Vulnerability || George Weasley

The Realisation

Moody looked aghast.

"What was that?" He barked.

"Do you know anything about how or why my mother died?" She repeated, her mouth felt dry and her stomach tightened uncomfortably. She had been itching to ask Professor Moody this question since she had found her father's letter, if there was anybody who may know what had happened to her mother and maybe even herself; it was Professor Moody who had the answer.

Moody's real eye narrowed, "Your mother was Jane Lancaster wasn't she?"

"Yes she was," Phoenix nodded quickly. "I don't remember her at all b-but I found out that you were involved in the case of my mother's death."

"How did you find out?" Moody's voice was suddenly stern, tense.

Phoenix jumped in surprise and stared at her Professor, bemused. "My step-cousin found some of my father's papers... it said something about having my memory modified to forget about what happened... but I was wondering what you knew because... I need to know what happened to her."

"She was murdered," Moody said shortly. "By Death Eaters,"

She had not expected for the answer to come so quickly. She had no time to prepare herself. It hit her like a ton of bricks. Phoenix's hair turned pale, her eyes became a dull sliver and her hands shook.

"The Avada Kedavra Curse leaves no marks," said Moody his eyes were both not looking at her though he was avoiding her reaction, "The Healers at St. Mungo's knew what it was immediately."

"D-Did you find out who did it?" Phoenix's voice shook ever so slightly.

"It's hard to say," Moody began, scratching the side of his scarred cheek. "The day that your mother was murdered there were a large group of the Dark Lord's followers there, it could have been any of them."

"But what about Priori Incantatem? Couldn't someone have checked their wands for the last spell that they all performed?"

"They did check," said Moody gruffly. "The last spell that they had all performed seemed to have been while fighting off the Aurors that came eventually."

"Oh... do you know anything else about what happened that day? Anything?" asked Phoenix, her throat now rather dry. "Or what happened afterwards?"

"Well..." Moody's voice became lower as his new class began to file in. "From what I recall, your father wasn't in the best state of mind. After what happened to you that day–"

"Wait... what happened to me?"

"Don't you remember?" Moody asked, his magical eye once again spinning around so that Phoenix felt lightheaded from staring at it. "I thought when we did curses all those months back you remembered, especially when you ran off."

Phoenix bit her tongue, reframing from bursting out in fits of anger about her father. "N-no I don't remember... though I think something trigged inside my head when I saw the flash... But what happened to me? Was I injured or something?"

"Of course," Moody said gruffly. "Not greatly however, you were shaken, yes. The Cruciatus Curse does that to someone."

"The Cruciatus Curse?"

She felt as if her heart had descended into the region of her lower abdomen. She hadn't been hit with the Cruciatus Curse, had she?

"But I was three years olds at the time... the pain of it would have surely killed me?"

"But it didn't," Moody answered. "You got away from all those Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange, the Wizengamot had reason to believe that she was the one who had used the Cruciatus Curse, given her history."