Pieces Falling into Place -S.B

Ch. 20 Shed a tear for family, would you?

Green eyes meet mine. Fire meets ice. Light meets dark.
The smirk on his face disgusts me. His smug look seems to never wipe off his face.
"Hello, sister." His right hand twitches. Wand.

He's changed. He looks... horrible.

His battered face is rounded off by an equally horrible wound. But his robes, his robes shine as if they were made from hands of the sacred.

The pureloods must have glammed him up.

Annoyed, angry, confused and scared, I look up at him. The pain must not be shown, I thought.

No pain. Or fright. Or anger.

"Hello, brother." I sneakily get out my wand. "You don't really need that, do you? I'm not going to hurt you. And if I should do so, we both know you won't win. I always do." He smiled at his wand and turned his attention back to me. All my anger towards Sirius faded. The anger towards him is not the one I feel towards my brother. I don't dare get distracted and contemplate my next words carefully.
"Are you now his errand boy? His servant for every scummy little thing the 'oh so powerful' Voldemort needs doing? Is that how far my dear brother has sunken?" I twist my wand, not letting him see my weak side, my fear. The blood fades from his face as he straightens, clearly angry now.

The fire ignites. What a horrific party this'll be.

In a matter of seconds though, he regains his posture and looks down at me, sneering. "You filthy little traitor can't speak to me like that." "Oh, but the filthy creature who's twisted you're mind, who suddenly seeks power by murdering other innocents can? Get off your bloody high horse so we can speak properly." I sneered at him and wished nothing more than to wipe the smirk off his face. "You know nothing, you are nothing." He starts pacing around he pillars, twisting his wand. "You're quite the insulter." "I take my example from you." I spat. "You betrayed us all, you left-" "Yes Yes, I betrayed you, blah blah blah. I left Hogwarts and it was a terrific scandal.
"By the way, how are Avery and Mulciber?"
I swallowed hard. I was left stunned.

How did he know?

"Isn't it spectacular? To know one's secrets and to be at the roots of them all?"

What did he mean? How does he know?

"Yes yes; I know all about the little cat fight that got you locked up in the hospital for three days. I know of your friend Mary's poor, scum father. And best of all, I loved the way you fought with your little friend traitor Black over that sad letter apparently from a certain Leslie Sandyville."
I couldn't believe it. I could hardly catch my breathe before he spoke once more.
"You know how I know? Do you want to know?" I didn't-couldn't-move, but I wanted to know, badly.
His pacing never faltered as he kept on twisting his god forbidden wand.
He laughed icily. I could see the madness. They madness within a creature I had once loved. He had been twisted. He had been twisted and turned and pulled out of his sense by the wrong side. He was never going to be the same. Even now, at nineteen, he had no resemblance whatsoever to the boy that had once learned magic beside me. They had caved him out and filled him with hate, disgust and ruthless greed. Otherwise he was hollow, only filling when he could torture. He was a Death Eater.

"I slipped the letter into your Herbology book. By the way, the common room still looks horrendous even after four years." He smirked as I gulped, desperately hiding my fear.
"The spell that caused you to nearly kill the two Slytherins? The spell that caused you to have a wonderful near death experience?!"
I now see his true colours. It see something I had never seen before and I doubted anyone of his so called 'friends' had seen before. His nostrils flared and he advanced towards me and his eyes glimmed a different shade of green then.
"THAT WAS ME!" He bellowed and I took a step back. He paces further and I've had quite enough.
"And...I killed that mudblood father." He spoke icily low and smirked, looking lovingly at the thing that had killed poor Mary's father. "He was in the way of my duties, and so I had the honour of seeng his last beg for life. And then, I killed him. I tortured h-" "STOP! STOP YOU BASTARD! YOU DARE-" I've had enough. I wasn't going to let my vile blood relative go on. "EXPELLIARMUS!" He dodged it with ease and kept on sliding, always in a circle around me. "Pathetic." he nearly looked bored as he deflected the next spell I sent at him. "Are you really that daft? Must we do this? You will end up-" he was cut off by a more powerful spell which seemed to damage him. I smiled and adrenaline flowed through me. "You know, the good thing about casting that spell on me is that it has not been lifted." Spell after spell and it soon looked like my win was near. I smirked proudly as he sunk to his knees. I heard whimpering. Surprised at my win, I stooped the attacks and looked at the head facing the floor in between us. Nervously, I glanced at him.
"Shed a tear for family, would you?"
Suddenly, I was in pain. I fell to my knees and let out a horrible scream.
It was pain as I have never felt it before and hope never will again. It was like I was being burned alive. As if a thousand blades were cutting my skin in half. It felt like I was bleeding mentally and physically. Suddenly, it was gone. Gone with the wind, as they say. A cloaked figure stood in front of me. Brother, he smirked and cackled gruesomely. "You really thought that you'd defeated me?! You of all people should know that I.always.win."
Again, the pain I so desperately never wanted to feel again returned. This was no longer torture, this was death. This was Death staring me in the eye and welcoming me with open arms. I was defenceless, unarmed. I was ready to beg for death but it stopped again. My eyelids fell as I saw the swish of the cloak before me. Once again, for the second time this year, everything went black.

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