Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Title: Grim Reaper's Raven

Posted Date: February 22 2020

Tags: WBWL, Emiya / John Wick type Harry, Mercenary Harry, Interference type Order of The Phoenix

It was a quiet night during the late summer of 1996 in the small town of Chislehurst, London. Majority of the townsfolk were already tucking into their beds while the few outside was either closing up shop or taking a late-night stroll before getting back home. Normally those taking the stroll would take their time to do so, but as of late the weather had been going colder to the point that some news networks had claimed that parts of Britain had ice frosting on the windows of buildings and the lakes despite the warm temperatures. And if that was not worrisome enough, there had been reports of violent deaths appearing all over Britain, either by arson, accidents, torture, or some other method that had the police baffled.

The folks of the town could not help wondering if this was an indicator of what's to come in the following days. For the older folk, they were reminded of the terrorism that had hit the country around the 1980s with the death toll hitting close to a hundred and the government getting frustrated citizens clamoring for results. Even after the conclusion of that attack where the government stated the terrorists had been captured and arrested, there was still the feeling of unease that plagued their minds. With that unpleasant thought, the residents of the town decided to end the days quickly and went to bed in the safety of their homes. It would be roughly ten minutes close to midnight that the townsfolk would be slumbering.

All was quiet… at least until the sounds of popping filled the air.

Several people dressed in dark robes and bearing green masks appeared out of thin air, fanning out with sticks in their hands and looking around them while crouched, with one sporting a more ornate mask with scale-like decorations around the rim indicative of his possible rank. Once they were satisfied that they were not seen, they proceeded to go down the street in a general direction, with a couple looking at the house numbers as they passed. A few of them seemed eager to do something as they kept raising their wands only to be harshly scolded by the supposed leader of the group. It only took a few minutes for them to reach a house that was further from the other residences where they met two others apparently waiting for them.

"Is this the place?" The leader sporting the ornate mask and who was a lot bigger than the others approached the two and asked with a guttural tone.

The smaller of the two nodded while pointing to the house in question. "The family we seek is currently in, we have already set up the fire wards, anti-Apparation and anti-portkeys. The Floo network is cut off from this area, so even if the family has a fireplace, they can't use it. We only need your group to set up the others for them to practice before we burn it down."

"Good." Even with the mask, the tone used was a bad sign for the occupants of the house. "This should be an easy enough assignment for the newbies to sink their teeth in."

"Better not take too long, Sewlyn." The other person in the robes spoke out. "The Dark Lord needs the new recruits fast, and we must not attract unwanted attraction."

"From whom, the Aurors?" The leader now known as Sewlyn snorted as he signaled to the group behind him to set up the remaining wards. "Thanks to Fudge cowering like a baby and corruption, the Aurors are a joke, and what few are a threat to us are also outnumbered. Dumbledore and his band of fighters? The old man keeps going on about second chances for us all and his fighters are too chicken to play hardball with us. His golden boy Potter?" Sewlyn took a deep breath and lifted his mask to reveal a scarred mouth before turning to the side and spitting to the ground. "That boy is a pathetic braggart coasting on his fame, you have seen the mess of the past five years that he is not ready to take us on."

"He has a point." The smaller of the two nodded his head. "None of them are a major threat aside from Dumbledore, and even he is pretty much giving all of us second chances to 'redeem ourselves to the Light'." He said it with his hands performing the quoting action. "And regarding Potter, the child is noted to be quite a silly brat who acts like Malfoy's kid. Our Dark Lord is certainly quite dismissive of him for that part, he barely used enough power for a Crucio and the brat wet his pants. He was so disgusted that he just let him leave with the Diggory corpse, and even with that, the Ministry won't believe the boy or Dumbledore, which is good for us to say the least."

"It is not them I am worried about, Hughes." The other one answered as they watched the group finished up on setting up the wards and prepare to perform their tasks for their initiation. "My contacts from overseas have spoken about the ICW keeping a closer watch on us, and supposedly they have sent a group here to monitor and possibly deal with the matter personally."

"Why would they do that? They have never done that before in the previous war." Sewlyn remarked.

