Unmitigated - HP Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty-One - Jeopardy

  "How much longer?" I whine.

"It's all good Ell, I'm almost done." Replied the tattoo artist.

"Good, cause my butt hurts from sitting for so long." I complain.

He laughs. "Let me just finish this..." I feel the needle leave my skin. "Ok, finished." Would you like to see?" He asks.

I nod and stand up. Stretching my legs, wiggling my butt and taking the towel to cover my bare chest to the long mirror. Wallace the tattoo artist gives me a small mirror. I have my back to the large mirror and hold the small one just to the side of my vision to see the over my shoulder.

Wallace cleans it with a wet wipe. "Voila."

I smile brightly. "I love it. Thank you." I don't look away from it.

"Eh, no problem. I leave you to put your shirt back on." I nod but still don't look away.

When I finally move away from the mirror, I grab my bra and shirt from the corner of the room. Slipping them on and folding the towel that was covering my chest seconds ago. I look it the mirror again and straightened my .

I looked at the time and realised I was already late. I paid Wallace and ran out of the tattoo parlour. Running all the way back to the castle. When I got there I ran to the common room and then to my dorm room. Everyone was gone and their beds made. I quickly made mine and quickly chucked clothes, toiletries, photos, books and other things in my bag. Zipping it up, I ran out of the dorm room, closing the door and then to the train like a crazy woman.

Once I reached the train I saw it was about to leave. It tooted and the doors were closing. So I ran and jumped on just in time. Dropping my bag, I caught my breath. My throat was burning and my legs were sore. I picked up my bag and dragged it to the Slytherin compartment. I chucked my bag on the railings on top of the seats and lazily sat down next to Draco and across from Daphne.

"Where were you?" Daphne asked.

I shrugged. "I was in town."

"What were you doing in Hogsmead when you were suppose to be boarding the train?" Pansy asked from next to Daphne, whom was drinking a bottle of some green liquid.

I smiled. "I was getting a tattoo." Daphne almost spat out her drink. Pansy looked like she just saw someone eat her family and Draco's head snapped up.

"What?" Daphne and Pansy asked at the same time.

"I. Got. A. Tattoo." I said slowly.

"Why? What is it? Do your parents know? Are you allowed? Where? Does anyone know?" Daphne asked frantically.

"Because I wanted one. A wolf and a moon. No. I don't know. At 'Tatoo Artist' in Hogsmead. And apart from you guys and the Wallace the tattoo guy uhhh, no. No one knows." I answer all of her questions.

Everyone was silent. We sit like that for about 2 minutes until Draco speaks up. "Can I see it?" I nodded and took off my Flannel and have my back to him, moving my hair out of the way.

He moved the strap of my singlet and bra out of the way and traced the tattoo. Leaving a trail of goose bumps on my shoulder. "Looks good, suits you." He moved away and I put my flannel back on.

I sat back against the seat. "Thanks."

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When the train finally stops, I got off and see mum waiting for us. I turned around and face my friends. "I'll see you all soon?"

Daphne stepped forward and nodded, pulling me into a tight hug. "We'll see each other after Christmas?"

I hugged her back. "Of course."

Once we let go of each other, I hugged the rest of my friends one my one. All of us tearing up. Once I finished hugging Goyle, I looked at Draco. I smiled through my tears and stepped into his open arms. We hugged longer than everyone else and I pressed my face into his chest taking in his scent. His kissed the top of my head and rubbed my back.

When we pulled away he grabbed my shoulders. "I'm sorry I won't be able to see you over Christmas but my family has guests this year, and I don't want you near any of them. I don't trust them." He spoke quietly.

I nodded. "What if you came to mine?" I asked.

He smiled sadly. "Nice try, but you family hates me. That's probably not a good idea." I wiped my tears and hugged him again.

"See you at school then." I whispered.

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Dad has music playing on a muggle radio. I laugh as George turns me around dances with me to a I have never heard before. I can't keep the grin off of my face when I see Fred and George waltzing in a fast pace.

"Ella dear, go take these to Harry and the others in the other room." She hands me a plate of cookies and pushes me slightly in the direction of the lounge room.

I walk in the direction and smile over my shoulder at the rest of my family dancing and getting into the Christmas mood. Just before I walk into the other room, I hear something that makes me stop.

