Two Years later…

Here we go again, Draco Malfoy and his team of Death Eaters portkeyed into the muggle town along with several other teams, the warders instantly casting the spells that would keep the muggles from running away, and indeed as soon as they appeared out of nowhere, their wands blazing with killing curses and many other spells that were being fired so quickly even Malfoy's knowledge of dark magic curses was unable to keep up.

From the looks of it, the muggles had simply been having and enjoying a normal day as they shopped for clothes and things Malfoy truly didn't know or understand about before the Death Eater attack began; he had never been interested in muggles, a result of his strictly pureblood upbringing as his father groomed him into becoming a Death Eater.

The moment the Death Eaters attacked, the muggles began running in panic as the long-robed Dark wizards attacked them with curses and spells that either boiled the blood or caused their skin to age and rot while their bodies fell to pieces, or were tortured brutally by other dark spells.

"Show the animals no mercy!" Malfoy flinched as he heard his insane aunt shriek, urging the Death Eaters on with many doing it reluctantly although Malfoy hoped they weren't stupid enough to think they could appear in their full regalia and not do anything, his aunt was insane and vicious; if she saw anyone not pulling their weight in an attack, she would not wait for the Dark Lord to punish them. She was more than capable of doing that herself, and she had earned her place as Britain's most feared witch.

The Death Eaters had received a massive influx of followers and recruits after Potter had been locked away in Azkaban; so many people had lost hope and their faith in the Light despite Dumbledore's continual existence, but the old wizard was soft and too weak despite his clear strengths. Malfoy had heard many things about the Order of the Phoenix from his parents; he saw now some of their biased views about Dumbledore's pathetic little club were spot on, to say nothing of Severus's tales about them who had told him that all the Order were content to do was to talk because Malfoy had been a Death Eater for two years now and he had only encountered the Order once or twice since, and they always appeared late. For a group who were determined to defeat the Dark Side, the Order of the Phoenix was useless.

And their lateness was just one of the many factors that were only contributing to so many losing faith in Dumbledore. The old wizard believed in his legend a little too much for the liking of so many, and he never really turned up when his presence would be a great relief to the victims of the Death Eaters.

Malfoy had never liked Dumbledore; he might have been a powerful wizard, but he had been discarding and tearing apart magical traditions for years and years, but that was nothing compared to the years Draco had attended Hogwarts. He had a front-row seat watching as Dumbledore manipulated Potter, and he had seen signs, clear ones, that Potter had been onto the old man, although he had masked it carefully in a manner a Slytherin would have been proud of and many were losing so much faith in him. Worse, there were rumours that because Harry Potter was no longer seen as the 'Chosen One' there was a young mudblood girl who was seen as the prophecy child. It was an open secret within the Death Eater organisation a prophecy had been made out, between Potter and the Dark Lord.

It explained a great deal, like why the Dark Lord had gone after Potter and his parents; Draco had always assumed the Potters had merely gotten on the wrong side of the Dark Lord too often and so he'd decided to eliminate them to stop them from meddling in his plans. It was a view shared by many, but the prophecy had changed that.

He had taken Divination and he had learnt to regret his elective choice. The subject was pathetic and he had not been impressed by that pathetic squib who taught it. He found it hard to believe the Dark Lord believed in something like that, although he had to admit the Dark Lord had never spoken about it, and Draco Malfoy was not stupid enough to ask.

But Dumbledore believed in the prophecy. Believed in it enough to assume the young mudblood girl might fit the criteria. The girl had only just started at Hogwarts, and she had no idea about magic and now suddenly she was being elevated into the role. Malfoy wished he were still at Hogwarts so he could show the girl what Dumbledore was really like, but like so many naive children, she was taken with the old fool and would likely never understand the dangers until it was too late. But she had been attacked by the Death Eaters already, so she had some knowledge of what was out there.

Malfoy hit a man running away with a killing curse - a small mercy, since Death Wards were surrounding the town and death would be painful and too drawn out. He was like a machine, firing different curses around which killed the muggles, but he didn't draw the torture out as some of the older Death Eaters did.

But some of his fellow Death Eaters did get involved in the torture. He flinched as he watched one of them corner a muggle family, the mother pleading with the masked and robed attackers, but screamed when she and her children were placed under the cruciatus curse. Malfoy flinched as he heard the screams, and wished the Death Eater wouldn't draw them out like that.

Xxxx

Malfoy poured himself a stiff Firewhiskey before he passed the bottle to his friends while he made sure the silencing and privacy spells were fully in place. Zabini took the bottle next and poured a small measure into the glass in front of him. The usually calm and cool man was shaking. The last two years had been rough on him since the Dark Lord had begun ruthlessly forcing people into joining his ranks.

Blaise, Daphne and Astoria and Francine and Theodore Nott filled that category. All four of them looked completely exhausted and were holding themselves up through sheer force of will. Meanwhile, Pansy and Draco, who had both wanted to join the ranks of the Dark Lord, were likewise feeling the strain. By the time he got the Firewhiskey bottle back, Draco was unsurprised to see that it was completely drained. He sighed but he summoned another bottle to the table.

"How many bottles did you get?" Astoria asked quietly, her red-rimmed eyes solemn as she absently rubbed her arm where her Dark Mark was located.

