Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

57 | INNOCENT

Never had she wanted for anything of what happened that day to happen.

If anyone had told Phoenix two years earlier that after finishing Hogwarts she would be one of the Dark Lord's most favoured followers and hunting down Muggle-borns and members of the Order of the Phoenix, she might have laughed in their faces. Even as she found herself approaching the McKinnon family home she felt a lump growing in her throat. She should have been all right with this but the fear of violence seemed to cut through her airways.

Everything will go as planned, she tried to tell herself. They won't hurt anyone without a good reason.

But the feeling just wouldn't leave. Not even as she was asked to use her powers to silently open the door. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her hands were shaking as he stretched out two fingers and pushed them sideways, opening the lock of the door.

It feels so wrong.

The Death Eaters filed through the doors one by one and split into several groups to search the house. Phoenix shivered. From what she knew Marlene lived with her parents and three siblings. Since it was only shortly after dawn she had to guess that they were most likely still asleep in their beds and an attack on unarmed people like that was more than just cruel.

Rabastan, Regulus and her had been assigned the ground floor, along with two older Death Eaters whom Phoenix didn't know. With her knees shaking she followed Rabastan into the living room. It was smaller than theirs, with only a couch a few armchairs and a chimney. Still, it looked much more like a comfortable living space with the family photos on the tables and chimney. Phoenix couldn't help but step closer.

A small smile made its way onto her face as she caught sight of a picture showing Marlene and her youngest brother, both with paint on their faces and bright smiles into the camera. Another showed her with pigtails and her father with a proud expression and an arm around her shoulder.

"We can't do this," she whispered.

Rabastan joined her and softly placed a hand on her arm but she shook it off. She turned towards him. "We have to stop this madness. This is a family with children. They didn't do anything wrong."

He shook his head furiously. "The Dark Lord wouldn't let us get through with this."

"But look at those pictures. They are innocent," Phoenix countered, picking up one of the frames and pointing at it.

"They have chosen their side and if not they'll choose today," Regulus said, snatching the picture from her hand and placing it on the chimney again.

"Reg-" Phoenix was cut short when she heard an ear piercing scream from the upper floor. Her eyes widened and she pointed at her brother. "You said nobody would get hurt."

Regulus didn't bother to answer but as another scream cut through the silence he sent Rabastan a look. When neither of them gave any hint of trying to defend their original plan or do anything against it, she stuffed her wand into her boot and walked towards the end of the room. "If nobody's going to do anything about it, I will."

That set her brother in motion. He crossed the room with a few large strides and grabbed a hold of her arm. "Are you crazy. You'll put our whole mission in danger."

"Stop, you know that she's just scared," Rabastan tried to calm him down.

But Phoenix shook off her brother's hand. "I'm not scared. I just know that this is wrong."

Regulus seemed to be torn between wanting to yell at her and ordering her to leave. His face was a mask of annoyance and only seemed to get worse as he glanced towards the two older Death Eaters entering the room at that very moment. Rabastan joined the twins near the door and murmured, "I'll get her out of here. We'll make it look like the violence was too much for her."

"I'm not some weak thing you have to protect." Phoenix narrowed their eyes at them. "Stop treating me like I'm not worth as much as you are."

With those words she stomped out into the hallway and towards the stairs which led to the upper floor. However, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a crash from the upper floor and something fell right in front of her feet.

Phoenix didn't even hear her own screams. A surge of her powers rushed out into every direction, followed by the shattering of windows. Her whole body went numb and all of a sudden she felt the emotions of everybody who was in the house, along with their pain. A giant's hand seemed to have caught a grip of her and was squeezing her in its fist.

There, with her brown eyes wide open and her body in weird angles, lay Marlene McKinnon. Phoenix didn't even have to feel her pulse to know that she wasn't in the realms of the living anymore.

"Oh Merlin."

Pictures passed in front of her eyes. The visions she had had of Jack being tortured, Will's death by Bellatrix' hand and Rabastan lying in his own blood when he had tried to end his life. The latter appeared at her side in mere seconds, swearing under his breath. Although he looked like he had expected something like this to happen, he swallowed and obviously needed a moment to digest the scene in front of his eyes.

He grabbed a hold of her hand and pulled her towards the door. "We need to get out of here."

They crossed the field at almost twice the pace as they had arrived but Phoenix didn't feel the burning in her lungs. In fact, she felt nothing. She had been among the ones bringing death to innocent people.

Jerking her hand out of Rabastan's, Phoenix looked back at the Cottage. Her jaw almost dropped. There, in the sky, it was, the Dark Mark. It was the sign that either the Dark Lord's followers or the Lord himself had murdered. It must have been their plan all along.

"You told me there would be no killing. You said they had a choice," Phoenix yelled at Rabastan, brushing away her tears.

His face was contoured with guilt. He really had known. "I'm sorry, love. The Dark..."

"Sorry doesn't cut it. How can't you see that this is wrong? A girl my brother went to school with was murdered right in front of our eyes. Murdered! And for what? Because she doesn't support the whole idea of pure-blood supremacy? This doesn't give us the right to decide over somebody's life."

Rabastan ran a hand through his nearly white hair. He was obviously at a loss for what to say and deep down Phoenix knew that it was wrong to let her emotions out on him, especially since they had both worked so hard to believe in their cause. But wasn't she right? How could he not see how this was wrong?

They were nothing but barbarians.