Black Blood

026 - Darkest Night

'This cannot be happening!' the girl internally screamed as she frantically paced within the luxurious Malfoy tent, as though the silent statement would somehow warp the reality of the situation into reassuring fact instead of horrified denial. 'This cannot be happening!'

Glancing every which way for a solution to her dilemma, and finding none whatsoever, the girl stopped her mad pacing as a singular, simple idea came to her.

"Kreacher!" she loudly shrieked.

The old house elf appeared without a second of delay, his wrinkly, ugly features showing as much alarm as the girl internally felt.

"Miss?!" he croaked out, wringing his leathery hands together in obvious, anxious worry.

"Draco!" she shrilly said, glancing at the entrance of the luxurious Malfoy tent, as though she would somehow witness her cousin waltzing back in with the invocation of his name. "He's gone, Kreacher! He's out there in...something's happening, and he's out...he's out there!"

Kreacher nodded in understanding, his expression, instead of showing the same alarm the girl felt, became intently focused, and he looked through her form, searching for the foolish child who'd so callously left her side.

"Young Mr. Malfoy is in the forest, Miss," he croaked, nodding to himself a moment later, and Cassiopeia found herself short of breath as imaginings of terrible creatures and evil men coursed throughout her mind, causing her far greater worry than she already felt. "He is safe, Miss."

Just as quickly as her imagination had begun to torment her, it just as swiftly ceased its mechanism, and Cassiopeia found her breath once more.

"Take me to him!" she commanded, glancing at the flickering shadows beyond the tent's dim entrance. "At once, Kreacher, take me to him!"

"My hand, Miss," he quietly croaked, offering her his left limb, his ugly face screwing up as he obeyed her command, yet it was obvious to the girl he very much didn't want to.

She grasped his leathery hand within her delicate own, and then a strong tug appeared from behind her navel as reality twisted and turned, blurred and blackened. With a resounding pop, her demure, bare feet met cold moss and wet mud, the feeling quite revolting, but the girl readily ignored what she stood atop as she looked around wildly for sign of her cousin, regretting her hasty head movement a moment later as her dinner nearly made an appearance.

"D...Draco?!" she raspily asked of the darkness around her, certain he was nearby, and certain something bad had occurred to him.

"Cass?!" a voice returned, one she could never forget, and the girl sighed in relief as she about-faced in hopes of spotting her foolish kin.

"Where are you?!" she queried, her eyes flashing about in search of his form, her mind beginning its tormentation, once more, as she wondered if he was trapped in a place he couldn't escape.

"Lumos," he incanted, suddenly appearing not fifteen paces from her in between two small trees, and even from where she stood, the girl could find not one hair out of place nor one noticeable injury upon his person.

"What are you doing in the forest, Draco?!" she asked, her tone a strange mix of alarm and relief.

"I was bored," he coolly replied, padding his way up to her with blank features, which did nothing to assuage the alarm the girl still felt. "So, I came out to see the fleeing."

'Is he...serious?!' she wondered to herself, certain her cousin couldn't honestly be as foolish as that.

"Draco..." she quietly began, looking the boy up and down as he stopped in front of her, ensuring, once more, he had no visible injury upon his person. "Let us return to our tent, please."

His reasons, absolutely foolish as they might've been, could be, and would be, discussed later. For now, Cassiopeia wanted nothing more than to remove him from any potential harm, which she felt was a very real possibility given their current location and the happenings she could still vaguely hear.

"No," he indifferently drawled, which caused her jaw to drop open in shocked disbelief. "I don't want to."

"D...Draco?!" she practically squeaked out, suddenly dizzy and very unsure of what she'd heard him say, and Cassiopeia wondered, very briefly, if she was merely dreaming up their encounter.

The girl parted her lips to continue, to beg him into reason, to ask him if he'd gone mad, to tell him how supremely foolish he was being, to say anything at all, but before she could utter a single syllable, a particularly loud scream reached her delicate ears, and it was then that understanding washed over her.

It was the tiniest, most insignificant, easily-overlooked flinch she'd ever observed, but it was there, and she'd seen it as clear as day, and no trick of mind or flickering light would ever convince her otherwise.

'He doesn't want to be there,' she realized, feeling a strange sense of relief.

"V...very well, but we should at least return home," she conceded, holding out her hand for him to take, her eyes seeking out Kreacher, who was still at her side.

"I don't want to," he coolly replied, which caused her gaze to snap back to him in total bewilderment.

"Wha-" she began, only to stop herself short as something occurred to her; something that was both silly as well as rational, strange as it seemed to her.

Not half an hour prior, his father had told the pair to stay inside their tent, only to disappear, rather irresponsibly, moments later. And then the screaming began alongside countless explosions. Cassiopeia may not have known precisely what was occurring beyond their sheltered sight, but she had the common sense to know it was bad, and she knew it somehow involved his father.

'Does...he not want to be around his kin?' she silently mused, studying her cousin's carefully blank features with sudden, empathetic understanding. 'Is he...disgusted by the thought of what it is Lucius is doing right now? Does he not want to feel...connected to that...to his father...to his kin right now?'

Truly, it seemed silly, yet it also seemed rational to the girl. She, like her cousin, wanted nothing to do with the happening beyond the forest they currently resided, nor did she want anything to do with any individual taking part in the wrongdoing.

"Very well, but if anything should appear that may seem harmful to us, I shall immediately, and without hesitation, have Kreacher remove us from the area," she quietly conceded, wishing she'd thought to bring her wand along in her hasty search for her cousin.

"Us?!" he asked, his tone and expression morphing into surprise. "You mean-"

"Don't be crass, cousin," she quietly interrupted, giving him an exasperated but warm smile. "You shan't convince me to abandon you within this dreadful darkness. Indeed, I shall wander the woods with you, but my demand remains."

"D...do you even have your wand on you?!" he queried, his tone a high pitch, as though the thought of her remaining at his side in such a dangerous place was unthinkable, and as though that was excuse for her to abandon him for her own safety.

"No," she coolly replied, glancing toward his lit wand. "But you have yours."

Nothing else needed to be said. Cassiopeia knew that should any danger present itself, Kreacher would immediately remove the pair from the vicinity. But in the worst case scenario, should the house elf somehow fail, the girl knew her cousin would defend her with every magical fiber of his being.

No, indeed, nothing else needed be said.