Chapter 9: Army of Death
Greg Goyle grinned at Vince Crabbe as Harper finished telling the group about how he had jinxed a Mudblood Hufflepuff in his Potion class without getting into any trouble. This club is a brilliant idea he thought to himself as he looked around the Room of Requirement.
The club had been Pansy's idea. After she heard about Granger being in the Slytherin Comman Room she realised that something drastic needed to be done. All they needed was a place for Purebloods to come together. They then gathered up as many fifth, sixth, and seventh year Slytherins as possible, as well as a few younger students and a couple of other students from Pureblooded families that had somehow ended up in other houses despite their affiliation. All together they numbered twenty-seven; a number Daphne claimed as special.
As Greg thought of Daphne, he realised that she had been pretty quiet all through their first meeting. Normally it was impossible to shut her up. He wondered what was wrong with her.
"What's wrong Daphne?" he asked. She glared at him and some of the other people laughed. Even Vince rolled his eyes and shook his head. That was bad; when Vince thought he was being stupid, Greg knew that he really was being stupid.
"You idiot" Vince said "she's embarrassed because of her sister."
"Why did you have to bring her up Greg?" Daphne said "it's bad enough that she's being friendly with The Mudblood. Don't tease me about it!"
"I didn't know" Greg said "I'm sorry."
"Oh come on Greg" Pansy said "even you must have seen Astoria and The Mudblood together. Oh wait, you aren't too stupid to know which one is The Mudblood are you?"
"Of course not!" Greg protested. There were heaps of Mudbloods in Hogwarts, but only one that the Slytherins all referred to as The Mudblood. Even Greg was smart enough to understand that Matthew Powers was a particularly troublesome Mudblood since he was also a Slytherin.
"Hay Daph" Vince said "want me and Greg to scare her away from him for you?"
"No" She said "well, I do, but it won't work. She's going through some sort of rebellious phase and the more I try to reason or argue with her the more determined she gets to be around that filth. Hopefully she'll just get board of defying us and then she'll realise how stupid she's acting."
"True" Pansy said "but remember that his still pretty good looking – for a Mudblood I mean. Be careful that she doesn't have too much longer to get close to him. Otherwise hormones might start kicking in and then you'll have a muggle-lover in the family."
"Pansy please don't even talk about that!" Daphne shrieked.
But that's why we're here." Pansy said "we need to talk about these things because there is a war going on! Our parents are risking their lives to protect the wizarding blood, and it's time we contributed!"
Greg had never imagined that Pansy could be such an inspirational leader. He had always imagined that it would be Draco who put together something like this. Instead he was just sitting on the sidelines, perfectly content to let Pansy have this glory.
The group began talking about The Mudblood, and the non-Slytherins mentioned some of the worse Mudbloods in their houses. Greg let his mind wander though. He would love to have a chance to hurt all those Mudbloods, but more importantly he noticed that the only girls from his year were Pansy, Daphne, and Millie.
"Hay Pansy" He interrupted her just as she called for order "where are Lilith and Tracy? Shouldn't they be here?"
There were more sighs and eye-rolling all around. Greg hated it when people made him feel stupid. Fortunately though it happened fairly often so he was used to it.
"Greg, Lilith and Tracy are Half-Bloods" Pansy said.
"But they're still on our side" he said.
"Yes they support us" Pansy explained "but no matter how much they try, they'll never be on the same level as us."
"Does that mean we'll have to go after them?" he asked. While he didn't mind terrorizing other Half Bloods, Lilith had always been kind and patient with him. And there was talk of Tracy getting engaged to Vince at the end of the year.
"No you idiot!" Pansy said "they are on our side. Halfbloods like Tracy and Lilith still have a place in society. However it's not at the top. Do you understand? No matter how hard they try they can never overcome their impure blood. They can live and possibly even marry us, but they can never be leaders. Half-Bloods amongst this group will just slow us down; no matter how much they believe in our cause."
