WARNING:
Sensitive content ahead. Please skip this chapter if you think it might make you uncomfortable.
***
Jenna turned around slowly, her eyes widening in shock. She had to think quickly to get herself out of it. But how could he have found out...?
"What?" Jenna mused, trying to act confused.
"You know exactly what," said Avery, taking slow steps toward her.
Jenna tried to reach out for her wand, but Avery was quicker as he drew out his own wand from his cloak in a quick motion and pointed it up at her warningly.
But despite her heart beating rapidly and pounding in her chest, Jenna tried her best to stay calm and play along.
"What are you playing at, Avery?" She gave him a blank gaze.
"How long have you been here, Potter?" he asked in his dangerous dark tone as he ignored her question, nearing her even more.
With each step that Avery took forward, Jenna took one backward until her back hit the wall behind her, though she never broke the eye contact as she glared up at him with her emotionless eyes.
"You know..." Avery started, lowering his voice into a growl, "ever since the night you came to our meeting with the Dark Lord, claiming that you'd been in a fight with an Order member and losing your wand and having to snatch another one, I couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right."
"You're using your last braincells to pointless matters, Avery," Jenna snarled, but he only laughed.
"Oh, but it's not pointless at all," he said in a sneer. "I kept thinking that your wand was familiar. I knew I had seen it somewhere. But when Lucius said that Jenna Potter had gone missing, I finally realized why that wand looked so familiar. It belonged to Jenna Potter, who had tried desperately to hex me on many occasions back at school."
"Don't give me that rubbish," Jenna said blankly, though her heart was throbbing.
"Rubbish?" He scoffed, repeating her. "Rubbish was my thoughts back then, when I though that this all must've been just a coincident. I knew you were a Metamorphmagus, but I never thought you could be powerful enough to change your whole appearance and keep it for such a long time."
"I don't know what you're talking ab —" she was trying to say, but was cut off and winced when Avery raised his wand even higher, holding it warningly right bellow her chin.
"Don't play the fool, Potter," he growled. "I thought I was being paranoid, but then I figured out at once that I had been right all along the night Travers told us about the McKinnons. It was the moment you stormed out of the hall when I knew who you really were."
"You're crazy," Jenna mumbled with all that she had left in her.
"Am I?" Avery sneered, and then, in the flash of an eye, he took a hold of her arm harshly and rolled up her cloak's sleeve, revealing her still Dark Mark upon her forearm, his smirk widening. "It's a fake. You're no Death Eater."
Jenna fell silent. She feared that Avery would tell Voldemort about her, and that was going to be when she had to beg him to kill her, to save her from the torture that awaited her.
"Oh, but don't worry," Avery whispered, "I haven't told anybody. Not yet, at least."
At these words, Jenna could tell that he was up to something. She knew that he wanted something in exchange for his silence, and she was afraid of knowing what it was.
"I won't tell anyone, for now," Avery said in a whisper as he dragged his lips toward Jenna's ear, saying, "I'm sure we could come to an agreement."
Jenna stared back at him, her eyes washed with disgust as he drew his face closer to hers.
"You know... I always thought you looked alluring," he muttered, his lips now only an inch away from hers. "C'mon, Potter. Turn back to your own form. Surrender yourself to me, and this shall remain our little secret."
Jenna hesitated. She had to think fast. All she had to do was to take a hold of her wand which was inside her robe. But there was no way she could reach for it as long as Avery had his own wand pointed at her. She needed to distract him.
So making sure that no one else was inside the hall, Jenna took was last deep breath and with her eyes still glaring at Avery, she slowly tried to transform herself back to her own form.
She felt the disgust fill her up as she saw Avery's smirk widen into a dark and crooked smile. But then her breath was knocked out of her chest when he leaned down, slamming his lips against hers.
But just then, with her eyes still wide open, Jenna took the opportunity when his lips dragged down to her neck and she used his distraction to her advantage. So with that, she furiously raised her leg and kicked him in the guts harshly with her knee.
Avery growled in pain and hurtled to the ground, struggling to breathe as he held his stomach, his wand falling out of his hand.
But before he could even try to reach out for it again, Jenna drew out her wand abruptly and pointed it at him, saying, "Confundo!"
On cue, Avery stopped groaning in pain and slowly got to his feet, standing up and looking around him and blinking a few times in confusion, probably having no idea what he was doing there.
Jenna placed her free hand on her fast-beating heart, breathing heavily to calm herself down as she transformed herself back to Alecto Carrow's form as quickly as possible.
"You'll forget everything you've figured out about me," Jenna said after she bad caught her breath. "I'm Alecto Carrow. And that's all you know." Avery stared ahead in confusion, believing in every word she was saying.
But just then, Jenna had to put her wand back in her robe briskly when she heard footsteps coming from the end of the hall toward their direction. Not a minute later, Amycus appeared from around the corner.
"I've been looking all over for you, Alecto! Where the hell have you been!?" Amycus snapped, looking suspiciously between his sister and Avery, who looked oddly quiet and still.
"We've been talking," Jenna tried to say calmly and Avery nodded in confirmation hesitantly.
"Well, keep the chitchat for later. Rookwood has summoned us," Amycus grumbled. But then, his lips twitched up into a smirk as he said, "He's got a hold of one of the Order members."