I Am Lacerta - Reposted for the Watty Awards 2011

I Am Lacerta Chapter 14

I Am Lacerta Chapter 14

We arrived back to the Dark Lord, he seemed pleased at how fast we had completed the task. He sent Avery away immediately, and then smiled at me, although it looked more like a grimace.

"You have done well, Lacerta. But I can tell something is annoying you. Don't just stand there - spit it out." he said cruelly, making me flinch a little.

"It's nothing my Lord, just me and Avery don't exactly see eye to eye. He didn't like being ordered about by a child, but to be honest he was being too incompetent to know which end of a wand from the other. He made several mistakes which almost cost us the mission - I had to kill him-" 

"WHAT?! You killed him!? Did you get the information?"  the Dark Lord roared at me, but I held my ground, rummaging around in my pocket for the two vials of memories. I found them and held them out to him saying:

"Yes, my Lord. Here are all his memories! I took every one - I missed none of them! And I protected the house, no one can get in or out or even see it - I can go check it for information if you want!" I said quietly, unaware how much I was rambling until the Dark Lord held up his hand in protest.

"I don't want your excuses, Lestrange. Give me those memories. Now." he snapped and I quickly handed them over. Surprisingly, he had a pensieve, so he put the memories inside and had a look at them all. When he had finally finished he snapped his head up and said:

"Excellent. I can use some of this. Now, tell me how Avery screwed up Lacerta." he said lounging back in his chair at ease. I could feel the blood flush back into my cheeks in relief as I said:

"Well, first of all he turned up late, and wasn't surprised why I was angry. When we finally got to Berty Cobbs' street, he told me he didn't know the plan. So I had to waste time telling him the plan, tell him where to hide because he was too incompetent to look for himself, almost blew my cover by running out of his hiding place again, he broke two vials for the memories, he said my name, hence me having to kill him-" 

"That is an awful lot of screw-ups." the Dark Lord muttered. "He is a bit of an idiot, but he's much better at duelling than you might think. Any way, was this your first killing?" 

"Um.. I have killed two others. A security guard at a museum and my primary school teacher. Of course they were accidental, but still .... I did kill them." 

"Ah well... I almost forgot to tell you." said the Dark Lord, standing up. "I think I can trust you Lacerta, but I want to keep a close eye on you. So I have decided that I'm going to mark you." he said, turning around to look at me, red eyes looking into red eyes.

I gasped, before bowing low and saying, "W-what? When?" I asked trying to act happy and excited, but really scared. I'm only 13! I thought screamed. This was a binding contract he was talking about - my whole life... a deatheater.. My thoughts were broken by him saying:

"Tonight, actually." he said nonchalantly, as if he were not talking about a life-changing thing but simply the weather. "Are you ready?"

I gulped and said, "Yes, my Lord. I'm ready.", trying to fight back the tears flooding into my eyes.

"Come with me, Lacerta Lestrange." he said and got up. I followed behind him and thats when the memories go fuzzy. I tried to block every memory of the even taking place from my mind, but deep down I knew he did it. He marked me as his own.