Alexandra Weasley book 7

68

Alex reached Malfoy Manor in the afternoon, just in time for lunch. She met her grandfather in the dining hall.

"Alexandra." He greeted.

"Good afternoon, grandfather." She said, a sulky lilt to her tone.

"Something wrong?"

"I'm starting to realise no one is trustworthy. It's not a fun lesson to learn." She said, stabbing her fork into her food.

"Is this about Granger?" He feigned ignorance.

"I broke up with Blaise. I don't want to talk about it, and I expect that you really don't want to either. And no, I would not like him murdered. I prefer to torture him myself."

"Might I inquire as to what the young Mr Zabini did to warrant your ire?"

"Okay, but fair warning. If you want to talk about any of my romantic entanglements, I reserve the right to ask about your history when you were at Hogwarts." This usually got Snape off her back. It seemed to work on her grandfather as he cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"Have the Carrows been more respectful towards you?"

"Yeah, thanks. They clearly hate having to defer to me. It's fun."

"And how are your lessons with professor Slughorn? He was my favourite teacher when I was at Hogwarts."

"Can't believe he's so old." Voldemort visibly moved his head to look at her, looking a little offended. "You're a grandfather. You're old by default."

"None would dare speak to me as you do."

"Well, I'm your granddaughter. It's sort of my job to be a brat. Just be thankful you weren't around when I was a child."

"I am not thankful you were stolen from your rightful place." He said and she quietened.

"Well, no amount of their indoctrination succeeded. I still found my way back here."

"That you did."

"Anyways, I was planning on staying over this weekend, but if you're busy, I might as well just go back to Hogwarts because I'm not sure Bellatrix will be left unharmed if I stay here alone."

"I do have plans, but I thought you might like to join me."

"What are we going to do?"

"Desecrate Albus's grave." He said, seeming pleased with himself.

"I hated the man too, but it seems a little petty." She said.

"I won't deny I'll enjoy it, but it's for a practical purpose."

"But everyone's going to be at school. It'll be hard to hide that."

"Severus will cause a distraction."

"There'll be a mutiny if we're caught."

"Would you like to sit it out?"

"Definitely not. It'll be fun blasting Dumbledore's grave. When do we go?"

"We leave tonight."

"Cool."

Whatever Snape's distraction was, it definitely worked. Not even Hagrid was present to notice them stalking across the grounds to Dumbledore's grave. Alex had managed to get a quick note off to Hermione about what was going on, more to inform her than anything else. She didn't have any specific details herself so there wasn't much they could do, but it was best to let her know.

"We shall join you in the castle shortly." Voldemort dismissed Snape in his high, cold voice. "Leave us now."

Snape bowed and set off back up the path, his black cloak billowing behind him. Alex walked by her grandfather's side, matching his slow pace as he waited for Snape's figure to disappear.

The castle was dark and all lights were turned off. Alex's eyes returned to her grandfather at his quick movement as he withdrew his wand. She watched him carefully and saw him cast an illusion spell over the area around them and ahead. Likely one to hide them from view, and catering to the fact that a disillusionment spell wouldn't even work on Alex.

They continued walking around the edge of the edge of the lake, stopping before they reached the forest boundary. The grave was rather sublime. It stood proud beside the lake, reflected in the still, black waters. The white marble stone seemed to be the only thing emitting light across the entire grounds. Alex stood silently for a moment.

"I didn't come to the funeral. I slipped off into the forest." She admitted.

"I wouldn't have attended either." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"He's not so intimidating anymore. All our secrets die with him. All his knowledge, his influence- they all die with him. I used to think that by accepting me into Hogwarts, he was doing me a favour. I thought I owed him everything. But all he ever did was try to manipulate me. All anyone did was try to manipulate me. The Weasleys, Snape, Granger. Blaise." She turned to him. "But he's dead now, and none of them can hurt me anymore. I don't need them."

"No, you don't." He looked at her, and gestured to the grave. "Would you like to do the honours?"

"I'll be content just watching it blow up." She said. He squeezed her shoulder in what she assumed was supposed to be an assuring gesture, before raising his wand.

The tomb split open from head to foot. Dumbledore's shrouded figure was as long and as thin as it had been in life. Voldemort raised the wand again.

The wrappings fell open. His face was translucent, pale, sunken, yet almost perfectly preserved. They had left his spectacles on the crooked nose. Alex barely managed to curb her eye roll. Dumbledore's hands were folded upon his chest, and there it lay, clutched beneath them, buried with him. Alex scrunched her nose at the smell, looking disgusted as her grandfather stepped forward to pluck the wand from Dumbledore's grasp. So that's what he was after. Bright sparks illuminated from the tip of the wand as Voldemort held the wand up high, victorious. When he stepped back, Alex waved her wand and covered up the body. Her grandfather looked at her, suspicious.

"He stinks." She said. "Besides, unless you'd like to announce to the world that we disturbed Dumbledore's grave, we were going to have to put it back anyways."

A/N- My timeline is all sorts of messed up but oop. I guess it's just going to go. I do believe we might be finally reaching the battle. I've kind of been avoiding it but 👀 soon, ig.

Favourite line is "Okay, but fair warning. If you want to talk about any of my romantic entanglements, I reserve the right to ask about your history when you were at Hogwarts."

I thought I uploaded this last night, but I guess not so here it issss!