✓ WE NEVER SLEEP, draco malfoy

F O R T Y - F O U R

"Maybe this longing is our way of surviving."

— Mahmoud Darwish, The Butterfly's Burden

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Rowan found out a day late that the wedding reception had been ambushed by Death Eaters after the news of the Minister of Magic being murdered. Voldemort hadn't let this news come out the way she'd hoped, especially during a meeting. He'd kept it close and she was thankful she wasn't apart of the killing, but she had been a part of the planning to capture the Burrow.

Someone, probably Snape, had let it slip that Harry was staying there and would attend. Not only would Harry be there but prominent members of the Order, too. It was the perfect breeding ground for murder and blood.

Rowan knew where Harry would go if he was with Hermione and Ron, and if she knew Hermione as well as she thought she did, the girl would take them to London which meant that Grimmauld Place would be their next stop.

She didn't tell Draco what she was doing, she didn't want him to get mixed into what she was planning. It would make him furious and she...she didn't want that. Not right now.

She apparated to Greer Manor early that morning after the news struck. She'd waited around just long enough to hear of the news of Dolohov and Rowle had been left indisposed at a cafe in London. She didn't need to wait any longer. She whispered to Bellatrix after the short brutal meeting that she was going to see if she could find where they'd gone.

She'd explained to the witch that during the summers she'd visit with both Harry and Hermione, so there was a good chance she'd know potential hide outs. She did all this without disclosing the very home she'd be visiting, because the witch would know. It was her home once too.

Rowan unlocked the front doors to her home with a little flick of her wand. She'd been preparing for this moment for a while, how she'd sneak away and run off to find her golden trio. She needed to know more about the locket and how she was going to narrow down where else the horcruxes might be. 

It was like she could directly ask Voldemort but she could easily ask the others around them. Bellatrix was a likely ally, if she never out the truth about Rowan. 

But that was neither here nor there. What Rowan needed to focus on was completing her task. She'd began to brew something over the past few days, notably once she'd slipped away from Draco's watchful eye. She loved him but he didn't need to know the full extent of what she was going to do. 

When she reached her sister's room, she forced herself to go inside. It was the same as it always would be. Florence's photographs still moving and grinning on her wall and on her dresser. Her lace skirt still hanging from her desk chair and her shoes knocked over by her bed. It was like she was still here, just lost somewhere in the manor and would be back soon. 

Rowan crossed the space and into her bathroom, finding her brush on the counter and she was careful to pluck the hair out before dropping it into the little flask she'd hidden away in her robes. She heard the hair sizzle on impact with the liquid and she looked up at herself in the mirror and nodded her head as if that would ease her nervous stomach.

She wasn't ready to see her sister's face again but she knew it needed to be done in order to protect herself.

She brought the flask to her lips and let the polyjuice potion glide down her throat, thick and warm. It burned the second it hit her stomach and her gut cramped and contracted at the foul taste but it didn't take long before she was gripping the counter and seething through clenched teeth as her face shifted and molded.