The Fallen Gamer

Chapters 26-30

With the arrow still in his arm, Voldemort was thoroughly pissed off. "Damn you all! I've had enough of this! Lord Voldemort does not know defeat! Prepare to fail again, Angel!" Voldemort declared as he grunted in pain and pointed his wand towards the spectator stands. My eyes widened in fear at the spell he incanted. "Fiendfyre!" He cast the spell before he smirked and apparated away!

"Oh fuck!" Iron Man yelled out next to me.

A torrential wave of fire over 20 feet high and growing had just been unleashed with no one to control it. People in the stands were screaming in fright as they all immediately tried to flee. There was no way they'd make it in time though.

I wouldn't let that dark asshole succeed again! Inflapped my wings and launched myself between the wild fiendfyre and the stands. I spent another 100MP and summoned a second light shield. It wasn't even close to big enough! The flames were still growing and had reached over 20 feet high and 40 feet wide as they slammed into my shield! I needed a much larger shield!

[Warning! MP is at 0!]

'I don't care, I need more power!' I shouted out in my head.

[Emergency Skill acquired! → HP to MP conversion! → Can use HP as MP with a scale of 1 to 1 when MP reaches zero.]

I poured much more power into my shield as I held the torrential flames back from reaching the spectators. I thought I could hear people start to cheer behind me but I was too focused to pay attention to them.

[-600HP/MP]

My shield enormously expanded and matched the flames in size. It wasn't enough though! I needed to snuff them out! I poured in more power as much as I possibly could!

[-399HP/MP. Warning HP has reached 1!]

I pushed every scrap of power I could in the massive light shield before I willed it to tilt forward and slam down over the cursed flames. My shield smashed flat onto the ground and smothered the flames completely!

"Holy shit, I did it!"

[Now that was some high level gamer bullshit you just pulled off there…]

I smiled happily as I heard the crowds of people behind me cheering loudly. I spun around and gave them all a wave which caused them to cheer even louder.

"That was amazing! Did you see that!?"

"I thought we were all goners! Those flames were massive!"

"I can't believe Angels are actually real and they're just as beautiful as I'd imagined!"

Iron Man flew over and landed next to me. His armor had taken a severe magical beating, but all in all was still intact. "Holy shit, Layla. Now that was something. You're definitely the best hire my company has ever had." He said jokingly.

I laughed. "Well technically you never actually hired me… Pepper never had me sign any paperwork."

"What!?" Tony whined. "She forgot? That doesn't sound like her." His faceplate opened up as he peered around. I assumed he was searching for her. She was probably back at the hotel by now. She took off as soon as Whiplash showed up. Not that I blamed her.

"She was too distracted by my wings… and my beauty." I gave him a wink. "You better work out whatever little spat is between you two soon or I'll snatch her up for myself." I joked back to him. I wouldn't actually do that though. Pepper was incredibly beautiful, but she and Tony were too perfect for each other to ever break up forever.

"I will. It's just that some things have come to light that have had me acting a bit like an ass." He said.

"Is it because you're dying from palladium poisoning?" He looked at me in shock that I knew that. I just reached my hand up and patted his metal shoulder. "You'll figure it out." I said as I proceeded to walk into the stands. The stands had started being officially evacuated by all of the SHIELD agents. There were still plenty of people left, though, who couldn't take their eyes off my wings. I smiled and waved as I walked by all of them and headed over to where I could see Natasha and Clint talking to each other. There was also a third shield agent that I didn't recognize standing next to them.

Natasha noticed I was approaching them as she turned to me. "Well now… that was something." She said with an expression that was hard to read. I sent her a playful wink which she returned with a deadpan.

"That was freaking amazing, Layla!" Clint exclaimed. "Have you considered joining SHIELD? We could really use someone with your talents." He asked and I waved him off.

"No thanks, I wouldn't mind working with you guys on occasion, but I'm not one to take orders anymore." I said. I was also still technically part of the Grigori and couldn't join another organization anyway.

"That's too bad. We could really use someone of your talents." The third agent said as he held out his hand for me to shake. "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Agent Rollins. I'm a member of the SHIELD subdivision known as STRIKE."

STRIKE sounded familiar to me. I was pretty sure that was the subdivision that was almost completely composed of secret Hydra agents… I was currently shaking hands with a Nazi…

I gave him a small glare that he did not miss. "Damn…" He said as he gripped my hand tighter. "The higher ups were afraid of this. They suspected that you knew things about us as well after you exposed the Hand." He said as his smile turned menacing.

