Chapter 7
Dorcas was familiar with the dark nature of the death eaters that she had surrounded herself with during her time at Hogwarts. Seven years sleeping in the same room as these people, and only a year after graduation she was back with the snakes she used to weave through daily.
Dorcas would have preferred to stay off the radar of Lord Voldemort but that wouldn’t do her any good. She showed just enough of her power so that Voldemort would keep her close, but not close enough that he could grow a liking to her.
She had started off at the lower ranks that being her only way in, she didn’t have ties. After she got in, at raids she would show off her capabilities through destruction and preventing aurors from capturing death eaters. Within a week no one would even think to question her loyalties.
Except for Crouch and Rosier. She remembers the look on their face when she was introduced with the new recruits. They had been friends in school and whether she wanted to admit it or not Barty knew her.
The two of them, for some unknown reason, had gotten along the best. They weren’t much alike, Barty was loud but not in the sunshine way that Pandora was. He knew what buttons to push to get what he wanted and he used his lack of impulse control to show the people around him exactly who he would become.
Dorcas was quiet in a calculated way. She didn’t quite understand how to manipulate people to change the way Barty did; instead she knew how to adapt. She was able to use the false ideologies people made about her against them. In short, Dorcas worked with what she was given, Barty made his own tools.
Given a choice between two things Dorcas and Barty would choose different answers every time, but their blood stains the same color and their bones rot the same way. It is a sickening thing to acknowledge but the two of them could see it in each other. They never once spoke about it, it's better for the both of them that way. Though for Dorcas not speaking about it didn't make her forget it. She's sure it is the same for Barty.
“What the hell are you doing Meadows?” It was the first thing he had said to her. He had isolated the two of them in some room she hadn’t bothered to look around yet, her attention being on Crouch instead. She wasn’t surprised with his rude and blunt tone but she was shocked to hear a hint of worry.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand Crouch.” She said putting on an innocent persona in case anyone is passing by and overhears their conversation. He clearly wants to just fight her, but what would his reason be? How could he explain it?
“You got the fucking mark! I thought you were better than this?” She felt a burn course through her forearm. It felt infected, Pandora would help her reverse it. She couldn’t think about that right now. Dorcas smirked and raised one of her eyebrows, giving Crouch a look she knew he despised.
“I would watch your mouth Crouch, people might think that you don’t believe in the Dark Lord’s cause if you keep saying stuff like that.” He didn’t need a moment to know what she was referring to, but he was surprised to find that she had twisted his words in a way that made it seem like his loyalties were questionable. She was able to use that split second of surprise to get away and he did not try to follow her.
Over the next year he would watch as she meticulously climbed the ranks, falling deeper into the pit of snakes she had willingly thrown herself into.
She was not over exaggerating when she said willingly. Dumbledore had asked her to do this, yes, but it had been her choice entirely even if the old man had thought differently. Dorcas did the job that was assigned to her by Dumbledore, so he would not become suspicious of her, but she did a second job and she did that one with much more care.
Dorcas Meadows was the eyes and ears to the downfall of the Lord Voldemort. Whatever information Pandora and Regulus needed she got for them. Though she did get a little annoyed when they believed they could just beckon her to Ireland and she would show up like a genie.
She opened the door and stepped inside not caring to knock, she had her own room here, she didn’t need to knock. It looked the same as it had the last time she was here and she could smell something weird coming from the basement, Pandora must be experimenting with potions again.
All that matters is that she doesn’t smell burning so she doesn’t let any worry linger. Dorcas goes to the kitchen, there’s a window over the sink you can see out into the backyard. She looks out and surprisingly does not see him out there.
She doesn’t feel like yelling for James so she just walks through the house looking into each room for no longer than a second. There’s a lot of rooms in the house. The basement, which is Pandora’s domain and Dorcas has only been down there twice. There’s two sets of stairs, one leading up to Regulus’s library which leads into a hall where James and Regulus’ bedroom is. The other stairs lead up to a nicely decorated attic which is where Dorcas sleeps every once in a while.
She finally finds James in his room looking through a cookbook Pandora had bought him as an olive branch a month after they had met. He looked up as she knocked on the open door and he put the book on his bedside table immediately.
