Sooo...*rubs neck awkwardly* the wait wasn't that long...
Yeah, really, really sorry about that *hides behind chair to avoid hurled objects*
Anyway, On with the show! (If everyone hasn't abandoned this because of our dodgey updating)
A slightly tawny looking fox sat in a graveyard, licking its paws while silently watching the entrance intently.
It was waiting for something, or someone, that was clear enough, but why in an empty graveyard on a cold, starry night was not.
The fox froze as it caught the scent of someone approaching.
Sure enough, its ears started to twitch as it heard something.
Boots crunching on the gravel walkway between the graves, a cloak slithering along the ground behind its owner.
Silently, the fox rose and slipped behind a rock, the velvety pads on its feet barely whispering as they touched the grass that had grown over the untidy graves.
Soon, the person came into view, their almost white hair glistening the silvering moonlight.
The person was tall and muscular, wearing long black robes with a small crest sewn onto the right hand side of the chest and was obviously reaching his twenties.
"Hello?" The person called out, his voice sounding nervous, despite the confident drawl it spoke with, "Are you there? I... I got your owl... About Vold-"
The fox moved faster than it ever had before.
With a snarl, it leapt at the stuttering person, tackling them to the ground and examining the crest on the robes all at the same time.
It was the Malfoy crest...
Somewhere between jumping and tackling the person to the ground, the fox had become a man with long auburn hair, almost identical to his brother, Rodolphus.
"Rabastan, I -" The person gasped from beneath him.
"NEVER SAY HIS NAME AGAIN!" Rabastan, now in his more recognizable human form, roared, "DO YOU WANT TO GET CAUGHT?"
The person didn't respond but started to glare.
"DO YOU? DO YOU, MALFOY? ANSWER ME!"
"No! I don't," Draco snarled from his position on the ground, under Rabastan, "But you told me to come here tonight and then don't show yourself! What else was I supposed to do?... Now, would you mind getting off me? You're dirtying my robes."
With a snarl Rabastan stood but all the same offered his hand to the young Malfoy.
"Where are you going?" Draco demanded as Rabastan set off at a brisk pace through the grave yard.
"To the meeting," Rabastan growled over his shoulder, "We're already late as it is. If you've taught me anything over these last few years, it's never trust a Malfoy."
"Then why did you bring me here?" Draco gasped, practically running to match Rabistan's stride.
Rabastan froze solid and swung around to face the pale haired boy, his teeth bared menacingly, "Because... When He rises again... He'll need his followers around him, even if they are good for nothing mud-lovers! Don't look at me like that, we all know you have a thing for the mudblood...Now come on! You've made me late and the others don't know you're coming... By the way, don't be expecting to be welcomed back with opened arms... After you and your family deserted us, you Malfoys have given yourselves a bad name."
Without another word, Rabastan morphed back into his Animagus form of a tawny fox and ran, leaving Draco to hurriedly change into his Animagus form of a pale white ferret and scamper after him.
A short while later they arrived in a wood, where they crawled down a burrow beneath a tree and changed back into their human forms to see the remaining Death Eaters sitting together in an empty human sized cave.
"Greetings, brothers," Rabastan grinned, as the Death Eaters glared at the newly changed Draco.
"It appears you have a traitor on your tail..." Travers snarled, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Draco, "... Why?"
"We need all the help we can get to get Him back," Rabastan insisted, pushing Travers's wand arm down, "Leave him be! He can help us when the time comes."
"Fine," Travers snapped, "But it'll be your neck on the line when he betrays us all... Again!"
"He won't betray us!" Rabastan insisted as Travers sat down and glared at Draco, along with everyone else in the overcrowded cave, "And besides... We have more pressing matters. Rodolphus has been missing for over six weeks now."
Rodolphus sat in his cage, staring angrily at the padlock that sealed him there.
He was bored stiff.
In the past few weeks, nothing had happened.
Nothing.
George Weasley had come back and forth to flirt with Mudblood Granger but there had been no more talk of the Order of the Phoenix, or any other information that could be helpful to the Death Eaters.
Sure, more red-headed Weasleys had appeared, including the daughter, and eventually The Boy Who Lived had appeared with a small boy that Hermione referred to as Teddy.
Rodolphus couldn't wait to get out so he could kill them all.
But for now, he had to stay put.
His wing was slowly (and painfully healing) but he still couldn't change back to his human form and he couldn't scratch it, even though it was really itchy, because of the tiny splint that Hermione had applied to it.
The splint did help though... It was healing him faster.
All in all, the Mudblood wasn't too bad an owner.
After the horrible incident with the spider she'd tried to make him eat, she'd gave him a mixture of seeds and fresh fruit and vegetables which agreed with him more and changed his water regularly so it was also fresh.
