Chapter Twelve – Blood Drops
"Okay, how did you find out?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes heaven ward.
"Er..."
"Well tell me now, or I'm gonna have to turn to necromancy to get an answer after I've killed you and that would just be so tedious and time consuming... though I could probably commission one." Harry added musingly, looking between the now shocked Death Eater and his hand that now had a flame on it."
"No wait! I knew it was you because who else has those eyes!"
"Oh god, you don't buy Witch Weekly do you?" Harry asked, wrinkling his nose and ignoring Flees and Draco when they started laughing behind him, and knowing that they were probably leaning on one another, because they both clearly needed help.
"What! No!"
"Well thank god for that, though you are rather hot considering you spent god knows how long in Azkaban." Harry added, looking Rabastan up and down and grinning wolfishly, before Draco growled, dragged him and away and glared at them both.
"Will you stop hitting on the victim! You are my mate! Not his! Don't even think it or I will ground you!" Draco hissed, the temperature in the room lowering dramatically.
Harry looked down at the ground and nibbled his lower lip before glancing back up at Draco sheepishly. "Sorry Draco. Can I get back to killing him now?"
"Yes, but please do find out how he knew it was you without having to resort to Necromancy, I don't think the wizarding world would appreciate a Dark saviour." Draco pointed out, before walking up to him, giving him a hard kiss and then stepping back to where he was standing before, next to Flees.
"Right, erm... where was I?' Harry asked after catching his breath and still having a dazed look about him. Flees snorted with laughter behind him. "Oh yes, right, tell me how you knew I was well... um... me and I will... well I'll kill you anyway, but um... I suppose I can make it quick and painless if you do tell me!" Harry said with a dazzling smile.
"Alright! I'll tell you! Jeeze, you sure as hell have the Black genes in you." Rabastan said, swinging his legs over the side of his bed, which told them all that he was waiting for them.
"How did you know we were coming tonight?" Draco asked, stepping forward and possessively taking Harry's hand.
"I didn't, I don't know any Death Eaters that actually sleep at night anymore, not since you hit four houses at once. We all sleep in the day and pretend to sleep at night hoping to catch you. Even the Dark Lord calls us at night now."
"Great, we'll just have to kill you all in the day or something." Harry said, waving his hand nonchalantly.
"Er... you have lessons during the day."
"Hello, Hogsmeade weekends." Harry said, as though Flees was stupid.
"Riiight. Whatever."
"Anyway! How did you know it was me?" Harry asked, directing the questioning back to the direction it should be heading.
"I told you! I would know those eyes anywhere!"
"How! You, Death Eater. My Mum, Muggleborn. Not exactly the best of friends." Harry said, passing a flame from one hand to the other.
"It was Sirius Black. He and I were... together."
"You and my er... second father?"
"Yes! When we were fifteen we started to go out. As we were both Purebloods and from well respected families, it was accepted, so they started to plan our engagement." Rabastan said, sighing and rubbing his face with his hands.
"But Sirius left when he was seventeen."
"Yes, and we were told that the wedding was off and we weren't to see each other again. We denied them."
"But, you're... you! A death eater!"
"Yes. I wasn't as strong as Sirius, I wasn't the oldest, so I couldn't just run away like he did. I wasn't intelligent as him and I certainly didn't have James Potter as my best friends, so I couldn't do anything. I was made to join the Dark Lord with my brother and Sirius decided to keep on seeing me behind my parents back."
"So then what happened? You faked torturing the Longbottoms? Voldemort was gone! You could have pleaded innocence of your crimes! Lucius did!"
"Sirius was in Azkaban, my brother saw I was depressed and worked out what was going on. Sadly Bellatrix and Barty came up with the brilliant idea of finding out where their Lord was and dragged me and my brother along for the ride. We didn't actually do any of the torturing and we hid the child saying that we couldn't find him, and then we went downstairs to where Barty and Bella were."
"Then what happened? Why didn't you get tried with Veritaserum?"
"Why was Sirius Black convicted and he was innocent? They didn't use Veritaserum for people they thought were Death Eaters once they were caught. They were put straight into Azkaban. My cell was next to Sirius'. I think the guard knew us at school and thought that we would be reunited. He stayed sane and believed me and Rodolphus when we told him we had nothing to do with it. He told us how to stay sane ourselves. And then he went."
"Did you see him outside of Azkaban?"
"No. He was... gone before I could get a chance to see him." Rabastan said, looking down at his hands.
"How did you know I was me, if that makes any sense." Harry added, repeating the sentence over in his head and then shaking it when he saw that it was futile to make him seem sane.
