In Every Darkness
Chapter Eighty: Death Eaters
27.1.1997
Draco lay on his bed in the Slytherin sixth year boys dormitory that night, going over the arguments for and against the Dark Lord, and then for and against Harry Potter and (if he was still alive) Dumbledore.
He was surprised when an owl flew through the door, obviously having come up from the common rooms – the only person who'd ever sent him an owl at this time was his father, and it was always unpleasant news or orders.
But father's in jail, Draco thought. Unless … He couldn't have escaped, could he?
Draco shook his head. Of course his father could escape, he'd wasted a lot of money on bribes after all, and he was a servant of the Dark Lord – somehow Lucius Malfoy would have found a way to get out of jail.
With mounting dread, Draco reached out and removed the letter from the owls leg. He didn't recognise it, but then, he didn't expect to. His father, if it were he who'd sent the letter, would not have sent it from home, after all – he wasn't stupid enough to return there just yet.
The letter came away from the owls leg, and it flew away. Draco knew then that he was not expected to reply – then again, if his father had sent it, the letter would contain an order, an order that was expected to be obeyed, without question, and exactly as specified within.
Carefully, Draco opened the letter and began to read. Immediately he recognised the handwriting. His father was free again.
Draco,
In three weeks you will come home to the Manor – your mother will be waiting for you. You are to make any necessary excuse, I don't care what it is, as long as the new temporary Headmistress will buy it. Enlist Severus's aid only if you must.
You are to be marked, son. This is a great honour, that the Dark Lord should chose you, so young, to serve him. You will bring honour to your blood and get your revenge on those who failed to treat you, and all of Malfoy blood, with revenge.
I will meet you in the Dark Lords fortress, your mother will bring you.
~Lucius.
Draco blinked tears of sudden rage and bitter disappointment from his eyes. He was glad that his father had escaped, he was!
But no matter how he tried to persuade himself that this was the case, deep down he knew that it wasn't.
So, he was to be marked. Right when he had realised that he wasn't sure he wanted to be, the summons came. He knew very well that he could, in no way at all, avoid this. Destiny, Draco decided grimly, was very fickle.
Reading through the lines of the letter, Draco came upon another interesting point – Severus Snape's loyalty to the Dark Lord was in question. It must be, otherwise his father would have told him to consult the head of the Slytherin house immediately. Instead, he was being told to avoid bringing the man into it.
This, Draco decided, was interesting, and he'd have to make a decision about what he wanted in the very near future, otherwise he'd find himself bound for life in the Dark Lord's service … And life would probably be something he could count months, if not weeks, once he was branded. From what he'd heard of other new recruits, mostly in his fathers attempts to scare him into service with the Dark Lord he had been taught to revere since his first steps.
Draco shook his head. He was tired and confused. He'd think further on the subject in the morning.
Even with this resolve, it took a long time for Draco to get to sleep.
Harry sighed. Inside had become stuffy and warm with heat from many bodies and the fire. So hot that even the chilly January air was a welcome refresher. Mounted on his Firebolt, it had been an easy trip to get to the top of the Gryffindor tower, on the outside.
Leaning back against the shingled roof, Harry relaxed, Firebolt held tightly in his right hand, eyes momentarily closed.
It was nice out here, under the light of the distant stars, the moon yet to rise and the air a soft, deep shade of black, blanketing him gently. He felt safe, but at the same time his senses screamed to be wary.
Harry didn't completely understand, but he opened his eyes and looked around, searching for something, anything, that would make his senses go on high alert.
His sharp eyes, honed from years of searching for the elusive Snitch in Quidditch, quickly spotted something that shouldn't be – a group of lights, about twenty in all, making their way up towards the castle, coming from the gate.
Without a thought for his own safety, he scrambled onto the Firebolt and took off, dropping swiftly through the blackness of the night. The closer he got, the more the lights looked like the lumos spell, and he could not think of any reason that a group of wizards would be coming to Hogwarts at this time of night with no warning –if the Ministry of Magic was sending anyone, surely Professor McGonagall would have mentioned something, after all- and therefore he would have to assume that these people were not here on friendly business.
Which pretty much excluded everyone but Death Eaters.
"Silence, fools," a voice hissed. "Do you want someone up at the school to hear us coming? We need to catch them by surprise!" a faintly familiar voice was born upwards on the wind, but Harry couldn't place it.
