Nel's head always seemed to spin after apparating.
Wherever they were it was a rainy afternoon. The skies were a dull gray and several muggles that were passing by looked at her and Professor Snape oddly. Several fat pigeons scrambled at their messy landing.
Her surroundings looked like London. The buildings were tall, the first floor was white and the three to four story buildings were made with dark gray brick. She didn't understand where they were, it looked like an ordinary muggle neighborhood.
"You are not to divulge the location of this location to absolutely anyone, and you are now sworn to secrecy under the Fidelius Charm" Snape sneered pulling out his wand.
"I-I swear" She nodded hesitatingly, without thinking it twice.
"Your belongings?" His eyes raked over her poor appearance. "I sent my owl to Tracey's," She paused for a moment. "I have everything I need on me. You see, I shrank my trunk to be pocket sized," she said digging into the pocket of the jacket that was wrapped around her waist and fishing out a trunk that looked more like a box of Altoids.
"Charming," Snape rolled his eyes back to the front with disdain and muttered something under his breath. And with his spell, 12 Grimmauld place was revealed. All muggles around blissfully unaware of the magic that had just happened.
"And nobody knows where you are- Not even Ms. Davis?"
"No," She responded much more quietly.
She really had gone the entire summer without communicating with anyone - not even Tracy. She had sent her owl away hoping not to be reached by anyone, after all, it wasn't safe. A pit formed in her stomach hoping that none of her friends would hold a grudge towards her for not writing to them over the summer.
"Come," He instructed.
"I still don't understand why I can't just stay in your home, I really don't mind, I'll even sleep on the floor-" She babbled, following suit after him. Nel hadn't had an interaction with another human that didn't revolve around bartering cigarettes or other street goods that she desperately craved company. Even if it was someone as unpleasant as Snape.
"Silence," He interrupted. It seemed like everything she said went in one ear and out the other.
He opened the white door and allowed her in to a dark hallway.
It was dirty, lit dimly, smelled like humidity and oddly reminded Nel of the Slytherin Common Room. She walked through the dusty hallway avoiding cobwebs, turning back to see Snape and pray he hadn't noticed the book she had stolen from his house bulging from underneath her clothes.
They stepped into a dinning room that matched the rest of the house where a man sat nursing an amber bottle of some type of alcohol.
"Sirius Black!" She exclaimed shocked.
Just where had Snape taken her? She looked back at Snape in disbelief. The Ministry of Magic was looking for Black, they were even offering a reward for any information regarding him or his whereabouts. She knew that Harry knew where he was but Snape- She really couldn't believe he hadn't gone straight to the Ministry.
"Ah! Elowen," Sirius rose from the elegant wooden chair with a small smile. He looked more humane than the last time Nel had seen him almost two years ago. He looked plumper, his sharp features less angular, hair shorter around his shoulders, neater too. "Although, I believe you go by Nel, is it?"
She nodded still shocked, consciously reaching for the wand she kept inside of her sleeve.
"You knew where Sirius Black was all this time and you didn't claim the reward?" She gaped at Snape.
Snape's face twisted into a sour sneer which told her he would've definetly done it if he had the choice.
"It's complicated," Sirius said running a hand through his hair. "You can take the room in the topmost floor, Krecher will help you with your belongings."
She looked between the two men confused, before making her way upstairs. Turning she almost kicked a small person.
"Sorry," She stepped back seeing an ancient looking house-elf. "Kreacher has come for your belongings as Master Black said."
"I have none," She said making her way up.
"What is you," It wasn't a question. It sounded more like wonder. "Nasty little brat are you?" He narrowed his large gray eyes. "Oh, if my poor Mistress knew, the scum they have let into her house oh how she'd cry... What would she say to old Kreacher," He rambled as he turned into another of the tall house's many hallways.
"Freak," She suddenly heard a womanly voice say. Turning at the stairs she looked around. "Scum of the Earth," confused, Nel looked up to see a woman- well, her portrait. The woman glared and cursed in her direction, still struck by the situation she said nothing and finally reached the room.
'Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black', a sign hung above the old door. Entering, the room, like the rest of the house, was covered in dust and cobwebs. It probably hadn't been opened in over a decade.
The heavy curtains in the room where emerald and silver, the Black family crest was beautifully crafted on the bed's headboard with a motto that read 'Toujour Pur' underneath. Who knows what that mean. On the opposite side of the room, there was a massive collage of yellowing newspaper, it almost seemed like wallpaper.
