"A Shift in Power"

September 1997, 1 month later

The Ministry has Fallen...

Circi heard no end of their victory for an entire month. They forced her to attend dinner so that every humiliating attempt Lucius made at regaining his status in his home and their ranks was there for her to see. She sat beside Draco, always opposite Lucius and Narcissa instead of between them like they would have preferred.

She often felt the jabbing of elbows in her side whenever someone cracked a joke about someone else's death and she continued to be jabbed until she was forced to laugh too.

Now, the flesh on the side of her abdomen was as tender as her neck had been for days after the murder of Professor Burbage. Her hands shook whenever she traversed the corridors of the Manor alone, which wasn't often as Draco had taken to sharing her bed with her since they had refused to fix her door back onto its hinges. Some nights, they opted to lock themselves into Draco's room to sleep easier.

Lucius had approached them as the beginning of the new school year drew near. Draco was spreading ointment over the bruise that flowered over Circi's skin while she lay back on her bed, bunching the fabric of her shirt in her hands as she held it high enough for Draco to tend to her. He apologised a lot- Draco that is- for what they did to her. For his cowardice. And each time she apologised for not seeing him sooner, for not being strong enough to help herself.

Lucius hadn't announced himself immediately. He had fixed his cane but opted to go without in some attempt at proving himself to the others. As he stood in the doorway, he watched his children speaking to each other in low voices that barely reached the door. They always whispered around him now.

He knocked on the doorframe, causing them both to jerk around, Circi winced as her shirt fell back down.

"I have decided," Lucius began, clearing his throat and staying by the doorframe, "that you will both return to Hogwarts. For your own safety."

"You were going to keep me here?" Circi asked, eyes wide, and Lucius hated how much she showed her malice towards him.

"I just said you are going to return-"

"You said," she tried to get off the bed but her bruising was fresh and it hurt to move, so she leaned across Draco instead, "you said that you decided. I was never going to have a choice." Draco's hand landed on her shoulder and helped her lie back down. Her voice cracked and she looked at him for help now. "We're prisoners, Draco." Lucius beckoned her brother to follow him. As he stood from the bed she held onto his hand tightly. "Don't forget that."

*

On the Hogwarts Express, Circi wanted to run off and find Leslie and Mica but she was exhausted.

Her bruise throbbed angrily as the death eaters were particularly boisterous at their farewell dinner. The Carrow twins, one of whom had tried to attack her the night Dumbledore died, were quite vocal to Lucius about how they would keep a close eye on her for him which did not settle well in her stomach. She had hardly slept all night despite being safe in Draco's bed behind a locked door. All night she had felt sick to her stomach, a cold sweat raking her body and every noise sending panic through her. She had woken Draco multiple times crying and hyperventilating.

But, she had felt safe on the train, despite the strange looks her peers gave her and the glares they offered Draco. Compared to him, she knew she looked a mess. The type of mess the students expected someone who conferred with death eaters to look like.

Draco kept up appearances. He had cropped his hair shorter and gelled it before they left. His black suit was freshly pressed and he carried his essentials in a bag resembling a briefcase. In the eyes of their peers, he did not appear to be a seventeen-year-old. Circi, on the other hand, had hardly dressed herself. Draco had brushed her hair for hair as she carried herself like a reanimated corpse.

She had dark hollows beneath her eyes from months of sleepless nights, her top was two sizes too big and she could only wear her pyjama trousers with the waistband folded down in order to sit comfortably for a prolonged time on the train.

As they moved through the carriages, Draco carrying both of their bags, she faintly heard her name being yelled but a wave of students had climbed onto the train when she turned around and forced her to keep close to Draco. They sat in an enclosed carriage instead of the open dining carriage like usual. Circi dozed with her head against the window as Draco kept an eye out for his friends and, when he sat back down to wait out the boarding process, she was already fast asleep.

*

Instead of joining the students in the Great Hall straight away, Draco and Circi made a beeline for the infirmary wing.

