Gone Twisted

It's been a bit over three months now that Ash had become an Death Eater. Slowly but surely, she was beginning to become accustomed to their ways of thinking, their ideology and acting. The Dark Lord was pleased to watch her grow into the role of the perfect Death Eater. Never straying from his words, never questioning his orders, even suggesting a few new ideas that he'd probably wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

It had been a rough start, but in the last few months, he had seen her full potential, her 'true nature', as he liked to call it. Under his watchful eyes and leadership, she became merciless and ruthless, cold-hearted and morbid. Laughing at pain and destruction, never hesitating to defend her master or give out the harshest punishments. He had soon begun to see the petite girl as his protégée, a prodigy of the Dark Arts.

But what he didn't know - and as far as Ash was concerned, wouldn't know for quite some time, - was that she despised herself for all these acts.

In front of the other Death Eaters and her Lord, she had become an truly accomplished servant of the Dark Lord. She was quick to learn the Dark Arts and even faster to use those skills against any Death Eater, Snatcher and otherworldly creature that confronted her 'master' or screwed up his mission.

But the one thing that did not change was her reasons for complying to the will of those who had forced this life onto her. Whenever she could, she found a way to slip Snape the newest plans and missions, to give him ideas on how to screw up the missions and which of the missions where the most important to hinder, hoping that they reached her family and that they would be able to defend those ordered to be killed and destroyed.

She had taught herself to smile around her fellow Death Eaters, to act just as they did and laugh at the jokes they did about the poor souls that they killed. She acted as if these acts were nothing but a sick game, a story that could be lived and forgotten the next day. But she knew that this fell out off all bounds of what was decent or acceptable. This was the work of demons.

The only thing that she could be thankful for, was that the Dark Lord wanted to keep her near and never let her go on one of the killing sprees the other Death Eaters were happily sent on. For she knew that if confronted with a poor innocent soul that begged for his life, she would not be able to attack.

"Ashlin," the Dark Lord hissed softly, patting his arm rest, summoning her to come to him.

"Yes, my lord?" she asked softly as she followed his summons and sat down next to him.

"I need you to seek out the children again, tell them that they're not working fast enough! There's still too many brats running around that are disregarding my reign," he told her softly.

"But, my lord, they're already doing their best, there are to many Order-brats running around and reminding them about Dumbledore's death and his fight. You have to give them time, we will be able to make them come to their senses, once they see the ... right in your ways," she urged.

"I said, make them work faster! Kill the Order-brats if they need too!" he hissed in a tone of voice that made Ash's skin crawl.

"Yes, my lord," she said quietly and bowed her head to him before leaving the room and rushing to one of the fireplace's that were scattered around the Manor.

Ever since the school had started again two months ago in September, Ash had been made
responsible for the teenage fraction of the Death Eaters. She was the one who sent out the orders, she was the one the others came to with their concerns, she was the one who was held responsible when things did not go according to plan.

This position had already proven to her a very painful experience, for the teens were less merciless then their elders, often felt shame for the things they were ordered to do or... as was the case in many cases just didn't know what the order was because Ash had failed to mention it to them.

But it had also given her a clear advantage and power. Her main contact was Chase, a subordinate that she cruelly used in order to gain information about her family and had chosen as her indirect contact with Blaise and Tracy.

Tracy had been careful to stay in contact with Chase over the summer holidays and the last weeks. She had tried to gain knowledge about the plans of the Death Eaters as well as the whereabouts of Ash. At first Chase had been careful with his responses, trying to let as little information slip as possible, but as soon as Ash had found about the contact, she had started to hint him what he could write and what he should keep a secret.

Now Tracy knew where Ash was, but didn't know that she was no prisoner here in the sense of dungeons and chains.

"Chase Orion," she said, as she threw in floo powder and stuck her head in the fire of the fireplace. Swiftly she saw Chase in front of her, holding her head on the tip of his wand.

"Ash!" he said with an delighted face.

"Hey Chase," she answered with a small smile. "How are things going over there?"

"Great," he said, but she saw his eyes dart to the upper left - she had learned to detect truth from lie in the past months.

"You're lying to me Chase, what's happening over there?"

Chase swallowed and looked at her image in the fire in guilt, "Your cousin and her friends are still getting in our way. I don't really have a problem in Slytherin, but the others... Especially Iain has problems, but its not really hard to figure out why, with Weasley and the others being in the same house..."

"Well, tell them to try harder. The Dark Lord is getting a bit impatient, I can only get him off your heels for so long."

"What do you suggest we do?"

Ash stayed quiet for a while, thinking over their next steps. She didn't want Ginny and the other children from the Order to get hurt in any way, but she needed them to stop their interfering if she wanted to keep her subordinates save from the Dark Lords wrath. But her priority was Ginny's safety.

"Try talking to them again, maybe try to bribe them. At least one of them should be weak-hearted enough to waver at a nice amount of money and protection."

"But we tried that already! They wont waver!" Chase gasped in despair.

"Try harder!"

"Why can't we curse them a bit? Make them see the safety of being on our side?"

Ash wanted to lash out at Chase, but stopped herself. "They already see that the followers are safe from the teachers... punishments, that should prove enough. Anyway, you heard what I said. Try harder, work in your free time if you have to! Just get them to succumb to our will!" she spat.

Chase's face hardened and he nodded, "Alright Ashlin, as you command." he said, as he always did when she fell into her ordering mode.

Heaving a sigh, Ash shook her head and asked, "Did you hear anything from Tracy?"

Chase grew a small smile and nodded, "Yeah, she told me that she was back in England and staying here until Halloween is over."

"Halloween, you say?" Ash said with a small frown - she was debating her options again. "Why don't you invite her to the Halloween Party the Dark Lord is holding?" she said slowly, devising a plan in her head.

"Really? Do you think I could do that? Will the Dark Lord allow that?"

"I'll put in a good word for you, I know how much you like her," Ash said with a faint smile and she went over all of her options.

"But she will want to bring Blaise as well..." Chase said, in a sunken voice.

"So what? Tell her she can bring him as well, I'll send out the invitations as soon as I get the OK with the Lord."

Chase smiled at her friend light heartedly, "Thank you, Ash!"

"Everything for my little brother, right?"

"Everything for you, sis."