He had only just stopped spinning, finally being able to see the thick pine forest they had landed in, when he was struck by a heavy force in his side, toppling him to the floor again. The solid force stayed on top of him as he struggled on the ground, trying to reach for his wand, cursing his mask with its bad peripheral vision when the force spoke,

"I'm so glad to see you Sev," the 'force' hugged him tighter.

"Selina?"

He tried to sit up and look at his sister but she kept him firmly gripped in her arms against the leaf and branch covered woodland floor.

"Ugh! I knew you'd be okay."

"Selina!"

Selina flinched and Severus hissed as Shylock yelled at them. She hastily let go of him and righted herself, keeping her masked face down and shaking hands by her side, cowering from their older brother. Severus finally got off the floor, glaring at Shylock for scaring their little sister. The seven other hooded Death Eaters were also getting up, three had their masks off, bending over, clearly not used to portkey travelling. Another stood up and looked around at the forest before turning to Shylock,

"This isn't Nice," he snapped, gritting his teeth and holding his short black wand out.

"Personally I think it's quite lovely," Selina whispered. He tried to smile, trying to mask his immense relief at how familiar it was. She was still Selina, and here.

That meant she must have- he didn't want to think about what that meant, his relief turning into cold dread that made him sick. He looked back at his brother, who was slowly approaching the much smaller man who had spoken.

"We are in Nice. However, our…hosts would prefer we cannot arrive by magical means. It is two days walk to their abode."

"Two days? Of walking?" the man scoffed, crossing his arms as if sulking.

Clearly this man had a death wish.

"Why not get us closer then?"

Shylock was now towering over the man, Selina backing into Severus, those around them were now standing stock still, completely silence and those who had taken off their masks had quickly returned them to their faces.

"What exactly do you think this would entail."

"Killing filthy Muggles, what else?"

"And what about listen to what your Lord wants you to do."

The man scoffed again. Selina whimpered, grasping Severus' arm for just a moment before letting go.

"You know, it would almost sound like you're not up for the challenge. I mean if walking is too much for you then how exactly do you expect you can be of use to us."

Now the man seemed to get it. He tried to step backwards,

"No what I meant was-"

Shylock grabbed the man's shoulder with a black gloved hand.

"What you meant was, that you don't want to do this."

"I want to kill something not… ah just listen," he tried to shake off Shylock's hand, but it moved up to the man's neck and picked him up, the short man almost quacking and waggling his feet.

"Now unless you weren't aware," he raised his voice to the entire crowd, "Me and my little sister over here, are meant to keep an eye on you rookies and if any of one prove to be nothing more than loose ends, then-"

"Ah, er no I'm can- I was just asking. Jesus please don't kill me."

Shylock put the man down, who stumbled back, gasping for air.

"You want to kill people?"

"Yeah, I want to, I-I need to."

"But you know, we all need to do things we don't like doing. Right Selina?"

Selina jumped, making Severus try and catch her hand as she marched straight up to their brother.

"Yes, S-Shylock?"

"Do you like killing people?"

Severus slowly walked around to stand with the others, watching Selina shaking her head vigorously, unable to see her face through her mask. 'what are you doing Shylock?'

"But you do what you need to do for our cause," he bent over to her height condescendingly, "now don't you?"

Selina stood still for a fraction longer, before her shoulders dropped and she drew her wand.

"Wait what-" was the only the man got out before Selina hit him with the killing curse.

The group moved backwards as one at the horror that had occurred in front of them, leaving Severus to watch Selina lower her wand, her back slumped in defeat. It wasn't that he had seen Selina cast any illegal spells before, she certainly had liked creating them. But she had never killed anyone, she wasn't Shylock, she wasn't him. Selina was the one who made cookies and ate when she was painfully full. She always tried to make friends and made bad comebacks at her bullies. She was meant to be weak and pathetic, a heart of gold that was easy to pick on. Now she was digging a shallow grave with her wand. It didn't feel like it was happening. His sister didn't murder people. The Death Eaters around him gasped as Selina dragged the body into the small pit. They were starting to irritate him, at least it had only been a killing curse, Shylock could have done much worse. But he'd made Selina do it this time, Shylock had probably made her join- if he had had to rape someone, had they made Selina? It had been pulling at his heart since he'd known she was here. Now she'd murdered someone, Shylock had made her murder someone.

"Anyone else got any complaints?"

Complete silence.

"Good." He picked up the map from the floor, "Selina, get a move on with that." He snatched her wand from her hand and Severus felt his feet jerk slightly towards them, he stopped himself unsure he was exactly planning on doing,

"Severus with me."

Shylock strode ahead of them all, the other masked Death Eaters following suit.

