ROMEO [2] ⚡ harry potter

20

FUMÉE
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Charlotte Cardleman awoke to the contrasting noise of screams and laughter outside of her window, footsteps and panicked voices in the room below her and the smell of smoke in the air. The sheer white curtains that concealed her bedroom windows were tinted sunrise orange as she stood.

But the clock read nine thirty. And sunrise came a lot earlier than that at the current time of year. Clumsily, Charlotte sat up from her bed, putting on her slippers and hurrying to the window, throwing open the fabric and peeking throught the blinds.

The orange glow came not from the sunrise, but from a large oak tree that rested across the street from her house the entirety of her life and her father's, and the tree was in flames. Not far from it stood a large group of men and women in all black, warring Wizarding cloaks and masks, huddled into a circle where they all jeered at something on the ground.

Another scream sounded and when Charlotte recognised the voice yet another was ripped out of somebody's lungs- her own.

She darted towards her bedroom door, faster than she'd ever moved in her life and wrenched it open, only to run straight into her father's chest as he called her name. Richard grabbed hold of her shoulders, speaking in a panicked voice: "Who's here? Who's hurting you?"

"Nobody is hurting me, Dad, they're hurting Flynn!" Charlotte shouted, noticing Sirius Black behind her father. She half expected Harry to bound up the stairs afterwards, kiss her quickly and announce that he was off to save Flynn O'Riley but her boyfriend was in Scotland for school so he never came.

"Charlotte, you ought to stay put, the rest of the Order are on their way," said Black calmly from the hallway, as the two men entered the room.

"What are they doing to him?" she asked, heart beating rapidly in her chest as the screaming continued.

"You don't need to know that, Charlie," Richard told her and she opened her mouth to yell at him but Black spoke first.

"The Cruciatus Curse- wizarding torture," he said and her father shot him a look, before glancing back at Charlotte, whose stomach had dropped.

"Why are they doing it?" she asked, voice wobbly, as tears welled up in her eyes.

"You don't need to know that either, lovely," her dad said calmly and gently. "Just know the Order will sort this."

"Richard," Black said softly. "I really think you ought to explain."

"I really think you oughtn't tell me how to parent my child, thanks Sirius," Richard snapped, and Charlotte placed a hand on his arm, giving him a long look. Eventually, he sighed, and looked back at the wizard whom he'd offended, giving a slight nod.

"They want you," said Sirius finally, and Charlotte started.

"Then, I'll very well give them me," she said, attempting to march forwards but her father stopped her.

"They want to take you," Sirius said. "Far away. Your friend is being used as leverage."

Charlotte wanted to shout at them both for their hesitation to accept the Death Eaters' terms, for letting her best friend suffer so much pain, right outside her doorstep but she swallowed her words. She took a moment to put herself in her father's shoes, who wanted only to protect her, and Sirius' point of view, which was clearly to go about saving Flynn with might rather than with sacrifice.