It was shortly after dusk that the two Death Eaters appeared out of thin air in the lane leading to Lucius Malfoy's mansion. They looked at each other suspiciously, each with his wand drawn and pointed at the other, before they gave a quick nod of recognition and put their wands away.
They exchanged small talk as they walked up the lane. They did not break their stride as they reached the locked wrought-iron gate, but simply raised their left arms. When their arms touched the iron, they simply passed through as though the gate weren't there.
It took a few minutes for the pair to reach the manor. Yaxley was so anxious that he drew his wand at an unexpected rustling in the hedge, but relaxed somewhat when he saw that it was only one of Malfoy's prize albino peacocks.
The front door of the manor house opened of its own accord at their approach. Yaxley and Snape walked quickly down the hall, the figures in the paintings watching them intently. The two stopped at the drawing room, hesitating for a moment before Snape turned the the bronze handle.
Everyone was seated around a long, ornate table. The only light in the room came from a large roaring fire beneath a marble mantelpiece. Snape and Yaxley waited for a minute while their eyes adjusted to the dim light.
Their eyes were drawn first to a woman suspended upside-down over the table, turning slowly as if hanging from an invisible rope. Then they saw a metallic figure glinting in the firelight in one corner of the room, almost obscured by the furniture piled carelessly against the wall, looking much like a giant pepper pot. Only two people at the table didn't frequently glance at the thing. One was a pale young man who was sitting in the chair closest to the dangling woman, who seemed unable to keep from looking up every minute or so, or from seeing anything else.
The other was Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord who was without a doubt the most powerful wizard in all of Britain, if not the world. His skin was so pale that it almost seemed to glow in the darkness, scarlet cat-like eyes, and a flat snake-like nose with slits for nostrils.
"Snape, Yaxley," the Dark Lord said in a surprisingly high-pitched voice from his seat at the head of the table. "You're almost late." He motioned to the empty chair to his right. "Snape, by me. Yaxley, you will sit by Dolohov."
The two men took their places, most of the eyes around the table focused on Snape.
"Well?" Voldemort said.
"My Lord, they will move Potter from his home next Saturday, at nightfall," Snape replied.
"I see." Voldemort stared into Snape's eyes as though searching for the truth of his servant's words there. After a moment, his thin lips curved into a frightening smile.
"My Lord," Yaxley said as he leaned forward, "I have heard otherwise. The Auror, Dawlish, mentioned that Potter would not be moved until the night before his 17th birthday."
Snape smiled. "I was told that they would try to mislead us. No doubt the Auror has been enchanted to give false information. He is rather susceptible to that sort of thing."
"My Lord, Dawlish was quite certain..."
"Of course he was certain. That's how the spell works. I assure you that the Order of the Phoenix will not allow the Auror Office to play any part in Potter's protection. They believe that it's been infiltrated."
"They got that bit right, eh, what?" A squat man guffawed from just beyond Yaxley. A few others around the table chuckled.
Voldemort did not laugh, but merely gazed up at the woman above the table. "Where are they going to take the boy?" he asked when the laughter died down.
"To the home of one of the order," Snape replied. "It has been given every protection that they could provide. There is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless the Ministry falls before then."
"Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort asked.
"My Lord, I have good news. I have finally succeeded in taking control of Pius Thicknesse."
Many of the Death Eaters cheered at the news. Thicknesse, the head of Magical Law Enforcement, was second in power only to the Minister of Magic himself, and with him under their control it should only be a matter of time before the Ministry was Voldemort's.
Voldemort nodded his approval. "It is a start. But we must still proceed with caution. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our men before we strike. One misstep could have dire consequences."
"Of course, my Lord. But Thicknesse has contact not only with the Minister himself, but with the other department heads as well. It will be easy now to take control of the others, and once we do, they will unite to bring Scrimgeur down."
"But I very much doubt that it will be done before they move Potter in a few days." Voldemort's gaze returned to those around the table.
"We have several people at the Department of Magical Transportation," Yaxley said. "If he Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we will know."
"The Order won't use anything that even remotely involves the Ministry," Snape said.
"So, he will have to move into the open, then. Excellent." Voldemort looked once more at the woman over the table. He sat in silence for several minutes, watching her indifferently.
The Death Eaters spoke for some time, and Voldemort took the wand of Lucius Malfoy for his own use as he could no longer trust his wand to act against Harry Potter.
None of them noticed the eye stalk of the construct in the corner as it moved to observe each of them in turn. Most of them, it only watched for a few seconds, if that. But it seemed to linger quite some time on Voldemort, Snape, and the boy, Draco Malfoy.
"My Lord," Lucius Malfoy finally ventured. What of those?" He gestured at the thing in the corner.
"What of them, Lucius? Do you object to their using your mansion as a base of operations? They are our allies, just as the Dementors, the giants, and the trolls are. But if you are concerned for your family's safety, do not be. They will only attack those who are inferior to us, the muggles and the mud-bloods and the blood traitors. Such as our guest here." Voldemort gestured with his wand at the woman over the table. "You recognize her, do you not, Draco?" Voldemort looked up at the woman as she turned slowly in place.
The pale young man looked up and nodded once, wordlessly.
"For those who have not set foot in Hogwarts these last few years, this is Professor Charity Burbage, former teacher of Muggle Studies there."
One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor as Burbage continued to slowly rotate. "Severus, help me, please!" she begged when she was facing Snape. Tears ran up her ruddy face.
"Silence!" Voldemort snapped with a flick of his wand. Burbage's mouth continued to move, but no sound came out.
"As if it weren't offensive enough that she was teaching our children that muggles are our equals," he sneered with unmistakable contempt, "but last week she wrote a rather moving defence of mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. She claims that we must accept those thieves of our magical rights. That it is inevitable, even desirable, that purebloods breed with mudbloods, or even muggles, until there are none of us left."
No one around the table made a sound. The anger and disgust in Voldemort's voice was plainly evident to all.
"Such treasonous believes are punishable by death. But I shan't sully even your wand, Lucius." Voldemort turned to the thing in the corner. "Exterminate her," he said softly.
It rolled out of the corner, looking rather like a large pepper pot, the height of a small man, with two large metal wands and a plunger sticking out of it. Firelight glinted off the rows of knobs running up and down the thing's body. "I obey!" it screamed, its voice metallic and inhuman.
A green light shot from one of the rods, hitting Burbage directly. Her face contorted in a silent scream, the light so intense that her skeleton was visible for several seconds before her lifeless body fell to the table.