The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow

The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow: Chapter Nine

It was Christmastime. Shop windows were decorated with tinsel and holly. The handbell choir was performing in Hogsmeade again. And Adrian loved Hogsmeade all the more.

Hogsmeade was full of the Christmas spirit. All over, the shops had special discounts, all in the spirit of giving. Adrian himself came up with a few Christmas specials, and the bakery was busy with orders for log cakes and gingerbread houses and pumpkin pie.

One of their regular customers even knitted a scarf for Adrian as a Christmas present. This reminded Adrian to make a list of people he would be giving presents to, and what presents.

He wondered if he had to give the Death Eaters any. Would they have any type of Christmas gathering? It rather amused him to think of the Death Eaters celebrating Christmas together. It made them seem too human. Then again, they were.

During his lunch break one day, Adrian was sitting in the bakery, chewing on the edge of his quill, going through the list when Marcus came in. Marcus' first words were that he didn't like people chewing on their quills. Adrian put down the quill, and gave a little laugh.

Marcus told him that they would be rescuing Jugson, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle and Travers from Azkaban in a week's time. There would be a meeting at the headquarters at eight o'clock that night. Adrian nodded, and Marcus took his list to read. Not that Adrian wanted him to.

"You're giving everyone something?" Marcus asked incredulously.

"Who's everyone?"

"You know, them." Marcus whispered.

"Oh. Um. Oh. Them. Um, why not?"

Marcus raised his eyebrows, and looked as if he wanted to say something, but decided against it.

That night, when everyone was seated, Macnair commenced the meeting, and went through the agenda for the day. First, they would discuss the rescue of Jugson, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle and Travers. Then, they would discuss the Christmas gathering.

Adrian almost burst out laughing. There was a Christmas gathering after all. And what would they do, go carolling? Hello, we're your friendly neighbourhood Death Eaters. Tonight, we will be singing a selection of three traditional Christmas carols. The thought of Marcus singing crossed Adrian's mind, and he almost laughed out loud again.

Basically, Marcus had come up with another 'brilliant plan'. Marcus' brilliant plans always seemed perfectly reasonable, but when you really thought about it, it required astounding quantities of luck.

This time, they would be barging into Azkaban straight. They would amass the remaining Dementors still in there, the ones that didn't mutiny the other time round. They had already owled them, telling them that the Dark Lord would be coming for them. They would kill every non-convict in sight, and release all the convicts.

Adrian was practically gaping at the strategy team, who were standing in front of the empty wall they used as a projection screen. On the wall, there were messy diagrams of the interior of Azkaban and there were little shapes meant to represent them. It kind of reminded him of the start of school, every year, after Marcus had spent the whole summer devising new Quidditch strategies and felt a need to share it with them all at one go.

When he turned around to look at the other Death Eaters, they all bore similar expressions.

"What are the chances that it'll work?" Malfoy asked.

"High if you were more enthusiastic about it." Dolohov seemed to be rather annoyed at the lack of positive response from all the other Death Eaters.

"I mean, how sure are you that the Dementors will co-operate?" Malfoy pressed on.

Macnair grinned, and said, "We're counting on Rodolphus and Bellatrix,"

"What?" Rodolphus exclaimed, seeming rather alarmed. Bellatrix didn't look too happy either.

"Well," Antonin began. "You know, while we were still in Azkaban, you mentioned something about naming the Dementors and they had personalities and all?" Antonin looked expectantly at Rodolphus.

"I didn't! It was Bella!"

Everyone turned to face Bellatrix, who then looked at Antonin, and said, "So?"

"Well, it seems you know the Dementors rather well, so we were thinking, that um, maybe you could approach them and ask them to join us?"

"Well, I convinced the Dementors to mutiny the other time. I'm not doing it again. Rodolphus can do it."

"But I don't know anything about them!"

"Liar."

Rodolphus had this shocked and indignant expression. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then finally said, "Fine! If we screw up this mission it's not my fault."

"You know, we won't be the ones blaming you," Bellatrix told him.

Rodolphus muttered something under his breath.

"Okay! So we have Rodolphus who will convince the Dementors to join our side. And the rest of us will be storming through Azkaban, killing everyone who obstructs us, and get what's-his-face out of there." Antonin concluded.

