The Devil in Me

Murder in His Eyes

The chapter title is from the song:

Darkside by grandson.

The meeting regarding Severus Snape took place on the 11th of February – the night of the full moon and, therefore, a perfect occasion to call a Death Eater meeting and toast Tom's good health.

Harry sat back quietly and ignored Snape's revolving, silenced body as it hovered above the table. He felt a brief pang as he thought of Lucius and how he would have been sitting there nervously, worrying about getting another dent in the mahogany.

Swallowing down that thought and the painful pang that had come with it, Harry looked up when Tom walked into the room.

He was dressed differently than usual. He still wore a black cloak, but beneath it, he wore a three-piece suit. The other Death Eaters gasped or breathed sighs of relief when they saw him stroll into the room and take his usual seat at the head of the table.

Nagini, who had been separated from Tom since the attack, crawled up and hissed something to him. Harry didn't pick up on it, though. He found that he could only speak parseltongue when looking into a snake's eyes these days, which made him worry about Artemis. She was mature enough to survive on her own now…perhaps the best thing for her would be to put her in the Chamber of Secrets like Tom had wanted.

And if Tom worked at the school, he could go down there and visit her often enough.

"Good evening, friends," Tom said airily.

"Good evening, my lord," Was the echoed reply.

Tom leant back in his chair and ran his fingers over Nagini's head, "I will no longer go by that title because I no longer need to. You see, my friends, we have won the war and are on the verge of achieving what we have worked for all of these years."

Excited murmuring broke out across the room, but Tom silenced it by simply holding up his hand.

"We are no longer renegades or vigilantes. We are now the driving force behind change in this country," Tom continued, "We are the New Wizarding Order. When I remove Pius Thicknesse from power and take my place as Minister for Magic, together, we will change the world into that which it always should have been."

Audible gasps filled the room, but Harry bit back an amused smile – he'd expected that reaction.

"For that reason, this will be our last meeting," Tom said, which did surprise Harry.

"We are Death Eaters no longer," Tom finished, "We are respectable men and women who can now take our place within the New Wizarding Order. As such, after this moon, I dissolve the Death Eaters."

Some of the gasps and murmurs were shocked; some were scared.

"However," Tom continued, raising his voice above the noise, "We shall still meet often – for festival days and celebrations. We have won Stonehenge from the Muggles, and it is my full intention that all wizarding families celebrate the solstices there. We will not need to meet in secret as Death Eaters anymore. Instead, we may celebrate in public as the brothers that we truly are, for we have won this war."

At this, the murmuring calmed down, and Harry smiled proudly but said nothing.

"Unfortunately, our final meeting is not to be the pleasant one we may have hoped for," Tom said, looking lazily up at Snape, "Because, as you can see, we have the traitor Severus Snape in our midst."

"Usually, I would dispose of such filth myself then feed it to Nagini. However, on this occasion, one of us has claimed the right to revenge."

Draco's eyes burned with anger when he looked at Snape.

"This man and his betrayal is the reason why your father is dead, Draco," Tom said, looking at the blonde man, "And as such, you made a request which I shall grant - I will allow you to kill him."

There was some murmuring and a few gasps around the table. No doubt there were still those who didn't think Draco was capable of it.

Harry, on the other hand, knew how angry Draco was. How much of a blow his father's death had been, he knew about the hole it had left inside Draco. He knew Draco was capable, and he doubted he would make it quick and painless either.

Tom had been angry with Snape too though, for what he had done to Lily. She had just finished taking her blood replenishing potions, almost two weeks after the attacks themselves, and if it hadn't been for Harry, she wouldn't have survived it.

The evidence of Tom's anger was written all over Snape's skin – every piece of flesh within sight was marked or scarred. Snape's greasy hair was matted, and he had the look of a man who had been starved into madness. If Lily had known that one of the first things Tom did upon waking up was torture the man who had hurt her, Harry didn't know if she would be honoured or moderately disturbed.

"Shall we let him plead his innocence, one final time, Draco?" Tom asked cruelly.

Draco smirked, "Yes, I think we should."

Tom removed the silencing charm with a flick of his wrist, and Snape's excuses immediately began to spill out.

"Please, my lord, forgive me. I was under the influence of the imperius curse. It was all Andromeda Tonks. Please spare me, my lord."

Tom laughed and looked at Narcissa, whose eyes were just as cold as Draco's, "Narcissa – he seems to believe that he succeeded in killing your sister. Do tell him what happened."

