Force my hand

Dorcas didn’t know what to think, she didn’t want them to be telling the truth. Whether it’s because of the horrifying reality of her enemy being immortal or her past friends coming back supposedly being on her side. She had, more than once, thought of what would happen if they ran into each other. If she would have to defend herself against them, hurt them or even kill them.

She hadn’t thought about what to do if they came back, if they tried to help them. That felt like something too good to be true, or a bigger betrayal. She didn’t know. All she did know is that Marlene is in danger and she’d do anything to keep her safe. Dorcas follows her out the kitchen and into an adjoining room.

“You feeling okay?” She asks first, watching how she walks and paying close attention to her head.

Marlene almost says something, her face scrunching before she stops herself. A hand reflectively going to her left eyebrow where under the curled bangs is a white bandage. “You’re not really listening to that bullshit right?”

“That locket was cursed with very dark magic, I know you felt it too.” She didn’t want to but the evidence was there. “If what they’re saying is true…” she didn’t have the words as she shakes her head.

“Why would Dumbledore not tell us then? Something this important.” She argues back, “How do we know one of them didn’t make the horcrux?”

As much as Dorcas doesn’t trust them that’s hard to believe. They all have too many issues to want to be immortal, apart from Evan but as far as she knows he’s not involved. “That’s hard to believe- that they made one. Why would they come here and tell us about it?” The question back made Marlene pause, there was an argument against everything they thought.

“So what? What now?”

“We can lay low.” She puts the thought out there, “Stay here or stay somewhere for a while, a safe house.”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because, Marlene, the Death Eaters were after you.” She hadn’t known as she stares back with confusion, “I heard them talkin’, they were there for you.”

“I’m not going to hide, Dorcas. We should go to Hogwarts, talk to Dumbledore about all of this.” Her head tilted to look at the door, “I can’t believe he’s alive.”

Marlene would never have anything nice to say about Regulus, not with being such close friends to Sirius. Dorcas didn’t know what to think again. She didn’t have time to process, to grieve or even for it to sink in that he was dead before he wasn’t.

“I should kill him myself for what he put Sirius through.” And she probably would try. “For what he’s putting him through right now!” Her hands pointed to the ground as she seethes.

Dorcas hadn’t thought of that either, how Sirius was grieving a brother that was currently in the other room. It seems Regulus, or from Barty at least, he and Sirius had issues greater then Dumbledore versus The Dark Lord. Didn't they always? “Is that more important than the fact Voldemort might be immortal?”

“Your asking if Voldemort is more important than our friends?”

“Not like that Mar.” She sighs to the side.

“This battle, war- fight, whatever it is. I don’t want to hide, I want to fight.” Her will is strong, Dorcas has always known but there’s the moments that it shows and suddenly she realises how different they are. “I can’t sit back and feel helpless, Cass. All the people I care about are in danger or in hiding and I can’t- I can’t just do nothing.”

As she speaks Dorcas lifts an arm to lightly graze the bandaged on her forehead, “I get that but please, please,” as Marlene looks away she grabs her cheek to get her gaze back. “Can we be smart? Can we make a plan, just think before we do.” Their eyes watch each other before she starts to smile.

“I love you.” Her face falls against the palm of her hand and Dorcas leans in to kiss her gently. “I love you.” Dorcas replies.

“What’s the plan then?” Marlene asks.

“Get as much information from them as we can, see if they change anything- so we know they’re telling the truth.” Dorcas looks back at the door, “Then we make a plan to fight back.” She smiles at that part, Marlene has always been an act first person. “And what were you talking to Pandora about?” The thought comes quickly as the question tumbles out her mouth.

Marlene shrugs, “Just some girl talk.”

Dorcas raises an eyebrow, “About me?” A smile teasing on her lips.

“Don’t act so smug, I only asked her cus’ you were being secretive.” She crosses her arms at the teasing.

“It was Order business, but secrets are pissing me off.” Moody having a back-up option to protect Alice and Frank. Regulus not actually being dead. Horcruxes. Strategy wise, she came to Pandora's and discovered a gold mine. Voldemort clearly wants it kept a secret, which is why them knowing could change everything.