She set up her trunk and enlarged it, quickly hiding Snape's book at the very bottom, underneath her clothes.
Heading downstairs she decided to light a cigarette to calm her creeping anxiety. What was this place? Snape was covering for Sirius Black? What was she doing here? She inhaled deeply allowing the smoke to warm her lungs. Not only that but- She finally had Sirius Black in front of her, she would finally get answers. Who was she? Where was her family? Did she have a family? What happened that fateful night?
She began picking at her cuticle anxiously and smoking with more urgency, her steps pacing from one side to the other before returning to the dinning room.
"What are you going to tell her? That we're at war? Have you lost it Snivellus?" Black exclaimed.
"The only thing I've lost is my patience," Snape warned in a hushed tone. "Saintday is not to have any involvement in Order of the Phoenix matters. Direct orders from Dumbledore..."
Nel hadn't meant to eavesdrop but she couldn't help it, she found herself crouching at the bottom of the staircase carefully listening. Making mental notes about what the two adults were saying.
"Begone from this place! Your mere presence befouls the house of my fathers - filthy mudblood no doubt!" The portrait of the mean faced woman shrieked at her making the adults shift topic.
Nel sighed tiredly and dragged one last heavy breath from her cigarette one last time before putting it out on the paintings canvas with a small sizzle. The woman shrieked chaotically at the damage making the young Slytherin smile with sinister pleasure.
"Mr. Black-" the teen girl turned peeking in from the edge of the door frame. "Erm- Sirius," She began uneasily. "I was hoping we could talk, there's a lot of things I've been wanting to ask you for a long time. It's about..."
"The night at the abbey," Sirius finished seeming pensive. "Sure, sure," He nodded taking a sip of his bottle. "Sit," He stretched across from his own seat. Snape remained in the room, he regarded Sirius with his dark eyes watching him carefully.
"Well," Nel rubbed her hands nervously, she was starving for a crumb of truth. "What happened?"
Sirius's gaze remained lowered, avoiding her intense maroon eyes. "I saved you," he said curtly. "I took you from a bad place, where bad people wanted to do very bad things to you, that's all there is to it."
It was verbatim what he had said to her that night at the top of the Dark Tower. Nel could feel her frustration begin to twist her stomach, she was no longer anxious, she was beginning to feel angry. He wasn't even looking at her!
"Where," she demanded her voice hitching.
"Hangleton," He finally met her gaze. Good, things were finally getting somewhere.
"That's it?" Sirius looked at her dissatisfied expression the look she was giving him reminded him of his mother's ghastly expression. "What do you want me to say kid?" He retorted harshly. "That I swooped in with my broom to save you from a bunch of Death Eaters performing ancient black magic on you?" He tossed his hand up and continued drinking. "God knows what they were going to do, but whatever it was, it wasn't good."
"My parents?" She held her breath.
Sirius exchanged a look with Severus, "Dead. Killed by Death Eaters," he said sharply.
"What were their names?"
"No idea," again, he took a painful swing from the bottle.
"You just said they were dead. That they were killed by Death Eaters and you don't remember their names?!" Nel exclaimed digging her nails into the table.
"Look, it was a long time ago," Sirius drawled sharply.
Elowen had a feeling the man who had saved her wasn't going to be willing to answer her questions.
"Why?" Her voice had now weakened into a squeak. "How did you know I was there? Why did you take me? Why did you leave me at the abbey? My life... My life has been horrible," The tears of frustration that were being held by the dam in her eyes finally broke into streams.
Sirius looked sullen, again, he only grew silent and busied himself with getting another drink.
"They knew because I told them," Snape spoke quietly when Sirius left the room. His voice, however, held no empathy. Nel's expression hardened. Of course he knew. "I was acting on behalf of two very dangerous sides during the Wizarding War." He began.
Nel began connecting the dots in her head. Snape wasn't regarded by all Slytherin purebloods because he was the head of Slytherin House, it was because he was one of them. That's why the Malfoys regarded him as an equal, other Purebloods too. He was a Death Eater. "I was an informant for Dumbledore."
"The Dark Lord has plans for you, I believe he's cursed you as his."
Nel could still remember Crouch's words, "He's come back for what's rightful his," she always thought it was odd that the Malfoys threated her so humanely. They knew she belonged to Voldemort, Snape knew, question was- who else was aware of this terrible truth?
