★

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xvii. This Won't End Well

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★

"SO, HOW ARE we getting to London?" Harry asks, sighing in defeat.

Thea grins.

"We'll fly of course!" Luna Lovegood says, earning herself a round of incredulous looks.

"Fly? I'd rather walk." Thea grimaces, almost as much as Hermione.

"We can go on Thestrals," Luna simply says, pointing at something in the distance.

"Luna, there's nothing there," Thea says, frowning.

Honestly, she has never been more confused in her entire life. Harry faints in their exam, and of course, she's worried sick about him. Then, he tells her he had a vision of Voldemort kidnapping her mother and Sirius Black, who, up until this afternoon, she thought was a murderer who enjoyed having tea with Voldemort. Then, he doesn't actually explain why or how he had said vision, and now they're asking her to fly to the other side of the U.K on something that she can't see.

What the hell?

To her surprise, Harry's arm reaches out and moves as though he's petting something.

"Erm, Harry, are you...alright?" Thea asks warily, frowning at him.

"He's petting a Thestral...they can only be seen by those who've seen death," Hermione explains to Thea, who nods.

Thea smiles at the soft, gentle look on Harry's face. She feels eyes burning into her head and turns to Hermione, whose eyebrows are raised in that knowing look that unnerves her to the core, making Thea's smile evaporate and the girl look away from Harry.

"You two must really smell," Luna says to Harry and Hermione, who are covered in blood. "It's attracted them." Luna points to the Thestrals again.

"We'll need five..." Thea says.

"There are only three..." Luna says. "Harry, Hermione, you'll have to hang around more... they'll come eventually!"

Soon, Thea is placing her leg over an invisible horse, which feels just as bizarre as she thought it would, guided by Harry. She decides she'll have her eyes clamped shut through the whole journey.

"Thanks, Harry –"

"You'll be fine." Harry says quickly, before taking off as though he can't get away from her fast enough.

She frowns.

When they start to fly, Thea's eyes snap shut, her arms wrapped in a vice-like grip around the Thestral. She already can't wait to be back on firm land, being supported by something she can actually see...

"We're descending!" she hears Harry's voice carry across the wind and dares herself to open her eyes, just for a moment.

She looks around and sees Hermione, Luna, Ginny and Neville also strangely suspended in the air. Hermione looks as though she's going to be sick, as does Neville.

She can't help but grin as she looks around her. They've reached just below the clouds, and underneath them, rolling hills, green forests and purplish mountains sprawl across the landscape. Nature's beauty allows her to relax a little, and her racing heart slows ever so slightly.

The dizzy vertigo returns to her mind and the nausea in her stomach, as she feels the cool rush in her hair while the Thestral begins to lose height.

Soon, Thea is stood next to Harry and Luna, in the bustling streets of London.

"We'll have to use the visitor entrance," says Harry, leading the way.

Thea's in a daze the whole way down, following after the others silently and just realising how serious the situation is. Her mother, captured by Voldemort... she's never felt more terrified, her knees turning slightly weak as the group makes their way to where they need to be.

The elevator eventually comes to a halt. A cold female voice says, "Department of Mysteries."

The group get out quickly, ending up in a dark, long, tiled corridor. It's so cold that Thea is surprised they can't see their breath, the icy fingers of the air prodding her back. She can't shake the feeling that they're telling her to go back, back to Hogwarts and its warmth...

They follow Harry to a sleek black door at the end. He reaches slowly forwards and opens it, revealing a room of countless, identical doors and the room starts spinning. Thea feels a knot of dread start to grow in her stomach, and she gets the feeling that this won't end well.

Harry tries another door, which opens into a room of mystical objects; Thea realises exactly why this floor is called the Department of Mysteries, and another chill leaks down her spine. The cold spreads around her body, but the raging flames in her chest stand out, stark and burning.

She wants to go back.

As they turn back around and go through the same door, Hermione says, "We need to mark the doors, so we know which ones we've been through.

She takes out her wand and points it at the door. A great glowing 'X' sears into the wood.

Dumbledore's Army test multiple doors but one sticks out in Thea's mind. There's a weird wooden archway stood tall in the middle, a strange mist in the middle that ripples gently. The room has an eerie aura that seeps into her skin, so she quickly hurries out of it.

After what must've been more than twenty minutes, they step through a door leading to a room filled from floor to roof with crystal balls, all glowing with curling mist inside. Thea wishes she'd paid more attention in Divination, wondering if maybe she'd be a little less terrified if she had.

"This is it!" Harry whispers, breaking out into a sprint.

Thea follows after him, looking around desperately for her mother. Fear is bubbling vigorously in her whole body, but she pushes through it, running after Harry.