"Voldemort had chosen Draco Malfoy for a mission." Lupin speaks. Draco? Why are they talking about Draco?

"I know it sounds mad--" Harry responds. I roll my eyes. He is still on this? That was two whole seasons ago. But he was cut off by Lupin.

"Has it ever occurred to you Harry, that Snape was simply pretending to offering Draco help so that so that he could find out what he was up to?" Lupin argues. I furrow my eyebrows.

"Ginny!" I hear mum call from the kitchen. Crap, she gonna send Ginny over. I'm about to step into the room again but Harry speaks again.

"That's not what it sounded like." What? Sounded like what?

"Perhaps Harry's right Remus." Tonks' soft voice speaks up. "I mean to break an unbreakable vow—" Lupin butts in again.

"It all comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore's Judgment. Dumbledore trust Snape, therefore I do." He snaps. Ginny walks up behind me and looks at me strange. I put my finger to my lips to tell her to stay quiet.

"Dumbledore can make mistakes he said so himself." Spoke Harry.

"You're blinded by hatred!"

"I'm not!"

"Yes you are!" Lupin calms down. "People are disappearing, Harry, daily. We can only place our trust in a handful of people. If we start fighting amongst ourselves, we're doomed." They're silent.

I look at Ginny and shrug my shoulders. "Ginny!" Mum calls for her again. So Ginny runs off quickly. I turn around and walk into the room and see Lupin and Tonks walking out. I sit down across from Harry holding the Cookies and prop my feet up against the coffee table.

Ginny walks back in with a plate of custard and cinnamon pies and sits next to Harry. She looks at Harry with a look of admiration. I look at Dad, who I didn't even know was in here earlier, stands up and leaves.

Harry looks at Ginny and Ginny picks up a pie. "Open up you." Harry laughs. "Don't you trust me?"

I roll my eyes and look at the doorway to see Ron about to walk in with more pies. He sees Ginny feeding Harry and pulls a face. I smile when I see him walk in. "It's good." Harry says to Ginny.

I can't help but snicker when I see Ron sit in between the two. I bite into a cookie and watch in amusement on how awkward the whole situation is now. Ron offers Harry a pie, and I feel as if he is just doing it to cheekily mimic Ginny. Harry declines and I can't help the giggle that escapes my lips.

Everyone looks at me and take my feet off the coffee table. "Cookie anyone?" Harry and Ginny decline but Ron nods. He doesn't take one but sits forward so I decide to feed it to him. But instead of doing it like Ginny and Harry, I shove the cookie in his mouth.

"It's good." He says with a full mouth. Then we both burst into laughter.

Ginny rolls her eyes and stands up. "Grow up you two." And walks out of the room.

"Oh come on Ginny it's a joke!" I yell out in laughter.

"Not funny!" She says in sing-song while out of the room.
Harry's face is beet red, and he awkwardly leaves the room. Ron and I high five.

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I was sitting in Ron's room with him on his bed, talking to him about Lavender. Apparently he's getting real fed up with her, but doesn't know how to tell her. Cato sitting by my feet, I smiled petting him. God I've missed him, but he's happy here. I can tell.

"Just tell her that you don't like her anymore."

"You know I can't bloody say that. It's too cruel."

"Yeah, I know. Maybe say you found someone else or there's just too much going..." I stop. Get this weird feeling that something's wrong. It wouldn't be Lupin would it?

"Ella? What wrong?" Ron starts to look concerned.

"I don't know.."

"Remus. Do you feel that?" I ask in his head.

"There's someone here." He answers.

I stand up and run downstairs to the front door. When I get there, I see a fire ball. When it hits the ground, it circles around the house. Then Bellatrix shows up, showing smirk and runs off laughing. I go to move forward but dad grabs my shoulder, stopping me. But while dad has a hold on me, Harry runs out after Bellatrix.

"Harry no!" Dad yells.

The Lupin quickly follows after him. "Remus!" Tonks yells. But the fire stops him from going any further. Tonks and Lupin try to stop the fire. And Ginny runs past me so I pull out of dads death grip to follow after her.

"Ginny! Ella!" Mum screams. I grab Ginny's hand and jump through the fire with her. We start racing through the wheat field. We stop when we don't know where to go. Ginny goes to move again but I grab her arm. I put a finger to my lips to tell her to stay quiet. I listen carefully. I hear the water next to us move. I smell the air.

