THERE WERE TWO PEOPLE MISSING FROM the table, and one new centrepiece. The meeting was due to begin in less than a minute, and Corban Yaxley and Snape were late.
Though, Celestia's attention was not on the wrath that Voldemort might unleash if the two men are behind schedule. No, instead the focus of her attention was on the brand new decoration to the dining room.
Revolving slowly, as if suspended by an invisible rope, above them was an unconscious woman. She hung upside down, her body reflecting in the bare, polished surface of the table below.
Besides the fact there was a comatose body hanging over her head, it was that she knew who the human figure belonged to. Professor Burbage was the teacher of Muggle Studies at Hogwarts, beloved by all her students.
Celestia had her only once during her third year, and even though she would never admit it aloud, she had found it fascinating to learn how Muggles lived without magic. How they adapted; things they discovered; wars they waged.
It was almost like reading a book, getting to learn an entirely new world, except it was real. Be that as it may, if she ever said the muggle world interested her the tiniest bit, Voldemort would kill her without a second thought.
With twenty seconds left until the meeting begins, the door is pulled open and two men entered the room. Their gazes observed the room, from their golden silhouetted leader, to the unconscious figure, and the obedient followers.
"Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late."
It was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette with him sitting before the fireplace. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical.
"Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right."Yaxley, beside Dolohov."
The two men took their assigned places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.
"So?"
"My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."
The interest around the table sharpened at once: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort. Celestia had brightened up. There hadn't been news on Harry since they'd left Hogwarts.
"Saturday... at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. "Good. Very good. And this information comes—"
"—from the source we discussed," said Snape.
"My Lord." Corban Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to him. "My Lord, I have heard differently."
Corban waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen."
"My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible."
"I assure you, My Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Corban.
"If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape. "I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry."
"The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed along the table.
Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body twirling slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.
"My Lord," Corban went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy—"
Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Corban silenced himself at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape. "Where are they going to hide the boy next?"
"At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, My Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."
"Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. "Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"
Once again, all heads turned. Corban squared his shoulders. "My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have — with difficulty, and after great effort — succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."
Slumping in her chair slightly, Celestia found herself getting bored with the conversation now that it was moving away from Harry.
Politics, she understood, were important in war. In her opinion, though, they were boring; it was more Blaise and Pansy's strong suit. The reminder of her two friends that she hadn't seen in a month hit her in a wave of melancholic longing.
Sitting opposite her, Theo hit her foot under the table with his, dragging her attention to him. She sent him a small, discreet smile which he returned. They both returned their attention back to the discussion before they got caught not listening.
"Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."
"That is true, My Lord, but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."
"As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."
Again, Celestia's interest piqued now that they seemed to be returning to the topic of Harry.
"We are at an advantage there, My Lord," said Corban, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. Celestia found it quite embarrassing. "We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."
"He will not do either," said Snape. "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place."
"All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far."
Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs."
The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively and anxiously. Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above him.
"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be."
At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked downward, startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.
Celestia jerked her feet up from the floor, her knees nearly hitting against the table. One thought presided above all the others: What the fuck?
"Wormtail," said Voldemort, with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"
Since when had they begun holding prisoners? That had been the first time she had heard anything come from the dungeons below the Malfoy Manor. Theo nudged her foot again.
"Yes, m-my Lord," gasped Pettigrew. He scrambled from his seat and scurried from the room.
"As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter."
The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.
"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see... Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."
Two seats down from her, Lucius looked up. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse. "My Lord?"
"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."
Lucius glanced sideways at Narcissa. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long black and blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Lucius put his hand into his robes, withdrew his wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.
"What is it?"
"Elm, my Lord," whispered her uncle.
"And the core?"
"Dragon — dragon heartstring."
"Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his wand and compared the lengths. Lucius made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's wand in exchange for his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously. "Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?"
Some of the throng sniggered.
A huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders. Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still looking at Lucius Malfoy. "Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?"
"Of course, My Lord," said Lucius. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it—we do."
Narcissa made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort and the snake. Draco, who had been gazing up at the inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make eye contact.
Voldemort did not seem to acknowledge Celestia at all, as if he did not necessarily consider her a Malfoy. The murder of Dumbledore seemed to be working in her favour.
"My Lord," said Bellatrix, "it is an honour to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no higher pleasure."