"Andromeda was in a coma for a week because of you," Narcissa said, her eyes boring into his, "You were our friend, and we trusted you. We made you Draco's Godfather, then you took his father from him and tried to take his aunt too."

Severus's eyes widened, "No, I didn't, I didn't mean to-"

"Of course you meant to!" Narcissa snapped, "Andromeda woke up. We scanned her memories, and we know you went to the Order willingly. You are not a victim, Snape, you are a traitor, and you deserve to die a traditional traitors death."

At this, everyone, Harry included, pushed their seats away from the table. They all knew what a traitors death looked like, and none of them fancied getting covered in blood.

"No, please," Snape had resorted to begging now, "Please, please, I did it for a good reason, my lord. It was to protect the Potter boy, for Lily-"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Oh, please, give it up. You're dead, Snape, and you know exactly where you're heading when your soul departs this earth which is why you are begging and crying like a bloody baby."

Harry held his finger above his head then, with a whistle, Harry twirled his finger down, "Right into the pits with the devil himself, Snape."

"No, no, please, my lord, please-"

Tom clicked his fingers and silenced Snape once more.

"Well," Tom said matter of factly, "I believe it is fair to say, Severus, we all lost rather a lot of respect for you there."

A couple of sniggers sounded around the room.

Tom gave Draco a curt nod, "Do it, Draco."

Draco didn't look at all nervous. He rose to his feet, and his mother stood by his side.

"Ascendio!"

The spell lifted Snape into the air, and Narcissa cast, "Carpe Retractum!" on the binds around his neck. They pulled tight and began to choke him to death, which was an interesting sight considering that he was silenced.

When he was on the verge of death and beginning to turn slightly blue, Narcissa ended the spell

That was the PG part – the hanging. It was the drawn and quartering that was yet to come when things would get ugly.

Draco dropped Snape's body unceremoniously onto the floor, not the table. That was probably as a mark of respect for his father, Harry thought.

Lucius would be turning in his grave to think that his son nearly got blood on his precious mahogany table.

As was traditional in a traitors execution, Snape was stripped of his clothes magically by the other Death Eaters around the room who bore a grudge against him. When he was left, naked and half-dead in the middle of the floor, Draco performed the emasculation, which was as painful to watch as Harry had expected.

He didn't think any man in the room could comfortably watch Draco cutting off his Godfather's penis and testicles and not wince. There were several groans or hisses around the room at that point.

Worryingly enough, there were more groans over that than there were when it came to the disembowelling. While still alive, Draco cut into Snape's body and ripped his organs out until he died somewhere between the lungs and heart.

Finally, he was sliced into four pieces by his own curse, which Harry found remarkably fitting. Harry figured his head would get stuck on Malfoy Manor's gates, but Merlin knew what would happen to the rest of him.

The mood was sombre after that, naturally. Snape's remains were vanished, and cleaning charms were cast. Then the meeting was broken up with an offer for Death Eaters to go home or inter-mingle in the grounds during this last meeting.

Most people opted to stay, and when Harry walked outside and saw all but Snape's head burning on the bonfire, he got the answer to his question about what would happen to the rest of him.

Draco was nowhere to be seen, but Harry wasn't surprised. He had done what he needed to do for revenge, but Harry knew him well enough to know he'd struggle with the consequences of his actions. They were more alike than they admitted, after all.

In the garden, Harry walked into a somewhat amusing conversation between a few of his female friends.

"See, I told you she wouldn't have the stomach for it," Reyna was saying.

"You do look kind of green, Hermione," Lily mused.

Susan cocked her head at her friend, "And it was fucking disgusting, so nobody is judging you if you do throw up."

"I'm definitely judging her," Reyna cut in.

"Oh please," Hermione said, "I was fighting Basilisks and werewolves back when you were still trying to get Roger Davies to sleep with you."

Harry grinned. He had been thinking about intervening, but of course he hadn't needed to. Whether she was Hermione Granger or Katherine Crouch, that girl could stand up for herself.

Lily snorted, "Touche," she said.

"Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" Reyna quipped.

"What, so I'm only allowed to be on your side because we're friends?" Lily suggested, raising an eyebrow at Reyna, "Even when her comeback was way sassier than yours?"

"Well, you don't spend six years as Harry Potter's best friend and come away without any of his sassiness," Hermione joked, and the others chuckled at that.

