Chapter 12
Kai sat crossed legged in deep contemplation, candles flickering around him, casting his face in shadows. He breathed deeply, hands moving in front of him in a simple pattern that relaxed him.
He had 20 minutes before his next class, the one he both anticipated and dreaded: 7th year. His class was open only to those in NEWT defense so this would be the school's best. This class held children of aurors, Order members, and Death Eaters. The potential in the group was admittedly impressive, with more than enough animosity to push them to be the best. Kai got a little thrill when he thought about it.
But right now he wasn't thinking about that, he wasn't thinking about anything. He saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing except the calming pulse of his magic in his veins. This was a bloodmage's trance. This was his third class of the day and he needed to be at his best for them.
Coming out of the trance he stood and stretched, gracefully standing in what was a replica of his meditation room. Looking at the time, he fell into thought about the class.
Each grade level needed to be approached in different ways and by different degrees of Kai's teaching personality. At Riker, Kai taught as Shadow, the powerful, cold, no-nonsense person he was on the job. He pushed his students to be the best; he didn't suffer whiners and he didn't have favorites. If you disrespected him, Shadow would put you in your place.
Kai was the other side of his personality and was both real and unreal. "Kai" was the sharp, charming front he showed to those who didn't know him as Shadow and that he wished to fool, and "Kai" was also the fun part of himself he showed only to his closest companions.
Most students at Hogwarts could not handle Shadow, they were too coddled by the current system, never pushed, never given consequences for laziness. So, he'd had to modify his system but still remain effective.
The first few years would probably describe him as a tough, yet fun professor who treated them all equally.
Fifth and fourth would say he was a hard-ass who set high standards, but was fair.
'Now the upper years, the upper years will hate my guts, those that can't handle it,' Kai thought.
Since the upper years had the option to drop out of the class, he suspected over half would do so in the first couple weeks.
He stepped outside the room in order to reset it completely to what he wanted. He then opened the door to find a brightly lit dojo.
He watched in amusement as students walked in, Hermione first of course, stopping and staring at their surroundings in bewilderment. A sparse few recognized the location and smiled.
Hermione looked around, taking in the beauty of the room. The floors were a light sandy colored wood, polished to a perfect shine. The room was brightly lit, mirrors covering three of the four walls. A dojo, how interesting. The class filled quickly, all 15 students from their DADA class standing in the center of the room, talking quietly amongst those of a common house, wondering about the class.
"Good evening, class,"
The students jumped as Professor Boudreau appeared in front of them, long hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, clad in a simple black sleeveless shirt and loose black pants. Hermione had never seen a professor look so casual, but she'd also never taken a class like this.
"I am Professor Kai Boudreau, call me Professor Boudreau or Sir. Calling me 'Most High and Knowledgeable One' will not earn you brownie points."
The class chuckled.
He turned serious, "This is your first class with me. This is also probably the last day you will at all like me. If you are not willing to work hard, and I mean hard, I recommend leaving now. If you can't listen or can't be open-minded, I make the same recommendation. I expect half of you to drop out of my class in the first month. Some of you will love and thrive under the pressure and some will hate it."
He raised his hand as someone tried to speak.
" If we could save all questions until the end of the introduction please." he cut in. "Now, this class has two parts: practical defense and theory. During practical the room will usually look like this, else, it will be a classroom."
The young professor pointed to a pair of doors labeled for each sex, "In there are changing rooms. The rooms will hold a locker with your name on it. Inside will be the clothing you wear during this class. At the end of each class you will leave that clothing in the locker room and a fresh set will be waiting for you for your next class. In general, I want you changed and kneeling in the center of this room by the time class starts. Do that now, you have 5 minutes," the class stared at him.
"Move!" he snapped his fingers.
That got them moving. They ran to the rooms, only pausing for a moment to look at the décor before scanning the lockers, looking for one with their name. Hermione found hers quickly, noticing they were in alphabetical order. A note was stuck to her locker.
Touch hand to the door to open.
