Chapter 17 : In blood and tears

Being at the Leaky Cauldron in July was… weird. Indeed, this place had always been synonymous for Akira with back to school and the return of cold weather, and it was invaded by families who were going to send their children to Hogwarts in a few days.

But at the beginning of the summer holidays, the place was deserted apart from a few regular customers. And the atmosphere was stifling due to the hot temperatures that the now and then rains were unable to bring down. There was also none of the activities related to the starting of a new school year, like buying school supplies on Diagon Alley, so Akira quickly found herself bored for having nothing to do other than sending a letter to her father - in which she made up a lie explaining why she was staying in London instead of coming back to Konoha - and waiting for one of Voldemort's followers to come get her.

Fearing of missing this meeting for which she didn't get a date or time in the day, she refrained from leaving the inn even if she really wanted to go strolling along Diagon Alley and buy herself an ice cream. To pass time, she could only rely on her fourth-year textbooks that were still filling her suitcase even if they were no longer of much use as she was moving on to fifth year. They nevertheless allowed her to refresh her knowledge after missing a few courses for which she never had the time to study the material in more depth.

But after four days of reading for school instead of doing anything else, Akira really started to get tired of it to the point of always sitting at the same table in the main room with the same book before her eyes. She was staring at it without really seeing it as she was instead thinking about her future which was grey like the sky.

And more precisely to what Voldemort and his followers wanted her to do now as she was expecting the latter to finally mention when he intended to bring Matsuo and Tatsuno back to life since she already helped him a lot by spying on Dumbledore without getting any reward. To make this dream come true, she was ready to do anything, except killing innocent people. She would be uncompromising on this because she didn't want the twins' return to be tainted with blood spilled to help the forces of evil. They both wouldn't tolerate it.

"There are limits that mustn't be crossed." Akira thought darkly as she got up from her chair to go get something to drink at the bar with the morning that had become truly stifling.

She went through the room occupied only by two customers who were seating on either side of the place while a third one had just crossed the door of the establishment, causing the sound of raindrops to echo inside as they were crashing on the cobblestones just in front of the inn.

Akira paid no attention to him, being too focused on the pumpkin juice that she wanted to order to be interested in a stranger. But as she arrived at the level of the bar only to wait for the barman to come back from the storage room, this new customer – a two-meters-tall, taciturn-looking, bulky guy with short silver hair – grabbed her by the collar of her T-shirt before leading her by force into a corner away from prying ears.

"Hey, let me go !" Akira exclaimed while trying to free herself from his iron grip without succeeding.

However, she didn't have to struggle for long because the guy let go of her as requested when he judged that no one could hear them anymore.

"It's you "Chitsute" ?" He asked her in a hoarse voice while staring at her worryingly with his small piercing brown eyes.

"It depends. What do you want ?" Akira asked him suspiciously while preparing to punch him hard if he ever thought of attacking her.

"I was given the dirty job of being your instructor in the following weeks by the Dark Lord." The man announced to her out of the blue which took Akira by surprise.

"Instructor of what ?" was the only question that she managed to formulate.

"How to mask your real intentions and deal with nosy people." The man replied while starting to display a vicious smile which was far from reassuring. "At least the essentials, because it costs me to train a Mudblood when I usually eliminate them."

"You're going to give me some lessons ?" Akira summarized without being pleased at all by this news coming from a scary guy. "The fact is, I already did plenty of courses at Hogwarts. And my summer holidays only began a week ago so…"

"Except that my lessons have nothing to do with the childish things that you see in this school of weaklings. You'll learn to master magical skills that only fearless dark wizards know about, and it will be done through blood and tears because that's the only way you'll be able to put everything into your empty head in two months. Understood ?"

"Yes." Akira replied feverishly as she had no other choice but to accept this training since that was what Voldemort had obviously planned for her.

"I'm known as Slayer and if you hear about me, you'll find out that I make the crybabies disappear without leaving a trace. It makes it a little harder for their families to bury them." The man named Slayer said while once again displaying a demonic smile. "So if you don't want to experience this fate, I advise you to never complain. Because if you don't have the necessary resistance, that's not my problem. You just have to die of exhaustion like so many others before you."

