SnitchSeeker.com - Harry Potter: Days Like These

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- Janus Thickey Ward (https://www.snitchseeker.com/janus-thickey-ward/)

- - Harry Potter: Days Like These (https://www.snitchseeker.com/janus-thickey-ward/days-like-these-16785/)

Snape apparated a ways beyond the cemetary. He kept a sharp lookout as he walked up to the large mausoleum. He lifeted his hook and put his mask in place as he approached. Snape nodded to several other Death Eaters who were arriving, easily picking out the slight form of Bellatrix. He didn't bother looking for Draco but, instead, followed the Lestranges inside.

Draco apparated in the vicinity of the cemetery and immediately masked himself and moved amidst the shadows. He stepped into line with the other Death Eaters and heard one of them murmur, "About bloody time, Malfoy."

He didn't bother looking at the source of the voice, but instead stated drily, "You try apparating suddenly out of a business meeting with 5 representatives from different countries." He thanked his lucky stars that this was in fact, the very truth of what had happened.

Along with everyone else, he entered the mausoleum...

George studied the masks of the figures walking towards one of the mausoleums before he transfigured his mask to a more than passable resemblance. Pulling up his hood, he turned to Fred. "We can always turn back," George suggested, but he still climbed the hill to the gate of the cemetary, heading towards the figures in the dark.

Elizabeth came down for breakfast feeling extremely tired and bleary-eyed. She sat down at the table, not noticing her surroundings.

Ginny had been sitting withher head close to Harry's, talking quietly with him. At the sight of Elizabeth, she jerked back from him suddenly, making space between the two of them and occupying herself with her fork. "Morning, Elizabeth. How'd you sleep?"

Noticing Ginny and Harry, Elizabeth sat up.

"Not too good actually, had a few rather nasty nightmares. What's for Breakfast? It smells good."

Ginny frowned. "I'm sorry to hear about the nightmares. This house makes me shiver at times, so its really no wonder. Regardless..." Ginny waited while Tonks placed a platter of pancakes in front of Elizabeth. "We're having lovely Tonks-made pancakes this morning. I tried to help." She gestured helplessly at the pancake on the floor.

Bill had quickly entered the headquarters after a night shift at the bank. Yawning he decided he'd have a light breakfast first before he ventured up to bed and fall asleep till his shift again. Those goblins worked him hard whenever they had him around.

Bill quietly made his way down to the kitchen and made sure he didn't awaken Mrs.Black. He entered the kitchen and saw that his sister, Harry Tonks, and Harry's 'ex' were down there as well. "Hello." Bill said with a smile as he grabbed himself some tea.

"Oh, okay. You're probably better at making pancakes than me, i would have ended up exploding something..."

Elizabeth got up and got herself some pancakes from the stove. She sat back down again and began to eat them slowly.

"So - how are you Harry?"

Elizabeth looked up as Bill walked in. "Hi Bill, she said warmly.

Snape took his place in the circle before taking a look around. The Dark Lord stood, waiting somewhat impatiently for the stragglers to arrive. He could also see that there were a number of new recruits standing with their sponsors. They were easily discernable by the almost audible excitement they exuded. Then, Snape spotted the simpering mass in the corner... So, it wasn't just a discussion this time. Snape pulled down more of his mental shields as he prepared for what he guessed was to come. It was his turn.

Before he could think on it any further, the Dark Lord raised his hand for silence. The quiet conversations ceased abruptly and all eyes and ears focused on the object of their obedience. "Mulciber... Macnair," the Dark Lord called and two of the hooded figures took tremulous steps forward. "You failed me once. You continue to fail to kill the Weasley girl."

Snape watched as the Dark Lord raised his wand. He had long since been immune to the screams of his comrades but, he watched as the lump in the corner shivered in fear at the sound of the two grown men who were reduced to simpering on the ground. When they finished twitching, the Dark Lord made them get up and drag what now could be seen as a young woman to Snape's feet. "Severus," the Dark Lord gently hissed his name. "I believe you have the happy pleasure of being first in line today."

He looked directly into the scarlet eyes of the Dark Lord and smiled, even as his insides squirmed. The problem wasn't that he was squeemish. The problem was that, despite his years of working for Dumbledore and trying to change, he still enjoyed many of the aspects of being a Death Eater. It shamed him but, a part of him looked forward to these moments when he was forced to raise his wand to another living human. He was able to avoid the torturing for the most part but, the Dark Lord allowed his Death Eaters to take turns in interrogating his special witnesses. To refuse would be suicide and then, where would the Order be?

