A/N: My first fic! It's weird, I hope you like it. I might continue it if a lot of people like it! :)
Evil Comes In All Ways
Chapter One
Unworthy
Voldemort eyed his Death Eaters, one by one. Unworthy, they were. So foolish and unwilling.
This day, they had met in a deserted forest clearing. The trees bloomed with the aroma of late summer, the green leaves blowing.
It was day. The Death Eaters usually always met at night, for fear of being noticed. But today was different. Today everything would change.
Voldemort spoke to Lucius. "Did you get her?"
"Yes master, she is here. Do you wish to see her?"
"Bring her to me."
Two of the Death Eaters Carried a struggling figure in robes to the center of the circle. They set her in front of Lord Voldemort, where she finally sat still.
"Are you willing to cooperate with me this time?"
No answer came from underneath the heavy black robes.
"You shall speak, or face the consequences."
The robes shifted, as if they were trying to find a more comfortable position. After a few seconds a small voice called out: "I will try."
Voldemort sneered. "You then have already failed, if you only wish to try."
"Do."
Voldemort pulled off the hood of the figures robes. Underneath was certainly not an understatement.
It was a girl. A girl with icy blue eyes and silverish hair. Her skin was tan and glowing, the figure slim and tall.
Voldemort frowned. "Veela?"
"Part. My mother was one. My father was American."
"Dead?"
"Killed by you," she said jerkily.
"Don't upset me, mortal. You don't want me to lose my temper on you."
The girl clenched her teeth. "Then kill me. You can't do it."
"Do not tempt me, girl."
Voldemort continued to study her. "What do you know of Fleur Delacour?"
"I knew her. We met when she was vacationing in America."
"What has become of her?"
"She is dead. The Death Eaters killed her," she said, while narrowing her crystal eyes on the cloaked figures around her.
"Respect your highness, or you will be tortured more."
The girl made quiet imitation voices of Voldemort and rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay, what do I have to do?"
"Get to Harry Potter. Get him back here."
"How am I supposed to do that? Lure him into a box and drag it to you?"
"Think, stupid girl. You're his age. Use your powers on him."
"What about sorting?"
"I have jinxed the sorting hat. You will be in Gryffindor, where you can concentrate on Harry Potter."
The girl sighed. "What do I get?"
"If you succeed, you will be rewarded greatly."
"What about freedom? You promised that I could go four months ago, but you didn't let me."
Voldemort looked rather annoyed now. "You didn't do your work properly, so I was forced to imprison you."
"Imprison? I'd call it more than that."
"Do not run away again."
"Fine. I'll walk away."
Voldemort lip curled. "Lucius, take her until the semester starts. Make sure that she is properly trained this time."
"Yes master, anything you say."
Voldemort turned back to the figure. "You will complete your work this time. If you do not get Harry Potter back here, you will suffer eternally."
The girl gave one final glare at Voldemort before being pulled away by two Death Eaters.
* * * * * * * * * *
Echo stared out of the window of the huge Malfoy Manor. She hated it here, she hated everything about her life.
Echo made a mistake early on that affected her whole future. It wasn't entirely her fault, though. Echo was brilliant. She had a great mind captivated inside her, although she used it in the wrong ways.
Echo's parents had been killed when she was fourteen. The Death Eaters, instead of killing her, took her to Voldemort, for they thought she might be of some use. She was forced to look after Nagini, find out information from the common wizards and muggles, and tempt them to the dark side.
It wasn't fun for the now fifteen year old. She had at first protested the work, complaining, hoping to get killed, but it never happened. After a while, she just did her work sloppily, hoping to escape the clutches of Voldemort.
Her forced her to use her Veela powers to bring men to the Dark Side. It was a sick job, the part she most hated.
Echo's attitude toward Voldemort was rather nasty. He didn't ever kill her, but bombarded her with threats if she didn't shape up. So she ran away one night, praying that she would be forgotten. Alas, she was caught, and now had a new mission: Make-Harry-fall-in-love-with-you-and-then-bring-him-to-Voldemort. She thought of it as a game.
She didn't know why she did it. Maybe he hoodwinked her, hypnotized her, fellow Death Eaters thought. But he didn't. Echo did it out of her own free will.
She had been regular once, back in America, where she lived until her parents died. She was happy, smart, and attended Salem's School of Witchcraft for Girls. She had always received high marks, and had lots of friends. Then everything went horribly wrong.
Echo watched Draco work endlessly at the chores. It was all he did, slaving away like a house-elf.
She was left to do nothing, just wander around and let her imagination run wild. Sometimes she would let out her Veela powers on Draco, just to watch him gaze at her while he was scolded at for not doing his chores properly.
Her powers were no lesser than any normal Veela, except she was spared the fact that she didn't turn into a great raving bird when she was upset or angry, but her skin often turned odd colors.
Draco came up the stairs with a pile of laundry under one arm. Echo, immediately wanting attention, sat down on a plump recliner and crossed her satin-smooth legs. She twirled a strand of hair between her fingers and smiled mysteriously at Draco.
He dropped the pile of robes and stumbled on a step of the stairs. She batted her eyelashes and quickly looked him in the eye.
"Hi Draco," she said sweetly.
"Hi...Echo..." he said, while trying to pick up the scattered robes.
She stood up and stretched. "There's something I've been wanting to tell you," she said seriously. She made her way over to him and stroked his arm.
"That is..." Draco said in a dreamy voice.
"I want to whisper it to you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Echo smoothly inched closer to him and was about to make her final move when Mr. Malfoy's voice boomed up the staircase. "Draco, you better get back to work or you'll take a beating!"
"Gotta go," Echo said smugly, then ran off, leaving a confused Draco behind.
At dinner that night in the Malfoy Manor, Draco was especially quiet and kept sneaking glances at Echo.
Lucius spoke openly of Voldemort at the table to his wife and son. "The plan will work this time, no flaws. Once we've got Potter in our grasp, Voldemort will have him. I do believe that he has an excellent use for Potter this time."
Echo usually carried on politely through dinner, trying not to upset an already extremely jealous Mrs. Malfoy. Sometimes if Echo's mood was right, she would gulp down tons of food, and Mrs. Malfoy, knowing that Veelas' gained no excess weight, would scowl at her and look at her own lightly loaded plate.
Echo didn't work any magic on Draco at dinner, she actually felt sorry for him, the way he was treated.
"As I was saying," Lucius said through a mouthful of Porkchop, "The Ministry is weakening it's bond with Hogwarts. Dumbledore should be sacked anytime now..."
Echo couldn't take anymore torture and cleared her dishes from the table. She sensed Draco following her every move, and couldn't resist winking dramatically at him as she left the dining room. She heard a clatter of dishes and knew that he had just dropped his plate on the ground.
She walked swiftly to the guest room, where she was staying. She had already planned a new act for Draco the next day, that was her idea of fun; it was so boring around here.
Then she remembered: tomorrow they were going to Diagon Alley to buy supplies for school. Echo frowned at this thought. She had been out of school for more than a year now, she feared she'd be behind. She'd figure she'd just charm some smart boy into giving her all the answers.
She fell asleep, hoping that tomorrow she would run into Harry Potter.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Echo walked silently behind Draco and Lucius in Diagon Alley. She kept the hood of her robe up, she didn't want to be gawked at, or be seen with the Malfoy's.
She desperately looked around for any signs of Hogwarts students, but only saw some younger looking kids. Bored, she tried to make conversation with the shop owners, especially if they were male, but she was too tired to really try.
They had stopped for lunch at Dringkings's Wizard Deli when she saw a family of red headed people. They were quite an odd site, but they had with them an important person: Harry Potter. Echo almost jumped at the sight.
"Mr. Malfoy, please, can I go see Harry Potter?" she asked.
"Why would you want to see him?" Draco asked jealously.
"Shut up Draco, it's the Dark Lord's request," he whispered.
Draco kept quiet, but still wore an angry face.
Laughing at her overwhelming success with Draco, Echo strode off toward the redheaded family. Everyone seemed to know them, as they were waving every five seconds or so to someone they passed.
