Aidan's stomach gave a horrible lurch. He had seen that face too many times to count. He saw it every time he entered his cubicle or any other Auror's. This was Ben Crowley, one of the Death Eaters who had fled after the Battle of Hogwarts, and whose picture was up in every cubicle in the Auror Headquarters.
"Good work, Stewart," Ben said, smirking down at Aidan's bound body. "You've impressed me. You actually managed to bring an Auror, and so soon, too." He was smiling broadly, much like a kid in a candy store would.
Bailey was standing with his back pressed against the wall furthest from Aidan, his hands clasped together. He reminded Aidan of a child who was desperate not to screw up an order from his parents.
"Perhaps I've misjudged your worth, boy," Ben was saying. "Connor had been right to suggest that you carry out this operation for us. I had my doubts at first, but you seemed to have redeemed yourself quite well indeed."
Bailey hung onto Ben's every word, drinking in the praise. "Thank you, Ben. I knew I'd find a way to prove myself to you."
Aidan knew that praise was Bailey's Achilles heel—he would do anything to get it, even if it meant doing something wrong in the process.
"What do we do with the boy?" another Death Eater asked, pointing vigorously at Aidan. "Do we kill 'im?"
Ben's cruel gaze swept from Aidan to the wand in Bailey's hand. He repeated this until a peculiar expression came over his features, transforming them from cold and blank to joyous. He knelt beside Aidan. He could feel the ends of Ben's hair brush his arm, making him cringe.
"Oh, my!" he murmured, a radiant smile crossing his face. "Well, well, well! Look who our very special guest is!" He leaned over so that his hair fell forward, brushing Aidan's cheek. "One of the Howard boys. More precisely, the youngest. Aidan, isn't it?"
He swallowed back the fear that had begun to course through him. "Yes."
Ben looked as if he wanted to jump for joy. "Oh, how much better can this day get?" He clapped his hands together, a jubilant laugh escaping him.
Around them, Death Eaters suddenly materialized, many faces instantly familiar to Aidan. They were all staring down at him with triumphant smirks on their faces, which gave Aidan a feeling he didn't like.
"Oh, my friends, what a fabulous treat this is! It appears that our work has just been made easier, oh yes!"
A dirty fingernail scraped across Aidan's cheek. He felt the agony of the rope cut into his wrists as he had tried to lash out. The crowd of Death Eaters laughed heartily, clapping their hands together. Anger began to take the place of the fear in Aidan, and he glared at Ben. "I don't think you should be so confident. Whatever your intentions are, don't think I will submit so easily."
This made Ben laugh loudly. "Oh? And what makes you so sure?"
"Because I have a job to do," Aidan said simply. "And I won't stop until I've done what I was sent by the Minister to do."
Ben leered at him, his eyes sparkling with malevolence.
"You seem so confident in yourself, Aidan. I believe you have forgotten that the one who has brought you here is none other than your best friend."
He forcefully turned Aidan's face so that he could look nowhere else but at Bailey. He stared back at Aidan, his eyes blank and distant.
"You're foolish, Aidan Howard!" Ben roared, pulling Aidan up by his bound arms, which caused the ropes to cut deeper into his skin. "You have allowed yourself to be mislead! The person who you thought was your best friend was nothing of that sort, and you allowed him to take advantage of you!"
Aidan shuddered, his lips pressed tightly together. Ben forced the rope deeper. Blood had seeped through Aidan's sleeve and was streaming down onto his clothes. Unperturbed, Ben continued speaking.
"Think about it, Aidan. Would your best friend put you in danger like this? Would your best friend torture you like he did? Would your best friend"—he was staring directly at Bailey now—"kill your family?"
Ben's last words had cut right through Aidan's resolve. He stared at Bailey, his eyes widening.
"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, rounding on Ben now. "Bailey couldn't have killed my parents!"
"And why not?" Ben challenged.
"He always came with me when I went to their grave. He always talked about how great they were."
But as soon as the words had come out of Aidan's mouth, he realized that it had been the most absurd thing he could have said. The gathered crowd erupted in laughter, and Ben nearly fell over, his entire body shaking with mirth. The only one who wasn't laughing, Aidan noticed, was Bailey. He was staring at his wand, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.
"What if I told you I had proof, Aidan?" Ben asked after he had recovered.
"And what kind of proof would that be?"
Aidan didn't trust him, and Ben knew it. He sighed deeply, rubbing his hands together. "You don't have to trust me, Aidan Howard," he said quietly. "But you do have to trust the person who I will use to show you."
"What—"
Everything happened so fast that Aidan had only managed to gasp. Ben had risen to his feet and grabbed Bailey by the collar, bringing him to the floor. Bailey fought against him, striking him wherever his hands and feet could reach. He had even tried to curse him, but the Death Eater had swatted the wand from his hand. Ben shoved Bailey to the ground, pinning him with a spell.
