Pettigrew collapsed to the floor as soon as he appeared. Voldemort was having his concoction of potions and Nagini’s venom when he suddenly popped into existence. Pettigrew’s face had started to turn purple and his entire body was convulsing painfully. Most of his skin surface had blackened and blood had started to come out of all his orifices. It was amply evident he had either been dosed with an extremely strong poison or hit with a dark curse.

“What happened, Wormtail? Did you get me the blood or not?” Voldemort’s high voice rang out in the room. It was amply clear that he did not care one whit for his servant’s life. Greyback was present there as well but he made no effort to help the dying man, he was just sitting hunched over on one of the armchairs in the corner.

Pettigrew tried to open his mouth but to no avail, the curse had breached his respiratory system and he found it hard to breathe, let alone speak. He could only plead with his eyes but that didn’t hold any sway with Lord Voldemort.

“Since you are unable to speak, I might as well rip it from your mind.”

Voldemort knew that Wormtail was dying and didn’t have long to live. If he had an actual body, he might have been able to brew something or cast a spell to keep the curse at bay, but it was beyond his capabilities for now. He may have been able to manage a counter-curse if he knew what spell this actually was, but he didn’t have enough time to examine him. So, he could only resort to getting the information by ripping it from Wormtail’s mind.

“Legilimens!”

Voldemort scoured through Wormtail’s memories, but the process was very difficult. The memories seemed extremely clouded and sluggish. Voldemort thought it may be due to Pettigrew’s approaching death, but the truth was that the confundus charm used by Darius as well as the mental barriers placed by him played a far more important part in it.

Voldemort saw that he was unsuccessful in getting the blood and also failed to rendezvous with Macnair and was enraged. He still persisted in going through the memories and found the knowledge of the Triwizard Cup taking place next year, conveniently placed there by Darius. Voldemort didn’t have the time to verify the truth of the matter but that was all the better. It would mean he could verify the information himself and then build up his plan himself without realizing he was being manipulated into doing so.

“Did you manage to learn something, master?” Greyback spoke up in his rasping tone.

Both the werewolf and his master paid no more attention to the corpse lying on the floor beyond Voldemort telling Nagini to have her fill in Parseltongue. Nagini had been an unexpected and fortuitous find in the Albanian forests. She was by far one of the cleverest and most intelligent serpents he had ever encountered, on par with the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. There was something unique about her. He had even suspected she was an animagus at first, but tests had proven that it was not so.

She also provided the venom that kept this homunculus form alive. He had had Pettigrew abduct a pregnant woman from one of the small settlements near the Albanian forest and made himself this unnatural body using her unborn foetus and dark magic. It was barely adequate, but it would have to do till he managed to rebuild his body again. Nagini’s venom was once again a vital component in the ritual and he used the murder of the mother to fuel the process of creating another Horcrux.

Voldemort thought for a whole longer and then slowly replied after gathering his thoughts. “Of course, I did. And I learnt some interesting things too. I wonder how Wormtail came by this information. Though it is unconfirmed, I suppose it wouldn’t be too difficult to confirm the veracity of the information.

The information is that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place in Hogwarts the next year. I will be the ideal opportunity to get to Potter. It seems I have been too hasty with my plans when there was such a golden opportunity just waiting for me. If only I could have had some insider Ministry information, things would have been much simpler.”

“Why don’t you meet Lucius, my lord. He is ideally placed in the Ministry and well-connected enough to get you all the information you may desire. For that matter, Snape would have had an easy time getting the blood of the Potter boy.”

“You know my condition, Greyback. True, I have built myself a rudimentary body through my deep knowledge of the dark arts, but it is still not enough to truly display my power. They may even turn on me, the one they pledged allegiance to, if it would help their cause. I find myself having doubts in the loyalty of my followers, after their renunciation of my group. I will meet them, but only when the time is suitable.”

“As you wish, master. But when will you fulfill your accord with me?”

“All in good time, my follower. You shall have your chance to bite as many younglings as you wish but all in good time.”

Dumbledore was enraged like the students had never seen him before. Harry and the other felt their scalps prickle as they could literally feel the palpable aura he was sending out. All five of them rushed to the copse of trees where they could see Darius and Macnair fighting. They saw Darius fire off one final spell when Macnair was barely steady on his feet, which all of them recognized as the full body-bind curse, and the Death Eater collapsed to the ground. Darius also sat down and begin to rest just as they all reached him.

Dumbledore looked over Darius once to ensure he didn’t have any lethal injuries before rushing over towards the Death Eater to check his condition. Macnair had already passed away!

