mickume/harry_potter_tiny · Datasets at Hugging Face

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"Our family’s roots are in blood magic. I’d like to think of it as the original technique long before wizards like you came out of our family".
"It will always be inferior", a cold voice interrupted them.
Ilay jumped back, his eyes widen In horror. Astoria was still on the ground trying to gather her thoughts as flames surrounded her. Fire never came to her, not yet. They called him the last flame and she often put herself down for it, because no flame ever blessed her.
The ground burned and everything on it decayed under the fire. Nicola Elroy was standing over her. His eyes bloodred with a clear intent to kill. He still looked young, just a boy, but everyone felt the shift from his presence appearing and heads turned. Draco stopped and stared in disbelief as he swore he had seen him before in Hogwarts. A student, he then thought and Nicola looked like one. Maybe it was him that made Astoria laugh in the hallways. The most powerful wizard of his time, hidden in a boy’s body and youthful looks.
The care he had for her was obvious. Nicola looked at her with worry as he pulled her from the ground and smiled at her. Astoria was always the first priority. Ilay, himself had never seen his father turn to him with such care.
"Don’t worry", he said softly to her as he turned to face his son, "He will always be inferior to us."
"Father", Ilay greeted him coldly as he revealed his arms under the robe. There were cuts all over his body and he quickly opened a few of them, his own blood dripped on the ground.
"You keep wasting my blood and disgracing it", Nicola said, his voice ice cold towards his son.
"I could say I’ve missed you, but that’s untrue", Ilay responded with the same cold tone and then anger took over, "You leave my daughter alone!"
"She is not yours to take!"
And Nicola moved. He was precise in his movements with the same practiced grace. But it had to be marked that Astoria was notably faster and Harry looked at her as flashbacks came to him from their duel.
Nicola opened his mouth and fire came out of it like a roar. It shook them all. The flames burned everything around them and spread on everything they touched, consuming it. It was no ordinary fire. It was dark magic. With the moves of his fingers, the flames changed directions and obeyed his will, burning his enemies.
Bellatrix was the first to scream in pain as she danced around the flames but failed and her leg caught fire. She still kept running to Ilay, gripping him and shrieking. Where the flame left, decay stayed.
"Make it stop!", she hissed.
Ilay moved as well. His own blood – a much smaller yet more precise aim headed towards Nicola. He didn’t flinch or even seemed concerned with it. It landed on him like red paint; there were no signs of pain. It just made his face dirty as he smiled – a horrible smile of hatred in that red blood.
"How?", Ilay gasped in disbelief as he looked at his father who burned everything around them.
"You can kill him now", Nicola said to Astoria, "He is connected to you through blood, but his mind is yours to take. Simple-minded creatures are easy to kill".
Sirius took this advantage and managed to push down Draco, who lost in the duel. Bellatrix looked enraged by that as her wand got up and she moved towards him. Her fighting style was quite unique. Rage seemed to be the core of it, she duelled aggressively and there was no match to her will. However her body was small and it gave her speed and flexibility to channel the rage through.
"It look’s like this is a family reunion for us as well, brother", she said as she met Sirius.
Oh, god, he dodged, Harry though as his heart skipped a beat only to find her heading towards him with a horrible grin on her face.
And then it hit her. Lightning. When Harry turned to look for the source of it, Astoria was gone. She moved so fast it almost seemed like teleporting to him. One look and she was there, another look and she was gone – the difference between them only a measure of a blink of the eye. Bellatrix crumbled on the ground and howled in pain, her body twitching as lightning still possessed it. She looked like a fish out of water, struggling to stay still as pain twisted her from the inside out.
"No Elroy flames?", Ilay said but he didn’t look afraid of her.
Nicola jumped to him, fire following him.
