September 11th - Hogwarts
Three out of the four marauders, Ellie, Tony, alongside Marlene, Lily, and Alice were in the marauder's dorm, thinking about Nephera's situation.
"Wait, you mean to tell me, that Voldemort had some sort of plan for Winchester?" asked Alice, who was absent during the group's trip to Ellie's home in Herne Bay that summer, and so had not been brought up to date
Tony run a hand through his hair, "Yes, during Easter last year, he specifically told his Death Eaters not to kill her,"
"At first, Nephie thought he must've been planning to put her under the imperius curse, so she started having meetings with Dumbledore, learning how to fight it," finished Remus for his boyfriend
Lily sighed and leaned back on the bed, "And you told us she managed to do it?"
James nodded from the spot where he was pacing, "She did, she knew how to resist it expertly,"
"So you don't think it's the curse?" asked Marlene again, "Because so far, that's the only explanation,"
"it could be," huffed Peter, "but- oh Merlin I don't know, Nephera's the one that typically figures these things out,"
Alice stood up, and walked towards one of the desks, pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill, "Alright, so think about it the way she would," she suggested, "And where the hell is Sirius?"
"Whenever we look for him, he's with some girl, we can't exactly interrupt," huffed James, "Something happened in that Ball, I'm sure of it,"
Ellie, who had grown very frustrated by that point, stood up from her spot next to Peter, "Fuck this, where is he?" she spat,
Remus, who was the one with the map, paused for a second, but then thought it best not to aggravate the very angry girl more, so he looked for Sirius's name, "He's on the third floor, with some girl,"
Ellie said nothing else, but grabbed the map and stalked out of the room, muttering something about, "That bitch impregnating half the Hogwarts population while there's something wrong with his friend,"
Everyone else was shocked seeing the normally cheerful Hufflepuff behave that way, but then again, the situation was hardly normal.
"Alright," said Marlene, drawing out the word, "As much as I want to see Ellie shit on Sirius, I think we need to focus,"
"Yeah, she's right," agreed Tony, "So what would Nephera do?"
"She'd start by observing, right? Behaviors, facial expressions, etc?" suggested Remus,
Alice dipped the quill in ink, "Alright, that's a start," she said, writing something on the paper, "So, anything odd lately?"
"Well, obviously when she almost called Ellie a you-know-what," muttered Peter
Tony sat up, "Yes, but she caught herself, she stopped mid-word," he pointed out
"Like she regretted it or something?" asked Lily
The werewolf shook his head, "No, almost like she wanted to say it, but it slipped out accidentally,"
Alice nodded and continued writing as the others talked.
"Oh, and then there was the part where she didn't remember me being made Head Boy," added James
Remus spoke up, "Yes, but then she told us that it was only because she was tired,"
"And since when does Nephera forget anything?"
"Peter's got a point," said Marlene, "Write it down Alice,"
The pixie-haired witch nodded and continued writing ferociously.
Down on the third floor, Ellie was practically burning her way through the corridors, her eyes on the map as she tracked down Sirius.
Finally, she found him in one of the abandoned classrooms, with some brunette pinned on the wall.
Walking inside, she tore him off of the girl's lips violently, fixing him with a glare.
"We need to talk," she stated
"As much as I'd love to do that, Puff, I'm quite busy," he said, leaning back in, only to have Ellie pull him back
"No, you're not," she said, and then turned to the girl, "Leave,"
"Excuse me? Who do you think you are?" shrieked the girl
"Someone who's patience is running thin at the moment," grunted the Hufflepuff, grabbing Sirius by the hair out of the room
"Hey-" started the girl again, by Ellie interrupted her
"You can suck him off later, I promise to leave his dick intact," and then, lower so only the raven-haired boy could hear, she added, "The rest of him, I'm not so sure,"
All the way up in Gryffindor tower, the others had finished the list of curious occurrences which, now that they had written everything down, was quite extensive, and they wondered how it had taken them eleven whole days to realize what was wrong.
They were all staring at the list, when Ellie burst back in, dragging a complaining Sirius behind her, by his hair.
"Sit, stay," she ordered, pointing to one of the chairs
"I'm not a dog," retaliated the boy
"Did I say you could speak?" she asked again, and the anger in her voice made the pureblood shut his mouth instantly
She huffed out a breath, and sat back down next to Peter, motioning for someone else to explain. She zoned out while Lily took point in the discussion, looking through the list the others had written.
Guilt was a very hard sentiment to overcome. Ellie had met Nephera on the very first train ride, seven years ago, and it had taken her almost two weeks to see anything wrong. It had taken her eleven fucking days to realize that her best friend wasn't herself.
But the guilt the Hufflepuff was feeling, was nothing compared to the guilt of the raven-haired boy after Lily had finished talking.