"Selina," Severus whispered, walking towards her, where she stood staring down at the body in its pit and the pile of soil beside it.

"Severus!"

Selina looked up slightly, brown eyes shining and wet, and gestured her head minutely towards their brother.

He sighed, dragging his feet away. "Coming Shylock."

Severus looked around the forest, it was incredibly noisy, the sound of their footsteps on dry leaves added to the hubbub of tweeting birds and grazing animals that couldn't be seen through the thick trees. It was warmer here but a gentle breeze that they were sheltered from by the trees pushed them forwards. He ran past the others to catch up with his brother, who had his mask off while studying the map. Something deep inside Severus still hated how handsome his brother was. It was petty and childish but he thought it unfair that Shylock got both the height and attractiveness, the last two years certainly had done him some favours as well, looking taller and muscular than Severus remembered. He was more tanned, Severus noticed, as well as this the side of his neck was tattooed with gibberish capital letters such as PTU and SIAL.

"You must think me harsh brother."

'I think much worse of you don't worry.'

"But Selina has to learn, she's a very misguided person," he looked disgust as if what she was misguided about made him sick. Severus looked behind him at Selina, now pushing dirt into the hole she had made. She had told Severus about her feelings for Lily in his fourth year. His less than warm reaction was probably better in comparison if Shylock ever found out. Probably wasn't a matter of ifs. Severus looked back at the tattoos that ran down Shylock's neck but were mostly hidden by the neckline of the cloak.

"What's with the tattoos?"

Shylock made a noise at the back of his throat, looking back at the map, "Facts, things I need to remember."

Severus held his tongue about how could Shylock see the top of his own neck.

"I see." he said instead. Shylock stopped walking, the small group behind him coming to a sudden halt, one of the women stumbling and slipping in her haste to not hit Shylock.

"This way," he gestured with his head, making the group turn, Selina still not having catched up.

"I know how you feel about Selina, Severus,"

The comment made him jump, as he snapped his head back from watching Selina.

"What do you mean?"

"You care about her. I do too even if you don't think so. You weren't here to look after her."

"That wasn't my fault." he tried to make it sound like he was accusing but with Shylock could easily take anything the wrong way.

"No, so I heard, the times didn't match up. Makes sense really."

"How so?"

"Well I murdered Professor Upton."

Severus stopped walking, this time the people behind him did end up bumping into him. How could he? How could Shylock tell him that he was the reason Severus had gone to prison so easily? At least Potter had been sorry. His mouth made movement, but the angry and betrayal pumping through his veins refused to make coherent words. Shylock had turned around, and Severus could felt himself reaching for his wand. He wanted to kill Shylock, he had never wanted to kill anyone more, he needed to, he needed Shylock's blood on his hands to rest the monstrous feelings boiling below the surface.

"What? Are you going to kill me brother?" Shylock laughed.

Brother. Like Shylock had never been anything than another abusive asshole in his house.

"Why?"

"Why?" he chuckled, the group had stopped moving once more. Shylock had also noticed looking at where the frightened masked people were shuffling, unexperienced and scared. 'This is what England's afraid of.'

Shylock growled under his breath, "We need to keep moving." he muttered, Selina finally catching up.

"No you need-"

Shylock backhanded him, Severus knocking his head against one of the trees,

"I told Him that my past with you wouldn't get in the way, little brother. Don't disappoint me." he moved on, his black cloaked sheep bounding off behind him, leaving Selina to help Severus up.

"Do you feeling okay?"

"Yeah." He felt shit, like his skull had cracked but he was getting used to the feeling. And he was hardly surprised that Shylock had murdered someone and had been glad someone else had taken the fall. But that he had caused the suffering of the last two years of his life. 'two down, one more to go.' He'd forgotten about that, not that he could ever forget about Azkaban, but forgotten that others that caused him that suffering, that they needed to pay.

"Come on, he'll get angry if we don't catch up."

Selina pulled him along before they were a little way behind the others and walked together in silence.

"I'm...glad you're alive," she finally said, having taken off her mask and smiled slightly.

"Yeah, and I you, you worried for quite a while actually, I didn't know if you were alive."

"No, I'm fine, Shylock's been looking after me."

'and what exactly does that mean sister?'

"Really?" he said causally not wanting to find another reason to kill his brother, as he was sure if he did, one of them would end up dead tonight.

"Yeah. he got this great job after...you...left."

He nodded shortly, both not wanting to stop her talking and unsure if he wanted to find out anything else about what Shylock had done.

"He's let me stay at his since."

"Are you paying rent?"

She looked down and put her mask back on,

"Not in money."

