The Interrogation
Even though the Death Eaters were tired from the battle, they were marshalling all their strength to survive the Crucio that each one was receiving. I crawled into my position after a brutal wave of the Cruciatus Curse. I looked around, my head throbbing, at the half-dead Death Eater who was experiencing his first Crucio. Every single Death Eater was Crucio'd before Voldemort stepped into the circle. A silence fell among the Death Eaters, a silence profound it seemed even the world had stopped turning. The wind died down. No nocturnal creatures could be seen or heard. The horrible silence stretched on and on, and Voldemort let us wait for almost three minutes, in silence and tension, before speaking.
"We could have won that battle. It was in our hands. But none of my Death Eaters know how to fight. I watched from afar as each of you was defeated by your opponent. They were not even fully trained Aurors — merely trainees! I watched from afar as you lost the battle in the most humiliating manner possible. I was disappointed as I watched two young trainees bring down my Death Eaters one by one. Finally, I decided that you might need support from your master and that you might draw courage that your master's presence in the battle. However, even that did nothing to enhance your courage; when I entered the battle I saw you falling twice as fast as before. I thought that if I keep those two talented trainees at bay, you might have a chance, but I was wrong. I watched in vain as one by one you fell, losing a battle that should have been ours."
Voldemort started to look around, giving us time to take in what he had just said. After an uncomfortable minute, he started again.
"What was the purpose of going to that godforsaken forest? To capture as many Aurors as possible! How many did we capture? None! On top that, three of you thought it would be funny to get captured, and six went even further and got themselves killed! Failing a mission with your lord at your side is worse than failing because of a simple mistake. Every single one of you has paid for this failure, but I am not yet satisfied. I want two teams to attack two Auror meetings that are taking place tomorrow morning. One is in Diagon Alley in a bar called Three Trinkets. The other is in a Muggle bar called Dragon's Gut. I want the teams to kill everyone at the meetings. Failure will not be accepted."
The Dark Lord turned to Lucius. "Walk with me."
"Yes, Master," Lucius drawled, jumping at the opportunity of getting into Voldemort's good graces again. As they walked away, I looked around at the other Death Eaters, most of whom seemed very worried, probably thinking about what would happen to them if they failed this mission. I caught a sudden movement and looked over at a certain Death Eater who was fidgeting nervously. I watched him carefully as he took out something from his robe, looking at it with worried eyes. I stared at the object and was getting curious to know what it was when the Death Eater turned and was able to see it — a mirror. I would have had to be stupid not to recognize the mirror I'd seen so many times — every detention I had with Potter or with Black, in fact. They had used to communicate when they had separate detentions. To see such an object in the hands of a Death Eater made me instantly suspicious.
The moment Lucius came back from his walk with the Dark Lord, I told him about what I had seen, and was going to point out the culprit, when the Dark Lord dismissed us. I let out a shout of fury as I saw him disappear into thin air. Lucius, ignoring me, got up and said, "Attention! We will attack the Muggle bar tomorrow evening at seven. Anyone who does not wish to join my team can go now." Quite a number of Death Eaters Disapparated and I laughed, seeing Lucius's face.
With those few remaining, Lucius established a meeting time and a rudimentarily strategy for the next morning. "Any questions?" he asked.
But the remaining Death Eaters, too exhausted and dispirited to respond, remained silent.
I was in much the same mood as I finally Disapparated to my hated home.
The plan had been perfect. It was so simple that nothing could have gone wrong, and it didn't. The meeting had been going on for half an hour, and the Aurors were deeply absorbed in the proceedings. It was easy to Apparate in the middle of the bar and kill everybody in sight. In under five minutes we had killed them and identified the bodies. There were only five Aurors among them, and they had been practically torn to shreds by the barrage of curses that had hit them.
We were celebrating our victory, when I saw somebody running towards the bar. We quickly hid behind the bar and waited. The man was wearing black robes — I realized with shock that the man was wearing Death Eaters robes. Lucius seemed to have noticed too, because he began to stand up, but I quickly pulled him down. The man was not wearing a mask, and I was even more shocked when I saw his face —
"Alex Romanov," Lucius muttered.
Then the man was inside the bar, and he let out a howl of rage. "Damn you! Damn you! Damn you! Why did you go early without telling Moody? Why the fuck did you not come to my house as I told you? I knew this was going to happen, I could have stopped this!"