One thing was certain, he wasn't really good at encouraging his apprentices but he knew how to make them obey with really convincing threats. Even Akira was a bit frightened while realizing what was awaiting her until the end of summer. However, she was relieved to learn that her ordeal wasn't going to start right away.

"Your training will begin tomorrow, once Rookwood will have present you to your alibi. You'll come every day at 7 am to Borgin and Burkes but only after putting this on." He advised her before throwing at her face the piece of fabric that he was holding. "It's an invisibility cloak on which a Disillusionment Charm was cast. With this on your head, you'll be able to go to our meetings without being seen. Once you reach the shop, you'll train on your own in the back yard all day until 9 pm. That's when I'll come for your lesson until midnight. Then you'll head back to the house of your alibi for the night when his family is fast asleep since they don't want to see a Mudblood wandering in their house."

"Wait a second. I'll have to live in someone's house ? Why can't I stay at the Leaky Cauldron ? It would be more convenient to get to Knockturn Alley." Akira pointed out as she didn't want to squat in a Pureblood family who didn't want her.

"What did I say a few seconds ago ?" Slayer asked while approaching to tower over her from his full height with a menacing look. "Don't ever complain ! Just follow my orders and do blindly what I'm asking you, even if I tell you to throw yourself out of the window. Just go to this house, end of the discussion. Now if it's clear, you'll wait here for Rookwood who'll take you to these people. And prepare yourself to live a real hell."

On these "encouraging" words, Slayer pushed past her before heading towards the exit of the Leaky Cauldron under Akira's bewildered gaze.

After this unpleasant encounter, the latter would have wanted to run away to never again come across such a guy who seemed to take great pleasure in mentally and physically torturing people who had the misfortune to cross his path. This made what he was going to teach her even more worrying, as it was surely things related to Dark Magic.

However, deserting at this stage would be very complicated. Akira couldn't just flee away and hope that Slayer acting on Voldemort's order would forget about her. On the contrary, he must be the type of person to track down the traitors and eliminate them without any mercy.

All she could do was scanning all the customers entering the inn to spot Rookwood while not letting herself be overcome by apprehension. The latter arrived at the Leaky Cauldron quite late in the evening, at eleven twenty to be precise. Fearing to miss this meeting, Akira had been waiting for him at her usual table as all the other customers already went to bed a long time ago while the barman was occupied preparing things for the breakfast the next day. And the first thing that Rookwood told her was the reason of his late arrival as he dragged her out of the inn.

"The family with whom you're going to live has agreed to take you into their home to serve our master's plans. However, that was on the condition that they never see you wandering around their place. At least, that's the mother's request because her three sons aren't aware of your coming. You'll leave their house every morning at dawn with the eldest boy who goes to work early and you'll come back at midnight with him since he has a short nightshift to do. He'll take you to Diagon Alley and once there, you'll reach on your own Knockturn Alley without telling him the reason why. And of course, nothing about your involvement in our organization. You'll make him believe that you couldn't get home for one reason or another and that you need somewhere in London to stay for the summer. He's so stupid that he'll believe this lie without asking any questions. And if anyone else wants to know why you're here instead of in your family, you'll tell them that you're spending your summer in the wizarding world with him as your guide. It will serve as your alibi."

"Okay." Akira said as her brain was so muddled by all this confusing information that she no longer knew what was this all about.

However, it would be difficult to make anyone believe that she was on holidays with a family of wizards that she had never met before. Indeed, if the person in question knew her a little bit, he would detect her lie immediately as she didn't know many people from the magical world and had until now spent all her holidays in her native village without ever feeling the need to spend her summer abroad. But she decided to not say anything to Rookwood because she had no alternative plan to propose. And if she messed up by being discovered, she couldn't be held responsible. She might even get rid of Slayer in the process, which was a pretty good thing.

Her doubts soon were the least of her problems as Rookwood was leading her through the dimly lit streets of London. Because Akira had no information about the family she was going to live with, and the neighbourhood wasn't familiar to her. Even worse, the house they finally stopped in front of was a ruin. From the distance, it looked like a haunted house that no Muggle child would want to go near, even to get candies on Halloween. But closer it was worse with its dirty windows, decrepit walls and worn steps leading to the black front door.

