A more substantial chapter than the last. Here we shall see the beginnings of Rayne's detention with Snape that does not seem to go as planned.

A/N: Edited 28/11/08

Demonic Assassin

Rayne awoke the next morning, stiff necked and groggy from the awkward position in which she had slept on the common room sofa. Draco was still breathing softly and the room was quiet indicating the earliness of the hour. She groaned and closed her eyes again, they felt dry and gritty and her head was beginning to throb. She'd have to resort to digging around in her trunk for another vial of blood before she could even begin to think about functioning properly for the day.

She tore herself away from the arms of her blonde haired companion and trudged up the stairs towards her dormitory praying that the other girls would still be asleep, she was in no mood for interrogation. She reached the door and muffled voices could be heard coming from inside signalling that they were not only awake but up and active too. Rayne grimaced, pressing her forehead against the cool wooden panel, taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly before she pushed open the door and stepped into the room. The conversations hushed but did not halt as she crossed the floor towards what was considered to be her bed, for how little time she actually seemed to spend in it, ignoring the looks that were cast towards her as she passed. She dragged her fingers through her mess of black tangles and flipped open her trunk, digging deeply for the rapidly depleting supply of vials she had brought, originally just for emergencies that were had become more like a lifeline. She had a feeling that day was going to be very long and exhausting what with lessons and then Snape's detention later that evening.

Rayne finally managed to extract a single glass vial, filled almost to the brim with thickening, deep red blood, from the mess that was her belongings and gazed at it for a second. The cork came out with a pop and Rayne turned her nose up at the steadily congealing liquid that had coagulated around the rim. This stuff really doesn't keep well even with those charms, she thought to herself as she tipped the syrupy liquid down her throat.

"Ugh, what on earth is that?" Rayne heard a voice from behind her exclaim, it's tone thick with disgust.

Choking down the near indigestible blood Rayne coughed back, "Exactly what it looks like." She could feel it swimming heavily in her stomach and it didn't feel nearly as powerful as it should have. She would need to get her hands on some fresh soon, especially if she was going to keep up with this charade of being the 'peculiar transfer student' for long enough to get her job done.

"But it looks like…like blood!" The same voice stated, the hesitation clear as if actually voicing it aloud would somehow make it all the worse if it turned out to be true.

With a sigh Rayne re-corked the soiled, empty vial and tossed it back into her trunk before slamming the lid shut. She turned slowly, the movement still making her head pound painfully and the blood in her stomach causing only a wave of nausea to wash over her, today is not going to be a good day. "Then perhaps that is what it was." Rayne said flatly to the girl's face, no hint of emotion coming through in her voice.

The blonde girl she was facing frowned before a wide eyed look of apprehension came to her all too perfectly proportioned face, "What are you then, some kind of vampire?" She asked stupidly, it may have been a logical conclusion to some but it only caused Rayne to feel irritated.

Rolling her eyes Rayne said, "Yes I'm a fucking vampire," her voice was dripping with sarcasm, "now watch me go and turn to dust in the morning sunlight." Shaking her head Rayne stalked past them all towards the door of the dormitory. As she left she could be heard to mutter, "Vampire my Arse!"

***

Draco was sat up on the sofa when Rayne emerged from the dormitory doorway; he had wondered where she'd slipped off to so early. "There you are. I was beginning to think you'd gone down to breakfast without even a word."

She looked him over wondering how on earth he could look so impeccable after so little sleep, on a sofa no less. She forced a smile despite the fact that it was almost painful to even move her face. "No I just had to get something from my trunk and didn't want to wake you."

Rayne moved to sit beside Draco as she willed the throbbing at her temples to stop. He studied her face which looked slightly ashen, though her deep amethyst eyes were still bright and clear despite the shadows that crept beneath them. She looked washed out and drained but after everything what did he really expect, it had been a long week already. "You okay?" He asked, smoothing her raven tresses.

