CHAPTER 8 : PARKINSON
Harry looked at the cabin and grinned. The lights were lit, he could see it through the little windows, as well as the smoke out of the chimney.
At first, he really feared that Pansy Parkinson would have switched her hiding spot for some place he would never be able to find. When he arrived at this place called Achtenfoul, he was stunned by what he found, which was quite a whole lot of nothing. It was not even a village, just two or three farms on the sides of one single road. His first thought was to search for a place where she would come and go to get food and other necessities, but there was not a single shop in sight. Maybe she was fishing and hunting ? He could not imagine the precious little Slytherin lowering herself to that kind of level, but survival was always more important that such considerations.
Flying over the land on his broom, Harry did a whole sweep of recon, until he found an hotel on the edge of a very, very small road. He landed a few hundreds meters away our of safety, and walked his way to the building. To his surprise, it was not abandonned, far from it. The pale yellow paint on the outside walls looked recent enough, and the muggle car parked outside was brand new. Taking a deep breath, Harry went in.
"Hoy, kiddo! Watcha doing here? Never seen ya before, amIrit?"
It took the young wizard a few second to catch what the man behind the desk was saying. The accent was not really scottish, it was something different that he could not really recognize.
"Right you are, Sir" he answered with his most charming smile. "It's my first time so far up north in the country."
"Aye! Perfect dan! Come! Come taka seat woul ya! You need a room ar something? Did not hear no car outside! Whare dya come from?"
The man did not looked that old, barely in the end of his fourties, but his lips seemed to have been torn by the northern wind, and his skin tanned by the arctic sun. His hands were clean, but damaged and shaking a bit. This did not look like the hands of a wizard, but those of an honnest hard working muggle. After a quick look, Harry decided not to let this last too long.
"Actually no. I'm just searching for a young girl. My age, dark hair, coming from you seen her around ? I have been told that she sometimes stayed in this region."
"Oh ya must talk abat Miss Parkinson, aren't ya? Af course I've seen her ! She cames here every two days to get food and supplies far her and her father!"
Harry froze for a second. Her father was supposed to be dead. His body was found in the grass outside the castle.
"Her father? Is here too? Have you seen him?"
"Af course nat! Ya know he's very sick, rit? The good lass takes care of him. Said the northern air would help him get better. She's rit, ya know? Nothing like the pure air af Scotland to revive a man!"
"Oh!" said Harry, taking a disappointed look on his face. "I hoped that he was feeling good enough to come here by himself."
"Nat yet, sadly! Good man ya know? Sir Parkinson. Used to came here a lot back dan, when da lass was just a kiddo and his wife still alive. Haven't seen em in years, until she showed up four months ago."
"Spending the holidays at the cabin, i guess."
"Rit indeed! My father owned da hotel back dan. Now it's me, and I'm very glad to have em around again! I thought they'd be back in town by now, but na, still here! "
He suddenly looked suspicious.
"But ya didn't tell me. What dya want with em? Ya aint no looking for trouble, are ya?"
Harry raised his hand with a smile. "Not a all", he said. "Actually, I came to deliver a good news ! It took a long time, but Mr Parkinson has ben approved for the new trials ! He's not out of the woods yet, but the new treatment will give him a better chance against the sickness!"
" Arent ya a little young to be a doctor, kiddo?"
"Well I look younger for sure. And I'm no doctor just yet, just an intern. That's why I'm the guy they send to the end of the world to go and fetch him! Not that I complain, the trip was nice and the place is beautiful! "
"Sure is, kiddo. Sure is."
"Now, would you happen to know where is Mrs Parkinson's cabin? The sooner i get to them, the sooner he will be in London to be treated"
"Alrit. Look, if ya follow the road, in two hundred meters ya'll have a path on yar left... I haven't been there for a while now, but if I recall, after five minutes, ya turn right..."
His instructions were hesitant; but clear enough. Harry would find her before dusk.
Now that he could see the smoke out of the chimney, he felt a bolt of joy and satisfaction in his blood. Sun was slowly setting, but sheltered from its light by the trees, he was hidding in the darkness and shivering from the winter's cold. He's main worry was about the possibility of Pansy not being alone. He could have use he spell Hermione showed him at Grimmauld Place, but he did not want to leave any magical trace. The Memory Charm he used on the hotel owner was already too much, but he had to.
Now, after watching from a safe distance for an hour, and seing her silhouette only once through the window, he was pretty sure that she was alone. It was time to take his shot.
Silently, he made his move to the door of the wooden cabin. From upclose, it looked really cosy, clean and warm. Pansy Parkinson probably worked her magic to make it feel like a home, and the closest to her standard as possible.
Hidden under the cloak, Harry knocked on the door. Hard, and three times, to make sure she would not think it was a trick of her mind. He heard her move inside the cabin, and braced himself.
