◤ ❝The Dark Lord instructs us as if we are puppets tangled beneath his hand, tugging on our strings any time he needs something. He has infiltrated the Ministry as if their words were stitched to be his own; he has infiltrated the Death Eaters so that they will lay their precious lives down for him; he has infiltrated Hogwarts with his own deceit and fear leering in the veins of three puppets on his strings... he has infiltrated the very ground you stand on, Potter. You, just as I am, are a puppet for him to play with. Nothing can cut you free of him. Nothing.❞ ― Andromeda Erebus ◢

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CHAPTER NINE:          KERES

October 17, 1996

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THE EVENING PROPHET

―――――――――――――

"MINISTRY OF MAGIC CALLS FOR SEARCH IN HOMES OF DEATH EATERS: MALFOY AND EREBUS MANORS STILL UNDER SUSPICION"

Two of the Wizarding World's most wealthy and notorious families have returned to the spotlight. After the trial of Lucius Malfoy and the death of Alastiare Erebus (captured above, formerly under the Imperius Curse until his death in June), the families are once again under suspicion for aiding in He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. However, with Malfoy's incarceration and Erebus' murder, their estates were left to the wives of the Death Eaters as their children, Draco Malfoy and Andromeda Erebus, continue their studies at Hogwarts. Another search was placed on the Malfoy manor this afternoon with Narcissa Malfoy as the sole occupant of the home.

This second search of the Death Eater's residence does not seem to have yielded any results. Arthur Weasley of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects said that his team had been acting upon confidential tip-off. They will continue their search in the family manor of Alastiare Erebus (left to wife, Celicia Erebus) in hopes of uncovering more information as the Malfoy manor brought forth no new evidence to the Ministry. 

Erebus has been a topic of argument recently in the Wizarding World. Although confirmed by former Minister Cornelius Fudge to be under the Imperius Curse, others are beginning to speculate it false. Fudge has given no further response on this issue, and those involved in the Battle at the Department of Mysteries refuse to come forth and give detail on what happened the night of Erebus' death. For now, the Ministry of Magic will stay by their claim that the Erebus family was tragically coerced by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and suffered a fatal loss as a result of an Unforgivable curse. His residence will be searched later on this afternoon by Arthur Weasley and his team. The Evening Prophet will update with more information as the search progresses.

―――――――――― 

October 18, 1996

"—so you see, there is, in fact, evidence that supports..."

Theodore watched on with boredom as Professor Slughorn spluttered out a testament on why Draught of Peace could very easily be made into the Draught of Living Death if not careful. Most everyone in the N.E.W.T. level class, aside from the few Ravenclaws and Granger, was having difficulty keeping up with the man's whirlwind explanations. Theodore had long since given up taking notes in the class, settling on the practicality and his partner. Speaking of, the weight on his shoulder shifted, and Theodore glanced down with gentle eyes at the heap of dark hair sprawled across his Slytherin robes. Andromeda had fallen asleep only a few minutes after stumbling into her chair, muttering at Theodore that she was fine up until her body was—quite literally—crashing into his side.

Thankfully, Slughorn was too busy rendering himself speechless to pay attention to her—or any of the Slytherins in the back of the classroom, to be fair. He rarely ever glanced their way if Mia wasn't the one with her hand raised. She was, after all, the one that he favored most. Blaise never spoke up enough for Slughorn to notice him, and Draco and himself had discovered early on that they would receive no acknowledgement from their professor given their fathers' affiliations. If he did, it was out of politeness.

Theo worried, as he always seemed to, more and more about his little cousin. He'd noticed the last month that she wasn't as focused in her classes, but after she started to skip meals and sneak out of the common room after curfew, his concern skyrocketed tenfold. She was thinning, and there seemed to be permanent, dark shadows underneath her eyes from lack of sleep. Her hair was unkempt, clothes wrinkled and disheveled any time she showed up to class. He knew in his heart that there was something going on, but as much as he asked, she was quick to shut him down with excuses. Grief would have been an excuse had the fair-haired boy across from him not started exhibiting similar signs of exhaustion.

