A Change of Heart

Consequences

It was quiet in the townhouse when Harry and Draco returned. The two boys quietly crept up the stairs to their bedrooms. Where before they were hungry, their stomachs were knotted and it was impossible to get another bite down their throats. Harry felt his heart beating in his throat and saw from Draco's pale face that his friend was no better.

There was no euphoria, there was not a moment of sheer adrenaline that could make the boys feel better. They felt tense, paranoid and so terribly tired. So very tired.

Without making a sound, they looked carefully around the corner into the room. They saw Corvus sitting with an open book in front of him. He held a large, almost empty glass in his hand, nursing the drink like a lifeline. They heard Corvus let out a deep sigh, after which the man wearily ran a hand through his graying hair.

"Come on, Harry," Draco whispered as he walked down the hall to his bedroom. Once in Draco's bedroom, the blond boy turned to Harry and looked at him intently. "Looks like the others aren't back yet. Let's go to bed and tomorrow... let's tell them tomorrow."

Draco's gray eyes were worried, and his typically arrogant sneer was nowhere to be seen. Harry could see that the events of the day weighed heavily on him. His friend was used to acting by rules and otherwise dancing around them unscathed. Now that he'd had a taste of the consequences his actions could have, there was nothing left of the grace that otherwise characterized the blond Slytherin.

Harry searched Draco's eyes and nodded slowly. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

***

The morning came earlier than Harry would have liked. It was early and the house was quiet. Bohm's words of farewell rang in Harry's ears.

"Angel of death... angel of death."

It was possibly a more appropriate name for Harry than Bohm might have thought. Ekrizdis' sign was more dangerous than he thought possible. The ecstasy he'd felt as he pulled the magic out of the bodies of the men in the library was overwhelming. He felt the electrifying force in the tips of his fingers, felt the bubbling energy just beneath his skin. It was a dominating sense of power that you wanted to surrender to, submitting to the addictive feeling the tattoo gave him.

As Harry got dressed, he realized this feeling wasn't wise to cherish. Any sensible person would see that giving in to such Dark Magic would be irresponsible and just plain stupid. But Harry couldn't help but feel a longing for the feeling, the feeling that sent a delicious shiver down his spine- tensing his muscles in search of some kind of release.

He was so absorbed in himself that he didn't notice that Rabastan wasn't lying next to him in bed. He also didn't notice that the creaking of the stairs seemed to reverberate in an empty house, where this sound was normally picked up by muffled conversations in the various rooms and soft footsteps on the floor.

It wasn't until Harry opened the door to the dining room and was not greeted by the familiar faces of people he now called family, that Harry realized that something strange was going on. This feeling was confirmed when he saw Draco sitting at the table, his whole posture tense and rigid. However, the sight of the uptight Malfoy was not as shocking as seeing Snape at the head of the table.

The formidable dark figure sat with his legs folded, reading a newspaper. The pictures moved, as was usual with a wizard's newspaper. If this had been a normal morning Harry would not have paid attention to the photos a second time, however, upon seeing the American couple Jack and Martha, his green eyes darted from the photos to the bold title on the front page.

'DARK-MAGIC MANIA' LEADS WEALTHY PLAYBOY AND VAGABOND IN TOILS OF THE LAW

Alluring villains evade justice with two deaths in their wake