Courage - Harry Potter

-118-

Book: Courage
Chapter 118
Word Count: 5504

Their plans were made, their preparations complete; in the smallest bedroom a single long, coarse black hair (plucked from the jacket Layla had been wearing at Malfoy Manor) lay curled in a small glass phial on the mantelpiece.

"And you'll be using her actual wand," said Harry, nodding toward the walnut wand, "so I reckon you'll be pretty convincing."

"I hate that thing," Layla said in a low voice, picking up the wand. "I really hate it. It feels all wrong, it doesn't work properly for me. It's like a bit of her."

"It'll probably help you get in character, though," said Ron. "think what that wand's done!"

"But that's my point!" said Layla. "This is the wand that tortured Neville's mum and dad, and who knows how many other people? This is the wand that killed Sirius!"

The door of the bedroom opened and Griphook entered.

"We've just been checking the last-minute stuff, Griphook," said Harry. "We've told Bill and Fleur we're leaving tomorrow, and we've told them not to get up to see us off."

They had been firm on this point, because Layla would need to transform into Bellatrix before they left, and the less that Bill and Fleur knew or suspected about what they were about to do, the better. They had also explained that they would not be returning. As they had lost Perkin's old tent on the night that the Snatcher's caught them, Bill had lent them another one. It was now packed inside the beaded bag, which, Layla was impressed to learn, Hermione had protected from the Snatchers by the simple expedient of stuffing it down her sock.

Though she would miss Bill, Fleur, Luna, and Dean, not to mention the home comforts they had enjoyed over the last few weeks, Layla was looking forward to escaping the confinement of Shell Cottage.

Layla slept badly that night. She kept telling herself that their plan was good, that Griphook knew what they were facing, that they were well-prepared for all the difficulties they were likely to encounter, yet still he felt uneasy. Layla was sharing the room with Hermione and Luna so she tried to be quiet as she shifted around in bed all night.

It was a relief when six o'clock arrived and Layla and Hermione could get up, dress in the semidarkness, then creep out into the garden, where they were to meet Harry, Ron, and Griphook. The dawn was chilly, but there was little wind now that it was May.

Layla looked up at the stars still glimmering palely in the dark sky and listened to the sea washing backward and forward against the cliff. She was going to miss the sound.

She was led away from her three friends by Griphook. Hermione had given Layla her beaded back and the Lupin girl and the goblin went around to the side of the cottage where Layla downed the polyjuice potion, slowly feeling her features changing. She gagged at the potion and winced at the burning sensation in her body. Griphook turned away as Layla changed into some old robes they had swiped from Grimmauld Place that could pass off as Bellatrix's clothes.

And then, Bellatrix Lestrange was striding across the lawn toward Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She handed the beaded bag back to Hermione.

She was now taller, her long black hair rippling down her back, her heavily lidded eyes disdainful; but then she spoke, and it was Layla through Bellatrix's low voice.

"She tasted disgusting, worse than Gurdyroots!"

"Okay, Ron, I can do you," said Hermione.

"Right, but remember, I don't like the beard too long."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, this isn't about looking handsome."

"It's not that, it gets in the way! But I liked my nose a bit shorter, try and do it the way you did last time."