Harshing appeared in house in an eddy of black smoke. Several other death eaters appeared around him. This was the reunion party and he had pulled out all the stops.

He had decorated his house lavishly with pictures of torture, signs of the dark mark and artefacts from the past depicting pure blood supremecy. The works of Wagner were playing in the background lightly to add a jubilent and dangerous mood to the event.

None of them were masked now, there was no need to be.

OOC:If you are an NDE just join this topic.

((ok- I got Flame, Lycs and Greyback here... Will make it clear who I'm posting))

Flame was one of the first to arrive, black hair worn long, fringe shaped to cover her right eye and then meet with the flow of the shape of her hair. Her left eye burned coldly in it's own lake of icy fire, grey like steel. Her skin was as pale as the paper on which the muggles wrote, trying to be great when they were not. Her lips were painted black as the night sky, and she had spelled diamands onto her cheeks which looked like the tears she refused to shed for the chld snatched from her.

With her was Anima, dark hair brushed in it's usual rugged style, dark eyes alight with a passion they rarely saw. He watched her carefully, fearing anothe outburst like in the headmasters office a few days before.

Soon after, the aged werewolf entered, yellow nails dirty, smell f blood clinging to torn robes. Teeth bared slightly, plaque-covered, as he passed an old enemy and then he settled, watching.

Flame walked over to her father and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Father, where is he?" she asked, though she sounded uncaring and Lycs walked over, whispering so it was inaudible to Flame, in harshing's ear that they needed to talk.

OOC: lol - you accepted Harshing's name suggestion.

BIC:

Harshing smiled at his daughter. He would mold her into a fine witch. His grandson would become a great wizard as well one day. By then, John James would look up to his granddad and would see the leader of a new world order.

"He is in the back playing with Grendal, I have already introduced him to magic, very soon, with your permission he shall be branded with the dark mark, I shall make the process pain free."

((I did. I love that picture to though... It just made me think of him.))

Flame had never met this Grebdal, but what she heard about him wasn't good and she visibly flinched. Was he not a monster, worse than her father when he got going? And how, exactly, had her father introduced her son to magic? Tortured him? Why so many thoughts of this natured played through her mind was a mystery, she just didn't trust her father at that time, there was something going on with her son- something she didn't know about. She felt she was already being pushed from his life as if she was going to have some negative effect.

"Grendal?" she sounded as unhappy as she looked, and she looked like she was going to kill someone. Then she rectified herself, scared of her father and how he might hurt her, as he had in the past, before she served on his every whim. "Pain free, father, is something such a process never has and never will be. And why mark him so young? He won't be any help." She just didn't want him marked because she'd had to work hard to earn her brand.

Harshing smiled when she voiced her doubts about Grendal. "Grendal is a puppet, I have controlled his mind since he rejoined us. Grendal is capable of nothing other than following orders - a simple animal, a degenerate, hideous puppet." Harshing smiled at the atrocities he had forced Grendal to commit over the years, to keep himself out of the reach of the law.

"The Mark must be flourished upon him, he will grow to be a great Wizard. And yes, I have shown him my powers, entertained him, made him think he could do some. As babies like to see."

She stared at her father, unbelieving. Her teeth gritten, his fists clenched and it was all she could do to prevent herself snatching her wand and attacking the wretched man she called father. Even if Grendal was a pupper to let him free with her child- it was a crime against her, an attack she took personally.

"He is not to be left in the care of that... that... thing." she had been about to call him a monster, but he didn't even deserve that title in her mind. This reminded her of her conversation with Fox about how parents used you for their own purposes, lived through you, except her father was living through her son, not his own.

"The mark upon a baby is unheard of. What does it matter what he'll grow into? The cause might fail again- you know that damn well. I won't have him marked and dragged into all of this." She stared at her father, obviously not trusting him at the time, on the brink of walking out at that moment with heer son.

"And how did you show him? If you have done anything like what you did to the Hunter girl and her son to him I swear I'll take you down if it's the last thing I do."

He grabbed her neck and clenched tight. His eyes dilated into tiny pupils, rose veins pulsing. "Never speak to me like that again," he hissed, trying to to attract others attention. "And what you are saying is heresy. The cause will not fail. I am in charge this time." He released her after a moment of pure resentment.

"Do you really think I would leave the only male heir of the Harshing line with a freak like Grendal if I could not control him. I am connected with his mind always you fool, I control his thoughts, use his vicious emotions when I need to - transform him into a simple marionette for other things. " He struck her across the face.