Draco, unlike Mia, was sitting upright in his chair with open eyes, but they were no more aware of the world around him that hers were. He had been absentmindedly picking at the same corner of his book for the past half hour, oblivious to anything aside from the small paper cuts that were starting to form the longer that he played with the edging. Theodore wasn't a fool—he knew that there was something going on between his cousin and the Malfoy boy, but he promised Andromeda that he wouldn't pry into it anymore. He trusted her—more than anyone else in his life, but he did not and would never be able to trust Draco. He'd grown up with him for far too long to trust anything about a Malfoy. That's what his father always taught him.

The shuffling of stools brought him out of his thoughts, blinking once or twice when he realized that everyone but the Slytherins were rushing to get out of the Potions classroom. Theodore pressed a hand to Mia's back, gently shaking her awake. The weight on his shoulder stirred, and then it was gone as she lifted up to see what was happening. Not too long after, Draco was glancing up from his tattered corner, as well, with a tired glint in his eyes. Blaise only let out a relieved yelp, muttering about the idiocy of their lesson as he stood up.

"Finally finished for the week," Blaise said, glancing at them. "Hogsmeade tomorrow. Don't forget. We're meant to meet the others back in the common room after breakfast. I need Firewhiskey to keep me from throwing myself into the Black Lake after this week's tirade. I reckon I can get some from Hog's before anyone notices."

Draco was quiet, his words barely making a sound as he collected his books. "Won't be going. I have detention with McGonagall for not doing the last two homework assignments."

Mia, who had been trying to shake the feeling back into the right side of her body, paused her motions to watch Draco with a curious stare. Even in her stupor, she could tell that he was acting odd. She knew all of his moods well enough by now to discern between him being tired and him being distant. He was building up that wall of indifference that she had grown to loathe so much. This week had been stressful for the two of them, with the Evening Prophet and classes picking up in workload. Sleep became less of a priority to them, especially Mia. Difference was, Mia actually still managed her assignments unlike her counterpart.

"Of course you do." Blaise's lip turned up in annoyance, then glanced between Mia and Theodore as they stood up. "And what about you two? Mia looks as if she's going to eat the floor any second—does that mean you won't be joining us either?"

"And pass up Dimwit One and Two's search for something out in the real world that finds them attractive?" Mia asked, raising her brows as she scoffed in disbelief. She didn't miss the tension in Draco's shoulders when she said she was going tomorrow. "I'd never miss them publicly humiliating themselves. Besides, I need to go to Tomes and Scrolls."

Theodore's brows furrowed at her as the four of them walked out of the Potions room and into the dungeons. "What for? I thought you got all of your supplies earlier on in the year." 

"Sinistra assigned us a newer version of the star chart for Astronomy that I need to get before next class."

Mia only gave a small glance Draco's way as she spoke, but he was too busy watching the ground. The truth, as all she ever seemed to do was lie anymore, was that she needed to find one of the spellbooks that she remembered her father having in his library. Because the Weasel's prying father was eager to search the Malfoy and Erebus manors on accounts of a tip-off (without a doubt procured by Potter), neither her mother nor Narcissa could send anything from their manor to their children in accordance with the Ministry law. Unfortunately, Mia had already gone through all of Maryam and Twoff's books to no avail, and she was a quarter of the way through Stout's reparations guide with no success. If there was no progress by the end of that book, she would have to resort to other methods of reading. 

Draco had been searching through his own pile of books that she gave him from that summer. What had once been a trade off between them turned into a group effort, every night. They were more than halfway through the list of spells she'd written down prior to school starting, and the most any of them did was fix the cracks on the cabinet. Anything they attempted to send to the other in Borgin and Burkes would only come out splintered or sliced to pieces—the pressure was starting to suffocate them. It wouldn't be long until they had to report their progress to one of the other followers, and although Mia's mission with Slughorn was going somewhere, the biggest problem of all was still failing. 

