Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [7]

⚡️ Chapter 32 ⚡️

Vega joined Harry, Ron and Hermione in the smallest bedroom of the Shell Cottage where their plans were made and preparations completed, and she looked at them closely, "There are things I want to make clear – I'm not risking using the Polyjuice Potion, I have no idea how long it would take us down there. So, I'm going to change into Bellatrix Lestrange while Ron and Hermione use Transfiguration to change their appearances. Harry, you and Mr. Griphook would be under the Invisibility Cloak, is that alright?"

"That's fine," Harry agreed. "I mean, if they get suspicious, they can still be fooled since you're, uh, related to Bellatrix... and if you're using her actual wand, I reckon you'll be very convincing. I don't, I don't mean that you're like your mother but you –"

"I look like her, and I can sound like her," Vega finished for him. "That's okay – and I can't wait to get down there and put an end to the mess she's made,"

"Here you go," Hermione said as she passed Bellatrix's wand to Vega, letting go of it as if it had stung her, and Vega understood her feelings about it.

"I'll use Bellatrix's wand and you can keep mine," Vega said. "But mine doesn't seem to like to listen any of you so we'll have to exchange if we get in trouble," Hermione shuddered at the thought of using Bellatrix's wand. "Are you alright?"

"I hate that thing," Hermione said in a low voice. "I really hate it. It feels all wrong, it doesn't work properly for me... it's like a bit of her,"

"Well, Bellatrix's a skilled witch, isn't she?" Ron asked. "Horribly evil but skilled? I used to think where Vega got all her wand skills..." He noticed the look on Vega's face as she looked at him flatly. "But blimey, think what that wand's done!"

"That's my point!" Hermione exclaimed. "This is the wand that tortured Neville's mum and dad, and who knows how many other people? This is the wand that killed Sirius!"

Neither Harry nor Vega had thought of that: Both looked down at the wand and were similarly visited by a brutal urge to snap it, to slice it in half with Gryffindor's sword, which was propped against the wall beside them.

"I miss my wand," Hermione said miserably. "I wish Mr. Ollivander could have made me another one, too,"

Mr. Ollivander had sent Luna a new wand that morning. Luna was out on the back lawn at that moment, testing its capabilities in the late afternoon sun. Dean, who had lost his wand to the Snatchers, was watching rather gloomily.

"Well, wands are like their owners," Vega spoke up. "Bellatrix's wand resists us because she does and will... I physically won Malfoy's wand's allegiance and then willingly passed it to Harry so it listens to him well... although not as well as his original would, of course..."

Vega stared at the hawthorn wand in Harry's hand that had previously belonged to Draco Malfoy, and then looked at the crooked walnut wand of Bellatrix Lestrange. She felt like mother's wand was quite as demented as the old woman herself.

The door of the bedroom opened and Griphook entered.

Harry reached instinctively for the hilt of the sword and drew it close to him. Vega shook a look slightly to Harry. She could tell that the goblin had noticed.

Seeking to gloss over the sticky moment, Vega spoke smoothly, "We've just been checking the last-minute stuff, Griphook. We've told Bill and Fleur we're leaving tomorrow, and we've told them not to get up to see us off,"

They had been firm on this point, because Vega would need to transform in Bellatrix before they left, and the less that Bill and Fleur knew or suspected about what they were about to do, the better. They had also explained that they would not be returning.