The Death Eater

-Severus Snape-

Two years and countless raids later...

It was time for another city raid. I had gotten my wish; I had not failed to finally provoke Aurors to have suspicion about our next target. London. The capital city of England, and no amount of Ministry of Magic power could conceal the evil we were going to inflict upon the Muggles of this large place. Oh, I was ready for the hurtles of this challenge, this was going to be my chance to prove how strong I was. How I was worthy of being Voldemort’s right hand man.

For months I had dreamed of this opportunity, but too many times it would have been obvious that a Death Eater had sent for the Aurors. And finally, I got my chance to send the ministry the unmarked letter of warning, that we would be in London, my cunning plot unknown to even Voldemort. I had to be quick, unhesitant, and everything could have gone so horribly wrong. What if Voldemort caught me sending this note to the Aurors? I would have suffered a fate worse than death. No doubt I had almost been caught before. But with my intelligence, I knew the time would come when my letter was sent. No straying Auror was going to find us. One wasn’t enough. We needed the whole band of them!

This time, it was the all-powerful and feared Voldemort who cast the first spell on London; right in the center of Diagon Alley. It was an absolute STUPENDOUS sight - buildings hundreds of years old blowing up, the explosions like fireworks... Again he disappeared beyond my knowledge of to where he had left to, letting us destroy the rest of it and Muggle London.

Spells were everywhere, innocent wizards and witches trying to defend themselves cast their curses towards us; but we were skilled in dueling, and easily repelled the feeble attacks made by the commoners.

We were having quite a fun time rousing up the witches and wizards until the Aurors came. They apparated right in front of me, having no idea that it was I who had sent for them in the first place. Their faces stern and wands ready, I fired a nice little curse in the direction of the closest Auror. He stopped my spell with a countercurse - and might as well have flicked it right over his shoulder. This man wasn’t going to be easy. Just the way I like it.

I grinned underneath my expressionless mask, cackling with such challengingly evil delight.

"Have you come to stop us?" I asked mockingly.

The Auror didn’t play along, refusing to answer my question, and shooting more spells in my direction. I quickly threw a few back at him, and the game was becoming deadly. The remaining Aurors ran off to fight the rest of the Death Eaters, and soon it was a huge mess of spells, dodging, and horribly bad form.

It was an unfair match - the Aurors were gaining the upper hand on some of the weaker Death Eaters; I just spat. They weren’t worthy of being Voldemort’s servants if they weren’t able to keep up with Aurors, I always knew that.

I was keeping busy with the original Auror who had not spoken to me since the duel began, and he was becoming more and more agitated with every spell I threw at him that he could not always dodge. Finally, I was able to find a pause in his steady countercurses, bellowing, "Expelliarmus!"

His wand was flung from his hand, and he gasped as I caught it, closing in on him. With a wave of my wand, he was in a heap on the ground, struggling to regain his composure, hatred in every line of his defeated face.

"Well?" I asked him simply, twiddling his wand between my fingers, "Aren’t you going to say something? Anything?" I began to feel a bit cheated at his impertinence... Why did he refuse to talk? Was I really humiliating him so much?

Before I even knew what had happened, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, dropping to the ground and weakly letting both my wand and his slip from my grasp as the Auror’s spell sunk deeply into my skull so as I could hear my pulse drumming and throbbing there.

How had I been so foolish?!

I was so caught up with this one Auror and the thrill he was giving me, that I failed to remember that there were others roaming around Diagon Alley who could join him. Stupid, stupid, stupid... How stupid could I be?

I clutched the back of my head, wet with blood, the two Aurors closing in on me.

I wouldn’t let them take me so easily, I had to stay under control!

I fumbled about for my wand, which was barely out of my reach... With no quick movements, I could get it... I could touch it, blindly reaching further through the haze that the sneaky Auror had clouded my eyes with...

"You’re going straight to Azkaban!" one of the menacing Aurors said, grabbing my cloak.

I touched my wand, curling it in my hand and shooting a spell in the Auror’s face.

He screamed, falling back, clutching his eye.

I gathered up my recovering strength as I scrambled for the other Auror’s wand before he could grab it up again. And he thought he had won! What a complete fool compared to the slight mistake on my part. His light had shown for one gleaming moment, but in another, the curse was already formed on my lips.

"Avada Kadavra!" I hissed, jamming my wand toward the original Auror.

In a blinding second of green light, everything was silent. As the light faded, I saw a body fall limpy to the ground. He was dead.

"MARIUS, NO!"

The furious Auror brandished his wand at me with blind rage; fool of a wizard. He was too blind with rage to concentrate. Bad luck.

"IMPERIO!" I shouted a bit dizzily, laughing wildly as the man froze under my spell. "Now this is just TOO easy," I whispered to the wizard, carefully stepping towards him. I felt his resistance to my curse, but I was too powerful for him; he could not escape. "Relax..." I purred softly, "You’re already dead. Just let my curse consume you, and I will tell you everything."

The man must have been listening; he was under my spell. This was such a delight! I loved the feeling of... power...

"It was I who sent you that letter, I who warned you of the Death Eaters in London. I’ve been trying many months for the perfect chance and finally I got it. Why the note? Because I’m thrilled by the kill. Am I mad? Perhaps so. But I must give in to my lust, wouldn’t you agree?" I made him nod. "I thought you would. We must all give in to what we do best. It is what strengthens us. Feeds us. I, a true Death Eater, am invincible to good merely because I feed off of what I do, does that make any sense? I love it, therefore I am. To see you now, standing here, helpless to my power, is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had. I guess I am mad. I’m not ignorant, you know. I know what good is. I know that I could be it." I shifted my position and stared straight into the man’s eyes, inches away now, pulling my mask up my forehead so he could see who I was. It didn’t matter, he was going to die anyway.

"We choose different paths," I continued ever softer now, my sadistic glare seeming to burn into him. "Mine was just the right one. The path all madmen take, isn’t it? So you realize that you people have no chance. You think you’re winning, but you’re not mad with the lust for this. You have not the spirit. And you will lose. What do you have to say now?"

"Voldemort," the man mouthed, but he would not say the whole sentence I had commanded of him. Pushing more strength into the imperious curse, I made him say, "V-voldemort is..." and he stopped.

I grinned at this man’s will power to stop my words from coming from his mouth.

"Don’t resist," I whispered, "It will only be harder on you."

"Vol-...demort i-is-"

"Yes," I cooed, then I broke into soft laughter, crowing, "Continue! What IS Voldemort, to YOU!?"

"Voldemort is my m-m-master..."

"Yes!"

"V-Voldemort is m-my immor-tal... master!"

"Yes!" I shouted, shivering with pleasure as the Auror almost seemed to say this on his own. His eyes turned involuntarily bright, and it took me a few seconds to figure out what was happening. I frowned. "You’re giving in so quickly... So easily," I murmured. "You’re weak. You seem Muggle. How can you stand here in front of me, calling yourself an Auror, and act generally like a cowardly fool? I wouldn’t have expected more from a child, but you... a grown adult and there are those childish tears in your eyes as if I had just stolen your favorite teddy." I pouted mockingly and gave the man a sinister look.

"Voldemort - Voldemort -"

"Let his name sing through this wasteland, this pitiful city in which you could not save!" I shouted.

I did have the upper hand. I really did. I was in my prime just before the quickly-materialized fist made contact with my head. For a second there was pain, and then, there was darkness...