Little Memories

“But there, right there, that could be a scar if it wasn’t tugged so tightly,” Bellatrix cooed to Draco, pushing apart Harry’s hair with her wand and grinning widely up at him. Charlotte could tell Draco was hesitant to give an outright answer and she could tell that Draco knew exactly who was before him. Lucius walked over to Draco and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze as he looked down at Draco.

“Draco, look carefully,” he hissed in his ear, “if we’re the ones to turn in Harry Potter, think of where that would put us with the Dark Lord. Everything will be forgiven. Just take a closer look at him.” Draco lowered his eye a bit, clearly uncomfortable with the amount of pressure that had been placed on his shoulders. Charlotte heard Narcissa let out a small noise from the back of her throat and walked over to Lucius, gently making him step aside and tapping Draco on the shoulder. Draco looked up to his mother and she gave him a look. Immediately, he got to his feet and walked away from the two of them, sitting down in a chair beside Charlotte, breathing heavily and his brow furrowed deeply. She placed a hand on his shoulder and looked down at him, soothing her hand on his back. They locked eyes for a moment as they heard Bellatrix and Narcissa talking quietly.

A flash caught Charlotte’s eyes as Draco lowered his head once more and Bellatrix sucking in a deep breath of air and throwing Harry to the ground.

“What is that?” She screeched stepping toward a Snatcher that had been lingering toward the back of the group. Charlotte could see a long, silvery sword in his grasp; the hilt glittering with large rubies. Her eyes widened a bit as she laid eyes on the sword she had once planned to steal, but was thwarted in the attempt.

“A sword,” the Snatcher grunted. Bellatrix strode toward him, her black eyes wide and crazed as she stretched out her hand toward it.

“Give it to me,” she barked, all but snarling at the man.

“It’s mine, I found it,” he replied in a thick Cockney accent. It was only a mere second before a loud bang resonated through the room and the Snatcher was on his back, the sword clattering to the floor beside him. She then struck the other in the chest, sending him sprawling down the staircase with a loud clap. Charlotte then watched as Scabior, a friend of hers, turned his wand to Bellatrix, who shot ropes out of the tip of her wand without a word and they wrapped around his neck. He immediately began to choke, then another red jet flew at him and knocked him unconscious. Charlotte bolted over to him as soon as possible, cutting the ropes from around him and shooting a dark stare to Bellatrix. She ignored the blonde and walked over to the sword, snatching it up from the floor and turning to Greyback.

“Take the boys to the dungeons,” she told him, “leave her with me. I’m going to have a little talk with her, girl-to-girl.” Greyback grabbed both of the boys by the scruff of the neck and toted them easily down the stairs, the entire time Ron was struggling against him, his eyes set on Hermione. Bellatrix grabbed her by her hair and dragged her into the middle of the room, drawing a small, silver dagger from her waist. Charlotte watched in horror as she held the knife in one hand and her wand in the other, as Hermione stared up at the woman in fear.

For a few long minutes, the only noises in the room were the sounds of Hermione’s loud, pained screams, her explaining that they had merely found the sword and that it was a copy, and Bellatrix yelling at Hermione, calling her liar and mudblood. Out of all the things Charlotte had ever had to watch, this was perhaps one of the worst. All the other people she had seen tortured and killed were strangers, people she had never seen before, but to watch one of the brightest witches she knew being tortured by one of the most twisted witches was hard to do. Charlotte knew, without a doubt, that Hermione wasn’t lying, but that didn’t matter to Bellatrix Lestrange. She used the Cruciatus Curse on her, the Imperius Cure, and had dragged the dagger into her skin to form the crude word, ‘Mudblood’. It would scar her forever, Charlotte knew.

