'Do I knock? Or... is there a doorbell? Can you see a doorbell anywhere?'

'Oh my god Sturgis, just knock.'

'The door looks very heavy. I don't want to hurt my hand.'

'Oh for gods sake. Move!'

Gemma shoved him aside and rapped her knuckles against the door. It was a cold night, and she was hugging herself to stay warm.

The door was answered almost immediately, and she found herself face to face with Walburga Black. Just looking at the woman made her blood boil with fury, and if Walburga hadn't started talking, she probably would've forgotten all about her cover and hexed the woman then and there.

'Rosa!' Walburga said, smiling widely. 'We weren't expecting you tonight!'

'There was a slight altercation in our plans,' Sturgis said in a deeper voice, smiling thinly. Walburga's smile, impossibly, widened.

'Oh and Daniel as well!' Gemma stiffened as she heard her dad's name, but managed to cover it with a smile, 'oh do come in, its far too cold!'

Walburga and Sturgis chatted while they crossed the hallway to enter the ballroom.

Standing atop the staircase, Gemma was in absolute awe. It was as though she'd teleported back in time to the ball of some king or queen, as rich ladies and gentlemen danced and laughed and talked, dressed in their fancy clothes, while servers handed around drinks. So this is hell, she thought.

Her eyes began scanning the room. She nearly cried with relief when she saw Regulus, standing with Mulciber and Avery on the side of the room, while their parents conversed with each other. He seemed okay. Better than okay. He seemed normal.

'Well, I do hope you'll both enjoy yourselves,' Walburga said, flashing another smile at them. Sturgis bade her goodbye, and Gemma nodded politely. They both stood on the side of the room.

'We should dance,' he said suddenly.

'Dance?' She asked uncertainly. 'Why?'

'It'll look less suspicious to note my surroundings while twirling around than standing still.'

'I can't really dance, Sturgis.'

'Well, I can, and its not that hard. Come on.' He guided her very close to where Regulus was standing, and placed one hand on her waist and held her hand with his other. They began dancing, and she found that he was right, it wasn't that hard. She wasn't the most graceful person ever, but her co-ordination from quidditch certainly helped.

As they danced, she managed to listen in to Regulus' conversation, while Sturgis searched for a way to get upstairs.

'Shame that she's so against all this,' she heard Avery say. 'She'd be good, if you know what I mean.' Mulciber laughed, and Gemma wondered who he was talking about. She knew for certain it wasn't Iz though.

'Uh, what do you mean?' Regulus asked, but she could tell from his voice that he knew exactly what Avery meant.

'You'll understand when your older I guess,' Avery snickered, and Regulus faked a laugh, disguising his obvious anger.

'Hey, speak of the devil.' Mulciber nudged Regulus, and Gemma followed his gaze to see Elladora, walking through the door. So that's who they were talking about. 'Look at her.' Mulciber whistled, and Gemma felt sick thinking about how she'd kissed this guy.

'Corsets do wonders,' Avery shrugged with another smirk. Now she felt sick thinking about how Iz had snogged this guy. Were there no decent boys left in Slytherin house?

That was the tipping point for Regulus, who abruptly excused himself, and passed her to get to Elladora, smiling briefly. She grinned back, before realising she was twenty- two year old Rosa Kelderman, and quickly changed the greeting to a mere nod.

'Hey,' Sturgis whispered in her ear. 'I found an exit, but Rosier's in the way. Your gonna have to distract him.'

'Distract him?' She repeated, but he was already slipping away. She looked around and found Evan, downing a drink somewhere across the room. Forcing a smile on her face, she headed over to where he was standing.

'Hi,' she said, smiling at him and touching her hair. He looked at her rather surprised, and bowed his head respectfully.

'Pleasure to meet you,' he said. 'Your dress is exquisite, might I add.' Gemma nearly burst out laughing. To hear this from Evan, the boy who'd screamed when she'd thrown a dead fish at him two years ago, was beyond funny.

'Thank you,' she said, batting her eyelashes at him. 'Would you care to dance?'

'It would be my pleasure, but I'm afraid I must decline,' he said apologetically. 'I suspect Mrs Black will be coming to introduce me Lucius and Narcissa soon.'

Gemma allowed her eyes to subtly wander behind his back, and she saw Sturgis slipping through the exit, and gesturing her to follow when she get free. She gave a discreet thumbs up without raising her hand, so Evan wouldn't notice, and he nodded and left.

'Ah, no matter,' she said, feigning disappointment. 'Here comes Mrs Black now!'

Walburga walked over, giving a brief nod to her, and then turning to face Evan. 'Come, Evan, I wish for you to meet Narcissa and Lucius.' Evan gave her a knowing glance, and followed.

Gemma surveyed the surroundings to make sure nobody saw her, before slipping away after Sturgis.

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.

She hurried up the steps as quickly yet quietly as she could. She had no idea where Sturgis had gone, and she would have screamed when a hand suddenly yanked her into a dark, open room, if it hadn't been for the hand covering her mouth.

'Sshhh,' Sturgis hissed. 'Its just me.' She punched him and he groaned.

