We weren't born to follow....come on and get up off your knees...hold on to what you believe-- December 15 1998

I took a quick glance around.  Back to the inside of the castle may be our best bet - but it would also be filled with Order members who might not be as forgiving as the Potters.  It had to be our best chance, though.  I pointed in the direction we needed to head.  "Let's go... just be careful... I dunno if we can trust anyone to help us," I said, knowing that the Order might help Juniper, but they would not help me.  The Death Eaters would be after both of us by now as well.

I had seen Potter and Black come to aid my children.  They were all disgraces to the wizarding name.  Bellatrix was just teaching Juniper a lesson... and as for Draco -- I had just never thought I could be so disappointed in him.  I made my way over to Potter and caught him by surprise with a hex that slashed him across the chest -- where it looked like he had already been injured.  Perfect.  I glared at him.  "Leave my children be," I warned.

I had not expected Malfoy to be right there when I turned around.  He split open my chest again -- nearly right where Lily had just finished patching it up.  I hissed in pain and pointed my wand towards him.  "You would just let them get tortured and die?  What kind of father are you?!" I countered, disbelief in my voice.  I knew they had their own ways of raising children and their belief system... but this was uncalled for.  I saved them.  There was no reason to be trying to kill me -- if anything, he should be grateful.

I started to follow my brother, thinking about what he had said. The Death Eaters would not help us after what I had done but I thought I may be able to convince The Order to help Draco. It was my fault that we had so few people who would trust us but if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything. I looked around and saw a Death Eater raise his wand toward us. I raised my own quickly, "Expelliarmus!"

Thank merlin my sister saw one of the Carrow siblings.  They were brutal -- almost worse than Aunt Bellatrix.  I kept an eagle eye around us and saw so much pain and misery.  And it was all partially my fault.  That thought ate away at me constantly.  How I wished that this would end.  I did not keep my eyes on more than one spot for too long so I would not miss anything.  I saw the other Carrow attacking Charlie Weasley who looked like he was about to lose.  I wanted to do some good in this battle.  I wanted to be able to look back and at least see that I did more than help cause all the pain.  I sent a curse -- one particularly brutal one that they had taught me, actually -- at him.  He fell to the ground and Weasley took the opportunity to look to see who came to his aid.  Our eye contact did not last long as there was too much to do to protect the ones we cared about.  I looked around and saw that the quickest way to the castle was partially blocked by a rather large piece of debris.  "Over or around it?" I asked June.  She was starting to look worse for wear -- most likely due to what Aunt Bellatrix had done to her.

Sirius Black wrote:Glaring as I shot some curses at her as we both kept moving. I was not about to stop. Bellatrix was twisted enough as it was I didn't want to be a sitting duck. It's a shame I know a lot of her moves, even worse she knows most of mine. Except one. Grinning, I charged her transforming as I ran.

I practically snarled when he changed -- he took me by surprise and that hardly ever happened.  I was not about to let him win just on the element of surprise.  I levitated a piece of stone and sent it flying towards him.  I wanted something heavy to hit him so it would give me back my upper hand.

He wanted to lecture me on how to handle my own children?  Poppycock.  I waved my wand once more instead of sinking to his level and getting into a war of words.  I would much rather show him what I was capable of in a duel setting.  I would not be insulted by someone who was not even there to raise his own son.

I had to keep blinking so I could focus, clearly still suffering from the curse, but I did manage to notice my brother send a curse to someone. I hoped he had been able to help someone else as I knew how much he blamed himself for a lot of what was happening. It took a minute for me to process what he was asking and another minute for my mind to process the answer I wanted to say. "Around, I don't think either of us are in any state to climb." I shook my head to clear it for what felt like the hundredth time in the past few minutes, wishing this headache would just go away.

I took the moment to take hold of June's hand.  "We're going to make it," I assured her, trying to help ease her worries.  I would make sure she made it and I knew she would make sure I made it.  I led the way to start trekking around the obstacle, flinching every time a curse seemed to be closer to hitting one of us -- not by someone aiming at us in particular, but just a rebound spell.

When Draco took my hand, I closed my eyes and focused on the fact that we were both still okay. I didn't want him to know how much the curse was still effecting me. It seemed to come and go wave and right now was a bad one. I focused on following my brother around the obstacle. "We will make it, we will make it, we will make it." I chanted to help me get through this rough patch of pain.

I had to stop for a moment and lean against the stone.  I felt a little woozy and it had to be because of my head injury.  I could only imagine what Juniper was feeling -- she was the one who got tortured by our Aunt Bellatrix.  I was glad that Juniper was giving herself a little boost with the chant because it was helping me along, too.  But I knew that we both probably needed a bit of a break of moving and I thought that on this side of the stone was good -- we were a little out of the way from the fighting, enough where we could pause for just a moment.

I was grateful that Draco had stopped. I let my head rest against the stone and closed my eyes, enjoying the coolness of the stone against my head. We were pretty safe here, out of the way of most of the fighting. I wasn't sure how much longer I could continue but I had to keep going. If I stopped, Draco would stop too and he needed to get to help. I took a deep breath and continued my chant. "We will make it, we will make it, we will make it."

I looked around us and spotted Father - he was fighting Potter.  He had helped me and June once, perhaps I could get him to help us again.  My sister was not going to make it on her own and I was of no use to her right now.  How odd that I was hoping to put my trust in a Potter.  "June... I think I need to go help Potter," I said, the plan formulating in my mind.  "And then he may help us..." My eyes never left the fight between Father and Potter.  How was I going to get Father to stop without him really realizing that it was his own son stopping him?

Lucius Malfoy wrote:He wanted to lecture me on how to handle my own children?  Poppycock.  I waved my wand once more instead of sinking to his level and getting into a war of words.  I would much rather show him what I was capable of in a duel setting.  I would not be insulted by someone who was not even there to raise his own son.

I should not have been surprised by the way Malfoy acted with his children -- he was a Death Eater after all.  I fought against him, knowing where his fury was coming from.  If someone did something to my son... they would have hell to pay.  Like Voldemort... if Harry did not win, I would hunt him down and kill him with my bare hands.  I apparently did that nowadays.

"Hummm?"I turned towards my brother while allowing the side of my face to stay against the cool stone, it was pretty much supporting me. Why would Draco want to help Harry? I opened my eyes and blinked into focus the battle my brother was looking at and I saw it was James, not Harry that he meant. He was duelling with father. "This is my fault." Father was mad at James for saving me. I realized Draco was tring to find a way to stop Father with out him realizing it was him who had done it. "No." I said to Draco. I shakily got to my feet. "I'll go. Father would expect it from me. Stay here." I figured our we go together or not at all rule didn't really count here since he could clearly see where I was going. I started making my way toward my Father and possible help, two separate people.