Chapter 15

Mulciber slammed the door shut the moment Carrie left. He stalked over to the pile of coals in the fireplace, and with a flick of his wand, flames appeared. He turned to Draco.

"You were learning the Cruciatus Curse today, weren't you?" he said.

"Yes, sir," replied Draco softly.

"Did she tell you about the basic things to look out for when you're fighting the Order?" asked Mulciber.

"I don't know what you mean, sir," said Draco.

Mulciber's cold dark eyes were fixed on Draco. He shook his head and sighed.

"Your incompetent father never went over what you need to know to win a duel, now did he?" Mulciber asked.

"No, sir," said Draco. So far, he did not like Mulciber one bit.

"Well, your father was an imbecile," muttered Mulciber.

If anyone else had said that, Draco would have yelled at them, but Mulciber was a Death Eater. There were a few things that he had known about Death Eaters years before he came to Headquarters. One of those things was that Death Eaters were not the type of people you wanted to argue with, unless you enjoyed pain or had a death wish.

"Here's some advice that I highly recommend you follow," said Mulciber. "The most important thing is this: you need to have some kind of strategy, and in order to have a strategy, you need to know your opponent. You need to be aware of their weaknesses, strengths and a few of their unusual qualities. The people in the Order have many interesting qualities that link to the way they fight. Do you understand that?"

Draco nodded.

"For example," Mulciber continued. "There's a retired Auror who is also in the Order. His name is Alastor Moody, better known as Mad-Eye Moody. You've heard of him, haven't you?"

Draco nodded again. Of course he knew who Mad-Eye Moody was. Mad-Eye had often been in the Daily Prophet. He was also the Auror whom Barty Crouch Jr. had once impersonated.

"He has quite a few interesting prosthetics," said Mulciber. "I'm sure you know about his magical eye. He can see through solid objects, he can see things that are behind him. It's very hard to sneak anything past Moody."

"But if you dump a whole bag of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," added Avery. "He won't be able to see through that. I've tried it once before. It's actually a very interesting story, Draco. I…"

"You can tell the story later, Avery," said Mulciber impatiently. "Another example is Evelyn Savage."

"She married someone with an appropriate last name, that's for sure," Avery chimed in. Mulciber glared at him.

"As I was saying," continued Mulciber. "Evelyn has quite a few bizarre characteristics. She cannot stand the sight of blood, even if it is only a single drop. It repulses her. From what I've seen, it scares her for some reason also. This is a bit of a dilemma for her, whenever she tries to murder someone."

"So, she doesn't enjoy killing, right?" asked Draco, hoping that the answer would be yes, but from what he had heard about the Order, he expected that Mulciber would respond negatively.

Mulciber laughed, unpleasantly.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "She certainly wants to kill. She wants to kill Dark Wizards and people associated with the Dark Arts specifically. She relishes murder, more than the average Auror. You can see it in her eyes when she wins a duel. She prefers not to spill blood when she murders, but that conflicts with another one of her traits, can you guess what that is, Draco?"

Draco shook his head.

"Yesterday," said Mulciber. "When she interrogated you, I think that the Cruciatus Curse probably hurt more than it would if it had been performed by someone else. Let's say that Avery over there used the Cruciatus Curse on you. I guarantee you that it would not be half as bad as what Evelyn did to you yesterday, boy. I can assure you that it would be painful, but the power of that particular curse depends on how sadistic the person using it is."

"Are you asking me to use the Cruciatus Curse so that Draco can learn from experience?" asked Avery. "I'd be happy to do so."

He glanced over at Draco and saw the look of horror on the boy's face.

"I'm only joking, Draco," said Avery laughing.

"Evelyn takes pleasure in causing pain to those she hates," said Mulciber. "Your aunt is another person who can perform a powerful Cruciatus Curse, if she's upset with you. Be careful when you are fighting people who are like that. For someone like Evelyn, the Killing Curse would probably be the best way to murder someone. However, the Killing Curse causes painless death.

"In most cases, if you want to make sure someone dies a painful death, there's going to be at least some blood. Therefore Evelyn is in a way caught between her fear of the sight of blood and her sadism. As for your cousin, she's a metamorphmagus. She can change her appearance. She doesn't need polyjuice potion to disguise herself. Her weakness is her clumsiness, sort of like Avery."

"Well, she didn't get her leg torn to shreds when she was twenty now did she?" said Avery indignantly.

"You were a klutz before your leg was injured," said Mulciber. "And I lived with you when we were children so you can't deny it. Now, Draco, there is something very important that I must warn you about concerning the Order.

"As far as the Order is concerned, Draco, you are a more important target than me, or Avery, or Barty. To them, you are more important to kill than anyone else here, with exception of Carrie and Amanda Annen. Do you know why that is, boy?"

Draco shook his head and said in a voice that was barely audible, "Why do they think that?" He didn't know whether he really wanted to know the answer.

"You're young, Draco," said Mulciber. "You are currently the youngest Death Eater, and I believe that no one has ever joined the Death Eaters at such an early age. That is why they want you dead."

Draco didn't understand Mulciber's answer at all. Mulciber noticed his confusion.

"The Order will do anything to prevent there from being another generation of Death Eaters," said Mulciber. "There have already been two generations, they're worst fear is that there will be a third. You would be in the third generation. Right now, you are naïve, vulnerable, inexperienced and very very easy to kill. A few years from now, that may change, but I doubt it. The Order would prefer to kill you now when you're an easy target. That way, they can slowly exterminate the next generation of Death Eaters with far less trouble."

He looked intently at Draco. The flames in the fireplace were reflected in his dark narrowed eyes.

"I think that I've covered enough basic information today," he said. "You may go now and tell your mother that I will not be doing this again!"