Fabian and Gideon Prewett, twins and older brothers of Molly Prewett, had just entered their private office and Gideon had just lit a small stove with a wave of his wand.
"Well, brother dearest," Fabian called. "What's our dinner situation?" Gideon opened a small door, revealing a large, though rather bare pantry.
"We've got leftovers from last week's family dinner," Gideon said, pulling out a container filled with ham and potatoes. "How's that sound to you?"
Before his twin could reply, there was a loud crash as the door burst in, falling to the floor with a bang. The box of leftovers fell unheeded to the floor, its contents spilling over the tiles as Fabian and Gideon drew their wands.
Black cloaked, masked figures began pouring into the room, and the two young men seemed to fade into the darkness.
These unexpected arrivals continued to pour through the open doorway until five cloaked figures stood in the quiet kitchen, their silhouettes framed by a cold light. They stood there for a moment, their eyes searching for any sign of the brothers. Suddenly there was a flash of light from a dark corner, and it barely missed one of the larger Death Eaters head.
"Oi, you there!" the voice was issued from the space where the light had come from. "Could've at least had the decency to knock before you came barging in!"
The lead Death Eater spun towards the sound, and caught a glimpse of wild red hair disappearing further into the darkness.
"Did y'see that?" one hunched figure crowed. "Let's go-" there was a loud whack and a groan from the speaker.
"Shut it, Carrow," the leader said in a low voice. "Do you want to catch them by surprise or not?"
"Yeah, really," the voice said. "You ought to think about whether we can hear you or not. Oh, and by the by, you really need to work on your whispering, Avery. I could her you from here."
The leader, apparently Avery, pointed his wand towards the noise and shouted "Setumsempra!"
Fabian moved hastily out of the way and the curse hit the wall. He let out breath, rubbing his nose. That had come way too close for his liking.
"Now, now," he chided, and imagined Avery grinding his teeth. "That's no way to play, is it, my old schoolmate?"
"We were never mates, Prewett," he growled. "You and your brother were always hexing me in the hallways before class."
"Of course we were, even then you wanted to join his ranks. Besides, as I remember you always returned the favor."
Before Avery could reply, one of the two small, hunched Death Eaters interrupted. "Enough of the chit-chat," he growled. "Let's finish the job we came to do!"
Before Fabian could say another word, all five Death Eaters pointed their wands in the direction his voice had come from, all shouting different curses. Fabian dropped to the floor and the spells shot over his head, singing the wall.
"Incendio!" A Death Eater yelled, and a jet of flames was shot in Fabian's general direction. He yelped as the wallpaper caught fire and hurriedly got to his feet, trapped between the Death Eaters and the quickly growing fire.
"Aguamenti!" the voice that directed the stream of water to extinguish the flames belonged to neither Fabian nor the five Death Eaters. There was a moment of confusion before the owner of this new voice entered the room.
Gideon Prewett entered the room with his wand alight, and immediately Stunned the nearest Death Eater. Said unidentified Death Eater flew across the room, thudding heavily into the wall.
"Stupefy!" Gideon yelled, pointing his wand again at Avery. He blocked the spell with a wave of his wand and retaliated quickly.
"Avada Kedavra!" Gideon stepped to the side just in time and the spell shot by. Fabian saw the other Death Eaters standing around watching and knew it would only take a short time for them to gather themselves and attack Gideon as well. He pointed his wand at one of them.
"Petrificus Totalis!" One of the smaller Death Eaters went stiff and fell to the floor. The other hunched figure spun around to face him, curses already falling from his lips. Fabian dodged the first beams of light with grace and ease, but he was soon faced with two combatants instead of one.
As he dueled, Fabian recognized the two Death Eaters to be one of the Carrows and Mulciber, two of Voldemort's nastier followers.
"Oi, Gideon!" for a moment there was no reply, and Fabian grew increasingly nervous the longer the silence grew. "Gideon?" he asked again, his voice a strained and a little higher than usual. Still there was no reply. The only sounds to be heard were the hissing of spells and the curses of the Death Eaters. "Gideon!"
"What?" Fabian almost sobbed in relief. Gideon had been driven into the adjoining room and had only just now returned. His attacker was nowhere to be seen. "Fabian, what is it?"
"Never take that long to answer me again!" Fabian yelled, hurling a cloud of broken glass at his attackers. Having given himself a moments' reprieve, Fabian whirled around to face his brother and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug.
Stunned for a moment, Gideon simply stood there before hugging him back. "You scared me," Fabian mumbled into his twins' shoulder. He pulled back and Gideon saw a tear slide down his face, leaving a track in his grime-coated face.
"We'll be doing none of that," Gideon said, and he wiped his brother's cheek with his thumb. "Do you really want to cry because of this lot, do you?" Fabian smiled, dashing another tear from his eyes with the back of his hand.
"I wasn't crying because of them," he said. "I was crying because of you, you great prat. Not answering me fast enough, thought that maybe-"
"Oh come off it," Gideon said. "You think I'd let myself get killed by Avery? Honestly." Fabian lost his smile.