Harry didn't want to interrupt them, so he kept strolling. It was nice to see Lily on her feet looking a bit more human anyway. Her recovery was coming on leaps and bounds since Tom woke up, funnily enough.

Harry was on the lookout for Daphne, who had kept Sadie company during the Death Eater meeting. Sadie knew what Draco was going to have to do, and she struggled with that more than she let on.

When he did find Daphne, she was with Sadie on the edge of the woods attached to the manor.

"Just go and find him," Daphne was saying.

"He doesn't want to be found," Sadie said under her breath.

"He thinks he doesn't, but I think what he needs right now is you," Daphne confessed, "He needs comfort and warmth. He needs someone human, and he needs a reminder that there are good things and good people in this world."

"He just ripped a man apart," Sadie reminded her friend.

"So did Harry once upon a time," Daphne remarked, "And I don't love him any less for it. Snape was a terrible man, just like Fawley was. If anyone deserved it, Snape did."

Sadie sighed and looked down at her hands, "He was a bully."

"He was worse than that," Daphne argued, "He was a liar and a traitor, and yes, he did the right thing by Harry eventually, but by the time Harry was 16, it was far too late. Harry needed him to do the right thing and not be a coward when he was one year old, not 15 years later."

Her hatred for Snape surprised Harry and made him feel kind of honoured. He smiled slightly at that.

"Harry doesn't like me very much," Sadie mused.

"He thinks you're a pampered princess," Daphne remarked matter of factly.

"And he doesn't think you are?"

"No, because I'm not," Daphne returned calmly, "I can fight for myself, I can argue for myself. I have my own opinions, and if he pushes me, I'll fight for them. I'm so much more than the Greengrass heiress, and Harry sees that just like Draco sees that in you."

Sadie sighed, "Harry doesn't think I'm good enough for Draco."

"Screw what Harry thinks," Daphne said, making Harry smile, "To be honest, you're too good for Draco, and that's just the way it goes sometimes. We don't always fall in love with the people who are good for us. Maybe he's good for you, maybe he's bad for you or maybe between you both, you'll find a happy medium, but you're never going to find out by sitting here moping with me."

Sadie chuckled and got to her feet, "I'll see if I can find him."

"And when you do, don't let him walk over you," Daphne ordered, "If he tells you to go, you stay. You stay till he screams and shouts and breaks down, then you help him pick up the pieces because that's what he needs right now. not a wallflower who's going to shy away when things get tough."

"I'll stay," Sadie promised, "And…thanks, Daphne."

"Anytime," Daphne said, watching Sadie cross the garden towards the house.

Harry stepped out of the shadows and sat down next to her, "Nice advice."

Daphne turned to smile at him as he put his arm over her shoulder.

"It came from the heart," She confessed.

Sadie found Draco in his usual thinking spot, having checked everywhere she could think of in the house. As it turned out, Draco was hiding in the hedgerows in the front garden. He was sitting on a bench flanked by two stone dragons, and he looked positively miserable.

"Knut for your thoughts."

Draco looked up and sighed. His eyes were dark, "Trust me, you don't want to know."

"Try me," Sadie said boldly.

Draco laughed bitterly and shook his head, "No, Sadie, you don't want to see inside my head right now. I can guarantee it's too dark for you."

Sadie sat down next to him, "Too dark," she mused.

"Too dark for the girl who saw her parents get brutally murdered?" Sadie asked.

"Too dark for the girl who got dragged out of Hogwarts, away from her friends, because she saw the Basilisk petrify her cousin?"

Draco glanced over with a frown, "You saw the Basilisk?"

Sadie nodded, "I saw it petrify Hermione and Penelope Clearwater; she's my cousin on my father's side. It was why he dragged me away from school, away from my friends, away from you. I had to put up with my mothers brand of homeschooling after that, which was to use a dark quill as a form of punishment. Not the type that etches your words into your skin, but the type that sends a shock up your arm every time you make a mistake."

Draco swallowed and looked down.

"Nothing I did was good enough. I was never smart enough, I was never strong enough," Sadie said angrily, "I was never allowed to have friends. The one time I did befriend a muggle, my mother did something so horrible to her that I never saw her again. Her family moved out of the county, not just the neighbourhood. You think the Blacks are the only family with a history of madness and darkness? Try being half Lestrange! So yes, Draco, I can handle whatever darkness is inside your head."

