Captivate and Mesmerize

Captivate; Part 1.4

And then there was an attempt at Harry's life.

It had been years since the war, but dark wizards (some new and some old from Voldemort's reign) and unruly witches still existed. The Auror office and Harry have worked tirelessly to capture all Death Eaters but some still remained on the loose.

One afternoon, a particular Death Eater who had escaped after Voldemort's demise eight years ago decided to show his face and finally kill Harry Potter. Walden Macnair, whose fate remained "unknown" after the Battle of Hogwarts, disguised himself as a new Ministry of Magic lift operator to try and end Harry's life. It was known that Harry worked at the Ministry as an Auror, and he had in fact become even more famous because of it. His successes of sending dark wizards to Azkaban often made the papers so everyone knew what Harry Potter was doing for a living. And, if one had wanted to kill him such as the case of Macnair, the easiest way to do so would be at the Ministry.

He knew it would almost be like a suicide mission. But honestly, Macnair did not give a fuck. He was tired and so furious at what he had been reduced to over the past eight years since Harry bloody Potter defeated the Dark Lord. The Macnair family was a noble line of purebloods during Voldemort's reign. They had prestige, power, and money. All of that was taken from his family, from him, by that little fucker after the war. God, he hated Harry Potter so much as well as his mudblood and mudblood loving friends. They sickened him.

For eight years, Macnair ran and hid and stayed away from wizarding communities to escape being caught. Living with Muggles, those lesser beings, made him even more furious. It fueled his rage and he spent countless sleepless nights devising a plan that would bring him and his family retribution.

He thought it was fate when he learned his nextdoor neighbour in the dingy little flat in Muggle London turned out to be a wizard. Moreover this neighbour, one Joe Colton who was only nineteen years of age, would soon start work at the Ministry of Magic as a lift operator. He knew all this because Joe came home one night drunk after a night of celebration for getting the job. Macnair happened upon him outside his door trying to get in when the younger man drunkenly slurred a good evening to Macnair. Macnair sneered in disgust, but the boy continued rattling on about the cause of his celebration. Other Muggles would have dismissed this as drunken talk, but Macnair's interest was peaked when he heard "Ministry of Magic" in the boy's words. So, Macnair showed false kindness towards the boy and befriended him. And his plan came to fruition.

It was simple. He would kill the Mudblood (Macnair later learned of Joe's heritage, much to his disgust), take his wand, and disguise himself as him. Then, he would go into the Ministry of Magic as Joe Colton and do his job as a lift operator. And when Harry Potter comes strolling towards the lift as he was bound to do eventually, Macnair would kill him. He considered what spell to use. The Killing Curse would be most efficient but he had been stewing over the years and had created and added new curses to his arsenal. Harry Potter would suffer one way or another.

Joe Colton was killed the morning he was to start his new job at the Ministry. Macnair used the Avada on him since he wanted to do it quickly. He had considered brewing polyjuice to truly disguise himself as the boy, but had thought against it eventually. The potion was costly to make and he didn't know how long he needed to be given an opportunity to go in for the kill. Besides, Macnair thought he had changed a lot physically over the years. He was more muscular now with his hair longer. A bar fight yielded him a broken nose too. No one would be paying attention to a lift operator, so all he needed to do was keep his head down until he saw Harry Potter. He dressed in the uniform, pocketed his wand carefully, donned the stupid hat which was part of the uniform, and headed out towards the Ministry of Magic.

The morning was busy, as was typical for a Monday at the Ministry. Macnair did his job well, greeted witches and wizards who boarded his lift with almost mocking respect, and generally kept to himself unless he was spoken to. It was nearing lunchtime when she boarded the lift and his eyes almost bugged.

It was the mudblood best friend. She got on the lift at level seven and requested to be taken to the atrium. She had a stack of books in hand and was reading one of them with her head down. Macnair's fingers twitched towards the wand in his pocket. He could kill her right now but if he did, he would not get the opportunity to do in Harry Potter.

Macnair almost fell to his knees in delight when at level two, Harry Potter himself entered the lift. The fucker greeted the mudblood with a kiss, an actual kiss, on the cheek and a hug. He also grabbed the books the mudblood was holding onto in a blatant act of chivalry which made Macnair want to roll his eyes. The two shuffled to the back of the lift as other people boarded. Many of the other nobodies who entered with Potter said hellos to the mudblood. Macnair had to bite his lip to stop the malicious grin from spreading across his face. He clenched his fist to avoid grabbing his wand right then and there. He could kill both Harry Potter and his mudblood best friend. God, what a wonderful day this was turning out to be. He never thought he would say that about a Monday.