Hi all! Before we get this chapter started I just wanted to address the whole 'age thing.' As you're all well aware, they are 14. I wanted to age them up but the only reason I didn't was so that I could make the other books as well and I kept the ages the same as the books just to try and make things easier for me so that I wouldn't mess up any timelines or anything. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO IMAGINE THEM OLDER! I also picture them to be around 16 at this point in the book, but I just wanted to make it easier for myself to keep track of everything and not mess anything up. If this upsets anyone, I'm really sorry. Again, feel free to picture them as whatever age you want.
ALSO SUPERRRR LONG CHAPTER AHEAD
Kirra and Mattheo walked inside. She had been inside Dumbledore's office a few times before; it was a very beautiful, circular room, lined with pictures of previous headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts, all of whom were fast asleep, their chests rising and falling gently.
Cornelius Fudge was standing beside Dumbledore's desk, wearing his usual pinstriped cloak and holding his lime-green bowler hat.
"Kirra!" said Fudge jovially, moving forward. "How are you?"
"Fine," Kirra lied. Mattheo stepped closer to her, Fudge noticed this and instinctively took a step back from the girl as he noticed the look that the boy was giving her.
"We were just talking about the night when Mr. Crouch turned up on the grounds," said Fudge. "It was you who found him, was it not?"
"Yes," said Kirra. Then, feeling it was pointless to pretend that she hadn't overheard what they had been saying, she added, "I didn't see Madame Maxime anywhere, though, and she'd have a job hiding, wouldn't she?"
Mattheo was a prejudiced person... he had been brought up that way but he was getting better. Kirra made him better. She made him see that blood status didn't matter, nor did it matter if someone was half giant. He softly smiled at Kirra his eyes twinkling softly as he admired how caring she really was.
He couldn't really understand it. How someone could be so kind and caring to people that they hardly knew but it made him feel a certain giddiness... he was happy to have her, and happy that she made him see things differently than how the Malfoys had brought him up to view things.
"Yes, well," said Fudge, looking embarrassed, "we're about to go for a short walk on the grounds, Kirra, if you'll excuse us . . . perhaps if you just go back to your class —"
"I wanted to talk to her actually Mr Fudge" Dumbledore said blandly
"Wait here for me, you two," he said. "Our examination of the grounds will not take long."
They trooped out in silence past her and Mattheo and closed the door. After a minute or so, Kirra heard the clunks of Moody's wooden leg growing fainter in the corridor below. She looked around.
"Hello, Fawkes," she said.
Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore's phoenix, was standing on his golden perch beside the door. The size of a swan, with magnificent scarlet-and-gold plumage, he swished his long tail and blinked benignly at Kirra.
Kirra and Mattheo sat down in a chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. "Are you feeling better darling?" Mattheo asked her in concern, reaching over to grab her hand.
She turned her head to face him, offering him a small smile... but he could see right through her smile.
"You can tell me about it you know..." he said to her, his voice unfamiliarly soft. She nodded her head softly
"I know," she responded, "I'd rather tell you than Dumbledore but it'll probably just be easier to tell the two of you at the same time," she muttered to him. Mattheo nodded his head in understanding.
Kirra was thinking about what she had just heard, and running her fingers over her scar. It had stopped hurting now thankfully.
She felt much calmer, somehow, now that she was in Dumbledore's office, knowing she would shortly be telling him and Mattheo about the dream. Kirra looked up at the walls behind the desk. The patched and ragged Sorting Hat was standing on a shelf. A glass case next to it held a magnificent silver sword with large rubies set into the hilt, which Kirra recognized as the sword of gryffindor.
The sword had once belonged to Godric Gryffindor, founder of the red House. She suddenly noticed a patch of silvery light, dancing and shimmering on the glass case. She looked around for the source of the light and saw a sliver of silver-white shining brightly from within a black cabinet behind them, whose door had not been closed properly.
Kirra hesitated, glanced at Mattheo, then got up, walked across the office, and pulled open the cabinet door. Mattheo got up and followed after her.
A shallow stone basin lay there, with odd carvings around the edge: runes and symbols that Kirra did not recognize. Kirra knew what the object was immediately, Mattheo on the other hand did not. He could not tell whether the substance was liquid or gas. It was a bright, whitish silver, and it was moving ceaselessly; the surface of it became ruffled like water beneath wind, and then, like clouds, separated and swirled smoothly. It looked like light made liquid — or like wind made solid — Mattheo couldn't make up his mind.
