Lily Potter (torridily) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-05-10 07:43:00 |
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Barty had nearly died from excitement earlier in the week, when he'd gotten the message from Mister Lestrange that, not only would he finally get the chance to take a life, but he also got to take two lives, he (and four others) had been specially selected to silence the parents of certain troublemakers, he was the only one of the chosen five to go on the assignment by himself, and, the inarguable best part, he had been not to show any pity. Although Barty hadn't bothered to split hairs, make semantics, and ask if 'mercy' was included in the list of things he wasn't meant to show to the Mudblood's parents, but he didn't feel as though he were making too great a leap of faith in assuming that it wasn't. After all, the Dark Lord did not suffer opposition, and He did not take lightly the fact that people spoke out and acted against him. Mercy was not something to be afforded to those who did not know their place in the world. Furthermore, Barty had to do something to rectify the fact that he had failed so horribly since taking his Dark Mark. Leaving school, he'd been a golden boy -- top of his class, well-loved by his professors, Outstandings on all twelve OWLs, full of promise, only leaving school to care for his poor, ailing mother -- and, in a few short months, he'd failed to kill Sirius Black, failed to kill Octavius Pepper, gotten on Mister Lestrange's bad side for arguing with Selwyn before the idiot's capture and death... Usually, Barty's motivation was his father's eventual fall from power, but tonight was different. Tonight, he had to make up for his mistakes, and he fully intended to. Following the coordinates he'd been given, Barty Apparated to the Evans home's backyard, to avoid being seen by any Muggles who would come around the front. True enough, it was late enough at night that he didn't truly need to worry, but any sort risk needed to be accounted for. For whatever reason, the lights were still on in the house -- lovely. If he didn't need to wake the Muggles, then they could get right to the fun of the night without any of the tedious and unnecessary preamble. Barty cast a quick spell to detect what wards were around the house and set to breaking them as he went closer to the house; whoever had put them in place had done a decent job of them, but Barty had a purpose here and he would not be defeated by mere wards. He was better than that. It took him more time than was really necessary, but the lights inside the house stayed on, which was reassuring. So long as the idiot Muggles did not go to sleep, then he saw no point in getting upset over the time he took getting to them. He'd have them in his grasp and get to have his way with them, regardless. When he finally got to the back door, he heard people moving inside. Merlin, no -- had he been spotted? They couldn't have seen him. Barty had his wand at the ready as the door opened, and Evans barely had time to call out, "Lily?" before Barty hit him with a silent Stunning Spell to the chest. Instinctively, he checked behind himself -- no witnesses that he could see. The Muggle had still made a noise, though, which had still roused his Muggle wife. Cursing to himself, Barty nudged Evans out of the way with his foot and closed the door. Wonderful. Now there wouldn't be any more witnesses. "Harold?" the woman called. "Harold? Lily?" Oh, no. Oh -- this was not how things were supposed to be going. Barty had to move quickly, lest the foolish woman ruin his plans. Silently, he Levitated the husband in the direction of the light and the woman's calling. When they finally reached the sitting room, Barty let the man drop, unceremoniously, to the floor and Stunned the woman before she could shriek too loudly. In order to have his fun properly, he needed them to be screaming -- but there were their neighbors to consider, and Barty could hardly have any of them calling the Muggle law enforcement or otherwise interfering. With both of them knocked out, Barty took the opportunity to put the appropriate silencing wards up around the entire house. When he was content that he'd appropriately protected himself, he returned to the sitting room and got a good look at the couple. They'd probably been quite a handsome pair, in their day, and they probably entertained friends in this very room. He rather liked to imagine that they thought themselves the paragon of perfection for their kind -- poor Muggles, living in a filthy, industrialized area that, in its very essence filled Barty with the strong desire to go home and clean something -- and that they had as comfortable a life as they could afford in such modest (to be polite about it) surroundings. Had they not been so financially disadvantaged and had they not been Muggles, they were likely the sort of people that, if Barty