𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 • (𝐝.𝐦.)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐲-𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

"Have you monsters hurt him?" I asked, and she only began her hysterical laughing once more. "Hurt him? Why would we hurt him? It's Potter we want! And now that you're here, both Potters we shall have!" She said, clapping her hands and giggling wildly. 

"Shut the hell up, your pitch could deafen a bear," I snapped, taking my wand out and mumbling the silencing spell on her. She seemed just as enthused at that as she was temporarily shut up, but kept her insane mannerisms going. 

She then pointed to her arm, tapping her Dark Mark, and then point at me. 

She went back and forth, pointing between the two as she glared at me. I looked at my arm, rolling my sleeve up and looking at my own mark. "What, this?" I asked, and she nodded. 

I looked at the pulsing on my mark, the pain I could not feel but the pulsing I could see obviously. "Oh, pity. That's a call I'm going to have to ignore," I said, and Bellatrix stared at me furiously.  She tried to speak, but obviously couldn't. 

"I'm sorry, were you trying to say something? I can't hear you, what a shame," I said, running off as she struggled behind me. The Dark Lord... where was that stupid motherfucker?

Hallway after hallway, corridor after corridor, I couldn't find them. That was until Hermione and Ron found me first. "There you are! We've been looking all over for you, it's getting worse," Hermione shouted as she found me. 

I ran over to her and Ron, following them closely as we ran somewhere they knew where to go. We ended up in the courtyard of the school, from which a deafening scream had just come from Ginny. 

"What's happening?" I heaved as we ran, but the words we heard next were incomparable to anything we'd faced yet. 

"Harry Potter is dead!" Voldemort boomed once again, and I covered my mouth in shock. 

"And now is the time to declare yourself. Come forward and join us," He probed, looking us all in the eyes. I hid behind Hermione and Ron, afraid of what would happen if anyone saw me. I looked at Voldemort and his army and saw, cowering behind him, a man I used to hold in such high regard. 

He made his way to the front of the crowd and looked at me with guilt and desperation in his eyes. I moved past Hermione and Ron, showing my face to my father, and he almost smiled. "Magdelena. Join us... come. Don't be a fool," He cooed in a sickening tone. 

"It's not fun being betrayed, is it?" I asked boldly, noticing how poorly he was looking now that he had been outed as James Potter's brother to the Dark Lord. 

He quieted, looking down, and Lucius Malfoy stepped up next. "Draco?" He said, and I widened my eyes, looking to where Lucius was directing his summoning, and I saw him. My eyes clouded, noticing the boy I had longed to see for so long standing there in the midst of other students. 

"Draco," I sighed happily, out of relief than anything else. He locked eyes with me, his harsh stare once directed at his parents softening as it reached me. "Maggie," He breathed in disbelief. 

"Now you will be weak? Now that you've seen him you will let falter all you have worked for?" My father shouted in a strangled voice, and I turned to him, surprised he had more to say. 

"What did you say to me?" I asked, and he limped towards me, a sick grin on his face as he let out a throaty chuckle. "You were never as strong as I once presumed. You never had it in you, you just thought you did. I think it's safe to say... that was a lie too!" He exclaimed, growing more and more hysterical.