Lucius Malfoy strode confidently down the corridor, his pace matching those of the ones in front of him, though the sneer on his face was as clear as the disdain in his eyes for the men before him. He had never felt to mortified in his life, having his duties taken over by amateurs that had joined only a month previously, but the orders from the leader had been far more pressing than childish matters as such, and he had reluctantly agreed to follow them to their destination and report to the Dark Lord about the mission. He hadn't paid much attention to the words going on in front of him, but from what he could observe from their expressions and actions it appeared that one of them was attempting to chicken out of the duties he had been assigned and the other four were scoffing at him, shaking their heads in disgust; this emotion was matched by Lucius, who personally thought that the boy was more a coward than anyone else he had ever met by refusing orders by one of the most powerful men on the earth they lived upon each day; there had been those who had refused their orders before, though those who had witnessed the punishments, which were cruel and almost evil, had learnt to never disobey Lord Voldemort.

The corridors inside Grimmauld Place were a twisted maze, each one leading to various places inside the labyrinth that had been discovered by Walburga Black on her hunts for places she could hide the Death Eaters; the woman had been desperate to redeem the family's name after their eldest son and heir to the Black family fortune had run away from home, disowning him in the process and handing over their family fortune to the Potter family in doing so. It was shocking that one of the most respectable pureblood families in the world had been ruined by a single blood traitor down the line of 1200 years, but it had been done, and because the woman was easy enough to fool because of her husband she was weak enough to have been swayed easily to redeem the family name in exchange for the use of their house. Lucius wasn't sure how they planned to hide each Death Eater in England inside a single house, but then again he had never fully explored the home itself, as he and his wife had been granted that they might live in their manor house instead of with the other Death Eaters – he had managed to convince him that their house contained dark items – which it did – that needed to be protected at all costs – which was mainly true – and, as the Aurors had already openly suggested that the Malfoys had something to do with Voldemort and his uprising it was likely that their house would be raided. It would look strange if they weren't there to help them in their search and even more suspicious, and it wouldn't do for his most loyal followers to be locked up.

The real reason for them moving back to the Manor was that he was sure that Narcissa's constant disapproval of the Death Eaters would get him found out, and he sure that she would never willingly live in the company of people that were like Lord Voldemort, even him, so he had convinced Voldemort to let him stay at home, making sure of his Occulumency shields. He was good but he wasn't good enough to fool the Dark Lord so he was glad that his master hadn't thought to check through his lies.

Lucius was shaken from his thoughts as they reached a pair of tall, magnificent oak doors; at first he was surprised that they would go to so much effort to make the throne room a lot bigger and financially fancier than the other parts of the labyrinth, but then he internally kicked himself; they would want to make the Dark Lord's room the most terrifying and impressive and impending of all, and the best way for them to do so would be to make them seem more powerful. He should have known that the Dark Lord would most likely take hostages, and to intimidate them he would need to make himself seem more impressive than he already seemed to most, as the imprint he had left on the wizarding world was large and intimidating to say the least; he had witnessed twelve deaths in the last month under his master's hand, and, to be perfectly honest, it sickened him that someone could be so cruel, as seventeen of those had been Hogwarts students who had refused to join him, each one under seventeen and more defiant than the rest. They had mostly been Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, but there had been a few that had gone to Beauxbatons as well, and they despised Gryffindors with a passion and the Slytherins had been taught never to say no to the Dark Lord so they had not hesitated in joining their cause. None of them, of course, had been mudbloods or half-breeds, but they had instead had power and blood beyond purity that most of them had. It was a pity that it was wasted on blood-traitors, but it had to be, for they could not change anything, but rather destroy all atrocities in the pureblood lines.

The first boy – he was shaking, his plump form jiggling around anxiously – rapped on the door, and then squeaked and scurried to the back of the group, halting just behind Lucius and grabbing onto the back of his cloak, looking anxiously around the room. Lucius, disgusted, threw the boy off and strode forward, sneering at the group of amateur and obviously hesitant teenage boys with the full intent of making them look like imbeciles in front of their master. "Come in," rasped a familiar voice, cold and high-pitched, and the boy in the back gave a small scream and clutched at the straw-like hair scraped across his forehead, his watery blue eyes widened in shock; it was hard to believe that this boy was a Gryffindor capable of betraying his friends, but he was power hungry and had his sights set on the Dark Lord's power, that much was apparent to all those but the Dark Lord himself. No one had bothered to tell him, however, for they were sure that he had a plan and that he knew about Pettigrew's lack of allegiance.

"My Lord," he pushed through the doors, bowing deeply upon entry and waiting for the nod he could detect from the corners of his peripheral vision. Straightening up, he stepped further into the room, turning around to take the girl's limp form from Antonin Dolohov's shoulder and levitating her towards his master as a pleased smirk stretched cruelly pressed lips upon sight of the broken body of the young witch. "We have captured the mudblood, master. She was no match once we had taken the other mudblood Evans hostage and used her as bait."

