The Eagle and The Snake: A Tragic Love Story

15. The Master

That evening, Luna and Carly both recieved letters from one another, telling them to head to the Shrieking Shack after dark. Despite the fact that neither of them had actually written any letters at all that day.
The two didn't typically send love letters, because it was evidence that could be used against them, if discovered.
But despite this, the notes seemed to have been written by their lover, so neither of the girls found the notes suspicious. Which is why they both headed to the Shrieking Shack, at the time stamped on their letters.

Luna arrived at the shack first, and it wasn't long before Carly joined her.
"Hiya" smiled Luna, when Carly arrived and embraced her.
"Hey. Did you have any trouble sneaking out?" Asked Carly.
"Nope. You?" Questioned Luna.
"No. I managed to get out without anyone seeing me"
"Good. I suppose I had the harder job, as I had to decend down a hundred staircases without being seen, and you only had to sneak out of the dungeons"
"But you don't have Snape as your head of house, and he has a habit of patrolling the corridors at night"
"True".

"I'm glad none of us were caught. Being out of bed at this hour would get us a week's worth of detentions at least, but being caught off school grounds out of hours, would get us a whole month of detentions. And we'd probably lose a whole lot of house points as well" admitted Carly.
"If you were so worried about us being caught, why did you suggest meeting here tonight? We could've hung out in the Room of Requirement as normal, so why did you suggest the Shrieking Shack?" Asked Luna.

Carly frowned, "I didn't choose this place".
"Well, you did. Your letter said to meet you here, so that's what I did" replied Luna.
"But I didn't send you a letter, you're the one who sent me one" countered Carly.
"No I didn't" insisted Luna, as she pulled out Carly's letter from her pocket.
"I didn't send that" informed Carly, before pulling out the letter she had received.
"And I didn't send that" revealed Luna.
"So, if neither of us sent those letters, then where did they come from? And why are we both here tonight?"
"I think the more important question is, who on earth did send those letters?".

"I believe that would be me".
The girls quickly whipped out their wands, and pointed them at the direction the voice had come from.
And as a strange figure stepped out of the shadows, Carly positioned herself in front of Luna, to protect her if anything went wrong.
"Who are you?" Demanded Carly.
The figure said nothing, but stepped forward and lowered his hood, revealing his face.

Both Luna and Carly's mouths dropped open as they stared at the man in front of them.
Even though neither of them had seen this man before, they did not need him to introduce himself, for they both knew who he was.
The pale skin, blood red eyes, and snake like nose, gave him away.
The man who stood before them, was none other than Lord Voldemort himself.

"You are probably wondering why I summoned you here tonight" said Voldemort, in his eery, unhuman voice.
"What do you want with us?" Trembled Luna, as her wand shook in her outstretched hand.
"I mean you no harm, you have no need to fear me" reassured Voldemort, as he raised his arms in the air, as if surrendering.
Carly and Luna both looked at each other, before nodding their heads and lowering their arms in unison, since they both knew their magic would be no match against Voldemort, so there was no point in trying to defend themselves.

"Good. I'm glad that we can all be civil with each other" smiled Voldemort.
"Why are you here?" Questioned Carly.
"I thought this was what you wanted. My loyal servant Barty Crouch told me that you two were desperate to meet me, because you want very much to join my ranks. Is this not true? Did my loyal servant lie to me?" Asked Voldemort.
"No, but we only wanted to meet Barty's master, because we thought he was a good person, who was going to help us. We didn't realise you were his master" explained Carly.

"But I do wish to help you, that is why I came all this way to meet you, so soon after coming back from the dead. I was so anxious to meet such brave girls, who were determined to bring about a better world, despite what it might cost them. I wanted to meet the courageous girls who were defying the law, so that they could be together" informed Voldemort.
"But you don't want to make a happy and peaceful world, like we do. You just want to gain control of the magical world, by any means necessary. You don't care about who gets hurt along the way" said Carly coldly.
"And does the famous Albus Dumbledore care about who gets hurt along the way, on his side? How many people did he allow to die during the war, for the greater good?" Asked Voldemort.