Shylock needed to die, he didn't want to think what that meant but all of the images passing through his mind (Shylock forcing Selina to commit murders like errands, Shylocks tapping his fingers as a table as he watched the effects of a new venom on his sister, Shylock pinning a naked Selina down as she cried), were all punishable by death.

"It's odd isn't it?"

"Hm?" Shylock would die, but from what past experience had taught him, he was bad at covering up murder. 'that was always Shylock's thing.'

"That we're travelling through these forest, like this,"

She was trying to change the subject, but Severus was too furious to try and listen. How did he expect to kill Shylock? Someone faster and stronger than him? Someone who still had their original wand? 'Selina could help me.' But if Selina had spent two years in Shylock's manipulative grasp it was unlikely she would help.

"I mean I get it?"

"I don't," he said bitterly. Fuck Shylock's plan.

"Well," she said sighing with relief, "what kind of idiots approaches a group of cloaks masked people?"

"Other wizards?"

"But they don't know who we are, the communications between France and wizarding England have become even more strained since the…Dark Lord's declaration of war." He could hear her smirk at the name, "France has its own problems. We're actually visiting one of them," she sounded so excited at the prospect as if she had completely that she had just killed someone. 'Or completely repressed that she had.'

"Surely we are then just uniting the two forces?" He didn't mean to snap at Selina but given killing Shylock was probably not an option for now, he had to get out his anger somehow.

"That's if they find out." She was skipping now.

"Hunters." He said definitely,

"Hmm?"

"Hunters would approach us."

Selina chuckled, "We don't look like deer silly," she slapped his arm, "we should have brought Potter," she started laughing louder.

He sighed, trying not to smile, "I've missed you Selina."

"I've missed you too Sev."

While the terrain they were on was flat and sheltered the, from the sun, Shylock kept them moving long into the night. The cold got to them, the group holding their flowing cloaks close to them with only the light from Shylock's wand to guide them through the pitch black forest. Severus refused to complain and kept his jaw locked allowing Selina to chatter without stop as he made noise of encouragement, trying to stop his teeth from chattering. She talked about her NEWT results which were excellent in Severus option (O in Charms, DADA, E in Transfiguration, A in Divination, Herbology and Muggle Studies), about Shylock's job (working in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at a low level) and most surprisingly her own job (a shop assistant in a wizarding library on the outskirts of London). While he had no doubts about the hold his brother had over her it was nice to know she had had a little bit of freedom for a short while.

"I had only been working there for six months and then it was Christ…" she trailed off, "Have you… Severus have you been…to see…" she couldn't get the words out, twisting her sleeves in her hands, breathing sharply. He watched her with baited breath, what could possibly so hard to say?

"Jesus have you been home?"

Oh. It was odd to think that he was relieved she was only talking about the death of their parents.

"Yeah I have…did Shylock do that?"

She said nothing.

"So…I've met Fred recently," he said quietly not wanting Selina to suffer in silent.

"Fenrir?"

"Yeah, you heard from him too?"

"Well, Shylock has. He talks about him a lot but he's always angry when he does. I think he wants Fenrir to stop running away…I think." She shrugged, "did you see him?"

"Yes, he's been keeping an eye on me." An annoyingly stalkerish eye. Severus didn't care what he said the werewolf about owls, no one sent random owls to a werewolf.

"Hm. That's odd."

And probably something that would make Shylock jealous. 'or kill me faster.' The people in front of him had stopped but due to the darkness he hadn't seen them and collided into their backs.

"Oh sorry, sorry!" Selina whispered, stroking the person in front of her, as if it was helping any of them, until Severus grabbed her wrist.

"Alright!"

Severus' anger boiled up again as Shylock spoke, "We'll camp here for the night. Lumos Maxima!"

Severus shielded his eyes from the bright light that illuminated the clearing. Shylock took the bag off his back with a resounding thump, Shylock pressed his wand into it and muttered under his breath. The bag exploded outwards unfolding itself to impossible lengths, levitating above the ground, higher and higher on invisible hooks until a tent stood before them. Shylock once again gestured with his wand lighting the floor with a ball of fire. He turned into the tent without another word. They followed him inside where there were three bunk beds and three camp beds.

"I hope you can all make yourselves comfortable." Shylock said with a mocking sense of hosting.

"Um," one of the women Death Eaters said, hesitantly raising their hand, "well, what exactly are we meant to get changed into? I…don't know what everyone else has been told but I haven't exactly packed for anything…at all."

"Well," Shylock beamed, making Severus uneasy and by the way the woman Death Eater stepped back, it made her worried too, "clearly, you need to start preparing for everything. Selina!"

They all jumped.

"Um yes Shylock?"

"I'd like to talk to you in private."

