Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Assignment #3 - Veterinary Sciences
Task #10 - Ferret: Write about a person or group of people sneaking around for some reason.
Warnings: murder, mentions of war
Further prompts are at the end.
Word Count: 1,858
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its associated universe belongs to J.K. Rowling, and not me.
"Tom!" his handler exclaims, tone so sickly-sweet and fake it makes him wonder how her superiors don't see past the act - until he remembers how completely ineffective the bureaucracy, even in Grindelwald's autocracy, is, that is. "I wanted to let you know what a lovely job you did, with the Cornelius Fudge assignment - the Ministry is calling it a death from 'natural causes', of all things! Really, really splendid work."
She pauses, though what she's waiting for, Tom has no idea. He gave up playing along with her little games years ago, once his skill was enough to assure that there would be no other choice but to turn to him, for the most difficult hits.
"Gellert himself wanted me to give you your newest assignment," Dolores says, a little disgruntled. "Discretion is extremely important - not only because there can be no hint of our involvement, but because, well, there's someone else we'd like to… take the credit. Sow a little division, between alliances."
She hands a folder to him, which he takes and skims through, and- ah. Interesting. So they want to break the new Hogwarts-Ministry alliance, by framing the Ministry for the death of one of Hogwarts' prized students. And a very specific student, too.
Tom doubts it's a coincidence that the target they've chosen for him is Harry Potter, the mer who was the greatest thorn in Dolores' side during her stint as a spy within the Ministry in an exchange of personnel between the Ministry and Hogwarts, as well as the one who blew Dolores' cover. Because her fawning, as nauseating as it always is to Tom, does get her places, and with a few whispers in the right ears…
"I also thought you ought to know," Dolores continues, obviously peeved at his lack of response, "about an execution made, just yesterday. Since he was one of your friends." Tom barely stops himself from jerking up to look at her - one of his? "Abraxas Malfoy. Found guilty of passing classified information to outsiders." She titters. "A spy, within our own forces! Can you imagine?"
Dolores knows very well that he can, because Abraxas wasn't spying for outsiders - he was passing information to Tom, part of Tom's network, the existence of which Dolores has always suspected, but has never been able to prove. Well, until now, it seems, although he doubts she's found evidence of everything because she's making oblique threats instead of outright getting him arrested.
Not that that helps stave Tom's fury, because Abraxas is - was - one of his, and now he's dead. And no one touches what that belongs to Tom.
He just barely stops himself from getting rid of Dolores, here and now, because that'd be too obvious, and would mess up so many of his plans. Even though he wants to make her suffer-
Not yet.
"Do you have any questions?" Dolores asks, faking concern.
"No, ma'am," Tom says, smiling charmingly because he knows she wants to see him seethe. "Thank you for telling me about Abraxas. And do assure Lord Grindelwald that I'll take care of this."
He can't kill her outright, yet, but he can have some small part of his revenge - or, at the very least, stop her attempts at hers.
-oOo-
Framing the Ministry is an easy enough task, even if Tom insists on holding himself to a higher standard than most assassins and not simply leaving some Ministry symbol the masses would believe signifies the Ministry's guilt - because the few intelligent merpeople at Hogwarts wouldn't believe it, and he's better at his job than that.
Instead, Tom centers his attention on the Ministry ambassadors currently residing within Hogwarts' boundaries. Through the two weeks he allots himself, he observes their movements, hidden among the students at Hogwarts that he technically, had circumstances been different, could've been one of. Then singles out one Ministry mer, for his slavish devotion to the Ministry and combat experience: John Dawlish.
Offhandedly, he notes that this really is a quite fortunate time to construct this assassination - with the previous Minister, Cornelius Fudge, dead, who knows how the Ministry's thoughts on their Hogwarts alliance might've changed?
Dawlish makes Tom's job even easier by having a set routine - because of course the Ministry is so incompetent that its ambassadors don't know the dangers of being predictable. But every Friday, the merman spends his evening at the Hog's Head, a pub in Hogsmeade, then swims to his residence in Hogwarts Castle alone.
It's easy enough, among the crowded bodies, to slip a delayed-action poison in Dawlish's drink, one that'll kill him in about an hour… right as he's headed back to the castle. Tom then drags the body to the nearby cavern he's been using as a base, takes the knife Dawlish always carries with him, as well as a vial of his blood and handful of his hair and scales, then makes his way to Hogwarts Castle, slipping into Gryffindor Tower behind a large group of students headed back from dinner. He finds an armchair in a shady corner, opens the book he's brought along just for this purpose, and waits.
Slowly, the crowded common room begins to empty, students headed to their respective dorms for the night, until he's the only one left. Just past midnight, he puts down the book and makes his way to the seventh-year boys' rooms.
Ronald Weasley. Perhaps it's cruel of him, to choose this family when they've already lost their youngest daughter, but then again, it's not like Tom cares. And the Weasleys are closer to Dumbledore than many of the other targets, plus more likely to be suspicious of the other kingdoms after what happened to Ginevra - after all, it was her siblings' memory of who she'd gotten her shiny new legs, to try and seduce that human prince, from, that had led to Hogwarts' first attack on Nuremgard. So he supposes he does have her to thank, for starting the war in the first place, because who knows how long he would've had to wait, to gain enough power to win against Dumbledore's Hogwarts or Grindelwald's Nurmengard, or even the weakest power of the Ministry, otherwise. But also, well, Ginevra's dead.
He picks the lock on Ronald's door easily, then swims toward the bed, where the redhead lies, snoring loudly. And he is merciful in this: it's quick.