Not to mention, Draco had been more persistent and on edge than usual the past week. Mia was too exhausted to question his odd actions, though. The first time she had laid her head down in the last thirty-six hours was on Theodore in Potions, and even that had her staggering on her feet as she walked to their House from the dungeons. Rationally, she would be better off if she stayed back at Hogwarts and caught up on a few hours of rest while everyone was gone. Directing eyes away from her and Draco was more important, and it would be better if at least one of them tagged along. Potter suspected them to be working together and his persistence was not lacking in the least, and everyone else just suspected that they were shagging in dark corridors. Neither were pleasant accusations that Mia wanted to be tied to.

Plus, she really needed that book. 

――――――――――

October 19, 1996

The next day was gloomier than the students were hoping for, which meant that the trip to Hogsmeade would not be the most pleasant venture that they'd ever had. Not that it ever was during this time of year. A lot of the third years moped around because it was snowing and storming outside the first time they would be old enough to attend, but they were easily ignored. It only took a few minutes for she, Tracey, and Daphne to bundle themselves up in thick coats overtop their ropes after breakfast that morning. Mia barely looked in the direction of Pansy's bed, knowing that underneath the heap of covers was the young girl crying over Draco. Bulstrode even looked fed up with Parkinson's tears, but her lack of movement suggested that she wouldn't be going to Hogsmeade either. 

As they walked back towards the common room, Daphne fumbled around with her coat. "Theodore is coming, isn't he, Mia?" 

"Unless he's changed his mind in the last day, I believe so," Mia said. 

"Oh, good!" Daphne blushed. "I—I just mean, I'm glad that he's going. Ever since his father's incarceration, he hasn't been as social as he once was...I just—I worried..." 

"Theodore has never been social, Greengrass. He's been civil, at most." Tracey snorted from beside Mia and turned to give her a smug smirk. "I hear that Vaisey is also going to Hogsmeade. Baddock was babbling like a child last night about how he was joining a few seventh-years to drool over the latest broom for his first trip to Hogsmeade—Vaisey was mentioned." 

"As expected," Mia bluntly spoke, her tired eyes sulking at the Black Lake. "He's a seventh year. On the Quidditch team. I would have expected him to be one of the few, considering there are so few of them."

The girl next to her visibly rolled her eyes in Mia's peripheral vision. "Why, you are just a cauldron of joy today...maybe you should stay behind and sleep, Andromeda. Your unpleasant personality is borderline unbearable today. Trying to show up Parkinson?" 

"As if I could ever compete with her delightful self. It's a wonder she hasn't been called forth to be the beacon of light during such dark and perilous times, you know." 

Daphne scoffed. "You two are horrible. Show a little compassion, why don't you? Her boyfriend just broke up with her."

"Two weeks ago. I've barely seen her breathe fresh air since then. My compassion went to the extent of telling her she deserved better, and that's as far as it will extend. Pitying her does nothing, Daphne. Our entire year could see that he never loved her. She was a fool to believe that they would stay together. Teenage relationships," Mia sent a pointed stare Tracey's way before she could say something about Vaisey, "are stupid. What's the point in loving someone when you know they will only break your heart?"

The group of four boys shuffled from the corridors of the men's dormitories, bound in their winter attire. Daphne glanced Theodore's way and felt a twinge of pain in her chest. "I don't know, Mia... sometimes you allow your heart to break for the sliver of hope that they will love you just as much in return."

"And that is why hope is even more foolish to believe in than love." 

Their conversation lulled to silence as the others came over to them, starting their descend to the grounds. Draco, as she knew he would be, was absent, probably on his way to his detention with McGonagall. When she asked him about it the night before, stuck in the Room of Requirements with books scattered around them, he almost seemed relieved that he wasn't going. He acted even more odd when he asked her more than once not to go to Hogsmeade, although he gave no reason why aside from resting. Mia could see that he was hiding something from her. She just hadn't quite figured out what yet.

Theodore sent a kind smile her way as they walked together, making the familial comfort rise in her chest and the guilt surge not long after. Anyone with eyes could tell that he was worried about her, and she truly believed her cousin was a Saint for not badgering her with questions any longer. She expected it, still. Theo had always protected her, and even seeing her own appearance had her concerned—she would have already demanded to know what he was up to had the roles been switched. However, there was something tugging in her gut that told her Theodore already knew. Not what she was doing, but who she had become. What she had become. Like an unhealed wound, the Mark on her arm seared a bit at the thought.