He wanted to touch it, to find out what it felt like, but nearly four years' experience of the magical world told him that sticking his hand into a bowl full of some unknown substance was a very stupid thing to do. "It's a pensive," Kirra spoke up. Mattheo looked at her with raised eyebrows so she continued, "you can put peoples memories in there and then watch them as if you are there."
The surface of the silvery stuff inside the basin began to swirl very fast.
Mattheo nodded his head softly before looking down into it, expecting to see the stone bottom of the basin — and saw instead an enormous room below the surface of the mysterious substance, a room into which he seemed to be looking through a circular window in the ceiling.
Kirra was also looking down into the basin. The room was dimly lit; she thought it might even be underground, for there were no windows, merely torches in brackets such as the ones that illuminated the walls of Hogwarts.
Lowering their faces so that their noses was a mere inch away from the glassy substance, they saw that rows and rows of witches and wizards were seated around every wall on what seemed to be benches rising in levels. An empty chair stood in the very center of the room. There was something about the chair that gave the two of them an ominous feeling. Chains encircled the arms of it, as though its occupants were usually tied to it.
Mattheo looked at it closer. Where was this place? It surely wasn't Hogwarts; he had never seen a room like that here in the castle. Moreover, the crowd in the mysterious room at the bottom of the basin was comprised of adults, and Mattheo knew there were not nearly that many teachers at Hogwarts. They seemed, he thought, to be waiting for something; even though he could only see the tops of their hats, all of their faces seemed to be pointing in one direction, and none of them were talking to one another.
"I think it's a formal court hearing... a pretty serious one at that," Kirra muttered as she too tried to figure out exactly what was going on.
The basin being circular, and the room they were observing square, the couple could not make out what was going on in the corners of it. They leaned even closer, tilting their heads, trying to see . . .
The tip of their noses touched the strange substance into which they were staring.
Dumbledore's office gave an almighty lurch — Kirra and Mattheo were thrown forward and pitched headfirst into the substance inside the basin —
But their heads did not hit the stone bottom. They were falling through something icy-cold and black; it was like being sucked into a dark whirlpool —
And suddenly, Kirra and Mattheo found themselves sitting on a bench at the end of the room inside the basin, a bench raised high above the others. They looked up at the high stone ceiling, expecting to see the circular window through which they had just been staring, but there was nothing there but dark, solid stone.
"What's happening?" Mattheo asked her softly
"We just got pulled into the memory... ive never actually used one of these before but if I remember correctly, nobody can actually see us or hear us," Kirra explained to him, trying to calm his nerves
Breathing hard and fast, Mattheo looked around him. Not one of the witches and wizards in the room (and there were at least two hundred of them) were looking at him. Not one of them seemed to have noticed that they had just dropped from the ceiling into their midst.
Kirra grabbed onto his hand, giving it a small squeeze, "it's okay," she whispered to the boy calmly. "Look," Kirra muttered to Mattheo, pointing to the other side of him. Mattheo turned, his eyes widening in surprise.
He was sitting right next to Albus Dumbledore.
Like every other wizard on the benches, he was staring into the far corner of the room, where there was a door.
Mattheo raised his right hand, hesitated, and then waved it energetically in front of Dumbledore's face. Dumbledore did not blink, look around at Mattheo, or indeed move at all. "Shit head!" And that, in Mattheo's opinion, settled the matter. Kirra chuckled softly at her boyfriends reaction. Dumbledore wouldn't ignore him like that after calling him that.
Kirra was right, they were inside a memory, and this was not the present-day Dumbledore. Yet it couldn't be that long ago . . . the Dumbledore sitting next to him now was silver-haired, just like the present-day Dumbledore.
Mattheo looked around more carefully. The room, as he had suspected when observing it from above, was almost certainly underground — more of a dungeon than a room, he thought. There was a bleak and forbidding air about the place; there were no pictures on the walls, no decorations at all; just these serried rows of benches, rising in levels all around the room, all positioned so that they had a clear view of that chair with the chains on its arms.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps. The door in the corner of the dungeon opened and three people entered — or at least one man, flanked by two dementors.