She has a fleeting thought, to send a message to Moody about all of this but she doesn’t. “We should try and get as much information before contacting anyone.” She hadn’t been told they’d been kidnapped, that they did discover them at Regulus’s grave. She doesn’t feel bad, she shouldn’t, but Barty’s words still hung in her mind.

Marlene nods, “Fair. Hey, thank you.” Her hand comes up to grab at Dorcas’ at the small whisper, she tilts her head slightly. “For saving me.”

Dorcas smiles, “I’ve got your back.”

“See,” a mischievous smiles glows on her face. “That’s why I jump in head first, you’ve got my back.”

Regretfully, she laughs and kisses her again. “I like looking at your back.” She whispers between their lips.

“Yea?”

“Are you guys done?” They turn quickly to see Barty with crossed arms keeping the door open. “I mean I’ll gladly watch. Please, don’t stop on my account.” With an eye roll Marlene storms back into the room, shoulder checking him as she does. “I can see why you like her.” Barty points after her.

Dorcas follows her back into the room, “Shut up, Crouch.”

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She watched the two walk back into the room. Although Dorcas was right and she did feel reluctant about the two men in her kitchen, she didn’t have the time to be reserved.

“Okay, lay everything out.” Dorcas sits back down as she stares at the two now in front of her. Pandora watches them, like purple and yellow, going back and forth. Regulus explains the horcruxes, but she dissociates as he calls out the Diary, a memory of a broken and distorted library.

“A library.” Before he could explain she interrupts, with a concerned look at her he nods.

“Yes..” It’s quite confusing, her visions.

Cobwebs, they ran into them. “Come on, fuck-“ There was a fork in the shelves. “Which way is she?” Dorcas scrambled, do they go right or left? Eyes watched from the spines of the books. They go left- “Dorcas!”

“Dora?” Her vision clears as they all stare at her.

“Yes?”

“You shouted my name?” She looks concerned, they all do, but her mind is a flurry of memories she isn’t sure she has lived yet. She doesn’t know she’ll get the chance to.

Evan screams in the grand room before he’s covered in blood.. “Don’t go left.” Is all she can say, they may share a look and for a moment ignore her comment but Pandora has a more pressing matter. How to save her brother. Regulus continues to explain, each horcrux and the research they’ve done.

Dorcas leans over the table, pointing out a century old library that’s said to have been buried by an elemental. “Do you know where it is?”

Wait. That’s happening now. She watches them all with a tilted head, it’s happening now. She brings out a map, one Pandora has dreamed about many times. Her finger covers over the South of Wales, “It’s North.” They look back towards her.

“The text by Augustus was a half-truth. He wanted to keep the library to himself and his brother who found it out wasn’t as popular, so it’s not as known.” Her voice echoes in her mind as she tries to focus on the present. On the peak of the hill, Marlene was shot down. “Not South.”

It’s fleeting, like a bubble in water, flying to get away. Like her mind can’t quite comprehend it all, or doesn’t want to. But she needs to.

”I’m going to take something from you, something you have had all your life.”

“Where is it exactly?” Barty asks next to her, his gaze turns from friendly to terrified in a second.

He’s shaking his head,

“Please don’t look away.”

“Dora, love.” Xen comes to stand near her, “Do you need a minute?” It’s worse with him, why does he have to suffer in both of them. Without moving he helps her leave the room, her eyes watching everything but what she’s actually seeing.

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Barty and Regulus watch Pandora leave the room but she stays looking at the map. “It’s never been that bad.” Barty spoke.

“What did you say to her?” She looks up, Regulus moving away from her leaned forwards body. Barty has no smartass come back, she knows he said something. “Well?” She asks him more directly.

“I didn’t say anything, you know I’m not a monster Dorcas.”

“Could’a fooled me.” At her come back she sits back down, “Did you ask about Evan?”

