- Chapter Fifty-Eight -
"I'm fine."

"Leave us." Voldemort turned his head towards his two new unwilling followers. His eyes were shimmering with crazed delight as the burn from the thin streams of flame stayed in his arm a moment longer before fading away with fulfilment. "You will be able to attend other meetings, but for now you must leave us."

Of course he was talking to Elladora and Regulus, one of which was cradling her arm with such delicacy it looked as though it would snap off with the smallest bit of added pressure and the other was staring dejectedly at the other, frowning. He should've suspected this, them making her do the unbreakable vow after seeing how weak she had become over the months where she had not been home. He wondered why Avery, Snape and Mulciber hadn't tried to sabotage her and he was practically trembling in fear for when that time would come.

"You heard him." Bellatrix Black seethed into her younger cousin's ear and pushed him forward slightly as Rodolphus Hargreaves did the same to his daughter. "Leave us."

Regulus looked back anxiously at his cousin, his eyes glinting with fear and apprehension whereas hers did thee same but with madness and delight instead. It was when he felt a hand on his arm that he turned back around to see Elladora trying to take him away from the group of dark wizards under someone else's orders. She didn't make eye contact with him and just took him as softly as she could out of the room, not daring to make a sound.

The same entrance hall but with a darker meaning. The same marble staircase but with a more depressing aura. The same people but with corrupted minds. Like always, the only sound heard around the hall was the bottom of their shoes slapping against the mineral below them. A bang echoed behind the two on the staircase and on natural instinct, they turned to see Fenrir Greyback the werewolf shutting the door and out of their sight.

Elladora had a good mind to storm back up to him and hurt him for what he did to Remus. For what he did to a child, her best friend went through unimaginable pain every month because of that man and if she could stop all the pain that he went through and take it herself, she would. She deserved it after all and Remus did not.

When the doors had shut, neither of the two said anything and just slowly carried on up the stairs. They didn't really have to say anything, they knew what the other was thinking or feeling and just talking about it would amplify the realism although it was real. It was all real, all those months of hard work to get herself to smile and laugh and be happy with her friends for it all to go down the drain again as soon as she goes back home.

They reached the top of the stairs and walked  down the hallway together, Elladora leading him into Sebast- the guest room he was staying in.

"You might want to get into some more comfortable clothes." She said, her voice quieter than anticipated but she guessed he heard her since he walked over to his own case and pulled out a t-shirt and some jeans instead of the black suit he was made to wear. "I'm going to have a quick bath and then I'll come and check on you."

She attempted a smile with eyes glistening with tears but it didn't really come out as she left. Closing the door behind her with a click, the empty hallway with Regulus in the room behind her had her tense. She knew nothing was there but every time she saw it in the dark like it normally was but especially now, she thought about that night when Sebastian and her parents left to do what she now suspected was a Death Eater.

Not wanting to dwell on the painful thought any longer, she made her own way to her room and went straight to her bathroom, turning the tap that sat at the top of the tub so that hot water plunged to the bottom of the cast iron bath. She double checked that the door was locked before she started to undress, the corset took a bit of effort seeing as she had to untie it herself but she got it off eventually and soon enough she had turned the tap off and lowered herself into the scolding and steaming water.

She was sure that the heat was causing her skin to redden slightly but she wasn't that bothered. Having a hot bath relaxed her as much as it could, helping her muscles to untense but it didn't exactly clear her mind. Her hair was fully submerged into the water but her face wasn't because she didn't want to burn it off or give in to the temptation to drown herself. She still refused to let her tears fall.

She suspected it had been 10 minutes by the time she had decided to get out and just as she suspected, looking into the mirror, her naked body was red with heat and her hair was still dripping water. When she looked right into the eyes of her reflection, she sniffled back a cry when she saw that the light in her eyes had dwindled down to only a spark and her lips had line on them thanks to the endless amount of nervous lip-biting she did.

Her eyes travelled down lower and they became darker with sadness as she looked down at her body, her neckline had nail scratched from where she had scratched at it whilst being tortured with the cruciatus curse. There were swelled bruises below her breasts and all along her torso. If Remus saw her now, he would no longer be calling himself a monster. A single tear threatened to spill over but she held it back and wiped her eyes before it could.

