Her Single Rose (Remus Lupin)

One-Hundred & Eighteen

Everything was dark. So dark. So cold. Aries could feel the water splash up at her as if it was trying to pull her in. She stood alongside Kreacher in the middle of the ocean at the entrance of a cave.

It was December now, but Aries wanted to go home earlier. She wanted to go home for Estella's birthday in May and wanted to be there for her friends birth in July.

Aries was devastated missing the milestones of her family. But she was more devastated to know one of her best friends was murdered. Voldemort had told her it would happen. He had told her a lot of things.

That's why Aries wrote the note. She had only hoped the owl would get it to them in time. Maybe for the Potters and Longbottom's, but not for Marlene.

She was relieved to know that her twin survived, but she could feel his heartbreak which made everything that much worse. Aries spoke to him through her mind that night in the feeling of a dream.

She knew it was risky while within the inner circle, but she needed him to know she could feel him. That she understood his pain.

When Voldemort had seen Aries stoic face, he had asked her to meet him at this very specific location. She didn't know what for, but she knew it was another step into his trust.

The mission wasn't supposed to take this long, she wasn't supposed to get this deep within the Death Eaters circle. But it set the plan off course when Aries realized he knew Occlumency and knew it well.

The times that she could slip into his mind were rare and short, but when she did, she went through as much information as she could and sent it in notes to Dumbledore.

Aries was well aware she was supposed to be meeting Dumbledore in person, but it was also clear that Aries wasn't in the position to leave and return without Voldemort becoming suspicious yet.

So instead, she wrote notes to send to the Shrieking Shack. She didn't know if Dumbledore had gotten them, having no way to confirm until Voldemort would go on his frustrated rants during meetings.

If he wasn't so impulsive to shoot someone with a curse, she would've smirked, maybe even laughed at his childishness at times. He may have been powerful, but he also strangely reminded her of Estella when she would throw a tantrum.

He'd yell, shoot someone with a spell, break something and then Bellatrix would come around  and soothe him with the idea of killing someone to lift his spirits.

The whole idea around it made Aries rather uncomfortable. Especially when they would use the prospect of torture like it was some sort of game or peace keeper. When Voldemort had noticed her twitch when he brought up killing an innocent bystander, he had made Aries torture and kill them.

Aries puked that night, feeling more terrified of what was becoming of her by the day. It was worse when she found out the woman was the first she had ever saved on a mission, Melissa Stuart.

She knew as soon as she had turned Melissa's skin pale and lifeless that her daughter was an orphan.

Dumbledore had warned her when she agreed to do the mission that she would have to do certain things and he was right.

She only killed the innocent once. It wasn't until Voldemort had looked through her mind and found her relation to Mindy that truly set Aries down a hole of self destruction.

Mindy hadn't been useful to the Death Eaters. She got pregnant and had kid. Because of that, Mindy no longer wanted to be a part of the Death Eaters and had desired to leave.

Aries had always told Dumbledore that she had wanted to be the first to kill Mindy. It was what they agreed on when she joined the Order years ago. But not like this. Not by the torture and slow death that Voldemort pushed her, watched her do.