"Skirmish"

It was emptier, as Draco had told her, but a dark cloud seemed to hang over the premises and a storm lingered in the back of her mind as she entered the stone foyer.

Without the death eaters the Manor felt empty, the slam of the door echoed around her and she heard Narcissa's heels retreating down the hall.

When Draco brushed past and in the same direction as his mother, Circi took a tentative step in that direction as well. She could hear voices, not many, but enough to set her on edge. She peered around the corner and saw Bellatrix's back as she spoke to Narcissa and Draco.

They were in what used to be the lounge but the rug was gone and the sofa was pushed against the wall beneath the windows. The fireplace was empty and something about it being absent from a fire when people were in the room sent a chill down her spine.

Bellatrix's voice rose as she motioned to the staircase at the back of the room which Circi knew led into the cellars. She had no idea what they'd changed that space into since she had last seen it. It used to be a space for the elves but now she doubted it.

A man with a pinched face and thinning hair jogged up the stairs and entered the room, his hands fiddling with his wand as he mumbled to Bellatrix. Draco looked to the side and Circi leaned further into the room to see her father resting on the couch. He was twisting his cane against the floor as he watched them converse in the centre of the room. His eyes flickered to the doorway as if he was bored and noticed Circi.

Realising she had been seen, Circi spun around and ran back to the foyer and continued to pass through to the kitchen passage behind the stairs in the centre of the room. She passed through the kitchen quickly, noticing the elves had dwindled in numbers briefly before hearing the door up the stairs open.

Sprinting across the garden, she ran for the greenhouse at the back of the garden, which was noticeably overflowing with vines.

Cringing to herself when she stepped into the humid space, she took note that it had been cleared up since she had last been in there. There was no longer a pile of dirt on the ground for her to lay on but it was in new planters. The dirt was dry and crumbled when she ran her fingers through it. A folding chair stood propped against the far wall with a pile of newspapers stacked beside it. Seeing what had been her space become so dry and clean made her feel hollow.

They had blown her door off its hinges, held her hostage in her own home, and she had no idea when they had cleaned up her space, but it infuriated her.

The door opened and Lucius' cane tapped on the clean floor. She looked up at him, dirt trickling from her hands.

"What did you do?" She watches as he looks around.

"Well, I certainly wasn't going to sit around in the mess you left it in," he told her in a calculated voice, motioning to the folding chair while leaning heavily on his cane. He was watching her, dark circles beneath his eyes but his hair had returned to its usual, polished look.

He was watching Circi as though she was a stray animal he had cornered. She clutched at the dirt in her hand and looked around what used to be her space. But, now it reeked of him.

"At least someone can enjoy it." She tried to move around him but he moved his cane into the other hand and held his arm out to stop her.

Glancing at his arm and briefly at the cane, Circi looks at him. He was looking ahead, seemingly at nothing in particular but most definitely not at her. He took a moment, his mouth slightly apart as he searched for his words seemingly in the dry dirt around the room. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked at her, he noticed that she now stood at his height and wondered when that happened. She raised an eyebrow at him when he barely said a word.

"I worry," he said, clearing his throat. "You don't realise how much danger you're-" He was cut off when Circi scowled and tossed the dirt in her hand at him. Looking down at his white shirt, spotted with dirt but otherwise spotless as the dry dirt tumbled to the ground. Meeting her glare with shock written across his face, he frowns, prepared to scold her.

"Don't control my life because you can't keep a grip on your own." She brushed her hands off on her trousers, looking out of the door. "You can't protect me, I know that. Do you?"

He faltered and she took that opportunity to duck under his arm and leave him behind in his greenhouse. No, it wasn't hers anymore, just like it's no longer Serenity's.

*

Circi's silent treatment of Lucius looked as childish as it felt. She spent a week ignoring him in corridors and talking to Draco or Narcissa purposely instead of him. Her letters to her friends were passed through Narcissa, who seemed more than content to send them off to Hogwarts for her which had initially come as a shock.

