them. Finally, they reached an empty compartment and the boys helped her to sit down before putting up all of the trunks on the shelves above. Fraser, Duncan, Ginny, Evelyn, and Luna all did the same.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Neville asked Arabella for probably around the twentieth time that day, his expression full of worry as he sat down beside her.

"Neville," she said in a soft voice. With anyone else, she probably would have gotten frustrated with them asking her the same question over and over, but she and the others knew why Neville was so worried.

They had all found out through the Daily Prophet article published a few years ago, announcing the escape of ten high-security prisoners from Azkaban, why Neville had been raised by his grandmother. In 1982, his parents had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband and brother-in-law Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Bartemius Crouch Jr. (who had escaped not long after being imprisoned and had impersonated Alastor Moody to teach at Hogwarts for a whole school year), and now they were living out the rest of their lives in St. Mungo's, not even able to recognize their son.

"As I have been telling you all day, I am just fine. I'm going to be okay," Arabella reassured him, giving him a weak smile as she did so. Though, her raspy and weak voice, still yet to recover from all the screaming, was not working in her favor. "I'm just tired is all. Trust me, my mum's going to be all over me for the whole holiday, and I have yet to discover something she can't do. The next time you see me, I'm going to be back to normal. You don't have to worry about me, I promise you."

Neville still appeared unsure, but did not say anything. Both because she was becoming too tired to hold her head up anymore and as a last attempt at comforting him further, Arabella leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, already feeling sleep creeping up on her.

If this were a few months ago, this probably would have made Neville feel extremely awkward, but over the course of the term, he and the oldest Weasley girl had grown to be very close friends. He had become like a brother to her, adding to the already very large group, right along with Seamus, Dean, and Harry, who had all earned the title back in first year.

"Better you than me," Seamus said to Neville. "Last time she fell asleep on my shoulder, I had a crook in my neck for a week."

"Oh, sod off, Seamus," Arabella muttered.

.｡❅*⋆⍋*∞*｡*∞*⍋⋆*❅｡.

At first she thought that the sounds of a struggle were in her dream, which was already quite unpleasant as is. She thought all she had to do was wake up and everything would be still. Her sister and their six friends would be sitting all around her, probably bored out of their minds but in better spirits than usual, looking forward to the prospect of being home with their families rather than at Hogwarts with Death Eaters. But when Arabella finally did open her eyes, her sister and only five of their friends were out of their seats, all of them with their wands out but wearing looks of shock, defeat, and hopelessness.

"What?" she questioned, immediately concerned as she looked around at them all. "Why do you all look like that? What's happened?"

"They took Luna," Neville told her. He wasn't looking at her, but she could see that his expression was a mixture of hurt and horrified. "They just... they just took her."

After being informed of this, Arabella shared this same expression, realizing that indeed, Luna was gone.

[word count: 1189]
[written: 3/13/21]
[published: 3/13/21]