The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow

The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow: Chapter Sixteen

And so they looked for the Dementor-in-charge and asked for the whereabouts of the renegade Dementor.

Mostly Bellatrix was irritated. At the half-Dementor for causing trouble, at the other Death Eaters for shirking responsibility and at the Dementor she asked for directions because the directions were so vague.

Rodolphus suggested using the party of rowdy Muggle teenagers as a form of bait for the mutinous Dementor, but then they couldn't exactly attract the Dementor if they controlled the teenagers' minds.

And so they just decided to use themselves as bait, not that they were particularly enthusiastic about it. They ended up in some Muggle neighbourhood where the Dementor they were looking for was reported to be around.

And Bellatrix didn't bother to show her disdain for these Muggles. Then, upon seeing a woman washing the dishes through a window she launched into some speech about weak-minded women who let men step all over them and so on.

And really, how were they supposed to attract the Dementor when she was ranting about weak-minded pushovers. Rodolphus tried summoning some happy thoughts, but with Bellatrix yapping away it was kind of hard to.

And he started to wonder why he married her in the first place. He could have picked Cordelia Whitfield anytime, what with her obsession with him. If he married Cordelia his life would have been so much easier. Cordelia was one of those attractive types, not particularly good-looking but somehow very well received with the men. He recalled Snape, Avery and Rosier all liking her.

Admittedly Rodolphus found her very annoying because she tailed him all the time, hoping that he would ask her out. And to think of it, she was too typically female. She was the kind that would stay home and cook meals and wash clothes and want children.

And so maybe this was why Rodolphus ended up with Bellatrix. Then again it might have been because he was such a closet masochist, but anyway.

And for some reason he felt like bursting into manic laughter in the middle of the street, but it would have been a very bad idea. He felt rather tired walking around, so he suggested that they sit down in the bench at the playground they just passed.

Bellatrix looked at him as if he was trying to shirk his duty as well, so he continued walking. After a while, she, too, got tired and so they sat down.

And as things always go, they found the Dementor crouched up next to the slide in the playground. They went over, and since it was a half-Dementor, they tried using the Killing Curse to see if it worked.

It had no effect on the half-Dementor, of course, so they tried using the method Marcus had suggested some time ago.

The half-Dementor began to twitch, and so Marcus' method worked after all. They would try to torture the half-Dementor to death, or whatever really, until it would stop causing trouble.

And after a while, the Dementor began to show some response other than twitching and jerking.

"Mother! Mother! Help me! Mother!"

Rodolphus almost dropped his wand in shock, and so did Bellatrix. They stared at each other stunned.

"It's not who I think it is, is it?" Rodolphus could barely be heard.

Bellatrix had clapped a hand over her mouth, and was trying to calm herself down.

They had stopped using the Curse on the half-Dementor, and were still somewhat paralysed with shock.

"Barty? Is that you?"

The half-Dementor did not reply; it just continued to sob away and twitch. Rodolphus and Bellatrix stared at each other for a while, then decided that even if it were Barty, he would have been so tortured by the process of becoming a Dementor it might be better to just end his life, so they used Marcus' method again.

"Mother! Help me! Please... Mother... Father! Someone, please... Help me! Mother!"

Rodolphus was doing all he could to ignore any feeling, any memory of Barty Crouch Jr., and the fact that he was supposed to be dead.

"No... Please, no... Somebody... Help me..."

Barty's cries seem to lessen, and he sobbed bitterly again, mumbling to himself.

Rodolphus tried to suppress any thought or emotion and hit Barty--no, the Dementor with a stronger bout of reverse 'Crucio', causing Barty to scream out in pain, then--

"Rodolphus! Bellatrix! Help!"

At that point both of them dropped their wands and started to cry and Bellatrix hugged the ragged, decaying body that was Barty and Rodolphus did so too, apologising profusely. Why did he even do that? Why? They were supposed to remove the Dementor, not torture it, what was he thinking? That he could torture it to death?