"Here here!" Vince's little fourth year sister Eugenie cheered. Eugenie was rather big boned like her brother, but looked and acted a lot smarter than he did.
"Well now that we have all that cleared up are there any questions?" Pansy asked. To Greg's surprise it was Draco who cleared his throat and raised his hand slightly. Greg didn't think Draco would have had any trouble understanding what was happening.
"Yes Draco?"
"Do we have to meet here?" He asked.
"Why not?" Pansy said "this place worked for Potter's silly army." She shot a glare Greg and Vince's way as she said that, hoping to remind them how much they owed everyone here after that betrayal.
"Oh fine" Draco said "Now um, how are we actually going to purge Hogwarts? Are we going to go around killing all the Mudbloods and blood traitors?"
"No" Pansy said.
"Why not?" Vince protested "If we get them alone and gang up on them –"
"NO!" Pansy said "you know what all our parents have been saying; we have to finish our education so that we can go to the Dark Lord as fully qualified Witches and Wizards. We can't risk getting arrested or making them close down the school."
"Yes so instead we'll all run around playing pranks on them" Draco said "very impressive plan. We'll be helping the war effort a lot that way."
"Oh it'll be more than pranks" Pansy said "for starters there won't be any Mudbloods coming to visit the common room. And then we'll get Powers out too. And then we'll have to get some of our own people back on side before they get too corrupted, and then –,"
"What's the point of all this if we still let them live?" Draco said "I think Vince is right. Let's gang up on a few and kill them. That should send a clear message to the rest of them."
"You really want to just go out and kill a few random Mudbloods?" Pansy said with a strange mix of shock and awe "when did you turn into such a bloodthirsty killer Draco?"
"Not just a few Mudbloods" Draco said "not first anyway. I say we kill Nott and Zabini first."
"But Nott is a pureblood!" Harper said.
"Isn't your oldest brother married to one of his sisters?" Draco asked the fifth year "How does it feel to have a muggle-loving freak in the family?"
"His not part of my family!"
"We'll kill him first" Draco continued "and we'll dump his body in the Library so that Granger will find it. And we'll kill Zabini and leave his body outside his blood-traitor mother's office. And we'll leave a note with it saying "Death to all Muggle-lovers."
The room was silent for a while. The reactions to this plan were mixed; some looked mortified at the prospect of killing and dumping bodies, while others – including Vince and Millie – looked excited. Greg couldn't really decide where he fit in. His father had always told him that he would one day have to kill for their beliefs, but he had never really given much thought to what that involved. It could be rewarding like crushing some weak kid was, however no matter how hard he hit or hexed, the kid always got up eventually.
Not to mention that despite her status as a blood traitor and the mother of Blaise Zabini, he actually liked Professor Zabini a lot. She had so far helped him understand a lot of things that last year he would have found impossible to fathom.
"No" Daphne finally said "if we act that extreme, a lot of people with softer hearts – like Astoria – may go against us. And we'll scare a lot of the first years too. What we need to do first is to show that we actually are better than them. We should control them before we start any killing."
"She's right" Harper's friend Deschamps said "I have a brother whose a first year, and he still thinks it's ok to be friends with Mudbloods. If we go on a killing spree then he'll think that a pure world means a world filled with death. Let's leave all the killing until the end of the year; after we make the younger ones realise that we're right."
"I never needed anyone to show me what was right" Draco said "if they get scared then tough."
"But I heard that you used to want to play with muggle children when you were little" Vince teased "even you couldn't understand everything straight away."
"That's a lie!" Draco hissed "If you and your gorilla of a cousin could grow a few brain cells you'd realise that I'd never want to be around muggle children!"
Some laughed, while others seemed to just figure out then that Vince and Greg were cousins. Now it was Greg's turn to roll his eyes. Of course Vince and I are cousins. If anyone ever met our mothers it would be obvious that they were sisters.
