| Veneficium By Skylar Inari ~Chapter Two: Insanity, Notes and TV~ Eric Kassier had started out life as your normal low class pure-blooded wizard. His parents hadn't had much money and when he came along (as a result of a failed charm that was supposed to have prevented his conception) the addition of another mouth to feed made the meager livelihood his parent's managed to eke out became worse. Indeed, had it been up to his father Eric would never have been born, but his mother being reluctant to bring herself to kill her child - even if was still unborn at the time of this discussion. And as the only thing his father had a soft spot for was his mother her decision stood - thus Eric was born on a cold December's night in to the arms of a family that didn't truly want him. As such the next eleven year's Eric had spent his life saying as little as possible and trying to keep out of his parent's way. Being underfed became his way of life, and 'shut up and hide' became the rules of making his parents happy. And since when his parent's fed him more when they were happy he was more than willing to be quiet and not do much in the house. This is not to say that he didn't have things to do outside of the house. There were plenty of things that he could entertain himself with - everything from ripping the wings of butterflies to drowning kittens. The other children of the village his parent's worked in avoided - knowing without actually knowing that they wouldn't want to associate themselves with him. Eric was fine with that - it meant that he'd have less to want to talk about to his parents which would make them happier. As such Eric learned very little over the course of the years except for the basic reading, writing and arithmetic that the Ministry of Magic required all children to learn before formal schooling started at age eleven. When his eleventh year of life rolled around Eric had not given much thought to what school he'd be going to - indeed his parent's had not discovered anything the least bit magical about him and so had no idea as to what school he would have been accepted to. But none of them thought that he'd get into Hogwarts. For one thing they lived on the very outskirts of the area from which Hogwarts excepted children and for another there son had never been shown to have the least bit of magical ability. Not that they had tried very hard to unearth it. So when on one sunny morning during late July when Eric was amusing himself by boiling puppies in his father's cauldron and his mother was cooking breakfast for herself and his father (who sat reading the Daily Prophet) when an owl flew in with a heavy yellow envelope emblazoned with green ink and the Hogwarts crest neatly sealing it shut the entire family was surprised. And from that point on he'd been treated like something to be valued. His mother burst into tears and sobbed about how proud she was that her little boy was going to Hogwarts and his father had gruffly cleared his throat gave the owl a letter saying that Eric would indeed be able to come and then, once the owl had gone had looked over at his son a smiled the first smile Eric had ever seen from him. Eric had gone in the space of a minute from being a underfed nuisance to being an honor to have as a son. Everybody knew that Hogwarts students got the best jobs, made the most money - and most importantly had the best connections and moved in the best circles of society. Even the mudbloods from Hogwarts were privileged like this. They went that very day to buy his Hogwarts supplies. He had been sorted into Slytherin, and upon assuring them that he was indeed pure blooded he was accepted as a 'true' Slytherin and therefore was above those filthy unclean mudbloods. And so he had spent the next seven years of his life working harder than he'd ever worked before, first for his parents continuing happiness, then for the respect of his higher ups and finally during the beginning of his seventh year to impress the man he came to know as master and carried his mark proudly on his arm. Voldemort. From the very first time that Eric had heard of the man he'd known that he was the man he'd follow for all his life. Nobody else made such complete sense and had the power to go along with the ideals that so many others of his kind held but could do nothing about. Even the powerful Lucius Malfoy had been unable to do more than mouth pointless platitudes to the Ministry of Magic while inwardly fuming and raging. But Voldemort, he was able to do so much more than anyone else. He was the greatest man Eric had ever lain eyes on. It had been the greatest time of his life. Working under Voldemort he had been given free rein to do what he'd previously had done only on animals to humans so long as they were not pure blooded. He'd wallowed in blood and human anguish in private and put on a more submissive front to those Ministry officials that had come to question him. It had been glorious. Then came the day that the wretched child known as Harry Potter ruined his life. He'd been in the middle of a new experiment involving an attempt to filet humans when the residual backlash from Voldemort's demise had hit him informing him beyond a doubt that Voldemort had been killed. He'd collapsed. The next time he had been coherent enough to think he'd been in St. Mungo's. Apparently the forces of good had believed that no man would be able to do the horrific things that he'd done without being under the Imperious Curse and the reason that he'd been placed in St. Mungo's was that it was generally thought that the shattering of his bonds had ruined his mind. Nearly fourteen years had passed now since he'd been admitted into St. Mungo's. He sat in a plain chair wearing the simple white robes of a patient. On his arm the Dark Mark still was apparent. When the Mark had burned once again - the first time in years - summoning all of the Death Eater's to Voldemort's side immediately he had automatically attempted to Apparate into his presence without even thinking about the Anti-Apparation fields that surrounded St. Mungo's. It had not been a pretty ending. Being repulsed by those shields was painful and had left large welts across his body. After that he'd become the model of obedience. The doctor's said that it was probably caused by the trauma of attempting to Apparate through the shields. They reasoned that since it had taken a considerable amount of trauma to get him into the condition he'd been in for fourteen years another wave of trauma might quite possibly cure him of it. This was not the case. Eric had simply realized during his recovery that if he wished