Living in Shadows [Harry Potter Fanfiction]

Chapter Two | Hogwarts, 1971

Chapter Two

Hogwarts, 1971

 

            Snow fell softly as Morton Bowen tugged his adoptive daughter up the hill towards Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The school loomed in front of them, gothic and lit up against the twilight sky; Hazel had been here countless times since her adoption, but this was the first time Lily and Severus would be there as well.

“Pay attention, Hazel.” Mo said as she began to dawdle, sticking her tongue out to catch a snow flake. “We are not here for tea, you know.”

Sighing, Hazel nodded. She watched Mo, who after five years still looked almost exactly the same; tall, angular and always wore grey. His hair was sort of salt-and-pepper, combed back to disguise the fact that it was thinning. Hazel knew that being a double agent really took its toll on him, especially since he was putting his only-adopted or not-child in the worst danger any parent or magical being could imagine.

He was placing her directly in Lord Voldemort’s evil clutches.

Although Hazel found Lord Voldemort terrifying, she never let him know it. This pleased the Dark Lord, saying she was feisty and strong; she would come in handy. However, his words to Mo had been flitting through her mind like a broken record for days, puzzling her.

“Make sure you do not grow to close to the girl, Morton.” Voldemort said, stroking the emerald head of his large snake, Nagini. They had stood in a large sitting room of a Muggle residence, the family lying in a heap in the corner, eyes lifeless and glassy. Hazel tried not to look at them.

“What-whatever do you mean, my Lord?” Mo asked, fingers digging into Hazel’s shoulder.

Turning, Voldemort’s dark eyes glinted “You may have adopted her, but Hazel Bowen belongs to me now. She is the youngest Death Eater I have, and by far the most valuable. I do not want to lose one of my most…helpful Death Eaters because he is distraught over the loss of his little pupil.”

Hazel looked up at Mo, seeing him nod; her heart fell, but kept her composure. By not crying, she was helping Dumbledore-she idolized Dumbledore, he had promised her he would do everything in his power to keep her safe.

“Yes, my Lord.”

“Good, now leave. Continue her training; do not let me down, Morton.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Once they’d left the house, Mo had kneeled down in front of Hazel, face pained. “Hazel, my darling…we are helping everyone-helping Severus and Lily…I may have told the Dark Lord that I do not care for you, but-” he held hazel by the shoulder, brushing a stray curl back from her forehead “I do.”

“I know, Mo.” She whispered, smiling weakly at him.

Mo smiled back tightly, pulling her close as the snow fell around them “You are my daughter, Hazel; my world. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, I have since the day I brought you home, and I will until my dying day.”