1. part one
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"I think I broke the Puppy."
Xander sighed and turned to look. Willow was kneeling on the floor with a mound of ash spread out in front of her. An unhappy frown twisted her whole face, but there really wasn't much comprehension there.
"Dammit, Wills, you know that that's the one thing we weren't supposed to do. We could have all the fun we wanted, but we weren't supposed to kill the Puppy. Now we're going to get yelled at, maybe even tortured. I'm responsible for you. How do you think that makes me feel, huh?"
She pouted. "I'm sorry. The Puppy was naughty. He was all squirmy and made the knife slip. His head just went 'plomp' and came right off." She bit her lip and her eyes went wide and childish. "Are you mad at me?"
Xander sighed again and rolled his eyes. "No, Wills, I'm not mad. I'm just a little disappointed in your behavior."
Her lip quivered and she looked like she was about to cry. "I'm sorry."
She really wasn't, but a memory of the girl she had once been told her that an apology was always a good thing to offer to avoid discipline, especially when Xander was acting like a parent. It was usually when he was being the most "disappointed parent" that he was the most screwed up and caused the most pain.
Having a crappy home life when alive had pretty much translated to him being a complete asshole when dead, especially when he was pissed off. The "parental voice" was a sign he was close to the edge and the whips and chains and squirt bottles of Holy water were about to come out. Her only hope was that he wasn't going to get all crazy mad and bring out his special toys, the ones she really didn't want to play with.
Xander knew that frustrations from dealing with the Master had really taxed his control. He was fast approaching the uncontrollable stage, and he couldn't really even force himself to care. There was a definite giggle wanting to claw its way out of his throat and he wanted to caper around and make the bloodbags squeal. And even though she had once been his best friend and was now his Mate, a part of him recognized Willow as being weaker than him, and thus fair game.
Sure, Willow was a master vampire, but there were limits to what that meant. An insane, childish mind wrapped in a sexy package that still attracted him even as part of him was repulsed. She was weak, and being around her made him somehow weak. She was his vulnerability, and all of his enemies knew it.
He had hoped that some semblance of sanity would be returned to her as time went by, but that hadn't happened. She was still completely insane, depending on him to be her voice of reason.
And he was getting tired of taking care of her.
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2. part two
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Killing Willow hadn't been as hard as he had always thought it would be. Sure, they had been friends since forever and lovers since they were Turned, but in the end, that whole not having a soul thing made it pretty easy for him to take her out of the equation. Not having any kind of conscience totally rocked, that was all he had to say about it.
It was funny that he would be the one to survive even though this new life had started out with there being three of them-Xander, Willow, and Jesse. If he had honestly thought about it, picturing his human self in his mind, he would never have believed that he would have been the one to make it through. Yet here he was, way past that whole living in Sunnydale thing, traveling out and about in the wide and wonderful world.
He probably could have stayed in Sunnydale and ruled things with the typified iron-fist, but it just wasn't worth it. He hadn't wanted to deal with the trouble of telling the Master that not only had he allowed Angel to be ashed, but that he had killed Willow himself. He just so wasn't into the being punished lately. Torture had never been a fun thing for him, at least when he was on the receiving end. Giving it was a whole 'nother story.
So he stole a car and roared out of Sunnydale, driving around and exploring the wide wonder of the US of A for awhile, before that got boring and he headed across the ocean for some kind of foreign adventure. Which was how he ended up in Scotland just when things started to get interesting... and fun.
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3. part three
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"Hogsmeade, who the hell named this place?" he said out loud, ignoring the odd looks he received. He really didn't care what anyone thought. They were only human.
Strolling down the vaguely crooked cobbled streets and looking at the old-fashioned crap, he really had to wonder what kind of freakland he had stepped into. He hadn't know that Scotland was like this, but he really wasn't that surprised. He had seen a lot of weird shit since his rebirth as a bloodsucking fiend.
Spotting someone skulking around alone, he grabbed the man's arm and hauled him into an alley. He needed some information.
"All right, I've got some questions and you're going to answer them. But first, dude, what the hell are you wearing?"
The black haired man with the sallow complexion and greasy black hair looked down his long hooked nose at him. "Release me," he ordered.
