23 Loyalty among Death Eaters

Ch 23: Loyalty among Death Eaters

The two men wearing black robes with silver masks heard their friend's scream. They rushed towards the origin of his voice and there they came upon a horrifying sight. The kid they had come here to take care of was standing over their friend's body, gripping a bloody sword!

Jake, no longer in his right mind as he was experiencing embracing his devil sin for the first time, turned and glared at the two newcomers. Jake's glowing red eyes, along with his bat wings and ominous magical aura surrounding him, sent a wave of terror through the two masked men. 'What the hell was going on? Were they paid to go after some kind of demon!?' The group's leader, Nott Sr., thought to himself in shock.

Nott Sr. wasn't about to die here against the teenage monster in front of him. He was going to kill the little bastard and then throttle Malfoy Sr. for sending them after him in the first place.

Meanwhile, Crabbe Sr., the larger masked man still breathing, was shaking like a leaf in a storm! Goyle Sr. was dead... They had been best friends since Hogwarts. Their sons had become best friends because of them. And now he was dead... Was he going to die next!? "No!" He screamed out loud! He needed to get out of this forest and away from this demon!

Crabbe Sr. turned his back on Jake and prepared to flee, but Nott Sr. grabbed his arm stopping him. "Don't you dare bug out on us now," He scolded angrily. "We started this together and we're going to damn well finish it the same. Now let's kill this freak!"

"Avada Kedavra!" Nott Sr. screamed as he fired off the killing curse at Jake. He wasn't going to play around anymore! They might have been paid to torture the kid before they offed him, but now their arrogance had led to one of the last free remaining Death Eaters being dead.

Jake casually sidestepped the infamous killing curse as it veered right past him. His mind still clouded with rage, he spread his wings and took off towards the sky.

"Fuck, those wings are real! He can actually fly, just like our lord!" Nott Sr. screamed aloud as he continued firing off killing curses left and right. Now high up in the air, it was comically easy for Jake to simply fly out of the way of the curses.

Jake sneered as his magic flared and a dozen ice spears formed in the air all around him! Every single one of them locked onto the two masked men on the ground beneath him. With a wave of his hand, they were all simultaneously launched and fired right at the duo.

"Oh shit!" Nott Sr. shouted as he ran for cover. Crabbe Sr. waddled behind him just as all the spears slammed into where they were previously standing!

"You two are pretty spry for some old men," Jake taunted as he formed a now two dozen spears in the air around him. "Let's see you dodge these though." Jake once again waved his hands as the ice spears were launched downwards at their targets again.

Nott cursed in his head! "With me, Crabbe!" he shouted. "Shields now." Crabbe just nodded to him, still in fear.

"Protego Maxima!" The both of them formed overlapping shields facing the sky. Jake's two dozen spears slammed into the overlapping shields! Immediately, Crabbe's weaker shield was pierced through, barely bleeding off their momentum at all.

"Damn it, you weak piece of shit," Nott Sr. cursed at Crabbe Sr. for his magical weakness as he pushed out all the power he could through his wand for his shield to hold against the spears. The magic clashed and a few of the spears managed to penetrate Nott Sr.'s Protego slightly, but they didn't get all the way through…

Eventually, the clash of magic ended as Nott Sr. dropped his shield and Jake's ice spears dissipated. Nott Sr. dropped to the ground panting in near magical exhaustion. He barely had the strength to keep holding on to his wand. He knew they were pretty much screwed now. 'What was this kid!?'

Noticing that the biggest threat was on the verge of collapse, Jake flew down towards the ground. He landed and started approaching the masked pair ominously. His magic reserves still full and flaring all around him. "Now then," Jake spoke out, "I've mostly already figured it out, I think, but just to confirm, it was Malfoy who sent you goons after me, am I right?" Jake said as he continued towards them.

Crabbe Sr. stuttered behind his mask. "Y-yes, it was him." He immediately sold him out with no hesitation. Nott Sr., just panting on the ground, cursed at the buffoon. "We surrender, please don't hurt us! Please, I have a son. He goes to Hogwarts with you!" Crabbe Sr. started pleading for his life!

Jake's inner rage started to calm down then. There was a difference between killing someone in a combat situation and killing someone in cold blood who had surrendered. Jake didn't think he had what it took to do the latter, well, actually he just didn't want to become someone so cold-blooded… "Take off your masks," Jake said.

Crabbe Sr. immediately took his off while Nott Sr. reluctantly removed his own. "Huh," Jake said, looking at Crabbe, "Yeah, I can see the resemblance to Malfoy's tagalong. And I guess the guy I killed was his other friend's dad?" Jake asked, to which Crabbe solemnly nodded.

After a minute of just staring at the two masked men — one surrendering and the other cursing and glaring at him in defeat from the ground — Jake's anger finally dissipated completely. His wings vanished and his red eyes now returned to their natural blue. With his mind cleared, he now had a plan.

"Alright then..." Jake said, looking at the two robed men. Jake waved his hand and magically summoned the pair's wands to himself. Crabbe's wand on the ground immediately flew into his hand, but Nott was gripping his tightly, refusing to let it go! "Hand over your wand," Jake commanded.

"Why the hell should I?" Nott argued. "You don't need it."

"Actually, I do," Jake explained, now completely clear-headed. "You see, I seem to recall that each wizard or witch has a specific wand paired to them." The two nodded along with that statement. "Right, well I also know that the last dozen or so spells fired from a wand leave a trace on it. I figure if I hand your wands over to the proper authorities, that's as good a proof as any that you all were using Unforgivable Curses. It's gonna be straight off to wizard prison for the both of you."

Both of them paled at Jake's declaration. They were going to be sent to Azkaban!?