"Huh? Higher ups, what are you talking about Rollins?" Clint asked. Natasha looked confused as well.

He released my hand as he turned to both of them and smirked. "Hail Hydra!" Rollins declared.

ZAP!

I felt something burn into my stomach as I looked down and noticed that the hydra agent had drawn a laser gun of some kind from his waistband and shot me! It was one of those tesseract weapons… Fuck. I felt everything go black as I collapsed backwards.

[HP 1→ 0]

[Game Over]

…

[Revive? +5 Remaining]

[Yes] [Also Yes]

This chapter upload first at NovelUsb.Com

XXX

I woke up with a start. I was lying on a hospital bed. I sat up and pulled off all the EKG wires that were stuck on my body. I grimaced when I noticed I was garbed in only a hospital gown. I quickly stripped out of it, and took out one of my new outfits from my inventory. They were just some basic jeans and a shirt. No need for anything fancy. For all I know, I could be in a hydra base and might need to fight my way out of here.

[Welcome back to the land of the living, host. You died… Lucky for you, you had extra lives from changing Heather Potter's fate.]

I had honestly forgotten about those. There was so much going on all at once that all I could focus on was surviving. 'How long have I been unconscious?' I asked in my head. I couldn't speak out loud as there might be listening devices nearby.

[You've been out for exactly 24 hours. That's the penalty for getting a game over.]

24 hours!? That was a long time! A whole lot could have occurred in that amount of time. Especially considering the wider world not only found out wizards and witches were real, but also Hydra was still alive and kicking.

[Don't forget they also found out Angels are real…]

Oh yeah, there was that too. I looked around the hospital room I'd found myself in. It seemed to be pretty basic and ordinary. Nothing about it screamed 'Evil Hydra Hospital Room.' Still though, I needed to get out of here and assess where I was at least. I headed towards the door before a notification from the system stopped me.

[Wait, Host! Aren't you forgetting something?]

'What are you talking about?'

[You completed your mission and prevented Voldemort from causing a massacre. Your Quest has been completed! Now issuing rewards…]

I almost completely forgot about that. Some rewards right now sounded good to me. I better get some good stuff because I literally died to complete that mission!

[Congratulations! You have received: +10 to all stats! You have leveled up! You have received the Sacred Gear: Twilight Healing→ Can heal 100HP for every 10MP spent.]

[Congratulations! For reaching 20 Luck you have unlocked the perk 'Never Tell Me The Odds' → You are now much more likely to win when gambling or placing wagers.]

Now those were some good rewards! Almost worth the temporary 'Game Over' I got…almost. That was definitely something I didn't want to go through again. It was also grating on me that I survived Voldemort only to go down to a lone Hydra mook…

[Intelligence has passed 40! Evolution commencing…]

I received a large boost in my Intelligence stat and I felt something within me start to change. I felt like I was evolving. Suddenly, from my back sprang 6 black angel wings! I was now a six winged Fallen, an official high class being. I also got another massive jump in HP along with my new wings. It seemed like every extra pair of wings I got not only made me more durable, but also tacked on an extra 1000 HP. No wonder my 10 and 12 winged siblings were considered magical tanks. Not to mention, I now had a healing sacred gear that would really up the chances of my survivability. I could also use it to heal other people. I could fully heal the average human for less than 20MP.

[Name: Layla of the Fallen]

[Title: Angel of Hope]

[Level: 3]

[HP: 3100]

[MP: 460]

[Vigor: 110]

[Strength: 20]

[Intelligence: 46]

[Luck: 20]

[Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 2, Acting 2, Light Manipulation 3]

[Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds,]

[Drawbacks: Sin of Lust]

[Available Free Stat Points: 10]

I took the rest of those free stat points and dumped them into Intelligence to bring my MP up to a nice 560.

[Congratulations! For reaching 50 Intelligence, you have unlocked the perk Mana Siphoner! → Enemies you defeat will now restore MP mid-combat!]

Damn, that was a good perk in large scale battles! If I had that when I stormed the Hand base, I basically would have had infinite MP. I can already imagine how useful this will be during all the future invasions this world will have… not that I want those to occur.