Madame Pomfrey was organising her medicine cabinet with a scowl on her face which deepened when she saw the two enter the room. Albeit, a flash of fear had noticeably crossed her face when the door had opened, which Circi had not missed.

"You two ought to be at the feast. The sorting ceremony won't last long this year." She shook her head contemplatively as she shut the door and brushed off the white apron over her red dress. Finally, she seemed to notice them properly. Draco in his robes and Circi in her pyjamas, grasping a bag so tightly her fingers were turning white. "What is it?"

"She's in pain, Madame," Draco said, prying his sister's fingers from the bag so she could focus on the matter at hand.

Madame Pomfrey approached Circi, and held her by the shoulders to inspect her. She noted how the girl flinched when she held her and reminded herself that a fifteen-year-old should not fear being held.

"What hurts, dear?" She asks gently, watching as Circi looks to Draco for encouragement before raising her shirt to reveal the yellow and purple bruise painted across her ribcage. Madame Pomfrey crouches down and gently presses the tender flesh. She recoils her hand as Circi hisses and steps away. "I'm so sorry." She turns back to the cabinet to search through the bottles and vials.

"Can you make it go away?" Circi asks in a small voice.

"I can make it go away, or I can help the pain." The nurse responds, pulling out a bottle of medicine and a bag of empty cork-stoppered vials. "I can't do both while it's fresh, I'm afraid. I can apply some ointment and wrap it if you like?" She watched the girl, hoping the offer of ointment would be taken as her gaze flicked to Draco. Circi nods. "Come," she guides her to one of the beds halfway down the room, telling Draco to wait by the door as she pulls the curtain around the bed.

Circi removes her shirt, adjusts the straps of her bra, and lies back on the bed while Madame Pomfrey pours her a cup of the medicine and offers it with a straw. She sips on the medicine, a disgusting mixture, of course, but it started to work instantly.

As the pain ebbed, she finished the medicine and sat up to watch the nurse fill the vials with the medicine and stop them once more. Then, she held up a jar of grey ointment and smiled kindly as she passed over the bag of vials.

"This will last you through the week," she began as she started to apply the ointment over the bruise, "I'd like you to return the vials and we can see how you are healing." She fell silent as she worked, straining her ears until she heard Draco shift on his feet by the door. She lowered her voice, "how did you do this?" She looked up as she finished with the ointment and wiped her hands on a cloth.

Circi tried to smile reassuringly but it only looked forced, "I didn't." Was all she said. Madame Pomfrey glanced in the direction of Draco as she unravelled a bandage. "Neither did he." Circi said, much clearer and defensive than before.

"Good." Was all the nurse said as she wound the bandage around Circi's torso.

As Circi changed into her uniform, Draco waited outside the curtain with Madame Pomfrey rocking on his heels. He was growing agitated and didn't like how they would look at him when they entered the Great Hall late.

Sure enough, the feast was in full swing when they finally made it to the hall, accompanied by Madame Pomfrey.

Circi now looked as neatly pressed as Draco, if not for the dark circles beneath her eyes and the way she swayed when she stood still too long. Those who had seen her on the train barely recognised her as the same person and turned to their friends, spreading rumours about Draco forcing her to act the part.

They squeezed onto the Slytherin bench between Draco's friends and tried to ignore the hush that kept the students in a chokehold. Most of the students dared not to look at them too long- in fact, if they weren't listening to the people beside them, they were staring at their plates and waiting for the moment the headmaster dismissed them to bed.

Circi looked up at the Professor's table and her eyes landed immediately on the central chair where, after decades of Headmaster Dumbledore sitting there, Professor Snape now watched over the hall. Professor McGonagall sat on one side as usual, looking pained at her position and, on the other side, sat one of the Carrow twins. In fact, the longer she looked at the faces of the Professors, she was beginning to notice the death eaters slowly taking over the faculty.

Madame Pomfrey whispered into Professor McGonagall's ear and the Professor's eyes landed directly on Circi. Looking away, heart pounding, Circi searched the hall. Across from her, over the shoulders of some Ravenclaw students, she noticed Mica watching her with narrow eyes.