The question hangs in the air like a mouse, both of them look uneasy to rise to the bait. "Why?" It's Regulus who asks although he sounds bored, surprising her once more. Barty stares, she could guess why.

"It was about a year ago, she started having visions, bad dreams. Interrupting conversations with random quotes or things people weren't even talking about." She looks over the map, North Wales and where Barty circled Norwich. "Evan makes it worse."

"What happened to him?"

"Nothing," she answers. "Yet." The implication hangs in the air, Barty quiet and tense in his chair. She feels he deserves it, the unease of someone you love being in danger. Dorcas has had to live with that for years, still lives with it and yesterday that fear came true. "What about the cup?"

After her question, Barty speaks, something about going to a library and not finding it. She can't really think though, this situation reminds herself of when they told her. How Regulus had explained, showed her the letters his family sent, he had cried. She'd never seen him cry before but it still didn't deter her from shouting at them, from leaving. Regulus, of course, didn't try to speak to her again. Barty took a while to take the hint.

Now they were here. Distorting everything she knew and she wasn't happy, she didn't feel better. She was angry. Sad. But she couldn't afford to be sad right now, Marlene sat bruised next to her and like she was going to waste her time being upset? Anger she could work with, anger motivates her. So if Marlene is going to jump head first into this battle then Dorcas is going to make damn sure she has her back. No matter who she has to work with.

"If you don't know where it is then who had it last?" She finds herself asking.

"There's nothing written, we'd say it's at Hogwarts but none of the others are there so that's unlikely." Then how are they going to find it?

"So we need a Hufflepuff?" She asks, "Or the ghost in Hogwarts maybe." Her mind tried to come up with places, people who might know where it was at one point but it was blank.

"Yea, probably." Barty answers and an uncomfortable silence hovers in the room. "What were the ancient ruins?" The question confuses her.

"What ruins?" She handed Marlene the notes to look over, she of course barely skims them.

Barty and Regulus share a look, she can't really decipher it. She hates how sad that makes her. "When the auror's took us, they tried to question me about ancient ruins 'The Dark Lord' was around." He looks back at her for answers but she has none.

Marlene looks up at them confused. "Which ruins?" Her eyes go back to the map for a second.

"Didn't say."

"You didn't ask?"

His face contorts, "Excuse you, I'm pretty sure I was about to be tortured." She scoffs and rolls her eyes, "I woke up chained to a chair! With freezing water poured on me like I was reading a spy novel! And it wasn't even a spell, it was a bucket of water- so it was a muggle spy novel!"

"Yea, they're just called spy novels." Marlene corrects, "I'm surprised you read."

Dorcas ignores the comment and keeps the smile trying to get out hidden, "What and they didn't say anything else? Just asked about ancient ruins?"

"Oh yea we had a lovely nice chat, they took the chains off and we sat in a circle while telling stories." Her deadpan face was all he got from his sarcasm. "No, they didn't say anything else. And we couldn't ask them when we left because Mr. Trauma here-" His words cut off.

"What." She stares between them as Regulus looks away unashamed. "What did you do?" She asks more intently.

Barty shrugs as he looks around, "Well, what do you think happened when we tried to leave?"

A picture comes into her mind, "Tell me you didn't."

"We didn't."

The audacity. "You're lying."

"Wait," Marlene interrupts. "What did they do?" She doesn't know if she should say it, Marlene would definitely call Alastor.

"We didn't do anything." Barty dramatically rolls his eyes, they definitely killed them. Fuck. "We were just defending ourselves, if anything." They'd never admit it, what the fuck. Does this change anything? Wait... Alastor hadn't messaged her about having them.

"Other room. Now." She stands, walking to the door way of the room they had slept in last night. She needed them separated, Regulus not hovering over his shoulder like a bad thought. Barty walks in after, closing the door.

"Are we here to share secrets?" A giddy smile takes over his face. "Okay, it was true- I did curse the Ravenclaw brooms in fourth year during their quidditch practice. Your turn."

"Did you kill him?" She ignores his facade.

