My Wings Are Black

Something was happening. Odette could feel it in her bones. Snape’s words had been running around her head for days since Draco’s accident. Her father was coming for her again. And this time, it would not be to warn her against failing. This time it would be punishment…punishment for failing.

He must know of course, about the curses she had been subjected to by the wand of the disgusting Bellatrix Lestrange. Her father had never gotten on with Rodolphus Lestrange, and even less with his wife. There was a common feud, a mutual dislike on both sides, which had of course been passed onto Odette and it was clear from actions and jealous words that Bellatrix despised Odette. She was jealous of her position with the Dark Lord, she was jealous of her beauty, her wealth…her freedom of sorts. Odette was everything Bellatrix could have once been and wasn’t.

Odette was shivering as she crouched by the warm fire in the Slytherin Common Room. Her raven hair fell in front of her snow white face, and the light of the fire cast deep shadows under her eyes. She looked haunted, obsessed. She rocked back and forth, passing a finger through the top of the flames so they did not burn her but merely warmed her hands.

Once, many months ago…Odette would have done anything to keep in favour with the Dark Lord, her master. But more and more these days, she found herself contemplating an escape, a way to run away from it all. If she failed, if they failed in trying to create a better, purer world for witches and wizards…she was going to Azkaban. She would be haunted by the dementors, no matter how strong her happy thoughts of Fred could be. Eventually she would lose hope, and forget what and who happiness was. She would succumb to madness and grief, and it would tear her apart. She was not as strong as she once thought she was. She was only a girl. And she would die.

But she would die by winning as well…because she knew with all her heart Fred would never give into the new rule that was planned. He would go down fighting. He would die fighting for what he believed in because he was good and he was strong. And if Fred died, so did Odette because he was her heart. He was all that was good in her world and she could no longer live without him.

And Odette had most certainly changed. Her face wasn’t as cold as it used to be, that chilly mask had slipped slightly, and the happiness she felt by being in the castle that had become her home could be seen within her. Her eyes shone brighter especially when she was around Fred. Even Draco had noticed it, and though it had saddened him at first to know that he could never make her that happy…her secret smile made him happy. Even if he did not show it.

Odette got up from her position in front of the fire and stalked from the room, clasping her black cloak around her shoulders. She rose the hood over her head, so the peak cast her face in shadows. She moved silently through the halls of Hogwarts, reaching the Infirmary within minutes.

She entered through the crack of the door, casting a quick glance towards Madam Pomfrey’s office. Draco was sitting up, reading a Quidditch magazine, and he smiled at her when he noticed she had entered the room. She walked over to his bed, sitting down and placing a cool hand on his cheek, brushing back a strand of his platinum blonde hair. He closed his eyes slightly, and leaned back against the pillow, looking at the girl he loved with all his stone cold heart. And then he noticed the look in Odette’s eyes,

“What is it?” he whispered

“I don’t know…but I think, I think I’m going home.”

Draco paled, “What do you mean Odette?”

“My father’s coming. I know he is, and I don’t know what he’s going to do. I think….I think he’s going to take me away Draco.” A lone tear dropped from her wide green eye, and Draco caught it on his finger. He straightened in the bed, clasping his hand around hers and making her look him in the eye.

“Don’t let him Odette. You need to stay….the cupboard, it’s ready. Any day now, as soon as I get better. I can’t do it without you!”

Odette wiped her eye, straightening up, so her cloak fell to the floor, hiding her feet. She looked suddenly menacing, and her face was dark.
“I better go now.” her mark burned on the back of her neck and she refused to flinch, “if…if I don’t come back Draco, tell Fred…tell him that it’s for the best, yeah?”

Draco cast his eyes down. “Odette, don’t. Make him let you stay!”

“Goodbye Draco.”

Odette closed her eyes as she turned away from the blonde haired boy who looked weak and helpless as he tried to follow her, to get her to stop. But his injuries stopped him, and he couldn’t help but allow a cry of pain escape his pale, thin lips causing madam Pomfrey to rush out from her office to push him back down as Odette’s cloak tails whipped around the corner and out of sight.

~

She took a deep breath, shivering slightly as the cold air of the corridors hit her. She looked around, Hogwarts was her home now. She did not want to go back to the horrible silent manor in the hills of Italy. Where her mother was haunted by her own reflection and her father locked himself in his study. The only company she ever had was Styx and Amelia, the ghost of her great great aunt.

She thought of Fred, of his family and The Burrow. She had seen a photograph taken of their Christmas. Their home was full and warm. They were smiling and happy…they were what Odette had never had- a family. And it was only now, as Odette realised what she was returning to, that she discovered she ached for that. A real family, a family with Fred, a family that she could love and protect in times of peace and happiness. But it would never happen. Because this was the present…and Odette was fast realising, she had no future.

She stopped as she reached the Entrance Hall, as she recognised the terribly brooding figure in the shadows. Her father.

He noticed her approach and looked up, his dark hair fell in longer curls than normal around his handsome unlined face and unlike many that lived in these times, he was relaxed and appeared nonchalant.

“I knew you’d know I was here. Good girl.”

Odette frowned at her father, “What are you doing here?” There was no warmth or affection in her tone. She no longer had any caring thoughts for her parents.

Edwin Silver glared at his beautiful daughter. “You know why, you ungrateful whelp. You’ve been nothing but a disappointment here. The Dark Lord requested you, alone to do what he needed you to do and you failed him, You failed us all. You don’t deserve any of this anymore. I’m surprised he hasn’t killed you already.”

