I do not own Harry Potter.

Sirius graduated at the end of my 5th year. His NEWT scores were decent and he was second in his class, only to James Potter. Yet, for the first time, I found myself completely empty of his presence. He graduated, but, unlike Bellatrix, I would never see him again. I had spent the past two years watching him from a distance, just seeing what happened to him. He and his friends had remained as tight as ever, and there seemed to be more color in Sirius's characteristically pale face. He was healthy, and happy. He flirted, never seriously, flipping his hair around and winking at girls, always with an arm around one of his friends. It was pure carelessness. While I diligently prepared for my future-- even the entire future of the wizarding world-- he didn't have a care. I had heard rumors of a flying motorbike and an apartment-- no doubt the fruits of Uncle Alphard's inheritance-- and even saw the bike the afternoon of commencement when he gave James and the red-haired girl I knew as the Head Girl around the lake, after James Potter apparently proposed her. I knew she was a Muggle-born, but, then again, Potter had turned out to be a pretty inferior pureblood.

It didn't seem to bother him that we were never going to be seeing each other again. Of course, that was probably my own fault.

I had plenty on my plate as it was. Narcissa was preparing for her final year at Hogwarts, including an official engagement with Lucius Malfoy. I had received my OWL marks, with the best scores in History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. I decided to take the NEWT courses in both-- though I was one of only three in the NEWT History course-- as well as Charms and Transfiguration, considering most important in my field. Bartemius took an unprecedented action for a Slytherin-- Muggle Studies.

"My father was getting suspicious," he defended. "He forced me to take that class in the first place, and it was easy as anything. Besides," he shrugged, trying assuage his disappointment, "know your enemy."

That summer, the real war started breaking out. Barty's father, appointed in charge of this defense, actually gave a speech demanding the capture and arrest of all suspected Death Eaters. "We need names!" he demanded. "Capture them, and bring them in, and we will have them stamped out! All in Azkaban!"

I warned Barty that he might consider moving out of the house.

It came to light at the wrong time many of the Death Eaters' actions, that Mulciber had used Imperius, that Travers had murdered, and that Malfoy had been blackmailing Ministry workers to succomb to his wills. They were still young, only a few years out of school, but Crouch cracked down on those he had proof for. Lucius, had, for one, been attempting to force through a Ministry bill allowing underage magic in approved pureblood families. He had succeeded, but that left obvious tracks. He was brought before the Wizengamot.

"There's only one way to get him out of it," Bella said. "They wouldn't take bribes-- that's usually Lucius's best backplan."

So a team of neophytes-- those as of yet unsuspected-- were gathered. It included the newly graduated Severus Snape and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch and I. The more practiced Death Eaters could not embark on this mission, lest it risk failure and unmask all of them.

"You will need to break into the home of the prosecutor Edgar Bones. He's a member of the Order and is known to have a very strong case against Lucius," Rodolphus explained to us. "Remember what Bella, Lucius, and I have taught you."

"Be sure to make very clear your stance," added Bella. "This is as much as warning as a murder mission. You're killing Bones as distraction from the case, as a warning to all those who may also try to hinder our movement, and to lessen the strength and power of the Order."

"Regulus, Barty . . . you two may use as much magic as you like," Rodolphus continued instructing cooly, "as Lucius is in hot water for giving that power to you and it would be foolish not to thank him. Yet, though I know you are capable, do NOT use any of the Unforgivable curses. Leave the actually killing to Severus and Rabastan. You may stun, hex, jinx, curse, even modify the memories of any of the others, to keep them out of the way. Yet leave Edgar Bones to the other two."

We went off, into the night, unable to Apparate or even Floo. The Boneses were still a large, influential family, so this was quite risky. We approached their manor, where Bones, still only in his early twenties himself, lived with his parents, sister, young wife, son, and baby daughter. The house was not protected in any fashion, unlike my home, whose Unplottability and Fidelius Charm-lock (only members of the family knew the address as 12 Grimmauld Place) I had grown accustomed to. We positioned ourselves at various windows. It was pitch black out, the summer evening cool, the new moon casting no light on the ground. Severus gave the signal, and the four of us stormed the manor.

I crawled in through my window, after unlocking it with Alohomora. I had charmed myself to hide my tracks and fingerprints. I found myself in what at first I thought was an abandoned bedroom, but then I realized someone was in fact asleep. They heard my footsteps and sat up with a gasp. It was Edgar's unmarried sister, Amelia, who had just graduated from Hogwarts with Severus and Rabastan and was studying to be a judge.

"Stupefy!" I cried immediately into the darkness, before she could light her wand and see me. I heard the heaviness of her falling back on her pillow. That silenced, I could make out screams on the other side of the house. I hastened to the doorway and down the halls and corridors, following the noise and scuffle, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Edgar! Behind you! There's two!" the shrill voice of a woman cried.

"Protect the kids!" a man's voice fired back. "Go to Susan and--"

"Avada Kedavra!" Rabastan's voice was clear. I heard a masculine groan cut off Edgar's speech, followed by the clear sound of a body slumping to the floor.

I came dashing into the room in time to see Severus chasing a woman into yet another dark room.

"You! Go help him! That woman's armed!" Rabastan cried, standing over Edgar Bones's body, unsure of which other Death Eater I was. As I whirled around the corner, in after Severus, I saw him raise his wand and send the Dark Mark into the air above his body.

The room into which I had run was completely black again, unlike the lamplit room of Edgar's final moments. I could not see for several seconds; I could only hear the frightened cries of a small child, a boy, and a shrieking baby.

Severus's low voice was calm and clear, "Avada Kedavra!" he said. There was a flash of green light that ignited the room for only a second, and the older child fell silent.

I held my breath, wishing I could see. The baby cried on, but the mother, no doubt finally aware of her child's death, paused a moment before shrieking in pure animal terror.

"Damn," I heard Severus whisper under his breath. He had hit the wrong one, an error in the darkness. Then his wand tip lit up, and I could see all in its faint light: the mother standing over a bed upon which lay the motionless body of a small boy who was not asleep, and the crib in the corner of the room from where the baby fretted terribly. The mother, however, could see us now, too. Her wide, wild eyes scanned over the two dark figures descending on her, illuminated by the faintest light. We would be the last thing she ever saw . . .

"Nox." The light went out. "Avada Kedavra!"

The room was once again doused in green light, and there was the sound of a falling corpse. The baby shrieked on.

This time, both Severus and I lit our wands. We both looked to the cradle and then back at each other, meeting each other's eyes. We did not need to kill the baby.

Severus, however, silenced her screams with a simple noise reduction charm. I knew that back in the other room, Amelia would wake eventually, find her, and bring her out of the house of her dead parents. Susan, was the baby's name, I recalled.

Barty came rushing in from where his post had been. "You got them?" he asked. "I couldn't even find the parents."

"We got them," Severus said bitterly. "Our murder turned into more of a massacre."

Rabastan came in. "We'd better scarper. I've left a message and the Dark Mark; we needn't leave ourselves as evidence. Out the way we came, you reckon?"

We climbed out through the window and rushed back to our homes in opposite directions, never speaking, never stopping. My heart never stopped racing. Mrs. Bones's cries still lingered in my ears.

I had performed my first true act as a Death Eater.