"You think your parents didn't know about me? Don't be naïve. James, Lily and Remus knew. Peter didn't because he was a bit homophobic. He had started acting strange around Sirius when we were engaged but when we split up publicly he started acting normal around him again."
"SO you saw me as a baby?"
"I was there when they performed the adoption ritual with Sirius. I was the witness as they thought that Remus was the spy at that point and Peter couldn't be for some reason, not that he was considered to be honest. You were a very happy child and I'm so sorry at what happened."
"Meh, it's in the past. SO what do we do now? I mean, I'd feel kinda bad killing you, and all." Harry said, shrugging and then looking over his shoulder at Flees, who also shrugged and then glanced at Draco next to him, who was looking at Rabastan with narrowed eyes.
"What would you have us do Mr Lestrange?"
"I have no idea. To be honest I have nothing left to live for. So I don't care."
"Well that's depressing." Flees muttered, making Harry try to hide a smile and glare at the cat over his shoulder.
"Well I'm not going to kill you and all. It would make me feel bad and then I'd have that on my conscience and to be honest, I really don't want it there." Harry said plainly.
"What you do now however is your choice. You can continue the good work and purge the wizarding world of... well everyone at this rate, or you could run away, never to be found again. I here Chicago is nice. They have musicals." Harry said, nodding and grinning at him.
"Not having parents left you unbalanced didn't it Harry?" Draco asked, looking at him as though he had grown another head.
"Well yes maybe. I think it was a mixture of that and possible being hit over the head and shaken one too many times."
"You were beaten as a child? Oh god! I'll never be able to live with myself if you were." Rabastan exclaimed, looking at Harry in horror.
"Then you can relax my little Death Eatery friend. I wasn't beaten, I was a little shit. When I did something wrong I was either shaken by my aunt and then shoved in my cupboard or I was hit over the head by my uncle and shoved into my cupboard." Harry said, smiling widely at having allayed the man's fears, though the smile dropped when he saw everyone in the room was looking at him in horror. "What?"
"Your cupboard?"
"Yeah it was great! Everyone else had a bedroom but I had my very own cupboard under the stairs. I even had friends that were spiders. They were very friendly and used to dance for me."
"Pardon?"
"They danced. Well I actually think it was my breathing making them shake on their cobwebs but at the time I thought they were dancing."
"Aw bless your twisted childhood." Flees said, patting him on the head when he stepped forward.
"Right. Well then Rab, can I call you Rab? Or would you prefer Stan?" Harry asked.
"Well I'd prefer neither but if you insist then I suppose Stan would be better."
"Ah good, I thought you were gonna go with Rab for a second and I had this uncontrollable urge to add C Nesbit on the end." Harry said, snickering at his joke. "Anyway, what do you want to do? The choice is yours! Duh duh da duh duuh duh." Harry said, humming the i Countdown /i tune and getting odd looks form all of them.
"Er... Well how about I return to being a Death Eater-"
"Eh Errrrrr!" Harry said, imitating the noise off of family fortunes. "Wrong answer I'm afraid."
"I wasn't finished." Rabastan deadpanned.
"Oh sorry, continue." Harry said, laughing sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck.
"Thank you. As I was saying, I could return to the Death Eaters and act as a spy for you."
"Well we already have one." Harry said, weighing up his options.
"Severus Snape?"
"How did you know that?" Harry said, suddenly serious and glowing an eerie orange colour.
"Er... everyone suspects it. You just proved me right." Rabastan said, moving away from Harry. "How about I make sure no one suspects him."
"How?"
"By helping him to prove his loyalty. I don't know! I can help him out, suggest to the Dark Lord that perhaps Severus' skills in potions would be better if he was allowed more time to experiment instead of going out on raids."
"They're actually called Raids? I thought that was a joke." Harry asked, wrinkling his nose at the name and then snickering. "How unoriginal."
"It works. What do you think?"
"Fine, do everything you can to make sure Snape isn't suspected of anything. If it doesn't seem to be working, tell me. I don't care how you tell me, but do it and as soon as you realise that it isn't working. Get your brothers help on it as well if you think he will help."
"He will. He never wanted to be a Death Eater either."
"Good, and on the battle field of the final battle, kill everyone you can get your hands on, of the Death Eaters."
"Will do."
"Good. It was nice doing business with you and I'm truly sorry about Sirius." Harry said and then disappeared with a puff of smoke, with a small spark in the middle. Flees and Draco following quickly after.
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The rest of the week went quickly, with Hermione slowly becoming more of a part of the group and all of them meeting in the common room of Harry and Draco's rooms. It was Saturday when the small group landed the bombshell to Draco and Harry.