"It is because of the previous war and the events for the past four years that they are keeping an eye out, not helped by Fudge's time as a Minister nor Dumbledore's penchant for the whole 'Light-Dark' debate." Even with the mask, the others could tell that he was rolling eyes based on his wording. "Dumbledore's idea and denial of the Dark Arts has helped us by alienating the rest of the countries from aiding him and by extension the good fellows of the Ministry to stop us while giving us new recruits, but at the same time this is opening up the idea to other countries that Britain will have to undergo sanctions to keep us at bay. If our lord is to succeed, he needs to get rid of the opposition faster or be more subtle with the control."

"Well, we can worry about that later." Sewlyn could tell the recruits were getting impatient with their discussion and figured he could start their tests early. "Let's get these recruits have their first taste of blood and get them back. Hughes, Donson, keep an eye out while I get them to learn how to deal with the house burning."

"Yeah, I think a couple of them got other ideas." The one named Donson pointed to the front door now on its hinges and the screams of the woman in the house filled the area and ended up drawing three more of the recruits inside, the others looking less certain based on their body language.

"Amateurs…" Sewlyn shook his head in frustration. "This is why I hate training rookies."

"We will get these guys under control, you deal with the ones inside." Hughes remarked as he and Donson walked forward to make sure the other recruits do not try to follow the rest. "You might as well demonstrate how to give them a good time." Sewlyn snorted before marching his way into the house, muttering what he was going to do to those who disobeyed his orders. It did not take much to find them considering the devastation that was in the living room alone that led to the staircase, not to mention the screams of the woman and possibly the children based on the added volume. He stomped a bit harder than needed just to make sure they heard him, which based on the lack of cursing and laughter meant the recruits had heard him at least. He got on to the top of the stairs and turned at the corner to find his recruits having found the residents and cursed them accordingly, with what appeared to be the father clutching his stomach to stem the flow of blood from his wounds; the two youngest children hugging one another in fear and tears down their faces with the second recruit taunting them with his wand; and finally the mother and the eldest daughter being restrained by the remaining three recruits, their clothes having been shredded to the point that it barely kept their modesty. While any other time he would be happy, Sewlyn had a job to do.

"What part of listening to orders do you have fucking problem understanding?!" Sewyln glared at them through the holes in his mask. "I said we are only here to torch the place, not give in to your lower heads."

"Come on sir, we just want to have fun with the mudblood and her bitch of a mother." The apparent leader spoke out of the group only to yelp as he earned a hex from Sewlyn.

"While normally I would reward your enthusiasm and commitment, right now is not a good time." Sewlyn growled loudly. "The Dark Lord wants to make sure you can follow orders properly, and as it stands, you five just earned another round of training under Bellatrix when we get back." Even their faces were covered, the shudders of their bodies were enough to demonstrate the fear of undergoing that training. Sewlyn then turned his attention to the women in question. "Ladies, this is somewhat of your lucky night, because normally I would let them have some practice on you two for what would be part of their daily work." The senior Death Eater smiled behind his mask at the renewed fear and mentally praising the mother for attempting to shield her daughter even with her modesty barely hanging by shreds. Granted most times he would just break women like her afterwards, but he would still give an acknowledgement if they proved to be resilient.

"Why are you doing this to us?" The mother demanded. Sewlyn merely raised a hand to stop the recruits from cursing her, willing to answer her out of amusement.

"Your daughter, Miss Katlyn, has been quite an issue for the heirs in Hogwarts. Evidently she has not understood her rightful place, much like the mudblood Granger." Sewlyn answered as he knelt down and looked at her in the eye. "She has been causing a fair number of dissent among my kind, and we really don't take kindly to it. So your family was chosen to be made an example while serving as training. At least try to give more resistance, after all you just graduated and should know some spells."

"Just like that? All because of bloody blood bigots?!" The daughter spoke out only to scream as she earned herself a Crucio from Sewlyn who did it very lazily while ignoring the screams from the rest of the family.

"Careful mudblood, I might be tempted to let the recruits have their way with you while the house burns down with your family in it." Sewlyn commented in a bored tone with a tinge of rage. The young woman panted hard after he lifted the curse, her tremors having moved the last shreds of clothing off her body but unable to cover herself properly. Sewlyn ignored her and turned back to the recruits. "We have wasted enough time, just kill them and get out before we burn this place down."