Harshing gave a thin smile. "No, I do not have to give answers to my daughter. You will follow the cause with every ounce of flesh you have. You will sacrifice your son for the cause if the day occurs. The cause is everything, and you Flame will be intrinsic to it. Do not make me force you to obey me."

She stared at him, pulled at his fingers to try and loosen them as she struggled to breathe. She hated his temper, hated how he pushed her to the limit and always expected perfection. She wasn't perfect. She never had been and never would be perfect. There were times when she loved him, yes, but times like these were not included.

"It doesn't matter who's in charge." she spat. "It's the strength of the resistance. Yes, there isn't one yet, but we know there will be. We have failed every time. Why should I expect more this time? I can't keep on going having my hopes broken." She was shaking, half from fear and half from anger.

"I'm not saying you can't control the thing, I'm saying I don't want my son left with it. He is my son, with one move I could take him away from here and you would never, I repeat never see him again. Do you want that?" She rubbed her cheek, still staring at her father, growing ever more fearful.

"You did, didn't you? You used the cruciatus curse on my son. I won't have it, Harshing, he's my son, and I won't let him go through what I did as a child. And I'll be as faithful as I wish, you can't control me, noone has ever managed to control me fully. I fight back, remember."

Harshing struck her again, this time loud enough so those in the party would hear and see. "I am not like your b*tch mother who destroys her own family. I cherish family, cherish livelihood and crush only those who stand in the way to greatness. We, as the Neo Death Eaters shall conquer the world as brethren and then distill it until there is a master race of purebloods to rule the degenerate races."

He moved back. "Perhaps I have raised a degenerate myself with you Flame. We cannot have doubters among our ranks. We must be fanatically passionate. Doubt leads to destruction. Doubt is what they want us to feel. Doubt, my daughter, is exactly what you will not feel."

He drew his wand threw the air to push her magically into the corner of the room and hold her there.

His eyes moved and Grendal appeared holding the baby. "Bring him here." Harshing took the baby (who was actually unharmed). "I am trusting you with this baby. If you ever attempt to remove it from me, its Grandsire then you shall be hunted down and killed."

She stared at her father, still refusing to show much sign of pain, even though he'd smacked her hard, harder than ever in the past, even when he'd used violence to try and control her. He'd suceeded for a while, of course, but she had a mind of her own, few people had ever managed to control her at all, though Harshing had gone further than most.

"You're not like my mother? Prove it. For you do destroy your own family. You have no idea what you've done to me." Her eyes narrowed, her teeth bared a little. She was stopping herself attacking him, just, though every fibre of her being wished to lunge for him, she was holding back.

She saw Lycs approach her father again, stare at him, heard the words about them needing to speak at that very moment. Obviously, Lycs could see she was struggling.

"How can I not feel doubt? Someone said we would have no leader, yet you've just declared yourself leader to me. That means they take you and the rest will break down, just like before. I feel doubt because it was planted in my bones the day Potter killed the dark lord and our cause crumbled. With a leader there will always be doubt."

She was pushed into the corner by a magical force and that was it, she flipped, she grabbed her own wand and counteracted her father's spell, and walked towards him, having lost control again.

Harshing was lost for a second, lips trembling, eyes rattling. Every part of him was shaking madly. "Back down Flame." His wand was braced in a duelling pose. "The NDE is a brethren, I am merely the face of the brethren, there is no master here. We are a comradeship. Now. Back down." Harshing held the baby tight.

"The NDE must stick together." Chains fired from his wand at her, black, lightning chains.

The power had taken control, she had no way to back down, she had no power over her body, or it's movements, and as was usual voice changed from cold to steel, face changed from passive to aggressive, she'd lost it, and now Harshing was going to face the dire consequences.

Wand flicked and chains were cast aside as if they were nothing, teeth bared in strange fashion.

"You want to be the master, well I won't let you be master." she snarled. "Because you don't know where respect is needed, and now I'll show you."

***

Lycs watched on, helpless. He knew the only way to calm her down ws the potion and she didn't have that here, the only chance he had was to find something to distract her.

"Flame, remember, you need to stay calm. You could hurt him, your baby, you could hurt your child. You don't want to hurt him Flame- you'd be as bad as them."

***

Flame paused and stared at Lycs, seeming to calm down a little. "But he needs to know respect, he can't treat me like that!"