could never genuinely like them, he could tolerate for the sake of appearances. It was a pity, for them, that their daughter had a lesson to learn. It was, furthermore, a pity for her that Barty was to be the one teaching it. Ah, well. Everyone had to die some day, and those who did not learn lessons in the simple manner had to learn them the hard way. Barty smirked lightly under his mask and gave a light chuckle as he prodded Evans's head with his foot. Well, it was hardly doing anyone any favors for the two of them to stay Stunned. Working calmly, Barty bound them both with two quick, silent Incarcerous charms and, once they were secure and properly positioned, he woke them both, the wife first. Naturally, she shrieked, and he gasped in what Barty took as some "masculine" expression of fear. It made Barty's smirk even more gleefully malicious to see that look on Evans's face. In order for the daughter to learn, the father would have to properly learn the definition of fear, and Barty was quite an eager teacher. He'd been taught about the Cruciatus Curse in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and he'd learned about it, in books and from his Father and Grandfather, before its name was used in class. Madame Lestrange had taught him about it in their private mentoring sessions, and he'd suffered it at the hands of Rufus Scrimgeour in Diagon Alley, but to think of actually using it... Barty wanted to, but he couldn't simply throw away his first use of an Unforgivable Curse. To do so would have been disrespectful to all three of them and to the power they symbolized. He owed them more than a rash, throw away use. He had to build to it; he had to feel it. When the woman dared to look up at him, Barty Levitated her husband again. When it seemed as though she meant to speak, he let the man fall again, which elicited a highly satisfactory wincing noise, as well as a gasp from the wife. People were so easy to manipulate when they actually cared about something, or someone, as the case happened to be. Barty had gotten the information on Selwyn because his idiot Father was too concerned with his own perceived greatness to care what he said to his son, and the Evanses would suffer all the more because they cared about each other. It was beautiful, really, their suffering -- but it was not yet enough to merit an Unforgivable Curse. "Your wife would do well to hold her tongue," Barty commented coldly. He hadn't even taken a potion to change his voice, as they all had before the attack at McKinnon's flat, but he sounded entirely different than how he normally did. He hadn't ever heard his voice sound so malicious. It was magnificent. "We could teach her this lesson now, I think. Sooner is better than later and all." To demonstrate this, he flicked a hex at the woman to simulate the effects of choking. Fitting with the spell, she gasped, which quickly turned into several short, gagging noises as she wriggled in her bounds. No doubt she meant to grab at her throat, but, pity, she couldn't. Barty knelt down as she choked, getting close and observing her -- every inch of her face was begging him to be kind to her, to make it stop and let her go back to being able to breathe. Her eyes were wide and watering up in a most unbecoming manner; it was almost disgusting, really, though the beauty of having such power over another was still undeniable. After a minute and a half, her lips began losing their color and Barty released the spell. Funny, though she lost the magical block in her airways, she lost none of her intrigue; Barty was quite transfixed as she rolled onto her back, gasping as deeply as she could in an attempt to fill her lungs again. How quaint, the human attachment to breathing. Granted, Barty was not above enjoying it himself, but in other people-- Barty lost that thought as something hit his leg and knocked him off balance and onto the floor. As he recovered, he noticed a highly unbecoming, angry red tint on Evans's face and chuckled again. "Well, no wonder she has such deplorable behavior," he sneered as he stood up again. Being so far above them was a good technique; it kept his voice from slipping back into any of his usual soft tones. "You, sir, are hardly any manner of decent example. My appraisal of things wagers that you need to learn a lesson more than she does." Taking perfect aim, Barty shot a small, but powerful, hex at one of Evans's kneecaps; the man tried to hold his scream back, but it got out nevertheless. "Do you feel that, Mister Evans? That is your kneecap breaking, and taking most of your tendons and ligaments with it, I should say. ...That was a rather quick experience, yes, of course. I daresay, you will have to feel it again to truly understand it." Barty repeated the previous hex on Evans's other kneecap, but took more time in the casting, drawing it out and slowly increasing the power he put behind the hex as the man screamed