"Draco's right" Said Leo Yates, a seventh year Ravenclaw who claimed that the Sorting Hat refused to put him in Slytherin purely to keep the numbers even. He was a tall guy with a manic smile and laugh, but otherwise he was pretty average looking. "We need to kill someone; that's what being a Death Eater is all about!"
"Death Eaters aren't about killing they are about purifying the Wizard Race!" Pansy said "that involves a lot of killing, but it's just a means to an end! Now I agree with Daphne and Deschamps, there are a few things we need to take care of before we start killing."
The rest of the session involved a lot of planning. A hit list was drawn up, strategies were devised to prevent them from getting into any trouble, people were divided into groups and given targets. It was mostly thinking work, so Greg didn't participate too much. Instead he let his mind wander.
This is awesome he thought to himself I'm finally going to be able to do something for Wizardkind. Those Mudbloods and other scumbags won't know what hit them when I get to them.
Ever since his father told him that he wasn't smart enough to do anything too good for the world, it had been his dream to be part of something great; something that would use his limited talents to make a difference.
This is what I've always wanted he thought but why, why is it that all I can think about is Lilith? Pansy's right; she's just a Half Blood.
They continued to make plans for almost an hour. After that Pansy moved to dismiss them, but Eugenie brought up one last important issue.
"What are we going to call ourselves?" She asked "should we try to sound powerful? Or try to keep a low profile at first?"
"I thought we were just Junior Death Eaters" Pansy said.
"That sounds silly" Millie said "we need a more powerful sounding name."
"How about the Dark Lord's Army?" Vince said "so it's like Potter's group except more powerful. Because the Dark Lord is more powerful than Dumbledore?"
"Yeah that's good" Pansy said.
"We shouldn't call ourselves anything with the Dark Lord in it in case someone overhears us talking about it." Daphne said.
"That's true"
"What about Death Army?" Draco said "Or Army of Death? That sounds powerful, and it's not immediately obvious what we're talking about either."
"Perfect!" Pansy said, smiling her widest smile at Draco "Army of Death it is. Unless anyone has any better ideas."
No-one had any better ideas, so they became the Army of Death. Pansy then decided it would be a good idea to get everyone's name down, so she passed around a scroll of parchment and got everyone to sign it. Greg thought it was very similar to when Dumbledore's Army started, but this time he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
Soon the parchment was signed and everyone was getting up to leave. Greg left with Vince and Draco. Vince was complaining loudly about the soft approach they were taking, however Draco seemed to be brooding. The blond lightened up a bit when Pansy came over to them though. She told Vince off a bit and then proceeded to make out with Draco for a while before going off to find Millie and start work on some fliers that were to be hung up around Slytherin Common Room later in the week.
"Army of Death?" Draco muttered as she left "sorry Pansy but I don't think this is going to earn you nearly as much glory as I'm going to have."
"Your little project in the Room of Requirement is going to be bigger than Death's Army?" Greg asked.
"Of course it will be! I'm going to win this war for us!"
"Do we have to work on it so often though?" Vince asked "Urquhart is going to get pretty angry at us if we keep missing Quidditch practices."
"There will be plenty of time for Quidditch after Dumbledore and Potter are dead." Malfoy said "now let's wait until everyone is gone. I've managed to get in another batch of polyjuice potion so you too can stand guard as I work again tonight."
"But Draco it sucks having to turn into a little girl" Vince said.
"Do you want to kill inferiors Vince?" Draco asked "because if you help me, there will be lots of killing."
Vince chuckled over that, and Draco smiled. Greg found himself chuckling too. He wanted to hurt the inferiors, but he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Lilith got caught up in the killing.
:A Few Days Later:
On Wednesday Theo woke up in a pretty good mood. It had been a week since Hermione's birthday and his boils had gone down and people were starting to forget about the incident in the Gryffindor Common Room. Not only that, but he had just finished his Defence assignment last night, and he had duelling with Hermione after dinner. Even Blaise and Weasley seemed to be getting along.