Odette’s face was pale as her father spat the words she had been thinking about herself into her eyes, “He would never kill me!” she whispered, a sob aching to escape her throat as she thought of her master betraying her. Despite Fred, and all the love he had shown her, she was still very much under the influence of her Lord. “He…he loves me. The Dark Lord loves me, and no other!”

Edwin began to laugh hysterically, and then he grabbed her by the throat as the rumble of students could be heard coming through the Entrance Hall on their way to dinner. The back of her head slammed into the stone by a tapestry of Godric Gryffindor and she could hear gasps and feel the stares of the students that could see the meeting between father and daughter. Her vision was blurred for a moment but her father’s hand was still tight around her throat, restricting her breathing. His mouth was by her ear, “you’re more foolish than I thought Odette. He only needs you for a purpose…Magic is Might. He’ll dispose of you as easily as he disposed of the others who have failed him. You’re a Silver, keep your head and forget all this fanciful nonsense. If you do one more thing out of line, I swear by my father and his father before him, if you’ve thought my curses on you were bad before, they will be nothing, nothing, compared to what you will receive.”

Odette tried to grab her wand, to curse her father to oblivion. She had the power, the magic might to kill him. To cause him to explode in smithereens…but her vision was starting to go as sparks flooded her eyes. Her lungs cried out for oxygen and her feet scrabbled the ground uselessly, her fingers fluttered against her cloak. She was going to die, her own father would be the cause of her death.

“Mr Silver, please control yourself!” McGonagall’s voice sounded like heaven in her ears, and her strict tone that meant business caused Edwin to loosen his grip on his teenage daughters throat. She fell to the ground, where she lay in an undignified heap gasping for air. Somebody helped her up, hands that were warm on her own, familiar, she staggered against Fred…reminding herself not to hg him, to kiss him…to show her father she had gained any affection towards a blood traitor.

Edwin smiled at McGonagall, “My apologies Professor, I shall leave her punishment till outside the grounds of your school.”

His threat hung heavy on the air, causing many of the gathered students to shift uncomfortably and step backwards. The man was handsome, and his resemblance to Odette could be seen. The way they held themselves, the dangerous evil they both secreted from their very pores. But in Odette, there was desire to like her…a desire to love her, to want her…in Edwin there was nothing but pure molten fear. His eyes which unlike his daughters, were a dark brown glittered with malice and disdain. For the first time, the students pitied their Queen…as they realised she was leaving them and returning to a dungeon. She would become a prisoner in her own home.

Odette straightened herself, and pushed Fred away from her as if it disgusted her to be near him. Fred stepped back obediently, reading the warning, the silent plea in her eyes. She held her high and turned around to face her father again, “I’ll get my things. I’ll be back in a moment.”

She acted as if the previous scene of near murder had never happened as she sweeped through the students, and they parted for her…some even bowing their heads in respect, saying goodbye to the girl they had all feared and loved. Edwin watched her go, there was something different in his daughter. He had always known she was exquisitely beautiful and proud in herself, a family trait but there was a way she moved in Hogwarts. An air of royalty was about her. But there was something else. She wasn’t as dark as she had seemed growing up, not as eager to please. Her eyes seemed kinder when she had gazed at the students she was living with, her face was almost…happy. Though to many she seemed strong, to Edwin she seemed weaker, as if she had allowed the walls around her to crumble. And then he watched as a tall red headed boy clad in a red and gold scarf, moved silently around the back of the crowds and continued after Odette.

~

Fred rested his head against the stone of the dungeon walls, praying, hoping against hope that somehow she could stay. But the burning feeling in his heart knew that nothing would change now. Odette was leaving. Leaving Hogwarts, leaving him. What would become of them? Clearly, her father would never allow her to have anything o do with him…for all Fred knew, Odette could be going straight into the hands of Voldemort. Maybe she would be sent back into a world of killing the innocent, and fighting for the ‘greater good.’

His eyes shut against the threat of tears and then he straightened as he watched Odette walk back out of the Slytherin Common Room, placing a small round silver ball into her pocket. It was all of her things, her trunk, her school books, transfigured into one object. She really was a remarkable witch.

Fred smiled sadly at her as she saw him and stopped where she was. He could see she was also close to tears so he quickly closed the gap between them, wrapping his arms around her slender waist and pulling her close to him, and then placed her back to the wall, so she was trapped in his arms. He rested his forehead against hers, and stared into her wide eyes, “please don’t leave me,” he whispered, already knowing it was useless.

Odette placed a cool hand on his cheek, “I’ll find a way…somehow…I will find a way back to you. We are not over Fred. I’m too selfish now to let it go. To let us go. I know this makes us un danger…our lives are forfeit if we are found out…but I don’t think I care anymore. If I’m spending my last years here…I want them to be with you. I can’t let you go…not now, not after everything.”

Fred smiled at her, knowing she spoke the truth for the both of them. It was useless to try and break things off now. It would kill both of them…either way.

He pressed his mouth against hers in a last furious kiss, and he tried to put everything he could not say into it. Odette responded just as passionately before she pushed him away, kissed his forehead sweetly and walked back down the corridor. Her words drifted to him as she disappeared, “thank you…for always believing in me.”

Fred allowed the tears to run, and slumped onto the ground, burying his face in his hands.

~

Edwin watched his daughter as she returned to him, her cloak hood shielding her face. They said nothing to each other as Edwin nodded and left the Entrance doors, stepping into the evening. The walk to the perimeter of the ground walls was silent and seemed long, and when they finally passed the gates, allowing them to apparate, Edwin turned to his daughter.

He clasped her shoulder painfully, to make sure she apparate along with him and under his breath whispered for no-one but her to hear, “And if you ever see that red-headed boy again…I’ll kill him.”

Odette’s scream was masked by the loud crack of the Apparition.