☽☽☽
DACRE WAS GRINNING AT ATHENA, a sickening smirk for a sickening figure. He was taller and definitely stronger than the girl, she held her wand tight in her hand and pretended not to notice that his sat slack in his hand. He wasn't here for a fight and despite wishing it for a while, Athena wasn't sure she wanted the alternative, not now.
"I'm not your daughter" Athena replied calmly, "you'll never be my dad, I don't care what blood says"
"You can act like that all you want" Dacre laughed, "but you're still mine"
"I'm not yours" she scoffed, "I don't belong to you"
"You're my little girl" he broke suddenly, "you were my little girl Rena and she stole you! How can you justify that?"
"She saved me!" Athena snapped, "don't pretend that I'd have a better life with you, you only cared about me when you found out who the prophecy was really about"
"I changed!" Dacre yelled, "my wife and daughter were murdered, I realised that the prophecy didn't mean shit! I wanted you back!"
"You joined Voldemort after he killed Vega and Vivian"
"Don't say their names" he spat, "don't you see? Don't you see, I've been protecting you!"
"Bullshit" Athena cried, "my mother saved me and you blamed her for killing... she would never! You're insane, they threw you in St Mungo's for a reason"
"You would go insane too if you lost everything" Dacre continued, "I lost everything I had in a second"
"You're crazy!"
"I know" he laughed and Athena could see the insanity sparking in his eyes, "I'm crazy for good reason Rena"
"Is this where you come in and try to convince me to not want to rip your eyes out because it's not going to work"
Dacre paused, he stared at Athena for a moment before he lowered his wand completely, placing it onto the bustled coffee table. Suddenly Athena could see the man behind the insanity, who he had once been before the war. She remembered how her aunt had described him. Charming, funny, a lot like Rena.
"Is that what you want me to do?"
"No" she shook her head, "I don't trust you, I don't trust anything you say, you lied to me too! Why would you do that?"
"I told you" he sighed, "I was protecting you"
"You tortured me" Athena pointed out, "you watched me scream and you laughed, you laughed! Your curse hurt the most, do you know what that means? It means you meant it, nothing you say can convince me of anything, you're not a dad, you're a psychopath"
Madness entered his eyes again, sparks popped in his brain as he raised his eyebrow at her. Slowly he lowered himself into the sofa while Athena still stood with her wand pointed at him. He didn't seem to care, he seemed to think that she had no intention of cursing him, and to be fair he was right.
Athena was intrigued, she wanted to know what he thought. She'd had questions boiling in her brain and she needed answers, she'd gone long enough being kept in the dark. For some reason she didn't think Dacre would lie to her, she knew he was delusional in many ways but this wouldn't change the facts.
"You want answers" he smiled calmly, it wasn't a comforting smile, it placed her more on edge than she had been before, "I can give you them"
"How do I know you aren't just going to lie to me?"
"Everyone lies to you Rena" he muttered, "surely you can tell the difference between reality and lies by now"
Athena paused, it was evident that she wasn't good at detecting the truth. She'd walked into most of the lies that she'd been told in the past. She'd believed them without question because she'd had no reason to believe them to be fake. Now she did have reason to question, maybe now she'd be able to tell what was real.
"Voldemort killed your wife and my sister" Athena began, "you know that, surely you know that?"
"Yes I know that" Dacre nodded. Athena hadn't expected this. How come he seemed so calm? So normal?
"You blamed my mother"
"I hate your mother" Dacre snapped, "well your aunt"
"Enough to blame her for murder?"
"It's not as though anyone believed me, I'm a psycho remember? Anyway yes enough to blame her, she stole you, she stole you from me"
"She saved me from a life of pain, you would have used me for the glory, you only cared about the prophecy, I saw it in the pensive, the power went to your head. That's why you only cared about Vivian and not me"
"True" Dacre nodded, "at the time I only cared about the prophecy as a lot of people would have done. Winning the war for the order was something I wouldn't be able to comprehend, sue me for wanting a bit of glory"
"That proves my point"
"No it doesn't" Dacre muttered, "I told you, I changed after he killed them. I not only realised that the prophecy was about you but I realised the price I'd have to pay. I wasn't willing to lose another daughter"
Athena wanted to scream at him again. She wanted to remind him how much he hurt her, she wanted to remind him of her yells of pain, she wanted to remind him how he'd kill Honey, she wanted to remind him how he was insane. Though she supposed he already knew.
"Voldemort took everything from you" Athena continued, "but you joined him"
"After I got out of St Mungo's I joined him, that place made me crazier if possible but it also made me realise what I care about. You and Archer"
"Finally remembered Archer have you?"
"Don't patronise me" Dacre scoffed, "I joined Voldemort boo hoo, I had to make sure you were ok"
Athena began to clap dramatically, the sound filled the room, "well you did an amazing job"
"I know I did"
"You are seriously cracked" Athena laughed, "how the hell have you protected me?"