louder. "Do you like that one, Mister Evans?" Barty asked, his voice taking on a sardonic edge in addition to how cold it was. "It happens to be one of my personal favorites." And one that he would have to use against Sirius Black, the next time they met in combat. They had already found each other twice; Barty had no doubt that it would happen again. By now, the wife had gotten enough oxygen back into her body to start crying -- how charming. Although Barty was still wearing his mask -- and it was so tempting to take it off; his victims surely deserved to see the face of their better, the face of the one who was giving them a greater purpose than simply living out their pathetic, Muggle existences -- he had taken on a wide, harlequin grin, and the woman's tears and the sound of her sobs only made him giddier. "Now, now, Mrs. Evans," he coaxed, mock-gently. "This is hardly an acceptable reaction to your husband's suffering. He rises to defend you, and you simply cry for him? Display some strength with your final moments, woman." Pausing, Barty put the husband into a Full-Body Bind. "There we go," he commented coolly. "Mister Evans, you would do well to learn this lesson too. True, there will not be any final examinations, but dignity is a wonderful characteristic to possess, even if you never get to use it properly." Silently focusing on the incantation, Barty magically closed off her airways again, which replaced her sobs with gasps for breath. He held out on her longer this time -- a full minute longer, even. The tears didn't stop, but she nearly stopped struggling, and that would have defeated the purpose of this entirely. She was to die by the Killing Curse only and, so, when she looked to be going limp, Barty released her. Out of the goodness of his heart, he even released the husband's Full-Body Bind. The husband opened his mouth to speak, and was met with another bone-breaking hex, this one at his ribs. From the snapping sounds and his pained noises, Barty had broken at least three. "Do not speak, Mister Evans," he snapped. "You taint the air enough by simply breathing it. Have mercy on those of us who deserve to draw breath and cease polluting what we value." The man opened his mouth once more, and Barty hex-broke his ribs again. "I do not enjoy repeating myself, Mister Evans. Learn quickly, or I shall have to teach your lesson through less direct and more demonstrative means." To make sure that the man understood his point, Barty repeated the process of hex-breaking the ribs on the wife, who had only just managed to normalize her breathing. As she whimpered and sobbed, Evans looked up at Barty and hoarsely demanded, "Who are you?" "I am the one who will make you something more, Mister Evans," Barty retorted smugly. "Perhaps your life and your wife's are of no use to the two of you, but let us hope that your daughter learns well from this." "L-L-Lily?" Evans stammered, paling. "What have you-" "I have done nothing to your precious Lily, Mister Evans," Barty snapped. "Nor will I, provided she learns well from the message your stunning example will leave." "You can't hurt her!" Evans spoke with conviction. A conviction that he very much did not deserve. "She's a brilliant -- she'll be here soon! She's coming to see us tonight, and she'll take care of you! Just you-" Barty had very little further use for this discussion, which he demonstrated by sharply jamming his foot Evan's side, right over the ribs he'd already broken. The force of his footfall shoved the broken ribs into Evans's internal organs and snapped enough of the rest to be satisfying. Below his mask, Barty's grin had become quite wolfish and it only grew to be moreso as Evans screamed. ...Finally, he was ready for this. He would have to take care, in case the Mudblood were to show up -- but what better way for her to learn her lesson about properly placing her loyalties than to actually bear witness to its teaching? "I look forward to it, Mister Evans," Barty said forcefully. For added emphasis, he forcefully twisted his foot against the man's chest, pressing down on it as hard as he could. Satisfied with what he could get from that brand of punishment, Barty stepped back from both of them and placed the wife into a Full-Body Bind, so she could properly watch. Evans would suffer for his cheek, for his attitude towards his betters, and for his decision to unleash another Mudblood -- moreover, a Mudblood who would vocally defy the Dark Lord -- on the Wizarding World; and it was through Barty that he would get said suffering. Barty aimed his wand carefully and took a moment with which to focus intently on his passionate, inflamed conviction that Evans deserved this, and that he would suffer for his crimes (as well as for those of his daughter). Though Evans could not make out his eyes, Barty was insistent on holding eye contact with the man as he intoned the blessed incantation, the only one