Saving Star - Book 2 in the Star of Gryffindor Series

Chapter 24 - P is for Prey

Perfect Slytherin. Let's see... I know most of you are going to say Snape, but Regulus Black! He was ambitious, and obviously cunning if he managed to fool Lord Voldemort to the point where nobody suspected him, not to mention figure out how to get the Horcrux out of the lake (ah, Kreacher). I don't see why Snape is help up as Slytherin's good guy when there's Regulus, right in front of you! And, of course, there's also Andromeda Tonks, who was a Slytherin too (Sirius was the only Black to not be Slytherin) but we know more about Regulus, so I choose him.

"To the Dark Lord - I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more."

~R.A.B.

~~~~

Our wands flew out of our hands at almost the same time. The people who had disarmed us emerged from the forest on either side us. Scorpius, Colette, and I shifted closer together. The moon had emerged from behind the clouds, but the two people hadn't removed the hoods of their cloaks, so their faces were shadowed. I quickly shoved the Cloak into my book bag, and Scorpius stepped in front of the bag to hide what I was doing.

"What do we have here?" one of the figures finally said, in a distinctly American accent. The triumphant tone of voice instantly rubbed me the wrong way, but I didn't move.

The other figure laughed. A woman, for sure. "It seems we've caught what we're after." They must have seen the Cloak. I didn't move, just in case they trying to trick us.

The man reached up and lowered the hood of his own cloak, and I gasped. I recognized him. It was the criminally insane, psychotic mass murderer, my old best friend's father: Isaac Predatel.

The woman lowered her hood as well. I already had a pretty good guess at who she was, and I wasn't disappointed. Katreena Predatel held our wands up tauntingly in one hand, training hers on us with the other.

Scorpius tugged on my sleeve. "You recognize them," he whispered, barely making a sound.

I nodded the slightest bit. Isaac narrowed his eyes at us. Let's see. I could either let him ask what Scorpius had said, or at least try to unnerve him. It would probably be strange to find that a random British second year happened to know who he was, since he was an American criminal, who'd committed his crimes when I was a baby.

"Isaac Predatel," I said, keeping my voice as steady as I could. Both adults stared at me, surprised. I had caught them off guard.

"How do you know who I am?" Isaac asked, fixing a glare on me to end all glares.

Two choices. Tell him I'd dreamed about him, and be written off as a lunatic by not only him, but also Scorpius and Colette, or make up a story. I decided to go with the second. Maybe I could add in a bit of "scared child" acting. Convince them we were nothing more than lost students, not a threat.

"I-I saw your picture in the paper..."

Scorpius knew there hadn't been a picture when Isaac had broken out of prison last year. He'd found the article, after all. Luckily, he simply nodded. I glanced to my right. Colette looked more confused than anything else. I wondered if she'd made the connection between Wren Predatel and this man yet. I wasn't about to fill in the blanks for her.