Here is the next chapter for The King of Slytherin... Oh my god, I Can't believe it's going to end soon... Only around four more chapters to go... :( Sad times...
Oh well, I am soooo glad that I got three reviews for the last chapter - I really thought you all abandoned this story :/ A huge thanks goes to Luna Raven Ottery, Guest and Guest ^^ Love you!
I hope you enjoy chapter 8...
Chapter 8
The calm before the storm
Katherine's whole body was shivering as she stood in an empty room made out of black marble in the headquarter of the Circle. Vilhelm stood in front of her, a worried look on his face. "Last week I noticed you getting thinner and thinner as the days went by and now you are shivering like dry leaves in the wind." His wise eyes never left hers as he went on. "I am really worried about you…" Katherine managed to suppress the urge to shiver for a bit. "You are not the only one! He is also slightly worried." She couldn't help herself as she snorted. "Pretty out-of-character from him, don't you think?"
Vilhelm's voice remained calm. "Not when it comes to you. Remember, he seemed to be glad when you 'joined' his ranks again… I guess you really left an impact on him during your time as his Dark Lady." Katherine shrugged. "Whatever. That's not what we wanted to talk about, is it?" He chuckled as he turned to look out of the single window of the room. "So, he is planning on attacking Hogwarts in the next two or three days?" This was the first time since her arrival tonight, that Katerine detected a tone of worry in his voice. "Yeah. That's what he told me yesterday. I came as quickly as I could without arousing suspicion." Vilhelm nodded in understanding. "We are really grateful to have someone like you on our side… We passed the information of the impending attack on Hogwarts to the Order. They are preparing everything for the worst-case scenario…"
A heavy silence followed after that and Katherine shifted her weight from one foot to another. Finally she broke the uncomfortable silence. "So, what do you want me to do when the attack takes place?" The Original sighed. "I already spoke to Kingsley and Lupin about that and we came to a mutual understanding, that it would be best if you would reveal your real identity at the very end…" Katherine nodded in understanding. One side of her couldn't wait for the war to finally come to an end, but there was also this other side, which she had tried to not pay attention to, but with the final battle coming closer, it was impossible for her to ignore – the thought of failing and Voldemort fully steadying his reign.
Vilhelm sighed and turned to look at the brunette. "In the end it is up to you to decide on the right moment… Kiril and a few others of our men will be there as well, so if there should be some drastic and unpredictable change of events, you'll be informed." Katherine nodded again to show that she had understood him. "That is all." The brunette gave Vilhelm a small smile and made her way towards the door. Before she left the room, the head of the Circle addressed her one last time. "Oh and Katerina… Good luck!" This time her smile was a little bit brighter. "Thanks Sir… I guess I'll see you around."
Katherine didn't recognize herself anymore. As soon as she arrived at her room in Malfoy Manor, there was no need for her to mask her weakness anymore and so she simply collapsed onto her king-sized bed. The black silk sheets, embroidered with the Malfoy family crest in green and silver, were cool against her skin and her eyes did only barely focus on the crystal chandelier, which/that hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room.
Her condition had gotten worse over the past week and she figured that was because of the constant tension she was under, being a double agent and paying extreme attention to the fact, that she didn't accidently blow her cover in front of him. The vampire slowly sat up – an action, which cost her much more energy than normally – and opened the top drawer of her bedside table. Three older blood bags from a hospital lay there and she opened all three of them one after another and drained them from their contents. She frowned as the strange taste, that was common for blood, which was not fresh, and found that she was only feeling a tiny bit better and not completely, which she had hoped for.
An exasperated sigh escaped her lips as she threw the empty blood bags across her room in a sudden outburst of anger and strength and to her own surprise, she felt tears starting to well up in her eyes. She hadn't cried in… well, to be honest, she couldn't even remember the last time she had cried… The brunette sat on her luxurious bed, letting her tears run down her face, doing nothing to stop them. Inside of her, she felt all the pain from constantly distorting herself being freed from the space where she had locked up all of her unwanted feelings. She felt that if all this would go on for a longer amount of time, she would eventually break.
To tell the truth, this process, which was inevitably leading to Katherine's breakdown, hadn't started when she 'joined' him again… At that moment, sitting alone on her bed, she finally realized the truth. It had all started on a fateful day in May 1943… when her former self Katerina Petrova had been killed by the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets. Since then her life hadn't been the same anymore. Her being a vampire, faced with the task to destroy the most powerful dark wizard ever known to man, all that had been slowly but surely damaging her from the inside. And these were the signs for the advancing process she couldn't stop.
It was all his fault! If it hadn't been for him and his little minions at Hogwarts, she would have never felt so humiliated to run and hide inside the girl's bathroom on the second floor, only to be killed a few moments later! If it hadn't been for his mere existence, which resulted in the Prophecy being made, she wouldn't be facing this tremendous task. Maybe, her parents would still be human and she could have lived a normal childhood with them in a small house in Bulgaria, instead of living the first eleven years of her life in that horrible orphanage. She could have had a normal life…
A knock on the door brought her back into reality. She straightened herself, wiped away her tears and allowed whoever was standing outside to enter. The brunette totally didn't expect him to come in through the door – Since when did the Dark Lord knock? This wasn't the only thing that was odd. His snake-like face actually showed a tiny bit of emotion – other than hatred, rage or complete expressionlessness that is – as he laid eyes on her. His look then went to the empty blood bags at the far end of the room and back to her. "What is wrong?" Katherine slightly jumped at the suddenness of his voice, which – after minutes of total silence – sounded extremely loud to the vampire's ears. God, she really was a total wreck!