She did and quickly pulled out everything inside. It consisted of an outfit exactly like Kai's except pure white instead of black. She changed quickly, not wanting to be late. She guessed that Kai was not someone that tolerated laziness.
She noticed another note: For day one, leave your wand in your locker.
She threw her clothes and bag and wand quickly in the locker and ran back out into the dojo. She kneeled next to a pair of Ravenclaws, all facing Kai who was kneeling facing them.
The handsome warder gave her a small smile before turning his eyes back to the changing room doors.
Fourteen students were kneeled before him when his internal clock told him the five minutes was up. Two minutes later Ron Weasley walked nonchalantly out of the door.
"Twenty push-ups Mr. Weasley, as a reminder to diligently follow directions while in this class." Kai called to the boy.
Ron froze halfway to the other students, "What?!"
"Did you not hear me or Is there some doubt that you are required to do what I request?" Kai's face remained emotionless, his voice holding disdain, Snape-like, but twice as intimidating.
"You're not going to take points?" Ron asked, stance cocky.
"How about you do the push-ups I assigned you, which is now 30 since I've had to ask three times, and I'll explain to you and your classmates how my class is going to work. Now, Mr. Weasley!" he barked, causing Ron to jump then drop to the floor.
Kai jumped to his feet directly from his knees, standing gracefully.
"This class will not be like any class you've ever taken. You'll notice that you all are wearing the same thing in the same color. I don't care what house you are in. In MY class, you fool around, you disrespect me; you will pay in sweat. Take this warning now; you do NOT want to earn a detention with me. I value my time and if you're so out of line that I have to give you a detention you will dearly regret it. Are we understood?"
Kai's killing-curse green eyes scanned his students, watching nervousness and anticipation roll off of them. No one said anything.
"Good. Now, today is fitness test day. I need to know what I'm working with," the room suddenly changed, expanding around them, settling in the form of a stand 400m running track. "Everybody up, you too Mr. Weasley!"
The students awkwardly stood, knees stiff from the kneeling. Ron glared at him.
"Spread out, I'm going to take you through a series of warmups."
There wasn't much grumbling as they began. Five minutes later he led them over to a board in the middle of the track. It looked like a very large chalk board with all their names on it. A timer was at the top.
"You are going to run, or walk if you cant, for 20 minutes around this track. The objective is to make as many laps as you can. Take note that this will affect your fitness score. The board will display your total and the current time. Line up on the line."
Some of the kids were looking nervous, some confident, like Mr. Weasley, who Kai was quickly figuring was not at all like the rest of the Weasleys that he had met. Two unique individuals, Blaise and a smaller Hufflepuff girl, looked excited. They were at the line, bouncing back and forth on the balls of their feet, preparing.
"On the whistle," a whistle appeared in Kai's hand.
TWEET!
The students took off, some running smoothly, others awkwardly from lack of experience.
Five minutes in and Blaise and the girl, Susan Bones, the board said, had a clear lap lead, followed one lap behind by Dean Thomas, then Malfoy and then the rest of the pack. Blaise wasn't even feeling it.
"Pick it up, Zabini, I wnst to see you sweat!"
The dark haired Italian jumped into what must look like a sprint to the others. He saw a glint come into the girl's eyes.
"You too, Ms. Bones! I don't see you sweating either," as if she was waiting for permission, the girl took off like a shot, dodging students as she overlapped them.
'I like that girl. It's good to know there'll be someone to challenge Blaise with.'
"Blaise, if she beats you, you owe me 20 pull-ups. Yes, Ms. Bones, that is a challenge. If you beat him you get an hour of one-on-one training with me."
"You're mine Zabini!" she yelled. "I want that training!"
"That's good to know, Ms. Bones," Kai really liked that girl.
He turned to the next in the race, "Mr. Thomas, stop running like you're kicking a football, extend that stride."
