Thanks to all those who read, fav'd, alerted and especially to those who reviewed!

I don't have anything to say, really, so yeah, here's the chapter:


"Walburga, your boys are simply adorable!"

I watched as the three and two year old boys played with a toy broomstick. Both of them seemed quite fond of it, though maybe the younger one of them was a tad more talented.

"Do you think so? They can be very bothersome... Sirius, especially, he can be really obnoxious."

"I can't imagine that!"

She gave a short laugh. "That's what they all say – Bella, too, until she was to watch them for an hour... exhausted after that."

I smiled. "Why, Bellatrix should learn to get along with children. Somewhen she wants to be a good pureblood wife and..."

"Ah, that'll be in a long while – she only just started Hogwarts."

I sighed. "I tell you, it passes faster than you think."

She laughed once more. "Yeah, we'll see – at least, these two are still so young... don't know how my parents were able to send us away... until then, of course, I have to educate them well – wouldn't want them to become anything else but decent purebloods, eh?"

I nodded, numbly, and tried not to think what it would mean to the two boys if they didn't want to be decent purebloods.


"Tom? Tom? Are you home?"

I heard a distant mumbling but didn't get an answer. I groaned. I had told him a hundred times – search for another place to hold your meetings!

I opened the door to the parlour and indeed found Tom and a fair amount of Death Eaters sitting along our table. It wasn't this, though, that held me in my place. Floating over their heads was a figure that I couldn't quite make out in the shadowy light of the room.

"May I ask what you are doing?"

Tom's head shot up and his eyes, glistening red, met mine. "What does it look like?"

"Looks like you once again haven't listened. I said no meetings in my house."

"Your house?"

"My house. Forgot that it was me who inherited this?"

Tom got up and swept toward me. "Have you forgotten my little lesson on respect already? It's been quite a while, maybe I should-"

"We would have no problem if you would listen – who's that?"

The figure above the table head moaned in pain.

"No one."

"Looks like someone."

"A Muggle."

I stared at him. "What do you plan to-"

"I'll kill him, of course. Just thought we could have a bit of fun-"

"TOM! No meetings in my house, no torture in my house, and most importantly no murder in my house! Get the hell out of here with your Death Eaters and that – that man-"

His eyes narrowed dangerously and he stepped closer. "I think I know what I'll do. Just for you to remember."

I opened my mouth, but he didn't give me the chance to as he whirled around. "You're all dismissed. What? You heard her. Get the hell out of here."

The Death Eaters got up, confused and one after the other left the room, bowing slightly as the passed Tom. The Muggle was left floating over the table.

Tom smiled coldly at me, flicked his wand and the Muggle crashed down on the desk, writhing in pain.

"So," Tom muttered. "No murder in your house you say? No torture – looks like we're gonna have to bend the rules a little."

"No. I told you to get him out of here-"

"Silence. Come here to me."

He had strolled over to the table and glanced down at the Muggle, now lying still. I took a deep breath and went over to join him.

"So... I taught you the Cruciatus Curse, didn't I? Ever used it since?"

"Of course not."

"Shame."

He eyed me thoughtfully. "Do it now."

"No."

"Yes." He seized my wrist and pulled me closer until he could reach into my robes to pull out my wand. "Here," he said, handing it to me. "Do it."

"NO!"

"At once."

I shivered as his eyes bored in to mine. "Come on, what use-"

"Do it, Lorraine." His voice was a calming, almost friendly whisper now. "Do it."

My gaze returned to the Muggle lying on the table. "Crucio!"

He screamed, writhed in pain, jerked wildly, really – screamed on top of his lungs.

I turned away, lifting the curse and shook my head. "I don't know why you're making me do this."

"I have many reasons. And we're not finished yet... look, he's still conscious, isn't this just convenient."

"Please," I heard the hoarse whisper of the man. "Please... kill me."

"Ah, what a sound," Tom whispered in my ear. "What about you grant him the favour, love?"

"No," I whispered.

"Why not? He's asked for it... begged for it..."

"No."

"What are you afraid of, Lorraine?"

I turned to look into his eyes. "Afraid to become like you."

He stared for a short moment, obviously stunned with my response. His lips curled into a cruel smirk. "Ah, but I am so very powerful... immortal... invincible. Nothing to be afraid of."

He started to circle me slowly. "You should do it. Now. You have no idea how it'll make you feel – oh, how it makes me feel... it really is intoxicating." He came to a stop right behind me. "Do it, Lorraine. He begged for it – he's suffering. End it!"

I shook my head as his fingertips lightly traced my wand-arm. "I can't."

"Of course you can. A rather simple incantation... only two words, love. You gotta want it..."

"I can't."

"Yes, you can. Do it. Now."

My hand shivered as his fingers closed around my wrist and moved my arm up. "Say it. Go on, Lorraine, end his suffering."

I swallowed hard. "Tom-"

"NOW!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

A flash of green light enlightened the room and the writhing Muggle on the desk stopped moving, his eyes wide and his mouth open in his last scream of pain.

"Ah – wonderful. See, I told you that you could- how do you feel?"

I shook my head. There was nothing, just numbness. I saw it right before me but couldn't believe that it had been me... that I had murdered.

"Lorraine?"

My eyes met his and instantly filled with tears. I didn't have the words for how I hated him for what he had just done to me...

"Hush, love, oh – you don't have to cry, huh?"

He took a step toward me and pulled me closer. I couldn't help it – I buried my face in his chest, sobbing as he softly stroked my hair.

"Shh – it's all right, everything's all right... hush, love, no need to cry..."


Time is passing in the most curious speeds. When you're happy or even more so when you've got plenty of work to do, it's rushing away. When you're bored, though, or living through horrible experiences, a second last as long as an hour.

I found that in the next couple of years, time was rushing away most of the time; I mostly didn't have the time to care about Tom's plans at all. Whenever I caught up on pieces of his plans, though, time seemed to come to a sudden halt; catching me in the most horrid episodes of terror, despair and helplessness.

Those episodes were, thank Merlin, rare. As the years passed by, I watched children growing up and adults growing old; once I ran into the Black sisters in Diagon Alley to find they were by now all attending Hogwarts. At another incident, I met Alphard on one of these unnecessary, yet to be attended events and found that he looked – in the lack of a better word – old. As I looked in the mirror, I found that I, too had changed and I wasn't quite sure what to think of that.

Tom changed as well, though he never looked old. His face was nearly unrecognizable to someone who had known him in his youth; it was a pity, I thought, that he let his good looks flow away. Whenever I said so, though, he only snorted at me. Asked me if I found it a good thing to look like a Muggle.

It's the bitter irony of life that one always wants what one can't get – whenever he asked me things like that I would've given anything for him being a Muggle. Just an ordinary guy and not the most powerful evil wizard that ever lived.


I'd love to know what you think of it, so please leave a review :)