The dark mark shone proudly on her left arm and as soon as she saw it, she looked away from her reflection and grabbed a couple of black towels from the pile on the shelves next to the bath. She wrapped one around her bare body and kept one in her hand as she unlocked the door and stepped back out into her own bedroom. She went rooting for something that would be deemed as comfortable and yet she wouldn't get criticised for it. Eventually she found her black sweatshirt she often wore before she got her new clothes with Euphemia, Hope and Penny.

It was the only thing she could really wear comfortably that wouldn't get her in trouble so she put it on against her better judgement and also slipped some black lounge shorts on too.

She quickly dried her hair as much as she could with the towel she had kept in her hand and flicked her wand to send them back into the bathroom before she placed her wand back down and grabbed her hairbrush instead, weaving it through her damp hair before placing it back down and making her way back to Regulus' room.

A faint 'come in' was heard when she knocked and she entered the room to see him wincing whilst gripping at his arm that showed the mark that was covered by Elladora's black sleeve. He looked up at her and she knew that he could tell she was close to crying because his eyes softened considerably.

"Does it hurt?" She asked quietly, making her way over to to him and perching herself next to him on the bed. Her own arm hurt but she promised herself a while ago that Regulus was always first priority.

"Yeah." He sniffled, close to crying himself.

"I'll get a cloth." She soothed, gulping her sadness down to tend to Regulus first. She had never been in this bathroom before but it was quite similar to hers, the hand cloths on the same rack. They were black, of course, but she only needed one.

The towel was soaked under hot water from the tap and Elladora didn't dare to look up into the mirror before her, she knew she wouldn't like what she saw anyway. When she made her way back out to Regulus, he hadn't moved and was just waiting for her as she moved forward and slowly placed the cloth over the place where the mark is.

Regulus wined slightly as the heat touched the sting but he relaxed under the slow relief he was feeling. For a moment he was worried that touching it would alert the others but then remembered that only magic activated the mark, rolling his eyes to himself as Elladora slowly wiped over the mark. Even there was no outside wound that she was cleaning, the stinging was slowly beginning to subsid with the soft strokes she gave.

"Does-does yours not hurt?" He asked slowly after a while when she was just keeping the cloth on his arm, the water long dried out.

"It does." She answered after a moment, taking the cloth away. "I'll go soak it again."

Regulus didn't get to say anything more before she had run back into the bathroom and made her way to stand in front of the sink once more. Turning the tap on, the water spurted out and she flinched as some of it hit her face but even just as it spurted, the mark started to sting more. She rolled her left sleeve up to see it looking normal, the stinging just on the inside.

Her frustration, sadness and anger must've gotten to her a bit as she clenched her jaw with a sharp exhale before bringing the cloth down on her mark, scraping roughly as though trying to wash it off instead of trying to subside the pain. Some quiet sobs started to leave her lips as the tears welled up again and her vision became somewhat blurry, the outline of the mark still there.

She continued the rough wipes and when none of  it moved, disappeared from her skin or came off, she cried out in frustration and threw the cloth harshly into the sink. The sound of it slapping the iron echoed around the bathroom whilst she gripped the sides of the sink tightly, trying not to actually scream. The skin behind and around the mark had gone dark red with the harsh scrapes of the flannel.

Then she looked up.

Her reflection stared right back at her, yet this version of herself seemed familiar. She had tear-stained cheeks, her hair was so damp that it looked greasy and it was going down past her shoulders instead of being tied up formally, she was wearing a black sweater and black shorts, she had the dark mark and her sleeve was rolled up to show it. Her eyes had tears in it and...

She had become her boggart.

She remembered being in that Defence Against The Dark Arts class, Peter standing beside her at the start before opting to stand next to the rest of the marauders, James joking about Snape being his worst fear, Elladora's tainted reflection being her own worst fear as it cried and was about to reveal the dark mark before she aimed the spell at it and walked out of the class and down to the kitchens to see Flick.

It was all too much for one day. The skin of her knuckles turned white at the tightness she was gripping the sink at, yet she was still trying not to breakdown in her dead brother's old bathroom. Her vision clouded even more at the realisation that she had become her worst fear and her sniffles did not go unheard by the boy in the other room.

"Elladora?" Regulus Black's voice called out and she turned it shock. She couldn't actually see him, just the outline of his figure since her tears were blocking her view of everything and just making it blurry. From what she could see, Regulus just stood there. "Are you okay?

What a question.

"I'm fine." She lied.

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A/N: Heres an early chapter because I had inspiration today 🤪
I also made an aesthetic for our baby because I love making them and she deserves one