Xander snorted and squeezed his grip on the man's arm, liking the feel of flesh squishing around bone and the way the man whined in sudden pain, but interestingly didn't scream. "You're gonna answer my questions, buddy, or I'm gonna have fun making you squeal. Pig, pig." He giggled breathily.
The man grit his teeth and glared at him. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"You may call me Master. And I will call you Puppy. Now, what's with the dress, man?"
"My name is Severus Snape and..."
Xander clicked his tongue against his teeth and twisted his grip until he felt more than heard the pop of snapping bone. "Wrong. Your name is Puppy. And I asked about your dress. I don't care who you used to be."
"Why..."
Xander couldn't believe the guy was still ignoring his simple question, still trying to be smart. Still, he thought that he was going to have fun breaking the new Puppy, making the new pet.
When the man's other hand came whipping around with some funny stick in it, Xander didn't even hesitate. That was one of the things that made mortals such easy meat... they always paused and considered, always hesitated that microsecond that made them so damn easy to kill.
He grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it until bone snapped, then head-butted the man just hard enough to knock him out and not cave his skull in. The stick fell to the ground with a clatter, rolling away to points unknown. Xander didn't care about it. He had what he wanted.
"You're going to tell me everything about this weird place," he murmured into Puppy's unhearing ear. "And I'm going to teach you how to behave."
He hadn't felt this alive in years. He just knew he was going to have some fun... before the world burned.
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4. part four
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Screaming. All he could hear was the sound of his own voice screaming.
The world was melting around him, reality shifting and reforming, colors blurring, lines crossing, melting, sheering, tilting, whirling, blurring, losing all hold, everything slipping away, darkness filling up the light while all he could do was SCREAM.
Master's voice became the world. The world was Master's voice.
Puppy woke in darkness, turmoil complete. Lost and frightened in the never ending, shifting, HUNGER.
He could hear himself whining, no longer screaming, just begging wordlessly to be Fed.
"Poor, Puppy, you're Hungry, aren't you?" Master's voice was the world. The world was Master's voice. "Here, because I love you. Because you're special."
Something warm and alive was pressed against him, and even with his eyes tight closed, he could FEEL the warm rush of life and heat beneath the surface of the flesh. He didn't hesitate. There was no hesitation in him.
His teeth closed on a pulsing heartbeat and he began to suck powerfully, filling his mouth with delicious relief from that grinding belly pain.
"Please, Professor, please, no..."
His throat swallowed and he could feel the LIFE filling him up, making him whole, making him strong enough to do what his Master wanted, needed him to do.
"Good, Puppy, good." A hand stroked his hair, so gentle and soft that for a moment he could almost forget the screaming inside of some forgotten and dead thing.
Master's voice was the world. The world was Master's voice.
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5. part five
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"Where the hell is that greasy git..."
Harry turned his head to smirk at Ron. "Maybe he's taking his yearly bath."
Ron's lips twitched, but he managed to keep from laughing when Molly glared at them. "Watch your language, Charlie," she ordered.
"Sorry, mum, but he was supposed to be here an hour ago. Where is he?"
The door opened and Dumbledore strode in with McGonagall at his side. "I have grave news," he said, posing at the front of the room.
The gathered Order members settled around the table to hear the bad news. No matter how much they dreaded it, some part of them had become used to hearing the regular announcements about who Voldemort and his followers had killed since their last meeting. After the first few dozens names, a sort of numb acceptance had taken the place of the original shock.
"Professor Severus Snape has disappeared," Dumbledore said. "I strongly fear that Voldemort has discovered his dual allegiance and has made a lesson of him."
"How do you know he didn't just run off?" Moody demanded.
Dumbledore reached into his robe pocket and held up a wand. "This was found in an alley in Hogsmeade. There were slight signs of a struggle."
"How'd you know he was missing so fast?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore looked sad. "Severus was supposed to meet me for lunch. When he didn't appear, I had a grave feeling that something had happened to our dear friend, but I truly hoped that it wasn't so. He would never run away, especially not without his wand."
"What are we going to do?" Molly asked. "He knows who all the Order members are. He knows our latest plans and operations. Even with the Countermeasures in place, Voldemort might still be able to get some information out of him."
"The Countermeasures will have gone into affect the moment Severus faces Voldemort and realizes that he has been discovered," Dumbledore said. "By now, Severus is already dead."