All of them paused in surprise when they noticed the long line waiting to leave through the front door, wrapping around to the Great Hall. Filch was standing in the front lines of it with a crumbled check list and that blasted Secrecy Sensor. Mia wanted to roll her eyes, knowing that there was a likelihood that the thing didn't even work. He had been beating the thing against his palm when they arrived at Hogwarts earlier that year. It was only when their small group finally got to the front that Mia recognized the tall head of orange hair at the head of it, his regular counterparts beside him. 

"What does it matter if we're smuggling Dark stuff out?" Weasley asked in confusion as Filch prepared to jab him with the Sensor. "Surely you ought to be checking what we bring back in?"

Theodore hummed from her side, speaking lowly. "He has a point, you know."

"Doesn't mean you should give him any credit for it," Mia muttered, giving him a side eye as they moved up in the line. "The three of them have big enough heads as it is. No need to make it bigger."

She walked up to Filch, muttering her name and watching as his eye twitched suspiciously from her to the few Slytherins that were behind her. Of course. He'd never liked their little group, only after Dolores Umbridge created the Inquisitorial Squad did he finally look at Slytherins like they were more than delinquents (albeit, Mia and Theo had no involvement in that). Now that the pink devil from hell had disappeared, it seemed the opinions had returned. The long Sensor was stuck in her direction, and when it failed to hum to Filch's disappointment, Mia walked past him and into the cold, waiting for the others. From the corner of her eye, she'd noticed that Harry was watching her go through the Sensor check. Unbelievable, she thought in the back of her mind.

As expected, the route to Hogsmeade was not a great one. Students all around her were shivering, rolled up tightly in their coats and clinging onto one another for warmth as they fought the snow. Mia did not miss the look on Theodore's face when Daphne moved closer to his side, the two of them practically one body as she took the opportunity to find warmth. It was only after they finally arrived past the hill and could see the entrance of Hogsmeade that they separated, just as Daphne's breathe got caught in her throat and she let out a small gasp.

Hogsmeade had once been gorgeous when it snowed, but now, it only looked like a wasteland of shops. A large majority of the popular places were not gleaming with the same energy as before. The happiness of Hogsmeade had been sucked from its ground, and all of the students noticed as they cautiously shuffled around the shops that were open. She moved quickly past with Tracey beside her muttering about the state of the shops. Zonko's Joke Shop was boarded up, and Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop was casting a pale, deathly shadow of pink rather than its lively color. 

"This is so sad..." Daphne whispered, her words causing a breath of air to show from the cold. 

Tracey crossed her arms around her chest for warmth. "Not as bad as Diagon Alley. My mother wouldn't even let me go there this summer...it's a surprise she even signed for approval to go to Hogsmeade." 

"But they haven't touched Hogsmeade. This was out of..."

"Fear." Mia felt the dryness in her throat as she spoke. "This was out of fear." 

Andromeda knew who Daphne was referring to when she said 'they'. She was one of them. The others understood just as well. The Death Eaters hadn't laid a single curse on Hogsmeade, and yet it was sucked of all its life just like Diagon Alley had been. That was what the War was doing to everyone; it was taking everything, and in its absence, turning the world around them to a cold, dark grey. It was the feeling of fear that turned most things to grey. Daphne cast her a sad look, putting her head down as they quickened their pace to get to the Three Broomsticks. 

Mia followed them up until they got to Tomes and Scrolls, placing a hand on Theo's arm. "I'll meet up with you at Three Broomsticks later. Watch out for Zabini. He's too giddy to get his hands on some Firewhiskey." 

Theo snorted but said nothing, nodding once and ducking his head as he jogged to catch up to the others. Mia quickly opened the door to Tomes of Scrolls, the wind fighting her as she stepped inside. The bookshop was warm, and she sighed in relief as the feeling started to return to her limbs. Reuben Taft was sitting at the front desk, his greying hair and large spectacles hanging off his face as he leaned back in his chair. He was asleep, surrounded by stacks of books that looked like they would fall any second. The tug of familiarity hurt her heart. She had spent so much time in this store when she would come to Hogsmeade. Taft had become a friend. It was reassuring to see that he kept the store open. 

