"Hurry up," Thicknesse muttered, glancing back to make sure the Death Eaters under his and Karkaroff's joint command were still following closely. Thicknesse aspired to be a politician, but under Minister Prewitt's stringent policies, he had been unable to entrench himself into the bureaucracy. However, his family did hold a seat on the Wizengamot. It was a small thing, particularly under Prewitt's regime, but he did not want to lose influence or even the seat itself by getting caught torching a shop in Diagon Alley.
"I didn't want to come either," Karkaroff muttered quietly so that the other Death Eaters wouldn't hear.
"You're the one who aspires to join the Dark Lord's inner circle," Thicknesse whispered. "The quicker we get this over with, the better. Now move."
They were just approaching the cross street that would get them to the shop when one of the Death Eaters following Karkaroff and Thicknesse spotted something. "Hey, what's that?"
Karkaroff turned his head down the street and squinted. It was a dark cloaked figure walking down the street toward them at a steady pace. "Who is it?" he asked.
"It's too far away, idiot," Thicknesse said. "It's probably another Death Eater. If it was anyone else, they would have run off by now."
The group of Death Eaters stopped and watched as the figure walked toward them, maintaining a steady pace. Eventually, it was close enough for them to discern its features. Thicknesse, who had been present when the ghost of Harry Ashworth confronted Lord Voldemort, was first to identify the figure.
"It's Ashworth's ghost!" he hissed quietly. "Let's get out of here, and maybe it won't notice us."
Karkaroff shook his head. "Ghost can't hurt people. Besides, if we run from a ghost, the Dark Lord will punish us."
Ultimately, Thicknesse and Karkaroff's debate proved pointless. One of the Death Eaters they were leading had taken it upon herself to shoot a stunner at the ghost. The beam of light passed through Ashworth's ghostly figure. The ghost stopped walking and turned its translucent gaze to the group of Death Eaters. For a heartbeat, the Death Eaters and ghost gazed at one another before the ghost's eyes suddenly flared as if on fire.
.....
Harry stifled laughter as the Death Eaters collectively let out shouts of surprise and screams of terror. He had not even done anything to them yet. Focusing intently on maintaining the ghostly apparition, Harry moved his invisible physical body and drew one of his spare wands. With a cramped sort of flourish, he sent a banishing charm toward the group of Death Eaters that knocked most of them to the ground. For good measure, he followed it with a ground-shaking spell which turned out to be a disappointment to Harry-the tremors in the ground were barely detectable, but it served to further rattle the Death Eaters psychologically.
Some of the quicker Death Eaters had managed to draw their wands and were shooting spells at the apparition. Harry repositioned himself to make sure he was not on the wrong side of the spells. Positioned appropriately, Harry switched his focus to controlling the apparition.
The Death Eaters watched with horror as the ghost of Harry Ashworth raised both of its hands and brought them down, as if striking with some invisible force. Harry uttered a silent prayer that his spare wand would hold up and then summoned half a dozen bolts of lightning, striking in quick succession but not hitting any of the Death Eaters. Harry then cast several minor flame charms to make it look as if the lightning had caught the dirt or something on fire.
While the Death Eaters scrambled to avoid catching fire or being struck by lightning, Harry cast some stunners and incapacitated two of the Death Eaters. He then focused on his image projection and had it raise its arms once again. The Death Eaters who had managed to get back to their feet fled, while Harry-a wry smile on his lips-pointed his wand to the sky and uttered a spell he had once heard cast at the Quidditch World Cup, prior to his fourth year at Hogwarts. "Morsmordre!"
As the Dark Mark rose into the sky, Harry summoned a couple more bolts of lightning, cancelled the image projection charm, and apparated away.
.....
When Harry returned home, the flat was dark. He stopped at the fridge for a quick snack and then moved to the bedroom. Bellatrix was lying on the bed, apparently asleep. She had thrown off the bed covers, leaving the skin not covered by her nightie open to the cool air of the apartment. Harry shook his head, wondering again how someone could stand being cold like that.
He changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed as gingerly as possible so as not to wake Bellatrix. However, as he settled in, he realized that he had either woken her or that she had not been sleeping, for she turned and wrapped her arm around him, gently nuzzling her husband.