Walk Through Hell

"If they would let me be I could just breathe again; step aside and let me fight, breathe again; show the world what I got inside, breath again; step aside and let me fight; if they would just let me be..."

The first Friday of the school year dawned upon the students of Hogwarts, bringing with it, sunshine and warm weather.

In the Great Hall on that lovely morning, students chattered excitedly, discussing their plans for the long-awaited first weekend of the school year, while eating their breakfast. Sun and blue skies shined above the Great Hall, through the enchanted ceiling, casting a warm glow across the house tables. The day was being warmly welcomed by all students, except Addie, who was dreading her detention with Snape, come seven o'clock that evening.

Except for that one little hiccup, however, even Addie felt that that particular Friday had all the makings of a perfect day.

"I can't find a anything about telepathy!" Hermione said, frustrated, from her spot at the Gryffindor table next to Addie. She scooped some eggs onto her plate, "I must have looked through a hundred books, and nothing!"

Hermione had spent much of her free time in the past week in the library, determined to find some kind of answer to give her friend, but she hadn't so much as even come across the word, let alone any kind of information about it.

"Just give it a rest for now, Hermione," Addie said, scooping some eggs onto her own plate, "I really appreciate you looking for me, but I can't ask you to waste any more of your time with it. I'll try to find some information about it on my own."

"I don't understand how there's no information about it in any of the books you read," Harry chimed in, "Even muggles know about telepathy."

"Maybe muggle telepathy is different?" Ron offered, pouring himself some more pumpkin juice.

"Maybe..." Addie trailed off, her mind elsewhere. It did worry her slightly, that the topic of telepathy wasn't in any of the books in the Hogwarts library. After all, Hogwarts was home to one of the largest collection of books in the Wizarding world. If no information could be found there, then where could it be found?

Addie's thoughts were interrupted by the post owls swooping in to make their morning deliveries. Out of habit, and out of hope of a reply from her mother, Addie searched for her tawny owl, Braxton. When she didn't see him amongst the post owls, she turned her attention back to her scrambled eggs, not bothering to look at Hermione's Daily Prophet that had just been dropped in front of Hermione by a delivery owl.

"Bloody hell."

That particular phrase didn't often spill from Hermione's lips; only when something really surprised her did she resort to Ron's usual phrase. Knowing this, her three friends immediately dropped their utensils, and looked toward her, just as she was flattening her Prophet on top of the table for all of them to read. Addie, Harry, and Ron gasped in unison at the large photo of Addie and her father, which had been taken five days before on platform nine and three quarters, and the headline above it:

CLAYWORTH'S DAUGHTER SUSPECTED IN DISAPPARANCE OF MINISTRY OFFICIAL

So much for a perfect day.

Addie blinked her eyes several times while her three friends stared at her in shock. Blinking her eyes did nothing. Each time she looked at the headline it still read the same thing. Taking a deep breath, Addie picked the paper up from the wooden table and read.

The magical community's newly appointed Vice Minister, Mitchell Clayworth, may be facing the first scandal of his political career today, as new developments have come to light this week regarding the June disappearance of Ministry of Magic official Anton McGregor. An undisclosed source has reported to the Daily Prophet that Clayworth's daughter, Adrienne, 16, played a crucial role in the disappearance of the 38 year old father of three.

The source states "Miss Clayworth is incredibly abnormal and unstable. She has a horrible time controlling her temper and often lashes out at innocent people for no reason, often resorting to physical violence." Though no body has ever been recovered, the source claims to "know for a fact that Miss Clayworth brutally murdered Mr. McGregor in cold-blood this past June."

Anton's family became concerned for him after he did not return home from work on June 18th. "I knew something was wrong when he didn't come home that night. He always let me know what was going on. If he was going to be late, he would have owled me," Anton's wife, Cassandra, said through tears. Cassandra immediately reported her husband missing, and found the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to be incredibly unprofessional and unhelpful, saying that officials in the department "blatantly ignored" her plea for help. A representative for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement declined to comment.

Described as a loving, understanding, and deeply caring man, Anton worked within the Department of International Magic Cooperation, the very same department from which the new Vice Minister was promoted. He had two sons, Connor, 5 and Samuel, 3 and a daughter, Victoria, 9 months. "He loved his children dearly. He would have done anything for them and they just can't understand why daddy won't come home," Cassandra sobbed.