Where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.
"No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you."
Her face flooded with colour; her eyes welled with tears of delight. "My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"
He slowly turned his head away from Bellatrix, his red eyes travelling down the expanse of the Malfoy family before it landed on Celestia. An almost primal urge overwhelms her, telling her to shy away in submission.
Instead, she met his gaze head-on, only dipping her chin down to show she meant no disrespect.
"Black, I would like for you to be there next Saturday. You proved yourself useful with the death of Dumbledore. You would kill again if the opportunity arose, would you not?"
For the sake of both of the reputations, she couldn't say no. "Of course, My Lord. It would be my honour."
"Nott," called Voldemort.
Raymond, Theo's father, noticeably perked up at the mention of his name. Theo didn't straighten his casual posture, but his eyes swung toward the Dark Lord, expecting him to be talking to his father.
Except Voldemort's red eyes were on him, not Raymond. He stiffened marginally, and it was Celestia's turn to nudge her foot against his. He captured her foot with his calves, not sparing her a look.
"Yes, My Lord?" Theo answered.
"Your father speaks highly of you. I expect that you'll be up to this task. You will joining along with us," said Voldemort. He then averted his attention to the spinning body of Professor Burbage.
Voldemort raised Lucius's wand, pointed it directly at her figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds.
"Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" he asked.
Snape, and his three students raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters looked up at the captive now too, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity.
The woman croaked in a terrified voice, "Severus! Help me!"
"Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.
"And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort. "Celestia? Theodore?"
The three of them shook their heads, a bit jerkily. They all remember that in third year that Celestia had to take Muggle Studies instead of Arithmancy because that class had been full. Though, none of them said that.
"For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
There were small noises of comprehension around the table.
"Yes, Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about Muggles... how they are not so different from us..."
One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Professor Burbage revolved to face Snape again. "Severus. Please, please."
"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Burbage fell silent as if gagged. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defence of mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance. She would have us all mate with Muggles."
Nobody laughed this time. There was no mistaking the anger and contempt in Voldemort's voice. For the third time, Burbage revolved to face Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back at her impassively as she turned slowly away from him again.
Burbage turned to face Celestia and her lips parted, like she was going to speak; to plea. Nonetheless, whatever spell Voldemort had put on her restricted her from doing so.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Burbage fell, with a tremendous crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked. Several of the Death Eaters leapt back in their chairs. Draco fell out of his onto the floor.
Outwardly, Celestia only pushed back her chair an inch. Internally, though, she had recoiled. Everything in her repelled at the now-dead body of Professor Burbage that lay mere centimetres away from her.
"Dinner, Nagini," said Voldemort softly, and the snake slithered from his shoulders onto the polished wood. "You're all dismissed."
Celestia clutched the seat of her chair as Nagini slid closer to the corpse. Nagini let out faint hisses, her tongue slicing between her sharp teeth. She watched in dull fascination as the snake opened its jaws wide and—
Theo clutched her shoulder, and her head snapped up at him. She gulped, and his grip on her shoulder tightened. To their right, there was the sound of bone snapping and she inwardly flinched. He clenched his jaw.
His hand quickly travelled from her shoulder down over her arm until he could intertwine their hands together. Their forearms flush together, he pulled her up from the chair moments before Nagini's jaw unclamped from Burbage and blood began to spray right where she had been sitting.
☆
"I don't want you to do this," said Draco.
She pulled on her dark cloak over her shoulders, clasping it over her collarbones. "I know."
"But you're going to do it anyway," he concluded.
"I'll be fine. Theo's going to be there with me, along with all the other higher-ranked Death Eaters. Don't be such a mother hen," she replied.
"Someone has to be," he muttered. "There's nothing I can say to you to convince you otherwise?"
Pulling her hair out from her clothes, she pulled it into a ponytail. Then, she slid her wand into a pocket and secured it.
"They're orders from the Dark Lord, Dray, even I didn't want to go, I couldn't disobey," explained Celestia.
She finally turned to face her cousin who was standing in the doorway. It was nearly a week after the meeting that they had learnt of new information on Harry, and it was finally time to execute their plans.
They'd had another meeting a couple days ago to discuss what exactly they were going to do with only the Death Eaters that would be there that Saturday. Tonight, they would be carrying out said plans.