Finally, she stopped, her body weight holding the wavering Hermione beneath her before she stood. “Fetch me the goblin,” she barked to Draco, “we’ll see if the little mudblood is lying or not.” Draco slowly rose from his chair, gripping his wand tightly and he made his way down the stairs. Charlotte watched him leave from her spot kneeling beside Scabior, who was still stunned. Only moments later, Draco and the goblin resurfaced from the stairs, Draco’s hand wrapped tightly around the struggling goblin’s arm. He dragged him over to Bellatrix, who had taken the sword from her sister. The crazed woman shoved the sword at the goblin, staring down at him in a way that dared him to try anything with her as Hermione stirred slightly behind her. Draco shot Charlotte a look and she stood from Scabior’s side, walking over to him and gripping her wand tightly. She leaned back against a desk, crossing her arms over her chest and watching Bellatrix darkly.

“Tell me, goblin,” she said in a low voice, pointing the dagger in her hand at him, “it is a real, or a fake?” The goblin cut his black eyes at her for a moment before he lowered his eyes to it. He studied it for a moment, sighing heavily through his long, hooked nose.

“It’s a fake,” he said simply and she dragged the knife across his cheek.

“LIAR!” She bellowed. “NOW, TELL ME THE TRUTH!” The goblin sneered at her for a moment before she raised her wand to him. Out of the corner of Charlotte’s eye, she noticed Harry and Ron had somehow freed themselves from the dungeons and were creeping up the stairs. Instead of raising the alarm, like she should have done, she merely kept her mouth shut, a wry smirk curling the corner of her lips.

“Expelliarmus!” Harry yelled and her wand flew from her hand. Her eyes widened and there were a few seconds of silence before spells were immediately thrown across the room. Draco strode over to his mother as his father shot across the room from a spell thrown by Ron. Instead of joining in, Charlotte merely sat back and watched as the two fought. Fenrir Greyback was somehow stunned in the scuffle and his large form thudded to the ground.

“STOP OR SHE DIES!” Bellatrix’s voice rang clear through the room. She had Hermione pressed against her, the silvery dagger pressed up against her throat. Harry, Ron, Draco, and Narcissa all paused and looked over at her, the first two going completely still. Charlotte watched her closely, her grip tightening so hard around her wand that her knuckles were turning white. There were a few still, tense moments in the room.

“Drop your wands,” she called to Harry and Ron, a wicked grin curling her lips as her eyes darted between the two of them. The two shot looks to each other before letting their wands clatter to the ground, raising their hands up to prove their point. “Good, now, Draco, pick up the wands for me,” she said in a much softer voice. Narcissa was about to snap and Bellatrix for ordering her son around, but Draco had already lifted the wands into his hands and was walking back over to his mother and his father, who was recovering from the stun to a chest.

“Go on, Lucius, call him,” Bellatrix said. Lucius wore a tight-lipped grin as he pulled back the sleeve of his overcoat and his shirt. Just as he was about to press his finger to the Dark Mark on his arm, a high-pitched squeaking began to echo through the room. Everyone paused and directed their attention to the glass and metal chandelier in the room. It was swinging back and forth precariously, a house elf perched even more haphazardly on the top of it and unscrewing it. The swinging grew more and more until the chandelier detached itself from the chain and it plummeted to the ground. Bellatrix threw Hermione away as she dodged the falling death trap.

With a shrill shattering noise and clatter, it fell to the ground, showering the area with broken glass and metal. Ron immediately swooped forward and scooped up Hermione, pulling her away from the mess as Draco fell against a chair, away from his parents. Charlotte watched as Harry wrestled the wands from him, taking Draco’s in the process of it all. The three of them huddled together as the goblin joined them, Dobby standing on a railing to a staircase behind them as they stared at Bellatrix and Narcissa.

“You must not hurt Harry Potter!” He called bravely to them, jutting his chin forward and setting his tennis ball shaped eyes on the witches that were slowly walking toward the four.

“Kill him, Cissy!” Bellatrix screeched but in a moment, Narcissa’s wand was sent flying from her hand and clattering to the ground. “How dare you take a witch’s wand?!” Bellatrix cried angrily, her wild black eyes set on the fearless house elf. Charlotte was silently cheering for Dobby in her head, a small smile curling her lips. “How dare you defy your master!?”