She obviously didn't like him sitting in his own waste either and regularly cleaned out his cage, along with giving him a soft bedding of sawdust shavings and straw.
And she'd given him things to entertain himself with - bird toys, mirrors and that type of thing.
Too bad he was really a human.
Hermione came into the kitchen wearing her usual morning wear of fluffy blue and white dotted slippers and a matching bathrobe.
Her hair was a mess, ironically like a bird's nest, and she held an angry looking Crookshanks in her arms.
With a small smile, she set him down in front of his red glazed bowl before opening a pouch of cat food and squeezing it in.
The cat gulped it up within seconds and trotted off towards the open window and climbing outside to chase after a small white butterfly.
Hermione shook her head in amusement and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl before cutting it up into manageable pieces and taking it to Punar's cage.
The padlock and door opened with a click and Hermione put the apple beside the sleepy looking robin, running her forefinger over his soft, soft brown head feathers and changing his water, leaving the cage door open.
Rodolphus had stopped trying to escape...
It did him no good.
He never got very far because Hermione or Crookshanks always caught him and it damaged his wing further so now he sat obediently in his cage and was slowly gaining more freedom around the house.
Hermione slipped the bowl into the cage and locked it up again, gently murmuring, "I'll clean you out later," before making herself some toast and munching into it at the table.
A small knock came from the front door and Hermione abandoned her toast and orange juice to go and answer it as Crookshanks crawled back in the window, smelling the food.
The cat's endless appetite never ceased to amaze Rodolphus.
The toast was gone and there was no trace of the cat ever having been there when Hermione came back into the kitchen leading a pale haired guest with a dreamy expression.
Frowning at the place where her lost toast once was, Hermione started making tea as the girl sat down.
"So, Luna, what are you doing around her? You don't visit often..." Hermione observed.
"Oh, I'm just looking to see if I can find any Canollapoas," Luna replied, "You haven't seen any have you?"
Rodolphus knew the voice instantly. The dreamy voice and expression perfectly matched her mad father's - Xenophilius Lovegood.
Hermione frowned in confusion but saw sense as not to ask what Canollapoas where and served Luna her tea before sitting opposite her.
Luna thanked her and asked if it was a Twyanshiiini mixture, to which Hermione replied it was not (mentally wondering what in Godric's name that was) before continuing.
"They're for my potion's experiment, the Canollapoas," Luna explained, "I'm trying to figure out a way to make a troll speak."
Why would you want to make a troll speak? That would be like the equivalent of talking to a Muggle! Rodolphus tweeted from his cage, shuddering at the thought.
The words came out as a happy tweet, drawing the women's attention to him in his cage.
Luna gasped and, jumping from her chair, came running over, "Oh, Merlin! You have your own Hamselton! How lucky! Where did you get it?"
Hermione rose with a frown and said gently, "Luna... It's a robin... His name's Punar."
"Really?" Luna sighed, "Oh... Well then."
With a groan of despair, she fell into her seat opposite Hermione.
A moment later, after an awkward and disappointed silence, Luna brightened up again, "Oh, Hermione! Have you heard?"
"Heard what?" Hermione scowled.
"About the Battle Reunion!"
"What?"
"The Battle Reunion! We're meeting in June to celebrate our victory over Voldemort and the Death Eaters! Everyone's going to be there! We're having a party outside Hogwarts. And the Ministry officials are attending too! There was talk of a statue made of 'The Golden Trio' and Snape and everything!"
"Oh, Luna! That sounds great!" Hermione gasped in delight.
The girls went on gossiping about the party to come as Rodolphus grinned delightedly.
Perfect.
What a perfect opportunity to wipe out the Ministry, the Order of the Phoenix and the so called Golden Trio all at the same time...
If only he could get out of that wretched cage by then!
Rabastan sat at the desk in the Malfoy's holiday Manor with his head in his hands. To top off the fact that his brother was missing, the ritual needed to bring the Dark Lord back was a very complex and, well, ancient.
Pre-Salazar Slytherin ancient...
Not only did he need His bones, a willing, unmarried witch and a place of pure magical energy, Rabastan also need at least one sentimental item belonging to the Dark Lord.
Did the Dark Lord have any items he held dearly...?
Rodolphus would know what to do. He was the type of person who always knew another way to do things. He had a perfect balance of patience, cunning and blind luck.
Yet, he managed to go missing while tailing Potter's Mudblood. That was almost poetically ironic.
Well, Rabastan thought, He's bound to be alright. He's probably just having a little fun...
That man could beat the Granger filth, after all, he survived years of marriage to Bellatrix Black. Anything else would be like a walk through Honeydukes.