Chapter Thirteen

Dislaimer - I do not own the characters or places mentitoned in this fic.

Warning- This chapters gets quite dark.

FYI- It is set in Hermione's present day.

The room was large. The largest in the entire manor. He needed it to be big. The four walls were plain, grey stone and the ceiling held an exquisite piece of artwork that would put Michelangelo's Sistine chapel ceiling to shame. There were no paintings on the walls, magical or not. The floor was made of smooth, perfectly fitted together stone tiles. A magnificent table long enough for a hundred people to sit around comfortably was in the centre of the room with about a hundred chairs.

The leader of the silent group sat on an enormous chair, at the head of the table. The chair had originally been used for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named but the Dark Lord was gone. Dead. Because of them. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The group was quite large, all dressed in black robes and hoods covering their faces. The man sat at the head of the table was tall and thin. He had aged well and still had the trademark pinched chin and white blond hair. He was still as much the Prince of Slytherin as he had ever been and had an elegant essence, which cause the crowd to gaze adoringly at him. Draco Malfoy had always been a charmer. Not to the Gryffindors of course, but he could be very persuasive if he needed to be. He managed to fool the Wizengamot of his innocence for example. It helped of course that Potter and his friends told the jury about how he had been pushed to do things he didn't want to do. How he had been threatened and scared.

Well he had been scared, he had been threatened. But that didn't mean he hadn't believed in the cause. And he wasn't afraid anymore. His father had died in Azkaban. His mother stayed in her room most days, not talking to anyone and barely eating a thing. At least when Lord Voldemort was in control, the Malfoys were respected and feared. Despite being worried for their lives, they had been fairly happy. They may have fallen from grace slightly but they had still been high up on the death eater food chain. But that was gone now. He was alone.

Astoria had left him, claiming that his memories of the past were driving him to obsession and she didn't want Scorpius exposed to his father's past. It could corrupt the young boys mind. But Draco didn't need them. This time he would be on top. No one would be threatening him; he would be the Dark Lord. He would get his revenge on the Golden Trio and the Order of the Phoenix. This time, he won't be a coward; he will do his father proud.

The Order of the Mark had been formed a few months ago and already their numbers were growing. The relatives of dead or imprisoned death eaters, Voldemort supporters, Draco's admirers, all sorts of witches and wizards joined up. Some joined to avenge old friends and relatives, some joined to try and change the wizarding world to their design, and some joined to get closer to Draco. This time round however, Draco had been unable to encourage any of the magical creatures to join them. Curse that Hermione Granger. It seemed she had been working tirelessly to bring rights to very stinking creature in the wizarding world.

Draco wasn't trying to get rid of muggles and muggle-borns. He wasn't trying to become minster of magic. He wasn't trying to get laid. He was doing for one sole purpose. To wipe out the Golden Trio. If he even managed to kill one of them, he would die a happy man. Potter, Weasley and Granger, while his life had gone down the toilet, they seemed to be flying higher than ever. That's why he wanted at least one of them dead. But he wasn't just going to Avada them. No that would be too painless. They deserved to suffer like his father had suffered, like his mother still did, plagued by the memories of that night. The night the dark lord fell. That is why Draco had experts experimenting. They were creating a new spell. Diu Molesta Mortem. They hadn't finished it yet. Hopefully it would cause its victim to suffer a long and painful death. The victim would suffer right until they drew their last breath.

And soon, one of the golden trio, loved by everyone, would die.

But until then they had other matters to see to.

"Progress report, Alaric Crabbe, any new Order houses?" Draco barked at the man sat on his left. Alaric was Draco's old crony from Hogwarts, Vincent Crabbe's nephew. Luckily for him, Alaric had not inherited his brains from his deceased uncle, and instead was working in the Auror office at the ministry of magic and so was the ideal person to go snooping around the old Order of the Phoenix files. Alaric was young. He was tall and athletic with dark messy hair. It often made Draco wonder how on earth the same family managed to produce both Alaric and Vincent. They were polar opposites. Alaric Crabbe and Draco's old friend, Blaise Zabini were almost like Draco's seconds in command. They were trusted with most details but not all. Draco knew he had to keep his deepest secrets to himself.

