Hello. My name is Death.
You may have heard of me.
Those of you who are clever may have picked up that I am repeating myself.
Yes, well done to you. I am repeating myself. I have already told you that I am Death.
But I have just popped in – popped my head around the door, so to speak – to remind you that this is not Harry's story.
This is not Ginny Weasley's story.
This is my story.
And I shall be the teller of it.
/
Anna did not sleep that night. Instead, she simply lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her body was empty of tears, but still some managed to escape out of the corner of her eyes. She had bitten her lip till it bled. Her mind ached.
When the knock on the door came at sunrise, she pulled herself to her feet and got her aching body into the shower. She washed, and brushed her hair, and dressed in a dream. She pulled on her Death Eater robes and tucked her Mask into her bag.
Today was the day when she would kill Ella Stilt, once and for all.
The large room in the Manor Dungeons that was used for dining was cold in the early morning. Other Death Eaters were up, murmuring amongst themselves as they ate breakfast. Anna ate in the corner, alone, desperately trying to build up her mind's defences; desperately trying to protect the fact that she had kissed Harry Potter last night.
Or had she? The night was a blur – of tears and half-forgotten memories. With an effort, she swept the memories into a room in her mind, and shut and locked the door. She would deal with it later. Today – today there was simply no time.
She jumped as a house elf tapped her on the elbow. "Yaxley wants you," it said. Anna nodded, numbly. She left her half-eaten food on the table – an elf would clean it up later – and made her way down through the dungeons, to Yaxley's office.
The Death Eater was sitting at his desk, his face stern.
Anna arranged her features to be emotionless, and sat down, carefully putting up walls to protect all her memories. Yaxley was not beyond using mind reading to get what he wanted.
She sat down in front of him. "You wanted to see me?" she said, her voice as steady as a rock.
"Anna." Yaxley shuffled his papers, and straightened his mug.
Anna quivered, and clenched her hands, checking her defences were in place.
"The Dark Lord – he is ready to see you."
"Pardon?"
"The Dark Lord wants to see you, and by see you, I literally mean this morning!" Yaxley was no longer stern; rather, his face was lit up in a huge smile. "Get yourself ready; we'll leave via portkey in ten minutes!"
"He wants to see … me?"
"He thinks that you are ready!" Yaxley grinned, and pointed his thick finger at Anna. "You'd better not fail me now!"
"I won't," said Anna, letting herself smile. "I can't believe …"
"Get your things," said Yaxley. "Go!"
/
Anna opened the compartment underneath her wardrobe.
A wand and a stone slipped into Anna's bag.
Then she thought better of it.
She used a quick sticking spell to stick the stone onto the inside of a pendant that she had nipped from Narcissa, and hung it around her neck. Then she wrapped the wand in a slip of silk, and placed it in a wand box, slipping the box into her bag next to her mask.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
Her face was deathly pale, and her eyes were still slightly red. Her hair was darker than usual – instead of a light blonde, it looked a little mousey. Her eyes were still blue, though.
Though they were not as cold as they should be.
Anna gave a nod to herself in the mirror.
The wand and the stone were all her problems in one. Maybe if she gave them to the Dark Lord, her troubles would finally disappear.
She nodded, and left her room.
She was ready.
/
Voldermort was facing the window when Anna and Yaxley entered the room.
They both bowed. The Dark Lord turned to face them, and Anna gave a great sigh of awe.
The Dark Lord was bald, and tall; his eyes were cold, and his face was snake-like. He was the epitome of evil. He was everything she had expected him to be.
"Anna," he said. He held out his hand. It was pale, and almost transparent, and Anna bent forward to kiss it. It was a cold, harsh hand.
She straightened herself, eyes downwards.
"You may leave us, Yaxley," said the Dark Lord. His voice was cold.
Yaxley gave a great bow, a dozen thank yous, and finally left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Anna had no doubt that he was listening in at the keyhole. She smiled, and looked right into the Dark Lord's eyes.