In any case, the voice let him know immediately that there enemies down there, as he'd suspected. If the voice was a familiar one, then he could assume that it was an enemy that he'd met before, which again pointed to Death Eaters.
"You shut up," an all too familiar voice snapped waspishly. "The Master has more sense than to put you in charge of anything again, so you can stop acting like he has."
Now Harry could place the first speaker – Lucius Malfoy. The second was unmistakably Bellatrix Lestrange. "It's not like I'm the only one who ever got caught," Mr. Malfoy hissed. "I seem to remember that someone else has spent a considerable amount of time in Azkaban."
"Shut up, both of you!" a third voice interrupted. This one Harry didn't recognise at all.
What's Mr. Malfoy doing here? Harry wondered, after all, he'd been imprisoned by the Ministry at the end of last year.
Quite obviously, Harry decided, the man had managed to escape.
And there was some dissension in the Death Eater ranks. That could prove useful. He dropped lower, entering the Centre so that he could better control his movements and thoughts.
"Did you hear something?" Bellatrix demanded suddenly, and Harry froze in his creeping closer through the air.
"Jumping at shadows, Lestrange?" Sneered Malfoy. "Good thing you weren't put in charge – we'd all have run away long ago!"
"Shut up, Malfoy. I'm exercising caution and good sense – which you seem to lack, getting caught in the middle of a battle like that!" Bellatrix snarled angrily.
"You two, cut it out! I didn't hear anything, Lestrange, Malfoy, stop arguing. See if you can prove your worth again to the Master – he doesn't like you much at the moment."
Bellatrix and Malfoy fell silent again, and Harry crept closer still, his Firebolt barely disturbing the air around him, his breath low and even, so low that even his own ears had difficulty in picking up the sound.
There was silence from the Death Eaters for some time, and Harry continued moving towards them slowly, keeping an eye on the lights and how they moved, to make sure that Bellatrix didn't try to slip back and check that there was no one nearby.
Soon he was close enough to see them by the light of their own wands. There were fifteen of them, he counted, not twenty as he'd first guessed, when they'd been little more than blobs of light.
"I'm sure I can hear something," Bellatrix said again suddenly, and Harry noted which figure the voice had come from – it could be useful.
"Oh shut up Lestrange," Mr. Malfoy's voice came from the opposite side of the group, and Harry had an idea. He swooped over to hover a little ways behind Malfoy, and brought out his wand, whispering, nearly soundlessly, "stupefy," and aiming at Bellatrix.
The moment the spell left his lips, he pulled the broom up and whipped around to the other side of the group, sending a second spell from Bellatrix's direction at Malfoy.
The ploy worked, and both Lucius and Bellatrix – who obviously didn't like each other – were immediately trying to get through the rest of the Death Eaters to attack each other, each thinking that the other had attacked them.
Harry permitted a faint smile of amusement. Though he felt no fear now, he knew that it was folly to think that because of this, he could fight off fifteen Death Eaters – who were angry but did know what they were doing when it came to spells, especially curses.
With a quick movement, he turned the Firebolt around and headed for the castle. Though it was getting late, he knew that the teachers were in a staff meeting, and knew that they would be able to do something more effective against the Death Eaters – hopefully with his help.
Once he was within Hogwarts he didn't bother dismounting from his broom and instead shot forwards through the passageways until he arrived outside of the Staff room. He could here the gentle murmur of voices from within, and quickly raised his hand to knock.
The door flew open swiftly, and Harry saw Arabella standing the doorway, looking a little nervous. "Harry!" She said in relief, stepping back.
The teachers looked at Harry, and almost as one started speaking – mostly scolding him for being out of bed at this hour.
"The party is still going on in the Gryffindor common room," Harry drawled when there was a slight break in the conversation. "I doubt that anyone will be getting much sleep there at present."
"Then perhaps you'd like to tell us what you were doing sneaking around the school, instead of enjoying yourself with the rest of you immature little friends," Snape suggested, scowling at Harry.
Harry scowled back, then turned to address McGonagall, which made Snape a little mad.
"I was hot, so I went out on my Firebolt to sit on the top of the Gryffindor tower for a little while," Harry explained. "I saw a group of lights down on the grounds, and since I didn't think that that was normal, I flew down to have a look."
"You should have come directly to us!" McGonagall admonished him.
"It could have been a false alarm. Besides, I know how to defend myself if the need arises," Harry shrugged. "When I got close enough, I realised that there were fifteen Death Eaters on the grounds, heading for the castle, obviously with the intent of attacking while we were off-guard."
