Only An Ill Wind Bodes No Good

At midnight on Halloween, Zoisite Lestrange, disturbed by something in her dreams, forced herself out of bed and into her freezing house f or a cup of potion to help her sleep without any more nightmares. She was a strong, pale woman and everything that contrasted with her snowy skin could be appreciated to full effect: the blackness of her hair, eyes and the skull-and-snake image that had been burned into her left forearm and was now sending bolts of pain through the spot.

"Dammit!" she cried out, slamming her fist into a countertop hard enough to break the fragile bones of her wrist and the side of her hand. Wincing, she cradled her hand to her chest in pain, her breath shallow; her eyes dull. "What can he want now?"

Only the white serpent slithering over her feet could hear the tears in her voice, and she bent to caress it absently.

"If he wants Sirius again, the answer is still no!" she informed the silent walls, her body giving an involuntary shudder. How he had tortured her when she had refused to give any information on her cousin...but her loyalty also lay with her family. True, she had become a Death Eater to remain a part of this same family, but her loyalty extended to anyone sharing her blood. To betray Sirius to a group consisting of most of his own relatives was to be a coward, something Zoisite wasn't. The Dark Mark blazed again, forcing a yelp of pain from her. Best to go to him quickly...get the suffering over with. Of course, there was the off chance that he would kill her there, too.

She whimpered a little, sinking into a chair. No one could help her. Her parents and cousins Bellatrix, Rabastan and Rodolfus were unbelievably loyal to Lord Voldemort, his favorites by far.

She wouldn't trust Pettigrew as far as she could throw him without magical aide, not since her school days, and definitely not after the information he had leaked to Voldemort last night.

Lucius Malfoy might help her leave not just the Death Eaters but the country without being noticed or missed, but would, of course, tell Voldemort everything and get her killed anyway.

"I sort of do want to die," she confided in the serpent, which could care less. "No more Cruciatus curse, no more Lord Voldemort insisting I know every little thing that goes on within the Department of Mysteries -damn me for deciding to work in that particular position!- No more trying to get me to betray family members that aren't in his inner circle..."

If she had been a weaker woman, Zoisite would have sobbed. She could still recall his voice, cold and high in pitch, yet strangely intimidating, bellowing "Crucio!" and the woman's warbling, desperate screams, screams she later realized were her own.

One other person could help her, but she wasn't too sure of the likelihood of that. He was a part of the circle of Death Eaters, as far as she knew, but she was never really sure what he got up to anymore, and if he were still loyal, it would mean her own head.

Disturbing her thoughts, a knock sounded at the door. Rising, she draped the snake around her shoulders like a stole and rose to pull open the door, the Dark Mark giving her nothing short of Hell now. Irritably, she pulled the black lace sleeve of her dressing gown over it.

"Severus?" she whispered hopefully, her lips trembling and her eyes filling in spite of herself. "Please, help me! Just get me out of here, or kill me, because if you don't then I will!"

"That won't be necessary."

Peering into the darkness, Mlle. Lestrange realized with a shock who she was talking to.

"Remus! And Brooklyn?" She added, recognizing the darkly-tanned woman standing behind the werewolf, who smiled kindly at her.

Without waiting for an invitation, the two stepped over her threshold into the house, Remus enfolding her his arms quickly, as a caution and maybe something more. The tenderness behind the gesture caused her to burst into tears, startling the others. Zoisite was not a crier by nature, unless she thought there was something to be gained by it.

"Calm down, Zoë," Brooklyn soothed. "Whatever happened, we're going to take care of you."

Remus forced Zoisite to look at him, keeping his hands firmly on her narrow shoulders.

"Zoisite Lestrange," he said, hoping to bring her to her senses by use of her full first and last names, "What's going on with you?" He looked right into the bottomless pits of her black eyes, eyes that had once sparkled with intelligence and cunning, but now seemed flat except for the rage and despair they held. "Why were you going to kill yourself, or get Snape to kill you?"

Brooklyn said nothing, but walked around to Remus's other side to take the hand of her unlikely friend. With difficulty, Zoisite forced herself to speak.

"Lord Voldemort's going to kill me, and I don't want to give him the satisfaction. Pettigrew already handed him Lily and James and it's only a matter of time before he acts on that. But I won't give him Sirius, no matter how many times he puts me under Cruciatus, and I know that at the meeting tonight," she pushed up the sleeve of her gown, revealing the burning black sign she now found disgusting, "he's going to kill me. All the others can have their fun torturing me first, and then he'll kill me!" A fresh round of tears broke off the stream of talk, until she found enough strength and sympathy in her companions to continue.

"I'm scared, this is getting out of hand. He's rising to power too quickly and it's going to break and blow up in his face soon. I can tell, because he's risen to fast, and I wanted to get out but if I do my father will disown me if he doesn't kill me before the Dark Lord does and that's a big deal in Pureblood families. I'll be in disgrace with everyone! My name will be lower than a Squib or a Muggle! The Death Eaters will want my blood for desertion and everyone else won't give me a job or a second glance because I'm twice the turncoat. I have always existed on my family name, and that's going to be ripped away if I do anything!"

Remus sighed, holding the slender woman close as if she would drop and break if he didn't. She smelled even to the roots of her hair like her favorite scent, a Muggle perfume, surprisingly, that was deeply absorbed into every little cell. Like the Malfoys, Zoisite was one who could live in luxury and even excess, and took full advantage of it. Without her family's esteemed name behind her, would she be able to live with the drastic changes? Looking down on the black crown of her hair, he realized once more how pretty, no, beautiful, that word sounded more regal, he had always thought she was, and for the first time, that Zoisite needed people as much as everyone else did. She wouldn't have shown it ordinarily, but it was apparent now.

Brooklyn broke the silence, wrapping her arms around the woman as best as she could, seeing that she was already enfolded in Remus's calming embrace.

"Zoë, listen. Snape tipped Sirius off that somehow Voldemort knows about the Potters and he's after them. We need to get down there and"

"Pettigrew!" Zoisite gasped, wrenching herself from their arms to grab for her wand and wrap a velvet cloak with a silver serpent clasp around her trembling body. "He told him where they were, It was him all along who was their secret keeper! He told us at the meeting and I couldn't -ai!"

The mark on her arm suddenly burned searing black with a pain that rivaled the Cruciatus curse, and then suddenly faded.

"Something's happened," she said sharply. "We should go."

***

Godric's Hollow was a nightmare when they got there. The wreckage of the Potter house spread all down the street, the bodies of Lily and James immersed somewhere in all of it. Sirius Black stood beside his motorbike at the end of the street, holding a baby in his arms.

"He's gone, Remus," Sirius said, white-faced and shaking, confirming the terrible truth the werewolf already knew, even though his eyes searched the streets for a miracle. He bowed his head and Sirius continued. "Voldemort's gone, and their son Harry is alive! Hagrid's supposed to be coming for him in a while...I can't believe that James and Lily..." he broke off suddenly, wrapping an arm around his crying girlfriend to steady them both.

"Zoisite?" Remus asked shakily, "Are you okay?"

Detached, the ex-Death Eater looked at the scene around her, too exhausted to shed a tear,

"I'm free of him, Remus," she said heavily. "But this isn't how it was supposed to be."