Watching

Watching

Chapter 14

He was waiting for us as we walked up the main road of Hogsmeade. I scanned the gathered Death Eaters, wondering if my father was among them, if Millicent was among them.

"Mab," Voldemort said reaching out to hold my face in his hand. I jerked away, this time, not willing to allow him to touch me. Not this time.

"Don't touch me," I spat.

"Such fire," he whispered. "That is why it is you who is my favorite. That is why your mother was my favorite. You're late, but such tardiness is forgiven, for you have completed your mission. I commend you."

"Don't bother," I said harshly. "I no longer serve you. You, who is weak, who is controlling and power-hungry, and not worth my time. Your sacred mark is removable."

"Athena, stop love, calm down."

"No, Mr. Malfoy, she will not calm down. She is far too angry to listen to reason at this point."

"Listen to reason?" I asked harshly. "You smug son of a bitch. You waltz into this world all big bad and ugly, and you are, but inside? Inside you are just a baby who never knew love. I no longer serve you, I no longer carry your mark."

"What?" he hissed. I don't think he heard me the first time.

"I no longer carry your mark."

"How did you take it off?" he demanded snatching my arm and holding it in a vice like grip. He pushed up my one sleeve and hissed when he confirmed that it definitely was not there.

"I took it off, Tom," Harry revealed.

"And you?" Voldemort asked Draco. "Have I lost you as well?"

"You have," he answered defiantly.

"You are more like your mother than I could have ever expected," he shouted at me. "Both of you were whores who didn't know what was best for you. I cherished you! I praised you! I loved you!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW LOVE!" I shouted. "You never have and you never will because you refuse to believe that there is something in this world more powerful than you!"

I was yelling my voice hoarse, but I wasn't caring. Voldemort made me snap, talking about my mother like that. What right did he have?

"SHUT UP!" he yelled moving to hit me. I was ready, waiting for him to snap. Harry and I attacked at the same time.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.

"Avada Kedavra!" I yelled. I wanted this bastard dead, not disarmed.

Someone jumped in his way, absorbing both curses. Voldemort was gone.

Fighting erupted on both sides, and Order members were appearing out of nowhere. We had gone from being four kids fighting ten or more Death Eaters, to being four kids and two Death Eaters fighting against eight Death Eaters, to out numbering them by far. The two death eaters who were fighting on our side had taken off their masks. I smiled, seeing that my father and my father-in-law had revealed their true loyalties.

A curse grazed my uncovered shoulder, cutting it. I looked in the direction of the curse and saw Millicent Bulstrode smile and wave. I threw the same curse back at her, grazing her cheek.

"Where is you admirable Lord now, Millicent?" I yelled. "He's fled! Can he not take the heat of battle? Is he so fragile that he cannot take one curse?"

"He has seen more war than you, Athena!" she replied, her own voice raised as well. "He knows when to fight and when it is best not to!"

"He runs away! He flees the battle that is raging around us. How much can you love a lord who is too weak to fight?"

"Too weak to fight?" she asked offended. "HOW DARE YOU! Do you have any idea how jealous of you I've been all these years? You have everything that we all want! You have his love! You have his trust! You have everything he never gives us!"

"How do you think I got that way?" I demanded. "I made my first kill when I was only a child. I had aspired to be him! It was in my best interest to do so!"

"Then why have you stopped?"

"Because now it is in my best interest to fight for the other side," I said softly. "I can't fight for him when what he asks of me is no longer something I can comply with with the conscience I now have."

"You? A conscience?"

"Yes, me, with a conscience. It happens when you fall in love. And speaking of which, don't you have a reason to fight with us?" I asked softly. "Don't you have a reason to live?"

"No."

That has to be the saddest thing I have ever heard. She has nothing to live for....

A curse hit me around my middle, preventing me from saying more. I looked down at my hands, which I had instinctively covered my wound with, and saw blood spilling out over them. I looked up at Millicent, it wasn't her. I fell to my knees and heard Draco shout out my name before I fell over, unconscious.