*This story takes place on the 31st December 1996 - the winter before the end of The Deathly Hallows *

Chapter 1 – Manic Morning

The sun was rising steadily above the elaborate stone structure of Malfoy Manor. The peacocks awoke and began their morning patrol along the luscious green hedges that surrounded the house. The skull of the Dark Mark that hung above the mansion yawned gently as the snake gave a hiss and wiggled out of the gaping hole.

Narcissa Malfoy drew back the curtains of the board room with her wand. She looked around and sighed. This room used to be her favourite. Every night the family would gather here and enjoy a beautiful house-elf-made roasted dinner, the fire would be blazing, and jokes would be had between them all. Thinking of this brought a tear to her eye; she could not remember the last time her poor Draco had laughed.

In her left hand she held the morning's Daily Prophet, it was only six in the morning but Snape's owl – unlike him – always had a tendency to turn up early. As she glanced back down toward the paper she glanced at the date: 31st December 1996. Tomorrow would be the start of the year that the wizarding war would end, but nobody knew of this yet.

The door to the board room opened with a loud crash. Followed by this commotion was the excitable screeching cackle of Bellatrix. She was still in her night clothes, an ankle length night dress which still contained stains from her stay in Azkaban. Her eyes were wide as she peered around the room in search for someone or something.

'I couldn't sleep, Cissy,' Bellatrix giggled as she attempted to whisper. She ran a hand through her bushy hair which was larger than usual due to having just got out of bed. 'He hasn't got a clue!' She sounded like a child teasing in the playground.

'Shush, Bellatrix!' Narcissa waved the newspaper at her sister. 'I thought you were him when you waltzed in so carelessly!'

'I'm just so excited, the Dark Lord, a big seven-zero!' Bellatrix ran around the long table in the room.

Moving pictures of Voldemort through his childhood years were hung on all four walls, and printed underneath them were humorous captions that seemed to dance around with the young Dark Lord.

Bellatrix noticed that one of the pictures was her faithful master at her very own wedding. He was stood there with more hair than he had now, however a bald patch had formed into the back of his head. The Voldemort in the picture was handing Bellatrix a present wrapped in paper patterned with snakes. He looked quite put out as the younger Bellatrix teased him about his hair, but his face soon went a rosy pink when she pulled down his head and kissed his bald patch. The caption read: "Baldy Voldy in a Sporting Red"

Bellatrix moved on from the funny-captioned pictures and walked over to the large dinner table where many meetings had been had concerning capturing Harry Potter. In front of every seat on the table was a funky patterned placemat. On each placemat was a small box of wax crayons, a little colouring book, a cone shaped party hat, a streamer, and a cracker – the Death Eaters had imported more than was necessary for Christmas. It seemed ironic that the Death Eaters were partial to muggle Christmas crackers, however the jokes never failed to send Voldemort into a fit of hysterics – and on that note they were ordered to buy many.

The morning seemed to disappear quickly. Lucius, Draco, and Greyback drove off in a white van at just after ten o'clock. They had to drive into the nearest city centre, and pick up a large order of pizzas for the celebration. It would take them until at least half twelve until they would arrive back at the manor.

The female population of the Death Eaters were all stood in the kitchen, preparing a buffet to put out for the party this afternoon. Narcissa was particularly focused on guiding her steady wand as she used it to drape a sweet pink border of icing around the top layer. There was not much atmosphere in the kitchen after Bellatrix had stormed out, she wanted to jump out of the cake in order to surprise her master, however the sponge texture of the cake's interior had already set. Narcissa would have had to start all over again.

The Dark Lord himself was still upstairs in his bedroom. Lucius had given Voldemort the privilege of sleeping in the biggest bedroom that the house had to offer, but Lucius had failed to mention that his mother had spent all of her time in the grand suite until her unfortunate departure from the world.

Voldemort was sat looking out of the window, over the wondrous garden at the back of the manor. His red eyes slowly scrolled up to the cold blue sky. The Dark Mark that was centred above the garden looked down and winked at him cheekily. Voldemort's eyes soon averted back down to the fountain feature that stood in the middle.

'Milord, can't we have another game of chess?' Came the nagging voice of his closest servant.

'Behave, Wormtail! I have already told you the answer is no. I'm getting too old for chess.' Voldemort spoke with a soft seductive tone. Nobody had come up to wish him a Happy Birthday yet, and it was nearly noon. He had sunk into a mild state of depression. Was he worshipped? Or were they all just cowards. 'Harry Potter doesn't have any muggle means of telephonic communication does he?'

'Not that we are aware of, Milord,' Wormtail bowed behind his master, then continued to set up the chess board. 'Did you want to prank call him?'

