That's Marlene McKinnon, she was killed two weeks after this was taken, they got her whole family.
-Alastor Moody
There was Travers - he helped murder the McKinnons!
-Igor Karkaroff
“Oh no.”
I drop my wand as I stumbled backwards. I stare at my hands in shock. I feel myself stepping on something soft, and I fall backwards, landing on top of “
A little girl.
I scramble to the nearest wall, blinded by my tears and frantic to get away from those eyes. Those innocent, blank eyes. Numb, I drink in the sight before me with disgust.
The body of a tall blond man lay on the stairs, face down.
He enters the house quietly, careful not to tip anyone off with his presence. He makes the mistake of closing the door too loudly. The laughter from the second floor ceases.
‘Who’s there?’ a man calls out in alarm. He hears mutters exchange before hearing the scraping of the chair and footsteps.
He approaches the bottom of the stairs, resolved to do what needs to be done. The weakness of these Muggle-lovers. When a silhouette appears at the top of the stairs, wand in hand, he says the spell.
“Avada Kedavra!”
Before the man could react, the green light hits the man’s chest. The blond man falls forward, dead before his nose smashes with a sickening crunch against the wooden stairs.
I close my eyes, nauseous from the smell of blood. I know that blood stain would never come off, no matter how much I Scourgify.
My eyes come to a second man, this time a brown-haired one, slumped underneath a broken picture frame hanging on the wall, only a short distance from the foot of the stairs.
“Philip?” a woman’s voice trembles as she calls out. That crunch couldn’t have been missed by anyone in the house.
The prowler continues up the stairs, relishing in the almost tangible apprehension drifting down from above as the floorboards creak.
“Protect Mary, Marlene. If I don’t make it back, run.”
“Mark, don’t.”
The stranger paused on the stairs, prepared for another silhouette to appear.
“Stupefy!”
A blast of red light shoots past the dark stranger, barely missing his head.
He smiles. This victim is shooting blind.
“Stupefy!” the stranger shouts, knowing his spell would hit his target.
The brown-haired man flies backward, his head hitting the glass of the picture frame before he hits the ground hard. Screams pour out of a nearby room. The stranger smiled “ those screams will intensify by the time the sun rises.
Before the fallen victim could react, the stranger whispers, “Avada Kedavra!”
Again, green light shoots out of his wand and hits the groaning man square in the chest. His victim’s eyes snap open, his mouth opens in a big “O,” before the body relaxes and the neck rolls forward.
I force myself to look at the body of the little girl in front of me. Poor creature almost made it to the stairs. Stomach down, her face is turned to me as if watching. But from her blank blue eyes, I know she couldn’t possibly see anything anymore.
”Mary, when I say go, I want you to run for it,” the woman whispers to the trembling little girl.
“But, Mummy-“
“Please!” the stranger hears as he reaches the top of the stairs. The woman sniffles. “Run and don’t look back, okay?” The stranger smirks at the frantic pleas. “Mummy will follow as soon as she can. You know how to get to Aunt Lily’s house. Run there and wait for me.”
The stranger reaches the doorway of the lighted room. He looks down at the pathetic scene with cold, empty eyes. A young brunette resembling the brown-haired man he’d just finished off kneels before a blonde little girl of only five. She strokes her daughter’s hair repeatedly to calm the bewildered girl. The mother’s hair is wild, damp with sweat. She leans closer to the blonde one as she whispers her love in the tiny ear.
The woman pauses. Her head snaps toward the doorway, and she eyes the stranger with intense hatred. She stands up, pushes the little girl behind her, and raises her chin defiantly.
“I know what you’re here to do.” The man grinned maliciously at the fear hidden behind the woman’s angry tone. “And I won’t join you.”
The man cocked his head to one side, amused. “What makes you think I’m here to offer you a place among us?”
He laughed deliciously as the woman’s brown eyes widened. “Run, Mary! Now!” In a flurry of motion, the woman pushes the little girl forward while she whips out her own wand. “Incarcerous!” she shouts, pointing her wand to the stranger.
