The Marauder's Daughter

WHATEVER IT TAKES

josephine weasley

I laid Teddy back in Tonks' arms, dad holding onto the twins. They knew now. Saw the mark. Understood what I was doing; how much danger I was in. How they might not see me again on the right side of this war. But it didn't matter.

My hair was down, a black floor length dress, a dark robe over the top of it, my wand concealed in the inside pocket. The first dress I had worn in the last months. The first time I had really put on any other clothes that weren't pajamas. In my hand I held my bag, a room ready for me at the manor, organized by Snape and Bellatrix.

My heels clicked as I walked down the street before disappearing behind a set of trees, apparating to the Malfoy Manor. It's walls loomed over me, once perfectly trimmed bushes now overgrown in the garden, house elves walking around dreadfully with trimmers, snipping at the dead branches. I held my head up as I walked towards the door, my knuckles knocking against the wood. The sliding window opened at the top, showing the face of Fenrir Greyback.

"Ah, Miss Black," he spoke. "Lovely to see you again. Password?"

"Cruciatus."

He nodded his head, shutting the sliding window just to open the doors. He held his hand out, allowing me to take it as I handed him my bag, just for him to throw it into the arms of one of the Malfoys' poor house elves.

He led me to the drawing room again where Lucius was seated in a chair, Narcissa behind him. To the left sat Bellatrix, twirling her hair around her wand.

"Josephine," Lucius spoke, acknowledging me standing in front of him, "I haven't seen you in a while. What brings you back?"

"I had a minor break due to my pregnancy, but I am back full time now," I spoke as Fenrir ushered me into a chair. "Thank you for allowing me to stay here. I could only deal with the madness of the Weasleys for so long." The lies coming off of my tongue made me ashamed, made me want to then and there kill all of the Death Eaters in the home, no matter how long I would end up in Azkaban, but it didn't matter.

"You left your children for us?" Narcissa asked, moving down to sit on the arm of Lucius's chair as she placed her hand upon his shoulder.

"It wasn't my plan to have children, but yes I did leave them. They were simply liabilities."

Bellatrix grinned, standing up and moving towards me. Her shadow loomed over me, her long black polished fingers tracing my jawline, sending chills up my spine. "My child," she smiled, "I knew you would be back for us. For your true family."

I nodded as she pulled her fingers away from my jaw, making her way back to her chair. "I would always come back for you. For the Dark Lord."

Lucius held his cane under his hand, the same way he was doing in the family portrait above the fire place that seemed to be in no way making the manor warmer. "Did you get any information on where Potter, Weasley, and the Mudblood are?"

"No. None of the Weasley's know either. There was not a letter, or so much as a simple note to give us a clue."

"So you have done nothing to assist in the Dark Lord's plans?"

"I have, actually. Severus owled me this morning about an opened position at Hogwarts which I will be taking to keep the enemy at bay."

"And what position are you taking?"

"Head of Gryffindor house, taking over Transfiguration."

Narcissa cocked her head to the side, her eyes piercing my own. "What happened to Minerva?"

"Resigned. That is all I was told." That wasn't a lie. McGonagall resigned from her post, orders from Kingsley Shacklebolt to help assist with the preparations for battle. She wasn't pleased from what I heard from Snape, but orders are orders.