Chapter Two: Ready to meet your parents, kid...?
Josiah spent the rest of the night doing a bit of Recon about the school, getting a handle on the surroundings. Before dawn, he placed the Semtex charges where they would cause the building to collapse.
The day came, and he carefully went about tailing various targets. It wasn't nearly as hard as it usually was.
Hell. These "Wizards" and "Witches" were too wrapped up in their own goddamned world to realize that there was another presence there. He had quickly located Harry Potter after eavesdropping on a few conversations using a directional microphone.
He was now in what appeared to be a kind of dormitory establishment. Moving down the hallway slowly, with his pistol aimed where ever his eyes were looking, and a knife pressed against the grip of the pistol, blade facing the ground.
He could hear some footsteps behind him, and quickly ducked against the side of an entryway.
A snotty-looking blonde kid strode past, muttering something under his breath.
The hair reminded him of one of the photos.
"Draco." Josiah said, raising an eyebrow. He let himself slide off of the wall, but kept within the shadow.
The kid stopped, and turned. He could barely see the outline of Josiah against the darkness.
"You are Draco." Josiah said again, making his voice raspier than it actually was.
"Yeah... why?" Draco said, narrowing his eyes and cocking his head suspiciously.
"Do you know Harry Potter...?" Josiah asked, his hand against the hammer of his pistol.
"What about Potter?" Draco asked, trying to determine whether he should run or not. The venom that Josiah had used when he said "Harry Potter" made him stay, though. This man had something against Potter.
"Where can I find him, when he's alone." Josiah demanded. Draco sneered a bit.
"Why should I tell you?" Draco asked, producing his wand in the palm of his hand.
Josiah gave a little smirk. Draco could see the whiteness of his teeth in the darkness. "Because if you tell me, I won't kill you..." Josiah muttered, stepping out of the darkness slowly. He had the pistol raised, and aimed at Draco.
The kid went white, and was about to move his wand to cast a spell, when a bullet cut off the greater part of the wand.
"It's silenced." Josiah said. "Nobody heard it, and nobody has to know about this as long as you keep your damned mouth shut." Josiah finished in a growl.
"In... In Gryffendor." The boy spat out. "I... I can lure him to you."
"That's a good boy..." Josiah took a step towards Draco, pulling out a needle. "Hold out your arm, boy."
Draco hesitated.
"Now!" Josiah said gruffly, snarling. Draco held up his arm, and Josiah pushed his sleeve back, jabbing the needle in his forearm.
"W-what was that for?" Draco said, going from looking at the barrel of the pistol, to looking at Josiah's tanned face. There was a scar going from about the middle of his left cheek down his jaw line, ending where his neck began. Short brown facial hair grew along his jaw line, chin, and upper lip.
"It's a nifty little cocktail. Among other things, it contains transmitters that'll let me watch your movements, and I will be. You bring Potter to an empty room at eleven thirty, somewhere that won't have much chance of being watched or intruded upon. If I so much as suspect you're going to tell another person about me..."
He stepped away from Draco, keeping the gun level with the boys head. He took out a thin remote with a few buttons on it. "I'll push this button." He slid his thumb over the largest one at the top of the remote. "When I do that, a peptide in the transmitters will begin production of TNF epsilon..."
"They'll go along with your blood to your heart, where the TNF epsilon will be taken in by the cells receptors. As soon as that happens, your heart cells will begin to kill themselves, and you'll have a heart attack."
Draco's lip twitched. "You thought this out well."
"Standard procedure." Josiah said, giving a little grin. "Remember, kid. If I even think that you're going to make a move against me, you die. Turn around."
Draco turned around slowly. "When should I deliver Potter?"
"Eleven-thirty. Alone."
"How do I know you won't push that button before then?"
"You don't."
"Then why should I do this?"
"You're an idiot. How much do you have to gain by not doing this? A violent and painful death? Now think of how much you have to lose by not doing this..."
"Fine..."
"Lights out." Josiah said, and cracked Malfoy on the back of the head, above and behind the ear, with the butt of his pistol.
An hour or so later, Draco woke up in the Slytherine building with a splitting headache.
He had to figure out how to lure Harry into this trap...
Half an hour later, Harry Potter approached his room. Ron was with him, as luck so had it. When he opened the door, he found an envelope on the floor with the name "Cho Chang" on it. It asked Harry to meet her, alone, at eleven thirty. With very concise directions on where to meet her.
Harry picked it up and glanced at Ron nervously.
At about the same time, Cho had found a letter from Draco, asking her to meet him at Eleven thirty, and giving precise directions on where she was supposed to go. It ended with: "This is a matter of life and death."
Where ever Draco went, he felt eyes on him. Those green, calculating eyes. He knew that the man would kill him if he spoke a single word about this plan. But he didn't.
