The Dark Side (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter 16: The Meeting

          We were all sitting at a long table in our old dining room. We never really used it, so it was dusty and cold all the time. The only light in the room came from the electric-green fire, and people occasionally materialized from it. I sat quietly beside my father, not making eye contact. I simply stared at my hands. My mother Apparated in, taking a seat from me. We were waiting on Snape.
          "I do not think Severus shall mind if we start without him," when my father spoke I almost jumped. I shifted around in my chair and put my hands in my lap. "Tomorrow is the start of a revolution. We will no longer wait, we shall strike. But to strike, we need to pinpoint a weakness. And we have. Draco will transport a chosen few using the vanishing cabinet conveniently placed in the school. Before we do send him and Alexandra away, we must make sure they are capable of their job," he stood and called for Wormtail. The rodent-like man shuffled in with two people. They were panic-stricken and confused. Probably Muggles, judging by their clothing. Peter cast a spell, freezing them in place. "Both of you, up," I stood and walked over to him. Wormtail ripped the cloth from their mouths and they said nothing but still looked terrified. "Wands, out. You know what to do," Draco and I hesitated, looking at each other. "Now go on, and be quick about it," I was certain every Death Eater in the room could hear my rapid heartbeat. He wanted me to kill an innocent Muggle just to see if I could? As we pointed out wands at them, their eyes widened, but they were still silent. Draco was shaking slightly, but I think only I noticed. 'If you stay brave, everyone will respect you.' My mother's words repeated in my head. This wasn't bravery. But I would be respected. I could feel my father's cold gaze on both of us and I was reminded what happened to his followers that disobeyed. I swallowed, then everything went by in slow-motion. "Avada Kedavra!" the awful words slipped off my tongue. A bright green flash filled the room, and I almost fainted when the white, lifeless body hit the floor with a look of terror and sorrow on her face. I lowered my wand and stepped away slowly. Draco had just said the curse and just stared at the Muggle's body. He was very visibly shaking now. My father put a freezing cold hand on my shoulder.
          "Well done. You may take a seat. Now to the real point of this meeting," I sat down and was eager to stop staring at the woman's body. Well done? How can someone congratulate death? Death of an innocent? And how could he dismiss it that quickly? I barely even heard what my father was saying. "Since Draco has been such a help to us," he changed his cold gaze to Draco and held it there. "He will have the honours of killing Dumbledore himself," I looked at Draco. He was still pale and I saw hints of fear in his eyes, but he was looking at The Dark Lord bravely.
          "I will not disappoint you, My Lord," said Draco. He had confidence, but I was still worried about him. This was a lot to carry out, and if he wavered even slightly, I couldn't imagine the pain he would have to endure.

          I was laying in my bed, wide-eyed, playing the terrible scene over and over in my head. I had asked my mother if they were indeed innocents, or if there was a reason they are dead. She told me that they were journalists, people who write about events, and they had seen some magic and wanted further evidence to prove it. So they stumbled upon our house and Wormtail, being panicked, kidnapped them.
          I rolled over, staring at the wall, but all I could see was the Muggle woman's face frozen in terror. It'll probably give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Along with the cold, dead faces of my other victims I was supposed to murder. Suddenly, I almost felt selfish. Draco had to kill our Headmaster. And maybe other students. I might have to kill other students. My mother's voice brought me from my terrible thoughts.
          "Alex? Are you ready to go? The train leaves in an hour and a half."
          "Coming," my voice didn't feel like my own. I stood up, grabbed a sweater from my empty closet and carefully took my owl from her cage to perch on my shoulder. She hated travelling in her cage, so I had to carry her myself. I put the cage into my trunk and pulled it behind me out of my room. I blew a kiss to my room. "See you in a few months," I do that every year because it reminds me of my young, naive self in First-Year. I smiled and closed the door behind me.
          Because my mother worked at the Ministry of Magic, we got to borrow one of the Ministry cars, which were very nice. I put my trunk in the back and maneuvered myself into the car without disrupting the half-sleeping owl on my shoulder. To a Muggle, the car would look very strange. It was a magical car, so it was missing its steering wheel. "Kings Cross Station," the car started, and drove off.