"That's not a secret." She stares at him, with a sigh he rolls his eyes. "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"Alastor Moody." She watches his face intently. "Did you kill him?"

"We didn't." She almost lets a sigh relax her, "But he is dead." He could be a Black with those dramatics.

"What?" She has her wand ready, even though he said they didn't kill him. He's dead? She had just spoke to him.

"When we were leaving we found his body." He explains but all she can go through in her mind is there last interaction, had anything been off? Not more than usual, he was busy reading and looking at maps. "His body was in a Ministry room." Maps. There was a map in front of him so maybe he went-

Her eyes snap back to his, "The Ministry? His body was there?" He hadn't left then.

"Yea, who was the last person with him?" Oh.

"Me." As she looks up at him, there last interaction plagued her mind. She had manipulated him, the last thing she did was manipulate him. At the look Barty is giving her, lips pressed together with a tilted head and raised eyebrows- "I didn't kill him!" She seethed the whisper.

He puts his hands up, "Okay." Her mind once again was thrown, what did she do now Alastor was dead? What could she do? Who had killed him? "But if you did-"

"Oh my god," She groans as she walks away, she didn't kill Alastor. She knows she didn't.

"You're such a muggle." She hears him whisper.

"Yes, I've been indoctrinated." Anger swirls again because she was just thinking about calling Alastor, not getting Marlene to call him. And he's dead. What else didn't she know?

"Oh, nice. A cult." Barty, the insensitive bastard. When she walks back into the room Regulus isn't there, Dorcas had forgot she left them alone. "Where's Regulus?" Barty asks from behind her.

Marlene shrugs, picking at her nails. "Don't know, don't care."

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Her hands were warm, she focused on that feeling. The hot chocolate that swirled between her hands had her in a trance. The noise of light footsteps has her looking up, "Regulus."

He stands for a second, anyone else would be uncomfortable with the stare and lack of words but she knows. She knows he doesn't know what to say, that he feels awkward and maybe a bit guilty. "Pandora." She missed him. "Does it hurt?" She missed him terribly.

"Only when grasshoppers leap." Her response has his frown falling to slight indifference, that's a win. "Are you hurt?" She knows the answer, probably better then he does.

"I'm fine," he says as if they were back at Hogwarts returning from summer break. "Your visions are back.."

He stares out the same window she was, "You never answered my letters." She watches as his arm twitches, she thinks if he wasn't so tense and learned self control from the womb that it would have been a whole body flinch.

"I didn't want you to get involved." His voice is barely a whisper.

"So you pushed me away," slowly, so slowly his eyes look to her. "It's okay." She can see it, how deeply her words affect him and she wished it wouldn't cause him so much pain but he needs to know. She needs to say it, for him to know she felt it. "I know why you did it." Another silence hovers over them.

She thinks that if she asked, Regulus would protect her. She knows he promised to, she knows he keeps his word, so she knows he would if she asked. But destiny has already aligned.

"How is she?" It's as if they hadn't been apart for long, she already understood what he meant.

"She's doing well. We named her Luna." His eyes go up to the sky, to those little stars he compares himself to. "She's going to be wonderful."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Pandora doesn't doubt it either, she'll be wonderful.

"Will you promise me something?" She looks up at the blue sky, the sun above them. "Will you be there for her?" She turns to look at him and it takes everything in her not to hug him.

"What?" His breathless question has her smiling.

"Promise me you'll be there for her, she'll need her uncle." She adds on the incentive, knowing he'd regretfully agree to whatever she said. "Promise me."

They continue to stare, it's not a battle behind his eyes but more of a silent plea. 'Please don't do this.' His eyes scream. 'I have to.' She says back.

"I promise." She holds out her pinky, waiting patiently for if he'll take it. He does. They stare out the window together, she might not get to hug him but she holds his pinky like her life depends on it.

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Barty calls out to Reg through the door, Dorcas looks to Marlene who shrugs. She doesn't believe that for a second. Instead of asking, she tries to remember the map Alastor had in the office. Turning the one on the table around so she can write on it, she circles four places. None of them are significant to her, no history stands out and so she continues to think.

