A Price Will Be Paid

So the day started and so the day shall end. This saying ran Danny's blood cold as he stepped into what appeared to be an empty husk of a village, a large gust of wind blowing shards of leaves through the air. With no sound and no life, it was an eery thought, to be stepping into what appeared to be a brutal slaughter. The Muggle police had done a good job of getting all the corpses out of the area, more than likely that they hadn't left a hair or flake behind. That meant bad news for Danny though, he needed to find some sort of trail, some sort of evidence to prove that this was something more than a Muggle murdering a village. Right off the bat, he had noticed something. No blood tainted the soil from where he stood. The only serious incriminating evidence was what appeared to be a destroyed building, most of the rubble and remains charred. It seemed large enough to hold a large group of people, the building possibly could've been a pub or a hotel. He wondered how many people were in that building at the time of the fire.

A breath of forlorn air ran past his lips. Who in the world could slaughter so many people in one night? It made him believe that this was something more than just a one man operation. Chances were, it had to be at least four or more, there was no way a single human being could slaughter this many people in what appeared to be a short time. From initial reports from the Muggle police, he had heard that many of the occupants had died unexpectedly. No evidence of a heart attack or a stroke or anything like that. They were just found dead where they had fallen. That thought immediately brought to his mind of the Death Eaters. This had to be their work, it just had to be. With almost a guilty agony, he continued his slow, monotonous pace, the feeling quickly taking over his body. He had dealt with death and destruction before, but these were innocent people. They had no quarrel with anyone, and they had no reason to hate anyone. He wasn't going to let the Death Eaters, or whoever had done this act, get away with it.

He stopped at one of the houses that looked like so many of the others and he took a step inside the open doorway, scanning the room for any abnormal signs or changes that may be considered as evidence. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, an overturned chair in the corner one of the placeable rugs shriveled up, but as he turned his head, he noticed a large pool of blood sitting beside him near the front door. Immediately stricken curious, Danny knelt beside the blood, a sadness befalling his body. There was enough blood on the ground to kill off a human being. Whoever had fallen here was more than likely dead before the cops could reach him. He shook his head slowly, his gut feeling twisted and contorted. The bastards.

There was no way someone could be this heartless. Or that only one person would be able to cause so many deaths in one night. He didn't understand how something like this could just ... happen. Without anyone else noticing til now. The fact that there was not much evidence left around, and barely any bloodshed anywhere meant that it was all planned to a point where he didn't even want to think about it anymore. No blood anywhere made him immediately think of the Death Eaters. They were the only ones who could do something like this without holding back.

The muggle police had gotten all the corpses out of the way and it made Jake sick to see that there wasn't even enough remorse or guilt, anything to keep them from even killing children. It all just made him sick. No one even put up a fight from what he could tell, which meant that they were probably killed quickly or they didn't know how to react to whatever had happened. Something was probably so surprising to them that they couldn't even wrap their minds around the fact that they could've fought back or at least done something else that might've been able to keep them alive. Even if it was only for a little bit longer.

Whoever had done this had to be stopped, whether it was the Death Eaters or someone else. They had to be stopped somehow. There had to be some kind of clues to show who did this. And even if there weren't that still proved that this wasn't something a muggle did. Jake walked into a house not far from the center of the village and looked around for some kind of evidence, but there wasn't much to see. The only thing that had been moved in that house was a shattered lamp that was on the floor. Someone probably knocked it over in their panic. He sighed softly, no evidence ... that just made him think of the Death Eaters even more.

Jack had found the park, and she believed this was the worst part of the entire murder scene in the entire village. Here was where the young survivor had been found, amongst the bodies of her young friends, completely distraught. The girl had been put in Mungo's to stabilize her mental condition, but the scene had not been reversed. Jack pulled out a camera and strolled, taking pictures.

Evidence was good, but Jack needed to clean up eventually. The pictures would serve as a reminder to the public and she could help restore the village to its former glory and help those affected move on. With a few flicks of her wand, the over-sized fence shrunk to its original height and blood began to clean from the scene. She looked up, watching people enter the houses and she set about fixing the park swings.

It was still a horrible circumstance for the kid, couldn't be more than 15 or 16. Looked like he opened the door willingly to allow his assailant in, only to be cut down by what appeared to be a Sectumsempra. That, or the murderer wielding an axe and made precise cutting points over vital organs. He would assume it was just the spell, and nothing more. Danny shook his head once more and sighed, fearing what this kid must've saw before his death. Standing back up, he looked around the living room, so visual evidence clear. He noticed an imprint in the carpeting though, with what appeared to be a human body stretched out on the floor. Must've gotten hit with the Killing Curse. He concluded that the man must've killed the adult first, making the child watch, only to cut him down moments later. A horrible fate.

Stepping back outside, not wanting to nauseate himself any further, Danny began to walk about the small village some more. There were too many places to search, it should never been that expansive, in any given situation. Picking up his pace around the town, he set off to find another Order member, someone possibly may have found something else. After a minute of roaming, he noticed a familiar face nearby. It was Jack. Setting himself on a slight jog, he quickly approached the red haired woman. "Did you find anything?" he asked with a grim attitude. Seemed as if nothing wrong happened here, besides a broken fence or two.

