A/N:
Have a thing. I really don't know what to write for Author's Notes anymore XD
Summary: Antonin's family magic could be a blessing or a curse. And now, the curse had rebounded onto him.
Words: 578
Prompts:
Ministry of Magic Discord Group: Easter Egg Hunt
Polka Dot- (Setting) Diagon Alley
Ministry of Magic Discord Group: Mix and Match
Color: Silver
Character: Antonin Dolohov
Action: Grinning
"Withering Without You (Dead)"
After their little skirmish in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic in the summer of 1996, Antonin felt an itch growing in his scalp that he had only felt once before. It had something to do with his family magic, and that meant that someone he meant to kill hadn't died. He had wracked his brains to think of everyone he had attacked at the Ministry with family magic, and only one person came to mind that would cause this reaction: the Mudblood that he had hit with his family's Organ Burning curse.
It should have cut her in half, but that chit had managed to silence him just before he could get the entire incantation out. That was possibly the only thing that saved her life, and that had condemned his own.
His family magic was finicky, and always demanded a price. It needed to consume the victim or it would strip the caster's strength away until one or the other withered away. And he had resigned himself to withering away while that damned Mudblood girl was locked safely behind the walls of Hogwarts. Upon the start of the new school year, he could go and claim her once his lord had officially taken over the castle and instilled his own instructors there, himself included, but for now he had to wait and waste away.
Scowling at the silver stripe of hair obscuring his view, the only current physical evidence of his sapping strength, Antonin focused his attention on his face in the mirror, sweeping the offending hair out of the way. Glamour charms wouldn't touch the greying hair, and it was too large of a chunk to just cut it out, and so he just chose to ignore it most days. Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned to survey Diagon Alley from his location at a side stall at the mouth of Knockturn Alley, trying to see what had caught his attention as he lamented his state.
A mass of curly hair caught his attention first, and his first reaction was fear. Had Bellatrix colored her hair with a glamour? Was Lord Voldemort's Right Hand scouring the alley for dissent among the population, or for any of the Dark Lord's subordinates not doing their tasks? But after a moment of studying her, Antonin noticed that this girl was shorter, more the height of another Black sister, the Blood Traitor Andromeda Tonks nee Black. What was she doing still wandering around? Shouldn't she be holing up in fear for her Mudblood husband's life?
Antonin stilled as a thought came to mind, and he shifted so more of his body was shrouded in the shadows of the stall next to him. His eyes tracked the curly haired witch who traveled through the alley with a witch with straight black hair, internally goading her into turning just right so he could see her face, so he could tell if it was her or not.
She did, her gaze sliding past his hiding space and beyond, her mouth twisted into a small frown as if feeling his gaze on her.
A grin stretched his haggard features as he strode out into Diagon Alley proper, his wand in hand and at the ready. Upon confirming her identity, it would only be proper of him to go greet her and to formally introduce himself to the Mudblood who had ruined his life.