he'd spoken all night and the one into which he put the greatest force: "Crucio!" It had taken quite a bit of effort on her part, to convince her husband that she would be perfectly safe to visit her parents by herself. She promised she'd stay in the house, keep it heavily warded, and keep her journal with him to write frequently. Her parents were expecting her, and an apparation into the front yard - what was the likelihood of anything going wrong? After kissing her husband goodbye when they finished their patrols, Lily apparated with a loud crack to the front yard of the home she grew up in. She smiled as she took in the sight, even in the middle of the night she could tell not much had changed. The lights were on in the house, indicating that Lily's parents were up waiting for her. She had insisted they go to bed, but she knew well enough that she had expected as much. It was just after midnight now, and Lily was guessing that Harold and Rose wouldn't let her retire for bed for another hour just so they could fuss over her. You look so thin, don't you cook for that husband of yours? When is my first grand baby due? You two really should consider moving closer, we can't do that fancy popping anywhere thing you do! Show us a spell, Lily, it's been so long! Lily could hear her parents voices, talking excitedly and quickly, barely letting Lily respond. It was good to be home, even standing in her yard made her feel that sort of comfort. Due to the silence barrier set on the house, Lily had no idea that there was trouble inside the door. The wards were set to allow herself and her husband to pass without trouble, and so she hadn't even bothered to take out her wand yet. Opening the door, Lily heard a sound that made her blood run cold. The house was filled with the screams of her father sounding like he was in immense pain. Something was very much not right. With her wand firmly clutched now, Lily raced into the living room to her father's aide. She didn't know what she was expecting, but she hadn't been expecting a Death Eater standing there. Shite, she didn't even have time to notify James and get back up now. Lily pointed her wand at the Death Eater and shouted the first spell that came to her mind, "Expelliarmus!" Lily was far from being alone in getting caught off-guard by the situation. True, Barty had been expecting her, and he hadn't lied in the least bit when he said that he looked forward to her arrival, but he had gotten far too caught up in the torturing of her parents to remember his surroundings. It was intoxicating -- the sound of ultimate suffering, the feeling of having power enough over another person to decide whether or not his last moments would be peaceful... Barty wondered if Scrimgeour had felt this way when he'd used the Cruciatus Curse in Diagon Alley, and he severely doubted it. Scrimgeour had thrown the Curse away, instead of focusing intently on its true power. He'd done it a great and terrible offense in failing to use it properly. Besides that, he was rather of the sort that looked down on using such curses, as though there were some problem with wishing to have and display power, and as though it were inherently wrong to enjoy the suffering of another human being. Barty didn't notice Lily or her Disarming Charm until he was robbed of his wand. Oh, Merlin -- he'd let his guard down again and, once this was over, he planned on severely berating himself for having done so, but he could proceed in that course until all three of the Evanses had been handled. He reacted quickly, diving after his wand and recovering it shortly after it had hit the floor. The dull pain where he, also, hit the floor could be ignored, for the moment; there were more important things. Propping himself up enough to aim, he focused hard on sending the first silent spell he could think of at the girl: Incarcerous! Lily had been stupid, incredibly stupid in that moment of panic. She had used the expelliarmus spell, hoping to separate the madman from his wand enough to get her parents out of there. In her frenzied panic she had every intention of attempting a side along apparation with both of them - she didn't have to go too far, just out of the house... away from him. If she splinched something, it could get fixed. You can't bring a person back to life, but you can reattach a limb or regrow a bone. It was the only quick solution she could think of, afraid if she tried to duel the Death Eater with her parents still in the room, he would kill them before she had a chance to save them. She wasn't quick enough. Lily's biggest mistake was thinking the expelliarmus would give her enough time to get her parents out of there. As the ropes bound her tightly, directly between her parents, Lily struggled with all her might to break free of them. Her wand had fallen next to her, she knew she needed to pick it up, and she struggled with everything she had in her to get it. Why