But it was Narcissa's softening of her treatment which fuelled Circi's distance from her father. She carried her mended wand in her hand as a show of power. She could and would protect herself in her own house. Enough of this helpless little girl act.

She had begun to notice regular visitors to the Manor, not quite ranking enough to scare Lucius back into his coward's act but death eater enough to be welcomed in without question. It was the second visit when she noticed something was off about these particular visits. They were irregular but common enough to notice that fewer people often left than those that had arrived. It didn't take a genius to figure out that these were the men snatching witches and wizards from across Britain in the name of Voldemort.

Knowing they were harbouring prisoners, 'enemies' of the Dark Lord and therefore her allies was the reason she lost sleep at night now.

Even with her new door and its shiny lock that had appeared on her second day of ignoring Lucius, she could not feel safe knowing the secrets harboured under this roof. But Narcissa would never let her send a letter with incriminating evidence inside.

In the second week, she was sitting on her bed poring over a charms textbook, studying for her O.W.Ls which she was determined to be prepared for, chewing on a licorice pencil when she heard a knock on her door.

"Yeah?" She called back absently, trailing the words on the page with her finger. The door clicked open and Draco stepped across the threshold. He was wearing a suit, he always wore suits these days. Circi liked to imagine he was tricking himself into thinking he was more than a scared teenager- like her- but she knew it was much more than that. She, on the other hand, stuck to old flannel shirts and jean shorts now that the weather was on the brink of warm. A breeze was coming in through her open window so she had tugged on a beanie hat embroidered with the Slytherin emblem.

"We're needed," he told her. She sat up, chewing on the sweet as she looked him over.

"We?" She grumbled.

"I need you," Draco admitted with a sigh. It was now that he let his fear in just enough to show her, so that she would definitely go with him. The snatchers had brought someone of interest, then, if they needed Draco to confirm anything.

Circi glanced down at her textbooks. "Do you think..." she looked up again, the question clear across her face. The snatchers had been informed to report immediately to the manor if they found Harry Potter. He'd been on the run since his seventeenth birthday, if the Malfoys were to hand him over to the Dark Lord then Lucius could solidify his status in their ranks. Draco nodded, pleading with her, and even as her feet moved she could feel her stomach sinking.

Replacing the liquorice with her wand and pulling on a pair of shoes, she followed him downstairs to the old lounge.

The second they entered, the pit in her stomach grew even more. Narcissa and Lucius stood in the centre of the room, by the empty fireplace and lit only by moonlight seeping in through the clouds. Behind them, the snatchers stood holding Ron and Hermione by their collars.

Avoiding looking at them, Circi stuck beside Draco and ignored Bellatrix's jab at her being present and took a place between Narcissa and Lucius.

Grabbing the third person who had arrived Hermione and Ron, Bellatrix grabbed him by the head and tugged his head back, jabbing her wand against his throat. Circi had expected the slim, glasses-framed face of Harry Potter; she expected his lightning scar on his forehead but saw only the puffed up face of a boy she would hardly recognise. But Draco shuffled on his feet awkwardly and that was enough to know that he recognised this boy.

"Well?" Bellatrix enquired and Draco stepped forward. Circi's heart hammered in her chest. She wouldn't be able to identify Harry Potter in this state, but she hadn't been his classmate for seven years.

"I can't be sure," Draco hesitated and Lucius left his post to stand close to his son. Their faces were close, Lucius talking lowly to Draco while the boy watched Harry carefully, his hands trembling slightly.

"Draco," he said, a whisper in his voice which echoed in the otherwise silent room as he put a hand against the back of Draco's neck, "look closely, son. If we were the ones to hand Potter over to the Dark Lord everything will be forgiven... will all be as it was, do you understand?"

His desperation was nearly pathetic, but Circi had come to pity her father and his lack of backbone. She could see a person she could have become- the person Draco was becoming.

When the snatchers began whispering to each other and one stepped forward, Circi stepped back, shielding herself behind Narcissa's arm.

"Now we won't be forgetting who actually caught him, I hope, Mr Malfoy." The snatcher placed his hands on his hips and Circi could see the change in Lucius' face. How quickly he went from desperate to wounded, which more often than not festered into cruelty.

