"Pius," he whispers. I barely hear him through the smoke and mirrors that I have been set through. It is a dream world that I am in, and I love it. I love every moment of it. I would never doubt any orders, and I would never lose my loyalty.


Rufus turns his head towards me, and my clouded thoughts do not clear.


"Pius..no..."


My heart clenches, but I do not back down. I am loyal to the Dark Lord and the Dark Lord alone. I will never leave Him.


Question him where Potter is. Use the Imperius Curse. And then kill. Kill Rufus Scrimgeour.


"Where is he?" I ask coldly, but Rufus blanches even more in his chained chair that I have worked so hard to create. Rufus will not escape until he helps the Dark Lord, and even then, he will escape with death.


I don't specify who I am m speaking of, but Rufus knows. I have known Rufus for almost twenty years; we were both Aurors-in-training, but Rufus succeeded, and I was shunted sideways, into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I was not powerful enough...not smart enough, to succeed as an Auror. Rufus, though, went nowhere but up, Head Auror, and then Minister of Magic. And I stayed in the same place all the while. I was always jealous of him, always.


But now I will rule whether or not he gets to live or die. The Dark Lord has helped me succeed. The cloudy blanket that I live under is his doing, and I will follow his instructions to the end of the world.


"I'll never tell you," Rufus whispers, but the voices in my smoky head tell me what I should do next. Rufus may not want to confess where Potter is, but I sure as hell want to torture him to give me the answers.



I lift my wand at the direction of the voices, and place it at Rufus's head. I do not think about what I am doing, I only consider the fact that I need to do it, I must do it, and I will do it.


"Crucio!"


His screams are my pleasure. The wand I have pressed to his skull vibrates with his pain, but he does not give up Potter's location. He will never give. That is one of Rufus's weaknesses. One of many.


"You can fight, Pius," is all Rufus whispers. But I am fighting. I am fighting for the Dark Lord. I am fighting for his righteousness.


"That's the thing," I say, holding the wand ever tighter to his mind as he screams in pain, and the cloudy smoke in my head cheers with joy. "I am."


At the beginning, I wondered whether or not I was fighting for the right cause. After all, I had been against the Dark Lord for so long. But now, with the cloudy voice and smoke and mirrors telling me what to do, I know the Dark Lord is right. And better than that, Rufus is wrong. Harry Potter is wrong. I will follow the commands smoke gives me with all of my heart/


Forever.


"Imperius," says Rufus quietly, but it's not a curse in any sense of the word, and it starts a spark of memory of who I used to be back into my mind. Rufus is not done speaking. "I will never let Voldemort know where Potter is."


Then he collapses from the pain my Cruciatus curse is sending into his brain, and I am left alone in all of my thoughts. Imperius were the last thing he truly said to me. But, the smoky voice tells me, you are not under the Imperius Curse. This is the right thing to do. Now. Kill Rufus Scrimgeour, and you will become Minister of Magic.


I do not doubt the smoky voice ever again. I lift my wand from the former Minister's head and pleasure the moments for mere seconds before I point it directly at his heart, ready to start a new regime with no Mudbloods, nobody questioning my authority, and more importantly, nobody questioning the Dark Lord.


"Avada Kedrava," I say, and the flash of green light emits from my wand. Rufus slumps in death within his chair, but inside the smoky voice, I am only beginning to erupt in life. The Dark Lord knows best, and I should have known never to forget that.


As I step outside of his office, I jerk my wand towards the name plate. And it changes immediately. Pius Thicknesse, Minister of Magic. I have left my old self behind. I have left the Department of Magical Law Enforcement forever, and I will never return.


"He is dead! The Ministry is ours!" I cry, and cheers erupt from the crowd of the Dark Lord's followers. And I never even thought to know that it was this easy.

---

"Mr Thicknesse!" Harry Potter says to me. For the first time in ages, I hear him clearly. The smoke and mirrors that the Imperius curse has been showing to me is gone. And I realize my actions. I killed Rufus Scrimgeour; I took part in the Death Eaters' actions.


"It was Imperius, we know," says Hermione Granger. She helped Harry, and she is Muggle-born, I think, and a pang of guilt runs through my heart once again...mere days ago, I would have sought to kill her.


"I doubt you'll be in Azkaban," says Harry, as if this will reassure me for all I've done. Hell, I should go to Azkaban! I'd been thinking the thoughts of the Death Eaters for so long. Rufus tried to warn me I was under the Imperius Curse, and I did not believe him because I trusted You-Know-Who over all others. I murdered my wife in cold blood. I murdered so many others.


"That's a comfort," is all I say, though, and as I stand, I see the Great Hall is in ruins. But, just as if I were under the Imperius Curse still, I slowly begin to walk towards the shambled front door, and do not say a word.


It was not easy for the Death Eaters to get to me. But they did it all the same, and maybe that proves that I will never be as strong as Rufus, or as righteous as Harry Potter. I am simply Pius Thicknesse.