was he doing this to them? What had they done? "Leave them ALONE," she screamed in her anger. Almost, her fingertips were just barely brushing the wand now. She had hope, still, she had a chance. The odds were in the favor of the Death Eaters, but she was determined to save her parents; she was determined to fight. While other people seemed to believe that there was no way in any mind of any long-deceased, legendary witch or wizard that nice, sweet Barty Crouch Junior had been a Slytherin, there had been a reason why he'd been in Salazar's House and opportunism was one facet of it. This incident, tonight -- this was an opportunity to improve his station and make amends for previous wrongs, and very little more. Lily's anger over his actions was encouraging, yes, and it certainly filled Barty with more of a desire to continue injuring her parents, but there was nothing personal in any of it. Mister Lestrange had selected her and then selected him to make an example of her family. It was more akin to business than anything else. And business, in Barty's opinion, was good. He recovered from his dive and stood up, observing the struggling girl very briefly, while she saw fit to yell at him. How charming. She actually thought that she stood a chance. Casually, he cast a quick spell to push her wand further from her grasp and then turned back to the parents. They were the reason why he was here, after all. Without even dignifying her with a response, Barty surveyed the parents. Evans had really gotten the worst of this, so far. It really wasn't fair -- and how was Lily meant to learn anything without both parents suffering? The wife deserved this. Aiming his wand and summoning up that same rage from before, Barty intoned the incantation, "Crucio!" Lily's eyes widened with horror as she watched her mothers body twist and turn in unnatural manners. The screams that were coming from her mother... that wasn't her mother. Her mother was a kind woman her had a sweet airy laugh, and Lily had to embrace that memory the best she could as the screams rang through her ear. She began kicking wildly, in a sporadic and frenzied manner. "STOP IT! STOP IT! LEAVE HER ALONE. YOU FUCKING BASTARD STOP IT!" Lily was upset, she was panicked, and she was devastated. This couldn't be happening. Her face was hot with tears before she even realized she was crying. "Mummy I love you, I'm so, so sorry," she said, her own heart breaking into a thousand pieces as she bared witness to this. She had to focus, she had to get her wand. Lily focused all her strength and energy into moving her body, despite the ropes (which she knew well enough she couldn't get out of), in order to come closer to the wand. She had to. For them. Oh, Merlin indeed. Barty couldn't keep himself from rolling his eyes underneath his mask at the Mudblood girl's increasingly insufferable antics. Honestly, it was her own fault that her parents had to suffer so. If she had chosen her loyalties better and remained neutral rather than speaking out against the Dark Lord -- since, as a Mudblood, she would most likely never comprehend the majesty and greatness of the Dark Lord and His Cause -- then her parents would have been left alone, to grow old and worthless on their own time. This was just getting to be ridiculous. True, the squirming and whatnot was quite a lovely spectacle to behold, even in his peripheral vision, and all the screaming and sniveling made Barty giggle manically inside -- but the girl had a lesson to learn and clearly she was not learning it as of yet. She had to understand that you did not oppose the Dark Lord. Giving the mother a brief respite, Barty turned back to Lily and watched her curiously, rather like a bird observing something. Poor, foolish thing actually seemed to think that she had a chance to save her parents. Even as a Mudblood and so horribly aligned as she was, she should have known that it was hopeless; once someone was declared an opponent of the Dark Lord, he or she did not get to live. Holding back a sigh, Barty flicked a silent spell at her, Petrificus Totalus! "You have brought this on yourself, you know," he snapped, his voice still retaining the same cold, harsh, and just different tone from before. "If you had thought when choosing your alliances, then we would not be doing this. Now, behave yourself and learn your lessons like a good girl." As much as Barty did not wish to do so, he knew from Lily's reactions that he needed to bring things to a close. Torturing Evans and his wife was exhilarating, but it was very much not the entire purpose for his being here, in this industialized Muggle area, in an incredibly quaint Muggle home, dealing with an increasingly tedious Muggle family. The girl had seen both parents tortured, and Barty had gotten his excitement in facilitating this; his instructions had been to end the couple's pathetic lives as a message to their idiot daughter, and