Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, locations or prior storylines associated with it. That is all the intellectual property of the wonderful JK Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended, nor am I making any money from this story. I am just playing in her world.
AN: Okay, y'all. These next two chapters will hopefully answer some questions (which many of you may have figured part of it out by now!). As always, please read and review. The reviews feed my muse (which is a very hungry dragon right now) and may help me get past my writer's block!
The Four Horsemen © The Sexy Muggle Librarian
Chapter 10: A Mother's Love
"The time draws near," the figure in the cloak said, looking at the ceiling that was enchanted to show nothing by the dark night sky. "We have a month until the eclipse and much to do."
The three other people occupying the room bowed their heads slightly in respect. "What do you want us to do, Blaise?" Pansy Parkinson asked. "How are we supposed to become all powerful; so powerful that even Gods would tremble at our feet?"
Blaise Zabini smiled darkly. "Knowledge is power, my dear. Don't you want to see Draco in shackles, Astoria?"
The blonde witch looked up. "That would be enjoyable, Master."
Blaise laughed. "He is running around like a madman, searching for Scorpius, never suspecting that he is right under his nose. I trust the boy is not giving you any problems?"
Astoria shook her head. "No, Master. He is with me and he knows that I love him. I would never harm him." She shuddered when she saw a dark look cross his eyes and was grateful when he redirected his attention to Pansy.
"Pans, I need you to acquire the following ingredients: Acromantula venom, Salamander Blood, powdered Griffin claw and wormwood. We need to have this no later than the twenty-third of November. The potion must steep for ten days before adding the final ingredient."
"What is the final ingredient, Blaise?" the fourth person spoke up. "You are being very secretive about it. If we are meant to rule the world together, you need to share all your information."
Blaise looked at Gregory Goyle, Jr. in surprise. He had not expected any questions from him. "I will let you know."
Goyle got a defiant look on his face. "No, Blaise. I let Draco push me around and I'm not going to let you do the same thing. I think it's time you let us in on the plan and where you got this plan."
Pansy and Astoria held their breaths as Goyle confronted Blaise. Finally, Blaise relented. "The final ingredient is the blood of direct relative of yours. You must kill that person, and then add the blood to the potion before you drink in."
Gasps sounded throughout that room and suddenly Astoria understood the dark look that had crossed Blaise's eyes. He wanted her to kill her son. She bit her lip in horror and knew that she could not confront him. He had performed a slave spell on her and she was unable to counteract wishes directly, instead she shot a horror-filled look at Pansy as they exited the room.
Once the two women arrived at her chambers, Astoria broke down in tears. "I can't do it, Pans. I can't kill Scorpius. What can I do? He'll force me to do it if I refuse!"
Pansy wrapped her arms around the blonde woman. "Shh. We'll think of something," she said soothingly as she fought the urge to hex Blaise. Damn it! He's a bloody idiot. He knows how much she loves her son. How can she expect her to kill him? Merlin, another bloody mess that I'm going to have to figure a way out of. I wonder if I can find the book where he got the potion from. "Listen, Blaise may be smart, but he had to get this potion from somewhere. If you can distract him, maybe I can check his quarters and find it. I promise that I'll do everything I can to prevent this from happening."
Astoria sniffed. "Thanks. What about you? Who can you kill?"
Pansy grimaced. "If I must, it'll be my older sister, Paradisea. She is dying anyway, so I can make it painless for her."
Astoria wiped her face. "I didn't know that. I'm so sorry, Pans."
Pansy smiled. "We've had a while to get used to it. When she rejected the Dark Lord's sexual advances, he cursed her with Tardus Nex."
"What's that?" Astoria asked.
"It's a curse that kills the person slowly over a five year period. We've researched and had the best Healers in the world try to reverse it, but it's irreversible. She only has a couple of months to live," Pansy said quietly.
"Oh God. That's abominable. Are we making the right choice? I'm scared, Pans. This doesn't seem right."
Pansy bit her lip. "We can't back out. Blaise will kill us if we do that."
"And we don't even know what this spell is supposed to do. How is it going to give us the power to rule the world?" Astoria wondered.
