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Pandora is distantly aware she is screaming. The pain of the Cruciatus curse is unlike anything she has ever felt before. The entire room is spinning, falling away from her as the pain ceases to finish. She feels thousands of hot knives being pushed into her flesh whilst her skin is ripped apart and-
She isn’t sure how much time passes, but her voice is hoarse from screaming and her hand is twitching next to her. Her eyes flutter shut from the sheer relief of not being in agonising pain. The ringing in her ears starts to subside and she can make out the voices of the people around her.
“What should we even do with her?” She recognises the voice as Dolohov.
“I don’t know but we need to get rid of her before her psycho brother comes back.” Pandora can’t help the small smile that spreads over her face, Evan is alive.
She can hear footsteps approaching, they are frantic and almost familiar. Pandora is tempted to blame the leftover delirium from the curse for that, no one she knows will be here, part of her desperately hopes it is Evan.
“Well, well, well, what is going on in here?” The voice is definitely familiar. Pandora tries to think, tries to push past the remnants of pain clouding her mind.
The footsteps come to a stop behind her.
“What the fuck happened here?” The voice has lost its carefree nature and now sounds sort of angry. “What the fuck did you do?” Scratch that, whoever it is, they are furious.
The footsteps move around her and the person is stood in front of her, between her and the Death Eaters. “You’re all so fucking stupid! He told you that she is off limits! Oh Merlin, Evan is going to gouge your fucking eyes out. I just hope I’m there to see it.”
Pandora opens her eyes and tries to locate the voice, but the room is swirling in front of her. Suddenly, someone drops to their knees next to her. A hand is in her hair and they smell familiar, like gunpowder and-
“Hey Dora.”
Barty.
A tear slides down her face, the relief that he is alive overwhelms her. She reaches out towards him, and he obliges, his hand meets hers halfway between them.
“Don’t worry, they can’t hurt you now that I’m here. I’ve got you Dora.” Her eyes finally focus enough to make out his face. He looks the same as the last time she saw him and even though it was only weeks ago, it comforts her to know that he hasn’t changed.
“Here, let’s get you up. We need to get you out of here, lovely.” Barty is moving his wand over her body. A blue light is emitted from the tip and Pandora feels slightly less like she is going to collapse or throw up.
He supports most of her weight as she finds her balance and stands. She leans heavily against him, holding his arm to stay upright.
“Okay, we need to leave. Like now, before he gets back.” Barty starts moving towards the door when someone apparates in with a loud crack.
Barty freezes instantly and pushes Pandora behind him, putting himself between her and the new person in the room.
“Where do you think you’re going with her, Barty?” The voice freezes the blood in Pandora’s veins, she doesn’t have to look to know that it’s Voldemort.
“My Lord, there has been a mistake. This is Evan Rosier’s sister. One of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, a pureblood.” Pandora can feel Barty’s hand shaking in hers. She squeezes his arm in what she hopes is a comforting manner.
“There was no mistake, My Lord.” Dolohov speaks again. “She has not joined the cause and cannot provide us with a satisfactory reason why not.”
“Is that so?” Voldemort’s voice is mocking. Pandora rests her head against Barty’s shoulder and breathes. His stupid sage smelling body wash and that god awful cologne floods her senses, she remembers how it always drove her up the wall in Hogwarts. But now, Pandora selfishly hopes that if she dies here, she can be surrounded by it. It’s the closest thing she has to home right now.
“No!” Barty’s voice is shaking. “My Lord, she is a friend of mine and a good- brilliant witch." He pauses momentarily before whispering, "She is Evan’s sister.”
“His twin.” Pandora turns her gaze towards Voldemort as he takes a step forward. Barty’s grip on her hand instinctively tightens. “I’ve heard stories of her abilities, the prophecies she can tell. Her dreams that speak of the future. Magical twins are rumoured to have special abilities, but this is unheard of.”
“My Lord, she has no such gifts. It is a myth.” Pandora can hear the desperation in his voice. It dawns on her that Barty just lied to the most powerful dark wizard known in order to protect her.
They’ll kill him too.
The thought alone made her sick to her stomach and she presses her face into Barty’s shoulder again, breathing him in and wishing for a miracle to spare them both.
“She is supposed to be a mother, My Lord. She cannot fight in the war and risk ending the Rosier bloodline with her.” Regulus’ cool voice fills the room. He walks in with controlled, measured steps and stops next to Barty.
