After disposing of the bodies of three Death Eaters or better to say, after making them comfortable on chairs in a beautiful park in front of the rising sun where they could enjoy some morning fresh air, Antonio returned to his home.
Starting with the very first Death Eater whom he had met in the ministry prison, Antonio had, until now, encountered more than a dozen Death Eaters. And he had been reading their memories.
From those memories, he had learned quite a few things. First was that it was Rodolphus Lestrange who had planned the attack on Hogsmeade. Well, it had not really been very surprising. The new Lestrange Lord had always been on his suspect list.
Yet, the question of whether the attack on Lily and her subsequent injury had been a pure coincidence or intentional still remained. From the memories, Antonio had learned how Rodolphus had tried to present his attack as an act for the redemption of Death Eaters, going as far as using all the favors owed to the Lestrange family. But Antonio was not really willing to buy this crap.
While the complete truth could only be known by Rodolphus and a few of his close ones, Antonio was fairly confident that the attack on Lily had been intentional and she was meant to be killed. Only the timely intervention of Minerva McGonagall had saved her. And Rodolphus had good enough reasons to target Lily. His brother Rabstan Lestrange had been humiliated as far the Lestrange family was concerned after all Lily was the reason for his suspension from Hogwarts.
Apart from this, Antonio had discovered several other things. For instance, Voldemort had abandoned his original base and had gone into hiding. No one knew where he lived. At least, not the lower ranking members. Antonio had till now not clutched the neck of any member of the inner circle of Voldemort's loyalists.
Now, the gatherings were being organized at the houses of different Death Eaters, and two such gatherings had been held so far at Malfoy Manor and Lestrange Manor. Antonio had also learned about how the Death Eaters generally operated. How they selected their targets, how they planned their strikes, and all other details. How they scouted the area during the day acting as normal people and rained terror using the darkness during night.
While every individual Death Eater had his or her own unique touch, they followed the same general, broad framework.
Now, after encountering around a dozen Death Eaters, Antonio had decided to kill these three because of three or four specific reasons.
Firstly, it was obvious he did not want to draw too much attention for now and killing a lot of them would have drawn a lot of attention.
Secondly, because when he had caught up to them, they were about to attack an inn filled with innocent people and were prepared to kill a dozen of them. So, a little punishment of death was what they deserved and what they required.
Thirdly, because out of all of them, these three had been the most heinous and disgusting of the lot. They had committed numerous atrocities. Even when killing someone, they did it with a streak of cruelty and brutality.
Their crimes had been so horrific that even Antonio had shuddered and gasped for a moment. He was not able to bring himself to imagine that a human could have done what they had done to other humans. He for all his advocacy of dealing with death eaters in their very language could not bring himself to do the same to death eaters they had been doing to normal people. And that was when Antonio had considered himself to be stone hearted and quite a bit cruel.
Undoubtedly, even among criminals, they were the real monsters. Hideous.
And finally, Antonio might not want to admit this openly but he had decided to kill them because this trio, especially Ragsan, were cronies of Alex Timirus.
Antonio hated that man, and he hated him even more when he discovered that Alex, too, had been complicit in a few of the brutalities and horrors the trio had committed. He was of the same monstrous breed as them. He did not dare to imagine what fate would have befallen Aurora had she been married to that monster.
.
.
.
While Antonio was busy preparing himself for his next task, Barty Crouch and Alastor Moody arrived at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
A couple of aurors had already been waiting for them at the hospital. They had been deployed to act as guards for the three corpses, which had been sent to the hospital for medical examination. Barty Crouch and Alastor Moody were led to an office where an old woman was waiting for them. She was the Chief Mediwitch of the hospital.
"Lord Crouch, Head Auror Moody," she greeted them with a stiff smile. "Have a seat."
Both of them took their seats with solemn expressions.
"What do we have, Healer?" Barty asked, breaking the silence. "Were they killed using the Killing Curse?"
"Most probably," she said. "There are not any signs of any other spell that could have killed them. If it was not the Killing Curse, then it is most probably another curse which does not leave a mark."
"But if it is a Killing Curse, you are generally able to tell us with confidence," Moody interjected. "Why are you not confident this time?"
"Most of the time when we receive bodies killed with the Killing Curse," she replied with a sigh, "there are no signs on the body. Nothing. It is just like a living body, but one that is simply no longer living."
"And there are signs on these bodies?" Barty asked.
"Yes," she nodded solemnly.
"They have been tortured immensely," she continued. "Every part of their bodies has undergone an incredible amount of damage."
"But we did not see anything," Moody said, raising an eyebrow. If there had been such immense damage, he certainly would have noticed it.
The Mediwitch took a deep breath.
"They have been tortured," she said. "Repeatedly. Continuously."
"They were healed and then again tortured, and again tortured, and again healed. It is hard to tell how many times the cycle continued, but the number of repetitions has surely been great."
"You know," she continued. "When we get an intern here, we allow them to heal a few patients. We generally begin with minor injuries and then move on to major injuries or diseases."
"Now, usually, when they cast a spell, they are not able to do it with one hundred percent efficiency and they leave some flaws. Suppose they are healing an injured lung. They may not be able to restore it to one hundred percent efficiency. But in our hospital, we have a senior Healer guiding them, and they immediately correct the mistake."
"Even so, the best of the best could not heal anything to one hundred percent. Any body part, from hands and legs to the liver or heart, requires time and probably medicines and herbs to reach its full health."
"Now, on these bodies, the healer had been an amateur. With each cycle, he had left some damage which he was not able to heal fully. Also, they did not get the required medicine or the natural time for the healing. And they got permanently damaged."
"So you picked up on these cycles of damaged body parts?" Barty asked.
The Mediwitch nodded.
"It was like someone was practicing healing on them," she said. "Every type of injury had been tested on them."
"An amateur healer, you say," Alastor muttered.
"Yes," she nodded, "but a very brilliant amateur. A genius, if I may say."
"Brilliant amateur?" Barty frowned.
"From the first cycle to the last cycle, and from the first body to the third body, he had made massive improvements," she concluded. "He learned in hours what others take a couple of years to learn. A magical prodigy."
And her declaration left Barty and Alastor shell shocked.
"And this all has left me confused," she added. "And I cannot say for sure if it had really been a killing curse or some other spell that killed them."
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