The ringing of the bell woke him, the old man sitting up in his chair with crazed eyes. The stack closest to him started to fall, and Mia jolted forward with her wand. Wingardium Leviosa. The stack of books were carefully placed back on the counter just as Taft finally gathered his surroundings, blinking at the stack like it were a mermaid. He looked over to see who saved his books from the fall, and his withering face turned to shock as he saw Andromeda. 

"Miss Erebus. Why, this is a surprise...I wasn't expecting to see you this year," Taft said, his words gruff from previous slumber. 

That wasn't all there was to it. Mia noticed the wary look in his eyes that hadn't been there in previous visits...and although she had not cried in years, there was the urge to sob in that very moment when she recognized that stare. He feared her. Only then did she see that there was a stack of different articles from the Quibbler and the Daily Prophet next to him, most recently the one that had come out on two days prior about her and Malfoy's fathers. She knew immediately. He looked at her the same way that everyone else did. With a distance so far away that he could not put aside her family's relationship to the Dark Lord—he feared that she, too, was involved. Just as she rightly was.

Iron crept up in her mouth without realizing that she had bit her tongue. "Hello, sir. I just came to find a few books for my Defense class." 

"Very well..." he replied, nodding as he glanced at the endless, disorganized rows of books. "Find whatever you want. I'll be up at the front if you need any help." 

Mia nodded, and she went towards the aisles without another word. Normally, they would have sat and had a conversation about books she was reading for class, mainly History of Magic. That seemed wrong now, so she gave up another part of her innocence and walked in the direction of darkness instead. Her fingers found the spines of the books, gently caressing them as she walked further down the aisle to look for a specific section. Taft separated his books by its use, not by its author. Something different than most bookstores, but incredibly helpful for her as she went directly for the reparations and repairs section.

It wasn't comforting to see that the section was small, and most of the books Mia already read. She sat down on the cold, wooden floor, eyes drawing along the row of books with curious eyes. Maryam, Waffling, Goshawk, Twoff, Stout, Reets...her eyes caught the name that she was looking for, gleaming with hope as she all but ripped the black, leather book from the its place between Leasel Winx and Malcolm Gest. It was unusually thick, and Mia would wager that it had more pages than the Monster Book of Monsters. On the front of the book was lettering branded red into the book. Corvillio Epps was stamped largely at the bottom, but it was the picture of a broken wand in the center of it that she remembered from her father's library. 

The bell from the front door rang, but Mia payed no mind to it. "Oh, hello, my boy! Come in, come in...have a look around and get warm!" 

She went to open up the first page of the book, leaning back against the bookshelf behind her to get comfortable. Even though she told Theo, she had absolutely no intention of going to the Three Broomsticks to see her friends drunk and giggling. Sitting in the back of the bookstore was a better way to spend her time in Hogsmeade anyway. The first line of the book was just the title printed in large text.

MENDING THE UNMENDABLE—

"All that is broken can be unbroken," said someone to her right, finishing the title for her. Mia tensed, glancing up to see who was intruding on her space. Vaisey stood tall, peering down at her with a grin. "Well, that is a true statement...I might argue that the title is tad bit redundant, though."

She looked up at him with tired eyes. "What are you doing here, Vaisey?" 

"Back to Vaisey, now, are we?" he asked, raising his brows. "I quite liked when you called me by my first name. Made me believe we were actually becoming close friends." 

Mia bit back a frown. "We are friends, Andrew."

"That's a relief... because now I can ask why you are sitting alone in the back of a bookstore while all of your other friends joke around in Three Broomsticks. That's extreme isolation, even for you."

Andrew's tone of voice had changed from a joking manner to concern, his brows dropping as he stared down at her with worry. He broke eye contact only long enough to glance down at where he was standing, weighing his options before deciding on sitting down across from her, his back up against another shelf of books sectioning love spells. Ironic. Mia watched him with a blank stare as he adjusted himself on the ground, and only when he turned back to her did she scowl. 