The three of them walk back into the room, Dorcas still doesn't trust them. She doesn't know if she ever would or would want to. She looks over at Pandora to make sure she's alright only to see their conjoined hands separating, internally she shakes her head at her. "When did you and Xenophile even get together? You never paid attention to him at school." Barty, of course, asks the most useless questions.

"Xenophilius-"

"That's what I said-"

"We met at the Blickling Great Wood's, said to be haunted by muggles so I wanted to check it out." She's heard the story enough to keep the questions to herself but really, who does that? She told Marlene if she ever tried to take Dorcas to a haunted forest that'd she'd be going alone and if Dorcas heard her screaming she'd run the other way.

"Was it haunted? Did you guys get stuck in a cave and had to strip to cuddle in the one sleeping bag you brought to capture your skins heat?"

"What the actual fuck?" Marlene shouts out, Dorcas rolls her eyes. The insensitive and down right ridiculous comments she was used to, he hadn't really changed at all. Not like Evan and Regulus had, surrounded in the environment they chose it's made them depressed. Looks like it has anyway. Barty is his outwardly, unasked for comments self. Although, that is how he had always dealt with anything so maybe he's just not showing it.

"No," Pandora answers contemplatively. Dorcas rolls her eyes, again. "We actually had a lovely walk and found some rare plants."

He kissed his teeth, "Boring." She looks up to find Regulus staring at him with disgust. "Shut up."

"Right- well, lets get back to this?" She pointed to the map with her wand, hoping Barty will listen to Regulus. "So, you destroyed the first horcrux, the second we have a face, the third we have a location and the forth we have an item." They've really outdone themselves with the research. "Is that it?" As the question tumbles out of her Regulus bristles.

"Well I suppose we should just leave with it all if you aren't interested." At Barty's comment she almost shouts at them to just get out.

"Forgive me for not being impressed with your notes." The sarcasm came naturally, it always did when she was arguing with him.

Barty scoffs, "Well then forget we ever showed you." He begins to pick up the papers, Regulus stands stationary behind him. Like a statue. She slams her hand on the map while staring at him, daring him to try and take it.

Marlene takes a paper from his hands while they stare, "I was reading that." Everyone in the room knew she wasn't.

As Barty turns to her, a sarcastic and probably inappropriate comment on his tongue. "Can we stop fighting, please?" Pandora made her want to scream, she could probably see it by how she stares at her. "We have a greater enemy."

Dorcas knows this, she does. It's harder to act on it. "Once we have all the horcruxes we can probably get Dumbledore and The Order involved in a attack to take down Voldemort." Her mind went back to thinking, "We should probably go to the ministry now, if we tell them about the horcruxes then they have to send out a search for him." Her eyes look back up.

"A search on who? They don't know who he is." Barty reminds her.

"But we do. We have his name, if we give them this then they'll put pressure on him while we go after the other horcruxes and figure out whatever ancient magic he's trying to get within those ruins." She didn't want to talk about strategy with him, but if not him then she'd just be talking to herself about what to do.

"Like those useless bastards would do anything." Maybe it'd be better to only talk to herself. "They'd take two weeks confirming the things a horcrux and then another two weeks trying to deny it." She hates how right he is, stupid useless governments.

"So what, we're just going to go after each horcrux and hope he doesn't realise parts of his soul are being destroyed?"

"Not if we go to a horcrux each, all of them at once."

"Which would be a good plan if we knew where they all were." But they didn't, she tries not to have a tone to keep the peace for Pandora but by the look on his face she fails. He'll live and if he doesn't like it he can leave, he's good at that at least.

"Then I'll grab the ring and the diary, you guys can look for the other two and then destroy them together." Regulus finally speaks, she wishes he would stay silent with those ideas.

She couldn't look at them for long, especially him. The scars, white lines with ripples along them, they poke out from his shirt. They clearly went further and they were clearly new. His hair was the messiest she had ever seen it, a mop of waves, his curls used to be special to him.

