I SPY || 𝕝𝕦𝕔𝕚𝕦𝕤 𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕗𝕠𝕪

Chapter 51. Red

Authors Note: Sorry this chapter is only a small update, this week is a crazy one, but I promise I'll have an extra juicy update for you next week.

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"Where is she Bella?" Lucius asked as he stalked into the dining hall of Malfoy Manor. His cane clicked against his black wooden floors, announcing his arrival to Bellatrix before he even spoke a word, she could tell by the pace and tone of each click of the cane that he was maddened. Bellatrix would enjoy the ensuing windup.

            "Where is whom?" Bellatrix teased as she stabbed at her lunch from the dining table. Draco seated next to his aunt paled, he knew exactly how this was going to go.

            "Who do you think?" Lucius hissed, his hand tightening on the silver snake head of his cane. "Astrid!"

            "Hmmmm," Bellatrix dramatically pondered. "Have you tried Severus' bed?"

            Lucius reached for his wand, or rather his replacement wand, but Draco stood up abruptly.

            "Father," Draco pleaded, with as much confidence as he could muster, but he still sounded pitifully meek. "Please, don't." Draco could not take anymore fighting within the family, his relationships were already strained enough.

            "Yes, Lucius, listen to little Draco..." Bellatrix smiled, licking her lips.

            "Bellatrix... tell me where she is, I know Wormtail brought her here," Lucius exhaled, he spoke as calmly as he could, with great strain in his voice. He was so easily wound up these days, he remembered a time not so long ago he could keep his cool under even the most stressful of situations, and now a simple jibe sent him toppling into frenzy.

            "She's with the Dark Lord." Bellatrix answered simply, as she scraped her food from her fork with her teeth, the metal screeching against them. Lucius swallowed hard, closing his eyes for just a second.

            "What does he want with her?" His voice hitched in his throat as images of Astrid being tortured and killed flashed in his mind.

            "The Dark Lord didn't divulge that information to me..." Bellatrix trailed off, "To end her miserable pathetic life hopefully." She squeaked out a laugh, stabbing at her plate once again. Draco eyes darted between Bellatrix and his father throughout the exchange, his heart ripped, he felt as if he was torn between the two halves of his family, his mother and Bellatrix, and his father, Everly and Astrid.

Aunt Bellatrix scared the hell out of him, she wasn't at all like his mother described, or what he pictured, before Bella's escape from Azkaban. His mother was his world, but he wasn't blind to her mistakes or her flaws, as a mother or as a person. But he still loved her dearly, more than he loved anyone. His father and he had a complicated relationship, bogged down by years of 'tough' love. He respected him massively, and feared him a little. Astrid... Draco hadn't really had much chance to get to know his former professor, she was kind, kinder than any of them deserved. He respected her, appreciated the way she had bettered his father, somewhat at least. But he would never call her mum. Everly was a different barrel of fish... at first, he felt hatred and contempt for a baby he had never even set eyes on. Then jealousy, jealous of the way his father treated her, adored her. Then love, he had never pictured himself a sibling, he was quite happy being the sole occupier of his parents' attention, but he somehow came to love being a brother, and in that came to love his tiny sister endlessly. The absence of her laughter, her smile, even her screams and cries, had made Malfoy Manor incredibly grim to him once again. He couldn't imagine how his father felt without her here.