so, now, he would see to that. Two Unforgivable Curses in one night -- he may not have deserved the honor, after his recent failure, but, Merlin, he would certainly take it. Turning his back on the immobilized girl, he returned to her parents. Looking down at them, he surveyed the outward physical effects of his handiwork and took a certain pride in the pained looks that still graced the couple's faces. They were still, even now, without the Cruciatus Curse working on them, contorted from all the pain that they had felt, all the residual pain from Barty's hard work on them -- and they just begged for him to end it. Well, it couldn't ever be said that he wasn't an obliging sort of boy. After all, he had catered to his father's desires for sixteen years before realizing how pointless a pursuit it was. Smirking beneath his mask, he knelt down by the wife. Since both of them would end up dead, surely he could be forgiven for sparing her the sight of her husband's death. Focused intently on the need and desire to kill this woman, he shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" In a flash of green light, her pain was extinguished and, once Barty could get a proper look at her, he was incensed. Even as she'd suffered, there had been a light behind those eyes, and now... nothing! He had taken that light from her eyes and the glow from her cheeks; he had killed her -- it made his heart beat faster, just thinking about it. He was better than these people. He had the power to kill them or not, and he could exercise it whenever he pleased, now that he had unlocked it once. There was still room for improvement and there always would be, but he had found the true power of his bloodline, the power of which his father lived in constant, sniveling fear. And that power would feed again tonight. Finished observing the wife, Barty turned back to Evans and prodded at the man's cheek with his wand. He would have to sanitize it later, but, for now, the gesture felt completely appropriate. "She'll take care of me, eh?" he taunted. "I do not see how she could when she herself brought this on you." He paused briefly and threw in, "Hopefully, she learns from this, Mister Evans. ...Avada Kedavra!" Another flash of green light, and the latter of Lily Evans's parents lay dead. Barely able to contain the unadulterated passion that was coursing through his veins, Barty stood up and dusted himself off. Since he had completed the task at hand, there was no more reason to keep the girl restrained and, on his way out, he lifted the Body Bind; it was not as though she could do much, anyway, still being bound by the ropes and all. As he stepped out into the chill of the spring night, Barty breathed deeper than he ever had before -- his lungs filled with more air and, for whatever reason, absolutely everything seemed so much sweeter. He turned back to look at the house for long enough to aim his wand above it and shout out, "Morsmordre!" Green light illuminated the night and a maniac grin spread across Barty's face. As an artist surveys his finished work, Barty regarded the house, thought of the late inhabitants and how much they'd screamed, and then, before he could endanger himself, Apparated home. It would be another hour before Lily's sobs stopped long enough for her to move herself close enough to her wand to break free of the ropes. Her parents lay dead beside her, lifeless, tortured in their last minutes of life, and it was all her fault. If she hadn't been born into the magical world, her parents would have never been targets in the first place. If she had come earlier, perhaps she could have stopped him. If she hadn't insisted that James go home that evening, instead of with her, he could have been there to help. If she had waited, long enough to alert the order, before barging in her living room, her parents could have been saved. If she had been more intelligent when it came to her dueling, she could have saved them. Why hadn't she beat him to the punch and used the killing curse on him? He deserved it. Why hadn't she put him under an Imperius? She could have stopped him that way, and they could have cultivated a lot of information. Sure, it was illegal, and Lily was a mostly law abiding citizen, but if the Death Eaters are going to have such disregard to rules and laws, then would she be justified in stooping to their level? Even as she contacted the DMLE, though her sobbing had calmed mildly the tears were still pouring, Lily Potter knew better. She would not compromise her morals, her ideals, her sense of being and stoop to the level of the immoral and insane. Somehow there had to be a way to beat them without resorting to their methods, and Lily prayed that they would find it soon so her parents death would not be in vein. Lily laid their, each hand clutching one of her parents hands, crying silently, cursing what had happened, and asking over and over What have I done?. |