Kirra's insides went cold. The dementors — tall, hooded creatures whose faces were concealed — were gliding slowly toward the chair in the center of the room, each grasping one of the man's arms with their dead and rotten-looking hands. The man between them looked as though he was about to faint, and Kirra couldn't blame him . . . she knew the dementors could not touch her inside a memory, but she remembered their power only too well.
The watching crowd recoiled slightly as the dementors placed the man in the chained chair and glided back out of the room. The door swung shut behind them.
Kirra looked down at the man now sitting in the chair and saw that it was Karkaroff.
Unlike Dumbledore, Karkaroff looked much younger; his hair and goatee were black. He was not dressed in sleek furs, but in thin and ragged robes. He was shaking. Even as Kirra watched, the chains on the arms of the chair glowed suddenly gold and snaked their way up Karkaroff 's arms, binding him there.
"Igor Karkaroff," said a curt voice to Kirra's left. Mattheo and Kirra looked around and saw Mr. Crouch standing up in the middle of the bench beside them. Crouch's hair was dark, his face was much less lined, he looked fit and alert. "You have been brought from Azkaban to present evidence to the Ministry of Magic. You have given us to understand that you have important information for us."
Karkaroff straightened himself as best he could, tightly bound to the chair.
"I have, sir," he said, and although his voice was very scared, Kirra could still hear the familiar unctuous note in it. "I wish to be of use to the Ministry. I wish to help. I — I know that the Ministry is trying to — to round up the last of the Dark Lord's supporters. I am eager to assist in any way I can. . . ."
There was a murmur around the benches. Some of the wizards and witches were surveying Karkaroff with interest, others with pronounced mistrust. Then Kirra heard, quite distinctly, from Dumbledore's other side, a familiar, growling voice saying, "Filth."
Kirra and Mattheo leaned forward so that they could see past Dumbledore. Mad-Eye Moody was sitting there — except that there was a very noticeable difference in his appearance. He did not have his magical eye, but two normal ones. Both were looking down upon Karkaroff, and both were narrowed in intense dislike.
"Crouch is going to let him out," Moody breathed quietly to Dumbledore. "He's done a deal with him. Took me six months to track him down, and Crouch is going to let him go if he's got enough new names. Let's hear his information, I say, and throw him straight back to the dementors."
Dumbledore made a small noise of dissent through his long, crooked nose.
"Ah, I was forgetting . . . you don't like the dementors, do you, Albus?" said Moody with a sardonic smile.
"No," said Dumbledore calmly, "I'm afraid I don't. I have long felt the Ministry is wrong to ally itself with such creatures."
"But for filth like this . . ." Moody said softly.
"You say you have names for us, Karkaroff," said Mr. Crouch. "Let us hear them, please."
"You must understand," said Karkaroff hurriedly, "that He-Who- Must-Not-Be-Named operated always in the greatest secrecy. . . . He preferred that we — I mean to say, his supporters — and I regret now, very deeply, that I ever counted myself among them —"
"Get on with it," sneered Moody.
"— we never knew the names of every one of our fellows — He alone knew exactly who we all were —"
"Which was a wise move, wasn't it, as it prevented someone like you, Karkaroff, from turning all of them in," muttered Moody. "Yet you say you have some names for us?" said Mr. Crouch.
"I — I do," said Karkaroff breathlessly. "And these were important supporters, mark you. People I saw with my own eyes doing his bidding. I give this information as a sign that I fully and totally renounce him, and am filled with a remorse so deep I can barely —"
"These names are?" said Mr. Crouch sharply.
Karkaroff drew a deep breath.
"There was Antonin Dolohov," he said. "I — I saw him torture countless Muggles and — and non-supporters of the Dark Lord." "And helped him do it," murmured Moody.
"We have already apprehended Dolohov," said Crouch. "He was caught shortly after yourself."
"Indeed?" said Karkaroff, his eyes widening. "I — I am delighted to hear it!"
But he didn't look it. Kirra could tell that this news had come as a real blow to him. One of his names was worthless.
"Any others?" said Crouch coldly.
"Why, yes . . . there was Rosier," said Karkaroff hurriedly. "Evan Rosier."