"Ring the doorbell." Rookwood ordered Akira while pushing her roughly in front of him so that she reached the pitiful doorstep.

Akira reluctantly obeyed once she had climbed the few steps, and no sooner had the doorbell started ringing in the house that Rookwood disappeared with a crack, leaving her to fend for herself with this family now that she was their burden. She sincerely hoped that no one would come and open the door at such an hour. But screams rang out, then hurried footsteps on wooden slats were heard. Her heart sank in her chest when she saw the handle being pulled and the door opening. However, she remained stunned when she discovered the person standing in front of her.

"What is it ?" Arcturus asked in a sleepy voice while rubbing one eye.

Obviously, she had woken him up by ringing the doorbell but his sleepy state suddenly disappeared when he recognized Akira whom he began to stare at with his mouth open, same for her who was shocked to see him here.

They both stood like this without saying anything for a few seconds, then Arcturus insistently rubbed his sleepy eyes before opening them wide to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Meanwhile, Akira slowly realized that the family she was going to stay with was the Black family whose eldest son was her best friend. Now the excuse of spending her holidays with him seemed more credible as everyone who knew both of them were aware that they were inseparable at Hogwarts. But this familiarity mustn't let her confess to him that she was here only on Voldemort's order, because Arcturus – who had never shared the ideology of his Pureblood family – wouldn't understand that she suddenly joined such a group. It was better to not disappoint him as he was suddenly beaming with joy when he realized that she was really in front of his door.

"I can't believe it ! What are you doing here ?" He half-shouted before lowering his voice after taking a quick glance inside his house.

"Well, you see, I…" Akira began while scratching her head to quickly imagine a plausible lie to tell him. "I figured out that after missing the beginning of my fourth year, I needed to spend more time in the wizarding world. Just to familiarize myself for next year's exams. So why not spend the whole summer there."

Her confused explanation made her grimace as she doubted that anyone would fall for it. But Arcturus was one of these as he believed everything she said, being too happy that she was here rather than at her home thousands of miles away.

"Are you saying that you'll spend the whole summer here in London ?" Arcturus asked after being surprisingly able to decipher all her gibberish. "It's… awesome ! And you'll stay at the Leaky Cauldron ? If that's the case, I can come see you every day while heading to work."

"To tell you the truth, this isn't what is planned in the plan. Uh, I mean, that's not what I planned." Akira corrected herself. "I was thinking about staying at a friend's house instead, because spending two months at the Leaky Cauldron is going to be expensive."

"Yeah, it's true that it's not cheap." Arcturus agreed as he was more aware than anyone else about the preciousness of money after having to spend all his summers working to get some. "And you want me to help you think of a place ? It's not easy because I don't know anyone who lives nearby."

"No, I was rather thinking about staying at YOUR home." She stated before finding that she had been a bit rude. "If you don't mind of course."

"At my house ?" Arcturus said in a low voice before turning again to peer apprehensively into the darkened hallway as if he had expected to see a monster emerge.

He then turned around while displaying a worried look as he spoke.

"Well, my mother will never agree because she doesn't really like... well, people who were born from Muggle parents. If she finds out you're here, she might get really angry and it's better to not be around when that happens."

"Okay." Akira replied in a falsely resigned tone before turning on her heels. "I just have to wander and hope to find my way back to the Leaky Cauldron. It won't be easy because I'm not really familiar with the streets and you never know what lurks in the dark. Anyway, good night."

With that, she put one foot forward to leave but at the same time, Arcturus grabbed her arm before pulling her inside the house.

"Follow me." He advised her in a whisper after closing the door as gently as possible so as to not make the slightest noise.

He began to tiptoe along the long entrance hall to reach the large staircase facing them. Akira followed him, being careful to not trip over the moth-ridden carpet as they passed under a huge chandelier covered in spider webs and past gas lamps in the same state.

Akira felt like she was venturing into an abandoned mansion. Indeed, the house was large and richly decorated but everything was decrepit and covered in dust. It had nothing to do with the more modest but nice house that she had in Konoha. It also had a cold atmosphere that didn't make you want to live there. No wonder that Arcturus was so happy to return to Hogwarts every year. At least in the school, there were no shrunken house-elf heads lined up on the wall of the staircase. These were so scary for him that he was putting a hand in front of his eyes to not see them.

