Hey guys, I know it's been a while, sorry. My life's been kind of scattered lately. Anyway, here's the next chapter, Among the Cutthroats. More thoughts at the bottom...
"My Lord," she announced herself, taking in the familiar surroundings of the cozy living room heated by the quaint fireplace with its usual green flames. He sat facing away from her in that large black leather chair with its imposingly tall back and cushioned round arm rests that had the buttons sewn onto the ends. "I have brought you Harry Potter," she said, patiently waiting to be acknowledged. Harry stood behind her, weak from an empty stomach and the abuse he had received earlier that night.
The blonde's fist whipped around to catch the black-haired boy square in the jaw. The impact sent him flying to the ground in a mangled heap of torn clothes and broken spirits. He hit him again, this time in the other cheek, with enough force to roll him several feet away. Blood pooled by the mouthful and had nowhere to go but to trickle slowly out the corner of his lips, splattering on the floor as the boy coughed and choked trying to breath.
She'd have used a polyjuice potion with a substitute person if she had not been so sure that Voldemort would notice immediately. This way she ran the chance of Harry Potter's accidental death, where Draco would be less than pleased, but if Voldemort suspected an imposter it' be both their lives and an experience Flay was not sure she wanted to live through.
"Still no heir?" he growled ominously. Harry glanced at her with surprise but her hardened face showed no emotion as her secret was revealed. Instead, he felt the magical hand with which she held him immobile tighten its grasp around him.
"No, My Lord," she responded without hesitation, "There has been little time for such activities. As you can see," she nudged Harry forward enough so his shadow was separate from her own on the old Oriental rug, "I have been arranging for other occasions."
"As usual, you have done well," he stood from his chair before the fireplace and beckoned her closer, a meek smile upon his face. Harry was bewildered; the Dark Lord looked so much like himself back when he was still a Hogwarts student. His olive green eyes sparkled with mischief and the corners of his mouth curled up ever so slightly to reveal an undertone of ulterior motives. "Harry," he said, finally addressing his number one adversary, "You look so tense." Flay's angelic voice bubbled up in laughter, her eyes reflecting the truth behind the Chosen One's appearance.
The boy's long leg jerked out from under him, his black boot landing solidly in the other boy's stomach. He fell to the ground on his knees, screaming as the internal bleeding began to painfully swell the surrounding organs.
Nagini lifted her heavy head from the coiled pile she lay in by the heated corner of the fireplace. Her tongue flickered in and out, tasting the air as she slithered towards Flay and wrapped herself around the girl like tailored fur coat. "She seems to enjoy your presence," Voldemort noted. The notion that the piece of his soul that lay protected and hidden within the divine serpent was not lost on either of them.
"What do you intend to do with the boy, My Lord?" she asked inquisitively but politely. As long as she showed respect the Dark Lord would grant her wishes. He knew her questions were anything but innocent but he did not mind, that was how he wanted her to be. She was forward with her desire and achieved what she set out to accomplish.
All she needed was an opportunity. She would not hesitate, would not stop to ponder the repercussions should she fail. She would not fail. It was not an option. A cold calm enveloped her as she moved into her predator's mentality. Her pupils narrowed to slits. Her teeth lengthened in her mouth. Her nails sharpened to claws.
Harry watched as she turned into a monster more brutal than what he had witnessed only a few hours ago. Voldemort made the mistake of thinking that the boy's fear was due to his impressive nature, "Watch, Flay, as the fearless and bravest heart of the wizarding world, Harry Potter, quivers at my mere gaze. Fear has trapped his fluttering heart; it cannot fly away and save itself this time."
When Voldemort saw his apprentice's reflection in his victim's eyes, he knew it was already too late. Her thick claws ripped ferociously through the thin skin just above his life veins. Blood flowed unsanctified over his chest, dripping onto Harry as he stood in front of the man who had murdered his mother and father. A chord of revenge was struck in the young boy's heart as he watched the life pour out of the handsome man's delicate green eyes until they were empty and soulless.
"That's murder," she said pointedly as her pupils rounded and her claws shrank back to delicate fingers and glossy pink nails, "Not that green laser show you're so used to." Her fang pricked her bottom lip as she spoke around the shrinking teeth. She licked it quickly before it could drip and make a mess.
...Ok, so: I know Voldemort's death is kind of lame and fast considering he's this almighty dark lord blah blah blah. But wait, there's more! JK, that's all there really is to it. I mean, I guess i was sort of working off the theory that his death was of natural causes (ei, not magic) so he couldn't have known it was coming in a certain sense. One of the main fears of the Dark Lord arises because he can read peoples mind and so forth, but he can't read the minds of animals and Flay is clearly in another world of her own beast when everything goes down. That's my reconciliation for that, now moving on. There will be more, the Dark Lord's not dead yet, after all, Nagini is still around....
