Malfoy Manor Ball ✓

Part 9

No one said a word. The silence was absolutely deadly. All Juliette could do was watch everyone's facial reactions of absolute shock and wait in anticipation for a response. She quickly pulled down her sleeve and tried  to suppress the overwhelming feeling to cry.

"You were a death eater?" George finally spoke up with with an accusatory tone.

Tears began to well up in her eyes and she anxiously fiddled with her fingers. "I never wanted to be! I just—"

"No, I don't want to hear it." George moved to stand up and move away but Juliette flimsily grabbed onto him.

"No, George, wait—" she pleaded.

George twisted out of her grasp and drunkenly stalked away. He knew she was too good to be true. "I don't want to hear it."

Draco drew his eyebrows in with anger. "You haven't even fucking heard her out yet. You don't even know her for Salazar's sake."

"Well, do you know her? Did you know she was a death eater?" George countered with suspicious eyes.

"Of course I did, but I at least had the decency and sound mind to give her a chance. Fucking hell," Draco shook his head with building impatience. He had always hated the irrational Weasley temper.

"Georgie, come on. Calm down, hear the girl out," Fred reasoned.

"Please, George. Listen to me. All of you," Juliette said softly. "My family . . . we are of pure blood. My parents had a flimsy mindset and didn't know who to support. They . . . wanted to fit in with their other pure blood friends that were siding with the Dark Lord. Voldemort scared the fuck out of me but they were adamant on being on his side.

"Eventually, my family began to notice how they were treating Muggles and those not of pure blood status and started to question these actions. They brought their concerns up to their supposed friends who only looked at them with disgust for doubting the Dark Lord's reasons. Many times, their questioning only brought them endless amounts of the Cruciatus curse—Bellatrix's specialty. I couldn't bear to watch . . ."

George finally sat back down next to her with apologetic eyes. She gave him a feeble smile and took a deep shuddering breath.

"Eventually, they were so broken and tattered, I didn't know what to do. The life inside them was slowly dying. I asked for help and support from others . . . I just wanted to save them. Everyone turned me away— 'the daughter of traitors,' they called me," she said with a dry scoff.

Ginny came around and rubbed Juliette's arm comfortingly, while conjuring up a box of tissues at the same time. Juliette leaned into the touch and graciously accepted the tissues, immediately bringing them to her eyes.

"I was so desperate that I went to Voldemort himself. I mean, what else could I have done? I was out of options at that point. So, I asked him what I could do to save them and begged him for forgiveness for their mistakes. Of course, I hated him and wanted nothing to do with him or his cause; but, I had to pretend I was on his side. Surprisingly, he agreed to help me.

"'There's one thing you can do to save them,' he told me. 'Take the Dark Mark to become a death eater and swear your loyalty to me,'" Juliette repeated, staring off into the distance, reliving the horrid memory. She subconsciously placed her hand over the area where the horrid mark was laid. "I had no choice."