The flash of green light made Hermione's eyes burn, as she heard a thump behind her. She turned around to see a figure lying on the floor. As she cast her wandlight on it, she recognised the person. It was Kevin Stevens. Chris had just killed his own father. She turned towards the boy, shaking with rage. “You have been with Rebecca all along! You” You””
Chris wasn't listening. He took a step forward and lifted her off her feet in an effortless motion. He hoisted her onto his shoulder, unperturbed by her struggles. She kept trying to push away from him but his grip was too strong. She finally placed a hand on his neck and shoved hard as a last effort to get away. And as she did that, her palm felt his carotid pulse, which she realised was too high.
Hermione gasped, wondering how Chris was so much as conscious with such pulse. He seemed to be lifting her effortlessly too, which was impossible with such an abnormality. That was when she realised that Chris was being controlled.
Hermione stopped struggling, understanding that none of it would get him to let her down. Rebecca was controlling him in some strange way and noting would affect him now. Otherwise, why would he kill his own father?
Hermione gathered all her courage and stayed still till Chris took her up two flights of stairs. He walked for a long time and finally, she heard a door being opened.
They entered a very warm room. It had a sickening smell about it” a mixture of blood and kerosene. Finally, Chris bent down and Hermione's feet touched the floor. But before she could regain her balance, a strong pair of arms pushed her against the wall, and she felt a pair of manacles snap around her wrists. They were so heavy that she was pulled down to a sitting position on the floor. Then her wand was snatched away from her hand and she heard it hit the floor.
Shaking hair off her eyes, Hermione looked up in time to see Chris sway forwards and faint with a thump while a big figure in the shadows beside him just watched. There was a sound from the side and Hermione saw Cheryl Willis tied down to a pair of manacles at the far end of the room. “Chris?!”
“Shut up, girl,” hissed the person hidden in the shadows. Hermione couldn't make out the voice at all. She had never heard it before. Then Hermione herself had to stop a gasp from escaping her as the person stepped out of the shadows. It was Shaun, the only person whom she knew the Aurors had never interrogated or even suspected at all. And even Hermione knew who he was only because Chris had introduced him to her and the Aurors in his party.
Shaun was now dragging Chris to the wall. He waved his wand and pair of manacles appeared out of thin air, snapping themselves around Chris's wrists and attaching themselves to the wall. He then grabbed Chris's wand, threw it onto a pile of wands in the other end of the room and shot a stream of water from his wand at Chris's face. The other teenager woke up with a start. He saw Shaun and gasped. “Shaun?”
Shaun did not pay attention to him. He just walked away, leaving Chris gawking after him in frank surprise. Hermione in the meantime noticed the others in the room. Chris was manacled to Hermione's right and was closest to the door. Everyone else was to her left. At the farthest end was Cheryl. Then there was Irene, Anthony, Romilda, Harry and just beside Hermione, Ginny. All the Aurors were conscious, but no one spoke a word. Strangely enough, they were all looking down. But what frightened Hermione the most was that there was no sign of Ron. She looked at Ginny. “Ginny?”
Ginny didn't look up. She just continued staring at the floor. Hermione, confused by this behaviour, called out to her again, but Ginny didn't respond. Hermione called out to Harry too, but he did not respond either. Finally as she wondered what was wrong, Cheryl replied to her unasked question. “I... I don't think any of them are in their senses.”
Hermione raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“That guy”Shaun shoved some sort of syrup into their mouths. They have been unresponsive ever since.”
There was silence for a while. Then Chris spoke. “You were going straight to the restaurant, right?” he asked Cheryl.
Cheryl looked at Chris once and was about to say something, but she decided not to talk. She just made a face at him and turned away.
“Cheryl?”
Cheryl raised an eyebrow. “Why don't you just ask Shaun and Becks? They're great friends of yours, right?”
“That's not fair!” frowned Chris. “I really didn't know””
“Oh right, I believe that. You obviously weren't involved in any of it. You never knew what was going on.”
“I actually didn't!” Chris insisted. “I'm not crazy to support murderers, you know.”
“And yet you brought her here by force without being involved in anything, did you?” asked Cheryl, nodding towards Hermione.
“I” what?” asked Chris, plainly bewildered.
Hermione spoke before Cheryl could. “You brought me here. We came in together, but suddenly you were all strange. You carried me here from the lounge and nothing that I did to stop you could affect you. I think Rebecca was controlling you.”
“How?” Chris asked. “First Harrison and then me. How's she doing that?”
“Is Rebecca good with potions?”
“Yes, she is. She has this incredible ability to invent her own solutions.”
“Right now, do you feel as though you've been through one of your PVCs?”
“I do,” said Chris. “Why?”
