Twisted and Evil
I blinked when Ron appeared in the doorway. Still, I was far too stunned to even think. My brain could not form a single sentence; it seemed that it was stuttering "Malfoy –" "Draco –" "Impossible" "I'm dreaming"…over and over again.
Ron looked at me in concern. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yes," I managed to stammer, and got shakily to my feet. I noticed, distantly, that Malfoy's book or diary or whatever you so wish to call it had Apparated with him. "I-I've just realized something."
And I had. Yes, indeed, my brain was working again. "Stop the Order from leaving," I said forcefully. "There's something we haven't considered."
He threw me a worried, bemused glance and backed out of the room, calling to the Order to reconvene because I had something to say. I heard grumbling and worn-out noises, but then I straightened my robes and walked down the stairs, standing on the bottom step so that I could see everyone.
Then I said softly, "You can't increase guards on the clock tower tomorrow."
There were several uneasy noises that issued from the crowd then. "Why the bloody hell not?" Ron demanded, looking up at me.
I didn't answer, and I didn't need to. After ten seconds, Snape did for me. "Isn't it obvious, Mr. Weasley?" he asked coldly. "This is a test. Lord Verloren is trying to see if he can trust Hermione."
"We'll sacrifice dozens of lives if we don't prevent that attack," Mr. Weasley said worriedly.
"And we'll give away Miss Granger – and the entire Order – if we do," Snape replied icily. "If we must sacrifice dozens of lives, so be it. We cannot risk giving away the Order. If we fall, who is to stop him?"
They were all silent following Snape's speech. Finally, Fred Weasley put forward, "What can we do? There must be another way."
They all looked to me. I cursed silently under my breath. I didn't know. I couldn't tell Verloren to put off this major event; it was his first big attack, and he would christen me blood traitor if I so much as uttered a word in favor of the plan's demise. But there had to be some way…
"If I was to…" I frowned harder.
"There is nothing we can do." Snape's forceful tone rang out over us, and with it descended the gloom that I'd so long associated with his dungeon classroom. "Nothing, do you hear me? Absolutely nothing."
And so, forlorn, tired, and weary, we made our separate ways. Snape and I were the last out of 12 Grimmauld Place. He gave me a curt nod, said, "Miss Granger," and Disapparated.
I, however, shrugged on my cloak and hunched my shoulders forward. I was going to mull over this on the long walk home, even if it killed me.
The rambling tunes of The Beatles were coming through my bedroom wall, "Eleanor Rigby" by the sounds of it. "Enough," I moaned, rolling over and banging a feeble fist against the wall. "Enough, Rosemary Raven, I tell you, if you play that depressing music one more time…"
She didn't hear me, of course. It's rather hard to hear a half-asleep person banging their fists against the wall of an apartment when you're a writer going at full steam listening to both your typewriter (out of date) and your Beatles #1 Album (even more so in some peoples' opinions). I groaned and tossed the blankets off, then did my best to roll out of bed, succeeding in landing with a soft thump on the floor, in a miserable heap from the sleepless night that I had endured. Slowly, I got to my feet. My joints creaked from the miles I'd walked the night before. I got dressed and was just finishing my hair when my palm began to feel warm again.
Highly irritated, I opened my clenched fist. There it was; the mark that I'd been branded with was showing up on my skin, the black star shining the blackest black and the purple pinpoints moving even more quickly around it than before.
Sighing, I yanked on my black cloak, concentrated hard on the image of Lord Verloren, turned on my heel, and Disapparated.
I appeared right at the edge of a roof, affording me an immediate view of the very long fall to the street. I yelped and stumbled, and was halfway over the edge when a pair of strong hands caught me and pulled me back from the edge. A voice I was coming to recognize and loathe said, "Faithful servant, you are safe." I willingly followed where his hands took me, if only to get away from the edge of the building; then I discovered that I had been towed right into Lord Verloren's arms.
The immediate reaction my body had in store was to stiffen, to shove him away; more immediate was my mind's jumble of thoughts, most of them involving Malfoy in some way, until I got control over them and my body and just stood there, shocked from the near death experience and from the surprising gentleness of my supposed Lord's embrace.
Then his hand pointed past me to Big Ben, which was clearly visible from the roof on which we stood. "All is well," he said softly. "There is no increased guard on the clock; they aren't suspecting a thing. Order of the Phoenix, indeed." He snorted delicately. I decided not to look at the clock anymore; I felt sick when I did. Instead I contented myself – bitterly, angrily – to twisting Verloren's emotions as far as I could make them go. I turned my head to that my cheek rested against his chest, against a surprisingly soft cloak. He didn't move to shove me away, which I would have liked him to do so very much, but this was proof that he was human; if he could lust, he was not entirely hardened.
"Have you made contact with the Order yet?" he asked, almost idly, now distractedly twirling a strand of my hair in his hand. The hair that Malfoy had brushed. I tried very hard to keep from gagging.
"Not yet, my Lord," I answered. "They are wary."
"Of course, of course…but when I next call, you will be part of their ranks."
I swallowed, hard. "Yes, my Lord."
"Clever girl," he murmured; I felt his voice vibrate in his chest and shoved away the thoughts of the night I'd spent in Malfoy's arms, and of last night, when I'd been even closer than this to him. "You know what to do."
"Always, my Lord."
"They will fear me," he said softly, suddenly, grimly, and Big Ben struck noon.
I felt, rather than heard, the explosion, then the screams; I braced myself against Lord Verloren and watched the clock with an expressionless face, wiping myself blank of any emotion. It was then that I noticed the moon was up, a full moon, hovering just above the clock.
Lord Verloren, still holding me in his arms, reached past me to point his wand at that moon. "Verlorene," he hissed. His symbol, the black star, was written over the white space of moon, the purple points moving restlessly in rotation around it. I shivered.
"It would strike fear in the bravest, my Lord."
He nodded, and the look on his face was monstrously pleased as he considered his creation, and his destruction. "I agree."
The stricken faces of the Order that night were enough to make me nearly break down into tears. Lupin looked particularly woebegone. No one spoke much during the meeting, and when it was adjourned, I walked into the front room and threw myself onto the couch, wanting, more than anything, to just be alone for once.
Judging by the yelp as I landed on the couch, I wasn't about to get what I wanted.
"Bloody hell, Granger…"
"God damn it, Malfoy," I snapped, "don't you ever get out of the way?"
I shoved away from him and sat upright, brushing my hair back from my face in a fluid, angry movement as I saw his form rise, too. I couldn't make out his features; the room was too dim. He looked slightly groggy. When his breath came across my face, I wrinkled my nose.
"Malfoy, you're drunk."
"I'm not drunk, I'm sleeping off a hangover," he growled; he indeed seemed to be displaying all the classic signs of one trying to get rid of a hangover.
"This early in the day?" I said sarcastically. "Can't take much, can you?"
He leapt to his feet. Hangover or not, it was a powerful movement, and anger sparkled high in his grey eyes when he looked at me. "Shut the hell up, Granger," he snarled, then spun on his heel and Disapparated with a loud crack.
I saw something glinting in the dim light on the couch where he'd been sitting. I hesitated only a moment, then reached for the book and opened it to the page where I'd left off.