"Well, I don't like it," he said.
"I don't think I remembered you saying anything during the meeting," she retorted. Immediately, she regretted the comment and softened. "I'm sorry. But seriously, I'll be fine, Draco."
Rubbing a hand over the right side of his face, a weary sigh escaped him. Finally, he nodded, as if coming to an agreement with himself.
"Just don't die, okay? I'm going to go to talk with Theo," he grunted.
She rolled her eyes, as if Theo needed a lecture on protecting her, but nodded all the same. Her cousin left her room, leaving her alone to prepare for the fight.
Anticipation and nerves buzzed through her bloodstream. Tonight could very well be the night that Harry Potter died — though she doubted it, with his uncanny ability to evade death.
In the past year since she had become a Death Eater, minus the battle at the Department of Mysteries, she had never fought alongside them. She wasn't even meant to have been at the Department of Mysteries, so tonight would be a whole new experience.
She had a feeling that if Theo hadn't been picked to fight with her that her anxiety will would have been tenfold to what she felt now. There was no one she would trust more to have her back in a battle.
Sometime later, Theo was knocking on the open doorway to announce his presence. She'd picked up a book to squash any of her residual nerves with distraction, but she instantly brightened up at the sight of her best friend entering her bedroom.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked.
Slipping a bookmark onto her page, she closed the book and placed it beside herself on the chaise.
"Yeah, you?" she replied.
He nodded. "Come on, darling, let's go. Wouldn't want to keep the mean, old men waiting, would we?"
Taking the hand he had outstretched, she pulled herself up and he dragged her out of her room. They made their way out of the bedroom quarters, making their way towards the foyer.
In the foyer was all of the Death Eaters that would be attending the fray. One of the older Death Eaters, Rabastan Lestrange, was handing out broomsticks to everyone.
Rabastan offered the two teenagers each a Firebolt, and they took them silently. Theo stood slightly behind her as they waited, the heat of his body a reassuring presence.
Everyone talked in quiet murmurs while they awaited the arrival of the Dark Lord. More Death Eaters that Celestia knew personally began arriving: Bellatrix stood near her brother-in-law, Corban and Hector stood near the bottom of the staircase, Snape standing by the door.
It wasn't long before Voldemort finally arrived, and all of his followers fell into silence. There, he reiterated the plan he had formed earlier in the week.
By his command, the Death Eaters began to file out into the front yard of the Malfoy Manor. Then, the thirty-five of them mounted their brooms, and pulled the hood of their cloaks over their heads.
Voldemort stood at the head of the mass, not needing a broom with his abnormal ability to fly. Directly after Voldemort's feet left the ground, one by one, his followers took flight after him.
As soon as they were airborne, they began their trip from Wiltshire to Little Whinging. Flying steadily, it would only take them around thirty minutes to get there. Nobody talked, the rush of wind in their ears making it impossible to hear anyone another if they tried.
Not once did Theo leave her side, flying as close as he did in Quidditch games when they were surrounded by opponents. His leg was flush against hers, accelerating and decelerating when she did.
Soon, they were approaching Privet Drive, the home in which Harry Potter had grown up in — and the one he would be leaving tonight. Everyone began to slow down, breaking off into smaller groups to move into position.
They did what they did best: camouflaging with the shadows. Some hid behind chimneys, or in the alley's between houses. Most, though, flew high above the neighbourhood and out of sight.
And they waited.
Time seemed to drag on forever, and yet before she knew it, the roar of a motorbike coming to life filled the quiet neighbourhood. Celestia straightened, her heart pounding widely.
Beside her, Theo's hand slipped into hers and squeezed before he let go so they could both brace their hands on the front of their broomsticks.
Moments later, there was a burst of people shooting out of number four Privet Drive. Some people were on brooms, others on Thestrals, and Hagrid was on a flying motorbike.
She watched as they rose higher and higher to where they awaited, completely oblivious. As they got closer, and the houses got smaller, she realised there was something about the group that was an anomaly. There were seven Harry Potter's.
Then, like a command had been bellowed across a battlefield, the Death Eaters surrounded the Order members as one, forming a vast circle to contain them.
The world was illuminated in green. People screamed, and everything descended into chaos. The ring encircling the Order broke, and they were two legions driving at each other on a battle ground mid-air.