"I had to make sure that Voldemort didn't find out that you were my daughter, I saw how that went last time"
"That happened last time because he didn't understand the prophecy"
"I wasn't going to risk it"
"You told Voldemort that the prophecy was about me, you sent Archer after me, you tortured me, if Voldemort hadn't have known the prophecy was about me then I'd be safer?"
"False, false, mildly true and true" Dacre frowned, "I never told Voldemort it was about you, I told him that it had been Vivian but the dark Lord isn't an idiot Rena, quite the opposite"
"They told me—"
"They presumed that I'd told them" Dacre pressed on, "if you're talking about Dumbledore and my darling sisters"
"Archer—"
"Found you on his own accord, I didn't send him anywhere"
"You tortured me!" Athena snapped suddenly feeling as though she wasn't aware of anything anymore, "you can't deny that"
"Answer me this Rena—"
"I'm the one asking the questions!"
"You were under the cruciartus curse nearly everyday for a month, by the end of that you should have completely lost your mind without question, so why didn't you?"
"Self preservation" Athena jumped in, "I'm immortal until I see into the future... you can't kill me–"
"Kill you, not drive you crazy. Loopholes Rena"
"It wouldn't work" Athena placed her hand to her head, "Dumbledore said-"
"Dumbledore said" the man mocked, "Dumbledore said because that was the only possible answer because he doesn't understand"
"Understand?"
"That I was protecting you, that's why I offered to be the one cursing you so much"
"Wow thanks a lot" Athena snapped, "yours hurt more than anyone else's! And you laughed"
"I have a reputation to uphold" Dacre sighed, "it hurt more because it wasn't the cruciartus curse"
"It was" Athena frowned,
"It was a form of the curse" he barked, "works with memory, you feel the pain you've already felt"
"How does that help me?"
"Memories don't mess with your mind, your brain understands why you're feeling this pain" Dacre explained, "the cruciartus curse is only effective because it messes with your mind, take that away and it's all pain no consequences"
"You could have just got me out of there"
"I care about you Rena but I care about me and Archer too" Dacre scoffed, "I'm not pretending to be a hero, it was unfortunate that you ended up there I did the best that I could"
"You fucking stabbed me"
"You said it yourself, you're immortal Rena"
"You didn't know that!" Athena cried, "Voldemort doesn't know that!"
"Voldemort doesn't know that but I do" Dacre laughed, "it was me who made the bloody prophecy in the first place"
"Are you a death eater or not?"
"Yeah" he nodded, "yeah I think I am"
Athena frowned as she stared at Dacre, his expression cracked again and he doubled up in fits of laughter.
"This isn't funny"
"I don't know what I am" Dacre wheezed, "and frankly I don't care! I did my best to keep you out of trouble, sure I did a crap job but I tried and at the end of the day that's all I could do"
"You killed Honey! Your own sister! And you killed Benjy Fenwick!"
"I've killed a lot of people" he sighed, "I didn't want to kill Honey, they were going to torture her for information... I spared her the pain"
"You could have saved her"
"I made a choice" Dacre mused, "Honey or Archer, if I'd saved Honey, Voldemort would have killed Archer. So I chose my son"
"Benjy!"
"I don't care about that" Dacre laughed, "I'll kill whoever the fuck he wants as long as I'm ok and your ok and Archers ok, I don't care about anyone else"
"Who do you want to win?"
"You" Dacre whispered, "I've always wanted you to win, you're my daughter Rena"
"Then why are you on his side? You helped him, you tried to get the cup for him"
"I joined to help you, two years after you started that little fire of yours I got Archer back thank god... Voldemort had hold over him immediately. I have to keep this up Rena if I don't want my son to die, and frankly I don't"
Athena paused, tears flecked in her vision. She didn't know how to feel, was there a right way to feel about this? Was it wrong that she wanted to believe him? Was it wrong that she didn't hate him as much as she had done when he'd started talking?
"You're not a good person" Athena stated, trying to convince herself over anyone else.
"I don't pretend to be" Dacre smirked, "by all means, make me the villain Rena but don't lie to yourself. Everything I'm telling you is the truth"
"You laughed" her voice was shaking, her wand lowered. Athena couldn't even remember lowering it, "you laughed when you heard me scream"
Dacre winced slightly, staring into the fireplace,
"I'm sorry Rena" he admitted, "they expect me... they think I'm crazy Rena"
"You are crazy"
"Not that crazy" Dacre murmured, "not crazy enough to laugh at my daughters pain and mean it, they were always watching"
"You did it so easily"
"It wasn't easy!" He snapped, "that was by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do but I knew that I was helping you, I knew that I was saving you"
"You didn't tell me" Athena continued, "you lied to me too, you could have told me the truth when I was locked in Kennedy's basement"
"Would you have believed me?"
Athena pondered the question. Dacre was on a pedestal of being crazy. She remembered when she'd been trying to convince everyone that Mary was a death eater, everything she had said or done was just blamed on her new insanity. This was the same as Dacre, he was right. Athena would have ruled it down to him being crazy.