His good mood died when he and Blaise entered the Common Room and found Matt Powers and Astoria Greengrass tearing down fliers and arguing with Astoria's sister Daphne.
"Astoria those are educational fliers, you can't just rip them down like that" Daphne said.
"They're not educational their propaganda!" Astoria said.
"People need to know this information" Daphne said "I don't want any of the younger children getting into trouble because some people insisted on being politically correct."
"Daph these are lies!"
"Please Tori just listen to me about this! I know about these types of things!"
"You know jack shit about muggles yet you want to hate them" Matt said "that's pathetic enough, but don't try to make your sister like you."
"Shut up Mudblood!"
"Oi that's enough!" Theo said, surprising himself a bit with his boldness "don't you have anything better to do than to um, than to be the thought police?"
"Shut up Nott; sometimes you sound even stupider than you look."
"And right now you look like you've just gotten out of bed and decided to come up and pick a fight without even bothering to get dressed or brush your hair!" Blaise said. Daphne was a bit un-kept this morning, with her dark hair all frizzy and knotted.
"Shut up Zabini!" Daphne said "you're just the type of person we're trying to protect the younger kids from."
"I am, am I?" Blaise said "Hay Matty, let's have a look at those fliers."
Matt handed the fliers to Blaise, who held them out so that Theo could read them too. The first one had a large picture of Adolf Hitler on it with the heading "Quarter Blood Squib = 9,700,000 dead. How many could a quarter blood wizard kill?"
The next poster had a picture of a witch burning at the stake and the words "NEVER AGAIN" printed over it. The third had a picture of muggle soldiers surrounded by dead bodies and swinging guns around, while the fourth showed a deformed child with the text claiming "Muggles have genetic deformities! Interbreed with them at YOUR CHILD'S risk."
"You know what Daph? Crabbe and Goyle are as Pureblood as they come and I'd hardly call them perfect examples of human genetics."
"Shut up Zabini! And don't you dare call me 'Daph'"
Blaise quickly flicked through the rest of the fliers, which were pretty much more the same. Theo looked around the Common Room and noticed that other people had begun finding the fliers. Some were laughing at them, others were reading them thoughtfully. Still others like Matt and Astoria were getting angry and tearing them down.
"This is all bullshit, Greengrass" Blaise said "And aren't some of your friends Half-Bloods? That's a bit hypocritical of you isn't it?"
"Lilith and Tracy know their place in society, and they obviously have the ability to overcome their muggle heritage. Unlike some other Half-Bloods I know."
"I'm quite proud of my muggle heritage" Blaise said "my Father helped make me the man I am today. Sorry your Father is such an –"
"Blaise leave it at that!" Theo said. The fact that Marcus Greengrass was a misogynist pig was something that both Greengrass sisters often complained about, but Theo knew what it was like to have people put him down for his own Father's faults. Even if Daphne was a bit of a bitch, Theo didn't want Blaise to stoop that low.
"Yes Blaise, leave my father out of it" Daphne said "if you really want to have a go at anyone's father, why don't you say something about Nott's drunken lunatic of a father. Hay Nott, did your father really start downing muggle booze because he was too perpetually drunk to Apperate to a wizard bar?"
"You have no sense of honour do you Greengrass?" Theo asked.
"I honour my family and my race Nott. And that is why I will not allow anyone to remove these fliers. Though you'd think they wouldn't be needed with you and Zabini being perfect examples of what muggle contamination does to wizards."
"Daphne leave them alone" Astoria said "you're entitled to your own opinion; but when it's absolute garbage you shouldn't force it on others."
"But Tori…" Daphne said "It's not just an opinion; its centuries of undisputable facts. And I don't want all the horrors of the muggle world to hurt you. Please Tori, just take the time to listen to what I'm saying. And please stay away from that Mudblood. Where is he anyway?"
