Little Bird

Chapter Fifty-Five

Draco

            I witnessed the Dark Lord completely lose control about two weeks before the holidays.

            I still wasn't sure why, because he'd called my parents, Bellatrix, and me into the drawing room one Saturday afternoon to interrogate the goblins from Gringotts; I'd been quietly standing in the background, keeping out of the way, as he and Bellatrix demanded answers from the goblins about the sword of Gryffindor. I had been looking at the floor and flinching whenever one of them cried out in pain, when the Dark Lord suddenly snapped.

            The walls had flashed with green as he screamed a Killing Curse, followed by another, and another. The goblins that were unlucky enough to be in his way had been thrown backwards, his wand slashing furiously through the air as their blood sprayed onto the wood floors and couch cushions. Lucius was pushing my mother and me towards the door when the Dark Lord finally lowered his wand, every single goblin lying dead at his feet.

            The entire drawing room was silent except for my family's panicked breathing, even Bellatrix crouched fearfully in the corner. My heart was pounding against my chest because I'd never seen him just lose it like that, and I was terrified he was going to lift his wand again at any moment to kill the rest of us.

            The Dark Lord's feet were stained red as he paced smoothly past the bodies, his expression hidden from me since I couldn't see well around my father's shoulders. Nagini slid across the bloody flooring towards him, its head lifting up to meet his extended hand.

            Without a single word, the Dark Lord Disapparated in a cloud of black smoke.

            My mother was crying. She was doing everything she could to hide it, but she was crying. My eyes were wide as I looked down at the dead goblins, finding it hard to breathe and trying to hold back the bile that was rising in the back of my throat. Bellatrix, for once, looked just as terrified as the rest of us, and she was staring blankly at the bodies as though she couldn't believe what had just happened.

            And then I realized I couldn't stand to be in that drawing room a second longer—not with an awful silence only interrupted by Narcissa's muffled crying and the smell of blood in the air. I turned and bolted from the room, not even pausing when the door slammed against the back wall and Lucius looked to see where I was going.

            This is bad, I thought as I tripped up the stairs in a panic, leaving the drawing room far behind but not being able to erase the image of dead goblins covered in blood. This is very, very bad.

            Any one of us could have just been killed. It was clear that the Dark Lord had been in such a rage that he wouldn't have hesitated to turn his wand on me and my parents—even Bellatrix had nearly been struck down, and that meant that no one was safe. Things had changed even more drastically than before; the Dark Lord was clearly spinning out of control, and he was losing his grip on who was against him and who was his enemy. There was no denying that no one would be safe in his presence now.

            As much as it killed me to admit it, there was no way I could let Eve come back here for Christmas break. Not after the Dark Lord had just killed nearly seven goblins without any warning or reason—not when something like that could happen while Eve was there and could get hurt.

            I loved her too much to allow her to stay at the Manor even for just a week. No matter how badly I needed to see her, I wasn't selfish enough to put her in danger.