"I'm so sorry, I really, really am," he said amid sobs. What made him do that?

"We're here for you, don't cry, please, don't," Bellatrix said, sobbing as well.

And the two of them had Barty in some odd kind of hug, sobbing uncontrollably into a shoulder each and apologising and telling him that they were there for him and sorry and no, there would be no more harm, and sorry.

Barty himself was sobbing too, though his sobs seemed to be very weak.

"Help me," he whispered to them.

And before they could even reply he collapsed to his right, on Rodolphus, who ended up sobbing even more, and Bellatrix was going hysterical and hugging him even tighter and they sobbed even more, Barty in-between them.

Rodolphus had grabbed Barty's hand, and was still holding it, but something very odd was happening. Barty's half-decayed body was starting to dissolve, and after a while he disappeared entirely, leaving behind his ragged and torn robes.

Barty Crouch Jr. was about the closest thing Rodolphus and Bellatrix ever had to a child. When he first joined the Death Eaters they were the ones who trained him and they ended up spending a lot of time together, and all those memories came flooding back to Rodolphus.

But how? How did Barty get a Dementor's kiss? Didn't he die in Azkaban?

And there were so many questions that needed answering, but for now, all he could do was to just sit there and weep.

*

There were a few months of relative peacefulness in the magical world, and it was what is commonly known as the "calm before the storm". It made some people very jittery, expecting some terrible attack any moment, and it made some others think that the threat was over.

They were called for a meeting, and this time, it was over the dining table. The Dark Lord was the head of this meeting, and all the Death Eaters sat around the dining table they used for mission discussions.

The Dark Lord was going to reveal some grand plan to them, and when all the Death Eaters had arrived he started.

"This", he said, "would be the largest attack of all."

Then he looked at Marcus and asked if he remembered the chess game they played.

Marcus was stunned momentarily, and then he nodded.

"This is where we turn the tables on them."

It was quite apparent that most of the Death Eaters did not understand him; one look around the table told Marcus that.

The Dark Lord then looked at them, and launched into an explanation that left them even more confused.

And Marcus suddenly realised what it must have felt like to all the other Death Eaters not in the planning committee.

And apparently, the Dark Lord had never conducted such meetings over the dining table before, because none of them dared to ask any questions.

The Dark Lord tried to explain again, to no avail.

Eventually he decided to just proceed with telling them their assigned roles instead of explaining the reason behind this attack.

Marcus was somewhat confused, but the Dark Lord assured them that it would all make sense when it happened.

There wasn't much pre-preparation that involved the Death Eaters, except for Adrian, who had to monitor the Floo Network to allow all the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, and then he had to shut it down entirely for as long as he could.

So this meant that this would be an attack on Hogwarts. Marcus felt this sense of foreboding, but he felt the excitement mounting too.

Then, before they left, the Dark Lord asked them a question.

"Are you all willing to die for me?"

And Marcus was trying as hard as he could to not panic. Was this a test? Were they going to die? Marcus became increasingly fidgety as no one responded.

For some reason, he ended up thinking about "O Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman. Then, because he couldn't help it, he answered, not because he meant the answer as much as just because he had always wanted to say that line ever since he read it.

And everyone turned to look at him, and Bellatrix smiled at him and followed suit.

Then Marcus realised that the poem wasn't very optimistic, and that it might have been a mistake for him to say it, but heck, because he found that he did mean it, now.

And the Dark Lord looked at them, his tiny bunch of elite supporters and he actually gave a little smile.

Marcus was told that the Dark Lord said that the Death Eaters were his true family, but Marcus had never thought so, because it had always seemed like a servant-master relationship, but now, looking at this group of less than twenty people seated around a dining table, there was indeed some sense of fellowship among them and Marcus wanted to cry.

And no, there could be nothing better than this.

*

On the twenty-sixth of June, nineteen ninety-eight, the Death Eaters gathered outside their headquarters, in what would be their last mission.

