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

𝟖. Snatchers

The first time Valentine saw either Leah or Blaze again after the incident, they were with Draco and Liam, talking to the Carrow's. It had been less than a week although it felt like months. But here they were, standing in the main hall at Malfoy Manor.

As Valentine entered and because fate is a cruel thing, Leah looked up first. Her eyes changed immediately, lip twitching as she flinched and looked away, leaning into Blaze's side. 

He looked up next, eyes widening. For a long moment, he just stared at her, conflicted and helpless. It was so unlike both of them, how still they were, standing there adverting their gazes. Usually, they were the first ones at her side, Leah trying to hug her and Blaze launching into a rant on whatever annoying thing Leah had just done. But this, like everything, had changed. 

That horrid, horrid dread, filled Valentine's belly, tightening and constricting like a serpent. What could she do at a time like this? She had no answer for herself as gooseflesh rose up her spine. 

"Val." Draco saw her next and she wished he hadn't because that prompted the Carrows to her existence.

"Well, hello!" Amycus greeted.

"Heard you've been causing trouble lately." Said Alecto, seeming far too happy about that. 

The siblings hadn't been around much lately, off somewhere leading a group of Snatchers. Valentine had heard that they'd bought in eighteen Muggle Born's in one week alone, but knowing that this information came from Rabastan, she didn't entirely trust it to be true. 

Valentine turned on her heel and left without a word. This was becoming a habit of hers, leaving to save her friends from her presence. She only hoped it worked because her alternatives we're slim and unhelpful.

She heard Draco call for her but ignored it. He knew too well not to go after her. 

With each step, each thud of her boot, Valentine felt that increasingly familiar anger building up in the back of the throat. When she blinked she saw their faces. There had been many times before when they couldn't look at her before but this was different and it stirred the rage inside her.

She walked faster, suddenly becoming aware of the feeling of her nails biting into her palms.

Crap. 

She flexed her fingers, stretching her hands as wide as possible to get herself to stop. She sucked in a breath and let it out again, trying to block out everything around her and slip into her own mind. 

She saw the swirling black smoke, heard a distant voice but couldn't make any of it out. She tried to reach for something, anything to distract her but the scenes in front of her we're out of reach. She narrowed her line of vision, trying to focus on one thing but just kept seeing Leah flinch out of the corner of her eye. 

Stop. Calm down. You need to calm down. 

Valentine heaved another breath, pushing in vain against her anger.

"Fuck." She hissed aloud.

Looking around, she found herself on the first floor, again, clenching her hands into fists. She wrenched them open, staring down at the red crescent-shaped marks left behind.

This is fucking ridiculous. I thought I was past this!

See them just made her temper burn hotter.

Pathetic. I'm better than this. 

She needed somewhere to cool off before she ran into someone and started drama that she could without at a time like this. A thought popped into her head, there was somewhere she could go where no one of consequence would find her.