NO MORE A PRETENDER~ {The Lestrange Daughter #3}

𝟕. Survival

Valentine fell asleep to the sound of shouting. Angry shouting. Her eyes snapped open, immediately stumbling out of the armchair and trying to find her wand. Then she realized that she wasn't at Malfoy Manor and that her initial assumption that something must be very, very wrong was mistaken.

She squinted at the light streaming through the narrow window and shuffled over to it. She peeked through the threadbare curtains and looked out at Spinners End. A young child was throwing a tantrum in the street, a woman who was likely his mother, was standing on a doorstep on the opposite side of the street. Neither looked impressed with the other. Valentine listened for a moment and surmised that 'Eric' wanted to go meet with a friend of his but had not cleaned his bedroom like he promised he would.

Ah. Domestic bliss.

Pulling the curtain all the way closed, Valentine rubbed at her eyes and yawned. She glanced around the room. The small clock on the mantel told her it was nearly ten in the morning. Then her eyes landed on the armchair and the blanket now on the floor in front of it.

Wait. I fell asleep on the floor, didn't I? Yes. I remember because I told Snape 'Goodnight, you greasy old bat' and then rolled over and pretended to be asleep when he called me insolent. Then I actually did fall asleep right in front of the fire. Why was I in the armchair? Unless that was all some kind of hyper-realistic dream?

Valentine was a very smart girl and so she knew the answer the second she pondered it. But in all honesty, it was far too early to think about Snape picking her up off the floor, placing her in the armchair and tucking a blanket in around her. Way too early.

She pulled a hand back through her knotted hair and picked up the blanket, throwing it over the back of the chair. She spotted her and on the floor right by the leg and quickly snatched it up. She didn't like to be without and assumed it must have fallen out of her pocket. Then she wandered into the short hall and looked up the narrow stairs leading to the second storey.

Where is the greasy old bat in question? There's no way he's still asleep. He more of a crack of dawn and shame anyone who sleeps past eight AM type of jackass.

Shrugging, Valentine moved on into the kitchen. She was hungry, so where else would she go? Digging through the first cabinet she reached, she paused again and looking back onto the front room, at the blanket hanging over the back of the chair.

I didn't even have a nightmare last night...

As she went to turn again, she spotted a piece of parchment lying flat on the small dining table against the wall near the back door. The cross the space quickly and scooped it up. It was a letter reading;

I have been summoned to Malfoy Manor. I expect you'll go there yourself once you wake up. Do not let me find you when I get back.

Valentine scoffed.

He's not even here and he's still telling me what to do. Ass.

She pulled out her wand pointed it towards the parchment.

Incendio.

She was careful not to set the entire table on fire with it. She watched the flames spread over it for a moment and then frowned. The parchment wasn't burning.

Through the quickly dying fire, Valentine could see the words on the parchment fade and be replaced with new ones. When the flames died out altogether, she read them.

I mean it, Lestrange.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me." She huffed and scrunched up the parchment in her fist.