Their absent leader returned in the middle of a Defence Against the Dark Arts class. The whole room fell silent as Malfoy came strolling in as if he'd never been away at all.
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy," said Malachite sharply. "Decided to grace us with your presence?"
"I've only just got back to school, professor," he pointed out, dropping bonelessly into his usual chair at the back.
"So I notice. I assume you have a good reason why?"
"I was called away for personal reasons," Malfoy smirked. A few people snickered, recognising the joke on the lack of explanation for Professor Vitae's disappearance - only the Death Eaters knew it for the challenge it was.
And Malachite. "Very well," he said, smiling thinly. "No doubt you'll be happy to catch up the missed work on your own time. I know you're always eager to learn."
"I am. I've been learning a lot." He smiled wolfishly. "You'd be surprised."
Those who weren't listening for it probably didn't even catch the barb.
"Lucius, where've you been?" demanded Nick, as soon as they were out of class. Malfoy shrugged casually.
"Just like I said; I've been learning."
"Learning what?" frowned Colin, always slow to catch on.
"Some very useful tricks." Malfoy flexed his wand meaningfully. It was obvious what those 'tricks' were going to be used for.
"When?" said Simon eagerly.
"Not yet." But there was a gleam in his eye as he spoke, where before he'd been grinding his teeth. Voldemort might have cautioned him to wait, but he'd definitely given him the go-ahead.
They were supposed to be on their way to Herbology, but Malfoy had other ideas. "Come with me." He led them back to the Slytherin dorms where they could talk in private.
"We're going to do it?" asked Nick immediately, sounding uncertain whether to be thrilled or nervous.
Malfoy nodded with a triumphant smile. "Soon, very soon. When the exams start."
"The exams?" frowned Colin.
"It makes sense," agreed Sev dispassionately. "There are no lessons, everybody's in unusual places, the staff are all charging about and everyone's distracted-"
"It's perfect," agreed Malfoy.
"What... uh, what are we gonna do, exactly?" asked Colin tentatively.
Malfoy's grin widened, and Sev remembered Joshua Matthews. A Slytherin boy with the misfortune to have a younger brother put in Gryffindor, he'd been forced out of the school by Malfoy and his cronies. To preserve his precious position when he was still trying to be accepted into the Death Eaters, Sev had been forced to stand by and do nothing whilst Malfoy tortured him with the Cruciatus curse.
Now, he was going to be put in exactly the same position - but this time, Malachite's 'crime' was far worse than one of family connections, and the chances of him scraping through with nothing more than a few days in the hospital wing were not exactly enormous.
"You, Crabbe, are going to follow my lead. You all are. I'm the leader here." The last was aimed pointedly at Sev; he met it was a calculatedly neutral gaze. "I'll be taking care of Malachite - you're just along for the ride."
"Then why do we need to be there at all?" wondered Avery. He shrank under Malfoy's glare.
"Why, Nicholas, is there a problem?"
"No!" he said quickly, with a defensive shrug. "I was only, you know, asking."
"It's a show of strength," Malfoy said. "More than that, it's teamwork. After all, we're the serpent, are we not? Anybody suddenly not want to be in the team?"
Of course, there were no takers. Slow wits or warped minds, none of them were stupid enough to believe that there was any way to back out now.
"But Lucius," said Colin hesitantly, "I mean, we'll be... they'll know it's us. He'll recognise us."
"We'll be wearing these." Malfoy tugged a suitcase out from under his bed and drew the zip back a little to reveal the thick cloth inside, a heavy black robe like the one Vitae had worn to preserve her anonymity. "And besides," he grinned. "The only one who's going to see us is Malachite. And by the time we're done with him, he won't be in any position to tell anybody anything."
The robe was heavier than the invisibility cloak, and it carried an anonymity of a different sort. Malachite would know who was confronting him, he wasn't stupid - but he wouldn't know which one of them was Snape. Under the thick robes they all looked as bulky as Colin Crabbe, and it was hard to discern anything of the wearer's movements. No wonder it had been so difficult to put a name to the Death Eater from a few distant glimpses.
Malachite knew the attack was coming, and he knew it would be soon - but he didn't know it was tonight. Sev hadn't had it confirmed until mere hours ago, thought he'd suspected it was coming soon from Malfoy's itchy, eager exterior. There had been no chance to send a final warning, and he hadn't tried - Malfoy would be watching like a hawk for the slightest hint of doubts or wavering. Malachite would just have to be as prepared as he claimed to be.
They walked through the darkened corridors in silence; not for fear of being caught, but because something about their new robes and their deadly mission demanded it. They weren't schoolboys now - they were Death Eaters. They were the seven-headed serpent.