And suddenly it was just the two of them. Nicola and Astoria Elroy. Back to back. Both of their red eyes looking around as enemies surrounded them. They looked like twins in that moment to Harry, no, they looked like two halves finally connecting.
Nicola moved towards the ground as he aimed at their feet. Astoria jumped from the air and lightning fell from the sky, following the roar of thunder. Then another, that didn’t reach her, but fell on the ground and managed to hit her father. Another one – a missed hit, that roared as it crashed down.
There were no distinguished targets. Nicola aimed at everyone else who wasn’t Astoria and she seemed equally uninterest to try and protect her own. It was as if she had no control, magic pouring out of her everywhere.
Dust and ash filled the air. For a second Harry couldn’t see anything and when he did, somehow he found himself next to Ilay Elroy who quickly leapt forward and grabbed him. He licked his face. Harry shivered in horror as his wet tongue touched his forehead near his scar and tasted blood.
The connection formed immediately. His own body betrayed him in an instant and his feet ran towards Astoria who looked mad with rage in that very second. Harry couldn’t move his hand to reach for his wand and his feet kept forcing him to step forward, one step after the other, no matter the struggle. All he could do was look around and pray no one kills him. Bellatrix seemed engaged in a fight between Lupin and Serious. Tonks was losing to Malfoy, who seemed equally aggressive in his style of duel as his aunt.
A green light stunned Astoria. She turned, ready to kill, only to find Harry staring back at her. It was just like that day Mad-Eye Moody made them duel. He looked terrified. Nicola stepped between them as he shouted at her.
"I told you to kill him long ago!"
"A liability", Astoria whispered to herself, repeating his words.
"Yes", Nicola hissed back.
Ilay hit her. The blood was nothing more than a splash on her but it got her attention.
"I need you to stop this madness", he screamed at her and there was desperation and pain in that scream that shook her body. "They are not your family, I am!"
"You gave me away", she screamed back.
"I would never do that. They killed your mother and they threw you away to die. It was never how I wanted it, I would’ve protected you", he said as he stopped.
The whole world stopped with those words. Astoria forgot about Harry who couldn’t do anything else but stay still and whimper in resistance, fighting the intrusive presence inside. Ilay Elroy was also dangerously close, he could hit them both if he wished. But he didn’t. His eyes met hers, begging.
Who? Who killed my mother?, the thoughts came rushing down to her.
"Astoria, it doesn’t need to be like this", Draco Malfoy said to her.
It stinged. Her body instantly turned. All of him was familiar to her. His voice and his betrayal. The uncertainty of lies and truth mixing in his image. Astoria loved him. It felt like he loved her back as well. Yet there was an uncertainty and she couldn’t see between his lies.
A lightning leapt from her fingers and stricked him down. He fell with a gasp, blood spilled on the ground around him. Astoria moved her hand above him and lightning danced around his body, forcing a loud scream from it. She turned and she looked at Bellatrix in the eyes.
"I will kill you all, one by one if I have to", she said slowly, her eyes drunk on bloodlust.
The witch twitched as her wand leapt from her fingers. Sirius stepped in, he hit her with a spell and it made Bellatrix loose balance but she was quick and she moved inhumanly swift like a snake. Rage had already possessed her. A spell flew and it hit Sirius in the chest.
"Avada Kedabra"
When you kill, you must mean it.
His body fell. The world stopped. It was the first loss. Not the first person Harry Potter had lost and not the first person to die in this war, but it was the one that truly reached a spot so deep inside of him and it made him bleed in pain inside like never before. He screamed his name again and again like a prayer of revival. A roar so terrifying they all kept quiet and starred at him. But Sirius stood still on the ground and no words reached him.
Lupin managed to pull him away. Tonks shot at Ilay. They were all stunned from hearing the killing curse.
Fire burned. So high and so hot, Harry couldn’t see. Tears and heat mixed in his eyes as he struggled to run. Lupin held him tight, pushing him away deeper in the forest. Tonks was also next to him.
When he turned to search for her with his eyes, he saw Astoria standing alone. Her silhouette was barely recognizable between the dancing flames.