"Jugson, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle and Travers," Nott said.

"Ah. Yes. Jugson, Crabbe, Travers and who?"

"Never mind."

"Fine then."

"How?" Wormtail asked, hand in the air. "How are we going to do this?"

"Ah. Rookwood?"

Rookwood gave Antonin a scowl, and began to elaborate on the plan.

Which made Adrian all the more confused. So he raised his hand to ask a few questions.

The strategy team then looked at each other, then Marcus finally said, "Just do what you want. Really. As long as all of us get out of there alive with Crabbe, Goyle, Truman, Jackson and whoever."

"Travers, Jugson and Avery." Nott seemed really exasperated.

"Um, yes. So we get them out of Azkaban, without losing any of us. And maybe even get more Dementors on our side. Should be easy enough, right?" Marcus offered brightly.

The expressions of the seated Death Eaters said otherwise.

"And there's this method Marcus thought of, which might actually work. It's to get rid of Dementors. Unlike the Patronus Charm, this might actually get rid of them once and for all." Mulciber cut in, trying to ease the tension. "Marcus?"

For all Adrian knew, probably every other Death Eater wanted to just Avada Kedavra Marcus there and then so that he would stop having these 'brilliant plans'. Adrian found them amusing to listen to, but admittedly, he would never willingly take part in Marcus' 'brilliant' schemes.

"You know the Reversing Charm?" Marcus prompted.

There was no reply, but Marcus continued on anyway. "Well, you see, Dementors are affected by happiness, right? That's why we think of happy memories for the Patronus Charm. But the Patronus Charm only repels them. So I was thinking, if we made the Dementors feel happiness, they might actually uh, die from it, you know."

Somehow the idea of telling jokes to a Dementor appeared in Adrian's mind.

Rabastan thought the same thing too: "What? We're going to tell them jokes? Juggle?"

"Um, no. That's why I mentioned the Reversing Charm. I mean, you all know that the Cruciatus Charm is used to cause pain, right? So if we reverse its effect it might cause happiness."

"Have you tried it?" Percy asked.

"No, but uh, soon?"

"You won't be experimenting on us, will you?" Rodolphus asked in horror.

"No, but you can try and practice it on, uh, other people?" Marcus offered.

Bellatrix laughed and said, "Poor little Dementors."

Malfoy raised his hand. "So what are we supposed to do with the Dementors? Make them happy or get them over to our side?"

"Get them over to our side, and if they don't, make them happy?"

Suddenly there was a snort of laughter coming from Rabastan, who was immediately met with murderous looks from the rest of the Death Eaters.

"Everyone clear?" Macnair asked.

Some nodded, some gave half-hearted replies.

"Okay. And we hand the floor to Lucius."

Malfoy stood up, and announced that he would be having a Christmas gathering especially for the Death Eaters at his Manor.

Rabastan let out a snort of laughter again, and everyone gave him murderous looks again. Then Antonin laughed, and was met with even fiercer glares.

"Basically, we will just be socialising and what-will-you on Christmas Eve, from seven o'clock in the evening onwards. There is no dress code; you can wear what you like. This will mostly be a getting-to-know-each-other-more type of gathering, and will be exclusive only to us. Dinner will be provided."

And Adrian thought, what could they do there anyway? Dance? Sing? Eat?

But really, Adrian was starting to think that it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

In fact, it gave him the motivation to start working on his gift list. Because Adrian isn't the sort of person to give store-bought gifts. Or even if they were, he had to personalise them in some way or the other.

Over the course of the week they were given further details pertaining to the rescue mission. Marcus also often came into the bakery to howl that he now had to waste a large part of his money to buy stupid gifts for everyone. Adrian suggested that he make his own gifts, which was met by such a horrified look from Marcus.

"Me? Make my own gifts?" Marcus had asked.

And yes, Marcus would never in a million years put any effort into his gifts. Marcus even tried to tempt Adrian, discouraging him by telling him that all his efforts would just end up in the rubbish bin. Adrian then answered him by saying that he was planning to make Christmas cookies, so they wouldn't end up in a rubbish bin.

