𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Chapter 8

Transformation: Chapter Eight

A rush of color. Wind stinging his face. Flying forward, forward . . .

Harry landed with a loud crash, his knees buckling as he pitched forward on a cold stone floor. His thoughts were racing. Draco had sent him somewhere, and it couldn't be good. He was stranded in the dark, the frigid stone a cold shock against his knees.

Which was when Harry heard the laughter. He looked up, heart seizing.

"Well, if it isn't Harry Potter coming a-calling," Bellatrix Lestrange drawled, a smile like the Cheshire cat spreading on her face. She was sitting in a low armchair, legs crossed, holding her wand idly. "Stand up like a proper guest, Potter. Unless you'd prefer to grovel as you are."

Harry leapt to his feet, his wand already in his hand. Could he be in Wales? Was anyone else around? His scar was not bursting with pain, which meant Voldemort couldn't be near . . .

"I'd have brought you to the Black mansion," Bellatrix said sweetly, "but you've been there already, and it's rather infested at the moment. Some bothersome werewolf has set up residence and it'd be such trouble to waste time killing him."

"Remus," Harry choked out. "Don't you dare–"

"A pity your godfather never showed you a proper Black welcome," Bellatrix smiled. "Though it's too late now. And I'd have welcomed you at the Lestrange home, but it seems to have been confiscated by the Ministry. My sister's humble manor will have to do."

Her sister. Harry whirled, but Narcissa Malfoy was nowhere in sight. He did, however, catch a glimpse of the door.

"Do for what?" he demanded, stalling.

"For your death, of course," Bellatrix said, leaning forward and giving him a long, appraising look. "Don't think we've forgotten your little adventures last June."

"Why Malfoy Manor?" Harry rasped, as Bellatrix unwound herself sinuously and stood up. "Why couldn't you do it at Hogwarts?"

"I'm afraid the old fool Dumbledore has quite the security system," Bellatrix snarled. "And besides, Harry. I believe you and I have some unfinished business to tend to. I couldn't very well let someone else steal you away from me, now could I?"

"Unfinished business?" Harry hissed. "Like the fact that you killed Sirius?"

"Like the fact that I'm about to kill you," Bellatrix corrected him, an ugly smile on her face. "And then I'm going to kill your pretty little friends. The little redheaded girl first, I think . . . I'll have her squealing by the time I'm through with her . . ."

"Stupefy!" Harry roared, but she dodged the curse and it hit the wall, shattering flecks of stone into the room with a loud ringing sound. Bellatrix laughed raucously.

"Baby Potter wants to play," she mocked, carefully stepping over a chunk of stone before raising her wand to chest height. "Think you can get the best of me, wittle baby Potter? I'll show you what Crucio really feels like–"

But Harry narrowly dodged the curse and shouted, "Impedimenta," sending Bellatrix flying backwards into the chair she had been sitting in. Before she could recover, he started to cast a Silencing Spell, but she was quicker than he realized. Bounding to her feet, she threw another Cruciatus Curse at him, which knocked him to his knees. Even with the pain of it shattering through him, he could hear her maniacal laughter.

"Feel that, Potter?" she screeched. "You can watch your little friends take that much pain twenty times over! I'll torture them until they'll scream! Oh no, Potter, no easy death for you – you'll watch them die, you'll hear their screams for days and days–"