Walk Through Hell

“When I looked at you, my life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible.”

“Get in this ocean, right now!

A wave rolled in from behind Addie, hitting her behind the knees, causing her to collapse into the water. From his spot on the sand, Draco laughed as Addie resurfaced, sputtering salty water out of her mouth. As soon as she steadied herself, she laughed as well.

“Please come in?” she called. Draco was being rather stubborn about swimming in the ocean.

He shook his head, “No!” he called, “And I would prefer if you got out right now! You’re going to get eaten by a shark.”

Addie laughed, “Draco, you’re a wizard! If you sat there and let me get eaten by a shark, that would be pretty sad.”

Draco just laughed again, leaned back on his hands, and watched the girl with vigilant eyes as she splashed around in the water. They had been in Morocco together for a month now, and they would be returning to Hogwarts the following day. During their stay, Addie and Draco had spent a great deal of their time there alone together.

Another wave rolled in, dousing Addie with water again and he smiled at the slightly frustrated girl as she made her way out of the water, shaking out her soaked hair. It hadn’t taken Draco long to figure out that he was completely smitten with her, and when he realized this, nearly three weeks before, it surprised him a bit. Never in his life had he actually had real feelings for a girl.

Then again, that wasn’t completely true. Since he was a child, he always felt that Addie was special to him. But she was the only one; she had always been the only one.

“You’re no fun,” she said, wringing out her hair, so that drops of water fell to Draco’s head.

He pretended to be incredibly offended, “You better take that back,” he said, getting to his feet.

“Oh yeah?” she said, hands on her bare hips, with her head cocked to the side, “What’re you going to do about it?”

Clearly, she had wanted him to tackle her, because she made no effort to move when he lunged at her. Again, she made no effort to get away when he grabbed her, picked her up, and brought her to the ground, situating himself on top of her. Draco just barely noticed a blush form across her newly tanned face, “Wow, I am just so scared,” she said mockingly, “What’s next in your brilliant plan, tough guy?”

Draco discovered when they were very young that Addie was deathly ticklish at the spot on her lower abdomen, just above where a pair of pants would hit. He smirked devilishly before running his fingers all over that area, causing her to scream and laugh all at once. Obviously, through the years, she had forgotten that he knew that she was horribly ticklish.

“Don’t…stop!” she breathed, trying to grab his wrists.

“What’s that?” he asked, “Don’t stop?”

She groaned in exasperation, “No…stop…” she managed between her gut-wrenching laughs.

“No, don’t stop?”

“Stop,” a voice that did not belong to either of them drawled across the beach.

The two winced at nearly the same time, looking at each other. Draco was on top of her, his hips pinning hers to the ground, her hands were gripping at his biceps, and his hands were so low on her abdomen, to someone who just walked up on them, it could have appeared that they just came out of her bikini bottoms.

In one fluid motion, Draco jumped up and faced Lucius and Mitch, both of whom looked rather surprised and angry to find their children in such a position. Addie stood as well, brushing sand off of her arms, legs, and back. She looked at the ground, sheepishly.

“We have been summoned, Draco,” Lucius said, “Go change. Now,” he added harshly.

Draco gave Addie an apologetic look before leaving the beach; he wanted to object, say that he didn’t want to leave, but he didn’t dare defy his father after what he had just walked in on.

Addie was left on the deserted beach with the two men. She was sure she was about to get a slew of Cruciatus Curses thrown at her, for touching Draco and tainting him with her filthy blood traitor hands…

But to her surprise, Mitch simply narrowed his eyes at her before he and Lucius turned on their heels and left the exact way Draco had a few moments before.

--

Hermione turned another page of her fresh, new Advanced Rune Translation book. It was the last textbook she had to read before returning to school the next day and she had left it for last for good reason. It was full of complicated shapes and pictures and contained detailed and intricate explanations of how to translate them. The reading was much too difficult for even her mind to understand. With a huff she slammed the book shut hard on her lap.

