Ch. 14-A Brute & A Snake

The next week went by with relative ease. Artemis was actually able to sleep now, and his new relationship with the Hawksworth was paying off greatly. Xavier had been passing plans, maps, documents, and more to Artemis directly from Tom himself. For the next couple of days Xavier would go to the Three Broomsticks pub and when he saw Amicus he knew it was safe to go up to Artemis' flat. Then they would converse. The topic, Tom and his operation, his allies, his enemies, his plans, and his slip-ups; with this information Artemis was able to construct a plan-of attack. But he was smart, and so was Tom, he couldn't simply burst in gun-ho, he would surely be outmatched. He needed to weaken the structure before he could hope to topple it.

Xavier had done a tremendous job of keeping himself hidden and had managed to be his spy for a whole week without getting killed. Artemis truthfully hadn't expected him to last a day. However he was proving himself to be a valuable asset, and Artemis was wary to develop feelings for the boy. He remembered all to well what feelings and connections can do to you, once they are ripped from you. Artemis sent Amicus out the window to the Three Broomsticks, and just like it had been, it was followed shortly by Xavier coming up the way, trekking through the snow and finally to his front door. As soon as Xavier stepped through the door he put his wand on the ground and his hands in the air. He knew the drill by now. Artemis came and collected his wand and patted him down to search for any other weapons, and used his wand to scan him to make sure he wasn't under the Imperious curse, or had some sort of listening charm on him.

They sat together at Artemis drawing table as usual and discussed what Xavier had brought for him today.

"Here are the schematics for Riddle Manor. Took me a while to track em down from the local records, cost me all the galleons you gave me too."

"Excellent, anything else?" Xavier always had a certain excitement to him, and these meetings always felt like he was showing these treasures he had come across, then he waited for the gratitude as a son waits for a father's approval. Although it never came.

"Yeah loads! I've got...a list of death eaters hidden in the Ministry, a shipment order for some magical weapons, and this.

"What is it?"

"I dunno, it's all encoded" Artemis grabbed the piece of parchment and scanned it over. It appeared to be a map of some sort, an attack plan on paper that was for sure. However all the notes, names, and bearings on the map were all encoded, all the words appeared as just gibberish, complete nonsense. Artemis pointed his wand at the parchment.

"Reveal you secrets", nothing happened. There was no other way to see what this document said without decoding it. Perhaps there was a keyword to decode it by, but it could be anything. Artemis slumped back into his chair; he needed to know what this document said. It wouldn't be encoded if it wasn't important. Artemis laid his head on his desk, and he smelled something odd. He smelled blood, but not his own blood. On the bottom of the page were drops of blood stained into the parchment. Artemis then understood what needed to be done. He read about certain vaults or documents that required blood of the user to unlock them. They were impossible to reverse, and cannot be tricked. This was to ensure whoever looked at this document was a true death eater. Artemis looked up at Xavier and saw him petting Amicus facing away from him.

"Xavier?"

"Yeah." The boy looked back at him over his shoulder but still devoted his attention to the raven pushing its head affectionately against his hand.

"I figured out the code, come here and have a look." Xavier got up and sat on the stool beside Artemis peering over the parchment. Once he was near him Artemis seized his hand. Xavier squirmed and tried to get his hand back.

"What the hell are you...AHHH!" Using his wand Artemis glided above his palm, and a cut appeared where the wand once was. Blood seeped out of the wound, and Xavier winced in pain and confusion. Artemis, his hand still around his wrist closed Xavier's hand and three drops of blood came from his closed hand and fell onto the parchment. Artemis released his hand and Xavier pulled his hand back close to him. Why did you..." Artemis cut him off.

"Come and have a look." Xavier glanced at the map, and now the words changed they twisted around and became actual words. "It required blood payment, the blood of a death eater."

"Could have warned me." Artemis ignored this query, and glanced at the now un-coded parchment that lay before him. It was definitely a map more of a schematic, and now it became clear as to what it was the schematic of. Some sort of estate, a large house. Arrows were drawn across the landscape which all pointed to the house and many more arrows and directions were written inside the estate as well. Tiny descriptions were written next to each of the arrows. Such as "Enter through invaded floo network (await confirmation from Tiberius Finks)".

"Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Tiberius is one of us, works in the Department of Magical Transportation."

From the rest of the schematic, Artemis was able to deduce that this was some sort of assassination mission, to be performed with the utmost stealth. Near the bottom of the page was a list of all those sent on the mission. Leading that charge was someone named Desra McCloggin.

