Running back

Albus appeared about 50 metres away from the front gate of Malfoy Manor, stumbling. It was harder than he had thought, to Apparate with chains on. He started running back towards the manor as fast as he could with chained feet. The guards stood up and stared. A few seconds later, Ginny appeared as well.

"Albus! Come back! Wait! Listen to me, please!"

"No! I have listened. I have made my choice, and so has Dad. Don't try to stop me! I won't accept being in chains. I have been held back all my life. Now I have finally found acceptance. Get away from me."

"Stop! Come back! You don't have to do this." Ginny started running after Albus. The guards also started moving towards him. Albus drew his wand.

"Stay back, mother," Albus shouted "I don't want to hurt you, but I will. Do you really think Dad will forgive me for killing his best friend? Can you forgive me for killing your brother?"

"But you didn't kill him. We can sort this out. Please, just come back with me. Don't leave me like this. You are my son. Please." The pleading in Ginny's voice almost made Albus cry. This was harder than he had thought it would be.

"No! Get away from me!" Albus sent a Stunner that missed Ginny by a few centimetres. She stopped, shocked.

"Albus! Stop this nonsense. You are not like this! You need to come back with me. We can sort this out."

"Clearly, you don't know me at all, mother. Now go, before I need to hurt you."

Albus sent yet another Stunner. Right then, the guards caught up with him, and sent Stunners as well. Ginny Disapparated. You could just pick up a faint sob as she vanished.

"What happened to you? Where's Crabbe?" Goyle asked.

"He botched up. We got caught," Albus said tersely, disguising his pain as anger. "I don't know where they took him. I barely escaped myself. I'll explain it all to the Dark Lord."

He hobbled inside, while trying to remove the chains. Did Ron really need to tighten them that hard?

***

"Severus! What happened to you? What went wrong?" Voldemort asked. He actually sounded concerned.

Albus knelt down before Voldemort. He hoped this would work. The number of failed attempts at doing things were piling up regarding him and Scorpius, how many more chances could they have? Lestrange was standing on Voldemort's right side, he looked more angry than concerned.

"Master, forgive me. I failed. Crabbe got too eager. The moment I got Ron's attention, he tried to kill him. But it was as if they had waited for an ambush like that. A few other men immediately Stunned both me and Crabbe. When I was revived, I was chained, and my father stood over me. Crabbe was taken away; I am afraid I do not know where. I was taken home to the family house. My father chained me to the wall in my room. He hit me for what I had tried to do, but it is clear that he doesn't want to admit what I have done publicly. But eventually my father left, and my mother has a softer heart. I begged her to at least let me use the bathroom. When she took the chain off the wall, I sprinted down the stairs, grabbed my wand that they had foolishly left on the table and Disapparated. Please Master, forgive my failure!" He reached out to touch the hem of Voldemort's robes as to appear desperate for forgiveness. A smirk appeared on Lestrange's face. It was impossible to say whether it was because he believed him, or if he just liked seeing Albus beg like that.

"Don't worry Severus, I forgive you. I should have known that Crabbe would not be patient enough for a job like this," Voldemort said. "But at least you now see the weakness of love. Your mother saw only her son, not the Death Eater. We can take advantage of people like that. Pity we couldn't at least kill the Weasley. But we caused them some grief."

"My Lord, from what I overheard, all the members of my family, and most other families that fought against you previously, are on high alert. A stunt like this will not work any longer. None of them will trust me, or Malfoy and they are never alone. We will need to go out in force if we wish to kill any of them."

"Yes, you are probably right, Severus. We will not attempt that until we are better prepared. Rodolphus, come and help Severus here out of his chains. Get him up to his room. And be sure to let miss Weasley see what her family does to those who reside in this Manor. It will help persuade her that we are her only hope now."

Lestrange nodded and helped Albus to his feet. They went up the stairs. Lestrange knocked on Malfoy's door. When Scorpius opened, he got quite a shock.

"A-Severus! What happened to you!"

"Crabbe is an idiot. I got caught and barely escaped," Albus said. "And I learned that most of my family don't like me."

"Your family did this to you? How did you encounter them? No matter, you can tell me the whole story later. Come. Let's go into your room and get these chains off," Scorpius looked up at Lestrange, who was still standing next to them. "Did you want something, Lestrange?"

"The Dark Lord insisted the girl see him. She needs to see what her family does to those that reside in this Manor. Maybe that'll help her realise where she belongs now."

"Excellent idea. We will do the cleaning up in my room then. A Weasley will need to pay for what a Weasley does. Thank you Lestrange, you can leave now. I'll take care of it."

Lestrange hesitated, but reluctantly left. Scorpius quickly got Albus into his room and onto the bed.

"Albus! What happened to you?" Rose asked, quickly making room for him on the bed. "Where have you been?"

"Don't worry, it looks worse than it is. I got out of a tight spot without needing to kill anyone," Albus told them the whole story while Scorpius removed the chains and cleaned him up. He left the black eye though, both as a reminder, and because regular healing spells didn't work on Weasley's Boxing Telescope, and he didn't dare try anything fancy.

"Well, at least it doesn't sound like you'll need to do that again," Rose said when he had finished.

"No. This went as well as it could go. I'm just glad that Uncle George was there as well."