"You have done well this time, Lucius," hissed the voice, a pair of piercing and cruel maroon eyes glowing from the shadows shrouding the back of the room, and soon enough a hand of long, bony fingers reached forward for the floating body of the young witch. "But you must leave us alone for a moment. I believe our guest is in need of an introduction."

Lucius nodded, a small smirk lifting his lips. "Well, we cannot deprive our guest of an introduction, it would be rude."

Peter Pettigrew squeaked as he made to turn around, but the doors flew shut before he nor the others with him could leave; Lucius Malfoy smirked at them through the glass panels and then whirled around to march back down the corridor, looking every bit the pureblood elegance he was. "No," hissed the same voice, and Peter flinched, looking up into a pair of insane dark maroon eyes from where they shone through the darkness; soon, a tall, pale figure stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the room, a long black cloak draped around his body to keep him warm in the freezing dungeon; the others in the room looked hesitant, but they turned their full attention to their new master, though Peter, the Marauder and the Gryffindor he was, refused to make eye contact toward the man standing in front of him. "Now, I have been informed that you are the worthiest Death Eaters we have, some of the most powerful men that we can produce... you must be brought into the world of the curse, young ones." He paused.

"I shall need a volunteer." Another pause. "No one? Well, then, Mr Snape, I believe you have some experience with the Unforgivables." Severus stepped forward, sweeping the dark, greasy hair out of his face with long and bony fingers as he looked up at the Dark Lord Voldemort, his face expressionless, free of all emotion. "Now, boys, watch Mr Snape closely. Snape, start with the Cruciatus curse."

Snape did not hesitate; instead, he turned his wand on the limp body, suspended in mid-air like a marionette. Peter's eyes fixed on Hermione's body, her skin pale and malnourished, her eyes closed shut and a small frown marring her forehead, her left leg in an odd position that did not appear healthy to him in the slightest. "Crucio," snapped Snape, and then chocolate brown irises were revealed as her eyes snapped open, a long, high-pitched, drawn-out scream resounding through the room that made Peter cower and whimper softly. Her body arched in mid-air, her back snapping with a 'pop' as a puddle of blood hit the floor seemingly from nowhere; he knew - it was one of the things he had ever bothered to research in life - that the Cruciatus either transferred the blood from the body and put it somewhere else so that the victim was likely to die from blood loss after a few minutes or the blood would appear from gashes that would appear all over the victim's body. It had given him grotesque nightmares for weeks, knowing that a person would go through that. Studies had shown that at least one person a day in times of war suffered from the curse.

Guilt hit him more than anything else, apart from the disgust for himself and those around him. He had let this happen, he had gotten her into this, he hadn't warned anyone about her fate... he hadn't warned his friends that they would come for them next if they refused to collect their hostage; if they refused to join the Death Eaters, they and their families would be hunted and killed, and Remus would be used for experiments in the potions laboratory, with Snape as his handler; he knew that Snape held a grudge for him and he knew that he should have told them while he still had the chance. Hermione's scream pierced his ears and he felt the urge to snap, unfurl his wand and hex those in the room with everything he had; but he was still no match for the Dark Lord, he was no match for any of them, even if Avery helped him, which he doubted; the Ravenclaw had planned to become a double agent for Dumbledore but he had not disclosed on his findings yet.

"Hermione!"

Lily's voice. It was a beautiful sound, but it was thick with pain and emotion; he whirled around, drawing his wand. The redhead stood in the doorway, panting and bloodied, but she stood tall and faced all the occupants in the room with shocked eyes; she watched him stand there for a moment, her emerald eyes filling with tears but then her gaze turned to Snape and it hardened, her face indifferent suddenly. Behind her appeared three others - Frank Longbottom and two others - twins - he had talked to once or twice but hadn't bothered to learn their names. Snape dropped the curse and Hermione clattered to the ground, moaning as she fought to breathe, and then the spell was sent from Voldemort's wand, heading towards Lily with a speed to rival that of a rocket leaving station. Peter knew he had to do something to save the redhead, the beautiful girl who hadn't quite trusted him but had made an effort to make him feel safe and included. He did the only thing that seemed possible to him.

He threw himself in the path of the emerald light and watched the world blacken around him.

I feel so terrible! Please don't hit me! Alright, but not with bricks!

I'm a terrible author with terrible excuses, but I hope you can forgive me with this chapter. I'm sorry that I killed Peter, but it had to be done, because I had no real plans with him. But the next chapter should be focused more on the Hermione/James relationship, but they won't be fully together yet. I shall try and not spoil anything for you from now on, and I hope that you can forgive me for my tardiness - god, it's been almost a month, hasn't it?... It's been a month.

*screams* I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry! I take back what I said at the start, you can hit me with bricks now. It's just that I've been revising sooooooooooooo hard and stuff keeps getting in the way and I promised myself that I would try and update earlier but my mum's been taking time off work because of stress so I have to look after her when I get home and then my sister puts on the water works 'cause the whole family's stressed and ugh...

I wish my life was so much more simple.

Anyway, please forgive me. I couldn't lose any of my beautiful, wonderful, talented and - hopefully - forgiving readers.

Love,

Marlene