Draco pushed himself to his feet, "You think so? Fine – you want the truth. You can have the truth. I enjoyed that! I enjoyed watching the life drain out of him when he was hanging within an inch of death. I enjoyed his suffering, it was what he deserved, and I enjoyed giving him his comeuppance."

Sadie crossed her arms over her chest, "That's the darkness inside of you? That you enjoy inflicting pain on people you hate? Because I hate to break it to you, but that's not so dark."

Draco faltered, his shoulders dropping a little, "I…what?"

"Do you want to hurt me?" Sadie asked.

Draco looked affronted by the thought, "What? No, no! Of course not! I absolutely….I bloody adore you, Sadie. I could never hurt you."

"And your mother?"

"No!" Draco exclaimed.

"Harry?" Sadie asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No," Draco said, shaking his head, "I felt bad enough for breaking his nose. The thought of seriously hurting him…it makes me…"

"It makes you sick," Sadie finished, "So yes, you enjoyed hurting Snape, but if you think that's enough to make me walk away from you, then you have another thing coming."

Draco looked at her in disbelief, his mouth opening then closing a few times, without any coherent words coming out. Then it happened – what Daphne had said would. He shook his head as tears fell from his eyes, and he knelt on the frozen ground, his hands balled into fists.

Sadie knelt in front of him and wrapped her arms around him, and his body shook with silent sobs as he came to terms with what he had done.

In the days following the February full moon, Tom disposed of Pius Thicknesse and instated himself as Minister for Magic. With his old followers in positions of power across the ministry, he had complete control and started enforcing and implementing his policies with immediate effect.

He spent his days in meetings and his evenings at Peverell Court with Lily and Amalthea. Harry indulged in a little bit of wedding planning with Daphne then brushed up on his school subjects under Pollux's capable gaze.

Harry and Daphne then both sat their N.E.W.T's at the ministry, and a few days later, found out that they had both passed everything sufficiently. Daphne was still looking at going down the Curse Breaker route, and Harry knew what he wanted to do next, so naturally, he went looking for Gus.

He had gone to Rookwood Hall to talk to Gus, only to discover from Reyna that he wasn't there because he was working on Castle Lestrange.

He wasn't sure if that was to distract Gus from the fact he'd just put his wife in the ground or because he was that desperate to leave Rookwood Hall for the bigger, grander property. But he sought him out there all the same, and when he found him banishing a vengeful poltergeist with raw, powerful magic, he knew that this was Gus's way of taking out his anger and guilt over Johanna's death.

"Nicely done," Harry said to make his presence known.

Gus spun around, his eyes wide until he realised that it was just Harry standing in the small doorway to the attack. He was breathing heavily, so he gave Harry a nod and then asked as he caught his breath, "Did Rey tell you I was here?"

"She did, yeah," Harry said, cocking his head at his mentor, "You feel any better after blasting that ghost into the next plane of existence?"

"If that's your subtle way of asking if I don't feel guilty for Jo's death any more than I think you already know the answer," Gus said dryly.

Harry nodded, "I think a lot of us are harbouring that feeling. It doesn't make any sense to mope about it, though, does it? Not when we have work to do."

"So you're ready to work with me now, are you?" Gus asked, "Your holiday is over?"

Harry chuckled, "I've passed my N.E.W.T's, and to avoid wedding planning with Daphne and her sisters, yes, I'd like to work with you."

Gus smiled and wiped the sweat from his head, "I'll start you on Monday then."

Harry grinned at that, "Nice castle, by the way."

"You want the tour?" Gus asked knowingly.

"Hell yeah, I want the tour!" Harry replied, making his mentor laugh.

"Come on then, kid. We'll finish off in the smoking-room, and I'll introduce you to Cuban cigars."

"Oh God, Daphne's going to kill me…"

"Tom, I need to go back to Hogwarts," Harry said, stopping in the door into the study at Peverell Court.

Tom looked up, "Are you going to release Artemis?"

"Yes," Harry answered, "I would have found it difficult to let go of her if it weren't for the fact I find it hard to communicate with her now."

"Hm," Tom agreed, meeting Harry's eye, "You lost your natural ability to speak parseltongue when the connection between us was broken, I presume?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. Is it wrong that I kind of miss it?"

"No," Tom admitted, "Because I do too. Not the constant stream of pointless thoughts, of course, but there was something simpler about our relationship when we knew what the other was thinking."

