ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Whispers from the Past, ch. 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Narcissa grasped her shoulders and shook her. "Where is he?" she asked desperately. "Where is my son?"

When Draco walked in from the kitchen, the worry crease between Narcissa's well-groomed eyebrows smoothed and she beamed. The witch released Harmony and embraced her son.

"If something had happened to you, I don't know what I would've done with myself," Narcissa said, stroking Draco's white blonde hair.

Snape and Harmony's eyes met briefly and they nodded to one another.

"Did you have much trouble with the small army waiting outside?" Harmony asked the adults.

Without letting go of Draco, Narcissa answered, "They put up a fight, but nothing beats a determined mother who wants nothing more than to return to her family."

"This small army," Snape added, "may have mostly consisted of Ministry officials, but they were unorganized. They didn't seem to have much of a battle plan, only fought like enraged bulls."

"Which means...?"

"They came to the competition most likely without the Minister's permission or acknowledgment."

"So the people are becoming more rebellious."

"More so since the Battle of Hogwarts," he said. "Many people lost someone in that fight. Many people feel compelled to have revenge against what was taken from them. You may be the center of many people's wrath, but there are some who may have found a change of heart."

Harmony's ears perked at this. "What do you mean?"

Snape's thin beige lips pursed, knowing this bit of information would interest her. "After you and Draco escaped by elevator, a mob prepared to take the next one up. But some people blockaded the entrance to the elevators, slowing the mob's ability to get to you." He gave a dignified little shrug and tilted his head slightly, "Not all of them looked like Death Eaters. Some I had never seen before; there were a couple children your own age, I noticed."

Harmony absorbed this news greedily and she smiled. People other than the Death Eaters were trying to protect her.

Seeing her smile, Snape intervened, "But we shouldn't become too hopeful. The numbers against you still outnumbered those with you, by far."

Soon, Narcissa-always conscious of her looks-noticed the state of her muddied dress and asked Harmony if she would like to join her in cleaning up. She gratefully agreed and asked Snape if there was anything he could do about her burns. They weren't too serious, but the blistered skin was painful and covered parts of her front and back torso. He said that with the Malfoy's permission he could make a salve using their ingredients. Narcissa agreed and guided Harmony upstairs to change.

When she tried to take off her corset, she gritted her teeth in pain. Part of the fabric had melted onto her and trying to take it off was like trying to pull off layers of her own skin. But with the help of Narcissa's magic, her clothes unstuck leaving furious red blotches on her stomach and up her back. Narcissa lent her one of her own dresses made of green velvet with a silver hemline. It covered her legs and arms, but it was tight fitting at the torso, giving her a delicately feminine look her other clothes failed to give her.

Narcissa took her old clothes away. Harmony got the idea the witch was probably going to burn them. Which was fine. The clothes had served her well and it was a relief to have them off, like she had shed the Death Eater part of herself and was now left with something more elegant and royal.

Harmony stared at herself in the mirror and searched for the bookish, innocent girl she knew, thinking she could see it like a freckle on her cheek. It was like she was clinging desperately onto who she used to be. A girl who laughed freely and only worried about when homework was due. But as she stared at her hard brown eyes and unkempt hair, she couldn't deny the transformation. She had a new purpose in life and it was slithering up and down her body at that very moment. It was as though the girl on the other side of the mirror was begging to be released from this purpose, to be free and innocent again.