- Chapter Ninety-Two -
"I'll do it."

"We're looking for a cross."

The lanky boy from behind the counter looked up at the two kids on the other side with a facial expression void of any sort of emotion, his eyes were a bored and bland brown as they stared down the people in front of him with a slight air of judgement that he seemed like he carried everywhere with him. His eyes scanned over the tall boy before scanning over the smaller girl stood next to him who only just reached his shoulder and was looking at the man behind the counter with inquisitive eyes whilst the boy next to her had an amused smile on his face.

"A cross?" The man repeated, his eyes narrowing slightly which showed his scepticism of the taller boy's amused face. His narrowed eyes were the only show of emotion they were granted from him and the girl frowned slightly at his confusion.

"Yes." Remus Lupin nodded with a smile, glancing to Elladora out of the corner of his eye as she peered up at the man behind the counter who actually seemed to be a couple of inches taller than Remus which was very tall for her. "A cross."

"Well..." The man spoke slowly, looking around with sluggish movements at the amount of shining jewellery in front of him. He obviously didn't like being put on the jewellery desk at Gladrags and Remus couldn't blame him as he looked around at all the people waiting behind them. "We don't have a lot of crosses. They're mainly muggle stuff, you know? Things you get at churches. Didn't your Church provide it?"

"Oh, we don't go to church." Remus shook his head, shrugging his shoulders slightly and the person behind the counter glanced in between the two of them before his lips formed an 'o' and he nodded in realisation.

"Is it for your child's baptism?"

At once, the two kids in front of him went wide-eyed and started stammering up an answer and the man behind the counter watched blankly as they stole awkward glances and spoke over each other to try and deny the claim whilst they shook their heads and let out nervous laughter. The people behind them in the line shifted their weight and shared looks with their friends or partners as they kept talking, shaking their heads and laughing at the mere notion though the man behind the counter eyed the blushes creeping up their necks with suspicion.

"So you just want a cross?" The guy shrugged his shoulders, cutting them off and they nodded, confirming words spewing out of both their mouths to try and rid of the awkward affect of the previous question.

"To ward off vampires." Elladora nodded her head and the man paused in his movement to get one of their few necklaces, turning his had slowly to face her with his blank face as Remus closed his eyes for a second in exasperation before he opened them again and smiled apologetically at the man.

He ignored Remus' smile and just grabbed a simple gold chain out of a box, picking it out and letting the sun hit the metal before sticking it in a small bag before walking back up he counter and sliding it over to Elladora who took it with a small smile. Remus took out a couple of galleons and gave it to the man before beginning to walk away with a happy Elladora next to him as she stuffed the bag in the pocket of her hoodie and walked past the line of glaring adults with a casual smile whilst Remus apologised to every one of them softly.

Elladora walked out of the shop first, squinting her eyes at the attacking sunlight and holding a hand up to block it out as Remus stepped out onto the cobblestone street after her. She didn't have to hold her hand up for long as three tall figures converged on her and thankfully blocked out the sunlight that blinded her momentarily.

"Did you get it?" Peter grinned at her and she took the bag out of her pocket, holding it up with a smile. "You know, vampires don't often attack people, they have the blood lollipops served in honeydukes."

"Blood lollipops?" Elladora widened her eyes, grimacing as her eyes travelled over to the bright sign sticking out of one of the shops along the High Street that displayed the name of the sweet shop she had tried her first chocolate in.

And then her tiny spark of happiness at being out of the castle and having a good time with her friends without the burden of anything was distinguished with the sight of Yaxley and the other Death Eaters behind him walking in their direction. Her smile faltered and she sought out to find the eyes of Regulus among the scowls of the others but then directed her gaze the ground when she realised they weren't on speaking terms at the moment.

"I forgot about your remedial lessons." Sirius frowned as they approached further and Elladora glanced up to his face, trying not to look as damaged as she felt at the thought of another meeting. No Regulus, no Evan, just her and the others.

"So did I." She mumbled, looking up to Yaxley as he paused near them and she bit her lip to stop it from trembling as she began to walk away from the boys and towards the people she hated. "Bye."

"Bye." They all called in their own way as she approached the others nervously and Yaxley just jerked his head in the other direction and started walking, ordering the others to follow.

Elladora frowned, she hadn't been told that there would be a meeting today so she hadn't prepared herself and now her momentary break she was having from her thoughts whilst she walked around Hogsmeade with her friends had been torn apart and stomped on by a group of men with nothing better to do than control everyone around then with acts of force and evil. It was tiring, really, lying and not having anyone to talk to anymore because one was being held in wait for a trial and another wasn't talking to her anymore because he'd been brainwashed and had become just like the others.

Looking back over her shoulder for just a second, she saw her friends walking further down the High Street and she met James' eyes as he looked over his shoulder at them too and even from a bit of a difference, she could see his smile and she didn't know if he could see hers but she smiled anyway, forcing one out before she turned back around and dropped it with a bored droop of her eyes.

She hated this feeling, walking away from the people that keep her sane to go to a place where she had to try not to flip out on people about Sebastian. Her mother's words from the memories rattled around her head often, words that she never would have thought would come out of the woman's mouth. My darling boy! I told him not to make you come about Sebastian and then I want her to have her own free will about her. Elladora could hardly believe the words had come out of her mouth.

