It Started on the Train

24

"Addilyn, I need you to stay behind."

It is already Christmas break. My mother and I have been ignoring each other for the past week I've been back as we do, but after dinner, she told me to stay.

"Yes mother?"

"We have some special guests who will be arriving soon, and they would like a word with you. Come." She gestured for me to follow her over to the door.

A moment later there is a sound outside, and she opens the door.

"Dark Lord. Thank you for gracing us with your company." My mother said, as the Dark Lord walked in.

"Our other guests shall be arriving shortly Stephanie. Until then, I need to speak with your daughter."

"Would you like privacy my Lord?"

"No you may stay." She offered him a chair in the sitting room, and we both sat in other seats.

"I require your assistance. I have recently acquired a new deatheater, who has not yet fulfilled their task. I would like you to help. And there is also a... special... task just for you."

There is absolutely nothing good that could come from this.

"Ah, here are our other guests now." He said, gesturing to the fire, as Narcissa and Draco appeared.

"I believe you are familiar with the Malfoys?"

"Yes." I said, my shoulders tense.

"Young Draco has recently been assigned the mission of killing Dumbledore. He has yet to succeed. I would like you to help him if he can not do it on his own." Draco's eyes were on the ground. "That is your first task."

"And the second my Lord?" My mother asked.

"You are familiar with the Potter boy, yes?"

I wish for everything I could lie and say no. However, he will know if I lie.

"Yes my Lord."

"Perfect. I need you to gather as much information as you can on him."

A shudder runs through my body.

"I want you to join me and my deatheaters."

No no no no no no no. This can't happen.

There is a sudden jolt of pain from my leg. It feels like there are pins jammed into my skin, but a quick glance proved there were not.

I look over at my mother, to see her hide her wand out of sight.

"Addilyn, what do you have to say to this so generous offer?"

It isn't an offer. I know I don't have a choice.

"Yes."

...........................................................................

It burns.

My arm feels like it is constantly on fire and the only pain never fades.

Draco never told me how bad it hurt.

He and his mother are still here. I am supposed to discuss a plan with Draco, but we've already discussed it into the ground while at school.

"Why didn't you ever say anything about the pain?"

"It was the least of my worries. The thought of murdering someone is a much worse thing to work through."

"Does it keep burning forever?"

"It dulls, and sometimes fades completely, but then flares up again later."

The pain doesn't bother me much. It is almost relieving to feel something. At least it distracts me from everything it represents.

"How long are you and your mother staying?"

"I don't know. Probably until school starts again. Mother avoids having me near the Dark Lord at all costs. He is back there now."

"Well it will be better to have you and your mother here so it doesn't leave me alone with my mother. She seems to think she has some kind of victory. I suppose she has. Harry trusts me. I can't really lie to the Dark Lord, he would know."

"I am skilled at Occlumency." Harry tried to learn it last year from Snape. "Do you want me to try to teach you?"

"It's worth a shot. I doubt I'll be very good, but it's something."

...........................................................................

Turns out, I'm not half bad at it.

We spent the week in my room, him teaching me and trying to help.

I had gotten pretty good too.

"A bit more practice and you might be able to lie even to the Dark Lord."

"Thank you for all your help."

"Addilyn," Draco's voice changed, he was about to tell me something I definitely did not want to hear. "I gave a poisoned mead bottle to Slughorn. I thought he might give it to Dumbledore."

"I thought we agreed no more stupid, reckless attempts."

"I didn't do it or the necklace to kill Dumbledore. I did it to make it seem like I'm really trying. I don't know how long I can stay alive while Dumbledore is too."

"Aren't there better ways? What if Slughorn drinks it?"

"I don't know."

"We need to figure out the cabinet. That is the best way."

"But we still have absolutely no idea how to fix it."

"That is true. Why are they trusting kids to do this? We aren't even of age. But I suppose that's the point. They don't want us to survive."

"Does the Dark Lord want you dead too?"

"No, I expect it was my mother's idea. For her, it's a win win situation. If I fail, she doesn't have to bother with me anymore. Succeed, and she gets glory."

"What an amazing plan." He said sarcastically, sitting down in a chair.

"What a better solution." I respond, collapsing into a chair across from him, too tired to put my full effort into the sarcasm.

Draco walks over to me, scoops me up, and sits down in my chair so that now I am on his lap. I rest my head against his shoulder, and he gently runs his fingers up and down my back.

"It's going to be alright. We can make it through this. And then we are going to move somewhere far away and live there happily."

This thought makes me smile.

A small cottage on a hill surrounded by a field of flowers. Baking cupcakes in a small kitchen with plants hanging from the ceiling. A waterfall nearby, trickling quietly all the time.

Or a treehouse in the middle of a forest. Delicious berries and fruit all around us. Raining all the time with the gentle pitter-patter of the drops on the roof.

Or a quaint little house near a lake. Every night we would light a fire and read from storybooks until our eyelids were too heavy to keep open.

Far away from our troubles.