"What do you wish to know?" Snape asked, wondering who this girl could possibly be; he couldn't recall her from Hogwarts though, that wasn't surprising in her condition.

"These two," the Dark Lord responded, pointing to Mulciber and Macnair. "Brought her as a substitute for failing to kill the red-haired witch. They thought she might have some information as to her whereabouts. She was supposedly a friend."

Snape nodded and turned back to the girl. He still didn't recognize her but, he would need to at least try to in order to give Dumbledore a full report. This girl was not going to leave here and the only way her family would know what happened to her would be for Snape to report on it, unless... Perhaps Draco would recognize her. In order to allow the young man to see the girl's face without attracting undue suspicion, Snape knelt down beside the girl and tilted her chin up with the tip of his wand. As he had predicted, she turned her face away from him and suddenly took in her surroundings. She stood and spun around within the circle of Death Eaters, trapped, before stopping and looking back up at the masked Snape. "Coward!" the girl spat.

Snape sneered within his mask. "Tell us about Ginny Weasley," he spoke in his unmistakably deep and silky voice.

The girl seemed to recognize him and she stood with her mouth flapping, her eyes wide in surprise. "I... I.." the girl stuttered before she was reduced to screaming on the floor for a few seconds after Snape released a short burst of Cruciatus curse on her.

"Oh, come on Severus," a voice cackled behind him. "You used to be so much more creative. I miss your old shows. What happened?"

Snape spun around and advanced on Bellatrix as he would have done before his change of heart. He grabbed her throat with one hand and she smiled in triumph. "There's my friend from Hogwarts," she whispered.

Reminding himself that once the girl gave up her information, she was as good as dead, anyway, Snape made a slashing motion with his wand as he turned around, ripping the sleeve of her robe from the shoulder and drawing blood. "Ginny... Weasley..." Snape whispered as he knelt down beside the girl and grabbed her hurt arm.

After several more attempts to get the girl to speak, she finally began to pour out her heart. The Dark Lord was not pleased with the information she gave and killed her immediately after she was reduced to sobs and was no longer coherrant. Though she had spoken the truth, she had told them nothing about the whereabouts of one, Ginny Weasley.

Snape took his place in the circle once more and noticed the two "Death Eaters" standing beside Malfoy. The Dark Lord seemed to notice them at the same time. Beneath their hoods, one could just make out heads of red hair. "Weasleys," Snape immediately thought to himself. But, there was nothing he could do to save them now, should the Dark Lord decide to unmask them...

Bill smiled at her, "Hello Elizabeth. Sleep well? You look a bit sleepy still." He said with a smile as he took a seat and drank his tea. "After those long hours this is just what I need..." Bill added as he took in the tea's aroma.

Bill then smelled the pancakes and looked over at Tonks cooking, "Eh Tonks, care to give a fellow friends some? Not to much tho...I still need sleep." He said with a smile.

"Nightmares" Elizabeth said as an explanation for her look of unrested-ness.

Bill took the small batch of pancakes he asked for from Tonks and began eating and filling his tummy before he fell straight to sleep. "Nightmares eh?" Bill said as he turned to Elizabeth, "Those do suck alot. I think the last nightmare I had I was stuck in some old Egyptian tomb...don't remember much about it." He added with a smile.

"You shouldn't let nightmares get ya down, you look stronger then that." Bill told her with a small nudge and smile before he stuffed his face again.

George stared hard at the wall just over Snape's head. The blood roared in his ears, and he thought he might be sick. That girl... Alicia... he'd played Quidditch with her. He'd danced with her at several Yule balls. He'd tried to kiss her once after one of the balls, but she'd just laughed with him about it. And now she was dead. And not just killed, but murdered in a painful and horrible way. He felt like he could still hear her screaming, and George just wanted to run back out into the cool air and relive his breakfast.

The men around him were murmuring in excitement, retelling each other the information shared, and George spared a glance at Snape. The man was looking right at him. Looking past him, he realized that Voldemort also seemed to have his gaze fixed on him.

Elizabeth smiled back "It was the stupidest nightmare - I was getting chased by a dementor, and no matter which way i ran i ended up falling off a cliff" she felt silly saying it and went back to eating her pancakes.