Ilay came for her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her. Then magic hit him. He fell, probably stunned, Harry figured. Another person approached her. He was tall and dressed in black, he almost looked like a shadow the flames had conjured but he had platinum blonde hair and it was easy to distinguish him as human in that moment.
"No, don’t do this to me, please", Astoria screamed, and it sounded as her voice was broken. Then another light came in. Tonks jumped in the flames. Harry felt his mind slip away.
Harry Potter woke up in a bed he did not recognise to be his one, somewhere away from Hogwarts. It took him time to adjust to the sudden bright sunlight that came from the window next to him, blinding him for a second. Then he got a clear view of his surroundings. This was Sirius’s house, the Black’s estate. The order used it as it’s base.
Sirius, Harry thought with horror. Memories flashed in front of him as he struggled to get up.
A spasm surprised him and suddenly his body twitched in pain. He fell flat on the floor and grunted. Then he crowed until his feet could lift him up. The corridor was long, the wooden floor squeaked underneath his steps. There were voices, quietly echoing in the house. A door was left open, probably by accident, as you could barely see the gap in-between. It was the voices that gave them away.
Harry opened the door and everyone turned to stare at him. Lupin was dressed in black, that was the first thing he noticed and it instantly reminded him of Sirius’s death. Then his attention shifted to the centre in the room, where Astoria was seated in a single chair, swallowed by the light from the grand window behind her. As he got closer to the table that everyone surrounded, he noticed she was wearing Ginny’s clothes. It was a green sweater with the leather "G" on it, knitted by her mother Molly. He recognised it from last Christmas that he spent with the Wasleys.
Mostly, he noticed she was unhurt, no bandages, no signs of fried up blood, nothing on her.
"Harry", Hermione gasped with worry and she stretched her arm to reach him but stopped herself in somewhere in the middle. They could all see he barely stood on his feet.
"Take a seat, Harry", Lupin said to him as he tried to smile but no smile showed on his face.
Sirius was dead, that’s all Harry could think about. That was the truth that mattered to him. Worse, he died for nothing.
Albus Dumbledore’s hand rested heavy on Harry’s shoulder. That seemed to wake him up and a sudden urge to understand the situation and his surrounding overtook him. Every member of the Order of the Phoenix was here. Hermione, Ron, Fred and George and Ginny who came here from Hogwarts, but also Bill Weasely and Tonks, and the real Mad-Eye Moody and Kingsley. It was just Sirius who was missing.
Now he understood this was an interrogation. Draco Malfoy had betrayed them, he had warned them but also given a head-start to the Death Eaters. Harry couldn’t help but wonder how was Astoria handling it. Could’ve she known?
"How are you?", it was a hollow question. Harry didn’t even see who asked him.
"I’m fine", he said quietly, it was a lie and he didn’t try to hide it.
"I’m sorry for your loss", Dumbledore said to him with a comforting smile, "We were just discussing the situation near the forest. It was a mistake not to tell me".
"They would’ve found out and killed him", Astoria said with a sharpness in her voice. It felt forbidden to hear this. Harry looked at her with anger in his eyes.
"It was him who should’ve died", he hissed.
The room went silent. He hated her so much in this moment. He even blamed her for it. After all, couldn’t this all be avoided if she wasn’t so naïve to trust Draco Malfoy? And she didn’t just trust him, if she really loved him – that was a constant act of betrayal. They could never trust her, her heart will always lead her astray.
"I should’ve told Dumbledore, the situation would’ve been different", coldly said Lupin but tried to soften his voice, "There is no one to blame here".
There is, Harry thought and he knew he wasn’t the only one as he saw the way others looked at Astoria. The majority had the same opinion. Sirius Black had died because of her carelessness, because of her love for a Death Eater and because of her cowardness. All for what? To have her here?
"I want to leave", Astoria said as she met their gaze. It was a plea and she took it to Dumbledore, "I don’t feel safe".