They entered Flourish and Blotts and started to pick out books. Echo quickly came up with a plan and started toward the door.
The put down her hood and tossed her hair. This should be fun, she thought. She walked into the store and let out her magic.
As if a gunshot had just been heard, all of the male heads in the store looked at her. She ran a hand through her hair and smoothed the front of her robes. She looked directly at Harry, who had started to blush magnificently. She slowly breathed in and walked over to him.
"Hello," she said coolly.
"Er...uh, hi."
"I was wondering, could you help me find a few books for the fifth years?"
"Why don't you ask the owner, I'm sure that he'll know where to find them all," Harry said helpfully.
Inside, Echo was surprised, this was one of the few times she had been rejected by a male. She decided to go into serious action and get him.
Delicately, she caressed a strand of hair a pushed it behind her ear. She batted her eyelashes and smiled her sexiest smile.
"I'll help you."
Echo whirled around. Harry hadn't spoken, it was one of the redheaded boys. "I'll be in fifth year too, you can just take all of my books. I'll even buy them for you."
Furious at herself for aiming so hardly, that everyone in the store had bought her act, Echo followed the redheaded boy.
"What'd ya say your name was?" he asked again, in a daze.
"Echo," she said sulkingly.
The redhead didn't seem to notice the disappointment in her voice, because he continued on with their lifeless conversation. "I'm Ron Weasley, and that was my best friend Harry Potter."
"I noticed," Echo said weakly.
Echo left the store with her free books, and returned to Lucius and Draco.
"Well?" Mr. Malfoy said.
"This is going to be harder than a normal boy!" she said, as she slammed down her books on the table.
"He's pretty thick, Harry Potter," Draco said. "You should go for someone...more like..."
But Draco was cut off by his father's harsh looks. "Don't be discouraged, Harry Potter is strong against love when he wants to be."
"How would you know?" Echo snapped at him.
"Voldemort, of course." Lucius said in a whisper. "You better shape up your act around him or you'll be a slave girl again."
Echo leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.
Draco whispered something to him father. Mr. Malfoy smiled evilly.
"What would you say to a little extra pocket money, Echo?"
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Two
The Infamous Sorting
Echo watched Draco pack him trunk with all of his new things. He wouldn't have quite so many splendorous school things this year if it hadn't been for Echo. She had slaved away, flirting with the shop owners and workers; they gave her anything she wanted for free. She found it quite entertaining at first, but it was disgusting even to a half Veela when you had to lead on an chubby old wizard to get a free scroll of parchment.
On the way to King's Cross Station, Echo worked out a plan for Harry in her mind, She raced through hundreds of ideas, deciding the best one to use. She could have help now, maybe an Entrancment Charm would do the trick with him too.
When they finally arrived at the Station, Echo was given a strict talking to from Lucius. "Remember, you're a foreign exchange student, the daughter of my wife's friend from America. We already wrote a note to Dumbledore, there's also three other new students. Now if you go...causing trouble like you did with," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "Voldemort, you'll be banished."
Echo sighed and walked onto the train. There was a pretty girl surrounded by friends, Echo decided to hate her right away. She hated all naturally pretty girls, they were too giggly and obnoxious.
She chose a seat that was smack in the middle of the eighth compartment. There were only two other people there, they both looked nervous.
Judging by their looks, Echo decided that they were the other exchange students. One was Japanese, she was pale and had dark hair. The other was a black boy with cornrows, Echo was sure he was somewhere from Africa. She didn't know where the other one was.
As the minutes wore on, more students filled in the compartment and the train screeched forward.
Draco took a seat next to her and tried his best to look cool. His enormous counterparts, Crabbe and Goyle, stared at her with hope.
Disgusted, she moved to the next compartment to get away from them. There were more people in the next compartment, she suspected because Crabbe and Goyle filled several seats each.
She took a seat next to a girl with bushy brown hair. She was deep in conversation with the redheaded boy Echo had been introduced to at Flourish and Blotts. Trying to hide, she sank as far back into the seat as possible, but it was too late.
"Hey, Echo!" he said with enthusiasm.
"Hello, Ron." she said with about as much enthusiasm as a freed house elf.
"Hi Echo," another voice said.
Echo nearly jumped with surprise. Harry Potter was seated next to Ron. "Oh...hello Harry," she said, her voice much friendlier.
The girl with the bushy brown hair stared at Echo with hatred. Perhaps she likes one of them? Echo thought wildly.
Echo glided over to Harry. As she passed Ron, she purposely brushed her hand against his, just to make his eyes water.
"So...uh, you're starting school here?" Harry said with a crack in his voice.
"You could say that, very well."
They made friendly conversation the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts, except Echo was madly flirting away with Harry, although Ron always seemed to think she was going for himself. When at last they arrived there, Echo separated herself from them and walked over to the other new students.
There were still only three of them, perhaps Lucius had made a mistake. Echo could really care less, but it never hurt to have a few back-ups if something went wrong...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a very loud voice: "All new students and first years over here!"
And aimlessly she followed a giant-man to the great Hogwarts castle. It was much larger than she expected, most likely because her old school had been a rotting shack on the outside, but transformed into a small palace when you entered.
Echo waited for something to happen within the great castle. There were five tables-the students seemed to be sitting with their houses. They hadn't had houses in Salem, but she read that many other schools did.
Echo grew more tense. She was expecting a great celebration to start any moment, but all that happened was not too exciting. A teacher with a perfectly maintained bun placed the ugliest hat Echo had ever seen on a stool.
"When you're name is called, you shall be sorted into your house, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, or Slytherin."
This came to no surprise to Echo. Voldemort had already told her that she would be in Gryffindor.
First, all of the little kids were sorted, the sorting hat screeching out the name of a house at the top of it's lungs.
When all of the first years had been sorted, a man with a very long, silver beard emerged from the table where all the professors were sitting. He gave a speech that Echo surely wasn't paying attention to, when a few of his words reached her ears: "new program that lets us meet students from all parts of the world..."
"There will be a new student for each house. They are all in their seventh year, except one who is starting her fifth. I expect you all to welcome them to our school."
And the Professor with the too-perfect bun called out the first name: Battelson, Cory!
The black boy that Echo had seen on the train placed the hat on his head. It screamed "Ravenclaw" and he hurried off.
Next, "Hing, Ali," the Chinese girl that Echo had also caught a glimpse of was made a Hufflepuff.
Then it was her turn.
She stood there, waiting for her name to be called. After what seemed like an eternity: Piccolo, Echo!
Her last name hadn't been Piccolo last time she was in public. She was ashamed, being named after an instrument now. At least last time it had been something creative: Moonstone.
The walked up to the hat and placed it on her head. It slipped past her ears, and she thought, Whoever's hat this was had an enormous head, and to her surprise:
"You're right, and an enormous brain to fill it!"
Just put me in Gryffindor and I'll go, she thought.
"What makes you so sure you'll be in that particular house?"
Echo immediately thought of Voldemort, but the hat already heard her.
"Ah, connection with the Dark Lord?"
Shut up and just put me there!
"But you're dangerous. Maybe I should tell..."
C'mon!
"Let's see...bravery, that's one down for Gryffindor, but what else is there?
Dammit, just put me there. I don't have all day!
"Oh, I can take as long as I want. You have several qualities that the Slytherin house does possess...daresay I place you there?"
No, please anything but Slytherin! she thought, knowing she couldn't stand being with Draco again.
"Anything but Slytherin? Then maybe...oh, let's see...Hufflepuff?"
No! Gryffindor, please!
"Eh, brain's too good for that. Why're you so keen to get into Gryffindor, anyhow?"
Echo tried not to think, but the voices in her head couldn't help but answer.
"Taking Harry Potter to Voldemort...my, feisty little one!"
Just put me in Gryffindor and I won't do anything to him!
"Liar. I can see what you're thinking, remember? Goodness, you are a tricky girl."
Echo was getting desperate to be sorted now, she had been on the stool for at least ten minutes. She knew the other students were beginning to wonder what happened to her.
