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The Purple Black
Nymphadora stared at her reflection in the mirror, her hair fell below her shoulders in tight blonde curls, her eyes a dull green and her facial features general facial features rearranged to make her unrecognisable. She let out a deep breath, adjusting her short leather jacket, vest top and denim skirt before she slipped on her small black flat shoes. She was not used to wearing such cheap and casual clothes, she was sure if her Aunt saw her wearing such things she would either laugh or tell her she looked like some sort of common scum, though The Dark Lord had asked her to change her features and dress in case she was seen and so she had. She was almost glad that he had told Nymphadora to come alone today, though once she had been told the task she was needed for she couldn't help but feel the mixture of excitement and nerves rising in her stomach. She flinched as a man snickered from behind her.
"What's so funny?" Dora snapped, turning to glare at Barty Crouch Jr.
"You." He said simply with a shrug of his shoulders, "You're like a little first year at school getting all nervous about their first lesson."
"This is hardly a lesson." Dora rolled her eyes.
"No . . . Though it will be your task to give a full report, seeing as I'll be otherwise occupied." Barty smirked, picking up his bag as he placed the last bottle of polyjuice potion within it.
". . . I don't understand why I can't just impersonate the man." Dora rolled her eyes, "I can morph whereas you can forget to take your potion—or run out."
"You?" Barty laughed, "You're not even a Death Eater, Nymphie. You have to earn that title and you can't earn it doing something as important as this. You've not proven yourself to be trusted with such a task. Besides, I'm far more skilled."
"That's what you think." Dora scoffed, "I could beat you in a duel any day."
"And maybe one day I'll test you on that," Barty laughed, "but for today we have a job to do. Are you ready to come play with a real Death Eater?"
Dora gritted her teeth, glaring at the man before she shook her head, "You're infuriating."
"Why thank you." Barty grinned, pulling his hood up before striding over to the woman, taking her hand and disapparating.
She immediately regretted her choice of outfit as she gasped at the sensation of the warm summer's rain splattering down on her, decidedly ignoring Barty's smirk of amusement as he looked around them. It didn't seem like a place that a once renowned Auror would live, in the middle of a muggle inhabited street lined with houses that weren't even as nice as her own childhood home. It was decidedly run of the mill and particularly dreary if you asked her, faint lights coming from the odd house as the streetlights barely lit the small street.
"He could have wards around his house, so he might know when we enter the garden—perhaps even before that." Dora said.
"Well done, Miss State-the-obvious." Barty rolled his eyes, nudging the woman to walk alongside him as he approached the building, bold as brass. "That's why we just walk in there—we'll try to sneak in the side door if we can but I doubt that would go undetected. He's not the sort to come and start a duel in his front garden in the middle of the night with Muggles around. He'll think he's smart and let us get in to try and take us down inside. I've seen it before. Just . . . keep your wits about you."
Dora didn't say anything, unable to ignore her heart now beating five times its usual rate as she kept a tight grip on the handle of her wand in her waistband. She let Barty lead her to the small side alley between Moody's house and his neighbours, swearing as she trod in a puddle much to Barty's amusement. The man was right, with a simple spell the door opened, letting them into the small house before the pair quickly shut the door behind them. Barty gave the girl a look, gesturing for her to draw her wand as he quickly cast Homenum Revelio.
"Stick close to me." Barty breathed, "I'm not sure I'd be blameless if you got arrested on your first task."
"I'm fine." Dora hissed, though she followed the man into the building.
The place was seemingly empty, though she knew that wasn't the case. As Barty led her through the dark hallway she was beginning to think this would be easier than she thought, that was until she felt him grab her arm to pull her down as a spell went whizzing past her head scorching the wall behind her. Barty was quick to start duelling, firing curses up at the man currently stood at the top of the stairs in his pyjama's. Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody certainly looked as if he was living up to his name, a look of crazed determination on his features as he powered spells at them. Dora quickly brought up a shield, allowing them both to advance up the staircase despite the onslaught of spells. The ex-Auror backed away, leading them to stand in the upper hallway as all three tried to get a shot in at each other.
"You are supposed to be dead, Crouch!" Moody growled through gritted teeth as he deflected one of Nymphadora's carefully aimed curses.
"Clearly not!" Barty laughed. "Didn't do as good a job of keeping me away as you thought, did you Mad-Eye?"
"We'll soon put that to rights," Mad-Eye responded, "I can have a cell ready for the both of you in no time."
"No, thank you." Dora smirked, the thrill of the fight starting to fill her as she raised her wand ready to strike another curse at the man. That was when with a flash of light the world went dark.
"Nymphadora!" a voice growled in her ear.
"No . . ." she murmured, immediately screwing her eyes shut at the bright light seeping through her eyelids.
"Get up."
