Rose Thorn ❖ (Draco Malfoy - Harry Potter Series)

5.07

Camille had been hunched over the antique desk of R.A.B's bedroom with the flickering candlelight, day and night. She did not sleep for three days, purple circles rimming her under eyes like a shadow of pain and monstrosity. She did not care for how she appeared, only what she was planning to do.

     Kreacher appeared out of thin air, hopping onto the chair she kept beside her for him. "Voldemort split his soul into seven parts tucking them within objects of his choosing. Specific objects, with ties to him, he believed, and thus became his immortality."

     "The diary would've been one of them," Camille began, ticking that off her unfinished list of seven possible horcruxes.

     "Slytherin's locket is the only one I know of." Kreacher added, flicking his fingers as the quill wrote the words on its own. "Voldemort had hidden it within a cave guarded by Inferi."

     "Sirius said that Regulus died there." Camille was figuring it all out. "What was Regulus doing in that cave, Kreacher?"

     "The same thing you're trying to do. He switched the true horcrux with a fake but he died in the process. It is my greatest grief that I did not protect him."

     "Only he did not die, did he?" Camille stated, eyeing the house elf.

     Kreacher examined her eyes before giving a wicked smile. He knew something about her that the Seer had known also. Perhaps, all the mythical creatures, all the beings who were less human, knew her true self, her soul as one more beast than witch. "No, my master is not."

     "I saw him in a dream. A dream that blurred the lines between reality and illusion. The locket. The sword. The boy...we need to find him."

     Kreacher tittered. "Follow me, my lady."

     He held out his tiny hand and Camille smiled at the elf, snatching her worn journal full of secrets and plans and blowing out the severely melted candle before taking a hold of Kreacher's hand. The house elf disapparated from the dim, wooden room of Grimmauld Place and together they found themselves standing in a lonely, stone courtyard. Deep fog surrounded them as they struggled to make out the charcoal building before them, a mansion of horror.

     "Marvolo's Asylum." Camille said out loud to no one really but Kreacher confirmed her words. Their footsteps echoed against the dewy stone path as they neared the front door. Camille could've sworn the scraggly, bare branches of the dead trees bent slightly to follow their gaze upon them. No lights were lit within the mansion as if it were abandoned.

     Kreacher snapped his fingers as the large, wooden doors opened. The inside contradicted everything the outside bore. No darkness. No abandonment. A façade was cloaked around the outside for Muggles it seemed for inside dwelt many, many odd beings of magic and myth.

     Camille followed Kreacher's pursuit, passing a couple goblins who quarrelled over coins, a human-bat thing that Camille ducked away from their huge leather wings. The staircase contained thousands of mirrors of all sizes and her reflection was different in each. Most showed her human self, whilst others...never mind what she saw in place of herself.

     "Master." Kreacher knocked on the door that was at the very end of the long corridor on the third floor. The mansion seemed bigger still on the inside compared to its exterior, a plausible function of magical rendering.

     She spied the male with dark hair, feet on the table before him as he sipped a cup of divine sweet-smelling wine. He stood up and turned to face them, Kreacher nudging her to step inside. The door shut behind them with a flick of the male's fingers.