Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Fifty-Four- The Dark Lord and Betrayal

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Dumbledore had everyone stay seated, even though breakfast was supposed to be over. It wasn't apparent why until the owls came swooping in late, with lots of copies of The Daily Prophet. The cheerful atmosphere soured immediately as newspaper after newspaper was picked up.

"Wizard Killed in Wiznogts!" read the heading in large flashing print. Underneath, a picture of a smiling young couple stared back at Remus, who read with horror that last night the two were killed in a wizarding neighborhood. Apparently, they had been targeted and killed by a group calling themselves Death Eaters. An anonymous source has confirmed that there was one wizard leading their "movement."

"Dark Lord? What sort of name is that?" Remus heard Frank ask uneasily. James leaned close to Remus to read over his shoulder.

"It's an alias," James guessed, sounding pensive.

"He must be a complete nutter," a second year Gryffindor girl shouted dismissively.

"Shhhh, I heard over break he's one of the most powerful wizards in the world?" Gary questioned fearfully.

"More powerful than Dumbledore?" Jeremiah answered dubiously.

Ripples of discontent ran along the length of the table, and across other tables. Everyone who didn't have a subscription of The Daily Prophet was sharing with friends. Soon the whole of Hogwarts had read the article.

"What do you think it means?" Peter asked, his voice high pitched with fear.

"Changing times," Sirius muttered darkly, snatching The Daily Prophet away from Peter.

"My dad was telling me about it over the break. Apparently this Voldy guy, that's his real name I guess, has been terrorizing Muggles for the past two years or something. But no one could pin it on him and the Death Eaters. But now...well, I guess they are closing in on him so that's good. This won't go on much longer since the Aurors will stop him," James announced quite confidently. But Remus noticed the way his gaze kept going back to the article, and he had a rather tense smile on his face.

"You'll see. This won't last long at all," he assured Peter, who hung on James' words with relief. Remus wasn't so sure.

He realized that it was about time he had that talk with Severus.

"Lily, are you planning to study in the library tonight?" Remus turned toward his friend to ask.

"Yeah." Her anger at the four of them had disappeared once the paper came and she looked rather pale. Remus was pretty sure a lot of students looked pale, especially those with Muggle parents or parents involved with Muggles back home.

Remus desperately wished he had seen his father over the break. He wanted to make sure he was okay. His father had a low position in the ministry but he had married a Muggle, and Remus wasn't entirely sure how this Dark Lord or Voldy or whatever he was called was choosing his targets.

By the end of breakfast, it was all anyone was talking about. By now the Slytherins returned to the hushed conversation about who this organization was.

"Bet half of that lot's parents are Death Eaters," James stated matter of factly.

"James, that's a terrible thing to say," Remus gasped, scolding his friend before Lily could. She had looked ready to go off on him before he cut in, beating her to the punch.

"Potter's got a point though. I think half is being generous," Frank muttered, shooting a dark look over to the Slytherin table. All the students over there were settling back into their freshly replaced food with varying degrees of anger on their faces. Most glares were sent to the Gryffindor table and the Slytherins all held themselves with exaggerated pride, in an attempt to recover their dignity.