Just put me anywhere!
"Well, if that's really the choice you want...GRYFFINDOR!"
Echo breathed a huge sigh of relief and rammed off the hat. She hated it. Voldemort had said she'd be in Gryffindor, who knew she would have to work so hard to get there.
Half-heartedly, she made her way to the Gryffindor table, and seated herself by the girl with bushy hair, whom she had discovered her name-Hermione-on the train.
There was only one person left, they had to be in Slytherin, Echo even wondered why they'd bother, but they did anyhow.
"Rapps, Eric!"
A boy that Echo had not noticed before was marching up to the sorting hat. He was very good looking, tall, blonde, tan...Echo wished that she could have him instead of Harry.
He put the hat on his head. After a few seconds, it screamed out the house he was in. Only it wasn't Slytherin. It was Gryffindor.
Echo was secretly pleased, even though everyone else seemed confused, and the Slytherin girls looked extremely disappointed.
Echo looked up at him and saw that he was already staring at her. But not with admiration, as other boys would. With disapproval, perhaps.
Eric sat next to her though. The girl across from Echo had overcome with giggles and was whispering to the girl next to her.
Eric leaned over to her ear and whispered something: "Pull another one of your stunts and it's over for you."
She realized at once that it was someone from Voldemort sent to look after her and make sure she didn't do anything stupid.
"I know what I'm doing, I don't need a babysitter."
"I'm only here on Voldemort's wishes." He looked at her prized face. "Not that it's a bad thing..."
She glared at him and crossed her arms. Voldemort doesn't think I can do it? I'll show him, she thought.
She continued sulking the rest of the feast, and didn't eat a thing.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Echo was sitting with Eric in the common room after the first day of completed school. They were talking in hushed voices, so no one would overhear.
"Your work is getting very sloppy. I suggest that you improve it before Harry gets too suspicious."
"I'm doing the best I can. It's like that boy has no desire for women, and good looking ones at that."
"He's obviously still shaken by what happened last year."
"No, I thought he was a lesbian," Echo said sarcastically.
Eric grinned at her. "Well if you're not interested in him..."
"Shut up. Go with one of those prissy girls over there. I'm sure they'll like you."
He smiled. "I know. I'm just saying, when this is over..."
Echo narrowed her eyes at him. Usually she would've played along and flustered the poor boy so badly that he could think nothing of her for days. This time, however, she was annoyed.
"If you just let me get him to Voldemort, and stop bugging me, I might still like you," she said, with a tone of gentleness now lurking in her voice.
"Very well. I'm just here to make sure you don't go do anything stupid."
Chapter Three
The Trials and Failures
Echo stirred her bubbling potion feverishly. It was a deep, blood red color, and was rather thin compared to other potions.
She mentally thought of all that had happened the last few days. She had done everything, EVERYTHING, she could think of to get Harry to like her. She had made countless love potions, and had even tried an Entrancment charm, but both failed. Furious as herself, she dusted beauty powder all over her robes to make herself looking more stunning. She jinxed her make-up. Thinned herself more.
No use. Harry Potter seemed immune to love.
She stirred her potion once more before draining it into a glass bottle. It was still bubbling slightly.
The potion she had made was a very strong love potion, the strongest you could get. She herself had been taking the other ones, they made her irresistible, but Harry would have to take this.
The first person he saw, he would fall head over heels in love with. She already had worked out how she would get him to drink it, no problem. The problem was getting him to look at her.
She hurried up the stairs to the Great Hall. Everyone else was already enjoying breakfast, (sausage and hotcakes) but many of the boys' heads turned as she passed.
Taking a deep breath, she poured the potion into Harry's goblet. He had been on the other side of the Hall, and Echo was sure no one had saw.
No one had, luckily, but Draco came strolling by. He looked as if he thought himself a king, but Echo could only picture him as a jackass.
She quickly picked up the goblet so he wouldn't see. You only needed one gulp of it, to be transfixed.
"For me?" he asked smugly.
"No Draco!"
But it was too late. He had drained the potion out of the Goblet.
She tried to run, but it was too late. He had looked right at her. She groaned. Life was now going to be hell...
She quickly walked away, but he followed. She found herself only a few feet from Harry and his friends, one in which included the pretty girl Echo had seen on the train.
An idea forming in her head, she stopped dead in her tracks.
It was worth a shot, even if she looked like a complete numbskull in front of the whole school.
Draco approached her. "There's something I want to tell you," he said, loud enough for the world to hear.
"No, Draco. There's something that I want to tell you," she said a bit too aggressively.
"Really? What?"
By now many faces were upon them. Harry included, Echo saw, from the corner of her eye.
She smiled. "I think that you're..."
She sighed. This was going to be fun...
"a complete idiot. No one would ever date you, not for a million galleons."
"I know," he said stupidly.
"and you're such a loser. I mean, I bet that Neville could fly better than you."
She had met Neville last week, and many had said his lack of coordination was frightfully unreal.
"Plus he's smarter than you."
A nearby Neville's face lit up.
Draco muttered, "Yep...uh...huh..." still not realizing what she was saying.
"No one's a stupid as you, really. It's funny how everyone else passes with good marks, while your father has to pay Dumbledore to keep you in school!" she said, remembering what Lucius had been screaming about a few weeks earlier. "Right Draco?"
"You bet. No one's as stupid as me."
Laughter was now ringing through the Great Hall. Echo could even see Harry laughing, and she smiled an innocent smile at him.
To her utter amazement, he smiled back.
It was then that she remembered how much Draco had complained about Harry over the summer. She knew that Draco hated Harry, but the thought of Harry hating him had never crossed her mind.
McGonagall broke up the crowd and sent them off to class. Luckily, the Gryffindors' had History of Magic next, and that would give Echo plenty of free time to complete the new idea she had just had.
Eric walked her to her next class. Echo was feeling more of her usual self, now that she had actually moved beyond a barrier with Harry.
"Nice idea," Eric said to her.
"It was kinda a mistake, actually. Draco accidentally drank Harry's love potion."
"At least you figured out how to get him out of that daze he's always in."
"Yeah."
Both of them were silent for a moment. Then Eric said: "He has a girlfriend."
Echo dropped her books. "What?! He never said anything about...I never thought..."
"Tough." He looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I'll tell Voldemort tomorrow."
Echo sighed. That was another step back for her.
"Anyway, you're already late. You'd better hurry up."
She grabbed the handle to the door of Transfiguration, but let go. The ran back to Eric and grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait."
She kissed him on the cheek. He looked at her, half-confused, half-joyous. "What was that for?"
"You'll see."
She ran back to Transfiguration and got ten points off from Gryffindor for being late. She didn't care though.
* * * * * * * * *
Echo paraded around the Great Hall. Her new plan was about to be put into action, and it was a sure-fire bulls-eye.
She saw Harry and his girlfriend Cho, (she had just found out who she was yesterday.) There were many heads still on her, more than usual. Eric was on the other side of the room, talking with Fred and George Weasley.
At the sight of her, he got up and crossed the hall to meet her. Parvati and Lavender smiled the best smiles as he passed, hoping to get a good chance with him. Harry even felt a twinge of jealousy as Cho stared - only for a moment - at Eric.
He met her and put his arm around her back, escorting her back to the Gryffindor table. Echo tossed her hair and smiled like a beauty queen atop a float.
"What a goddess," Ron said to a rather sulky Hermione. "Can you believe his luck?"
"Can you believe hers?" she said, rather angrily.
"What, you like him?" said Ron.
"In a matter of speaking, I thought he was rather good looking, and very smart at that. I just thought he might go for someone more..."
"Like you? Yeah right. Who wouldn't pass on her..."
Hermione felt as though her heart had been stabbed. She had really had an attraction to Eric, as many girls had. It was the first person she had actually liked, aside from Ron. (so over, she thought)
The heavenly couple swooped past Ron and Hermione. Echo waved to Ron, making him go purple.
Echo stole a look at Harry, who did seem to be a tiny bit jealous, and smiled. Who'd've thought that Harry Potter could get envious so easily?