Her miracle has arrived in the form of Regulus Black.
Pandora feels Barty’s shoulder relax and some of the tension seeps out of his muscles.
“Is that so?” Voldemort sounds closer than he did before.
“Yes, my Lord. Her parents died in an attack, as you know, and her only other family is Evan, who is already devoted to the cause.” Pandora is so thankful for Regulus in this moment, and she is mildly horrified, but mostly impressed, with how easily he just bluffed to Voldemort’s face to save her from whatever he would have done.
The silence that fills the room is sickening. She slides her hand down to meet Barty’s hand, he interlocks their fingers together, squeezing her hand tightly. She presses her nose further into his shoulder and hears him exhale lightly. For an awful second, Pandora thinks he has seen right through their bluff and is about to kill them all.
“Very well then, take her away.” Voldemort turns around, the swish of his cloak echoes through the hall. “We need to plan our next attack, follow me.”
Regulus is quick to grab her free arm and starts walking her out with Barty in tow, their hands are still joined. Pandora doesn’t dare to look back and finds herself taking more even breaths the further away they get from his voice. Regulus keeps them moving at a fast pace until they reach the outside of the building when he stops abruptly and takes Pandora’s face in his hands, eyes darting over her features. Seemingly satisfied with what he sees there, he shares a look with Barty and then nods before looking around.
“Can you apparate?” His tone is gentle now, as she blinks, Pandora can see the worry lines etched into his forehead. She reaches up to smooth them out as she nods.
“I won’t get splinched, don’t worry Reg, they didn’t hurt me that badly.” She rubs his forehead gently with her thumb until he relaxes it. “Where are we going?”
“Portkey in the woods about five miles out. It’ll take us quite near to London and we’ll apparate you to somewhere safe when we get there.” Barty replies this time.
“Ready?” Regulus holds his hand out to Pandora. She nods and takes his hand.
The world spins violently around her, the only thing keeping Pandora grounded in her body is the feeling of Barty’s hand in her own. Her feet make contact with the ground and her knees buckle at the unexpected impact, she feels herself falling when Barty calls out.
“Merlin!” Barty’s hand snakes around her waist. “Okay Dora, I’ve got you.”
She rests her head back onto his chest as she catches her breath. The dizziness from earlier has returned with full force, so she squeezes her eyes shut to try and fight it off. She swears the floor is moving underneath her, but tries to focus on the smell of the forest, Barty’s hand still squeezing hers and the sound of birds chirping.
After what she would call an embarrassingly long amount of time, she opens her eyes and is relieved to find that the world has stopped spinning. Regulus is watching her face intently.
“I thought you said you were fine to apparate.” His tone is accusing but she can hear the worry underneath it.
“I said I wouldn’t get splinched. That stupid curse has made me so dizzy, it went away with whatever spell Barty used but it just hit me again.” Regulus’ eyes are ablaze with fury.
“Which curse Dora?” His voice is cold, and she knows whoever will be on the receiving end of this anger will likely not survive it. She feels Barty inhale through his teeth behind her.
“Not now Reggie, please can we talk about it later?”
“No. Which curse Dora?” Pandora takes a breath and looks directly into his eyes before responding with a calm voice.
“The Cruciatus Curse.”
Regulus’ hand curl up into fists and he clenches his jaw.
“Let’s keep moving.” He turns swiftly on his heel and starts walking towards a clearing up ahead.
“Come on, lovely. Let’s try to keep up with the stroppy child.” Barty keeps his hand in hers whilst bringing his arm up from her waist to rest around her shoulders.
Pandora chuckles and walks with him, grateful that he isn’t rushing her or asking her any questions yet. She and Barty fall into a comfortable silence as they follow Regulus through the woods and into the clearing.
They reach the portkey fairly quickly and each grab a hold of the old shoe. Pandora feels less sick when they land on the ground this time but still has to lean into Barty and catch her breath to stop herself from throwing up. Barty doesn’t say anything, simply wraps his free arm around her and runs his fingers through her hair, all the while his hand remains in hers.
“Okay, so where are we actually taking her?” She feels the rumble of his voice against her cheek.
“I don’t know B. She can’t stay with either of us because that would put her in trouble with the Order. But we can’t exactly send her home right now.”