Figuring all of my power-ups were done for now, I headed towards the door to find out where I was. I opened it and stepped out into a hallway. I found myself face to face with multiple obvious agents who were staring at me wide eyed. I suppose they were guarding my room. I summoned a light spear in my hand before leveling it towards them. I momentarily marveled at how it thrummed in my hand. I could feel that my light spear was much stronger than it was when I only had 4 wings. It was like I had taken a qualitative leap in power as well. I was never able to test how strong my spears were at 2 wings because I had evolved almost immediately after landing myself in this world.

"Are you all Hydra or SHIELD?" I asked the agents who were all sending nervous glances towards the conjured weapon in my hand.

"We're SHIELD! We are absolutely SHIELD!" One of the agents exclaimed nervously as the other two nodded rapidly.

I tilted my head and assessed them. They didn't seem to be lying to me. I dismissed the spear in my hand and they all sighed in collective relief. "Sorry about that," I said. "The last thing I remember was getting shot by a secret Hydra agent though. Now then, take me to your leader." The agents nodded and did just that. On the way they gave me a brief explanation of where we were. We were in one of Fury's personal safe houses deep underground. All of the other bases would have been compromised since Hydra just basically outed themselves to the world. Part of me was wondering if that agent who shot me had actually meant to do that. Apparently, the cameraman Voldemort had grabbed was brave and had actually stayed to film everything. Hydra was not supposed to be exposed this early. Hell, I didn't even know if Captain America was out of the ice at this point?

That question was answered for me when the agents led me down the hall to another room. Inside I saw Tony Stark, Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Phil Coulson, and Steve Rogers. They all turned and gave me various looks upon seeing me.

"Hey everyone, I'm awake."

XXX

Everyone in the room was looking at me in surprise. Nick Fury's one good eye was looking past me; however, it honed in on my three pairs of black wings. I could see his brow already furrowing in curiosity and worry about why I now had an extra pair. He didn't say anything about them out loud though. Tony looked happy to see that I was up and about. Steve Rogers just looked gobsmacked, probably at the fact that he was meeting an Angel... Fallen or otherwise. I used "observe" on Steve Rogers because I was curious about the legendary Captain America.

[Captain Steve Rogers Lvl 8 → He just woke up from his ice coma a week ago. He is extremely confused about what is going on, and every morning this week he has woken up hoping his trip to the future has been nothing but a fever dream.]

I felt kind of bad reading that extra information, but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment. I'd have to talk to him in private later. What was interesting to me was that he was only Level 8... I guess that wasn't too surprising. Although, even Heather Potter had a higher level than he did when I first met her. I guess that made some sense. At the end of the day, all he had was moderately enhanced super strength and reflexes. Did that mean he'd lose to Heather in a one-on-one fight? I didn't think so. I just think it meant that the overall amount of damage he could dish out was lower than someone who had magic at their disposal.

"Layla! I'm glad you're not dead," Tony said. "You slipped into some kind of coma when that Hydra guy shot you." He added with a pained grimace. Something didn't look right about him. He looked really sickly.

Before I could bring that up, Natasha and Clint then tried to apologize to me about not noticing that Agent Rollins had drawn a weapon on me. I just waved them off and told them it was fine. To be fair to them, they had just faced off against actual evil wizards for the first time in their careers. They had just truly discovered how weird this world could really be.

"So what's happened in the time I've been unconscious... and are you alright Tony? You're not looking too good," I asked. Tony waved me off with a pained smile. I wasn't buying it.

"What's happened!?" Fury cut in to answer me. He did not look happy as he spoke. "Almost full-blown motherfucking panic is what has happened! On international television, the world discovered that magic was real AND that an evil wizard wanted to rule the world. Then they found out Angels were actually real – which we'll get back to later. And finally, Hydra, the organization that almost destroyed the world in World War 2 is still alive and kicking. So… yeah, it's been a big fucking mess. A bunch of countries all over the world are now locked down under martial law. And the world governments expect SHIELD to deal with all this as quickly as possible! That's why we're having this meeting right now. To plan how to fix this big mess." Fury huffed out as he finished his minor rant.

"Which would have been a lot easier if half of our agents didn't turn traitor and abscond with a whole bunch of our weapons and equipment…" Coulson added with a sigh.

"The Hydra agents just fled?" I asked in surprise. "They didn't try to take over and lead a revolution or something?"

Fury just scoffed. "How? SHIELD only had 2000 members total. 1000 traitors can do some damage for sure, but they aren't leading any major revolutions. Now, if they had waited to reveal themselves once a certain project we've been working on was off the ground. Then that would be a different story…" Fury said without elaboration further. I suspected he was talking about the flying Helicarriers. Without those superweapons at their disposal, Hydra's threat level was much lower. Even the Winter Soldier was just one guy only slightly stronger than Steve.

