The Facade

Chapter 2

The room was hot, and the masks hiding our faces were only making it worse, there was no light in the dull room we were in, asides from a Lumos spell we had to cast ourselves, the floor itself was full of mud, the air itself seemed to be thick by being located so far from the surface.

It’s been over an hour that we’ve been brought to Granger’s cell, put a table between us, and we started questioning her about the whereabouts of the Order, and the silence from the other side of the table was hectic and frustrating.

We have tried to enter her mind, but it remained empty, only foolish important days of her with her friends before the battle, none after it, she had clearly achieved a high level of Occlumency, we realized that after even dosing her with Veritaserum and she still hadn’t spoken a word, and only a highly trained wizard could achieve that level at the art of locking memories away from invaders, but that did not disturbed me as I had already suspected, she was, after all, one of the heads of the Order, such security would be maintained.

Her hands were now cuffed to the table, sweat pricking down from her forehead decaying against the iron table, she looked like she was about to faint, her eyes told me that, but she tried to maintain her posture the best she could, trying to show no fear, even though her mind might be running miles on how to get away.

From three years of practice, and spying, I learned on how to describe a person behave, how to look beyond their lies, how predictable they were, and follow each movement of their bodies, eyes, breathing, and her silence, asides from infuriating, it was a useful mechanism, so I could study her, almost as if reading minds.

She was fairly thin, which meant the Order had to spare their coins in the food so they could last longer, seemed like they wouldn’t steal it from the merchants, her eyes were surrounded by dark circles, which meant a rather poor sleep, so she either was too restless for sleep to take her, or either the things at the Order were busy, from the corner of my eye – without seeking for suspicion of what I was doing – I noticed some part of her clothes being torn apart, and the sleeves from her jacket looked a bit too small, barely reaching her wrist, ah, they only had perhaps a dozen pair of clothes if not less, and her hair was in two braids that seemed that have been on her head without as much as redoing them for at least some time for the state it was, and the mud and blood spread in her face and clothes told me she gave a fight when she was caught.

Above all, she seemed like she was in grief, mourning still from the deceased of her beloved friend already three years prior, it made me wonder if the only reason that kept her fighting was to not make his sacrifice futile.

“Come on, Granger.” Theo asked softly, speaking as if they were longtime friends. “Just tell us where the Order is located, and this will all be over.” He insisted.

It was a lie, and she knew it as well as he did.

Silence.

I haven’t uttered a word since we entered this chamber, and spent all my time examining her behave.

“Look I tell you this, you tell us where it is, and we will let you free for the goodwill of cooperation.” Theo insisted, her face unreadable.

I took this chance to speak.

“You have been sitting here for over a half an hour, keeping your mouth shut even after we drugged you and invaded your mind.” I spoke coldly, feeling all the eyes over me now. “Your mind was searching wildly through the room, searching for some escape, all while you kept your gaze focused on us, mouth, still shut.” She was eying me carefully, her breathing started to be unsteady. I continued. “If I’m not mistaken you counted all the steps you had to walk until the way out, and focused your hearing on all the pair of hearts and breaths you could catch to have a slight knowledge about the quantity of guards you have to defeat on her little way out, this while you were blinded on your way here.” Her eyes grew wide at my words, and I smirked under my hidden lips knowing for that reaction that all my guesses were right.

After all, it was what I would do, and I have been told stories about her more than enough to know exactly how she thinks and how she schemes.

“Well even if that is true, she hasn’t found out a way out of here, so all that job was in vain.” Theo said.

“Hasn’t she?” I asked – more a statement rather than a question, and felt her burning gaze stick to my mask.

The silence in the room hasn’t changed in the slightest, but her risen nervousness was obvious, as she was now shifted in her place, swallowing hard, her eyes never leaving mine, panic held beneath them, her hands together, steady in place.

