He gave her his heart when noone else would. She gave him her trust when the world was against her.
They destroyed each other with hands intertwined.
~ HARRY POTTER
~ FIRST WIZARDING WAR
~ LUCIUS MALFOY x OC
CONTAINS SCENES OF MILD VIOLENC...
"You shouldn't be here, what if someone sees you?" Merritt hastily dead-bolted the door to the study as she continued to stare incredulously over at her big sister. In the years they'd been apart, Serenity had changed considerably.
Where the years had matured Merritt into the young twenty-five-year-old she was today, they'd drained Serenity and lengthened the age gap between them. It was nearly impossible to tell that Serenity was a mere year older now that she looked twice her age.
"I had to see you, Mers," approaching her sister with a sudden realisation, Merritt managed to silence Serenity with one single action.
"Look at you," the younger sister whispered, cupping her sister's face, "what have they done to you?" Serenity placed her hand over Merritt's.
"I've made some terrible mistakes. I chose the wrong side and this is my punishment." Merritt shook her head, running her thumbs along the dark bags hanging beneath her sister's eyes, she pinches her lips together.
"No," she whispers, "this is something else. Your hair is greying, Ren, and you're only twenty-six." A small smile flickered across the twenty-six-year-old's face as she leaned helplessly against her sister's grip.
"I have to contain myself. Narcissa disappeared last month, she's up to something I can tell. I don't know what to do, Mer, I'm losing it."
"No, you're not, I promise you are not losing anything. You are the strongest person I know. Yes?" As Serenity nodded, the fireplace roared in a mountain of green flames. Two figures stepped through, one short and blonde and the other tall and bald. Both cloaked in black.
Almost immediately the girls could tell who the tall man was, Serenity quickly stood between them and Merritt. Merlin knows what he would do to her. As the light dimmed and the shadows fell away from their faces, it was all Serenity could do to not stare at that face that had become horribly disfigured over the years. Lakita had told her how he had been handsome once, a long time ago.
No, the veins bulged in his scalp where his hair used to grow and two slits sat in place of his nose. His skin had greyed and withered to such an extent that he may as well be dead... but this was Voldemort in full health. He was nearly as powerful as Serenity- nearly. If it wasn't for the mark she bore on her forearm it wouldn't take long for her to defeat him and, yet, here, she stood.
He wouldn't kill her. He would maim, torture and hurt her but never kill; for a while she remained loyal to him, she had potential.
Her aunt Dara, who stood by his side, clenching her fingers around the wand in her hand as if it was her lifeline, remained loyal to him- especially after what happened with Cormac and Winston. The woman was sneering at her nieces, a certain look that mimicked a hound. Her hair was wild and unkempt, the blonde dirty with grief and hatred. It was clear Dara hated herself, yet she reflected it onto everything around her which raised her up in the Dark Lord's ranks.
One question still remained, however: why had she brought him here?
"Serenity?" Dara exclaimed.
"My Lord." Serenity forced herself to bow her head in a greeting, the action allowing Merritt to see over her shoulder and make eye contact with the wizard everyone feared. "Why are you here?" Courtesies had been abandoned a long time ago for Serenity and the Dark Lord. Yet she was stuck on the wrong side of the law with few allies to turn to.
"We're here for her, move, traitor." Dara shoved Serenity aside with a flick of her wrist before beckoning Merritt close. As she would do when she needed to discipline her boys, Dara held Merritt by the back of her shirt collar and lifted her chin.
Face to face, the two Riers made an odd display. Merritt's tidy look and fresh face made Dara look so much older, this was also contributed to by the ever-present scowl on her face. Serenity watched fretfully from the armchair she'd been tossed into.
"This is the last time we'll ask, Merritt. Join us." The brunette grimaced and did her best to shake her head. Instead, she settled on spitting in her aunt's face and stepping away.
"This is the last time I'll say it. Never." As per true Merritt fashion, she projected her voice to ensure it reached their ears well and clear. Serenity now stood beside her sister and glared over at her aunt and the Dark Lord.
"You heard her. Now leave." Dara's cheeks flushed red as she screamed at them.
"You're traitors, both of you! You!" She points her wand at Serenity, who doesn't even flinch. "You abandoned us, and you!" Her attention now moved to Merritt, who had also drawn her wand. "You've been a traitor since the day you went to Hogwarts. Ravenclaw!" Her voice changed pitch as she mocked the sorting hat's announcement. "You come into my home, you live here uninvited-"
"Silence!" The Dark Lord hissed from where he observed by the fireplace, he glanced over to Dara fleetingly before returning to stand in the fireplace. "Kill the spare and we will return."
In her rage, Dara turned her wand away from Merritt and to Serenity. She was the eldest, the first to defect, if it wasn't for her, then perhaps Merritt would have been Hufflepuff, and she wouldn't have been the traitor she is today. And so, she yelled the killing curse, loud and proud.
"Avada Kedavra!" She turned away from the girls as a scream filled the room. Spinning in the fireplace with a fistful of floo powder, she observes the scene to see Merritt laying on the ground. Dead.
Serenity had a hand clapped over her mouth as she lowered herself to the ground. She looked up at her aunt, who seemed disappointed above all, "You killed her!" She screams at them. The tears were running wild and free, yet all she registered was the burst of green flames as her sister's murderers fled the scene.
As the room dulled back to the amber glow of the candles surrounding the room, Serenity crawled over to her sister. She clawed at her shirt, pulling her closer to her chest and bowed over her. A pain tore through her chest and she screamed. For the first time in years, Serenity sobbed. She rested her forehead against Merritt's, feeling the ghost of her body heat fading. For a moment her vision went black, and she was falling- falling into a deep pit where it was cold and lonely. A place where no one existed, not even her.
The door to the study opened and the remaining members of the Rier household appeared. Dexter reeled away within moments of registering what had happened, running off with his hand clapped over his mouth. Serenity looked up, her hold tightening on her sister as she wailed in her father's face. Tears stained her pink cheeks as she swayed.
"It was meant to be me!" She choked on her words as Christian crouched beside her, running his hand over Merritt's hair. He looked up at Serenity, no longer seeing the young woman who he assumed hated him- he saw the baby he brought home twenty-six years ago. The baby whose head he kissed when she fell out of bed, the little girl who cried all night after he had killed a fly. While he felt the tears for his youngest falling down his cheeks, he was quick to comfort Serenity. While he held Merritt's head with one hand, he brought Serenity in for a hug and let her cry. "They tried to recruit her... Dara... it was meant to be me."
The clock chimed midnight, a charmed cuckoo bird screeching into the room as though it was being tortured. Serenity pulled away from Christian, rolling Merritt over to him.
"I should go." She mumbled, her fingers lingering on her sister. "I have to go."
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