Marcus became even more agitated, and told him that his gifts would now end up in the sewer. Adrian giggled at the thought of it, but when he realised Marcus wasn't joking he stopped.

Adrian suggested that the tins could be used to store things too, for example, tea leaves, so his gifts weren't so useless after all. Marcus clapped his palm to his forehead, and told Adrian that he had long given up on him. Adrian asked him what he was doing here, then, and Marcus reached over and throttled him.

Adrian giggled again, then upon realising that he was giggling more than was acceptable for a male, stopped. Marcus messed up the neat little rows of muffins on the tray, and they burst out laughing.

While Marcus finished his tea Adrian unconsciously began to rearrange the muffins. Marcus reached over and slapped him playfully on the hand. Adrian then pretended to be angry with Marcus, and pouted and made Marcus arrange it into neat rows, which almost drove Marcus crazy.

*

On Friday, they gathered at the headquarters before setting off. They were in full Death Eater robes, and after putting on their masks, they Apparated as close as they could to Azkaban, and made their way there.

Somehow Adrian felt better about this mission. Unlike the previous one, this was less brutal. There were orders to kill anyone in the way, but Adrian thought, he could just stun them.

While walking to Azkaban, Malfoy pulled him closer and asked if he thought that the instructions were clear. Adrian thought for a while, and shook his head. He claimed that he would just be doing things his way.

"Ah. Thought so too." Malfoy replied.

Adrian was relieved to find that he wasn't the only one confused about the directions. Just before they set off, he remembered Rookwood telling everyone to work in groups of threes, and that the groups were supposed to set off in different directions. Antonin had told them that Rodolphus would be going in first to get the Dementors on their side, and after that, he would give the signal for them to enter, and they would all spread out in different directions.

And really, what if Rodolphus failed, and the Dementors killed him? Adrian realised what it meant to be a Death Eater. One would need to possess extraordinary amounts of faith and trust in each other. Out of the corner of his eye Adrian saw Malfoy ask all the Death Eaters around him how likely they thought this mission was going to succeed.

Rookwood heard, and protested that 'nothing is impossible if you put your heart in it'. Several Death Eaters laughed, and Rodolphus told everyone to 'give him more encouragement'. Which was met with an impromptu cheer from Antonin and Rabastan, that went along the lines of 'Go, Rodolphus! Go, go Rodolphus!'.

The Death Eaters laughed again, and Adrian was glad that the area around Azkaban was really deserted, or they would have been sent straight into it long ago. They had finally reached Azkaban, whereupon Rodolphus went in, and Antonin and Rabastan started to weep dramatically and cry 'don't leave us!', 'what about our children?' and other such related exclamations, and stopped only when Bellatrix jabbed them in the ribs. The Death Eaters laughed some more.

There was a flash of purple sparks in the air, and they hurriedly got into groups with the people standing next to them and went in. Adrian was teamed up with Malfoy and Nott, and they headed down into cells forty-one to fifty. There were a few Dementors standing around, who opened all the cell gates for them. The mission was going better than expected. The Dementor guards were even opening the cells for them, and they told all the convicts to run. Several convicts thanked them, while some others just ran.

The Dementors were the only creatures that worked in Azkaban, as any human that worked there eventually went crazy. The Ministry managed to get the Dementors to work for them through promising them a supply of humans for them to 'feed on', although the promise wasn't upheld.

Jugson and Travers were in cell forty-eight, and they joined them. Lucius told them to follow him, and they'll return them their wands later. Right before they were put in Azkaban, they had all exchanged their own wands with those stolen from unsuspecting wizards, so their wands would not be broken.

And Adrian quite liked this mission. One might even go so far as to say that he found it fun. There were no casualties involved, and they were rescuing some of their own. And while walking about the cells they even found time to chat and Jugson was telling them stories of what he was made to do. At some point of time they even laughed, and if the Death Eaters were like that normally, it wasn't too difficult being one.

They went back up to the entrance, where all the Dementors were standing, and some other groups of Death Eaters had also returned. Convicts were running out around them, and when all the Death Eaters had returned, they left the area, the Dementors following them.

It wasn't too hard being around the Dementors, if they were occupied with something else, they would leave you alone. In this case, most of them were chatting amongst themselves, and some of them even talked to Rodolphus.