***

"Teach him another day, Flame, don't put the child at risk."

***

Flame calmed down, fell into a strange state, shaking on the ground, scared.

***

Lycs looked at his cousin. "I think we need to talk about what just happened, cousin."

Harshing raised his eyebrow at the little performance. She would not teach him anything. Flame's little problem possibly made her stronger - but stronger than a 60 year old Mensmage? Harshing seriously doubted it - she was, after all, still at Hogwarts. He turned on his heels to Lycs.

"There is nothing to discuss. She has not grown up and is not ready for the NDE. I was right all along, never let students dabble in adult organisations."

He turned to Flame again. "Go back to Hogwarts and play house points with the other children. You are not ready for the real world yet." Harshing stormed from the room.

Lycs stared at his cousin and shook his head.

"No, cousin. I'm over-ruling you this time. I don't care what you say. You said that there was no leader, and she's right in saying you are basically acting leader to a leader-less group. If there's going to be a leader, he needs to listen to the others in the group. You weren't listening." He stared at his cousin.

"The girl is powerful, she needs guidance Harshing. Noone at the school has her sort of power, none of them can even begin to help her control it. She's coped the best she can on her own, she needs someone who knows what they're talking about Harshing. The only person I can think of is you." he paused and walked over to Flame pulling her close to him.

"She stays in the group, with restrictions placed on her mind by you, Hrshing, to keep her under a certain amount of control. The other personality, when released on the people we need it to be, will prove to be perfect. If you can control Grendal your fifth year daughter should be no problem."

***

Flame stared at Lycs, and began to mouth no, she didn't need her father, but his hand was over her mouth before she could even say no. It was annoying, why did Lycs have to do this to her?

Harshing stared at Lycs for several moments and turned back to Flame, his wand turning in his hand. He could detect the strangeness about her mental aura with his mensmagic. She did need controlling. He looked straight into her eyes and prepared to enter her mind. He was disabling natures barriers until he could completely get in. "It will hurt but do not resist, I shall help you," he whispered.

She stared at her father, scared, thinking he was going to hurt her as her mother had done, he was so angry, she had been so foolish, but he told her he was going to help, she had to resist the urge to resist him because it would hurt. She bit her lip and nodded, scared.

He entered the vastness that was the human mind. He navigated around it like an expert, unlocking various doors, collapsing and rebuilding mental ties and barried with a simple thought. He got to her power source, always represented in the mind like an egg on fire, this one was spluttering out of control, affecting all her other sources of energy, sense and thoughts. With a complex magical action he wrapped the burning edge in a mental barrier which suffocated and doused its flame slightly. Then it turned into ropes and gagged the power source, restraining it like a harness on a horse.

Harshing however did not retreat. He moved to the memory section of the mind and collapsed the barrier in an instant. He moved a fragment of his own magic and placed it inside of her so he would have a constant mental connection with flame - be able to see through her eyes, read her thoughts, monitor her every passing thought, control her.

He rebuilt the barriers and moved from her mind and back into the real world, in his physical form.

He was transfixed on her. "You inherited nothing from your mother, and everything from me," he said simply. "She never had that amount of power."

She could feel it, had to keep stopping herself from resisting him. It hurt, she could feel it as her mind was invaded, she was struggling outside so she didn't do so inside and Lycs held her close to him, tightly, so she could hardly move outside anyway.

When he came out she looked up at him, eyes wide, struggling ceased. "I would not wish to inherit things from her, she was a foul woman who should never have existed." Flame replied.

Harshing shrugged. "She was loyal, that was all. It is sad that my own hand did not kill her, I would have much liked to see how the mighty fell.." He smiled. The reunion had been a chaotic sham. He had to reliven it.

Slaves brought in female muggles. "Our entertainment," he shouted to the NDEs.

Flame stared at him and saw the muggles. A wide smile crept upon her features. Now they'd have some fun. She saw Greyback lunge at one, biting the precious neck of a young female, she saw Lycs attack viciously with curses she would never use, she had her method- the only thing she did get from her mother, and that was the cruciatus curse. But she wasn't enthralled at the time, she just looked at her father, seeking his advice.

Sean Owen was enjoying the party. He approached Coldstone and outstretched his hand. Pushing his sleeve up his arm, showing his Dark Mark.

"I haven't had the pleasure of formerly introducing myself to you, Coldstone. I am Sean Owen."