When Peace Was Screwed Over (Edited)

TW: Sort of mentioned Child abuse. It's implied. Mentioned torture and past rape. Mentioned domestic abuse. Are trigger warnings a thing I should start doing more regularly?

Amina Cheng and Elizabeth Whitemore were in a kind of mutual panic. The Azkaban breakout had rattled them to the bone.

"What do we do now?" Elizabeth asked, wringing her hands. "They'll be suspicious if we head back over Christmas and keep refusing to learn dark magic now."

"Maybe we shouldn't refuse," Amina was chewing on her thumbnail.

"We made a vow!"

"In our first year! You can't honestly believe that was actually magically binding!"

"What about Pansy?" Elizabeth started pacing.

"Unfortunate, but in that situation it could have happened to anyone."

"Still. We can't avoid it, can we?"

"We can try!"

"That doesn't sound like it'll be successful. I mean you saw Dolohov's son! Look at what happened to him!"

Amina thought for a moment. "Maybe we can ask Narcissa for help?"

"No way!" Elizabeth said, shaking her head immediately. "She would not be happy."

"I don't think she would mind."

"Have you ever asked her for anything?"

"No."

"We're not doing it." Elizabeth flipped her blonde hair.

"Fine." Amina sat down in a nearby chair. "What do we do then?"

"Try to get out of dark magic and still stay in everyone's good graces?"

"That's not a plan."

"We can make one when we actually need to go home for Christmas."

"If they don't kill us on sight."

They were't the only one's with a crisis on their hands. Neville Longbottom was nervous. More so than usual. He was holding the most recent paper with shaking hands, ten shades paler than usual. The face cackling at him from the front was one his Grandmother had told him about.

This was the woman who had tortured his parents into insanity. Bellatrix LeStrange looked insane. Literally. Her eyes stretched wide and a manic grin on her cackling face. She didn't look the least remorseful. She didn't look afraid of anything either, despite this being her mugshot before Azkahban.

"You okay there?"

Neville flinched. He caught himself and stuttered, "Yeah - yeah."

"Sure?" Millicent Bulstrode looked entirely unconvinced.

He handed over the paper.

"Oh," she said, face falling. "That... stinks."

She leaned against the wall. Who else escaped?

"Oh, er... Augustus Rookwood, Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, and Rabastan Lestrange, Renée Owlet, Newton Armadill..."

He read on and on, Millicent supporting herself using the wall and training her eyes on the ceiling. All the dinner party guests her parents had hosted and all the family friends.

Her family really wasn't anywhere near the light. Hell, they weren't even neutral or grey.

There was another Problem. Ron and Draco had developed a testing System for love potions. They stared at the parchment containing Cedric Diggory's results in horrific awe.

"He's not under a potion?" Ron asked. "Is that even possible?"

"This is the third time we've run the test." Draco was reaching for the kit again.

"That... Then why is..." Ron shook his head in disbelief.

"She's a manipulative evil mastermind. If this were someone working for Dumbledore or Riddle being manipulated, I'd be impressed."

"So, he actually likes Chang?"

"Seems it? I think the lines can get blurry."

"How do we stop the cycle then?"

Draco shook his head. "I don't know if we can."

"Are you sure?"

"We could kill her? I mean this is one of the people who, amongst others is poisoning our friends and family one by one."

"Technically she isn't using poison."

"That wasn't a no."

"You're serious."

"No, I'm just his second cousin." Draco rolled his eyes. "But yes, poison looks like a good option. I mean, domestic abuse, possibly also rape amongst other crimes. It wouldn't even be difficult!"

Ron looked a little green in the face. "My switching sides was triggered by me not wanting to kill anyone."

"Oh." Draco began to fiddle with his watch. That was - that was not the usual reaction from his friends. Was that how Gryffindors thought? That didn't explain Hermione though.

"You seem really dissapointed. Is that a thing in this friend group?"

"Poison or murder?" Draco asked, still trying to figure out the issue. If the problem wasn't the killing, just the method that would be reasonable right?

"Both."

"We haven't actually killed anyone yet so... I don't think so. It is a genuine consideration on multiple occasions though." Maybe it was just insecurity?

"A genuine consideration?" Ron's voice had gone higher.

"Considering what we usually deal with." He gave a shrug and shuffled through the other tests. "How about we focus on Percy and Penelope for now?"

Harriet who was listening in at a safe distance, behind a nice shelf, with a book on toxic plants, turned a page quietly. She and Draco would have a quiet discussion later.