“Xen is okay to lay low somewhere else for a couple of days, right Dora?” Barty presses a kiss to the top of her head and Pandora nods slowly, feeling too nauseous to attempt speaking yet.
“Okay. Okay, so we take her…” Pandora thinks she can actually hear he cogs turning inside Regulus’ brain.
“You’re gonna hate me Reg.”
“What?” Barty takes a steadying breath.
“I think she would be safest with the Potters or your brother.”
The silence that follows is loud. Pandora can imagine the glare Regulus is sending towards Barty right now and smiles despite herself.
“Fuck you, Barty.” Pandora notes that there isn’t much venom behind it.
“You know you’d love to.” Pandora feels a fist hit Barty’s shoulder and can’t contain her laughter when he releases an indignant squawk in response. Barty slowly pulls away and smiles when he sees her face.
“There’s my girl.” He lifts their joined hands up and gently kisses the back of her hand.
“Okay, let’s take her to the Potters, Sirius is probably there anyway.” Regulus and Barty share another look as they start walking.
“I can’t apparate past the wards because I think they would kill me on site, but I’ll get you as close as possible in my human form. I’ll watch in my animagus form until I see you go in, alright?”
Pandora glances up at Barty. “You’re not coming?”
“Nah, someone needs to make sure your psycho brother doesn’t skin those men alive.”
Pandora raises her eyebrows at that. “Then shouldn’t Regulus go? You always enable his insanity B.”
Barty grins at that. “Well, I won’t let him skin them alive, we gotta have some fun with them first.”
Regulus shoots him a withering glare and Pandora just laughs.
“I’ve missed you two.” The ease and familiarity between them feels like coming up for air after diving into deep water.
“We’ve missed you too.” Regulus is looking at her, the fondness in his eyes nearly brings her to tears.
“Okay, let’s apparate from here.” Regulus takes a step back and flips Barty off who winks back at him. Pandora finds tears blurring her vision and laughs wetly.
“Oh sweetheart, come here.” Barty pulls her into a hug, untangling his fingers from hers and holds her in a bone crushing grip which Pandora returns. She feels him take a deep breath with his nose buried in her hair and smiles to herself.
“Promise me you’ll visit more often.” It comes out muffled into Barty’s shirt, but she knows he hears it anyway.
“I promise. We all will.” He slowly pulls away and moves his hands to cup Pandora’s face. He wipes away her tears with his thumb so tenderly that she finds it hard to believe he has killed as many people as he has. She knows that this softness is reserved for his friends but finds it slightly jarring all the same.
He smiles slightly and brushes their noses together softly. Pandora huffs out a laugh, remembering that this was their way of doing a ‘see you soon’ back at Hogwarts, invented by an eleven-year-old Pandora and she cannot remember how or why she came up with it, but it stuck all the same.
Barty draws back a little and gently presses a final kiss to her forehead before taking his hands off her face and stepping back slightly.
“I’ll see you soon lovely.” With that, a crack sounds and Barty vanishes.
Pandora stares at the spot where he was just standing for a second before turning to face Regulus who offers her his hand. She steps forward and takes it. The world tilts on its axis again and just when Pandora is sure she will actually be sick, the ground appears under her feet.
She stumbles into Regulus who just brings his arms around her and holds her up with ease. She takes deep breaths and waits for the nausea to subside as she rests her head on his shoulder. He starts rubbing circles into her back and hums a soothing tune. She can smell the lavender on him which helps ground her and overcome the dizziness again.
She pulls away slowly but places her hands on his shoulders. He is looking at her, just looking, like he was earlier in the forest and Pandora melts.
“You have so much love inside you Regulus, please don’t lose it.”
He raises his eyebrows at that, clearly confused.
“The way you look at me…” Regulus’ eyes are shining a little now. “I can see the love in your eyes, and I don’t want you to lose that. Love is the greatest thing we can do.”
“Always one for words of wisdom Dora.” He squeezes her arms twice. “I’m so sorry this happened, we’ll be more careful when we come a visit you next time.”
“That’s okay Reggie, just come and visit.”
Regulus smiles at her, then seems to take her in again, before he steps back and transforms into his animagus form. In front of Pandora sits a black cat with a white tuft on fur on its chest.
Pandora can’t help the grin spreading across her face. She turns and makes her way to the Potter’s house, noticing the shift in the air when she passes the wards. James is at the door ready to greet her. The smile drops off his face as she comes into view.
