CH-23

I try to remember someone whose family Goyle butchered. "I'm Terry. Terry Boot."

"Why won't you show yourself?"

"Why should I? You didn't show yourself when you cornered my parents and murdered them."

"I—I'm not Goyle, Terry. I'm in the Order."

"Oh right, and I'm actually a Death Eater, come to scare you," I say.

"I'm using Polyjuice Potion. Terry, don't kill me. Just come with me. In less than a minute, the disguise is going to fade off. I have to get out of here."

"I can wait a minute. Who are you really, if not Gregory Goyle?"

"I'm Seamus, from Gryffindor. We were in the same year."

"Yes, I know who Seamus is. I'm surprised you remember his name, you thick-skulled gorilla."

"I'm not lying," he says.

As he finishes speaking, his face and body begin to change, and he leans against the wall behind him for support. I watch as his face becomes less plump and most of the fat on his body shrinks away. When he stops changing, the man that I'm looking at is, without a doubt, Seamus Finnegan.

I point my wand at him, and ropes snake out of the end, tying his legs together and binding his arms to his sides. He remains leaning up against the wall.

"Hey—what are you doing?" he says, alarmed.

I lift the Disillusionment Charm on myself and watch his expression change from alarm to horror as he takes in my Death Eater mask and robes.

It's him or me. I have to do this.

"So sorry, Finnegan. I'd help you if I could, but this is, unfortunately, necessary."

Before he can say another word, I point my wand at a point just to the left of his neck and rapidly swing my arm to the right. The cut is so thin that it's barely noticeable at first. Then blood starts to stream out of his neck, and his body topples to the right, his head separating from the rest of his body and landing about a foot away from his neck.

I heave a sigh. So dirty, this killing business. As clean as I tried to make the cut, blood is still all over the ground, flowing freely from the wound. I know it's ridiculous to expect a body not to bleed, but still, I wonder if there's a way to prevent it. Maybe I could invent a spell to Vanish all the blood in someone's body before beheading them.

Why am I thinking about this?

Stepping around the growing pool of blood, I stoop down to look at his head.

His eyes are still wide open, his last emotion still written on his face. I reach out and close his eyes. Then I conjure a waterproof—well, liquid-proof—duffel bag to contain the head. I levitate the head and place it inside the bag before zipping it up.

I look down at his headless body. I have enough time to lay his body to rest before returning to the Manor.

I place the duffel bag in my small green pouch before reaching down and getting a good grip on Finnegan's still-warm arm. I lift my wand and Disapparate.

Sitting down in the couch at my cottage, I glance up at the light fixture that I hardly ever bother to light. With a wave of my wand, the candles flicker to life, and the room lights up.

I had already Apparated to the middle of some unnamed woods and was planning to bury Finnegan's body when I realized that members of the Order would probably come looking for him after he went missing. But I figured they might just chalk him up as missing or captured, and since I'd Apparated so far already with his body, I might as well bury him.

After the burial, I came straight here. I'll have to meet the Dark Lord tomorrow morning, and he'll have some new trick to teach me. Isn't that just bloody fantastic?

I look at the empty basin in front of me and shake my head. There'll be no more of watching Granger sleep. I can't let that become a habit.

I pull the serpent charm out from beneath my shirt and look at it for a long minute.

So, so tempting.

Oh, what the hell. I might as well summon her if I'm going to waste so much time staring at it. Maybe some lives will be saved in the process. I fist my hand around the charm and close my eyes, focusing on the word, "now".

Then I release the charm and conjure a piece of parchment. I place the tip of my wand against it and concentrate on the map that Aunt Bella had shown me earlier in the day. She didn't keep it in my sight for long, but just a glimpse was enough for me to commit it to memory. The black lines materialize on the parchment, complete with different-colored annotations from Aunt Bella and her faithful new group of trainees.

"Malfoy."

I almost jump at the sound of her voice coming from behind me. I'm rarely caught off-guard, and I'm surprised that I didn't sense her presence in the room. I really have to stay on my toes around her.

"You came more quickly than I expected," I comment.

"The charm said 'now'. I sort of had the feeling that this might be urgent," she says matter-of-factly, walking around to the front of the couch.

I look up and meet her eyes. My response to seeing her is much less intense than it was two nights ago, and I'm relieved to find that my voice and breathing are completely under control.

But now I'm staring at her. Fuck!

Thankfully, her attention is on the piece of parchment on the table in front of me.

"What is this?" she asks.

I wrench my eyes away from her and lift the scrap of paper to give it to her. "It's a map."

"Yes, I can see that. What's it for?"

I smirk. "Impatient, are we? Desperate to return to your dear Ronald? My, my, at this time of night, I wonder what the two of you would be up to."

She shoots me a venomous glare. I seem to have hit a nerve.

"He is not my 'dear Ronald'," she says through gritted teeth.

"Trouble in paradise, Granger?"

She just glowers at me, refusing to reply.

"Not so friendly," I say. "To business it is, then. This map marks the path that a large group of Death Eaters will take tomorrow evening, against a Muggle city called Nottingham. It will be led by my aunt, Bellatrix, and they will be at least twenty strong."

"At least?"

"I don't have the precise numbers of my aunt's forces. You're lucky I got the map at all."

She's looking very closely at the map, as though trying to memorize it.

"You don't have to memorize it, keep it," I tell her.

"I will. I'm memorizing it in case it gets lost," she replies. "Is there anything else?"

She seems to have prepared herself for coming to meet me this time. She's calm and collected, and I can't resist the urge to shake her up.

"Yes, there is just one more thing," I say as I get to my feet.

She's watching me warily, and I wonder if she's expecting me to attack her. I place my wand down on the table and lift both my hands, palms facing her.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Granger. You don't have to be so scared."

"I'm not scared," she says, color rising to her cheeks.

She looks so beautiful when she's angry. I can't stop myself from prodding at her.

"Really?" I say, stepping around the coffee table. I stop when I'm standing right in front of her, but she meets my stare readily and doesn't step away from me. "I'd like to bet that you are," I finish.

"And if I'm not?" she challenges.

I consider crossing my fingers behind my back before making my wager. Bugger it, I don't care. Here goes nothing.

"I'll allow you to make one request of me, and I will carry it out without protesting or resisting, as long as it doesn't expose my new relationship to the Order."

Her eyes widen. She certainly hadn't expected that.

"And I suppose that you'll expect the same from me if I amscared?" she asks.

I grin. "Precisely."

"Done. Now how are you going to decide whether or not I'm scared of you?"

"Well, I could always take the easy way and use Legilimency on you," I say. I smirk and continue, "But that's no fun, is it? You want to have some fun, don't you?"

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