Harry stops in front of a certain shelf, his face lit by the spheres around him, that remind Thea of stars glittering in a black night's sky. The green of his eyes strikes her and her heart races faster, the fire in her chest turning into an inferno.

She knows they should turn around and go back...

"They aren't here..."

"Mum...?" Thea says in a desperate voice, the knot of dread spreading through her body now, thick and fast.

"Oh, Potter... you really ought to start knowing the difference between dreams and reality... now give me the prophecy, and we won't harm you and your little friends here."

Thea watches the figure who had spoken take off their mask to reveal who they are; Lucius Malfoy.

Thea feels Harry take her arm and pull her behind him.

"Ooo, he is Prince Charming, isn't he!" cackles a female voice that freezes the blood in Thea's veins.

"Bellatrix Lestrange..." Neville's voice trails off, cracking with fear.

"Longbottom, is it? How're mum and dad?"

"What do you want with my mother?" Thea snarls. "Where is she? Where's Sirius?"

"They're not here..." Lucius Malfoy continues to talk, but Thea hears Harry start to count down as quietly as he can.

"Three...two...one...NOW!"

Thea launches a spell at the shelves around her as do the rest of her friends. Calls of "Diffindo!" and "Bombarda!" and blasts of light explode in front of her, causing the prophecies to smash and start to topple over.

The group turn to run, Thea following, but a harsh grip over her mouth stops her and makes her tremor turn into an uncontrollable shake, her eyes widening to the point where they start to sting. "Cindercroft...we need a word."

Thea knows the voice and its nuance of undeniable loathing and crazed cruelty, which makes everything worse, as the person drags Thea a different way to her friends and down one of the corridors, created by the walls of crystal prophecies lining the shelves.

They throw her onto the floor where she lands in a crumpled heap. The vertigo she felt on the flight here returns, only now, she's dizzy with complete terror, not excitement.

"Now... my boy did a terrible job, didn't he? He went and, shall we say, grew fond of you? Liked you a little too much? Pathetic..." Bellatrix Lestrange scowls, her face twisting into a look of anger that somehow doesn't seem directed at Thea.

"Your boy? You have a son?" Thea spits, well aware of the taste of blood in her mouth.

Bellatrix laughs again, "Can you guess who?"

Thea closes her eyes at the name that sticks in her mind, prodding it like a hot rod. She feels her chest rage with flames as she thinks surely not...surely it can't be him.

"Jude," Thea breathes out, almost unwillingly, opening her eyes in horror and feeling sick with betrayal again. Feeling just like she did in Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day.

"Took you long enough, I thought you were supposed to be smart! All I did was rearrange Lestrange, and there he is... he insisted on the name 'Jude' just in case - but it wasn't necessary. He's been practically breathing down Dumbledore's neck for five years, and no one even realised..." Bellatrix trails off.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Thea asks, staring Bellatrix right in the face as she scrambles to her feet. Her knees tremble still, and she stumbles, but she takes a firm stance, her wand pointing at Bellatrix. The woman does the same.

"Jude was meant to convince you to join our side, Cinders. The Hell Heart curse was supposed to make you bitter, it was supposed to make you want to join our side to have all the power in the world. It was supposed to make you see that love is nothing, nothing when it comes to having power –"

" – But why? Why me?" Thea pleads. "I just don't understand why you want me!"

Bellatrix tilts her head, mocking a sad look, ignoring all of Thea's words, as though she's talking to herself. "They want you to leave here alive. They still think that there's a chance you two could be powerful together. I, however, am not stupid, and know it would be better if you weren't to leave here alive. I can always convince them it was an accident... It's a shame, really, how disappointing you both turned out to be – Avada Kedavra–!"

"Impedimenta!" Thea shouts, managing to duck low enough that the green light meant to kill her collides with the crystal balls, shattering them and sending the shelves falling in the other way.

Bellatrix flies backwards, swearing loudly. Just as Thea runs out of her sight, she points her wand at her back and screeches, "Diffindo!"

A deep cut splits the skin down her right shoulder to her left shoulder blade, hot blood pouring from it and a scream slipping past her lips, despite her attempt to stop it. A small part of her, the selfish part of her, hopes that Harry and the others will come for her, scoop her up and whisk her out of here, out of this hell that feels never-ending when they've only been here for what? An hour?

The scarlet liquid dripping down her skin and coating her clothes makes her feel dizzy right away, but she refuses to give in, limping along the corridor through shelves of prophecies that haven't been destroyed.

She knows she needs to find Harry and the others, but she can feel herself slipping in and out of consciousness around ten minutes after her encounter with Bellatrix.

Why did they want her so badly on their side? OK, the curse making her powerful makes sense, but her and Jude are both only sixteen. They'd be weak compared to the adult Death Eaters, none of this makes sense...