"You dare speak to me like that in my own house?" His voice rose along with his temper and Narcissa was forced to intervene, leaving Circi alone by the fireplace. She caught a quick glimpse at Hermione, who was watching her, almost pleadingly, but she couldn't figure out what to do. If it was just her father, she wouldn't be afraid of reason. Hell, she'd fight him if she must, but this was Bellatrix and four snatchers.

Narcissa pulled Lucius back towards her and he was visibly shaken at the possibility of finally being back where he was supposed to be. And, despite herself, Circi rested a hand on his forearm as Draco towered over Harry.

She ignored Lucius' strange look and was grateful that he was no longer shaking. He could not play the part he wanted, not anymore, but she wouldn't let him embarrass himself anymore either.

"What's wrong with his face?" Draco asked.

"Yes. What is wrong with his face?" Bellatrix remarked, looking over at the snatchers. The same snatcher who triggered Lucius' defences was quick to assure that he had been found as such but Bellatrix, of course, was suspicious enough to ask questions. As she considered the stinging jinx, she pointed at Hermione, "give me her wand," she called to the snatchers, "let me see what her last spell was." As she took up Hermione's wand, she laughed, "got you."

Circi looked back at Harry as Draco came to stand by her. He was watching them all with that stupid determinism of another Gryffindor she knew and shook her head minutely. He seemed to only glare at her before becoming distracted by the commotion happening down the room. Bellatrix had stupefied one of the snatchers and he flew over the bannister of the staircase leading down to the cellars. As she spun around she flung a curse at another snatcher who crumpled to the ground, unmoving. Circi stumbled backwards as she felt the others push her back.

Bellatrix pointed her wand at another snatcher and a snake wrapped around his throat, constricting, as Circi stumbled and fell into an armchair positioned by the fireplace. The snatcher who had been vocal before exclaimed 'are you mad?' before her wand transformed into a whip and she dragged him to the ground, whipping him as she screamed 'go! Go!'

"Cissy," Bellatrix hissed, grabbing at Ron's collar and passing him over to Narcissa, "put the boys in the cellar. I want to have a conversation with this one," she was so close to Hermione's face that her wild black hair was brushing against her face, "girl to girl."

There was murder in Bellatrix's eyes. Circi had missed what had caused such a raucous to start with but she could hardly pry her eyes from the sword hanging in her grip.

With Harry and Ron escorted downstairs by the pinch-faced man referred to only as 'Wormtail', Bellatrix was quick to bare down on Hermione. She hit the girl with the cruciatus curse, sending her to the ground with a cry, before climbing on top of her and pinning her to the floor. Hermione was sobbing and Circi didn't think she had ever heard her cry before. Her whole body was cringing at the sound and she was beginning to hate Draco for dragging her into this.

As she pulled her feet onto the seat, she noticed Lucius move to stand behind her chair. When she looked up, he was watching the two women with a grim expression and balanced his cane against the chair.

"That sword was in my Gringotts vault. How did you get it?"

Through her sobs, Hermione shook her head, "I didn't take anything."

"I don't believe it." Bellatrix swung her wand around and bent over Hermione's bare arm.

The scream she let out was bloodcurdling and Circi could feel the colour leave her face as she cringed away. Before she could even think to, Lucius covered her ears and muffled the sound ever-so-slightly. She could feel herself starting to cry, hearing her classmate- someone she had idolised- screaming in agony. There was no way of telling what exactly Bellatrix was doing but simply seeing her body convulse put images into Circi's head she knew would be added to her night terrors.

Narcissa stepped in front of her but that only seemed to make the screams louder so she clamped her hands over her father's in an attempt to drown them out.

After what felt like forever, the screaming stopped. Lucius removed his hands and she looked up tentatively to see Hermione sprawled across the floor, eyes glazed over, and blood dribbling down her arm. From her position, Circi could only see the rough outline of a word but it was enough to know that she would undoubtedly be scarred forever.