“You’re tired.” I emphasized, still holding her stare at me. “You’re tired of losing your loved ones, tired of accountable deaths, tired of fighting for nothing, tired of seeing watching people die.” Her gaze drifted for the first time away from us, and she turned now to face the wall besides her, most probably fighting the urge to let her tears fall, ah, a weakness.

However, she still managed to stuck that feeling in her lungs, and get back to her previous behave, a heavy staring towards us.

“Granger you were caught by Snatchers in a forest, not many miles away from here, alone, hiding in a tent with barely anything in it, and your enchantments were quite poor counting on how you were caught, may I ask why is that?” I was most definitely not waiting for a replied, and so I was not given one. “Very well then, I think we’re done here.” I stood up from my chair, her eyes filling with nervousness, her features tensed.

She most definitely had a full made-plan to her escape.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” I snapped, as soon as I was at my foot. “During our charming conversation, you unlocked those cuffs, and waited until the bigger threats- “I pointed to me and Theo. “- stepped out of the room so you could escape. That was your plan.”

Realizing herself of my words, her first reaction was to stand up, her hands uncuffed as I mentioned, but the guards were already coming at her before she could have the slightest chance of escaping, and grabbed both her arms, and slam her face on the table, while placing new cuffs at her hands.

“I don’t understand…” She spoke, perhaps for the first time today, asides from her screams from the painful invasion in her mind from earlier. “How did you find out?” She asked.

“Usually when people are nervous, as you were, their first reaction of it starts in the hands, it’s an unwitting moving, they start twitching, and constantly in movement, however yours were steady in place, which means you were focused on them, trying to free them as best as you could without drawing attention and made sure our eyes were on your stare, that by the way never dared to look at your hands, so therefore we wouldn’t look at them either.” I explained firmly, then nodded at the three guards holding her.

They dragged her while she tried to fought them and free herself from their hard grip even though she knew she couldn’t, until they throwed her against the hard stone floor, landing on her back and a gasp left her dried lips at the pain.

“You shouldn’t have let yourself get caught, Granger.” I stated, now standing peering down at her, wand in my hand.

“Crucio!” I beamed before she could even stand.

Her body started twitching at the pain, and the air of the cell quickly was filled with screams from her mouth, her fists clenched at the pain and tears started forming on her eyes.

“You think I didn’t know what you were trying to do?” I snapped loudly so she would be able to hear me despite her screams. “You think I didn’t discover your filthy plan to find out where, and how we kept our prisoners so you could escape and come back later with your little friends from the Order to set them free?!” She started weeping along with her screams in despair echoing through all the cell.

Her face was now buried in tears and sweat, and her body was squirming at the excruciating pain. I knew that pain. It feels like your bones are shattering to pieces, our skin being boring by hot-knives, our head at the edge of going insane at the feeling of the such immersive pain, consuming all your body energy, and nothing is on your mind besides the wish to die rather than facing that pain any longer, a pain beyond any person can experience.

I lift up the curse, knowing that if I kept it longer, she would surely go insane, and I still needed her for information about the Order.

“I tell you what, Granger…” I kneeled beside her, red eyes staring at my silver mask, tears decaying from her cheeks hitting the hard stone floor. “You will never get out of here, and will warn no one, you will save no one, and the next time you see your friends, they will be dying under your very nose.” I crooned right into her face before standing up. “Until then, Granger, have fun rotting in this place.”

I walked out of the cell, Theo and Montague along with me.

“I swear, interrogations with you are never bored.” Montague claimed playfully. “But how did you find out about her plan?” He asked, while slipping off his mask.

“Please, it was obvious from how she was caught, the Order would never let such an important member walk around on it’s own, specially so near from here, their plan was to find out where is the cells so they could invade us and free the prisoners.” I answered, while walking our way out of the dull hallway.

“But why the risk, they know how many we are, why risk themselves into being caught for prisoners?” Theo asked, his mask off his face already as well.

“The reason it’s more than obvious, they are getting short on people every day, they saw themselves desperate, which can only mean benefits to our part.” I stopped my tracks a few steps behind the bars door that lead to the stairs to slip off my own mask.

