black coffee | remus lupin [2]

89. boxing day in hell

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

CHRISTMAS FELT LIKE A HAZY DREAM. Claudia hadn't exactly spent most of her recent Christmasses doing just peachy and fine, but that didn't change the fact that the silence that took over the dinner tables and the lack of season's greetings felt like a stab to the heart for someone who had grown up loving everything about the holiday as a child.

Claudia spent Christmas Eve at Lupin's Cottage with Remus and Lyall, who both were persistant on skipping the holiday as a whole and pretending as if it wasn't December, but Claudia refused that idea. She knew that Hope would've wanted them to celebrate at least a little, so she basically forced them to sit down by the table, eat her homemade dinner she had made for them, and open the gifts she had gotten them. They were grateful for it, Claudia could tell, but it was still a rather depressing night where all of them were hyper aware of the lack of Hope.

Christmas Day was for Claudia spent at Grimmauld Place with Regulus and the Americans. At first, Regulus and Claudia went to Maple Manor for an awkward lunch with Claudia's awful family, Regulus' mother and a stiff and uncomfortable Nicolas who tried to talk to the both of them but physically couldn't without wincing. After that, the pair spent their evening with their house "guests", eating food and playing games. They had fun, she supposed, but it wasn't exactly a successful Christmas as a whole since the aurors of the family eventually had to go deal with a Death Eater attack and since Claudia woke up the next morning with a burning pain on her forearm.

So, on Boxing Day, Claudia went to see the Dark Lord. She trudged inside the cold manor he was meeting her at, that was owned by a fellow Death Eater, with a certain weight in her chest.

Claudia had always been good at knowing when something bad was about to happen. It was like a sense of everything in her stomach being twisted and turned, as if it was giving out some sort of warning signs. Claudia should've learned how to listen to those signs, being almost 21 year's of age, but she still found herself pushing down those feelings because she always wanted to see the outcome of things on her own.

This time around, however, the warning signs felt like a nauseating heartburn that she couldn't even pretend to push down. She swallowed hard and frequently as a house elf led her towards the room where the Dark Lord wanted to see her.

She could feel it. Lucius had seen them and told Voldemort that she and Regulus were betraying his cause. Nothing else could explain why Voldemort so specifically asked her to come, all alone.

She realised as soon as she laid eyes on the Dark Lord's cold eyes that she probably should've told someone she was going there. Anyone.

But she knew that if she did, she probably would've told Regulus, and if she didn't tell him, that person would probably let the information go right back to him. The main reason for her not to say anything in the first place was her suspicions that Voldemort knew that she and Regulus were traitors, and if that was true and Regulus was in his presence, she was scared of what would happen to him. She took the protective route of a best friend and left him at home, scared of his fate in case he got to see the Dark Lord himself even though he had done so a few times since they had returned back to England.