“Darius, my boy, we should get you back to the castle as soon as possible. I do not think you have any serious injuries but I want you to rest under Madam Pomfrey’s care for the meanwhile. The rest of you can accompany him but do not pressure him. He had had a difficult fight and needs to rest.”

Dumbledore then conjured a pair of stretchers and after loading both of them onto the stretchers, began to float them towards the castle. He was very worried about Darius. The boy, whether intentionally or not, had taken a life today. Such a deed does not go by without leaving a mark on one’s psyche. And he couldn’t just let one of the brightest minds of the generation succumb to this.

It was a pity that Macnair had passed away, they may have been able to get some valuable information from him. But the main thing now was to handle the fallout from this. It was not very reassuring to parents when two Death Eaters manage to make their way into school premises, where their children are located.

The next couple of days, Darius spent his time twiddling his thumbs in the hospital wing. He did have a bit of a difficult time coping in the beginning but Mione was by his side for most of the day, and that helped a lot. He had not held back and frankly let her know that a man had died by his hand. Better coming from him than from someone else. She already knew the ins and outs of the matter though, the other four had let her know.

Dumbledore was oddly accommodating this past few days. Guess he didn’t want Darius to end up a cold-blooded murderer. He had immediately ordered a seal on the entire incident. Not the fact that it happened but what the actual series of events were, and the people involved in it. Of course, you can’t hide the death of a Ministry official on Hogwarts grounds, but Dumbledore was able to head them off from Darius and the other students’ direction. None of the students wanted the additional fame this would bring them, Harry in particular.

They all collectively asked Dumbledore to cover up the incident and take credit for the discovery of the two Death Eaters. He seemed happy to do so, he was very satisfied that none of us had gone after fame and just kept our heads down. Fame wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. And guess keeping Harry out of the limelight had been a great motivation for the old man. The staff had to be told what happened, of course and most of them were very impressed with our acts. Though it was touch and go there with Professor McGonagall, on whether she would award us points for valor or dock them for risking our lives.

But the incident finally got out into the open. The Daily Prophet got a front-page article on the matter though the truth was obfuscated a bit, as was usual with the Daily Prophet. Darius didn’t know if this was a decision on their part or they were pressured by the Ministry but there was no mention of the fact that he was a Death Eater or what his plans may have been. Darius had given Dumbledore a full accounting of the incident as well as the memory to back it up, so he had the full confession of Macnair on hand. But that wasn’t enough to tie the incident to Lord Voldemort in the eyes of the Ministry. They didn’t want the society to panic and pressed the information, merely saying that Macnair was up to something dangerous and was stopped in time by the Headmaster.

The general public behaved like sheep, as expected of them, and lapped up the bogus story and had another reason to revere their respected leader of the light. But the more powerful players in the game knew that this was a dangerous sign. Death Eaters don’t suddenly become active after more than a decade for no reason whatsoever. The Ministry just wanted to stuff its head into the ground, as usual and hope the whole mess blew over and was nothing more than a blip in their stability.

Though the Ministry did catch a lot of flak for allowing someone deranged be on their payroll, it wasn’t enough to knock Fudge of his seat. If Fudge had accompanied him to Hogwarts like in canon, the situation might have been different. But in the present situation, he just washed his hands clean of the whole debacle. Lucius and his cronies took a hit to their reputation as well, they were well known acquaintances and it reflected poorly on them. Besides, Lucius and the others status as ex- Death Eaters was the most poorly kept secret in magical high society, and they only got away with it by using their gold and influence.

Harry, Neville, Daphne, Hannah and Mione were impressed though, very impressed. Darius had just taken down a full adult, one who was a Death Eater and had knowledge of Dark spells. Mione was the only one who knew exactly how much time he put into training and even she was impressed. You don’t see a mere 5th year, who is actually one year younger than the rest of the class, take down a Death Eater all that often. Mione had taken a lesson from all this though. Darius had already told her that the magical world was not all that peaceful, and this incident drove her to put in even more effort into her training. She had always been skilled, but she was growing by leaps and bounds. Despite all the advantages he had, she may be able to catch up with Darius’ present level of skill in less than two years, at least with focus casting. She was still far behind as far as natural casting was involved, but at least she was working on it.

The incident blew over quickly enough, though the four students present on that day started working almost as hard as Mione did. It was a positive effect and Darius encouraged it as much as possible. With all the ordeals coming our way, they needed to be prepared. Though Darius would do all that he could to make sure things didn’t go that way.