CHAPTER 7

Ivy Potter didn't even flinch as she fired the last shot from the old Mauser pistol she had acquired.

She quickly reloaded the pistol, before firing again, only after she had emptied this second clip of ammunition, did she look at Dobby, who was standing behind her.

"How long that time?" she asked, no emotion in her voice.

The house-elf looked at the timer he held in his hand before answering, "Forty three seconds Mistress."

"Thank you Dobby," she said, knowing the elf was worried for her.

Without another word, she strode down the firing range she'd had the elves set up in the basement of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Ivy wasn't oblivious, and she knew both Dobby and Winky were worried for her. It was why she kept thanking them...she wasn't capable of anything else at the moment.

She knew the elves thought she couldn't feel anything anymore...they were wrong. She felt anger and grief, and she while she was able to unleash much of that on the Death Eaters that had been locked in Azkaban, she was truly afraid that she would lash out at the elves, her last remaining friends.

To prevent that, she poured herself into her work. If she focused on the tasks she saw as necessary to destroy the Death Eaters, and take her revenge on Voldemort and everyone else she saw as responsible for taking Luna from her, she knew she wouldn't lash out at them. More importantly, working until she collapsed from exhaustion kept the nightmares she'd had those few days, before she decided to go after the Death Eaters, at bay.

It wasn't healthy, Ivy knew that, but between her nightmares, and the anger and grief she could feel even now, hidden just below her fragile control, she'd take it.

Ivy was turning herself into a monster, but she would be damned before she hurt the two elves that cared so much for her. And if that monster could prevent even one other from suffering as Luna had, it would be worth it.

A while ago, back when Sirius had still been alive, he'd shown her the journal of one of his ancestors, Vlad Tepes himself. There was a line from that journal that had stuck out to her,.

Sometimes, the world doesn't need a hero. Sometimes, what the world needs, is a monster.

Voldemort himself was a monster. And his Death Eaters weren't much better. Already, so many had tried to be heroes, fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters All of them had died.

Perhaps, it took another monster to kill a monster, and so Ivy was forging herself into one.

Reaching the target that had been set up, Ivy found her grouping of shots. She quickly counted them. Satisfied that that her accuracy and reloading time were up to par she knew she was now ready for the next stage in her revenge.

She wanted to avoid using magic when possible, which was why she'd acquired the old pistol. She wasn't skilled enough yet in wandless magic, and wands were unique items, and the last thing she wanted was to be identified by someone recognizing her wand. But she knew that, for this next part of her plan, there was a good chance she would need to defend herself.

The raid on Azkaban was different. Even without the Dementors, the sheer isolation of the prison meant that the guards were rather lax. And the climate of the place kept them mostly in their barracks, except when necessary. They'd been unprepared for her attack, despite the high probability that the prison would be attacked by Voldemort. It was also due to that high probability that they were so passive.

None of those guards wanted to die for any of the prisoners. And she had no intention of harming any non-Death Eaters

Between that, and the fact that the one offensive spell she'd managed to cast wandlessly was the stunning spell, she'd been lucky in the fact she hadn't needed her wand to subdue the guards.

But her next attacks would be in public. And while she was confident she could get in and out fast enough that she wouldn't be ambushed, there was still the possibility it could happen.

Hence the Mauser.

Ivy had several plans in the works, derived from the information she had gotten of of Lucius Malfoy.

The witch knew Voldemort was at Malfoy Manor, but she also knew there was no way in hell she was ready to face Voldemort and his lackeys. She'd be outnumbered, and outgunned. So that meant that she needed to whittle away at his forces and resources. The raid on Azkaban wasn't truly harmful, aside from the fact she had eliminated mostly experienced Death Eaters The true value of that raid had been the information she had taken from Lucius.

And about the only thing Ivy was confident about, was he knowledge of Voldemort. The man was resourceful, intelligent, and incredibly arrogant. He saw everyone, even his own followers as expendable. And Ivy was counting on that arrogance for now. Voldemort wouldn't defend his followers, he believed that if they couldn't defend themselves, they were weak.

And the weak were useless to his mind.

Until he realized the harm she would cause him, Ivy doubted he'd do anything to protect his assets.