Ron looked up at her from his spot on the floor, where he was busy playing Wizard’s Chess with himself. He had a system of making a move, and then spinning the board around and making an opponent’s move, “Trouble in textbook paradise?”

“Oh shut up, Ronald,” she snapped. He and Harry had been making fun of her for reading her textbooks early since their trip to Diagon Alley in July.

After five years of friendship, Ron was used to her touchy personality, especially when it came to him poking fun at her about her studies, “Sorry, did I strike a nerve?” he wore an amused grin on his face.

Determined to ignore him, Hermione opened her book back up and began reading it once again. However, the reading was so dull, boring, and complex, that she found herself just staring at the words, moving her eyes slightly, turning the page every once in a while, so as to appear to be reading.

From his spot on the floor, Ron chose to make particularly annoying humming noises, as if he were pondering his next chess move very carefully. In reality, he wasn’t thinking of anything but the girl who was sitting on the couch above him. He knew that if he continued making the annoying noises, she would eventually have to talk to him again. It was just in her personality to do so.

“At least I’m doing something productive, Ronald. Reading a textbook could do you some good, after seeing how few O.W.L.s you received, instead of playing that stupid game.”

Ron chose to ignore her remark about his O.W.L scores, which weren’t that bad, but of course weren’t nearly as good as hers. He secretly hoped that when they saw Addie tomorrow, she would inform Hermione that she got Outstandings on all of hers, including Defense Against the Dark Arts, the one class Hermione didn’t get an O in, “For your information, chess happens to be a very thought-provoking, mind-enriching game, Hermione.”

She scoffed, “It’s a simple game.”

“If it’s so simple, why don’t you play a game with me, so I don’t have to play by myself.”

Hermione laughed, indignantly, “No.”

“Why not? Scared I might beat you?”

He knew that he had got her with that last line. Hermione would never pass up the opportunity to show Ron up. With one final look at the words on the page, she shut the book abruptly and slunk to the floor across from him, “I’d like to see you try,” she said, leaning across the board, getting close to his face. He smirked, her breath smelled minty from the gum she was chewing on.

“Do Mummy and Daddy know you’re chomping on gum?”

“Shut up, Ronald, and play.”

Perhaps Hermione underestimated the redhead’s abilities. She had, of course, played chess a few times before and had done relatively well, but Ron just made her look bad and that was something she did not rightly like. After three moves, she had stupidly exposed her king to him, ending the game.

Ron looked up from the board at her, a happy smirk spreading across his face, “I believe I just beat you.”

Face reddening with anger, Hermione stood up, “This is just a stupid game, Ronald,” she spat, half in embarrassment, half in anger.

“Uh huh.”

“It is!” she yelled. He refused to wipe the stupid smirk off of her face, “It’s not that big of a deal!”

“Yes it is! I beat you, Hermione. Fair and square.”

“Oh congratulations,” she snapped, “You beat me at a bloody game of chess.”

Ron simply laughed at her frustration. Though she was one of his best friends, he found quite a bit of satisfaction in annoying her, “Are you missing your wand,” he asked, trying to suppress laughter.

“What? No, it’s upstairs on my bed,” she said, her face softening in confusion, “Why?”

“Sorry,” he said, “I just thought perhaps you lost it up your arse.”

“You are an insufferable, immature git!” she yelled, stamping her foot on the wood floor before stalking out of the room.

Ron doubled over in a fit of hysterics, clutching the stitch that was catching in his side from how hard he was laughing.

--

Warm tea slid down Addie’s throat and she looked out at the garden through the living room window. At 10:30 the next morning, she would be leaving this place forever, by portkey, and she wanted to permanently engrave the beauty of it in her mind.

“I hope you had a nice time here,” Narcissa said as she sat opposite Addie, sipping her own cup of tea.

Addie nodded, swallowing down the tea she had just sipped, “I did. This is a beautiful place.”