I suddenly realized who had betrayed me before my first mission and who had told Voldemort about the girl who had escaped — Alex Romanov. With a sudden urge to kill the man for all the trouble he had caused me, I stood up, and before the traitor had the chance to mutter a shield spell, shouted "EXPELLIARMUS!" He was thrown all the way to the other side of the bar and hit a window ledge with such force that the window shattered. I walked up to him, took him by the arm and dragged him out of the bar, casting the Dark Mark into the evening sky.
I Apparated to the usual meeting place, hoping that Voldemort would be there. I was not disappointed. As I began to walk towards the Dark Lord, dragging the traitor behind me, I heard Lucius Apparate behind me with the rest of the team. I kissed the Dark Lord's robes, but before I could take my place, Voldemort noticed the prisoner.
"Why are you dragging Romanov, Snape?"
I did not hesitate to tell the story. "Master, I believe that he is the person who told the Ministry my location and warned them of the attack on the Muggle house. He also tried to warn the Aurors in Diagon Alley about the attack today."
"Romanov, a traitor?" Voldemort's eyes were full of fury as he said, "Enervate!" pointing at the unconscious body of Romanov. The moment he woke up, he looked around, and when he saw that he was caught, he muttered something. Before he could finish the decimating curse, I silenced him. Voldemort looked at me, and before he could tell me what he wanted, I brought out the potion he needed — Veritaserum. I put three measured drops into the mouth of the struggling man. Immediately his eyes went out of focus, and his chin fell onto his chest. Voldemort did not waste any time. He immediately bent over the traitor and began interrogating him.
"Who do you work for?" he demanded.
"Dumbledore," came the emotionless reply.
"What do you report to him?"
"Everything about the Death Eater meetings and future targets."
"Did you tell him about the attack on the trainee Aurors in Drakken Forest?"
"No, didn't have time."
"Did you tell them the location of Snape's house?"
"Yes, I wanted to get back at him for killing my cousin. I couldn't tell the Ministry in person, of course. They would have arrested me on the spot, but I sent them a nice detailed letter explaining how to get past Snape's wards.
"What do you know about the Order of the Phoenix?"
"Just that it really does exist. Dumbledore never let me join. He did not trust me enough."
"Good thing he didn't," I thought, considering the ease with which we were extracting information from this sorry excuse for a spy.
"Tell me about yourself."
"I am Alex Romanov. I joined the Dark Lord when I believed he was after all the Muggleborns. When I learned his real plan, to take over the world, I turned traitor, feeding information to Dumbledore and the Order. I have been waiting for my chance to kill Severus Snape ever since."
"What did you do after last night?"
"I immediately went home after my failed attempt to contact the Aurors through my two-way mirror. I gave a fire call to Moody, told him everything, and told him to tell Dumbledore about this new attack. The ten Aurors who were supposed to go to Diagon Alley went instead to some untold location, but the other five, who were supposed to attack the meeting held in the graveyard today, did not listen and did not come to meet me. They were supposed to come to me, but they didn't and they were killed. Now their blood is on my hands, and I will never get my revenge on Snape…"
Voldemort stood up and gave a look of pure hatred to the stunned traitor. He then looked up at me and said, "You have done well, Severus. You shall have the pleasure of watching him die." He turned to Lucius and touched his Dark Mark. I bit my lip in as the Mark turned pitch black. I turned around to hear the other Death Eaters arrive and take their place in the circle.
"Welcome, Death Eaters. We have among us a special guest tonight, who will have the pleasure of being tortured by you. I will leave you to it!" said the Dark Lord and vanished.
Bellatrix was the first person to step forward and cast a curse. "Crucio!" The man screamed, even though he was under Veritaserum. The other Death Eaters joined her, taking turns cursing him. I joined in too. After all, he had intended to kill me. "Crucio!" "Sipio!" "Crucio!" "Expungio!" "Incendio!" "Sectumsempra!" "Crucio!" "Crucio!" "Evabaro!" "Vibratos!" It went on and on, never ending. Soon the traitor's appearance could not be called human. His legs were broken, and the bones were sticking out from the flesh. His arms were bent at weird angles, also broken. He was reduced to a shapeless, disgusting piece of flesh and bones lying in a pool of his own blood. I knew he would not hold out much longer, and Bellatrix knew it too. She turned to me. "Would you like to do the honors, Snape?"
"I'd love to, Bella," I pointed my wand at the traitor — and I lowered it. The others were staring at me.
"Let's leave him here to die. Why should we give him such an easy death after what he did to the Dark Lord?"
There were many whispered agreements, but in the end we Disapparated, leaving Romanov to die slowly, painfully in the deserted graveyard.