Preface- The Beginning
( 31 October 1980)
Across a painted landscape, a lone cottage stood outside the small town of Ottery St. Catchpole. The night grew darker with the amount of thunderous clouds and on occasion, a strange and loud crash of lightning flashed across the sky. Rain pattered against the tin roof, the wind howled to outmatch the cries that came from the cottage.
“Bella, please!”
Agony, as pure as the night could allow it, echoed through the small property.
The windows filled with a flash of blue, and a cry escaped from under the door. It pierced through the wood, and bounced against invisible walls.
Another flash of blue radiated throughout the landscape. A cackle of pure joy in this torturous moment was almost nauseating, but it was the only sound that followed the cries.
A pant, nearly inaudible among the group, caused the cackles to stop. If one were to peer into the windows, they would for sure be horrified by the scene inside.
A group of cloaked figures stood along the walls of the house, the leader held her wand out to another woman, who lay curled in the middle of the room. The leader grabbed the woman’s hair and lifted her face towards the little light that illuminated from another’s wand.
“Bella,” the woman panted. “Please, don’t do this…we’re cousins!” An exasperated voice panged out from her, and she looked to the messy-haired woman before her. She looked to the owner of the illuminated wand, her eyes filled with tears.
“Lucius? Cissi wouldn’t want this, please!”
Before he could answer, another flash erupted around the room and her limbs spasmed at the impact of the spellwork. She fell from her captor’s grasp, the pain that spread through her body felt unmeasurable, unworthy of being described.
She drew in a shallow breath, and looked at her captors with defiant eyes. There were five of them; their black cloaks and silver masks gave away who they worked for. How they found her, she would never know, but she knew that someone spilled.
She turned her attention to the other three, but she only knew two. “Let me guess why you lot are here,” she said. She began to rise, but her limbs felt too weak to stand. “Your master sent you, because he couldn’t face me himself.”
The group looked among one another, and for a moment only the hooded woman laughed. Slowly, three others joined her, but the youngest of the group barely moved. “You think that the Dark Lord wanted to face you? Ha! You’re not a skilled duelist, he wouldn’t waste his time on you, cousin.”
Her words were harsh, but the woman didn’t feel offended. “Then why did he send you lot here if I wasn’t important, Bellatrix?”
The cloaked woman stepped forward, her wand raised high, but the one called Lucius blocked her. He gave her calmed look—a warning— before he turned back to the other. “Because, Rebecca, you’re a threat to him.”
Although her body screamed against her as she rose to her feet, she looked at him with an intrigued look. “If your master thinks he’s so powerful, then why is he scared of the future so damn much, Lucius?” The hooded woman snarled at her, but she simply ignored her. “I only speak facts, Bella. He’s just a scared little boy who never got mommy’s love.”
A taunt. Rebecca was good at getting on other’s nerves. Just ask her cousins and her partner.
Lucius turned to her, and before she could react, she felt a sharp sting across her cheek. She stumbled back, and held her hand to her cheek. She looked at him. “You do that to my cousin, Lucius? No, Cissi would beat your ass before you even laid a hand on her or your son.”
This time, however, before Lucius or Bellatrix could raise their wands, the youngest of the group stepped forward. “Enough! Inform her of why we are here!”
Her head turned to the direction of the voice, and for a second, Rebecca couldn’t believe the young man was apart of this. “Barty? What on Earth are you doing here? Reggie wouldn’t have wanted you here!”
“Reggie isn’t here anymore. I had to do this, Becca. I had to—”
“To prove his worth,” another strange voice called her attention away from the boy named Barty. She could almost imagine his scared look under that silver mask, but she didn’t want to trust that he had been pulled to this gathering.
“Is that you Rudolphous? Is that other person Rabastan?”
She knew why they were here; she had known since a few months prior when she predicted her own death. Five Death Eaters would enter her house while the other occupants were gone, and she would be dead by their arrival. She was stalling, she wanted them to bicker.
She wanted to live just a little longer.
“No, my brother is on a different mission. We’re here for you.”
“Then who is the other person in my house?”