She noticed Narcissa’s eyes dart over to the clock that hung on the wall. It was approaching midnight and the men had been gone for nearly ten hours. The two hadn’t mentioned it, but Addie was sure that Narcissa was just as worried about it as she was.

“What do you think is keeping them?” Addie asked, acknowledging the absent men for the first time since they had been gone.

Narcissa just stared stone-faced, shaking her head slowly. Addie didn’t mention it further.

Another hour passed, during which, the two women sat in silence. Narcissa’s reaction to Addie’s question earlier proved that her worries were justified, and each time the minute hand on the clock moved without an arrival, she grew more worried.

Finally, just after one, a pop sounded in the kitchen, and the two women jumped to their feet, nearly tripping over each other as they made their way to find the source of the sound.

To their great relief, Draco, Mitch, and Lucius stood in the kitchen, but Addie’s relief didn’t last long. Draco was being supported under Lucius’ arm. His eye was blackened, he had scratches on his face, and blood was soaking through his white shirt in three different places.

Narcissa screamed in horror and ran over to her son, sitting him down in a chair. Anger bubbled up in Addie’s throat; if all of this had been about her…

“You,” Lucius raged, pointing at Addie, “This is all your fault!”

For a moment, Addie just stared at him, with her mouth hanging open slightly. She looked over at Draco’s broken body before asking, “Me?”

“Yes, you, you little harlot! This is your fault. He feels some sort of need to protect you!” he spat, angrily.
“Lucius,” Mitch said sternly, “You watch your mouth.”

It was Mitch’s turn to get a shocked stare from Addie. In her living memory, he had never defended her before. It was the first fatherly thing she had ever seen him do. Addie supposed, in his mind, it was all right for him to treat her badly, but off limits for anyone else. At the moment, she was strangely okay with that.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Addie said, so badly wanting to go to Draco’s side, to see that he was all right, but she felt that it would not be most wise to do so.

“You need to tell us what happened to you on your birthday,” Lucius said.

“This is what it’s about?” Addie yelled, enraged. Narcissa jumped from how loudly Addie had yelled, causing her to cry even harder than she already was as she tended to her son, “You let Him beat up your son over me?”

“Adrienne,” her father said, warningly, not wanting her to bring the Dark Lord into this.

Addie ignored him, “Why does Voldemort even care what happened to me?”

It looked as though both men were about to scold her for speaking his name from her unworthy lips, but at the moment, it didn’t seem most prudent to do so, “He could care less about you, you filthy blood traitor,” Lucius said. Mitch snapped another warning that went unnoticed.

“So you’re telling me that this was your own doing? You did this to your own son over me?” Lucius simply continued to stare daggers at her, “I’ll tell you what happened to me, you horrible, horrible man!” Addie yelled more furiously than before, “I tapped into your Firewhiskey collection,” she said, turning to her father. It almost surprised her, how easily the lie escaped her lips, “And it turns out that I can’t stomach it very well. So congratulations, Lucius,” she spat his name, “You’ve been torturing your son for weeks because I can’t handle a couple swigs of liquor.”

Lucius drew his wand faster than Addie thought was humanly possible for someone to move. He grabbed the neck of her shirt, sticking his wand to her throat. Fear flashed across Addie’s eyes; she had never been attacked by Lucius before.

From behind Lucius’ back, Draco tried to protest, to do something to protect her from his father, but found that he had no strength to even whisper.

Something cracked, causing Lucius to fly backwards, and Addie fell back in the opposite direction, hitting her back against the wall. Mitch looked at her, with a strange look in his eyes, almost like fear, as he pulled his wand out of his cloak. She was confused for a moment, then she realized why he was looking at her so curiously.

He hadn’t hexed Lucius. Addie had, but her wand was tucked safely in her trunk in her bedroom.

