We Disapparated and landed on cold, wet grass. Around me, the only thing that differed from the darkness was a light, thin layer of white snow. Everything was black and I couldn't see anything around me except a house. This house was darker, even darker than the Malfoy Manor. It seemed like I had seen this before - maybe in a dream or a dream in a dream. All the lights in the windows were off except one.
"Where are we?" I asked Draco who was standing beside me, not walking. His face looked stiffer now than before. But I didn't care that much because I wanted to care more about the fact that I was even looking at his face.
"This is the place we'll hide," he answered and held my hand leading me to the front door.
"Who's is it?"
"An old friend's," he answered.
"And is anyone here?" I said as he opened the black wooden door. At once, he stopped and looked at me right in the eyes.
"There's someone here that desperately wants to see you," he answered looking at me emptily.
"Shit... Who?" I said without any sign of smile on my face.
"Follow me," he said without answering my question.
As we stepped into the dark hall with the dusty black-wooden furniture and started getting up the creaking stairs, I felt his hand squeezing mine painfully.
"Ouch! Draco, you're hurting me," I said.
"Walk," he said without looking at me and going on with his way. He was walking faster than before.
I stopped for a moment to think of what my next reaction should be. I felt the stab of imminent danger approaching my chest.
"Draco, what are you doing? Why are you holding me like this?" I asked just when we reached the top of the dark stairs.
He didn't answer and led me in front of another door. There was nothing I could hear from inside but I supposed the one that was waiting to see me was inside. Whatever was happening I was sure it was not good. And it became more terrifying thinking of who it could be in the room behind that door. Who could it be? I didn't think it was someone I wanted to see.
"Draco, what is happening?" I asked and stopped him from opening the door. "Draco! What have you done?"
However, Draco didn't look at me. "Shut it!" he muttered and knocked on the door.
"Draco!" I gasped demanding to learn the truth because now I could tell that something was definitely not right about this whole thing.
"Come in."
I knew the voice that answered from inside. At once, I opened my eyes wide with fear.
It was my father who was waiting.
"You fucking asshole!"
I knew it was time for me to resist Draco's painful dragging. I started trying to get his hands off me because, even if I didn't know why, the man I had trusted had brought me to my doom.
I started hitting him and punching him to set myself free but it was useless. My punches were mere touches to his face and body. When he realised that I wouldn't get into the room quietly, he took a knife out of his pocket and passed it around my neck. Draco kicked the door open and dragged me inside.
I saw my father, sitting in an old armchair. It was one of the only times I had seen him smiling, something that didn't make me feel better at all.
"Oh, well done, Draco! Well done!" he said and jumped up as soon as he saw me. "You found her!" he said and came near me.
"What is all this?" I demanded.
Draco pushed the knife in my neck a bit more.
"Slow down, Draco. We don't want an accident happening here..." said Voldemort. At once, Draco let go of me and put the knife back into his pocket. He made a few steps and stood still with his hands behind his back and his face motionless. I knew it would be useless trying to run away. Voldemort would get me.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Always the same questions. What do you want? Why are you doing this? Oh, my dear daughter, I thought you knew better," answered Voldemort making a circle around me.
"Draco..." I turned to him bitterly. "How could you do this to me?"
"You silly girl... I thought that you were in Ravenclaw for a reason at least, for goodness sake. Don't you tell me that you believed Draco's act?" he said with a little laugh.
"What do you mean?"
"I must admit, I was ready to kill Draco last summer. But when, after a bit of torturing, he surrendered and swore me internal loyalty, how could I refuse to keep him alive? You didn't really believe that he was alive for no reason, did you? He's my loyal servant now and he answers only to me. Not his heart. So when I asked him to bring you forth to me, he couldn't say no. Not to mention he was the only one who knew where to find you," he said with merciless eyes that glittered in the sight of his joyless daughter. I was staring with the feeling of despair getting all over me, without dare thinking of letting it show, though. I wouldn't give him this satisfaction of seeing me begging him. "And it was all thanks to you. You were the one that told him to go to Godric's Hollow, if he ever changed his mind, didn't you?"
I looked at Draco's eyes. He looked straight in front of him, emptily and unemotionally. He was either avoiding looking at me or he truly had sworn faith in Voldemort and had forgotten everything about me.