He kept that up for the remaining minutes. A few had impressed him, but the rest…
"How the wizarding world could destroy its youth like this, I can't comprehend. At your age and health you should be able to run at least two to three kilometers in those 20 minutes. We've got a lot of work to do. On a happy note, congratulations to Ms. Bones for beating Mr. Zabini. We'll talk about your training on Monday."
"Thank you Professor," she bowed her head slightly.
"Some of you may be bothered by how I'll rail on Blaise harder than any of you. I am aware of previous extensive physical training he has received want to make him work just as hard as you are."
'So Zabini really does know Boudreau,' Malfoy thought, standing near the back of the group. 'I need to stay a bit in the shadows until I can make my move. Let Weasley make the first mistakes, test the waters.'
"Now, part 2 of today's class is an obstacle course," the room mutated around the class again, becoming a huge circular obstacle course about the size the track had been. It had balance beams, jumps, nets, monkey bars; the students cringed, still panting from the warm up exercise.
"This course is timed. For those of you in good condition, few as you may be, should finish this course in roughly 5 minutes 20 seconds. The rest of you, you have a maximum of eight minutes to complete this course. If you fail to make that time you'll receive extra physical fitness homework until you are able to make the time. I'll offer a time for repeats each week. Any questions?"
One of the Ravenclaws put up a hand, "Yes, Ms Patil?"
"Can you take us through a round of it, sir? I've never seen some of this before and don't know how it works."
"Thank you Ms. Patil. I'll do that."
The students watched as Kai quickly went through it, stopping by some obstacles to explain their use.
Ron smirked, if Boudreau could do it so easily, he would make it look simple. These 'monkey bars' couldn't take much effort if Boudreau could hang there from one hand for two minutes discussing the obstacle.
"So, who's going first?" Kai asked a small smirk on his face. He knew that here was where the arrogant would fall.
"I'll do it."
"Fantastic, Mr. Weasley, please step up to the line. Note that not completing an obstacle will have a 15 second penalty. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"3…2…1…Go!" Kai stood at ease, waiting for the show to begin. Ron was arrogant and had no real reason to be that way. He was a mediocre athlete at best.
Kai strode smoothly on the ground alongside the course as Weasley wobbled his way up the balance beams and onward. Kai offered encouragement and instruction for esch obstacle but the arrogant boy fell from any obstacles requiring strength. He could see Ron's face getting redder and redder in anger and embarrassment. When the boy crossed the finish line he was huffing and puffing and looked like he wanted to scream.
"Not bad for a first try Mr. Weasley. That's a time of 7:47. 1 minute 15 added for six missed obstacles, that's 9:03. 63 seconds over but well under the final time cap. Lots of room to improve but decent for a forst go."
"Bugger off," Ron muttered.
"Excuse me?" Kai drawled.
"I said, bugger off!" the boy's aggression fading as he looking into his professors killing curse green eyes.
"Settle down. If you can't handle the stress my class, Mr. Weasley, get out. Simple as that. Everyone here will feel failure and strive for success. I don't need the drama from your wounded pride wasting the time of the class. This is your one and only warning." that might have sounded harsh, and parents would have ripped him to shreds if they had heard it, but that was the way he worked. "Ms. Bones, you're up next…"
At the end of the course it was clear the class could be split into three clear groups: One was those with skills and strength, amongst them was Blaise, Susan, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Draco Malfoy. Malfoy must have done sword training with his father. It was a dark pureblood tradition to train the sons of the line in blades. The second group was those with mediocre skills but that would try hard enough that they would eventually be skilled; these people had determination. The third was those that were either arrogant or didn't care. He hoped many of these eventually came around. The class had a very good core group that could turn into something very good.
Some of the students groaned as the room changed again, looking almost like a one-sided tennis court to those that knew what that was. A strange machine sat in the center.
"Next will be the beginning of what we will be studying for the next couple weeks in this class: dodging. There are some spells that are advertised as unstoppable, unblockable, and indefensible. This is bull. If there's a spell coming at you that you can't block, get out of the way. Shielding drains your magical core, but dodging does not. The best fighters in the world are the ones that can quickly move, using their environment to their advantage."