She gave a final smile to all of the school before kissing Eric dramatically. She could hear the smirks, but she didn't care. This was working beautifully.
She then parted with Eric, and headed off to Potions.
Potions was not Echo's favorite class. She really didn't enjoy any of the subjects that well, as she was really a year behind, but now Eric just gave her all of the answers; it was easy for him, as he was two years older than she was.
But she didn't like Potions because of Snape. She sometimes feared that Snape could see the evil in her; she knew he used to be a Death Eater.
This day in particular, she seemed to be floating through the work, adding ingredients without a thought.
Her attitude changed, however, when her Skankweed Potion exploded all over the class. It showered them, but had no effect, lucky in Echo's favor.
She was blown backward to the ground though. Her arm hit a glass bottle and it shattered to pieces. She quickly got up, most of the girls were laughing, but the boys were struggling to help her pick up.
"Silence!" Snape bellowed. The class followed act.
"Stupid girl, are you thinking of nothing but your boyfriend? This is no place for daydreaming, this is a place for Potions!" he screamed.
Suddenly, his eyes changed expression, and he stared at the cut on her arm.
"What...is that?" he asked.
Echo looked down on her arm. Above the cut, a faint outline of the dark mark was slowly forming. She clamped her other hand over the cut and mark, but it was too late. She hadn't even noticed the mark before, it must've just recently happened.
"It that the..." Snape was looking at her in horror. "But you're...you're..."
"It's nothing! It's just a cut!" she cried, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears. "It's perfectly fine!"
The class seemed confused.
"You should...see...Professor Dumbledore...or...but...no...you can't possibly..." Snape stammered. No one had ever seen him like this before. "I'll have to...exterminate...or...or..."
The silence that followed this threat was deafening. Snape just kept looking at her in horror. She didn't know if running or throwing her cauldron at him was the best thing to do. So she stood there and tried to look puzzled, as thought Snape had never seen a wound before.
At last, someone spoke: "Leave her alone."
It was none other than Harry Potter. He hurried to her, just as the bell ending class rung.
As she ran out the door, Harry caught her. "Are you alright?"
A perfect opportunity was staring her in the face. She stammered something, but Harry didn't hear.
"What? Are you okay?"
"Meet me at the corner of the Forbidden Forest, midnight. I need to tell you something." She didn't bat her eyes or smile. She was terrified.
Chapter Four
The Splitting of Thoughts
Harry wrapped the invisibility cloak tighter around himself. She was ten minutes late. He watched an owl soar overhead, and something gave him the feeling that he wasn't supposed to be here, anywhere but here.
She arrived shortly afterward, visible but not caught.
Harry pulled off his cloak and set it down on the ground. "What's wrong?"
As she moved closer, Harry saw a tear run down the side of her face. "Terrible. Something terrible is about to happen..."
A concerned Harry pulled her closer. It was amazing how beautiful she was, even in such distress. "What? What's going to happen?"
"My...the...it's..." she choked. She couldn't get any words out. "I can't do it! I can't!"
"What? What can't you do?"
"I can't tell you that I'm about to..."
She choked up her courage and pulled out the same glass bottle she had stored her love potions in.
"Look, a flying bird!" she said excitedly.
Harry turned his head away to look where she had pointed. "A flying b-?" he started, but he turned around a second too late. Echo rammed the glass bottle down on his head. The glass shattered, and it cut deeply into Harry's skull. Before he collapsed, he looked at her, and she wondered if he knew what happened.
She started to cry harder. She had wanted to do this. But now that she had done it, she felt terrible. Why? Why did she do things like this?
But her thoughts were interrupted. Lord Voldemort and several Death eaters were standing right in front of her. "You have served me well."
"What?"
"Your reward will be waiting."
"I...I didn't mean..."
"Of course you meant to. You're now on my side."
They suddenly apparated into a clearing somewhere. She didn't know how they had gotten there, she only knew that she was in very serious trouble. There were more Death Eaters there, all of which were laughing at her.
"See what my servant has brought me?" Lord Voldemort said, his cold, high voice piercing the air.
"No!" Echo screamed, but she knew this was going to be a battle she wouldn't win.
"I didn't want to...I didn't want to!" she screamed.
"Be quiet, girl, or your reward will not be given."
"I don't..."
Her words were completely pointless. She saw no help coming, no one was coming to get her. And she knew this time Voldemort would kill her.
"Let's start with your reward. I'm sure that you'll like it..."
Echo got a terrible feeling, she somehow knew this wasn't the reward she wanted.
"Let's start with one hundred galleons."
What? They were going to bid on her?
"You can't do this. This isn't a reward!"
"For my fellow Death Eaters, it is."
This wasn't fair. She didn't want to be...sold. She'd've rather worked for Voldemort for another year.
But she couldn't stop the Death Eaters from callings out higher and higher amounts of money. They were well over two thousand galleons in five minutes time.
Echo looked around for Harry. He was lying on the ground, still bleeding. Her first thought was that he was dead, but she saw his chest slowly moving up and down.
She watched, horribly, as they went higher and higher in prices. Her hope was now blanking out the idea that she would suddenly vanish before their very eyes, into a hope that someone decent would get her.
She noticed that Lucius Malfoy was bidding. She really hoped he didn't have as much money as he said he-
"Ten thousand Galleons."
No one spoke. No one. Echo didn't know who had said it, she really didn't give a damn as long as it wasn't Lucius.
"Rapps, she's yours."
Did...did she hear right? Had Eric just bought her? She dared to look up. It was him. She couldn't say it was a good thing, but at least it was someone she already knew, and it wasn't Draco. She had to wonder why she'd lead him on all summer.
Eric went up to Voldemort and handed him a huge sack.
"It has two thousand in it now, I'll pay you the rest later."
Voldemort took his word for it and looked over at Echo. "Take her."
Eric held out his hand for her. Automatically, she took it and walked back with him to the circle of Death Eaters.
"Now that that's done," said Voldemort, his red eyes glancing around, "we'll move onto more serious matters."
The Death Eaters all bowed, except for Echo, who could really care less if she died now.
Voldemort didn't seem to care, perhaps he thought too low of her to notice.
"We have back in our hands the one who caused me so much pain," he said, his slit-eyes on Harry. "You might have wondered why I need him now, while I still have my ugliest memories from him."
The Death Eaters all were silent.
"I wanted him...because I need a worthy apprentice, someone as clever and powerful as I."
Echo looked at Voldemort strangely. Hadn't he only tried to kill him three times?
Voldemort seemed to have read Echo's mind, because he then said, "I have only just realized that I will need someone young to train. My time will pass within years, I shall join with Satan and become greater. But I need someone to continue my noble work here on Earth."
He paused for a moment. Echo was shocked, but the other Death Eaters looked nothing but regular.
"Harry Potter is alike me in many ways. Aside from the fact that he even looks like I did when I was at Hogwarts, my wand and his share a core of the same Phoenix. He also is a parseltongue, my greatest quality. He possesses the qualities that I admire: bravery, resourcefulness, potential...the same Salazar Slytherin wanted in his own students. However, he misunderstands the use of power, and I will show him that, feeding him the secrets of the universe."
Echo thought he was insane. He sounded like Professor Trelawney.
"And so the use of Harry Potter is now for good, thanks to my servant..." he waved a hand at Echo. The Death Eaters bowed to her.
"And she will soon become a Death Eater as yourselves, with time."
As Echo heard those words, she vowed something to herself: I will never join him. I have made many mistakes in the past, but they stop here.
Echo looked at Eric. He didn't seem that evil...yet. Maybe her life would turn around, some sort of miracle would happen, and she would be free...free...and Harry Potter would not turn evil...someone, anyone, would have to find him.
Echo wasn't listening as Voldemort blabbed on. She was too young; this was too unreal...another innocent person would become evil, because of her, and a good one as well.
I'm going to change, she thought. If it's the last thing I'll do, I'm going to become good, and I'm going to get help.
Disclaimer: All characters except Eric and Echo belong to JK Rowling, Echo and Eric both belong to myself.