"Don't argue with me." His tone stopped the protests from the recruits. "We are on the clock, and we have wasted enough time as it is. While I doubt the Aurors would be efficient, there are some good fighters still on the force and I would prefer that we establish an alibi before they come." The younger ones grumbled but listened to his orders and began to raise their wands at the family who started to wail again, with the parents attempting to save their children futilely.

"On my count, fire off Avadas." Sewlyn commanded before pointing his wand at the mother. "One… Two… Thr~"

'BANG!'

The count got interrupted at the sound of a loud bang that drew everyone's attention to the staircase where they could hear some of the recruits yelling and spells being cast. Sewlyn narrowed his eyes as he made his way to the staircase, stopping by the wall and leaning against it as he tried to hear what was going on.

'BANG! BANG!'

"What's going on out there?!" One of the recruits demanded as he looked to Sewlyn, with the sounds of screaming getting louder.

"It would appear that we have unwanted company." Sewlyn turned to the recruits, motioning with his head at the family. "You three, get them into one of the rooms and watch over them. We might need them to bargain our way out. The two of you will follow me, if we can hit the bastards from behind, we will be buying time to leave." The others nodded and proceeded with their orders, the three allocated guard duty being rough with their handling of the hostages. Sewlyn and the last two recruits held up their wands and made their way down the stairs, the sounds of screaming having stopped along with the sounds of the loud popping. They paused at the front door which had been shut, setting off more alarms in the Death Eater's mind as he made to grab the door knob.

The door slammed open, and it was a quick reaction from Sewlyn that stopped him and the recruits from cursing the Death Eater stumbling in with a bloody hand to his chest.

"Hughes!" Sewlyn reached forward in time to grab Hughes as he fell forward, his own robes getting stained with blood of his fellow pureblood. The recruit closest to the door went to shut the door and began applying locking and strengthening charms to it. "What is going on out there?" The wounded Death Eater looked up at him with half of his mask broken off, the one eye showing having blood on it.

"The… recruits… dead…" - Hughes panted and coughed out blood from the mouth - "Taken out… one by one…" Hughes then used one hand to grab the robes of Sewlyn and dragged him closer for him to speak into his ear. "Warn… Dark Lord… Death's Raven… has come…" With that, Hughes took one last choking breath before his hand dropped to the ground and his head lopped to the side, the light having left the his eyes.

"Oh shit… Oh shit!" The other recruit with them was starting to panic and backing away from the freshly made corpse. "We are screwed!"

"Calm yourself you damn moron!" Sewlyn snapped at the recruit. "Yes, our group got taken out, but now they have lost the element of surprise and we have hostages. Make sure they can't get through the door!"

"No problem sir, I got it covered." The recruit handling the door lowered his wand, a smug tone evident in his words. "I have sealed it off and reinforced it enough that it would take a few Bombardas for a few straight minutes to get it down. By which time we will be out of here."

'BANG!'

The recruit paused as he looked back to the door that now sported a gaping hole with burnt edges, then slowly looked down at the hole in his chest where his heart once was. With a gurgle, the recruit slumped forward and dropped to the floor with his blood spilling out and covering it.

"Get back!" Sewlyn jumped to his feet, grabbed the other recruit and dragged him upstairs while transfiguring the broken furniture around them to seal off the door. They got to the top of the stairs, by which point the recruit was aware enough to start moving on his own and even helped out laying out traps to delay the invaders. After that they got back to where the others were situated and barred the door shut.

"What's going on out there sir?" The one guarding the mother and eldest daughter asked with his wand shaking from the fear.

"We have some company outside. Right now, all there is standing between us and them are these people, so make sure they are alive enough for us to get out." Sewlyn answered while the other recruit barricaded the door with whatever objects available. "I don't care what you have to do, if we get out of here in one piece, you may have the mudblood and her mother as your reward!"

"Do we know how many?" The supposed leader of the recruits asked while glancing at the young woman.

"For the moment, only one." Sewlyn frowned behind his mask as he remembered the last words of his comrade. "Someone called Death's Raven…" He paused as he noted the mudblood froze and widened her eyes at his words. He went over to her, grabbed her head and dragged her up to his eyes. "You know who he is, tell me!" The woman spat blood at his mask, prompting him to apply the torture curse again before releasing it. "TELL ME NOW!"

