The Forgotten 7th Year

Traitor

We all saw this coming

Jason's POV

I scurried through hallways, glancing back over my shoulder every few corridors.

They were already suspicious. It wouldn't do to give them reason to mistrust me more.

Even if they should.

I circled and ducked behind tapestries and through secret passageways. The last time I was followed, she hadn't been happy. The poor kid had his memory wiped, but he'd've gone to Dumbledore's Army, and then where would I be.

It's not what would happened to you, it's what would've almost certainly happened to everyone else. I'm doing this for them, not me.

Finally, when I was certain I wasn't being followed, I slipped into a classroom. I didn't bother knocking, she was expecting me.

Her back was to me, her face cast in shadow.

"You're late." She said.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure I wasn't followed."

"And it took you ten minutes to do that!?"

"Y-yes."

Alecto Carrow turned to face me and sighed.

"I've been trying to teach you. Trying so hard to train you into a Death Eater. But you refuse to cooperate. You fail masterfully at even the simplest of tasks.

I'm not exactly betraying my only friends out of free will. I'm only doing this because need to. They'll hurt us all if I don't.

That's why I have to.

I'm not being selfish, I have no other choice. I told myself firmly. I'm being more selfless than anything.

It had given me a chance to get everyone else out when they came after my father. I'd cried and grieved like the rest of my family, all the while knowing it would happen weeks in advance.

But they wouldn't've come after me, and Mum, and even my eleven year old sister if I had told another soul.

They still might

So I started talking.

"They've grown suspicious. Every single mission has failed, and you haven't been exactly subtle about knowing where they are."

"Careful, or I might get the notion you're criticizing me. And I don't like to be criticized."

"N-no. Of course I'm not."

"Good. How are you going to deal with the suspicions?"

"An accomplice would be nice..."

"Well then, you should've stopped Mandy from turning in the papers."

Well I wasn't on your side then.

"Maybe we could turn someone? Sally-Anne Perks is a Slytherin... she should be easy."

"I'm not sure she's as enlightened as most Slytherins. If she was, she would've come to us."

"Ah." I was afraid to say anything more.

"But, if you can find anyone..." she scratched her chin as she thought. "That Indian twin girl maybe. Padme, Pudmi, something stupidly hard to pronounce like that. Well, she begged a lot. And cried. She might give in relatively easily. Those things tend to indicate that they will. Or maybe... wait, she has a sister, right? What if we made her watch as we do something painful to her."

I flinched.

"...or, that boy; Michael. She's close to him if I remember right. So many people to hurt, it's all so exiting." By this point she wasn't even talking to me anymore, just musing out loud.

"Or maybe Abbott." Amycus said, closing the door behind him. I must've accidentally left it open.

"She would never turn." Alecto scoffed.

"I don't know. I could do a few things that she would do anything to stop."

Alecto exploded.

"DO YOU NOT REMEMBER WHAT JUST HAPPENED!? IT WAS ONLY TWO DAYS AGO, BUT YOU'VE FORGOTTEN YOUR LESSON ALREADY! SHE WILL TELL THE HEADMASTER, AND THEN WE WILL BOTH BE PUNISHED FOR IT! I HAVE GONE THROUGH ENOUGH FOR YOUR PETTY DESIRES! YOU ARE THREE TIMES HER AGE, LEARN SOME SELF-CONTROL!"

She inhaled deeply through her nose, glaring.

"Fine. I'll demonstrate "self-control." I just feel like she deserves something after what she did to us-."

"-you. After what she did to you."

His ears turned red.

It suddenly hit me. I was in the presence of very dangerous people. People with no morals, and no reasons not to snap my neck right this second, except for the fact that I was useful to them.

I took one instinctive step back, then stopped dead. Alecto raised a single eyebrow while keeping the other one in place.

"I think you made our little spy uncomfortable, brother."

"Oh?" He smirked. "Well if that's the case, I could tell you a few things that would make you positively nauseous."

I bet you could.

"N-no thanks." I shook my head violently. "I really don't need to know that." He walked closer to me.

"Oh, that really is too bad. I'd love to see the disgust on your face when you learn everything I've done, and everything I plan to do to all the 'friends' you're stabbing in the back."

"Now now, brother, we need our little spy to like us." Too late for that. "And he doesn't need a silly moral issue once you tell him how twisted you actually are."

"Awww. Stop squishing my fun. Didn't you see how red he was getting?"

"But still, the goal remains for him to like us. Or at least not want us to lose out of sheer hatred. So let's not give him a reason to hate us."

Too late for that either.

"Just tell us when you hear anything you think we should know."

I forced myself to smile.

"I always do."