"Precisely why you said. To be alone," she explained, inferring that he was changing those plans by being near her. 

He hummed, unphased by her unpleasantries. "Want to tell me why you want to be alone? Or why your friend, Davis, grabbed me before we came here because she was worried about you? She wanted me to talk to you...she thought you'd actually talk to me. Now I told her that was preposterous because Andromeda Erebus doesn't talk to anyone if she doesn't want to—"

"Nor do I talk to people who are under obligation to speak to me," Mia finished, coldly.

Andrew's face twisted in distaste at that. "I'm under no obligation here, Mia, unless that obligation is worrying for someone I care about. Davis may have come to me, but I had every intention of speaking to you on this trip already...so, what is going on? I haven't seen you come up to dinner in days. You never spend time in the common room anymore...and you seem tired. Not physically. Mentally. Like your mind has not rested in days."

Mia didn't like feeling cornered, nor did she like how her mind was screaming at her to just speak to someone about what she was facing. Draco hadn't been a confidant in days, and she desperately needed to talk to someone that didn't suffer the same weight as she did. She couldn't, though. Not only was it lunacy to mention any of her plan to Vaisey, but it was also dangerous. If he learned of what she had to do, he could relay the information to his father and that would be the end of their mission and their lives. Instead, Mia swallowed down that taste of iron from before and ignored all of the urges to speak her truth. 

"Nothing is going on. Classes are starting to pick up, and I'm only trying to stay afloat." 

"Lies," Vaisey scoffed. "You are an exceptional student. Always have been. No class would cause as much distress as you've been showing...is this about the Evening Prophet from the other day?"

Mia's entire body froze. The emotion dripped off her face as she looked at Vaisey with narrowed eyes. She liked Andrew, far too much for her own good, but she absolutely despised how he knew exactly what to say to get her to talk. This was the first time he pushed to talk about her family. In all the times that they had spoken, he never brought up the subject of her father. That he did now made her cautious because she knew just as well that she was far too comfortable sitting here talking to him to remain cold to him. He only meant well, and she meant the complete opposite. 

"I believe your father was Cursed, you know," he started, leaning his head back to break eye contact with her. He looked so at ease. "I've only read what everyone else did, but...if a man can raise someone with a kindness like yours...a goodness like yours...I believe that man must know what it means to be good, as well..."

How wise he was to be so wrong about her. "You say that as if I'm kind and good."

"Oh, I know you don't think you are. Unlike most in our house, your arrogance is carried by your knowledge, not esteem—that's one of the very best kinds...but you are good, Andromeda. Ever since your father passed, it seems like you've built a mold and tried to sculpt out the very best parts of you just to fit what everyone else thinks is true. You've forgotten that there are people out there who have seen that good in you...people who don't believe what the rest of the world so easily accepts as the truth."

The calmness in which Vaisey spoke was the most triggering of it all, and Mia could feel those tears from before start to well up in her eyes as she stared at the boy. He was still watching ahead of him, eyes on the ceiling and unaware of the effect his words had on her. All this time—all this time she thought that she was being convincing, maybe not to her cousin, but to everyone else. She believed she could erase the part of her that was still a child, the part of her that had compassion, because it would only get her killed in the end. Just as it had her father. But erasing it was much harder than she thought, and her reaction to Taft earlier proved that.

Emotions were what led her to speak. "It's easier—to allow everyone to believe in the absolute worst of me. If I'm exactly what they fear, then there is no way they will be disappointed when I end up doing the very thing they expect." 

"And what is it that you think they expect of you?" he asked, finally looking her way. She hated the way his face softened when he saw hers. "Because the world has expected things from all of us, Mia...because we are Slytherin, because we are pureblood, because we have magic. Expectations do not mean inevitability. You have proven every expectation wrong before. You have that choice. There is no one in this world that can take that away from you." 

Except Voldemort.

