October 1st - Ministry of Magic
Nephera's job was much easier now that Dumbledore was back at Hogwarts, for she was free to act however she wished without feeling as though she had to constantly watch her back. For the past three days, the Order had been monitoring both Borgin and Burke's, and Aurors had been placed in key points around the Ministry for protection.
The plan was simple, truly. Wait for the Death Eaters to pick up the Vanishing Cabinet, attack them and steal one of the two wardrobes, and then create the trap. Nephera, Remus, and Alice were on Borgin duty, meaning that they were perched upon a rooftop watching the shop, although there had been no suspicious activity thus far, "This is boring," sighed the Slytherin of the group in a sing-song voice
Alice scoffed, popping a peanut in her mouth, "I'm starting to believe you like the action, the more dangerous, the better for you," she replied, eyeing Knockturn Alley below them
Nephera laughed at that, "Oh yes because a threat to my life is just oh-so-exciting," she exclaimed playfully successfully fooling the pixie-haired witch
Remus, though, knew better. He had to admit that Nephera had indeed mastered the art of hiding her emotion, had done so ever since she was a child, but by that point, the werewolf had learned to second-guess the faces she showed to the world.
So he could tell that what Alice had said, wasn't a joke at all. No, it was the truth. Nephera enjoyed the action, the adrenaline, the fact that she might get hurt. He didn't know why, nor could he understand it in any way, but then again Nephera was not the kind of person one could simply psycho-analyze.
"How long do you think we'll be up here for?" he asked instead, choosing not to touch upon the matter
The brunette scoffed, twisting her wand between her fingers, and Remus and Alice shared a look once they realized that she was once again carrying the Tenebris wand instead of her usual one, "Forever, you'd think they'd speed it up now that they know we know," she said
"So uh- how do you- I mean-" stammered the other witch, "Isn't the wand supposed to chose the wizard? How come you can wield it so effortlessly?"
Remus sucked in a breath, not knowing how the Slytherin would react to someone mentioning the wand, but to his surprise, Nephera simply shrugged, "I guess it did choose me in a way," she said, "The last of the lost sisters gave it to me. Not that it matters anyways, I still feel most comfortable with wandless magic,"
The werewolf let out a small breath of relief, happy that Nephera wasn't fully relying on a wand of dark magic, since no one really knew how it could affect her, "I'm just carrying it for some extra protection, makes Sirius feel better too,"
Alice hummed her response, while Remus had to hide a small laugh. It was quite endering to see just how protective and worried Sirius seemed to be over Nephera, despite the fact that the girl had proved multiple times that she was more than capable of taking care of herself, "This looks pretty," said after a moment of comfortable silence, as she picked up Nephera's hand and examined the tattoo, "When did you get it?"
"Muggle london, about a month ago. Don't ask me why I wanted the skeleton, I won't be able to answer," she snorted
"It looks-" begun the wereworf, but was cut off from a sound coming from the Alley under them. The three friends rushed to the edge of the rooftop, peering down with some difficulty since it was nighttime. Nevertheless, Lucius Malfoy's hair could be distinguished even in the darkest of places.
Nephera herself sighed, doing the opposite as she secured her wand on the inside pocket of Sirius's leather jacket, sealing it closed, "You know what the plan is, right?" she asked, hopping down from the roof and using the fireescape to slimb down
The other two followed after her, "Wait for him to leave the Alley, in case he meets up with more people, and then we corner him, steal the cabinet and change his memories," replied Alice
Nephera and Remus shared a look, knowing that it wasn't the full story. Regulus had managed to get some information off of Narcissa, and so the two of them knew that Lucius would be meeting up with Yaxley and two other Death Eaters who also worked in the Ministry in order to transport the cabinet. Of course, given the fact that Alice didn't know of Regulus's double nature, they couldn't very well tell her.
They placed dissilusionment charms over themselves, making them blend into their environment and close to invisible unless someone was paying close attention, "What do we do if there's more of them than there is of us?" asked Alice in a hushed voice as the three of them entered the shop
"Ailani's a few roads down," replied Remus, "Now hush, we might be invisible but we can still be heard,"
Lucius and Borgin were in one of the farthest corners, the shopowner practically trickling with fear as he conversed with the Death Eater, "It's done, it's repaired, so he won't- you'll make sure he won't-"
"Kill you?" sneered Lucius, "Well, that simply remains to be seen doesn't it? Can it be shrunk, or will it loose it's properties,"
Nephera gave Peter a mental pat on the back, it seemed like the mousy boy was right in thinking that they'd shrink it to transport it somewhere.
Borgin nodded vehemently, "Yes, yes, you will tell him, won't you?" he stammered, "That I did everything he asked?"
Alice could hear the desperation in the old man's voice, and for a second, she actually felt bad for him. Then she remembered that Borgin was actively helping Death Eaters, and all empathy was gone, "Shrink it," ordered the blonde man in the room
Lucius did not say anything else before grabbing the now-shrinked cabinet and placing it in his pocket, stalking out of the shop quickly afterwards. The three friends followed after him, still invisible and quiet as ever. He walked down a darker street, glancing behind him ever-so-often in case anyone was following, but Remus was able to release a breath of air when Lucius didn't stop walking.
