Voldemort's Death Eater

12) Big Plans

Walking out of my bathroom with a towel tightly wrapped around my wet, strawberry scented hair, flapping of wings caught my attention. Malfoy’s family owl had come back, yet again, with another letter from Draco. Recognizing Draco’s handwriting on the front, I threw it on top of the pile with the other unopened letters from him.

     After feeding the Malfoy’s family owl a few pellets, he flew off back to the Malfoy’s Manor, empty handed, as I sat on the bed next to a healing Hedwig.

     ‘What happened that night?’ I asked her, knowing perfectly well she couldn’t answer me.

     It had been a couple weeks since I had found Hedwig and she made a speedy recovery back to health. She still couldn’t go out flying; I wouldn’t allow it. But she was becoming a little angrier every time I refused to open my window for her.

     My parents had no clue I was keeping an owl in my room. One owl downstairs was enough and we’ve been getting complaints since we got him about keeping an endangered species inside our house. Not to mention owls aren’t allowed to be kept as pets. But muggles knew nothing of the wizarding world. Our rules were different. We didn’t think of them as pets so much as companions and family members.

     A few hours after I had come out of the shower, I sat down at my old desk and decided to read a few of Draco’s letters. The first I opened was practically begging me to come back to my ‘real home’. Every letter I read, which weren’t many, always mentioned how much he missed and how much Narcissa was also missing talking to a real lady.

     Poor Bellatrix was probably talking her ear off with death, Harry, how charming The Dark Lord is and how happy she will be when the boy is killed. Lucius was probably happy. I could just see his smiling face, with somewhat of a permanent sneer mixed with it, sitting by the fire, his annoying cane he always walked around with leaning next to him on the chair.

     My surroundings began to seem smokey and the air was thinning.

     ‘Crap,’ I muttered, holding my breath before opening my eyes to see a completely changed environment around me.

     The air was thick and heavy, tension swimming in the room. I looked up at the sight of Lucius Malfoy, sneering down at me from the wall which his back was almost pressed against. He covered his Dark Mark back up; probably the one who called me here. As usual, he was holding onto his stupid cane which was probably worth more than my muggle home.

     ‘Good to see you home again, Miss Hopkins,’ came a cold, high pitched voice from behind.

     I didn’t say a word as I stood up and turned to see only a few of The Dark Lord’s followers sitting at a long table, with The Dark Lord himself sitting at the end, looking intently at me with somewhat of a smile on his pale lips.

     ‘Please sit,’ said The Dark Lord, motioning to sit down on the seat next to him. ‘There is much news to share with you. Very exciting!’

     Hesitating to follow The Dark Lord’s orders, I sat down, stiff and clenching to the sides of the chair. The Dark Lord straitened his back as he turned his stare into a glare. His hand didn’t move since he motioned for me to sit; he kept it on the table, towards me. This made me much more uncomfortable, for reasons I didn’t know. Maybe it looked like he was keeping an extra close eye on me. Lucky it wasn’t his wand hand and his wand didn’t seem to be in sight.

     ‘I have called you here for one reason,’ The Dark Lord said, scanning the scared faces of the black clothed Death Eaters in the room. ‘Since trying to catch Potter those few weeks ago when the Trace on him was lifted, a few of my followers are no longer with us,’

     My head snapped up at him as he said this. He tried to go after Harry? Without telling me? As I opened my mouth to say something, I quickly thought not to and only a small squeak escaped.

     ‘But don’t fret,’ The Dark Lord continued, seeming not to hear it. ‘Like always, I have a new plan. One that could not possibly fail,’ His thin lips stretched into a strange smile. ‘I have already sent some of my followers to the Ministry of Magic to kill the Minister himself. Soon, the Ministry will have fallen; we take over and catch Harry!’

     The Dark Lord chuckled, making everyone in the room even more uncomfortable, especially me. I hadn’t noticed as The Dark Lord was talking that Draco was sitting a few seats down across from me, probably watching me the whole time. His white hair and scared, pale face were visible from the corner of my eye but I didn’t dare even move a finger, let alone my head.

     ‘Does this not please you, Hopkins?’ The Dark Lord said, making my heart stop beating momentarily.

     ‘It does, My Lord,’ I lied. ‘But,’ a few people gasped quietly. ‘Why exactly do you need me here?’

     ‘Of course,’ he said, still smiling strangely. ‘This plan will not succeed without you. Yes, you are very important to me at this moment,’

     Bellatrix, who was sitting a few seats down, glared at me and made a sort or snorting noise as The Dark Lord gave me, for lack of a better word, a compliment.

     ‘Although our plan a few weeks ago wasn’t successful, we were able to damage a few things of theirs,’

     ‘Yeah,’ laughed a standing Death Eater. ‘Would have got him me self, if it wasn’t for that stupid bird. Got that, though.’

     A smile slipped through to my lips as I tried to hide it from everyone. I found it quite humorous to know that the bird he thought he killed wasn’t dead at all and she had just pecked me on the arm for a pellet a mere hour ago. I loved it when I knew something someone else didn’t.

     ‘Yes,’ The Dark Lord narrowed his eyes to the Death Eater who spoke. ‘That is one less fighter we have to worry about,’ Everyone looked towards the still smiling Death Eater, although he looked confused as well. ‘But hardly anything to be proud of,’

     Of course. The Dark Lord would never say something as nice as that without bringing them even further down after. But I think, with me, The Dark Lord’s favouring of me seemed to make other Death Eaters hate me.

     ‘I have one more favour to ask of you, Hopkins,’ The Dark Lord looked to me again, suddenly very serious. ‘I want you to go to the Ministry of Magic with the others and kill the Minister yourself. He will be out of the office for a short while tomorrow, around midday, and then will return for you to deal with him. There will be no mess as my growing number of followers will keep watch and protect you from any troublesome guards,’

     ‘No,’ I said without thinking. ‘I mean, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that. I’ve…never killed anyone before,’ I lowered my head, fearing what The Dark Lord’s reaction might be.

     He inhaled deeply before speaking. ‘I understand,’ he seemed to have trouble choking that out. ‘You are young but not inexperienced,’ A few long moments ticked by as I tried to ignore all of the stares everyone was giving me. ‘Very well. I will send another to do the job,’ His voice was harsh now and I feared I would turn into stone if I looked up at him. ‘But there is something I need you to do that doesn’t involve your mudblood hands becoming dirty,’