"Yeah I'll be fine," She said, regretting accompanying her words with a nod that seemed to cause her brain to crash painfully against the inside of her skull. "Just a lack of sleep is all. By all rights I should be a nocturnal creature, more or less. But that just doesn't seem to be practical around here." Her tone was flat and a little melancholy. It was times such as these that made her want to forget it all and go back home, though she'd hardly be welcomed with open arms if she went back defeated.

"No we usually work on a dawn to dusk schedule." Draco said with a grin, hoping to lighten her leaden mood.

"More like dawn to dawn." Rayne said with a roll of her eyes, "Now take me up to the Great Hall where I can drown myself in coffee. Because I have a feeling that today is going to be just as long. I have detention with Snape later to look forward to." Her tone was thick with sarcasm but she did have a feeling that taking the attitude of the sooner her day begins then the sooner it will be over was probably a good plan of action.

The walk up to the Great Hall did little to clear Rayne's head, the sound of their footsteps ringing off of the cold flagstones rolled repeatedly through her ears until the throb in her head began to beat with it in unison. I have to get outside this place is suffocating, she thought desperately to herself.

Draco seemed to sense her discomfort and, raising a hand to gently squeeze her shoulder, he ventured to ask again, "Are you sure that you're okay?"

She sighed and paused in her steps to look into his handsome face, "Fine. It's just this headache that's all. We've got care of magical creatures this morning right?" She said, hoping that she was thinking of the right day on her timetable.

Draco nodded a vague look of concern still gracing his aristocratic features.

"Good, a morning in the fresh air should work wonders. I'll be good as new after, you'll see." She said optimistically as she forced out a tight-lipped smile.

***

Well the morning fresh air did do Rayne some ounce of good. She was no longer being plagued by that nagging headache but she was still profoundly tired and drawn. Other than the forbidding prospect of whatever unpleasant task it was that Snape had planned for her that evening there was nothing but sleep on her mind.

She had received a message at the end of their final class of the afternoon reminding her, as if she would have forgotten in such a short space of time, that she was to be in Snape's office at 7'o'clock that evening. Though it offered no inclination as to what she would be doing, nor how long she could expect to be there for.

Dinner passed in what seemed like mere minutes as Rayne sat, grey faced and lost in her own mind as she pushed the food around her plate. Draco tried repeatedly to snap her to attention and engage her in conversation, but Rayne would only vaguely participate before slipping back. It looked as though a return trip to the Room of Requirement would bee out of the question for a number of days to allow her to gain back some sense of normality and give her some time to recover from what had been a strange and chaotic week.

"You'd better head down for your detention," Draco prodded as he tried to catch Rayne's eye.

She sighed and nodded, finally properly snapping out of her internal reverie and looking down at the time on her wrist. "You're right. Snape'll probably have me crucified if I'm late for this after everything."

"Want me to walk down with you?" He asked, moving to stand before she'd even opened her mouth to reply.

"Do I really have a choice?" She asked managing to crack a genuine smile at his eagerness, "That would be nice, thank you." She added just so he knew for sure that she hadn't been about to refuse his offer of company.

"So what is it he's making you do?" Draco asked, finding himself slightly pressed for a topic of conversation, which felt exceedingly odd.

"I have no idea. Something tedious and vile no doubt." Rayne answered with a sneer, "That would seem like Snape's style isn't it?"

Draco laughed softly even though it was Rayne's misfortune that they were discussing. "Yes you're probably right." They were nearly at Snape's office but Draco hoped to snatch a few quick seconds together before he would have to leave her. Reaching out he grasped her hand and pulled her against him in a nearby doorway, catching a few quick kisses before he whispered, "Try not to be too late back, you look like you could use a weeks worth of sleep." He held her chin lightly in his hands and Draco ran his thumbs below Rayne's eyes as if trying to smooth away the dark shadows that dusted her pale skin.

"I wont be if I have any say in the matter, but I wouldn't hold your breath." She replied leaning in for one last kiss before stepping away and knocking on the door that stood just ahead of them.

"Come in." Said a silky voice from behind the thick panel of wood.