"Mr Brock?" she said, opening the door by a few centimeters. Harry could barely see her eye. Of course, no Mr Brock to answer her, so, logically and to Harry's disappointment, she closed it back. Refraining his groan of frustration, he knocked again. This time, she came out to have a look at the surroundings, and therefore opening the perfect path inside for invisible Harry.
When she came back in, she looked shaken up, worried. She closed the door tied, and used a spell to make sure nobody would force it. Too bad the threat was already inside. She sat in the old leather chair, next to the fire, and stared at the flames, providing Harry a good look a her face.
She looked tired, exhausted even, and thinner than he remember. Her hair were longer, dark as the night, but still clean and taken care of. So were her fingernails, leading him to think that she was still caring of her apperance, even with nobody to see her. Her clothes were clean, elegant and warm. All made him think that she was not used to live as an outcast yet.
She took a parchment of a pile sitting on the table, and started to write by the light of the fire. Harry grabed the only pan he could see in the kichen, and while she could not see him in her back, he approached silently, and hit hard on the back of her head.
When she woke up, Pansy's head was hurting like a bitch. She could feel the dry blood on the back of her neck. She tried to massage her scalp, but she couldn't. She realized that she was tied up tight to her chair, back to the fire, and facing a blur figure in the dark. She shook her head, trying to get her senses back and her vision to stabilize. When the shapes around her stopped dancing, she finally got a good look at her attacker, and recognized the scar in half a second.
"Potter." she whispered. "What's going on?"
He sat down on the table, his hands on his knees.
"Pansy. Nice to see you again. It's been a while, I reckon. Almost 6 months now, isn't it?"
"What the fuck is happening? Untie me, by Merlin's name!"
"Oh right ! You must have missed giving orders, staying here all alone. I understand why you would jump onto the occasion. But sadly, those orders will not be obeyed. As a matter of fact, I strongly advice you not to try that again."
"Untie me you lunicatic ! Right now!"
She saw Harry moving her way, and she had a glimpse of hope that he would, indeed, untie her. She barely noticed the slight movement of his right hand, and went right into shock when his fist collided with her cheek and threw her onto the ground. Face on the floor, it took two seconds to feel the pain and understand what actually happened. Then came the taste of the blood in her mouth, and the horror when she realized the weird thing she needed to spit was one of the tooth. As tears came up her eyes, firm hands caught her by the collar and dragged her back up.
"Alright, let's try this again" said Potter. "I want you to tell me everything you know about the Death Eaters. Malfoy. Crabbe, Goyle, Dolohov. Meeting places. Gold stashes. Hideouts."
But Parkinson spat blood on his shoes, and put on a narky smile.
"You fucking psycho. I don't know anything about them, about any of this. You're wasting your time, Potter!"
But Harry expected that much, and so he drew out of his coat the very same knife he used on Milicent Bulstrode. Despite being prepared for that answer, he started to feel the anger rising. He spent so much time waiting, waiting and waiting again, just to get a hold on her. He wasn't feeling like taking kindly any shape of resistance. Seing her smile, teeth spoiled red, and the spark of madness in her eyes, Harry felt the wave of hate rising in his heart. He knew he needed to be careful, not to let her trick him into making a mistake, but he really wanted to smack her face into the ground and destroy that pretty face of hers.
"Look, Pansy. You're not the first Slytherin I interrogate. Milicent talked after a few seconds, and Daphne did not even try to put up a fight. That's right, Daphne Greengrass. Your so-called best friend sold you out and I didn't even need to draw the knife. Now, I'm guessing you will try to do a better job, but trust me, it will not be worth it. So I'm asking once again, where would a Death Eater on the run like Dolohov hide. Who would help him ?"
But Parkinson was still processing the new of her friend betraying her. Only the slap on her already bruised cheek brought her back to reality.
"Go to fucking hell, Potter!"
The knife into her thigh surprised her. She did not think that Harry Potter would carry through his threat. But he did, and the pain was unimmaginable. She yelled, and started crying. Then, the cries turned into a psychotic, nervous laugh.
"You're fucking mad, Potter ! What do you think ? That I was the Dark Lord's confident? Or that I was in charge of the whole logicistic? I don't know shit ! "
She tried to fight back when she saw Harry reaching for her foot and taking her shoe of, but the tied ankle gave her no room for that. She felt the horror overtaking her as he took her sock then, but before she could fear any kind of sexual perversion, she felt the blade against her little toe.
"Please don't..." she started. But her sentence turned into a powerful scream of pain, as Potter slashed it off. Blood poured out in an impressive amount, and she felt that she was going to faint. She wanted to, she prayed the gods to let her fall into darkness, but the pain would not let her. She scream so much that her throat was starting to hurt, of course not enough to forget the pain for her feet and her thigh.
