XIII. YOU KNOW
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
YOU KNOW
|
They Apparated to the Malfoy Manor. Rosalie had been there many times before, but it felt so different this time. The three reeked of betrayal, because of her, and she felt it. It was everywhere, and their glares at the back of her head weren't helping the situation. She led the inside, but the guilt inside her told her to stop, to fight, and to get out of there. But she couldn't, she'd be considered a traitor and they would kill her. They were just outside the gates, others would see, and she would instantly be killed.
But why couldn't they see? Why couldn't they see that Rosalie didn't want this? She had been the one to try and help them through everything, to make sure they didn't get caught, but they did. Of course they did.
And against her better judgement, she opened the gates for them and led them inside the Manor. How she wished things were different...
She took Harry herself to the gate, pressing his face against the it as Bellatrix looked at them confused. She lifted up his hair, letting the older woman see what was the scar but damaged slightly. She had a wicked grin on her face as she whispered to this behind her, "Get Draco."
They were rushed inside the Manor. It seemed so dark now. Two years - maybe three by then - it was so much lighter, there was more joy. It wasn't overflowing with joy, there were no vibrant daisies awaiting them when they arrived, but it was happier and livelier. How the war - how Voldemort - had changed things with his stay there.
Once inside, Bellatrix took Harry and made Draco and Rosalie looked at him. She had a twisted grin on her face as she pulled at his hair to lift up his head. "Well?" she asked her nephew.
With a grimace on his face, Draco replied, "I can't be sure."
Lucius walked over to his son, Rosalie noted the haggardness of his appearance, remembering that only two - maybe three - years ago he looked so proud and stood so tall. Everything in this place crawled with bad memories of her past - of everything she hated about herself.
"Draco. Look closely, son. If we are the ones to hand Potter over to the Dark Lord....everything would be forgiven. All would be as it was, you understand?" Lucius whispered.
"Now, we won't be forgetting who actually caught him, I hope, Mr. Malfoy," one of the Snatchers yelled to catch his attention.
"You dare to talk to me like that in my own house?" Lucius questioned back, his voice raising with every word he spoke.
His wife walked over to him, touching his shoulder and hissing, "Lucius," a warning for him to stop. She brought him back as Bellatrix grabbed Draco's arm.
"Don't be shy, sweetie. Come over. Now, if this isn't who we think it is, Draco, and we call him, he'll kill us all. We need to be absolutely sure," Bellatrix told him in a sickly sweet tone.
"What's wrong with his face?" Draco asked, not giving them the answer they wanted.
"Yes, what is wrong with his face?" Bellatrix asked the group of Snatchers.
"He came to us like that. Something he picked up in the forest, I reckon," the Snatcher replied.
"Or ran into a Stinging Jinx," Bellatrix stood up and waltz to Ron and Hermione, "Was it you, dearie? We'll see what her last spell was."
"Wait," Rosalie called. All eyes turned to her, "I already told them, it's not Potter. The group didn't trust me, left while I was sleeping, and I found these three later. We ran into trouble a few days back, got into a fight, that's why his face is messed up. There's no need to try her wand, Bellatrix."
She lied smoothly, the others began to believe it, but Bellatrix never did like her. "Are you sure? Could you just by lying, perhaps?"
"Why would I lie?" was her only reply, and Bellatrix didn't ask anything after that. She continued to walk past them when she saw what one of the Snatchers was holding; the Sword of Gryffindor.
"What is that? Where'd you get that from?" she fired the questions at the Snatcher.
"It was in her bag when we searched her. Reckon it's mine now," he let out a tiny chuckle, but all Bellatrix did was fire a spell at him, probably killing him and taking the sword while killing the other Snatchers.
"Are you mad?" the lead of the Snatchers asked, but Bellatrix fired a spell to strangle him before yelling.
"Go! Get out!" Bellatrix yelled and the Snatchers did leave, running actually. "Cissy, put the boys in the cellar. I want to have a little conversation with this one, girl-to-girl."
Rosalie saw Narcissa Malfoy hand Harry and Ron off to Peter Pettigrew, who hurried to lock them in the cellar. She then watched in fear of what Bellatrix would do to Hermione.
The LeStrange woman said, "Crucio!" with her wand pointed at Hermione, causing the ginger girl to go screaming down to the floor. But Bellatrix didn't stop there, she climbed on top of Hermione and hissed at her. "That sword is meant to be in my vault at Gringotts. How did you get it? What else did you and your friends take from my vault?"