"To my parlour said the spider to the fly." Rayne muttered under her breath, not liking how that analogy suddenly sprang to mind, she didn't at all want to be the fly. Licking her dark lips she pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside. The harsh click as it shut signalling that there was now no way to go back.

"Ah Rayne. Glad to see that you had the sense to make it on time." Snape sneered from behind his desk. A wicked smile curved on his lips as he stood to sweep around behind Rayne and guide her to her designated task. "Classes are to be making shrinking solutions next week but I seem to have run out of rat spleens. I do however have an abundance of whole rats, therefore I should like you to gut them and separate out any useful potion ingredients from the bodies." He explained indicating a barrel full of dead rats and numerous glass jars that were waiting to be filled. "You have an hour to work through this little lot, when I come back we shall see if I feel you have worked hard enough for me to let you go." He crooned icily, that same unsettling smile ringing through in his voice letting Rayne know that it was still there even though she could no longer see it.

"Yes Sir." She muttered flatly. Gutting rats? That was not at all how she'd pictured her evening, but still there were worse things in the world.

"Good. Then I shall return in one hour, now get to work. Oh and be advised that I shall only be across the hall so be wise and do as you have been instructed. Trust that I will know if you have not." With that he left the room leaving Rayne to sigh and trudge with heavy eyes towards the stinking barrel of dead rats.

On the table top, lined along one side with the glass jars, lay a silver knife, a board on which she would work and a list of the various body parts that should be gathered for potion use. "Fun, fun, fun." Rayne muttered bitterly as she reached for the first, furry, dead creature. It's body was stiff from the onset of rigor, they'd obviously not died any earlier than that very day and the rigor mortis would prove to make her job all the more difficult.

She slapped the rat down onto the work board and grabbed the knife in her right hand ready to begin the first dissection of many.

"Right, tails. Well that's easy enough." She said reading aloud off of the list that Snape had provided. A swift slice of the gleaming silver blade removed the rats' worm like tail, which Rayne then dropped into the first of the jars.

"Hmm, heart, spleen. I'll get to those in a minute, anything else external before I start slicing it to pieces. Ah yes claws and eyes! How on earth am I supposed to gouge out a rats eye?" She asked herself with a groan whilst removing the rats' toes and dropping the sharp little claws into a second, smaller jar.

Putting down the knife, which would be far too large and clumsy to remove a rats' eye with, Rayne scanned the tabletop for anything else that might be of any use. Her eyes fell on a pointed, needle like instrument that had a small scoop shaped tip at one end. That must be, Rayne assumed, the perfect instrument for just such a task.

Gripping it firmly in one hand Rayne inserted the sharp end of the metal rod against the edge of the rats' eye socket and scored all of the way around. A frown of concentration furrowed her brow as she next inserted the spoon like end and pushed up from beneath the creatures beady, little, black eye. She began to grin with a sick sense of satisfaction as the eye popped out of the creatures' skull whole and unspoiled. Maybe this whole task wouldn't be as bad as she thought; tearing things to pieces was, after all, what she was good at.

Rayne set back to work with some sense of enthusiasm in her movements, who knew that a detention with Professor Snape could remind her of exactly why she had agreed to go to the school in the first place. To give a teasing taste of what she had to look forward to once her kin were free of their banishment.

With a renewed sense of optimism about more than just the immediate task at hand, the time she spent in Snape's office seemed to fly and her dissections were performed gradually quicker and quicker as the repeated process began to feel almost like second nature. The time was nearing a quarter to eight when Rayne heard the door behind her open and then click closed again. She frowned and glanced down at her wrist to verify that she had read the time correctly. If it was Snape coming back then he was early, an entire fifteen minutes early, but he struck Rayne as the type of person to be very precise when it came to timekeeping. She had a feeling that when Snape said an hour he meant exactly an hour and that whoever had just entered the office was not Professor Snape.

