Harry Gaunt - Chapter 37

Cissy dodged around the slow-moving couples on the way to the great hall.

"Ow!"

"Watch it!"

She kept going. She had to hurry as she stumbled in through a door along the side. The hall was busy, and Cissy still short while she craned her neck to see around. She looked up and down the Slytherin table for Harry.

"Hello Cissy!" Phyllida came up behind. "What are you looking at?"

Cissy turned frantically around. "Phyllida." She touched her cousin's arm, they'd not spoken for some time. "Where's Harry? Is he here?"

"Of course," replied Phyllida with a touch of confusion. "He's just over-"

"Thank you."

Cissy stormed away, leaving Phyllida behind to point towards the Hufflepuff table. "…you're welcome." So much for sitting together then. "I'll save them a seat."

Phyllida headed down to where they'd sat before, minus Cissy, which conveniently enough already had an occupant.

Severus sighed when she sat beside him. "Please, no more Potion questions." He'd suffered enough last time, truly.

"Oh pish." Phyllida laughed as she spooned herself some vegetables. "You loved it. I know you did." She had enjoyed their discussion too, Severus was a fabulous Potioneer. "Has Harry been over?"

She indicated behind with her head.

"No, he seemed to run into someone on the way here." Severus didn't care who it was.

"Who was it?" Phyllida looked back around curiously. "I was under the impression that he didn't know many people. Maybe another ally?"

It was hard to tell who Harry had been talking to, not now since Cissy had arrived and demanded his attention.

"What did Narcissa say to you?" asked Severus. He'd turned as well. "She looks… upset."

Cissy had brought Harry away and toward the walls, the two exchanging words in a whispering way.

Harry appeared unbothered. Cissy less so.

"She was very hurried when I saw her," added Phyllida concernedly, eventually turning back when Severus did too. "He'll ask us if he needs anything."

Harry seemed the type to do things on his own when it was important, so there was no need to go over and butt in. Besides, Phyllida hadn't sat alone with a boy for dinner in… well, never actually.

"So Severus, tell me about…"

Severus groaned.

…

Harry really didn't see the issue as he looked into Cissy's eyes. "Cissy, I am not going to barge in and abduct Bellatrix," he said to another of her sighs. "We're still at Hogwarts, remember?"

And Bellatrix was eighteen. If she didn't want to go, she wouldn't. Harry didn't want to interfere.

"But Harry, you don't understand. If mother and father are here, they'll have a plan."

"And what plan is that?" Harry asked flalty.

Cissy stomped her foot. "Stop arguing and just come." She didn't have time for Harry being stubborn. He didn't know how easily they'd been signed away already. "Come on!"

Harry felt Cissy's hands tug against his robes. She was prepared to drag him all the way there, just to make sure Bellatrix wasn't abducted by her own parents?

He thought she liked her mother.

"Alright Cissy, okay." Harry eased her hands off before people began to fully notice. Martha in particular was paying rapt attention to them. "Hold still."

Harry took a hold of Cissy's arm and apparated them away, leaving Martha and the rest of Hufflepuff in stunned amazement.

A boy shuffled up to her. "Is he your brother?"

"I wish he was." Martha shuffled round to him.

"Me too." The boy stuck his fork through a sausage. "Mine flicks peas at me during dinner."

He didn't like peas anymore.