He walked up to the machine, "This machine will fire 20 tennis balls at you from random directions and speeds. Your task? Don't let them hit you. You will be restrained to a particular area and you must dodge as many of the balls as you can."
Kai jogged lightly to the center of the square area, rolling his shoulders in preparation for the simple exercise. The assassin, being smaller and more agile, excelled in exercises like this.
He began.
Fourteen students' jaws dropped. They had never seen anything like it. Their professor moved like a cat, easily jumping, rolling, twisting away the from tennis balls with an inhuman grace and ease. Only Susan and Blaise were not surprised at the show.
Susan knew he would be able to dodge twice that many balls at twice the speed, she could see it in the way he walked and held himself. The man had a dancer's body. Lean, but just packed with wiry muscle. Like a snake his power was coiled and ready to strike. Susan already had a building admiration for her newest professor. The man was powerful; she could feel it, just like her aunt had taught her to. He was also very skilled, that much was obvious. He would challenge her like no other professor ever had. She had been training with her aunt and some of the aurors ever since the war began. Amelia Bones was not going to let her niece be killed like her sister had been. Add to that, he was a very charismatic man. His students would want to succeed for him, those that weren't too arrogant to accept his knowledge, like Weasley.
She was looking forward to his private training.
Looking extremely slick, the professor easily caught the last ball, and, tossing it lightly in one hand, approached them.
"The more you increase your physical fitness, flexibility and explosive speed, the easier it will become. The more you practice, the more natural it will be. Now, the room has provided us with 5 circles for you to use in groups. Do we have someone that wants to break the ice and go first?"
This was probably the first time in her life Hermione hesitated to raise her hand. She was surprised when Malfoy beat her to it. Of all people, having seen Malfoy's extreme reaction to Kai, NO Professor Boudreau, she expected him to either act like Ronald had, or withdraw completely.
Kai grabbed the ball midair with a snap, "Mr. Malfoy. Your father is a talented swordsman; I assume he's done some training with you?"
Draco was shocked by the compliment. His mind flashed back to the prisoner he had seen being brutally tortured by his father, one who never cracked or begged for mercy. The platinum heir shook himself internally; this man had tried to kill his father and, by what he said, would be trying again.
"Since I was eight," he replied, head high in pride but not arrogance. Shadow had power over him now and as long as the Shadow didn't push it, Draco wouldn't tip his hand. He was a Slytherin after all, and currently this approach was in his best interest.
"I expect you to do well in this exercise. Picture the balls as flying knives and dodge accordingly. Take your place."
He had never felt such a desire to succeed at something. He entered into a defensive stance, imagining a sword in his right hand. The balls came and the rest of the world dropped away. Shadow was right, his just imagined the balls were incoming blades and his body moved on instinct out of the way.
Soon, there were no more.
Draco stood, a small smirk on his features. He hadn't been hit.
'That felt good.'
"Excellent Mr. Malfoy," the assassin nodded his head as Draco walked past. "You've impressed me today, Mr. Malfoy, keep it up," he said quietly so only Draco could hear.
Draco went through the rest of the class almost dazed. He didn't look dazed; he was a Malfoy after all, but his head was spinning.
'Is Shadow trying to mess with my head? What is he trying to prove? I was prepared for anger, disdain, but not this…' he didn't even know what to call it.
Most of the students got brutalized by the tennis balls. Their reaction time was slow. He'd had to split the class into beginner and advanced.
"Okay everyone, grab a seat," the room was suddenly a classroom with a big circle of comfortable blue chairs.
With a snap of his fingers, notebooks appeared on everyone's laps. "People, these are your assignments notebooks. I hate backward technologies and therefore if I receive even a single piece of parchment from any of you, I'll be quite upset. Normal-raised feel free to use pencils or pens."
He stifled a chuckle at Hermione's hissed "Yes!" of excitement and the grins on the faces of the normal raised.