"Rollins always was a hotheaded asshole," Clint added, "Right now, we are proceeding under the plausible theory that he was not supposed to expose Hydra's survival to the whole world at that time." He explained, and I would have to agree with that. It sounded like they Hydra gained absolutely nothing from shooting me on live TV except exposing themselves much earlier than they would have wanted.

"So who's the bigger threat right now?" Tony asked us all. "The evil wizards or Hydra. And that has nothing to do with the fact that they tried to kill me..."

And I, for one, want to know how Hydra is even still around!" Captain Rogers cut in. "What the hell did I fight for? What did so many of my friends and fellow soldiers die for!" Steven exclaimed in anger.

All the other humans in the room looked down guiltily. Coulson, the calmest and most reasonable person here, then explained to Steven how America recruited and pardoned Nazi scientists at the end of World War 2 so that the USA could maintain a leg up on the other nation's technological levels. Needless to say, Steve was not happy to hear that. He was on the verge of storming out in anger when Tony almost collapsed in a coughing fit!

*Cough* "Shit…" Tony muttered between hacking out literal black blood. That was not a good sign at all…

I used "observe" on Tony next. He looked like he was about to keel over... oh wait, he already was keeled over.

[Tony Stark Lvl 5 → Tony is suffering from severe Palladium poisoning. He is in a constant state of pain and nausea. It's taking all of his willpower, at all times, to not give up and fully collapse. HP 22/130]

"No, don't bother. It's too late. All your little concoction will do is hide the symptoms. It won't heal me. I'm out of time," Tony explained while wheezing. His poisoning was spreading rapidly. I used "observe" again, and his HP was down to 20…

"Shit…" Fury muttered.

I walked over to where Tony was kneeling on the floor. There was no time like the present to put my new reward to good use. "Sacred Gear: Twilight Healing!" I spoke aloud as a green ring appeared on each of my hands.

XXX

-Nick Fury-

Layla had just left the room, escorted by Agent Romanoff. Fury, along with everyone else in the room, had watched in shock as the Layla of the Fallen went and did the impossible. She healed Tony Stark back to perfect health. She didn't just heal Tony's palladium poisoning; she also healed the gaping hole in his chest and all the shrapnel near his heart. Fury could actually see the tiny pieces of metal scraps sitting right there on the floor after they magically phased out of Tony's chest.

"You alright there, Tony?" Fury asked Tony. Tony was examining his own perfectly healed torso with a look of disbelief on his face. He was patting the center of his chest in disbelief as there was no longer a hole there.

"Ok, what the fuck was that!?" Agent Barton blurted out.

"Hey, there's no need for such crass language," Steve Rogers said. Fury raised his lone uncovered eyebrow at that before he remembered Steve was born in the 1920s.

"Sorry," Barton said to the captain. "But still! Stark over there had an hour to live tops! And now, he looks to be in perfect health."

"I feel really good," Tony admitted. "I think she also healed my liver while she was at it."

"I still want an explanation of what's going on. Did the world go crazy while I was asleep? Don't get me wrong, I've always been a believer, but I never actually expected to meet an actual angel," Steve said. "You know Peggy was an atheist. I would have loved to have seen her reaction to this…" He added with a sad far-off look.

Fury sighed. He would have loved to have seen her reaction as well. Peggy Carter was his mentor and the previous head of SHIELD. She passed away only a few days ago after meeting Steve again for the first time in 70 years. Steve seemed to be her final regret on this plane that she was finally able to let go of. Fury could have also really used her advice right about now. The world was currently teetering on the brink of anarchy after all.

"Nevermind any of that. What I am more concerned about right now is that Layla has gotten more powerful since the day before yesterday." Fury said.

"She has?" Stark asked.

"Yes, ever since we discovered her, SHIELD has been combing through all ancient religious texts. One thing always stayed consistent in them. The more wings a supernatural being has, the more powerful they are. Layla gaining an extra pair of wings right after such a hard-fought battle is no coincidence." Fury explained. That was part of the reason he was so shocked upon seeing her enter the room. He thought he had her threat level properly assessed from watching the race track recording. Now, he'd have to throw all those estimates out and start over.