Something was wrong with Nephera, and he had been too much of a selfish idiot to see it. He had, once again, put himself above everyone else and in his pathetic heartbreak had chosen to shag everything with two legs, other than focus on the girl that truly owned his heart and see what was wrong with her.
The guilt he was feeling though, only intensified when he detected a sliver of relief in his heart. Because, if Nephera truly was being controlled by someone else, that meant that it wasn't her ignoring the almost-kiss of the Ball. That meant he still had a chance.
How much of a horrible person could he be, he thought, that he was happy something was wrong with Nephera, because it meant she didn't regret what almost happened.
"Pads?" asked James gently, "You haven't said anything in five minutes,"
Sirius snapped his head up, his eyes locking with those of his brother, "I'm a horrible person," he breathed, "I- we- at the ball, we almost kissed-"
"What!" yelled Marlene, "Right, sorry, not the moment,"
"And then at the train the next day..." he trailed off, knowing that the rest could connect the dots themselves
The rest all looked at each other, finally having an explanation for Sirius's weird behavior over the past week.
Tony, however, wasn't focusing on that. He was thinking of what Nephera would do next, and that is, to find a motive and look between the lines.
"It can't be the imperius curse," he muttered, effectively stopping the pity-party concerning Sirius, "It can't be the imperius curse because it doesn't make sense."
"What do you mean?" asked Lily
The Ravenclaw stood up and started pacing, "Think about it, why would Voldemort put her under the curse?"
"To make her join his side," replied Sirius
"Yes, but if he'd done that, then wouldn't it be more obvious, why would he try to conceal it and have her still try to act somewhat normal?" asked Ellie, and Tony nodded in agreement, "I mean, it's not like she's walking around with a Dark Mark,"
Remus too walked up at looked at the list, "Her meetings with Dumbledore, maybe it has something to do with that?"
"Why would Dumbledore have anything to do with this?" asked Alice
"Everyone knows you-know-who is scared of him," explained James, "But if he was trying to get information for Dumbledore, then that doesn't explain the memory loss," he thought out loud, pointing to the list, where Alice had written about Nephera forgetting him becoming head boy
"Not to mention he'd have her act like normal," added Peter, "To lay off suspicion,"
The marauders, Ellie, and Tony heard a small laugh, and they turned around to see Alice, Lily and Marlene looking at them endearingly.
When Sirius shot them a questioning look, not understanding what in that situation warranted a laugh, Alice decided to explain, "Nothing, it's just... she's had an influence on you lot. The way you think, you analyze things,"
"Exactly," added Marlene, "I mean, I would've thought your first course of action would be to start throwing punches at Lestrange,"
The second those words left her lips, she knew she had made a mistake, before the four Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw looked at each other, before rushing out of the room.
A few thousand miles away from Hogwarts, Nephera was stepping out of the shower, cringing as she could feel her back still bleeding. Of course, she supposed, she shouldn't really complain, given the fact that as far as she knew, most hostages didn't even get the luxury of a bloody shower.
Getting dressed in the same shirt and shorts she had been given when she arrived there, she lay flat on the bed, her back facing the ceiling so as to not aggravate the open wounds, she looked out the window and into the night sky.
She was starting to grow tired. The manacles were weighing her down, almost draining her life out of her at the very pace the blood was seeping out of her back.
Apparently, after Bellatrix realized that the curciatus curse didn't affect the girl as much, she had found great pleasure in using muggle torture methods.
A bloody whip, for example.
The Slytherin found comfort in a particular bright star that could be seen from her window, as she did every night. The star Sirius kept shining every night, and never seized doing so. She remembered the myth behind the star and the constellation, how peaceful and safe she had felt that night.
The nights were the only time when she'd let herself feel anything, when she'd let the gravity of the situation sink into her.
Nephera Winchester was scared, terrified, actually, and all she could do was wish for a certain raven-haired Gryffindor to wrap his arms around her and pull her to his chest, telling her that it would all be alright in the end.
She thought about her friends, and about whether or not they'd realized something was wrong. They probably had, she wasn't an easy person to imitate, but then, what would happen?
They'd kill her. That's what was going to happen. The second they didn't need her anymore, they'd kill her. She was locked in a room, with manacles silencing her magic, she had no way of defending herself.
As much as she hated to admit it, the thought of death being near was less shocking than it should be. She knew that anything would be better than what she was currently experiencing.
She couldn't sleep, for the second she closed her eyes she'd see the faces of all the people she had watched get tortured, or killed.
Her body hurt everytime she moved, and there were a number of wounds all over her, all of them untreated and unhealed.
The door opening pulled her out of her thinking, and she tensed as fear flooded through her like ice when Belleatrix walked in.