"Every Friday I will assign you an essay topic. These will be well-researched opinion essays on the issues being discussed in next week's class. These will be due on Mondays. You hand in your notebooks on Monday and get them back on Friday during theory class. The goal of these essays will be to unblock your view on what is or isn't a threat in your life. Your first topic is House rivalries. I was never a Hogwarts student so I want to know what each of you think of the students of others houses. If you hold any opinions of the group as a whole, that is. If you don't, tell me why. I also want you to interview someone of another house. Summarize the interview and explain how that person does or does not fit those opinions you hold of the group."
"One final note. You all have noticed how your clothes are white and mine black. White is the symbol of chaos, black the symbol of order. Right now, you are untrained, chaotic. When you increase your skill to a certain level, you will earn black stripes on your uniform. They will begin on the pantlegs of your uniform and work upwards. They are like the level belts in martial arts."
He stood, "That is all. Get changed and get out."
The students, not wanting to earn exercises scampered quickly to the change room. Only Blaise stayed.
"That was fun!" he chirped, a smirk on his face.
Kai let his face fall into his palm.
"Sure, the general class did hideously on the tests, but there were some fun surprises. Hermione didn't do so bad," he continued.
"She was trying hard."
"I like her spunk. She hates that I'm better at this than her. Now she's going to push until she's on par with me. Mind you, that's not going to happen, but it'll be amusing to see her try."
Kai smirked, "Her spunk, hmm? Well, well, well…"
Blaise glared at him, "What?"
"Nothing," dark green eyes scanned the room, finding it empty so far. "Malfoy was impressive today. I'd like to see the two of you spar with blades."
"It's really screwing with his head, you treating him respectfully like that," the pair watched the other students leaving, the seventh years chattering rapidly. Hermione waved as she hurried by.
Blaise waved back. Kai stifled a chuckle.
"I decided that I could have revenge on Lucius in an even better way than I had planned. I'm going to steal his heir right out from under his nose. I'm going to take Draco under my wing and bring him to our side," Kai stretched, a malicious look his face. "I'm going to try and convert all the little Death Munchkins. Some of them, especially Draco, are quite talented."
Blaise barked a laugh, "All your prejudice debates."
"Of course. I'm starting small and working my way up." Kai smiled innocently, "You going to interview Hermione for your essay?"
Blaise stood, "I got to get to class."
"Maybe you can ask her about that Gryffindor courage?" Kai cackled as Blaise left.
As he entered his office to change, his cell phone buzzed at his side.
"Yeah."
"I've got that info you were looking for," it was Tobias' deep voice.
"Good. Tonight?"
"Eight."
"I'll be there."
Good old Tobias. Efficient if nothing else.
A shiver ran through Kai's body; he would hunt tonight. He would do what he'd been trained to do the best.
Closing the phone, he headed towards the Great Hall. It was Friday so he was eating supper in the Hall before leaving campus for the weekend.
He met Severus along the way; the man was visibly annoyed.
"Have fun torturing the kiddies today, Severus?"
"This batch is worse than the last," the man scowled.
"Maybe if they were less terrified of you, they would actually learn something," Kai returned as they entered the hall.
Those who hadn't had class with Kai were wondering how such a seemingly nice person could be friends with Snape. The older years were frightened at the similarities as the two stalked past.
"Those with enough determination and potential will succeed under the pressure. And do not comment on me, the students are ranting about you already."
Kai barked a laugh, "I've only had the 2nd, 5th and 7th years."
"It's the 5th years doing most of the talking about how you're a "hard ass" and complaining about your intolerance of foolishness. The Weasley boy went by not long past spouting nonsense about how you were a 'Slytherin-loving Death Eater just like the Greasy Bat'."
"The boy's just miffed that he did terrible on the fitness tests and that the ones that did the best were Blaise, Draco and Susan Bones. They were appropriately praised for their success. Apparently, that makes me a Death Eater," Kai smirked when he sat down at the long table. "Just wait until he rants about me to his parents or siblings. I'd love to hear the response, especially from Molly."