"You will never be safe, nowhere and with no one", he said back to her, his voice calm yet cold.
"What can we even do with her?", Ginny asked as she looked at Harry. There was judgement in her eyes. They all warned him. The mistake was his for trusting her.
"Astoria is a very powerful which, she could be a valuable member of the order", said Lupin.
"Does she even want to be?", Ron snorted.
Astoria wasn’t listening to them. There were screams echoing in her mind. All she could think about was her father. A man that looked broken. He hated his father, she figured quick. Nicola didn’t seem to love him back either, though that could’ve been a defensive reaction. Nicola had told her he only cared for her and would do everything for her, and for no one else. The last part sounded to her always as a warning rather as comfort.
Draco Malfoy also appeared to her in his black clothes. The Dark Mark he had on his arm she knew and had seen it so many times on his pale skin, yet she never truly understood what it meant. It was like an ugly tattoo to her, she knew it was forbidden and could get him expelled or in trouble, but all it did was stay on his skin. Now she knew it was more. The Dark Mark was sworn loyalty to his master, a sealed fate. He could never raise a hand against him and live.
"Take me to the summer house", Astoria breathed quickly as a tear fell down her cheek.
The room went silent. Dumbledore looked rather lost in thought from this but he still looked at her and no empathy showed in his gaze, rather a cold and calculating equation was what was happening in his mind.
"Look at her", said Alastor Moody. "She is a liability. Take her somewhere else, Albus. Hide her if you must, but she cannot stay here with us."
"I disagree, let us keep her. Her magic abilities could prove useful and the girl is a direct heir to a great fortune and an even greater name. It could make families turn alliances", rebuked Kingsley.
None of them even looked at her.
"I said I want to leave", a voice echoed in room.
Two bloodred eyes glared at them. His hands were resting on Astoria’s shoulders, who remained sited in her chair and refusing to look up as tears fell down her face. Nicola Elroy was towering over her.
"You finally decided to show yourself?", Dumbledore said as a light shined through his eyes for a second. Nicola looked at him with such horrible rage, Tonks and Moody took out their wands.
They couldn’t kill him and he’ll burn down the place before they could even react, Harry thought with horror.
"I want you to leave me alone. You, and whatever pathetic following you have gathered this time. They have nothing to do with my family, this war is not mine", he spat at him.
"Your son is sworn to Voldemort. He is your heir and Voldemort is his master".
"Astoria is my heir and no one can dispute it".
"Who is this?", Ginny gasped with fear as she turned to Harry.
"Before there was Voldemort, there was Nicola Elroy. The last flame. The most powerful wizard the world had seen", Moody explained. He looked both afraid and in awe, "This seems to be some kind of manifestation of him."
The room went silent. Those who recognised him also knew his story and the end of it. A strange feeling took over them. Dumbledore had lived a long life, he was still standing tall and proud, facing that boy, but he was an old man. His white beard and wrinkled skin signified this long life. And next to him was a boy, no older than seventeen with messy ash-like hair and a face that was the definition of youth. Only his red eyes indicated his touch of dark magic.
"I care for Astoria, you should - "Dumbledore said softly, but Nicola interrupted him as he stepped forward him.
"You never cared! You were always selfish in your schemes. I was there, I was always there and I saw you care for me as a means to an end. It is who you are in your core", he hissed at him.
"I just want to leave. I want to go to the summer house and live there a normal life", Astoria sobbed as she got up to reach for Nicola’s hand. It was to stop him before he could summon magic.
"Sirius died for you!", Harry got up as he shouted. It got everyone’s attention.
"The boy who lived", Nicola laughed, looking him up and down, "You have your means to an end, leave me be, Albus".
"You own him a debt", Harry continued, ignoring everyone.
"I never meant for him to die", Nicola rolled his eyes. "And I don’t care that he did."
"And yet he did. He died because of you, because of your lies and your stupidity".
"Don’t you dare speak like that to me!"