“Incendio!” the man yells as thick ropes hurtle toward him. Instantly, the ropes catch on fire and fall uselessly to the floor as ashes.
A little shriek from behind reminds the man of the little girl. “Avada Kedavra!” he shouts, pointing his wand at the girl’s back.
“No!” he hears the woman scream, one moment after her daughter falls lifeless to the floor.
Only a few steps away from the little girl lay the final victim.
The woman’s arm is outstretched, as if in her dying moment, she had reached for her lost little girl. Her legs were sprawled in a position necessary for crawling. I avoid looking at her face, for I know the expression on her face is pure peace.
The stranger turns back to the interior of the room. He finds the woman collapsed on the floor, sobbing. He approaches the woman slowly but determined.
Kicking the woman’s wand aside, he orders, “Get up, McKinnon.”
The woman throws her hair back as she looks up at the cruel man with red eyes and a tear-stained face.
“Go ahead, Travers. Do your worst,” she whispers.
The man’s anger flares at the sound of his name. “Imperio,” he says calmly as he points his wand at the woman. “Now stand.”
He watches coolly as the woman struggles against the curse before righting herself on wobbly legs.
“Good. Levicorpus.”
Instantly the woman is dangled upside down. Her robes fall, exposing her undergarments and white legs to the stranger. Over the muffled screams, the man muses aloud, “Very nice, Marlene. Now I can see what Philip saw under those robes of yours.”
He watches as Marlene thrashes wildly in vain attempt to escape the spell. The man moves his wand up and down and smiles as Marlene’s flailing body jerks along the path he’d drawn with his wand.
A string of brown liquid dribbles down from behind the robes and onto the floor. “Please, no,” Marlene moans in terror as she bounces up and down.
The man sighs, bored. “Liberacorpus,” he says with a flick of his wand.
Instantly Marlene falls down onto the ground, her robes all around her. She pushes herself into a sitting position, avoiding his face as her own face turns hot with humiliation. She gags slightly before spitting out more brown liquid. The smell of bile was overwhelming.
In between heaves, Marlene gasps. “Travers,” she rasps. “Travers.”
Enraged, the man strides forward to grasp a fistful of damp brown locks. Jerking backwards and savoring the sharp cry of pain, he whispers in her ear. “A fool like you is not worthy to speak my name.”
He drags Marlene across the room by the hair, ignoring the chilling screams as he does so. Roughly, he pulls Marlene up when he reaches the doorway.
“See what remains,” he shouts triumphantly. He frowns down at the sobbing woman in his arms. Marlene, a once fiery spirit, too weak to see the remains of her loved ones. She shakes her head frantically, eyes squeezed tightly shut, as she refuses his command.
“See what remains!” He shakes her brutally before pulling her hair back to force her head up. He smiles cruelly as he watches those once lively eyes dim at the sight of the bodies. “See what remains when one defies the Dark Lord. Feel the consequences of killing his noble followers. Enjoy the gift,” he snarls, “the Dark Lord sends to weaklings. Death! Violence! And betrayal!”
To his surprise, Marlene turns her head to stare into his menacing eyes. Her face is soft and beautiful, despite the fatigue that mars it. “Cynus,” she whispers. “Cynus, this isn’t you.”
Something inside him snaps. No, this isn’t me. This is a…monster living inside of me. He lets go of Marlene’s hair and steps back, taking in his surroundings for the first time.
Bewildered, he stares at Marlene. “Marlene? Oh, Merlin, what have I done to you?”
She shakes her head sadly. “No, it wasn’t your fault, Cynus.” Relieved, she leans against the frame of the doorway. “It’s over, Cynus.”
Bewildered, Cynus looks past Marlene. His eyes widen at the sight of the dead. “Oh Merlin,” he gasps as he staggers back.
He stands in the middle of the room, staring at his hands incredulously. Suddenly, his eyes snap back to Marlene’s. “Marlene, they’re after me. They put me under the Imperius Curse!” Realization dawns on him. “No, Marlene, they’ll know I’m not under their control anymore. They’ll come after the both of us.”
He moves to leave the room.
