these violent delights
Dan is rescued by James and the Longbottoms, who bring him immediately to headquarters. Blair rushes there as soon as she can, and immediately casts the countercurse.
Dan comes to, ashen and frail, but he comes to. Blair thanks Merlin and Morgana profusely.
The first thing he does is look at Blair. He tells her wryly, “You’ve finally bested me in a duel, Blair. You never got to do that at Hogwarts.” He grins that sideways smirk that she so loves.
Blair runs to him, sobbing. “I’m so sorry, Dan. I didn’t know what else to do - Bella would have found us out otherwise.”
She smooths his hair from his forehead, tears still falling down her eyes. “I truly am so sorry.”
Dan, injured by her own hand, is still the one who comforts her. “It’s alright, my love. You did what you had to do.”
It takes him weeks to recover from the drain the curse has placed on him.
Blair is distraught the whole time.
-
The Order is divided in their reactions to Blair’s course of action.
“You could have saved Remus, too, “ Moody admonishes her. It is no use explaining that Bella would have retrieved the werewolf otherwise. His tactical expertise is unmatched, but so is his capacity for distrust.
“You should have just stunned Malfoy and Lestrange and run,” Kingsley opines. Blair raises an eyebrow at this. Blow their cover so soon? She isn’t daft, thank you very much.
“Why did you have to use dark magic, Blair?” Frank Longbottom furrows his brow.
Sirius defends her.“It’s only dark magic because it’s not recognized. Besides, the magic of the House of Black isn’t actually dark. I wouldn’t be able to wield it if it were.”
Sirius is a powerful wizard, but dark magic sits uncomfortably with him. He used to joke that he donated his share of it to the murder twins, his bizarre nickname for Blair and Regulus.
James approaches her one day, while she is in Dan’s room. Dan is asleep on her lap - his magical exhaustion means that his body is in restorative mode.
“While I’m not happy that Remus has been captured, I understand,” he says. “This cause is important to me, but I would do anything for Lily and Harry. Anything. I don’t blame you, Blair. You must know that the Order doesn’t blame you too.”
There is a protectiveness in James’s hazel eyes, one she sees in Dan when he looks at her, one she sees in Sirius when he looks at her and Regulus, and one she sees in herself, sometimes.
Blair smiles and thanks him. She knows it’s a half-truth, but she feels lighter just the same.
This is the life of a spy, after all, and by now, she is accustomed to it.
-
Her suspicions on Lucius are confirmed one afternoon at the Malfoy Manor.
She has just returned from a skirmish with the Order at Diagon, covered in deep gashes. Kingsley and Frank know how to play the game too apparently. Or perhaps on some level, they still want to get back at her for the previous events.
Voldemort, on the other hand, has gotten extremely manic. Blair wonders if this is an offshoot of the gradual obliteration of horcruxes.
She is surprised that he doesn’t try reinforcing the protections on the other Horcrux locations, but she chalks it up to his arrogance. Arrogance, after all, is the answer to all his lapses.
She walks towards Regulus’s potions lab to procure some healing potions when she hears sobbing in the corridor. It is Lucius.
She hides in the nearest room.
“F-father, please,” he tells Abraxas Malfoy. “I don’t want to do this. I don’t even want to be a Death Eater.”
“Silence!” Abraxas Malfoy roars. “You are a humiliation to me. You will do this.”
Lucius kneels. “No, Father! Please- just let me live in peace with Cissa and Draco. Draco is your grandson.”
Blair feels pity for Lucius, and she also feels shock. She has never seen Lucius with a hair out of place, without an excuse to worm his way out of things. His vulnerability floors her, although perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised, given her own experience of pureblood parenting.
”Imperio,” Abraxas intones. He turns to Lucius, who stands up.
“You will follow all of the Dark Lord’s orders - and mine. You will hide his diary in a safe place, and let no one, no one go near it.”
Lucius blinks for a bit. Blair thinks he is about to fight the curse, but his expression becomes vacant.
“Yes, Father,” he says tonelessly.
Despite the horrifying display, Blair is fortified.
She knows what to do.