[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"enough."

Moody's hoarse voice came, and Tahlia opened her eyes, surprised to see that the several people in front of her had put down their wands. "You..." What's going on?

"Oh, did you think Albus wouldn't tell us anything?" Seeing Tahlia's blank expression, Moody rolled his eyes. "We'll have to attack with you though—sorry, I thought you'd get away with it..." he said, and smiled, but that smile didn't make him look any kinder. "Girl, you are amazing, have you considered being an Auror?"

"I don't think this is the time to discuss this, Alastor." The woman on the side said angrily, and then smiled at Tahlia, although she also had several scrapes on her cheek. "Hi, I'm Alice," she said. "This is Alastor Moody, and this—" She smiled and pointed at the young man beside her. "It's my husband, Frank Longbottom, and that's Benjy Fenwick..." She introduced the rest of the group one by one. "We are all Aurors."

Tahlia opened her mouth wide. She didn't expect to see so many Aurors with her own eyes. According to the book, Auror is almost recognized as the most dangerous profession in the magic world, and only the best of the best can hold it. "But you..." She looked at Alice. "You look so young..."

"I'm 22." Alice blinked. "I'm pretty junior though, this Alastor—" She pushed Moody, ignoring his uncomfortably growl. "It's really powerful."

"Oh..." Tahlia replied blankly, and then didn't know how to speak.

A sudden stabbing pain came from her waist, which made her frown, and pressed her hands on the wound.

Alice noticed, and stepped forward with concern. "Sorry, I think we hit too hard—" Glaring Moody a look. "Let me heal you? Don't look at me like this, I also know a little healing spell..."

"No!" Tahlia took a few steps back suddenly, only to realize that she had overreacted. "I…I mean—" said Moody with a puzzled look on his face. "I...I have to go there too──I...I don't know what will happen to him──" If she didn't go back, something terrible would happen... No matter what she said, it was impossible for her not to retreat with Bella and the others. The longer it takes, the angrier the man will obviously be—

Moody frowned. "At least let Alice heal the wound—"

"No!" Tahlia refused. "I need these wounds..." Yes, she does, and after the retreat, if Voldemort finds out that she has been healed, he will surely find something—"I, I have to go..." she said, smiling . "Nice to meet you—I... hope we will meet again in the future..." After speaking, he hastily activated the Portkey and disappeared before their eyes.

"Tough girl, isn't she?" Frank sighed. "It's hard to believe she's still a student...we don't know what we're doing at our age—"

Moody frowned. "Maybe we shouldn't have let her go—"

"Why?" Alice asked suspiciously. "Albus has thought of almost everything, there's no way that person could have suspected her—isn't he?"

"Just a hunch." Moody shook his head. "Okay, let's break up, I have to go to Hogwarts──"

Alice watched Moody disappear, feeling a little uneasy in her heart──Moody's intuition has always been accurate... Will the girl be okay?

Sensing his wife's emotions, Frank held her hand slightly.

Alice smiled and glanced at Frank. "Well, we have to go to therapy too, I think the girl will be fine—"

Tahlia fell to the ground in embarrassment, and there were several exclamations from all around. This place was obviously the darkest corner of Malfoy Manor.

A figure rushed forward, and before Tahlia stood up, he strangled her fiercely on the ground, holding her palm tightly around her neck. Tahlia, who hadn't moved from the portkey, couldn't even breathe at this moment. No, he could only struggle feebly, even being prevented from pulling out the wand.

"I know you did it!" said the figure.

It's Bella.

Tahlia didn't think that she would die in Bella's hands at this moment, she couldn't say anything, she felt dizzy, and her consciousness became more and more blurred...

"Enough, Bella—"

Tahlia also didn't expect that when she thought she was dying, it would be the voice that stopped it from happening, and Bella had let her go, allowing her to prop herself up slightly, gasping for air.

"Tahlia, I think you'd be happy to explain to us why those Aurors who got in the way were there..." Voldemort said lazily, although his tone was flat, Tahlia could feel—

She could feel that this man was in a rage right now.

Maybe it was better to let Bella kill him just now...

"Since the only people who know about this plan are the few people present──and I've asked them well just now..." Voldemort's voice came into my ears again.

"I don't know, Lord──" just as Tahlia opened her mouth, she felt a sense of crisis, and sure enough──

pain.

That was all she could feel.

She felt as if she was being burned by fire, not from the outside, but burning inside her body, her blood was boiling, she seemed to be broken into several pieces, she should faint, but the pain was still hitting her forehead , forcing her to stay awake and feel it.

Pain—the only thing she could feel.

She seemed to hear screams...but she couldn't tell whose voice it was, she could feel only pain, countless pains...

Then everything stopped.

Tahlia lay face down, feeling her throat was extremely dry, she wanted to push herself up again, but was horrified to find that she seemed unable to even do such a simple movement...

"I don't believe it, Tahlia." She heard the man speak slowly, but at the moment she couldn't respond. "I have to say, I'm disappointed—"

She raised her head with difficulty, and what caught her eyes was the man's white wand, facing her—

"Ah---"

She already knew how lucky she had been—

How many times?