“Okay, that much is clear, but sacrifice Granger, clearly they had someone not as important to send.” Theo acknowledged.

“Perhaps they did, but Granger is the wiser, to escape our boarders they needed someone the guards would underestimate and not give much as importance, Granger was perfect for the roll, so they risked it.” I replied, and started climbing the stone flight of stairs out of the hallway.

Truth be told she is wiser than appears, and I would have to have a word with the guards to secure the entrance of her cell, and strengthen the enchantments at the door to keep her magic out of her reach, even without wand, I’m sure someone like Granger would know wandless magic.

“So, what now?” Montague asked in somewhat halfway the stairs, there were so many that that it was hard to count. “She won’t tell us anything about the Order, what do we do.”

Without looking back, I replied. “She will, the time she will pass in the cell will weaken her mind, and even if it doesn’t, we know at least that the Order is short on people so it will not be long until we defeat them, or they send someone to rescue Granger.” I assured him.

“Must be right…” Montague agreed. “Has the Dark Lord told you anything about Malfoy while I was down here?” He asked.

My steps slowed, and my jaw clenched, I didn’t trusted Montague as much as I trusted Theo, he was cunning and skilled in the field, but he’s been given a sharp tongue and is much of a garrulous to fancy my liking, although were friends, we’d rather much die than utter my dark and deepest secrets.

“…No. He didn´t.” I replied, hiding the unsteadiness of my voice.

Montague made no further questions, and I could feel an uncomforting gaze – surely from Theo’s – burning the back of my head, and if I knew him well enough, I knew it would be a concerning gaze that would be spread in his eyes if I turned my head back.

But I did not, instead, I quickened my gaze throughout the stairs, eager to reach the surface and breath some air.

The rest of the climb was silent, and I took advantage of such to let my thoughts run through my mind, clear them off.

Granger is perhaps one of the pillars of the Order, vantage to us, she’s valuable, but if they will risk themselves into saving her or not is what lingers in my mind.

So far, the Order hasn’t been much active, only small skirmish with some of us, most being only secondarily members of the Order, which of course, are now facing those four stone walls way beneath the surface, in which made the Order starting to being cautious in leaving their borders, either to buy food or gather more rebels, they were hesitant, assessing all this for Granger’s state.

Reaching the end of the stairs, I turned the boys who were following me right behind and addressed to them as soon as I realize myself of their smirks.

“Why are you guys smirking?” I asked, even thought it was most probably that I already knew the reason.

They only looked at each other, a knowledge looks between the two of them as they did so, which made my suspicions more than confirmed.

I sighed. “You guys are going to gamble again, aren’t you?” I wasn’t expecting them to confirm it or not, I already knew.

“Montague gathered up a few coins.” Theo said pleasantly as he elbowed Montague.

“A few sickles and galleons from Granger.” Montague held in his hand a sack that seemed to fit his own hand, not much, but enough.

“Ah, of course, as long as it’s not yours, spending it will be just even more enjoyable.” I said sarcastically, as my arms crossed over my chest.

Montague gave me a wink. “Exactly.” He walked in the opposite direction.

Theo followed, giving me a shrug, that I was already accustomed to see meaning ‘you know how it is, don’t argue’ but I still shook my head in disappointment – yet a playful smile on my lips - as he made his way towards Montague.

My peacefulness was suddenly disturbed from a voice coming from behind me, which startled me, and I immediately pulled my alarming scents as I turned around to see who was calling for me.

“Autumn, here you are.” Blaise Zabini rejoiced when reaching me close enough.

Blaise wasn’t part of my unity, only Theo and Montague, he was on the same team, but was paired up with Pansy Parkinson, however, we chat sometimes – most of them being while Theo and Montague are off in their little games – and I liked him, a trustworthy and fearless person, almost willing to help when such is needed, I wouldn’t mind to work with him on field, only did once, when we had to come on their aid to fight some rebellions almost the double of the member numbers against us, and even then he seemed quite skilled when on field.

