Hindsight - Fred Weasley

Chapter 34

Violet's stomach twisted into knots; she felt as though she was being pulled in every direction so fast that her limbs might tear off. She had only passed her apparition test last week, and was still new to the sensation of it. Even worse, she'd never apparated to somewhere that she hadn't been before. She focussed on the address that had been written on one of the letters that Theodore had written her and hoped to Merlin that she wouldn't splinch. As her feet met solid ground, Violet hunched over and vomited, a side effect she was told disperses over time. As she wiped her mouth and straightened her posture, she was met by a huge estate and knew she'd apparated to the right place: Nott Manor.

She'd imagined it would be grand, but this was like something out of a Charles Dickens book. The Manor sprawled across a piece of land with huge acreage, and had been built using grey and black slate. She could see through the large windows that no lights were on. The garden, which looked like it had once been esteemed and tended to, was filled with dead flowers and plants. Violet wondered if they'd died with her father.

Not allowing herself any more time to marvel at the house her brother had grown up in, Violet sprinted up the gravelled drive of the house and knocked loudly on the front door. When there was no answer, she knocked again.

It seemed that if somebody was home, they wouldn't be answering the door. Violet considered waiting; but the urgent, twisting feeling in her chest insisted that she check the lock. Her hand shook as she twisted the door handle, and the large door creaked as it slowly opened.

"Theodore?" Violet called out, as she stepped through the large door into the sprawling entry room. Despite its expanse, the house seemed dark and oppressive, leaving her with a terrible foreboding sentiment. She automatically wanted to leave. She could have sworn the temperature had dropped the moment she crossed the threshold. If it hadn't been for that terrible feeling that something was something had happened to Theodore driving her in further, she probably would have ran straight back out and apparated home to Grimmauld. "Theodore?" She yelled, louder this time.

There was still no answer. Maybe Draco hadn't been lying, and Theodore truly had been on the Hogwarts Express, but every nerve in her body told her otherwise. It was as though she could physically feel his presence in the house. And if he wouldn't come to her, she'd come to him. Violet searched the downstairs rooms for her brother, feeling more and more panicked when she kept on finding empty rooms. She made her way upstairs after having no success on the ground floor, and opened the first door she came across. She felt ice in her veins as she was walked into what she could only presume was once her deceased father's study.

To the eye, the study was almost clinical in it's cleanliness; but Violet felt dirty the second she'd entered it. She could feel the dark magic humming and vibrating from it, seeping from the walls into her skin. At the far end of the office, was another door. The doors throughout the manor had been oak, but this one was metal which struck Violet as strange. She crossed the room cautiously, before opening the metal door.

Violet had thought that the dark magic in the study had been strong, but the energy in this room was unbearable. She could smell- no - taste the pungent magic in the air. It was so thick that she gagged on it; her whole body convulsing as she realised that the only thing in the room was a set of chains attached to a wall. Violet's vision blurred, and when it cleared, she saw a young boy, chained against the wall. He couldn't have been any more than 11. She gasped, forcing her legs to walk closer to the boy.

"Th-Theodore." She whispered, her voice shaking as she watched the blood covered boy sob silently. "No..." She murmured, noticing his leg which had been broken so badly that it was facing the wrong way. She fell to her knees, as violent sobs fell from her mouth, and crawled to the boy. "Theo..." She cried, trying to grab his hand.