Hermione looked around her at the others in the room, they had all decided, that for some reason, she would be the one to ask them, and so here she was, waiting for the opportune moment to pop the question.
"Harry. Draco. We have all come to a decision."
"And what's that?"
"We want to become Silent Killers."
"Huh?" came Harry's eloquent response.
"We want to be Silent Killers, we want to help in this war and not do nothing." Pansy said, taking over from her new found best friend.
"Why?"
"Because we feel helpless?" Seamus suggested, getting murmurs of agreement form the other eight.
"But it would be ridiculous, eleven of us trying to sneak into a house and kill one person."
"Not if we split into groups of four and three." Blaise suggested lightly, making Harry raise his eyebrow at him.
"Four?"
"Yes, you, Draco and Flees heading up a team each." Blaise explained, making Draco narrow his eyes at his firend.
"You've thought this through haven't you?"
"Of course we have. We wanted to make sure that you couldn't say no!" Theo admitted with a grin.
"And what? Take on a house each? How would we communicate with each other?"
"Actually, I like the idea and communicating with each other is easy. I take Slinky with me on my team and so you can communicate with him, I can communicate with Flees and Slinky, we'll be able to communicate and we'll each have four people on a team."
"Er.. Slinky's a snake." Hermione pointed out lightly.
"Well noticed Herm. So's Flees though and I don't see any of you diputing that he could lead a team."
"He's an Anthrofeline. I've never heard of an Anthroserpent."
"Tahts because there isn't such a thing, Slinky is simply an animagus Demon." Flees explained, getting looks of shock from everyone in the room bar Harry.
"Pardon? Are you telling me that my familiar is an animagus demon?"
"Yep. He was sent to check up on you by Tartarus himself apparently. He was also my best friend a couple of years back and I was the one to give him the nickname Slinky." Flees added, grinning at Draco toothily.
"Oh my god, so what can he control?"
"Air I think." Flees said, frowning in concentration and then shrugging. "Oi! Bal!"
"Bal?"
"You don't think Slinky or Anguis are his real names do you? I've already told you I gave him the name Slinky so what did you think his name was?"
"I never gave it much thought." Draco admitted, shrugging his shoulders and then staring in shock when a tall tanned man with jet black, long hair with silver tips walked in and eyes that were black with a white pupil.
"Hey Draco, Dean." Slinky said, winking at the stunned Gryffindor, and then looking at Harry who was snickering in his seat and thus focusing all the attention on to him as well.
"Hang on! Harry! How long have you known and not told me?"
"Well do you reall think I am sick enough to encourage a relationship between my friend and a snake? Come on! I'm Parseltongue, which is why he was chosen, and he told me why he was there in the petshop. SO I bought him. I've known form the beginning but I wasn't allowed ot tell anyone."
"Why not?"
"I dunno. I just wasn't."
"He wasn't allowed to tell you because you weren't ready to be told. However, Things are progressing quicker than we had anticipated and so I think it is safe for yo to know now. So how does Harry's idea suit everyone? I stay in contact with Draco and Harry stays in contact with catboy over there?"
"Sound like a good idea then. Who do we target first?"
"McNair." Harry said suddenly, remembering the name of the Death Eater sent to kill Buckbeak and Sirius.
"Goyle Snr." Pansy said.
"My father." Draco finally added, getting a range of looks, from shocked to understanding from everyone in the room.
"Then those are our first targets. We'll do them next weekend, first you lot need to practice to become demons."
"I don't see why, when our only witnesses are going to be dead." Seamus pointed out lightly.
"Because it will be nice and orderly if we all appear to be demons, okay?"
"Alright fine. So what do we have planned today?"
"CSI!"
"Pardon?" Draco deadpanned, looking at his Mate as though he were crazy, which was highly possible.
"Well I think I may have worked out a way to get Muggle technology to work in Hogwarts, so if so let's watch CSI!" Harry said, practically bouncing with excitement.
"You just don't et up do you?" Draco asked, shaking his head in exasperation.
"It's a flaw." Harry told him sagely, before cracking up, Dean laughing behind him and both getting funny looks from everyone else in the room.
"I think they've both finally gone crazy." Hermione said, shaking her head sadly.
"I don't think Harry's ever actually i been /i sane in the first place to be fair." Seamus pointed out, getting several noises of agreement from around him.
"It's a shame really and so young." Flees said with an exaggerated sad voice.
"You know, we are both still in the same room as you lot and can hear what you're saying. It's not our fault that you are all so sad not to get the joke." Harry added, smirking at Dean as he snorted into his hand.
"Harry's right, you're all just too sad and Pureblooded to get the joke." Dean added, looking at Slinky/Bal warily when he noticed that he had gotten closer to him.