Free will. What was free about being tortured and then forced to become a Death Eater when she was still in a daze of pain? What was free about being forced into a marriage she didn't want? What was free about being forced to spend Sundays with horrible boys who talk about her like she's not even there? What was free about being forced to skip out on her Hogsmeade trips to go to a stupid meeting instead? Nothing. Elladora didn't have her own free will and if her mother wanted her to have it so bad, why didn't she let her?

Elladora realised she had been in a state of daydreaming when she was jerked back to reality by Yaxley's voice commanding them all to put the hands in the middle, she looked around and realised she had subconsciously followed them into an alleyway different to the one they had been in the last time and it took a moment for her to think before she leant forward and put her hand on the pile, immediately being sucked off of her feet with the force of apparition.

The scenery became dark and her feet hit the ground with a small pat as she and the others arrived at...her house. The high gates were always a giveaway, stretching high into the air like they always did and the long path from the gates to the doors of the house was as ridiculously long as always. The lawns of grass surrounding the clear path were cut short and neat with the perfectly sculpted hedges stationed at the edges.

She gulped at the sight of the dark stone that made up the house and her eyes went to the window that peeked into the dining room, seeing the long table stretched out and shivering at the sight of Voldemort sat at the end of the table with her father on his right hand side. Her mother was next to her father just with a spare seat in between them, she was laughing with the other Death Eaters.

I want her to have her own free will. Elladora shook the words out of her mind as Yaxley began the journey down the path and Elladora followed the boys, glancing up to Sebastian's bedroom window when a harsh shiver of anger passed through her and she clenched her jaw as she looked away and bit the inside of her cheek whilst Yaxley knocked on the large doors.

A couple of moments later, they were opened by her mother welcoming them in and directing them to the dining room. In a way she was glad they weren't staying in their younger group for a while because the last time it happened, Evan was there and she still punched Avery in the face.

She didn't even want to know what was going to happen if they went out and neither Evan nor Regulus were on her side. She shivered at the thought of Macnair being in charge and subconsciously glanced around to make sure he wasn't staring at her. Cassiopeia waited at the door whilst they filtered into the room and as she passed, Elladora dared to meet eyes with her, eyes full of anger as her mother took a shaky inhale when she passed.

"Nice of you to join us, children." Voldemort greeted with a smile as though it was an honour to be there, Elladora just walked to the seat she was expected to sit in and sat down quietly, her hands twitching with the need to wrap around her wand and shoot curses at everyone around the table.

They were persuaded into silence as the rest of them seated and Elladora found herself sitting across the table from Regulus, not that they would exchange glances now like they did before anyway. She stared at the empty seat diagonal from her that once belonged to Evan but it remained empty for that day.

"You may have noticed..." Voldemort started to speak, obviously not wasting any time with them as he looked solemnly towards the empty chair. "That we are missing an important part of our team. Yes...Mr. Rosier was apprehended in Hogsmeade village just the other month on orders of Albus Dumbledore." He spit his name like venom. "But thanks to our lovely Miss Rosier and Miss and Mr Carrow...we know where he is being kept."

Elladora dared to glance up with a glint of hopefulness in her eyes as she looked around the table and saw Evan's sister sat next to Alecto Carrow and Millicent Zabini, they were three girls that Elladora never wanted to get on the bad side of and even though Evan's sister was sometimes entertaining, she looked unlike herself which was probably the doing of her brother being in transport to Azkaban.

"Miss Rosier, Miss Carrow and Mrs. Zabini will be taking on the task of retrieving him before they manage to get him to Azkaban," He said slowly and Elladora glanced over to the girls, she wished she could help but knew it had to be people who weren't in Hogwarts anymore. Evan's sister caught her gaze from across the table and forced a tiny smile, Elladora managing one too despite the setting.

"However," Voldemort continued, rising from his creaking chair as Elladora snapped her gaze to him and he towered over her sitting body. "The retrieval will surely call Dumbledore to the rescue and well, we can't have that. One of you..." His hand grasped the back of Elladora's chair as he passed and she gulped, steadying her breathing and trying not to flip out on him for being the cause of Sebastian's demise. "Will have to make sure he won't be able to make it."

He moved along the seats of the people still at Hogwarts as he said this and Elladora looked around at them all, seeing their frozen statures at the command and then she looked to her mother who had settled back next to her and glanced back down at her; their eyes met again and Elladora frowned, looking away. Cassiopeia looked...sad.

"One of you..." Voldemort continued, walking past Regulus whilst both Elladora and her mother froze up at the actual small connection they had ensued. "Those who are still being educated by Dumbledore, of course, will be given the task of his death..."

"I'll do it."

The words came from nowhere, on the tip of the tongue for a while and just searching for the opportunity to be let loose. Any movement at the table fell still at the sudden proclamation, everybody had frozen at the claim and were too shocked or scared or whatever to move or even whisper. Macnair, who had Voldemort behind him, tried to steady his breathing since in the silence, anything could be heard. Regulus looked as though he had just thrown up and many others did too but all eyes no matter how wide or narrow were pointed towards one particular person.

"Fantastic." Voldemort said in a whisper, walking away from Macnair and around the table until he was settled behind the person who had volunteered those three words. His hands gripped their chair and he whispered again, closer this time. "Fantastic."

Elladora gulped, a fistful of her skirt in her hand as The Dark Lords figure loomed behind her.

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A/N: how are we feeling?

8 chapters left...