And then Tom's altering the scene, making it look like there was a struggle, dropping some of Dawlish's blood, hair, and cobalt scales for the investigators to find. He'll 'discard' the knife on his way out, in some easy-to-find spot, and-
There's the quiet swishing of something, of a door opening, and he whirls around to see golden scales gleaming in the dark beneath black hair and emerald eyes framed by glasses, a figure that's all too familiar - Harry Potter.
Of course this would happen.
Harry opens his mouth, obviously to scream because it's clear from his expression that he sees Ronald's body, and Tom-
Even in hindsight, he won't know why, instead of throwing Dawlish's blood-covered knife, he hits Harry with a tranquilizing dart.
The mer's body goes slack, the moment the potion enters his system, which gives Tom the time to think instead of just react - it's probably the anger making him irrational, but he won't give Dolores the death she wants, won't kill Harry as well as Ronald. But Harry has already seen him, and there is no mistaking Tom for Dawlish, because though he could've used Polyjuice, the potion would've forced him to assume Dawlish's physical abilities as well, and there'd been no way Tom was going to carry out an assassination with such limitations. But Tom also hasn't brought any memory-modifying potions with him, which means he has two choices: kill Harry, or take the merman with him.
Thirty minutes later, there are two bodies in the abandoned cavern system. Only one is dead, of course.
He'll wait until after he's finished planting the last seeds of Dawlish's framing before he deals with Harry. (And no, he is not stalling - he has no idea how long his conversation with Harry will take, once the mer wakes up, and he has to finish the framing before they find Ronald's body. That's the only reason why.)
Tom injects more of the sleeping potion into Harry's body, enough that he won't wake for at least ten hours, then settles in to wait some more.
When morning comes, he slips into the Gryffindor common room again, this time after a group of students leaving for breakfast.
"Hey, did you see that?" he says to a passing student, eyebrows furrowed in concern.
She blinks sleepily at him. "See… what?"
"That Ministry mer. I… I could've sworn he swam by, just now, from the dorms over there. He looked kind of, well, scary. You really didn't notice?"
The power of suggestibility. "Oh yeah, I think I saw him too," the girl says quickly. "He… he was carrying something, too, I think. Something in his hand?"
"A knife?"
"I- it might've been, that. You don't think…?"
"I don't know," Tom says with a modest shrug. "But I… I wouldn't put it past those Ministry mer. Remember Umbridge?"
The girl shudders. "I know exactly what you mean. They're our allies now, but…"
He leaves her to it, to tell her friends about that Ministry mer she definitely saw, in the Gryffindor common room, coming from the boys' dorm. By the time they discover the red-headed mer's body in the dorms and start the investigation, those rumors and internal biases against the Ministry will mean that someone will come forward that they, themself, saw a Ministry merman right about when the death would've happened.
And then Tom's back at the cavern, to tie Harry up, draw some wards about the room, and wait for the mer to wake.
-oOo-
Harry gains consciousness slowly, the quiet swishing of a tail moving for balance the first thing he notices, then the rough feel of bonds around his wrists and tail, then the realization that there's hardly any light noticeable through his eyelids. It's pure habit that has him pretending to still be asleep, as he tries to figure out: what happened? He's tied up, but he's not supposed to be in danger like this, not anymore, but-
Ron.
That was what had happened - he'd stopped by Ron's room to drop off the chess board, but the door had been unlocked and he'd swam inside and then, floating there, by the body on Ron's bed had been-
"I know you're awake, Harry."
Harry opens his eyes, knowing very well that it's not a bluff, not when their training had covered situations like this and the dangers of not realizing when your opponent's feigning unconsciousness. He opens his eyes, and there, looking exactly the same as he did the last time Harry saw him, the day before Dumbledore and the Order had stormed the building where they'd been in training to become assassins for Grindelwald, he is.
"Tom."
Winter Seasonal Challenges
Days of the Year & Religious Events: January 13th - Make Your Dream Come True Day: Write about someone getting what they want.
Hot Tea Month: Assam: (AU) Mermaid
Colours: Cobalt
Locations: Hog's Head Inn
Crystals & Gemstones: Blue Howlite: (scenario) Struggling to get to sleep
Slytherin Characters: Dolores Umbridge
But Can You Spell It? A - (word) Always
Writing Club: February
Record Collection: Karma Chameleon, Culture Club: Theme: Karma
Written in the Stars: (creature) Merpeople
Book Club: Roden: (emotion) anger, (word) betrayal, (word) mercy
Showtime: No Way: (color) gold
Amber's Apothecary: (setting) on/in/near water
Liza's Loves: Rogue - Assassin!AU
Angel's Archive: U - (setting) Underwater
Scamander's Case: (color) green
Film Festival: (scenario) Death of a loved one
Lyric Alley: Blood on my shirt, heart in my hand
The Forecast Says… 6th: Snow: Petty
EnTitled: The Benders - Write about being kidnapped/abducted - alt - item: handcuffs
Hobby Hole: AU: Mermaid!AU
Would You Rather? Write about a Magical Creature OR write about a Magical Portrait?
You Get My Love: (setting) beach
Stop! Hamper Time: Cakes: Words - Scones: Smother
Stickers Club: Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem - Write about being charmed
That Lovin' Feeling: Option 1 - First argument
Resolution Evolution: Write a fic that is in an AU you've never tried before (Please state which AU you used!)
Fantasy February: Day Five - Being an assassin, I had made a number of questionable decisions in my life, but hadn't particularly thought twice about them. Well, this time was different. The further I rode off, the more I knew I was going to be made to regret kidnapping the prince instead of killing him.
365: (au) mermaid 236
Scavenger Hunt: Write a story in third person 38
Fantastic Beasts: Hippocampus - AU: Mermaid 91