"Our family’s roots are in blood magic. I’d like to think of it as the original technique long before wizards like you came out of our family".

"It will always be inferior", a cold voice interrupted them.

Ilay jumped back, his eyes widen In horror. Astoria was still on the ground trying to gather her thoughts as flames surrounded her. Fire never came to her, not yet. They called him the last flame and she often put herself down for it, because no flame ever blessed her.

The ground burned and everything on it decayed under the fire. Nicola Elroy was standing over her. His eyes bloodred with a clear intent to kill. He still looked young, just a boy, but everyone felt the shift from his presence appearing and heads turned. Draco stopped and stared in disbelief as he swore he had seen him before in Hogwarts. A student, he then thought and Nicola looked like one. Maybe it was him that made Astoria laugh in the hallways. The most powerful wizard of his time, hidden in a boy’s body and youthful looks.

The care he had for her was obvious. Nicola looked at her with worry as he pulled her from the ground and smiled at her. Astoria was always the first priority. Ilay, himself had never seen his father turn to him with such care.

"Don’t worry", he said softly to her as he turned to face his son, "He will always be inferior to us."

"Father", Ilay greeted him coldly as he revealed his arms under the robe. There were cuts all over his body and he quickly opened a few of them, his own blood dripped on the ground.

"You keep wasting my blood and disgracing it", Nicola said, his voice ice cold towards his son.

"I could say I’ve missed you, but that’s untrue", Ilay responded with the same cold tone and then anger took over, "You leave my daughter alone!"

"She is not yours to take!"

And Nicola moved. He was precise in his movements with the same practiced grace. But it had to be marked that Astoria was notably faster and Harry looked at her as flashbacks came to him from their duel.

Nicola opened his mouth and fire came out of it like a roar. It shook them all. The flames burned everything around them and spread on everything they touched, consuming it. It was no ordinary fire. It was dark magic. With the moves of his fingers, the flames changed directions and obeyed his will, burning his enemies.

Bellatrix was the first to scream in pain as she danced around the flames but failed and her leg caught fire. She still kept running to Ilay, gripping him and shrieking. Where the flame left, decay stayed.

"Make it stop!", she hissed.

Ilay moved as well. His own blood – a much smaller yet more precise aim headed towards Nicola. He didn’t flinch or even seemed concerned with it. It landed on him like red paint; there were no signs of pain. It just made his face dirty as he smiled – a horrible smile of hatred in that red blood.

"How?", Ilay gasped in disbelief as he looked at his father who burned everything around them.

"You can kill him now", Nicola said to Astoria, "He is connected to you through blood, but his mind is yours to take. Simple-minded creatures are easy to kill".

Sirius took this advantage and managed to push down Draco, who lost in the duel. Bellatrix looked enraged by that as her wand got up and she moved towards him. Her fighting style was quite unique. Rage seemed to be the core of it, she duelled aggressively and there was no match to her will. However her body was small and it gave her speed and flexibility to channel the rage through.

"It look’s like this is a family reunion for us as well, brother", she said as she met Sirius.

Oh, god, he dodged, Harry though as his heart skipped a beat only to find her heading towards him with a horrible grin on her face.

And then it hit her. Lightning. When Harry turned to look for the source of it, Astoria was gone. She moved so fast it almost seemed like teleporting to him. One look and she was there, another look and she was gone – the difference between them only a measure of a blink of the eye. Bellatrix crumbled on the ground and howled in pain, her body twitching as lightning still possessed it. She looked like a fish out of water, struggling to stay still as pain twisted her from the inside out.

"No Elroy flames?", Ilay said but he didn’t look afraid of her.

Nicola jumped to him, fire following him.

And suddenly it was just the two of them. Nicola and Astoria Elroy. Back to back. Both of their red eyes looking around as enemies surrounded them. They looked like twins in that moment to Harry, no, they looked like two halves finally connecting.

