Rise of the Death Eaters [3]

Chapter 59: Into the Unknown

*lol, we love a good Disney reference for a chapter name. Have fun getting that song out of your head now hehe*

The end of that week was a blurred attempt of celebrating the end of another school year and the start of summer. But every one of us who had gone to the Department of Mysteries had lost the startling joys of incoming summer.

Harry had lost Sirius, someone I barely knew nor would have cared for if his death hit the papers a week ago. But now I sympathized for him.

Theo wasn't dead of course. But where he was now sent coiled dread to fester in my stomach and at night my mind was filled with anxious thoughts of what my father would do. What my father was now—how he could be a death eater and live right under my nose the entire time.

Everything about it was unfathomable, and I felt like such an idiot for not seeing the signs. Even Draco, for as meticulous and manipulative a being as he was, had in his own way warned me of my father. I didn't agree when he reminded me of the World Cup situation but ever since our fight, memories of that day and that of my father's initiation into the Death Eaters haunted me.

And being in Slytherin, surrounded by the children of the people I fought mere days ago, I couldn't escape it. And now I joined the stereotype from my house.

Whether I liked it or not.

"Are you sure you don't want to just run?" Sam asked again as we walked on the train platform in Hogsmead. The Hogwarts Express gleamed just as red as usual. But today it looked rather novel.

"Where could I go?" I said, dejected to the looping conversation. "Everywhere I could think of I'm sure my parents would come looking for me. They all have connections to find me."

Sam didn't have to say anything. Her eyes gave her thoughts away—those narrow dark eyes of her were impassive at times and told me everything in other moments. Like now—she was terrified.

"I'm sure my parents could find a way to hide you," Sam went on, but I ignored her as I passed my chest to the bellman. I turned back to find Sam clutching onto her own chest handles with a line of white across the knuckles.

I went up to her and held her hand making her relax.

"What's the one thing my family will never fail to account for?" I let Sam think on it for a moment before uttering a rather stubborn "Money." It made me snort, breaking the moment entirely.

"Well it's true!" Sam shot back as I let go of her hand and tried to stifle another laugh.

"We don't need to account for money, you simpleton. It's more or less a birthright at this point. I was hinting at my family's reputation! Do you really think my parents are going to let the gossip mill destroy the Fountaine name?"

Sam's jaw set as I answered my own question.

"Of course not! They're going to try and act mundane in the crowds. Show my siblings and I out to the public as much as possible as one big happy family. They'll spend money on charities for the world to see, they'll have us sit on the balconies of country clubs to show that nothing has changed and most importantly," I emphasized regaining Sam's attention after her notable eye roll at my words, "They will send me back to school in the fall just like every other witch my age."

"And then you'll be away from them once again," Sam concluded, seeing my point. I nodded.

"I just have to get through the summer."

Sam didn't say it but as we walked onto the train together, I caught the worry still lining her eyes.

A lot can happen in a summer.