WHO: Dante Avery, Joseph Bell, Katie Bell, ft. Declan & Jackie Bell. WHAT: Dante threatens and intimidates the Bells. WHEN: 09 March, late evening. WHERE: The Bells' house. WARNINGS: Fire and violence.
Another family might have been more difficult to find. The Bells, however, weren’t just an ordinary family.
Or perhaps their downfall was that they were ordinary.
The parents were caught somewhere between being upstanding citizens and their daughter’s rebellious mouth, and the latter had yet to impact their decisions like it had in other families. Perhaps they thought they were invincible, Dante thought. Untouchable. Jacqueline Bell’s long career had been full of well-deserved accomplishments left and right, and perhaps that was what brought on their arrogance.
It wasn’t going to be enough to protect them so long as their daughter was going to mouth off to his sister and to other Death Eaters, however. Over the years, Dante had learned that one of the quickest ways to see results was to hit people where it hurt them the most: the people they loved. It was what he’d suggested to Bellatrix, too.
Piece by piece, the wards fell. Slowly, so it wouldn’t be noticeable, slowly so he could cover up for any alarms that might appear. He replaced some with his own traps: anti-apparition, runes to block the back door so they had to face him out front. When he was confident that they were fairly well trapped, he lit a fire that moved quickly across the ground, encircling the home.
She'd been lazing on a sofa, close to the fireplace in the living room of the draughty old house that was theirs. Nose in a book (about Quidditch, practically the only kind that Katie ever could be found reading) and only really paying half the required attention to the words and instead fretting about the events of the past few days. She'd certainly read the same sentence on that page at least three times. Blissfully unaware of the intrusion for the first few moments, she suddenly noticed that there was a glow about the detectors they'd put on the mantelpiece. The Sneakoscope started spinning and whistling loudly, eerie in the previously quiet room.
Book closed with a snap and quickly forgotten, Katie got to her feet. “MUM!” She yelled out, unsure where either of her parents actually was in the building but knowing Jackie would be a better option for backup. Wand in hand, she sent off a quick hext message to her brother before heading for the back door only to find that it wasn't opening. She couldn't leave. Another message was composed, this time more panicky, but she wasn't sure she'd get a reply.
Maybe they were on their own.
Stubbornly, Katie started to head for the front door.
Jackie heard her daughter's scream and rushed downstairs, skipping to two stairs at a time — she was always rushing now (but that was not the point). "Katie!" she shouted, afraid of what her daughter was doing or if she was hurt or —
"Katie!" she yelled again, this time once she'd reached her baby girl, following her to the front door. She tried to open the door, as well, but panic struck in when it wouldn't budge.
"Get dad!" she exclaimed.
And as if, on cue, Declan appeared, his wand at the ready. "What is going ON?" he bellowed, more out of fear than anything else. "Alohamora!" he tried, though it was to no avail.
Dante waited in the dark, listening to the voices. So far, so good, he thought. There was no reason to really hurt everyone -- no matter what some of the other Death Eaters thought. Unless he was given specific orders from above, he would rather try to scare someone straight. He would rather use people than send them away.
He shook his thoughts from his head and let the front door unlock. He was cloaked, masked, and his voice disguised to sound deeper, more foreboding.
“We know you’re there, Katie Bell.”
The voice was chilling, and Katie tensed in response. Her grip on her wand grew tighter, her stride towards the door more purposeful. Who had come to her home and why had they picked her? She gulped down the fear that was threatening to spill out of her, fought the urge to panic as best as she could.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Katie called out defiantly before anyone could stop her.
"Katie!" her father hissed at her, his hand immediately reaching for her shoulder. "Don't respond!" her mother shouted, equally horrified at whatever this situation was.
Just then, Joe had Apparated with a quiet pop! just beyond the property. Having received Katie's emergency hexts, he came over as quickly as he could, completely disheveled and perplexed. He caught sight of the flames, his eyes widening. "Aguamenti!" he exclaimed, as water spewed from the top of his wand. He quickly extinguished a small portion of the flame, before he dashed through and to the house.