          It was an hour-long drive, and it was filled with silence and small conversations. "Mum, why did he make us kill those people?" my voice was small as if I was kilometres away.
          "We had to know you two were ready."
          "Killing a Muggle and killing our Headmaster are two very different things!" I exclaimed.
          "It's a start," her tone was final. The car pulled into the parking lot. I opened my door and almost hit my Barn owl in the head. I pulled my trunk from the back seat and put it on my foldable trolley. We walked into the busy train station and made casual conversation, talking about the weather as we strolled straight into the wall. The other side was much darker because it was lit with torches. First-Years were marvelling at these. I smiled. When I first arrived, I wasn't all that fascinated with the lighting, I was a bit curious about how we had just walked through a wall. I was quite familiar with magic when I left Hogwarts, but that seemed really cool to me. "I love you, honey. I hope you have a fantastic year. You'll do great, I know it. Don't forget to write lots!" I hugged her for the hundredth time and gave my trunk to the man at the back of the train. I stepped on the train to find it smelled like heavy perfume. I immediately knew it was Pansy. I rolled my eyes. I turned and waved to my mum, and turned to find a seat in the bustling hall. I squeezed by a bunch of disoriented First-Years. They had no idea where to sit. I heard one of them say, 'I'm not crossing from car to car, that's scary.' I almost laughed. There were thousands of things scarier than crossing train cars. Well, in my life anyway.
          Draco wasn't in any of the cabins, so he must be in the 'Slytherin car'. The Slytherin house had claimed it as their own years ago, so it was known as the 'Slytherin Car'. It was much easier to get through here, there was barely anyone. The train jerked forward and being so close to the front of it, I could hear the horn.
          Just as I expected, I saw Draco's white-blonde hair on the left side of the car. I stood beside him and he scooted over. I took a seat next to him. Marcus Flint, a Seventh-Year student who played Quidditch with Draco, was sitting across from me with a girl I hadn't seen before. She wore Slytherin robes. Draco was complaining about Dumbledore and Hogwarts again.
          I could tell the Muggles' faces still occupied his mind. Ever so often, I could see his eyes cloud with fear and worry. I was going through something similar. Suddenly the car was full of black dust. I immediately covered my mouth with my shirt. It seemed to be something along the lines of a dung bomb, just without the smell. I lowered my shirt and coughed. It still wasn't pleasant to breathe in, though. Someone was smart enough to open up a window, and the car was quickly clear of the foul dust. Draco was fidgeting with his sleeve. I put my hand on his arm.
          "It's not going to go away," he looked at me and then looked down. Flint looked at me strangely. "He got a nasty spider bite," I fibbed, but he seemed satisfied. I saw him look up at the shelf that held our bags. "What?"
          "Oh, nothing. Just thought I saw something."
          "Like that spider?" Flint chuckled, but Draco didn't smile. "What'd you get on your OWLs last year?" No one answered so I decided to.
          "Well, they were good when I finally got them. I was accidentally given Ashley Biken's sheet, and my mum wasn't too happy about the mix-up. She expected Hogwarts to be more organized. Anyway, it took a while, but I did finally get my results. They were pretty good. Saying that awful teacher gave most of the grades," I was referring to Professor Umbridge, our former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and briefly our headmaster.
          "I got the proper ones, but my parents weren't too pleased with them," Flint fiddled with his sleeve cuff.
          "Really? How many did you get?"
          "Well... four."
          "What are you talking about? That's fantastic!"
          "I got six," said Draco.
          "Well if it's really a contest, I got four O's," Draco smiled and rolled his eyes.
          "Teacher's pet," he said through a cough. I elbowed him.
          "At least my marks didn't all come from Snape!" He shrugged.
         "Fair enough. But I did get bonus marks from Professor Magonagall when I was turned into a ferret," we burst out laughing. We all remembered the hilarious scene in Fourth-Year. "And when I was attacked by that foul beast in Third-Year. I really don't have the best of luck, do I?"
          "No, you really don't," we laughed. I wish I could just wipe all the horrible stuff that was going to happen away. Lock it away and never return to it again. But, I suppose it's my destiny. I have to face it. Or it'll never leave me alone.