Fear of a Name

Chapter Seventeen: Visit to the Manor

It was time.

"Guys, I've got to go to go for a bit, I'll be back in about forty-five minutes or so," I said as I walked out of the great hall. "Bye!"
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all looked confused, but didn't question me.
"Bye, then," they replied, waving.

I walked into the entrance hall at exactly 1pm, and went over to Professor Lupin.
"Ah, hello, Ivory," he said, looking at me slightly worriedly.
"Hello, sir."
I followed him out to the gates, where a carriage was waiting, one of those black, skeletal horses at the front. I walked over to it and stroked it.
"Hello," I softly said to the creature. "Nobody else seems to be able to see you... maybe I'm making you up? But you're definitely here; I can stroke you, and feel your hot breath tickling my neck. I could probably even feed you if I knew what you eat."

Lupin walked up behind me, looking slightly confused.
"Ivory, why are you stroking and talking to the air?"
"Can't you see — ohhh!" I said, realisation dawning on me. "It's a Thestral!"
I saw Lupin's face change as he realised what this meant, but a second later he looked at me like he had been before — worriedly — and said, "We'd better get going."

We both got into the carriage, and it started to move off. Lupin kept sending worried glances my way, and I knew why. He was wondering about the scars on my hand; how I'd got them, whether it was Father or Mother who had given them to me, and whether I would return with more scars than I left with.
"Are you sure you have to go, Ivory?" he asked me, still looking worried.
I nodded my head.
"It was one of the conditions on which I came to Hogwarts, if I don't go then I'll have to leave," I replied.

When we arrived at Hogsmeade, Lupin was still casting worried glances in my direction.
"Ivory, are you sure about this?" he asked me quietly.
I nodded, mentally trying to prepare myself for what I was about to do. It wasn't the apparition that was making me so nervous, it was what was going to happen when I got to my destination.
"I'll wait for you here," Professor Lupin said. "Good luck."

I quickly apparated to the Manor before I lost my nerve, landing just outside the heavy, wooden door at the entrance of the house. I knocked three times, then quickly looked at the floor as the door opened, and Mother dragged me into the main room by my arm. Surprisingly, there were no Death Eaters standing around the edge of the room, which was unusual.
"My Lord," she said to my father, not doing very well at hiding the glee in her voice, "your blood-traitor of a daughter is here!"

Father pointed his wand at me, and Mother did the same, standing to his right.
"What house did I say you had to be in, Ivory?" Mother asked in a dangerously low voice.
"S-S-Slytherin," I said quietly, still looking at the floor.
"And what house are you in?" she hissed at me, though she already knew the answer.
I stayed silent.
"Say it," she demanded, her voice cutting through the air like a knife.
"G-Gryffindor," I whispered.

The pain hit me before I'd even registered them saying the curse. I fell to the floor, screaming. It was the worst it had ever been; my head felt like it was going to split open, my body felt like it was going to explode, my vision had gone blurry and out of focus, my limbs felt like they were being pulled off from my body, and there were tears streaming down my face. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stay conscious any longer. Everything faded into blackness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up I was in my cell, dressed in the rags I had been forced to wear before I had left for Hogwarts. I felt if my wand was still there, which it was, thankfully.
If I could only get out of this cell, I'd be able to change into my clothes again and apparate back to Hogsmeade. But how do I open the door?
My thoughts were interrupted by Mother striding in, an evil grin on her face and her knife in her hand.
"Time for round two," she said, slamming and locking the door behind her.

I was trapped.

She walked over to me and pulled up my right sleeve with the hand that had the knife in it, earning me a long cut, starting at my wrist and going right the way up to the inside of my elbow. She grabbed my arm and pushed it against the wall, then started to write something with the knife. I screamed. Loudly. I could feel the knife still cutting through the flesh on my arm, being manoeuvred by my psychopath of a mother.

Finally, after what seemed like a year of pain, I felt the knife leave my arm and heard Mother cackling madly. As soon as she let go of me I slid down the wall to the floor, where there was a small puddle of blood next to me from my arm. Mother had one last look at her handiwork, laughed again, then walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her and locking it.

I didn't even look at what she'd written, but I stood up and clicked my fingers, changing into the clothes I had worn when I'd come. Then I went to the door.
"Alohomora," I muttered. Nothing happened. "Aberto."
At that, the door swung open quietly. I walked into the corridor outside my cell and apparated back to Hogsmeade with a small crack.

I had apparated not five meters away from Professor Lupin. He came over, taking in the tear tracks on my face, the look of fear in my eyes, and the blood dripping from my jumper sleeve. He pulled my sleeve up quickly, revealing the many cuts and scars that littered my arm, including the long one I'd got today. He looked shocked enough at these, but then his eyes came to rest on the word Bellatrix had cut, the word I hadn't even read.
"What does it say?" I asked him quietly.

He led me back to the carriage that stood nearby, not answering until we had started moving off back to Hogwarts.
"Scum," he finally answered, sounding sad. "It says scum."
I looked at my arm. There, right in the middle of it, was the word scum. I looked up at Lupin again, tears in my eyes, then back at my arm.
"Ivory, I need to talk to Dumbledore about this. This is serious."
Oh great, another reason for Father and Mother to be mad at me. Just what I need.
Lupin looked at my arm again and tried to stop it bleeding, but to no avail.
"The knife's enchanted," I said quietly. "You can't stop the cuts from bleeding, they'll stop by themselves in a day or two."

I sat back, thinking.
"You know, that didn't go as badly as I'd expected, actually. Though that may be due to the fact I apparated away before they were really finished..." I said, looking out the carriage window.

As we got to Hogwarts, I felt a familiar chill sweep over me, and I quickly sent out my Patronus into the carriage like I had been taught to do — wandlessly and non-verbally. I could just about see Lupin looking at me in amazement out of the corner of my eye, but I was too busy trying to maintain my Patronus to properly notice.

When we had passed the Dementors, I let my Patronus vanish, pulled my purse out of my sock, grabbed a bar of chocolate from it, and took a bite. I immediately felt less exhausted from casting my patronus.
This chocolate stuff is really helpful. Tasty, too!

"Ivory, you can produce a patronus?" Lupin asked, clearly still amazed.
I nodded.
"Non-verbally?!"
I nodded again.
"And wandlessly?!?!"
I nodded yet again, wondering where this was going.
"Wow," he said, and seemed unable to say anything more.
I rolled my eyes slightly and giggled in my head.

A few minutes later, the carriage came to a stop and we climbed out. I pulled my sleeve down over my arm, which somehow made the pain even greater, before following Lupin into the castle and up to Dumbledore's office. I could already tell that this wasn't going to end well.