Death of General Part 1

"CRUCIO"

Many black-masked people surrounded a severely mangled body that looked like a male, with severe wounds on its body.

He looked as though he had gone through a grinder, severely tortured his matted brown hair coupled with his deep blue eyes which could have looked dashing and caked in blood, his right eye was ripped open, and his left arm was bent in weird angles.

Looking at this scene, seeing their enemy for no one would do this to anyone other than the enemy strewn across the floor the masked witches and wizards were neither confident nor satisfied, their expressions belied nervousness, with their hands constantly shaking, eyes twitching.

Why, you ask?

While the man was on the floor badly mutilated under the powerful torture curse, with body parts strewn was not making a single noise. He was looking intensely at the perpetrators as though he was going to kill them with just his look.

He looked not like a dying man who was being tortured by dozens of people but rather looked like he wanted to rip them apart, with no fear in his one remaining eye.

But wait!! Why are death eaters fearing him? he looks like he is going to kick the bucket anytime soon, what can he even do? What's there to fear?

Oh, they were afraid not because they were facing the psychological burden not for some silly reasons like their first kill for they had participated in many massacres, each and everyone here had a body count to fill entire rooms and still could sleep well after committing atrocities, but because of the identity of that one person lying down, because of who he was and what he represents.

His power was significant, and his pull was significant, should he survive today they were going to die period. Should he die today and if even a single identity of the attacker gets known they all were going to die.

Damned if they killed him or Damned again by not killing him. 

The attackers were in the soup.

"Avery, this bastard is tough, why is he not crying? Damn it" A brown-haired man who looked a little over 5 feet shouted waking the attackers from their nervous thoughts. His voice was not cracked yet giving an impression of someone who was still in his teens.

'Shit Travis keep quiet' The one named Avery whispered.

"What's there to fear? This bastard was easily captured by us. What's there to fear of this bastard anyway? Even if he was well fit I myself would have easily captured him"

Hush fell the surroundings...

Everyone looked at the one named Travis as if he was dumb.

"Don't you know who he is?" A black-haired guy, who looked quite tall amongst the group spoke incredulously.

"Of course, he must be some idiot who came in between our lords glorious-"

"No, I meant his name or other names or titles given during the past war" The black-haired guy pitched in.

"Don't you know, the butcher of Grindelwald? or the young Duke??" Another death eater pitched in.

"Wait this is Charlus Potter!!!" 

"Why didn't you tell me we were going after Charles Potter? Does our lord hate us so much that he sent us on a suicide mission?"Travis was now panicking

Others didn't feel his reaction was over the top for they too were very nervous for they were killing The POTTER.

It's always said that to understand a person's character you need to know his friends, to understand a person's potential you need to know his enemy, to understand a person's accomplishments you need to know his history.

Charlus was one of the few who ticked all the 3 boxes.

Charlus Potter who lost his father to a Grindelwald raid in London, who was still studying in his final year at Hogwarts rose into action, He took with him others who were part of Potter's entourage, the lords who had sworn to the Potter house since ancient times.

These were the lords whose ancestors or themselves owed a debt of Gratitude for saving them during their most difficult times and were asked nothing in return, they swore to Potter to come in aid in future when the Potters were in danger, and in turn, the Potter lords promised to protect them and take care.

He took them across the borders and started killing Grindelwald's acolytes, he was unhappy with the way ICW conducted and started acting on his own, with his own army he ripped apart the Dark Lord's acolytes, and on more than one occasion even Gellert Grindelwald himself.

He massacred his way from France to Germany, with just his official killing count crossing thousands, unofficially there were terrifying numbers spoken in hush whispers around the globe.

It went in such a way that around a few months before he was defeated, Dark Lord Grindelwald went on to say over International Daily a leading international newspaper that the London raid was his most regrettable raid ever. Neither did they achieve anything significant but ended up making a deadly enemy who ended up killing more than 1/4th of his forces most of which were elite themselves.

The ICW doesn't like to talk about it, none of the politicians like to think some boy just into adulthood was way more effective than them, but the fact was Charlus potter was the driving force who caused the last Dark Lord to fail.

Albus Dumbledore may have defeated Grindelwald, but it was Charlus Potter who had defanged him long before the current headmaster even took action.

"How did we even get him?" Travis wondered out loud

"We know we wouldn't have got him if we actually fought him face to face" Travis continued

"Well, we got some internal help" Selwyn looked aside at a masked man standing silently.

"Fine we need to kill him, who will take the shot?"

There was pin-drop silence again, as none were willing to bite the bullet. They were okay with being part of this, but no one wanted to be the one who killed the Potter. That person will definitely be the person who will become the target of the hunt and none were willing to trust each other with such a secret with each other.

"Fine I will kill him, but I want an oath of silence from each and every one of you"The masked death eater spoken about by Selwyn stepped forward as though with great reluctance but his eyes couldn't hide the glee he felt

"Hello Charlus, how are you? Hope our hospitality satisfied you"

"Macmillan, why did you do this?" Hearing a heartbroken voice delighted the one named Daniel Macmillan into laughter. This was the first time Charlus spoke and he never screamed under intense torture either. Seeing the one who looked cruel like a lion speak in such a sad voice delighted the death eaters across.

