Weeks before Dumbledore had come to get Diana from the hospital all those years ago, she had felt the spark.

It was like a sleeping beast awaking inside of her. There was a cage, and her heart was a monster, and it was dark out when she felt it: the hot blood inside of her, her heart was alive, more alive than it had ever been. That night, she later found out, was the night poor Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory died. The night her father was brought back.

That night was the first of many. She felt the same waking inside of her at the Ministry of Magic the night that Sirius died: her father was right in front of her, and he was alive and a monster, but she felt it then. She felt it the night Dumbledore died, and the night Bill and Fleur's wedding was attacked.

She felt it now.

It was a dreary day, all gray rain clouds and the dewy smell of rain and her boots sloshed through the puddle-strewn street. She was close to the forest, where it was only a mile's hike to a tall hill overlooking Malfoy Manor. The leaves dripped rain onto her hair and eyelashes, and the soft twigs underneath snapped with each step. It was so quiet here, nothing like the forest at Hogwarts. She only caught brief glimpses of wildlife, but they were only fleeting.

The secluded manor belonging to the Malfoys was a dark dwelling, all shadows and sharp angles and dark greens, dark stone and pointed arches. It was not the homely atmosphere of the Burrow, which always smelled of cooking food and sounded of laughs. This was a place that smelled like death, a place of foreboding silence and empty stares, a place in which a broken family insists they're anything but. It made Diana's skin crawl, even the peacock Patronuses looked dark, even though they were creatures forged from light.

She wondered what happy memory Lucius Malfoy conjured when he created the Patronuses. In a place like this with a person like that, she couldn't imagine that he felt anything remotely reminiscent of happiness. That house was only one that held misery. The darkened windows of the manor were curtained with black silk, obstructing any view inside. On the left-most side of the house, a certain window stood out: instead of onyx curtains, they were emerald green.

The feeling in her stomach, the spark, sizzled at the sight of the manor.

Narcissa Malfoy was stooped upon a bench near the furthest treeline, far from the back garden and far from the back door to the Manor. She held a thick book in her hands, flipping the page every minute or so, and for a long time, Diana just watched in silence. Narcissa was far, but Diana could make out the solemn expression on her face, the way her platinum hair was more a silvery gray. Though she was a Malfoy, known for the terror they bring, she was not a scary woman; she resembled more of someone too miserable, too dark, someone who had been dragged too far into something they never wanted to enter. Narcissa and her son were startlingly similar in the way that they weren't the bad people everyone believed they were.

With nimble fingers, Diana twirled her wand in her hand like a baton. The manor looked relatively empty, only the simple brush of a curtain here and there or the very occasional guest at the front gates.

Diana Apparated to the forest on the other side of the mansion from where she had just been, the forest that Narcissa's bench had its back to. She landed closer than she had anticipated, and the sharp crack of her arrival caught Narcissa's attention.

The woman stiffened, and she turned her head to peer into the trees. Diana huddled behind a thick tree trunk, her breathing silent. She listened as Narcissa stood up, the added weight crushing the leaves at her feet.

"Homenum Revelio."

Narcissa was close, her voice clear and loud. The human-revealing charm let out a throaty hiss, which meant someone was near.

"Who's there?" Narcissa shouted. Her voice echoed through the dark, deserted forest.

"Stupefy!"

Diana rolled out from behind the tree, and it exploded where she had just been.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Narcissa, caught off guard, stiffened like a board and fell to the ground, motionless. Diana glanced toward the house, but no one seemed to have heard.

She crawled to the woman's side and crouched over her so Narcissa could see her face. Narcissa's eyes widened.

"I'm not here to hurt you," said Diana quietly. "I promise, I'm not here to hurt you, I just need you to tell me what you know about my mother."

Narcissa's eyes hardened.

"You have to trust me," she said. "You're the only person who can help me find her.

"Rennervate."

Narcissa shot up with a gasp, scrambling backward, but she did not raise her wand.

"I need your help," said Diana quickly. "Please---"

"Help?" Narcissa spat. "My help? I shouldn't even be talking to you right now!"

Narcissa made to stand.

"You have to help me find her."

"Your mother's dead," she said, though she didn't stand.

"No she isn't," said Diana. "And I have a feeling you already know that."

Without breaking eye contact, Diana slowly moved her wand and placed it into her jacket pocket, and soon her hands were empty and up, her palms toward Narcissa.

"Please," said Diana, the word rolling off of her tongue a little too vulnerably. "I'm not here to hurt you or get you in trouble."

The silence was long a drawn out, but Diana waited patiently.

"What do you know?"

No hostility, no anger. She had gotten Narcissa to understand that on this, they were on the same side.