"Do we have to watch CSI? Can't we just talk, get t each other a little better. I mean you may all have lived together for some of the summer, but I didn't so I want to hear about you." Hermione said brightly, getting groans from everyone else.
"Oh do we have to? Can we not just talk about random things and memories?" Harry asked, whinging slightly and curling up into Draco's side.
"Fine, whatever. Harry, how come everyone in the Order thought Ollivander was your father?"
"Heh, because he told them I was his son. I became something of the son he never had during the summer before sixth year. I was always in Diagon and after he hid me when the Order nearly caught me, I visited him nearly every day and started to invite him to my bi-weekly Poker nights." Harry told her simply.
"Poker nights?"
"Yeah, apparently, Potter here has been holding Poker nights for quite a while, we were all privileged to join in on the last one he held." Pansy said, grinning at the clueless muggleborn.
"Harry! You were holding Poker nights at the Dursleys?" How did you get away with that!?"
"Well the people I invited were qualified wizards, so I got them to enlarge my room and cast silencing charms for the night." Harry told her simply.
"How did you get into Diagon Alley without anyone recognising you?"
"Heh, hang on a minute and I'll show you." Harry said before jumping up and running into his bedroom. A few minutes later, a completely different person walked out, with golden eyes, light brown hair and soft features. "Meet, Romulus Lupin. The estranged nephew of Remus Lupin."
"What! I saw you at the Order house and you never spoke to us!" Hermione exclaimed in shock, standing up and putting her fists on her hips. Harry shook his head and removed the glamour as he did, leaving him with his regular yellow and black hair.
"I couldn't really, if anyone was going to recognise me, then it would have been you. So I acted shy and left with my 'Uncle Remmy' as soon as I could. After all I was a werewolf and only just getting used to the changes I was experiencing."
"Oh yeah, that's what Remus told everyone. Apparently, he said, his sister who he hadn't had contact with for years, had a son that he didn't know about but had sought out his uncle when he was bitten." Hermione said, remembering what Remus had told everyone in the Order.
"Yeah, so when Uncle Remmy was in his meetings, I went into Diagon Alley to look around. Of course I returned back to my mother at the end of summer." Harry said, grinning mischievously.
"I cannot believe you fooled everyone! Even Dumbledore!"
"Yeah but I almost didn't fool Mad Eye." Harry said bitterly, sitting back down in his seat and sulking.
"Aw! Well you did a bang up job, I saw you around Diagon and scoped you out a bit actually, but alas, I was Draco Malfoy and so I thought that you had probably heard of me and told to stay away." Draco said, dramatically placing his hand to his forehead.
"Heh, you're probably right. Either that or I would have hit on you shamelessly to hide the fact that I was Harry Potter. Actually, I avoided you like the plague. If anyone in Diagon Alley was going to know who I was, it would have been you." Harry said simply when Draco looked indignant.
"So why did Remus come every fortnight to see you last year Pots?" Blaise asked, getting comfy next to Seamus.
"He's my Godfather and I had just lost my um... adoptive father, he had every right to visit every so often to check that I was okay. Plus he was training me." Harry added as an after thought.
"What!" Everyone in the room looked at him in shock, including Flees and Bal.
"What? You don't think Dumbledore would let his Saviour go out there without any formal training. Yeah, Remus trained me in Battle Magic. It was rather fun."
"Rather fun?" Draco drawled, looking at Harry with a bemused expression on his face.
"Yeah, I got to blow things up. Great fun!"
"Whatever."
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Remus settled down comfortably in Severus' leather couch and looked into his mug of tea.
"So what did you teach him last year?"
"What's to say I was teaching him anything?" Remus asked lightly, not taking his eyes of his tea.
"Oh come on, I was teaching him Occlumency, I wasn't joking when I said I had been in his mind. I i know /i about Romulus, so I know you were training him in something. Just not what."
"Fine fine. I was training him in Battle Magic. He was extremely good at it as well. A natural even."
"Doesn't surprise me. That boy manages to be a natural at everything new he tries."
"Except being a Demon." Remus pointed out with a snicker, getting an evil smirk from Severus in return.
"Except that, yes Flees was telling me that he has been having quite some difficulty with that one."
"I wonder what is wrong with him. He doesn't normally have difficulty picking things up."
"No. I think that perhaps something is holding him back. Flees suggested as much when I asked him."
"SO you and Flees have lots of conversations like this then?"
"Yes, he visits me at least once a week, and I know Bal does the same to you."
"You know about Balthazar?"
"I do indeed."
"Hmm, odd that his Mate is good friends with Harry."