Mitch turned to face the blonde man on the floor. Lucius hadn’t noticed that Mitch pulled out his wand after he had been hit, “Don’t you ever lay a finger on my daughter again,” he threatened, as Lucius stood up, “I shall deal with her,” Addie was almost touched by how her father was protecting her, even if it was just because he wanted to show Lucius that he was now more powerful in Voldemort’s circle, “Just because you are desperate for acceptance from the Dark Lord does not mean you can use my daughter for it.”

Lucius nodded slowly, and it was obvious that Addie’s mother had been right when she told Addie that Lucius was afraid of Mitch.

“I must leave again. I will be back in time to take you to the train, as he cannot be trusted to do so,” he said to Addie. Surprisingly, he held out his hand to her, helping her up from the floor, “You,” he spat at Lucius, “Will not so much as look at her while I am gone. And you can be assured that the Dark Lord will hear of this.”

Addie watched as her father disappeared with a crack.

--

Draco saw Addie sleeping down by the water. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, casting an orange glow. Each time the waves rolled in, they just nearly missed washing over her body. He frowned at the fact that she felt that the only safe place for her to sleep was on the beach, completely exposed.

He knelt next to her body, wincing a bit. The cuts on his body were healed, but still sore. His eye had been healed as well and by the time they would arrive at King’s Cross in a few hours, the bruise would be gone completely. Softly, he ran his hand across her forehead, causing her to open her eyes, with a start.

“Draco…” she said, immediately throwing her arms around his neck. She began to sob. He wrapped his arms tightly around her tiny body, allowing her to cry into the crook of his neck, “I’m…so sorry,” she cried.

“This isn’t your fault,” he said, running his fingers through her hair.

She looked at him, her faced stained from her tears, “It is, Draco.”

“It’s not,” he said, cupping her face with both hands and using his thumbs to wipe the tears away, “It’s not.”

Addie smiled weakly, at how genuine and caring he was being, and she motioned for Draco to lay down on her blanket, which he did, happy to relieve his muscles. She snuggled next to him, resting a hand on his chest and he wrapped an arm around her body.

He kissed the top of her head lightly, “I know you hexed my father,” he said, “I saw your dad pull his wand out after.”

Addie looked up at him, “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t even say or think a spell. It just happened…”

Draco pursed his lips; he didn’t want to worry her, but that was not good news. Thank Merlin his father hadn’t noticed, or he would have run straight to the Dark Lord, uncaring of what Mitch had to say about it.

“Why didn’t you just tell him? Why did you endure all of that?” she asked, changing the subject.

“I will always keep your secrets, Addie,” he said, kissing her head again, “Always.”

--

The kitchen at Grimmauld Place was quite busy, though it was still just early in the morning. None of the kids had awoken yet; they were surely trying to sleep in one final time before they went back to school that afternoon.

Claire stood near the table where Remus and Tonks sat. The two came over so early because they were two of the Order members enlisted to escort Harry to King’s Cross. Tonks came, a little less than willingly, and scowled as Claire chatted with Remus, catching up after another one of her long journeys around the world.

Tonks knew she should like Claire. After all, she was her fiancée’s best friend, and Claire had never actually done anything to her, but she couldn’t help finding her the slightest bit annoying. She was always so willing to run off to God knows where, leaving her daughter at home to fend for herself with her cruel, Death Eater father.

And Addie, Tonks felt, deserved a better mother than that.

All eyes moved to the kitchen door as it swung open violently. Through it, a disheveled looking Arthur Weasley came, holding his new issue of the Daily Prophet.

“This has just arrived, and we have a problem,” he slapped the newspaper down flat on the table, revealing the front page.

Everyone looked at the headline, appearing in bold, black, capital letters. A large, moving picture appeared under the headline.

CLAYWORTH APPOINTED NEW VICE MINISTER

The Death Eaters had finally worked their way up the Ministry ladder, gaining the second in command position. No one had actually expected that to happen. The paper was looked at by everyone in the room in utter shock.

But, no one was quite as shocked as Claire. She stared at the photo of her husband in disbelief, her tea mug crashing to the floor.