"Pansy, Pansy, listen to me. I don't mind killing you, even if you don't give me an answer. I will find an other way. But if you can make my life easier, I can spare you all this trouble. Now for the last BLOODY TIME ! TELL ME WHERE TO FIND DOLOHOV AND THE OTHER DEATH EATERS!"
His yell was powerfull. Primitive, full of anger and determination.
"I don't fucking now!" she screamed, still looking at her missing toe lying on the floor. "I was never part of the whole thing ! My father was ! I just joined them to find him, make sure nothing happened to him!"
"And instead you tried to kill other student in the name of Voldemort!"
"I did not! Bloody fucking hell Potter! I did not even draw my wand that night ! I wanted to give you over, sure! But I did not cast any fucking spell ! I was just searching for my father ! I did not kill, did not hurt anybody!"
But when Harry sighed with disappointment, she added: " But I wished that I did! You fucking suckers disgust me ! The dark Lord should have killed you all that night ! All these mudbloods, traitors and vermines are soiling our school, our land ! My father was right, you are all fucking despicable! And you! You fucking Harry Potter ! I always knew you were not the hero everybody was talking about! You're juste another rat ! A fucking psycho! They will catch you for what you did to me ! You will rot in Azkaban, where you belong!"
Harry, remembering his good maners, let her talk and finish her piece. Once she was finished and started choking on her swallowed tears and blood, he smiled and got closer. He grabbed her jaw with his left hand and pressed hard to force her to open her mouth. Then, in a single sweep, he pierced both her cheeks with the blade, from one side to the other. Her eyes opened wide, tears stopped flowing under the shock, and when he took the knife out of her mouth, she almost drowned in her own blood. The pain was so terrible that it almost made her numb, on the edge of consciousness.
"Alright", he said. "That's enough. I am tired, Pansy, it took me lots of efforts to find you here. Now, I believe you that you don't know anything, you were convincing. However, you always were a big pain in the ass, a bully, and a danger to everyone. I don't know if you actually fought or not during the battle, but I will not take any chances here."
"Screw you!"
That was her last word, as he plundged the knife into her heart.
He then took Daphne's necklace out of his pocket, and left it on the ground, along the two last hairs of Marcus Flint. Without a single look back, he went to his broom and started his journey back home, in the cold December night.
PANSY PARKINSON : HER MURDERER UNDER ARREST.
There are few Christmas tales at tragic as this one, tales we would rather not have to write. Last Friday, we were reporting the discovery of the young Miss Pansy Parkinson, daughter of Alfred and Mandy Parkinson, horribly mutilated in the family's cabin in Northern Scotland. But today, a bit of confort was brought to her friends and family, as justice was served, and her killer brought to justice.
Pansy Parkinson was a young girl from Slytherin 91', alongside Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass. She had lost her mother at a young age and, more recently, her father, during the terrible events known as the "Battle of Hogwarts". As some would argue that she, as her father, was fighting in the Dark Lord's name, her friends described her as a nice and caring person that tried nothing more, and nothing less, than to help and protect the ones dear to her heart. After the loss of her father, the grieving teenager decided to retreat into solitude, at her family's estate in Scotland.
At this tragical life, a tragical end was brought to her by a monster. A young man, named Marcus Flint, was this morning arrested and charged with her torture and murder. During the police statement, the newly appointed Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Sigurd Sorenson, explained that a locket belonging to Miss Daphne Greengrass was found at the crime scene, along with two unidentified hair. After interrogation, Mrs Greengrass admited that the jewel had been stolen from her by Marcus Flint, just before forcing her into revealing Mrs Parkinson's location. After comparison, the hair found at the crime scene were, obviously, a perfect match to his.
Flint was a Slytherin as well, from the 1987 promotion. Average student, he reached the postion of Quidditch Captain, but never managed to pursue a professionnal career. Working at Hogsmeade's Spintwitches Sporting Needs, he was spotted, a week before these tragical events, picking a fight with several students of Hogwarts and Harry Potter himself.
Despite Flint claiming his innocence, and his lawyer assuring that the young man is ready to testify under Veritaserum (despite the well-known fact that it would not be accepted in court), Mr Sorenson seemed confident about his case and assured to every reporter that justice would be served.
Mr Flint's trial have been planned for next June, until which he would remain at Azkaban.
As Christmas arrives, let's hope that this new would ease the pain of the ones mourning the passing of Pansy Parkinson.
John Wolf, for the Daily Prophet.
A/N : Second chapter in a week, that feels good ! Now I have to go back to my other fanfic, The Siblings Of Metal ( feel free to have a look!) but I will be back soon for more ! Harry's dark journey is far from over !