CURSED: FROM THE BEGINNING [D.M]

-(93) to their queen, they kneel

ZILLIAH wakes up, panic in her bloodstream. She sits straight up, blinking her eyes into focus and taking in her surroundings. She was in her bed, in her hut, in her kingdom. That meant they got it out safe. That meant Archie has died. The familiar feeling of guilt and grief wraps itself around her heart once again.

She gets out of bed, straining to keep herself balanced.

"Easy now", Ruth Eurwen tells her as she enters the room with a glass in hand.

"What happened?", Zilliah asks her, unable to set her mind straight.

Ruth sighs, handing her the glass, motioning for her to take it. "A lot", she mumbles, her eyes downcast. "But have this energy potion first."

Zilliah downs it in go, very well aware that it is something that she needs to put one foot in front of the other. She thanks Ruth and hands her back the glass, stepping around her towards the door.

"I don't think you should go out there right now", Ruth's voice halts her in place. "You.. You currently don't have much mental or physical strength. You're exhausted. You step outside and you will be ruined."

And Zilliah can't even dare to ask her why. Something painful- something terrible- gets stuck in her throat. It's like she knows the reality that awaits her outside that door is not one she would like.

But she can't hide from it no more. Because whatever it may be, this is indeed her reality now. They are her people. And she is their queen.

"I'll be alright", she mumbles out to Ruth and wills her feet into motion and steps outside, not quite believing her own words.

The devastation before her eyes sends a thousand knives plunging into her heart. 

Death.

Numerous deaths right in front of her.

Lives claimed, indifferent of whether it was men, women or children.

"What is this?", the words fall out of her mouth as a mere gasp.

"It's him. Your father", Ruth's voice breaks, her whole demeanour breaks. "He lured ten of our children out of the barrier somehow. And held them captive demanding you to be produced in order to keep them safe. Theseus and a few others set out to rescue them. It was a total wreck. Blood spilled, everywhere."

"How did he-", Zilliah cuts herself short.

How did he find this place was the question she meant to ask but she already knew the answer to that.

Theo. There's no doubt that he was the one who spilled everything to Voldemort.

But he wanted to kill her on that island itself. Then why would he tell Voldemort about this place? But on a second thought, why wouldn't he? He was a lunatic. All he wanted to ensure was maximum casuality.

Zilliah takes a deep breath and moves though the crowd. She looks at every single one of the dead and unmoving bodies on the ground. Gone, forever. It pains her. It claws at her.

But what wrecks her completely is those brown eyes staring into nothing, utterly lifeless. 

Her knees give out from beneath her and she falls onto a sharp rock. It cuts her skin, blood oozing out from it. But she hardly even registers the pain as she is crawling to Theseus' body. Theseus' dead body.

Her breath falters. Her heart picks up it pace. She lifts her hand up to his cheek and touches him.

Cold. Ice cold.

It's all she needs to break. 

And she does.

The scream that ripples through her stuns everyone. As she tears her throat out over his body, there isn't a single person there who hasn't shifted their attention onto her. And she should care about that. She hates being vulnerable in public. But she has nothing left in her to hold herself together anymore.

Empty.

Hollow.

Pain.

An arm wraps around her from her side and through her blurry vision, she sees Layla, her face a fountain of tears and her eyes, a tornado of pain. Layla holds her as she cries- as they both cry. And no single eye in that place remains dry from the sheer agony in the air.

Theseus' grandmother comes up to Zilliah, a wrecked figure somehow managing to stand still. She lifts Zilliah up and pulls her head into her chest. 

"I'm so sorry", Zilliah mumbles into the old woman's skin and she could swear she hears Mira's heart shatter into a million pieces.

She pulls back and meets Zilliah's eyes, cupping her cheeks with her trembling hands. "You are not the one who has to be sorry", she says, rage in her voice. 

The same rage seeps its way into Zilliah's heart, grabbing all the broken pieces and turning them into shards of glass. 

"Make him pay", Mira Price hisses through her anger and pain. "He doesn't deserve to be breathing when the sun comes up tomorrow."

Zilliah bites her cry back, swallowing it down her throat. She gives a firm nod and steps back, forcing her mind to fall back into place. "I promise you", she says, gathering everything left in her soul. And Mira cracks a smile as a gesture of complete belief in her.

"I heard one of his henchmen say that Harry Potter was seen around Hogwarts and that they are making their way over there", Dex Hyde speak up from beside her, wiping away her tears. "There will be a war for sure and he will be there."

"Then I'm going to Hogwarts", Zilliah proclaims to the crowd. "I'll avenge our people's death. That's a promise I'm making to all of you."

"I'll come with you", Layla rises from the ground, fire in her eyes. Following her, a number of hands shoot straight up into the air, echoing her words. 

As soon as she makes to object, Mira steps up to her. "You don't have to go through this alone. They share the same grief as you. Just as they share the same vengeance."

And Zilliah understands.

This is not just her fight.

This is their fight.

This is the fight of everyone who has been wronged by the pure evil Voldemort is.

And they don't care that she is his daughter. They see her as their queen.

And as their queen, she accepts their vengeance. And to their queen, they kneel. Every single breathing person remaining on that ground kneels. And Zilliah can feel a whole another type of power flowing through her veins.

The crowd disperses to prepare for the war.

Zilliah notices Elara standing to the side and approaches her. "Where is Draco?", she asks, concern prevalent in her voice.

"They couldn't make it through the barrier but he escaped. Pansy and Blaise is with him, don't worry", she replies, patting her shoulders. 

But Zilliah can never not worry about Draco. Especially when he is far away from her.

She would've set on to find him but as she looks to her right she sees a little boy there, lifeless and frozen. "Jaden", his mother cries out to him, unwilling to accept her son's death. And the fire that it kindles in her guts evades everything else but vengeance.

Draco will make his way back to her, she is sure. He'll literally walk through fire to hold her head against his chest and she trusts him to do that.

He will find her in time.

But right now, she have a people to lead.

And a man to kill. A powerful man. 

But not more powerful than her- the very weapon he made.