Evil Comes In All Ways
Chapter One
Unworthy
Voldemort eyed his Death Eaters, one by one. Unworthy, they were. So foolish and unwilling.
This day, they had met in a deserted forest clearing. The trees bloomed with the aroma of late summer, the green leaves blowing.
It was day. The Death Eaters usually always met at night, for fear of being noticed. But today was different. Today everything would change.
Voldemort spoke to Lucius. "Did you get her?"
"Yes master, she is here. Do you wish to see her?"
"Bring her to me."
Two of the Death Eaters Carried a struggling figure in robes to the center of the circle. They set her in front of Lord Voldemort, where she finally sat still.
"Are you willing to cooperate with me this time?"
No answer came from underneath the heavy black robes.
"You shall speak, or face the consequences."
The robes shifted, as if they were trying to find a more comfortable position. After a few seconds a small voice called out: "I will try."
Voldemort sneered. "You then have already failed, if you only wish to try."
"Do."
Voldemort pulled off the hood of the figures robes. Underneath was certainly not an understatement.
It was a girl. A girl with icy blue eyes and silverish hair. Her skin was tan and glowing, the figure slim and tall.
Voldemort frowned. "Veela?"
"Part. My mother was one. My father was American."
"Dead?"
"Killed by you," she said jerkily.
"Don't upset me, mortal. You don't want me to lose my temper on you."
The girl clenched her teeth. "Then kill me. You can't do it."
"Do not tempt me, girl."
Voldemort continued to study her. "What do you know of Fleur Delacour?"
"I knew her. We met when she was vacationing in America."
"What has become of her?"
"She is dead. The Death Eaters killed her," she said, while narrowing her crystal eyes on the cloaked figures around her.
"Respect your highness, or you will be tortured more."
The girl made quiet imitation voices of Voldemort and rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay, what do I have to do?"
"Get to Harry Potter. Get him back here."
"How am I supposed to do that? Lure him into a box and drag it to you?"
"Think, stupid girl. You're his age. Use your powers on him."
"What about sorting?"
"I have jinxed the sorting hat. You will be in Gryffindor, where you can concentrate on Harry Potter."
The girl sighed. "What do I get?"
"If you succeed, you will be rewarded greatly."
"What about freedom? You promised that I could go four months ago, but you didn't let me."
Voldemort looked rather annoyed now. "You didn't do your work properly, so I was forced to imprison you."
"Imprison? I'd call it more than that."
"Do not run away again."
"Fine. I'll walk away."
Voldemort lip curled. "Lucius, take her until the semester starts. Make sure that she is properly trained this time."
"Yes master, anything you say."
Voldemort turned back to the figure. "You will complete your work this time. If you do not get Harry Potter back here, you will suffer eternally."
The girl gave one final glare at Voldemort before being pulled away by two Death Eaters.
* * * * * * * * * *
Echo stared out of the window of the huge Malfoy Manor. She hated it here, she hated everything about her life.
Echo made a mistake early on that affected her whole future. It wasn't entirely her fault, though. Echo was brilliant. She had a great mind captivated inside her, although she used it in the wrong ways.
Echo's parents had been killed when she was fourteen. The Death Eaters, instead of killing her, took her to Voldemort, for they thought she might be of some use. She was forced to look after Nagini, find out information from the common wizards and muggles, and tempt them to the dark side.
It wasn't fun for the now fifteen year old. She had at first protested the work, complaining, hoping to get killed, but it never happened. After a while, she just did her work sloppily, hoping to escape the clutches of Voldemort.
Her forced her to use her Veela powers to bring men to the Dark Side. It was a sick job, the part she most hated.
Echo's attitude toward Voldemort was rather nasty. He didn't ever kill her, but bombarded her with threats if she didn't shape up. So she ran away one night, praying that she would be forgotten. Alas, she was caught, and now had a new mission: Make-Harry-fall-in-love-with-you-and-then-bring-him-to-Voldemort. She thought of it as a game.
She didn't know why she did it. Maybe he hoodwinked her, hypnotized her, fellow Death Eaters thought. But he didn't. Echo did it out of her own free will.
She had been regular once, back in America, where she lived until her parents died. She was happy, smart, and attended Salem's School of Witchcraft for Girls. She had always received high marks, and had lots of friends. Then everything went horribly wrong.
Echo watched Draco work endlessly at the chores. It was all he did, slaving away like a house-elf.
She was left to do nothing, just wander around and let her imagination run wild. Sometimes she would let out her Veela powers on Draco, just to watch him gaze at her while he was scolded at for not doing his chores properly.
Her powers were no lesser than any normal Veela, except she was spared the fact that she didn't turn into a great raving bird when she was upset or angry, but her skin often turned odd colors.
Draco came up the stairs with a pile of laundry under one arm. Echo, immediately wanting attention, sat down on a plump recliner and crossed her satin-smooth legs. She twirled a strand of hair between her fingers and smiled mysteriously at Draco.
He dropped the pile of robes and stumbled on a step of the stairs. She batted her eyelashes and quickly looked him in the eye.
"Hi Draco," she said sweetly.
"Hi...Echo..." he said, while trying to pick up the scattered robes.
She stood up and stretched. "There's something I've been wanting to tell you," she said seriously. She made her way over to him and stroked his arm.
"That is..." Draco said in a dreamy voice.
"I want to whisper it to you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Echo smoothly inched closer to him and was about to make her final move when Mr. Malfoy's voice boomed up the staircase. "Draco, you better get back to work or you'll take a beating!"
"Gotta go," Echo said smugly, then ran off, leaving a confused Draco behind.
At dinner that night in the Malfoy Manor, Draco was especially quiet and kept sneaking glances at Echo.
Lucius spoke openly of Voldemort at the table to his wife and son. "The plan will work this time, no flaws. Once we've got Potter in our grasp, Voldemort will have him. I do believe that he has an excellent use for Potter this time."
Echo usually carried on politely through dinner, trying not to upset an already extremely jealous Mrs. Malfoy. Sometimes if Echo's mood was right, she would gulp down tons of food, and Mrs. Malfoy, knowing that Veelas' gained no excess weight, would scowl at her and look at her own lightly loaded plate.
Echo didn't work any magic on Draco at dinner, she actually felt sorry for him, the way he was treated.
"As I was saying," Lucius said through a mouthful of Porkchop, "The Ministry is weakening it's bond with Hogwarts. Dumbledore should be sacked anytime now..."
Echo couldn't take anymore torture and cleared her dishes from the table. She sensed Draco following her every move, and couldn't resist winking dramatically at him as she left the dining room. She heard a clatter of dishes and knew that he had just dropped his plate on the ground.
She walked swiftly to the guest room, where she was staying. She had already planned a new act for Draco the next day, that was her idea of fun; it was so boring around here.
Then she remembered: tomorrow they were going to Diagon Alley to buy supplies for school. Echo frowned at this thought. She had been out of school for more than a year now, she feared she'd be behind. She'd figure she'd just charm some smart boy into giving her all the answers.
She fell asleep, hoping that tomorrow she would run into Harry Potter.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Echo walked silently behind Draco and Lucius in Diagon Alley. She kept the hood of her robe up, she didn't want to be gawked at, or be seen with the Malfoy's.
She desperately looked around for any signs of Hogwarts students, but only saw some younger looking kids. Bored, she tried to make conversation with the shop owners, especially if they were male, but she was too tired to really try.
They had stopped for lunch at Dringkings's Wizard Deli when she saw a family of red headed people. They were quite an odd site, but they had with them an important person: Harry Potter. Echo almost jumped at the sight.
"Mr. Malfoy, please, can I go see Harry Potter?" she asked.
"Why would you want to see him?" Draco asked jealously.
"Shut up Draco, it's the Dark Lord's request," he whispered.
Draco kept quiet, but still wore an angry face.
Laughing at her overwhelming success with Draco, Echo strode off toward the redheaded family. Everyone seemed to know them, as they were waving every five seconds or so to someone they passed.