"I can still pretty much always tell what you're thinking," Harry admitted. He rested his head on the oak doorframe and sighed, "But I do miss being able to talk to snakes. I mean, I still can, but it's hard, so it wouldn't be fair to keep Artemis."

"No, it wouldn't," Tom agreed.

"So I'll put her in the Chamber of the Secrets," Harry said with a note of finality.

"Yes, you will," Tom said, his eyes on his book once more.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said, "Listen, Tom, on that subject. Did you always enter the Chamber of Secrets via Myrtle's bathroom? Because I just can't see you sitting on that slide going down there like weeeeee."

Tom looked up at Harry in disbelief, "Did you lose many brain cells when you died? If you truly believe that to be the only entrance or exit, then you are dim. It is an important one for the snake, of course, because it likes to travel in the pipes."

"Right," Harry said sheepishly, "I did kind of think that. But I've done a lot of exploring, and I could never find the other entrances or exits, so…where are they?"

"I am not going to tell you that," Tom drawled.

Harry did roll his eyes that time, "Why did Salazar Slytherin put it in a bathroom anyway?"

Tom looked up in exasperation, "He did not. This castle was built in the 11th century before plumbing was invented, you imbecile. When it was first created, the chamber was accessed through a concealed trapdoor and a series of magical tunnels. However, when the castle's plumbing became more elaborate in the 18th century, the entrance to the chamber was threatened and was located on the site of a proposed bathroom. As such, my ancestor Corvinus Gaunt ensured that the trapdoor was protected."

"Hidden inside the sink," Harry said with a nod, "Smart."

"He was my ancestor; of course, he was smart," Tom remarked. He smirked at Harry, "Unlike you, who slid down the pipe into the chamber."

"How did you get in?" Harry asked in surprise.

"I think you will find Harry that if you simply say 'steps' in parseltongue, the pipe transforms," Tom said slyly.

"You're kidding?" Harry asked in disbelief, "It's that simple? I rode out of there on a fucking phoenix, and all I had to do was say 'steps' in parseltongue?"

Tom chuckled and looked down, "Indeed. Although I do commend your inventiveness, using a phoenix to carry you out was inspired."

"I wish I could say it was my idea," Harry said with a shake of his head.

"Steps," He muttered as he left the study, "Really, Salazar? You couldn't have written bloody instructions on the sink."

Tom smiled to himself as Harry left the house, muttering irritably all the while.

When Harry went back to Hogwarts to 'release' Artemis, it was with a heavy heart. She had become a confidante to him, and he would miss her. But it wasn't just letting go of Artemis that was hard; it was letting go of Hogwarts.

This marked the end of an era and the start of a new one, a better one Harry expected. All the same, it was no easy feat.

"I could go with you?" Daphne had suggested.

But Harry had shaken his head and said, "No, I need to do this alone."

So, that was how he found himself sitting on top of the head of the huge Salazar Slytherin statue watching Artemis digest her dinner.

"What do you think of your new home?" He asked in parseltongue.

She looked up, sleepily, "Delightful. You will bring me food?"

"I won't," Harry replied sadly, "But Tom will. I know you consider me to be your master, but I order you never to hurt Tom. He is my friend, and he will be kind to you."

Artemis bowed her head, "I understand."

Harry sighed and leant back, looking out at the chamber. He had drained away all of the water and done a little bit of work to repair the stone and timber that the flood had damaged.

It was a nice enough home for a young snake, and he knew Artemis would be happy here. He wasn't sure how he felt about re-instating a Basilisk under the school when he had killed the last one, but it was on Tom's orders, and so far, Tom had done an excellent job of restoring order to the world. As far as Harry was aware, that was what this was about too.

It wasn't a case of out with the old and in with the new so much, but more a matter of 'back in with the old' because the old ways had worked. That was something that Tom was proving every day now that he was truly in power.

But all the same, Harry found himself wondering about what might have been if he had gone to Dumbledore after Snape's revelations. If he had trusted Dumbledore, would he be dead? Would Daphne Greengrass even know his name, or would he just be the 'chosen one' as far as she was concerned?

He gave himself a shake and reminded himself that it didn't matter. It had happened, and everything since then had shown Harry that he had done the right thing.

Still, it kept coming back to something Draco had said a little while ago.

"At what cost?"

A/N: The next three chapters are in effect, a three-part epilogue and at some point, I do intend to do a sequel :)

* ~ TBC ~ *