'You scared the shit out of me,' she snapped quietly. She looked around. 'What are we doing in here?'

'Looking,' he said. He beckoned her to a closet, and they both stood staring at it.

'At... this closet?'

'No,' he snapped. 'Listen.' She listened, and there seemed to be noises coming from it.

'What the hell...'

He began to move the closet, wincing as it made a loud grinding noise against the stone floor. She helped him, and after strenuous effort, they finally managed to push it out of the way. She stared in shock as there was a massive crack in the floor, through which they could see and hear everything going on in the ballroom below. They crouched down.

'Wow,' she whispered.

'I noticed the crack in the ceiling when we were dancing,' he explained. 'Knew it would be good for something. Its so much easier to listen in when nobody can see you. Now we can figure out who the occlumens is.'

'Great,' she said, a sinking feeling in her chest. Now she realised just how much danger she'd put the occlumens in, she'd just thought it'd get brushed under the rug.

'We won't be killing anyone,' he reassured her, seeming to read her thoughts. 'We would just tell the Order about them.'

'And then they'd kill them. So, we basically are killing them.'

'We are not!' he said. 'The blood isn't on our hands.'

'Let me guess,' she said, rolling her eyes. 'You were in Gryffindor?'

'So?' He said, crossing his arms. She rolled her eyes.

'That explains everything.'

'Um, what does it explain?'

'Literally everything. Now shut up.'

'No, seriously, what does it explain?!'

'Sshh.'

They listened in to conversations for around five minutes before any useful information- or for Gemma, dreaded information- reached their ears. Gemma had had to snap at him at least five times for irritating her by singing the Mamma Mia song by ABBA, she liked the band but definitely wasn't in the mood to hear his dreadful singing.

'Cassiopeia!' She heard a man say, and she adjusted her position to see it was a man who looed strikingly like Sirius, just older.

'Orion,' Cassiopeia Hargreaves greeted. No, she thought. If Cassiopeia accidentally mentioned that Elladora was the occlumens...

'I wanted to discuss, regarding the union of Elladora and Regulus,' Orion said.

'It is a fine idea,' Cassiopeia said immediately. 'A marriage between Elladora and Regulus, keeping the prestige of both households...'

Gemma didn't hear any more; Cassiopeia's words were ringing too loudly in her ears. Marriage? She knew purebloods married young, and arranged, but she'd never considered the possibility that Regulus would be one of those people...

She almost went spiralling until Sturgis suddenly shoved her harshly, knocking her back behind the closet and into the wall. She saw him stand, and her blood went cold when she heard a voice.

'Daniel,' said the gruff voice, 'what exactly are you doing here?'

'Just... wanted some fresh air, you know,' Sturgis laughed, before his eyes widened in realisation. He'd forgotten to change his voice.

'Impedimenta!' The gruff voice roared, and Sturgis just jumped out of the way. The explosion however, meant he lost his wand, the large man picked him up by the collar. With a flick of his wand, Sturgis' disguise disappeared and he was back to his blond self.

'You,' the Death Eater growled. He began dragging Sturgis downstairs, and with incredible luck, did not take a step further to check the room, or he would have seen Gemma crouched behind the wardrobe.

'Shit,' Gemma whispered when the room was empty. She fumbled into the pockets of her cloak. 'Shit shit shit..'

She pulled out the galleons, and tapped it with her wand. Nothing happened, and she stumbled towards the crack in the floor to see what was going on.

The ballroom descended into silence the minute Sturgis was dragged in, and whispers began bubbling all over. Somehow, he was still managing to grin at the man holding him, while Gemma despaired silently. How on Earth was she going to get him out of there?

'What a surprise,' she heard someone cackle. She didn't even have to look; she'd recognise that voice anywhere.

'Hey Bella, how've ya been?' Sturgis asked Bellatrix Black in a friendly manner, and she snarled at him in response. 'Okay okay, I guess stunning you in a duel doesn't make us friends. Yikes.'

'Why are you here?' Rodolphus Hargreaves asked.

'We heard you had a skilled occlumens, so we-'

'Gemma!' Alarmed, she spun, and nearly gasped with relief when she saw Dorcas.

'Dorcas,' she whispered. 'Sturgis, they've caught him-'

'I know.' Dorcas cast a dark look at the door. 'We need to go.'

'Go?' Gemma repeated. 'Dorcas, what about Sturgis?'

'We have to leave him behind.'

'What?' Gemma said incredulously.

'Gemma,' Dorcas said through gritted teeth. 'He knows the risks. We cannot save everyone immediately. We come back for him, with some planning, or we'll both be caught too.'

'They'll kill him by then!'

'They won't. I know how this works. They'll try to interrogate him, but Sturgis is tough. So they'll have to summon the Dark Lord to get information out of him with legilimency.

Gemma wanted to argue, but it was evident in Dorcas' face that her words were paining her much more than Gemma, and she seemed to be trying to convince herself, so she squeezed her eyes shut, and nodded.

They apparated away.

a/n- yall we gotta talk. i supposedly have 81 'engaged readers' but nobody really says much around here but i got a question. how important is smut? bc ive never written it but like i could try ig... 

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