the girl with all of the choices

n i n e t y - t w o

9749 words

september twenty-fifth- crucio

~ Addison ~

The door was heavy. I wasn't even sure my knocking would register within the walls of their chambers. I glanced down the hall at Draco hidden in the alcove and flashed him a warm smile.

He didn't return it, instead, keeping his eyes locked on the door.

I waited a few seconds before looking back at the dark cherry wood barrier separating me from a fun evening from my friends. The silence in the hall was deafening, so I knocked again.

As soon as my knuckles pulled away from the surface, it opened, revealing Carrow. But not the one I had prepared myself to see.

"Professor Carrow," I acknowledged. "I thought I was supposed to serve my detention with the other Professor Carrow."

"Impatient, you are," she sneered, the corners of her lips turning upward so that it wasn't a purely malicious expression but one that combined curiosity and venom into a look that would prompt even You-Know-Who into running for the hills. Or running to get in her pants. With Him, you never know. "The other Professor Carrow will be here shortly as he has been caught up with other duties. He has given me the pleasure of beginning your detention today, so," she said, stepping aside and gesturing towards the interior of the room, "let us begin."

I swallowed harshly and reluctantly walked through the door into the dark and dingy room, knowing that I couldn't get out of this even if I wanted to. They couldn't kill me. I had explained it to Draco, Fawn, and Theo earlier, and I meant every word I said. 

If they killed me, Hogwarts would most-definitely shutter as parents brought their children home. If Hogwarts was no longer in existence, then MACUSA and the International Confederation of Wizards would probably step in. The war would go one of two ways: You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters would be squashed and democracy would resume, or other dark witches and wizards from other countries would come in support of the Dark Lord and He would win. However, the former of these two options seemed much more probably, so it would be unlikely that the Carrrows would do something to jeopardize their Lord's reign.

The room was much larger than I ever had imagined it would be. I knew from experience that the dungeons were always more spacious than they seemed, the Slytherin Common Room being the epitome of that, but nevertheless, it shocked me.

Although, the size of the space did not shock me as much as what was housed inside.

At the far end of the room were two doors, presumably which led to each of the siblings' bedchambers or private offices. There were two desks in front of the wall separating the doors, but they weren't covered in nearly enough papers to be the desks that they utilised regularly.

There were portraits scattered aimlessly along the walls, all depicting singular individuals within their frames. The gold-adorned frame hanging above their desks featured a picture of an older wizard with dark hair and beady black eyes, presumably an ancestor. The other portraits housed individuals who all looked similar, prompting me to conclude that they were all family members of the two Professors.

There was a trophy case immediately to the left of the entrance, although it did not contain silver and gold medals. There was a harpy head mounted on the wall above it, a tank with a grindylow encased inside of it, a baby acromantula carcass on one shelf, and a transformed werewolf skull sitting atop it. 

In the corner next to the trophy case, there stood a large suit of armour that was made of black metal instead of the usual silver. Next to it, there was a mounting of various knives, daggers, and swords. The dark magic was diffusing off of them and infecting the air with poison, freezing the air and everything around it. I could have sworn I saw two icicles hanging from the left hand of the suit of armour.