Dragon's Tears

The Dissident

I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of one of my alarm charms. I quickly shook Reni awake, and pulled her into the next room with me. Had Lucius found me so quick? But that couldn't be right. The alarm that had gone off was on the second floor. How could he have possibly managed to get onto the second floor without setting off any other alarms? I hurried to where Kali and Teecie were sleeping, and discovered only one soundly sleeping child.

Damn it. Leaving Reni to watch over Teecie, I ran from the room in hopes of reaching Kali before she made it to the front door. At least one thing was in my favour. I knew the place better than she did.

I rushed to the stairwell landing, and looked down at the hallway below. Kali had plastered herself against a wall, and was slowly inching her way towards the door. I was going to have to head her off. And I'd have to be especially careful. I didn't want to spook her even more. I crept down the stairs and slowly approached her.

When I reached the hallway, she took one look at me, and began to run. Luckily my legs were longer. I jumped in front of her. "I can't let you leave, Kali. It's not safe out there." She pulled away from me, as though she thought I would hurt her, and pressed her back to the wall.

"Going home."

"You don't want to stay with your sisters?"

"No."

I knelt down, careful not to touch her, which would probably only spook her more. "Kali, I know you don't like me, or trust me, but I won't hurt you. And I can't let you just go outside. You'd get lost. I don't want that to happen to you."

She glared at me. "You don't care!"

"Kali, I know you think that, but it's not true." I wracked my brain for a way to get through to her. "I know you're missing your dad, and flying, probably. Would it help if I promised to let you use my broom tomorrow?"

"By myself." Her arms were crossed protectively in front of her, and that glare was becoming annoyingly familiar.

"Okay. But inside only. I don't want you going too high and hurting yourself. In here I know I can help if something happens, okay?"

"Outside!"

I sighed and rubbed at my face. This was not a conversation I wanted to be having, let alone in the middle of the night with a four-year-old. "Kali, I can't. It's not safe. There are bad people out there, and you might get hurt."

"You're bad people."

"No, I'm a friend of your father's." Yeah, yeah, big lie, but what was I going to say? I'm your father's son, and I want to hurt him through you? "Look, Kali, how does this sound? You get to ride my broom--inside--and you can look through the groceries and choose breakfast and dinner, okay?"

She looked at me for a long time, and I was sure she was going to refuse. Then she nodded once, spun away from me and trotted up the stairs. I followed slowly behind. Sleep. I just needed some sleep. I reached the top of the staircase, reset the charms, and returned to the room to see Kali snuggling down into her sleeping bag, still glaring at me. Reni was sitting in a chair, lightly dosing, but she woke when I closed the door. I set a new charm on the door to the room, then turned to see her standing and stretching.

"You're staying here with your sisters."

"No I'm not."

"Reni..."

"I know how to use the floo network, Dragon..."

I grabbed her arm and pulled her into my room. "Is that a threat, Reni?"

She smirked at me. "What do you think, brother?"

"I think between you and your sisters, it's amazing Lucius has hair left on his head! Fine. But no more, all right?"

She crossed her arms and grinned. I stumbled to the bed and was almost asleep before I could crawl under the blankets.

The next morning, Kali chose cereal for breakfast, but she wasn't pleased that there was no sugar or fruit to put in it, and grumbled the entire meal.

After we'd cleaned up, I took Kali back into my room and pulled out my broom. Kali immediately jumped on, and headed for the nearest window. I pulled her back and placed a charm along the windowed wall so that she couldn't go through. She growled at me and tried for the door instead. I cast a cushioning charm along that wall as well. She pulled up when she discovered she couldn't reach the door, and not even looking at me, she headed straight for the ceiling. Was she trying to crash through? But she pulled short just before the end of the broom touched the ceiling and dove for the floor. I padded the floor immediately below her, and she crashed into the charm and fell off the broom.

I helped her up, but she jerked away and jumped back on. Now she aimed for the far wall. Once more I padded the wall, this time not stopping until the entire room was padded. Well, at least she wouldn't be able to fall off the broom and hurt herself. She turned to me, still astride the broom, and glared.

"Kali, I'm not going to let you hurt yourself."

She growled, then zoomed towards me, swerving just before she reached me, and began to fly around the room in circles, picking up speed as she went.

That was it. If I let her continue, she'd find a way to hurt herself, and I really couldn't let that happen. I timed my snatch just as she went past, and pulled her off the broom, which fell with a soft thud on the floor, skidding several feet. Kali, panicked by my grabbing her, turned and began to fight me with everything she had. Nails, teeth, and feet all flew at me.

