A Story of a Short Ending | T.R

Chapter 6 - Welcome

A week.

Exactly a week they spent in the rotting cells of the Malfoy Manor's dungeon. The six of them were locked in a row of cells, having only each other for entertainment. The food and water were delivered to them by the house elves, who couldn't help but hide their smiles as they heard the girls make up murderous plans with whose head would go missing first. Most bets were either on Avery or Alden.

Emma couldn't even imagine that a walk-in of a stranger into her quiet store would end up with her rotting away in a dungeon cell. She worked in her shop together with Emily, a girl a few years younger than herself, who out of kindness and curiosity for the task agreed to help Travers with working out a new potion he told them they were trying to make. Little did they know that things would turn sour just two days later. Emily came back to the store to make her part of the job, asking Emma for her opinion meanwhile. The two women worked out a recipe that would potentially solve the task at hand, telling about it to Travers and Alden, as Emma later found out. They agreed to work it out together, leaving the rights to name the new invention to Emma and Emily. Alden led them into his dungeon chambers through a spare exit the Manor had in the gardens, one thing he didn't know was that Riddle was already waiting for them inside. He knew exactly what they were doing and took pleasure in throwing the two girls into a cell himself.

Dirca sat in a cell just next to them. One would've thought that her coming there voluntarily would grant her a better treatment, maybe even a nod from the Dark Lord who should've appreciated the will to join his ranks even if it was purely for the sake of her husband's safety. It turns out it didn't, she was thrown in the dungeons with the rest of them. She saw the pained expression on her husband's face as she was led away, he stood there his hands clenched into fists. Unmoving. She knew that if he tried to intervene it would cross over everything she sacrificed by coming there, it would land him in a cell next to her and she knew that couldn't happen.

6 women from across the region, 6 women of different families, powers, looks. Some of them went to Hogwarts together, they knew each other, knew the people upstairs very well too. Emily was a few years younger, attending Hogwarts at the same time as Travers making them the youngest souls in the house. Emma, Dirca and Angeline went to Hogwarts together, sharing classes with the man who ordered to throw them in the dungeons currently. Hogwarts was the place Angeline and Leonard knew each other from, their friendship lasting over the years but coming to an abrupt pause as she found out that Leonard was signing his life away, just like Avery with a dark magical tattoo on his left forearm. Liese was a year younger than them, which didn't stop her from being taller than all of them too. Looking down her nose at the guys a year older than her was probably the beginning of the reason why she and the two current male inhabitants of Malfoy Manor couldn't stand each other. Laion was a 6th year transfer from a foreign magical school, that decided to offer her an opportunity at Hogwarts for her extraordinary abilities to hex and jinx everyone in sight at the same time. She transferred but stayed in the corner of her newly found friends, staying out of trouble with her family or that would've ended up with her being disowned and sacked off the family tree. Malfoy didn't recognise her for that same reason, all of them were too focused on proving themselves for a dark mark that it didn't leave any room for spatial awareness. Only Avery, who couldn't fully sell his soul to Riddle since it was already partially taken remained a loyal boyfriend to Dirca, even if they kept it a secret.

A week together helped some of them reconnect, some of them meet each other and all of them bond over the fact that what was happening was outrageous. Their families probably worried, disappearing from the face of the land for a week and who knows how much longer wasn't exactly a great example of a good daughter. Dirca knew well enough to assume that Riddle probably took care of it, it wasn't a hard task to copy one's handwriting with magic and send out letters to parents telling them that their beloved daughters decided to take some time off, travel and discover the world.