The Minister
Audra circled the Minister’s house several times, creeping through the hedges as silent as a mouse. She noticed all the lights were off except those in the first floor study at the back of the house. From what she could assess, there was a hallway from the front door that led to the back. From either side of the hallway there were two rooms on each side on the first floor, making four total. The front two appeared to be a sitting room on the left and a dining room on the right. In the back there was the study and a kitchen adjacent to the dining room. There was also a staircase leading upstairs from the hallway, next to the dining room door.
Finished circling the first landing, Audra lightly leapt to the overhang to peer through the second floor’s windows. From here she could see the top of the stairs, and three rooms dividing the top floor. Keeping low, she circled and found the master bedroom on the left, a library or office of sorts on the right back, and a guest room in the front right. Although she could not see the bed properly, it appeared to be empty; there was also a lack of security leading Audra to believe the Minister and her auror guardian were downstairs.
After checking to make sure her mask and scarf completely covered her face, she made sure that every knife was in place, her wand in its pocket on her left thigh, and Idolo in her proper place on her right hip. Then very carefully, she cracked the hallway window open just wide enough to slide through. She made sure to close the window before padding softly down the stairs.
About midway down, Audra could see over the top of the handrail. Being ever so careful to not be seen, she looked towards the light coming from the half-open doorway. She could hear voices from the other side – two women; and one of the voices sounded oddly familiar…
Nimble as a cat, Audra jumped over the handrail and silently landed in a crouch. Staying still, she listened for any sign that the occupants had heard her. Hearing and seeing nothing, she stood.
Suddenly Audra felt a small prick on the nape of her neck from the tip of a wand. “Don’t move a muscle,” a voice growled in her ear. Very slowly Audra lifted her hands in the classic ‘no threat’ pose.
“I thought I smelled you, Moody,” Audra matched his growl with her own.
“Think you’ve come to kill the Minister, eh?” he asked, driving the point of his wand deeper into her skin.
Audra kept her voice down, so as not to alert the occupants of the other room. “I don’t want to kill you as well, Moody. Just let me get on with my job.”
“Not tonight, you’re not,” Moody replied, driving the wand so forcefully, Audra’s head tilted backwards.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Audra whipped around with a center block aimed at Moody’s wand arm. Knocking the arm out of the way, she followed up with a punch to his face. Moody brought his wand back up, but while aiming it, Audra caught his arm, twisted it backwards and forced the wand from his grip. Once the wand clattered to the floor, Audra kicked it away to the base of the staircase. Audra finished it up by sweeping his wooden leg out from under him, causing Moody not only to fall over backwards but also have his fake leg come off.
She heard the fizz of the curse before it whizzed right past her head, where it had been not moments before. Dropping into a cat stance, Audra turned on the balls of her feet and prepared to launch at the wall and off to catch the newcomers off guard. Her feet left the ground and landed on the wall. Bending her knees to push off, Audra launched and collided with something solid in midair. Slightly dazed, Audra fell to the ground, but not before landing two good kicks to her attacker.
Using her weight, Audra leapt from her back to her feet to meet a barrage of punches. Blocking each one, she returned the favor, and the two combatants exchanged punches, blocks, kicks, and strikes. A blow connected with Audra’s face and she felt a black eye beginning to form. Silently cursing herself for not dodging, she returned the gift with a punch that broke the adversary’s nose. Blood began to flow from the attacker’s wound and Audra stopped dead mid-swing.
“Lindsey?” she managed to ask before a roundhouse kick connected with her midsection and set her flying over Moody, who was pushing himself to his feet with his leg back on.
Audra hit the front door hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She slouched to the floor, before a wand tip under her chin brought her back to her feet. “Heard that the Dark Lord’s Second-in-Command was a skilled martial artist as well as conniving bitch,” the auror growled at the pinned Death Eater. “Now I don’t normally kill, rather hand scum like you over to the Dementors, but I think I can make an exception for the likes of you,” he said, jabbing the wand tip hard.
“Alastor, stop!” Lindsey shouted. “That’s Audra, she’s one of us!”
“The Dark Mark’s pretty easy to see on her arm, Lindsey!” he replied, his magical eye swiveling backwards to look at her.
“She’s our spy! Go ahead – ask her the security question!” she protested.
“Lindz, you never told me what the security answer was,” Audra mumbled with some difficulty; that wand was getting annoying.
Moody kept his magical eye on Lindsey. “No cheating,” he growled, his normal eye still fixed on Audra. Audra returned the glare, making sure to not show weakness as her brain racked for all possible answers. “Right,” Moody said, “what is the Answer to the Ultimate Question?”
Audra’s brain had a mini-explosion before she started to laugh. “You’re serious?” she asked, completely shocked that it was so easy. “Forty-two; the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is forty-two. And the Earth was created by Deep Thought to find the Ultimate Question for the Ultimate Answer.”
Moody displayed the tiniest flicker of rage Audra had ever seen, his two eyes still focused on both women. “I don’t believe it,” he growled.
“Alastor, she answered the question correctly,” Lindsey said, as she continued to stem the flow of blood from her nose. “And only a true Mendez would embellish on it. Let her down,” she ordered.
Very reluctantly, Moody removed his wand. “Remove your mask,” he ordered Audra. Still keeping her eyes on his wand, Audra pulled the bone white mask off of her face. She undid the knot from under her hair, and the bottom half fell off, so her entire head was exposed.
