The Madness Within

Arabella was quiet all through dinner; as Sirius proudly introduced her to his friends and Godson. Arabella shook their hands briefly and smiled, her favourite people so far were Fred and George Weasley, and they were identical twins to the very last freckle, not even their mother Molly could tell them apart. They were troublemakers, pranksters and all round silly boys, Arabella found this amusing, they were a few months older than her. Much like the other Weasley’s they had a mass of flaming red hair, freckly and massive brown eyes filled with mischief.

Soon after meeting them Arabella noticed that Fred was the louder, more confident twin, whereas George was slightly quieter and less obnoxious. Not by much though, Arabella took an instant liking to him just a tad more than Fred.

Dinner was over and everyone was feeling full, tired and well fed, there were only members of The Order sat at the dinner table; Mr and Mrs Weasley, Lupin, Tonks, Sirius, Harry and Arabella, she decided to explain what had happened a few days ago and why she was here. Harry grasped her hand tightly as he motioned for her to start; she sighed weakly and forced herself to swallow the lump forming in her throat.

“Dumbledore told me that he would like me to tell you what happened because he felt it wasn’t his place, I guess I’ll start from the beginning then. My mother, Elisa Black was an undercover Auror along with Lucius and Narscissa.” Arabella began, making everyone cringe and exchange glances.

“Someone had found out my mother was an imposter, someone inside The Ministry who is a Death Eater, they told Voldemort who we were, that night we were summoned to his quarters in front of all of his followers. He preformed the Cruciatus curse on her, when she refused to tell him anything.” Tears were streaming freely down Arabella’s face now, Harry was gripping her hand so tightly it was starting to turn white.

“The-The-Then he used the Imperius curse on me and h-h-he made me Avada Kedarvra her. Then, he was going to force me to join him so Nariscissa told him she would escort me to the dungeons to wait for my punishment but she apparated me to The Leaky Cauldron and told them to inform Dumbledore straight away and to hide me until he came to fetch me, then she apparated back.” Arabella choked a sob as Sirius held her to his chest.

Mrs Weasley was crying quietly on her husbands shoulder, Tonks was wiping her eyes; Lupin was looking very teary eyed and Harry was dumbfounded, he sat with a blank expression over his features as he patted Arabella’s back sympathetically.

“I’m just confused as to why the Malfoy’s of all people, done something nice for someone other than themselves?” Harry muttered, still confused.

“Because, my mother and Narscissa were the best of friends, I’m related to the Malfoy’s and even though they are not well liked among you lot, they have never once done anything to harm me. They are good people deep down, Harry.” Arabella snapped, pulling away from her father and wiping her eyes.

“I didn’t…I didn’t mean to offend you Arabella. We’ve all had some form of conflict with the Malfoy’s, we know how…horrible they can be at times.” Harry said defensively.

“Yes, well. You don’t know them all that well now do you? They might be Death Eaters but that didn’t stop them looking out for an undercover auror and her daughter now did it? They’ve been my family for the past fifteen years.” Arabella fumed, standing up so fast her chair flew backwards. “I’m going to bed, goodnight everyone.”

Arabella stomped out of the kitchen in a rage, not a clue where she was going, she huffed as she reached the first landing there was a loud crack as Fred and George appeared in front of her, she growled and shoved past them.

“Our room is on the third floor, you know.” Fred and George said, exchanging identical glances of mischief.

“We can show you.” Fred giggled. “Or we can apparate you, if you like, eh George?”

“Yeah, Fred and I have just passed our apparating tests; we’re brilliant at it, right Freddie?” George grinned. “You get her left arm; I’ll get her right, okay? Ready.”

Arabella squealed as there was a rushing wind in her ears, her head was spinning, making her feel very, nauseas. It was like they were being sucked down a large plug hole, Arabella did not like it at all. She was gripping onto the twins arms for dear life.

When they reached their room she stumbled a little, trying tor regain her balance and fell right into George’s arms, Fred sniggered as George’s ears turned bright red, he turned away quickly to avoid Arabella seeing. She was blushing furiously as well, she tried to hide it as she dusted herself off quickly, thanking George.

Tears welled in Arabella’s eyes as she crawled into bed, pulling the duvet all the way up to her chin and rolling onto her side facing the dirty window, she heard a soft snore coming from Fred or George. Arabella’s eyes began to grow heavy as she watched the stars twinkle in the night. Then, the impossible happened, she was sure she had heard George whisper; "goodnight, Bella.."