At Eleven Twenty Eight, Harry Potter entered a particularly confined room almost equally distant from the different houses in Hogwarts. A minute later, Cho Chang stepped in.
"Cho?" Harry asked, looking up.
"...Harry!" Cho asked, wondering what the hell he was doing there.
At eleven thirty, Draco came out from behind his hiding place.
"Draco?" Harry asked, now confused as to what was happening.
Cho glanced at Draco, about to speak. Her voice was preempted when something bit into the back of her neck.
She quickly clasped her hand over it, and pulled it forward. A... dart?
Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and she hit the floor.
"CHO!" Harry shouted, but stopped when he heard the same raspy voice that Draco had heard earlier.
"Don't move, kid..."
Harry froze. "...Draco... What's going on?"
Draco just looked away, crossing his arms over his chest. There was a quick "Pfft!" noise, and a bullet tore across Draco's right shoulder.
Draco's eyes widened, another bullet shot out his left leg, and he went down.
Josiah Miller stepped forward, his gun leveled at Draco's head. "You did good, Kid." He said, then gave the boy his release.
Harry's eyes were wide now. Josiah looked over at him, then raised the pistol to aim at him. "What's the matter, boy...?"
"Why did you kill Draco?" Harry asked. "And what did you do to Cho!"
"She's only asleep. A tranquilizer." Josiah said, then stepped over Dracos body. "I killed him because that was part of my job. He performed well, though. He brought you right to me, and even one of the other targets..."
Harry reached for his wand. Josiah burst forward and bull rushed him into the wall. There was a nasty little "Fwip!", and a knife was held against Harry's heart. Josiah was almost nose-to-nose with Harry, his elbow pressing painfully into the boys chest.
"You can still be useful to me, though..." Josiah said, Harry flinched a bit as Josiah pushed more of his weight against his chest. "Tell me where I can find Dumbledore and Hagrid."
"Dumbl..." Harry started. "Dumbledore is... Is already dead..."
"What?"
"He was killed... By Snape..."
"Hrm..." Josiah glanced away for a moment. "That's one less I have to worry about..." Harry tried to push him off.
Josiah grabbed Harrys' shoulder and threw him to the ground, face down. He pressed his knee into the boys back, and his knife against the back of his neck. "You're lucky. Right now, I could give you a jab and sever your brainstem. A painless death."
Harry winced, trying to get away.
"Give it up, boy..." Josiah said, He used his free hand and took out a pair of handcuffs, cuffing the boys hands together. He then removed the boys wand, slipping it into a pocket of his uniform.
"Your friend there, Draco, caved in easily. I actually got him believing that a needle carried some kind of transmitters, and a peptide that could give him a heart attack." Josiah said, then picked up Cho and set her on a table within Harry's vision.
"Lucky for him that he was one of my targets. I'd hate to have to live with the knowledge that I was tricked into leading some associates to their deaths." Sergei said, glancing at Harry, noticing the way he was looking at Cho.
"You've a thing for this girl, eh?" Josiah started. "Then I'll kill her last..." He grabbed a handful of Cho's hair, lifting her head to look at Harry. "Depending on how much you tell me, I might make it a quick and easy death, or I could draw it out."
"Now then..." Josiah let go of the girls hair, giving her a little slap on the cheek. "Where can I find this "Ron Weasly," and a girl named "Hermione?"" Josiah asked, sliding the knife back into its sheath, and holstering his pistol. "You know them. An ugly girl, and a red-headed boy."
Harry looked up at Josiah, who was looking down at Harry. "They'll find our bodies, and they'll learn about you."
"No, they won't. I'm going to torch this little building with you and the girl inside it. They'll find the remains of the "Great" Harry Potter, and a girl named Cho splayed out on the table." Josiah said, crossing one arm over his chest, then tapping his chin with the other hand. "What will they think happened here?"
"But they'll find Draco, and notice the bullet wounds in the skull."
"I'll take care of Draco's body myself." Josiah said.
Harry pursed his lips, not saying anything. A boot heel to the cheek sent his glasses across the floor.
He began to tell Josiah where Ron and Hermione could be found, even Hagrid, after remembering his earlier demand. When he was done, Josiah gave a little smile.
"That's a good boy..." Josiah said. "The girl's death will be simple and painless, as I promised."
"Why're you doing this...?"
"To keep the balance of nature, boy. You people feel the need to become something "More" than human. To... Use "Magic" and all of that nonsense." Josiah said, shaking his head. "You know that Wizards and Witches exist, you've seen them. Vampires, Werewolves, and zombies exist too, and aren't much different than your kind."
"We're just protecting Humanity. Wizards, Witches, Vampires... None of them can evolve. Humanity, however, can. It's survival of the fittest, really..." Josiah turned to face Harry, taking out his pistol.
"Time to meet your parents, boy."
Bang.
To Be Continued.