What kind of monster would harm such a wonderful man? "Adrienne Clayworth would," our source states, "I've personally heard death threats spew from her mouth when she's been angry. She's an absolute nutter." Miss Clayworth is currently a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she causes an abundance of trouble and spends a great deal of time with fellow troublemaker Harry Potter. "She and Potter are damn near inseparable, but I suppose that's expected, isn't it? The nutters have to stick together." Not only does Miss Clayworth wreak havoc around the dear school that so many witches and wizards choose to send their children to for an education, she also "travels from bloke to bloke rather quickly." She is pictured at the right embracing Potter minutes after returning from a vacation with the prominent Malfoy family, where she reportedly had a love affair with the youngest Malfoy.

Adrienne Clayworth is clearly a young woman that many parents would not want around their children at Hogwarts. "That girl is a murder and she is running around Hogwarts, putting hundreds of other students in danger. Someone as unstable as she is will murder again and it's only a matter of time before she claims her next victim."

Her father, Mitchell Clayworth was appointed Vice Minister barely a week ago, and already Adrienne is causing trouble for him in his new post. It is clear that he has his hands full with his daughter. As for Cassandra McGregor, she hopes that Adrienne Clayworth is put away in Azkaban for life for the brutal murder of her loving husband, preferably before another family has to go through what hers has because of the girl.

The Daily Prophet will continue to follow this developing story.

- Rita Skeeter, executive reporter

By the time Addie had finished reading the article, her hands were trembling so badly that the paper shook, blurring the words before her.

It was lies. All of it. Not a single word written about her in that article had been truth.

Everything about McGregor being loving and caring? Lies. All lies! He was a savage Death Eater who had nearly killed her. For a moment, Addie wondered if his wife had known what he had been, and felt saddened for her if she hadn't, but her sympathy for the woman vanished quickly, with a bitter laugh escaping her lips, after remembering that she wanted Addie in Azkaban for defending herself against her gruesome husband.

And the claim that she was a slut? Rubbish! Everyone, at Hogwarts at least, knew that Addie's first and last boyfriend had been Seamus the year before, and the relationship had lasted barely a month.

She had never seen so many lies piled up into one place in all of her life!

Addie stood from her seat at the Gryffindor table, ignoring the protests from her three friends, her eyes set on Draco across the room at the Slytherin table, and headed straight toward him. He too, held the Prophet in front of himself reading the article in disbelief, trying to wrap his head around just exactly what the hell he was reading.

The paper crumpled under his grip as he clenched his hands into fists, angry at the lies that were printed before him.

Before long, Addie appeared at his side, leaning, with one hand on the table, and her body angled toward him. He looked up at her, and he could immediately see hurt in her eyes as she looked at him. Though it was horrible timing to celebrate, he did a few mental cartwheels. She was coming to him with her pain.

She was coming to him for comfort and not Potter.

He had been waiting for this day.

"I'll give you one guess as to who this 'undisclosed source' is," she said, her voice strong, despite her fragile appearance.

The two simultaneously looked down the Slytherin table to where a dark-haired girl, with the slight remnants of a black eye, sat, smirking devilishly at her own copy of the Prophet.

Draco stood from his seat, and grabbed her hand, taking up the opportunity that was presented to him, "Come on," he said, gently tugging her toward the large oak doors of the Great Hall, "you don't need to be here right now."

Every set of eyes, it seemed, were on Addie and Draco as they walked out of the Great Hall, hand in hand.

--

Mass chaos ensued in the Vice Minister's office after the delivery of that morning's Prophet. Memos flew themselves into his office at full speed, each one of them going ignored by the man as he sat with his elbows resting on his desk, head in his hands, the same question buzzing around inside of his head.

Who the hell had talked to that Skeeter woman?

When the Dark Lord had told him of his daughter's actions in June, Mitch had been under the impression that the piece of information was going to remain between himself and his master. Though the Dark Lord had been somewhat impressed by the immense power that the teenage girl had put behind the curse that killed the man, he was rather humiliated that one of his most loyal and faithful followers had been killed by a fifteen year old girl.

And for that reason, Mitch had been positive that the Dark Lord would keep McGregor's whereabouts between the two of them.