Molly Weasley had been the easiest to charm with his quick wit and polite, gentlemanly demeanor. She had even given him homemade fudge at the last Order meeting. She wouldn't appreciate her son bad-mouthing her new favorite staff member.
"She did take a shining to you, didn't she?"
"Indeed, that fudge was good."
Minerva sat on Kai's right, between him and the headmaster, "You've certainly made an impression on the students, Kai. I find it odd that four of my older Gryffindors love you and one is preaching that you are a Death Eater in league with Severus," her face was stern. "Where kids come up with these things, really."
"I'm sure the upper years will say worse things about me before the end of term," Kai's smile was anything but innocent. "Have you been surveying the students about me, Minerva, hmm..?"
"Of course not," she said sharply. "Mr. Weasley was rather loud and the others were defending you from him. He's earned himself a detention with Filch for his foolishness."
"The Gryffindors are defending me?" Kai raised a black eyebrow, "How interesting. I certainly must have made an impression."
'Just wait until they figure out that I use 'dark' magic. Lets see them puzzle that out,' the assassin pondered, lounging back in his chair, enjoying a goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Kai, I was wondering if I could speak to you for a short time after dinner," it was Dumbledore.
Kai nearly snarled, "Is this regarding tomorrow's events?"
Dumbledore sighed, "Yes."
The assassin's eyes lit with fire, "I've told you once, Dumbledore, and I'll tell you again. No, I will not convince Lord Gryffindor to rethink his taking over the Wizengamot. I believe that step is a necessary one in the reformation of a better Wizarding society. And no, I will not yield information about him to you; that would be betraying an individual that I respect."
The lithe young man placed his napkin on the table and stood.
"Leaving so soon, m'boy?"
Green eyes narrowed, "As agreed upon, my time after dinner on Friday through the weekend is completely my own. I value my time, whilst you may not. I will see you all on Monday."
As he turned to go, Dumbledore spoke again, "Will you be there tomorrow?"
"At the Wizengamot?" a smirk crinkled the green eyes slightly. "Of course. Forgive me if I don't say hello, as I won't be there officially."
And with that he blew out of the hall with enough flare to make Snape proud, even without the billowy robes.
Kai quickly made his way to his quarters, changing into his usual, more appropriate working attire before shadow-stalking to the alley next to Shadowed Soul. He could have appeared inside his office upstairs but he wanted the staff and customers to know his was in. He was the alumni representative after all; if they had problems, they needed to be able to speak to him.
"Jake," he nodded to the bouncer who pulled another out of the way to let him pass.
"Boss. Good to see you in."
"I'll be in most of the night if anyone needs anything," he said as he stood just inside the door, surveying the clean sophisticated atmosphere that was his creation. Each representative had added their own flair to the place. Kai favored clean dark elegance. The place was dark, with the exception of the dance floor, mostly lit by magical candles, giving it a powerful ambience. The tables were mostly full, as was normal early on a Friday evening. The club section would fill up around midnight.
Waving to the bartenders, he strode up the stairs to his office where a stack of paperwork was waiting for him. He had about an hour to wade through it before Tobias showed up, when he'd get even more paperwork.
'Oh well, I understood the responsibilities when I accepted the nomination.'
When a knock on the door sounded, Kai called Tobias in.
The werewolf stalked in, black briefcase in hand. In typical Tobias fashion he placed the briefcase on the desk and turned to leave.
"Thank you Tobias. I really appreciate this."
Amber eyes regarded his squad leader, "We're a team. You'd do the same for me."
With that, the man walked out.
The information was on one Augustus Rookwood, Kai's betrayer within the Department of Mysteries. Kai had been scouting the man out for over a week, determined not to repeat the same mistakes he had last time. This had to be done tonight. No fanfare, nothing. Just in, quick kill, drop the body off at the ministry and go. This would provide the catalyst he needed to bring about swift changes during the Wizengamot meeting tomorrow afternoon. The shock for some would be that there were Death Eaters in the most protected sector of the ministry; or others, that someone had so easily destroyed one of the Inner Circle.
