FUMÉE
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Charlotte Cardleman awoke to the contrasting noise of screams and laughter outside of her window, footsteps and panicked voices in the room below her and the smell of smoke in the air. The sheer white curtains that concealed her bedroom windows were tinted sunrise orange as she stood.

But the clock read nine thirty. And sunrise came a lot earlier than that at the current time of year. Clumsily, Charlotte sat up from her bed, putting on her slippers and hurrying to the window, throwing open the fabric and peeking throught the blinds.

The orange glow came not from the sunrise, but from a large oak tree that rested across the street from her house the entirety of her life and her father's, and the tree was in flames. Not far from it stood a large group of men and women in all black, warring Wizarding cloaks and masks, huddled into a circle where they all jeered at something on the ground.

Another scream sounded and when Charlotte recognised the voice yet another was ripped out of somebody's lungs- her own.

She darted towards her bedroom door, faster than she'd ever moved in her life and wrenched it open, only to run straight into her father's chest as he called her name. Richard grabbed hold of her shoulders, speaking in a panicked voice: "Who's here? Who's hurting you?"

"Nobody is hurting me, Dad, they're hurting Flynn!" Charlotte shouted, noticing Sirius Black behind her father. She half expected Harry to bound up the stairs afterwards, kiss her quickly and announce that he was off to save Flynn O'Riley but her boyfriend was in Scotland for school so he never came.

"Charlotte, you ought to stay put, the rest of the Order are on their way," said Black calmly from the hallway, as the two men entered the room.

"What are they doing to him?" she asked, heart beating rapidly in her chest as the screaming continued.

"You don't need to know that, Charlie," Richard told her and she opened her mouth to yell at him but Black spoke first.

"The Cruciatus Curse- wizarding torture," he said and her father shot him a look, before glancing back at Charlotte, whose stomach had dropped.

"Why are they doing it?" she asked, voice wobbly, as tears welled up in her eyes.

"You don't need to know that either, lovely," her dad said calmly and gently. "Just know the Order will sort this."

"Richard," Black said softly. "I really think you ought to explain."

"I really think you oughtn't tell me how to parent my child, thanks Sirius," Richard snapped, and Charlotte placed a hand on his arm, giving him a long look. Eventually, he sighed, and looked back at the wizard whom he'd offended, giving a slight nod.

"They want you," said Sirius finally, and Charlotte started.

"Then, I'll very well give them me," she said, attempting to march forwards but her father stopped her.

"They want to take you," Sirius said. "Far away. Your friend is being used as leverage."

Charlotte wanted to shout at them both for their hesitation to accept the Death Eaters' terms, for letting her best friend suffer so much pain, right outside her doorstep but she swallowed her words. She took a moment to put herself in her father's shoes, who wanted only to protect her, and Sirius' point of view, which was clearly to go about saving Flynn with might rather than with sacrifice.

Then she decided what she would do.

"Okay," she nodded, still shaking. "And when will the Order arrive?"

"Fifteen minutes." The screams were still loud, and Charlotte pulled at her nightgown sleeves and clasped hands to her ears, attempting to block out all sound but she could still hear her friend's pain and Sirius' voice as he explained the reasoning for this time. "Catch them off guard, you know? They won't expect a lot of people given it's such short notice. Fifteen minutes gives the illusion that we are unprepared, without leaving it too late."

She nodded, before her father took her into his arms and she sobbed quietly into his t-shirt whilst he comforted her. "I can't last fifteen minutes, Dad. I can't listen to this for fifteen minutes. God, he's screaming-"

"Screaming is a good sign," Sirius said, and she whirled on him before he elaborated. "Screaming means he can still feel it. It means he's in his own mind. I had a pair of friends who stopped screaming and... they were never the same again. But your friend... his body seems to be putting up a fight. I can tell he'll be able to last a lot longer than fifteen minutes, and that's all he needs."

The three stood in silence for a moment and Charlotte stepped away from her dad, wiping her eyes.

"I'm going to change... mind making me breakfast while we wait?" she asked Richard, although she had no intention of staying for food. But the two older men didn't know this, as her father agreed and Sirius offered to help, and soon they were out of sight.

She closed her bedroom door and instantly closed the curtains (although protective charms meant the Death Eaters could not see her) and pulled off her nightgown, quickly changing into a simple outfit, only putting effort into ensuring her running shoes were secure- who knew when she'd need them.

Next, she sat down at her desk, grabbing two seperate pieces of paper with the intention of writing to the three people who meant so much to her, secured them in envelopes and left them on her desk to be sent by somebody else.

It took her no more than a minute to get downstairs and unlock the door, before going to where her father and Sirius were in the living room, crépes having been prepared.

Neither thought twice about her change of clothing, not even as she lingered in the doorway fully dressed and ready to leave.

"Lemon and sugar," Richard said, gesturing to the plate after placing it on the table as Sirius spoke with his head in the fire. He looked up at her and she felt a sense of dread in her stomach as he looked down at her shoes. "You never wear those. What's going on?"