Again, she looked away and sought out someone who would judge her much faster and therefore have come to a conclusion about her by now.

Up the table, among a group of fifth years including her dormmates, Leslie glanced up from his meal with a mouthful of potatoes and offered her a supportive smile and a clumsy thumbs up. The pounding in her chest relented ever-so-slightly upon seeing him look at her how he usually did. Over his shoulder, Rhiannon and Myrna spotted her. Rhiannon nodded in acknowledgement, occasionally looking up at the table. Myrna, however, grinned and looked as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

*

After the students were dismissed, escorted to their dorms but their prefects- of whom Draco was included, Circi did not linger long in the Slytherin common room. She looked for Leslie for a few minutes before becoming overwhelmed at the crowd flocking into the room and escaping to her bedroom.

She was the first in her dorm and, trying to calm her breathing, she pulled the drapes around her bed and curled into a ball atop the covers.

As she counted her breaths, she noticed a tassel poking out from under her pillow and found that she had left Serenity's scarf behind. Her trunk was also at the bottom of her bed, in the same state it had been the night she had left to meet Mica by the lake, but her bed had new sheets which meant the Hogwarts elves had found the scarf and tucked it back under her pillow for her.

Inhaling the scarf, tears came to her eyes when she could not smell her mother anymore.

"Circi?"

The door to her dorm room opened and she heard multiple people enter. She made no effort to get up but the drape in front of her was peeled back and she came face to face with Myrna and Rhiannon.

Upon seeing their concerned expressions, Circi squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine they weren't here.

If they were at Hogwarts, they were in danger.

Despite how much she wanted to ignore them, she could feel the mattress dip and suddenly she was sandwiched between the two girls. They sat in silence, Circi's eyes remained closed as she slowed her breathing but, eventually, she opened her eyes to confront them. All... two of them?

"Where're Niamh and Fern?" She looked to Rhiannon first, who remained quiet and looked down to entwine her hand with Circi's. They both looked at Myrna, who looked pained.

"We were all at Niamh's when we heard." Circi lowered her eyebrows, watching Myrna closely, who took a deep breath. "After they took the Ministry, they followed Fern's dad when he fled. They knew he was pureblood and that he had married a muggle so they-" she paused but she didn't need to continue. The implications were clear. The death eaters hated muggles and blood traitors alike. Myrna cleared her throat. "Niamh's mum was hysterical. She thought they were next, or at least they would come for Fern. It was her dad who had the sense to start packing." Myrna looked to Rhiannon for help, clearly finding the topic difficult as her chest heaved.

"Myrna's parents gave them some supplies and they stayed with them for a while but eventually they had to run." Circi looked between the two, baffled at how the death eaters worked outside of the manor. Hunting half bloods and muggleborns like dogs to a rabbit. "We haven't heard from them since they ran."

"Oh god," Circi bit down on the scarf, shrinking further in on herself. "This is my fault."

"Wha-" the girls pawed at her.

"No, I knew Draco was doing something!" She wouldn't look at them when they fell silent. "He wouldn't tell me but I should have stopped him anyway..." Shrinking away from the girls, she tried to pretend they weren't there.

She could see their faces now, disgusted, full of hatred for the girl they thought was innocent. They would get off the bed anytime soon, leave her cocooned in green velvet and hope she suffocated in her sleep. If she was them that's exactly how she'd expect to act at such a confession. She had enabled Dumbledore's death and the reign of the Dark Lord over Hogwarts. Sure, Draco had opened the door, but she gave him the key.

Rhiannon, from where she sat behind Circi, threw an arm around her shoulder and pressed her forehead to the back of Circi's neck.

"That must've been a heavy burden to carry." She tells her, squeezing tightly and unmoving.

Circi looks up at Myrna. In the dim space they were in she couldn't tell exactly what she felt. But, Myrna gently ran her hand over Circi's hair and snuggled down beside her. She didn't hug her, but she watched Circi, examining every feature of her face down to the deep circles prominent in the shadows.

"Go to sleep, Circ," Myrna said finally, "you're safe with us."