The most foolish parts of his personality were screaming at him to leave Rookwood and go directly for the big game: Riddle, Malfoy and Leander. Unfortunately, in-depth study of the defenses at Riddle manor, the base holding all three of his primary targets, had shown his chances of a successful operation to be less than 5 percent.
Kai wasn't too disappointed. He knew that as his operations as Kai Boudreau, Shadow, and Nicholas Gryffindor were successful; Riddle would become more and more vulnerable. He would slowly watch his organization be torn apart.
The information Tobias had gotten for him was the exact location of each of the defense keystones around the Rookwood home. And it was a home, not a manor, surrounded only by modern wards, not hundreds of years of layering like the Malfoy Manor.
Electrical surges had been recorded coming from the house, meaning that Rookwood had acquired technomagics as well. That irritated Kai; technomagic security devices were powerful.
Kai read the files carefully, plotting for another few hours while he held his office hours at the club. He did not see a large number of visitors as the next council meeting wasn't for another month and the meetings closeness correlated with an increase in visitors.
At exactly 1:00 am Shadow apparated via coordinates to a point 2 miles off of the Rookwood home. One downside about shadow-stalking was that he could never stalk into somewhere he'd never been, unlike apparition were the individual could apparate with just a set of coordinates or from a picture. Someone's memory, probably, could provide what he needed to enter the room, but never just a picture. That thought brought an excellent idea to Kai's mind, but he stored it away for future processing.
Rookwood's house, where he in fact lived alone, was a fairly large grey stone house surrounded by a huge metal fence and miles of wilderness.
Settling himself at the edge of the wards he set about delicately creating a door for himself in the warding. He had positioned himself exactly between the furthest distanced ward keystones, where the warding were the weakest.
Shadow, as that was who he was no, smirked maliciously at the creative sadism in the setting of the wards. Wards that would peel his skin off for tampering with them were particularly nice ones. Of course, Shadow was too good of a warder to be captured by such a thing.
Dark brown eyes glinted out of an ordinary face with short cropped hair. These wards took 10 minutes to Malfoy's 40. Stretching out his newly shifted into form, the same one he used in the Malfoy attack; he strode through the door he had created in the wards and onto the property. The property was deceptively beautiful, flowers ringing the entrances and delicate trees meant to showcase wealth.
Rookwood didn't have any guards, he was not important enough. Shadow, having practically nullified the wardings, threw out his magic senses. There were six living things in the house: Rookwood, two owls and three house elves. Rookwood was on the move in the den which was located on the front side of the house. Kai pushed his power into the ground, searching for the electrical grounding point all technomagic required. That would allow him to trace all the surveillance equipment.
'There! In the east corner.'
The grounding was small, suggesting limited technology was in use. Shadow wondered who would have performed these installations for these Death Eaters. Technomages weren't very rare, but they were still rare enough and hard to find. Most spent their time finding new ways to use normal technology that could be repeated by others. Installations like this were very expensive.
Rookwood, Shadow found had gone for the basics. There were motion sensors in the far east bedroom on the second floor and camera along the front face.
'I'm going in the back then.'
With a cat-like quietness he slid along the perimeter, far out of sight of the cameras. He slipped to the back door, unraveling the wardings around it and the entranceway.
'Hmm…another skinner…this man has a fixation with skin.'
Once inside the door he slid into the shadows along the dark walls. These shadow powers, as he called them, which had solidified with his coming of age this past July, were becoming more and more useful. Before they had been too erratic to be depended on just incase they failed.
He heard his target's voice, it was grunting in anger and, strangely, pain.
"The man could think of a better way to call his followers, especially at this time of night."
'Ahh, Voldemort calls, does he? This will make things more interesting…'
Shadow's hand twitched toward his blades.