"I'm sorry, Dad," Charlotte said, voice breaking and tears rolling down her cheeks as she sensed the realisation dawn on the two men. "I have letters on my desk- please send them. And don't worry about me, okay? Harry will save me."

"Charlotte Marie Cardleman, don't you dare-"

Charlotte turned her back to her father and ran, bolting towards the front door as fast as she could as she heard a plate drop to the ground and an obscene swearword in her father's voice and she knew he was coming after her. She knew he would- what sort of father wouldn't?

She pulled open the front door and jumped out of the house, running straight through the protective enchantments and her father followed suit, grabbing hold of her arm and attempting to pull her back into the house. The Death Eaters hadn't noticed a thing, they were all watching the wrong space.

"Get back inside the house," Richard whispered, harshly, careful not to alert the villains. Charlotte tugged her arm out of his grip and set off forwards once more, as a hysterical Gretel Woods rounded the corner, shouting loudly.

"Richard," she yelled urgently, moving towards Charlotte's father and for once she was glad of the distraction the woman presented, but the man who's attention she attempted to attract, ignored her, darting after Charlotte and pushing his girlfriend aside as he shouted at the lady to move!

By this point, Sirius had ran out if the house too, the Death Eaters had turned to face them, and Flynn's screaming had stopped (Charlotte was still unsure of whether this was because they had stopped cursing him, or he was 'gone'), and one of them flicked their wand, freezing her father, Sirius and Gretel in their spots, and they all laughed loudly.

"Too easy, too easy," the Death Eater who had frozen them said, bowing to his comrades who had parted for Flynn to be visible to her. Charlotte recognised him to be Draco Malfoy's father. "Let's have these noble adults watch a child slip through their fingers."

"Charlotte," Flynn groaned from the ground and she could've sobbed with joy that he was alive. She almost did, until he screamed in agony once more, and Malfoy tutted.

"The time for play is over, Bellatrix," he said to a mad-looking woman who had a wand pointed at Flynn. "We have a new toy now."

"Quite right," the lady cackled, loudly, dropping the curse. "Let's get rid of him- who says we get rid of him?"

"No!" Charlotte's cry was drowned out by jeers from the Death Eaters and Bellatrix laughed manically.

"Let's... burn him-"

"I give myself to you!" Charlotte shouted, more clearly than ever. "You no longer have any reason to hurt him!"

"Except the most important, of course," Malfoy shrugged, casually.

"What reason would that be?" She queried. Bellatrix gave a low giggle before speaking.

"F-U-N," the witch said, before brandishing her wand elaborately. "We're going to burn this town to the ground. For F-U-N."

"Well, 'F' you, actually," Charlotte said. "We have backup coming in five minutes."

"Plenty of time," said Malfoy. "Come with us, Muggle."

Charlotte took tentative steps forward, and for each step, Flynn was levitated further and further away from the Death Eaters, from danger. Soon she was inches away from Malfoy and the Death Eaters rejoiced before suddenly, there were booms and bangs everywhere.

The Death Eaters were burning all the buildings around them. Sounds of screaming innocents filled the street and Charlotte knew they would fill the next, and the one after that.

"Bellatrix told you we'd burn it," Malfoy shrugged, grabbing her roughly by the hood of her jacket. "And she told you we'd burn your friend too. Say goodbye."

Then Malfoy flicked his wand and Richard began to run again, but by the time he reached the point at which Charlotte was stood, Malfoy had already taken her away into a suffocating vacuum.

Charlotte Cardleman didn't know if she'd ever come back.

~

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Zara Afasy were out on the Hogwarts Grounds that sunny afternoon, the Great Lake stretching for miles in front of them as Zara and Hermione stood calf deep in it, whilst the arabian girl practised the Patronus charm, which she had still not perfected. Harry couldn't blame her, after all this was only her second year in the Wizarding World.

"It's just hard to find hope when any time I think of any memory, something bad always crops up too," Zara said, and Harry thought about how he'd sometimes struggle with that too, before Charlotte.

"Try to ignore all that," Ron suggested, unhelpfully. "Try and think about a good time with your family, or-"

"Half of my family is dead," Zara took a deep breath in, and turned around to walk out of the lake, Hermione following after her. Harry made no effort to comfort her in this- he didn't know what it was like to ever have a family to begin with. "Sorry, Ron. You were just trying to help, and I appreciate that, but it just isn't working. I'm not skilled enough for that."

"We're all capable," Harry said to her, gently, awkwardly patting her back as she sat beside him, and Hermione sat beside Ron, pulling back on her socks and shoes. "If I can find a happy memory, so can you. Try one more time."

Zara smiled at him gratefully, before raising her wand with a shaking hand, chanting: "Expecto Patronum," and out of her wand came wisps of white glow, followed shortly by a large glowing big cat, which pranced around majestically. Harry smiled widely, the warmth of the guardian affecting them all.

"You're joking," Zara laughed, shaking her head.