“I think she's been adding some sort of potion to your diet. PVCs, especially for people who are your age can be due to certain drugs. You have a healthy heart otherwise. So maybe whatever she's giving you to keep you under control is causing all that.”
“But I've been having these PVCs for two months now!”
“So maybe she's been controlling you for all this time.”
“To do what?”
“I don't know,” shrugged Hermione. “We'll find out...”
There was silence for a second time. Then Chris looked at Cheryl again. “So how did you get stuck here?”
“I was about to go to the restaurant,” said Cheryl, “but I saw the light coming from this room and wondered about it. I just came and rang the bell... Then I dunno what happened. After that I woke up all cuffed.”
“And all these people...?”
“Shaun got them all,” said Cheryl. “Irene came first, followed by Anthony. Then Shaun brought Romilda and after a while he brought those two good friends of yours” Harry and Ginny... Then you brought Hermione and fell unconscious when she was cuffed. And Shaun cuffed you after that.” Cheryl knew the names of the Aurors, since Chris had introduced them to her in his party.
“Didn't Shaun bring Ron?” Hermione asked Cheryl.
“Nope,” said Cheryl. “I haven't seen Ron since I've been here.”
“Where could he be then?” asked Hermione, getting really worried.
“He's with me,” said a voice and Cheryl, Chris and Hermione looked at the door to see Rebecca standing there. She came into the room, followed by Shaun who was carrying a vial of red syrup. Hermione just noticed her eyes, which looked mad.
“What have you done to him?” Hermione asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
“Oh, nothing,” said Rebecca. Her voice didn't have the childish tinge in it anymore. “He's my final sacrifice for the Gem, see. He has a little bit of time.”
“Don't you dare lay your dirty hands””
“Oh, cut those hollow threats, Hermione,” Rebecca said. “You can't do anything.” She looked at Shaun. “Give the potion to those Aurors.”
Shaun nodded at her and bent over each Auror, beginning to pour the red syrup into their mouths. They all regained their senses one-by-one and were bewildered at first, but slowly realised where they were. Harry was the first one to start struggling against the manacles, but Rebecca just watched him do so nonchalantly. “You're not going to get away so easily. Don't worry about it.” Then she conjured two chairs and sat on one as Shaun seated himself upon another. “There's still quite some time for midnight. So I'm going to stay here and kill each one of you before I get to Ron. Any last wishes?”
***
Harry felt a wave of confusion lift as he tasted something thick and bitter in his mouth. Everything suddenly cleared up and he knew that he was in Chris's house; that Shaun, being very strong and brawny had attacked him when he had entered the house and had tricked Ginny too to get them here. Desperately, he struggled against the tight handcuffs, only to feel warm blood wet his wrists.
Rebecca seemed unperturbed by this fact. “You're not going to get away so easily. Don't worry about it.” She conjured two chairs and promptly took one, as Shaun took the other. “There's still some time for midnight. So I'm going to stay here and kill each one of you before I get to Ron. Any last wishes?”
Ron...! Harry suddenly realised that Ron was missing. Rebecca was obviously using him for the last feed of blood to the potion that she had made. She must have kept him somewhere else.
Ron could take care of himself but he was obviously rendered incapable of doing so just like the rest of the Aurors... Maybe even more so because he was Rebecca's main target and she wouldn't want him to get away at any cost. But there had to be some way to get out of this and save Ron as well.
Shaun was now whispering to Rebecca, who was listening to him very seriously. Harry badly wanted to distract them and get them to talk so that they wouldn't be able to kill anyone immediately. That would give him time to think and do something. Chris seemed to read Harry's mind. “You owe me an explanation, Becks.”
Rebecca looked at Chris and raised an eyebrow. “For what? Why I never included you in the plan? I don't think you are so much for breaking laws, Chris, being a Healer...”
“I think you know what sort of an explanation I'm asking for. Linda... Alison... Jenna... Andrew... Daisy... Pari... They were all my friends, you know. And I think they were yours, too.”
Rebecca shrugged. “They were nothing in comparison to all that I'm getting at the end of this. Daisy is a right bitch, so I wanted to get rid of her in any case. And I wouldn't have done anything to Pari if she would have sat quiet with all that information. She decided to blab too, so she had to go.”
“So what the hell are you getting at the end of this anyway? The thrill of murdering so many people?”
Rebecca looked at Chris's angry expression and broke into a smile. “Oh Chris... You don't know a thing, do you? I must appreciate Daisy's power of keeping secrets.”
Harry decided to plunge in. “We know everything, Rebecca. Daisy told us about the Gem.”
Chris looked bewildered. “What Gem?”
“The Galvanising Gem,” said Rebecca, looking at Chris. “Daisy never told you about it, did she? She never told you about a lot of things, Chris. You were just a toy for her. She used you so easily.”