Even though Harry had never liked the greasy git, it still hurt to see Dumbledore so sad.
It was strange to think of a world without Snape in it. Hogwarts was never going to be the same again.
The world was gone mad, and all the people had gone with it.
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6. part six
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A secret society of magic users. It was a delicious concept that made him want to giggle madly and rub his palms together in typical evil villain style.
Puppy was a fount of information about this whole new world and Xander was most pleased with his choice of pets.
It was always just so awesome to find out that even when he was being totally random, he ended up doing something great for himself.
Curled up on the bed with Puppy and their latest broken toy-a blond haired doll of a girl that had screamed and begged and bled so pretty a red onto the white sheets before finally choking into silence on the bubble of blood upwelling out of her throat-he thought that maybe he had finally found the excitement he craved.
It had been a long time since he had felt so interested in anything. A world comprised entirely of magic users. A "Dark Lord" intent on taking everything over. A heroic teenager destined to kill the bad guy. And here he was right in the middle of it all, a secret last minute entrant into the fun.
"This is going to be great," he gushed.
"Master?" Puppy asked, rolling his eyes to look at him.
"Shut up," Xander ordered, slapping Puppy across the back of the head, "and keep sucking."
Puppy lowered his mouth back to Xander's groin, his lips wrapping around velvet flesh, his tongue wet and hungry while his throat kept swallowing and swallowing, all moist pink flesh.
"You have a pretty mouth," Xander purred. "I'm glad I chose you, Puppy. Because even though you're ugly, you're useful and that's always a good thing. Keep it up and maybe I'll keep you around for awhile."
"Y's M's'ter," Puppy said around Xander's flesh.
Folding his arms behind his head while he leaned back against the headboard, Xander decided that it was time to have some real fun.
Breaking Puppy had been easier than he had expected, and while fun, there was still so much he wanted to do with his new toy... like find Puppy some playmates.
"Daddy never let me play with action figures," he said. "He always thought they were too much like dolls, and dolls were for girls. But I killed him, so what he thought doesn't matter anymore, stupid fleshbag."
Reaching out, he clenched his hand tight in Puppy's hair, grinding the man's face tight against his groin while he thrust his hips upward. "One brush of fang and I'll rip out all your teeth with a pair of pliers," he threatened, then smiled almost gently down at his pet. "You want some friends, don't you? And just like on Star Wars, I'm going to get you a Luke and a Vader. A hero and a bad guy. They'll be fun to play with, and once they break... we'll just have to find some more."
Puppy made a querying sound even as he kept working.
"What was that kid's name? Harry Planter? And that other guy... Voldywart? Whatever. They're going to be mine soon. And if you're good... I'll let you use them as chew toys once I'm done having my fun."
The world was suddenly all shiny and bright, filled with a thousand possibilities for enjoyment. And regrets? Those were things that happened to other people.
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7. part seven
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Standing in the shadows, Xander thought about all he had learned of his chosen subject.
Even all broken and everything, Puppy could be surprisingly verbal with his opinions. He was just lucky that Xander found it amusing, 'cause otherwise... Well, Willow had given up that whole babbling thing of hers, hadn't she?
"Hm, Hermione Granger," he said, a smirk tugging at his lips.
She was hanging out with what he assumed was her family, two ordinary people that weren't going to be able to zap him with the magics.
From Puppy's description he had expected to see a mass of frizzy brown hair and a pale half-moon face. But really, with a bit of work, she could be quite pretty. Or at least useful.
"And student witches aren't allowed to use their magic away from their school. Ah, poor little girl, defenseless and alone. Tasty treat."
Striding forward through the shadows, he had to love the kind of people that would think nothing of having a backyard barbecue just after the sun went down. The kind of people that hadn't learned to fear the shadows and the night.
A meal sure was easier to find here in the wide-wide world than it had gotten to be in Sunnydale. They were practically throwing themselves on his fangs, they were so desperate for his bite. It was awesome.
Tucking his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, he began to whistle a jaunty tune.
Just as Puppy had said, the wards that were supposed to be around the Granger property didn't even flicker when he passed through. Because even though he obviously didn't belong, he wasn't a traditional magic user and he didn't have the mark of a Death Eater.
