Dirty Mouth, Dirty Blood [h.g]

thirty

30

Then

Carina walked into the Slytherin Common Room for the first time, admiring the view of the lake. It was a dark room, bathed in blacks and greens, but Carina found it comforting all the same. There was a fire roaring on one end of the common room, causing shadows to flicker on the back wall.

Carina sat gingerly on one of the elegant, silver couches, and was surprised to find that for all its sharp edges, the couch was extremely comfortable.

She could fall asleep there, and in time she would.

Carina looked over to find a boy, a first year as well, sitting on the other end of the couch. Carina thought she recognized him from some social event, but she couldn't be sure. She didn't pay much attention to those things anyway.

"Hi!" The boy said brightly. "I'm Theo. Theo Nott."

"Malfoy, Carina Malfoy," she drawled back. She offered out her hand to shake, which Theo took, shaking firmly. It was obvious that he, too, was well versed in manners.

"Do you want to be friends?" Theo asked, offering up a crooked smile.

He was too eager, Carina decided, but that could be fixed. She needed an ally, and Theo could serve as a bodyguard in the future. The situation wasn't ideal, but it could work.

"Why not."

Now

Carina paced outside the Ministry of Magic nervously. She was disguised, yes, as a girl with dark brown hair, but that didn't mean she was less on edge. They were breaking into the Ministry of Magic, for goodness sakes. Carina had every right to be nervous.

Eventually Carina just threw her back against the brick wall opposite the Ministry, taking deep, steadying breaths.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already inside the Ministry, infiltrating it. Carina's job was to stand outside and make sure everything looked right. Carina, having the most experience with Death Eaters and their like, was most equipped to tell when something went awry.

They had drugged and stunned the three people the trio were impersonating, and the main thing Carina had to do was make sure the original people didn't come back, especially Ron's character, Cattermole, who was all too eager to get to work, even though they had given him a puking pasty.

It wasn't like he even had an important job, anyway.

What seemed like days later to Carina, Harry, Hermione, and Ron apparated in front of the Slytherin. Ron and Hermione both took her hands, and Carina was whisked away to a forest.

Carina stumbled slightly upon landing, not expecting such an abrupt disapparation, looking to the Golden Trio for information.

Ron was moaning in pain, a huge portion of his side missing.

"He's been splinched!" Harry cried, to which Carina wrinkled her nose.

"Yes, Potter, and in other news, the sky is fucking blue. Do you have any useful information to offer? About the locket, perhaps?"

Harry held out the golden locket to Carina, who grabbed it quickly and put it on, slipping the picture part into her cleavage; which, as the brunette Carina was currently taking on, was much less than usual.

Hermione finished tending to Ron's wound with a potion in her bag before turning to look at Carina.

"I'm sorry, Carina, I originally apparated the three of us back to Grimmauld Place, planning on going back for you after, but Yaxley got a hold of me. He— he got past the perimeters of the house. He knows where it is now. I mean, we knew they had us cornered for a while now, but he can get in thanks to my stupid mistake. We can't go back there. I'm sorry, I really am."

Carina nodded thoughtfully for a moment, only speaking when she had analyzed each sentence. "So Yaxley knew who you all were?"

Harry spoke up then. "I'm sure he has an idea. You see, we— er, I kinda stunned a few people? Umbridge had the locket around her neck, and she was droning on about Pureblood supremacy, and I got a little mad."

Carina nodded her understanding, turning back to Hermione, who was starting to look more like herself and less like the woman whose identity she had stolen.

"Alright," the witch said, assuming control once more, "let's set up camp."