Malfoy led the way unerringly, out of the school and towards the Forbidden Forest. Sev thought of the snake tracks he had often stumbled over out there, and knew that Vitae must have known of Malachite's late-night excursions. After all, she had been into the forest herself, to set up the Portkey and to hide the body of the murdered astronomy teacher, Auriga Cephus. And she had known since her school days what Malachite was.
Perhaps in his snake form he had excellent hearing, or perhaps he had just had the foresight to set up wards around the forest to alert him. He should have known that the time was close, for Dumbledore had been forced away to his usual exam-time meetings with the other schools. Either way, when they passed into the trees he was standing quietly waiting for them.
If any of the boys around him started in alarm or surprise, they did it silently, and the robes hid any such sign of movement.
"Malachite," said Malfoy darkly. His voice was sharp and icy cold, a tone that those around him knew well but the teachers had never heard. Nonetheless, Malachite knew full well who he was.
"Malfoy." He was calm, hands in the pockets of his robes, a slight smile creasing his face above the trim white goatee beard. Snape saw it, then, in a flash of insight that had eluded him through the sheer lack of logic. This was what Malachite had wanted all along. He hadn't ignored Sev's warnings because he was short-sighted, or vain, or refusing to believe in the danger. He'd come out here because he wanted this confrontation. He wanted to stand out here in front of the enemy and face them down.
Malachite still smiled as his eyes flickered from figure to figure. He didn't know which was which, but he knew the names, and he recited them with a level voice that was more accusing than any impassioned yell. "Snape. Avery. Crabbe. Lestrange. Goyle. Nott."
One of the figures flinched, but it wasn't Malfoy and it was impossible to tell the other hooded figures apart. None of them spoke, and none of them made any move to turn and run. It was too late for that.
"Well, you've got me," said Malachite, with an insolent shrug. "Now what are you going to do with me?"
To all appearances, Malfoy remained unflustered. "You're a traitor to your house and to your people," he said harshly.
"My people?" The Defence Against the Dark Arts master laughed. "What do you know about my people?" His eyes narrowed. "As for my house - you're bigger traitors to house Slytherin than I could ever be, all of you. Doing your bit to drive us further into shadow, destroying the reputations of those of us who work for our place in this world, who try to do good even though nobody expects or believes it of us. Following the dark path."
"The right path," insisted Malfoy forcefully.
"The easy path," Malachite corrected with a sneer. "Why do you follow your precious Lord Voldemort? What do think he can give you? Riches, glory? You're a fool if you think those things are worth anything, and twice a fool if you believe he'll share them with you if he gets them."
"Maybe I think he's right," suggested Malfoy pointedly.
"Maybe you think he's your stepping stone to power," the teacher corrected.
"And what if I do? Power is power, wherever you get it. He's taught me things you narrow-minded do-gooders could never dream of."
Malachite just laughed, the earthy chuckle out of place amongst the shadows of the forest at night. "Ah, dear. I always knew you were too ambitious for your own good, Malfoy, but I never had you down as stupid. You think he gives you power? Power's something you build for yourself, it's not something you can give and take. You're nothing but a tool in your master's hand."
"Maybe so." Malfoy's dark robe shifted as he shrugged. "But even a tool gains a sharper edge with use. He's honing me to be the perfect weapon, and one day I'll be my own master. For now, I do what he asks because it makes me better." He chuckled himself, and the sound chilled the air. "And if I get to enjoy what I do? Well, that's a bonus."
He drew his wand with a flourish. Malachite scoffed. He clicked his fingers, and his own wand appeared. "Your master should learn to take better care of his tools. Try and cut something that's too hard, and they're apt to get... blunted."
The two circled each other warily. Sev's hand was on his wand, but he knew he couldn't use it. His own well-learned but seldom tested powers would do little to help a wizard of Malachite's level, not to mention the niggling little detail that doing so would destroy absolutely everything they'd been working towards.
Malfoy snapped out a curse with whipcrack speed and zero warning, but Sev didn't even hear what it was because Malachite countered it in the same instant. There was a blare of orange-red light that quickly fizzled out, and the combatants went back to circling.
"Interesting choice," Malachite observed, as if they were still in class. "Not the most efficient, though. This isn't an exhibition duel, Malfoy, you should be trying for damage, not flash."
"No I shouldn't. Stupefy!"
Malachite countered the stun charm with barely a blink. "Amateur, Malfoy. Fight me, or don't; your tricks won't work." But he didn't make his own attack, and Sev realised that he couldn't; technically, Malfoy hadn't harmed him. Bound by the magical constraints of the Naga, Malachite couldn't fight until his opponent tried to hurt him. A stun charm, however malevolent the intent, was technically harmless.
"Fair enough," Malfoy shrugged. "Imperio!" Sev felt the air crackle with the force of a forbidden curse unleashed.