"That should be a good thing, right, sir?" Coulson asked. The others in the room seemed to be somewhat in agreement. Fury could tell that Barton was still a bit hesitant, which was a feeling Fury felt as well.

"Maybe, maybe not. You're all forgetting her full name. It's Layla of the Fallen. She is not a 'good angel' as they say." Fury noticed that realization finally dawned on everyone else in the room when he explained that.

"Oh," Steve said as he looked a bit uncertain. "So she's evil?"

"She's obviously not evil," Tony cut in. "Why would she bother saving my life? Multiple times I might add!"

"Fallen are supposed to be Angels who fell from Heaven due to sinning, right?" Coulson asked the important question. "So why did she fall?"

That was the million-dollar question that Fury had been wondering. She must have done something to piss off… her dad–And the fact that such a being existed almost sent him through an existential crisis.

"I might have an idea…" Barton trailed off.

"Well, don't leave us all in suspense, agent. What is it?"

"Um… I think she fell due to lust. Nat had told me that Layla had been not-so-subtly checking her out the first time they met." The archer explained.

"Hahaha!" Tony's laughing echoed around the room. "I knew I felt a sense of comradery with Layla. She's a woman after my own heart!" Tony exclaimed.

"Didn't we just send Natasha and Layla off together on a mission?" Coulson cut in. The room went quiet with his statement… until Tony started laughing again.

"Hahaha. We did, didn't we? I'm sure that'll go just fine." Tony said between his snickers.

"Wow… That's just… Wow." Steve muttered quietly to himself. "Both of those dames were so gorgeous and now they're…" Fury noticed Steve was blushing up a storm as his imagination clearly took off…. Fury wondered if he should find a way to get the captain laid… A 70-year dry spell couldn't be good for his mental health…

"Nats a professional, she wouldn't do that… during a mission." Barton declared, defending his friend.

"Even when she's by herself with Layla. Who I might objectively add is the most beautiful woman I've ever met." Tony teased.

"Careful, Tony. What would Pepper think?" Fury said.

"Pepper said the exact same thing."

"Huh? Well, I can't say she's wrong…" Coulson trailed off.

"Should we send someone after them?" Steve asked. "They're supposed to be infiltrating the heart of the evil wizard's territory." He said.

Tony just waved him off. "They're just going to 'a run-down magic shopping district.' As Layla described it. She said it was like two streets total with only a handful of shops and a lone bank. They're not going to attract any trouble." Tony said. Fury made a mental note that Tony seemed to be completely on 'team Layla' after she healed him.

Fury also facepalmed as Tony blatantly tempted fate with his statement. After all, when did any SHIELD missions ever not go tits up? In his mind, Fury was already starting to prepare backup plans for when things inevitably went south and they had to send in the rescue squad for Layla and Agent Romanoff…

XXX

Natasha and I were currently walking the streets of London. It was eerie that they were completely deserted. The whole country was on martial law lockdown. At least the muggle side was. I'm sure the wizarding world didn't even know yet that the whole non-magical world found out about magic yesterday. Their news sources weren't very reliable.

The two of us were heading towards the leaky cauldron to scope out Diagon Alley. We were looking to find some information on the whereabouts or plans of the Death Eaters. Maybe we would even capture one of them and let Natasha interrogate him for information. That was the plan at least. Except…

…I was not doing too well at the moment. My body was heating up all over. I felt flushed everywhere. My breathing was shallow and short. And everytime I looked over towards my 'partner' for this mission I could barely stop myself from jumping on her.

[I did inform you that your Sin of Lust would grow stronger the more wings you acquired as a Fallen. It's not my fault you didn't listen…]

'I did too listen…' I whined in my head indignantly. 'I just didn't think the sin of lust would be this strong!'

Natasha, who I had been following along, stopped walking and gave me a confused look. She could clearly see something was wrong with me. "Ok, what's going on? Ever since we left Fury's bunker together you've been acting strange. You're also looking completely flustered." She pointed out as she eyed me up and down.

"It's nothing…" I tried to say, but my current state obviously wasn't fooling her.

She frowned momentarily before grabbing my arm and dragging me off the streets into a nearby alley. I didn't see the point in that considering the streets were empty, but figured it was just a force of habit for her. "Ok, spill it. Something is going on with you." Natasha said to me as she leaned in close.

