"Master..."
Upon hearing this title, Avery almost couldn't help but repeat it, and the next moment, he suddenly felt an unbearable pain from his wrist. The man knew very well what that represented, but—
He instinctively looked around. Obviously, he was not the only one enduring this torment.
The foul-smelling ship cabin echoed with gasps, as more than a dozen Death Eaters simultaneously clutched their left arms, under the cover of their black robes, eerie green light seeped through. The only one who didn't feel that pain was Lucius Malfoy, who trembled while kneeling on the spot, unable to calm the turmoil in his heart...
He hadn't mentioned this "annual meeting" of former Death Eaters to William, yet the other appeared here anyway...
Surveillance... a cold feeling suddenly washed over the man, he clearly remembered that even ten years ago, the Dark Lord never "cared" for his subordinates in this manner.
Thankfully, he hadn't had the chance to speak...
"Stop putting on airs!" Amycus Carrow suddenly erupted, the tip of his magic wand burst with red light, tearing through the stagnant air, "Cruci... (Crucio...)"
But before the spell was fully uttered, a deep blue flame shot out from the dark, wrapped around the mid-air spell, violently twisting the Crucio curse in a different direction. Amycus had no time to react before his own spell backfired like a vengeful snake, throwing him onto a barrel of pickled fish, the stinking juices splashing onto Narcissa Malfoy's dress.
"Brother!"
Alecto's scream pierced the darkness, carried by the green light of the Killing Curse, but the green glow struck something armoured in the dark and scattered into sparks, revealing a massive silhouette. The basilisk's head, concealed by a leather eye patch, turned slightly, and its tail fin swept across, slamming Alecto into the leaking seams of the cabin wall.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." William stepped out from behind the coiled body of the basilisk, extinguishing the flame in his palm.
The rotten cod suddenly thrashed violently in the barrel, its mouth opening and closing with a serpent-like hiss, causing the Death Eaters to feel a tingle of numbness. They reflexively rolled up their sleeves, only to be horrified to find the long-absent Dark Mark reappearing; the sinister skull pattern squirmed frantically beneath their skin, and from their palms, deep blue flames emerged like living creatures, gnawing at the pitch-black skull-snake emblem.
Someone attempted to sever the flame with the Diffindo spell, but the charm pierced the arm and struck the cabin wall, exploding in a burst of stinking algae.
"Malfoy!" Corban Yaxley suddenly pressed his magic wand against Lucius's throat, his voice hoarse, "How dare you use Transfiguration to create a fake to fool—"
The basilisk's tail fin swept unexpectedly, flinging Yaxley against the wall, his body cracking audibly as bones snapped.
The beast's rugged fins scraped over everyone's heads, the stirred air mixed with the putrid smell of blood. When its dark green tail tip hovered above Lucius's head, a drop of the foul poison happened to drip onto the Malfoy patriarch's pale lapel, searing a charred mark.
"Very well," William snapped his fingers, and the deep blue flames on everyone's wrists completely consumed the inescapable Dark Mark, "it seems the transformation project is perfectly complete."
Not a fake—
Yaxley's fate served as a warning to everyone.
"Mas... Master..."
Amycus struggled to climb from the pile of fish, his body still trembling from the effects of the Crucio curse. The man mimicked the nearby Malfoys, kneeling on one knee, his head lowered as blood uncontrollably dripped from his lips to the floor.
"It seems you're not entirely beyond salvation yet..."
William walked slowly through the crowd. The Death Eaters were already kneeling en masse, and he stopped in the center of the room, meeting the gaze of a rotting cod's hollow eyes pinned by twelve candles—he still couldn't comprehend the bizarre aesthetics of these Pure-Blood Wizards.
The room instantly plunged into an eerie silence, the festive sounds of a circus performance echoing from afar, only to be drowned by the waves crashing against the iron hull.
Alecto struggled out of the crevice, her left arm twisted at an unnatural angle, deep blue patterns climbing over most of her face, her appearance made even more hideously grotesque due to generations of inbreeding. Trembling, she knelt at William's feet, trying to kiss the tips of his shoes with blood-tinged lips.
Tsk.
Not even as good-looking as Malfoy's wife...
Mercilessly, William kicked her aside, and patting the scales beside him, the basilisk obediently receded into the darkness beyond the cabin door. As the sound of scales scraping against metal gradually faded away, Lucius cautiously lifted his head—
The next moment, the man's breath stilled for a moment as he noticed the sardonic expression on William's face.
"Mas... Master—"
Malfoy reacted reflexively, raising his head with utmost humility, his trembling voice saying—
"I am carrying out the task you assigned, but before bringing them to you, I still need to conduct a... a selection, to find the traitors among them, after all, you have been gone for ten years, and there will inevitably be some who..."
Right, this was the excuse Malfoy had thought up in advance, not only to give William an explanation but also to distance himself from the matter.
Damn, have you, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, really betrayed the revolution?
Seeing Malfoy point the finger at everyone, the group of Death Eaters could not sit still. Although the sudden turn of events left their minds somewhat blurred, if the person before them truly was the Dark Lord who vanished over a decade ago, then once he believed Malfoy's "slander," their fate would be...
Damn, got to find a way to shut that fool up.
"Enough," before the Death Eaters could wrack their brains to intervene, William interrupted Malfoy, casting his gaze over the disheveled crowd, and spoke slowly, "Now is a time where every person is needed, I am willing to overlook your betrayal and disloyalty..."
"Bang—"
A sudden, violent shock interrupted William's persuasive speech, and the next moment, the whole ship began to sway.
Slightly confused, William raised his head, how could he not recall tonight's playbill having such an exciting performance?
...
Meanwhile, at the Dursley house on Great Britain Island.
"Hiss—"
Harry, just past the kitchen, fell to the ground, clutching his forehead, his face filled with agonizing pain.
"Boy, don't think you can scare me by making that weird noise..."
Vernon Dursley stiffened his neck, a flushed face betraying his inner unease, after all, Harry's current state was rather frightening, pale as a sheet, lying weakly on the floor, his mouth constantly emitting a hissing sound...
If not for knowing the little brat was a wizard, he'd probably assume Harry was having a seizure.
"Shut up!"
Harry growled, interrupting his prattling uncle, the torturous pain had just subsided, yet for some reason, he felt he was not in the Dursley house but in a pitch-black forest...
"...who are you?"
The next moment, a sinister voice suddenly spoke in Harry's ear.