"Oh, Charlus you were always the funny one. Did you think I wanted to beholden to Potters? Just because a stupid ancestor of mine got saved by yours does it mean I have to beholden to Potters?" 

"Did I ask for that ?? Why did that happen to me, Potter? ANSWER ME!!!"

"My friend, didn't I ask everyone many times whether you wanted to be released from the vow? Didn't I ask everyone their opinions and release them from the oath? So what was the problem, Daniel?"

Macmillan snorted derisively

"Do you think I was a fool? If I was released from the Potter legion and committed a crime against your stupid moral beliefs would you have you know just for old times sake let me go? "

"Would you have spared me when it came out that I joined the Dark Lord?"

"Hell No, Perfect Potter would never have spared me from going 'DARK'. Look at it Potter I have gone Dark now, what can you do? You will die here today, in a few moments. Once you are dead other fools will go on wild chases looking for the killer while I, the sad Daniel Depressed Lord of Macmillans, will leave the band to go into hiding in sadness and regret, asking to be released from the oath. Your stupid son who everyone knows to be a pacifist will help me hide all the while not knowing his dear dad's killer is his favorite uncle Daniel" 

"How is this for a joke Charlus? Why are you not laughing Charlus? Crucio!!"

Charlus spasmed with gritted teeth without making any sound, he looked like someone in severe pain but no voice came outside.

"You say you were beholden to me but if you were really robbed of freedom as you think would you have been able to take arms against me?"

"Oh Charlus, your ancestors were funny too. While my ancestors swore to serve they had added one small line in the oath. We will help the POTTER head in case he has our respect. The fool he is, your ancestor agreed on the oath and gave the word to protect us, that sentimental fool" 

"See Charlus, you and your ancestors were just fools. I don't respect you as a Lord. With this, I am free to harm you and Kill you. Once you are dead your naive son who idolises the peace is next. Even if he knows I am the killer, well I killed his monstrous dad, it's not difficult to kill the small child whose voice is still not cracked yet!!"

"Your death will be followed by utter annihilation of Potters, Pray that no one knows I killed you, else ..."

"Anyway it's getting late, I promised a dinner date for my dear wife Elizabeth. I will convey your good wishes to her. Goodbye Charlus you will not be missed"

Unnoticed by Daniel and the gloating death eaters a small grey light flashed behind fallen Charlus

"Do you want me to convey any message to Dorea when I see her at your funeral?" Daniel looked smug

== Charlus P.O.V ==

A Few minutes ago

Pain, Just pain, nothing but pain. Anyone can become incoherent with that dying pain only made him more focused, for he was a man with focus and character. There could be many with strength or many with character, Charlus was a rare breed of his own, he was one of the few with both.

Post Grindelwald's chapter of his life, he regretted his time. He cared not for medals and honour, all he cared about were the orphans, and widows he caused with his quest for revenge.

He left the battlefield and focused on Politics, he donated hefty amounts to Orphanages and hospitals. He adopted his late father's vision, he tried cleaning the society for the last 30 years with peace and patience, but all he got rewarded with was betrayal which will end with death.

He knew he was going to die, he had at most few more minutes of life left.

'... your naive son ....'

'Dorea, James' Charlus regretted his choices. The fact that he was leaving his family to wolves made him die again. 

His death may very well cause his family to go into decline normally.

Potters were wealthy, vastly wealthy. Wealth while looks beautiful in general, needs to be coupled with Strength to protect it. Wealth with Strength garners respect, Wealth in the hands of the week causes all people to desire it.

His death will open floodgates of enemies after his wealth some in the form of allies like the ministry 'allies', his 'allies' in the Light side along with his enemies of the dark side will be after his wealth.

Well, they will be in for a surprise, many think of him as the most dangerous of his family, and many forget his wife Dorea before becoming a potter was Black.

The family is known for its darkest arts with madness to the core. They held many families' secrets in their 'Black Book', they were the major assassination group of the magical world, not many knew this, but those who know this generally tend to die.

And not many know this, Sirius Arctus Black the previous black head wanted to name Dorea as the head of the house of black but she decided to give it up to marry him.

He knew he had to somehow communicate with his wife and son about the betrayal, for he was not worried about the external enemies, but the internal ones.

He slowly moved his thumb towards his ring finger with the Potter ring, he called upon his magic and intoned

'I Charlus Potter head of House Potter calls for a Blood feud with the House of Macmillan due to betrayal, let it be a caution for the betrayal committed ' 

With this he sighed a relief, his son should be able to inform Dorea once he takes the Lordship. Dorea will handle the rest.

== Normal POV==

"Any last words my friend?" Daniel Macmillan got his wands ready

Charlus looked up and smiled

"Know this my friend, a Lion hunts alone leaving the cub at home knowing the Lioness is protecting it" Charlus started laughing

Daniel too started laughing dismissing the words as the last words of a dying man, never knowing how much regret he would feel in the future.

"Avada Kedavra"