'No, it can't be messy. Shacklebolt made me promise I wouldn't drop a bloody corpse next to his desk in the DMLE.'
Normally he wouldn't care, but he had taken a liking to the auror. He reminded Kai distinctly of Tobias with his serious focus. The man had gotten him the portkey to drop off the body after all.
His left hand closed around the handle of one of his daggers.
He heard the voice yell, "Crucio!" in disgust.
"Stupid, stupid creature! Where are they?"
'Ah, the one of the house elves, pour creature.'
"T-Tilly took them to c-clean them Sir...," the creature stuttered back as Shadow slipped into the den. "T-they i-is in their n-normal p-place!"
"Then fetch them you useless…"
The elf was gone before the third word was said. She reappeared about four seconds later holding a black Death Eater robes and mask. Rookwood grabbed the robe and mask out of her small hands. Shadow struck as he raised his hand to curse her again.
Shadow reached out a long fingered hand and grabbed him around the neck, pulling the Death Eater's back against his chest, sharp blade against the throat. He quickly stunned the blubbering elf before she did something harmful to him out of their twisted sense of loyalty.
Rookwood made to struggle but drew in a quick breath when he felt the razor sharp blade on his neck. His hand slid slowly towards the wand at his side. Suddenly, he felt a bolt of magic race through him and he felt a hard resistance to every movement.
"Tsk, tsk, can't have that now can we, Rookwood," a voice purred in his ear.
He of course recognized the voice immediately; he couldn't forget it, "Shadow."
"Who else?" He felt his wand leave its holster. "Thestral hair, I think I'll keep that."
Rookwood hissed as the burning in his arm jumped up a notch.
"Your subhuman master calls for you. Too bad you'll be missing this meeting."
The Death Eater knew this was the end for him. His body shook against his restraints. He couldn't stand against The Shadow. The Dark Lord himself would have to walk through the backdoor right now for him to have any hope of survival. But, it was not to be.
Shadow felt the man's body shiver.
'Pathetic.'
Shadow slid his arm forward, elbow hooking under the shaking man's chin. He placed his right hand on the back of the blond head and quickly snapped his neck, killing him instantly.
'Well, that was about as unsatisfying as it could be.'
Shadow reached down and ripped the left sleeve off the now dead man's robe. To the front of the robe he pinned a note then hoisted the man over his shoulder.
Walking into the darkness of night, he dumped the body onto the apparition point. He drew in all of his magic and magical signature out of the corpse and house.
The assassin lifted a chain off his neck, the portkey Shacklebolt had give him, and dropped it on the body. Stepping away, he spoke the activation phrase.
'Let it begin.'
After speaking with Boudreau, Kingsley Shacklebolt was working the graveyard shift tonight. Boudreau hadn't requested he be there, but he wouldn't miss a dead Death Eater dropping into the DMLE for all the wizarding world.
He was sorting through some paperwork when he heard a loud thump and a scream from the receptionist.
Pushing his amusement behind occulmency shields he strode out of the office door.
"Someone report!" his deep voice projected through the room. Aurors had swarmed around the body.
"Sir! It's Augustus Rookwood! He's dead sir!" one of the younger female aurors called out from the crowd.
"Stand aside," the group parted like the red sea.
He examined the corpse. There was no blood or any visible physical trauma. Brown eyes were open in an expression of fear, but there was no feeling of a lingering killing curse. The killing curse wasn't the assassin's style anyway.
The Head Auror ran a large hand over his dark, hairless head before he spotted the cause of death. The neck was snapped. Clearly.
'Well, I did ask him to keep it clean.'
"Well, well, well," he drawled as he lifted the Dark Mark stained arm. "Looks like we have a Death Eater on our hands."
That caused a ruckus. The upper level aurors knew that Rookwood was a member of the Department of Mysteries.
That's when he noticed the small note pinned to the front of the dead man's dark robes.
To the DOM:
This one is for free.
Don't make the same mistake twice.
-S
"Someone get me Director Bones. Now."