Dora groaned as she felt a strong hand pulling on her arm, forcing her into a sitting position. Her head was spinning, a sharp pain in her temple as she hissed at the sensation. She forced herself to open her eyes, sighing as she saw Barty's face mere inches from her own.
"What happened?" Dora mumbled.
"You left yourself open, got knocked out, I healed you." Barty rolled his eyes, "Clearly you're not as skilled as you thought you were—that or your Aunt's cockiness has rubbed off on you. You know she can get away with that shit because she is far more skilled than you are, right?"
"I—" Dora stopped herself speaking, looking around as she realised she was still in Moody's hallway. "What happened?"
"You've already asked that." Barty chuckled before without warning he pulled the witch to her feet and took her into the nearby open door. Alastor Moody was laid unconscious on the floor of what was presumably his bedroom, his hands and feet bound. "I got him . . . come on, help me."
"How did you get him?" Dora asked, watching the man pull out one of the potions bottles from his magically enhanced bag.
"With skill." Barty shrugged.
Dora rolled her eyes, looking around the room and frowning as she noticed the man's wooden leg laying splintered to the side, "You blasted his leg off?"
"Well, he struggled to get a balance enough to duel after that one." Barty chuckled, "Fix it for me, I'll need it."
"Fine." Dora sighed, walking over and casting a quick Reparo on the item. She lifted it up and turned back to the man only to wince as she watched him pull a handful of hair out of the older man's head. "Aren't you going to need his eye, too?"
"Ergh." Barty summoned the eye, wrinkling his nose as the small sphere whizzed around in his hand for a moment before he placed it down on the cabinet behind him. "I am not looking forward to—"
"Shh!" Dora hissed.
"Wha—?"
"Shh!" Dora listened intently, ignoring Barty's perplexed stare until she confirmed what she could hear; the faint sound of police sirens. "I think some muggle called the police at the noise—what idiot doesn't put silencing wards around their homes?"
"The please?" Barty raised an eyebrow.
"Police. They're like Muggle Aurors." Dora sighed, "Get the trunk out and shove him in—quick."
Dora huffed in annoyance as the man simply stared at her in confusion, going over to him and summoning the trunk out of his bag herself. "How do you know what muggle Aurors are?"
"My Dad showed me an old movie once." Dora said quickly, not wanting to get into a conversation about her muggleborn father right now (or at all for that matter). She was relieved when Barty dropped the conversation, instead opening the trunk and levitating the unconscious man into its depths.
"See how you like being locked away for a while, git." Barty grinned. He pulled the stopper off of the polyjuice potion, sprinkling a few of the hairs inside. "Bottoms up." The man cringed as he downed the potion, waiting for a few moments before he groaned at his body transforming. The sirens were getting closer and Dora quickly ran to the window to see the police car pulling down the street. "How do I look?" Dora turned at the sound of the deep voice, wincing as he picked up the eye still whirling on the cabinet and promptly placed it in his now empty socket.
"Marvellous." Dora breathed before she looked out of the window to watch the police, now visible in the early morning light as they approached the house. ". . . Don't kill the muggles. It's too obvious."
"Obviously." Barty laughed, though he quickly went over to the window, opening it as he pointed his wand.
"Barty—!" she bit her lip as he fired a spell, though to her surprise it didn't affect the police officers about to get out of their car. She frowned as the dustbins began to spew rubbish, whizzing up to the back garden creating a terrible racket. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"Well, I was trying to knock one over if I'm honest." Barty shrugged as he looked curiously at the bins. "Thought they'd get distracted by the noise and you could sneak out the front and disaparate—there's undoubtedly anti-apparation wards in here—but I think the idiot Auror must have put some sort of trespassing charm on them . . . Either way, this works just as well."
"You're going to have the ministry down here trying to get Mad-Eye for improper use of magic on those bins, you realise?" Dora said.
"Well then, you best get out of here so I can play the part of overly paranoid ex-Auror looking to defend his home." Barty grinned, the look strange on the features of Mad-Eye Moody.
"I won't be recognised, Barty." Dora rolled her eyes. "I reckon I should stay here and make sure you don't go killing anyone."
"Nymphie," Barty laughed, "as much as I enjoy your company and am flattered by your clear faith in me I don't think I could explain away Mad-Eye having a young and attractive woman in his home, could I?"
"I—"
"I'll be fine." Barty rolled his eyes, still grinning in his amusement as his magical eye moved around the room, "Go on, off you pop."
Dora stared at the man for a moment, thinking of something to say before with a huff of annoyance and a shake of her head she left the room and made her exit to the sound of raging dustbins, confused muggles and Barty's barely contained laughter at the situation.
"How did it go?" Bellatrix asked.