Fenrir.

I push Ginny behind me and I growl. "Ella?" Ginny asks quietly behind me.

"Ginny, run now. Go find Harry." I tell her.

"Ell—" She stops when Fenrir starts to walk towards us through the wheat.

"Ginny! Go!" I yell. She turns around and runs but doesn't get very far cause Harry shows up.

I turn around to Harry. "Get her out of here!" I yell. And then I turn into a wolf. Stepping forward I growl. "Fenrir I'm warning you now leave, or I'll fore you to leave."

Fenrir laughed. "And how are you gonna do that Randella?"

I stare him down and concentrate. "Fenrir Greyback. Back the bloody hell off!" I growl. I could feel the authority radiating off of me.

Fenrir lowered his head and moved back into the shadows. I heard him whimper slightly and fly off in black smoke.

"Where is he!?" I hear Harry yell from behind me.

I turn around and see Bellatrix with her wand out and Harry mimicking her. "I'll ask again! Where is Sirius!?" He yelled.

I transformed back into myself and pulled out my wand. "Stupify!" I yelled. She wasn't going to tell us. There was no point in asking.

She blocked my enchantment and laughed. Flying off after Fenrir. Harry, Ginny and I all had our backs to each other. I heard them in the wheat again. I heard Bellatrix making clicking sound with her tongue. I faced where she was and smiled. "I see you." I whispered.

Black smoke went in the air again and she flew in front of us. When she was on her feet she tried to throw a curse at us, which I blocked. Fenrir appeared infront of Harry and threw a curse at him, which he easily blocked.

The battle between us was short lived for dad and the others showed up. "Ella! Ginny!" Dad yelled and stood infront of us.

I heard Bellatrix hiss and then black smoke went into the air and both Bellatrix and Fenrir flew away, to the burrow. I watched in horror and they flew into the burrow making it blow up in flames. "Molly" Dad whispered behind me. And ran towards the burrow. We all did. I got there first. I saw Mum, Ron, Fred and George. But someone was missing. My heart dropped into my stomach. And I screamed. "CATO!" I sprinted into the burrow. Ignoring Mum and my brothers' screams for me to stop. I jumped through the flames.

"Cato!? CATO!?" I yelled. I heard a howl upstairs in response. I ran upstairs and as I did, the stairs behind me collapsed. Well, so much for going down that way. I run down the hall and to the room Cato stays in. The door was closed, that's why he couldn't get out. I grabbed the handle but I burnt my hand. I pulled out my wand and opened it with a spell.

Cato ran out whimpering. I pet him and hugged him. "You're okay. You're okay." I heard cracking behind be and I knew the ceiling was going to collapse. "Come on quick we gotta go!" I yelled through the roar of the flames. I ran and jumped down the broken stairs.

I turn around and see Cato whimpering. "Come on! Jump!" But he wouldn't move. I looked at him and concentrated. I hate doing this to him but it's the only way he'll live. "Cato. Jump!" I watched as he leaped over the broken steps and next to me. The floor behind us collapsed so we started running for the door. But more fire blocked our path. I pulled out my wand used an enchantment to blow it out of the way.

"Go Cato!" Cato jumped through the doorway and I started running for it. But the grandfather clock next to the doorway fell on me. I was trapped and couldn't move. And my leg hurt like hell.

Ron ran in the house and saw me. He ran around me and lifted the grandfather clock. I saw him struggling s I quickly crawled out. When I stood on both of my legs, pain shot down my right. Making me scream. Ron put my arm over his shoulder and started pulling me out of the burrow.

When outside, Mum tackled me into a hug. "Don't you ever pull something like that again." She cried she pulled away and I leant on Ron for support again. He put his arm around my waist and held me up as we all stood outside of the burrow and watched it burn.

I cried and realised I was having major déjà vu. This... this was in my vision. This is what I had been dreading. And it came true, meaning, that everything else is going...

My legs gave out under me. If it weren't for Ron keeping me up, I would have collapsed. I see Harry staring at me from the corner of my eye. Like he knows exactly what I'm thinking. But I don't look in his direction. I just wrap my arms around Ron's middle and cry into his shoulder.

I'm not ready for what is to come.