They entered Flourish and Blotts and started to pick out books. Echo quickly came up with a plan and started toward the door.
The put down her hood and tossed her hair. This should be fun, she thought. She walked into the store and let out her magic.
As if a gunshot had just been heard, all of the male heads in the store looked at her. She ran a hand through her hair and smoothed the front of her robes. She looked directly at Harry, who had started to blush magnificently. She slowly breathed in and walked over to him.
"Hello," she said coolly.
"Er...uh, hi."
"I was wondering, could you help me find a few books for the fifth years?"
"Why don't you ask the owner, I'm sure that he'll know where to find them all," Harry said helpfully.
Inside, Echo was surprised, this was one of the few times she had been rejected by a male. She decided to go into serious action and get him.
Delicately, she caressed a strand of hair a pushed it behind her ear. She batted her eyelashes and smiled her sexiest smile.
"I'll help you."
Echo whirled around. Harry hadn't spoken, it was one of the redheaded boys. "I'll be in fifth year too, you can just take all of my books. I'll even buy them for you."
Furious at herself for aiming so hardly, that everyone in the store had bought her act, Echo followed the redheaded boy.
"What'd ya say your name was?" he asked again, in a daze.
"Echo," she said sulkingly.
The redhead didn't seem to notice the disappointment in her voice, because he continued on with their lifeless conversation. "I'm Ron Weasley, and that was my best friend Harry Potter."
"I noticed," Echo said weakly.
Echo left the store with her free books, and returned to Lucius and Draco.
"Well?" Mr. Malfoy said.
"This is going to be harder than a normal boy!" she said, as she slammed down her books on the table.
"He's pretty thick, Harry Potter," Draco said. "You should go for someone...more like..."
But Draco was cut off by his father's harsh looks. "Don't be discouraged, Harry Potter is strong against love when he wants to be."
"How would you know?" Echo snapped at him.
"Voldemort, of course." Lucius said in a whisper. "You better shape up your act around him or you'll be a slave girl again."
Echo leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.
Draco whispered something to him father. Mr. Malfoy smiled evilly.
"What would you say to a little extra pocket money, Echo?"
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Two
The Infamous Sorting
Echo watched Draco pack him trunk with all of his new things. He wouldn't have quite so many splendorous school things this year if it hadn't been for Echo. She had slaved away, flirting with the shop owners and workers; they gave her anything she wanted for free. She found it quite entertaining at first, but it was disgusting even to a half Veela when you had to lead on an chubby old wizard to get a free scroll of parchment.
On the way to King's Cross Station, Echo worked out a plan for Harry in her mind, She raced through hundreds of ideas, deciding the best one to use. She could have help now, maybe an Entrancment Charm would do the trick with him too.
When they finally arrived at the Station, Echo was given a strict talking to from Lucius. "Remember, you're a foreign exchange student, the daughter of my wife's friend from America. We already wrote a note to Dumbledore, there's also three other new students. Now if you go...causing trouble like you did with," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "Voldemort, you'll be banished."
Echo sighed and walked onto the train. There was a pretty girl surrounded by friends, Echo decided to hate her right away. She hated all naturally pretty girls, they were too giggly and obnoxious.
She chose a seat that was smack in the middle of the eighth compartment. There were only two other people there, they both looked nervous.
Judging by their looks, Echo decided that they were the other exchange students. One was Japanese, she was pale and had dark hair. The other was a black boy with cornrows, Echo was sure he was somewhere from Africa. She didn't know where the other one was.
As the minutes wore on, more students filled in the compartment and the train screeched forward.
Draco took a seat next to her and tried his best to look cool. His enormous counterparts, Crabbe and Goyle, stared at her with hope.
Disgusted, she moved to the next compartment to get away from them. There were more people in the next compartment, she suspected because Crabbe and Goyle filled several seats each.
She took a seat next to a girl with bushy brown hair. She was deep in conversation with the redheaded boy Echo had been introduced to at Flourish and Blotts. Trying to hide, she sank as far back into the seat as possible, but it was too late.
"Hey, Echo!" he said with enthusiasm.
"Hello, Ron." she said with about as much enthusiasm as a freed house elf.
"Hi Echo," another voice said.
Echo nearly jumped with surprise. Harry Potter was seated next to Ron. "Oh...hello Harry," she said, her voice much friendlier.
The girl with the bushy brown hair stared at Echo with hatred. Perhaps she likes one of them? Echo thought wildly.
Echo glided over to Harry. As she passed Ron, she purposely brushed her hand against his, just to make his eyes water.
"So...uh, you're starting school here?" Harry said with a crack in his voice.
"You could say that, very well."
They made friendly conversation the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts, except Echo was madly flirting away with Harry, although Ron always seemed to think she was going for himself. When at last they arrived there, Echo separated herself from them and walked over to the other new students.
There were still only three of them, perhaps Lucius had made a mistake. Echo could really care less, but it never hurt to have a few back-ups if something went wrong...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a very loud voice: "All new students and first years over here!"
And aimlessly she followed a giant-man to the great Hogwarts castle. It was much larger than she expected, most likely because her old school had been a rotting shack on the outside, but transformed into a small palace when you entered.
Echo waited for something to happen within the great castle. There were five tables-the students seemed to be sitting with their houses. They hadn't had houses in Salem, but she read that many other schools did.
Echo grew more tense. She was expecting a great celebration to start any moment, but all that happened was not too exciting. A teacher with a perfectly maintained bun placed the ugliest hat Echo had ever seen on a stool.
"When you're name is called, you shall be sorted into your house, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, or Slytherin."
This came to no surprise to Echo. Voldemort had already told her that she would be in Gryffindor.
First, all of the little kids were sorted, the sorting hat screeching out the name of a house at the top of it's lungs.
When all of the first years had been sorted, a man with a very long, silver beard emerged from the table where all the professors were sitting. He gave a speech that Echo surely wasn't paying attention to, when a few of his words reached her ears: "new program that lets us meet students from all parts of the world..."
"There will be a new student for each house. They are all in their seventh year, except one who is starting her fifth. I expect you all to welcome them to our school."
And the Professor with the too-perfect bun called out the first name: Battelson, Cory!
The black boy that Echo had seen on the train placed the hat on his head. It screamed "Ravenclaw" and he hurried off.
Next, "Hing, Ali," the Chinese girl that Echo had also caught a glimpse of was made a Hufflepuff.
Then it was her turn.
She stood there, waiting for her name to be called. After what seemed like an eternity: Piccolo, Echo!
Her last name hadn't been Piccolo last time she was in public. She was ashamed, being named after an instrument now. At least last time it had been something creative: Moonstone.
The walked up to the hat and placed it on her head. It slipped past her ears, and she thought, Whoever's hat this was had an enormous head, and to her surprise:
"You're right, and an enormous brain to fill it!"
Just put me in Gryffindor and I'll go, she thought.
"What makes you so sure you'll be in that particular house?"
Echo immediately thought of Voldemort, but the hat already heard her.
"Ah, connection with the Dark Lord?"
Shut up and just put me there!
"But you're dangerous. Maybe I should tell..."
C'mon!
"Let's see...bravery, that's one down for Gryffindor, but what else is there?
Dammit, just put me there. I don't have all day!
"Oh, I can take as long as I want. You have several qualities that the Slytherin house does possess...daresay I place you there?"
No, please anything but Slytherin! she thought, knowing she couldn't stand being with Draco again.
"Anything but Slytherin? Then maybe...oh, let's see...Hufflepuff?"
No! Gryffindor, please!
"Eh, brain's too good for that. Why're you so keen to get into Gryffindor, anyhow?"
Echo tried not to think, but the voices in her head couldn't help but answer.
"Taking Harry Potter to Voldemort...my, feisty little one!"
Just put me in Gryffindor and I won't do anything to him!
"Liar. I can see what you're thinking, remember? Goodness, you are a tricky girl."
Echo was getting desperate to be sorted now, she had been on the stool for at least ten minutes. She knew the other students were beginning to wonder what happened to her.
Just put me anywhere!
