Elusive // The Weasley Twins

78. Blind Faith

Slowly, the pieces were coming together. The appearance, the last name, the mention of Tonks being her cousin.

"You're Bellatrix's daughter."

Cosette didn't want to believe this to be true, but her mannerisms were scarily similar to Bellatrix's. The way she cocked her head to the side. The way her lips curved over her teeth to show off a smile that sent chills down Cosette's back.

Cosette wasn't even aware Bellatrix ever even had a child. From what she knew about the witch, she spent all of her time trying to please Voldemort and being a Death Eater was her main priority in life. She married, but that was only to keep their pureblood line intact, it was always expected of her to marry another pureblood wizard.

That's when Cosette started to feel faint. She felt as though she was going to be physically sick as the realization dawned on her as to what all of this was about.

"Your father..." Cosette's mouth went dry, but Lottie was waiting for her to say it out loud. Her hands started to tremble and at this moment, Cosette genuinely feared for her life. "Is Rodolphus Lestrange."

"And where is he now?" Lottie asked, eyebrows pinched together.

Cosette swallowed, "Dead."

"And who's fault is that?" Lottie started to walk forwards again and this time when Cosette backed up, a flick of Lottie's wand had her frozen in place. She couldn't move, her feet were glued to the ground beneath her, her arms stuck at her sides. When Cosette didn't answer, Lottie only repeated the question, screaming it this time, "Who's fault?"

"Mine," she breathed out because that was the answer Lottie wanted. In a technical sense, it was true. Cosette did kill Rodolphus during the Battle of Hogwarts, but it wasn't her fault that he was there in the first place. He was the one who put himself in that situation, every wizard there knew the potential outcomes of what could happen that night.

Lottie stepped closer and Cosette tried to flinch out of the way as she grabbed hold of her face, tilting it upwards as she examined the mark on Cosette's face. She dragged a nail across the scar and Cosette gasped in pain as she dug her nail into her skin, most definitely drawing blood.

"He gave you a little scar and you deemed it fair to murder him in return?" Lottie asked, pushing her face to the side with such force and breaking the spell that had been put on her. Cosette stumbled backwards, wiping her cheek.

"He was going to kill me, Lottie," Cosette knew she couldn't reason with her at this point, but she still had to try. "I did what I had to do. We all made tough decisions that night."

"Right," Lottie laughed, creating a sinking feeling in Cosette's gut. "I seem to remember a little boyfriend of yours making the decision to leave his brother's side for you."

Cosette's eyes widened, "You were at the battle?"

"Oh sweetie," Lottie's condensing tone indicated that whatever she was going to say next was not something Cosette wasn't to hear. "Who do you think lured Fred away from the tower?"

- - -

"Tonks, head upstairs. Minerva has students up in the South Tower that are going to need a leader," Kingsley directed and she nodded, already heading off in that direction before he even finished speaking.

Fred slid his hand into Cosette's, gripping it tightly as they followed behind the group of wizards. They were all being told what to do under Kingsley's guidance and in the back of Fred's mind, he already knew that Cosette was going to be separated from him.

"O'Connor," Kingsley's voice rang out. "I need you on the bridge."

"You can't put her there," Fred argued before she could even get a word on. He came to a halt and in return, the rest of the wizards all stopped to look at him. "That's the first line of defense. The second our barriers come down, those Death Eaters are going to be using that bridge."