While working on Diu Molesta Mortem, the Order of the Mark carried out raids on the known Order of the Phoenix's homes. Strictly low key, no one ever even considered the deaths to be murders. They were careful. They hadn't attacked any of the key, well known members... yet.

"Yes, sir. And it's a big one" Alaric smirked. "I've got Neville and Luna Longbottom's address.". Draco smiled. He remembered those two.

"They were key members of the DA which as you know pretty much became the Order in the final Battle" Blaise said, "Aren't they a bit high profile for a raid?".

"Yes, Blaise is right. We wanted to wait and use the Mortem curse on the key players." Draco nodded.

"But sir, we also have an update on that front!" Pandora Parkinson beamed from her seat next to her mother Pansy. Pansy Parkinson was still chasing Draco Malfoy like she had done at school. She had never married nor had a serious relationship because like she repeatedly told him, she was waiting for Draco. A year after leaving Hogwarts, Pansy had gotten pregnant with Pandora and still nobody knows who the father is. Pandora had become their most valuable asset in creating the new spell, because unlike her mother, Pandora was a very talented witch. Unfortunately Pandora was just as obsessive as her mother and had her eye on Alaric. Everyone knew Pandora had only joined the Order of the Mark because of him, well every knew except Alaric himself. Pandora looked extraordinarily like her mother, with the dark hair and pug like face. She was fresh out of Hogwarts but it didn't stop her being one of the most talented witches sat around the table.

"We believe the spell is almost ready, we just need some test subjects" Pandora said excitedly, her eyes turning Alaric for his approval. Draco clapped his hands once.

"Then it is decided, we attack the Longbottoms tonight!" Draco grinned at his audience and the Order of the Mark cheered in anticipation.

XXXX

"Did you hear that?" Neville sat up suddenly in bed.

"Don't worry, if it was anything dangerous, I would have heard it. I'm good at hearing things. There was nothing to hear. Go back to sleep" Luna mumbled sleepily.

It was 3 o'clock in the morning. Mr and Mrs Longbottom had been, up until that moment, asleep. Their bedroom was dark, their house was silent. But Neville was sure he had heard something.

Neville was now the Herbology teacher at Hogwarts and was also Head of Gryffindor House. Luna was a wizard naturalist and had become incredibly successful. And the couple were still as in love as they had ever been. They were what every couple aspired to be. Happy. Undeniably and completely happy. They had great friends, a great relationship, great jobs and they were trying for a child.

"Seriously, I think I heard something downstairs"

"You're the Gryffindor, go check if you think you heard something" Luna groaned, still not having opened her eyes.

"Ok" Neville said nervously. He cautiously got out of bed. He padded downstairs in his slippers. Wand in his hand, he opened the door into the living room.

In the centre of the room, stood three cloaked figures. The one closest to him, raised his wand.

Luna sat, bolt upright in bed. There had been a scream. A scream of pain. Neville's scream of pain. She leaped out of their bedroom and grabbed her wand as she ran downstairs. But she was outnumbered and the shock of seeing Neville's writhing body on their carpet had distracted her long enough for the spell to be cast.

And another scream pierced the silence of the night.

XXXX

"Goodbye Sirius" Hermione grinned happily and she disappeared from Sirius's arms. Back in her flat, Hermione slumped onto the sofa, still smiling about her day with Sirius. It had been so lovely! She was in a bubble of pure content. It felt like nothing to could burst it.

There was a hurried knock at the door. Slowly, Hermione got up, a stupid grin still on her face, and answered the door. It was Ron.

"Hermione! We've been trying to reach you all day! Where have you been?" Ron said, there was an edge to his voice.

"Um, out, sorry what's the matter?" Hermione answered confused.

"It's Neville and Luna. They are in St Mungos. They were attacked last night"

At then Hermione's happy bubble burst.

Author's note

NEVILLE AND LUNA ARE GOING TO BE OK! This may have seemed a bit random but I have been planning this chapter since the beginining. So I hope it goes down well!

Thanks for the reviews and to the people who are following/favourited this story.

If anyone's interested diu Molesta Mortem is a spell I made up and just means long, painful death in Latin.