Kirra felt her heart drop at the name, her bottom lip quivering slightly as a stinging sensation filled her eyes and nose. Mattheo was quick to notice her reaction. "Hey, what's wrong?" Mattheo asked her quickly
"Rosier is dead," said Crouch. "He was caught shortly after you were too. He preferred to fight rather than come quietly and was killed in the struggle."
"He was my friend," Kirra muttered under her breath. Mattheo's eyes widened as he slightly moved back in shock. Friend? Mattheo was shocked to hear that she had been friends with a death eater
"Took a bit of me with him, though," whispered Moody to Kirra's right. Kirra looked around at him once more, and saw him indicating the large chunk out of his nose to Dumbledore. She couldn't help but feel an underlying anger towards the man, but she knew that he had done what he had to... right?
Evan Rosier had been a good person, but his love for Barty was what had driven him to become a death eater.
Evan and Emily sat in the dimly lit room of the boys shared dorm room, the silence heavy with anticipation. Something had been bothering them for a while, a nagging feeling that their friends, Regulus and Barty, were hiding something significant. Of course, it wasn't uncommon for the two of them to act in a mysterious manner, but they usually never hid anything significant from Emily or Evan.
They had been distant lately, disappearing for days on end without explanation.
They had been waiting in the dorm for the two boys to show up, but they were about an hour late, and the two of them were beginning to question if they are even coming at all. Emily was sprawled out on Regulus' bed, his sweater hugging her body as she read one of the books that he had left on his bedside table.
She was trying to take her mind off the way Reggie and Barty had been acting, but it was seeming to become more and more difficult.
Emily couldn't take it any longer. Her voice trembling, she finally broke the silence. "Evan, we need to talk about Regulus and Barty. Something's not right."
Evan nodded, his brows furrowing with concern. He looked up from his potions homework, sitting up properly to give Emily his undivided attention, "I hate to admit it... but I know, I've noticed it too. They've been acting strangely, and it's been going on for months." Emily played with her fingers anxiously, she had an itching feeling that she knew what Regulus and Barty were hiding but she didn't want to believe it... she trusted Regulus and scolded herself for even thinking that there was a possibility that Regulus would become one of them
They exchanged worried glances, both fearing the truth they might uncover. With a deep breath, Evan continued, "I heard whispers in the Slytherin common room. They say that Regulus and Barty have joined the Death Eaters."
Emily's eyes widened with her thoughts now being pretty much confirmed, her heart sinking as the weight of Evan's words hit her. "No, it can't be. Regulus and Barty would never do that. I-I mean, Reggie promised... he promised he wouldn't."
Evan's voice was heavy with sadness as he replied, "I know, Em. But the rumors are getting stronger, and I overheard them talking about some secret meetings," Evan shook his head softly, "and Barty... he's been... different lately. Darker. I mean he's always been dark and rebellious because of that asshole father of his but..."
Tears welled up in Emily's eyes as she clung to the hope that it was all a misunderstanding. "We have to talk to them, confront them about this. Maybe there's an explanation. Rumours are just rumours Ev... I need to hear him admit it"
Evan agreed, though his voice was tinged with doubt. "Yeah, I know. We can't jump to conclusions. But we need to find out the truth." But as the two of them sat there, they couldn't help but wonder if they really wanted to know the truth.
They didn't want their suspicions to become a reality... they wondered if it would be better to just be ignorant to it all.
Later that day, the two of them cornered Regulus and Barty at the Slytherin table in the great hall. They summoned the courage to tell Reg and Barty that they had to meet in the room of requirement after class and that it was super important.
Reggie grew concerned with Emilys tone and was quick to agree. After class the four of them made their way to the room of requirement. The air was tense as they faced their friends and lovers, who seemed both worried and uneasy.
"What's wrong Em?" Regulus asked her softly, walking over to her slowly before grabbing her hands in his own. She looked up at him, gazing into his stormy eyes before her eyes fell down to his arms which were covered by the long sleeves of his shirt.
She fought the urge to just yank the sleeves up then and there to see if the dark mark was etched onto his skin. Regulus saw where her eyes lingered and his heart pounded hard in his chest. He began to second guess his choice... the fear of her hating him pounding through his head. But then he reminded himself that it was the right choice.
It was the only way.