"I didn't take anything. Please," Hermione sobbed, "I didn't take anything."
"I don't believe it," Bellatrix whispered, taking the knife in her hand and etching something on Hermione's arm, causing the girl to squirm and yell loudly. Rosalie winced. The shrill screams would haunt her forever, she was sure, but she also winced because she knew that this was her fault.
If she had been more careful, if she had done something else, offered to torture Hermione herself, maybe things would be different. They weren't though, this was happening and it was all her fault.
"Please! Please!" Hermione begged and pleaded for her to stop, the pain unbearable, but Bellatrix didn't.
"Shut up!" Bellatrix shouted in retaliation, carving into her skin even deeper.
Rosalie saw Pettigrew take the goblin to the room they were in, going back down again when Rosalie stopped him. "Let me," she whispered with a heated look in her eyes, silently telling him not to mess with her. He gulped and nodded, letting her pass.
She went down the stairs where it had no light, but she couldn't find anyone. "Harry? Ron?" she whispered, her face pressed against the cell. There was no answer at first, "Come on. Show yourselves, I'm trying to help you."
There was a humorless laugh from Ron before the ginger showed himself. "Really? You're going to help us?"
"Yes, and I'm your only shot of actually getting out of this cell, so you have to listen to me," she sharply replied. They nodded and the opened up the door.
Once they were out, she looked at them again, "I'll buy you time to get Hermione and then the three of you need to Apparate out of here. Fast."
They nodded and Harry opened his mouth to say something but closed it after a moment. "Stay down here," she whispered to them, going back upstairs.
"I'm only going to ask you once more, goblin. Think very, very carefully before you answer," she heard Bellatrix.
She continued to interrogate the goblin as Rosalie watched in despair. Bellatrix moved from the goblin to Hermione, going to harm her again when she heard a spell being shot at the LeStrange woman. She looked behind her to see Ron and Harry firing spells with the Malfoys going at them.
She too began firing shots at them, mainly at Narcissa since she didn't want to harm her "friend" or whatever he was. It continued until Bellatrix's voice rang. "Stop!" and they saw that she was holding a knife to Hermione's throat. "Drop your wands. I said, drop them! Pick them up, Draco, now. Well, well, well, look what we have here. It's Harry Potter. He's all bright and shiny and new again, just in time for the Dark Lord.
"Call him," Bellatrix commanded, but no one moved, "Call him!" she ordered again and Lucius stepped forward, raising his left arm and pulling out his sleeves, getting ready to call upon the Dark Lord when a squeaking sound was heard above them. It was a house-elf taking apart the chandelier above them, something he succeeded at as everyone under it, including Rosalie, moved away from it so they wouldn't be harmed.
Rosalie looked around to see Harry taking the wands from Draco, including hers, and going to meet his friends before seeing that she was still there. Sending a spell to another Death Eater, he raced towards her and brought her to where the house-elf and his friends were standing.
Bellatrix, now up again, yelled, "Stupid elf. You could've killed me!"
"Dobby never meant to kill. Dobby only meant to maim or seriously injure."
Narcissa went to say a spell when Dobby snapped and the wand appeared in his hands. "How dare you take a witch's wand?" Bellatrix roared again, "How dare you defy your masters?"
At this, it seemed, Dobby turned colder and stood straighter, "Dobby has no master. Dobby is a free elf. And Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends."
They all grabbed on to the house elf as he began to Apparate, and Rosalie saw out of the corner of her eye that Bellatrix had thrown her knife at them, but she didn't know if it traveled with them as they appeared something along the shore of a beach.
Harry and Rosalie appeared away from the rest. He went to his friends as she stayed on the ground where she was, not daring to go up to them when she knew that she was the enemy to them in that moment. She was a Death Eater - had the mark to prove it.
He talked until the little voice of the house elf rang throughout the shore, "Harry Potter," was all he said. Harry raced towards him as he fell, Bellatrix's knife stuck in his gut as blood poured from the old rags that he wore. He was going to die, and Rosalie had to choke back a sob at that.
Harry tried everything he could to save him, but that didn't stop the elf from saying his last words:
"Such a beautiful place...to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friend...Harry Potter," and as if eyes turned lifeless, Harry sobbed with no one coming over to comfort him.
Rosalie looked at him with pained eyes, knowing that she was like Bellatrix; a Death Eater. And like Bellatrix, like all the Death Eaters, she had just helped kill this innocent house elf who just wanted to save his friends.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro