Can I Come In?
1 Part Four
Trevor Bastarrus, a prefect of Slytherin house, was patrolling near the entrance to the courtyard, and near where Filch slept. He wasn't nervous really, he had patrolled for two months now, and it was routine for him. The rumours circulating regarding the disappearance of Filch the caretaker did not suggest that anyone was in Hogwarts at this time. Indeed, one of the emerging popular theories was that Filch had had a nervous breakdown and run away. Trevor didn't miss Filch one bit. The bastard didn't make life easy for anyone. When Voldemort returned, as his dad had spent the last few months assuring him he would, Trevor had always hoped that the first to go would be Filch, by his hand if necessary. But now he'd just disappeared. Such a disappointment.
Lost in reverie, Trevor walked around a corner, and walked straight into a person he'd never seen before, dressed in black, wearing a long leather jacket, who looked quite dangerous. The long sword that he casually carried like it weighed nothing added to the impression. Walking behind the man were three others, two women (one of whom dressed like a muggle from one of the old Victorian history books) and one man (who was a wizard, although that didn't comfort Trevor much). Trevor took a startled step back, as did the man he had just walked into.
Trevor raised his wand arm, but the strange man jerked his sword arm up, and thrust so that the point of the sword was just a centimetre from reshaping his jugular.
'Say any mumbo jumbo kiddy-wink,' said Spike, holding the sword steady, 'and you part company with your head. Got it? Nod if you understand.'
Trevor nervously nodded. Suddenly being a prefect didn't seem like such an excellent way to advance himself as it once had.
'Good,' said Spike, 'Now, where's the room that belongs to Professor Mundanus?'
***
The suburban area of the town, somewhere near Northampton, in which the robed figures had arrived was burning fiercely. Twenty people lay dead out in the streets. They had run out to escape the flames, or to see what was going on, and had been slain for their efforts. The onslaught had only been going on for ten minutes, and the Death Eaters expected members of the Ministry for Magic to Apparate in soon, when the news of the carnage reached the fools.
In the distance, a police siren sounded. It was getting nearer.
The leader of the group of Death Eaters smiled with satisfaction. Target practice.
***
Dumbledore was sitting up late in his office. He absentmindedly stirred a mug of coffee, and popped a lemon sherbet into his mouth. He sucked on it with a far away look in his eye. He seemed rather troubled. Eventually he walked over to a cupboard in his rather cramped office (not cramped by lack of floor space, but by the towering piles of papers and magical trinkets), and retrieved a large bowl. He took out his wand, and drew forth small lines of silver gossamer from his head, and placed them in the bowl. The bowl began to flicker with images. Normally it would play entire scenes from his memory, but for now he wanted to search for small items of information. None of it seemed to help, so he sat back in his chair and mused.
Voldemort was returned to the world. He must surely be drawing his supporters back to him. In time, he would find new followers. No-one would be safe then.
That was why he had sent for Melissa. She had been asked to use a different surname while she taught at Hogwarts. It wouldn't do for a follower of Voldemort to report to him who had returned to Hogwarts. Snape had been against it of course. He didn't seem to like her after that incident several years ago when she had punched him squarely in the face.
A flicker of a smile may have appeared on Dumbledore's face, but in the flickering candlelight it was rather difficult to tell.
Apparently Melissa had been sent a book. Dumbledore was unaccustomed to being unaware of events, but it seemed that Melissa had unknown allies, who made a point of remaining unknown. Of course, Melissa had always seemed to be operating by a different set of rules and priorities, but that kind of thing kept the school running.
And Albus Filch was missing. That troubled Dumbledore more so. Mysterious disappearances were associated with the actions of Voldemort, but why would he capture the caretaker? Not that Filch didn't do his job well, but there were better targets to take if something was going to done within the Hogwarts castle. And how did they get in? Apparation was quite impossible, and the doors would not have been opened without force. That was not the case. Had someone even come into the castle in the first place? What if there were Death Eaters operating within the school even now?
Dumbledore's musing was interrupted when green flame blossomed in his fireplace. It changed many different colours, before settling onto a healthy orange. Minister Fudge's face appeared in the flames. 'Dumbledore,' he said awkwardly. The last time they had spoken had not ended on very good terms.
'Cornelius,' said Dumbledore, with rather more ice in his voice than was usually present.
'I thought you'd want to know. There's been a Death Eater attack in a town near Northampton. We're sending everyone we have at the moment, and we're calling up the special attack squad to deal with the situation if it persists. Thought you should know.' Cornelius Fudge coughed nervously.
'Thank you,' said Dumbledore, without much emotion showing, 'do you still persist in the belief that Voldemort has not returned?'
Cornelius went red. Redder anyway, considering that his face was coloured by the flames. 'Now, Dumbledore, you don't mean to keep talking about that rot do you? Granted, the Death Eaters are getting rather more active, but that doesn't mean anything. We'll show them we aren't as weak as they think. I'm confident that we shall soon have the last of them rounded up and put in Azkaban.'
Dumbledore had fire in his eyes, but he didn't let anger touch his words. 'Then we have little else to say, I'm afraid.'
Fudge said nothing else, and the flame withdrew into nothingness.
Dumbledore sighed. What he needed more than anything now was to just wander the corridors of Hogwarts. Perhaps he should speak to Melissa?
He got up from his chair, and picked his path between piles of paper towards the door. He took the door handle in one hand. He would also have to see about appointing a new caretaker, given that Filch was likely-
The door wouldn't open. Dumbledore rattled the handle rather more urgently, but nothing happened. 'Lumos!' he whispered. Light blossomed from his wand, revealing that the stone archway surrounding the door to his office had grown dark black tentacles, which had burrowed in the door, probably riddling it. The stone tentacles were moving, absorbing the door into itself. Soon the door was entirely stone.
Dumbledore rushed hurriedly to the window. He could still send an owl post- The tentacles had already reached the window. He didn't even look at the fire place, which sounded like it had already filled itself in.
He was trapped in his office. With Dark magic of this kind it would require someone on the other side of the door to perform the counter curse.
Dumbledore settled back into his chair, and sipped his coffee. On the whole, he reflected, he could be in a far worse situation. The students and the teaching staff were quite capable. Of a great many things… he thought with a twist of irony. He made a mental note to allocate school budgets to the cleaning staff. Thirty additional house elves for the clean up period, which should be no more than a month, should be sufficient.
He leaned back in the chair, and looked at Fawkes, his phoenix.
'Do you know any good songs?' Dumbledore asked.
Outside the door to Dumbledore's office (which was crawling with dark tentacles, joining together to create a cruel faced gargoyle) a figure dressed in flowing black robes walked briskly away. His first task was done, but he still had work to do tonight.
***
The Slytherin prefect was the first to walk into Professor Mundanus' class room. He was followed by the four vampires, Spike holding the sword to his back. Spike gestured to Trevor to sit behind a desk, while he still held the sword in a ready position.
'Drusilla, darling,' Spike said, 'our employer says that there are a bunch of humans sleeping in the room behind that locked door. Do us a favour, take our two newest friends, and see about making us some cannon fodder servants.'
Drusilla smiled. 'Oh! How wonderful…we shall be having a picnic with the teddy bears, we'll surprise them in the woods, and we'll snuff them! Would they look pretty as candles? My last candles didn't last long at all.'
Spike's voice was firm. 'No. We're making them into vampires Dru. No candles. The screaming gets on my nerves, and frankly burning human doesn't smell much better.'
Trevor went white. He was doing his best to not be noticed, but the sword wasn't moving an inch.
Drusilla seemed quite upset. Spike's face softened slightly. 'Look, tell you what, when all this is over, I'll treat you. I'll give you lots of candles when your birthday comes around next, okay?' Drusilla nodded and smiled weakly, slightly mollified. She walked over to the door leading to the room where the muggles slept. It was locked.
'I can do a spell to unlock-' began Tim. He was interrupted when Drusilla snarled and ripped the door off the hinges. The muggles started to scream as she advanced into the room, followed by Petunia, and a slightly shocked Timothy. After five minutes it went quiet again.
Trevor was scared witless. 'S-someone will have heard?' he said. It was meant to be a statement, but he was so scared, and trying to sound non- threatening, and it came out as a question.
Spike grinned at him maliciously. 'Sound doesn't leave this room. It was fixed for us like that. I could cut you into little bits and no one would know.'
Trevor whimpered. And then a cough came from the door. Spike glanced around. A figure dressed in long black robes, wearing a hideous wooden mask over its face, was standing there.
'Ah,' said Spike, as the first of the newly created vampires came into the class room. 'Here's the contact Mr Chalky-face mentioned. Everything going to plan?' he asked.
'Perfectly,' said Professor Mundanus.
***
Ten Death Eaters flew in arrow formation over Northampton on broomsticks. Twenty wizards and witches had Apparated in from the Ministry for Magic, and were giving chase. Occasionally the Death Eaters flung a destructive spell down upon the town they flew over, forcing a group of the Ministry wizards and witches to land in order to deal with the ensuing havoc and perform memory alterations. This kept the Ministry representatives from performing much in the way of organised activities, and there was a certain impasse in the favour of the Death Eaters (although as far as the Ministry knew, there was no escape for them).
Just as a group of four witches strafed from the left in order to head off the Death Eaters, the followers of Voldemort took a sudden dive, and veered towards the right, which became a U-turn. They soared under a group of wizards who were trying to keep up with the sudden change, but before the Ministry could catch up, they each performed a mist spell in unison. The resultant cloud obscured a rather large range, in which the Ministry wizards flew aimlessly, before it was blown away by wind three minutes later.
The Death Eaters were nowhere to be seen.
'Bloody hell,' said the witch in charge of the operation. 'What are we going to tell Fudge? They could have gone to ground in a house, Disapparated anywhere… There's no way we can search the whole town or country for them!'
Several of the others joined her in swearing profusely.
***
As Hermione was often forced to remind her friends, it was quite impossible to Apparate within the grounds of Hogwarts. This was to prevent stealthy entry to the grounds. However, provided one knew where the grounds were, it was possible to Apparate just outside, and to then make the rest of the way as usual, with broomsticks and the like.
And this is what the small group of Death Eaters were doing precisely as Professor Mundanus arrived to find that Spike had not waited for him before having the muggles made into vampires. It had not been intended that all ten would be made vampires, but that five would be made, and these five would eat the other five. As it stood, the Death Eaters were now liable to be out-numbered by hungry vampires. But this didn't suggest a problem to Mundanus' mind.
As this went on, the Death Eaters stealthily crept across the grounds, avoiding the crackling heaps of leaves deposited on the grass by the ravages of autumn. The darkness hid them remarkably well, and Dumbledore was not in a position to be observing the surrounding area. At least this would be the case, thought the leading Death Eater, if the Death Eater Mundanus performed his task competently. Which he would, if he did not want to die, for he was already disapproved of for not having Apparated to Voldemort's side several months ago. That had allowed him to remain in a position of usefulness, but still…
***
The newly made vampires were growling hungrily.
'What do you mean I wasn't supposed to make them all vampires?' asked Spike, 'what the bloody hell were they there for?'
'Half vampires, half food,' sighed Mundanus. 'Didn't anyone tell you that?'
'No,' said Spike irritably. 'Okay, you there, Tim the bloody train driver. You used to study here, go take the boys and girls, and give 'em something to eat.'
Tim walked out, and the ten new vampires followed. Mundanus felt rather safer with fewer vampires in the room.
Spike stood in contemplation. It was occurring to him that perhaps it was unwise to kill Wormtail. Voldemort had mentioned him being a favoured servant at the moment…Oh well. Water under the bridge. He looked up at Mundanus, who was fidgeting slightly.
'How would you like to do me a big favour? Do it, and maybe you get to live forever.' Spike smiled. That would work on most people…
'What kind of favour?' asked Mundanus warily.
'Wormtail had a small…accident. Might look bad with the boss man. So, if you would like to go over to the broom cupboard near the court yard, and burn everything in it, and don't say anything, I'll owe you one, okay?'
Mundanus looked thoughtful. He was already considered disloyal. On the other hand, if he disposed of the evidence sufficiently, he could claim that Wormtail had fled, which would no doubt make him look better by comparison… 'Okay,' he said, and left the room, despite extreme doubts as to whether this really was a wise course of action.
'Petunia. Go see if you can find Harry Potter. The prefect will take you. If he gives you trouble, turn him into one of us, he should behave better then.' Petunia grinned unwholesomely in response. She left the room following Trevor Bastarrus, whom she held in a vice-like grip.
Spike linked his arm with Drusilla's. 'And we,' he said to her, 'are off the library. We're not just here for old Voldie are we?' They both grinned.
'But no need for him to know that just yet,' Spike added.
***
Madame Trelawney took another sip from her cup of tea. She felt slightly sleepy, and she had a craving for something sweet to eat. She retrieved a packet of chocolate frogs that she had confiscated during a lesson with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw earlier in the day. She started to chew a frog happily, in between fits of giggles.
The tea cup was half full, but as the seconds went by, it slowly filled back up to the top.
***
Draco Malfoy was slouching in an over-stuffed armchair in the Slytherin dormitory. He shouldn't be awake, but he was, and he didn't feel like going to bed just yet. He flicked through a book bound in soft dark leather. It was supposed to be an authoritative guide to curses, but he was beginning to suspect that the author knew as much about curses as he did about the finer points of quantum physics.
His father, Lucius, had told him not to venture out of the dormitory this night, but had refused to say why. He couldn't imagine why. He was quite capable of…well, he wasn't sure what of, but he still felt outraged that he shouldn't be involved in whatever plans were unfolding.
Malfoy kept telling himself that one day he would be a Death Eater too. Now Voldemort was back, he'd finally see Harry Potter grovel.
Earlier in the night, a third year called Marie had had to go to the toilets, but she wasn't back yet. Probably lost or something. Stupid girl. You could tell her parents weren't Death Eaters, or they'd have put some backbone into her.
Draco Malfoy's thoughts were interrupted when a voice called out from the other side of the door to the Slytherin dormitories. Or at least from roughly on the other side. The door was disguised to look like part of the stone wall, so it was common for people to not find the exact location of it at first. 'Hello? Anyone in here?'
Draco walked over to the door. 'Yeah, what do you want?'
There was a pause on the other side. 'I just want to come and talk to some people. Like Lucius Malfoy's son for example.'
'I'm Draco Malfoy. What do you want?'
'We're working for the Dark Lord. Are you going to let us in or not?'
Draco felt a thrill rush through him. Finally he would get to prove himself! He eagerly opened the door, and stood still in puzzlement. 'Hey,' he said, 'aren't you the train driver?'
'Was,' said Timothy. He walked into the room, followed by the ten muggles that he had helped turn into vampires. They weren't wearing demonic faces, so Malfoy did not feel too alarmed. Although he was slightly indignant.
'What are these muggles doing here?' he demanded.
Timothy's face distorted. The bestial face that emerged regarded Draco with no small amount of amusement.
'They're hungry,' Tim said as the other vampires assumed their demonic faces, 'and you know what? I never really liked Slytherins.'
***
Marie Neardrop couldn't believe it. She was locked in the toilets! Peeves had locked her in! She leaned against the wall, quietly fuming. She would have sat on the floor, but it was soaking wet. Moaning Myrtle was remaining true to her name, wailing in one of the toilet cubicles. If Marie got out of the toilet, Peeves was going to regret it. In the meantime though, she did her best to keep control of her slowly disappearing patience.
And Madame Trelawney had said she was going to be lucky that night! Marie was now forced to join her co-students in declaring Madame Trelawney an absolute fake. How could this be described as being lucky?
***
Professor Aconite was patrolling the corridors again tonight. She was walking by the dungeons, when she noticed that the door to the Slytherin house area was gaping open. Normally it would never be left open. With a feeling of dread, Professor Aconite stepped to the far side of the corridor, to give herself the maximum amount of room to manoeuvre in. She stepped side ways so that she could see into the dormitory area, and see what was going on.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be rather more serious than a student having gone for a walk and forgetting to shut the door behind them.
Lying strewn across the floor were the corpses of many students. There looked enough to be most of Slytherin house, if not all. And the common feature appeared to be bite marks upon their necks. Shit. Melissa Aconite ran towards her room. She needed supplies.
***
The Death Eaters had reached the outer walls. Having found that the main doors had been strengthened against intruders, and lacking anyone to let them in as Filch had invited in Spike, they were forced to risk being spotted by taking to the air and landing in the courtyard. From there, it was relatively easy to blast the hinges from the door to the castle proper, and to step in once the dust had cleared from where the door fell. They began creeping along the corridors, wands ready if they should need to silence any witnesses.
***
Professor Mundanus had found the broom cupboard where the bodies were hidden within a fairly short period of time. A simple spell unlocked the door, and his senses recoiled at the faint, unpleasant, but familiar smell of death. He dragged out the bodies of Filch and Wormtail, and laid them out side by side on the floor. He pointed his wand at the cadavers.
'Pyro Amenrir!' he shouted. Flame burst from his wand, and engulfed the bodies, beginning to blacken them, and bringing a strong smell to his nostrils, that reminded him of a barbecue he had once attended before becoming a Death Eater.
Standing before the burning bodies, with wand outstretched, was how the ten Death Eaters found him as they marched from around the corner. They stopped in fairly evident shock. The leader looked quickly from Wormtail's blazing corpse to professor Mundanus, who was too surprised to do anything but stutter.
'Traitor!' shrieked the leader of the Death Eaters. That was all the cue needed for the other Death Eaters. In almost united action, each flung out their wand arms, and shouted 'Avada Kedavra!'
Professor Mundanus' body was thrown backwards several feet, until it impacted upon a stone wall with a sickening thud. The body slumped down, looking almost as if he had sat against the wall and fallen asleep. Smoke drifted faintly from Mundanus' skin.
There was silence, and the leader looked appraisingly around his surroundings.
'To the dining hall,' said the leader. 'Let us hope that the rest of tonight goes according to plan, unlike this traitor.'
But somehow, the leader had a nasty feeling that it was going to get worse than this.
1 Part Four
Trevor Bastarrus, a prefect of Slytherin house, was patrolling near the entrance to the courtyard, and near where Filch slept. He wasn't nervous really, he had patrolled for two months now, and it was routine for him. The rumours circulating regarding the disappearance of Filch the caretaker did not suggest that anyone was in Hogwarts at this time. Indeed, one of the emerging popular theories was that Filch had had a nervous breakdown and run away. Trevor didn't miss Filch one bit. The bastard didn't make life easy for anyone. When Voldemort returned, as his dad had spent the last few months assuring him he would, Trevor had always hoped that the first to go would be Filch, by his hand if necessary. But now he'd just disappeared. Such a disappointment.
Lost in reverie, Trevor walked around a corner, and walked straight into a person he'd never seen before, dressed in black, wearing a long leather jacket, who looked quite dangerous. The long sword that he casually carried like it weighed nothing added to the impression. Walking behind the man were three others, two women (one of whom dressed like a muggle from one of the old Victorian history books) and one man (who was a wizard, although that didn't comfort Trevor much). Trevor took a startled step back, as did the man he had just walked into.
Trevor raised his wand arm, but the strange man jerked his sword arm up, and thrust so that the point of the sword was just a centimetre from reshaping his jugular.
'Say any mumbo jumbo kiddy-wink,' said Spike, holding the sword steady, 'and you part company with your head. Got it? Nod if you understand.'
Trevor nervously nodded. Suddenly being a prefect didn't seem like such an excellent way to advance himself as it once had.
'Good,' said Spike, 'Now, where's the room that belongs to Professor Mundanus?'
***
The suburban area of the town, somewhere near Northampton, in which the robed figures had arrived was burning fiercely. Twenty people lay dead out in the streets. They had run out to escape the flames, or to see what was going on, and had been slain for their efforts. The onslaught had only been going on for ten minutes, and the Death Eaters expected members of the Ministry for Magic to Apparate in soon, when the news of the carnage reached the fools.
In the distance, a police siren sounded. It was getting nearer.
The leader of the group of Death Eaters smiled with satisfaction. Target practice.
***
Dumbledore was sitting up late in his office. He absentmindedly stirred a mug of coffee, and popped a lemon sherbet into his mouth. He sucked on it with a far away look in his eye. He seemed rather troubled. Eventually he walked over to a cupboard in his rather cramped office (not cramped by lack of floor space, but by the towering piles of papers and magical trinkets), and retrieved a large bowl. He took out his wand, and drew forth small lines of silver gossamer from his head, and placed them in the bowl. The bowl began to flicker with images. Normally it would play entire scenes from his memory, but for now he wanted to search for small items of information. None of it seemed to help, so he sat back in his chair and mused.
Voldemort was returned to the world. He must surely be drawing his supporters back to him. In time, he would find new followers. No-one would be safe then.
That was why he had sent for Melissa. She had been asked to use a different surname while she taught at Hogwarts. It wouldn't do for a follower of Voldemort to report to him who had returned to Hogwarts. Snape had been against it of course. He didn't seem to like her after that incident several years ago when she had punched him squarely in the face.
A flicker of a smile may have appeared on Dumbledore's face, but in the flickering candlelight it was rather difficult to tell.
Apparently Melissa had been sent a book. Dumbledore was unaccustomed to being unaware of events, but it seemed that Melissa had unknown allies, who made a point of remaining unknown. Of course, Melissa had always seemed to be operating by a different set of rules and priorities, but that kind of thing kept the school running.
And Albus Filch was missing. That troubled Dumbledore more so. Mysterious disappearances were associated with the actions of Voldemort, but why would he capture the caretaker? Not that Filch didn't do his job well, but there were better targets to take if something was going to done within the Hogwarts castle. And how did they get in? Apparation was quite impossible, and the doors would not have been opened without force. That was not the case. Had someone even come into the castle in the first place? What if there were Death Eaters operating within the school even now?
Dumbledore's musing was interrupted when green flame blossomed in his fireplace. It changed many different colours, before settling onto a healthy orange. Minister Fudge's face appeared in the flames. 'Dumbledore,' he said awkwardly. The last time they had spoken had not ended on very good terms.
'Cornelius,' said Dumbledore, with rather more ice in his voice than was usually present.
'I thought you'd want to know. There's been a Death Eater attack in a town near Northampton. We're sending everyone we have at the moment, and we're calling up the special attack squad to deal with the situation if it persists. Thought you should know.' Cornelius Fudge coughed nervously.
'Thank you,' said Dumbledore, without much emotion showing, 'do you still persist in the belief that Voldemort has not returned?'
Cornelius went red. Redder anyway, considering that his face was coloured by the flames. 'Now, Dumbledore, you don't mean to keep talking about that rot do you? Granted, the Death Eaters are getting rather more active, but that doesn't mean anything. We'll show them we aren't as weak as they think. I'm confident that we shall soon have the last of them rounded up and put in Azkaban.'
Dumbledore had fire in his eyes, but he didn't let anger touch his words. 'Then we have little else to say, I'm afraid.'
Fudge said nothing else, and the flame withdrew into nothingness.
Dumbledore sighed. What he needed more than anything now was to just wander the corridors of Hogwarts. Perhaps he should speak to Melissa?
He got up from his chair, and picked his path between piles of paper towards the door. He took the door handle in one hand. He would also have to see about appointing a new caretaker, given that Filch was likely-
The door wouldn't open. Dumbledore rattled the handle rather more urgently, but nothing happened. 'Lumos!' he whispered. Light blossomed from his wand, revealing that the stone archway surrounding the door to his office had grown dark black tentacles, which had burrowed in the door, probably riddling it. The stone tentacles were moving, absorbing the door into itself. Soon the door was entirely stone.
Dumbledore rushed hurriedly to the window. He could still send an owl post- The tentacles had already reached the window. He didn't even look at the fire place, which sounded like it had already filled itself in.
He was trapped in his office. With Dark magic of this kind it would require someone on the other side of the door to perform the counter curse.
Dumbledore settled back into his chair, and sipped his coffee. On the whole, he reflected, he could be in a far worse situation. The students and the teaching staff were quite capable. Of a great many things… he thought with a twist of irony. He made a mental note to allocate school budgets to the cleaning staff. Thirty additional house elves for the clean up period, which should be no more than a month, should be sufficient.
He leaned back in the chair, and looked at Fawkes, his phoenix.
'Do you know any good songs?' Dumbledore asked.
Outside the door to Dumbledore's office (which was crawling with dark tentacles, joining together to create a cruel faced gargoyle) a figure dressed in flowing black robes walked briskly away. His first task was done, but he still had work to do tonight.
***
The Slytherin prefect was the first to walk into Professor Mundanus' class room. He was followed by the four vampires, Spike holding the sword to his back. Spike gestured to Trevor to sit behind a desk, while he still held the sword in a ready position.
'Drusilla, darling,' Spike said, 'our employer says that there are a bunch of humans sleeping in the room behind that locked door. Do us a favour, take our two newest friends, and see about making us some cannon fodder servants.'
Drusilla smiled. 'Oh! How wonderful…we shall be having a picnic with the teddy bears, we'll surprise them in the woods, and we'll snuff them! Would they look pretty as candles? My last candles didn't last long at all.'
Spike's voice was firm. 'No. We're making them into vampires Dru. No candles. The screaming gets on my nerves, and frankly burning human doesn't smell much better.'
Trevor went white. He was doing his best to not be noticed, but the sword wasn't moving an inch.
Drusilla seemed quite upset. Spike's face softened slightly. 'Look, tell you what, when all this is over, I'll treat you. I'll give you lots of candles when your birthday comes around next, okay?' Drusilla nodded and smiled weakly, slightly mollified. She walked over to the door leading to the room where the muggles slept. It was locked.
'I can do a spell to unlock-' began Tim. He was interrupted when Drusilla snarled and ripped the door off the hinges. The muggles started to scream as she advanced into the room, followed by Petunia, and a slightly shocked Timothy. After five minutes it went quiet again.
Trevor was scared witless. 'S-someone will have heard?' he said. It was meant to be a statement, but he was so scared, and trying to sound non- threatening, and it came out as a question.
Spike grinned at him maliciously. 'Sound doesn't leave this room. It was fixed for us like that. I could cut you into little bits and no one would know.'
Trevor whimpered. And then a cough came from the door. Spike glanced around. A figure dressed in long black robes, wearing a hideous wooden mask over its face, was standing there.
'Ah,' said Spike, as the first of the newly created vampires came into the class room. 'Here's the contact Mr Chalky-face mentioned. Everything going to plan?' he asked.
'Perfectly,' said Professor Mundanus.
***
Ten Death Eaters flew in arrow formation over Northampton on broomsticks. Twenty wizards and witches had Apparated in from the Ministry for Magic, and were giving chase. Occasionally the Death Eaters flung a destructive spell down upon the town they flew over, forcing a group of the Ministry wizards and witches to land in order to deal with the ensuing havoc and perform memory alterations. This kept the Ministry representatives from performing much in the way of organised activities, and there was a certain impasse in the favour of the Death Eaters (although as far as the Ministry knew, there was no escape for them).
Just as a group of four witches strafed from the left in order to head off the Death Eaters, the followers of Voldemort took a sudden dive, and veered towards the right, which became a U-turn. They soared under a group of wizards who were trying to keep up with the sudden change, but before the Ministry could catch up, they each performed a mist spell in unison. The resultant cloud obscured a rather large range, in which the Ministry wizards flew aimlessly, before it was blown away by wind three minutes later.
The Death Eaters were nowhere to be seen.
'Bloody hell,' said the witch in charge of the operation. 'What are we going to tell Fudge? They could have gone to ground in a house, Disapparated anywhere… There's no way we can search the whole town or country for them!'
Several of the others joined her in swearing profusely.
***
As Hermione was often forced to remind her friends, it was quite impossible to Apparate within the grounds of Hogwarts. This was to prevent stealthy entry to the grounds. However, provided one knew where the grounds were, it was possible to Apparate just outside, and to then make the rest of the way as usual, with broomsticks and the like.
And this is what the small group of Death Eaters were doing precisely as Professor Mundanus arrived to find that Spike had not waited for him before having the muggles made into vampires. It had not been intended that all ten would be made vampires, but that five would be made, and these five would eat the other five. As it stood, the Death Eaters were now liable to be out-numbered by hungry vampires. But this didn't suggest a problem to Mundanus' mind.
As this went on, the Death Eaters stealthily crept across the grounds, avoiding the crackling heaps of leaves deposited on the grass by the ravages of autumn. The darkness hid them remarkably well, and Dumbledore was not in a position to be observing the surrounding area. At least this would be the case, thought the leading Death Eater, if the Death Eater Mundanus performed his task competently. Which he would, if he did not want to die, for he was already disapproved of for not having Apparated to Voldemort's side several months ago. That had allowed him to remain in a position of usefulness, but still…
***
The newly made vampires were growling hungrily.
'What do you mean I wasn't supposed to make them all vampires?' asked Spike, 'what the bloody hell were they there for?'
'Half vampires, half food,' sighed Mundanus. 'Didn't anyone tell you that?'
'No,' said Spike irritably. 'Okay, you there, Tim the bloody train driver. You used to study here, go take the boys and girls, and give 'em something to eat.'
Tim walked out, and the ten new vampires followed. Mundanus felt rather safer with fewer vampires in the room.
Spike stood in contemplation. It was occurring to him that perhaps it was unwise to kill Wormtail. Voldemort had mentioned him being a favoured servant at the moment…Oh well. Water under the bridge. He looked up at Mundanus, who was fidgeting slightly.
'How would you like to do me a big favour? Do it, and maybe you get to live forever.' Spike smiled. That would work on most people…
'What kind of favour?' asked Mundanus warily.
'Wormtail had a small…accident. Might look bad with the boss man. So, if you would like to go over to the broom cupboard near the court yard, and burn everything in it, and don't say anything, I'll owe you one, okay?'
Mundanus looked thoughtful. He was already considered disloyal. On the other hand, if he disposed of the evidence sufficiently, he could claim that Wormtail had fled, which would no doubt make him look better by comparison… 'Okay,' he said, and left the room, despite extreme doubts as to whether this really was a wise course of action.
'Petunia. Go see if you can find Harry Potter. The prefect will take you. If he gives you trouble, turn him into one of us, he should behave better then.' Petunia grinned unwholesomely in response. She left the room following Trevor Bastarrus, whom she held in a vice-like grip.
Spike linked his arm with Drusilla's. 'And we,' he said to her, 'are off the library. We're not just here for old Voldie are we?' They both grinned.
'But no need for him to know that just yet,' Spike added.
***
Madame Trelawney took another sip from her cup of tea. She felt slightly sleepy, and she had a craving for something sweet to eat. She retrieved a packet of chocolate frogs that she had confiscated during a lesson with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw earlier in the day. She started to chew a frog happily, in between fits of giggles.
The tea cup was half full, but as the seconds went by, it slowly filled back up to the top.
***
Draco Malfoy was slouching in an over-stuffed armchair in the Slytherin dormitory. He shouldn't be awake, but he was, and he didn't feel like going to bed just yet. He flicked through a book bound in soft dark leather. It was supposed to be an authoritative guide to curses, but he was beginning to suspect that the author knew as much about curses as he did about the finer points of quantum physics.
His father, Lucius, had told him not to venture out of the dormitory this night, but had refused to say why. He couldn't imagine why. He was quite capable of…well, he wasn't sure what of, but he still felt outraged that he shouldn't be involved in whatever plans were unfolding.