"The freckles on your face, it's not a birth mark, it's a curse, and a grim reminder to anyone who looks at you," Snape continued to explain. "Ophiuchus, the snake bearer."
Professor Trelawney had once said this to her, she had thought it was bs, but it seemed to be right.
"Now that He's back, the Dark Lord will stop at nothing to get what rightfully belongs to him. Which is why it is so important that you stay here with the Order. So you're safe."
The Order? Her head was spinning. The girl felt light headed from processing the information. She held her pulsating temple and let out a sharp breath.
"That's why they call me that, isn't it? Dead girl? It's because I'm sentenced isn't it? There's a bounty on my name," Her chest swelled with a creeping anxiety as she leaned forward heaving, her hands now shaking, the lights in the room began flickering. She felt out of breath.
"Your parents were Norwegian wizards," Sirius stepped back into the room with a new drink. He kept his head down and spoke rapidly as he quickly crossed the room to reach his seat. "They were Death Eaters, however, they betrayed Voldemort to help us and suffered terrible fates. As punishment they took you," he pointed with his raised bottle, "and did unspeakable things," he only paused to drink. "Which could be in part why you have the strange affinity to speak Parseltongue."
Her eyes returned to Snape.
"Did you know them?"
"No," he said curtly, but Snape's eyes were frozen on Sirius, for some reason he looked furious.
If her parents were wizards then, that meant Nel was a pureblood. They had to have been- why else would they have hung around a lot of Death Eaters?
She felt like vomiting at the thought of coming from a family with such horrendous beliefs, of course, they changed their mind before meeting their ends, but... still...
She didn't want to know further, it didn't matter, they were dead and Voldemort had taken them away from her. He was the one to blame, he was the one that had taken that life from her.
If they had lived, she wondered if her life would've been like Pansy Parkinson or like Daphne's?
"The Dark Lord seeks you to finish what he started, be warned, his cruelty knows no bounds. You must not seek him out unless you have a death wish. He enjoys torturing his victims, and savors the thought of driving them to insanity..." her professor warned.
Just what was Snape's goal? Why would he play at both sides? What did he want? What did he have to win? If he was so close to Voldemort and his group, he would've had to prove his loyalty. She didn't even want to begin to think about the horrid things this man must've done, that's why he was so sour, so damaged and wrecked.
"It almost sounds like you're praising him professor," she said aghast.
Sirius snorted a laugh and Snape scowled deeply.
"Any more questions?" Sirius asked shifting uncomfortable on his seat.
"No," Nel said wiping the snot and tears from her red face in a new found peace. "Well, one," she paused, bringing her fist to her mouth lost in thought.
"What.. What does Voldemort want?" Her eyes narrowed. "Why did you fight this war?"
Snape looked close to slapping her. Sirius sighed in frustration.
"Like my family...," Sirius began bitterly. "Voldemort had-has an obsession with blood purity. He wants to rid the Wizarding World of any Muggles or their heritage. He wants power, he wants to conquer both worlds, Muggle and the Wizarding one. In a nutshell, to achieve pure-blood dominance."
There was a shared silenced between the three and Elowen couldn't help but laugh a little at the absurdity. "What a lunatic," she huffed. It seemed so ridiculous to her.
She stood up excusing herself to find the bathroom.
Unmoving from his place leaning against the wall Snape raised his head to glare at Sirius. His eyes said it all. Sirius looked back at him just as intensely and took a long swing in defiance. However, it wasn't his drinking habit that Severus was judging.
"I did what I had to do. We need her on our side."
"She needs to know the truth."
"She can't know the truth!" Sirius shot back in a hushed tone.
"She's already asking questions. She stole a book about necromancy from my library. She's going to find out soon."
"She's only a child, besides we need her to be on our side, the right side, in case you forgot," Sirius rose and gave Snape a repulsive look referring to his dark days as a Death Eater.
"Exactly. A child. Foolish, naive, easily manipulated." Snape growled stepping forward angrily.
"My," Sirius raised his dark eyebrows mockingly. "You've grown quite protective over this child Snivelly."
"I'm the one that saved her, remember?" Sirius continued drinking as he walked away.
"Saved her? If I remember correctly... your mission was the opposite."
Ignoring Snape, Sirius left the room.