Martha laughed.

~~~~~~~

Crack.

Cissy appeared in the empty corridor beside Harry, not tripping at all until she tried to climb the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

"Careful." Harry caught her with a flick of his hand, his magic setting her straight. "I'll go first." He slipped past and begun climbing the stairs.

He heard her hurry up behind him, desperate for him to go quickly as she jostled his back. "You know, you really are sisters." Harry had never been manhandled so much in his life as they arrived at the top.

"Bellatrix is much worse," smiled Cissy as she straightened her robes before the door. "She always has been. She holds my hand almost every day."

Knock Knock.

"She does seem to like holding hands," agreed Harry as they waited. And other things.

Knock Knock.

Harry frowned. They couldn't hear anything from inside. "Harry, please." Cissy turned to him with urgency.

"Alright, stand back." He gestured her back with a guiding hand, then raised it up and placed it on the large wooden door.

Click.

"Oh, it's unlocked." He chuckled as the charm just unlatched it. "Dumbledore's too care-"

Cissy barged inside, sweeping past and into the room - it was carnage. There were books and pages sprawled across the floor; splinters and burns that scorched the walls.

Harry recognised the spells. He stepped inside with a dangerous air. "Cissy, where would they have gone." They'd left not long ago, there was still smoke coming up from the shredded books.

"H-home?" Cissy turned around with moisture in her eyes. "Or, maybe. Oh I don't know!" She lamented.

Harry flicked his eyes around the room again. The floo had been used. "Home it is then." He said as he retrieved his wand.

Cissy grabbed onto his arm.

"Cissy, I'll handle this. Stay here." He gently removed her hand. "Trust me. Wait for Dumbledore and your father."

Harry didn't want to involve her.

"He'll have gone too." She sniffled, letting go to wipe her nose. "He's done this. Mother could never say no to him, it was Arcturus that sent him away."

And now she'd helped doom her own daughter to the likes of Lestrange. It had to be him, Andromeda had said as much before she'd left. Rodolphus had always wanted Bellatrix.

"I'll speak to Arcturus," assured Harry. "He won't allow this, not against her will. And nor will I."

He stepped away. "We'll find you later."

Crack.

Cissy jumped at the noise. Harry must be angry, anyone with eyes could see how close he and Bellatrix were becoming, something more than a few girls were envious of.

If only things weren't so complicated for them. Bellatrix was already betrothed to Flint through that awful marriage contract.

"Brown." Cissy sniffed as she walked back towards the door. "Maybe Harry has a younger brother."

Just like it was in her favourite romance novels.

"Perhaps, Ms Black. But I doubt it." Dumbledore said as he stepped into his broken room. "Drat. I hope my Sherbet Lemons are all right." He hurried past her and towards his desk. His things had been sprawled everywhere.

"Headmaster?" Cissy looked around for her father. "What happened?"

"I should be asking you that," he chuckled, checking the contents of a little tin. "I leave to take your father around the castle." Dumbledore popped one in his mouth. "An extended tour, and when I return, I see this."

He gestured to it all as he turned back around. "I assume you weren't here to see it?"

Cissy quickly came forward with a nod. "Yes Headmaster, Harry and I found it like this when we arrived." Cissy nervously wrung her hands. "And I so sorry, this- this is all such a mess."

Dumbledore looked at her kindly. "It is neither yours or Bellatrix's fault, but those who should have known better." He set the tin down on the desk behind. "Come, let us return to lunch and allow Ha- I mean, Mr Gaunt to handle matters. I can think of no other more suited."

It was a wonderful thing to behold, young love. Nobody could know just how glad Dumbledore was that it had found the young lord.

Cissy nodded. She quite agreed.

~~~~~~~

Bellatrix woke up within a comfortable chair. She was in a sitting room, the fire nearby crackling softly as a man stepped through the door. It was her father. This was her sitting room. "Bellatrix, how are you feeling?"

He wasn't happy with what had happened. But they were here now as he moved into the room and took a seat across from her.

"You took me away," she said thickly. "Father, what's happening…" Bellatrix couldn't get up from the chair, she felt pinned down by invisible ropes.

Her father looked at her sternly. "I will be plain with you Bellatrix, and not just about you and this muggle man." Cygnus had always said they had delayed too long, Bellatrix should have already been married. This was his fault, he'd neglected his duties. "Your contract with Flint has been annulled."

Bellatrix took a breath, wisely choosing not to interrupt her father about the muggle bit.

"And you are now engaged to Rodolphus Lestrange, a proper match long denied to you as a lady of House Black."

Lord Flint had been persuaded. And it seems the Lestrange boy knew more than Cygnus had thought. He'd been receiving orders from the Dark Lord, exclusive one's.

"I can't marry him," said Bellatrix quietly. "I don't want him. I want Harry."

Cygnus tensed in suppressed fury. "And what of this muggle?" He jabbed. "I don't understand."

Bellatrix wanted Harry, yet enjoyed the company of muggles?

"That wasn't a muggle." Bellatrix hissed. "It was Harry! For pity's sake, why won't anyone listen!" She shouted out her frustration, trying at the same time to get free. "We even had Hogwarts robes on, were you even clear of mind that night?"

She knew now that he'd been among those masked men, and if it's hadn't been for her stopping Harry, he'd be dead. They'd all be dead.

Her father should be grateful. "I thought so," she said. Cygnus seemed to have a difficult time trying to remember. "Pathetic."

She flinched when he raised his hand raised, only to still with a whispered word. "I will not tolerate disrespect. You are my daughter, you will do as I say." Cygnus lowered his hand and sat back, contemplating as she hid behind a curtain of hair. "Let us say that it was Harry, as you call him. What have you achieved with him? You've known him what, a few weeks?"

It was far from enough, far from the years that she'd known Lestrange. Cygnus just didn't understand her objection to him, he thought she and the boy were friends.

"I am not telling you that." Bellatrix snipped. Her father wanted to know how close she and Harry were. "It's private."

They'd never spoken of such things before.

"Not anymore," he said back to her. "Not if you don't want to be married within the week."

"You can't do that." Bellatrix seethed. "Lord Bla-"

"Lord Black is upstairs hiding in his room!" Boomed Cygnus. "I speak for House Black now, and if I say you will marry, then you will." He his finger at her. "Now tell me. What is your relationship with Lord Gaunt."

If Bellatrix had formed an attachment, one to a man that as of yet had not declared his allegiance to the Dark Lord, then that was a problem. Bellatrix could soon be without a husband if she really married him. "Bellatrix." He warned her a final time.

"We-" Bellatrix forced the words out. "We hold hands."

Cygnus blinked.

"And hugged. A few times. And we…" Bellatrix took a calming breath. "We kissed."

She hid her face. Why wasn't her mother here?

"Is that all?" stated Cygnus, sensing there was more. "Has Gaunt made a verbal commitment to you?"

Bellatrix shook her head.

"Has he displayed any sign of an intent to marry - to anyone - in the future?"

Bellatrix… shook her head.

"Hmph." Cygnus expected better from a Lord of an Ancient House. "He has no intention Bellatrix, he is - what do they call it? Stringing you along?"

Bellatrix looked sharply up. "It's not like that. Harry isn't like that and we, we have an understanding."

But Cygnus wasn't convinced. "You'll be staying here until the wedding can be arranged, and after that, you'll no longer be my responsibility." He stepped away from his chair. He was disappointed in her.

"I can't go back to school?" Bellatrix called. "Father, please."

He was already at the door.

!

A feint noise thudded through the walls of the house. Bellatrix sat up straight.

"What was that?" Cygnus pulled his wand, standing alert by the door as he looked around.

Thud.

The chandelier made a tinkling sound, while the bottles of brandy in the corner rattled in their class cabinet.

"He's coming." Bellatrix smiled shook again. She laughed.

"Quiet!" Cygnus saw the cracks spread out across the ceiling. The wards were about to fall.

"Better let him in," warned Bellatrix. "Harry's just toying with you."

He'd broken the wards in an instant before. But he didn't now, he wouldn't want to hurt Arcturus.

Cygnus ran from the room. "DRUELLA!" He sprinted up the stairs. "Where the hell is she -ARCTURUS!"

Cygnus leapt off the top step and onto the landing where Arcturus's office was. "Arcturus! Don't you dare let the wards down!" He barged inside and to a scene of horror. "D-druella?"

She was face down on the floor, a pool of blood glistening in the light. Cygnus heard a thump.

Arcturus wheezed on his hands and knees. "Wretched woman," he said, coughing through a mouthful of blood. "I should have known you'd resort to her." His feet scuffed through the shattered tea cup. "KREACHER!"

Arcturus scrambled behind his desk.

"AVADA KEDEVRA!"

The spell exploded a large section of the mahogany desk away. "You were always a piss poor wizard Cygnus," coughed Arcturus. "Druella was your finest achievement. And now look at her."

"AAARRH!" Cygnus raised his wand again. "AVAD-"

Kreacher stunned him from behind, appearing in the doorway as Cygnus smashed against the floorboards. "Master!" He hurried to Arcturus's side.

"Lower the wards," wheezed Arcturus. "Do it now!"

Another boom rattled the house, so strong that it clacked the pictures in their frames. A few of them fell and hit the floor.

Kreacher clicked his fingers. And then as a silence settled over them, Harry appeared.

"Ah!" He almost tripped over Druella's body. "Who-" Harry looked between the woman and the man lying just to her side. "Oh."

"Harry-" cough "-here." Arcturus tried to move.

"Arcturus?" Harry stepped over the woman towards the desk. "What the hell's going on? Where's Bellatrix?"

Arcturus looked absolutely dreadful. Kreacher hadn't moved from the doorway, he just stood there. "Kreacher, get me a Bezoar," ordered Harry.

Kreacher came to attention. Then disappeared with a crack.

"He likes you, you know." Arcturus said with a foggy mind against the remains of his desk. "H-he's a good judge of character." He was going pale.

Harry held him up.

"Sirius." Arcturus grasped Harry's arms. "Help him. Don't let him f-fail." The Lord's ring slipped from Arcturus's finger. "Take it."

He knew Harry would see it done. Arcturus saw so much of himself in the young lord as Harry took it from his hand. "I will." Harry held it tight. "But not yet, there's still time."

Harry's wand moved across Arcturus's body, following a pattern as he muttered spells Arcturus didn't know.

"Help-p D-druella." Arcturus pushed it away. "She's still alive."

Arcturus had long been fond of her. He wanted her alive as Harry moved towards her. He carefully found the wound, a puncture through her side by a simple piercing hex.

Harry had seen it before, he healed it with a few careful sweeps from his wand above the wound. "She's lost a lot blood," he said, returning to Arcturus. "She needs a Blood Repleshiner, are there any here?"

"Kreacher." Arcturus whispered. "Kreacher…"

His body slumped weakly, his breathing becoming shallow.

Harry cursed. He needed help. "Expecto Patronum!"

The great white snake materialised around Harry's body, only smaller this time and even more real. "Find Bellatrix. Bring her here."

Harry stepped through its body as it sped off through the wall.

Crack.

Harry disappeared.

~~~~~~~

Bellatrix struggled against her binds. "Ah- come on! HARRY!" She pulled as hard as she could. "Where is he."

It had been minutes since the shaking stopped. He should have found her already. "HARRY I AM HERE-"

Bellatrix froze. "Harry?" She looked at the snake slide through the wall like it wasn't there. It looked at her, then slithered over towards her feet.

She realised what it was when a wisp of pale mist rose between her eyes. "Amazing." It coiled around her, up her legs and round her arms - was felt warm, safe.

Snap Snap.

The binds broke away. Bellatrix rose from the chair. She picked it up. "Can you take me to Harry?" she cooed. "Oh you're so beautiful."

It hissed at her. Its eyes were just like Harry's, the same green as she felt the pull from apparition.

She arrived smoothly in the room upstairs as the snake faded away. But before she could panic at the state of her mother beside her, her father or the wheezing sound coming from behind the table. "Harry?"

Harry had reappeared with three things in his hands. One looked to be a bezoar, which as he dropped Kreacher's broken body on the floor, he swiftly administered into Arcturus's mouth.

"Chew Arcturus. Chew." She heard him say, not having once glanced her way. "That's it."

Bellatrix lowered to check on her mother, her relief at the shallow breaths leaving her weak with relief. Her mother was alive, but what about her father.

"He's fine," said Harry, seeing where she was looking as he stayed beside Arcturus. "But he won't be. Not once Arcturus wakes up." Harry performed the spells again, helping the bezoar remove the poison Druella had used.

It was curious. Harry wasn't sure if she'd just made a mistake, or if she'd actually meant to give Arcturus a slow and painful death.

Maybe that was Kreacher's doing. Harry had found him destroying the Black's bezoars.

"Are you okay?" he asked Bellatrix. "I see my Patronus found you."

Harry loved that snake. It was just a shame he couldn't keep around all the time.

"Yes, thank you Harry." Bellatrix looked over to him, her hands on her mother's shoulders. "You killed Kreacher."

Harry nodded. "He was a poor servant. Or maybe it's all Walburga's doing. Here." Harry floated the Blood Replenishing potion through the air. "Pour it in her mouth, it'll do the rest."

Bellatrix caught it as Harry lifted Arcturus from the floor, doing so with his magic so he'd float behind.

Druella coughed as the potion went in. "It's alright Mum." Bellatrix soothed. "Drink."

Harry stepped up beside them. "We need to secure the house," he said, gesturing to Cygnus and whoever else might return. Thankfully, they seemed to be busy elsewhere. "Where's your wand?"

Bellatrix didn't have it. "I don't know. They must have taken it."

"Use one of theirs." Harry wanted her to take Arcturus from him. "Get them setup somewhere comfortable. I'll deal with the rest."

He had to repair the wards, secure the house until Arcturus recovered, if that was even possible at this point.

"Okay." Bellatrix picked up her mother's wand near the wall and took Arcturus. "Thank you, Harry."

She touched his arm. They'd talk later as they got to work.

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