"I've just finished casting fading charms on all your propaganda materials" Matt said "I guess you and your friends will have to go lock yourselves up and redo them. I guess sitting around spitting out hate must be quite enjoyable to a bunch of hags though."
"What did you call us Mudblood?"
"What's going on here?" a smug voice disrupted them all. Pansy Parkinson had finally emerged from her dormitory, looking neat and tidy and with her prefect badge all nice and shiny. Millicent Bulstrode, Lilith Moon, and Tracy Davis followed close behind her all looking smug.
"Well Pansy, it seems that I've discovered a group of vandals." Daphne said "These three" she pointed towards Theo, Blaise and Astoria, "were taking down fliers. And him" she pointed at Matt "he faded all of them. And he had the gall to call us hags."
"Those fliers are educational materials" Pansy said "posted by the AD to ensure public safety. Therefore they are protected by the Freedom of Education Act as well as Hogwarts Health and Safety Regulation 634."
"That's a bunch of bollocks" Blaise said as he threw his handful of propaganda aside.
"And you're also littering Zabini" Pansy said "We don't want to live in a filthy Common Room… do we Nott?"
Theo tried to answer her, but he had just become aware of most of the Common Room looking his way and found he couldn't think of anything to say.
"Well I guess with all those muggle tendencies of yours the two of you probably wouldn't mind living in a pig sty" Pansy said as she raised her wand "Limus Nuntias!"
Before Theo or Blaise could raise their wands to stop her they were covered from head to toe in mud. Or at least Theo hoped it was mud. It smelt more like manure but he knew it couldn't be because of Gamp's Law. Unless she had just summoned it from a pile of manure in the greenhouses. Oh yuk!
"You filthy bitch!" Blaise said as he pulled out his wand. Once his wand was drawn Pansy's gang all drew theirs. Theo quickly came to his aid, and Matt and Astoria weren't far behind. Unfortunately more students seemed to appear out of no-where and pointed their wands at the small group.
"Attacking other students is a big no-no Zabini. Especially a Prefect." Pansy said "I think all four of you need a detention tonight."
"Not tonight!" Theo said, thinking about his duelling practice with Hermione.
"Why not Nott?"
"Ummm… ahh…,"
"That's what I though. Shut up!" Pansy then looked over the four of them with disgust "And you know what Mr. Powers? I think I need to talk to Professor Snape about you. Derogatory comments about Miss Bulstrode because her great-great-grandmother was a hag? Well Muggles are notoriously intolerant so what can we expect?"
"Somehow Miss Prefect, I don't think I'm the intolerant one here" Matt said.
"Oh Mr. Powers why must you make things worse and talk back?" Pansy said "Now I'm going to have to take twenty points off of Slytherin. Where is your house pride? I guess Mudbloods must find it hard to feel pride in noble and long traditional houses."
"Now whose being the intolerant one?"
"I think they've learned their lesson Pansy" Daphne said "Now let's go get some breakfast while we still can. Before the smell makes me completely lose my appetite."
"Yeah" Millicent agreed "Nott smells almost as bad as he did the first time he came to Hogwarts."
The girls laughed and left, with Pansy promising to tell Snape about the detentions. Some of the students who had come to Pansy's aid also insulted them as they left. Soon after a few other students came up asking them if they were alright. A large fourth-year girl who claimed to be an expert at cleaning charms offered to get the "mud" off of them, but Blaise declined.
"Thanks, but after all this, I'm only going to feel properly clean after a shower. Come on Theo, let's hit the showers. Good thing That Parkinson Bitch did this on the one day we get first period off."
"Uh, ok."
And with that Theo followed Blaise back towards the dormitories, thankful to be away from all the prying eyes of the Common Room. Inwardly he cursed those Pure-Blood fanatics. He hadn't felt that good all week and now they hand ruined it.
