Chapter 4
Chaos and confusion.
She was convinced that it was nothing bad, until she threatened the lesser Death Eaters with torture via Cruciatus Curse.
Only then did they spoke the truth.
Just fifteen minutes before, Bellatrix Lestrange received word that the Dark Lord was rendered critically injured and was nowhere to be found. The Dark Lord was performing a classified mission of sort, something which gave very little detail as to what he was planning to do. Field agents sent to look after him merely found traces of dark magic, or to be more specific, signs that a particularly strong dark magic rebounded against the caster's will. The agents couldn't get any closer to the area where it happened in fear of alerting too much Muggles and Aurors from the Ministry of Magic, who were swarming the place like ants.
She sent Lucius a howler, alerting him of her arrival and purpose of visit. Moments later Bellatrix Apparated outside the Malfoy Manor, intending to find answers.
The Malfoy family was as lost as she was.
So too her family members from the House of Black lineage.
Before he left for this 'secret mission', The Dark Lord left her no instruction about what to do should an emergency arise, like right now. Nobody else within his inner circle got special orders regarding this kind of situation. Back then, the loyal followers considered it normal, as the top level Death Eaters were used to performing solo missions, but they usually discussed and prepared contingency cases should a mistake occurred.
Now, they were left with no contingency plans.
The sanctity of Samhain night over the houses and families of Pureblood wizards were shattered by confusion, as members of the Death Eaters sent to pick up news from the Dark Lord returned empty handed. As if the great revered leader vanished from the face of the Earth.
Time that could've been spent on drinking tea and interacting with family members turned sour by this revelation.
Bad news, indeed.
Already, talks among the lower caste of the organization were stirring like wildfire, of the scared and weak ones plotting to run away and sell their comrades to the Ministry, or the greedy ones among them vied for greater amount of influence as the organization's leader's whereabouts remained a mystery. For the time being, those talks might as well be rhetoric, but given enough time, the whispers might turn into open rebellion, and the Pureblood families would be no more.
This was not supposed to happen.
Dobby the house-elf set up a special table where the Malfoys, the Blacks, and the Lestranges would usually gather for tea time and meaningless chats on sensational articles from the Daily Prophet, but tonight no one cared to be there. The family members were trying to process the latest development of this unacceptable 'scandal' and contact their sleeper agents outside of the circle.
The tea that lowly creature made precisely for her was taken over by Narcissa, who somehow finished her own tea without anyone looking.
Bellatrix didn't care, but she felt sorry for Narcissa for some reason.
The Death Eaters wouldn't survive for long without the revered leader. She wanted to organize a rescue mission with some of the more experienced members like Dolohov and Rosier; hopefully Bellatrix and whoever came with her would get to the Dark Lord's aid first before the Ministry-loving traitors found him. If Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix had their hands involved in this... Bellatrix would make sure they regret it deeply.
Well, it's time to start the mission. She'd need to contact them before sunrise. There would be allies to gather, enemies to kill or capture, and places to visit.
The damned tea can wait.