Circi | 2

THIRTY SEVEN

"This is reality"

March 1998, 6 months later

Of course, Dexter could only interfere so much before the Carrows caught onto what he was doing. As dimwitted as they seemed, in their black-and-white views of who deserved respect, they were not as stupid as they appeared.

By the time Christmas break loomed over the heads of the students, the Carrows had emerged from their classrooms and patrolled the corridors. Their terror rained down on every student now, whether they had classes with them or not. And Amycus, still reeling from being denied Mica's detention at the start of the year, tailed her after issuing the last detention of term.

He observed her entering the astronomy tower and, soon enough, he was informed that the girl would be serving detention with Professor Rier.

Snape had forbidden them from interfering with Professors, which made McGonagall's attempts at keeping the students as far from them as possible particularly infuriating. Particularly now that she often stalked Circi at a distance in her animagus form.

Initially, Snape had warned Dexter against favouring students and protecting them from the Carrows. He left the office feigning a sheepish demeanour in front of the Carrows yet proceeded to remove students from detention throughout Christmas and the New Year, sacrificing his time with his family.

But, despite his attempts, he was forced to back off after being cornered and threatened in Hogsmeade and, again, in his own classroom.

Circi had been allowed to stay at Hogwarts throughout Christmas. She had been told by Draco that she wasn't needed but, in a letter conspicuously signed with her father's initials and absent of a return address, she was warned from attempting to follow Draco home and that Hogwarts was the safest place for her... she was also cautioned against spending too much time with Mica and Dexter.

Of course, she would never heed her father's warnings much. By February she had seen Mica and Leslie subject to the cruciatus curse and humiliated in front of the class.

Lucius heard of her disobedience in two separate letters that had arrived at the exact same time. The first was from Circi, complaining about their actions and demanding he do something- anything- to make them stop. She urged him to speak to Snape, whom she expected would protect her more than any others, and fruitlessly offered that he petitioned to the Dark Lord himself. It was a useless idea, a death wish to even entertain, but she was desperate and so was he once he read the second letter signed by Alecto Carrow.

He was sitting behind his dark wood desk in Malfoy Manor, rocking absently in his chair and twisting his newly fixed cane on the ground. It was late at night, nearing midnight, and the only light in the room was a cord-pull lamp atop the desk under which the letters sat.

He was dressed in a grey robe and slippers as he often did in the evenings, his hair tied low at the back of his neck. No doubt Narcissa would be down soon to coax him to sleep but he couldn't take his focus from the letters. It was clear the Carrows were at their wits ends, furious at the lack of freedom they had on the one student at Hogwarts whose suffering the Dark Lord would have relished a year ago.

They were targeting Circi still because they knew Lucius was weak, powerless, he could do nothing to favour his daughter from where he sat. His position on the school board helped elect Snape as Headmaster and ensure Draco was a prefect. They were fine. But Circi, a helpless fifteen year old trying to fight a battle she had no hopes of winning, would keep resisting and fighting for her friends until she too ended up like them. The Carrows knew the Dark Lord would not appreciate their deception from his orders, they knew they would make an enemy of the Malfoys when they were squating in their home. But their patience wouldn't last.