The plan was to draw Dumbledore outside of Hogwarts, and as long as he did, everything else would fall into place. Some of them would be at the Ministry building for the first part, just to get Dumbledore out of Hogwarts. When enough mayhem was caused the Giants and Dementors would continue it for them, and then all the Death Eaters would enter Hogwarts for the final part.

And well, things actually did go according to plan. The entire Ministry building was held hostage, and Adrian had the Floo Network connected in the way they wanted. Some of the Dementors had barged into his office to take his colleagues away, and they pretended to take him away too.

Macnair, Jugson, Crabbe, Rookwood and Rabastan were the ones who were sent in to the Ministry, and when their job was done they snuck to Adrian's office, along with Percy, who was "at work".

Dumbledore had arrived at the Ministry, with, the Death Eaters were pleased to find, some of the Hogwarts staff. The original Ministry building had just been restored and the Death Eaters were going to destroy it again? No, they couldn't let that happen. Also, as the Death Eaters were rumoured to be in the building, they were searching every corner for it.

When all the Death Eaters in the Ministry building had gathered in Adrian's office Adrian shut down the entire Floo Network, except for the grate at his office, the fireplace at their headquarters (connected temporarily for this mission) and the one in the Slytherin Common Room. He shut it down using the Emergency button, and he had scrambled all the pathways so that even if the Network were restored no one would end up in the correct place.

They headed off, and were joined by the other Death Eaters. There was no one in the Slytherin Common Room as they were all out for dinner, and the Death Eaters headed out of it and outside the castle, to get ready for the final part. Adrian had brought along this device that he used to shut down the remaining Floo grates, which he did the moment all were gathered.

*

Outside Hogwarts, they gathered at the front of Hogwarts, undetected. They stood in their circle, and the Dark Lord spoke to them.

"I will not lie to you. I will be killed by Harry Potter today," he announced.

This made all the Death Eaters very shocked.

"None of you are to prevent me from dying."

They all thought, why?

"But I will not have truly died, for I will continue to live on through--Harry Potter."

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry this comes as a shock for you all, but this is sort of a "passing the baton" kind of ceremony today."

"What, you don't understand? Harry Potter will become the next Dark Lord, and he will be even more terrible than before."

"Nothing wrong with it, before me I had Grindelwald."

Marcus couldn't believe it. Harry Potter? Harry Potter the next Dark Lord? The closest Marcus ever got to Harry Potter was through Quidditch, and well, it was just too odd, to find out that the person you once played Quidditch against was going to be what, the next Dark Lord?

"No, I will not have truly died. I will be reborn through Harry Potter and the world will be plunged into chaos greater than before."

"And no, I can't bear to have you go through the horror of it." Then Dark Lord said more forcefully, "Will you die for me?"

There was a series of "yes" coming from the Death Eaters, then they answered together again, louder this time.

"Wormtail, go in and pass them the hat."

Pettigrew bowed and changed into a rat, and scurried into the castle.

They stood there in silence for a while, and a breeze blew through, and their robes flapped in the wind and Marcus felt vaguely heroic.

When Pettigrew was done he came out and changed back into a human.

The Dark Lord looked at all of them again.

"Thank you," he said, with a slight nod.

"Rodolphus, Bellatrix, left and right. Rest follow. And I don't want any one of you killing tonight."

And so they marched into the Great Hall, back into Hogwarts, where it all began.

When they did, the entire student population looked up at them at horror. Some began to scream, some tried to run, but before they could all exits were shut.

The Dark Lord raised his wand, and the remaining professors and staff were unconscious and bound to their chairs.

The students screamed even more, and some of them backed into the back of the hall.

Then, out of the blue, Draco Malfoy stepped forward and pointed his wand at the Death Eaters.

"Don't worry," he said bravely. "They can't hurt me. My father made a pact."

Pansy Parkinson was screaming for him to get back, but Draco ignored her.

"If you want to attack the school you have to kill me."

The Dark Lord laughed, and then waved his wand. Draco was thrown back to the opposite end of the hall.

