Ch.8
“Wow, what do we feed them all?” I asked, looking at the cages of squeaking pygmy puffs. There were rolling around and occasionally a tongue would slip out as if looking for something to eat. Bloom, was huddled in the pocket of my jeans, purring. Whenever I put my finger near her she would curl about it, her humming increasing.
I was wearing a light pink, sequined, striped shirt. I had on light gray skinny jeans, light pink pumps with bows on the back, and pink and gold bangles. I left my hair with natural curls.
“We think they’ll eat pretty much anything. We’re trying to test that.” Fred placed a plate of lettuce leaves, carrot sticks, and even small pieces of chicken in the cage, while handing me a few lettuce leaves as well for Bloom. I looked down at my pocket when I felt movement and saw the Bloom had poked her head out. Her tongue came out, trying to reach the leaves. I took her out and watched her gobble down the leaves, and then he crept up onto my shoulder, cuddling next to my neck.
I turned my attention to the cage of multi-colored fur balls and saw the entire plate of food had disappeared. “These are going to be huge sellers!” I said, pouring them water in a dish, while I poured a smaller dish of water for Bloom.
“I know, who could ever resist their charm,” Fred said with a smile as he grabbed a dark green one and watched as it squeaked and curled in his hand, occasionally, his tongue would slip out.
“True,” I said with a yawn. I could hear an almost snoring type sound coming from my shoulder. “They are just too cute.” I said, looking down at Bloom.
I headed back up to the apartment so I could put Bloom down on her new mini bed that was pretty much just a blanket. Once she was snuggled into the blanket, I headed back down to the guys, who were talking about a party.
“What party?” I asked, stacking the now empty plates and turning to them.
“We were just thinking about throwing a party here for the opening, that way we can draw some people in to see what this place is.” I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
“I’m pretty sure no one’s going to be confused as to what this place is.” I gestured to our window displays. On the main window was a display of puking pastilles with a figurine we had enchanted to seem as if it were throwing up, although surrounding the figure was piles of puking pastilles. These were a huge seller for students so that they could get out of class.
I noticed that both the boys had smirks on their faces. “Of course they’ll know what this place is, we just want to celebrate the work that went into this place.”
“Fine, when are we throwing the party?”
“Right after the school year ends. Then we can invite every over here that you haven’t been able to see all year.”
“That would be great!” I said, pecking George on the lips before taking everything back upstairs. “You guys have to take care of them, you do realize that!”
“We know, besides we have to make sure these keep reproducing. It’s going to be huge sellers.” They said as if left them to their work. I washed the dishes and then decided to go get the paper that was lying in front of our fireplace.
I couldn’t believe what I saw when I picked it up. Yet again, the front cover story was about me. “The Girl in the Mask, Is She close To Being Unmasked!?” was written across the top. I began reading it, shocked by the information that was in it. Apparently they had found out that my father was Voldemort and that my mom was Persephone Black. They thought that I was helping my uncle, Sirius, break out everyone and was one of the main masterminds behind death eater occurrence for the last many years. They were right about many things, but there were a few things they mentioned that were far from the truth. Apparently they wanted me to turn myself in and reveal who I was, but they knew this would never happen.
I sat down staring at the mask that was on the cover. They were getting closer and closer to the truth each day. It was getting harder than I had originally thought. There had to be another spy in our midst, who had luckily not seen me without a mask. Written in the paper was how I was responsible for many disappearances and deaths throughout the wizard world. I couldn’t take it any longer, so I through the paper down on the table and wrote a quick note about how I was going to be at my house.
I disapparated to my house, quickly saying open in parseltongue and entering. I walked into a special room that I kept hidden behind a bookcase. Inside was a fireplace that wasn’t connected to the floo network, unlike my other fireplaces. The others that were connected to the network were hidden from everyone because our followers that worked undercover in the ministry made sure that no one found out where it was located. All the walls were a crisp white, with many mirrors around the room. This room held all the documents and plans I had made over the years. It had documents about every decision my father made, and about my choices as well. Covering the tables were different masks, different wands, and stacks of letter that were organized by who had sent them. The desks had files in them and in this room; there were different doors that led me into different areas.
This is where my hiding place is if anyone unwanted found my house. One door led to a bathroom, a closet, a kitchen, a place that was covered with screens that showed images of my whole house and would send a warning if there was any movement, like a security system. There were two other doors as well, each one leading into a different bedroom. This was an escape for me so that I could avoid the rest of the world.
I heard the alarm start going off, causing me to enter the security room and look at the screens. I shook my head, but couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on my face when I noticed George had suddenly appeared. I walked out of my secret room, making sure that the bookcase slid into its correct spot and sealed itself.
“What are you doing here?” I asked George.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay, I saw the paper.” I sighed, knowing that he would’ve found out at some point.
“I’m fine, it just means that there were more spies then I originally thought. I’m just lucky they haven’t seen me without my mask, or else this whole thing would be a lot worse.”
“I guess that’s true, as long as you’re okay.” He kissed my forehead before looking at the clock. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready, it’s almost time for your meeting.” I glanced at the time and was surprised to see he was right.
“Thanks, I’ll see you later. Though you do realize we have to go to your mum’s house tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about anything. Stay safe.” He said as he disapparated back to the apartment while I went to get dressed.
I put on a short dress that had a plunging V-neck and back. The dress was a light brown color with sequins covering the dress in a vertical pattern. I had on a few bracelets and dangling diamond earrings. I put on nude colored heels, some light lip gloss, and put my hair up in a messy bun so that some of my hair fell down around my face. I made sure to put on a mask as well.
Once I was ready to go I appeared once more outside of the meeting room. There were people whispering, but as soon as I entered the room it fell into silence.
“Well, don’t let my entrance stop you all from gossiping.” I said with a forced smile before heading to my seat, getting a reassuring smile from Salvador and a raised eyebrow from Bella. Still no one dared to speak, though I had expected that of course.
My father finally entered the way, taking his spot at the head of the table, and of course worrying everybody because I expected that they had all gone through interrogations by now.
“I’m very disappointed in those that had turned against me, though they have been punished for their actions I can assure you. It’s fine if you are just turning against me, though you’ll be punished for that as well. But it is an entirely different scenario when you turn against my daughter. Because of the snitches that managed to gain access to our room, her identity was put in jeopardy as well as your own.” His gaze hardened as he looked around the room. “I suggest you do not turn your backs on me at this point, because if you do, you will no longer exist and will be punished very harshly.”
I looked around to see everyone glancing at each other in worry. I could tell they were worried about everything going on.
“I’ve had to dispose of three people in the last two days because of their treacherous behavior; I hope I don’t have to continue doing so. We must now move onto our plan for the end of this school year.” He began talking about the plan, by the time he was close to finishing explaining it was about 10 at night. “Now, my daughter will be involved in this plan as well. There is no room for failure. We must be prepared for everything that could go wrong.” Everyone nodded once more to show they understood, though many of them were relieved they weren’t going to have to take part in this whole situation because of how angry my father was.
“You are now dismissed!” he told them, watching as they all quickly got up and left. Once everyone was gone, he turned to me. “I hope you’re okay after yesterday?”
“I’m fine, dad. Everything’s great at this moment, I’m just a little worried about what will happen if Harry brings along all of my other friends. I don’t want anyone to get injured. What if Ginny comes along, if something happened to her or any of the others, I would never forgive myself.”
“I have a feeling you and Salvador will be able to ensure nothing happens to them, besides, you have more power over my followers than you think.” He told me as I left, heading to the place that I was now considering my true home, to where I knew George would be waiting for me.