The next thing Aidan knew, a strange sensation had begun to envelope him. He felt as if he had plunged into a dark whirlpool. He tried to fight it, to break free from it, but its hold on him was much too strong. When he stopped resisting, he felt himself plunging deeper and deeper into darkness...
The sun shone its last rays over a sleepy town in Kent. It was about that time when everyone was settling down after a long day at work to hopefully catch their favorite programs on television. Only a few people were out at that time, one of those being a boy of about nine years old. He was tall for his age, with neatly trimmed blonde hair and piercing, blue eyes.
He was running at a steady pace, his destination already in sight. The house which lay before him was expansive and well-kept, a universal sign of status and cleanliness. He jogged up to the house and knocked rapidly on the door; he was tapping the handle of his broomstick anxiously, as if he was waiting for something.
The door opened after a moment, and the boy found himself looking up at a woman with waist-length blonde hair, flawless skin, full lips, and a smile that seemed to light up her entire face. Her proper name was Katrina Nadine Howard, but he knew her better as his best friend's mother.
"Hello, Bailey," she said, giving the nine-year-old one of her warm smiles. "Have you come for Aidan?"
"Yes," he said rather quickly, his fingers still drumming anxiously on his broomstick.
Katrina didn't seem to notice Bailey's anxiety. She gave him another smile as she turned toward the interior of the house. "Aidan! Come down, please! Bailey's here!" She turned back to Bailey, and, seeing the beads of sweat on his face, she frowned. "My dear, would you like some water, or perhaps some pumpkin juice? It's unusually warm today, bizarre for early October."
Bailey laughed nervously and shook his head. "No, thank you, Mrs. Howard. I just, I just wanted to see if Aidan wanted to play some one-on-one Quidditch."
The sound of footsteps on the stairs could be heard then, and a moment later, nine-year-old Aidan appeared, grinning broadly.
"Hey, Bailey! I was hoping your mum would let you come over today!"
Bailey gave his friend a slight smile, though his heart was racing. "Yeah, she finally decided that keeping me inside wouldn't do her sanity much good." He cleared his throat slightly.
"You okay?" Aidan asked, frowning.
"Oh, yeah. I think I'm just coming down with a bit of a cold." Bailey shrugged, and Aidan nodded in acceptance. "So, want to play some one-on-one? Bet you won't win this time."
Aidan grinned broadly again. "You kidding? Wait till you see what Dad got! That's why I couldn't wait for you to come over, I wanted you to try it with me!"
Katrina smiled affectionately as her youngest son bounded back inside the house. She had always hoped that her sons would get along, but because Aidan was eleven years younger than Christian was, their relationship had only strengthened just recently. Christian, being twenty, preferred the night life to most other things, and though he was currently an Auror-in-training, he wasn't as much of an academic as his father or Aidan, who was showing promise in his primary school classes.
Aidan was glowing with delight as he reappeared, holding up a shiny broomstick. Out of the corner of her eye, Katrina watched Bailey's expression change. He gave Aidan a radiant smile, though for a second, there seemed to be a hard, angry glint in his eyes. But when Katrina blinked, the anger was gone, replaced by the delight that mirrored her son's.
"No. Way."
"Yeah, I know! Dad got it yesterday, I haven't even flown it, 'cause I was waiting for you."
Forgetting about his mother, Aidan stepped onto the porch and followed Bailey down to the lawn.
"Be careful, Aidan," Katrina called. "You haven't flown that one yet, remember. It's different from your other one."
"I know, Mum," Aidan replied over his shoulder. "I promise I'll be careful."
She had just turned to go back inside when she remembered something. "Oh, and Aidan? Make sure you mind the plants! And heed the firewood, we don't need any accidents!"
"I will, Mum! Don't worry!"
Katrina watched her son talk animatedly to his friend, before she turned and headed back inside, the door closing behind her.
"Didn't that cost a fortune?" Bailey asked incredulously as the boys stood gazing admiringly at the new broom.
"Oh, I'm sure it did," Aidan said with a frown. "I told Dad that he shouldn't have bought it, that we could have used that money for other things."
Bailey said nothing for a long while, his gaze shifting from Aidan's broom to his own.
"Are we going to play?" Aidan asked.
Bailey blinked; he had clearly forgotten about that. "What? Oh, yeah, sure."
Aidan's mouth turned down in a frown. "Bailey, are you sure you're all right? You seem kind of, I dunno, odd."
"I'm fine," he said, shrugging and trying to seem nonchalant.
Aidan was still frowning as he went to get the trunk containing the balls. Bailey trudged after him, and in no less than ten minutes, they were cartwheeling and zooming through the air, scoring pretend goals and narrowly avoiding a Bludger as it zoomed toward them.
"Try and block this one!" Aidan hollered. "Chris taught me this." Aidan tossed the Quaffle with a graceful, effortless movement. The ball soared up, up, over the fence, and off into the trees.
"Crap," Aidan muttered. "That was our only Quaffle. I'm gonna go get it, wait here!" And he was speeding toward the trees in search of the ball.