"Please don't, I'll do anything!" Crabbe Sr. begged in fear.

Nott Sr. was internally cursing. There was no way he would ever go to that hellhole! He refused such a fate down to his core! He needed to escape from here! But unfortunately for him, he was magically exhausted and barely had any power to cast a single spell and he definitely didn't have the juice to apparate. He needed more power! He needed a… sacrifice. And there just happened to be an incompetent blubbering one right beside him.

"Sorry," Jake said, not quite sincerely. "I heard wizard prison is a terrible place, but you shouldn't have tried to murder me." The large Death Eater just stared at the ground, resigned to his fate. He hoped that they would drag out his trial so that at least he had a few more months of freedom…

"FiendFyre!" Nott screamed out as he pointed his wand right at his comrade's back!

Jake's eyes widened in shock as his surrendered enemy was immediately engulfed in flames and from his corpse arose a giant snake made of pure fire! It was giving off a tremendous amount of heat!

"Hahahahaha!" Nott Sr. laughed hysterically as he threw away his wand that was still connected to the cursed fire. He didn't even have close to enough magic to control it at the moment, and since it had just devoured the soul of a wizard, the cursed fire would be even stronger! With the cursed flames between him and Jake, the final remaining Death Eater turned and fled deeper into the forest!

Jake, meanwhile, finally snapped out of his shock at the sheer brutality he had just witnessed. 'The man just sacrificed his comrade (literally) to escape like it was nothing…'

Now free of its caster, the giant flaming snake of FiendFyre was free to rampage! It immediately locked onto Jake in front of it, and the cursed flames blazed towards him, eager to devour his soul next!

"Fucking hell!" Jake cursed to himself as he flared his magic to its peak once again and channeled it all through his spell circle as he unleashed the biggest wave of ice he'd ever cast at once! Even with the spell circle reducing the amount of magic for casting, Jake felt his reserves noticeably plummet as his wave of frost was unleashed towards the cursed fire!

Magical fire clashed against magical ice and for a moment, it seemed like the two spells were equal in power. However, the FiendFyre was burning through all the magic it had absorbed from the wizard it just devoured while Jake was constantly supplying his own wave of frost with his own. In the end, Jake's own magical reserves won out as his ice finally overtook the fire and snuffed it out.

Jake was upset though that that murder had escaped deeper into the forest. 'Wait!?' He thought to himself. 'Wasn't that the same direction the giant spiders came from?' The man had also discarded his wand so Jake figured he was also as good as done for.

Now safe and with all threats to him gone, Jake let out a somewhat tired sigh at the amount of magic he just had to spend to save himself…and also the forest probably. Jake quickly collected his bearings and immediately left the section of the forest that bore signs of the short battle. He headed back towards Hogwarts.

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Jake made it back to the castle shortly after and headed towards the Great Hall for dinner. As he opened the doors and strode in, he was immediately met by shocked gasps from all around.

"What the hell happened to him!"

"Is he okay!"

"He's covered in blood!"

Shocked students from all houses took in Jake's appearance. Jake himself finally took in his own appearance and cursed himself for his own stupidity! His robes were shredded and tattered, and he was covered in blood splatter…probably from the guy he killed. Although he reasoned some of it could also be giant spider blood.

McGonagall, sitting at the head table, was shocked and horrified at seeing the state of one of her lions! She immediately moved towards Jake as fast as her old legs could carry her. Dumbledore wasn't far behind her either.

"Mr. Gremory, are you alright?" She asked sincerely.

"Ah, yeah, I'm okay," Jake sighed. He'd probably just traumatized the whole school, hadn't he… "Some stuff happened."

McGonagall scoffed. "Some stuff happened indeed! Come along now! We're going to the infirmary immediately." With no room for questioning, she grabbed him by his tattered sleeve and hauled him out of the Great Hall. All the students immediately whispered to each other, speculating about what happened to Jake to make him look like that.

"All of you, please return to your meals. This matter will be handled," Dumbledore stated to all the students before he too left the Great Hall and followed McGonagall and Jake to the infirmary.

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POV: Nott Sr.

"Ha…ha…huff," Nott Sr. panted out as he ran through the woods away from the flames he'd cast. He had no doubts in his mind that shortly, this whole forest might very well be on fire and he needed to get as far away as possible. He managed to escape from that demonic brat, though, and soon he'd have his revenge, on him and on Malfoy for sending them after the red-haired monster…

Nott Sr. eventually wore himself out as he had to come to a stop and rest his panting form against a tree. Wizards and running did not go well together! His magic had slightly recovered by this point, but in his own idiocy, he'd thrown away his wand so he wouldn't be able to Apparate out of the forest!

*Rustle-Rustle-Crunch* Nott's panting immediately stopped as he heard rustling and movement from the treeline nearby. And then he started hearing…skittering!

"Human-meat!" From the treeline emerged half a dozen Acromantulas and Nott cursed internally! "Hungry," one of the arachnids hissed out.

"Noble spiders!" Nott spoke aloud, his voice laced with fear. "I too am of noble lineage just like yourselves."

"Eeeeeeaaaaatttt him."

"And if you let me go," he stuttered in full-blown panic, "then I promise to personally bring many different kinds of meats and animals to your colony as repayment for your noble understanding…."

"Meat?" One of the spiders questioned.

"Yes, yes, meat. I will bring you a bunch of meat!" Nott Sr. declared. He was internally thankful these beasts seemed so easily tricked. As if he'd ever actually repay them! Unfortunately for him, his elation was quickly snuffed out.

"...No," the spider hissed. "You meat!" And then all six giant spiders pounced on the man…

A scream was let out deep in the forest, but no one was around to hear it.

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