Nicola moved towards the ground as he aimed at their feet. Astoria jumped from the air and lightning fell from the sky, following the roar of thunder. Then another, that didn’t reach her, but fell on the ground and managed to hit her father. Another one – a missed hit, that roared as it crashed down.

There were no distinguished targets. Nicola aimed at everyone else who wasn’t Astoria and she seemed equally uninterest to try and protect her own. It was as if she had no control, magic pouring out of her everywhere.

Dust and ash filled the air. For a second Harry couldn’t see anything and when he did, somehow he found himself next to Ilay Elroy who quickly leapt forward and grabbed him. He licked his face. Harry shivered in horror as his wet tongue touched his forehead near his scar and tasted blood.

The connection formed immediately. His own body betrayed him in an instant and his feet ran towards Astoria who looked mad with rage in that very second. Harry couldn’t move his hand to reach for his wand and his feet kept forcing him to step forward, one step after the other, no matter the struggle. All he could do was look around and pray no one kills him. Bellatrix seemed engaged in a fight between Lupin and Serious. Tonks was losing to Malfoy, who seemed equally aggressive in his style of duel as his aunt.

A green light stunned Astoria. She turned, ready to kill, only to find Harry staring back at her. It was just like that day Mad-Eye Moody made them duel. He looked terrified. Nicola stepped between them as he shouted at her.

"I told you to kill him long ago!"

"A liability", Astoria whispered to herself, repeating his words.

"Yes", Nicola hissed back.

Ilay hit her. The blood was nothing more than a splash on her but it got her attention.

"I need you to stop this madness", he screamed at her and there was desperation and pain in that scream that shook her body. "They are not your family, I am!"

"You gave me away", she screamed back.

"I would never do that. They killed your mother and they threw you away to die. It was never how I wanted it, I would’ve protected you", he said as he stopped.

The whole world stopped with those words. Astoria forgot about Harry who couldn’t do anything else but stay still and whimper in resistance, fighting the intrusive presence inside. Ilay Elroy was also dangerously close, he could hit them both if he wished. But he didn’t. His eyes met hers, begging.

Who? Who killed my mother?, the thoughts came rushing down to her.

"Astoria, it doesn’t need to be like this", Draco Malfoy said to her.

It stinged. Her body instantly turned. All of him was familiar to her. His voice and his betrayal. The uncertainty of lies and truth mixing in his image. Astoria loved him. It felt like he loved her back as well. Yet there was an uncertainty and she couldn’t see between his lies.

A lightning leapt from her fingers and stricked him down. He fell with a gasp, blood spilled on the ground around him. Astoria moved her hand above him and lightning danced around his body, forcing a loud scream from it. She turned and she looked at Bellatrix in the eyes.

"I will kill you all, one by one if I have to", she said slowly, her eyes drunk on bloodlust.

The witch twitched as her wand leapt from her fingers. Sirius stepped in, he hit her with a spell and it made Bellatrix loose balance but she was quick and she moved inhumanly swift like a snake. Rage had already possessed her. A spell flew and it hit Sirius in the chest.

"Avada Kedabra"

When you kill, you must mean it.

His body fell. The world stopped. It was the first loss. Not the first person Harry Potter had lost and not the first person to die in this war, but it was the one that truly reached a spot so deep inside of him and it made him bleed in pain inside like never before. He screamed his name again and again like a prayer of revival. A roar so terrifying they all kept quiet and starred at him. But Sirius stood still on the ground and no words reached him.

Lupin managed to pull him away. Tonks shot at Ilay. They were all stunned from hearing the killing curse.

Fire burned. So high and so hot, Harry couldn’t see. Tears and heat mixed in his eyes as he struggled to run. Lupin held him tight, pushing him away deeper in the forest. Tonks was also next to him.

When he turned to search for her with his eyes, he saw Astoria standing alone. Her silhouette was barely recognizable between the dancing flames.