"Who's Desra McCloggin?" Artemis asked Xavier.

"One of our assassins, not exactly right in the head though, bit on the crazy side. One of Voldemort's favorites though, likes to use her a lot.

"How old is she?"

"Bout twenty-five I think? Father's one of us too. Pretty big with Voldemort too, always tryin to live up to her old man I expect." As Xavier delved into who this McCloggin girl was, Artemis kept staring at the map, it was clearly an assassination, but whom? There was an address, in the top corner of the map. Artemis dug through his books as Xavier went on and on, and pulled out his wizard registry. It took quite a few minutes to sort through the massive records , but finally he looked up the correct address.

"3489 Cherry Crossing, that's...that's the house of the Minister of Magic."

"What?" Said Xavier in disbelief. "Volemorts gonna take out the Minister."

"It says here 3489 Cherry Crossing is the home of Millicent Bagnold. He's attempting to assassinate the Minster herself."

"What are you going to do?" Said Xavier.

"Stop him of course. The Minister is mine to finish, its all essential to my plan. She can't die, not yet."

"When is the attack happening?"

"According to this, tonight. I'll be able to head them off before they can kill her. Thank you Xavier, you may go now."

"Right then." Xavier headed out the door and Artemis called to him."

"Any word from Adora?"

"Sorry govenah, not yet."

"Alright thank you, on with you then." Xavier nodded and headed out the door, down the stairs, and into the snow covered alley. At the beginning of this week Artemis had sent Adora's necklace with Xavier to be delivered to her as a token of his love, and a sign that he was okay. According to Xavier he delivered it to her the night he gave it to him; she merely said thank you to him. Since then she hadn't given a message or token or anything to Xavier to give back to Artemis. It was worrying him; maybe something had happened to her. Maybe Xavier had betrayed him. These bad thoughts raced through Artemis' mind. He needed to clear his head, so he put on his coat, bundled himself up to fight the cold air, and put up his hood then set out for the Three Broomsticks.

Artemis had only gone to the Three Broomsticks two other times usually for the same reason, needing to clear his mind. His flat can sometimes seem like a prison, although he needed to exercise extreme caution as to not be discovered by anyone who may recognize him. Although for the most part he was safe. No normal citizen of Hogsmeade would know what he looked like, certainly they had heard of him, but that was twenty years ago, many had forgotten or just pass it off as a bad memory. Tom certainly wouldn't show up. Only thing he had o watch out for was the occasional death eater, and maybe an auror. Although he had made his return obvious to Tom and his followers he still was unaware whether the Ministry had knowledge of it, if so there would certainly be aurors after him. He had to assume they knew, better safe than sorry.

The Three Broomsticks is a charming little place, certainly not filthy like the Hogs Head Inn, but not elegant either. Although his hooded dress would be more suited at the Hogs Head, still he liked it here better. He ordered a Fireball, which is essentially a Butterbeer with a shot of Firewhisky. He found this was the perfect way to fight the cold air. When from behind him he could hear the merriment of a party of people. Artemis gazed over his shoulder to see a group of people gathered around someone clinging and laughing at his every word. All the women were gathered around his side, and the men all looked like they wanted very much to be like him. His chest was puffed out as far as it could, any more pride and his chest would certainly burst. His arms were very muscular, and had a very big and beefy figure. His chin looked so rigid and large; he could probably bludgeon a man to death with it. Artemis merely chuckled at this huge brute and turned back to his drink.

"...then the coward ran for it, but I got him, an impediment jinx brought him to his knees." The oversized man jumped onto the table, attempting to reenact his heroic capture. "The bloody chicken looked up from me and begged me, begged me! Can you believe it? Well I can, please don't kill me, please! Don't worry I said. I'll leave you for the dementors; they'll have fun with a wimp like you. Then would you believe it, he cried like a wee baby!" His posse erupted in laughter, clinking big mugs, pounding tables, and the ladies fawning at his feet. He leapt off the table, and began the next part of his story.

"Then suddenly, out of nowhere! Came this huge beastly werewolf!" At this all the women let out a horrid gasp and the men listened more intently then before. "Course it went right for me throat, but I wrestled the terrible monster for an hour." He thrashed about pantomiming the apparent werewolf. He threw himself about the pub and slammed into the bar right next to where Artemis was seated.

