Chapter 280: No Escape

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 280: No Escape

Both Pansy and her mother became alarmed.

"You are hurt!" Aurora just noticed that her husband was not only terrified but his robes were in a terrible state and his left arm was bleeding.

"Where is Albert?!" Lord Parkinson ignored his wife's concerns while he looked around the hall.

"The butler? You sent him away, remember? Perseus, tell me what is going on. Who attacked you?" Aurora asked.

Pansy approached her father. "Dad, what is going on? You lock us at home, then you disappear and n-"

Lord Parkinson turned his gaze to her and screamed. "Now now!"

This was so out of character that neither Pansy nor Aurora knew how to react. One thing that everyone could agree on when it came to Lord Parkinson was that the man was always calm and composed, no matter the situation.

Pansy had never seen her father lose his mind in such an extreme way. While Aurora hadn't seen him like this since…

"Perseus… is this about…" She did not want to ask. The words stuck in her mouth.

"Those bloody traitors! All of them, bloody hell. I'm going to kill them all!" Lord Parkinson was not in the mood to listen at the moment.

He clutched at his wound while pacing around the dining hall as his wife and daughter waited for an explanation.

After a minute of this, he stopped and looked at them.

"Forget your things, we must leave now! We can go to the beach cottage in Italy. No one knows about that one."

"We have a cottage in Italy?" Pansy definitely didn't know about that.

"We haven't been there in fifteen years. The house must be a mess. And you haven't told me what is going on yet! Who are we running away from?!" Aurora was now sure that her husband had gotten involved in something very dangerous and probably illegal. She could only hope it had nothing to do with…

"Come on! get in the fireplace. We have to leave now before it's too late. They will come here soon." Perseus Parkinson exclaimed.

"Who is coming here?" Pansy was beginning to panic also, after seeing her father like that. Even though she didn't understand anything that was happening right now.

"How can anyone get here so easily? We have only given entrance to the Malfoys and they are gone," Lady Parkinson said.

Over many years, Lord Parkinson had been extremely careful and reserved when it came to showing the location of his many properties to the public.

Only one of them was used for parties while another was used for important meetings. But the main house, the Parkinson ancestral manor… they had only ever revealed the location to those who were to join their family.

Lady Parkinson was only granted entrance the day of her engagement.

Lucius Malfoy's son, Draco, was meant to marry Pansy. So they allowed their family access to their house when their engagement became official.

But then Lucius died and the betrothal was canceled by Lord Parkinson, who felt that the Malfoys had lost too much of their status and wealth and were no longer worthy of such a marriage. A short time after that, both Draco and his mother Narcissa had disappeared in mysterious circumstances, never to be seen again.

Aurora, as well as many of the ladies she spoke with on occasions, believed that Lucius had gotten involved in something shady. The man was well known for collecting dark artifacts. Perhaps a deal went wrong and he was killed as a result.

So most believed that both his wife and son were already dead. Perhaps killed by the same person who ended Lucius's life.

Lord Parkinson's expression changed when his wife mentioned the Malfoy name. "The Malfoys are the worst of them all! They are all ungrateful traitors! After everything I have done for them… for our cause…"

"Wait, have you seen Draco?" Pansy was shocked. She never thought to hear about that boy again, after he disappeared in such a way.

"Narcissa and her son are alive?" Aurora was shocked to hear this.

"I'll explain things later…." Lord Parkinson took a handful of floo powder and threw it onto the fireplace.

"Farnese Cottage."

The powder turned into green smoke, but the flames failed to ignite.

"What?! No!" Parkinson yelled.

"The floo is not working?" Aurora got closer to the fireplace to take a better look. "How can that be? You just used it."

"They must have closed it from the Ministry." Lord Parkinson concluded. Beads of sweat fell across his face as he stared at the fading smoke.

"But Dad, you are the Minister! Who can do that to you?" Pansy didn't understand what was happening, just that it was something very bad.

"Well, use Apparition. Come here, hurry!" Lord Parkinson held his wand out and lifted it in the air.

Pansy and her mother knew this was not the time to question him any further, so they immediately grabbed onto him and prepared to be pulled away… but nothing happened.

"Dad?...." Pansy glanced up at her father's pale face.

"I can't… apparate…" Lord Parkinson said with a trembling voice.

"An anti-apparition ward?!" Aurora exclaimed. "But how can that be? What about our protections?!"

No one should have been able to get so close to the manor without triggering their own safety wards.

But if there was an anti-apparition charm in place… this meant that intruders were already around their home.

"What do we do?!" Aurora was truly scared now. Whoever had her husband so terrified… was here now, and they could not escape.

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