She feels her legs fail her and she falls, crashing into a shelf and curling up into a ball on the floor in an attempt to stay hidden, should anyone fighting them find her.

She feels nausea strike her, but she forces herself to remain silent, to not be sick or it'll give away her position. Her thoughts drift to Harry and her friends, and all she can think about is how much she hopes they're OK, wherever they are. They're interrupted by a high-pitched voice that she doesn't recognise.

"Where is the Cindercroft girl? We cannot leave without her, that is absolutely essential... there she is! Grab her!" The woman orders, before letting out a noise of disgust, "There! Dolohov, grab her, but be careful, she's bleeding. I imagine that was Bellatrix..."

Thea wants desperately to stay awake, but the agony running through her whole body, and the tiredness that consumes her wins, and she drifts away into blackness.

★

Her eyes open with a great effort.

Light breaks through in blinding rays, her surroundings blurry. The only thing she can feel is a shivering numbness in her back and the piercing of Bellatrix's wound, her shirt sticking to the skin. The bleeding seems to have stopped a while ago.

Someone is holding her roughly, one arm hooked under her knees and another under her back. The touch isn't nice; she knows it's a Death Eater, but she hasn't got the energy to fight him off, never mind the voice to scream for help.

Then his voice fills her ears, and her heart has never broken so much.

"NO! Thea! Let her go!" Harry shouts.

"Give me the prophecy, Potter. There's no need for anyone to be hurt. Just hand it over," Lucius Malfoy's voice says.

It's like someone's hitting her skull with a hammer, and the dizziness in her brain makes her sure she's going to pass out again, but she forces herself to stay awake this time. She's trying so hard to build up the energy to move, to get to her friends, that she clenches her teeth and her fists. The words get off me! are brewing on her tongue, but they won't budge past her lips...

Soon...too soon...she hears Bellatrix's voice again.

"There she is, let me finish her off –"

"NO, Bella, she is to remain alive!" Lucius hisses angrily. His voice seems too far away, considering Thea's in the same room as him.

Through the fog of her mind, she hears Neville's voice. "Don't you touch her!"

Bellatrix lets out a loud cackle, that's filled with malice. The feeling starts to return in Thea's body, though it's in nasty shivers she desperately wants to shake. It's her body telling her something's so terribly wrong...you need to get out of here...Bellatrix's story makes no sense, all it's done is give more loose ends that need to be tied up, more pieces in an impossible puzzle...

"Longbottom, ever so chivalrous – CRUCIO!"

Thea feels her body swelling with red-hot fury when Neville starts to scream loudly. She's about to start thrashing, anything to get these arms off her, but a loud range of cracks fill her ears. She begins to thrash in the person's arms, and she almost slips out of their grasp, when a panicked shout fills the room.

"It's the Order – Dolohov, get her out of here now!" Lucius Malfoy demands.

"Thea – NO!" Harry's loud shout is the last thing she hears before the Death Eater holding her Disapparates, and everything around her dissolves into cold black.

★

Silk blankets are warm against her skin when she finally wakes again.

Her back has stopped stinging, the skin unusually tight, but she's still clad in the same shirt and jeans from the battle of the Department of Mysteries, doused in her own dry blood and barely able to think straight. Her head is aching, and her chest is burning, but the only thing she's fully aware of is the confusion filling every part of her.

She notices the clean clothes on the end of the bed as she slips out of it warily, and a door most likely leading to an ensuite, but she's so frightened and uneasy, that she can't bring herself to explore it.

Then, a knock stabs into her head through the wooden door, and her anxiety intensifies.

Slowly, she walks to the door, standing on her toes to peer through the peep-hole, only to discover with growing terror that it's been blocked.

She remembers everything from the night before. She thinks it's the night before, anyway. She has no idea how long she's been here for. All she knows about the place is that she isn't safe here, and she's away from her friends.

Her hand closes on the door handle and she turns it, opening the door a crack and seeing a sickly woman glaring down at her with undoubtable loathing. The similarity to her daughter is striking, her daughter that had been, Thea realises now, given the same task as Jude. To make her a Death Eater.

Thea's eyes narrow. "You."

"Yes. Me," Octavia Hedge says breezily, looking down her nose at Thea.

"What's happened? Where am I?"

"My sister demands a word with you," Octavia says coldly.

Thea's eyebrows furrow. "Your sister?"

Octavia Hedge's lip curls in a way that shows satisfaction, forcing the permanent dread that's been present in Thea's body through this whole year to grow and press harshly against her ribs.

"Oh, you don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" Thea asks, alarm spreading through her body.

I don't know a single thing, Thea thinks, staring at the woman. And that's what's so scary.

"My sister is Lyra Vincent...Cindercroft..." Octavia spits the name like it's poison. "...Your mother."

[ END OF PART ONE ]