No. He wasn't letting Shylock spend any time alone with Selina. He followed them outside of the tent but when Shylock began to lead Selina into the forest, he grabbed her wrist.

"Selina."

"I'm fine," how could he believe that?

"Selina you don't have to go."

"Trust me, I'm fine," she ripped her hand from his grip and ran to catch up with Shylock. He watched them go until the darkness swallowed them and they walked away. Then continued to look out until he couldn't hear their footsteps anymore. He liked to convince himself that Shylock wasn't going to hurt Selina, he had no reason to and he was her brother. He felt sick. He turned back to the camp where the others had gathered around the fireball. He sat down on the opposite side, staring into the flames, refusing to think about Selina. 'Coward.'

"I can't…"

He looked up at the woman Death Eater was speaking across the fire. She had taken off her mask revealing her brown skinned face and black curly hair, her warm brown eyes almost shining gold as she stared at the fire, "I can't believe Gideon's dead, I've known him since our first year at Hogwarts."

"Trust me, more are going to be dead before this is all over." He hadn't meant to speak, but now all eyes were on him. He hastily became very interested in the leaves that coated the ground. Even if they didn't look alike, the group could probably tell that Shylock and Severus were 'close'.

"What's your name?" The black woman had spoken again,

"Severus. Severus Snape."

"Have you just out of prison recently?" A boy, probably younger than Severus spoke, he had a round face and sandy blond hair. He doubted his case had barely made any headlines after his original arrest, but it filled him with dread that these people could think he actually committed those crimes. He nodded,

"Yeah," the blond boy smiled, "my father was telling me about you. Everyone in his department was on edge that they'd have a media storm after what happened with you. He works for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, they thought you'd go to the Daily Prophet or something."

"Like they would have cared." In truth it hadn't crossed his mind. Frankly he had no money nor name that would have probably made them interested. He wondered if they had even reported that there were still technically three murders out there. He didn't want to find out, wanting to put as much distance between him and others knowing about what had happened. He would find out soon enough who they all were and kill them, 'most of them. Jo will never forgive me if I kill James.'

"My name's Victoria," the black woman said suddenly, now all eyes turned her, "Victoria Boivin."

"Barty," the boy said, offering his hand to the five sitting around him and then to Severus, "Barty Crouch."

Severus definitely recognised the name, perhaps his father had been at his trial. After that each of the others also introduced themselves. There was Penelope Maceachern a Scottish red head who sat next to the only still masked Death Eater. Phillip Chance an older stern looking bald man who sat next to Barty. Baldwin Newport had light brown hair and a face that was usually donned with a smirk from what Severus could remember for their days at Hogwarts together, now his eyes darted back and forth scanning the dark forest. The masked man only shook his head, pointing at his throat.

"How exactly do you know him?" Penelope asked Barty, in a thick deep accent, pointing at Severus.

"He was committed for a quadruple homicide for two years until they released him,"

"Because I didn't do any of them."

"Supposedly," Baldwin said offering a small smug smirk before a snapping twig made him twitch.

"The times didn't match up or something." Barty continued to smirk, making up for Baldwin's lack of arrogance, "My father still thinks you did it, at least some of them, but of course there was no way of proving it, given you pleaded innocent."

Severus was starting to get really sick about hearing about Barty's father.

"You know, it's funny that for a man whose father's in law enforcement, you choose to be a Death Eater."

Barty was unabashed, continuing to smirk, "He's great at his job, not that great a father."

So daddy issues. Great.

"Look, is this a suicide mission, boy?" Phillip booming voice asked, leaning towards Severus

"No, not if you listen to Shylock." As much as he hated to admit it, Shylock was the biggest threat to these people right now.

"And what about while we're doing are mission?"

"Well, I don't know much about that, you'll have to wait for Shylock." He finished, speaking to the forest. He hoped it would make his siblings appear but it took them another half an hour to appear, Selina limping slightly, holding her left arm with her right. 'Painful and slowly doesn't even begin to describe how you'll die Shylock.'

"I see you have all made yourselves comfortable." Shylock said approaching, Victoria and Baldwin reached for their masks, just in case.

"They've been asking what exactly we're doing here Shylock?" the others of the group gave him worried looks.

"Like I said, we are to make peace and more importantly connections between us and the French wizarding community, the Raelian," Shylock spat out the name.

'A cult, a bunch of killers,' Severus thought disdainly but then again what exactly were they?

"Your job is to basically boost our numbers, they're less likely to kill many people and to listen to what I say. We will be here for around five days, two days getting there, three days working out arrangements," Shylock smiled, his teeth looking sharper and pointed in the fireball, staring down at them all like prey. "Do as I say and you'll live."