And the students fell silent. Those around Draco were too scared to touch him. Then he woke and tried to stand up, but his leg was broken.

"Where's Dumbledore?" A student asked abruptly.

Silence fell all over again, and this time, Harry Potter stepped forward.

"They're looking for me. I know it," he said to his friends.

"Not alone," Ronald Weasley said, and stepped up against the Death Eaters.

Several other students stepped up too, namely those who claimed to belong to "Dumbledore's Army".

Harry raised his wand, and he looked about to disarm a Death Eater when Dean Thomas suddenly shouted.

"I dare all of you to take off your masks!" He challenged. "Fight us face to face if you dare!"

And Nott took off his.

"Dean Thomas," he said slowly. "Did you know I killed your father? Because he refused to join us. Take a good look at me. I killed your father."

And all the students turned around to look at Dean, who was very taken aback.

"But... But I'm Muggle-born!"

There was no reply, but Bellatrix and Rodolphus took off theirs.

"Hello there Neville Longbottom," they said, and Bellatrix fluttered her fingers at him with a smile.

Neville's face grew pink in anger, and he tried to run out at her, but was stopped by his friends.

All the other Death Eaters began to remove their masks, and Marcus noted that he, Percy and Adrian were the only ones left.

Marcus took his off, and he saw a number of them gasp. He almost laughed. So he was remembered after all. What a surprise.

Adrian did, just a second before Percy, and when Percy removed his mask you could see the entire student population freeze.

"Hi, Ron. Hi, Ginny," he said, a self-satisfied smirk crawling across his face.

Ron's mouth was hanging open, and Ginny had clapped her hand across her mouth. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were no less shocked.

Ron began to sputter, "W-wait till Dad s-sees this".

But Percy gave a cold laugh, and really, Marcus was impressed. Percy could do a very good job at being evil.

"Now that we're done with the niceties, would you like to start?" The Dark Lord said simply.

And Marcus never knew there could be such chaos at Hogwarts. He was infinitely glad that he wasn't a student anymore. Had he been one, he would--well, he would be acting just like one of them now.

Some of the students tried to hex him, some tried jinxing, and some even jumped on him, but Marcus was able to shake them off.

Marcus then disarmed most of them and some of them began to fling the food from the tables at him. He gathered all the dropped wands in a bunch and set them on fire, and then he continued to battle against them. Mostly he was Petrifying them, and a bunch of other students would rush up and try to heal the casualty.

Somewhere else, Marcus could hear Macnair using the Cruciatus Curse. Mulciber had controlled a bunch of students, who were attacking their fellow students. Bellatrix was torturing Neville, and Rodolphus was attacking the people who dared near them. Jugson had taken one of the gold plates and was using it as a shield. Antonin was jumping on and off the tables trying to avoid the group of raving students trying to pelt him with bits of chicken bone. Rabastan had used 'Tarantallegra' on a group of Ravenclaw girls. Malfoy and Travers were fighting Harry and his friends. Nott was levitating students upwards and binding them to the walls, away from the reach of their friends. Adrian was splashing a jug of pumpkin juice on the floor, and several students who were chasing him slipped and fell. Percy was viciously jinxing all the students who dared near him. Crabbe was arguing with his son. Goyle had caused large boils to pop out from the group of students who tried to hex him. Avery and Rookwood in the back-to-back fighting stance, repelling students within a certain radius around them. Pettigrew had changed into a rat, and was running all over the table to avoid getting caught, tripping students along the way.

All the while the Dark Lord just stood at the door, watching the scene before him coolly.

And there were so many students screaming all over the place. Marcus thought that his eardrums might burst, and so he silenced the offenders.

Then he spotted Colin Creevey rushing up to Harry Potter, clutching the Sorting Hat, yelling, "THE HAT! THE HAT, HARRY!"

Marcus tried to jinx him, and he tripped and fell, but the student next to him grabbed the hat and passed it to Harry Potter.

Harry stared at the Hat, then put his hand into it.