the end

four.

--

"it's  been an hour and nobody's dropped dead yet," said hermione, "i take that as a good sign, i don't know about you."

"we've been here nearly two and a half hours," deadpanned belle. "it's a matter of time before-"

"i'm hungry," interrupted pansy. belle snapped, nodding. 

"there it is. none of us have eaten since eight in the morning, and, if i'm not an absolute idiot, it's nearly two. it's been six hours."

"six is fine," scoffed hermione. "we can last the day, maybe the night."

"ooooh, no," hope said fervently, shaking her head. "there is no way in hell i will spend the night with a bunch of drug-sellers, murderers, thieves, and criminals."

"you're one of the murderers," snapped elle. 

"you could be too," hope shot back. "all of you could be. that guy- weasley- he killed his brother. did you know?" she directed this to weasley's closest questions, hermione and harry, who remained quiet. "exactly. and did any of you guys know that malfoy killed his own sister? that he even had a sister?" she said, turning to belle, pansy, and blaise, who ignored her. 

"your dad is dead because of you. if i were you, i'd stay quiet, little miss hufflepuff. besides, hufflepuff's are supposed to be-" belle began impatiently. 

"the next person who tells me i'm supposed to be nice 'cause i'm a hufflepuff will die a very brutal death," hope said sharply. 

"stop it!" hermione exclaimed before belle could retort. "you're going to kill each other before whoever is trying to kill us gets the chance. we're the only company we have for a while, might as well get used to it."

"alright, granger," blaise said, stretching his legs out in front of them on the marble floor and crossing his ankles, "then what've you done to get a pretty girl like you landed all the way here?" she flushed and looked away. 

"i killed someone."

"go on, give us the deets," said blaise, having gotten over the initial shock that he was undoubtedly surrounded by murderers. 

"um...well, it was my- my aunt." hermione said, her voice shaking. "she found out i was a witch and kept threatening me every time we went over, trying to kill me and almost shoving wooden stakes into my heart. i don't think she ever realized that was for vampires." now she was full-on sobbing, but she continued, "and her husband died earlier on, so when i- when i killed her-"

"how'd you do it?" asked pansy. belle shot a glare at her. 

"poison in her afternoon tea," said hermione, swiping at the tears on her face. "her child is an orphan because of me."

"everyone's a murderer!" exclaimed pansy, "come on, help me get them out."

"get who out?" asked elle coldly. 

"the bodies of the dead people," pansy rolled her eyes, "their bodies are rotting, it's stinking up the place."

"excuse you! these are our fucking friends!" exclaimed elle. 

"were," pansy corrected. "throw them out the window before i throw you out."

"die."

"i sure hope you do."

"stop it!" hermione shrieked through her cries. "we're not getting rid of the b- them, and nobody's throwing anyone out."

belle got to her feet, feeling goosebumps crawl up her skin when a light breeze flew in through the window, and paced around the empty room for a second. 

"let's figure out why the hell we're here before anyone else dies, shall we?"

"well, it's obvious, innit?" said blaise, "we've all done something absolutely horrid."

"but why? everyone does bad stuff-"

"not murder," pansy interrupted. 

"yeah, okay, but all these things must be related in some way. how old were you guys when you did whatever you did?"

"fourteen," responded hope, hermione, and blaise. 

"same," said belle, continuing to pace, "and i'll bet weasley and malfoy were, too. that means everything that happened was in-"

"1994," hope said hollowly. "the year you-know-who came back."

"we've known he had to be related from the start," said harry, "but how?"

"everything that happened, happened in 1994, yeah?" continued belle, thinking hard. "which month?"

"july," said hermione, blaise, and hope. 

"my thing ended july, so i guess that makes sense. do we have any specific dates, or-?"

"the thirty-first," replied hope, blaise, and hermione, shocked. 

"same," said belle, nodding. "okay, that's really fucking weird."

"really fucking weird," said harry, frowning, "that's my birthday."

"alright, spill the beans then, potter," said elle. "what'd you do?" he shrugged nonchalantly. 

"i haven't done anything."

"bullshit," belle scoffed. "otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"guys," hope said. "something tells me we're not alone."

"yeah, no shit," muttered pansy. 

"no, as in-- there's someone. right there, watching us."

"the fuck? who's watching us?"

"i can't tell," hope said, her hair white and her wand drawn. everyone else exchanged wary looks and pulled out their own wands. 

"cloak of invisibility," gasped harry, digging through his bag, "it's gone. whoever's there has it."

"and they're hiding under it," belle realized. "hey! asshole!"

"i wouldn't do that if i were you, daughter."

and then there were six. 

belle lestrange dropped dead right before their eyes. 

it didn't matter if she had revealed what she had done or not. 

she had met her end.