"I am surprised. You slipped away from me when I had you closed up at Hogwarts... I still do not know how you managed to do it. I was blocking your visions all the time?"
"You were the one who blocked my visions?"
"You stupid girl! You are my daughter. Do you think that I couldn't control you? I was controlling your visions. If I hadn't, you would have been warned ten days before I decided to arrest you. But with me getting inside your mind, I was able to change them. Of course, my plan didn't go as well as I expected. You fled. Well done. You amused me with that..." he let out a little laughter. "And you were stupid enough to let that speech out from the radio station. Well, that was amusing as well..." he said.
"Well, I fled again. And you didn't get me," I held my head up high. "It takes the most powerful wizard in the world six months to get to me."
"Oh, that was right... You said to my Death Eaters to come back and speak of your mercy? Well, then look where this mercy got you. I sent Draco to find you instead. Yes. It was quite interesting for me seeing you fooled and captured by Draco himself. I never would have thought that this stupid boy could be of much use... But there... That's my kind of mercy..." he answered.
"He couldn't have done this willingly... What are you holding against him?" I asked desperately looking in his grey eyes, the eyes I'd trusted. He was still looking ahead.
"Death, my daughter, is the saddest experience one could ever know. You could betray anyone, everyone, so you could save yourself from death," he said getting near Draco and placing a hand on his shoulder. "I find the same spirit as mine inside Draco when it comes to this idea."
"Draco is nothing like you!" I gasped, even though I knew that Draco had changed so much now.
"Draco is exactly the same as me, Annalise. No wonder why you, your mother's daughter, fell in love with him. Well, at least you are loyal to him. Not like your mother," he said and looked right to Draco's emotionless face.
I felt so stupid and disappointed in myself. How could I not have double-checked this? I had lost him and found him again only to lose my mind. I heard the word 'never' and thought I was in heaven. Now everything seemed clear. Voldemort spared his life, planning to use Draco against me. And he did; Draco himself had used my love against me so he could fool me and get me to his Master. How could I have been so stupid?
I keep telling myself that I am learning but I haven't changed much from the naive girl I thought I had gotten over.
And how comes that Voldemort was controlling my insight without me not even understanding it? Was I so depressed and vulnerable after Draco's death that he managed to take over me completely? And all that because of my love for Draco who had after all betrayed me?
"So now what?" I asked after a moment.
"I am not going to kill you if that is what you mean. On the contrary, I am going to give you the choice I always gave you. I think you have managed to see that my power is the greatest in the world. You cannot escape. I am not willing to kill you. But if you choose to deny me again, I will not have another choice. And before you die, you will have to understand that there is no greater power than mine," he said slowly looking right into my eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"I will make sure you suffer," he said.
I was sure he was going to torture me now. There was no way I was going to obey now.
"Go on," I said steadily.
I was so close to the end. Some would think that this was a great time to stop and obey. But I found this as a chance to make my mother proud of me. Make her see how alike we were. We both made the choice that changed our lives. She chose to follow Voldemort and I chose to follow Draco. It was my fate - her fate - our fate, to die because love betrayed us.
"As you wish," he said with a little smile on his lips.
And right when I was ready to feel the pain getting all over me like it had so many times before, I saw Voldemort drawing his wand and pointing it in a different direction than mine.
He was pointing at Draco.
Voldemort simply waved his wand without spelling something and Draco moved. With silent and sure movements he took the knife out of his pocket and placed the blade on his left hand, ready to cut his veins.
"Wait..." I said looking at Draco again.
In a split second, I had realised what was happening.
"You were lying..." I realised silently, not really talking to Voldemort but to myself. "He is not your loyal servant. He is just..." I said and paused for a moment. "Cursed."
Voldemort turned to look at me at once, as if he was busted.
Draco was not doing this willingly. He was cursed and under the Imperius Curse. He didn't want to bring me here. He was just under Voldemort's spell.
Now I could see what was happening. Draco never wanted to find me. He never betrayed me and never asked for mercy.
"No!" I shouted right before Draco could press the blade of his knife into his skin.
I ran up to him as fast as I could and I took the knife from his hands. It didn't need too much effort since he was moving like a hypnotized. Then I threw the knife at the far end of the room and when I heard it falling, I turned back to Draco.