"You bastards… are so fucked…" The woman panted while giving a shit-eating grin even with the pain and blood on her face. "You managed to piss off the hunters…"

"Who are you talking about!" His answer came in the form of the door getting blasted off its hinges, taking out the recruit previously reinforcing the door and pushing Sewlyn off his feet, letting Miss Katlyn get away but not without taking the chance to introduce her knee to his groin. That may have saved him as something passed over him and took out the other recruits guarding the husband and the youngest members of the family, leaving himself and one recruit left. Cursing behind his mask, Sewlyn turned to see who was the intruder.

At the entrance of the room stood a man dressed somewhat like a muggle with the emphasis on the color black and protective gear on the limbs and chest, dark thick boots with armored soles, covered in a black coat with a hood to cover his head, and what looked to be dark shades and a mouth piece to cover his face, giving him the odd look of a raven looking down at him. What little that could be seen suggested that he was a young Caucasian male roughly in his mid-teens, something that surprised Sewlyn greatly. In his hands appeared to be those muggle wands they were so fond of using, but there were intricate markings that he recognized as Ancient Runes, both of which were pointed at the two of them. The man himself seemed to behave more of a golem than a man, slowly turning his head to see the people in front of him.

"Do not make a move, muggle!" The leader and last of the recruits grabbed the mother by the hair and dragged her up, roughly wrapping an arm around her neck and groping her chest as he pointed his wand at her head. "Drop it or the bitch gets it!" Sewlyn used the distraction to move away from the two, his gut telling him that the boy had outlived his usefulness and would be rewarded accordingly. The intruder in question tilted his head at the recruit, seemingly amused by the action taken, before speaking out in a tone that made it hard to tell if he was young or old despite the appearance.

"Take the shot."

'BANG!'

The window in the room shattered inwards, followed by the last recruit dropping to the ground with what barely passed as the remains of his head, the blood spurting from the blood vessels like some twisted fountain all over the room and covering the poor woman. Sewlyn attempted to raise his wand to cast the killing curse at the intruder, only for him to fire a shot faster.

'BANG!'

"AAAAHHHH!" Sewlyn let out a scream as he grasped the stump where his hand used to be, his wand now in splinters on the floor along with bits of flesh and blood droplets. The intruder ignored the death eater and waved his hand at the distressed family, calming them down, repairing their clothes, and healing their more fatal injuries. Lightly lifting the mother while keeping an eye on Sewlyn, he motioned to her to help with children before placing a finger to the ear.

"Family is secured but in need of treatment and evacuation. The junior recruits are eliminated while Sewlyn…" – their saviour paused to take another shot at Sewlyn when he tried to leap at the children, making him drop to the floor with two bullet holes in his legs and scaring the children further – "Is neutralized. Will be conducting final sweep. Be advised, Aurors and the Order are in route, ETA 15 minutes."

It did not take long for the children to calm down and the family to leave the room and thanked him, with the father and eldest daughter taking pot shots at Sewlyn by kicking him, bonus points to the daughter for her kick at the family jewels. Soon it was just Sewlyn and the aggressor.

"You think you won? You know nothing mudblood!" Sewlyn spat blood as he glared at the man. "I am one of the many faithful to The Dark Lord, I may fall but I will be avenged, and I will be waiting for you after he tortures you to death!" Much to Sewlyn's frustration, his attacker did not deign to answer him, merely checking the bodies around them before looking back.

"I know that you are one of the more fanatical Death Eaters, not quite the Inner Circle since by your omission you are one who could be easily replaceable." The man answered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an amulet. "But that at least is good enough for me." Before Sewlyn could retort the man grabbed him by the hair and flipped him roughly so that he was facing the ceiling, with the amulet before his eyes. "You can be assured that your usefulness is well received." With that, the man slammed the amulet right in the forehead, and Sewlyn barely registered the feeling before his mind got overrun with symbols and he started to scream in agony. He saw his entire life flashed before him and experienced every bit of suffering he had ever inflicted on his victims. It seemed to last for days until the amulet was removed, and Sewlyn barely had the cohesiveness to see the weapon pointed at his head before his world went dark.