Ilay came for her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her. Then magic hit him. He fell, probably stunned, Harry figured. Another person approached her. He was tall and dressed in black, he almost looked like a shadow the flames had conjured but he had platinum blonde hair and it was easy to distinguish him as human in that moment.

"No, don’t do this to me, please", Astoria screamed, and it sounded as her voice was broken. Then another light came in. Tonks jumped in the flames. Harry felt his mind slip away.

Harry Potter woke up in a bed he did not recognise to be his one, somewhere away from Hogwarts. It took him time to adjust to the sudden bright sunlight that came from the window next to him, blinding him for a second. Then he got a clear view of his surroundings. This was Sirius’s house, the Black’s estate. The order used it as it’s base.

Sirius, Harry thought with horror. Memories flashed in front of him as he struggled to get up.

A spasm surprised him and suddenly his body twitched in pain. He fell flat on the floor and grunted. Then he crowed until his feet could lift him up. The corridor was long, the wooden floor squeaked underneath his steps. There were voices, quietly echoing in the house. A door was left open, probably by accident, as you could barely see the gap in-between. It was the voices that gave them away.

Harry opened the door and everyone turned to stare at him. Lupin was dressed in black, that was the first thing he noticed and it instantly reminded him of Sirius’s death. Then his attention shifted to the centre in the room, where Astoria was seated in a single chair, swallowed by the light from the grand window behind her. As he got closer to the table that everyone surrounded, he noticed she was wearing Ginny’s clothes. It was a green sweater with the leather "G" on it, knitted by her mother Molly. He recognised it from last Christmas that he spent with the Wasleys.

Mostly, he noticed she was unhurt, no bandages, no signs of fried up blood, nothing on her.

"Harry", Hermione gasped with worry and she stretched her arm to reach him but stopped herself in somewhere in the middle. They could all see he barely stood on his feet.

"Take a seat, Harry", Lupin said to him as he tried to smile but no smile showed on his face.

Sirius was dead, that’s all Harry could think about. That was the truth that mattered to him. Worse, he died for nothing.

Albus Dumbledore’s hand rested heavy on Harry’s shoulder. That seemed to wake him up and a sudden urge to understand the situation and his surrounding overtook him. Every member of the Order of the Phoenix was here. Hermione, Ron, Fred and George and Ginny who came here from Hogwarts, but also Bill Weasely and Tonks, and the real Mad-Eye Moody and Kingsley. It was just Sirius who was missing.

Now he understood this was an interrogation. Draco Malfoy had betrayed them, he had warned them but also given a head-start to the Death Eaters. Harry couldn’t help but wonder how was Astoria handling it. Could’ve she known?

"How are you?", it was a hollow question. Harry didn’t even see who asked him.

"I’m fine", he said quietly, it was a lie and he didn’t try to hide it.

"I’m sorry for your loss", Dumbledore said to him with a comforting smile, "We were just discussing the situation near the forest. It was a mistake not to tell me".

"They would’ve found out and killed him", Astoria said with a sharpness in her voice. It felt forbidden to hear this. Harry looked at her with anger in his eyes.

"It was him who should’ve died", he hissed.

The room went silent. He hated her so much in this moment. He even blamed her for it. After all, couldn’t this all be avoided if she wasn’t so naïve to trust Draco Malfoy? And she didn’t just trust him, if she really loved him – that was a constant act of betrayal. They could never trust her, her heart will always lead her astray.

"I should’ve told Dumbledore, the situation would’ve been different", coldly said Lupin but tried to soften his voice, "There is no one to blame here".

There is, Harry thought and he knew he wasn’t the only one as he saw the way others looked at Astoria. The majority had the same opinion. Sirius Black had died because of her carelessness, because of her love for a Death Eater and because of her cowardness. All for what? To have her here?

"I want to leave", Astoria said as she met their gaze. It was a plea and she took it to Dumbledore, "I don’t feel safe".