“I have to leave in an hour for a raid, what do you need?” James had gotten used to her bluntness over the few years they have known each other. When she first met him it was because Marlene had insisted she meet her two childhood best friends, he had been rather shocked at the fact she almost immediately called him an egotistical prick in a “polite” way. Peter had thought it was funny. Then when she reappeared in his life he didn’t blink when she continuously pointed out his childish behavior. Though she had stopped doing that.
“Glad I wrote to you then. Someone new has joined us.” Dorcas just nearly stops herself from swearing but clearly she fails to stop herself from twisting up her face because James can tell how annoyed she is.
“It’s not that bad, he can help.” He tries to reason but Dorcas' opinion does not change.
“I don’t think you understand how difficult it is to keep Pandora alive. Who is it?” The comment about Pandora is true, they have little to no regard for their own safety and it doesn’t help that they frequently push the bounds of magic just because they can.
“Remus Lupin, he came here looking for Raven because Dumbledore is getting curious about Horcruxes. He ended up joining us, took the pact and everything.” Dorcas refrains from rolling her eyes. Just another person to make sure doesn’t die, perfect.
Dorcas had also met Remus before and he was also friends with Marlene. He mainly kept to himself and didn’t talk to her, making her like him more than all of the other boys Marls hung out with. She had also seen him at almost all of the order meetings. Though she hasn’t gone to one of those things in a little over a year now.
“And we can trust him?” She asks.
“Yes.” Dorcas wasn’t asking this thinking that Remus was dark and evil, he was powerful and could do dark evil things but Dorcas could handle that if it were to miraculously happen. What she could not handle is if he were to relay all this information to Dumbledore.
James knew this is what she meant when she asked the question and ‘yes’ was his answer. Although Dorcas still doesn’t know where she stands with James she knows he isn’t stupid. She knows that if he were to make a judgment call on someone he was going to be the one closest to correct.
“Is that all?” James paused to think about it for a moment. He turned around and grabbed the cookbook from the nightstand, opening it onto a tagged page.
“Do you think Reg would like this because I’m not sure.” Dorcas smiled.
The thing James had found was scallops, it had kale and a pomegranate sauce with it. Regulus tends to be picky when it comes to sea food, or any food really but Dorcas has yet to hear him talk poorly of anything James has made.
She had told him to go for it and make the scallops three hours ago. Now Dorcas stands in a muggle town where sharp colors fly past her and at her. She knows how to survive in situations like this, though it is not in any normal way that most people would know.
Three spells are shot at her all at once. She swiped her wand and redirected the spells back at the casters but making them weaker so they will harm the caster but leave them with enough energy to protect themselves and get away. She took the excess magic for herself. She had collected quite a lot, though it was never difficult for her to do so.
After a few more redirected spells Dorcas ended up in a one on one fight. It had been one of the many aurors that worked in the ministry. Dorcas didn’t recognize him and he definitely does not recognize her. Her face was covered with a white skull mask that was carefully designed to have feathers and scales engraved in it. Maybe without the mask he might recognize her but that’s something for an alternate version of Dorcas to worry about.
Right now she had to make sure she did not waste her collected magic. She had been able to get a few spells out but he had blocked them. She redirected a spell and felt a sharp cut across her side. Someone had hit her from behind. She was prepared to send an arrow through their arm while simultaneously bringing up a shield to block whatever spell the auror was going to use next. That was until she caught a glimpse of the women's scraggly blonde hair.
Marls
Her heart skipped a beat. Her wand and shield switch places, Dorcas could do a lot of things but she couldn’t purposefully hurt Marlene. She shoots the auror with a light pink spell and once the smoke cleared all that was left was a pig. Not a day goes by that Dorcas regrets learning that spell. She sends the pig over to Marlene and accidentally crashes it into her. Dorcas takes the moment that Marlene is confused and runs past her, but it’s not long until she hears Marlene close behind her.
There’s only a few minutes left. Dorcas can work with a few minutes. She had told Dumbledore what was going to happen during this raid but she doesn’t trust him to have told Marlene so as soon as she heard the plan she decided this matter would be taken into her own hands.
