Disclaimer: I own nothing. I actually don't. This is clearly an AU. I slightly altered a story I had to do for Extension English. I hope you enjoy it.
Butterfly
I was stupid enough to value honesty and integrity above all else. Not anymore.
It doesn't really matter though; honesty and integrity won't get you a penthouse in upper-class Hogsmede. It sure as hell won't get you a wardrobe that would rival Celelstina Warbacks. So really, what good is it? Back then, I still valued these silly things; I still thought it was fine to be the youngest of 7, the only girl, the 'protected' one with nothing worthwhile to announce my existence. Then Tom found me. When he did, I was poor and weak, stuck in a cocoon of my suffocating families making. But Tom taught me what real power was. He taught me that the Gryfindors were deceiving me, with their ideas of 'right and wrong'. 'Stipendum peccati mors est'- Tom taught me; the reward of Sin is death. But desiring power isn't sin, its fame, it's recognition from the boy-who-lived that yes I do exist. Most importantly out of everything he taught me though, Tom taught me to kill.
Pushing back memories and focusing on her current job, Nerva Weasley schooled her features into the impassive mask so familiar to her face and knocked politely on the door in front of her. She knew she looked imposing, ivory skin and flaming hair contrasting with the black leather covering her lithe body and her red nails. Red like blood, she thought with a smirk. A man opened the door and Nevra fluttered inside. Silent and deadly, she pulled out her wand, and efficiently herded the two occupants of the house into the bathroom, where they were invisible to prying eyes. Inside she ignored their fearful eyes and focusing on her reflection in the mirror in front of her, cast the killing curse. Job completed, she tore her eyes away from the mirror and allowed herself a silent smile. Morsmorde, she muttered, before she apparated away. It was time to see Tom.
"Take me to the master," snapped Nerva to the guard outside Riddle House.
The guard nodded darkly, before leading her into the maze of rooms that was the old house, Nerva following behind, tensed in anticipation.
The guard led her right to the centre of the house, up to a nondescript black door, set into a heavy frame. The guard knocked twice and the door opened slightly to admit a huge serpent.
"Nagini," Nerva murmured in welcome as the snake rose up to stare at her with huge red eyes, its diamond pattered tail waving slightly. Then it turned and slithered back into the room.
"Nevra," Tom spoke her name from inside, his hissing voice seeming to caress every syllable,
"You may enter."
"My Lord, I have completed my assignment exactly to your specifications," murmured Nerva as she sank down on the floor in front of Tom.
"Well done butterfly, you are maturing fast indeed. It seems like only yesterday you were a venerable young caterpillar, under the influence of Potter and his brats. Now there's only one more test you must take before I will allow you to undertake the bonding ritual and become my heir."
"What is it my Lord, you know I can do anything."
"There is one more kill to make, my butterfly, but be warned, fail this test and you are of no further use to me."
"My Lord, I have killed many more then one, there is no possibility of failure."
Tom stood red eyes expressionless as they bore into her brown ones.
"Good. Now flit away. To make sure you do not fail, I'm sending Bella with you." As he spoke, the door on his left opened up and a cloaked woman entered the room and, lifting up her head, she gazed at Nerva through hooded eyes, a cruel smirk gracing her lips as she bowed low to Tom.
"Always a pleasure to serve my Lord, Voldemort" she simpered in a sickly voice.
Nerva felt a flicker of fear staring into those emotionless eyes but dismissing the feeling, she turned back to Tom with a forced smile.
"My Lord, I will not fail," she said stiffly, before turning on her heal and striding out the door, Bella following with a small smirk, Neither heard Tom's last comment,
"Thou art a proud knave indeed"
As Nerva stormed out of the building, Bella behind her, she couldn't help but remember that this was that woman that had haunted her dreams for weeks, the summer after her forth year…the summer after the business at the ministry. Back when her and Luna were still friends and had fought side by side to help to light side…
Nevra felt a surge of emotion in her stomach at the memory of her old friend and wondered how much she had changed from the innocent little girl she'd once been. She felt slightly squeamish thinking about it. Bella noticed her discomfort and smiled evilly.