Adrian was frankly, surprised. After what everyone told him about Dementors, these Azkaban guards seemed to be very, for a lack of a better word, nice.

When they far enough from Azkaban to Apparate, they Apparated back to the headquarters, where the Dark Lord was pacing around the garden, as if he were waiting for them.

"We're not late, are we?" Bellatrix asked worriedly.

They got into the circle, and the Dementors stood in a neat contingent behind them.

"Welcome back, everyone," the Dark Lord began.

The Dark Lord took out five wands, and returned them to their owners, and then he gave a nod to the leader of the Dementor contingent.

"Some say that life is like a chess game," he began. "While some agree with Shakespeare that 'All the world's a stage'. I believe most of you here know who Shakespeare is?"

"But is it really?" He continued. "Chess is bound by strict rules, and plays, by the script."

The Dark Lord stopped in front of Marcus. "I believe you have an interesting analogy of life. Would you like to share it with the others?"

"Y-yes. Um, uh, life is like Quidditch, you know. You uh, plan everything beforehand but when the game starts you realise how uh, implausible your plan is and you just do what you think best."

Marcus didn't seem as if he was sure what his analogy meant. He mentioned something like that once, before a Quidditch match. Except that he used 'fucked up' instead of 'implausible'. It made the entire team grumble, because if the strategies didn't matter then why did Marcus still come up with new ones? Marcus replied that it wasn't about using a certain strategy; it was about knowing which ones to use and when.

"And while for the previous two missions you had very vague instructions, you completed them successfully. Why is that so?"

Adrian didn't know why. He briefly wondered if it was a trick question.

"It's not a trick question," the Dark Lord replied.

Adrian wondered if that was a smile on his face. It couldn't be, could it? The Dark Lord smiling was supposed to be another of those impossible things.

"I think you all know the answer," the Dark Lord concluded cryptically, and dismissed them. He went over to talk to the leader of the Dementor contingent, who, as Rodolphus told them, was called Number 8.

Number 8 was the name Bellatrix had bestowed upon him. Dementors didn't have names, but after living with them for so long in Azkaban, one would wish to have a better relationship with them.

Of course, by 'better relationship', it is meant that the Dementors wouldn't pick on you so often. And really, it pleased them to find out that people actually realised that they had distinct personalities and differences. And again, 'pleased' here means that they became grumpier but picked on you less often.

It was thus how the Death Eaters got the Dementors on their side. They have had enough of the ill treatment they received from the Ministry personnel, and when Bellatrix and Rodolphus asked them to join the Dark side they willingly agreed.

The Dementor-naming business had started out as a joke between Rodolphus and Bellatrix, to keep their spirits up. As luck would have it, the Dementors were pleased that they were being treated as equals and thus provided their services to the Dark Lord.

The moment the Death Eaters stepped into the house, they asked each other what 'the answer was'. None of them knew, and they left it at that.

*

On the following day, Marcus begged Adrian to go Christmas shopping with him. Marcus claimed that he didn't know what to buy, but Adrian knew that what he really meant was: 'I'll give you the money and you buy them for me'.

Adrian made the suggestion that Marcus get a new outfit to wear to the party as well. Marcus was very repulsed by the idea, but Adrian told him that most of the Death Eaters were rather well off, so he should at least attempt to look presentable. Marcus commented that Adrian should go shopping with Percy. Percy was as anal about clothes as he was, and Marcus was certain they would have a very pleasant time shopping together.

At some point of time, Marcus entered a record store and splurged all his money on records. Adrian then reminded him that he still had gifts to buy, and Marcus looked at the records and grinned.

"I'll give everyone a record then!"

Adrian didn't know what to say. And he didn't quite agree with Marcus' taste in music. Marcus then insisted on going into a bookstore, and Adrian left to get his lunch. After lunch, Adrian returned to the bookstore to find Marcus still stuck in there.

When he walked past the counter, he saw Antonin and Rabastan, who upon seeing him, attempted to hide whatever they bought. Not it mattered to Adrian.

He then went back to bugging Marcus to go, but Marcus still didn't budge, so Adrian went home himself, where he decided to start on designing the individual cookie tins.