The man lowered his weapon as he examined the newly made corpse before him. The process of extracting the information from Sewlyn's mind had taken its toll on the subject, with blood flowing out of his nostrils, eyes and ear lids, and the eyes looking in different directions from the mental damage. Even if his head did not have a fresh bullet hole through the brain, Sewlyn would no longer be able to function from the mental overload he has suffered, somewhat befitting considering the crimes he had committed towards the innocents. He took a little time to check for hidden portkeys and items that might be informative before placing them into an evidence bag. Pressing a rune on his gun, the man fired off two times at the arm bearing the Dark Mark and his neck, decapitating the corpse and removing the arm. With a hover charm, both items were placed into a bag which placed them under stasis, before he fired another round to burn the rest of the body. A sound drew his attention and had his gun pointed at the doorway only to pause at the sight of his partner dressed in dark camouflage that covered everything and carrying a modified rifle with runes on it.

"Any issues, Raven?" His partner asked in a modulated voice that made it hard to tell the gender of the user.

"None. A clean hit." The now named Raven lowered his hand. "I have collected the information from Sewlyn, along with the Dark Mark. Once processed, we can proceed to the next target."

"Good. I have processed my end as well." The mysterious person turned to where Sewlyn's corpse had been reduced to ashes. "Anything useful?"

"We have confirmation on some of their targets, and a couple that we had suspected to be decoys to lure the Aurors into ambushes." Raven lightly tossed the amulet up in the air and catching it. "We also have additional names and locations for their recruitment. There is also an interesting bit of him having a private vault for his own use and knowing a few others belonging to Malfoy." A smug tone was evident when he spoke of this. "Looks like we can get extra cash for the bounty and for our work."

"Work expenses perhaps, for the bounty it is yours only." His partner directed the rifle at the bodies of the recruits. "How about them?"

"Nothing useful, most of them were just low level grunts learning to be death munchers, while a few are heirs to secondary families." Raven held up a hand to show the small bag of trinkets he had collected from their bodies. "We can use these to identify the families they belonged to and neutralize them accordingly. The only use left of them would be to send a message to the Dark Lord and the Order. The ICW will then have the confirmation to let us continue." Raven answered.

"You realize that Dumbledore would try to interfere with our mission?" The question earned a snort of derision from Raven.

"He should have done the right thing a few years back, he can't complain about our actions since he let these animals running around hurting people while preaching forgiveness and denying proper protection." A beeping sound alerted them of their remaining time. "Time to wrap it up."

"I leave you to announce yourself to the wizards here. Meet you back at base." His partner then walked to where the shadows of the ruined room was and literally stepped into it, vanishing without a trace. Raven looked around one last time before he walked out of the room and out of the house, ensuring the wards done by the Death Eaters were removed and all traces of their work was gone aside from his personal calling card to let them know that he was in the area. It sounded counterproductive to do so but their employer from the ICW had told them that their employment was under wraps for the time being. His reputation however was a good distraction for anyone looking in and so served as a cover until their employer gave them the green light to reveal their association.

The cleanup did not take too long on that bit but he had to ensure that his presence and that of his silent partner was removed thoroughly to avoid anyone finding out their identities, especially Dumbledore's Order of The Phoenix. Raven snorted again as he finished up on the cleansing of their magical signatures while banishing their bullet casings. That group was beyond useless what with them arriving late to the scene and aside from a small handful of war veterans, the rest were wearing kiddie gloves to stun their opponents, despite the fact that said opponents would be walking out of Azkaban with the help of greased palms. There may be new management coming in but the corruption in the Ministry For Magic was deeply rooted, not to mention that blasted redemption bullshit that old wizard kept sprouting when punishing people for the 'Greater Good'. Like that would stop these people from killing, raping, burning, cursing others, that Stupid Arrogant Son of A!

Raven paused to take a deep breath to slow the ranting in his mind. There would be time to deal with the Order in the future, he could not afford to lose his temper. Not yet at least.

With his cleanup done, he took one last look around before simply jumping up and changing into a raven just as the sounds of popping filled the air, and people dressed in robes appeared with wands in their hands. His avian eyes narrowed on one particular individual as he flew away while the people rushed into the house, an old man dressed in robes of the most headache-inducing colors imaginable and looking around the area with a mixture of frustration and suffering. His job had only just begun, but he was looking forward to dealing with the old wizard, because his actions had cost many lives and he hated the hypocrisy of that wizard.

With that in mind, he flew off into the night, the moonlight lightly gleaming off the emerald eyes and revealing a light discoloration on his feathers in the form of a small lightning bolt...