"See" Dacre laughed, "I didn't want Voldemort to know the truth and I certainly didn't want you to, not at the time"
"How did you know that I knew?" Athena asked, "how did you find out that I'd been told?"
"Phinneus Nigellus Black" Dacre replied, "he has a double portrait, one in Dumbledores office and one at Grimmauld place (the Black residence) he doesn't say much, I think Dumbledores charmed him but... well he told me that much, he talks to me you see"
"I can't imagine why" Athena scoffed, she wasn't even sure why she had said it.
"You've only ever been lied to Rena" Dacre continued, "you just accept that they'll always lie to you because you haven't known any better. They think they're doing what's best for you, by keeping this from you. They were never going to stop it! I would never have lied to you"
"I love my parents" Athena murmured, "I would never have had a good life with you"
"You'll never know because you were stolen from me" Dacre retorted, "stolen!"
"My mother looked after me when you turned away from me, when you didn't care for me"
"She manipulated me" Dacre snapped, "she made me believe the prophecy was about Vivian, she knew all along!"
"She didn't know!" Athena laughed, "she didn't want the prophecy to be about me, anyway this isn't about the fucking prophecy it's about the fact that you chose Vivian over me because you wanted glory"
"I was an idiot" Dacre shrugged, "you'll understand, power goes to your head, you'll understand... I know what you can do"
"I'm not like you, the power won't go to my head I'm better than that"
"You can deny it all you want Rena but you're exactly like me" Dacre smiled, "you're my own flesh and blood",
"What about Archer?"
"What about him?" Dacre frowned,
"Is he a death eater?"
"No" Dacre shook his head, "no of course he isn't"
"Then why did you find him in the first place, if you'd left him with us he would have been safe from this life",
"I've kept him safe"
"Surrounded by a bunch of blood supremacists who would kill him if you ever did anything wrong"
"I wanted my son back" Dacre muttered, "was it selfish? Yes, do I regret it? No I don't."
"You're insane and I don't trust you" Athena sighed loudly, her wand suddenly tighter in her hand once more. She was being stupid, Dacre was Dacre. She knew exactly what he was like.
"True and False" Dacre smirked, "yes I'm insane but you do trust me or at least, you believe me"
"I want to see Archer" Athena looked up, "I want to see my brother"
"Ok" Dacre nodded, "I can take you there now"
"How do I know you aren't going to take me straight to Voldemort?"
"Because you're smart" Dacre smiled.
Athena pondered the position that she was in. It seemed that she had been left with more questions than she started off with but she was aware that these couldn't be answered. She was questioning herself more than everything, questioning everything she'd ever known about the man claiming to be her father.
She took his hand and felt herself being pulled through a tight space. Athena should be scared, she shouldn't trust him. She still hated him, she didn't want to be his daughter, he'd killed Benjy with no remorse. Athena hadn't known Benjy but she couldn't trust someone who murdered so easily even if it was for a good reason. Athena didn't even have proof of his intentions, she only had his word. Was that enough?
They arrived in a living room. It was a lot smaller than the one they had been in before. However this was not a house like Kennedy's mansion of Grimmauld place, it was a home. She saw him instantly. Archer was sat on the sofa reading a book. He was reading The Great Gatsby.
He looked up and seemed surprised. Archer hadn't expected Athena to believe Dacre, Athena hadn't expected herself to believe him. The boy jumped up and stared at his sister.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you" Arched spoke first, "I know you probably don't believe dad"
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you" Athena murmured, "I'm sorry you've ended up in this life"
"I'm ok" Archer smiled,
"He's insane" Athena points at Dacre who just waved stupidly, "come with me, I can help you"
"He's our dad Rena"
"He's not my dad"
"He's done so much to protect me, to protect us"
"I can do better, surely you don't enjoy living around death eaters, he's killed with no remorse!"
"He did what he had to do" Arched shrugged, "I'm not coming with you Rena, we have to keep this up, we have to"
Athena moved forward, understanding that the siblings would never feel the same, understanding that they were too different to ever comprehend one another entirely.
She pulled him in for a hug, he was taller than her despite being years younger. Archer hugged her in return and her mind swam with the possibilities of what could have been. Her brother, her little brother.
"You could stay" Archer murmured,
"No I couldn't" Athena laughed, "I may have believed him but I still don't like him"
Archer nodded knowing that he would never be able to change her mind,
"I'm happy you even believed me" Dacre mused, "I didn't expect you to".
Athena stared at her brother and her father. Complications written on a page could never be undone. This is how it always would be. Archer was her family but Dacre never would be. He protected her but at what cost? She didn't want to be connected to him, she didn't want to feel responsible for what he had done to keep her safe. His bloody history could be considered as bad as Voldemort. He never pretended to be the hero, maybe that's why Athena always painted him to be the villain.
☽☽☽
A/n
Words - 3032
Published - 16th March 2021
You can still hate Dacre
or you can like him
I respect both opinions 🙂
Personally I kinda like
him I'm not gonna lie
he's still a dick tho