I stared at my mum, baffled. What was she on about? I pulled out the letter from my pocket and handed it to her. She read through the contents before looking back up at me again, frightened.
"This is a fake! And why does it say that Bella is here, I thought she was with you?"
My heart sank.
"N-no she isn't with me. The Ministry workers said that you and dad picked her up from the Muggle Registration office and took her home!" I said, this couldn't be happening. Where the hell was Bella?
"I haven't been to The Ministry in ages! And I haven't seen Bella since the beginning of this year" My mum said.
"Well if she isn't with you and she isn't with me, where the hell is she?" I asked.
"Bella definitely isn't here.." we turned around to see Bellatrix emerge from the shadows, looking quite pleased with herself.
"What do you know Bellatrix?" my mum demanded.
"Patience now, Helena. Why must you always blame me? Perhaps ask your sister-in-law, who you trust so much" said Bellatrix, grinning toothily.
Narcissa stood with her hands held together at her front, she looked very ashamed.
"I had no choice, they threatened to kill Draco" she whispered the last part.
"So you endangered not one, but both of my daughters lives!" my mother roared.
"Oh no, she's safe now, back with her muggle mummy and daddy" said Bellatrix venomously.
"But it got Alice exactly where we needed her to be"
"What do you mean exactly where you needed me to be?" I asked Bellatrix shakily.
"When Greyback finally discovered Atlantes, he took your little sister, thinking it was you. But that worked perfectly well for us, we thought that you would come to look for her but instead, you disappeared for a few months. Fortunately, on Christmas eve, the blood-traitor Arthur let it slip to one of the imperiused Ministry Officials that his twin sons were coming over for Christmas Dinner-"
"And so you made the official tell him about the pub in Godric's Hollow, to lure me there. You knew Arthur would tell us about the pub when we told him we needed a place for hiding" I said, finally understanding the whole thing.
"You catch on well darling, but that isn't all, when you went to Godric's Hollow, we threatened a mudblood to help us get you there-"
"Emma" I whispered.
"Yes, whatever her name was. She was the one who delivered the fake letter, although she was quite troublesome, very hard to make her follow the instructions" said Bellatrix, shaking her head.
It all made sense now. Emma was behaving weirdly and trying to keep herself away from us because she had been threatened.
"But all that's by-the-by, my plan worked perfectly, but the best part is still to come"
Bellatrix whipped out her wand and placed the tip of it on her death eater mark.
"NO!" mum yelled, but it was too late.
Voldemort apparated in the hallways of Malfoy Manor, his red eyes gleaming and his cloak sweeping behind him as he walked slowly towards me.
"Ah! Alice! We finally meet after a very long time!" Voldemort said, as if he was simply greeting a guest who had come over for tea.
"What do you want?" I said, trying not to sound terrified.
"Nothing much" He placed the tip of his wand on the base of my neck,
"Just, payback, for abandoning the mission and betraying us" he said.
"Get your wand off of her" my mum said, stepping forward.
Voldemort looked at her and then at my mother and an evil smile made its way onto his thin lips.
"Motherly love, how nauseating" he removed his wand from my neck.
"I have a better offer for you" he said, eyeing my mother. I didn't have a very good feeling about his 'offer'.
"Bellatrix?" he called his most loyal servant.
She immediately stood by his side.
"Summon Cadmus" he said, not looking away from the both of us.
She disappeared and reappeared within a minute, my father by her side. His eyes widened when he saw me and my mother, standing in front of Voldemort.
"Now, you have two options, Cadmus. Consider this as redemption" Voldemort said to my father.
My father gulped but continued to listen intently to what Voldemort had to say.
"Either you perform the cruciatus curse on your daughter, or the same on her mother" Voldemort said simply.
"S-surely there must be some other way-" my father started.
"No. You hurt one and the other one will be free to go" said Voldemort.
"Cadmus! Do it! Perform the curse on me!" my mum said, standing in front of him and lifting his hand with his wand in it, placing the tip of his wand in front of her forehead.
"DAD NO! PLEASE!" I cried.
"Alice I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I have caused you enough trouble" mum said, before looking at my dad in the eyes and continuing,
"She's our daughter Cad, she has her whole life ahead of her. Please don't hurt her" my mother's voice cracked.
I wasn't going to let someone else sacrifice their life for me.
"No! Dad, please don't hurt her. I deserve all of this for running away from the death eaters. I was a coward, you have to perform the curse on me!" I said, begging him. I never thought that I would have to beg for something like this.
"Cad, she's your daughter too, you know her, she's going to do brilliant things in life. I'm just an old woman, my life is worthless" she said to my dad.
He looked at her and then at me.
"You know I love you Helena-"
"We promised each other when she was born, remember? We wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice our lives if it meant that she could live" she said.
Cadmus nodded.
"We wouldn't hesitate" he said quietly.
My dad lifted his wand towards my mum.
"NO!" I screamed but Narcissa held me back, grabbing my arms. I tried to set myself free from her grasp but she was strong.
"Crucio!"
My mum began to writhe in pain on the floor, I could tell she was trying to suppress her screams.
"STOP IT! CAN'T YOU SEE YOU'RE HURTING HER?" I cried, tears flowing uncontrollably from my eyes as I kept trying to fight Narcissa.
My dad did not let any emotion overcome his expressions, he twisted his wand and my mom screamed in pain.
"STOP IT! STOP IT DAD!" I sobbed but he didn't listen to me.
My mother screamed and screamed, twisting in pain on the cold, hard floor. I tried to pull my wand out to stop it but Bellatrix grabbed it from my hands and threw it away.
Suddenly, my mum went limp. Dad lowered his wand any my mother didn't move.
"That should do it, now, put Alice in the dungeons" said Voldemort.
"That wasn't part of the deal!" yelled my father.
"Why, I might have forgotten to mention that! Bellatrix, hurry up, put her in the dungeons" said Voldemort before disapparating from the manor.
I was too weak to protest, I watched my mother lying on the floor, her eyes fluttering as she gazed at the ceiling as if she was simply looking at the clouds floating in the sky.
Bellatrix took me from Narcissa and pushed me down the stairs and into the dungeons.
"Happy New Year" she whispered in my ear before shoving me on to the floor. I hit my head on the concrete and everything went black.
.
Fred's POV:
Something was definitely wrong, Alice had been in there for too long. I decided to go inside to make sure that everything was alright.
When I opened the door to the Manor, the only people inside were a woman lying on the floor and a man bending next to her, looking as if he was crying. When he heard me open the door, his head snapped up.
"Who are you boy?" he said.
"Fred Weasley, I'm here to look for Alice" His eyes flickered over me.
"You're her boyfriend aren't you?"
I nodded.
He hesitated for a few minutes.
"Where is she?" I asked when he didn't say anything.
"I'll tell you on the way" he said.
Had something happened to her? I wouldn't forgive myself if it did, I had promised myself I would protect her. My heart beat faster at the thought of Alice in trouble.
"And where are we going?" I asked.
"To St. Mungo's"
"I need to know if Alice is alright first, can you please tell me where she is?" I raised my voice a little.
"She's fine at the moment, if you want to know where she is, come with me. I don't want you getting into any trouble, Bellatrix is just in the basement and she could hear you"
Anything to be sure that Alice was alright.
I walked over to the man and the woman. He held the both of us and disapparated from the Manor.