"I remember you, you were Potter's bitch," Nerva winced and Bella laughed. "My, how things have changed, who would've thought you'd end up heir to Voldemort, Potters nemesis. My, he must have fucked you round big time, I always thought he was stupid, but to screw with the only female Weasley in 1000 years, I'm shocked he's survived Voldemort for this long," Bella laughed harshly and grabbed onto Nerva, preparing to side-long apparate with her. Before they left, Nerva allowed a smile, Bella was right; Potter had fucked with the wrong Weasley.
Nevra knocked on the door of the house Bella had brought her to. It was large and expensive looking, quite out of the way in muggle London. Nerva wondered who could possibly be here that was so important Tom had sent her here as her final test.
The door opened, and Nerva felt nausea rise in her throat. Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway, his platinum hair glinting in the sunlight and his piercing gray eyes confused and wary. Seeing who it was though, his whole face lit up;
"Ginny?!" he exclaimed with surprise and pleasure. Nerva was sent reeling; she hadn't been called Ginny since Tom had urged her to change her name, Draco knew this. He knew everything, he had been the reason she'd first betrayed Potter. In her fifth year, he had befriended her and they'd fallen in love. It hadn't lasted long but they'd been close friends ever since. It had been Draco who had treated her like an equal for the first time in her life. It had been Draco who explained things when she asked, instead of dismissing her as too young. Draco had taken her to her first death eater meeting and had presented her to Tom, who recognised her magical scent from his brief possession of her in her first year.
Draco had been everything to her, a friend, an ally and even briefly, a lover. Nerva couldn't believe that now Tom expected her to kill the one thing that had brought her to him. For the first time, Nerva started to question what kind of a ruler Tom would become. He had promised her power, but if she became too powerful, what would stop him from killing her too? Supposably the binding spell would, but Nerva knew that Tom was far from human and would probably remain unharmed. She wondered if she could do it. Had she built a hard enough cocoon around her that she could become emotionless enough to kill the only thing that still mattered to her. It didn't matter that her and Draco had fallen out of touch the last few years. He was still him and she was still her. Was she? What had she become? A murdering tool of Tom, that's what she'd become.
For the first time since she'd joined Tom, she wondered how she could kill. Kill people, real live functioning people. Like Draco. She was going to be sick, there was only one way this could end.
"Draco, can I use your bathroom for a second?"
"Sure Gin, its right along the hall." She almost ran to the bathroom, slipping on the polished floor in her haste, not noticing Bella following behind, in the shadows, cruel smirk still plastered to her face.
In the Bathroom, she bit her tongue in distress. It wasn't supposed to go this way at all; how had she ended up like this? Biting deeper on the pink flesh, she tasted blood. She spat into the sink, and saw with a sense of morbid finality the sharp contrast the blood made against the white of the sink. She was trapped, like a Butterfly in a net, waiting for the final blow. She knew she couldn't kill Draco, he meant to much to her. She suspected that Tom had known this from the start. She would never have become his heir. He was too ruthless, too confident in his own immortality to weaken himself by claiming an heir. He had never meant to keep her alive. She tasted more blood in her mouth and swilled it around, knowing it was coating and dimming the bright whiteness of her teeth.
Watching in the mirror, she wasn't surprised when a black clothed arm moved out from behind the shower curtain. Velna noticed with a strange external feeling that the wand in Bella's hand was not the one she had used at the ministry, this one was darker, bigger, more powerful looking. She smiled briefly, and wondered vaguely how Bella had gotten there unnoticed, she could detect invisibility spells and cloaks pretty well and Draco would have wards against apparition. It was fitting it should end this way, killed as she had killed so many, alone in a bathroom, with the knowledge that she was going to die. Hopefully Draco wouldn't be too upset. Butterflies never lived long and he knew why she was here, she'd seen it in his eyes, it was why he'd callled her Ginny. Even he hated what she'd become and he was hardly a moral and upstanding citizen. Maybe she deserved this. Looking in the mirror, she poked out her tongue to admire the bleeding rivets cut into it by her teeth.
"Avada Kedavra," was the last thing she heard.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed that. It's the first one-shot I've ever written. I hope you don't think it's too short, or too badly written. I quite liked writing it and I'd love some feedback as to what you thought of it. Even if all you say is "Yogurt", it's still great to know you read it.