'i twist like a sunflower at the sound of your voice'
[kait rokowski]
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Addie awoke suddenly in her cell, startled by loud voices coming from somewhere outside her cell and the sounds of struggling and slick spells being fired. Yet again, she had no idea how long it had been from the last time she was awake and in control; everything was hazy and confusing, and all she could think about were the noises outside.
"ARE YOU MAD—?" A man's raspy voice she didn't recognise bellowed. His voice cut off, however, and choking sounds ensued—accompanied by the loud cries of Bellatrix.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!" She screamed. The voices were a bit muffled, as the large cell door blocked most of the noise. Alert, Addie sat up a little, remaining quiet as she listened closely. She assumed there were new prisoners, maybe, or death eaters who had done something. It was hard to tell.
There was coughing and the scuffling of shoes on the wooden floorboards. Then Bellatrix again, yelling to somebody;
"...Put the boys in the cellar! I want to have a little conversation with this one! Girl to girl!"
Addie felt her brow furrow, and she kept her breath soft to try and hear what was being said. It was dark in the cell, nighttime, so she wondered who on earth could be here so late when the halls were mostly silent at night. Besides, usually, when there were new prisoners, there wasn't much noise that accompanied it. The occasional shouting and resistance were normal—but nothing like this.
She heard the faint sound of a metal door slam shut from further away, and the hiss of Bellatrix's voice saying something she couldn't quite hear—until she started shouting again.
"...WHAT DID YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS TAKE FROM MY VAULT?"
Addie flinched at the sheer loudness of her voice—but listened closely as she heard faint whimpering: a girl's crying. But it sounded familiar. Really familiar.
Then the girl started screaming, and she knew who it was. She felt her heart drop to her stomach.
"HERMIONE?" Addie yelled—but no one heard her. The screams on the other side of the door were much too loud for her hoarse voice to overshadow. She pulled on the chains, trying to get closer to the door, but they didn't budge. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she pulled, pulled, pulled with a desperation she had only experienced a few times—but still, the chains bound her to the wall.
Hermione's high-pitched screams continued, and Addie felt hot tears streaking down her cheeks at the raw fear in her voice—Bellatrix was hurting one of her closest friends, and there was nothing she could do about it. No one could hear her.
The screaming finally stopped—but Addie worried about what that meant. She held her breath. There was a sliver of sound, but it was so incomprehensible that Addie couldn't tell if it was a voice or just a noise. It sounded like whispers, but it also sounded like whistling wind or small footsteps.
"LIAR!" Bellatrix's voice suddenly bellowed, and Addie strained the chains again as she leaned as close to the door as possible, trying to identify what was happening. For a while, there were more hushed words she couldn't decipher being said, and she thought everything was over—until loud footsteps interrupted the quiet atmosphere, followed by the shouts of spells:
"STUPEFY!"
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Addie couldn't tell who's voices they were as the noise of small explosions, sparks and grunts all seemed to blur together in a kaleidoscope of sounds she couldn't pull apart.
It was clearly a fight of sorts, but that was the extent to which she understood what was happening. Addie hated not being able to see it—what if a death eater had gone rogue, and would take her for ransom any minute now? What if a spell would suddenly explode the wall and crush her beneath its heavy pieces? Why isn't Hermione with—
"STOP IT!" Bellatrix screamed.
The noise stopped. The chains wouldn't let Addie get any closer, so she lowered her face to the ground; trying to see through the gap below the door where flickering light seeped inside the cell. She could only just hear the words Bellatrix spoke.
"Drop your wands...I said drop them!"
Addie heard a small clatter of things falling onto the wooden floorboards. She continued to pull on the chains, even as they dug painfully into her wrists.
"Well, well, well...look what we have here..." Bellatrix's voice was just above a whisper. "...it's Harry Potter..."
Shock rendered her completely still for a moment, and then—
"HARRY?" Adeline screamed as loud as she could manage. Her voice had never been so loud before.