The girl saw him first, her eyes going wide and her breath coming all in a gasp. He could hear the sound of her heart speeding up in her chest and it made him want to laugh.
"Hello," he said, not even trying to hide his American accent.
He figured he would have his fun, then Puppy could come in and use the girl's wand to cause some kind of magical ruckus so the blame would be spread around a little. It kind of made him regret not grabbing that stick when he had seen it fall, but how was he supposed to know the man-dress was actually a robe and Puppy was a wizard?
Most of the magic users he had known were a bit more low-key. That or they tended to walk around with soulless black eyes or clothes that fluttered with flames that didn't burn.
This whole secret society thing made him want to laugh though, because if he played his cards right, he could take a huge chunk out of their population and there wouldn't even be any stories on the six o'clock news.
Murder and mayhem on an epic scale, and when he finally moved on to other fun, he could start fresh and no one would ever know to be afraid. Very cool.
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8. part eight
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Puppy was not pleased to receive a new "playmate," but Master told him to watch after her and not screw things up, so he was going to do what he was told.
It was hard not to look at her and think of her old name, but she wasn't that blithering creature anymore. She was Parrot now, and Master said she was going to be his new mouthpiece, though he hadn't yet explained what that meant and Puppy was a little afraid to ask.
Standing over the bed where she lay, he could feel that vibration through him of blood calling to blood. The Master flowed through her veins just like through his own. She was his sister now, no matter how he had once felt about her, and Master said they would be loyal, to him and to each other.
"It's time to get up," he said.
Her eyes opened in a flash and she jerked upright on the bed, her hair tumbling around her shoulders. "Where..."
"Master says its time to begin your training, Parrot," he said.
She squinted at him a little. "Professor Snape?"
"I am Puppy," he said, not letting himself flinch at the sound of that name. "You are Parrot. Dress yourself. Master calls."
"Master? What master?" she asked. Her mouth fell open a little. "It's not V-Voldemort, is it?"
A faint smile quirked Puppy's lips. "Master will make Voldemort his toy. He says that when he is done playing, Voldemort will be mine to do with as I will. Now come, Miss... Parrot. Master calls, and he hates to be kept waiting."
"Who... Who is Master?" she asked, but she obediently got out of the bed and began to dress. She didn't even seem to realize that she had forgotten mortal shame and made no attempt to hide her nakedness from him.
"Master is the world," he said. "And he will show you the power of his voice and you will know the truth. You are Parrot and I am Puppy and Master is everything."
She gave him a strange look, but Master's blood in her veins was already changing her in powerful ways. Soon she would understand everything. Master would show her the truth.
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9. part nine
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Parrot was actually pretty cute in the light, especially on her knees with her lips glistening with blood and lust.
"I am going to teach you some valuable lessons on life," Xander told her, reaching out to caress her cheek gently with his fingertips. "You're my brand new project. The toy I'm going to play with."
Puppy made a tiny whimpering sound down in the bottom of his throat. He was huddling in an out of the way corner, his knees drawn up tight against his chest. A dark-clad shadow with shoulder-length black hair falling around his face like a greasy curtain.
Xander turned his head to grace him with a gentle smile, feeling strangely generous with his new playthings. "Don't worry, Puppy, you'll always be the first of my new toys. I'm never going to forget about you. Not even with pretty Parrot here." He pressed a fingernail hard against her left cheek, liking how she had already learned not to flinch and draw away, not even when blood welled up under the pressure.
He raised his thumb to his lips and licked it clean. "You're both the beginning of our new family. The Order of Xander Harris. Can you dig it, baby?"
Puppy looked vaguely confused about the phrasing, but nodded eagerly. He was willing to do anything Xander wanted, and that made Xander happy.
"I was an underling for too long," Xander said, stepping away from Parrot so he could pace around the room. He could feel the energy thrumming up his legs to engulf his whole body. ACTION, something in him screamed, along with MAYHEM and MURDER and MADNESS. "I'm not a minion and no one better make the mistake of ever thinking of me that way. I was always a Childe, always... always the Master. I'm not weak like Willow was. I'm not stupid like any of them were, I'm better than they are or ever will be. And Sunnydale," he snorted, "who needs that little town anyway, when I've got the whole fucking world at my fingertips?"