The door to the Vice Minister's office flew open, revealing a seething Lucius Malfoy.

"I trust that you've seen this," he said, shaking the Prophet in his hand.

Mitch did not bother lifting his head out of his hands, "Yes, Lucius, I have seen the article."

"What are these accusations?" Lucius asked angrily, slamming the paper onto Mitch's desk, "Where are they coming from? Do you know what they can do to our plan?"

"I do not know," Mitch said, calmly, raising his head to look at the blonde-haired man, "I can assure you, if I did know who told these lies to that woman, they would no longer be walking this earth. And I am well aware, of what this so-called scandal can do to the Dark Lord's plan."

Lucius looked at him skeptically, "Are they lies?" he asked. The inflection in his voice suggested that he did not believe it.

Mitch's eyes narrowed at the man and he stood up from his chair, becoming eye-level with Lucius. He spoke calmly, but his words held a threatening undertone, "I am aware that you do not care for my daughter," he began, "and she may be a lot of things; she may be the troublemaker that the article makes her out to be, and she may even be the harlot that the article suggests that she is, but," his eyes darkened, "my daughter is not a murderer."

Not another word was spilled from Lucius' lips. The men stood, Mitch's desk between them, glaring at one another. The two were still glaring at each other when the door to Mitch's office flew open for a second time. A disheveled and distraught Claire entered the room. She was breathing heavily, jaw clenched, and she too, was holding a copy of that morning's Prophet crumpled in the tight grip of her left hand.

"Show yourself the door, won't you, Lucius?" Mitch said, upon seeing his wife. With one last glare at the Vice Minister, he left and Claire banged the door shut as soon as his coattails had cleared the doorway.

"You fix this!" she yelled, "You fix this right now!"

"I will do everything in my power to," he said, sitting himself back in his chair, "this is harmful to myself and my plans as well."

Claire slammed her fists on her husband's desk, "Screw you and your plans! This is about our daughter and that filthy slander that woman is writing about her! She has been after Addie ever since the Triwizard Tournament! And now she's attacking her publicly! To write such things about a sixteen year old girl...if I ever see her I am going to ri--"

"Please, Claire," Mitch said, stopping his wife in the midst of her death threat, "I can understand your anger, but for now, you must calm down."

She walked to her husband's side, and letting out deep a sigh, sat down on the edge of his desk. A few more deep breaths left her lungs, as she tried to calm herself. If she hadn't known any better, she would have said that her daughter's bad temper had come from her.

"Who on your side knows?" Mitch asked, once his wife had calmed down.

"Not many," she said. "It's been something that we've been keeping relatively quiet, for this very reason," she ran a hand through her blonde hair, thinking for a moment, "Dumbledore, of course, he cleaned it up, as you know. Remus, Harry, Hermione, and Ron."

Disgust crept up his spine at the company that his daughter chose to keep, but he bit it back, not wanting to anger his wife when he needed her on his side for once.

"Who from your side knows?" she asked, "Judging from the horrible way Addie was described, the sob story they painted for you, and the pedestal they put the Malfoy family on, the 'undisclosed source' works for your side."

Mitch tried to think of someone, anyone else that the Dark Lord would tell about this, and each time he ran through the people closest to his master, he came up with nothing. There was no one else that he would tell. He was sure of it.

"Wait."

Claire's voice was stony , and it was clear that whatever information that she was about to share would displease Mitch, maybe even more than it displeased her.

"Fiona Lestrange knows. Addie said in a letter that she sent me earlier in the week that Fiona Lestrange had been harassing her on the train about it... In front of a plethora of other Slytherins."

It was Mitch's turn to lose his temper and slam his hands on his desk, "Dammit!"

Bellatrix had been disobeying their Lord's orders again. She had gone against the first and most important rule that the Dark Lord presented to each new recruit when they joined: information is to be shared with no one. That included family members. She had a habit of telling bits and pieces of information to her daughter in the hopes that Fiona would do something good enough to get inducted herself.

And Fiona, always, always made things worse.

--

A growl of frustration, anger, and pain vibrated in Addie's throat as she hurdled a stone into the Black Lake, so hard that she felt pain rip through her shoulder and travel down her arm. Ignoring the pain, which she seemed to be doing a lot lately, she picked up another one and did the same thing, with even more force.

