Disclaimer: In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in your ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC, I try to limit them as much as possible. Song lyrics which may crop up now and then will be attributed as appropriate.

Chapter 3 - Act Of Contrition

"Just dust my heart and you will find

there are no fingers printed there

just the untouched place that lies inside

of every lonely boy tonight.

And all this open air has caused me to choke

on your new-found hope for me..."

Bright Eyes

------------------------------------

Darius Nott looked through the eye slot of the door at the two young men who had been given an assignment by the Dark Lord himself, an honour which he silently wondered if they understood. He turned on his heels and followed his master up the corridor, making way to a senior Death Eaters meeting which would be attended by the few members of the inner circle that Lord Voldemort has seen fit to grant high ranking positions to. "My Lord..." The old man ventured, he was curious as to why the young Malfoy boy and his friend had been given such a task. "Why give such an important duty to those so young? Can they be trusted?"

"Darius, my old friend, although I plan to live forever, you and some of my other trusted servants will not." Darius was not sure if this was an answer or not, but if it was all the Dark Lord was going to give him then he decided not to question that...

---------

Draco and Blaise looked around the room that had been given to them, it was little larger than a broom cupboard with two desks stuffed into each corner, accompanied with a chair. Stacks of parchment, filled with lists of names lay out on each one, on the wall hung only two things, a clock which appeared to be running half an hour slowly and a set of ancient looking keys. Draco looked to his best friend in disbelief. "HOW? - In the name of merlin's saggy left testicle! - Did we end up with this job?"

Blaise shook his head with a weak smile and patted his friend on the shoulder, "Think of it like this mate, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. If we get cracking now, we might be done by the end of next week."

"I know but still... It's disgusting isn't it?"

"I don't like it anymore than you, but apparently this new world has something for us we never in our wildest dreams expected we would ever have to do."

"I know mate but really. Administration? I never thought the Dark Lord finally taking over would mean we would have to do so much bloody paper work." Both boys sighed and looked at each other, Draco finally giving in he sat at the desk on the left while Blaise shut the door to the room which was now their office. The brand new sign on the outside of it gleamed with the words; Muggleborn re-assessment.

--------------------------------

The body hit the floor.

A noise rose up from the crowd, those closest to the front cheered with what seemed like unending enthusiasm while the people towards the back seemed to merely offer muttered sentiments about what fools the accused had been for not just admitting they had been wrong and escaping their fate. Draco and Blaise had a fairly good vantage point, left about three rows back from the platform which had been constructed for the purposes of the very public executions.

Some had raised objections about holding the event in diagon alley, reasons of size, safety, unforseen resistance and bad taste were all sighted and subsequently dismissed once the final 'go ahead' had been given. As Ron Weasley was led to the front and centre, the last person scheduled to executed that day, Draco looked to Blaise, giving him a slight shrug. Neither of them had ever been able to stand Weasley and so felt nothing about the fact that he was about to meet his maker in front of the hundreds who had gathered that day, but it was still strange to think they were about to see him be ended.

As to show the masses that he was a merciful lord, the Dark Lord had allowed each of the prisoners to choose their own method of death, all had opted for the Avada Kedavera curse. Draco had been looking round the crowd, looking for familiar faces, he had spotted his aunt Bellatrix right at the front clapping with glee and looking like she was thoroughly enjoying herself everytime a new body fell onto the wooden slats of the makeshift platform. His own mother stood next to her, looking not so amused, but she rarely smiled in public anyway.

They watched as Weasley, defiant to his last, stood before the crowd and attempted to shout something before he was cut off mid sentence as the green light blasted him in the back and his blindfolded face hit the floor. Blaise smirked a little and nudged Draco in the side with his elbow, encouraging his friend to do so as the crowds had already started to disperse and Draco's aunt and mother started making their way towards them. He fixed his face into a suitable expression as his aunt grabbed his shoulder and started to lead both boys away from the platform. "Didn't you enjoy that Draco? Seeing that defiant little bloodtraitor get just what he deserved?"

"Yes Aunty Bella." Blaise and Nacissa remained silent.

"You boys are done for the day aren't you? We'll go to the Hogshead for a celebratory drink, the three broomsticks will be far too crowded." The rest of the party merely nodded to Bellatrix Lestrange's enthusiasm, as they headed to the floo point.

The Hogshead was less crowded, there were only four or five people in there besides four people who had just floo-ed in. While the two Black sisters sat at a table, the two boys retrieved drinks from the bar; two glasses of black vodka for the ladies and two rather large glasses of firewhiskey for the boys. Taking their seats, Blaise allowed himself to sigh a little as he took a sip of his glass and still keen to lead the conversation, Bellatrix spoke once more. "So boys, tell me what it's been like in Mudblood re-assessment. I expect it's been interesting for the pair of you."

