Extinguished 🩵 Harry Potter [2]

x ⟶ Stuck In The Hourglass

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x. Stuck In The Hourglass
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THE NEXT DAY, after Thea has said goodbye to Dean, she, Harry, Ron and Hermione are ready to leave. Thea's hands are knotted, and her stomach squirms uncomfortably. She really doesn't want to do this, but she can see the discomfort in Hermione's tired face.

"I'll...be her, Hermione."

Their eyes snap to her in surprise.

After Thea's... moment last night, Hermione had firmly told her that it was too much for her to be Bellatrix, and Thea, in her hazy state as a result of one too many cups of wine, had agreed. She doesn't want to do it, at all, even now she's as sober as she could possibly be, but she swallows the apprehension down.

"I thought we decided it was too much for you?" Ron asks.

She can see they're worried, and rather reluctant. The wind blows her hair in her face from the open window, and she's glad for its hiding of her complete terror.

"I can handle it, I'll be fine. It makes sense that I'd play the Death Eater anyway, right?" Thea asks rhetorically, and rather wryly, as the others frown, and make their way out of the cottage and into the garden, from where they'll Disapparate.

Before she can change her mind, she forces down the thick, writhing potion, that has turned darker since they added the single, curled hair. It's bitter and sour, and it takes everything in her not to spit it right back out. She can feel the skin on her hands tightening and blanching, her hair shooting back up as it curls and she tugs on a strand of it, watching in horror as it morphs from its usual golden blonde into a rich black.

It's so much like Jude's that she wants to rip it from her scalp, but she distracts herself by pulling on the musty, ancient robes they had picked up from Grimmauld Place before she can dwell on him, pushing Bellatrix's and her own wand into a pocket on the inside.

She ducks her head every time she passes a mirror. Knocking twice on the goblin's door to let him know they're ready to leave, she strides ahead when he emerges, lightening her footsteps as she passes the living room where Dean is fast asleep so as not to wake him, then finally spots the others on a sand dune not too far out.

When she reaches them, she notices the others are ready in their disguises. Hermione's hair is now short and red, and finishes at her chin, while her eyes are a startling hazel and her nose is pointed and rather long. Ron's chin is hidden by a short, dark beard, and his nose has been shortened rather drastically. Harry's holding the Invisibility Cloak, and she notices now that she's taller than him. She doesn't like it. She's normally around ten inches shorter than him, and she loves it because she can tuck right into him when she hugs him.

"This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me," Thea says.

"Fair enough," Ron replies, as the goblin climbs onto Harry's back and Hermione covers them with the Cloak.

They stride ahead, just out of the Fidelius Charm, where Thea takes Hermione's hand and they turn on the spot, being sucked away from the calmness of the sea and back into the war that's been playing in the sand outside the whole time they'd been there.

Thea stumbles a little as they land in a street packed with Muggles, whose faces she can't make out due to the early morning gloom surrounding them.

Thea feels a little more elated at the fact that it's May, though. It should get lighter around eleven, and the sun's rays will warm her now.