Draco didn't just do anything about it. He was now moving with slow motions to the knife. He wanted to pick it up. But I was turning his face to look at me so he could forget about the knife.
"Draco! Draco, look at me!" I said but he was still trying to get away from my hands. His dazed eyes were looking at nothing else than the knife but I was still trying to get him back to his senses.
"Draco, it's me! It's Anne. Your Anne! Just, please, look at me!" I said desperately.
He only gave me a look and went back to his work trying to escape from my arms and get to the knife.
"No! Draco, don't leave! Never leave! Never!" I said hoping that this last word would make him at least look at me.
Fortunately, it did. He stopped moving and he just stared at me. I was sure he didn't recognise me, though. A few seconds later, he was making an effort again.
"Make him stop!" I shouted at Voldemort with begging eyes, still trying to make Draco stop. "Please! Please, make him stop! I beg of you, make him stop!" I begged. I hoped I would never do this but it wasn't about my life now. It was about Draco's.
"Not until you learn your lesson," answered Voldemort with merciless eyes.
"PLEASE! MAKE HIM STOP! PLEASE!"I begged. "I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!" I repeated.
Voldemort seemed to be thinking about it.
"FATHER!" I screeched.
I hoped I would never need to call him this way. But I did. For Draco's sake, I called him father.
When he heard me calling him this way, he lowered his wand and Draco stopped making any effort. He looked at me with the bitterest but sweetest look and closed me in his arms.
"Anne!" he said and he had been released from the Imperius Curse.
"Are you willing to reconsider?" he asked, putting his wand down momentarily.
"He has done nothing wrong! It's me you want! Not him! Please, don't make him hurt himself!"
"Are you willing to reconsider my offer?" he repeated steadily. I blinked, unable to admit that I was. "If not, you should look at the consequences," he said and waved his wand again. "Crucio!" he said this time.
Draco fell on his knees with his hands tied around his body. I heard his gasp and his struggle and I automatically fell on my knees myself, trying to make his pain stop. But I knew I couldn't! I knew I could do anything. After a bit, Draco fell down and continued screaming. I went down on my knees and put my arms around him, hopelessly.
"You are your mother's daughter. Selfish. You are betraying him. Just like she betrayed me. You are willing to risk his life, all because you are not strong enough to follow me. You are your mother's daughter. You don't make sacrifices for the one you love. You are a traitress! Traitress!" screamed Voldemort while torturing Draco.
I looked back at Voldemort who now had this smile of self-satisfaction.
"Fine! Fine! I'll follow you!" I finally said, out of breath. Voldemort lowered his wand and walked up to me. He pulled me up painfully, put two hands around me and embraced me awkwardly.
"Daughter, you are welcome to join me. I'm glad we have reached an understanding," he said. "Welcome to my family," he said and stroked my face. I stood with disgust and fear at the same time.
Never! I wanted to say. But I was thinking of Draco and what Voldemort could do to him the next time I spoke.
"Maybe you're not like your mother, after all. Maybe you actually are loyal," said Voldemort and walked back to his armchair.
"Anne, you don't have to do this," said Draco. "I'll be fine... Let him kill me. I don't want you to follow him," he said and tore. "I love you."
"Shut it, you!" said Voldemort at once, stilling on the chair.
Both Draco and I were crying now. I put my face close to his as he was now slowly placing his hands on my face.
"I wouldn't do this to you," I whispered.
"I don't want you to do this. You can't follow him. Not for me. This man will make you a Death Eater. He is a monster..." he whispered in my ear.
"I'm not going to put your life at risk. I have made this mistake before and I'm not doing it again. This is out of the question," I answered.
Draco kissed me. It was not a Draco under the Imperius Curse. Voldemort had lifted it from him, now. I could feel it.
"Enough of this," shouted Voldemort from the end of the room. "Stand, the both of you," he ordered. I helped Draco up. He held my hand before walking near Voldemort.
"Don't think that you will go unpunished for all the things you did, Annalise."
"But I said I would follow you," I said. Voldemort flicked his wand and my body was momentarily taken over by pain.
"You follow me because I threaten you. Now, you will learn to follow me with your heart," he answered. "I will make you worship me as a father."
* * *
Vote & Comment & Follow
💙💙💙💙