"I don't know. We must find that book."
"I'll distract Blaise for you this evening," Astoria promised her.
H~P
Later that night, after Astoria pulled Blaise into her room, Pansy crept cautiously into Blaise's suite of rooms. She was careful about the wards, making sure that she didn't accidentally set off any alarms and breathed a sigh of relief. She walked around the room, noticing that he had charmed his ceiling to show the night sky and shook her head at the notion. Quickly, she walked towards the bookcases and began to scan the titles.
The books were as she had expected. Many of them focusing on the Dark Arts, but there were some surprises. He had books upon books of Muggle history, starting with books about Mao Tse-Tung, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. She shook her head. After Voldemort had been overthrown, she had looked into the history in the Muggle world and she recognized the names of the worst dictators and rulers in history. She browsed some more and recognized the names of dictators from Germany, Belgium, China, North Korea and Iraq as well.
"Oh, Blaise. What are you doing?" she breathed softly.
She scanned the titles, but none of them seemed to be of the type that would include a Dark Ritual that Blaise had described. She walked around the sitting room, looking for other books, but found nothing. Sighing, she decided to try the bedroom. The room was just as dark as the sitting room, the ceiling charmed to show a total solar eclipse. Looking around, she found a leather-bound book. Quickly, she opened it and scanned the pages, only to realize that it was in Old English. Taking out her wand, she quickly muttered a spell and a duplicate of the book appeared beside it.
Smiling, she pocketed the copy and quickly exited the rooms.
H~P
Astoria shuddered as Blaise finally took his leave of her. As always, the pleasure and pain that he left her with kept her mind in turmoil. Their relationship had started off like any other, she as a fourth-year, him as a powerful sixth-year. She had been ecstatic when he had begun to flirt with her, his dark charm making her shiver in excitement, but when Voldemort fell, he had grown even darker. She knew that he had placed the Imperius Curse on her before he had left that year, only to place her under the slave spell that bound her to his will. She knew that even if she wanted to stop whatever he was doing, there was no way around it.
Sighing, she climbed into the bathtub and tried to scrub herself clean. When she finally walked back into her bedroom, she found Pansy sitting in a chair and new sheets on her bed. "Thanks," she said softly as she jerked her head towards the new sheets. "Did you find anything?"
Pansy nodded. "Yes. I found a book in Old English on his nightstand. It was a simple duplication and translation spell later that I found the answers." She paused with a Malfoy-like smirk on her face.
Astoria raised an eyebrow. "And…"
"And there is a way around killing Scorpius. Blaise must have translated it by hand because one of the words was illegible. It calls for either the blood of a direct relative, which means a parent, sibling or child, or for you to sacrifice your own blood. The passage that had the difference in it was smudged."
Astoria smiled until she thought about Blaise's reaction to a live Scorpius. "We've got to convince him that Scorpius is dead, though."
Pansy nodded. "I thought about that when you were in the bath. It's easy. Draught of Living Death. We can give that to him, make a cut on his arm, then once Blaise is convinced of his death, I'll take him to my old nanny in Scandinavia. She can keep him safe."
"Why not just take him back to Draco? He'd keep him safe as well," Astoria queried quietly.
"And Blaise would find out that he was still alive," Pansy reasoned.
"Oh. Bloody hell." Astoria thought about it for a while before nodding her head. "Okay. Let's do it, but why are you helping me?"
"I won't stand for the death of a child," Pansy said so quietly that Astoria almost didn't hear her. "I'll be in touch."
Astoria watched with a flutter of hope as Pansy left her room.
H~P
AN: Okay. So notes on this chapter. One, Tardus Nex means slow death in Latin. Also, I researched dictators in history and Mao Tse-Tung, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin were each responsible for a minimum of 20 million dead for each of them. Scary, huh? As for the other ones that I mention (not by name) are each responsible for at least 1 million deaths each. Those are, Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany), King Leopold II (Belgium), President Chiang Kai-shek (China), President Kim II Sung (North Korea) and President Saddam Hussein (Iraq). Thus ends the history lesson. :p