"I found a picture," explained Diana. "It was in Bathilda Bagshot's house."

Narcissa winced, but said nothing.

"You and my mother. The caption on the photo said something about how answers could always be found in the 'Light.' I didn't know what it meant, but it was my only lead. You were my only lead."

The leaves around them jostled with the wind, providing a background of white noise that seemed to comfort them.

"I didn't go that night."

Diana's heart pounded in her ears.

"What do you mean?"

"I couldn't go," said Narcissa, this time louder. She didn't seem to be listening to Diana. "I couldn't---I---It was Lucius. . . he wouldn't let me go, kept asking about where I was wanting to go. . . "

"Narcissa," said Diana gently. "What are you talking about?"

Narcissa was growing frantic, her voice wobbly and tears violently dropping from her eyes.

"I was supposed to go, it was the plan, it was supposed to work out, I was supposed to help---"

"What are you talking about?" said Diana, louder, desperate.

Narcissa took a rattling breath, her hands throwing themselves up to hug her own shoulders.

"The night you were to be born," said Narcissa. Diana's breath caught in her throat.

The forest around them seemed to melt away until it was just the two of them, floating in the silence of anticipation, just the two of them in the entire world. There was nothing for Diana to concentrate on but waiting for Narcissa.

"It--it was all planned," she said. Diana listened with bated breath. "I was to take you, to get you to safety, and leave her to deal with the Dark Lord.

"Lucius wouldn't let me go. . . he kept asking questions, he wouldn't let me go, but I had to do something. I couldn't let her down."

"What happened then?" Diana coaxed gently. She took a slow step forward.

"When I realized I couldn't go that night, I had to get someone else," said Narcissa quietly. The sound of her own blood gushing was the only sound to fill the void as she waited for Narcissa to go on.

"It had to have been someone I trusted," she continued. "Someone who I knew would keep the secret."

"Who was it?" she whispered. She took a step forward, and there were only mere feet between them now.

Narcissa swallowed, meeting Diana's eyes for a fleeting moment.

"Andromeda."

And then a sharp, deafening sound like a drill put Diana to her knees in pain, the screeching that made her ears feel like they could bleed, a horrible, terrible sound. The monster inside of her ripped itself from its cage, freeing itself, destroying her insides.

She grunted, biting her tongue until she tasted blood, grinding her teeth until they might crack.

She yelled in pain, her voice feral and ragged, her throat tearing with the force. It echoed through the woods for a few seconds until dissipating, before soon being replaced with the echoes of her grunts.

To her surprise, Narcissa was at her side, the woman's hands rested on her shoulders with concern.

"What's happening?" Diana bit out. She doubled over, the pain so overwhelming she felt as if she was dying.

"I--I don't---"

Narcissa froze.

She was looking in the direction of the Manor, her eyes gassy as she stared deep into space.

Suddenly, Narcissa muttered something just loud enough to hear.

"I think they have Potter."

Her body turned to ice. Her face slackened, the pain almost instantly eradicated. All sound seemed to be vanishing, all of the rustling leaves and all of the buzzing of insects.

She had always wondered what true fear felt like. Now, she thought she knew.

"What did you just say?" she whispered, though she hadn't meant to say it out loud.

Narcissa stood abruptly, her head turning forcefully between Diana and the Manor.

"You need to leave," she said at once, her voice low. "You need to get out of here---"

Diana scrambled to her feet.

"I am not leaving," she said in a dark tone she rarely used. She blood had turned to ice and her muscles tensed as if they were stone.

"You have to, they'll kill you---"

"Listen," Diana hissed. Her eyes had gone dark, and she pushed her way closer to Narcissa. "I am not leaving him---"

"You have no choice---"

"I am not leaving!" she snapped. Her voice cracked like a whip, cutting through the air. "You need to get me inside---"

"I cannot do that---"

"I'll protect Draco," she blurted. "If you get me inside, I'll protect him. No harm will come to him at my hands, and I will do all in my power to keep him safe."

Narcissa fell silent.

"You must promise."

"I give you my word."

Diana counted six seconds.

"Hold my arm."

Without hesitation, Diana seized her forearm at once.

They Disapparated, landing on the grass in a small indent in the stone of Malfoy Manor. It was hidden from any view, shadowed and dark and invisible.

Narcissa put her hand to the wall. Outlining her hand was a soft blue light, brighter and brighter until the wall fell away and created a door. It reminded her eerily of the entrance to Tom Riddle's cave.

Narcissa gave Diana a single, solitary nod before Disapparating right where she stood.

With her wand aloft, Diana entered Malfoy Manor in effort to save Harry Potter.

Because Harry Potter always needed saving and she was always there to do it.