She did it again, and again, and again, and eventually she was putting so much force into the throws that her feet left the ground each time her arm flew forward. How far the rock went wasn't at all a concern to her; all she cared about was the force with which it hit the water.

Draco stood a few feet behind her, watching as rock after rock plummeted into the water. He wasn't exactly afraid to approach the ferociously angry girl, but he was wary, mostly because now that she had finally come to confide in him, he wasn't sure what to say.

The girl continued throwing rocks until Draco was starting to become incredibly concerned that her arm may literally fall off. She stopped suddenly, and stared at the ripples fanning out across the water until the liquid became still once more.

Then, one, soft sob sounded from her lips.

Just one, but that one sob contained everything; the pain from her overworked arm, the frustration about how horribly her first week of school had gone, the anger about the article that had undoubtedly circulated to thousands of witches and wizards by that time, and the pure, loathsome hate that she felt for not only Rita Skeeter for writing the bloody article, but for Fiona, the bitch who was slowly starting to push Addie over the edge.

It was like Rita Skeeter had known.

It was like she had known that the thing that had been bothering Addie the most about McGregor's death was that she knew that somewhere the man had a family, and for not knowing that, the woman sure knew how to play that up. The thought that he had three so very young children wondering when their father would be coming home was enough to rip Addie's heart right out of her chest and it made her wonder if it would have been better to just let the man kill her...

"Addie?" Draco asked, stepping up next to her, touching her back with his hand lightly, "Are you...are you...okay?"

No, but she couldn't talk about it right then. Classes would be starting soon and with Defense Against the Dark Arts up first, Addie couldn't afford to be late for the second time that week, "Yeah," she said, wiping a few tears off of her face, "my arm just hurts."

--

The heavy doors of Malfoy Manor flew open with one sweep of Mitch's wand, causing a loud bang to thunder through the large house. He strode through the house, knowing exactly where he would find the man he was looking for. The Dark Lord had taken up residence in the Malfoy's house early in the summer. It was supposed to be an honor for the family, that he had chosen their home, out of all of the Death Eaters, but Mitch knew that it was a punishment for Lucius' foolish mistake at the Ministry in June, for losing the Potter's prophecy, and for leaving the Dark Lord completely unknowing of what it contained.

"You can't go in there!" The very woman that he detested, more than usual, at the moment, was standing guard outside the door of the dining room, which the Dark Lord had claimed as his own, as its' long dining table was perfect for seating Death Eaters at meetings, "He's busy!"

Mitch ignored her, simply throwing her backward with one flick of his wand. Satisfaction flowed through him at the sound of Bellatrix's screeching as she hit the floor with a thud.

The Dark Lord was sitting in his usual seat at the head of the table at the far end of the room. Nagini sat coiled on the floor, her neck up in the air and her head resting on the arm of the chair, her master's hand stroking it slowly.

"Mitch," he said coolly, "I thought I may be getting a visit from you today."

"Bellatrix has almost cost us our entire operation at the Ministry with her blatant disrespect for your rules, My Lord," Mitch tried to hide the disdain in his voice. If it had been up to him, he would have axed Bellatrix back in the First War, but the Dark Lord saw something in her, and instead of killing her, like he would any other rule breaker, he continued to let her stay on, giving her petty jobs, like guarding his room, and fetching him food, "I am facing near impeachment because of this and I haven't even been in this post for a week!"

Nagini was dismissed with a wave of Lord Voldemort's hand and she slithered out of the room to wander about the house. He looked at Mitch, questioningly, surprised at his tone of voice. No one else would had been able to get away with taking such a tone, but Mitch was different. He had been a loyal Death Eater since seventeen years old, and a loyal follower his entire life, never once making a single mistake. The Dark Lord liked him as much as he was capable of liking another human being, more than any of his other followers and because of this, Mitch was held to a different standard.

"Bellatrix?" he asked, "What has she done?"

"She told her daughter of my daughter's actions at the Ministry, and her daughter took it upon herself to inform the Prophet of these actions."

"Those are heavy accusations you are presenting to me, Mitch. The kind of accusations that, should I find them to be true, result in death of the accused."

"As were the accusations she presented about my daughter."

