Disclaimer: The whole Potter universe does not belong to me. I am just playing with it.

The Loner and the Loony

How did it all go so wrong? Actually Theodore Nott knew exactly how it all went so wrong. It was just fun to brood. The call to be a Death Eater came in his summer right before his seventh year at Hogwarts. Nott answered back with a definite "no thank you" and went right into hiding for a month before school started. There were some problems that needed dealing with but he paid the price to see he would be safe this year. It was a week ago he paid the price for his relative safety. Part of him still had some regrets.

"Do you have the potion?" asked Nott

The Hag sitting in the corner of the dimly lit shop right in the middle of Knockturn Alley just motioned to the single bottle on the table. Nott then threw the pouch containing a hundred gold Galleons. She then picked the pouch and left the room. Right after he picked up and was about to walk out the door, the Hag spoke to him with her croaky, gravelly voice.

"Are you sure it is worth it?" she asked

"Without it I am dead." He answered

"With it you will have a half life. You will be as good as damned when you drink down the contents of that bottle. One so young should not know such pain and suffering as that which you have just purchased. You are little more that a child."

"First things first, I was never a child! Second my life has devoid of joy that I seriously doubt that I'll even notice any difference after the contents of this bottle go down my throat. Burying both your parents before you have your first Apparating lesson does not equal all sunshine and snidgets. And finally you didn't seem to eager to warn me while you took the gold Hag!"

"You will notice a difference my young one, a rather big difference once you drink that potion down and do not think I was offering your money back just because of my warning. To tell you the truth I just like to hear what people say back to me to justify such an act of desperation. Enjoy your new life young man."

After he last words she left the room. He quickly drank down the vile potion. At first there was nothing different other than is tasted like something that came from one of the disgusting things in a jar in Professor Snape's office. Then the pain came like a hippogriff out of hell. It felt like every single separate part of his body began to feed of itself. Like being eaten from the inside out and then his body started to vomit itself back up right under his skin. After a few hours he felt better. Not good not by any means did he feel anywhere near good, just better. He then reached into his robes and pulled out the dark red stone that was just as big as a snitch, lifted it over his mouth and gave it a squeeze. Blood poured out of the stone and Theodore began to lick the blood as it tricked down. This is definitely not right but it could be worse.

TBC