She felt a sudden burst of energy; of hope, and her arms shook as she yanked on the chains again—and this time the strained metal connecting her to the wall snapped.
Addie fell forwards onto the ground and quickly scrambled to stand. The door was locked with a special enchantment that Alohomora could never bypass, so she pounded on it with the metal cuffs still bound to her wrists, trying to stir as much noise as possible, feeling lightheaded with the fact that he was just on the other side.
"HARRY!?"
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His head snapped in the direction of a door to the side of the room at the sound. The chandelier above Bellatrix and Hermione squeaked as it began to loosen. His heart skipped a beat.
He knows that voice.
He knows that voice.
"ADDIE—?"
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A loud sob left her throat as his voice called her name.
But then, a sudden booming CRASH sounded from the other side of the door, and Addie looked down to see small shards of crystal skate inside her cell under the gap. The noise from outside rose to a crescendo—her ears faintly ringing from the fallen chandelier, voices bellowing spells with a renewed energy, the whisk of curses flying through the air, smashing, slamming—
Addie kept hitting the door. "HARRY!" she screamed time and time again even as her throat began to hurt, her voice breaking with relief but aching fear.
She stopped, trying to pull herself together amidst the shaking mess of emotions circling her head. Her knees buckled under the weight of it all. But then, Addie took a breath, ignited with this new energy, and hit her palms firmly against the cell door—sending it crashing open completely.
She looked up from the floor, a strand of hair hanging over her face—and her eyes instantly met his from across the room.
It was like time was at a standstill. He looked so different yet the same, but all she could take in was him, standing there, and then everything seemed to happen at once. He was running toward her through the chaos and light of spells around them. Nearby, Ron and Hermione fought off some of the death eaters. Lucius stood off to the side with his dark mark exposed as Bellatrix stood beside him with a dagger, yelling "CALL THE DARK LORD, LUCIUS!"
And then Harry was in front of her, kneeling on the floor to match her level; the closest he had been in months.
"Oh my God," was all he could say as he comprehended her there, on the ground, alive. "You're here—"
Addie choked on another sob, and from so close she could see the tears spilling down his own face, and he reached out—but he couldn't touch her, as though repelled by an invisible barrier between them, where the door used to be.
She reached out too—but her hand met the barrier, not him. By now, both of them were crying.
"I can't—I can't get to you, I can't apparate," his voice shook. He started to hit the barrier over and over as though enough force would knock it down—but it stayed firmly in place. Hermione and Ron gathered with Dobby at the front of the room. "I can't get to you—"
"HE'S COMING TO GET YOUUU!" Bellatrix cackled. They had called Voldemort. Time was running out—they both knew it, but he stayed, frantically looking around the barrier, trying to get in—but he couldn't. His hands were shaking.
"Harry," she said, her voice thick and breaking and he stopped. His gaze met hers. All she wanted was for him to stay, but that's exactly what he couldn't do. She pressed her hand against his that rested on the other side of the barrier—almost touching, but not.
"Go—you have to go," she spoke, even if it broke her heart. "Please."
It seemed to break his, too.
"I'm not leaving you here!" Harry's voice lost its sound. "I just got you back, you're alive, I—"
"It's okay, it's okay," she said. A small moment passed of taking him in—his eyes her favourite colour, holding the longing she felt too. "I'll find you."
"HE'S COMING, POTTERRR!"
He looked over the girl he thought was gone at the cuts and bruises lining her face.
"Addie—please—"
A cloud of black smoke suddenly began appearing and her blood ran cold. He was here.
"Go!" She yelled, and he hesitated, sparing her one last glance, but finally did as she said and ran back to the others. In a split second, just as the pale skin of her father emerged from the smoke, Dobby apparated, and they were gone.
He was gone.
But she was still there.
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a/n:
that hurt
-g
(also sidenote: i'm not sticking to the proper storyline / flow of events as the movies show bc it works better my way. just now after dobby & the trio apparated, they DIDN'T apparate to shell cottage like in the movie. it'll get more clear next chapter bc i'll cover where they are and everything but yeah)