Before Mia could even think of saying anything in response, Vaisey was reaching out to grab a hold of her hand. She hadn't realized that the book in her hands was closed, hanging limply in her left hand. She should have ripped her hand away from him, but the unfamiliar warmth coated her fingertips as he gripped it softly. It was only when the blood rushed to her head that she realized she could hear her erratic heartbeat in the thumping of her ears. 

"I know you don't see yourself the way that I see you," Andrew said, softly, as he squeezed her hand. "But I am entirely determined to make you realize it...because I believe that there is something beautiful about you, and possibly something dangerous, but nothing that I fear. I think the only danger you pose to me is the way I feel when I'm around you."

The blood rushed to her cheeks now, and she could feel the redness creeping up her face as she realized Andrew Vaisey had just admitted that he had feelings for her. What she had been hoping to happen for so long finally was, and yet, where there should have been excitement and joy was only complete and utter heartache—because just when she recognized that she may have felt the same way, she was living an entirely different life. She was an entirely different person than the little girl with a schoolboy crush. Now, she understood the look on Daphne's face from earlier. She was sure she wore it similarly right then.

"Andrew—"

"I'm interrupting you because I fully expect that what you say will break my heart into smithereens," he interjected with a halfhearted grin on his face. "Instead, I'm going to just ask if you will please go with me to Three Broomsticks. Your friends care about you. Their happiness comes from a place that includes you, you know."

This time, she had nothing else to say. "Okay." 

He got up first with his hand still in hers, allowing him to carefully pull her off the ground. Mia grabbed a hold of Epps' book, walking to the front of the store. She made sure to quickly grab one of the star charts that Taft had set up in the front as an afterthought, ignoring eye contact with the man as he wrote down the two things that she quickly bought. Even though she never looked directly at him, she could feel the unease and questions rolling off his withering body as he glanced between her and Vaisey. Thankfully, they were back out in the cold before they got any more questioning stares. 

They were only a bit of a distance away from Three Broomsticks, but the wind was still kicking the snow around and making everything difficult to see. Only when they got to the hill separating the first few shops from the rest did both of them freeze up when they heard the sound of screaming. Without a glance, they took off quickly to figure out where the sound was coming from, and the utter terror crept up their spines when they rounded on the small crowd of people in the middle of the path. 

Katie Bell was suspended six feet off the ground, her hair whipping around her face from the wind with closed eyes. That was not the worst part, though. The world around them grew dim for a few moments, as if the very light was being drained until an eerie cold swept around them. It was the feeling of Dark Magic happening. Katie's mouth was open wide, screaming bloody murder as Leanne Thixton cried and grabbed hopelessly at her friend's ankle. Mia was in shock, watching with wide eyes as Potter, Weasley, and Granger all struggled to pull Katie back to the ground. She went crashing into the snow after a few harsh tugs, and Vaisey was running forward to help the others.

Katie thrashed on the ground, her screams never dulling as she clawed at the air around her. Potter was shouting, standing up quickly to turn around and find someone to help them. He paused only for a moment to stare at the teenage girl a few feet away from him, Katie's screeches piercing the quiet air around them. Andromeda Erebus looked as if someone had been murdered right in front of her, eyes mimicking hysterical terror that he had never seen on another person before. It was then that he realized she had no hand in what was happening to Katie Bell. Not even Andromeda could fake the petrified look she was giving Katie, a hand on her mouth to hold in her own scream. It was because Andromeda now knew why. 

She looked his way, and for the first time, Harry Potter saw right into Andromeda's heart. 

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Author's Note:

I LOVE this chapter. It's a big turning point for this book, especially earlier on, as Andromeda is slowly starting to change out of her views from the beginning of the book. Her coldness and bitterness is wearing down the further she gets into the year and into her mission. 

Also, I ADORE Andrew Vaisey. Just wanted to put that out there. Anyone else love him?

 What do you think will happen next chapter? How do you think Mia will react? Will she know who did that to Katie Bell? 

Let me know what you're excited for! Comments on this story, even small ones, make my entire day guys. It helps me to figure out where you guys want the story to go and what you're thinking about it. So, please, comment!!

KERES:FEMALE SPIRITS OF DEATH, daughters of Erebus