Mkaing a sharp left, the three friends stopped when they saw Malfoy nearing a spot where three hodded figures were located, "Is it done?" came a voice Nephera recognised as Yaxley
Lucius nodded, and the brunette heard another person sigh, "Good, let's get this shit over with," they said, and Nephera raised an eyebrow once she realized who it was
Looks like Adam hasn't been killed yet, good for him, she thought
Still, she knew it was time to act, and she took the charm off of herself, Remus and Alice following soon after, making all of them visible to the Death Eaters, "Stupefy!" yelled Alice, wasting no time
The four Death Eaters turned around, shocked, and Yaxley was barely able to dosge the spell in his suprise, "Winchester," whispered Lucius, although Nephera wasn't looking at him
She smirked at Adams shocked face, "Miss me sweetheard?" she teased, sending a nonverbal and wandless spell his way
And with that, the duel commenced. Remus was still protected by the vow Nephera and Voldemort had made, meaning that the Death Eaters were refraining from sending too many spells his way. The vow was rather vague, it signified that Riddle couldn't kill either of the foru marauders, but no one was certain whether he was allowed to harm them in any other way, and neither of the four Death Eaters were willing to test that.
Nevertheless, it gave the snady-haired boy and advantage, one that he was making use of eagerly. Alice also had an added advantage, given the fact that the Death Eaters were all focusing on Nephera rather than her, "I'm starting to- Diffindo! I'm starting to get offended," she mused, moving out of the way so as to not be hit by a stunning spell
Nephera laughed, "Remember, we need them alive," she pointed out, waving her hands around and shooting different spells in order to keep the four of them at bay
Adam hadn't seen Nephera in a very long time. He wasn't told where Voldemort held her while he had kidnapped her, the Dark Lord being scared of his past with her, and fearing that she might use it to manipulate him into setting her free.
As much as it hurt him, the boy realized that Voldemort was right, for even now he found himself holding back in the kind of spells he sent her way. Adam had never realized just how big her hold was over him, not until he'd looked back into her eyes, and for a second, found himself trasported back into a broom closet of Hogwarts.
Still, memories of her using him, lying to him, manipulating him, flooded his mind, and he ground his teeth as he focused back in the duel.
Remus had to admit that it was rather enchanting seeing Nephera in her element, duelling. It was easy to forget just how dangerous she actually was after two years of only experiencing her good side, but now, as he saw her cast a stupefy with her right arm and an expelliarmus with her left, he realized just how much she was capable of.
Eventually, the three of them won, with Nephera drawing all their focus towards her, giving Remus and Alice the window they needed to immbolize the four Death Eaters, "That took longer than I thought," sighed Alice, wiping the sweat from her forehead
"You will pay for this, all of you!" yelled Yaxley, "The Dark Lord is not to be messed with!"
Remus snorted, ducking down and reaching into Lucius's robes, taking the shrinked cabinet from his pocket, "Really? Because Neph here has done it a bunch of times and she's still here," he mused, putting the cabinet in Nephera's bag
The Slytherin made quick work of altering their memories, leaving them to believe that they had completed their task of getting the Vanishing Cabinet inside the Ministry. At the same time, Alice got to healing the four Death Eaters, much to her dismay, but they had to erase all evidence of the fight that took place, "Come on," urged Remus, looking around in case any of them had managed to call for reinforcements before they were immobilized
Remus would be side-apparating with Nephera, since the brunette had to focus on taking off the immobilization charm at the correct moment. Right before the apparition dragged her away, she flicked her wrist, smirking when she saw the Death Eaters stand up.
When their feet touched ground again, they were standing in front of an apartment a little ways away from Diagon Alley, which had already been prepped for their arrival. Anti-apparition charms had been placed in one of the empty rooms, ensuring that whoever came out of the Vanishing cabinet would not be able to dissapparate away.
"Send a patronus to Moody, tell him to pull everyone from the Ministry and bring them here, we don't know when they'll start trasporting Death Eaters through the cabinet," ordered Nephera, and Alice obliged
Many miles away from that small apartment, Yaxley was giving the mission report to Voldemort, who was looking at him through a curious eye. The Dark Wizard had long since learned to question everything that happened, not wanting to be caught up in another one of Nephera's plans once again.
The way Yaxley was giving the report, it seemed almost mechanical to Riddle. He asked his follower multiple questions, all of which were answered using the exact same words, "That will be all, Yaxley," he said, cutting the man's report short
Using his legitimacy, Voldemort entered the other man's mind, seeing everything that had happened that night. The memories were there, but they seemed almost hazy, and it did not take long for the Dark Lord to figure out why.
He was angered at the fact that the girl had once again managed to overpower his Death Eaters, but the sense of satisfaction that filled him for finally outmsarting her was greater than that, "Call in the others, we have a change of plans," he smirked deeply
A/N
2k words
this is short and complete shit, but here you go anyways
be sure to check out my tom riddle fic as well, if you want to lmao
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