"Regulus... Barty," Evan began cautiously, his eyes shifting uncomfortably between the two of them and then back to Emily "we... heard some stupid fucking rumors, and we need to know if they're true."
Barty shifted uncomfortably, exchanging a hesitant glance with Regulus, who remained stoic. "What rumors are you talking about?" Regulus asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Kirra couldn't hold back her emotions any longer, her voice trembling with fear and sadness. "Dont play dumb Regulus," she pleaded softly, making his heart break as she looked up at him. Her eyes were teary and she was shaking her head softly. He could see that she already knew the truth, but she was fighting to tell herself that she was wrong.
"They say you've joined the Death Eaters. Please, tell us it's not true." Evan said, his eyes lingering on Barty. He shook his head, looking at him, "come on Barty, just tell me it isn't true... please."
Barty's shoulders slumped, and he avoided their gaze for a moment before finally admitting, "It's true. We joined them."
"It can't be true," Emily whispered, her voice laced with desperation. "You're our friends. You wouldn't do something like that. Come on Reggie love... tell me this is some kind of sick joke"
Regulus sighed, trying his best not to cry at the sound of desperation in her voice. "It... It's complicated."
Evan's brows furrowed with frustration. "Complicated? What could possibly justify joining a group like the Death Eaters?"
Evan and Emily felt their world shatter. The room seemed to close in around them as they struggled to comprehend the betrayal of their friends.
"Fuck... FUCK!" Evan exclaimed, looking at Barty, tears glistening in his eyes. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration and anguish. Barty went over to Evan, trying to console him. Regulus was too busy trying to wrap his arms around Emily, but she pushed him off her
"What have you done?" she choked out, anger and sadness beginning to overwhelm her senses. "What have you two done!"
Regulus couldn't bear to see Emily's pain and anger directed at him. He reached out to touch her cheek gently, his voice pleading. "Emily, please, try to understand. We thought we could make a difference. We wanted to protect you, protect everyone we care about."
But Emily recoiled from his touch, her eyes filled with a mixture of betrayal and heartbreak. "Protect us? By joining the Death Eaters? Regulus, you... do you know how stupid that sounds"
Evan's anger and frustration boiled over as he turned to Barty. "And you, Barty, how could you let this happen? You were supposed to be our friend."
Barty's face was a mask of torment as he struggled to find the right words. "I thought we could change them, Evan. I thought we could make a difference from within... We got in too deep. It's not easy to leave once you're in."
Evan shook his head, his voice trembling with emotion. "You've put everyone you care about in danger. The Death Eaters won't just let you walk away." He turned to Regulus, "you did this to protect her? Don't you fucking see that the best way to protect her would have been to just get stronger and fight against the death eaters! Not join them!"
Emily's heart ached as she whispered, "You're endangering your lives and the lives of others. You're supporting a cause built on hate and violence."
Regulus's face contorted with anguish. "We know, and we're sorry. We didn't want you to get involved in this," he walked over to her, trying to explain himself to her, trying to tell her that the true reason he had joined the death eaters was to destroy Voldemort and his followers from the inside.
He knew that she would never be safe in a world where Voldemort was still alive, so he knew he had to kill him. He had to find a way to defeat Voldemort... then the two of them could be happy. She would be safe and he would be by her side just how he wanted it to be. He wanted to be able to live in a world where the two of them could have a family and live together until they're old, a world where they wouldn't have to worry about the dangers of dark wizards.
He didn't care what would happen to her in the process. He would lie for her, kill for her. He would die for her without hesitation.
Tears streamed down Evan's face as he shook his head in disbelief. "There is no turning back from this... you know that right? You're both fucked! We're all fucked!"
Evan, his anger still smoldering, turned away for a moment to collect himself. "You've made choices that will haunt you forever. Choices that may cost you everything."
Barty felt the weight of his decisions bearing down on him. "I know, Ev, and I'm sorry. But this is for the best... we can become so much stronger this way and then when its all over we can defeat the dark lord because of how much stronger we've gotten... we will be unstoppable"
Regulus stepped closer to Emily, his voice filled with determination. "Emily, I promise you, I will find a way to end this nightmare, to protect you."
Emily's heart ached as she looked into Regulus's eyes, torn between her love for him and the fear of what lay ahead. How had it all gone so wrong so fast? "I should have listened to Sirius... he was right about you."