Malachite's face contorted for a moment, and for a fraction of a second Sev thought he glimpsed a flash of icy white scales. Then his muscles untensed and he smirked. "Nice try, boy, but you don't think I've been trained in these things?" Sev knew that the Imperius curse could be fought off with sufficient strength of mind, and certainly Malachite had proved himself more than sufficiently stubborn.
"And now it's my turn." But instead of turning his wand on Malfoy, he pointed it at a nearby tree. "Incendrio!" The frozen watchers all stumbled back as it burst abruptly into flames. Malachite gave a small smile. "And now we can see." He flicked his wand towards Malfoy, and the hood of his cloak snapped back to reveal his pale features. "There, that's better, isn't it?"
Malfoy sneered. "Idiot. If you had any sense, that would be me burning there. Locomotor Mortis!"
Malachite's legs locked together as he fell forwards, but he was laughing as he fell. A moment later he rose up again, and Sev heard a sharp intake of breath from one of the boys as they saw that the lower half of his body was now a thick snake's tail.
"Not everyone needs two legs, Malfoy. Expelliarmus!" He flicked his arm, and Malfoy's wand flew out of his hand.
"Accio!" He snapped his fingers and it flew straight back.
"Very impressive," said Malachite, with a flick of his eyebrows. Without warning, he suddenly lashed his serpent tail around, knocking Malfoy off his feet. "But not quite good enough. Encavio!" A mass of tree roots surged up out of the ground to entrap Malfoy in a living cage.
Malfoy slammed his palm hard against the unmoving roots that held him, and then scrabbled for his wand. "Reducto!" The cage blasted open.
"Syrtissio!"
Suddenly Malfoy was scrambling to grab one of those same thick roots as the ground melted away into quicksand beneath him. "Glaciaro!" he gasped out.
Malachite yelped as his body was suddenly hit by a coat of frost. He shifted back into his fully human form and stumbled awkwardly - his snake body couldn't take the cold.
"Spinasosia!" Malfoy rapidly followed up, jumping away from the quicksand. A web of thorns rose up from the ground and wrapped itself around Malachite.
"Secario!" He cut the thornbush down with an impatient flick of the wrist. He looked angry now, his cool burned away. "Orbis Ignium!" The flames from the burning tree suddenly swept around Malfoy to form a circle of fire.
"Extinguero!" The flames faded into a charred circle, but Malfoy winced, the strain of the magic he was pumping out beginning to show. He half staggered, grabbing a tree to steady himself.
For a moment both combatants stood still, breathing heavily.
"Ah," began Malachite with a smirk. "Not so-"
"Fissio!" His planned taunt became a hasty leap backwards as the ground beneath his feet split into a chasm.
Malachite frowned, and then pointed his wand at the ground. "Obducio!" The gap began to heal over. He turned back towards Malfoy, but his young opponent was ready for him.
"Crucio!" His yell split the air with twice the force of any spell he'd yet uttered. Malachite buckled in agony and fell to his knees. Malfoy stepped towards him, wand still raised as he held the spell in place.
Malachite's form writhed, and Sev saw the snake begin to take shape. But Malfoy summoned his fellow Death Eaters with an imperious wave of the hand. "To me!" he ordered.
They came running, and all trained their wands on the fallen professor. "Crucio!"
"Crucio!"
"Crucio!"
Alone, probably none of them would have had the strength to cast the forbidden curse. But their weak spells meshed together, joining with Malfoy's into a force beyond any of their individual abilities.
Sev raised his wand in the same motion, but he never uttered the word of power. It didn't matter. His own contribution wasn't needed.
Malachite screeched, a cry of pain that passed out of the audible and into silence. He contorted in silent agony, shifting from human to snake and back again and finding no relief. And then, finally, he was still.
After a moment, Malfoy lowered his wand, and the others followed his lead. They all stared at the still form of their fallen teacher. His grey eyes were open, but staring at nothing, and he wasn't breathing.
"He's dead," said Nick Avery, pulling back his hood in something like wonder. They all gathered around to look down at him.
Sev looked for a moment at Malachite's body, and into his unseeing eyes. And then he thought Snakes don't need to blink... The Naga were a water race, they could go for hours without breathing...
His hood, still down over his face, hid the smirk that suddenly passed across his features. The gutsiest of double bluffs...
Malfoy forced his way between his colleagues to stare at his vanquished foe. His breath was still coming heavily, shockingly loud in the darkness.
"You did it, Lucius," said Avery, trepidation giving way to amazement and something approaching glee. "You killed him, he's really dead!"
And Sev began to believe that Malachite was really going to get away with it.
But then Malfoy shook his head. "No," he said quietly. "No, he's not." He raised his wand arm, trembling on the edge of collapse, and closed his eyes. "Avada Kedavra," he let out in breath that was barely more than a whisper. A flash of green light shot out from his wand and coruscated over the fallen man.
Malfoy opened his eyes, and from somewhere found the energy to give his usual triumphant smirk. "He is now."