A Serpent's Heart

Chapter 29. Sectumfaucem.

"Tacendi, we need you in the forest to await Potter," Lucius said to my father. My father mouthed: "Run!" to me, so I grabbed Emma by her upper arm and dragged her away from the scene.

We reached the corridor, but a spell hit us through the gothic arches of the hallway. "Descendo!" Emma and I were smacked to the cold stone of the passage and I quickly turned to my back to see Lucius, now without his mask, had come after us. I pointed my wand up at him, but he merely said: "I'm not going to hurt you, Tacendi. Thanks to you we've got a wonderful new recruit to serve the Dark Lord. I've got other plans for you, but your filthy mudblood friend here hasn't paid for intruding my house yet."

Emma stared at him wide-eyed, before coming to her senses and firing a spell at Lucius. Meanwhile I rose and helped Emma stand up, too. Lucius warded off the spell and grinned: "Fight till you die, girl. You can't beat me."

"Crucio," I said. Lucius blocked the curse, but raised an eyebrow at me and remarked: "Well well, not so innocent after all, just like your father. Crucio." Without breaking eye contact with me, he had cursed Emma, who was now lying on the ground, trembling and screaming.

"Emma!" I exclaimed, and I kneeled down beside her. I tried to prevent her from hitting her head against the hard tiles. "How dare you attack a student?!" I yelled at Lucius, who was laughing coldly. Tears were streaming down Emma's face and I knew she was in great pain.

"Funny to see you care so much for scum like that. I had expected better from my son's girlfriend. Your father told me you were quite an exemplary pure-blood witch when you were young," Lucius grinned.

Had my father told the sickening stories of my childhood delusions? How I had bullied others and considered myself above people like Caytlin and Emma? How could he humiliate me like that? Or had he told the stories to let me grow in stature in the eyes of the Death Eaters, so they wouldn't harm me?

"In fact, your father likes his new lifestyle so much, he wants you to experience it as well," Lucius smiled superciliously.

"He wouldn't, we just saw him and he-" Emma said, but I muttered: "Silencio." Fortunately, the spell was successful and prevented Emma from blowing my father's cover.

"Was he Imperiused when he said that?" I defied. I couldn't believe my father would sink into the Death Eater's pit so quickly, let alone that he would drag me along.

Lucius smiled smugly. He noticed someone behind us and I looked over my shoulder to see another unwelcome face: Bellatrix Lestrange. "Bellatrix, just in time. Let's present you to the Dark Lord, Tacendi."

I stared at Bellatrix, who grinned madly and said: "Don't be afraid, there's nothing more rewarding than serving the most powerful wizard in the world."

Now it was Emma who grabbed my arm and tried to drag me around the corner. "They can't take you like that! They'd Imperius you and make you do terrible things!" Emma panted aghast.

"Stop!" Bellatrix screamed. Before I realized what she was doing, she had yelled: "Avada Kedavra!" I expected to fall to the ground and to see my memories flash before my eyes, but none of the sort happened.

Had I died without getting a replay of my life? Merlin's beard, Avada Kedavra was a boring way to go.

And that's when I noticed. While I had been trying to accept my death and let Draco be my final thought, Emma had let go of my arm. I hadn't died, she had. There she lay, outstretched on the ground. I looked at her in horror. I ran to her body and grabbed her hand, only to feel the life leaving her as her hand got colder.