"Kali, please! Don't make me hurt you!" This had no effect but to make her more frenzied. And then one of her feet connected with my crotch and I went down. She didn't let up, though. Her fists connected with my arms and shoulders, and she kicked at me for good measure, too.

And then her sobs began. "I hate you!" She hit me in the side. "I'm going to make sure you never hurt any of us again!" She kicked at my knee, and it blossomed in pain. "When daddy gets here, I'm going to tell him everything you did!"

I held my tongue while she continued to kick and hit at me, and finally she tired of it. I heard her move to the bed and collapse on it, sobbing. I sat up and examined myself. She'd only gotten in a few good hits, but damn. She was going to be quite the Quidditch player when she grew up. I couldn't wait for her to be the first girl on the Slytherin Quidditch team. I hoped I would be there to see it. I wondered what position she wanted to play. It felt like she'd make a damned good beater.

Maybe talking Quidditch would help? "So, Kali, what position are you going to be on your Quidditch team when you go to Hogwarts?" There was no answer, so I kept on talking. "You know, I was the Seeker for Slytherin. I was a damned good one, too. The only person who ever beat me was Harry Potter." My eyes were closed, and my face tilted towards the ceiling. I didn't want her to think I was trying to lure her towards me. I was, but I didn't want her to know that.

I kept talking. "You know, I started on my house team when I was in second year. That's pretty young. Most people don't get on till third or fourth, or even later." I shifted to try to find a more comfortable position. "But you know what the worst part was?" I opened my eyes, and saw Kali, hugging a pillow, glaring at me, but obviously fascinated. She shook her head. "Everyone decided I'd bought my way onto the team because of my dad."

"So?"

I concealed the smile at the response. "So, even though I won all the other games I played in, aside from ones against Gryffindor, that rumour never went away. Whatever you do, Kali, don't let anyone do that to you, okay?"

"Do what?"

"Let someone do something that makes people think less of you. You're amazing. I could barely stay on my broom by myself at your age. You're going to be a great Chaser or Beater or Seeker someday."

"I'm going to be a Seeker."

I grinned now, not bothering to hide it. "You'll be the best Seeker Hogwarts has ever seen, I'll bet."

She turned away. "I'm hungry. Is it lunchtime yet?"

I glanced at my watch. "Yep. You wait here. I'll go get us some crisps and sandwiches."

I came back with a pop and a bag of crisps for each of us, and a sandwich to share between the two of us. She slurped at her pop and gazed at me appraisingly.

"Why did you bring us here?"

Wow. Sharp kid. I hid my surprise by taking a gulp of my pop, and sat back on the bed so that I didn't have to look directly at her. "I wanted to keep you safe."

"From what? Daddy would never let us get hurt."

"Well, sometimes daddies aren't as able to protect their children as they should be. And sometimes they don't even try."

"But daddy loves us. Why do you need to take us? Aren't there other kids you could protect?"

"Because, Kali. I know your daddy. And I don't want you three to be hurt. So, if I can help, I will. So we're here."

"Daddy could protect us. He loves us. He wouldn't let anyone hurt us. And when he finds out what you did, you'll be in trouble."

I took a deep breath. I was not going to scare her more than she was already scared, but I was starting to be truly annoyed. "Daddy can't protect you from everything. Sometimes daddies are too busy."

"Our daddy's never too busy for us. He says we're his life."

That hurt, but I couldn't let it show. "Well, sometimes daddies lie," her mouth opened, but I cut her off. "Sometimes even when they don't mean to."

"You're the liar," she glared at me.

I took a steadying breath. "What have I lied about, Kali?"

"You said that daddy would hurt us. That he doesn't care about us! Those are lies!"

"Do you know that for sure, Kali? I'm your friend. I just want to help you and your sisters."

"So take us to mummy or uncle Sev then. Just let us go home."

"Kali, I wish I could. But there are bad people everywhere. And the only way I can be sure you're safe is if I take care of you myself."

"So...we're never going to see daddy or mummy again?" her lip began to tremble, and I desperately wanted to hug her.

"Kali, I know what I'm doing upsets you. I wish...I wish I could get you to trust me. To like me. I don't want to hurt you. I want you to be happy."

"I won't be happy if I never see mummy or daddy again!" she flung herself face-first onto the bed and began to sob. Soon the sobs subsided into sleep. I hated myself for this. But I had to do it. It was the only way. If only...

I stood up, covered her carefully with one of the blankets, then lay back down on the far side of the bed, pulled the blankets around myself and fell asleep.