tamchronin | Erised - Chapter Twenty-Three (Reply)

Sanity? No thank you. Information pertaining to this story can be found that-a-way, at the start.

New Host: Welcome back. I trust you are all refreshed, after that note from our sponsors? Good! Now, I would like to introduce three very interesting and diverse heroes to our stage. First, we have one of two Chosen Ones. Please put your hands together for our favorite anti-hero, Anakin Skywalker!

Darth Vader: (enter, stage left) That name is no longer who I am.

Audience: (eyes Forces of Evil interspersed among them and applaud reluctantly)

New Host: Yes, well, Mr. Darth Vader, then. Can you tell us your thoughts on friendship?

Darth Vader: I thought, long ago, that my friends had all betrayed me. Love was a sham, and emotions were the greatest weakness of all. Lately though, I have grown unsure, and wonder if, perhaps, I should have listened to my old mentor and friend, instead of killing him.

Luke Skywalker: (walks in) You think?

Audience: (applauds enthusiastically)

Darth Vader: (breathe)

New Host: Good evening to you, too, Luke Skywalker. Perhaps you'd care to share your own feelings on the subject?

Luke Skywalker: You know, my friends have gotten me into some tight spots, but I've done the same to them at times. It all balances out in the end, though. It's what friends are for. I'd do anything for my friends, because I know they'd do the same for me. If you ask me, it sure beats the alternative.

New Host: And now, we're running out of time, but we've got one last guest. The Chosen One. The Boy Who Lived. Let's give it up for this fanfic's very own star, Harry Potter!

Audience: (goes wild, despite glowering Death Eaters every three feet)

Harry: (is blushing, waves to everyone and sits down quickly) Hi.

New Host: Before we have to go, can you tell us a few things about friendship and what you think of your friends?

Harry: Without my friends, I wouldn't be here. It's as simple as that. My mother sacrificed her life to save me, but even that would not have been enough without the friendship of Professor Dumbledore, and later my friendships with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Sirius, and everyone, really. No one can tell me that friendship, or love, is not worth it. Friendship is what makes life worth living, when there seems to be no other reason to go on.

New Host: So, you think the villains over here are...

Harry: Sadly, gravely mistaken, yes. Oh, and they're all doomed. Even if they accomplish everything they set out to do, they'll never be happy with it, because they don't have any friends to share their accomplishments with. There's no happiness, no satisfaction, without love. It's really much more powerful than people like them could ever imagine.

New Host: I now return everyone to their regularly scheduled fanfic. I hope you enjoyed this interlude, and that it brought some food for thought to you, as it did to me. Thank you, and good night.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Fool-Proof Plans Rarely Are

They stood upon a hill, black figures against an even blacker sky, robes stirring in a cool summer breeze. It made the trees beneath them whisper, but upon the hill the only whispers came from the pair standing there.

"I always wanted another shot at that girl," one of them was saying in an excited whisper. "She gave in entirely too easily the first time, and I've heard that teenagers can be amusing when put under the Cruciatus Curse."

"We're here for business, not pleasure," the other one said in a low tone just above a whisper. "We're to kill the whole family and return, and that means no torture. The Dark Lord said you've already had your chance with that."

"There was a time," the first whispered, "that you were eager to please and eager to prove yourself to everyone, and not just Him. I think all that time at Hogwarts has made you soft, Snape. All that time as Dumbledore's man--"

"Don't!" Snape growled in a voice that was somehow soft and yet commanding at the same time. "I think after all that's happened, my loyalty should cease to be questioned by the likes of you, Bellatrix. Let's get this finished."

Bellatrix Lestrange nodded at once, eager to get this done mostly so that she wouldn't have to work with Snape any longer than necessary. She still resented him his cushy job at Hogwarts and the great amounts of faith the Dark Lord placed in Snape's loyalty, after all she had been through. It didn't matter to anyone but her if she liked him or not, though, as long as they both did as they were told.