to get out of St. Mungo's so that he could once again be of use to his master then he better pretend to 'recover' from the incidents that had happened so long again. Thus, he acted as if he was improving and waited - for some sign that Voldemort still knew he was loyal and had use of him. And so he waited. *** Dear Harry, Sorry, you couldn't come to the Burrow this summer, mum and dad were both upset when they found out that it'd be impossible for you to come from Dumbledore. I got new dress robes! I don't know where Fred and George got the money though. I hope they didn't do anything illegal. They made me swear that I wouldn't tell mum. Yesterday we got great news! Charlie's going to be the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher this year! We didn't have any idea that he was even thinking of taking the job. Can't wait to see you on the Hogwart's express! Ron Dear Hermione, Thank you for looking into the matter - I'll pay you back after I get money from Gringotts. Did I tell you how I found out about the cd? Dudley and Piers had turned it up and I heard the lyrics. Guess what happened to them! They got in tons of trouble, they had set the cd on repeat so they wouldn't have to worry about turning it on again and lost track of time playing in Vernon and Petunia's room. Well, Vernon and Petunia came back and found 'devil's' music playing and when they went looking for Dudley they found him and Piers jumping up and down on the bed in their room wearing - if you can believe this - Petunia's dresses. It was hilarious, I nearly made myself sick from laughing. Gotta go, Vernon's coming up the stairs angrily. Harry Hermione, We'll see you on the Hogwart's express. Both Snuffles and I are quite interested in hearing about this band called Veneficium. Bring the cd's with you. We might not be able to hear them because of the magical interference but we may be able to gleam more from the cd cases and lyrics themselves. If anything we may be able to identify some of the band members if they have anything to do with the wizarding community. If not, we'll have to try to figure out who's been feeding them information. It's a major break in the security. Tell Harry for us. Snuffles says that it'd be too difficult to attempt to get a letter through the increased security around his house. We'll see you on the 1st. Mr. Lupin and Snuffles *** It was late August and a quite day in the Department of Muggle Media Affairs at the Ministry of Magic. The department didn't really deserve to be called such seeing as it had only four members and they were all either misfits that couldn't fit into any of the other departments or old employee's that were too respected to be summarily shown the door and so ended up in a worthless excuse for a job. Nicholas Reim was of the second category. Soon to be reaching his hundredth and fortieth year he had snowy white hair (and not very much of it at that) and cloudy grey eyes. His limbs shook with age and he had to move very slowly if he didn't want his joints to ache. It was his turn on duty, he and his partner were on all this week. What they had to do was watch Muggle music channels all day long and at the end of the week report on their findings to their superior. The concept of the job was that by watching Muggle television they'd be able to keep abreast of major developments in the Muggle world, however the Minister had soon realized that the Muggles had many types of television and thus had picked one channel through which to focus. He had picked Music reasoning that the musical trends would reflect the current world issues. So far, not much had been gleaned. It seemed like a pointless job - which it was - but no one working in the department was going to complain. It was easy work with a fairly good paycheck added on. Gingerly settling himself down on the beaten up old couch that sat in front of the equally decrepid television he placed his coffee on the tray table beside him and flicked on the tv. Ah. It was one of those interview hours. It was better than some of the other programs in which you couldn't even hear yourself think because of the amounts of sound emanating from the television and all the people spent their time yelling into strange looking cones. At least during this program there'd be talking - even if he didn't quite get what they were saying most of the time. Leaning himself back into the couch he watched the show through half slitted eyes and fought to keep himself from falling asleep. After half an hour of this he got up to re-fill his coffee and was just coming back - and taking a deep sip of his drink - when he heard something that sounded an awfully lot like a spell. Hurrying over (as fast as he could move) he sat himself back down on the couch and looked intently at the tv. "Veneficium released their new cd last month didn't they, Charlene?" One of the speakers commented to his partner. "Indeed they did Louis, have you heard it yet? It's absolutely smashing." Nicholas relaxed, it was just the name of some muggle band. They probably didn't even know what the word meant. Reaching for his coffee cup he heard something that made his blood run cold. "They'll be in town September 1st, celebrating the release of the cd "Voldemort" with a concert and a special release party afterwards in which fifty special people will get to personally meet the band." "Get your ticket's now they're selling out fast!" "Haven't heard them yet? Here, let's play the title track." Shocked to the core Nicholas raised the trembling hand holding the coffee mug to his lips before having it drop nerveless from his hands scalding him with the hot liquid. He had been put here because of his inability to cope with having been tortured under the Cruciatus curse by Death Eater's so many years ago. And... And now.... That name that haunted him so badly was being paraded about by muggles... His breath caught in his throat and his trembling increased so badly that it was a huge effort for him to stand. He was going mad. What other reason what there to be hearing that name on a muggle station. They didn't know anything about him. Nothing at all. The Ministry spent millions of Galleons on keeping certain that muggles remained unaware of the presence of the magical world. Without realizing how it had happened he ended up under the desk in the next room shaking uncontrollably, tears of fright running down his face as he fought a losing battle with his memories. He was found that way by his partner. ~0ooo0ooo0~ Reviews please??? Both comments and criticism welcome. Back to Chapter 1 Onward to Chapter 3 Back to Fiction Back to Main |