An agitated sigh escaped from the mouth of Bellatrix, and she turned to the last man by the door. She beckoned him closer, and as he walked towards them, his heavy footsteps echoed through the house. “An associate from Bulgaria—Karkoff. Can we get on with this now!”
Rebecca shrugged, and looked to Lucius. “Go on, tell me of my sentence.”
Through the mask, his eyes squinted. “How did you—never mind. You are a threat to the Dark Lord. You and your scum protector avoided our advances, and went into hiding. Now, you’re to pay the price.”
“Of what?”
Before Lucius could let out another sigh, and before he could stop her, Bellatrix’s wand fired the curse. “Crucio!”
Rebecca fell to the ground, her muscles compacted and twisted under her skin. Through gritted teeth, she left out a yell. A cry. She looked towards the corner, in hopes that the slumped woman—her ‘protector’ — would wake. But she never did.
Slowly, she rose to her feet again. Her eyes made contact with the large wardrobe in the room, but then she looked away. She could’ve sworn she saw something moving inside.
“Ask more questions, I dare you!”
She wanted to mock her cousin. To laugh in her face, but she couldn’t risk it anymore. No one was coming. She would die here.
“You are the carrier of the Ravenclaw-Slytherin genes, Becca.” Barty, in a timid voice, replied. “As a pureblood, you a threat to him. Your father and mother have refused to join the ranks of notable pureblood families, and therefore, you must pay the price.”
“Reword that, Barty. I am a blood-traitor, because my parents refuse to join. Your master only recently learned that I was the carrier of those genetics. Before that I meant nothing to him.”
“You and Robert,” Bellatrix’s voice was full of malice. “Robert carries the other half. But he is far from the Dark Lord’s grasp, so you must suffice.”
“I should’ve left with my brother when I had the chance. Instead, I decided to stay with my family and friends.” She gave a piercing look in Barty’s direction, and watched him squirm back to the shadows. The grandfather clock chimed three, and for the first time, she smiled. “Go on, do your duty.”
“No fight, little cousin?” Bellatrix teetered.
“Nope.” Rebecca walked carefully to the couch and sat. “But at least let me go out in the peace of my comfy couch.”
She eyed the wardrobe once more, before she smiled to the group. Their wands came from their robes, and each one pointed in her direction. She turned her head to Bellatrix and Rudolphous. “Rudy, take care of her. She’s a wild one, and do tell Rabastan that Dora is fine. Bella, don’t become too enamored with Voldemort, he’s just one man. And to the strange man named Karkoff, good luck to you.”
She turned her head to Lucius and Barty. “Lucius, give Cissi and Draco my best. He’s lucky to have a father like you. And Barty, I’m proud of you even if your father isn’t. I’ll tell Reggie you say hello.”
Into the open air, she said her finally goodbyes. “I love you all, don’t forget that.”
And all at once, a collective cry of death rang and a flash of green appeared throughout the house. Her body slump against the couch, and her hands went cold. Just like that, the Wilts girl was gone.
Outside, the rain fell harder against the tinned roof. The wind ceased, but the witching hour was still in full swing. One by one, the group exited the house, each one apparated before their robes were soaked. Only one stayed behind, his silver mask had been slipped from his face. He stood before the wardrobe, his eyes wide in horror.
The air was so cold, he could see his breath. He watched two little clouds of breath appear from the bottom of the wardrobe, his eyes focused on the beings below him. A little boy, black of hair and green-eyed stared at him. Lucius’ fingers twisted around the shaft of his wand, he couldn’t find the courage to kill a child.
He squatted to meet the eyes of the child. Beside the boy, a little girl slept soundly. When Lucius reached his hand out to touch the children, a cat’s paw sliced at him. The hiss echoed in the confines of the wardrobe. Next to the two children, Rebecca’s wand sat unused. He wondered why she didn’t defend herself when they first broke in.
Lucius had killed a woman; his wife’s cousin, and before him sat the woman’s son. The heir of Slytherin, and yet, he couldn’t kill him. He was just a boy after all. One that would haunt the wizarding world, and all Lucius could see was those emerald eyes even in the depths of his darkest dreams.