"Well, if that's really the choice you want...GRYFFINDOR!"
Echo breathed a huge sigh of relief and rammed off the hat. She hated it. Voldemort had said she'd be in Gryffindor, who knew she would have to work so hard to get there.
Half-heartedly, she made her way to the Gryffindor table, and seated herself by the girl with bushy hair, whom she had discovered her name-Hermione-on the train.
There was only one person left, they had to be in Slytherin, Echo even wondered why they'd bother, but they did anyhow.
"Rapps, Eric!"
A boy that Echo had not noticed before was marching up to the sorting hat. He was very good looking, tall, blonde, tan...Echo wished that she could have him instead of Harry.
He put the hat on his head. After a few seconds, it screamed out the house he was in. Only it wasn't Slytherin. It was Gryffindor.
Echo was secretly pleased, even though everyone else seemed confused, and the Slytherin girls looked extremely disappointed.
Echo looked up at him and saw that he was already staring at her. But not with admiration, as other boys would. With disapproval, perhaps.
Eric sat next to her though. The girl across from Echo had overcome with giggles and was whispering to the girl next to her.
Eric leaned over to her ear and whispered something: "Pull another one of your stunts and it's over for you."
She realized at once that it was someone from Voldemort sent to look after her and make sure she didn't do anything stupid.
"I know what I'm doing, I don't need a babysitter."
"I'm only here on Voldemort's wishes." He looked at her prized face. "Not that it's a bad thing..."
She glared at him and crossed her arms. Voldemort doesn't think I can do it? I'll show him, she thought.
She continued sulking the rest of the feast, and didn't eat a thing.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Echo was sitting with Eric in the common room after the first day of completed school. They were talking in hushed voices, so no one would overhear.
"Your work is getting very sloppy. I suggest that you improve it before Harry gets too suspicious."
"I'm doing the best I can. It's like that boy has no desire for women, and good looking ones at that."
"He's obviously still shaken by what happened last year."
"No, I thought he was a lesbian," Echo said sarcastically.
Eric grinned at her. "Well if you're not interested in him..."
"Shut up. Go with one of those prissy girls over there. I'm sure they'll like you."
He smiled. "I know. I'm just saying, when this is over..."
Echo narrowed her eyes at him. Usually she would've played along and flustered the poor boy so badly that he could think nothing of her for days. This time, however, she was annoyed.
"If you just let me get him to Voldemort, and stop bugging me, I might still like you," she said, with a tone of gentleness now lurking in her voice.
"Very well. I'm just here to make sure you don't go do anything stupid."
Chapter Three
The Trials and Failures
Echo stirred her bubbling potion feverishly. It was a deep, blood red color, and was rather thin compared to other potions.
She mentally thought of all that had happened the last few days. She had done everything, EVERYTHING, she could think of to get Harry to like her. She had made countless love potions, and had even tried an Entrancment charm, but both failed. Furious as herself, she dusted beauty powder all over her robes to make herself looking more stunning. She jinxed her make-up. Thinned herself more.
No use. Harry Potter seemed immune to love.
She stirred her potion once more before draining it into a glass bottle. It was still bubbling slightly.
The potion she had made was a very strong love potion, the strongest you could get. She herself had been taking the other ones, they made her irresistible, but Harry would have to take this.
The first person he saw, he would fall head over heels in love with. She already had worked out how she would get him to drink it, no problem. The problem was getting him to look at her.
She hurried up the stairs to the Great Hall. Everyone else was already enjoying breakfast, (sausage and hotcakes) but many of the boys' heads turned as she passed.
Taking a deep breath, she poured the potion into Harry's goblet. He had been on the other side of the Hall, and Echo was sure no one had saw.
No one had, luckily, but Draco came strolling by. He looked as if he thought himself a king, but Echo could only picture him as a jackass.
She quickly picked up the goblet so he wouldn't see. You only needed one gulp of it, to be transfixed.
"For me?" he asked smugly.
"No Draco!"
But it was too late. He had drained the potion out of the Goblet.
She tried to run, but it was too late. He had looked right at her. She groaned. Life was now going to be hell...
She quickly walked away, but he followed. She found herself only a few feet from Harry and his friends, one in which included the pretty girl Echo had seen on the train.
An idea forming in her head, she stopped dead in her tracks.
It was worth a shot, even if she looked like a complete numbskull in front of the whole school.
Draco approached her. "There's something I want to tell you," he said, loud enough for the world to hear.
"No, Draco. There's something that I want to tell you," she said a bit too aggressively.
"Really? What?"
By now many faces were upon them. Harry included, Echo saw, from the corner of her eye.
She smiled. "I think that you're..."
She sighed. This was going to be fun...
"a complete idiot. No one would ever date you, not for a million galleons."
"I know," he said stupidly.
"and you're such a loser. I mean, I bet that Neville could fly better than you."
She had met Neville last week, and many had said his lack of coordination was frightfully unreal.
"Plus he's smarter than you."
A nearby Neville's face lit up.
Draco muttered, "Yep...uh...huh..." still not realizing what she was saying.
"No one's a stupid as you, really. It's funny how everyone else passes with good marks, while your father has to pay Dumbledore to keep you in school!" she said, remembering what Lucius had been screaming about a few weeks earlier. "Right Draco?"
"You bet. No one's as stupid as me."
Laughter was now ringing through the Great Hall. Echo could even see Harry laughing, and she smiled an innocent smile at him.
To her utter amazement, he smiled back.
It was then that she remembered how much Draco had complained about Harry over the summer. She knew that Draco hated Harry, but the thought of Harry hating him had never crossed her mind.
McGonagall broke up the crowd and sent them off to class. Luckily, the Gryffindors' had History of Magic next, and that would give Echo plenty of free time to complete the new idea she had just had.
Eric walked her to her next class. Echo was feeling more of her usual self, now that she had actually moved beyond a barrier with Harry.
"Nice idea," Eric said to her.
"It was kinda a mistake, actually. Draco accidentally drank Harry's love potion."
"At least you figured out how to get him out of that daze he's always in."
"Yeah."
Both of them were silent for a moment. Then Eric said: "He has a girlfriend."
Echo dropped her books. "What?! He never said anything about...I never thought..."
"Tough." He looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I'll tell Voldemort tomorrow."
Echo sighed. That was another step back for her.
"Anyway, you're already late. You'd better hurry up."
She grabbed the handle to the door of Transfiguration, but let go. The ran back to Eric and grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait."
She kissed him on the cheek. He looked at her, half-confused, half-joyous. "What was that for?"
"You'll see."
She ran back to Transfiguration and got ten points off from Gryffindor for being late. She didn't care though.
* * * * * * * * *
Echo paraded around the Great Hall. Her new plan was about to be put into action, and it was a sure-fire bulls-eye.
She saw Harry and his girlfriend Cho, (she had just found out who she was yesterday.) There were many heads still on her, more than usual. Eric was on the other side of the room, talking with Fred and George Weasley.
At the sight of her, he got up and crossed the hall to meet her. Parvati and Lavender smiled the best smiles as he passed, hoping to get a good chance with him. Harry even felt a twinge of jealousy as Cho stared - only for a moment - at Eric.
He met her and put his arm around her back, escorting her back to the Gryffindor table. Echo tossed her hair and smiled like a beauty queen atop a float.
"What a goddess," Ron said to a rather sulky Hermione. "Can you believe his luck?"
"Can you believe hers?" she said, rather angrily.
"What, you like him?" said Ron.
"In a matter of speaking, I thought he was rather good looking, and very smart at that. I just thought he might go for someone more..."
"Like you? Yeah right. Who wouldn't pass on her..."
Hermione felt as though her heart had been stabbed. She had really had an attraction to Eric, as many girls had. It was the first person she had actually liked, aside from Ron. (so over, she thought)
The heavenly couple swooped past Ron and Hermione. Echo waved to Ron, making him go purple.
Echo stole a look at Harry, who did seem to be a tiny bit jealous, and smiled. Who'd've thought that Harry Potter could get envious so easily?
