We Will Shine {Book 6 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 62 - Aftermath

~Wren~

"Run."

Astra stumbled back from the barrier as someone roughly grabbed my arm and jerked me back. I refused to look away. She had to get out of here. If she wouldn't help me, she needed to at least protect herself and Albus.

In her eyes there was desperation, still looking for a way to fix everything. All it would've taken was giving me my wand. All it would've taken was letting me choose how I died. Let me choose to stop being brave. Let me choose to not face this. But she wasn't strong enough.

I was afraid I wasn't, either.

Before I had to say it again, she turned and ran. I was suddenly spun around to face my father. Anger and betrayal and fear and so many other things made his face more frightening than normal. "I can't help you, Wren. You've doomed yourself."

I didn't resist as he pushed me back the way we'd come. It would've been pointless to. Everything was pointless. Not everything is pointless, a voice whispered in my head. Protect what you know.

But he knew. Stillens knew. There was no way I could lie my way out of it, create enough false memories to justify anything. He knew there was a fidelius charm over something, and even if he couldn't know what it was specifically, he didn't need to. And it might take days, or weeks, or months, but he would break through my occlumency eventually. And then I'd have become a traitor once again.

My heart was beating so rapidly that I could feel it in my throat as we mounted the stairs into the main part of the manor. The only traces of the fighting from a few minutes ago were the broken picture frames on the floor, blackened walls, spatters of blood. The DA had gone. No one would save me this time.

Once we'd reached the sitting room, my father shoved me. I lost my balance and fell forward. The mirror in my pocket, nearly forgotten by now, finally fell out and skittered across the floor. I watched it roll away, one last thing I had to lose. I guess it didn't really matter much, either. As I pushed myself up on my hands, I noticed a pair of shoes in front of me. Slowly, my gaze travelled up until I was looking my uncle in the face. He looked livid.

"My, Wren. What a surprise."

I drew in a shaky breath, steeling myself and pushing every conceivable thought and memory down. Now was not the time for being believable. Just hiding. I couldn't feel him brushing through my mind, but his intense stare told me he was.

After a minute, he glared at me. "Still playing your games, are you?"

"What games?" I asked, my voice trembling less than I'd expected it to. I took the opportunity to push myself to my feet.

My uncle shook his head. "Child, you and I both know the truth. Even if you did do a fidelius charm." I turned my head away, and he grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. It was all I could do to not close my eyes, but I thought of my friends and how brave they had been. I didn't have a choice. I had to be brave, too, for as long as I could. I could feel him, now, a rough wind in my head, painfully scraping through my mind. The effort of holding it off made me tremble.

"You'll break eventually," he said, finally letting go of my chin.

"I'll die first." My instincts were screaming at me to back down, to do anything except make him angry. I had to fight them down, too.

"You'll die," Stillens said, nodding. "But first, I will get what I want from you."

I heard a sob that sounded like my mother. Was she here, too? I glanced to the side of the room, and saw that Alistair and Magnus were gone, replaced by my parents. One hand was over my mother's mouth, the other gripping my father's arm tightly. He was holding her up, a muscle twitching in his neck the only sign of his agitation. Neither of them would do anything to stop this. They never had. They were too scared, or they didn't care enough. They believed I was wrong.