Beware of the Fat Muggle In Love

Beware of the fat Muggle in love part 11
"X marks your target"

Neville tore open the letter, frowning over why the hell Lucius Malfoy would owl him, of all people.

Seamus and Dean had woken up from all the noise the raven had caused.

"What's happening?" Seamus said sitting up, still half asleep.

"I got a letter," Neville answered.

"At this hour? Who is so impatient that he couldn't wait until breakfast?" Dean said irritably.

"Lucius Malfoy, it seems," Neville said and started to read the letter.

An unreal sensation shot through his body as he did.

"Mr Longbottom. I, Lucius Malfoy, have been given the assignment to write you this letter on the request of the Dark Lord Voldemort. You are to wait for a second letter in which you are given instructions on what to do as your first task as a Death Eater. I'm sure your parents would have been proud that you are to follow in your fathers footsteps, if they hadn't been locked up St Mungo's, that is. Tell no-one of this letter as it would lead to severe punishment. And I take it that you know what will happen to your family if you refuse this opportunity to please the Dark Lord!

L. M"

Neville couldn't believe it.

The letter immediately turned to ash in his hands as soon as he'd read it.

"So? What was so damn important?" Dean said.

"Nothing," Neville replied. "Nothing at all."

Neville told Ron, Harry and Hermione about the letter the next morning as neither Harry or Ron had slept in the dormitory that night.

Neville assumed Harry had spent the night with Brian and Ron had probably fallen asleep downstairs in the common room.

They were, of course, at a loss for words.

Harry didn't seem upset about the fact that Neville had unintentionally outed him last night, as Hermione and Ron really didn't care what gender the person he dated had, as long as it wasn't some slimeball like Malfoy.

"What did he mean with 'following in your fathers footsteps'? I thought your parents were in St Mungo's because of Death Eaters. If your parents were Death Eaters, which I definitely don't think, why would they attack their own followers?" Ron said.

Neville didn't like talking about his parents for obvious reasons, but he'd told them all about it just last year when he'd become more close friends with the three Gryffindors.

"He was probably lying in order to make you confused, Neville," Hermione said, patting his hand.

"Why would he want me confused?" he asked.

"To get to you easier! It's a Malfoy trade, I'm sure," Harry said as he looked over to the Slytherin table and saw Draco Malfoy sitting with his tongue out, looking like a complete idiot.

Harry wasn't sure what he was doing and he really didn't care.

He noticed Dudley sitting next to him, with a big scar across his nose where Neville had punched him the previous night, with a heartbroken look on his face.

He wasn't eating a single forkful of the food in front of him.

Harry also noticed that he'd gotten his Smartwatch back.

He wondered where Dudley had gotten his wand from, as the Neutro wand he was first given must have stopped working several weeks ago.

"But why does he want me? I'm not good in school, I'm forgetful and I'm this close from being a squib! I would be to no good for him! It makes no sense!" Neville said.

The others had no answer to that question.

"Well, it's almost time for Care of Magical Creatures so we'd best be off," Ron said flatly.

Neville met Dudley's eyes as they were walking out of the Great Hall.

He forgot about the Death Eater invitation he'd gotten when he saw the hurt in Dudley's eyes.

He saw the scar and felt terrible; the only other time he'd punched someone that hard was way back in first year when he'd single-handedly taken on both Crabbe and Goyle.

Then he got to thinking about them; why were they never hanging out with Malfoy and Dudley anymore?

He asked Ron when they got out in to the corridor.

"Oh, you didn't hear?"

"No,"

"They were found in the broom closet, shagging madly!" Ron grinned.

"They were?"

"Yeah! And it was Filch that found them and they got three months of detention in the Dungeons!"

"Three months? Isn't that a bit much? What do they have to do?" Neville asked curiously.

"Don't know. Some people think that they have been turned into Filch's bitches, having to do what he commands!" Ron laughed hard.

So did Harry and Neville.

Hermione started dismissing the rumor and said that such a thing was horrible and would never take place within Hogwarts stone walls.

"I guess you haven't heard about why Peeves is a happy Poltergeist instead of a sad Ghost," Ron said.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing. Tell you another time," Ron said and giggled together with the other boys.

"Oww!!" Dudley felt the venom from the Squirple's claws shoot through his veins.

He'd been too distracted by Neville's presence to mind what he was doing and he'd been cut by the little silver coloured creature with two small arms and four legs and one big eye in the center of it's face.