He was just as cold and awful as she had imagined him to be.
"You," said the Dark Lord, "Are special. Do you know why?"
Anna shook her head. She couldn't stop looking at him; at his eyes, at the sheer power that radiated off his very being.
"I have chosen you for my revenge." He moved, snake-like, around her.
Anna stood very still, not daring to move.
He stood behind her. "You are the perfect essence, and the perfect embodiment, of the force that will one day destroy the Ministry."
Anna looked straight ahead.
He came around her. His hand – so cold – reached up. His fingertips brushed her cheek. He held her face with his long, spidery fingers, and she felt his breath on her skin.
"I have done well. Yes, you will do very well."
He let go of her face, and stepped towards the window, turning to look out.
A great shiver went through Anna as he looked away. She struggled to stand upright; still feeling his hand on her skin.
"You have brought me something," the Dark Lord said at last.
It took Anna a moment. "Yes," she said. She felt inside her bag, and pulled out the wand box. The wand tingled through the box, onto her fingers; she knelt and held it out to her master.
"I brought this out of Before, with me," she said. "I do not know who I was Before, but it does not matter to me. I now give the last remainder of my past to you. Do with it what you will."
The speech that she had rehearsed for almost two years fell out of her, a little more flat than she would have liked under normal circumstances. But her mind was whirling. The Dark Lord raised a finger, and the lid disappeared from the box. He peered in, and a little hiss came from behind his teeth.
Anna looked in eyes, and all she saw was a great lust for power. A great hunger for the wand and what it would bring.
The Dark Lord bent his hand down, and …
The moment his fingers touched the wand, there was a great flash of something in Anna's brain. She saw a hooded figure. She saw death, and ruin.
She saw a broken promise.
The Dark Lord had the wand now. He turned slightly away from Anna, feeling the wand and its power in his hands. "The Elder Wand," he muttered to himself. He pointed it at the window, and instantly the glass crumbled away.
Power filled the room.
Anna trembled uncontrollably.
The Dark Lord turned to her then. "You have done well," he said. The Elder Wand lay, strong, in his hands. "But there is something else you want to say to me."
He tilted his head.
Anna threw up her defences. She felt the black stone lying safe against her chest. It grew heavier and heavier on its chain …
She wasn't ever sure why she said it, but she said it.
"I only wanted to thank you for saving me. I would be dead without you. Thank you for creating in me a future which will last for years to come."
For a moment, she thought that he knew she was lying. She had just lied to the Dark Lord. Surely he knew.
But instead, his face erupted in a smile – a cold, cold smile. "You have done well," he said. "I will call you again soon. But I understand that first you have to prove yourself to Yaxley. Do not fail him this time."
"I will not," said Anna.
"Good," said the Dark Lord. Then he turned around to face the glass-less window, and Anna understood that she was to leave.
She exited the room to a grinning Yaxley, and with a black stone lying on her chest, containing secrets that she could not begin to understand.
And she had just given it another one.
/
Godric's Hollow was cold and quiet. It was also raining slightly.
Charlie and another Death Eater, Samuel, were muttering to each other over sips of fire whiskey. Anna was standing next to them in the alleyway, trying to ignore their boasts of who had had the most kills that week. Yaxley was at the front of the group, talking to some more senior Death Eaters.
Anna shook her head at that morning. She shook her head at her memories. She shook her head at her brain.
The stone was cold, hanging on a cold chain, in the cold rain.
She wanted to throw it away, but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't figure out why on earth she had neglected to give it to the Dark Lord that morning. She'd have to give it to him the next time she saw him …
She couldn't not give it to him. That would be awful. A betrayal of his trust. A betrayal of the fact that she was alive.
The rain was stopping.
Yaxley raised his hand, and beckoned to Anna.
She went to him, her head held high. "Yes?"
"The plan," he said, "Is to shoot down the town hall. You see it, there? Across from where we are? Stamag here," he patted a grim looking Death Eater on the back, "Will do the destroying. He'll do it just as all the aurors and Stilt are going past. It's your job to find Stilt and finish her off. The rest of us will focus on the Aurors. Got it?"