She turned away from her work to look towards the door, wondering who on earth would want to intrude upon her detention, but there was not a soul to be seen. Rayne double-checked and looked further around her, but there was nothing. She was not mistaken surely, that door had defiantly opened but there was nobody in the room beside herself, or at least nobody who could be seen. Quite obviously a ghost would not use the door but someone with an invisibility cloak or a charm of some sort now that was a different matter.

Rayne stood stock-still and stared hard at the door, the silver knife was still in her hand and she tightened her grip around its handle. "Hello? Who's there? Show yourself." She commanded, her voice steady despite the apprehension she felt burning in the pit of her stomach.

She watched as the air before her flickered and solidified into a tall and domineering figure. Rayne's eyes widened as she caught the gaze of an identical set of amethyst orbs, set in an all too familiar face. A stern look graced his hard features as he surveyed the scene in the room, his gaze finally boring into Rayne's own as she opened her mouth and managed to softly voice, "Father, what are you doing here?"

"Rayne, I am here on behalf of the Order of the Blood to inform you of a review of you situation." He said in a deep, harsh voice. His stance was rigid and stern and his words even more formal than she was used to hearing from him. "It has been drawn to our attention that, due to a lack of care and vigilance, a dangerous amount of information about your task has been exposed and that you are now the object of some suspicion. Trouble has been foreseen that could pose a potential threat to our plans and position if you were to continue in your task."

Rayne frowned at the mass of formal rambling that had been thrown at her, but as she worked her way around all of the unnecessary words the overall message rang loud and clear. Her father had obviously been sent in an official capacity to issue her with this message, but Rayne could not fully understand one thing, who suspected her of what? "What do you mean, what threat? Nobody knows anything about this, I've not said a word." She raised her hands in a display of innocence, marred slightly by the gleaming silver blade that she refused to let drop from her hand.

"The Order has come to a decision that this threat must be eliminated if all of our plans are to come to pass, therefore your mission has been revoked. And for negligence in your duties so has your position within the Order."

Her mouth dropped open in horror at his words, not daring to believe that they were true. "But I still don't understand how have I neglected my duties? I didn't reveal a word to anybody." Well the things I told Draco certainly don't count I gave him the same story that everybody heard, mostly. "Who is it that poses this threat and how can they when they know nothing?" She asked, aware that she was beginning to sound slightly hysterical. As she awaited the answer to her questions, or as close to answers as she was going to get, a dreadful thought came to mind, who wouldn't bet that this all had something to do with Snape?

"They have a way of extracting the information that they want from you and they have you here tonight with the intention of doing just that."

It is Snape. Fuck! I knew he was up to something the bastard. But now where does this leave me. She thought, her surge of anger slowly petering out to be replaced by a hollow sense of foreboding. She looked up into the face of the man that had sired her power but never once expected the words that then came from his mouth.

"In the interest of the Order this information must be destroyed."

"D-destroyed? How do you mean destroyed?" Rayne stuttered in reply not wanting to imagine how they could destroy some information that was stored inside of her head. She had a feeling that her father wasn't just there to take her back home, not when she had been cast out of the Order, and feared what that meant for her. Her face fell and she dropped the knife from her grip where it clattered against the stone floor, like it would really be any help to her anyway. Her eyes twitched around the room in search of any route of escape as she ventured to ask the question that filled her with a deep sense of fear, "What's going to happen to me?"

"We have to ensure that you can never be found in order to protect ourselves, or we'll never be able to break the bonds of our banishment. We have to leave them with nothing to follow and therefore it is you that must be destroyed."

Rayne shook her head in disbelief, moving backwards a few steps until she felt the edge of the table bump against her back. "But I'm nothing compared to the power in the Order, why kill me?"

"You are disposable. After this is all over we shall be able to begin with our plans again, without the threat of any interference." With that he raised one large hand and muttering inaudibly below his breath thrust his palm towards Rayne.

She could feel the air pressure begin to change around her and, not a moment too soon, Rayne shrieked and dived beneath the large table, covering her eyes as the jars shattered showering the room with glittering shards of glass.