“Zabini, how have you been?” I asked softly.

“I’m great. Better now that I found you.” He said playfully with the join of a wink.

“Where you looking for me? Why, something’s wrong?” I asked, knitting my browns together at my risen concerned.

“No, actually, I have something for you.” He couldn’t manage to hide his playful smile, so I immediately thought if this was some prank that sometimes all of us do once in a while.

“And what is that?” I asked matching his playful tone of my voice with my own.

“You will get the chance to go on a task with me.” Blaise said, pleasant with himself.

“A task?” I asked and he nodded. “And what makes you think I want to be part of it?” I said sarcastically.

“It’s about Malfoy, thought you would be interested, but worry not I can always offer this unique opportunity to pass the day with me to somebody else.” He started to turn away, slowly, waiting for me to stop him.

If there was some ghost of a smile spread on my lips, there was no longer one, the mentioned of Malfoy only increased my attention on the boy’s word and my first thought to stop him.

“Wait!” I beseeched, louder than I intend to, and waited for the boy to turn again. “Where’s Parkinson?” I asked curious.

“The Dark Lord sent her to France, to help our armies to bring war towards Switzerland.” Blaise replied.

“Right…” I mumbled, and without wasting any other breath, I asked. “And the task?”

I was so distracted that didn’t noticed the documents he was carrying in his arm, and handed it to me so I could open it.

A picture of Lucius Malfoy found itself beneath my eyes, with a stamp spelling the word ‘unactive’ on top of it, beneath the pic, a parchment was attached to it with a clip, containing there all the information about him, family, age, blood-status, wealth, all his life written down on this little piece of parchment.

“Draco Malfoy has been sighted many times lately, and so I thought about paying a visit at his father to know if he has any idea of his whereabouts.” Blaise said, my eyes still glued to the parchment. “I assume you heard what happened to him.”

“I never cared to know much but I’ve heard some stuff.” I closed the document Blaise gave me, and locked my gaze with his. “The death of his wife, Narcissa, and with the sudden betrayal of his son, Draco, Lucius went completely insane, and decided to reform from the Death Eaters.” I stated, and Blaise nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, he locked himself on the Malfoy Manor and is not seen ever since.” Blaise added, taking the document from my hands.

“You think Draco would go to his old Manor?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

“It’s doubtful, but I also thought we could search his room, find anything that could help us finding where he is.” Blaise stated, and I nodded impressed at the smart thought, no one had searched his things before and even I blame myself for not thinking about that way, way sooner.

“Very well then, I’ll go with you.”

-----

We apparated to the Malfoy’s state the next day, black iron gates more than the double of our size peering down at us, a wide and vast maze surrounding it, with nothing more than a greyish, dull sky shadowing our figures, making it impossible to distinguish between day and light.

The wind is whipping through the nearby white snow trees, disturbing their peacefulness and shaking them violently, creaking and groaning like a fragile glass. Our pass is poisoned in snow that decayed from the sky earlier in the morning, glistening so brightly from being untouched that looked like sparkles.

The wards forbid us from passing the gate, so now we have been waiting for a house-elf, or even Lucius to appear and let us inside.

“Lovely view.” Blaise commented from beneath his own mask, obviously in a sarcastic way.

Seconds later, a house - elf apparated from the other side of the gates, half our size, wide greenish eyes, bat-like ears, spindly arms, weak and frail body, and a poor clothing that was similar to a sack, torn apart in some places, and mostly dirty as well.

“Do you wish something from my Master?” The elf approached the gate, his voice squeaky and shaken, he was afraid of us.

“We need to speak with Lucius Malfoy for information about his son.” Blaise said firmly, kneeling down on the snow so the elf would be able to heard him through his silver mask.

“Tonky is ordered to not let anyone in. Tonky’s Master does not wish visits.” The elf replied, twitching nervously, clearly is not used to have company asides from outsiders.