After the original disarray of an ambush began to diffuse, Celestia was finally able to critically scrutinize everything. There was seven Harry's — from the use of Polyjuice potion she presumed — and it was clear no one knew who the real one was.
There was Harry's each with a Order member; one with Kingsley Shacklebolt; with Nypmhadora Tonks; with Remus Lupin; with Hagrid; with Alastor Moody; and one each with Arthur and Bill Weasley.
Deductive reasoning had her crossing out the two Weasley's. Arthur was not the most talented wizard, and if it came down to it, he wouldn't be able to protect Harry as well as the others might. Though possible that it were Bill, his girlfriend was missing; she could very well be the Harry he was escorting.
There was no way to tell, at least that she'd noticed yet, which one was the real Harry Potter.
In a split second decision, she was trailing after Mad-Eye and the Potter he was escorting. He was the most powerful wizard in the Order, it would make sense for him to have the real Harry. Even then, if it wasn't actually Harry, she had a score to settle with Moody.
There was no surprise to find Theo flying just as fast beside her, his eyes set on Mad-Eye Moody as well. They ducked simultaneously as a spell soared at them.
"Impedimenta!" Celestia called. Her voice was muffled by the wind, but it didn't matter, turquoise still shot out of the end of her wand directed at Moody.
Alastor dodged it last minute, throwing up a Shield Charm while concurrently flying higher. When he turned his head to see who was pursuing him, both his normal eye and his magical eye zeroed in on them.
That was confirmation enough that the Harry beside him wasn't the real one. If it were, she doubted he would ever take his eye off of him. Still, that didn't stop either of them from following after him.
For a couple moments, she thought that he hadn't retaliated. No light shot from his wand, and his mouth did not move.
But she realised just how wrong she was when she felt an agonizing, familiar pain that she had not felt in seven months.
She couldn't help the scream that slipped out of her lips. She couldn't help the way she lost her grip of the broom. And she couldn't help when she began falling, falling, falling through the air.
The pain of the Cruciatus Curse pierce every part of her, and it muddled her brain. She doesn't know how long she was falling for.
Theo's arm wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her front flush to his. Sometime in her fall Moody had taken the curse off her, but she could still feel the remnants of it; still remember the pain bright as day; and it brought her back to time she had been held captive and tortured by him.
She trembled against Theo, her chin on his shoulder, giving her the view of the battle continuing on behind them. Though she wasn't paying attention to the ongoings of who was living and who was dying.
Theo was able to see whatever was happening with Mad-Eye Moody and the fake Potter over her own shoulder. One arm was still holding her to his body, the other pulled around her body to grip the broom.
"Do you want me to kill or him, or do you want to?" he asked.
She didn't respond, still shaking heavily in his arms. He tightened his grip, moving his lips to her ear so that none of his words get drowned out by the wind.
"Celestia," he said, "baby, do you want me to kill him?"
Ever since she had been kidnapped by Remus and Alastor, and then tortured, for ten days, she had envisioned their deaths. What she would do them to inflict the same kind of pain they'd put on her on them. How for months they had given her nightmares, and fears she hadn't known existed.
Yet now, in the moment, she hadn't realised how much the sight of them would affect her. Much less, Moody using the Cruciatus Curse on her again. She didn't know how he could face, and murder him without her hand shaking and the Killing Curse going awry.
It made her feel small, weak. For months, she'd allowed herself to feel invincible again. But she didn't have a blade she'd become so accustomed to. She'd been forced to face her own morality again. She wasn't facing a Gryffindor bully.
Despite how much it pained her, how much she wanted to be the one to cause the death of Alastor Moody, she nodded against him. Realising he might not of felt it, she forced herself to speak.
"Yes," she croaked.
The way her voice sounded; the softness he wasn't accustomed too, the frailness of it when he knew she was anything but. It had him pulling her in closer, even in the face of knowing how dangerous it was to fly with them like that.
"Okay," Theo replied. "I need you to wrap your arms around me so that I can fly and shoot."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and dug her head into his throat. For a little while, she allowed herself to pretend that they were somewhere else.
She allowed herself to imagine them cuddling in the Slytherin common room back at Hogwarts, or dancing closely at the annual New Years gala. Or perhaps they were in the middle of a Quidditch game, the breeze flowing in their hair, wind rushing in their ears, the tang of anticipation in the air.