Danny approached and Jack looked up, having just finished the swing set. "This is where they found the survivor. An eighteen year old girl, amidst her slaughtered friends. One of them was her boyfriend, another was a cousin, the rest were neighborhood friends. She helped kill them." Everyone knew the story- the girl had told everyone at Mungo's and rumors leaked out. 'She made me kill my friends. She wanted the worst to live. I'm the worst, I'm the worst, I get to live to keep evil alive!'

Jack shook her head. "There was a lot of blood. Flesh and bone fragments too." Jack had seen worse, yes, so she kept a level head, though her stomach churned. She had always taken the hardest jobs, and she didn't think anyone else would have stomached it. The body had been removed from here, since it had been out in the open, but the blood, bits of fingers and scalps, they all remained. Only two had died by magic. They had all chosen to murder each other to live. Only one survived.

Jack blinked. "I have it covered."

"Jesus," he thought out loud, looking around the small area. These people had something wrong with them, but then again, Death Eaters always had something wrong with them. He sighed, knowing they could possibly face more of these gruesome sights unless they did something. "We should go talk to her later on," he said, in more of a caring voice than he would've liked "No one should face something like that...we gotta help her." He had never been in a position like that before...killing your own friends? Oh wait...he had gotten close to something like that before, but that was besides the point.

He began to walk slowly around the area, the wind causing his spine to chill, sending shakes throughout his body. "We can't let them get away with this," he said softly, a sharp anger rising within him "we can't let any of those bastards live...we just...can't." Perhaps he was a little too extreme, but that's he usually reacted. The order would have to hold him back if he ever found the person that made these kids do it. He would tear him apart. He fell to one knee next to some blood stained grass, Danny plucking the blade from the root and lifting it closer to his eyes. He wasn't a forensic expert, but it appeared dried enough to show they had been dead for quite some time. "Do we have any other clue as to what happened here?" he said in a strained voice

Danny spoke and Jack vaguely wondered how someone could involve themselves so much without informing themselves either. "She's been treated at Mungo's. Probably did the nice thing and just wiped her memory completely clean, and now they are working their psychological help of repressing any memories that might have somehow survived when they worked on her. This is one of those things better forgotten than discussed." And with that, the last of the jungle gym repaired itself.

"Killing them all off will create a scene as pretty as this was," Jack said, sharply looking at the man. "I do not enjoy wiping away brain fragments of anyone, muggle or Death Eater. If you want to kill them all, I'll leave you to clean the mess." He continued to speak and she shrugged. "No idea. It seemed random. I don't think the motive was anything more than a reminder of their strength."

Seemed illogical for a Death Eater to leave a survivor to the events, he figured it'd be too much evidence towards the one that let her life, which meant that person would leave a paper trail for them to follow. Perhaps this would be a good break in this case, but he couldn't say anything for certain until they had something in their hands. Even though the possibilities of such a scenario were high, their chances were probably ruined by this point if they had erased her memory. Hopefully they had been smart and put her nightmarish memories in a pensieve for someone else to look at, but they would probably take the ethical route on this one and just wipe it clean.

Danny looked coldly out at the scenery, the harsh reminder of what he fought for still glistening in his mind. "They call me a pretty good janitor," he said blankly, returning his gaze back to Jack. He was no stranger to murder, and he was no stranger to covering up the scene. Maybe that's why the ministry kept his background hushed, he knew how a crime scene worked. He placed his hand on his chin in thought, his mind drifting off to possible motives towards the crime. It made for them to show power out of random murders, that seemed to be what they were best at. "I think we need to make a list of other places they could attack," he said "we can't let anymore small villages get ambushed like this."

Jack dealt with violence and vengeance much too often to appreciate it from the members of the Order combatting said sins. She wanted action from the Order, yes, but the wrong sort of action could be as descructive, if not more so, than refusing to act at all. Danny might be Andrew's brother but Jack desired nothing more than to extract herself from this one on one task with the man. She had just wiped brains from park pavement; she was not in the mood to argue ethics with the eldest Thompson.

"How do you propose to distinguish villages more likely to be targeted than others? The Death Eaters can travel anywhere. And if they succeeded on such a small scale, what will keep them from trying for something bigger. They are proud and ambitious. It may not be a smuggle village next time. And it might not be small."

"Have you ever seen those movies that had a giant snowball rushing down to a village and everyone was doomed?" he asked casually, his thoughts mostly elsewhere "For that large snowball to become a threat it must first have enough speed to build itself up. From then on, it collects more and more snow until it finally becomes something out of a stereotypical nightmare. Just by attacking one village doesn't mean they'd go and kill an entire country or city. They'd need time to gather more forces, to make an even greater impact on what they were attacking. I figure this is just phase A, we need to keep an eye out for phase B, no matter what the cost." He hadn't sounded that smart in a while. It was nice.

If anything, the new leader of the Death Eaters sounded smart compared to some of the other leaders. He didn't let his ego take control of himself like Voldemort had done, and he didn't do the oddest things like Ne'Os had done. No, he was careful, and he was planning. Whoever the hell that guy was, he was planning for something big, but he needed to make sure he had the followers ready and loyal to him. A sudden thought emerged in his head. "This was possibly a chance for his followers to prove their worthiness," he said suddenly "he's not just planning to do more massacres, he was just testing to see what they would and could do. I'd say he's planning for something more elaborate."