𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙧

chapter 1

it had been days since talia halliwell-riddle was stranded on an off the map beach.

days of practicing legillimency.

she had managed to get into ron's head, but only for a few moments, considering how weak she was. all she saw was that him, harry, hermione and luna had somehow escaped malfoy manor and were all together, which was all she needed to know. she had to control her frustration from not being able to do much else. whatever spell she was hit with at the manor put a toll on her magic.

days of disguise.

talia knew now that she couldn't be spotted or she would be recognized. she had managed to get ahold of a dark cloak using a charm to steal it from a shop in knockturn alley. with the same charm, she stole a mask from borgin and burkes; the same ones that used to scare her.

days of figuring out her next move.

flashes of bellatrix screaming and taunting kept popping up in tal's mind and nightmares. she thought about the way she reacted with the snatchers when she saw the sword of gryffindor, and the way she thought it was in her vault.

it got tal thinking; what else could be in her vault? if it was something that would lead tal to finding a horcrux, she wasn't going to let it slip away. she was going to go after it.

talia packed up her stuff in her bag and shrunk it. she wasn't sure how she would get past the goblins and into the vault, but she knew she couldn't worry about that yet. she had to focus on apparating after taking the time she did to rest.

tal threw the cloak over her body and covered her face with the mask. then, she lifted her wand.

soon enough, talia was in the north side of diagon alley, just meters away from gringotts bank. she took a deep breath and began walking over towards it, staying in the shadows to not be seen. she began quickly coming up with a plan in her head; maybe she could threaten a goblin.

but the sight of bellatrix lestrange herself a couple feet ahead of tal broke her from her thoughts. next to her, the one and only ron weasley in a long black jacket and a beard. bellatrix was sure to be holding ron captive, though tal didn't know how, since he was just with harry and hermione days prior.

she sped up to get a closer look. bellatrix didn't have a wand in hand or on sight. tal gripped onto hers and covered bellatrix's mouth from behind, pulling her into an alleyway. she heard bellatrix let out a small gasp.

ron gasped as well and hurried to follow. tal held her wand up to bellatrix's neck, being careful not to move.

"you think you can torture my best friends and get away with it?" she asked, daringly. bellatrix held onto talia's wrist as she didn't dare to move her hand from her mouth.

"no, you don't understand..." ron pleaded. talia looked over at him, but realized he didn't know who she was because of her mask.

she looked back at bellatrix as her wand began to flash a green light by her throat. before anything could happen, harry potter revealed himself underneath the invisibility cloak with a goblin on his back. he grabbed onto talia's wrist and pulled her away from bellatrix, who immedietly stepped back.

"harry?" talia asked. she took her mask off, and everyone was just as surprised to see her under it.

"talia! oh, thank god you're alright." bellatrix frowned, pulling talia in tight for a hug. she didn't hug back, however, incredibly confused about what was going on.

"you gave me a bloody scare." ron held onto his chest when bellatrix pulled away. she could see talia's confused expression and knew she needed to clarify.