Though, she could no longer fantasise about being anywhere else when she heard Theo mutter, "Avada Kedavra."
Pulling her head out of Theo's neck, she looked over her shoulder where Mad-Eye Moody was flying. Right as she had gone to look had been the exact moment the green of the Killing Curse hit Moody square in the back.
There was a pause for a split second right before he went slack, and then even as the broomstick continued to soar through the sky, it's rider toppled over the side.
Mad-Eye Moody dropping, falling through the sky, and no one came to his rescue like Theo had done hers; and even if they had, it would have been to late for him.
Celestia turned to look at Theo, who was watching Moody fall to the ground until he became a speck amongst the lights of the outskirts of London. The muscle along his jawbone twitched. She couldn't tell what he was thinking.
She realised, belatedly, what she had just made him do. It had been everything she had never wanted them to do; everything that she had gone great lengths to never have Draco or Theo do. She had just made him kill someone.
"I'm sorry," slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.
Either he didn't hear her, or he chose to ignore her, and he raised his wand to point it at someone else. Gazing over her should again, she saw that he had raised his wand to point it at Remus Lupin who was staring at them as if he'd never seen them before.
Understanding dawned on her about what he was about to do, and she wrapped her hand around his hand. Finally, he looked at her again.
"Don't," she said.
The same muscle in his jaw ticked. "Why?"
Because I don't want you to kill for me again, she thought but with the way he was looking at her she said instead, "It'll be worse of a torture for him to know that we, that I, could of killed him and didn't."
It was something she had considered in her sick, vulgar death fantasises. Remus had been closer to Sirius than anyone else she ever knew, and yet Remus had still kidnapped his daughter.
With the moral code that Remus undoubtedly possessed, knowing that she could have killed him and she didn't, his first thought was always going to be about Sirius.
Even if it wasn't the real reason that she had stopped him from killing Remus that night, it seemed to work. His hand lowered, her own still clasped to it, and he placed it back on the broom behind her.
She was still trembling, though less so, and he placed an arm around her waist again. He didn't reply, and he looked over his shoulder to observe what was happening in the height of the fray.
"The real Harry's with Hagrid. The Death Eaters following him just fell back, that's the signal," said Theo.
Her gaze swung towards Hagrid's motorbike, who had a Harry Potter in it's sidecar, and she noticed what differentiated him from the six other Potter's.
"His owl, why didn't I see it earlier?" Celestia observed.
"Get behind me, I'll fly us over there," he offered.
In a swift move, she hooked one leg around his hip and swung herself to sit behind him. She wrapped her arms around his torso, and he took off after the flying motorbike.
There were other Death Eaters following after Hagrid and Harry too, and there was a mass of black smoke soaring ahead of them. Undeniably, Voldemort. Theo sped up and she dug her face into his back as they continued to accelerate.
They'd taken over most of the other Death Eaters, who clearly have never played Quidditch before, perhaps never ridden a broomstick after first year either.
It was Theo and Celestia who flanked one side of the bike, the other flanked by a Death Eater named Travers. Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Harry sent Stunning Spells at them in his wake, and it narrowly missed the duo and knocked off Travers from his broom.
There was a bang, and sparks emitted from the engine; the motorbike spiralled through the air, now completely out of control. Green jets of light shot past them and down towards their targets. Selwyn had taken Travers spot, and he raised his wand at the duo in the bike.
"No!" yelled Hagrid, and he launched himself off the bike and at Selwyn, and their combined weight was too much for the broom, and they both began to fall through the sky.
Behind the bike, where Voldemort was flying, he screamed, "Mine!"
Theo slowed their descent alongside the motorbike, that was now going to down at too fast of a pace for them to follow safely. Voldemort came on the other side of bike and raised his wand again.
"Avada—" he began.
Golden fire shot from Harry's wand, and connected with the beginnings of the green light of the Killing Curse, and Lucius's wand in Voldemort's hand snapped. Voldemort let out a scream of fury.
Harry pushed a button on the motorbikes interface, and it sped up, leaving them in the dust. Voldemort was in a rage, and he began yelling at Corban.
"Your wand, Yaxley, give me your wand!"
