The Little People

The Little People

The night sky. Inky black velvet like someone had cast a black handkerchief over the whole of London. Here and there are bright little dots of stars, each the same as the next.

If you are counting the stars, and someone calls your name, hey John, and you look away for a second, you won't find the same star you started with again. Stars are anonymous against the giant fabric of the night sky, dull when compared to the sun and the planets. Stars are common and too indistinctive.

Like me.

I have my own life story out there - I've cried and I've laughed and I have done things that people don't; done things that are horrible to recall and that I've regretted - but against the grand scheme of things, I'm just another star in the night sky.

Wizards like Albus Dumbledore, Bartemius Crouch and the Minister of Magic - these are the people whom the world will remember. And him, the Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named... everything he does affects the world. Everything he does affects me. He doesn't need to die to be remembered. Like a lot of people around me, I will remember him forever. In my days, in my memories, in my nightmares.

Tonight I am feeling philosophical because I have had too much to drink and the empty streets remind me too much of You-Know-Who.

I raise my hand; indicate to the bartender that I want another Firewhiskey.

My name is Josh. Joshua Stone, if you want to be formal. If you see me in the Leaky Cauldron tonight you won't take a second look at me.

I'm one of the little people you see on the streets. You won't ever see my name in History of Magic textbooks, or hear my name being echoed in the Auror's Hall of Fame. A commoner. I'm no celebrity. I'm just another wizard trying to survive under the shadow of his reign. Doing my best to stop him.

But I have done things that still haunt me at night. Wake me up sweating in the middle of the night with endless questions in my head - What if? What if I had..? I have seen things that make my skin crawl - blood sacrifices and the slaughter of the innocent and helpless.

All these; all these weight on my mind and my conscience - all these things are insignificant, because I'm just one of those little people out there. All these things will be gone in time, like tears in the rain.

Chapter 1:

The clang of the metal cuffs sounded loud in the gloom. Josh frowned, and looked down the corridor, into the darkness.

More shuffling, and then a voice cried out. "Let me out, you fools!"

The prisoner was awake. Josh, who was guarding the chamber, closed his eyes. Pretend you haven't heard the noise, he told himself.

It was awfully cold in the stone basement, and the damp and darkness added nothing to the ambience. Josh adjusted himself closer to the small fire, and told himself again; pretend that you haven't heard the noise.

Pretend that Thomas is still sleeping.

But Thomas was yelling now, loud enough to wake the dead. Josh got up and lit his wand, and walked down the corridor to his cell.

It would have been better if the prisoner had not woken up. Better if he had slept forever. Betraying the Dark Lord had a heavy price tag.

"Would you shut the hell up?" Josh said as quietly as he could, bending near the metal bars. "You'll wake the entire place; and then -"

"I don't care," said Thomas, and Josh noticed, that even in the gloom, Thomas had a half-crazed look about his eyes. His hair, once shining blond and neat, was dirty and messy now, and his face was streaked with grime and blood. "Josh, get me out of here! If he knows..."

Josh didn't have to ask who he was.

"I don't have the keys, and these cells are protected by wards I can't break," he whispered. "The changeover's in the morning. Pretend to sleep, and maybe we can buy you more time - "

But it was too late. There was the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs, and then an irritated voice calling, "Josh, is Thomas awake yet?"

Every fibre of his body wanted to lie. Everything righteous inside him wanted to say "No, he's still out."

But Dominic Avery was already walking down the corridor, and Josh could feel Thomas scrambling away from the bars, towards the back of the cell. Pretend to sleep, Josh thought desperately, but before Thomas could do anything, Avery shone his wand into the cell, straight into Thomas's petrified eyes.

"Thought so," Dom said smugly. Josh moved away from the senior Death Eater, unable to utter anything.

Dom unlocked the door with a charm that Josh could not hear, and then caught Thomas by the arms. He looked at Josh and said, "Help me bring this imbecile to the Lord."

Josh avoided Thomas' eyes as he held him upright while Avery unlocked the cuffs. Together, both of them carried the limp Death Eater to his doom.

The Dark Lord loved an audience, and everyone present at the ruined fortress that was their hideout, witnessed the torture. It inspired fear in the new Death Eaters, and reinforced belief in the senior ones.

Thomas had betrayed the Death Eaters by going to the Aurors with information about their operations, the aftermath of which left fourteen Death Eaters captured, and their headquarters in London ransacked. The remaining Death Eaters of that division hid out in the countryside, waiting for Dominic Avery to find another location for their base.

Josh thought that the Aurors had ensured Thomas' safety, but apparently it had not been enough. Thomas had been found two days earlier in his apartment, and dragged to the fortress to await Lord Voldemort's punishment.

Josh sat himself as far away from the proceedings as possible, hoping that he would not be able to see the torture clearly. It was little help - newer Death Eaters shrank away and pushed Josh to the front, and even if he shut his eyes, he couldn't block the screams.

It was dawn by the time the Dark Lord was finished with Thomas, and though Josh threw up after seeing the bloody remains, he could not get rid of the images in his head. They kept playing in his head even as he lay on the lumpy mattress, a hand over his eyes, trying to sleep but failing.

"Josh?"

He opened one eye and saw the frightened eyes of a new Death Eater, Luke Surry. Luke had just been Initiated last week, and despite his bravado Josh knew that Luke had only joined because he was afraid of death.

Good thinking. People without fear aren't brave. They are insane.

Josh was constantly afraid. Fear ate at him physically - he had a constant wary look about him, and his stance was never relaxed. He knew he was paranoid, but he also knew that it was paranoia that ensured his survival each and every day.

No one ever died because they were too careful.

Josh got up, slowly, tiredly. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry for disturbing you," Luke said earnestly. "But your door was unlocked and I figured that, well, since I knew you better than any other here - "

"What do you want?" Josh asked. He sounded rude, but the night had been too rough for him to summon politeness.

"Just now..."

"Don't think about it," Josh said automatically. Then, just in case Luke was fishing to see Josh's loyalty, he said, "If you never betray the Dark Lord, if you do as he says and never disappoint him, you will be safe."

"Does it happen often?"

"What?"

"The... torture. Does it happen often?"

Josh thought about the three years he had been a Death Eater.

"No," he lied. He reasoned to himself that people have different perceptions of 'often'. Once a month might be often to some. Once a week might be rare to others. Luke need not know that he lied.

But he saw, by the look in Luke's eyes, that he did not really believe Josh.

Even among the Death Eaters there were conflicting loyalties. Some joined out of fear; some out of prejudice against the Muggles; some because they wanted to belong to something special. They might follow what Lord Voldemort said, but their underlying motives were vastly different.

Contrary to popular belief, there were a lot of them who joined out of fear.

Like Thomas.

And people who joined out of fear could be lured; could be persuaded. Those who joined out of fear, there was a good chance they could turn against Lord Voldemort, to go to the Ministry for help, when they saw the bloodshed and the price they have to pay.

At that moment, Josh knew that it was a perfect opportunity to talk to Luke, to probe into his carefully constructed façade, and convince him that being a Death Eater was not worth the price he had to pay. But Josh did not say anything, and after a while, Luke left the room.

He did not say anything because Thomas had once been in the same situation as Luke was in. He had asked Josh, and Josh had talked to him, and convinced him that going to the Ministry was the best action possible.

Thomas was dead because Josh had convinced him. Thomas was young and brave and he did not deserve to die.

And Josh knew that it wasn't because he was squeamish that he chose not to witness the torture; but because he could not bear to see the betrayal in Thomas' eyes.