Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [7]

⚡️ Chapter 29 ⚡️

The drawing room dazzled after the darkness outside. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, more portraits against the dark purple walls. Two figures rose from chairs in front of an ornate marble fireplace as the prisoners were forced into the room by the Snatchers, and Vega looked up to find them to be – Lucius and Draco Malfoy.

"What is this?" Lucius Malfoy questioned in his usual drawling voice.

Vega tried to free herself from where she was tied, knowing that she needed to reach for her bag where she knew that she had so many potions and equipment to help her against these Death Eaters, yet it was so far away from where her conscious was.

"They say they've got Potter and Lestrange," Narcissa said in her usual cold voice. "Draco, come here," Vega watched as the tall, thin figure of Draco Malfoy rose from an armchair, his face pale and pointed underneath his white-blond hair.

Greyback forced the prisoners to turn again so as to place Vega and Harry directly beneath the chandelier. Vega was now facing a mirror over the fireplace, a great gilded thing in an intricately scrolled frame. She only saw a glimpse of herself in the mirror – she wasn't herself at all but the blonde-haired Madeleine Beaumont.

"Well, boy?" rasped the werewolf.

"Well, Draco?" Lucius Malfoy asked, and he sounded avid. "Is it? Is it Harry Potter? If it's Potter than this girl would definitely be Lestrange... she's known to be a Metamorphmagus!"

"I can't – I can't be sure," Draco replied.

Draco was keeping his distance from Greyback, and seemed as scared of looking at Vega or Harry as the other two were of looking at him. Vega held her breath.

"But look at him carefully, look!" Lucius insisted. "Come closer!" Vega had never heard him be so excited. "Draco, if we are the ones who hand Potter over to the Dark Lord, everything will be forgiv –"

"Now, we won't be forgetting who actually caught him, I hope Mr. Malfoy?" Greyback interjected menacingly.

"Of course not, of course not!" Lucius said impatiently.

Lucius approached Vega and Harry himself, came so close that Vega could see the usually languid, pale face in sharp detail. They were not looking at her at all, rather at Harry. Clearly, Snape or someone must've mentioned her abilities with changing her features at will.

"What did you do to him?" Lucius asked Greyback. "How did he get into this state?"

"That wasn't us," Greyback replied.

"Looks more like a Stinging Jinx to me," Lucius said. His grey eyes raked Harry's forehead. "There's something there," he whispered. "it could be the scar, stretched tight... Draco, come here, look properly! What do you think?"

Vega watched as Draco was once again nearer to her and Harry's faces. The two of them were extraordinarily alike, except that while his father looked beside himself with excitement, Draco's expression was full of reluctance, even fear as he watched them.

"I don't know," Draco said, and he walked away toward the fireplace where his mother stood watching. Vega pursed her lips.

"We had better be certain, Lucius," Narcissa called to her husband in her cold, clear voice. "Completely sure that it is Potter and Lestrange, before we summon the Dark Lord... They say these are theirs –" She was looking closely at the wands. "– but they do not resemble Ollivander's descriptions ... if we are mistaken, if we call the Dark Lord here for nothing ... remember what he did to Rowle and Dolohov?"

"What about the Mud-Blood, then?" Greyback growled.

Upon this, Vega and Harry were nearly thrown off their feet as the Snatchers forced the prisoners to swivel around again, so that the light fell on Hermione instead.