They walked in silence to the Jorkins place, keeping a good six paces between them. Bellatrix worked harder at it than Snape did, but there was no love lost between them on either side. It might have been amusing to an outside observer, how they tried to avoid any accidental proximity invasions, but no one was around to watch them as they walked. The streets were silent and dark, with only the full moon to light their way.

"That's their house," Snape hissed, coming to a stop. "There's a light on in a bedroom, but it shouldn't matter."

"I may be mad," Bellatrix said, fixing her wild eyes on Snape, "but I am not yet blind at all. I can tell a hacksaw from a handkerchief, when the wind is westerly."

He winced at the butchering of the quote, but didn't say anything about it otherwise. "Go in through the front door, and I'll approach from the back. We want them all dead, and there's to be no befouling the past with the untimely presence of the Dark Mark."

She sauntered right up to him, pressing close in a threatening manner, as if she expected to meet his eye directly though she was much shorter than he. "I know my job. Killing curse only, no fun, and no lasting presence. If you order me around again, I just might mistake you for someone else when we start flinging curses about in there, you know. Just a thought."

He leaned down to her level, giving her a smugly superior grin. "I know better than to turn my back on you. Even if you were loyal to me instead of the Dark Lord, I'd sleep with armor on and drink only antidotes the rest of my life."

She stood her ground, trying to cow him still, but to no avail. She finally gave up, muttering darkly, but Bellatrix followed his orders and walked directly to the front door of their victims' house. She waited a moment before entering, giving Snape a chance to enter as well, but probably not enough time. She was unconcerned with him, now that it was time to follow her own orders as she saw fit. As long as the job was done, it was no one else's business how it had been done. Alice Jorkins, and her entire family, would die tonight. No one would hear them, and no one would know what happened, and that would be one less Auror to worry about, and it would also be one less...no, two less Longbottoms to meddle in their affairs. Without Alice married to Frank, they wouldn't have that pudgy boy who had befriended Harry Potter and been such an annoyance that time at the Ministry of Magic. And, in her opinion, any subtraction from those numbers that night was a welcome change.

Better yet, what if none of that ever happened? Bellatrix rather like that idea, and grinned as she walked further into the darkened home. Now, which room had been lighted? It didn't matter. She threw open doors at random, casting spells as she went just in case someone was caught by surprise.

All the rooms were dark, and no one was in any of them. That couldn't be right, but it was still the case. They'd seen the light, though, from outside. She knew it.

In fact, where was Snape now? He should be in here by now, at least screaming his fool head off that she'd made so much noise on that last door.

She was alone.

Bellatrix was completely alone, and she shrieked in anger over it. How had that happened? Impossible! They'd planned it so carefully, and there was no reason she should be alone right now! This was revenge! The first time she hadn't had nearly as much reason to hate Alice Longbottom, but now she did and she wanted to get her measure of revenge for all her time in Azkaban!

There was no greater burning hate, she thought as she ran through the house, running out to the back door and stopping in her tracks. There was someone else out there. Well, of course there was! Snape was out there, dawdling as always and screwing everything up. He'd probably have a handy excuse for that, but she knew he did it on purpose! He did it to ruin everything, because he was practically Dumbledore's lapdog. He was!

Bellatrix lifted her hands to her head, shutting out the voices that told her about Snape and all the things he'd done and continued to do against her and everyone else. The Dark Lord trusted Snape. That alone should be enough, but even if it weren't she knew that Snape had killed Dumbledore in the end. Anything else was as the buzzing of an insect. Insignificant.

Buzzing.

Insect.

What was going on back here?

Bellatrix stepped outside into the garden and into the moonlight. "Who are you? What are you doing in my garden?" she demanded.

"Your garden?" some woman shrieked from the darkness.

Bellatrix grinned, aiming her wand and firing off a curse in one swift motion. There was nothing like the element of surprise.

"Drop your wand," someone said in a stony voice from right beside her.

"Now," someone else commanded, from her other side.

"Death first!" Bellatrix cried, trying to dodge out of the way. She was immediately immobilized, though, and fell awkwardly on her face.

A moment later her consciousness was stolen from her, as well.