Malfoy kept telling himself that one day he would be a Death Eater too. Now Voldemort was back, he'd finally see Harry Potter grovel.
Earlier in the night, a third year called Marie had had to go to the toilets, but she wasn't back yet. Probably lost or something. Stupid girl. You could tell her parents weren't Death Eaters, or they'd have put some backbone into her.
Draco Malfoy's thoughts were interrupted when a voice called out from the other side of the door to the Slytherin dormitories. Or at least from roughly on the other side. The door was disguised to look like part of the stone wall, so it was common for people to not find the exact location of it at first. 'Hello? Anyone in here?'
Draco walked over to the door. 'Yeah, what do you want?'
There was a pause on the other side. 'I just want to come and talk to some people. Like Lucius Malfoy's son for example.'
'I'm Draco Malfoy. What do you want?'
'We're working for the Dark Lord. Are you going to let us in or not?'
Draco felt a thrill rush through him. Finally he would get to prove himself! He eagerly opened the door, and stood still in puzzlement. 'Hey,' he said, 'aren't you the train driver?'
'Was,' said Timothy. He walked into the room, followed by the ten muggles that he had helped turn into vampires. They weren't wearing demonic faces, so Malfoy did not feel too alarmed. Although he was slightly indignant.
'What are these muggles doing here?' he demanded.
Timothy's face distorted. The bestial face that emerged regarded Draco with no small amount of amusement.
'They're hungry,' Tim said as the other vampires assumed their demonic faces, 'and you know what? I never really liked Slytherins.'
***
Marie Neardrop couldn't believe it. She was locked in the toilets! Peeves had locked her in! She leaned against the wall, quietly fuming. She would have sat on the floor, but it was soaking wet. Moaning Myrtle was remaining true to her name, wailing in one of the toilet cubicles. If Marie got out of the toilet, Peeves was going to regret it. In the meantime though, she did her best to keep control of her slowly disappearing patience.
And Madame Trelawney had said she was going to be lucky that night! Marie was now forced to join her co-students in declaring Madame Trelawney an absolute fake. How could this be described as being lucky?
***
Professor Aconite was patrolling the corridors again tonight. She was walking by the dungeons, when she noticed that the door to the Slytherin house area was gaping open. Normally it would never be left open. With a feeling of dread, Professor Aconite stepped to the far side of the corridor, to give herself the maximum amount of room to manoeuvre in. She stepped side ways so that she could see into the dormitory area, and see what was going on.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be rather more serious than a student having gone for a walk and forgetting to shut the door behind them.
Lying strewn across the floor were the corpses of many students. There looked enough to be most of Slytherin house, if not all. And the common feature appeared to be bite marks upon their necks. Shit. Melissa Aconite ran towards her room. She needed supplies.
***
The Death Eaters had reached the outer walls. Having found that the main doors had been strengthened against intruders, and lacking anyone to let them in as Filch had invited in Spike, they were forced to risk being spotted by taking to the air and landing in the courtyard. From there, it was relatively easy to blast the hinges from the door to the castle proper, and to step in once the dust had cleared from where the door fell. They began creeping along the corridors, wands ready if they should need to silence any witnesses.
***
Professor Mundanus had found the broom cupboard where the bodies were hidden within a fairly short period of time. A simple spell unlocked the door, and his senses recoiled at the faint, unpleasant, but familiar smell of death. He dragged out the bodies of Filch and Wormtail, and laid them out side by side on the floor. He pointed his wand at the cadavers.
'Pyro Amenrir!' he shouted. Flame burst from his wand, and engulfed the bodies, beginning to blacken them, and bringing a strong smell to his nostrils, that reminded him of a barbecue he had once attended before becoming a Death Eater.
Standing before the burning bodies, with wand outstretched, was how the ten Death Eaters found him as they marched from around the corner. They stopped in fairly evident shock. The leader looked quickly from Wormtail's blazing corpse to professor Mundanus, who was too surprised to do anything but stutter.
'Traitor!' shrieked the leader of the Death Eaters. That was all the cue needed for the other Death Eaters. In almost united action, each flung out their wand arms, and shouted 'Avada Kedavra!'
Professor Mundanus' body was thrown backwards several feet, until it impacted upon a stone wall with a sickening thud. The body slumped down, looking almost as if he had sat against the wall and fallen asleep. Smoke drifted faintly from Mundanus' skin.
There was silence, and the leader looked appraisingly around his surroundings.
'To the dining hall,' said the leader. 'Let us hope that the rest of tonight goes according to plan, unlike this traitor.'
But somehow, the leader had a nasty feeling that it was going to get worse than this.