They went up to the first floor, then to the second one, to the third one and finally to the fourth one while Akira was wondering how far this house would go. Arcturus then slowed down a bit before placing his index finger on his mouth to signal Akira to make even less noise if possible. He passed in front of two doors on which were metal plates indicating the name of their occupant. Looking closer, Akira saw the name of Sirius, then the one of Regulus before discovering the one of Arcturus on the last wooden door of the floor. This one didn't look like the other doors. It was scratched and broken in places as if someone had tried to open it using force.

"Alohomora." Arcturus murmured once he had taken his magic wand from the pocket of his pyjamas.

The door clicked open and Arcturus let Akira in before closing it behind them. The latter was shocked by the state of the room, which didn't look like a bedroom anymore. Indeed, it was now filled from floor to ceiling with various objects and furniture, like a storage room or even the classrooms where Professor Dust was putting his collection of Muggle objects. And it wasn't even Arcturus' stuff, it was rather as if everything broken or bulky in the house had been put away in this room.

"You're leaving here ?" Akira couldn't help but ask as she noticed that the bed, the desk, the nightstand and every square inch of the floor were covered with things.

"No, not at all." Arcturus replied while looking embarrassed by the state of the place. "No, I had to move into the attic since I was sorted into Gryffindor and it's even smaller and more cluttered up there. After I was forced to leave this bedroom, the door has been sealed and my family occasionally go in there to put some things that we rarely use instead of throwing them away. Therefore, it will be perfect for you to squat here this summer, as long as you don't make any noise."

"You can count on me." Akira assured him. "And during the day, I can come with you to Diagon Alley to reduce the chance of your family finding me."

"Yeah, that will be great !" Arcturus said enthusiastically while beaming at the idea which had been suggested to Akira by Rookwood. "It's just a shame that I have to work, otherwise we could both hang out all day."

"We'll go to Diagon Alley and come back together. That's already better than if I had been away during the whole summer."

"True. It's going to be so cool !" Arcturus said at this prospect. "Then, we have to go to bed right away because I start tomorrow at seven o'clock, so by six o'clock we must be ready to leave the house."

"It's okay for me." Akira replied as she had already been informed about this harsh schedule for holidays.

"I just don't know how I'm going to get back to sleep. Last year, I didn't see you on the first day of school and now, I'll spend the summer in your company. It's Christmas before time !"

"Yes, me too I'm happy to stay but don't overdo it though." Akira told him as she knew that the days ahead of her were going to be really difficult with Slayer's lessons. "Just tell me if what's on the bed is valuable or not before I throw it away in a corner of the room."

"Go ahead. My mother will never store something valuable in my old bedroom. To be sure that I won't steal it since I'm the black sheep of the family." Arcturus said in a sad tone. "I'll even help you move things."

Akira accepted gladly because she needed the eye of an expert since some objects seemed cursed with their sinister look. They moved the items from the bed and the nightstand, then Arcturus wished her good night before slipping into the dark hallway on tiptoe to reach his own small room in the attic.

Akira, who was completely exhausted, immediately threw herself on the bed which caused a cloud of dust to fly in the process, making her cough as silently as possible to not wake up anyone in the house. After such a day and having to stay in a house where she wasn't welcome, she got some trouble to fall asleep right away. Fatigue nevertheless got the better of her and she slept until morning. Fortunately for her, Arcturus came to wake her up otherwise she would have overslept, resulting in finding herself imprisoned in the house without being able to leave to join her class with Slayer.

The sun was just beginning to rise when the two friends hurried to reach the street before a member of Arcturus' family woke up. It was quite early in the morning but the sun was already heating the fresh air which was making them shivering. It helped to wake them up completely as Arcturus was explaining to Akira that he needed all his concentration to count the Apothecary's stock without making a mistake.

"He wants an exact inventory. The issue is with the small items. Have you ever count a barrel full of beetle eyes ? They're so small that it's a real nightmare." He sighed at the thought of what was awaiting him.

Little did he know that Akira was envying him because she would have preferred to tackle this tedious task a thousand times more than a lesson given by a cruel Death Eater. But she didn't tell Arcturus about it since it was meant to stay a secret. Besides, she didn't want to make him worry about her. Instead, she waved him goodbye before he entered the Apothecary to start his work day.