Her reaction didn't went unnoticed by him and he stepped closer, the unusual look of worry now even more apparent on his face. Finally the brunette managed to answer his question. "I have no idea myself… I drank three blood bags but I just don't feel better… Maybe it's because I need fresh blood." Voldemort simply nodded in understanding and after a moment he motioned for her to follow him out of her room.
Katherine got up from the bed and shakily moved towards him. They then proceeded to walk down the hallway, which led to the entrance hall of the manor. Occasionally there would be Death Eaters or servants coming from the opposite direction, but upon seeing the Dark Lord and his Lady, they would instantly drop their gaze to the floor, bow and hurriedly turn around to walk away, as to avoid having to pass them.
To Katherine's surprise, the usually quiet entrance hall was bustling with noise, as many Death Eaters were standing together in groups, discussing things or reading notes, which had been passed to them. It didn't take very long for their master's presence to be noticed and when that happened, the whole room fell silent in an instant. Then the assembly, which was clothed entirely in black, fell to their knees, perfectly synchronized, showing their respect to him and her in that way.
Voldemort systematically scanned the crowd in front of him, until he seemed to have found what he was looking for – whatever that was. "You." He shot a short Cruciatus in the intended direction and a young man with light brown hair hurriedly got up to his feet, head still lowered. "Y-Yes, my Lord?" His voice was barely above a whisper as he was trembling with fear. "I want you to get me that Squib from the dungeon and into the drawing room." Without another word, the young man began to make his way into the direction of the dungeons as fast as he could, as to not give his master a reason to lash out at him.
Without giving his followers another look, Voldemort entered the drawing room, the vampire following close behind. Once the doors had closed behind them, Katherine moved towards the nearest chair and sat down, exhausted from the short distance they had covered. This is extremely annoying! She lifted her head and saw the Dark Lord anxiously pacing in front of her, an air of impatience surrounding him. Despite her current condition, the vampire couldn't help herself but smile weakly. She was somehow glad, that some things hadn't changed.
At this moment, the double doors swung open and a woman in her late 40's was led into the room by the young Death Eater. She had a dreamy look on her face and it was clear to Katherine that she was under the Imperius Curse.
"Leave." The young man seemed to be very relieved, that he wasn't required to stay in his master's presence for much longer. After the door had closed behind the Death Eater's back, Voldemort turned to the vampire and motioned to the Squib. "Your meal."
Something inside of the brunette protested against killing an innocent woman, but the prospect of fresh blood was too tempting to resist! The side of her, which thirsted for blood, took control of her actions and she slowly got up, as to not scare her prey, and came to stand in front of the woman, who looked at her with that strange smile characteristic for people under the Imperius Curse. Normally Katherine would compel the person, on whom she was about to feed on, to not scream or struggle, but now she could not muster up the mental strength for a compulsion; she hoped the Imperius Curse would help her a little.
She felt the familiar veins under her eyes turning dark and protruding from her skin and her fangs started to appear. With a swift motion, she sunk her teeth into the slightly wrinkled skin of the woman's neck, perfectly piercing the carotid artery, her victim letting out a surprised gasp. The vampire had to suppress a moan of pleasure, as the rich blood left the woman's body drop by drop and ran down her throat. She heard her victim's heartbeat slow down until it was only a faint pulse. And when the body went completely limb in the vampire's arms, she let the corpse fall onto the marble floor.
The feeling after feeding was just incredible! Every cell in her body had soaked up the life energy of the blood and for the first time in weeks, the brunette felt alive – in a vampire way at least. She hadn't realized how much she had missed this.
"Feeling better?" Voldemort had stopped pacing the room and stood by the cold fireplace. Katherine wiped the remains of the blood from her lips and let out a relieved sigh. "Never been better!", was her simple reply. It was really astonishing what wonders fresh human blood could do! The brunette felt like she had been born again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Voldemort relax and the worried look on his face was gone. "Good. Very good." Wait, was that a smile on the Dark Lord's face? Katherine blinked a few times but nothing changed. He was really sporting an uncharacteristic smile. That's… weird, to say the least.
Katherine stepped closer to come to stand next to him. There was silence between them for a few seconds, before he turned his head to look at her. "That was a good idea for you to feed. I need you and all your strength at its best tomorrow!" Katherine also looked at him, her brows furrowed in question. Did she miss something?
Voldemort explained himself just a couple of moments later – but she didn't like what she heard.
"We are going to attack Hogwarts tomorrow evening."
That wasn't good news.
Not at all… Quite the opposite actually.
Okay, so since the story is slowly but surely coming to an end, I wanted to know your ideas on how you think, The King of Slytherin is going to end. I am looking forward to your suggestions XD
Lots of love coming your way,
watercave
