Dark, Twisted and Time Turned

Chapter 42: Nott Estate

Just about everyone could hear it, though they tried not to pay attention to the screaming match happening on the platform. It was ridiculously loud, Mr and Mrs Black mostly the loudest, and Dorea and Mary yelling back. Orion stood awkwardly, not taking sides. The other two branches of the Black clan hadn't stuck around for long. Lucretia had gone home with her parents and baby brother, and Araminta Meliflua had disappeared with hers and her older sister.

"I refuse to be humiliated by my own son!" Mr. Black shouted at Mary, who cringed away.

"I'm your daughter! Why can't you understand that?" Mary shouts back. Hermione and her friends stood nearby, casually talking in an effort to give Mary some privacy.

"Listen here you ungrateful child, you are not and never will be our daughter. You are either our son, or you are not ours." Mrs. Black spits. Mary begins to cry.

"No, please, mother, you can't do this to me! I'm your child, please!" Mrs Black grabs Dorea's wrist.

"All of you, let's go. We don't need to discuss this in public." With that, the family disappears through the gate, Orion slowly trailing behind. Perseus lets out a long whistle.

"That was exciting. Shall we all be off then? Nott estate awaits." Theon says.

"I'll be there just as soon as I collect my things from home." Tom replies, and he slips through the barrier.

"Well, what are we thinking? Apparation?"

"Yes, that will work best. But it will be outside the gates- theres some old wards around the estate, so I'll have to take a few down. Mum and dad have been out, I think they're in Switzerland right now."

"Fair enough." She grabs Abraxas's hand and turns, appearing outside the gates of a vast estate. Once they were all there, apart from Tom of course, Theon took down a few of the wards until the gates swung open. They float their trunks above their heads.

"Just curious," Nott begins. "What happens if we can't do this? Where's our escape? Since this is the only wizard estate in the area, I think its a bit obvious."

"We go to mine. It needs to be renovated anyways, and it would be awfully helpful if you lot turned up." Hermione says. "Dagworth Hall, I'll inform the ministry I will be arriving on my property in the next week or so."

"Excellent plan. So, the attack, Sunday night we think; of course that leaves us with all of tomorrow and tomorrow night to occupy ourselves. Which is great, plenty of time to brew anxiety that we're gonna fight Grindelwald without notifying the authorities." Theon says.

"I may be able to get in contact with some Aurors." Perseus says. "Not many available, but I really value my life right now." It was a fair idea, either they try to get help from Aurors, or they challenge Grindelwald's army without any proper preparation or training, as a small group of eight. Typical teenager things.

"Off you go then, Perseus. Try to get ahold of an Auror or two- it may be hard since most are in Austria. And Cyriss, look for old spell books. Anything we can use to surprise them." Theon tells him, and Chyllie leads the very tall boy (and Cyriss, of course)  to their writing room.

"As for the rest of you, we need to make sure we have all our plans set for Sunday. Do you have a drawing room we can use, Theon?" Hermione asks. He takes the rest of the group to one of their drawing rooms, and Hermione pulls out their map, as well as all the paperwork they had attempted to recreate from the burned copies. This time however, they could pin their map to the wall, and they were proud to do so.

"Alright. Tutshill." What had been their vacation spot was now the source of what they believed to be an attack. "What do we know about it?"

"Theres a little valley here, just outside of town. Likely where they'll be Apparating in. There a church at the end of the last street here, a townhall, but mostly houses. All the businesses and shops are at the south end- thats where the square is, and where they have their festivals."

"Theon and Chyllie will go around to get all the people out. Anyone with a wand is welcome to stay, but the rest will have to get out in case something goes wrong. Chyllie is good with runes, so she should be able to make some passage to here. Probably the safest place, after all." Carnell says.

"Well, I call the church. Thats where I'll position myself, on the roof where I can have the clearest view." Hermione says.

"Timing is important. If someone fires too early, we'll all be given away." Tom walks in the room suddenly, blurting his warnings.

"Very true. Best at duelling and duelling experience should have the first spell to alert the rest of us." There's a moment of pause.

"Tom and Hermione." Abraxas and Carnell say in unison, which was creepy.

"Hermione should have it. I'll sneak in on the East here, to try and surprise them that way." Tom mutters.

"Do your sneaky thing later though. They've burned down villages and towns before, so we need to put as many fires out as possible. If you use that dust spell of your-"

"-Black Flash." Tom interrupts.

"Yes, Black Flash," Avery continues. "Do that, and they wont be able to see you. That way you can put out  the fires."

"So, we're taking on Grindelwald's army. Eight teenagers. Plus our paperwork boys up here." Abraxas says cheerily.

"We're crazy." Elizabeth mutters, looking at the hastily drawn, messy lines of attack plans on their map, which also had scrawled notes and doodles.

"Well of course." Theon grins. "You're only realizing that now?"

"You realize we could die right?" She stresses.

"You are my friends." Tom says, "And I will not hesitate to die for you." The room looks at Tom in shock, and he rolls his eyes. "I know, I've used the dreaded F word."

"I don't think I've ever heard him say friends." Abraxas stage-whispers.

"The point is," Tom mutters, shooting Abraxas a glare, "Is that we could die, that is a very real possibility. But if I can save my friends, I will do so, even if it means my own death."

A/N

I'm so sorry guys, I've been doing summer school and lost track of time. As an apology I've published two chapters today. I hope you enjoy. Don't forget to comment! There's only a few chapters left...

XOXO

QUEENOFCLASS