'I was going to suggest a friendly catch up…but now that you've mentioned that…' Voldemort rose from the wooden chair that he was sat on. He drifted over to door to his private ensuite bathroom.

The door to the private bathroom was slightly ajar. Hung over the frame of the door was a coat hanger which held the Dark Lord's famous long black robes. He slid out of his dressing gown, looked over his shoulder to make sure that Wormtail wasn't having a quick look, and then picked his robes down from the door. He put them on like it was just another ordinary day.

'Bloody traffic,' Draco exclaimed from the middle of the three seats in the white van. The white van trio had nearly made it to the major city when they had hit a long queue of traffic. Unaccustomed to such fuss made the three wizards uncomfortable.

Greyback had found some amusement of his own. He was rummaging around in the glove box under the dashboard. He fingered through a collection of cassette tape music, and found himself a brochure entitled: 'Amsterdam.' His scarred face illuminated as the colourful pictures advertised him a holiday. Looking across to Draco and Lucius, Greyback grinned from ear to ear, as if to ask them to take him.

Lucius Malfoy was sat in the driver's seat. His pale white hands shook nervously as he gripped the steering wheel with all his might. He had drawn the short straw and had to drive the van there and back. He wanted to silence the immature behaviour of Greyback but choked on his own words as his mouth trembled.

'Would anybody like a mint?' Greyback asked with delight. He had returned to the glove box and happened to find an old packet of opened mints that had been favoured over long distance journeys.

'Go on then, if you're offering,' Draco smiled politely as he reached into the bag. Pulling out a white, pearly sweet, he popped it into his mouth. Within seconds his eyes became red with tears. Sticking his tongue out, the Malfoy boy panted for his life and spluttered. 'Blimey, what kind of mints are they?'

'Do you think I can read?' Greyback asked dumbly.

'Give that here,' Draco snatched the packet of mints off Greyback. As he did so at least ten of the remaining sweets fell out of the bag. A few rolled over the dashboard, one got lodged where the dashboard met the windscreen. Several of the others bounced onto the carpeted flooring of the van causing Draco to kick his feet up in despair.

'Behave!' Roared Lucius as his head jolted round. A massive scowl alternated from Greyback to Draco. His eyes slowly found the lodged peppermint sweet and Lucius took a deep breath. 'I need to concentrate, okay?' He sighed. 'My lord, it's hot in here. Greyback, how do you do the windows in this thing?'

'There's a little mechanical arm to your right, Lucius.' Greyback matured the tone in his voice and spoke properly. 'If you wind it, the window will lower itself.' He smiled.

'What?' Lucius rummaged around with the van door next to him. 'I can't seem to…ouch,' He banged his elbow off the edge of his seat, 'where in Merlin's name…is…' he grunted impatiently. The car in front of them had started to move a little way down the road. Lucius was in a state of panic as he refocused himself back onto the wheel. The van edged forward.

Greyback flung himself across Draco and was lay across the two Malfoys' laps. He outstretched an arm to reach for the window winder. He kicked his legs as he flailed his upper limbs around the cabin. He managed to grab onto the 'mechanical arm' just as Lucuis began to beat him for distracting his attention.

Draco found the strength in him to lift Greyback up into his seat. He frowned with the commotion and subconsciously reached into the packet of mints in order to feed himself a second. After realising what he had done, he pummelled Greyback in the shoulder with a spoilt child's rage slapped across his face.

A cool breeze entered the cabin as the window had been lowered about half way. The traffic was still moving so the three travellers sat still, mesmerised by the similar motion of all the vehicles that lined the roads.

Lucius remained silent as he focused solely on the road. Controlling the van came easier to him when the movement was constant and not stop start. Next to him, Draco breathed heavily as he regained his temper and patience.

In a very slow manner, Draco leant forward and opened the glove box in order to replace the packet of peppermints that he strongly despised. As he did so, he looked up at Greyback who was once more drawn to the contents of the hidden shelf. Draco tried to close the glove box but was interrupted…

'Can't we put on some of this easy listening music, Lucius?' Greyback roared with excitement as he made a grab for one of the cassettes entitled: Easy Driving Tracks

In the dungeon dormitories of Hogwarts, one man slowly awoke in his velvet quilted king-sized bed. Sitting up, the heavy sleeper yawned and looked across to the small digital clock by his bedside. The red LEDs illuminated the time: 11.05.

Leaping from the comfort of his bed in one swift movement, the Headmaster darted to his wardrobe. Pulling out one of his many heavy black robes he dressed himself very quickly and then ran a thin comb through his tangle of greasy black hair.

Severus Snape swore very loudly as he remembered the surprise party…