Right before he pulls her into the house, she glances back and spots Regulus. He is still sat there, watching to make sure she gets in safe. It warms her chest, and she finds herself smiling as James shuts the door behind them and sits her down in the living room. Lily is fussing over her in an instant, casting healing spells and practically shoving tea down her throat.
Pandora must admit the tea makes her feel much better, though part of her thinks that has more to do with the knowledge her friends are all alive and safe more than anything else. That night when she drifts off to sleep on the Potter’s sofa, she thinks of her brother for the first time in a long time. She remembers the last time they were all together, Regulus, Barty, Evan and Dorcas. They were playing exploding snap in the boy’s dorm room and laughter had filled the air. At one point, a card had exploded in Barty’s face and his hair was stuck up in many different directions, Pandora thought she was going to suffocate from laughter and Dorcas was in hysterics next to her.
Pandora falls asleep with a smile on her face and warmth in her heart for the first time since the war started.
She leaves the Potters a few days later and promises to send some biscuits as a thanks. Lily walks her to the edge of the wards and wraps her in a tight hug with a promise to call soon before she returns to the house.
Pandora apparates into her living room and climbs up the stairs to get into the shower. She sits on the floor under the warm water until her head settles and she feels put together enough to wash her hair. After getting changed into clean clothes that are her own, she had no idea she would miss her own things as much as she did after just a few days, Pandora makes her way down the stairs and starts making herself a cup of tea in the kitchen.
Xenophilius went to his mother’s house to lay low when she told him what happened with the Death Eaters. Sirius said he would come by that evening and spend the night since Remus was away which eased her nerves a little.
A loud crack from outside startles her and Pandora looks out of the window to see a cloaked figure with blonde hair approaching the house. She knows who it is immediately, she would recognise him anywhere.
It’s Evan.
Even though it has been nearly a year since she has seen him, Pandora is certain that it's Evan. She blinks a few times and squints to make sure she is seeing him right and when he doesn’t vanish or morph into someone else after a few seconds, she rushes through the front door and out across the field to meet him.
They collide in a messy embrace of limbs. Evan is holding her to his chest like she will break or vanish if he lets go and Pandora has her arms wrapped around him so tightly, she is worried he will tell her to loosen her grip.
He doesn’t. They stand there, just holding onto each other for what may have been an eternity. Pandora feels tears wet her cheeks as she moves impossibly closer into Evan. He still smells like sandalwood and eucalyptus; she knows that is the same cologne she made for him last Christmas and it warms her heart to know he still uses it.
Suddenly, Evan is pulling away and carefully creating some distance between them. She blinks a few times to adjust to the closeness and look at him properly. His eyes are still a piercing blue, she doesn’t know why this surprises her as much as it does, part of her expected them to have dimmed a little after all the people he’s killed. They remain as bright as they always were, and his skin is still just as pale as she remembers it. She searches for some sign of change, an obvious pointer to the darkness that has consumed him over the past year but comes up short. He looks like Evan, her Evan, like her brother who she loves more than anyone else in the world.
The worry inside her settles and she notices that his eyes are moving over her face. They land on the mark on her cheek, where Carrow’s ring cut into her face. He traces the mark with his thumb and his eyes darken, Pandora can see the fury burning inside of them.
“Did they do this to you?” His voice is calm and level, a direct contrast to the madness in his eyes.
Pandora nods, unable to speak under his gaze. Evan’s lip curls into a scowl.
“I’ll kill them all. I’m going to rip them to fucking pieces.” He growls the words out and is staring intensely at the mark on her cheek. She can tell he means everything he is saying. It terrifies her but makes her feel strangely safe. She almost feels bad for the men her brother is no doubt going to tear to shreds.
Almost.
“I told them that you are under my protection.” Evan looks like he is ready to maul a thousand people in her name. “They should have fucking listened to me.”
Pandora shivers as the wind suddenly picks up. Evan glares at the sky as if he is angered by the very act of the it making his sister cold. He shrugs off his cloak and wraps it around her shoulders, they start walking towards the front door and Evan pauses just before they reach it.
“Can I come inside?” Evan sounds unsure and hesitant, as if he is expecting her to turn him away. Pandora turns back to look at him, he is hovering outside the door whilst she stands inside. He meets her eyes, and she can only see her brother in them. He looks like home.
Pandora doesn’t say anything, she just smiles, grabs his hand and pulls him inside.