Blaise took another sip of his glass while Draco took a breath to answer his aunt, he knew that although she had addressed them both, she couldn't care less about his opinion. "Well theres a lot to go through and I expect there will be more tomorrow when the decree is sent out. But so far all we have managed to do is check suitability and compile the assignment list." He paused, taking a sip of his drink. "Speaking of which, are you taking one Aunt Bella?"

Bellatrix smirked, picking up her glass of black vodka and necking it in one, handing the empty glass to Blaise. "Be a good boy, go on." Reluctantly, Blaise stood to his feet, sighing and went to the bar to get more black Vodka for the female Death Eater. "Well Draco, I don't particularly want one of them in my house, but I have been told we all have to set a good example." She smiled, even now, madness seemed to dance behind her eyes. "You'll make sure I get a decent one won't you Draco? One that won't give too much lip." Draco sighed a little and nodded Blaise returned to the table with Bellatrixes glass and the bottle of black vodka, refilling her glass and then topping up Narcissa's a little, to which he received a smile and nod of thanks. Bellatrix winked at the dark skinned boy. "There's a good lad. Don't worry about that thing on your cheek, it'll fade in a few weeks." To this comment, Blaise lowered his head a little, he was already self conscious about the thin mark, marring his otherwise perfect skin. Bella cackled a little at this action and nudged her sister in the ribs. "Aw look Cissy." She leaned across the table and pinched his cheek hard. "Don't worry, the girl's will still like you."

Sensing the pleading look in his friends face without even having to look at it, Draco stood to his feet, sharply followed by Blaise. "We really should get moving, it'll be a long day tomorrow."

Bella pouted, about to protest before Cissy injected before she had chance. "You boys get on then, Draco if your staying at Blaise's house tonight, be sure to thank Lucretia for having you."

"Yes mother."

"Blaise, tell your mother I will see her on Sunday if you are both still coming round for Sunday dinner."

"Yes Mrs Malfoy."

Cissy smiled a little, it only amused her slightly to see that with certain combination of words, she could still reduce the two young men to the eight year old's who used to run around the Malfoy Manor gardens, throwing toys at each other and trampling over the begonias. Waving a hand at them they quickly retreated from the pub, meeting a slight scowl from her sister.

"Cissy, your just no fun sometimes..."

------------

Blaise awoke in his bed in the Zabini Mansion, being shook by the family houseelf; Barton. "Master Blaise, Master Blaise, Barton can't wake up Mister Draco and you and he both have owls."

Blaise groaned as the house elf continued to shake him, trying to push him away with his closest arm he mumbled from his pillow. "He's hungover Barton, just bring him a hot cup of tea and pour a cold glass of water over him."

"Oh no Master Blaise, last time Master Blaise told me to do that, Mister Draco said he would chop off Barton's ears if he did it again."

"Then run quickly, leave me alone, I want to go back to sleep."

"No Master Blaise, your Mother told me that I must say; Get your lazy arse out of bed and go to work."

Blaise cracked one eye open, Barton just looked scared repeating it to him, but he smirked and waved the house elf away as he sat up. "Alright, I'm up, I'm up. Go pour some cold water over Draco and bring me a bowl of hot weetabix or something will you?"

The house elf nodded and scooted from the room as Blaise lifted his body out of the bed, streching a little he walked over to the plush green armchair's that he had set up in his bedroom. On the table sat the owl post that had arrived that morning for himself and Draco. He plonked himself down and picked up the first one as a very loud scream resounded through the room.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Blaise looked up, his bedroom door swung open and slammed into the wall as a dripping wet Draco stood in the doorway. "You told that defective bloody house elf to soak me again didn't you?"

Blaise smirked at his friend and tapped the chair in front of him. "Yup, you've got post, chill out, he'll be bringing the tea up soon, you can boot him if you like."

Still seething, Draco took his seat and picked up a piece of parchment from his own pile. As the two boys started to read, they exchanged a look, of all the things they had been told were coming, they really hadn't been expecting that...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Notes:

I know I promised more information, but I underestimated what needed to go into this chapter and I didn't want to make it ridiculously long. I might be able to make a start on chapter 4 today, if so, it will be up tonight, if it isn't, then it will be safe to assume that I got kicked off the computer.

I appologise for any spelling mistakes, this computer doesn't have microsoft word OR works, so I am relying on firefox as a spell checker. If anyone spots any major ones, let me know so I can fix them.

BTW - Lou, if you ever get round to reading this, I threw Barton in there just because I know how much you love the crazy little guy.

UPDATE: fixed one of my typos, thanks sug, if anyone spots one, let me know I had to write this damn chapter in wordpad which is nads.