And the first step was attacking the businesses that knowingly aided and supplied Voldemort and the Death Eaters

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Rufus Scrimgeour found that he wasn't at all displeased that Borgin & Burkes, along with several other shops in Knockturn Alley had been burnt down.

The head Auror, and acting Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement until a new one was appointed (which wouldn't be done until after the Wizengamot voted in a new Minister, a position he himself was lobbying for), knew that those businesses all supplied the Death Eaters Of course, he'd also had no proof, at least none that could be used in a trial. And it had grated on him that there was nothing he could legally do to stop them.

But he wasn't happy either.

The burning of these businesses was a criminal offense. And if he couldn't catch criminals, which was his entire job, the Wizengamot wouldn't elect him as minister. Especially since, he knew, many members of the Wizengamot would only see that pure-blood's businesses were being attacked.

"Do we know anything?" he asked Auror Wilkes, who was the one investigating the arson's.

Wilkes shook his head. "There were no witnesses, and we couldn't find any magical traces." He sighed. It looks at thought accelerates of some kind were used, though we can't identify what substances were used."

"Damn," Scrimgeour growled. "What about the bodies?"

"We only found them at Borgin & Burkes, as well as Lorkin's Apothecary. We've identified all three bodies. The two found at Borgin's were Borgin himself, as well as Narcissa Malfoy. The body at Lorkin's was Gertrude Lorkin. All three were found with hole's in their heads, most likely from piercing curses but we..."

Wilkes was interrupted as the door to the office slammed open, admitting Nymphadora Tonks, one of the junior Aurors.

"I'm sorry for interrupting sir," Tonks apologized, before he could reprimand her. "But Draco Malfoy just appeared in the middle of Diagon Alley, He's...well, I think it's safe to say that the Malfoy name is truly dead now sir."

"Explain!" The head Auror demanded.

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Winky held her mistress to her shoulder, afraid to disturb the sleeping witch.

The raid on the businesses that supported Death Eaters went well. The only hiccup had been at Lorkin's, where the old hag had been brewing potions of a questionable nature. Ivy had killed her, before moving on to Borgin's, just down the alley.

There Ivy had seen Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, as well as Mr. Borgin. She'd also overheard Narcissa and Draco discussing a task for Voldemort. For that reason, she'd killed Narcissa, as well as Mr. Borgin, before knocking Draco out with a well placed blow to the head.

She'd called Dobby, to take the unconscious Malfoy to Grimmauld Place. Before burning the store down.

Upon her return, Ivy had begun interrogating Draco. During the interrogation, she learned two important things. The first was that Voldemort wanted to get a group of Death Eaters into Hogwarts.

The second, was that it was Draco himself that pointed the Death Eaters at Luna, he'd apparently been there.

And when the bastard had the gall to spit at her, and laugh , before describing what he had done to Luna, and what others had done, Ivy hadn't snapped.

Instead, she'd gotten methodical. She no longer cared about interrogating the blonde after that point. What she focused on instead was making him suffer as much as she could before he finally died after five hours of torture. Her last act had been to carve the word's Rapist Death eater, into his chest, before she turned his body into a portkey, and sent it to Diagon Alley.

After the body disappeared, Winky had watched as her Mistress finally let lose with her emotions. Curses flew at the walls, incantations unspoken as Ivy screamed and cried. After fifteen minutes, Ivy's wand fell from her hadn't as she collapsed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

It was only then that Winky approached her mistress.

Ivy had cried into her shoulder, even as apologizes and explanations flew from her mouth for how she had treated the two elves.

All Winky had told her mistress was that things were alright, and that she was forgiven, even as she soothed the witch, allowing her to vent her pain and anger that had built up and remained unseen since the night she had first learned of Luna's fate.

Ivy's tears had only stopped when she had fallen asleep, still held in Winky's arms, and pressed into her shoulder.

Winky looked up as the door opened silently, allowing Dobby into the room. "Is she beings alright?" the male elf whispered worriedly.

Winky smiled at him. Whispering back, she replied, "Mistress will be. Shes finally be healing. Mistress not healed yet, but shes beginnings to."

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Sorry for the wait. Figuring out what Ivy's next step in her revenge would be was the reason for the right.

As for what exactly Ivy did to Draco, I leave that to your imagination. All I'll say is that, for his part in Luna's death, Ivy ensured his death was long, drawn out, and painful.

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