𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫 | n. tonks

xxxii

"It's been a month...Maybe two. Haven't seen the outside world in a week or few. I've got those jailhouse...blueeeeeeeeees."

"SHUT IT, YOU FILTHY BLOOD TRAITOR!"

Hadley sighed and leaned her head back against the wall of the cellar in Malfoy Manor. She pulled down her shirt to cover up her stomach, which she had been using as a makeshift drum for her own entertainment.

She knew she only had herself to blame for this. Remus told her not to leave the house too much, especially after her first encounter with Snatchers when she was in her animagus form. She'd gotten away that time because the animagus they had on record was a red golden retriever and not a red golden retriever with white streaks on her left front leg – a result of the scars Greyback left.

However, when she saw them a second time, they – unknowing to Hadley – alerted the Death Eaters. They started scoping out the area, put two and two together, kidnapped her, and brought her to Malfoy Manor for torture and questioning about where the Order of the Phoenix was hiding.

Hadley, being the defiant pain in the arse that she was, refused to give them any information and kept her mouth shut for the first time in her life. She drew blood from biting down so hard on the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming from the immense pain she was under from the Cruciatus Curse. She wasn't going to give Bellatrix Lestrange the pleasure of her crying.

"I should've listened," Hadley whispered. She hugged her knees and fell over onto her shoulder, sighing. She had no way of alerting the Order of where she was. She didn't have anything on her when the Death Eaters got her, which she guessed was a good thing since it would've been taken when they searched her. "I'm gonna die down here."

"If you don't shut up you will," Bellatrix's cold voice said. Hadley didn't even hear the cellar door open. She craned her neck a little so that she could look up at the older woman. She was holding her wand in one hand and her dagger in the other.

"Come to try to get information out of me again, Auntie Dearest?" Hadley asked.

"Just because you are engaged to that filthy half-blood does not make you my niece in any way," Bellatrix spat. Hadley smirked a little. She knew she was playing a dangerous game by making Bellatrix mad, but it was slightly amusing. "And unless you want another dose of the Cruciatus Curse, I suggest you wipe that smirk off your face. I've come to offer you a deal."

Hadley sat up, raising a brow. "A deal?"

"Not my idea of course. If it were up to me, you'd be in the afterlife with my dear cousin right now– DID I SAY YOU COULD GET UP?!" Bellatrix kicked Hadley roughly in the stomach when she tried to lunge at her for her mention of Sirius. "Now, as I was saying, if it were up to me, you'd be dead, but the Dark Lord said that we can't afford to lose any more purebloods–"

"You know he's a half-blood right?"

"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?!"

Hadley struggled to fight back an amused smirk. It was so fun – and easy – to get under Bellatrix's skin.

"If you'll just shut up–"

"So, are you gonna let me go, or what?"

"Why? So you can go running to your little Order? I'm not an idiot."

A slow, devious grin spread across Hadley's face. "You were idiot enough to leave the door open...idiot."

The two witches stared at each other for a moment. Bellatrix's eye twitched. Hadley pushed herself up and bolted to the door.

"Not so fast! Petrificus Totalus!" Bellatrix fired the spell at Hadley, whose body froze. She fell backwards, landing with a thud. "You just don't know when to quit, do you, Weasley?"

Hadley tried to reply with a snarky comment, but she couldn't get her mouth to move.

"I was gonna let you off the hook, offer you a place in our ranks at the Dark Lord's request, but I think you need to be taught a lesson about running that mouth of yours."

Hadley took a breath when the spell on her broke. "Oh, yeah?" She stood up, brushing herself off. "Joke's on you. I'd never join the Death Eaters! Dumbledore's Army!"

"Then I won't have to feel bad about doing this." Bellatrix raised her wand, and before Hadley could speak, she'd already fired the curse, "Crucio!"