The Unknown of the Order (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Letting Go

"That won't help," Aiden mocked. "Your brain is mine, Lee. Once I figured out you were using legilimency, I sought guidance from the greatest legilimens alive, apart from the Dark Lord of course. Snape was more than willing to assist me. In a matter of weeks, I was able to convince you to lead me right to my sister."

"Why did you want to find me?" Elena asked. "Did you really want to kill your own sister?"

"You ceased to be my sister the day you betrayed the Dark Lord so you could share a bed with a pretty face," he spat. 

His cruel eyes, similar to Elena's in color alone, darted from her to Barnaby. 

"I left because I wanted to find you!" she shrieked. "Did you forget that when you were taken by the other side, the Death Eaters left you for dead? They didn't care about you, they said you were weak and deserved it if you got killed. I was the only one who wanted to save you. They're not your family, I am!"

"They were right to leave me behind," said Aiden calmly. "They were right. I was weak. I deserved what I got. But, I'm stronger now. They welcomed me back when I found them again. There was...punishment, of course, but now I'm working directly for members of the Dark Lord's inner circle. The only thing keeping me from rising further in the ranks is my relationship to Elena the traitor. I've been waiting for my chance to remove that blemish on my record for some time."

The wand twitched in Elena's hand even as a fresh tear rolled down her cheek. 

"How did you escape?" Barnaby asked.

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Albus Dumbledore," he said, "might have been a talented wizard, but he was a sympathetic, old fool."

Now Barnaby's wand rolled in his fingers, eager to remove Aiden's tongue for such words, but he kept silent as the boy drawled on. 

"After that girl with the blond hair and that boy that always trails after her locked me up with Sirius Black, Dumbledore questioned me for days. After realizing he'd learn nothing from me, that I was loyal only to the Dark Lord, he let me go."

"He let you go?" repeated Barnaby.

"Yeah. Said some rubbish about not killing kids and that he was giving me a chance I shouldn't waste. Well, I didn't waste it. I went straight back to my master, and have been doing my part to rid this planet of muggle filth ever since."

Elena looked at Barnaby, her eyes yearning him to tell her what to do. How desperate a person must be, to look to him for guidance. But he had no answer for her. How did you cure a heart of that much hate? 

The only solution Barnaby saw was to copy Dumbledore. Aiden didn't want help, so maybe the best way for Elena to help him now was to let him go. But, he'd never convince her of that. 

"It's nearly morning," he said. They sky had transitioned from black to bluish-gray. "We should get back, before someone comes looking for us."

And then what? He just didn't know. 

********************

Sarah woke early the morning after their escape. The tent felt too empty now that Talbott and Tulip were gone. They'd left not long after Lupin had, and they'd both offered for Sarah to go with them, but she declined. She needed to keep watch--on Barnaby, on her brother, on all of them, really. 

Only Diego had stayed with her, and she watched him cooking the breakfast while she stared out of the corner of her eyes at Jacob's tent. Waiting. 

She rolled the new wand in her fingers. It was a bit long for her, carved of a light wood. She guessed ash, though Rowan would have been able to say for certain. The wand still felt foreign in her hands. She cringed thinking of the spells it had cast, the lives it had probably taken.