:Meanwhile:
Deepvoice kept to the shadows, watching on in silence as Narcissa worked on her pin. Pius Thicknesse was sedated on a hospital bed while Narcissa's sister Bellatrix and the Dark Lord watched on.
"So after you place the pin into his head Thicknesse will be our puppet?" The Dark Lord asked Narcissa.
"He will be better than our puppet My Lord" Narcissa explained "his pin will plant a seed in him that will sprout into a muggle-hatred so powerful, he'll soon start working for us on his own accord. And he'll be convincing others to join us too."
"That sounds way too slow Cissy" Bellatrix whined "and I don't see what makes it better then a curse."
"Now Bella, let your sister explain everything" The Dark Lord said.
"Thank you My Lord" Narcissa said "now I have finished making the pin, so now all that's left is to attach an Idea on it and then drill it into Mr. Thicknesse's head. I am going to make him disgusted with anything that mixes the Wizarding World with the Muggle one. And he'll see a marriage between a wizard and a muggle as bestiality; with the muggle as the beast. That disgust will eat away at him, and soon any other ideals he held will be adjusted due to that disgust. Knowing his ideals as I do, I know the end result. He'll want all traces of the muggle world destroyed. And he'll sell out any of his friends to do it."
"Why not just make him want to destroy the muggle world in the first place?" Bellatrix asked "this sounds like the long way around."
"It is Bella" Narcissa said "but it's the only way around. If I put in an Idea that is too farfetched for him his subconscious will recognise it – I mean, will consider it - untrue and fight it. We'd lose his co-operation at best; at worst he dies and someone discovers the pin. Also Ideas work better if they are subtle, and based on emotions. Basing them on logic can ruin the targets mind."
"I like the subtly of this method a lot Narcissa" The Dark Lord said "It strikes me that if he comes to agree with us this way, he'll be irrevocably loyal."
"Yes My Lord" Narcissa said "as long as he doesn't suspect that he is being manipulated while the Idea takes hold, he will become one of your most loyal servants."
"Excellent. Now prepare the pin Narcissa. I'm going to enjoy watching this."
"Yes My Lord" Narcissa picked up the pin in a pair of tongs and placed it on top of Thicknesse's skull. She then brought her wand and used it as a hammer. Once the pin was in place she tossed the tongs and placed her wand firmly on the pinhead.
"The mix of magic and muggleness is disgusting" she said as purple mist started forming over the pin "wizards shouldn't have to be forced to wear ugly muggle clothes when out; we shouldn't have to hide our monuments behind perverse muggle ones. Copulating with a muggle is disgusting, just like bestiality! You don't want to see it. You don't want to see anything of the muggle world, least of all children that have been tainted by muggle parents. It's disgusting! You will never let muggles force their way on you! And you'd hate to ever go bald!"
As soon as she finished she pushed her wand forward until the pin was buried in Thicknesse's skull.
"Bravo Narcissa" The Dark Lord said "I cannot wait until those ideas manifest themselves in his policies. I will have Avery arrange for him to work his way to the very top of the Ministry."
"Thank you My Lord." Narcissa bowed "I am honoured to have served you."
"Just one question Narcissa, why did you make him not want to go bald?" The Dark Lord asked as he delicately placed a hand on his own bald head.
"A precautionary step My Lord. The pinhead stays just beneath the skin and could be found with careful observation. Having a full head of hair makes it harder to detect."
"I see. Very cleaver Narcissa. You have helped restore some of your family's lost honour tonight. The Dark Lord then looked towards Deepvoice "Unlike some people we all know" he added "now go and take Thicknesse back to his house. When you get back we'll be having a feast. Maybe we'll leave you some."
"Yes My Lord" Deepvoice said, levitating the unconscious Thicknesse and leaving the room as fast as he could. Once he was away from his Master he allowed himself to think about how devastated Dumbledore would be when he realised just how fast the Dark Lord's plans were moving.