"Ahhh it was one of those nightmares! Ya, I think those are the worst." Bill said as he finished up his pancakes. "But I think you still glad it wasn't true. I remember coming to face with a dementor...scariest things really. I think I about peed my pants." Bill said with a laugh, "I was much younger then also but I still remember that feeling as clear as day. And I'm pretty sure Harry here won't forget them either..." Bill added as he glanced at Harry and his sister sitting ways from each other. He still had to get used to that.

Draco's eyes were hooded as he watched the proceedings with as much indifference as he could muster. His ears were deaf to the screams of the girl whom he recognized, but only because he had disassociated himself from everything as much as possible.

Gunmetal grey eyes fixed on the proceedings, he realized that both the Dark Lord's and Professor Snape's eyes seemed to be lingering on him or those around him. Unfrazzled, though a bit perplexed, he inclined his head very slightly towards them both, just in case they happened to be looking at him and while he did just that, he snuck an inconspicuous glance towards the 2 DEs around him.

Nothing looked out of place, but... his eyebrows furrowed when he saw the glint of what looked to be red hair.

... What the... A Weasley?! Weasleys???

Inside his veiled mind, he groaned. What in Merlin was a Weasley doing here?

His stomach sank when he realized that the glances from the Dark Lord and Snape were probably aimed at them and not him. Still keeping his cool grey eyes on the proceedings, he thought on how to affirm his suspicions and to possibly get them out of the meeting as soon as possible without attracting attention to himself.

At that moment, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him and realized that they had latecomers to the meeting. Perhaps those were the people whom the Dark Lord were looking at...

"Bloody late." He muttered and sneered.

Elizabeth giggled slightly at the thought of Bill wetting his pants if a dementor came near. " yeah, i saw one once, when i was very young, My uncle was in Azkaban.." Elizabeth said the last part quickly, feeling ashamed.

Bill looked somberly at Elizabeth and smiled heartedly and went on talking again like she hadn't said what she just said because Elizabeth seemed a bit saddened. Bill was trying to cheer her up not make her more sad or anything elese. "Mmm these pancakes are good Tonks! I could say almost better then mom's but then if she heard that I'd get hit over the head with one of her pans." Bill said with a laugh turning to Elizabeth again. He took a sip of tea and spoke again."So...what did you all do yesterday? I was pretty much asleep the whole day..." He sighed.

"Yesterday your brothers had some fun with the girls' underwear," Harry told Bill with a hint of a grin. "They thought the garden needed some more... color." He had been basically ignoring Elizabeth. He knew that wasn't the right way to handle the situation, bt it was working for now, so he went with it.

"Underwear? Whose underwear? Did I miss something?" Ron sifled a yawn as he entered the kitchen to Find Bill, Ginny, Harry, and Elizabeth. "Who made me food?" He asked, looking around as if expecting to find a plate set aside for him.

Elizabeth smiled at Bill, watching his expressions as Harry told him about the events of yesterday. She looked up as Ron came in. "Good Morning Ron - there's some of Tonks's pancakes over on the stove - they're really good."

Bill held back a laugh and grinned. His brothers always had something to do with the mayhem business. "I'm sure the girls were upset...those two don't know their limits. Girls underwear are one of the most trickiest situations!" He said with a laugh.

Bill looked up at Ron, "Hey little bro! Oh food, Tonks made some, help yourself bro."

Tonks sat back and smiled as she watched everyone chatting away. She blushed at the thanks that was thrown her way and was glad that she had been able to do something that didn't involve trying to keep them in line. She had to laugh inwardly at the thought of her being able to keep anyone in line. At least Bill was here now. He was older and seemed to carry more authority than her. No one ever really took her seriously; she was far too accident-prone for that.

Ron looked toward the stove and to his delight, there were plenty of pancakes. He grinned and filled a plate with pancakes. After almost drowning them in syrup, he took a seat with the others and began to eat.

Fred could feel the veins in his hands pumping blood with every new heart beat, his fists balled tight. He couldn't pull his eyes from Alicia's body, crumpled on the ground. Alicia...had been one of Fred's first girlfriends, well, until she realized that indeed he was Fred and not George she had been his. And, she was beautiful, and sweet, and didn't deserve this..Her screams would stick with Fred forever..

And if that Foul creature said Ginny's name one more time... It was taking everything Fred had inside of him to not just stalk up to....to him...and just tear him from limb to limb. Fred took deep breaths, trying with everything he had to just focus on what he had heard so far.