Audra looked different from what Lindsey remembered of her. Because their mental meetings were all thoughts and no vision, Lindsey had no clue what changes had taken effect on her sister. Audra’s face was slightly thinner, clearly defining her cheekbones, jaw line, and eyebrows. Her skin was paler from not seeing daylight, and she gave the distinct impression of one who has been under a lot of stress. But the eyes were not so; still dark chocolate brown, but they had the look of determination and hatred burning in them. Lindsey couldn’t see her friend, her sister, anywhere within those eyes. Never the less, she still flung her arms around Audra in a tight hug, relieved to finally do so after five long years.
Lindsey’s sudden hug caught Audra completely off guard, more so than Moody’s sudden appearance behind her a couple of minutes ago. Use to only showing any signs of compassion towards Voldemort, she didn’t know how to react. Her heart was telling her that this was her best friend, but her brain was arguing that any emotion would result in her death. Feeling her very stiff response, Lindsey let go and, embarrassed, took a few steps backwards. A very heavy silence followed.
“Audra, why are you here?” Lindsey asked, breaking the silence.
“She’s here to kill the Minister,” replied Moody.
Speaking for the first time the Minister raised her wand as she said, “Kill her.”
“Ma’am, she’s not –” began Lindsey.
“I order you to kill her,” Bagnold commanded. Moody happily turned his wand back on Audra, but Lindsey jumped in front of her, facing towards Moody and the Minister with her arms outstretched, completely shielding Audra.
“Lindsey, the Dark Lord is going after the Potters,” Audra said from behind her. Lindsey turned to face Audra, still keeping her body as a shield.
“What?” she asked, obviously hoping she had heard Audra wrong, “but He can’t?”
“That’s why He sent me here to kill the Minister. He said with Bagnold and Potter dead, He can take the Ministry without opposition.” Audra searched her friend’s eyes, looking for any sign of hope.
“But… He can’t… Sirius is their Secret Keeper. And he’d rather die…”
“I know,” Audra said. “That’s what I told Him. He implied that it wasn’t Sirius.”
“Or perhaps Black decided to show his true colors,” growled Moody. Lindsey and Audra both turned to look at the auror. “We’ve had a spy in our ranks as well. Perhaps Black wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps, show his true nature.”
“Regulus was killed last month,” Audra said. “He betrayed the Dark Lord. Punishment for turning is death,” she stated.
Lindsey added, “No, it’s not like Sirius… unless…”
“Unless what?” Audra questioned.
“Unless he wanted to get closer to you, Audra,” she finished. Audra looked stunned. “These past five years have been hard on him; he misses you. And if the only way for him to see you again was to betray Lily and James –”
Audra cut her off. “His love for James is greater than his love for me.”
“Wait… what are you talking about?” asked Bagnold.
Audra sized the woman up before replying, “Sirius Black is my husband; has been since before I went undercover. No one else knows, in case the Dark Lord ever found out. And he wouldn’t do that, Lindsey,” she said, readdressing the woman.
Lindsey had taken to pacing a short path down the hallway. Audra watched her, but was still well aware of the two wands directed at her; she made sure to keep her hands visible so as not to startle them. “But You-Know-Who can’t get to James and Lily… He just can’t… Dumbledore will prevent Him…”
“I had message sent to Dumbledore; someone I trust will make sure he knows before the Dark Lord finds the Potters,” Audra said. “And because of that, I know I’m guaranteed to be punished for His inability to kill the boy. Which means that if I don’t do what I was sent to… it’s a death sentence for me,” Audra’s eyes locked onto the Minister as she said this.
This time Lindsey stepped in front of the Minister, shielding her from Audra. “You can’t Audra, you know you –”
“I know Lindsey!” Audra replied, frustrated. “I know! But I have to! You don’t know what it’s like being me! You have no idea how it feels to know at any second He could find out!” The words were flowing out of Audra’s mouth like a dam at its breaking point; she had wanted to say this for a long time. “To live so close to the edge, every second, every day, worried that someone will betray you; worried that your drink will be spiked and you’ll be dead, or worse, caught. To stand aside and watch your friends die and you’re unable to do anything! Because the mission is more important than your morals. To be used, to be abused, to be treated like dirt! I don’t have any other choice! I have to –”
But what she had to do, they never found out, for something very strange happened. Audra let out a scream and clutched her left forearm as she fell to her knees. Gritting her teeth from the pain, she removed her hand and frantically watched her Mark change. It had begun to glow red, but not the kind that alerts her to meetings; it was dark crimson, like blood. Horrified, she watched as the blood oozed from the ink lines and across her arm, forming a spider web. “Something’s happened!” she yelled. Still appalled, she watched as the snake protruding from the mouth began moving, slithering this way and that, and eventually to her wrist where it bit into her skin. She screamed at the pain, actual blood now dripping from the fang marks. “Shit! He’s dead! Something’s happened! The Dark Lord is dead!” Her wild eyes looked up into Lindsey’s who had crouched down in front of her. “I’ve taken His command,” her breaths were coming out in ragged heaves. “Arrest me… arrest me now!”
Moody didn’t need telling twice. With his wand still pointed at her, he muttered “Stupefy,” and Audra fell, eyes still wide with fear.