Anna nodded. "Got it."
"Good."
It was but a few more minutes of waiting, before there was a loud noise coming from down the street. It was talking, and laughing, and yelling.
"Get ready," said Yaxley. The Death Eaters in the alley pounced, ready to spring.
"Steady."
The talking grew louder.
Anna closed her eyes.
She opened it to a grea G. The Town Hall of Godric's Hollow was collapsing in on itself, burying people in the rubble.
The world fuzzed around the edges. Anna closed her eyes again. Her head was thumping. She felt people pushing and tugging her, telling her to get out there.
There were yells and screams, as Death Eaters ran out into the Aurors. There were shouts of battle. There were yells of spells.
Anna opened her eyes, and found that she was sitting against the wall, alone in the deserted alleyway.
The smell of smoke made her cough; the ground shook with a loud explosion.
Her heart thudded in her ears. Everything was happening at once.
Suddenly, there was a loud shriek, and it seemed to Anna that the world stopped.
She knew that noise.
With a cry of anger, she leapt out of the alley, her fist tight around her wand. She shot spells in all directions, not caring who they hit; only aiming to get to the noise.
It was there, lying in the ruins of the town hall, out of sight of the battle, behind the last standing wall of the exploded building.
The battle raged just out of sight of them, but Anna knelt by the side of Ella Stilt, staring down at this girl …
Her body was broken, and blood oozed out from underneath her, sinking into the dirt. She struggled to cough, her eyes squeezed shut. Anna's heart cried. Something inside her ached …
"Hey!" came a call. Anna looked up from Ella. "Finish it!"
It was Charlie, the Death Eater, Yaxley's favourite. He was watching Anna, pointing a wand at her. "You can't do it," he said. "Let me."
"I'd like to see you try," muttered Anna.
Charlie glared, and shot a spell at Ella.
Something in Anna grew angry; angrier than she had ever been before. She gave a yell, and blocked his spell, sending several of her own back at him. He hadn't been expecting that. His eyes were open in surprise, and his mouth gaped, as a spell hit him, sending him flying backwards.
He landed with a thump on a rock, and was still.
The sounds of battle on the other side of the wall raged.
Anna shook.
Ella ceased coughing, and opened her eyes. She was frowning.
Anna brushed back the hair from Ella's face. "Ella," she said softly.
"Kill me," said Ella, with a great effort. "Finish … it."
"I can't! Oh don't you see, I can't!" And Anna gave a great sob. Tears fell out of her eyes, but she let them; they landed around her, mixing with Ella's blood in the dirt.
Ella frowned.
Then her eyes softened, and she finally understood.
"Oh," she said. "It's because of Ginny Weasley."
And she gave a great sigh, and closed her eyes.
Anna stared. Tears slipped out of her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily.
Ella was dead, and it should have been her who had done it – only it wasn't. It couldn't have been. It never should have been. She knew that now.
Anna gave a cry as a spell landed just above her head, hitting the wall.
With a crack, she apparated away –
And landed in the alley just outside the Ministry of Magic.
/
Hello.
It's me again.
Ella Stilt was the sort of Order Member who would shoot a Death Eater, then powder her nose afterwards. She would make a good cup of tea in a pink, porcelain teacup – and then slip a truth potion in and give it to her enemies.
Ella Stilt would have made a good Slytherin.
But maybe her stupid, stupid bravery is what made her a good Gryffindor.
The sort of bravery that would make her go back to the Order, even though she knew she'd be killed the moment she rejoined.
Humans aren't very clever, are they.
Anway.
Ella Stilt's soul was pink; a nice comfortable pink, with purple tinging the edges.
Her soul is lying in blood and tears; the most powerful mixture on earth.
I lift up Ella, and carry her gently away.
/
I'm lowkey out of breath after writing all that ahahha
Review? xx