UNLEASH | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 6)

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Aine wasted no more the second she returned from the Ministry of Magic. She tore away her disguise of Hestia Arcken, her platinum blonde locks fading to snow white and her forest green coloured eyes turning into gold and lilac. She went straight to her room and brought out the striped fabric torn from Hermione's blazer to track.

A thousand thoughts and questions gushed into her mind at that moment. She wondered if her former friends managed to flee successfully, or if they had been caught by Yaxley who was pursuing them.

She thought about Salazar Slytherin's locket that was in Harry's possession and why he had stolen it from Umbridge. Why was the locket so important that they were going after it now? She also pondered about the connection the locket had with the list of names her mother once wrote, where three of the four names of the founders of Hogwarts were included in it. And to tie it all together, her mind only dug deeper into the mysterious sounds she heard the moment she saw the locket.

The sounds of scratching glass, ticking time bombs, whispering of souls, clicking of an insect that was stuck in a metal tin, desperate to get out and Voldemort's voice all mixed in a volatile mess.

Her head was all jumbled up and Aine was trying her best to weave her way through the tangled chaos. It was a slow process of unravelling the yarn of questions and distractions as she wanted to be careful so she wouldn't get caught in a hole that only pulled her deeper and harder to escape.

It took her three days to track down her former friends, though it could have been shorter. She would have been able to get the answers to where they were quicker if it wasn't for her throbbing headache, which made it feel like her skull was ripping apart now and then with all the constant noises screeching in her ears.

Aine didn't know why those voices that once haunted her came back, it felt similar to the ones she heard when she visited Borgin and Burkes. Then it stopped for some time and she forgot about it, that was until she peered into Umbridge's mind and came to see the octagonal locket. It was different from the sounds of dead and lost souls who were usually begging, crying, screaming, whimpering and yelling. Those were the sounds she often heard due to the nature of being Death. 

This one was different, it felt like it had a soul of its own. One far deadlier than the souls of the damned and dead.

Either way, all Aine knew was that she had to keep going to get the answers she needed.

Coincidentally, the place she pinpointed where the trio probably was had been near one of the locations where Lykioz Hale, the younger brother of Lilith Hale, whom she was looking for was once sighted as well. Perhaps if she was lucky enough, she could find at least one of the two. Although it would do her better if she found them all.

Aion was training with Draco again when he spotted his sister rushing off past the hall. Although he hadn't seen her much these days, he was well aware of what she had found, and what she was searching for. He thrusted one more attack in Draco's direction before calling for a time-out to check in with Aine.

It had been weeks since he had a lead on where the Iris flower petals were from, but he was still unsure about the credibility of the information he held. Which was why he needed to look into it to be completely certain before he could tell Aine about it confidently. But that was also what he needed— Time.

Specifically— Time alone, to hunt down and narrow his spectrum of potential places which was hard to come by since Bellatrix and the others would often drag him to missions to keep him away from Aine as possible. 

When Aion wasn't out with them, he would be tracking down his mother. However, when he was in the manor, he needed to pretend to be busy to not only drive the other Deatheaters who were eager to pull him into missions but also to divert their suspicions of being held up in his room all day. Thus, he would train with Draco as a mask for his secret little task.