Double Dog Dare! -- Episode 36
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Janet Tewksberry sat alone on her bed, polishing off her third bottle of gin. Tears streamed down her face. After all her hard work, all her scheming, all the years of waiting . . . and now it was going to end too early.

She had been so careful when she could have been reckless. Her world no longer made sense. There were prophesies. Her mother had repeated them as long as long as Janet could remember. It was her destiny to create chaos. Wasn't it? Two sisters, soulless as the empty night, will rise and wrest control from the Dark Lord. And she deserved it. Where Voldemort was weak, she was strong. Where he made mistakes, she was flawless. Nothing escaped her notice, and she never fell prey to her own hubris.

The seeds had been planted years before; it all made sense now. It was her mother's plan. Her mother--the school friend and first lover of Tom Riddle. The woman who egged Grindelwald out of hiding to face Dumbledore. Carol Channing was a cunning woman. In her mind Janet saw her standing proud, garbed in diamonds . . . and practically nothing else. She imagined Carol moving her family to the foulest fen to raise her daughters among the dementors. And the only cost was the life of the girls' father--no loss. There was Carol again, presenting her daughters to Voldemort and convincing him of their imporance to his cause, throwing off all suspicion of false loyalty. She sent the weaker girl to Slytherin where she would convince others to join the Dark Lord, but the daughter most like her was sent to Durmstrang, far away from the near omniscient gaze of Albus Dumbledore. It was Carol who introduced her daughters to Tom Riddle's shames and secrets. And ultimately Carol allowed Dumbledore to kill her (of that Janet was now certain) so that her daughters would never figure out their mother's mind and rebel. Their animosity would be focused on the Muggle lover.

Since her childhood, Janet had been subtle and intuitive, but she knew she was nothing compared to her mother. But why would Carol do this? Because she believed in the prophecies. And in the end she was wrong. She was wrong!! Janet threw an empty gin bottle against the stone wall and stared at the trickling streams of fluid weaving through the shards. Decades of planning were in vain. Her mother's reach was not as long as she once thought.

Janet was dying. For months she had known but would not believe it. There was a magical toxin inside her, and it had already spread like a cancer. But now, after she swallowed the Azkaban map, she could feel the poison painfully devouring her from the inside. Her body and her power was ravaged. Sheer will alone was keeping her together.

Margo had no idea, nor did Janet have any intention of telling her. Margo had not escaped Azkaban because of her faith in the plan. Alone and outside the walls of the fortres, Margo could overpower Voldemort, but she was no match for Dumbledore. She lacked her mother's vision. Nor did she have the presence to control the Death Eaters the way that Janet could have.

A fresh stream of tears streaked down Janet's cheeks. This was not how it was supposed to happen. She had to destroy the Death Eaters who would have opposed her rise to power before she waged war against Dumbledore and his followers. Malfoy would have been first. Framing him would not be sufficient; he had far too much influence for the system to trap him. Only death, no mercy. Without him, Goyle, Crabbe, and MacNair would have self-destructed. Avery would be next. Nott and Pettigrew would side with Voldemort when she finally rose against him, but after his fall, they would do anything to avoid a destructive power struggle.

Janet took one last swig of gin; there was only one thing to do. The battle could not be won by her, but it had to be won. She chanted a spell in an ancient, demonic language. It was a spell her mother had taught her long ago and warned her never to use unless absolutely necessary. Janet laughed out loud. Another of Carol's manipulations. Perhaps she did foresee this.

As soon as the last word echoed throughout the room, Janet felt something in her mouth struggle to escape. Painfully, it ripped its way through the skin of her lips. With effort, she looked down at the little black bird sitting in her lap. It blinked innocuously with eyes just like hers. It was her, her power and her will--or at least most of it.

"Fly to Margo," Janet hoarsely whispered through torn and bloody lips. "becaome a part of her so that I may live on."

The bird lifted itself into the air and vanished through the stone wall. Janet felt nauseous. Without that extra power, her physical death would approach even sooner.

But before that could happen, she had to send a message to Dumbledore that the war was beginning whether he was ready or not. And that meant destroying the dog, the phony Sirius Black, and the macaroni in her basement. But first she had to kill the waking French wench who was about to rescue them. Janet got up from her bed and smiled.