"Finally I wrestled the wretched creature off of me, grabbed it by the jaws, and broke the damn things jaw!" The men all let out hoots of approval, and the girls all applauded and giggled to one another. What had started as a humorous imbecile was now becoming a great annoyance to Artemis. The man propped himself up on the stool right next to him. Artemis rolled his eyes as the big buffoon started speaking to him.

"Never recall seeing you here stranger?" Artemis ignored him, but the oaf shot out his hand. "Nice to meet ya bloke, Gaston Mansfield, auror with the ministry." Artemis could hardly believe this moron was an auror, but he became wary of this man, he merely nodded his head. "What's the matter mate, never heard a story like that before. Not impressed eh? Well I'd like to see you take down a full grown werewolf all by your lonesome eh?" Once again Artemis just ignored him, really wishing he would go away. He gave Artemis a punch on the arm with a bellowing laugh. "Well maybe once you've grown some hair on your chest you can be my wand polisher eh? All the inhabitants of the bar roared with laughter, finally Artemis spoke.

"When did you capture this guy?"

"Last week, Tuesday night it was."

"Then you fought off a werewolf huh?" said Artemis, mocking sounding impressed."

"You got broom polish in your ears, yeah I fought him off. Why?"

"Well I just think it's interesting, how you fought off a werewolf when our last full moon was the previous Sunday, and were not due for another till next Monday." Gaston looked dumbfounded, like an idiot taking a test he didn't study for. Then he glanced back at his adoring fans, all of which had gone quiet, waiting for his explanation. Finally, realizing he had been outmatched, spoke.

"Well look who's all smart now, all high an mighty under your hood ain't ya?" He reached out his beefy hand and went to pull off Artemis hood, and like a coiled python, Artemis struck. He grabbed his hand with his left hand and twisted it and with a crack of bone the man keeled over and Artemis grabbed his massive head and slammed it into the bar. He quickly got himself up, but still dazed, swung his sausage arm which Artemis easily dodged and came back up with his empty Butterbeer bottle, and swung it and came crashing on the top of his head. He thrust his foot into the side of his knee and once again bone could be heard cracking and Gaston collapsed. Artemis pulled out his wand which transfigured into a dagger, he stabbed the back of his collar, nailing him to the bar, and pulling on his shirt, and with his damaged leg couldn't prop himself up to stop himself from choking. The barman had taken a step back fear on his face. Artemis turned and saw the once enthusiastic group of admirers now staring silently back at him, mouths agape. Artemis grinned, threw a galleon to the bartender, took his knife out of the bar sending Gaston Mansfield collapsing to the floor coughing for air, and left as his dagger turned back into his wand.

Artemis thought better of his reaction, but he couldn't be sure whether the Ministry knew what he looked like, and Gaston being an auror, he had to. Still he felt he hadn't sent the last of Gaston Mansfield. Artemis went back to his flat, and gathered all he would need, and shrunk down the plan of attack and sent off Amicus. He was finally going to make himself known since he had killed Abraxas. He was going to make trouble for Tom, ruin his plans. Be a real thorn in his side. Smiling with satisfaction, Artemis gathered his things and set off to the house of the Minister of Magic.

Night had fallen on 3489 Cherry Crossing, and the last light in the last room had gone. With a burst of emerald green flames, three dark figures emerged from the fireplace in the mansion of the Minister of Magic, Millicent Bagnold. Leading the charge was none other than Desra McCloggin, the feared Death Eater, responsible for the death of two aurors, and three members of the Order of the Phoenix. Behind her, Evan Kempley, and Jericho Bulstrode two more infamous Death Eaters here on a mission of the utmost importance to their master, the Dark Lord. No words are spoken in the dead silence and darkness. They descend the stairs wands out and smiling menacingly, like panthers on the prowl. The third door on the left, that's what they were told by Lord Voldemort, she'll be asleep, just take her out.

The room is approached. Desra points her wand at the lock "Alohamora", and with a click the door opens and they step into the dark void that is the chamber of the Minister of Magic. The bed is at the other end of the room, they approach stealthily smiling with glee, and this will please the Dark Lord. They get to her bedside and throw the covers off, and to their shock she is gone! The lights in the room all turn on and they all whip around to find themselves facing a man in a black and purple cloak. They pointed their wands but it was too late. As they turned Evan was struck by a bolt of purple lightning which sent him crashing into the wall, then Jericho threw a stunning charm which Artemis deflected back at him spinning him and sending his head crashing on the bedpost. Desra stood stunned; she threw a charm and another, and another. He deflected them all and made a "b" line toward her as he ricocheted them all. He backed her into the bed frame and pointed his wand straight for her throat. "Avada..."