He threw himself across the room and onto the bed, rolling over onto his back so he could look up at the ceiling. Neither Puppy or Parrot made a move, knowing better than to draw his attention when he was like this. No longer cheerfully indulgent, but frighteningly manic.
Sometimes, after he was done "flipping a wig," he would actually regret the things he had done, especially if he ended up killing someone he wanted to play with more. So he was glad that they didn't do anything stupid, not when he was slipping and sliding back into that weird Dru-Spike state of mind where everything that moved should bleed and he didn't care about consequences or much of anything else.
There was always a drawback to every good thing, even being the ultimate monster. His was the complete and utter loss of control he sometimes experienced when he was feeling the strongest kinds of emotion. Love, hate, lust, despair, it was all the same.
"I'm gonna make the world bleed," he whispered fervently. "Everyone that made me feel anything is going to die. And I'm gonna be a god and no one and nothing better try and stand in my way. Not with rocks or guns or stupid pointing sticks. 'Cause I'm gonna kill 'em all."
He laughed a little to himself, feeling the acid bubbling up inside, that need to MAIM and KILL and RAPE and RAVAGE and tear the world apart. His demon stirring in the most delicious ways, feeding off the remnants of the human Xander in the best way possible, digging at all the emotional baggage and making every little speck of unhappiness an aching maw bent on swallowing the world whole.
"Come here," he ordered, glancing from Parrot to Puppy. "Make me feel better. And if you make me happy... I won't have to burn you alive with the rest."
There was something pleasing about how quickly they hurried across the room to him, scrambling up on the bed to lavish him with all the attention he needed.
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10. part ten
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Hermione Granger disappeared on a mild Friday afternoon in mid-July. Her parents' bodies were found torn to bits in their bedroom two days later. They had been stripped and forced to do heinous things to themselves and each other before someone else had taken his enjoyment. No DNA evidence of the intruder was found, though there were signs that a third-male-person had been in the room with them.
Investigators finally came to the conclusion that the intruder had forced Mr. and Mrs. Granger to act against each other by threatening to harm their sixteen year old daughter. Finally, when they were too wounded to be able to protect themselves or get away, he had killed them and taken their daughter with him anyway.
Warnings went up around England urging people to be on the look out for young Hermione Granger. If anyone knew of her whereabouts they were to immediately call the authorities. But it was already pretty much decided that she was long since dead and there would be no hope of finding her alive.
Whoever had taken the girl had probably already raped, murdered, and disposed of the body. All anyone could really hope for was that there wasn't a serial killer on the lose and this wasn't the beginning of an English version of the Summer of Sam.
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11. part eleven
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Somewhere in her head, she knew that she should probably be more upset about this sudden and unexpected life change than she was.
But Master had "bought" her a bunch of pretty new dresses and there had only been a few specks of blood staining one of them. He had Puppy curl and style her hair into what they had both proclaimed a lovely fashion. And even without being able to see her own reflection, she had never felt more beautiful. Especially when Master had laid her on the bed right then and there-her hair falling across the pillows like some crazy waterfall while her skin shivered with anticipation-and had ducked his head under her dress to taste between her legs.
The whole world was frighteningly brand new, but with Master and Puppy beside her, she felt as though nothing could stand in their way. They were an unstoppable force of destruction, three against the world.
Looking at Puppy curled against her side, she couldn't imagine how her living self had ever thought him ugly. He was so beautiful now, with his sneering lips and eyes that burned like coal, and after Master had her wash his hair out several times, it shone glossy black like the wings of a crow. He looked like a fallen angel, like the devil himself, and she felt as though she wanted to hold him and never let go, her deliciously dark brother.
"When will Master be back?" she asked. Puppy always knew, since he was Master's first and favorite, but she wasn't too resentful. Master loved them both and he had promised them both their own places in his new world order.
"Soon," Puppy said, shifting his head up off the coverlet to rest his cheek against her stomach so he could gaze up at her. "He says he's going to bring us back some treats. He says we're going to have ever so much fun."
Parrot smiled. "I hope so." She reached out a pale hand to run it through his hair, liking the way the coarse locks slipped and slid through her fingers. "Fuck me?"
Puppy rose up on his knees. "But of course, my dear."
