Chaos Rising |BOOK 2| Harry Potter x PJO |Alexandra Marine|

ANNABETH CHASE

"Really," Jason said, his hands on his forehead, his face red with anger. He looked up at the old professor with an expression so fearful that Remus took a step back. "What were you even thinking?"

"I... I just wanted you to know that this happened a few days ago," he told us. "The Trio are safe, but.. they rejected my appeal to join them."

"Of course they did," Will  said through gritted teeth. "You wanted to leave your pregnant wife! You were willing to join a couple of seventeen year olds on a killing spree?!"

Lupin sprang up from his chair. "Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child - the child -"

Lupin actually seized handfuls of his own hair; he looked quite deranged.

"My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it- how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"

"REMUS!" Jason yelled angrily, stepping up from his chair. "THAT IS NO REASON TO LEAVE YOUR KID TO DIE! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO LIVE WITHOUT THEM- WITHOUT PARENTS WHO SEEM TO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU."

I nodded. "Parents should never leave their children- unless they've got to."

Will slammed the table. "One more time you try something like this, Remus, I swear on every mythological god out there-"

"I don't care what you do, Remus," I interrupted Will. I didn't want him in some sort of trouble for that vow he hadn't taken. "But from now, you are temporarily removed from the Order. Go back to your family- your wife, whose child awaits you as well. Go back home. I don't want to see your face again until you find your place as a father."

Remus was dumbstruck. His eyes were manic. "But-"

"GO," the three of us echoed fiercely.

"NOW," Jason finished.

Remus stomped his way out of the newly-rebuilt Burrow's kitchen and slammed the door hard.

"That... was certainly most interesting," Will remarked. "Do you think Tonks knows?"

"Definitely not," I said. "If she did, she'd have killed him a long time ago."

"Why do I feel she's actually capable of doing that?" Jason smiled.

"Looks like a cinammon roll, could actually kill you," Will grinned.

I sighed. "I hope Percy's okay. He looks like a cinammon roll and is one. Hopefully he hasn't killed himself already in an attempt to figure out if bleach cleans your insides."

"What now?" Will asked.

"Now," Jason replied, his tone becoming serious. "We do something big."

I raised an eyebrow. "Leave a mark?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "Had another vision."

"Bro, how many visions can one guy have?" Will asked.

"I don't know, but I have too many," Jason shrugged. "Anyway, we're going to strike down a house."

"What house?" I asked.

"Malfoy Manor, to be specific."

***

The dark outskirts of Malfoy Manor were magically enforced, but the one thing I knew we could count on was that Voldemort wouldn't be there. Not when he was somewhere else in Europe, trying to find Gregorovitch, as Harry had told us. It was the best time to strike down a house so formidable and protected as the Malfoys', we decided, and Bill and the rest of the young Order was terribly interested on joining the mission.

A red spark went into the air, too faint to be visible unless you were looking for it. 

"That's our cue," I whispered, and Bill, Fleur, Charlie and I sneaked to the front gate. We pulled out our wands, ducking into the magical borders of the Manor and with a wave of our wands-

"BOMBARDA!"

The iron gates burst open, sending out sparks and screeching loudly. The three of us ran into the large gardens of the house as alarms began to trill and hid among the large hedges of the garden. Mythical white peacocks were cooing among the green bushes and red flowers. 

"Reparo!" I whispered back at the door.  The bricks that had been broken away flew back in, and the bent iron door flattened itself properly. I gestured at the others to follow me as Bellatrix and the rest of the household came running downstairs through the front door, wands pulled out. By the window of the East wing, I saw the faint shadow of another four figures climbing in. 

The windows were thankfully open, and the three of us slid in quite easily, watching in suspicion as Bellatrix tested her own security system. The halls of Malfoy Manor were the most least inviting. The darkness seemed to press on us as we sneaked through them. 

I turned to Bill. "Raid the kitchens. Anything you find useful, put it into your Extended bag. Fleur, topple their rooms. Set fire to the blankets. I don't care. Just make sure that whatever dark aesthetic they're following goes down the drain. Charlie, you go down to the dungeons and set the prisoners free. You can't Apparate inside the house, I know. Break through the dungeon walls. I'm sure I don't have to teach you a spell for that."

Charlie smirked. "I got it."

"I'll go get Jason and we'll try to find something in their main rooms," I said. "Maybe we'll find something on whom they've recruited now."

We split apart and I looked at the pocket map of the Manor that Ariana had supplied to us secretly. I traced my finger to the Eastern Wing's last bedroom- Bellatrix's bedroom.

As I ran through the corridors, I made it a point to extinguish all the lights. Bellatrix's voice still echoed outside as she yelled in anger about the faulty alarm system. 

I burst the door open and ran in. Bellatrix's room was as dark as her personality and posters promoting pure-blood regimes were stuck on the walls. Her king size bed was made to look too unreal for a used bed. 

By the side was a tiny black cradle, and Jason seemed to be staring inside it with his eyes wide open, as though he was going through a case of tennis balls. He had tied a long piece of cloth around his head like a turban so that we could use it as a makeshift bag or something. Yeah, he was weird like that.  (You still are, Jason.)

I stared at the cradle. "Jason, what is that?"

Jason did not reply. I took silent steps to the black bed. Inside was a frail pink baby, cooing and trying to reach for Jason's arms. Its green eyes sparkled in the evening moonlight. I was thunderstruck. Bellatrix- with a baby?!

"This is the daughter of You-Know-Who," a voice whispered in my head, powerful and yet silent. "She will grow to become an avenger of her father. You need to end her right now."

"What?" I whispered.

Jason swallowed. He lowered his hands into the cradle and picked the child up. 

"Jason-" I started. "It's just an infant."

"I've reasoned it all," Jason said. "We can't send her away, and neither can we raise her. She will kill us all if we- we..." he took a deep breath. "Ruthlessness is our only mercy now." His grip was firm on the baby. "I'm sorry."

He walked to the window, the baby laughing in his hands. "Jason-" I began to say, but no words followed. I couldn't stop him, because for some reason, I knew in some corner of my heart that he was right. Bellatrix would never let go of her daughter. 

Jason spread his arms outside, baby still in hand. "Forgive me," he said to the baby. 

And he let go. 

The child seemed to fall in slow motion, still smiling as a clap of thunder hit it. 

And the gardens began to burn. 

I took a sharp breath. "We should go."

Jason stared at the burning corpse of the child, his insides crippling down. "Yeah."