Out of her robe she pulled a necklace and yelled "YOU'L ALWAYS HAVE MY HEART CLOSE TO YOURS!" Artemis' face changed, from ecstatic killer to shocked and confused. The necklace she was holding was none other than Adora's emerald heart necklace. He remembered that Adora had said what he just heard the night before he was betrayed by Tom. Artemis reached out his hand and took the necklace from her. He had so many questions.

"How did you get this?" Artemis demanded.

"Adora gave it to me." Before she could even explain Artemis demanded another answer.

"WHY?"

"She said it would stop you from killing me, and she told me if I said that, you'd know I hadn't stolen it."

"Why does she want me to keep from killing you?"

"She knew you'd soon come after me, so she gave me a message for you."

"What is it?"

"She said", she paused. "Not to come for her." Artemis took this in. Why didn't she want him to come for her? She couldn't be happy being under Tom's thumb. Artemis took in a minute to take in the appearance of Desra McCloggin. She was shorter, with long curly dirty blonde hair. The only bit of color from her were her bright green eyes, otherwise she was covered in black. She sported a lady's long black coat, and knee high heeled leather boots. Her arms were covered in long black gloves and the only part of her visible was her fingers, painted of course with black nail polish. Just as Xavier had said, she did look half crazed.

"I've been asking Xavier to deliver her messages to me..."

"She didn't trust him, thought if he was ever caught he would crack if interrogated." Artemis took a step back, and turned around holding the necklace to his chest. Behind him he heard a stir and he whipped around and casted.

"Expeliarmus!" Desra's wand flew from her hand.

"Bit paranoid aren't you."

"Yeah, comes with experience. Why doesn't she want me to come after her?"

"Because the Dark Lord is waiting for you to come for her, and when you do..."

"I can't let her sit there like a prisoner, again. What would the Dark Lord think of you delivering messages behind his back?"

"Adora and I have become friends over the year; she made me promise to tell you."

"Well since you've delivered your message I can now dispose of you." She shot her hands forward in protest.

"Wait I can help you!" Artemis smiled.

"I've already got a rat."

"Xavier is an errand-boy; I'm deep within the Dark Lord's operation I'm his favorite, I can tell you things about him he wouldn't even tell his barber." Artemis stared oddly at her. He took a minute.

"Fine, but I'll give you the same warning I gave Xavier. Should you betray me..."

"Yeah yeah, long and painful death I know."

"Alright then", Artemis whistled and Amicus flew in through the window. "When you see the raven with the purple eyes, you'll know it's me that's near. Be ready when I call." Desra gave an assuring nod. "Unfortunately, you can't go back to Voldemort looking like this. Inflixi!" A white charm flew from Artemis' wand and struck Desra in the face. She now had a black eye and was bleeding from the nose; her teeth were also red with blood.

"Nice to meet you too", she said. Artemis turned to leave. "Where is the Minsiter?" Artemis flicked his wand and an invisibility cloak was pulled off the bed revealing the Minister herself, safely asleep. Stunned of course but none the wiser as to what just happened in her very own bedroom. Artemis waved his wand again and the room returned to normal the shattered frame of the picture that Evan had smashed with his body returned to its original state, and the broken bedpost that was now currently lodged in Jericho's head fastened itself into position blood free. The two men had disappeared and the room was as it was before Artemis had arrived and stunned the Minister as she slept. Desra smiled with comprehension and shook her head, obviously humorously disappointed with herself. Artemis returned the smile, then pointed his wand at Desra, who unwillingly disapparated.

Artemis returned to his flat with satisfaction in a successful operation, although he meant to simply kill them all, he now had a new ally. Although he was more suspicious of Desra than he had been of Xavier, but he had pitied Xavier, but then how else could Desra had known what Adora had told him all those years ago, and came to have the necklace. He couldn't rule out the possibility that tonight was part of Tom's plan, and he would be more wary in the future. One thing was certain; he could not simply take Adora's advice ad stay away. She was partly the reason why this was all happening, so they could be together, he couldn't just leave her in whatever awful place Tom's home is. The thought of her being a slave to her, just as she had been with Abraxas for so long was unbearable. He wouldn't stand aside and let her rot, he would get her back, and he would be with her again. The obvious problem arose as to how this all would happen.