She gave a final smile to all of the school before kissing Eric dramatically. She could hear the smirks, but she didn't care. This was working beautifully.
She then parted with Eric, and headed off to Potions.
Potions was not Echo's favorite class. She really didn't enjoy any of the subjects that well, as she was really a year behind, but now Eric just gave her all of the answers; it was easy for him, as he was two years older than she was.
But she didn't like Potions because of Snape. She sometimes feared that Snape could see the evil in her; she knew he used to be a Death Eater.
This day in particular, she seemed to be floating through the work, adding ingredients without a thought.
Her attitude changed, however, when her Skankweed Potion exploded all over the class. It showered them, but had no effect, lucky in Echo's favor.
She was blown backward to the ground though. Her arm hit a glass bottle and it shattered to pieces. She quickly got up, most of the girls were laughing, but the boys were struggling to help her pick up.
"Silence!" Snape bellowed. The class followed act.
"Stupid girl, are you thinking of nothing but your boyfriend? This is no place for daydreaming, this is a place for Potions!" he screamed.
Suddenly, his eyes changed expression, and he stared at the cut on her arm.
"What...is that?" he asked.
Echo looked down on her arm. Above the cut, a faint outline of the dark mark was slowly forming. She clamped her other hand over the cut and mark, but it was too late. She hadn't even noticed the mark before, it must've just recently happened.
"It that the..." Snape was looking at her in horror. "But you're...you're..."
"It's nothing! It's just a cut!" she cried, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears. "It's perfectly fine!"
The class seemed confused.
"You should...see...Professor Dumbledore...or...but...no...you can't possibly..." Snape stammered. No one had ever seen him like this before. "I'll have to...exterminate...or...or..."
The silence that followed this threat was deafening. Snape just kept looking at her in horror. She didn't know if running or throwing her cauldron at him was the best thing to do. So she stood there and tried to look puzzled, as thought Snape had never seen a wound before.
At last, someone spoke: "Leave her alone."
It was none other than Harry Potter. He hurried to her, just as the bell ending class rung.
As she ran out the door, Harry caught her. "Are you alright?"
A perfect opportunity was staring her in the face. She stammered something, but Harry didn't hear.
"What? Are you okay?"
"Meet me at the corner of the Forbidden Forest, midnight. I need to tell you something." She didn't bat her eyes or smile. She was terrified.
Chapter Four
The Splitting of Thoughts
Harry wrapped the invisibility cloak tighter around himself. She was ten minutes late. He watched an owl soar overhead, and something gave him the feeling that he wasn't supposed to be here, anywhere but here.
She arrived shortly afterward, visible but not caught.
Harry pulled off his cloak and set it down on the ground. "What's wrong?"
As she moved closer, Harry saw a tear run down the side of her face. "Terrible. Something terrible is about to happen..."
A concerned Harry pulled her closer. It was amazing how beautiful she was, even in such distress. "What? What's going to happen?"
"My...the...it's..." she choked. She couldn't get any words out. "I can't do it! I can't!"
"What? What can't you do?"
"I can't tell you that I'm about to..."
She choked up her courage and pulled out the same glass bottle she had stored her love potions in.
"Look, a flying bird!" she said excitedly.
Harry turned his head away to look where she had pointed. "A flying b-?" he started, but he turned around a second too late. Echo rammed the glass bottle down on his head. The glass shattered, and it cut deeply into Harry's skull. Before he collapsed, he looked at her, and she wondered if he knew what happened.
She started to cry harder. She had wanted to do this. But now that she had done it, she felt terrible. Why? Why did she do things like this?
But her thoughts were interrupted. Lord Voldemort and several Death eaters were standing right in front of her. "You have served me well."
"What?"
"Your reward will be waiting."
"I...I didn't mean..."
"Of course you meant to. You're now on my side."
They suddenly apparated into a clearing somewhere. She didn't know how they had gotten there, she only knew that she was in very serious trouble. There were more Death Eaters there, all of which were laughing at her.
"See what my servant has brought me?" Lord Voldemort said, his cold, high voice piercing the air.
"No!" Echo screamed, but she knew this was going to be a battle she wouldn't win.
"I didn't want to...I didn't want to!" she screamed.
"Be quiet, girl, or your reward will not be given."
"I don't..."
Her words were completely pointless. She saw no help coming, no one was coming to get her. And she knew this time Voldemort would kill her.
"Let's start with your reward. I'm sure that you'll like it..."
Echo got a terrible feeling, she somehow knew this wasn't the reward she wanted.
"Let's start with one hundred galleons."
What? They were going to bid on her?
"You can't do this. This isn't a reward!"
"For my fellow Death Eaters, it is."
This wasn't fair. She didn't want to be...sold. She'd've rather worked for Voldemort for another year.
But she couldn't stop the Death Eaters from callings out higher and higher amounts of money. They were well over two thousand galleons in five minutes time.
Echo looked around for Harry. He was lying on the ground, still bleeding. Her first thought was that he was dead, but she saw his chest slowly moving up and down.
She watched, horribly, as they went higher and higher in prices. Her hope was now blanking out the idea that she would suddenly vanish before their very eyes, into a hope that someone decent would get her.
She noticed that Lucius Malfoy was bidding. She really hoped he didn't have as much money as he said he-
"Ten thousand Galleons."
No one spoke. No one. Echo didn't know who had said it, she really didn't give a damn as long as it wasn't Lucius.
"Rapps, she's yours."
Did...did she hear right? Had Eric just bought her? She dared to look up. It was him. She couldn't say it was a good thing, but at least it was someone she already knew, and it wasn't Draco. She had to wonder why she'd lead him on all summer.
Eric went up to Voldemort and handed him a huge sack.
"It has two thousand in it now, I'll pay you the rest later."
Voldemort took his word for it and looked over at Echo. "Take her."
Eric held out his hand for her. Automatically, she took it and walked back with him to the circle of Death Eaters.
"Now that that's done," said Voldemort, his red eyes glancing around, "we'll move onto more serious matters."
The Death Eaters all bowed, except for Echo, who could really care less if she died now.
Voldemort didn't seem to care, perhaps he thought too low of her to notice.
"We have back in our hands the one who caused me so much pain," he said, his slit-eyes on Harry. "You might have wondered why I need him now, while I still have my ugliest memories from him."
The Death Eaters all were silent.
"I wanted him...because I need a worthy apprentice, someone as clever and powerful as I."
Echo looked at Voldemort strangely. Hadn't he only tried to kill him three times?
Voldemort seemed to have read Echo's mind, because he then said, "I have only just realized that I will need someone young to train. My time will pass within years, I shall join with Satan and become greater. But I need someone to continue my noble work here on Earth."
He paused for a moment. Echo was shocked, but the other Death Eaters looked nothing but regular.
"Harry Potter is alike me in many ways. Aside from the fact that he even looks like I did when I was at Hogwarts, my wand and his share a core of the same Phoenix. He also is a parseltongue, my greatest quality. He possesses the qualities that I admire: bravery, resourcefulness, potential...the same Salazar Slytherin wanted in his own students. However, he misunderstands the use of power, and I will show him that, feeding him the secrets of the universe."
Echo thought he was insane. He sounded like Professor Trelawney.
"And so the use of Harry Potter is now for good, thanks to my servant..." he waved a hand at Echo. The Death Eaters bowed to her.
"And she will soon become a Death Eater as yourselves, with time."
As Echo heard those words, she vowed something to herself: I will never join him. I have made many mistakes in the past, but they stop here.
Echo looked at Eric. He didn't seem that evil...yet. Maybe her life would turn around, some sort of miracle would happen, and she would be free...free...and Harry Potter would not turn evil...someone, anyone, would have to find him.
Echo wasn't listening as Voldemort blabbed on. She was too young; this was too unreal...another innocent person would become evil, because of her, and a good one as well.
I'm going to change, she thought. If it's the last thing I'll do, I'm going to become good, and I'm going to get help.
Disclaimer: All characters except Eric and Echo belong to JK Rowling, Echo and Eric both belong to myself.