Now alone, Akira reached a side street before putting on her head the invisible cloak that she was hiding in her sweater sleeve. After that, she found her way to Knockturn Alley, then to Borgin and Burkes that she had visited once when Rookwood sent her facing Voldemort. Once she removed her invisibility cloak, Mr. Borgin remembered her but he wasn't so pleased to welcome her in his shop. On the contrary.

"You'll train in the courtyard behind." He advised her dryly while pointing at the door located in the storage room. "And when you're in my shop, don't touch anything. I don't want to have to explain to the Ministry of Magic why a Mudblood died because of a bewitched item."

After this warning, he returned to count his dishonestly acquired Galleons while Akira passed through the door which was barely hanging on its hinges. She found herself in a small paved courtyard covered with dirt and mold and surrounded by a wooden fence eaten away by humidity. Obviously, it was used as a garbage storage as empty crates and broken objects were piling up in the corners. The place was so filthy that rats were living here, some of them furiously fighting over the contents of a trash can that must have been overflowing ages ago. The only positive point was that it was out in the open as Akira only had to look up to see the cloudy sky.

Having nothing to do since she hadn't got a lesson from Slayer yet, Akira simply leaned against the least shabby crate in the yard and waited because she knew that as soon as she would get a first course at nine o'clock this evening, she would no longer have the slightest respite.

Her day was only broken up by breaks that she did in the company of Arcturus who had told her when he was taking them so that she could meet him at his work. They were able to eat ice cream - for which Akira insisted on paying - or stop by Quality Quidditch Supplies to see the latest brooms.

Time thus passed a little faster, and Akira soon found herself at 9 pm much to her dismay as she was sitting cross-legged on her crate, distracting herself as best as she could by throwing pieces of bread to the rats which were starting to fight between each other to eat them. She was only awakened from her torpor when the door leading to Borgin and Burkes flew open and a green flash struck the rats that she was feeding, killing them instantly.

"Class has started." Slayer stated while walking into the courtyard as Akira - who had jumped up because of the fright that he just caused her - was slowly recovering from having seen a killing curse be cast so suddenly.

Now that the trash can was only full of dead rats, he lit it on fire so that they could see clearly even if it was slowly becoming dark. He then turned around to face Akira while displaying such a threatening look that she was afraid he would kill her as well. She reassured herself by thinking that he wouldn't do such a thing as Voldemort had entrusted him with the task of teaching her, which would be difficult if she was dead.

"Unforgivable Curses. The mind-control curse, the torture curse and the killing curse. The best inventions in the wizarding world which differentiate the weak from the strong." Slayer commented as if they were the most common spells that existed. "By the end of summer, you must be able to cast them if you don't want to disappear mysteriously because I refuse to have my name associated with your failure."

"But, it's advanced magic. And to be honest, I don't..." Akira began before interrupting herself as Slayer had approached to stand right in front of her.

"I told you to not complain." He reminded her through his teeth before pointing his magic wand at her.

Akira got the reflex to grab her own but she was unable to get it out of her pocket before Slayer cast his curse.

"Crucio !"

Akira had been the victim of this spell before, but she hadn't gotten used to the feeling of like thousands of kunais piercing her body from all sides. She screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground, writhing as her wand slipped from her hand. Slayer soon put an end to his spell but it was only to continue his lesson, not to stop making her suffering so much.

"Get up !" He ordered sharply while kicking her which didn't really help.

Akira obeyed reluctantly and made a superhuman effort to get back on her two trembling legs while picking up her wand. With the back of her hand, she wiped the sweat that had covered her forehead and she looked at Slayer with hatred. She wanted to use her ninja skills to beat him up but she didn't do it to not blow her cover to a guy whose place was in Azkaban rather than on the loose. So she just waited for him to go on with his speech.

"You're not really good at resisting to torture. You'll learn during my lessons in the next few weeks. And after enduring so much, you won't have any scruple to cast this spell on someone else. Victims make good persecutors when they know what pain looks like."

Enduring the Cruciatus Curse during the next few weeks ? Akira hoped that she had heard wrong as she couldn't see herself being tortured like this for hours on pretext that it would help her learn these Unforgivable Curses. And yet, this was exactly what happened in the following days.