"Fine…" I started, "So the thing about Fallen Angels is that we all suffer from one of the seven deadly sins…" I trailed off. Natasha looked puzzled for a second before I could see realization dawn on her.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Natasha said with a sigh. "You don't even have to tell me which sin you take after… It's pretty obvious. So how do you usually handle this?" She asked me.

"Well the thing is…I've never had too." I then explained to her how I'd pretty much never left the Grigori base after Falling. Therefore, I was never around people who didn't see me as anything other than a sibling. And I viewed them the same way.

Natasha cracked a smile. She looked like she was finding my situation a bit funny. "And now here you are in the human world for the first time and… you're pent up?"

"Pretty much…" I replied. She rolled her eyes a bit before she took me by surprise! Natasha leaned forward and slammed her lips into my own! I was momentarily taken off guard before my mind fogged over lust and I reciprocated the kiss…

…

"It's a good thing this city is under lockdown or we would have drawn some eyes with that display…" Natasha said with a laugh as we stepped out of the alley a short time later. We weren't exactly in the most sanitary of locations, so we didn't go any farther than some heated kissing for a couple of minutes. That did help me take the edge off a bit though. I should at least be able to make it through the rest of this outing without having to stop again.

"Thank you for that, Natasha. Perhaps we could continue later?" I asked hopefully. She didn't verbally respond, but she did give me a sultry wink. It wasn't like the attraction between us was one sided. Since she and I had left Fury's bunker and traveled to London, I had caught her dropping subtle looks my way every so often as well.

The two of us continued down the empty city streets until we started occasionally passing people who were obviously witches and wizards. How could we tell? Well for one, they were completely ignoring martial law. And for two, they were all walking fashion disasters. I could never understand how a society that had literal magic at their fingertips all chose to dress in robes and only robes.

"How did SHIELD never notice all these people blatantly wearing robes in this day and age?" Natasha wondered aloud. I knew the answer to that question.

"Governments don't care about poor people…" I said as I gestured to all the magicals around us. Natasha nodded as she understood what I meant. Once again, I marveled at how these people had magic and yet most of their robes looked washed out and borderline decrepit. Any non-magical person looking at them would think they were homeless muggles wearing dirty bath robes…

We eventually made our way to the Leaky Cauldron. To my surprise, Natasha was actually able to see the entrance of the pub. I supposed that classified her as a squib. That's something I'd bring up with her later.

All eyes were on us as soon as we entered. A few drunk wizards sitting at the unclean looking bar whistled in appreciation. Whether that was from our looks or the fact that we both looked like we bathed recently I couldn't determine…

"Eyyy you tous be sum real pretty birds. Why dont's yous come and joins us proper wizards!" One wizard groggily stood from his barstool and called out to us. "The times are a changin you knows… pretty gurls like yous should be lookin out for a proper pureblood husband like meeself! *hic*"

"Oh, for fuck's sake…" Natasha muttered. "This is the society that wants to conquer the world?"

"Yeah… it's pretty sad." I said. We were both caught off guard by what happened next, however. When the drunk man stood up, the other wizards and witches in the bar looked on fearfully for some reason. It was only when he started sauntering over to Natasha and me that I understood why. On his left arm, I could see a familiar looking black tattoo. "This drunk idiot was a death eater." I whispered that to Natasha.

Natasha spoke to the man, and to my surprise she had a thick Russian accent. "You do seem like the proper sort. My friend and I have come all the way from the motherland to join the true cause." Natasha said. The other people in the bar muttered curses under their breaths and they started calling us dark witches. The drunk Death Eater on the other hand looked ecstatic at Natasha's fabrication.

The Death Eater smirked and his drunk demeanor completely vanished. In an instant he appeared completely sober and alert. This guy was faking being drunk! From her slight flinch at his change in demeanor, I could tell even Natasha was caught off guard by the man's acting.

He had a menacing smile on his face as he reached us and looked us over. All it took was a single glare from him for everyone else in the bar to stop their mutterings and look away. "Of course! So you two beautiful gals want to join up and serve under the dark lord, huh? Well, you're both in luck. There's a recruitment drive going on right now at Gringotts. Follow me. The names Barty by the way–Barty Crouch Jr." He introduced himself as he started leading us to the back of the pub. My eyes widened when I heard his name. No wonder he was such a good actor. This was the man who impersonated Moody for a whole year straight!

Barty tapped the brick wall with his wand in a pattern I'm sure Natasha immediately memorized. The bricks magically started to part ways before Diagon Alley was displayed before us in all of its… glory.

"What a dump…" I said.

XXX