The Squirple hissed fiercely.

"Oh, dear me! You'll 'ave te go up te Madame Pomfrey's office an' get'some antidote fer the venom," Hagrid said as he examined Dudley's hand.

It had swelled up into the size of a small ball and looked horrific, with blood streaming from the wound.

"Can I go with him? To make sure he get's there, I mean?" Malfoy asked in a surly voice.

Hagrid agreed and they were soon on their way.

"What's with you? First you don't tell me where you went last night and then you show up for breakfast with a scar from a broken nose and now you get yourself clawed by that little freaky excuse for a creature! I'd like to use it as a Bludger just so I could smack it real hard!" Malfoy said.

Dudley looked at the ground all the way up to the castle; he didn't even notice when his scarf was blown away by the cold wind, nor did he notice the cold rain that had been pouring all day.

"Hello? Are you in there?" Malfoy said, trying to get some attention.

They walked in silence to Madame Pomfrey's office and just as they were about to enter, Dudley turned to Malfoy.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I really need some time to myself, alright? Not to be mean or anything, you know," he said still looking at the floor.

"Oh. But what is it? Is it Longbottom?"

Dudley looked at him quickly and then back to the floor.

Malfoy smiled.

"It is Longbottom, I see. Well, don't you worry about him. I told my dad all about it and he said that he'd take care of it," Malfoy drawled.

Dudley looked up.

"What do you mean 'he'll take care of it'?" he asked looking suspicious.

"I don't really know what he meant, but I'm sure it's fine, really," Malfoy said.

"You can go back to class. I'll be fine from here," Dudley said in a cold tone.

Malfoy looked miffed and walked off without a word.

Dudley opened the door to the infirmary and saw...absolutely nothing.

It was pitch black in the room so Dudley took out his wand; he'd borrowed money from Malfoy to go in to Diagon Alley together with Snape after his first week at Hogwarts.

He said 'Incendio' and lit all the candles in the room instantly.

He then fell over backwards and gasped at what he saw.

There, hanging by his toes from a sturdy bar in the ceiling, was Colin Creevey, fast asleep.

His arms were tied together along his sides and there was a chain connected to one of his feet and when Dudley looked closer, he saw that Colin's toes were much longer than they were supposed to be, with griping claws instead of nails.

His hands were slender and pale and his fingernails were very long and sharp.

His face was also pale and he looked very sick, but strangely comfortable hanging upside down like that.

"And what seems to be your problem? Oh it's you again, Dursley! Did that potion I gave you yesterday work?"

It was Madame Pomfrey.

She held a tray with some deep red potion in a jar on it and in her left hand she held something that looked like a long stick with some sort of grabbing mechanism at the end.

Around her neck was a necklace of garlic.

"What has happened to him?" Dudley asked her and pointed to Colin.

"He's still undergoing his treatment against the Vampyrism, but it doesn't look good," she said and poured the potion into a leather bag that had been repaired several times with large patches.

"Oh. Is he going to make it?" Dudley asked and felt terrible.

It was partly his fault that this had happened. What was he thinking? Letting Malfoy talk him into such a stupid thing! I really shouldn't listen to him so much, he thought to himself.

"He'll be half and half, at best, I say," she said.

"Half and half?"

"Yes, half human, half Vampire. It's a shame for such a clever young boy," she shook her head and closed the leatherbag tightly.

She walked up to Colin and unlocked the footchain with a wave of her hand. "Now, back up against the wall and put this on. This could get rough," she said and handed Dudley another necklace of garlic. Then she shot a wave of red light that hit Colin's forehead. He opened his eyes, Dudley saw that they were in a strange pink colour, and released his grip, turning around in the air and landing on his strange feet. He stood up and waited for Madame Pomfrey to untie his arms, wincing from the garlic. Then he saw Dudley standing in the corner.

"You! You made me like this!" Colin said to him in a smooth voice.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't know there were Vampires in the forest, honestly!!" Dudley said, being completely and utterly scared.

Colin threw back his head and laughed. "You should have seen your face!" he continued to laugh and pointed at him with his eerie finger. He fell over with laughter and couldn't stop.

Madame Pomfrey threw the leather bag at him and he grabbed it and was suddenly standing a mere inch from Dudley's face.

