The Nightmare Man

Chapter Eight

Students returned to Hogwarts and classes resumed, but worry was brewing on the horizon. Parents wrote daily to their children, sending them news of the world around them. People were beginning to be aware of the return of Voldemort, but many still lacked the conviction that it really had been his forces that nearly destroyed Hogsmeade.

Dumbledore's words convinced a few, but some still doubted him. They were concerned, naturally but liked to deny things until they were blue in the face. He did no such things, and had begun to organise the Order.

However, a letter arriving one morning did surprise him. It was from the Ministry, asking for his attendance along with his Order. At the bottom, he was shocked to see who had signed it.

Cornelius Fudge.

The Minister had been out of commission for a while now, ever since the attack of the Ministry. Dumbledore hadn't thought the man would make such a rapid recovery, but still took a parchment and wrote his reply, accepting the invitation. Then he alerted some Order members of the date and time Fudge had requested their presence.

It would be the first time they would hear directly from a survivor of that day what had happened. So many weren't in direct contact of the perpetrator, that they were now certain had been the Nightmare Lord, but it would still be nice to hear it personally from someone who was there.

-o-

They were all surprised at seeing how little damage remained on Fudge's body. He looked almost like himself if not for that haunted look in his eyes. He gestured them into his office and stood to greet them.

"Minister, how are you doing?" Albus said, shaking his hand. "I thought you would have rested longer..."

"We don't have time for that," Fudge replied. "I've already been away for too long. I assume you figured out who commenced the attack on the Ministry?"

"The Nightmare Lord," James said.

"Absolutely correct," Fudge said. "He used one of the guards from his prison to get out."

"Ah, yes, that man is still missing..." Albus began.

"He's dead," Fudge interrupted. "I saw it with my own eyes. He was controlled by the Nightmare Lord last I saw him. I heard that you've read what you found on the lord."

"Yes, to gain a better understanding of him," James said.

"You need more than a few papers to understand him. I don't understand him, and I've spent years trying to," Fudge said. "But you missed a few papers, one of them being the most important in singling out the lord's servants."

"He has servants?"

"I told you already about the guard," Fudge said to Albus. "He had been made a servant. Not fully, but beginning to become one. This parchment here gives details of his servants."

Fudge tapped his finger against one of the parchments lying on his desk, and then read aloud from it:

"The men and women in the Nightmare Lord's service can seldom be distinguished by clothes or looks. They appear as us, with one single exception, which is the most important sign. Their eyes have changed into that of a silvery light, glittering in the dark. That is the lord's mark upon them, forever branding them his property."

"Silver eyes?" Lily said, speaking for the first time. "Well, that is a rather obvious sign."

"He likes to brag," Fudge told her. "So the statement is not accidental. He wants to show off."

"What happened?" Albus said. "We haven't been able to piece it all together yet, not without your statement, Cornelius."

"What happened you say? He came after me for revenge. We locked him up. He was getting revenge for that. The Aurors... he killed them all as if it was nothing. I thought he was going to kill me too, but apparently not. Maybe he thought that would be boring."