“No, Cynus! You can’t go out there! They’ll kill you if you do!” Marlene stares at Cynus with determined eyes. “I’ll help you break out of their control once and for all. Who knows what they’ll have you do once you leave here.”
Frightened, the man shakes his head. “No, I can’t fight them. There are too many! And the curse is too strong.”
“Incarcerous!”
Before he could react, ropes wrap around him, binding his arms to his side tightly. The wand he had clenched in his hand becomes hidden by the thick ropes.
“It’s for your own safety, Cynus,” Marlene whispers. “When the feeling comes, fight it. You can do it, you know, if you really want to.” With that Marlene leaves the room for a moment with her loved ones.
Cynus stands stunned at Marlene’s actions, left alone with his own thoughts.
See? Everyone turns against you. Even those who offer to help.
The voices are back.
You useless Mudblood, standing pathetically in an empty room while your enemy is still walking about. Get up and fight!
Suddenly, a force in the back of his mind pushes forward. They are back.
Get up!
A pain knocks into him, causing him to stumble and hit the floor.
“Cynus?”
Surprisingly, a light of hope glows within Cynus at the sound of her voice. He knows: she cares.
Get up!
Another wave of pain washes over him, causing him to groan.
“Cynus? Cynus, fight it!”
Through the blur of tears, he sees a figure leaning over him.
Get up!
“Come on, Cynus. Fight them! You’re stronger than them!”
GET UP!
Cynus screams. In a final blast of white-hot pain, Cynus’ world goes dark.
“Cynus? You all right?”
Cynus opens his eyes to see Marlene’s face above his. He moves to sit up before falling on his back again, groaning in pain.
“Take it easy, Cynus. You’ve had it rough.”
Cynus opens and closes his hands freely.
“I undid the binds on you, Cynus, before the ropes could hurt you from all your spasms.” He looks up into Marlene’s eyes again at the sound of her voice. “You did it, Cynus. You escaped.” Marlene’s hands clasp together as she looks at him with awe.
Cynus closes his eyes. “No, Marlene,” his voice flat. “No one escapes him. Not me. Not you.”
Before Marlene could react, Cynus shouts, “Crucio!” He pushes himself up as he watches her body jerk and convulse. He watches stone-still as the curse wears off.
Panting, Marlene rolls onto her knees before staring up at him with glazed and terrified eyes. “Cynus…” Tears roll down her cheeks as she realizes his trick.
“Don’t call me that,” he bellows. He sneers with disgust as Marlene tries to crawl away. Just as she makes it out the doorway of the room, he pounces after her like a predator on a prey. “Crucio!”
Marlene cries out before struggling toward to the stairs. “Think you can run?” he shrieks in delight before casting the Cruciatus Spell over and over again. “You’re a weakling!” he cackles over the agonized screams as he spits on the pathetic figure.
Finally, his energy spent, Cynus stops his assault on Marlene’s twitching body. Drool dribbles down her chin as her dull eyes stare into nothingness.
“Cy…Cy…nusss.”
Cynus stares astounded at the near-lifeless body before him. A wave of compassion hits him unexpectedly.
“Cy…nusssss.” A shaking hand reaches slowly out in front of her.
“Oh, Marlene,” he sobs as he kneels down next to the deranged woman. “I’m sorry, old friend.” He places his wand tenderly on Marlene’s back. “Avada Kedavra,” he whispers.
I lean back into the wall, tears running down my face. Marlene wasn’t the weakling, I realize. I was.
He finds me while I sob in the midst of all the bodies.
“You ended it too soon” comes the heavily-accented voice I know too well. “We never ordered you to kill her so soon. The torment wasn’t long enough,” he spits out.
“I couldn’t do it, Karkaroff,” I admit. I still refuse to look up at them.
“Well, only one thing to do then,” Karkaroff growls. As he advances slowly, I stand up.
“Yes,” I say. “Only one thing to do.”
I hear Karkaroff shout the Killing Curse at me. And I welcome the green light.
End notes: This chapter follows as closely to canon as my knowledge of the Harry Potter universe as of July 20, 2006 allows. Any information revealed to be false by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be changed.
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