Set Fire to Rain

“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” Gregory’s voice came out again behind me. I wanted to turn around and kill him, get rid of the problem right here and now. But that would be something on my list of Don’ts for being at Hogwarts. I turned around to face him. He stood there with his lip curved up, almost like he was snarling at me.
“What do you want from me, Bane? Give me a good reason I shouldn’t kill you were you stand?” I growled, glancing around to see if anyone was looking at us. There was no one around. Of course there wasn’t, everyone was in classes, which I was clearly late for.
“You’re not going to kill me, because if you harm me in any way, you will never see Draco Malfoy again. Don’t ask how or why, but you should know that there are far greater forces than the Dark Lord. But I do need to barrow you. Have you heard of the Chamber of Secrets? Interesting place, really….”

*

It had been three weeks since I had talked to Draco, and a week since I had sworn to Gregory that I would complete the task that he needed me to do. The only reason I was helping him do this is because the way he threatened Draco… it was a real threat.

I felt like I was suffocating slowly. How had my life become such a mess? This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Draco and I were supposed to always speak to one another, we were supposed to do this task together, to get the death eaters into the school. We were supposed to protect one another, but how was he supposed to protect me if I couldn’t tell him? How would he ever know the sacrifice I was making for him?

It was midnight and I was standing just outside the common room in the hallway, waiting in the loom of the dark. This is where Snape asked me to meet him. There had been an a mishap the week before, therefore my meeting with the Dark Lord had been postponed until this night. Why the Dark Lord wished to see me I had no idea. But something in my gut clenched, and I knew deep down it was bad.

I was interrupted from my thoughts as Snape came around the corner of the hallway, stopping when he saw me. He motioned for me to fallow him and I did. His office was no longer in the dungeons, for he was no longer head of the house so I fallowed quietly and quickly, barely matching his quick pace as we walked to his office.
“You will travel by floo,” he said once in his room, “To the Malfoy Manor. He will be waiting for you in the basement, do not keep him waiting.”

Snapes office was dark and plain, no pictures, not anything to decorate it. I got the feeling that he never had anything worth remembering in his childhood.
Snape turned to me with a bucket in his hand, white floo powered filled to the brim. I nodded at him once before taking my hand and suspending it over the bucket, letting the loose sand to fall back in, trying to get little on the floor as possible. I hesitantly stepped into the fire place, looking back up to see Snape already leaving the office. My gut clenched again and my hand shook.

“Malfoy Manner,” I commanded, throwing the floo powder down and watching the green flames billow up and over me. I felt the pull of magic as I was transported and balanced myself as I stepped out of the fireplace.

The drawing room was dark and empty as usual. The blackout curtains were drawn over the windows as they had been since the Dark Lord’s return. No one ever saw into the house, making it ominous and threatening to muggles that lived down the road from the manor. There were many tales of tortured screams, and horrible sounds coming from behind the black gates of the house. I had heard them myself.

It seemed that the Mafloy’s were not home, for whatever reason. I walked quietly into the house, fighting the urge to walk up the stairs and go to my room, looking at the few possessions I had left behind. But I walked passed the stairs and walked down towards the basement, fear slowly creeping up my spine in such a way that I wanted to shudder. But I would not let my fear get the best of me
“Come in,” the snakelike voice called before I could even knock on the door. I took a deep breath and let myself in.
The Dark Lord stood by the fire place, looking at me. His eyes glowed crimson, unnerving me slightly but I held my chin high as I closed the door behind me. I bowed low, cloak sweeping the ground and murmured, “My Lord.”

“Reagan, I have a new task for you,” he began, turning away from me and facing the fire. “It seems that there are some people amongst our ranks, that have… what shall I call it? A bad influence on the younger prospects. It seems that Narcissa Malfoy does not approve of the task I have given her son, who should be honored. Draco should be proud that he can make up for his fathers failures, but he has his insolent mother holding him back, not want him to do these tasks.

