The Potter Twins and the Deathly Hallows {7}

26. Wait For Me

"I'm coming, wait for me. I hear the walls repeating the falling of our feet, and it sounds like drumming. And we are not alone, I hear the rocks and stones echoing our song. I'm coming" - Wait For Me II, Hadestown.

DRACO

It is like sinking into a nightmare. The sound of Haylee's skull hitting the marble floors seems to reverberate across the drawing-room, and for an instant, I'm back atop the tallest tower at Hogwarts, wanting nothing more than to grab her hand and run away. It takes a moment for my grim reality to become even somewhat perceivable; I'm staring at Haylee, curled up on the ground, her hand reaching clumsily for the golden necklace as Bellatrix's wicked laugh echoes in my ears. My mother is gripping my forearm so tightly I'm sure her fingernails are going to leave marks, trying to pull me away from the scene, to stop me from acting on the stupid thoughts coursing through my brain. And as Haylee's hand finally closes upon the pendant, it's instantly trapped underneath Father's leather boot, who then snatches the necklace up in his palm with a blatant disregard for her barely conscious state. And for a moment, as he holds the pendent up to the remaining light left in the room, I see the version of my father which exists inside Haylee's mind: sadistic and cruel, and yet incredibly pitiful. I'm not my father. I told her that once without a single doubt in my mind, but now I'm not so certain...I'm not my father...I won't be my father...I'm suddenly grateful for my mother's sharp grip on my arm, for without her I'm sure I'd faint.

Wrenching myself from the darkest corner of my mind, when my eyes return to Haylee, I see that she has scrambled to her knees, and is reaching for the chain dangling from Father's hands. "Aha!" screeches Bellatrix, snatching Mother's wand from the ground with a vicious growl. "Not so quick! CRUCIO!"

Her scream pierces my heart like a blade, and she falls to the ground once more, writhing helplessly. I clutch Mother as her screams grow louder and louder, a collection of discombobulated thoughts and memories running across my mind to the tune of her pain. I remember the evening I found her in the hospital wing, breathless and anxiety-ridden, memories of the Chamber of Secrets' dancing behind her green eyes; I remember how quickly her stature changed when Umbridge threatened her with the Cruciartus Curse, the way her eyes glazed over at the thought of enduring this pain again; and finally, I remember hearing her screams echoing across Hogwarts' Grounds the night Dumbledore died as the Carrows tortured her, unaware that would not be the first time I would have to turn a blind eye to her suffering despite the pain it caused me to do so.

"Bella, stop!" Mother bursts out suddenly. "The Dark Lord --"

Crack!

"- explicitly asked for you to leave the twins for him, Bellatrix, have you forgotten?" finishes a different voice, so terrifyingly familiar that it makes my blood run cold.

Standing in the wake of the broken chandelier is the Dark Lord, his stare cold and unforgiving, and his wand already posed almost delicately in his spider-like fingers. Father backs away so quickly he stumbles on his robe, stuttering apologies helplessly as he does so.

"My lord," Bellatrix breathes, dropping Mother's wand in her haste to stop harming Haylee, "forgive me, I only meant to --"

"To directly disobey me?" he says, his gleaming red eyes now fixated on Haylee as she slowly pushes herself to her feet, clutching at her scar as if it's splitting apart from the inside-out. "I told you to call me back for nothing less than the Potter Twins. Lucius, where is the boy?"