Voldemort retrieved the wand from his follower, and raised it to try and curse Harry again, and right before he could, he seemed to smash into an invisible wall that Hagrid and Harry easily slipped through.
He tried to fire curses at the unseen wall, and so did a couple other Death Eaters that had caught up. But it was futile; Harry had reached his destination and the wards would keep them out.
Voldemort let out another scream of fury, spinning to face the closest follower of his that he could find. It was enough of a sign to every other Death Eater that they began to disperse. No one wanted to be around when the Dark Lord was feeling this much anger.
Theo rotated their broom, setting them on a different course that many other Death Eaters were taking. They were flying back to the Malfoy Manor as quick as they could in an attempt to evade Voldemort's rage.
Effortlessly, Theo pushed through the small crowd making their way home, and was soaring at the front of the group. They made it back to Wiltshire in less than twenty minutes, minutes before other Death Eaters began horridly landing in the courtyard beside them. They hadn't talked once during the entire flight.
Leaving the Firebolt on the grass, Celestia and Theo were the first to make their way through the front door of the Malfoy Manor. Narcissa and Draco were both anxiously waiting at the bottom of the staircase in the foyer, and relaxed the instant they recognised their faces.
Narcissa instantly pulled the two teenagers into a hug, murmuring, "I'm so glad that you two are okay. I never want you two to do that again. Are you hurt? What's happening? Is Potter dead?"
Theo is the one to respond. "We're both fine. Potter's alive and well, and he's pissed off. I'd hide before he gets back."
Narcissa span around to face her son. "Bedroom. Now."
"But—" Draco looked at his cousin and friend.
"Now."
He couldn't argue with his mother, and sent her a look at her that said how much he was annoyed by her order. Then he sent a look at his two friends, one that explained without words that he was glad they were alive, before he began angrily stomping up the stairs.
As Death Eaters began to file through the doors, Theo and Celestia hurriedly made their way to the sleeping quarters so they wouldn't be caught standing around when Voldemort returned.
Theo's bedroom — which is technically a guest room, but since he spent more time here than his own house, it had been coined his room for years — was around the corner for Celestia's. As they approached his room, and Theo made the move to enter his room silently, she grabbed his arm.
"I'm sorry," she blurted. "I shouldn't have made you kill Moody. I—"
"You didn't make me do anything," he interjected.
She shifted awkwardly on her feet. "I did. I said yes when you asked, I could've killed him easily but I just—I was—"
"Celestia, you didn't make me do anything. I had the choice to not kill him, but I still did," he interrupted again.
She felt so vulnerable around Theo for reasons she can't explain. Everything she said or did, she wanted his approval, craved it. But right now, he wasn't acting anything like the Theo she knew.
"Are you angry with me?" inquired Celestia.
"No," he said, pushing down on the door handle to his room. "I could never be angry at you."
He must of seen the confusion mixed with vulnerability on her face, and he let out a small, quiet sigh. He shied his eyes away, focusing on the marble detailing of the floor behind her.
"I look at you, and it terrifies me unreasonably. It terrifies me what I would do for you."
And then he pushed back on the door and it swung open. He stepped back into his bedroom, and did not look at her once as he closed the door behind himself.
Celestia was left to look dumbfoundedly at the door before the hush of voices and sounds of footsteps making their way towards the sleeping quarters snapped her out of it. She turned and made her way to her own bedroom.
AUTHORS NOTE
WHAT ARE WE THINKING??? WE LIKE?? sorry if the beginning was a bit boring. i didnt want to include it, but i felt like it was needed.
also!:!:!:: i dont want to be that author, but if you want to make tiktoks or some shit about my fanfic, please feel free to go ahead!! as long as you tag me. i dont want to be a fanfic author whos all like "make me fanart for my book!! im not even going to pay you >:(" but if you'd like to, you can! just feel free to tag me <3 it's still insane to me that you guys actually like this story tho so im not expecting anything :)
I LOVE U ALL SO MUCH!!!! i know i say that a lot, but its true. ur comments never fail to make me laugh and the fact that you're all real people reading my story??????? UNREAL. thank you for all the support <333
also welcome to all the new viewers who are finding me through tiktok!!??? i hope u ignored the cringy first couple chapters and learned to love the book the way i have <3
yours,
beth