“You’re looking rather down mate,” William said as he joined his flat-mate in their living room, which was in dire need of cleaning.
“Just thinking…”
“Anything exciting?”
“Nope.”
“A letter came for you while you were gone. I think it’s from Celeste.”
“I’ll read it in a bit.”
“I told my mum we’d watch Willow for her tomorrow night. Unless you have other plans…”
“When were you planning on telling me that you joined the Order?”
William’s mouth moved, but no sound came out.
“It’s alright mate, to each his own.”
“Sorry about that, I was afraid you wouldn’t understand.”
“No hard feelings.”
“You could join too you know.”
“And have my dad breathing down my neck more than he already does? No thank you.”
“I sometimes wonder if we’re doing the right thing…” William confessed.
“We are, but I can’t help but wonder if we will fail nonetheless.”
“We can’t,” William looked down at his hands, “we just can’t. Can you even begin to imagine what things will be like if Voldemort succeeds?”
“I try not to think about that,” Kamen said. “It’s like trying to give yourself nightmares, but that would be one nightmare we’d never wake up from.”
“I’ll take my own life first.”
“I wonder if that’s what he wants…” Kamen sighed, “we have practice in the morning.”
“I’m going to bed,” but William doubted he would get much sleep.
“Kamen snuffed the candles, plunging them into darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“I said I didn’t want to be disturbed!”
“I’m sorry my lord,” Macnair groveled low, “but Vanth and Charun have returned, they say they have important news for you.”
Voldemort turned back to the flames dancing in the grate, “very well, show them in.”
“Yes, my lord,” Macnair scurried out of the room and when he returned Vanth and Charun, along with a handful of other Lasas were with him.
“We have found him,” Charun began without preamble, not waiting for the dark lord to address him first.
Voldemort turned from the fire, his eyes glittering a deep, poisonous, red, “why haven’t you brought him? I want the traitor now!”
Vanth plucked a torch off the wall and swung it experimentally through the air, watching the arch of flame as though mesmerized, “he is not that easy to get to, it’ll take time.”
“You assured me it would be done.”
Vanth shrugged and returned the torch to its holder, although she continued to eye it with interest, “we will retrieve the traitor and we will kill him, it just takes a bit of planning.”
“You assured me that your wings could get you in anywhere.”
“And they will,” Charun spoke darkly as the other Lasas stepped forward to flank him and Vanth, “but you seem to forget that yours is not the only agenda here. We are not creatures that are able to walk freely. We must take care so that we are not seen by the wizarding community.”
“If it is not done within a fortnight my displeasure will be immense.”
“Give us a month, we must be careful, we have come to far to fall do to careless planning.”
“Fine, a month then, but do not kill him right off, make sure that he suffers first. I want him to regret ever betraying me. I want him to know that he suffers because of his lack of loyalty.”
“It will be done,” Vanth assured him, looking particularly pleased at the thought of having a new plaything.
“Good, you may go,” Voldemort waved his hand dismissively in the direction of the door.
Macnair made to follow the death demons, but Voldemort called him back, “what news of our spy?”
“Nothing yet.”
Voldemort nodded, “we must go slowly with her, or we may lose her.”
“Surely we could find another if that were to happen.”
“True, but we cannot do much better than we already have. We may have to go slowly, but she has direct access to our dear friend Severus.”
Macnair grinned evilly, “and we have assured her loyalty.”
Voldemort’s own snake-like grin appeared, “oh, she will be loyal, there is no doubt to that. She cannot defy me, even if she wanted to… she is ours, completely.”
“And our control of the Ministry continues to strengthen.”
“It will soon be completely ours. I want the floo system watched at all times and international mail screened. Find any excuse you can to oust the remaining employees who are not loyal to me. And make sure that we have complete control of the Daily Prophet. I only want articles printed that we approve.”
“We are taking control from the inside out. Soon everyone will be under your control, my lord, and they won’t even know it.”
“I will make sure that they know it!”
“Of course, my lord.”
“Macnair, how is your son keeping himself occupied these days?”
“By doing whatever is asked of him to further our cause,” it was at least partially true.
“Tell him to pack. I believe it is time to send our envoys to the North. The giants and the dark ones will join us.”
“What if there is any resistance?”
“Give him orders to see them destroyed. They either join us or die. We cannot risk them joining the opposition.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Will you proof-read my essay?” Serena asked as she plopped down on the window seat next to Dierna.
“As long as I’m not writing it for you,” Dierna replied as she set her own homework aside.
“I wouldn’t dream of asking you to,” Serena said as she flipped through Dierna’s essay, “Dad would know in an instant. Damn, yours is already longer than the assigned length and your writing is absolutely miniscule…” she sighed, “Dad gave me the option of dropping his class, maybe I should have…”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re doing fine.”
“Only because you help me,” she continued to look disgusted as she skimmed through Dierna’s essay.
“Oh stop that!” Dierna grabbed the papers out of her sister’s hands, “I don’t make faces like that when you go three feet over the assigned length on our Herbology homework!”
“I only did that once!”
Dierna snorted, “here’s your problem, you confused the properties of belladonna and hellebore.”
“Oh… so… what’s the difference?”
Dierna rolled her eyes but patiently explained as Serena did a lot of crossing out and rewriting.
“The boys were discussing Potter’s lessons downstairs, they think he’s just as good as Lupin.”
“Change this part about the moonstone too…”
“What do you think?”
“Oh… I don’t know…” she quickly tacked a conclusion onto her already overly-long potions essay. “I guess we already have had nearly a month of classes with him to judge by… I guess he’s alright, but after having Lupin for six years its kinda rough to change.”
“I know what you mean. But, we’re starting Patroni next week. That ought to be fun.”
“I wonder what forms ours will take…”
“What do you think Sekhmet?” Serena asked as the sand colored cat jumped up into her lap, “maybe mine will be a pretty kitty just like you are,” she crooned.
Dierna rolled her eyes, “mangy beast…”
“Now you sound just like Dad… I bet your patronus will take the form of a snake.”
Dierna frowned, “I wonder what Dad’s patronus is… or Mum’s come to think of it...”
“Why don’t you go ask them?”
Dierna snorted, “like I’d get an answer,” she leaned her forehead against the cool class of the window, “they never tell us anything. Hey…” she sat up a bit straighter and frowned, “what’s that?”
“What’s what?”
“Down by the lake… there’s someone walking down there.”
Serena pressed her face to the glass, “I don’t see… oh… it looks like a woman, but I don’t think it’s one of the professors…”
“It doesn’t look like a student either. Maybe we should tell someone…”
“Yeah, I’ll go get Professor Longbottom… wait… she’s gone now.”
Dierna continued to stare down at the lake, “Should we still go tell someone?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re the Prefect.”
Serena sighed, “it’s late, let’s just forget about it for now. If we see her again then we can decide whether or not to tell someone.”
“Excellent bit of decision making there Miss Prefect.”
“Why thank you,” Serena grinned and scratched Sekhmet behind the ears as she stretched. “Anything else I should add to my essay to make it as brilliant as yours?”
“Hmmm… besides me rewriting it for you?” Dierna looked out towards the lake again, but nothing was there.
~~~~~~~~~~~