Luring Marlene away was simple, Dorcas had been able to push her buttons far before they had even spoken. Dorcas would aim and crack the ground making Marlene trip while dodging all the spells she sent at Dorcas. Marlene liked the rush of chasing and she obsessed when she lost. When Dorcas left to become what she was now, she decided that she would use that knowledge to spark an obsession between this death eater version of herself and her girlfriend. She didn’t quite care how she kept Marlene in her life, just as long as they were woven together.
She heard Marlene say something but Dorcas hadn’t reacted in time. She felt her arm get sliced open slowly even though she knew in reality it had only taken a few seconds. She nearly fell with the shock of it, but she hadn’t and continued to run.
Were they far enough away now? They had to be. They were. There was less than a minute left and Dorcas knew she had enough power to get back. She flicked her wrist and with a loud crack she was somewhere entirely different. Malfoy manor.
While the lower levels of the manor were reserved for torturing and killing their enemies, the upper levels were for the exact opposite. If you are able to apperate through the first layer of wards you can get into the conservatory, at the back of the conservatory there is a large pool of water that is surrounded by narcissus flowers. If you lay down in that pool and sink beneath its surface, when you get up again you’ll be in an infirmary.
For a long while Dorcas wasn’t allowed into the infirmary and she frankly had no idea it even existed, but once she showed her skill her name was added to the list of people that had access to the small hospital.
There is a negative side to having the dark mark besides the obvious, like having to partake in killing innocent people, but you can’t heal anymore, or not all that well anyway. Dorcas could do spells that would leave scars, heal up burns and bruises but anything else is near impossible. Since Voldemort didn’t want the mass of his followers dying from infections because they hadn’t been able to properly heal their injuries, he allowed the infirmary to be set up.
It was Narcissa’s Infirmary, she ran all of it and kept it functioning, though not many people wanted to give her recognition for it and would instead thank the Dark Lord. Not that she ever said anything about it. Dorcas was never tended to by Narcissa, she was usually trying to fix whatever new mutilation her sister Bellatrix had gotten that week.
Instead Dorcas was treated by a sweet girl named Tav. It was a shortened version of her last name Travers, she was related to some other big burly man with dark hair that was only a few years older than Dorcas. She thinks they are cousins, they don’t look alike in the slightest and the only reason she knows they're related is because they share the same last name.
Travers is one of the many people Dorcas keeps conversations short with because if you talk with him it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore how insane everyone is. Tav on the other hand is delightful. Dorcas is a big fan of hers, it was mainly because if she wasn’t around Dorcas may have bled out by now, so she is more of a fan of how Tav hasn’t let her die yet.
Tav, along with being an exceptional healer, always knows when Dorcas shows up. Almost immediately after she stood up from the pool of water that was becoming red quickly, Tav appeared at her side. She hauled Dorcas from her place and started moving her to the closest empty bed.
She laid Dorcas down and took off her mask, placing it on the stand beside the bed. She silently did her work and Dorcas complied when she asked her to move or do something to make the healing process easier.
Since the first time she came here it was always unnerving to Dorcas how similar it was to the infirmary back at Hogwarts. She had never had to go in there often, only a few times. Once to find Marlene who had been visiting Remus, once because she had to bring Pandora her school work because Barty had landed himself in detention, and then a third time when Regulus had to spend a few hours there.
Sadly though the similarities between the two places brought no comfort. It only distorted her head. The constant overlap of the past and present didn’t make things easy for her. Once she got out of here it would clear up a bit.
Tav had fixed her arm and moved to the cut on the side of her stomach. She was allowed to rest her head on a pillow and then the poking and prodding began. They didn’t have numbing potions, the Dark Lord had said making potions like that would be a waste of time and resources so they would just have to deal without it.
Dorcas couldn’t shout and scream even though it felt like there was a hot blade poking at her insides. Nope, she couldn’t do that, because then she would seem weak. So instead Dorcas clenched her jaw and bit down on an imaginary towel to keep herself from making a sound.
She finally lets herself relax ten grueling minutes later when she feels her skin stitching itself back together. Tav takes a step back and wipes the bit of blood on her hands onto her apron. She messes around with a few things on the desk that Dorcas can’t get a look at, not that she cares. She was more focused on breathing properly.
