𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎

𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝙽𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔

┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐

Marilyn Gaunt was being followed. Of that she was certain. She had been being followed since the very beginning of the summer and it had not ceased. The people—death eaters moreover—had made no move to approach her. They only followed her silently and quite honestly, she was getting sick of it.

Currently, it was rather late at night and she was walking along the edge of the forest near the Shrieking Shack. She had directly ignored the pamphlet the Ministry of Magic had sent out warning her not to go out and night and things of the sort, seeing as she had nothing better to do in the wee hours most other people were sleeping. Plus, she knew Death Eaters were everywhere, they were following her everywhere.

As she once again felt the eyes on her, she sighed deeply in annoyance before turning around. Her eyes searched the trees around her before landing on a shadow that did not belong to the trees. She marched over to it before the Death Eater could apparate away and grabbed his arm, yanking him out of his hiding place.

The man looked slightly terrified at being caught but didn't move to struggle from her iron grip at all. She supposed Voldemort had ordered them not to hurt her. Great, now she had an evil overlord cousin who cared. 

Like she needed that.

Marilyns nimble fingers found the skin of man's wrist and lifted it up so that his hand she was clutching was in front of his face where he could see. As they both watched, his hand began to decay like a dead body, making him scream, squirming in her grip.

Marilyn watched emotionlessly. "Tell my cousin I don't need babysitters." She said, her tone deadly quiet as her stormy eyes watched him.

He nodded quickly, still whimpering because of his hand that now looked very dead. "Yes, yes!" He exclaimed, nodding furiously.

"Good," she said, dropping his hand and stepping back. He turned on his heel, disappearing with a crack while Marilyn turned back to the trees to continue her walk.

✮✮✮

Amycus Carrow returned to his master, still horrified by whatever magic the Gaunt girl had used to kill his hand. He stumbled toward the Dark Lord and immediately bowed so deeply his nose practically touched the floor as he tried to conceal his fear.

"Why are you back, Carrow?" Voldemort questioned coldly, looking at him in distaste. 

"T-the girl," he whimpered. "She has a message."

Voldemort straightened and looked down at his follower in interest. "Continue."

Carrow feebly presented his hand to the Dark Lord, who grabbed it, yanking it toward him so he could study what she had done. His eyebrows rose as he examined the hand. Whatever she had done to him was dark, dark magic. He was almost certain it was Death itself. Death's touch. Yes, he had to get his young cousin to join him. 

After a minute, he dropped the man's hand, allowing Carrow to back up, cradling it. 

"You said she had a message?" He asked, his voice high and cold. 

"Yes, My Lord. She said to tell her cousin—you, my lord—that she doesn't need babysitters." Carrow whimpered.

Voldemort let a satisfied smile spread across his face. He was liking his baby cousin more and more. But she was young. She needed someone to watch over her whether she liked it or not. Especially with the locket she unknowingly wore. The girl was protecting a piece of his soul without even realizing it and he did not want to change that. Despite his curiosity to how she had gotten it, he knew the safest possible place it could be was with the girl too powerful for her own good. She would protect it because it was a family heirloom, but she would really be protecting her family itself. Yes, he definitely liked that idea.