"I can see better, I can hear better, I'm stronger and faster and I can transform into things," he said very fast. His breath smelled like rotten meat. Dudley got even more scared when Colin's corner teeth grew out into fangs; he smiled slightly and looked like a mad man. Then he sank his teeth into the leatherbag and seemed to be sucking it dry.

"Come with me," Madame Pomfrey said and led Dudley out into the corridor and took out a small glass bottle from her robes.

"Here, drink this. And put this ointment on your wound once every hour until tomorrow and you'll be fine," she said as she handed him the two objects and quickly disappeared.

Dudley felt awful. It was his doing. He'd transformed a young boy into that creature! I should be sent to Azkaban for it, he thought. And Draco should go there to. It's all Draco's fault, turning Colin into that thing, getting me to fool Neville into sex on Halloween and thereby loosing him when I'd finally gotten him. It's all Draco's fault.

Dudley was getting more and more depressed and sad at the same time as he made his way to the Owlery. He had to write Neville a letter.

As Charms class ended, there were three people with different skincolours, including Seamus who now had a bright green skintone, the seventh-year Gryffindors were free for the day.

Harry, Neville, Ron and Hermione went to the library to try to get a grip on what to do about Neville's Death Eater letter.

"I guess there's not much to do," Ron said. "We'll have to wait until the second letter comes and take it from there, I guess."

Neville tried not to seem as nervous and frightened as he was, but was failing greatly.

"Or we tell Dumbledore all about it. This is Death Eaters we're talking about and you don't take that easily," Hermione said.

"I think we should," Harry said.

"All right, we'll do it like this. We wait until the next letter comes and then we tell Dumbledore," Neville said.

Seamus walked by, still green, and picked a book of the shelves. Ron couldn't help himself.

"Oi! Finnigan! Halloween's already been this year or are you developing that Leprechaun costume you had into a permanent thing?"

"Shut up, Buttcheeks!" Seamus answered and gave him the finger before returning to his book. Everyone that had heard them laughed, except Ron who was blushing furiously.

"I told you I never should have showed myself again!" he snapped at Harry and Neville. Harry looked as if he just had remembered something.

"Tomorrow is the first trip to Hogsmeade!" he said.

"We know," Ron and Hermione said at the same time and actually started to snog! Harry and Neville looked shocked. Suddenly, a raven flew in and dropped a letter in Neville's lap. They all stared at it for a good minute before Neville opened it with shaky hands. Neville noticed what seemed to be an inkblob in the lower left corner.

"Mr Longbottom. Your first task has been revealed. You will do this for the Dark Lord unless you want your friends and family dead. Touch the black spot in the lower corner of this letter and you will see your target when it is near to you. A big black 'X' will reveal itself in the persons forehead. You will kill this target and get rid of the body without anyone seeing you. If you haven't done this by the end of this year, I doubt you don't know what will happen.

L.M"

"Should I touch it?" Neville asked.

"I think it's best you do. That way you'll know who's in danger and we can protect that person better," Hermione said.

Neville stroked the black spot and felt ill immediately.

He saw how the world seem to turn into black and white and then back again, a number of times before it stayed in it's normal way.

Then, a school owl came in and dropped another letter in his lap.

"What the hell?" Neville began saying but stopped when he saw who it was from.

"It's from Dudley!" he said and ripped it open.

He read it silently to himself and his face whitened.

"Dear Neville.

I hope you will understand why I'm doing this.

It is because everything has gone wrong and I don't think they can be fixed again.

It would have been better for us to never have met.

That way I wouldn't have intruded in Harry's life in coming to Hogwarts.

I would have been sitting in my cramped up room in Smeltings, still afraid of magic and whining about something completely irrelevant.

I saw Colin Creevey in the infirmary, it was awful!

He is like that because of me and Malfoy and I don't think I can forgive myself for it.

That's why I've decide that it must be like this.

I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you, and I love you dearly.

You deserve better than me and that is why I won't bother you again.

I won't bother anyone ever again.

I'll forever be in the Astronomy Tower, where my greatest and my worst day took place.

Goodbye forever, my first and only love, Dudley."

Neville didn't know what he was on about at first.

What about Colin?

And what was the 'Goodbye forever' part?

Then he felt a creepy feeling come over him and he rushed out of the library heading for the Astronomy Tower.

He knew what Dudley was planning on doing.

He was going to kill himself.

--------To be continued in chapter 12,"Tragedy"------