“I gave Draco a second task, one that I did not inform you of but it seems fit to do so now. Draco must kill that oaf, Dumbledore on the night that you both let the death eaters into the castle… if he does not do it, I put you in charge of doing it, Regan. I also, need you to take the doubt out of his heart, and to do so, his dear mother needs to be taken out of the picture.

“When you and Draco return for the Holidays, you will kill Narcissa Malfoy before you leave. You will make it look like an accident, and failure to do so will result in Draco’s death. Yes, Reagan I see the love you have for Draco, it is not the same that you would have for a brother… no you are in love with the Malfoy boy. Good match, I suppose, if the boy wasn’t like his mother.”

I in took a breath of quick air, holding it. I would not do this. How could he ask me to do something I could not? I would never harm Narcisssa. She was the closest thing I had to a mother, and a girl needed a mother. She had been the person to give me what I needed, the only person to give me the closest thing I felt to affection. Memories of her brushing my hair in the mirror came back to me.

“No,” I said without thinking whom I was speaking to. “I cannot kill Narcissa.”
His eyes went red and before I even heard the spell I was on the floor, writhing in absolute pain. I felt like I was on fire, burning alive. My skin was hot, I was so sure it was melting off of my bone. There was this feeling in my bones that the marrow was being pulled out, the fire was so deep and so painful. Blood was raw and salty in my mouth as I bit through my lip, finally letting out the scream that had worked its way up and out of my throat. The pain was nothing like I had ever felt before.

Then it was gone, as if I had imagined the whole thing. But I knew it had happened because when I rolled over to get up, blood dripped out of my mouth onto the floor, black in the dim light. My body ached, and tears stung my eyes but I would not cry. I had already given him the pleasure of screaming. Never in my life would I have imagined the Dark Lord doing this to me.
“Say no again, and I kill Draco Malfoy this instant. What are you going to do?” he hissed, bending low and looking at me through his snake like eyes.
“I’m going to listen to my lord.”
He nodded. “Good, good. Now this is to remember never to defy me ever again.”

*
Harry Potter

I walked slowly down the hallway, keeping my wand light to the map in front of me. Moments ago, I had seen Reagan fallow professor Snape through the halls into his office, but as I watched the map, she vanished and Professor Snape left, going back to his quarters. I had to know why he had left her, and why she had suddenly vanished. It would be typical for her to vanish if she had entered the room of requirement, but she hadn’t.

I had almost given up on my sister. Almost. It had seemed that there was no light in her, that there really was no goodness. They had consumed her, changed her irreversibly. I could see the madness in her eyes when she got angry, the sheer danger that she posed. I had thought she was a lost cause until the day I saw her conjure a patronus. No person that is evil all the way through can produce one, because there is nothing pure inside of them. In order to produce one, you must have something good, you must have light in you.

It was when I saw my sister produce a patronus that I decided I would not give up on her. She was in so much danger, danger she couldn’t understand because she was not on the outside looking in. Working for Voldemort was about as dangerous as being his enemy, because you are always near him, and especially because you would not expect and attack from him.

Reagan had to be saved, some how. Even that night when she attacked me, choking me in the hallway, something had made her let go. Something in her eyes had glinted that night, something I had never seen in them before. She had my eyes- our mothers eyes. She did look similar to me, but not so much that she looked like my father. No, she had the soft features of my mother.

It wasn’t until I was almost all the way to the office when I saw her name pop up again. I expected to see her leave the office, but she didn’t move. It was then that my scar lit on fire and I flinched, dropping my wand to the ground, clutching my forehead. Something was wrong. Fumbling, I snatched my wand and took off down the hallway to the room where Reagan’s name did not move.

I burst into the room, raising my wand light and looking around. No one was in there. I looked down at the map again. She had to be in here. I was about to turn around when I heard movement. I walked around the desk and froze. Regan lay there, bleeding and hurt. Her breaths were shallow, as if she were trying to work up the strength to push herself up. I bent down immediately, lifting her up slowly into a sitting position. Her head lulled upwards and she looked at me, eyes half lidded.
“Harry,” her voice rasped.
“I’m here, Reagan.”
Tears pooled in her eyes and spilt over. “Save me.”
She collapsed after that.