“Alohomora,” I say quietly, and the front door swings open.

“They’re still in bed,” Draco whispers as he goes through the bottom floor, finding it empty.

I nod in understanding and lead the way to the upper level. The layout of the house is like many others found throughout the country, so I know where to look first for the master bedroom. They follow me down the hallway until we reach the third door on the right. I ease is open and, sure enough, there are to lumps of blankets snoring in the bed.

I give a small hand wave and we enter the bedroom. After pushing the covers back slightly on the right side, a man’s face greets mine. Draco steps to my side and yells, “Avada Kedavra!” so loudly that the woman next to him jumps up and out of her sleep. Before she can scream, Crabbe curses her too while a bright, shining green light erupts in the room.

Everything falls quiet and I race to the other side of the bed. I push the dead woman down and cover her back up, not wanting too look at her face.

Thump.

“What was that?” Crabbe asks, looking around wildly.

“It came from another room,” I respond.

I turn to see Draco leaning up against a wall casually.

“Oh, did I forget to mention it?” he asks. “They have kids - a boy and a girl. We need to get them, too.”

My jaw drops open. “I didn’t sign up to kill kids.”

“No, you didn’t,” Draco agrees, but I know that’s not the end of it. “But you signed up to do what our Master says. Therefore, we’re going to do it. I’ll take the girl ... she’s about thirteen, I hear.”

He licks his lips and walks out of the room. I don’t follow, because God only knows what he’ll do to the girl before - or after - he kills her. I shake my head and pull a Gallon out of my pocket. “Heads up, you kill the boy. Serial number - I’ll do it.”

Crabbe nods, and I flip it up, praying to some God I don’t know, praying that it’ll land on heads. I catch it, flip it over onto the back of my hand, and look. Serial number.

I groan, put the coin back into it’s place, and walk across the hall to the bedroom. In the room over, I hear muffled noises, telling me he hasn’t killed her yet.

The door in front of me swings open before I touch it and I look down. A small boy, probably no older than five or six, looks up at me. He has deep brown eyes and sandy blonde hair. A teddy bear is tucked in-between his arm and his side and his thumb is in his mouth.

He pulls his thumb out of his mouth and smiles at me. He’s missing a tooth in the front, but it only makes him cuter. He looks so much like my little brother.

The girl’s bedroom falls silent and Draco comes out, his hair tousled. “You done it - what’re you doing?”

I look between the boy and Draco, and I bite my lip. “I ... I can’t.”

“You can,” Malfoy says, and looks at the boy. “You, go get in your bed - now!”

The boys eyes grow big and he runs into his room. I can hear him sobbing.

As soon as he’s gone, Draco shoves me up against the wall. “You’re being weak, and I won’t stand for it. You know the Dark Lord won’t. Get in there and do your job so we can leave. We only have a little while to get back to the school.

He storms back to where the parents lay. I take a deep breath, then follow my orders. The boy is on his bed, and his sobs have turned into silent crying. He looks back up at me, hopefully, tears still streaming down him face. “Bad man,” he whispers, and I know he’s talking about Draco.

I nod, then ask him nicely to lay down. He does as I request, then pulls his covers up over him, but he will not close his eyes and instead watches me with that big, hopeful grin, and he still looks so much like my little brother.

“Your parents and your sister love you,” I utter, and I pull out my wand. He knows something bad is about to happen, so he starts squirming. “Avada Kedavra!”

As I leave, I look back at the boy, now dead. His teddy bear is still in his arms and all looks of hope are gone, replaced by one of sheer terror.