"Perhaps. Maybe it was just luck."
"You do not believe in Luck Severus."
"True. I do know that they were both found for a reason, whatever that may be. Strange that my godsons familiar went to you and your godsons familiar came to me."
"Not really, though I do think they were both here for alternative reasons. Flees especially, there is something about the way he is constantly watching Harry that makes me think he isn't just a familiar."
"Well it's notoriously difficult for people to get Anthorfelines as Familiars, but then again, Harry is a Demon and the Anthrofelines were servants to that species."
"Hmm... maybe."
"How did you and Harry make up your differences?"
"He told you. We had to get along for Occlumency and after he apologised for looking in my Pensieve, I forgave him and eventually came to realise that he wasn't the brat I had pegged him to be."
"No he's nothing like James is he?"
"Oh he is, he just hides it and has bits of Evans in him as well. I was the one to tell him that his mother was a Slytherin."
"Hmm, yes that did escape mine and Sirius' minds. We mainly told him stories of the Marauders and when he was born."
"Yes, he asked me what his mother was like. I have no idea how he knew we were friends."
"I think you helped him. You made him accept his Slytherin side more, which he used n our duels and won them everytime."
"I admit, I was worried when he used to come here to hide from everyone. Why they thought he was a afailure because people were dying, is beyond me. It took a long time for everyone on the faculty to make Harry realise that it wasn;t his fault and to get him to stop hating himself. That was why he didn't get many detentions when he finally began to act like a teenager."
"Hmm, he still is something of the class clown isn't he?"
"Yes. Did he tell you why I put him and Draco into detention that week?"
"No, he mumbled something and then said he had to leave. Something about Slinky was all I got."
"Yes, that blasted snake had apparently told him that the potion they were making was the Andorran Antidote. I'm just glad that I never got everyone to test theirs to see if they were working. If they hadn't been working on the Draught of Living Death, then I would have done."
"Merlin help us, Harry and Draco can lie enough as it is, they don't need any help in that department."
"No they don't. And I didn't have any Veritaserum in my stocks because the Dark Lord had asked for it the previous day." Remus laughed at the helpless look on Severus's face, making Severus' lips twitch into a smile.
"It would have been amusing, and exactly something Sirius and James would have done, had they thought of it."
"Hmm, I told you that he was like those two. Why Evans thought it would be a good idea to make i both /i of them his fathers." Severus shuddered, making Remus chuckle again.
"Yes odd isn't it. I think Lily would have asked me if they hadn't thought I was the spy and I wasn't a werewolf."
"I think I could have stood Harry more if you had. He would have looked less like the horrors of my teen life mixed into one child. I did always wonder at that. Some of his chracteristcs were so typically Black."
"Yes, Sirius was the one to bottle everything up until he exploded. James and Lily practically wore their hearts on their sleves. Well until Lily learnt from the best." Remus said, smirking and giving a nod to Severus.
"It was embarrassing! What self respecting Slytherin allows their emotions to show!"
"Harry could always get Draco riled up."
"Yes well, Harry turned out to be his Mate didn't he? Draco has an excuse."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
"Hmph, bloody werewolf."
"Ah but you love me."
"Possibly." Severus admitted with a smirk.
Only two more chapters to go and an epilogue and then it's done! Argh! Its all happening so quickly. As you can see though, people are beginning to get suspicious about Flees true agenda. Hmmm, what do you think ulterior motive or completely genuine just misunderstood? Well you will find out in the next couple of chapters.
As you can see, they are beginning to go after the big Death Eaters now, the ones hat will make a difference to Voldies pack if they die. Heh, and Slinky isn't really a snake! He's a demon! Mwahahaha! How many of you realised that one? Heh, he's kind of got an asian look to him if you were wondering. And I happen to like the name Balthazar so no poking fun!
As you can see the CSI is slowly taking a back seat now, the real fun is coming in now, though the Epilogue might possibly have some CSI... though I haven't quite decided who is going to survive yet...
Anyone want to make a pitch for who they want to survive? Draco does, if that makes you feel better, but everyone else... Harry included, are on the bench, die or not to die! Heh, Review and tell me who you want to survive! Our of the Silent Killers that is, and Harry's little group of loyal followers (that would Remus, Severus, Rodolphus, Rabastan and Firenze... did you forget about him?) the other canon characters are pretty much safe, unless I have already decided to kill them off, in which case, no amount of begging is going to save them... So choose the ones it won't be lost on! Go on, I'm giving you the opportunity to save a characters life today... call 0800... snicker it did sound like a helpline somewhat... I couldn't hep myself. Okay I'm stopping now. Get reviewing!!!