Aside from the Killing Curse that Slayer was casting on any stray animal or insect that were passing by instead of her for obvious reason, Akira had to endure regularly the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses during the three hours of class. And after that, she had to act as if nothing happened to not worry Arcturus whose she was meeting at midnight for them to return home after his night shift of cleaning at the Apothecary which was always a mess after a busy day. Her body and mind were broken, and she couldn't tell her best friend about it. She just had to take it on herself and rework these awful spells during the day to show some improvements to Slayer during the night, otherwise he would get mad about her lack of effort and torture her even more.

These summer holidays were therefore particularly difficult, and the days passed very slowly much to the dismay of Akira who only wanted one thing : for everything to stop right away. Only the tiny hope of seeing Matsuo and Tatsuno again was giving her the strength to continue. At least, if she didn't survive her inhuman training, she would still be able to join them in death. But she managed to stay alive until the end of July.

In the meantime, Arcturus had become more perky than usual as the days passed. And Akira discovered why on the last day of the month when he finally revealed the reason to her while they were walking towards Diagon Alley to start their day of work.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY !" He shouted happily at Akira who had her brain so fuzzy thanks to her intense training that she had completely forgotten that July 31st was a special day for her.

He then took two tickets out of his pocket, one of which he handed to Akira. With an aching hand that she tried to make stop trembling, she took hold of it but being too exhausted to read what it was about – not to mention that it was still dark around them as the morning was only beginning – she simply returned her attention to Arcturus who was staring at her with a huge smile.

"What is it ?" She asked him as he was waiting for her to say something.

"You're perhaps not aware of this but every four years, there's the Quidditch World Cup. And this year, it's been four years since the last one, so…"

"So these are tickets to go see this event." Akira concluded after having heard about it during her last days at Hogwarts as students and the Daily Prophet had been profusely talking about this championship. "What a big deal."

"You're not enthusiast about it ? I thought that you loved Quidditch." Arcturus pointed out as he seemed hurt by her lack of happiness regarding his gift that he had thought about for days.

Realizing that she was acting rude as Arcturus had tried hard to please her on her birthday with a ticket that must have cost him all his savings, Akira changed her tone to be more jovial.

"Sorry, I had a bad night." She pretended as it was rather her days that were bad. "What I wanted to say is, thanks a lot for this gift. How did you get these tickets when everything must have already been sold out months ago ? Or did you buy them in advance and planned to go with somebody else since I wasn't supposed to be in London for the holidays ?"

"What ? No ! I wouldn't do such a valuable gift to another person than you." Arcturus stated while turning red which was fortunately hidden by darkness. "Let's say that I know a guy at Hogwarts that I helped with his Potions homework, who has a father who knows another guy that works at the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. This one can get all the tickets he wants, so I asked the student to send me two of them for the last match which is taking place in Canada. And to repay him, I'll just have to do his potions for the whole next year which isn't a big deal."

"You weren't planning to go to this huge event on your own if it wasn't for me ? Because from what I heard, it's the place to be for all the wizards."

"You forget that I hate Quidditch, which is too fast and violent for my taste. On the other hand if you come with me, it will be more fun. We'll do some camping since the match is taking place up until late in the evening, and it's going to be like real holidays far from my job !"

"Same here." Akira thought as she would be more than happy to miss some days of classes with Slayer which were a real nightmare.

The only issue now was to tell the news to the latter, and for sure he wouldn't be glad to learn that she was going away for a few days to have fun instead of being mistreated. But she would find a way because deep down she dreamed of witnessing such an event.

Hello dear readers,

The whole fourth year of Akira was already made of ups and downs. But her summer took a really dark turn. Classes taking place during the holidays are already annoying, but one focused on the three Unforgivable Curses given by a cruel Death Eater is something else. Fortunately, Arcturus is here to bright her days. It's just a shame that they aren't able to spend more time together, far away from their concerns about money or bringing back to life two dead friends.

The Quidditch World Cup might change this, but only if Akira finds a way to go despite her lessons with Slayer. It will be like playing with fire, hopefully fire is her element. Let's just hope that she still won't get burned in the last chapter that I'll publish in the middle of the month.