"Just three," Draco replied as quietly.

"You should have gotten more. I'm going to need a lot to deaden my nerves," Theodore muttered as he flinched and he moved around. "I never want to be sent on that kind of mission again. I thought the Dark Lord was going to kill me, the amount of time he had me under the torture curse!"

"What the fuck happened?" Daphne asked him. "I mean we know you'd been sent to get the girl, but we don't know more than that."

"It was a trap," Theodore growled as he knocked back a generous gulp of Firewhiskey. "The Order was hoping for the Dark Lord to come to the house. They didn't seem to grasp the fact the Dark Lords learnt his lesson after that mess on Halloween, back in '81. They weren't even expecting us. They managed to drive us off, though and Moody made sure to let us go with nasty curses, but looking back I'm beginning to think I should have stayed. At least Moody would have been quicker."

Everyone grimaced. Even though he was old and his body was falling apart making it a miracle in itself that he was even going on, Alastor Moody's reputation for brutality was well deserved. Even now everyone was curious about why Moody worked with Dumbledore; the two wizard's methods were still opposite to one another, one was a soft-headed idiot and the other was a brutal bastard.

"And the Dark Lord wants her?" Pansy's voice was a whisper before she shook her head. "I dunno why the girl is suddenly Dumbledore's focus."

"It's a repeat of Potter, all over again. How long did Dumbledore meddle in his life?" Blaise shook his head.

"I think it began long before Potter even came to Hogwarts," Daphne sighed. "Think about it; Potter vanished from the wizarding world after his parents were killed. When he arrived Dumbledore instantly declared the Third-floor corridor to be out of bounds, and I heard from someone who broke in there was a Cerberus there."

"Those are vicious!" Blaise instantly said. "What was it doing in the school?"

"I know, but I heard it was guarding something. But knowing that brainless fool Hagrid, they're as cuddly as puppies," Theo said. "And what about that rumour Potter found and saved something from the Dark Lord? I am convinced that rumour is true."

"Me too. And what about the next year, and then the Triwizard Tournament? Potter was accused of those attacks and then entering the Tournament and then he refused to accept his friend's pleas for forgiveness when they turned on him."

Malfoy put his glass on the table. "If that girl is accused of anything or pushed, how long do you think it will be before she falls apart?"

"I hope she doesn't; she's only a kid, and from what we've heard she's not that capable of magic and she's timid and shy," Pansy said at last, her eyes watering. "I had to torture a baby today. A baby! My cousin has recently given birth to a little girl, and they looked to be the same age. What kind of person does that make me?"

None of the young Death Eaters had an answer for her question. All of them had been indoctrinated with the Death Eater's philosophies over the years and they'd learnt their lessons well, and while many of them supported the Dark Lord's point of view they were sickened by the reality of what they were being made to do.

Xxxx

Lord Voldemort looked into the glass of red wine speculatively. The last two years had been incredibly rewarding for him. Not only was Harry Potter in Azkaban, but the Light was floundering. So many supporters of the Light had fled to join his side, but there were still so many people who refused to do anything and were lazily waiting for a saviour to save them all. Dumbledore believed the saviour was not Harry Potter, and instead believed it to be an 11-year-old girl called Jenny Smith.

By all accounts, the girl was an average girl majoring in Charms at Hogwarts. Nothing spectacular. And from what they'd heard she was timid. Voldemort didn't understand why Dumbledore was so desperate he would latch on to her, but further research showed the girl's parents had foiled his plans three times in the muggle world. It was a flimsy reason and truthfully Voldemort wondered if he should just leave the girl alone, and he was close to ignoring the girl and Dumbledore's pathetic attempts for him to mark her as his equal. Did Dumbledore think such a trap would work a second time? Voldemort still remembered the agonising pain he had gone through when he had launched the killing curse at Harry Potter; he didn't want that to happen again, but he had no idea what protected the girl. Voldemort did not doubt in his mind that Dumbledore would force the girl into a gauntlet as he had done to Harry Potter; he had been stunned at first by how easy it was for him to get into the Third-floor corridor to find the Philosopher's Stone. After a bit of thought, he realised Harry Potter was being tested. He didn't want that to happen again, he had better things to do with his time.

On top of that, Voldemort had listened to his spies in Hogwarts and learnt Miss Smith was timid and nervous. But he'd learnt the hard way personalities could be misleading. Who knew what the girl was capable of?

A sigh left his lips. Voldemort missed Harry Potter; the boy had been powerful, capable of great magic and he had a brilliant and cunning intellect that went against the biased reports he'd heard from his spies. But Miss Smith didn't exactly measure up.

He had sent Lucius Malfoy to kidnap the girl and bring her to him so then he could study her himself, and perhaps even brainwash her into becoming a Death Eater spy. But the Order had driven the team off and left Voldemort in a rage because he had wanted to evaluate the girl in case she was a threat. He had made many mistakes with Harry, he didn't want it to happen again.

Voldemort had never originally believed in prophecies, and he still didn't, and he was becoming tired of Dumbledore's unending quest to twist the war into the lines of one. He had merely wanted to deal with this Jenny Smith and then focus on more important matters.

Yes, he was winning the war, but he still had time to further demoralise the magical world and soon, Albus Dumbledore would be dead.