@ssnakewhissperer
(If you don’t have the energy to read it all, the stuff beneath the cut is probably enough. Sorry about the length I have no self control.)
The apparition left Lydia dizzy and disoriented. She still wasn’t allowed to apparate on her own so her dad had a firm grip of her hand and even if she would have been old enough she had no idea what this place was. The town was dark and even though it was still summer, it felt very cold. She couldn’t detect a single living soul and the houses looked dark and abandoned.
“I don’t like this place dad, “Lydia whispered, feeling incredibly uneasy, as if someone was watching them. Philippe didn’t answer her, just tugged the hood of his cloak deeper down over his face to protect it from the last daylight as he began to walk. Lydia followed closely, her hand feeling the reassuring outline of her wand inside the cloak. He had been bringing her with him to many places ever since she had come home from her fourth year at Hogwarts earlier that summer, ever since that death eater she’d seen in the daily prophet, Dolohov, and the two vampires had shown up in their home. As the thought of Dolohov’s twisted face and dark sunken in eyes sneering at her was still vivid in her mind, she nearly jumped as a figure, clad from head to toe in black robes, stepped in front of the two. A silvery mask with narrow slits for the eyes hid his face but the voice revealed that it was a man. “Name?” “Philippe Ramley.” Said her father. The death eater was silent and Lydia got the impression that he was studying them through the slits of his mask. Finally he stepped out of their way without another word but kept his masked gaze on them as they passed and continued their walk through the gloomy town. “What are we doing here?” Her father avoided looking at her; he had done that a lot recently. “I’m going to meet some people I have promised to help.” “Some people?” He did not reply, only nodded. They had reached what must once have been the town hall which stood over a desolated square. What remained of a crumbled statue stood lonely in the middle of it. On the staircase leading up to the Town hall entrance stood two wizards in dark robes, but no masks. “Ramley,” Said one who had long graying hair pulled back firmly into a ponytail. “It’s been too long.” “Too long,” Repeated Philippe, neither of them seeming very sincere. “Has he arrived yet?” “Not yet, but you are quite early. ” Said the second wizard. Lydia noted that the handle of his wand glimmered when he shifted it in his grip. Philippe gave an affirming noise as he made an attempt at moving past them, looking confused when they stepped into his path. “Death eaters only.” The man with the ponytail looked over Philip’s shoulder, to Lydia who had remained close behind her father.
He seemed to be thinking, standing silent for a moment before turning back to Lydia, leading her back down to the base of the stairs. “Listen to me closely, Lydia.” He held her at an arm’s length, black eyes looking intensely into her equally as black ones. “I don’t want to leave you, but if I try to bring you inside things might get worse for you.” Lydia could guess why.
When Dolohov had come to their home he had made it very clear that the death eaters only tolerated Lydia’s existence because Philippe was useful to them, which was probably the reason why he insisted on having her along with him everywhere.
“I need you to stay right here until I come back. You will not talk to anyone, accept anything from anyone and not look at anyone. Do not invite their attention, pretend that you do not exist.”
The girl hesitated and glanced up the stairs at the two death eaters before nodding. She didn’t know what to say or do besides what she was told right now.
After some hesitation, Philippe left Lydia sitting on the rubble of the crumbled statue in the center of the square and headed inside the town hall building.
The sunlight behind the thick clouds was slowly disappearing and as it did, more and more death eaters came forth from the shadows that grew longer and longer. Some noticed her through the slits of their masks and beneath the hoods of their robes, looking at her suspiciously before quickly entering into the town hall building when they noted that the two guards didn’t pay her any mind, but most seemed to ether not notice or just didn’t care.
Not until the man with the twisted face showed up.
The sun had finally gone down and left the town in a dim darkness when Dolohov appeared in the far left corner of the square, the sound of his appearance echoing between the empty houses.
Lydia recognized him about the same time he did she had time to see him stop in his tracks before she turned her head down to stare at the gravel beneath her feet, tugging the hood deeper down over her face, pretending she did not exist.
“Lost your daddy, half-breed?” The voice spoke so close to her ear that she nearly fell off her seat. Dolohov stood by the ruined statue, glaring down at her with a grimace which Lydia couldn’t determine if he was amused or disgusted. “I can’t believe Ramley brought you here, when the dark lord will be present.”
“N-,” She still remembered her dad’s warning about not speaking to the death eaters, but she felt like not speaking when spoken to would be worse.
She raised a hand, pointing at the town hall building. Dolohov’s grimace remained; it seemed to become a bit angrier even as she didn’t offer up a proper response quickly enough.
The hood slid off her head when the death eater grabbed the front of her robes and tugged her up on her feet, nearly tripping over the rubble beneath them. “Answer when I ask you a question, half-breed.” His breath smelled of peppermint but it still made Lydia feel sick to her stomach and she began to struggle.
“Let me go!” The two death eater guards watched, but did nothing and Dolohov held onto the front of her robe without much effort at all.
“My dad will-“
“Oh your dad will what?” He mocked. “You and your daddy won’t be worth more than the dirt on my shoes if he can’t do what he is told. That’s the way it’s always been. He may be a death eater, but he’ll never carry the mark of-”
CRACK
Dolohov let her go as if she had given him an electric shock and pushed her back, causing her to trip over the remains of the statue and land hard on the ground.
Pushing herself up, her hand lightly cut on a piece of marble and knees sore from the impact, she found herself staring into a pair of yellow eyes and a thin, cleft tongue that sniffed her as it darted in and out of the giant snake’s mouth. Lydia didn’t move a muscle, her mouth had gone dry as parchment and she wouldn’t dare break off the eye contact with the snake, even as it let out a low hiss. Thankfully, the snake did it before her.
Its yellow eyes averted from her own and it disappeared to her right, she could feel its body grace against her arm briefly but dared to breathe again.
This was insane.
She couldn’t go inside and force her dad to get her home, she wasn’t that stupid. If there were just one other person like Dolohov in there she didn’t want to risk running into them. She would just…find a dark corner somewhere and sit there until whatever meeting that was going on in there was over.
She looked up, and saw a tall, gaunt man dressed in black, with skin that was so pale it seemed almost transparent and eyes that glowed red against it.
Lydia stopped breathing again as she stared up a being who indisputably had to be Lord Voldemort.