“Shut up. She was just scared of telling me because you kept threatening to kill her parents and she thought you'd do the same to me. And it doesn't matter that she didn't tell me about some stupid gem.”
“Really? And do you think this is the only fact that she's hidden from you? Hasn't she ever apologised or looked tearful for no reason even after all this? If she never has, then I guess I've not seen a more shameless bitch ever.”
“Oh, look who's talking about shamelessness after murdering the very people who have supported them through so many years,” spat Chris in disgust. “And you have tried to kill me too, haven't you?”
Rebecca laughed. “Are you talking about that incident at Andrew's place? That was Daisy, not me.”
“Nonsense. She would never do that.”
“But she did it. She attacked you. She was ready to kill you to save Andrew's life.”
“Nice story, Becks, but I wouldn't believe it even if Andrew hadn't already been dead when I was attacked.”
“You can be as disbelieving as you want. The truth is that Daisy did attack you that day. She had raised Harry and Ginny's suspicions upon me when they had gone to her place a few hours before Andrew died. I told her that I'd kill him if she didn't shift their suspicions from me. So she promised that she'd attack you and let the Aurors suspect her instead. But Andrew died without me having to kill him. So when she tried to sneak away from the task, I threatened to get to her parents. That got her to attack you.”
Harry looked at Ginny and found his bewilderment reflect on her face. Daisy was actually more involved in the murders than they thought. And at least some of Harry's previous suspicions upon Daisy seemed to be true. But if Rebecca hadn't killed Andrew then who had?
Chris seemed to read Harry's mind again. “Who killed Andrew?”
“I don't know,” said Rebecca. “Both he and Daisy knew that he was my next target. But some silly book they had purchased from a bookstore in Knockturn Alley said that seven people have to be killed to activate the Galvanising Gem. So Andrew must have made some futile attempt to stop me. What they didn't know was that I only needed blood. I used the Darkness Powder for my work and Daisy also tried to gain from it. Actually, I did not touch anybody after Charlotte. Apart from Pari, that is.”
“Oh yeah?” asked Chris. “Who murdered Parvati then? Who attacked Daisy? Was that Daisy too? Did she think it was amusing to attack herself or did you threaten her into it?”
Rebecca looked at him for a second and broke into laughter. She laughed for a long time as Chris seemed to get angrier by the moment. Finally she got up from her chair and knelt down before Chris, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Oh Chris... She has used you so well!”
Chris shrugged her hand away disgustedly. “Don't give me such tosh. She could do no such thing.”
“Okay,” said Rebecca, still grinning. “I accept having a hand in attacking Daisy too. But Parvati's actual murder barely involved me. And I didn't even attack Daisy myself. I sent you to do it.”
Chris raised an eyebrow. “This is not Shaun's wet dream that we're discussing, right?”
Rebecca looked at him with an exaggerated expression of pity as she returned to her chair. “I don't care what you have to say, Chris, but this is the truth. You were the one who actually attacked Daisy. I was controlling you with a special potion of mine. As for Parvati, you were the one who killed her too. The only difference was that Daisy Imperiused you to do it. The primary reason that she got back with you was to be closer to you so that she could put you under the Imperius Curse easily. So whether you believe it or not, Daisy has cheated on you left, right and centre. The fact remains that you are a murderer, Chris, and so is Daisy. Both of you have killed people. And in fact, you would have killed Hermione too, just a few minutes ago, but I guess she escaped.”
Chris looked as though he wanted to retort, but nothing came out of his mouth. He just gave Rebecca a burning glare, as though that would prove her wrong. Rebecca was not even looking at him. She was whispering to Shaun again. They whispered for a while and then she stood up as Shaun left the room. “A lot of time has been wasted, so I'm going to get the blood from Ron now. Then I'll kill all of you.” She said this as though she was asking them to wait in line as she distributed ration. “Maybe there would have been only one murder tonight, but you were the ones who brought this upon yourselves.”
Rebecca had reached the door, when Hermione screamed out at her. “DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM, YOU HARLOT!”
Rebecca turned around and raised an eyebrow at her. “Stop wasting your breath. Nothing you say is going to stop me.”
But Hermione didn't seem to want to stop. “You're a bloody coward! You won't even act before making sure that our hands are all tied.”
Rebecca made a big show of yawning. “You can talk as much nonsense as you want to, but I'm still going to kill Ron. So do yourself a favour and just save your energy.” She walked out of the room as Hermione broke into sobs.
Killer Instincts by Ginny Weasley Potter
Chapter Notes: Here I am!
So you guys will get most of the answers in this chapter. It's short, but it's full of explanation... :) Have fun!
This chapter is for Avani.