It was hours later and Dora had only just got back from reporting to The Dark Lord. She had decided to ensure that Barty had the capability of taking care of the two policemen without succumbing to his darker tendencies, hiding undetected in a neighbour's garden for a while before she watched the officers get in their car and drive away with a confused yet calm look on their features. Nymphadora had spent at least another hour reporting to the Dark Lord and had tried to apparate straight into her bedroom after leaving him, hoping that after staying awake all night she may be able to get some rest before her Aunt's inevitable onslaught of questions. Though the moment she had arrived she realised that was hopeless as her Aunt was laid on her bed waiting for her return. The dark Witch quickly jumped to her feet, crossing her arms as her niece took too long to answer her.
"Well?" She snapped. "Did it go to plan?"
"Yes." Dora tried to hold back a yawn, "Moody is currently locked in a trunk and Barty is probably on his way to Hogwarts around about now."
"And you reported this to The Dark Lord?" Bellatrix asked.
"Of course, I did." Dora sighed, sitting down on her bed as she shrugged off her jacket and kicked off her shoes.
"What did he say?" Bella asked, staring at the young witch intently.
"Aunt Bella," Dora yawned, "I'm really tired, can I please tell you this later?"
"I need to know, Nymphadora." Bellatrix said, almost in offended that the girl wouldn't give her exactly what she wanted at that exact moment. "You have scorch marks on your jacket."
"Can I at least freshen up?" Dora sighed, forcing herself to smile at her Aunt, "I'll tell you everything but at least let me change out of this get up first."
". . . Fine, you do look ridiculous." Bellatrix sighed, "I'll meet you in the drawing room."
It didn't take her long to change, morphing her hair into a more tameable long sleek blonde before throwing it up in a hair tie and switching her outfit for a casual dress. She knew she wouldn't be getting to sleep anytime soon. As she walked into the drawing room she was hardly surprised to see her Uncle sat in an armchair as her Aunt stood impatiently by the fireplace. Dora summoned the elf, making it get her a drink before she sunk into a seat.
"Well?" Bellatrix raised an eyebrow, "What happened?"
"You don't seem very happy . . . what went wrong?" Rodolphus mused.
"I'm tired." Dora said defensively. "Nothing went wrong . . . well, I got knocked out at one point and the police turned up but apart from that nothing went wrong."
"The what?"
"Muggle Aurors." Dora said quickly, taking a sip of her water before putting it on the table beside her. "We got Mad-Eye, locked him in the trunk and now Barty is going around parading as him just as we planned."
The two Death Eaters stared at the girl expectantly before with a roll of his eyes Rodolphus finally spoke, "You'll have to give us more detail than that."
"Right . . ." Dora took a deep breath before she started to explain the night, step-by-step, only pausing briefly as Rodolphus went to ask a question every now and then but was quickly shot down by his wife who clearly only wanted to know everything her niece could tell her before they asked such things. It was the middle of the day by the time they had finished talking, the girl almost falling asleep in her chair when Rodolphus decided he had other things to get to.
"Dora . . ." Bellatrix sighed, walking over to the girl with a contented smile on her lips. "You did well, I'm proud of you."
"Thanks." Dora couldn't help but smile, happy to hear she had pleased her Aunt possibly more so than when The Dark Lord had told her he was pleased earlier that day.
"Though you shouldn't have been knocked down like that, perhaps we need to train some more today." Bellatrix laughed as the girl's face dropped at the thought of training, "What?"
"I'm tired." Dora insisted.
"Is that what you're going to say when you've been battling for hours on end with no signs of stopping?" Bellatrix raised her eyebrow before speaking in a mocking tone, "'I'm sorry, Mr Auror, can you stop for a minute so I can take a nap?'"
"No. . ." Dora mumbled, though was pleasantly surprised as her Aunt squeezed her arm, winking at her.
"Go to bed." Bellatrix said, "There's no point trying to begin a training session when you're already so tired—I'd have you off your feet in under a minute."
"Thanks . . ." Dora stifled yet another yawn as she got to her feet, hugging her Aunt briefly, "I'll write to Draco in the morning, ask him how his new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor is—Everyone knows there's a new Professor this year so it won't be that strange."
"Good," Bellatrix nodded, "Dora," the woman smirked at the younger witch as she looked at her, "you did do well tonight. You'll be a fine Death Eater soon enough."
"Thanks, Aunt Bella . . . It was kind of fun." Dora grinned as the witch let out a small laugh, she shook her head, turning to leave the room as she called back to her Aunt "'Night."
"Good night . . ." Bellatrix watched the girl leave, unable to help but keep the smirk on her features. She had done well for her master in providing Nymphadora to him, she was sure he would be pleased with both witches. With a small giggle of happiness at her own achievements, Bellatrix turned on the spot, leaving to report to her master as he had requested to discuss both the night and further plans.
So I hope you enjoyed that! Please do leave a review if you have a minute, I love to hear your thoughts
The Purple Black