"What is it?" Ron frowned. "It's so bright that I can't tell."

"It's a panther," she answered him, before they all noticed Charlotte's owl, soaring towards them.

Initially, the usual excitement of word from his love engulfed him, but then Ron nudged him and pointed to Theodore who was hurrying towards them, a letter clamped in his hand. The four students stood to meet him, as the owl rested on Harry's shoulder, and he detached the letter from it's foot before it flew away.

"Something terrible has happened," Theodore panted as he reached them, but Harry, who was reading the letter with wide eyes, barely heard him. "I take it you know then, Potter."

Harry didn't reply as the air left his lungs and his knees gave way- he had had to stumble backwards, and use the tree the trunk as support as he slid to the floor, heart breaking in his chest.

He couldn't believe the letter he held. It must've been a lie, must've been forged or faked or something because there was no way on this earth that Lottie- Lottie- was at the mercy of Death Eaters. Hermione knelt beside him, attempting to take the letter but he held onto it tightly, not wanting to let go of the paper, or even the envelope. His friend stood and stepped back.

"Harry, what do you know?" Zara asked him, voice tender and he did not reply. Speech had escaped him.

"The Death Eaters attacked the town, just as we predicted," Theodore said, and three people gasped.

"No," Zara choked. "Tell me she's fine, tell me she stayed at home and that she's fine."

"If she had, she wouldn't be Charlotte Cardleman," Harry finally spoke as he stood up, anger suddenly building up inside of him, begging for release. Although, he didn't want to seem insane, so he picked up a rock and threw it into the lake aggressively, holding himself back from wreaking havoc on the world.

The letter was still clutched in his right hand:

My dear Romeo,
Outside my window are Death Eaters who are torturing and hurting my best friend. But these people don't want poor Flynn- they want me. So I am going to give them what they want.

I know this will hurt you. And I know it will hurt my dad, and my brother, and Zara. But I have to do the noble thing and I have to save an innocent from being hurt. You get it, don't you? I'm sure it's what you would do, isn't it?

I don't know if I'll be alive when you read this. I hope I am but to be honest, I doubt it. But please find me. Even if all you get is a corpse please find me.

Also, if I even half know you, I know you'll be mad about this. About the fact that they were even able to know they could use me against you, but here's a little saying my grandmother often says: amour, toux et fumée en secret ne sont demeurés. Love, cough and smoke are hard to hide. And I'm forever glad we didn't hide it.

I love you, Romeo. I'm sorry I never said it to your face.

See you soon,
Juliet.

"We have to go after her," Harry said, folding the letter with care, and turning to face the others once more.

"What's the point?" Zara said, her eyes spaced out. "It's over. She's dead already."

"We don't know that," Hermione said, and took her hand. "There's still hope."

"No, we do know that," Zara snapped, suddenly. "She's a muggle! They're not going to keep her alive, she's worthless to them! Clearly they've done this for a reason, clearly it's a tactic to weaken Harry-"

"Don't you see?" Harry interuppted, once more attempting to control the rage that tempted him to hex the witch. "That's exactly why we can't give up! Because then her sacrifice will have been in vain."

"Harry's right, Zara," Ron agreed. "I never knew Charlotte, but we owe it to her to try. Even if the five of us are the only ones who will."

"You're talking like she's gone already," said Theodore, quietly (which was how he said most things). "Using past tense like that."

"I don't know Charlotte," Ron corrected with a sad smile. "But one day I will, 'cause we'll save her."

"We need to speak to Dumbledore," Hermione said, confidently.

"No," Zara shook her head. "He's got far too much on his hands-"

"What are you suggesting?" Harry asked, calmly. It sounded like she was suggesting that his love wasn't worth the time. He wished she'd say it, so he'd have an excuse to storm away from them all.

"That maybe the Order are already onto it," she answered, crossing her arms. "It's no use going straight to the Headmaster now. It's no use doing anything."

"You're being cowardly," Harry said without thinking. The group fell silent and Zara shook her head, turning to walk away from them. Her face had looked hurt. It made him regret his words. "Zara, wait-"

"No, Harry, maybe you're right," Zara said, swivelling around to face them, and he regretted his statement even more as his friend began to cry. "Maybe I am being cowardly. Or maybe it's just too much! Maybe I'm done fighting a war that only gets worse, and worse, and all that ever happens is death and destruction! Maybe I'm sick of everything being my bloody fault!"

And as Zara rapidly walked away from them all, guilt and grief consumed Harry. This war was his. He was losing it. And now so many were suffering for it.

Now Charlotte was suffering for it.

Love, cough and smoke consumed him.

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Hi everyone!
Instant credit for the french phrase goes to sweetners because even though she didn't make it up, she still did the research. She has an entire book dedicated to french proverbs- 10/10 would recommend.

I hope you enjoyed this suuper long chapter. I don't think it's my best but hey ho I tried my hardest.

QOTD: next planned trip?
AOTD: Im off abroad with school this week, I've been bragging like forever.

-Amber