"You're not ugly anymore," she said, writhing a little under his ghosting fingertips. "I don't think you might ever have been ugly at all. You taste like lovely blood. I want you to bleed for me."
He laughed, a full rich sound that he never made when Master was near, somehow knowing that Master would not like it. "I only bleed for Master," he growled, grinding against her. "Master is the world. You are only a piece of him."
She pouted, raking her fingernails against his suddenly bare back. "I miss Master. When is he going to be back?"
"Soon, pretty Parrot, soon."
"Good."
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12. part twelve
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Wearing a robe he had snatched from a redheaded teenaged boy, Xander wandered through Hogsmeade like one of the natives.
One thing he had to say for the wizarding world, there were a lot of people that could use the attentions of a good dentist, a couple of good stylists, and maybe some quick applications of Lasik surgery 'cause this was just ridiculous. Especially the pitiful lady with the wild gray hair and the Coke bottle lens glasses swathed in reams of fluttery fabric that had shot him such a horrified look before scuttling off down the street. What a freak.
Idly twiddling the wand in his right hand, he made mental notes about what he was going to change about things around here once he ruled it all. And the top of his current list was getting rid of all the giggly school girls that kept giving him the eye before ducking away. That had always been a personal pet peeve of his.
This place is kind of lame, he thought, sighing.
Sure, an entire society of magic users was kind of cool at first glance, but when you really got down to it... lame.
The wizards and witches, with all of their power and everything, lived like they were stuck in the 18th century. They were all backwards and everything, and looking at them from a modern perspective, they were actually pretty pitiful. Because for all their great power... they really couldn't do anything that technology couldn't replicate.
Sure, transfiguration was neat and so was apparation and animorphising, but they weren't exactly essential skills, especially when they were used for such useless reasons. And there was tons of things that science could do that these guys with all of their magic didn't even know how to start with.
They don't even have TV, he thought.
Xander glared at a girl that wandered too close to him, then snorted when she squeaked in fright and skittered away. These magic people were really not impressing him.
Once I have my fun with these guys, he thought, I don't think I ever want to have anything to do with this wizarding world again. It's stupid.
Of course, by the time he was done with them, they probably wouldn't be having anything to do with anything else themselves.
He wandered back down the street the way he came. Puppy and Parrot were waiting back at the lair and he could really use something to take the edge off and sex was always fun.
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The body of Fred Weasley was found with a broken neck in the alley between Weasley Wizarding Wheezes and the Discount Broom Emporium. He had been stripped to his underpants and there were fingerprint shaped bruises all over his body. His wand was missing.
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13. part thirteen
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"He was a monster, Albus, a monster with the face of a boy," Sibyll Trewlaney stuttered, her hands twisting together in flustered knots.
"Who was a monster, Sibyll?" Dumbledore asked, looking at her over his half-moon glasses.
"The creature in Diagon Alley. He was like a gaping maw. He wanted to swallow everything. Consume us all, every one of us."
"Have you been drinking again, Sibyll?" Dumbledore asked.
She shook her head with violent fervor. "No, Albus, I have not been drinking again! I Saw him with my own eyes, I did. He was hunger given flesh. He was just walking down the street like he wasn't a monster but a man. He wasn't even really trying to hide what he was, but no one else could see it. He's going to kill us all, Albus. He's going to eat the world whole."
"I think perhaps you need to rest, Sibyll," Dumbledore said, adding slight emphasis on her name as though to calm her like she was a wild animal.
She glared at him, this man she had respected for so long. He really didn't understand anything. He was so blind for all his power. "You're going to let this happen, aren't you?"
"Let what happen?" he asked.
Her lips twitched spasmodically. "I can See it now. You're so focused on the visible evil that you're going to let him creep in on us completely unhindered and by the time you do anything... it's going to be much too late."
"Are you talking about Voldemort?"
She growled in exasperation. "This has nothing to do with You-Know-Who, Albus. I don't know who he is... but he's hungry and he's never going to be satisfied until the entire world is consumed."
"Maybe you should have a lie down, Sibyll," Dumbledore said.
"Whatever you say, Albus, but when the time comes... don't you dare pretend that I didn't warn you. Voldemort is a great evil... but he is not the only evil."