low-key enjoyed writing this one :)
Song Recommendation:
Dancing On My Own - Calum Scott
"Arghhh!" Auriga screamed into the empty air. "Please! Please, no! Not again!"
"Oh, sweetheart," said Augustus as he approached next to where she lay on her bed in Malfoy Manor, "Don't you realise? You did this to yourself."
The world spun, and there she was in Snidget, with Augustus down on one knee, and that awful, churning feeling in her gut. "Yes!" she said, trying to be happy for herself but knowing her future was dim. For a moment, Thomas's disappointed face flickered before her, but it was replaced again with Augustus's as he stood up and forced the heavy ring onto her finger.
He dragged her by her forearm into her parent's sitting room, and then he was hitting her, kicking her, and she felt the pain of the cruciatus curse over and over again. Auriga got up and ran outside, finding herself in an alleyway, with nowhere else to run. She turned round and found herself face to face with Augustus, his hand on her throat. And she couldn't breathe, she was suffocating! Someone had to help! But there was no one there. It would just be her and Augustus in this empty alleyway forever...
But then he let go, and another voice joined his in light conversation. "...You can have her," her father was saying, "Merlin knows we don't want her."
Auriga dared herself to open her eyes, and found herself in her family drawing room, facing her mother. "You have to," Narcissa Malfoy said, "Or we won't want you." Her mother left, and Auriga found herself in her wedding gown, tears pouring unwillingly down her face as she faced the prospect of never being a part of the Malfoy family again.
She ran from the room and found herself in a burning campsite, still in her wedding dress, facing a group of masked Death Eaters marching towards her. "I can help you!" she screamed. "Let me help you!"
"We don't want your help!" her father shouted back at her from the front of the group. "You should join us!"
"Let me help you!" Auriga repeated. But this time she was back in her parents' drawing room at Malfoy Manor, and her mother was looking at her.
"I don't want your help," she said to her, "Leave."
Auriga took a last fleeting look at her parents before running from the room, the door slamming behind her. She bumped into a tall and scrawny figure, and was on the verge of relief when she saw it was Remus. But the look on his face was one of utter revulsion. "You hate me!" he whispered, tears filling his eyes. "You don't want me!" Auriga shook her head, tears pouring once more. "YOU CALLED ME A MONSTER!"
"No!" Auriga cried, her voice hoarse. "No, Remus-!"
"You're selfish!" he screamed at her. "You only care about yourself!"
"REMUS!" Auriga shouted. A hand grabbed his arm and threw him to the floor. Augustus stood over him, wand raised.
"Crucio!" he said, and Remus contorted on the floor in pain.
Auriga tried to cry out, but her words failed her. Augustus strode towards her, his wand still gripped in his hand, and she found herself backing away, her heart in her throat, until the backs of her legs found her bed. Augustus reached her and placed a gentle hand on her wet cheek. "You see?" he said, a sinister smile playing on his face. "This was all you. And now-" he pushed her backward and she fell onto her bed, "You're all mine." He raised his wand, the incantation of the cruciatus curse on the tip of his tongue, but before he could say it-
The ground around Auriga shook, and she found the air not as cold as it usually was, the awful memories subdued and not biting. Where were the dementors? Why was her door unlocked? She didn't think about it again as she scrambled to her somewhat weak feet and - gripping the walls - she made her way down and out the corridor.
She found herself in a long stairwell. The part she was stood in was empty, and again the absence of dementors was noted. "Auriga!" Auriga looked up and saw her father hurrying down the stairs towards her, Death Eater mask and wand clutched in one hand. He embraced her tightly, before checking her over for immediate injuries.
"Father," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes, and her knees weak with relief. Or lack of food. "You're-you're here."
"I'm here," he promised. A group of three more Death Eaters ran past, with a prisoner in tow shortly behind them. The prisoner grabbed Auriga's wrist and she looked into the eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Long time, no see," said Lestrange, her teeth bared and yellow.
"My wand," Auriga said, her voice hoarse and still gripping onto her father for support. "I need-"
"It's here," he promised, holding up her wand. "Let's go." Lestrange cackled gleefully, and Auriga and Lucius followed her as she skipped down the stairs.
*****
"Auriga!" Narcissa Malfoy exclaimed as they reached the front steps of their destination. It was a manor house, but she didn't know whose or where. She embraced her mother who half-carried her inside with everyone else. She was led along a hallway, out of the way of everyone else.
"Narcissa!" called her father. "This way."
"I don't know-" her mother began.
"This way," said her father again, more urgently this time. Her mother sighed and led Auriga back along the corridor and into a large ballroom with a long table down the centre. She was guided into a seat next to her father, with her mother on his other side. Lestrange sat down quickly next to Auriga, still grinning and looking demented. She reminded Auriga of a child waiting for their birthday cake.
Auriga looked up the table and gasped when she saw the Dark Lord, looking exactly as he had seventeen years ago, and also looking right at her. She didn't even attempt to hide the plain shock she felt, as she didn't have the strength to do it.
"Welcome, Death Eaters," he said to the table, "And welcome to those of you faithful enough to spend all these years apart from the rest of us." Bellatrix cackled again, and Auriga swallowed the lump in her throat. How had she got to here?