"MUM? DAD? KATIE?" Joe shouted, letting his hand wiggle the doorknob. "Stand back!" he shouted, before sending a blasting curse through the door, which exploded the door with a loud boom.
If it hadn’t been for the use of the words ‘mum’ and ‘dad’, Dante probably wouldn’t have recognised who had just arrived, at least not right away. He could have guessed, certainly -- he’d given them enough time to warn the hitwizard. That was better, anyway. The hitwizard had been a pain just as much as his younger sister had been. Both of them needed to learn a thing or two.
He hurried through to the other side of the house and shot a quick body-bind in Joe’s direction. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”
She ran to follow Joe, wand raised and ready. “HEY!” Katie let out an indignant shout as her brother’s advance on the Death Eater was cut short, trying to throw up a shield charm to defend him. “Piss off, okay? None of us have done anything!” Bristling with anger, Katie raised her wand against the Death Eater.
Joe followed suit and put up his own wand, his Hitwizard instincts kicking in. "What do you want?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm and steady. "Who are you?"
Behind the mask, Dante rolled his eyes. That was a question they all knew he wasn’t going to answer.
“What do I want?” he repeated, focusing more on the Hitwizard’s first question. “I want you to know that we’re watching.” At the back of his mind, he considered the likelihood that the younger Bell was involved in the same things that her friends were. “We’re always watching. And I’m sure you want to keep your family safe,” his wand pointed in the direction of the house, where he knew their parents remained, “so you might want to consider that next time you have something to say.”
It was only then that fear seemed to strike Katie, give her pause instead of spurring her on to be more defiant. It had barely been days since the explosion at the shop. There was a slight tremble in her arm as she raised her wand at the Death Eater. “You need to leave,” she said sternly. “We haven't done anything wrong and you need to leave.”
“Isn’t that for us to decide?” he asked, leveling the question directly at Katie, though he was watching the brother more carefully. He was the one who would be more of a problem, if he fought back. “I think you know that’s not true, anyway.” He might’ve been bluffing a little, here, but it couldn’t hurt to make them squirm, make them think he knew more. People gave up so much when they thought it was already known. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise, would I?”
"No one here has done anything against the law, sir," Declan stated, his voice only quivering just a bit.
"And I'd know that, working for the DMLE," Joe added, as though that ought to solve it. He shot his baby sister a look, but he didn't say anything to her. "You need to leave. You are trespassing on private property."
“Don’t ‘sir’ him, Dad,” Katie was unable to stop herself from objecting loudly. “He needs to leave.”
If they thought that would be enough to make him leave, he was sadly mistaken. He wasn’t done yet. They weren’t taking it seriously, which meant --
He could see the mother, just barely, from his vantage point. He didn’t want to have to, but when people wouldn’t listen, they didn’t give him much choice. His attempt to cast a Cruciatus fell short, however, and he tried not to think about why. Instead, he muttered levicorpus and she screeched, hurled upwards by her feet. “Are you going to listen?”
"STOP!" Joe screamed and screamed again, only barely drowning the screeches that echoed from Jackie. Declan, for his part, grabbed the largest rock he could and hurled it at the Death Eater, hoping that would distract the imbecile.
Joe followed in his father's footsteps, only he aimed a Stunning Spell at the trespasser, with such vigor that he didn't know he could muster.
Katie followed suit, screaming the stunning spell at the Death Eater.
Going for the mother got the reaction he wanted - and was waiting for, truthfully, so he was ready for their retaliation. If this didn’t convince them, at least he knew exactly where their weaknesses were for next time. His own shield spell deflected the stunners, though it did mean he dumped their mother unceremoniously to the ground in a heap. “Oops.” He didn’t stay any longer to fight, as much as it seemed like they were itching for it. Instead, a swirl of black smoke kicked up what remained of the fire, and he was gone.