Dorcas remembers teaching him how to finger curl and set his curls when they were younger. Although his hair hurts her on a more spiritual level, his emotional state is so clear to see by how he looks. That hurts her more, and she hates that. She hates how she still cares for them even after everything they did. "Do it all on your own yea?" Barty interrupts her thoughts.

It satisfies her, that even Barty and him have silent arguments. That they aren't as close, not like they all were in Hogwarts. That they haven't moved on. "We need more information before we act, not to mention the ruins."

"You mentioned ancient ruins." Pandora speaks up, her clouded eyes now clear. Dorcas and Barty nod, "Evan sent me a letter, that The Dark Lord was looking for some ancient items, that he had been through the Malfoy's, Carrow's, Lestrange's, Nott's," she lists off houses as they all listen. So he hasn't only been looking at ancient ruins, he is looking for something. "He said some higher up Death Eater's were coming to look."

"At the Rosier Mansion?" Barty asks, a contemplative look on his face.

"Yes." She nods, her eyes moving rapidly around the room.

"Did he say what they took?"

Pandora shook her head, "They are arriving tomorrow." Tomorrow. The timing was too perfect.

"So we're going to the Rosier's tomorrow?" Regulus rolls his eyes at Barty, something she doesn't understand, that has her looking away.

"Why would we go to there?" Marlene says, lifting her head from the table. "Let's do what you said, go to the ministry and get the other horcruxes."

"Help us all if you're making the plans." Barty snarks

"Surprised I heard you with how far your heads up Blacks ass-" Once again, the ceramic frog spat fire across the table which destroyed the map Dorcas was holding. She stared at the two of them, Barty more then Marlene.

"Get out." Dragging Regulus away they slunk back into their room or prison. She prefers prison. "They had a point Mar." With a sigh and a hand stroked through her braided hair she leans on her elbows. "With the Order business we've tried to not be involved in the Ministry, why involve them now? They'd slow us down at best, at worst they'd stop us completely."

"I don't like them and I don't trust them."

"You aren't alone in that." She assures. "But they are right." She hated it the most.

"We don't have to do everything their way," Pandora spoke up. "We can create a better path now we are involved."

"A better path for them you mean." Dorcas can't help the words that come out, seeing how Pandora is with them makes her so incredibly angry. "You don't know what they've done-"

"Actions are based on intent," she interrupts. "That's what defines them as good or bad. If you're doing something to protect those you love-" Her words cut off for a second before she shakes herself. "Or to stop an evil wizard, are those not good actions?"

The question has her scoffing, as well as her eyes stinging. "Does that make up for their bad ones?" Marlene sat quiet in-between them. Pandora and Dorcas didn't fight often, hadn't fought at all since those three left them. Too scared to lose each other too.

"It's a start isn't it?" Always so reliable, so hopeful, so naive.

"Sometimes people don't deserve a new start," her voice is forced out of her as she holds back everything she's feeling. "They deserve to suffer the ending they chose."

Pandora's face falls and Dorcas has to look away. "No one chooses their ending Dorcas." Her voice always so soft whispers. "No one can fight destiny."

"Maybe their destiny is to suffer." The harsh words feel wrong in her mind but she says them anyway. "Maybe they deserve it." She couldn't watch Pandora's wide eyes anymore, the slight curve of her inwards eyebrows towards each other. She had such an expressive face, it was hard to look at her sometimes.

Dorcas had to walk out the room, into the kitchen and away from them, her. With a hand against her mouth she breathed a deep sigh, willing her chest to feel lighter and her emotions to not spill over. When Marlene came into the room with another sigh she blinked away her watery eyes. "You okay?" She asks but Dorcas just nods.

"Yea, I'm fine. Just stressed." She tries to busy her hands, her eyes as she makes a new map. She had said she hates secrets yet she can't bring herself to tell Marlene about Alastor. Like how she did with Regulus, she wants to ignore it for as long as she can. She has more important things to think about, these horcruxes for one.