"Aw, is itty bitty Winchester scared?" she teased
"What is it?" asked Nephera, "This isn't according to your usual schedule,"
The witch said nothing as she walked up to her, taking out a pair of scissors and cutting some of her hair, "Oh come on, at least make it even on both sides," whined the brunette, hiding her fear through sarcasm, like always
"Put these on," she ordered, giving her a pair of jeans and a black shirt
"Aw, are you letting me go?" mocked Nephera again, although she was deeply confused about the situation
"The Dark Lord requested you, put the shoes on as well,"
The Death Eater said nothing else before she walked out of the room. Still confused and afraid, Nephera knew that she had no choice but to do as she was told. She noticed that Bellatrix hadn't charmed the door shut behind her, so she took that as her cue to follow her outside.
When she did, Nephera was greeted by the sight of Tom Riddle, waiting patiently out of her room.
"Care to explain what this is?" she asked, her tone sharp
"Yes, of course," replied Riddle, "See, yesterday, under veritaserum, you revealed to me that Dubledore was hiding something from his past. I thought long and hard for where to begin, until I realized that the answer is right in front of me. Grindenwalds's library, of course."
The Slytherin's satisfaction with her plan working was instantly replaced by surprise. Grindelwald's library was legendary and filled with old manuscripts and spells. Unfortunately, people thought that the secret of its location died alongside Grindelwald himself, but apparently, Tom had managed to find it.
So, not only had her initial plan of using Voldemort to figure out Dumbledore's past had worked, but it would also lead her to find the location of the mythical library.
Damn, she was good.
"So, what? We're going on a field trip or something?"
"Precisely," he replied, raising his wand
Despite her best efforts, Nephera flinched and jumped back at the sight of the wand. These days, whenever she saw one, it typically meant the start of long hours of torture.
Voldemort smirked at that, "I am merely going to close up your wounds. I can't have you bleeding all over the place,"
The girl scowled in response, but welcomed the cooling sensation that overtook her back, "Something tells me you're not going to be so kind so as to take these off," she snarked, gesturing to the manacles
"Of course not, I'm not an idiot," he sighed, grabbing her forearm
Within seconds, her feet roughly collided with the ground, and she found herself staring at a cave.
"This," she spat, "This is where Grindelwald hid his library?"
The wizard sighed, "Yes, unfortunately," he cringed, seeing all the spiders come out
Nephera shook her head and walked forward to enter first. At first glance, it looked like a regular cave: just rock, mud, and bugs. But looking closer at the back wall, she saw engravings on it, of ancient runes.
The Slytherin felt eyes on her back and turned her head slightly to see Tom watching her apprehensively, "I know I'm hot, Riddle, but you're like, forty so this is getting creepy,"
"I just want to see how you work, Mrs. Winchester. It's really interesting," he mused, but walked forward and waved his wand, the door snapping open
In reality, Tom didn't just bring Nephera there because she was smart, and could help him figure out Dumbledore's past easier, but also because, he knew her. If he gave her one little taste of the power and knowledge she could have if she joined him, she'd do so instantly. She just needed a little push.
What he didn't know, however, was that Nephera had relied on that fact when she told him that Dumbledore was hiding something.
Tom: one, Nephera: six, and he had no idea she'd been playing him the entire time
The library really was as grand as legends describe it. Three stories high, filled with books and stray papers, containing all the knowledge on Dark Magic anyone could ever wish for. It was dark, lit by candles that had probably been charmed to never go out, and the smell of old parchment was overwhelming.
"Where do we start?" she asked, trying to ignore the fact that that she was currently working with Voldemort on something
The older wizard walked forward, and she followed, "Anything that resembles a journal-"
"You think Grindenwald wrote his feelings down on a little journal?" she mocked
"No," huffed, "But it's still a start,"
They searched for a long time, Nephera straying off to a desk in the corner of the library, trying to keep as far as possible from Voldemort.
She was playing a dangerous game, she knew that. If he found out that she'd essentially tricked him into bringing her here, he'd kill her on the spot. Polyjuice Potion be damned.
However, she was in it now, and she couldn't stop. Especially since, technically, she didn't know exactly where the library was. Only that it was in a cave.
"I'll admit, this is impressive," she mused, baiting him, "How did you find it anyways?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Call it curiosity," she answered
Nephera knew that he wanted to get her to join his side, and he'd do anything if she showed even the tiniest bit of interest, even revealing the location.
"Caught one his acolytes while I was at the Rosier's manor in Fr-" he caught himself before he said it, but it was enough
A cave, in a rocky mountain, near the Rosier's mansion in France. Interesting.
"I'll admit, as much as I want to see you dead, you're a smart person, Riddle,"
"Likewise, Winchester," he replied
They searched for a very long time but unfortunately came up with nothing. Well, Tom came up with nothing, Nephera now had the location of the biggest source on the Dark Arts available.
A/N
3k words
I'm not really happy with how this chapter ended up, but I've rewritten it three times so here *hands you plate of shit*
don't forget to comment and vote!
xx