She can't even move, and now she is only thankful that she can still feel pain... The man seems to have endless plans...

Voldemort looked coldly at the black-haired girl in front of him who had started to twitch, and stopped casting spells. "Now, Tahlia, I think you have a better answer?" Then he sat back in his seat, quietly waiting for the girl to recover.

Tahlia knew exactly what Cruciatus was like.

──From her personal experience.

I don't know how long it took before she felt her fingers move in response to her head's command, and then it took her a lot of time to control other parts of her body, and she was finally able to move, changing to a kneeling position on the ground──

Stinging pain came from the wound on his waist again, and he stretched out his hand to press it unconsciously, and Voldemort noticed this move.

"Lord," she said, her voice was indescribably hoarse, she was surprised that she could still make a sound, considering that the scream that almost broke her eardrum just now was made by herself. "I really had no idea that Dumbledore would know about our plan—"

Voldemort didn't miss Tahlia's meaning, he waited for her to continue explaining.

"But now I figure it out—" Tahlia said weakly. "Apparently the Slytherins not coming home after a big fight has alarmed him..." There was a pause. "So he agreed to my proposal so easily, because he also wanted to use this activity to reduce the number of students on the train..."

"Tell me something I don't know, Tahlia." Voldemort obviously didn't have that much patience, and he kept fiddling with his wand.

Tahlia took a deep breath, endured the feeling of dizziness, and continued. "I think he guessed that we might tamper with the train...but he couldn't guess when and how we planned our attack, I think—" She gasped again. "—I think he reached out privately to the families of the students who insisted on going home, under the guise of Polyjuice Potion after getting permission..." There was a pause. "In order to be able to respond to our attack at any moment──afterwards, I think Lord, you have heard what Bella said..."

Voldemort narrowed his eyes.

The reason given by the girl was indeed very convincing, and it just explained where the wound on her body came from. He thought he knew Dumbledore, and he would never let those Aurors attack a student...

"So you mean, those Slytherin parents who made a lot of fuss caused the failure of this mission?" He said coldly, making the so-called Slytherin parents that Voldemort said beside him tremble.

"I dare not say that, Lord," Tahlia said softly. "I mean, Dumbledore's really too shrewd - we're... completely played by him."

"Really?" Voldemort said flatly, and then laughed.

It was a light laugh at the beginning, then it gradually became wild, and at the end it was a maniacal laugh. The people around were startled by this laughter. It seemed that this was the first time Voldemort laughed like this. .

"Tricked by Dumbledore—" he said arrogantly. "The Dark Lord could never have been played by him—"

"Lord, of course you can't be played by Dumbledore, I underestimated him too much──" Tahlia said. "This failure is my fault, I am willing to accept any punishment—"

"Oh, Tahlia." Voldemort stood up abruptly again, walked into Tahlia's side, stretched out his hand but directly pulled her up, and Tahlia, who was still in a state of weakness, was pulled up like this, even though as soon as Voldemort let go , she would fall to the ground again. "How could I punish you?" He said flatly, as if he was not the one who cast a curse on Tahlia so cruelly not long ago. "Now that you know you're wrong—I think we can forget about it."

"Lord?" Tahlia's eyes widened. She really didn't understand why Voldemort had changed so much before and after, especially since what failed this time was a mission that Voldemort had planned for a long time, how could he just let it go...

"I want to trust you so badly, Tahlia—" Voldemort raised his lips. "The question is, are you worthy of my trust?"

"I...you can definitely trust me──" Tahlia lowered her head and said.

Voldemort's smile became more pronounced. "Just talking about it doesn't convince me—" he said slowly. "You said, how can I trust you more?"

Tahlia didn't answer right away, she knew Voldemort already had the best answer in mind.

Voldemort let go of his hands, and Tahlia was surprised to find that she didn't fall down due to the weakness of her legs, but she knew the reason immediately, because one of the figures next to her had already walked behind her at some point, grabbing and supporting her.

"Avery." It was obvious that the person behind him was Mr. Avery... Tahlia didn't know how to react now, she couldn't even get rid of Mr. Avery's arm, and now her strength to stand up was exhausted just now. "Grab her—"

"Lord?" Tahlia looked up blankly, but just in time to see Bella approaching her with a contemptuous face.

She grabbed her left arm.

Tahlia instantly understood what Voldemort was going to do──

Her eyes widened, but what if she regained her strength at this time?She has no way to break free from the control of a grown man...

"Lord..."

"Why so surprised? Tahlia──" Voldemort said softly. "I promised you earlier that I would bestow this honor on you, but now I'm just moving the date forward──"

But she doesn't want to!

Tahlia's horror was on full display, and at this moment she completely forgot that she had ever studied Occlumency, she didn't want to get that ugly mark...

But of course Voldemort couldn't ignore Tahlia's resistance, and ordered Bella to pull up Tahlia's sleeve──the bottom of the wand rested on her smooth arm.

"Perhaps you can pay more attention when you do things for me in the future──" Voldemort said softly, under Tahlia's terrified gaze, he slowly opened his mouth and uttered the spell──

Lucius Malfoy's hand holding the book paused, and he frowned—he seemed to have heard something...