Thankee for those who hath reviewed, it would be amazingly wondrous if other people could too D (big fat hint).

Your last words to me "tonight's the night" meant redemption was harder than it looks, so take care of what you love and all this stuff are remnants of a life in shattered glass, it's all I have to ask. Die Romantic - Aiden

Chapter 8: Masquerade

Veronique walked along the corridor back to Gryffindor tower. She was seething. Snape knew, Snape knew everything. How dare he tell her what she should and shouldn't do? He wasn't her guardian; he was just a friend of her parents. He didn't have the right to tell her what to do. Who did he think he was?

Maybe he was right though. Maybe joining the Dark Lord was the stupidest thing she'd ever done. She'd always prided herself on her good judgement, but now the seed of doubt had been placed in her mind. She'd joined the Death Eaters, the most feared witches and wizards in the world. Why? To seek out her revenge on the people who had murdered her parents and made her and her brothers life a complete misery. Could she have done that without joining the Death Eaters? And what would Sky think? She knew exactly what he'd think, and it was not something she wanted to dwell on.

She was nearly at the portrait hole when her arm began to burn. She swore and grabbed at it with her right hand. She glanced around to ensure no one was around and disappeared.

It was the last night of term and the feast had just ended. Harry, Ron and Hermione walked along the corridor laughing at nothing in particular. Professor McGonagall walked up to them.

"Right you three," she said, "if you could go to the Headmaster's room, your luggage will be sent along separately. Come along, quickly now." She ushered them up the corridor and along to where Dumbledore's office was. They walked in to find the Veero twins, the Weasley twins and Ginny already there along with the Headmaster and Snape. Snape was glaring at Veronique who stared resolutely at the floor, deliberately ignoring his gaze.

"Ah, welcome to the last of us," said Dumbledore smiling at the last arrivals. "Now we are ready. We are taking a port key to Highton Manor, though not altogether. Miss Veero, Master Veero, Professor Snape, if you would like to go first. Thank you."

Sky, Veronique and Snape took hold of a small golden chain and disappeared three seconds later. They appeared in a large hallway, obviously the entrance to the Manor. The ceiling was high and there was a large, very grand mahogany staircase sweeping along into the hall from the upper floor. Veronique looked around, smiling slightly. Sky also seemed happy to be home.

"I'll go upstairs and see everyone's rooms are ready," he said and ran off up the stairs.

Veronique stopped Snape who began to follow him. "Sir," she said. He stared at her and she sighed. "Look, I'm not going to bother pretending. You know my orders, I request that you keep Sky from coming downstairs; I don't really care how you do it short of physical violence."

"This is madness," he snapped frowning at her.

She shrugged. "All the same, I must follow my orders. I promise that I will do all I can to stop Potter and co. from being hurt. We aren't supposed to anyway. Please, I just don't want Sky to find out."

He glared at her and sighed. "I don't know why, but alright. I'll stop him from going downstairs; it will save both our skins I suppose. He'll find out sometime you know."

"Thank you Sir. I know he will, but for the moment I'd rather he was ignorant, please, go now, I must leave."

Snape whirled around and ran up the steps two at a time to find Sky and Veronique disappeared.

Harry and the others arrived in the same entrance hall. The place was full of order members, and Sirius and Remus greeted them warmly.

"Is this where the twins live?" asked George. Sirius nodded in reply. He didn't seem overly happy about where he was. He walked over to Moody, a small frown playing over his face.

"I don't like it," he whispered. "Something's wrong, very wrong. I can't place it, but be on the look out." Moody nodded called the order members over to him for a quick talk. They only noticed something was wrong when Hermione and Ginny screamed.

They were surrounded and incredibly outnumbered. There were twenty Order officials, plus the Weasley twins, Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny, and they were surrounded by about fifty Death Eaters.

"I thought you said that this place was warded, you said nobody could apparate or disapparate here," Moody growled. Remus was about to reply when a harsh female voice cut in.

"Oh you needn't worry about that Moody, this place is definitely warded. We didn't apparate here." Every Order member and Hogwarts student turned to face the speaker. The speaker, obviously a young woman, was dressed entirely in a black robe with a mask over the tope half of her face, covering her eyes, forehead, nose and cheeks. At either side of her waist hung two magnificent swords. There was no sign of a wand. She was obviously the person in charge, the death Eaters awaited only her command to attack.

She turned, a cruel smile playing on her lips. Then she nodded. All hell broke loose.

Ten Order members immediately surrounded Harry and his friends, the other ten began deflecting the attacks of the Death Eaters.

"There's no hope!" yelled Harry above the noise. "They're too outnumbered." Then he had an idea. "Hey, start shooting curses at them!" Ron and Hermione nodded and reached for their wands.

"Stop!" yelled Remus. "Stop, you can't do that, you aren't allowed to do magic, the Ministry will find out."

"But-" Harry began.

"No Harry," Remus said firmly, "no magic. I forbid it!"

Veronique was acting out of reflex now. She had tossed away her robe and remained entirely in plain black clothing, out of the Hogwarts uniform in which she had arrived. Her wand was in her pocket, but she wasn't using it. She turned this way and that swinging her swords. Many of the Order members had to transfigure something handy such as watches or jackets into swords in order to deflect her attack. Her eyes had glazed over, she had only one thing on her mind; attack.

Two aurors went down under her sword; Kellick and Johnston. She moved on to another auror. There was a pattern in her movements; she only went for aurors, and only those who had killed her father. She was getting her revenge.

The accompanying Death Eaters had been given strict instructions not to attack the Hogwarts students, particularly not Harry Potter, and not to kill. The only person who would be doing the killing would be Veronique.

Lucius Malfoy was there and he saw his chance to get one of the Weasley twins. Crowley, an auror who had been in the circle of those surrounding the students had been stabbed in the chest and neck by Veronique's whirling swords, leaving a gap in the circle between Tonks and Remus. He raised his wand and began the incantation of the killing curse. He felt something hit his head hard and almost fell. When he looked around he saw a furious Veronique standing there, sword raised; she had hit him with the hilt.

"What do you think you're doing?" she screamed above the chaos. "Your orders were not to kill, so obey them before I knock you out and report you to the Dark Lord. We're so close to finishing this, only Moody remains, don't mess it up now! That's an order." She turned and ran off to where Moody was fighting Macnair. Macnair went down, unconscious and Moody turned. Veronique was facing his back.

Remus saw her run towards Moody and knew he was in danger, he ran from the protective circle. He had his suspicions about this Death Eater, he'd been watching her throughout the fight and, if she was who he thought she was, he'd been watching her closely at Hogwarts too. He stopped in front of her, facing her. She raised her sword to strike and faltered. Remus stared at her, a small frown on his face. She stood there, her sword raised.

"Veronique," he said quietly

She stared at him and suddenly gave out a gasp. She seemed to slump forward; both swords fell to the floor. Remus leaned forward and pulled the mask off of her face. She gave a scream and fell to her knees. The Death Eaters disappeared.