WHO: Maddie Savage & Clement Max WHAT: Maddie's got a list. WHEN: May 4, evening WHERE: Clement's house, Hogsmeade. WARNINGS: Violence.
This was the easiest name on her list.
Sort of.
The Avery Estate wasn’t somewhere she could easily breach, and she didn’t know where Victoria lived.
But Clem hadn’t moved out of the house they’d shared. So here she was, staring at the familiar back door, trying to forget how happy she’d been here once. No, what she kept firmly in her mind was the fact that he’d tried to kill Rhys. That he’d probably killed Byron. That he was a goddamn Death Eater.
Her wand moved, starting to undo the wards, deliberately tripping them so the resident of the house would be warned. She wanted him to know she was coming.
The alarm rung out in Clement’s home, alerting him immediately that someone was trying to get in (and wasn’t doing a particularly good job at it). He grabbed his wand, letting the alarm continue to ring out so the sudden silence wouldn’t alert the intruder that he knew they were there, and flung open the back door, ready to attack when — “Maddie?”
“Max,” Maddie replied coolly, trying to hide how thrown she’d gotten standing here, staring at the house they’d shared. The garden she’d help plan out.
Rather than say anything more, she flung out a silent disarming charm. He needed to be as helpless as he’d made Rhys.
He was caught off guard by who his guest was, wand flying from his hand. “Maddie,” he repeated, sounding calm despite the situation. “There's a front door for a reason. You only need to knock.”
Maddie snatched his wand out of the air, shoving into the band of her jeans at the small of her back and pointing her wand at Clement again. It was time for him to pay for his crimes.
“This isn’t a social call,” she growled. “It’s time for you to pay for what you’ve done.”
“Madeline,” Clement rolled his eyes, even as his heart pounded in his chest. She was an Order member. She had killed Keats. Who knew what she was capable of anymore. “Be reasonable. Would you like some tea?”
“I don’t want tea. And I’m not going to be reasonable. Were you reasonable when you tried to kill Rhys? Or when you did kill Byron? How many other people have you reasonably killed?”
Despite her strident tone, her attempt to be confident and confident, her hand shook a little as she started him down. This wasn’t the same as staring someone down in full regalia, not when he was unarmed and looking just like the man she’d been going to marry.
“How many people have you reasonably killed?” Clement shot back, perhaps not the wisest move when wandless and defenseless.
“I’ve only killed in the defence of others,” Maddie snapped, her back straightened as she forced her hand to steady. “You’re a danger to society. Who needs to be stopped.”
“So you're here to stop me then?” Clement asked, slowly backing away from the door, mentally going through items he could grab to knock Maddie out with.
"Someone has to." Maddie flicked her wand, conjuring a rope to tie his wrists. He wasn’t getting away this time. Or ever again.
The ropes binding his wrist made it clearer to Clement that Maddie meant business, and that he had good reason to be afraid. “Madeline,” he said, a little embarrassed by how pleading his tone was. “Please. It’s me. We did love each other.”
“That’s where you’re going?” Maddie laughed bitterly. “It makes me sick to my stomach that I ever cared about you. Someone who thinks I’m inferior to them. Someone who could join the Death Eaters and then kill his friends. What did Rhys ever do that could possibly justify you going after him?” Maddie’s tone got a little more hysterical as she spoke, advancing on Clement until she could poke him in the chest with her wand with her final words.
“You killed your friends,” Clement pointed out. “You used to care about Keats, but you killed him and posted his dead body to the Winternet for everyone to see. I don’t think you’re inferior to me, you’re the one who thinks you’re morally superior despite being exactly the same.”
“I’m not like you,” Maddie hissed back, despite the reason she’d come here. “I killed a Death Eater who attacked and tortured my friend. Who would have killed her if I hadn’t arrived when I did. I didn’t know it was Keats.” Just for a moment her gaze met Clement’s, and the pain she’d been feeling at finding out so many people she’d cared about were Death Eaters flashed in her eyes.
“Why did you attack Byron? Or Rhys? Or for fucks sake, Barnaby? You put him in the hospital just to fuck with Jeremy. Don’t try and claim any high road here. You’re a piece of shit who belongs in the ground with Keats.”
“And you're going to be the one to put me there?” He asked, not having much of an excuse for the other attacks, at least not ones she would accept. “And that will continue to prove that you're a better person than me?”
“No.” Maddie replied flatly. “But I will be making the world a safer place.” She took a breath, preparing to do — what, she wasn’t sure now. As much as she’d thought this through, she hadn’t thought about this. As a last resort she flung a tongue-tying jinx at him, not wanting to hear him talk anymore.
Staring back, Maddie realised she couldn’t. Not because she didn’t want him dead, that yearning still burned deep in her gut. But this wasn’t right. No matter what he did, no matter what he’d done, this wasn’t her call to make.
Instead when her wand moved, she left deep slices on his shoulders and chest, knowing just how he felt about blood. Let him deal with his own for awhile.
“Remember this moment,” she said in a low, threatening voice. “I know how to find you. I know how to get to you. If you kill one more person, torture anyone else, I’ll be back. And you won’t be as lucky.” She turned and walked out, throwing his wand as high and far away into the darkness as she could. She Apparated away, shaking as she did. What had she tried to do?