"Please tell me you left after that," McGonagall remarked.
"Course he didn't!" Tonks said brightly. "I wouldn't have!"
"Though you seem unaware of it, Tonks, not everyone in this world is as stupid and reckless as you are … I've no doubt Potter is one of those who is as stupid and reckless as you, though, therefore I suppose your comment is justified in some manner," Snape drawled, and everyone glared at him. He didn't seem too concerned.
"Tonks is quite right – I didn't come straight back. I recognised two of the Death Eaters," Harry said, "one of them was Bellatrix Lestrange, the other … Lucius Malfoy has escaped from jail."
There was no surprise on any of the faces – they'd known about that, then. He looked questioningly at Tonks, knowing that she was the most likely to tell him anything.
"It was in The Evening Prophet," she told him. "That's one of the things were discussing before you came."
"Well, those two were arguing. I sent a stunning spell from behind Lucius towards Bellatrix, and then another from the other direction, then came up here while they tried to kill each other," Harry finished up.
"That was not the most intelligent course of action," Professor Flitwick remarked.
"So why is there any wonder that Potter went for it?"
"Oh shut up Severus," Professor Sprout cried in exasperation. "We still have the problem that there are fifteen Death Eaters on the grounds."
"Mr. Potter, please return to Gryffindor tower," Professor McGonagall. "Make sure no one leaves there – I think we should be able to deal with the Death Eaters."
Harry nodded and headed out, hiding his reluctance and his annoyance that they hadn't said he could fight if he wanted to.
He flew back in through the dormitory window, and headed back down to join the party again.
"Hey Harry! We were just about to come and look for you!" Ron called when he saw his friend. "Where were you?"
"Getting some fresh air," Harry replied with a smile, gesturing to Lily to come over to stand nearby.
"Don't go out for a little while tonight," he whispered to her. "There's Death Eaters on the grounds – the teachers are taking care of it."
She managed to control her surprise and nodded. "Thanks for the warning, I was just about to slip away."
Harry smiled faintly at her, and slipped off to join a group of seventh years for a quick chat, while keeping an eye on the door to make sure no one tried to slip away.
He wished that they wouldn't try to coddle him – they didn't even think about telling him to leave! He was only a child … yeah right. He'd still have fight to Voldemort when the time came…
***
Well, there you are! After what must be close to four weeks, I've finally written and updated something! Sorry it's taken me this long, but I've had WAY too many tests and a load of homework to do. Please bare with me for a little while, the school holidays will soon be upon me, and I'll be able to write for two weeks, hopefully! To those of you who read After the Dawn, the new chapter for that is also now up, as is chapter two of my original fiction – having a little updating spree here …
Thanks:
SirDarlon, athenakitty, solar, TuxedoMac, fcuking cathy, kraeg001, ILOVETOWRITE456, Luny, walker-of-the-shadow-path, PhoenixPadfoot98, texasjeanette, HermioneGreen, Lady Cantara, DaBear, Kelei, Elvira, jo0609, Dumbledave, torifire126, MikiBaby, Sirius Crazy, Wynjara, Nphipps, Musicstarlover, GoldenGirl2, Xyverz, gizachick, The Red Dragons Order, Lady Prongs, gaul1, cantfindagoodname, Stix-the-Rebel, moony*padfoot, Nasser Himura, Izabel, uNoeWho, telpesir, dnd4ever, Butler, Katy-Ster678, rob, TigerLiy Padfoot, TigerLily Padfoot, Wolfia, Songbreeze Swifteye, jbfritz, Tamsy, AnimeGurl, harryluvzginny, dweem-angel, Leuca, eloisamuggle, ColdFlameX, rachel19, Lady Reaper of the Shadows, Silver Scale Serpent, xMEx, bigstu, Kanri Koneko (Kitty) Sage, Jaded Angel8, misty43, Clare, potterunlished, Kemsy, Crystal Angel2, Haunting Darkness, SlythsRule, AnnabelleLeigh, Twilight Dusk, Malfoy11717, AnimeGurl, Flame of Shadow, Kellynut, Calen, Fiona Opal, sopybubbles, Black Vengence, 246465456, Estel-rules.
TuxedoMac – a prig is basically a prick, it might be Aussie slang, but I'm not sure. I've read/heard it on a number of occasions.
Telpesir – Since my last update I've had several maths test on: Trig, Alegberic equasions and (next week) on on quadratic equasions … How fun J