“Dobby has no master!” Dobby exclaimed proudly, nodding his head a bit. “Dobby is a free elf!”

The next few moments occurred so slowly for Charlotte as she watched the group link hands, Ron clutching onto the sword of Gryffindor and Hermione, Hermione holding onto the goblin and Ron, and Harry clutching both the wands and the golbin’s hand in one hand and Dobby’s in the other. They began to disapparate and Bellatrix, in a fury, tossed the silver dagger through the air. A flash lit the room from it before Charlotte saw it plunge into the beloved house elf’s chest before they disappeared altogether. The blonde’s jaw dropped slightly and her eyes began to tear up.

There were a few moments of sheer silence in the room as everyone took in what had just happened. Tears slipped down Charlotte’s cheeks before she heard Bellatrix gave an insane little cackle. Anger slowly began to build up inside the blonde witch and she slowly turned to the woman.

“He deserved it, didn’t he?” She sneered to Narcissa, who was holding Draco’s shoulders and watching Charlotte closely. The magic had begun to build up around her, an invisible force that made everyone’s hair stand on end and the room groan slightly at the pressure that had entered the room.

“Where do you even think you can do the things you’ve done?” Charlotte growled out, slowly stepping toward Bellatrix with angry tears balancing in her eyes. Her feet crunched across the broke crystal and glass until she came to a stop, shaking she was so angry.

“Oooh, I have hit a sour spot with this one,” Bellatrix cooed, cackling again as she walked toward the blonde.

“It’s not enough that you hurt the Snatchers when all they did was bring Harry Potter directly to you, but you kill a house elf that did nothing to you,” she said evenly, though it was apparent she was absolutely livid by the red that splotched her cheeks. Draco struggled to get to Charlotte, to guide her out of the room before she got herself into trouble, but his mother kept him from going over to her.

“Draco, stay,” she whispered frantically in his ear, tightening her grip on his shoulders as his father stepped beside the two of them.

“It sounds to me like someone doesn’t have the Dark Lord’s best interests in mind anymore,” Bellatrix accused, a crazed look in her eyes as she stopped just in front of the blonde who towered over her.

“I never said that,” Charlotte rebutted quickly, staring down into the woman’s eyes.

“Then why didn’t you help us just now?” Bellatrix cried out, clearly enraged with the girl and her insolence and disobedience to the Dark Lord. “You had every opportunity to step in and prevent them from leaving, but you merely stood back and watched!”

“I thought you had everything under control,” Charlotte replied softly, her jaw clenching briefly before her expression grew even more livid. “And what if the Dark Lord had thought I had done all the work in capturing Harry Potter? How much more would you have hated me then for standing in the spot beside him…as his favorite; the one you covet so desperately?” She asked, sneering at the woman. Narcissa let out a sharp gasp from somewhere within the room Bellatrix flew at Charlotte and the blonde was thankful that she did not still have her dagger or she may have very well plunged it into her chest. The woman knocked Charlotte onto her back, feeling her fist collide with her jaw followed by another blow to the opposite side. Charlotte let out a small cry at the pain that shot through her, but almost at that moment, Narcissa had dragged Bellatrix away, kicking and snarling, and Draco was at Charlotte’s side.

She could taste blood in her mouth and it only made her grow even angrier with the woman. With cool eyes, Charlotte watched as Narcissa hissed at Bellatrix, though she knew they were on the brink of yelling. “After the events that have happened today,” Narcissa said, “we do not need you brawling with our guest!”

“Draco, take Charlotte back up to her room,” Lucius murmured to his son, his upper lip curling before he turned and looked at Bellatrix. Draco easily lifted Charlotte to her feet and guided her back to her room. It was then that Charlotte came to the conclusion that if there was one person she wanted it strangle with her bare hands, it would be that wicked woman.