The Dark Lord nodded his head toward Mitch, "Those accusations against Adrienne, as I recall, are incredibly true."

Mitch swallowed his frustration, "You and I are both aware that McGregor was not the saint that the article made him out to be. He would have killed my daughter, and, judging by the looks of her when she returned home, he nearly succeeded. Adrienne reacted in a way that anyone would, My Lord, you admitted so yourself."

"Indeed she did. She reacted in the kind of way that I look for in my people--"

"It will not happen," Mitch said abruptly to the suggestion that his daughter should become a Death Eater, "We have discussed this. Not my daughter."

"And for your devoted work to me I will honor that. I will not seek to recruit your daughter," he said, "Do tell me, however, why would Fiona Lestrange say these things about your daughter?"

"I am not aware of the reasons behind her animosity for my daughter, but it has gone too far."

Lord Voldemort nodded slowly, his movements so similar to those of a snake, "I do agree. Her mother, given her current status within this group, should not be insulting your daughter or your good name. Bellatrix will be punished properly."

"Thank you, My Lord," Mitch said with a bow.

The Dark Lord nodded in dismissal, and Mitch turned on his heel, walking out the door. He heard his master's smooth voice call Bellatrix in as he left the room.

"Have you been snooping in my things again, Bella?" he heard Voldemort ask, his voice menacing.

As Mitch rounded the corner of the long hallway, he smirked as he heard Bellatrix's faint screams.

--

Addie's first detention with Snape passed on rather uneventfully. In the two hours that he kept her in the Defense classroom that evening, he had her clean the entire thing, top to bottom. She hadn't minded the work, it was monotonous and somewhat soothing and she embraced it after having to answer everyone's questions all day.

"Is it true?"

"Did you really do it?"

"How could you?"

"When did you start sleeping with Malfoy?

Those kinds of questions had been thrown at her all day. Between them and the whispers and the people moving away from her any time she neared them, Addie was sufficiently fed up with everyone, and embraced being in a quiet, empty classroom away from it all.

Mostly however, despite the accusations, Addie's fellow Gryffindors stuck behind her and for that, she was grateful.

At nine o'clock, Snape returned to the classroom to inform her that she was free to go for the evening, "Same time next week," he said lifelessly. Addie simply nodded in response and made for the door, "Miss Clayworth," he said, just as she was about to step across the threshold, "I thought it may be of interest to you to know that I have spoken to your father."

"Oh?" Addie replied, unsure of what else to say.

He nodded curtly, "He has assured me that everything shall be taken care of."

"Oh," she said, awkwardly, for a second time, "Well...thank you for telling me." He nodded again, signaling that the discussion was over and it was time for her to move out of his classroom.

Being a Friday night, the castle was still very much alive as Addie began her walk to Gryffindor Tower, and she just hoped that she could get back to the common room without anyone seeing her and posing more questions to her. She wanted nothing more than to just go back to Gryffindor Tower, crawl into her bed, draw the curtains tight around it, and fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When she rounded the corner of the long corridor, she came face to face with a familiar blonde haired boy, nearly crashing into him.

"Sweet Merlin," Addie said, eyes wide, putting a hand over her pounding heart, "you're developing a rather nasty habit of sneaking up on me."

"Is it really considered sneaking if you're the one plowing me over as you round a corner?" he asked with a smirk.

Addie smiled, gesturing for him to turn around and join her on her trek back to the common room, wondering if, maybe, he had been waiting for her. She continued down her desired path, Draco by her side, in a relaxing silence with the boy. They walked, the corridor silent except for the light sound of their foot steps. The silence was comforting for Addie; she knew that Draco wasn't one for talking about feelings, whether it be his own, or someone else's, and she was okay with that.

Then, he did something, taking Addie completely by surprise, bamboozling her already overstressed mind.

He draped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her body against his, closing the few feet of space that had been between the two of them.

After she got over her momentary state of shock, she wrapped both of her arms about his waist, making herself even closer to him. Her head rested against his chest, just under his shoulder, breathing in his spicy scent. The two continued walking like that down the hall, Draco damming his reputation as the stone-cold Slytherin and not caring who saw. He dropped a single kiss on the top of her head, causing a small smile to spread across Addie's face. Draco had yet to come up with the right words to console her, but she didn't care.

In that moment, that was all she needed.