“I suggest you stay here for an hour and if nothing bad happens then I’ll be kicking you out.” Tav laughs and leaves Dorcas alone. It was funny how Tav had worded it like Dorcas had an option in leaving, because Dorcas knows if she tried to leave Tav would nearly lose her mind. Besides, Dorcas trusted the child's judgment. She only recently turned seventeen and she knew that because Tav had mentioned getting allowed to apperate in the near future.
Tav was probably the only seventeen year old Dorcas would trust to heal her. She wouldn’t have even trusted her multiple year long friends to hold a pair of scissors near her. Though she thought Regulus was dead when he was seventeen, and she didn’t talk to Barty or Evan either when they were seventeen. She had known Pandora when they were seventeen and to this day Dorcas still doesn’t trust them with a pair of scissors.
Suddenly there’s a loud crash and someone starts shouting. Dorcas groans, some over dramatic idiot probably just showed up. She watches from afar and sees a man ushered over to an empty bed far away from her, but not far enough away for her to not hear his whining.
There's blood running down his face and a healer is trying to look at it and figure out what's going on but he’s not making it any easier for her by screaming so loud it resembles a banshee and calling her a bitch every four seconds.
Eventually the woman with the help of her friend had been able to calm the man down, and by calming him down she meant they bound him down to the bed so he couldn’t smack their hands away anymore. It was rather entertaining to watch even though it still didn’t shut him up.
Dorcas mocked him in her head as a way to distract her bored mind because it had nothing else to do other than wait for the hour she was forced to be here to be up. Eventually the two healers had finished what they needed to do and walked away leaving some other man to take their place. It wasn’t hard to figure out that the two men were friends.
“They barely did anything. Isn’t their entire job is to make sure we feel better.” Dorcas wanted to hit him a little bit, but that wouldn’t do anything. It wouldn’t help the man realize that maybe he would have had a more pleasant time if he wasn’t a dick. The two of them talked for a little while longer complaining about anything and everything until one of the two healers from before slowly made her way back over.
“Good news Mr. Selwyn, You're all healed up and you can head back home.” She said it as nicely as she could but it only made him angry. He gets up quickly, not even having the decency to pretend to be a bit dizzy and act like he doesn’t feel well, and starts to yell at the healer.
“There is no way in Salazar that I’m letting you get away with that half assed job you did to heal me. Do your bloody job, or are you just too incompetent to be something as simple as a healer?”
“There is nothing more I can do, but I can assure you that if you just give it some time everything will be alright. You just need to rest.”
“How about you stop being a lazy bitch that's making up excuses and just get the supplies to properly heal me.” Dorcas is sure the healer is seeing red at this point but she keeps it all under control and displays a sharp smile.
“I will go see what we can do.” She quickly pushes past the man's friend and goes to the back of the infirmary where they keep their supplies. The man takes a seat back on the bed and kicks his feet up.
“It’s starting to piss me off how the Dark Lord is treating us. He’s fucking all knowing with that crown of his and he doesn’t do anything with it.” Dorcas froze. She had almost laughed but before it could bubble past her lips it died on her tongue leaving a bitter taste.
What were they talking about? An all knowing crown, Dorcas didn’t know of one but a Diadem she knows of. One that had been one of Pandora’s many fixations and Dorcas sat and listened to them ramble on about for hours. Pandora loved mysteries, she loved solving them. That's why one like this had grabbed her like a hook does fish.
“It’s probably because he’s making it up.” The second man says.
It had been an unsolved mystery for years, and it was one about her own house. Pandora had tried to figure it out and they thought they came close, but something had stopped them. At the time Dorcas hadn’t thought about it, she was more glad she wouldn’t have to hear about it again, but had Pandora stopped because they sensed something was wrong.
“I wouldn’t be surprised, every other thing that comes out of his mouth is a lie because he's a narcissistic prick.” Had the sense of wrongness come from the fact that Voldemort had tainted it?
Tav somehow appeared beside her and nearly made Dorcas jump out her skin. “You can leave now, the hour is up.” Dorcas would like to leave. She needed to think about this at home where she could say it out loud and see if she had finally lost her mind.
She tries to act as calm as possible as she gets up and makes her way back to the pool. Tav silently walks back with her and Dorcas sees her wave goodbye just before she is submerged in the water. When she steps out of the pool again in the conservatory the first thing she thinks about is Marlene. Specifically how when this is all over she's going to have to thank her for sending her to the hospital.