Author's Note: This story was written for JoeCool989's Death Eater Competition in the Harry Potter Challenge Forum. My character was Alecto, my event was some time at Hogwarts, my prompts were loyalty and brutality and my dialogue was "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
It is often said that one can never go back to times that have passed. Once you have left a place, you have left it forever. If that was really true, then why did Alecto Carrow feel as though she had stepped back in time?
She was walking down the grand stair case at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when this feeling hit her. Below her, the scene appeared almost like a dream. Students hurried towards the Great Hall, the sound of footsteps on stone ringing out like a clear bell. The occasional ghost would join the crowd, floating, unconfined, through various walls. Flaming torches, with their hazy light distorting all that it touched, completed the idea that this was not real. But it was real, so real and familiar that Alecto shivered. She had been here before. Once, long ago, she had been amongst that crowd of students, the nerves and excitement of a new year building up inside her. It felt so strange to come back. She half expected to look down and find the emerald green emblem of Slytherin sewn to her chest. But it wasn't. She wore standard black Death Eater robes and this snapped her back to reality.
Alecto walked down the rest of the stairs and stood by the doors, watching the students, sizing them up. This year it was her job to kept them in check and, if possible, to recruit only the finest to join the Dark Lord. It was an important job. It was a powerful job. And Alecto Carrow enjoyed power, especially if came with bloodshed.
She still remembered the day she found her love of power. It had happened within the walls of the very castle she now found herself in. She was in her fifth year and she had been crying.
Crying was a word that, to Alecto, was almost as dirty as Muggle. It was a shameful action, only done by the weak. But she had been young, which was not really an excuse but she used it anyway. She had stayed behind after class, sitting at her desk, her head in her arms, bawling her eyes out. Julianne Rogers and her little group had been teasing Alecto, again. It wasn't fair! Julianne was a Muggleborn, a nobody and she, Alecto, was a member of one of the most prestigious pure-blood families. But breeding made no difference to that piece of Filth. Alecto was always the subject of her jokes and finally she couldn't take it anymore.
So she was in a classroom, alone, trying not to drown in her own tears, when Yaxley walked in. Yaxley (always known by his last name) had been Alecto's crush ever since she had started school. He was ruggedly handsome, with a square jaw, dark eyes and dirty blonde hair. He didn't really speak to Alecto much, he was more her brother's friend, which was probably just as well because Alecto was reduced to stammers whenever he walked by.
Yaxley came in, his blonde hair windswept, her knight in shining armour and then he said: "You're not pretty, you know. Not even remotely."
Alecto remembered being shocked and a little bit hurt. She knew she wasn't exactly attractive, with her mouse brown hair, squat, stocky figure and watery grey eyes that were too big for her round head, but still, it wasn't nice to be told you weren't pretty.
"No," Yaxley repeated, "you're not. You'll never be as pretty as that Julianne."
Alecto was on the verge of bursting back into noisy sobs, when he said:
"But you're powerful. Very powerful. More powerful than those girls ever will be. And if you learn to use that power, then you could destroy them."
"How?" Alecto had whispered.
"Mentally, physically, literally." Yaxley grinned, a smile that still stuck in Alecto's memory. "Any way you want. You could destroy them all."
You could destroy them all. The words came back to her as she watched people streaming into the Great Hall. Since that day she had worked hard to realise her full potential and now, she found, she could destroy who ever she wanted. And that was exactly what she planned to do at this pathetic little school.
"Good evening, Alecto." came a cold voice.
Minerva McGonagall, looking formidable in the dusky torch light, had come up beside her.
"What do you want, McGonagall?" Alecto barked, more than a little aggressively.
Minerva pretended to be affronted.
"We all know that your position here is nothing more than venomous propaganda," she said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "but if I can't even feign civility what is the world coming to?"
"What do you want?" Alecto hissed.
"Nothing really." Minerva said stiffly. "I just thought you looked far too happy here on your own. A bit like a bird of prey and I'm just talking about your nose, let alone your expression."
This slight on her appearance made Alecto twitch involuntarily.
"You had better watch what you say." she breathed, turning her head to look directly at Minerva.
"Oh, I am going to select my words very carefully." Minerva whispered. "Of that you can be sure."
"You resent my presence here?" said Alecto.
"My dear girl," Minerva said, showing expert control of sarcasm, "what ever gave you that idea?"
"Lucky guess." Alecto scowled, a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
"Speaking of lucky guesses," Minerva said, "it is my guess that, at this present time, you are thinking "which of those first years would be easiest to curse?""
Alecto, who had been thinking that almost word for word, said mockingly, "What ever gave you that idea?"
And, to finish it off, she gave a twisted smile.
"I know who work for" Minerva whispered, her voice suddenly very low and very angry. "I know what you stand for. It is not welcome here."
"Careful." Alecto growled. "One might begin to question your loyalties."
"No one has to question my loyalties." Minerva said with pride. "The man I serve might be dead, but I sure as Hell am going to serve him."
A loud bang echoed across the hall. Alecto, her hand shaking, was pointing her wand at Minerva who lay on the ground, writhing and twisting. Her limbs were at funny angles, her face was stretched in a scream that nobody could hear. All the elegance, assurance and dignity that usually went with this woman was gone. She was a puppet and Alecto had the strings. A crowd of students had gathered around them, all frozen with terror. Somebody at the back was crying. Alecto raised her wand and the curse broke. Minerva rose, unsteady on her feet. To Alecto's surprise, she was almost smiling.
"Into the hall." Minerva called curtly to the group of students who were yet to move. "Now."
As the crowd cleared, she walked up Alecto, limping slightly but looking extremely frightening.
"At least now we know where we stand." Minerva stated coldly.
"You're afraid, old woman, I can see it." Alecto spat.
Minerva's eyes seemed to look past Alecto as she said calmly, ""We have nothing to fear but fear itself.""
"What?" Alecto asked incredulously, taken aback at this calm reply.
"It's a Muggle quote." Minerva whispered. "As the Muggle Studies teacher, I should suggest you acquaint yourself with it."
She paused and turned to walk into the hall, but not before making one last statement.
"It means that as long as we don't give in to people like you, we're going to be fine."
Alecto watched her go, a snarl on her face. If it was a fight the people of Hogwarts wanted, then a fight they would get. She had returned the school as an outsider, but that didn't bother her. If anything it made it easier to be more brutal. She walked into the Great Hall, her head held high, the words that had become her philosophy flashing through her mind and giving her comfort:
You could destroy them all.