"It's not just Avery," he said, "I know you can handle him. But the others, have you noticed who they are?" Gideon was frowning now, too. "Who?"
"Why don't you see for yourself?" the twins spun around, wands clutched in their hands.
Their five attackers stood before them, their masks removed. Avery introduced them mockingly, and each of them leered and laughed quietly at the expressions on the Prewetts' faces.
"Well, you already know who I am, this is Amycus Carrow, this is Mulciber, I'm sure you remember hexing him, and these two," Avery gestured at the last two, "are Rookwood and Dolohov. I'm sure you've heard of them."
Fabian and Gideon's faces paled considerably as the final two were introduced and their wand hands shook slightly, but not once did they waver or back down. One of the men chuckled grimly.
Rookwood's appearance was rather well groomed, his long dark hair pulled back out of his handsome face. His robes were hardly dirtied, with only a light covering of debris lying on his shoulders. Anyone that didn't know of his reputation as a Death Eater would be hard-pressed to find anything remotely evil about him at first glance, but from this close they could easily see a cruel glint in his dark eyes.
Dolohov's face was long, cruel, and twisted into a dark sneer. His robes were old, dirty, and slashed from skirmishes past. His reputation for torturing victims into insanity before killing them preceded him, and word was that he thoroughly enjoyed watching the pain he caused. He bowed mockingly in Fabian and Gideon's direction before speaking in a low, gravelly voice.
"Ah, the famous Prewett's, I see. Word had it that you would be hard to find, but I'd say we did alright. What d'you think, lads?" Rookwood gave a soft chuckle and shook his head.
"Don't tease them, Antonin, they couldn't help but visit their dear sister. Who would have expected to be followed from there?" Rookwood saw the twins faces pale slightly and he smiled at them. "Oh don't worry, your darling sister and her family haven't been harmed. Not yet, at least." Fabian growled angrily.
"Don't you dare," he said, stepping forward slightly and gripping his wand so tight that his knuckles turned white. "Don't you dare to even think about touching my sister."
Rookwood looked at him for a moment, then moved forwards and pressed him wand into the base of his throat. "I'm afraid you don't have much say in what happens to the Weasleys, Prewett. But if I were you, I'd be careful what I say for fear of causing them unnecessary pain." He let a flash of heat surge from the end of his wand and stepped back, leaving Fabian with a small burn mark.
"Fine." Gideon stepped forward and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, stopping him from speaking. He glared at Rookwood. "What do you want?"
"To kill you, of course. Had I been in charge of this venture the deed would be over and done with, but friend Antonin has been a little out of practice lately and wants a chance to practice his… how to put it… talents." Gideon's knuckles whitened, and he felt Fabian shaking under his hand.
"Good luck with that." Fabian stepped forward quickly, catching Rookwood upside the head with a clenched fist, and Gideon aimed his wand at Dolohov.
"Stupefy!" he shouted, But Dolohov grabbed Carrow and used him as an effective shield. Throwing aside the limp body with little effort, he made a slashing motion with his wand and purple flames flew from it. Gideon ducked the violet light, feeling it singe the hair on top of his head.
Meanwhile, Rookwood had staggered from Fabian's blow, but he soon righted himself. "Don't just stand there!" he roared to the others. "Get them!" Mulciber rushed to help him, sending jet after jet of green light at Fabian. Avery went to aid Dolohov.
"Crucio!"
The red light caught an unsuspecting Gideon square in the back, and he let out an agonized scream before falling to the ground, writhing and twisting in unbearable pain.
His wand fell from his unheeding fingers and Dolohov kicked it out of sight. Fabian, hearing the screams and pleas for death from his twin, spun around in horror and stared at the twitching body. Upon noticing his distraction, Rookwood lunged forward with a triumphant grin.
"Avada Kedavra!" The green light hit Fabian dead on, and he fell to the ground.
"Having fun, Antonin?" Dolohov nodded to Avery. "He's the one that got 'im." Avery's face was set with grim satisfaction as he watched his schoolboy enemy writhe on the ground. "Finally got what was coming to them, I say," he said. Rookwood nodded.
"Well, do your thing and lets get going, I'm parched." Dolohov shrugged his comment off. "I won't be rushed, they deserve everything I'm going to give them."
"There's just the one now, I got Fabian." Dolohov looked like he felt cheated, and said so to confirm it. Rookwood shrugged. "I saw the opportunity and I took it, and I can't take it back. You'll just have to be content with one."
"Fine."
Gideon went through unimaginable tortures that night at the hands of Antonin Dolohov, and when the Order found their bodies they couldn't bear to tell Molly Weasley all of the gory details. The look of shock and horror on Fabian's face was too painful to speak of, and Gideon's mauled body haunted the nightmares of the members who had seen them for years to come. No one ever spoke of the message Mad-Eye Moody had found scrawled in the dust of the demolished house.
They had it coming.