"You will never be safe, nowhere and with no one", he said back to her, his voice calm yet cold.

"What can we even do with her?", Ginny asked as she looked at Harry. There was judgement in her eyes. They all warned him. The mistake was his for trusting her.

"Astoria is a very powerful which, she could be a valuable member of the order", said Lupin.

"Does she even want to be?", Ron snorted.

Astoria wasn’t listening to them. There were screams echoing in her mind. All she could think about was her father. A man that looked broken. He hated his father, she figured quick. Nicola didn’t seem to love him back either, though that could’ve been a defensive reaction. Nicola had told her he only cared for her and would do everything for her, and for no one else. The last part sounded to her always as a warning rather as comfort.

Draco Malfoy also appeared to her in his black clothes. The Dark Mark he had on his arm she knew and had seen it so many times on his pale skin, yet she never truly understood what it meant. It was like an ugly tattoo to her, she knew it was forbidden and could get him expelled or in trouble, but all it did was stay on his skin. Now she knew it was more. The Dark Mark was sworn loyalty to his master, a sealed fate. He could never raise a hand against him and live.

"Take me to the summer house", Astoria breathed quickly as a tear fell down her cheek.

The room went silent. Dumbledore looked rather lost in thought from this but he still looked at her and no empathy showed in his gaze, rather a cold and calculating equation was what was happening in his mind.

"Look at her", said Alastor Moody. "She is a liability. Take her somewhere else, Albus. Hide her if you must, but she cannot stay here with us."

"I disagree, let us keep her. Her magic abilities could prove useful and the girl is a direct heir to a great fortune and an even greater name. It could make families turn alliances", rebuked Kingsley.

None of them even looked at her.

"I said I want to leave", a voice echoed in room.

Two bloodred eyes glared at them. His hands were resting on Astoria’s shoulders, who remained sited in her chair and refusing to look up as tears fell down her face. Nicola Elroy was towering over her.

"You finally decided to show yourself?", Dumbledore said as a light shined through his eyes for a second. Nicola looked at him with such horrible rage, Tonks and Moody took out their wands.

They couldn’t kill him and he’ll burn down the place before they could even react, Harry thought with horror.

"I want you to leave me alone. You, and whatever pathetic following you have gathered this time. They have nothing to do with my family, this war is not mine", he spat at him.

"Your son is sworn to Voldemort. He is your heir and Voldemort is his master".

"Astoria is my heir and no one can dispute it".

"Who is this?", Ginny gasped with fear as she turned to Harry.

"Before there was Voldemort, there was Nicola Elroy. The last flame. The most powerful wizard the world had seen", Moody explained. He looked both afraid and in awe, "This seems to be some kind of manifestation of him."

The room went silent. Those who recognised him also knew his story and the end of it. A strange feeling took over them. Dumbledore had lived a long life, he was still standing tall and proud, facing that boy, but he was an old man. His white beard and wrinkled skin signified this long life. And next to him was a boy, no older than seventeen with messy ash-like hair and a face that was the definition of youth. Only his red eyes indicated his touch of dark magic.

"I care for Astoria, you should - "Dumbledore said softly, but Nicola interrupted him as he stepped forward him.

"You never cared! You were always selfish in your schemes. I was there, I was always there and I saw you care for me as a means to an end. It is who you are in your core", he hissed at him.

"I just want to leave. I want to go to the summer house and live there a normal life", Astoria sobbed as she got up to reach for Nicola’s hand. It was to stop him before he could summon magic.

"Sirius died for you!", Harry got up as he shouted. It got everyone’s attention.

"The boy who lived", Nicola laughed, looking him up and down, "You have your means to an end, leave me be, Albus".

"You own him a debt", Harry continued, ignoring everyone.

"I never meant for him to die", Nicola rolled his eyes. "And I don’t care that he did."

"And yet he did. He died because of you, because of your lies and your stupidity".

"Don’t you dare speak like that to me!"