Narcissa passed the bowl of mashed potatoes to her husband, after placing a spoonful on her own plate. Clearing her throat, she picked up her spoon. "So Sirius, are you pleased with your room?" She felt odd talking to her cousin, a cousin she hadn't really spoken to since she was a child. Sure they attended Hogwarts together but Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor, a blow to the Black family, and she and her sisters had been forbidden to associate with him.

Sirius looked up from his plate. "Eh, it's alright." He mumbled and shoved a spoonful of casserole into his mouth.

Draven frowned and nudged Sirius with his shoulder. Seeing that his godfather wasn't going to say anything else, he looked at his mother. "Sirius loves the room, mother. Isn't that right?"

"Ya, ya that's right. It's a nice room." Sirius felt uncomfortable sitting at the Malfoy dinner table. His whole entire life had been spent hating dark wizards and now he was sharing a meal with one of the most notorious, darkest, wizards of them all, Lucius Malfoy.

"It's right beside the boys, correct?" Years of etiquette training demanded that Narcissa make idle conversation with her cousin.

Sirius nodded his head and shoved another spoonful of casserole into her mouth. He had to admit, the food was rather good. But then again anything would taste better than the bread and water he received in Azkaban. While he chewed, he left his eyes roam around the table. Doing so caused him to notice that several place settings were empty. "Are you expecting company?" He asked, finally looking to the head of the table.

Lucius sat his cup of pumpkin juice down and wiped his mouth on a napkin. "No, I believe we are all here. Why do you ask?"

"There are three empty place settings on the table." Sirius motioned towards them with his chin then took a long drink of his own pumpkin juice.

Draco, who had been silently observing Sirius, chose this time to speak. "They are for Ron, Ori, and Bella." He was silent for a moment. "Ron had to go home, Ori is held up in his room, and Aunt Bella is...away."

Sirius looked away from Lucius and focused on the boy sitting across from him. He immediately noticed the similarities between this boy and Draven. This had to be Draco. "Who are Ron and Ori?" He inquired.

"Ronald Weasley is a dear friend and Orion is Aunt Bella's son, our cousin." Draco explained.

"Weasley? Arthur's boy?" Sirius really felt behind on the times.

"One of Arthur and Molly's sons." Draven piped in. "Ron has five older brothers and one younger sister." He explained once Sirius had refocused his attention on him. "Bill is the eldest then comes Charlie, Percy, Fred and George, who are twins, Ron and his little sister Ginny. You'll see a lot of Ron, he spends most of his summers and Holidays with us. And you'll see quite a bit of Fred and George as well. They're fans of yours. They'll go mental when they find out that you were a Marauder." He grinned. "I have yet to see two better pranksters than them."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Arthur always talked about having a load of kids but I never thought Molly would accommodate him." He shook his head. "Seven kids? Bloody hell." He chuckled then sobered. "So Orion is Bella and Rodolphus' son?"

"Orion is indeed a Lestrange." Lucius replied, leaving no room for argument.

"So where is Bella and old Rodo?" Sirius asked, having known, and disliked, Rodolphus since they were children. He blinked when the table went quiet. "What?"

Draven felt the guilt begin to rise but ruthlessly quashed it down. "Uncle Rodolphus was killed at the start of the summer holiday." He said, quietly.

Sirius felt like a giant arse. "How?" He asked, just as quietly. His heart went out to Bella.

"Ministry raid." Draven, smoothly, lied. "They've taken to raiding Diagon Alley establishments. They say their looking for supporters of the Serpent but no one ever makes it out of one of those raids alive. Nobody except the Aurors." He took a deep breath fighting back the tears that were pooling in the corners of his eyes. "Twenty-three innocent people lost their lives that day, all because Fudge is an incompetent idiot." He pushed his plate away, having lost his appetite. "Three of them were children." What he failed to mention was that the raid was of a back alley pub that was frequently used, by him and his Fangs, to launch attacks on Diagon Alley and the surrounding areas. He had put Rodolphus in charge of the attack.

"I'm sorry." Sirius looked down at his plate wondering how in Merlin's name the Wizarding World had fallen into such a state of chaos. "Did you know them? The kids I mean?" He asked, never looking up.

Draco nodded. "We both did. Two of them were Slytherins and one was from Gryffindor. All were going to be third years. They were there doing early school shopping." Which was a lie. The entire group was there preparing a small scale attack on Diagon Alley. The three children were loyal to Draven and died fighting the Aurors along with the twenty adults.

Sirius pushed his own plate away. "How's Bella taking it?" He remembered how emotional Bella was as a child. She'd get upset over the tiniest thing and would have to be admitted to St. Mungos until she calmed down. He could recall being forced to visit her every couple of months. Regulus had visited on his own since he was such a good son while Sirius fought tooth and nail against going.

Draven winced. "Not very well." He decided not to lie to Sirius about Bella since they were family, no matter how much Bella had stressed otherwise.

"She's in St. Mungos then?" Sirius inquired.

"I didn't say that." Draven avoided.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And why isn't she in St. Mungos?"

Lucius decided to help his youngest son out. "Because the Aurors would surely be waiting to arrest her. Dumbledore has convinced the Aurors that Bella is working with the Serpent. I've had to go to Fudge himself to keep the Aurors from going after this entire family. It's getting rather bothersome. We can't even go out in public without fearing for our safety. We've had to reply on a select few loyal house-elves to keep us sustained. Luckily for us the ancient wards on the Manor keep us safe from intrusion or I fear Dumbledore would have us raided and arrested. Everyone knows that he is slowly taking over the Ministry. Soon he'll be declaring himself Minister and when that time comes, many of the pureblooded families will have to flee." He was rather good at lying.

"Boy, I would sure like to know what happened to Dumbledore to make him so...so...so power hungry." Sirius mumbled. "So if Bella isn't at St. Mungos where is she?"

Draven fiddled with his napkin. "We had to place her in the dungeon with twenty-four hour guard. She tried three times, after she found out about Uncle Roddy, to off herself. There is always a house-elf with her making sure she doesn't try it again." He assured. "It's the best we can do, Sirius. It's not safe for us to take her to St. Mungos and it isn't safe to bring a healer here. Our private healer has been checking up on her but he isn't qualified to treat her."

Sirius frowned. "Can I see here?" He didn't know why he asked but he felt the need to see his cousin.

Looking towards his parents for approval, Draven nodded. "Dobby." He waited for loyal house-elf to appear. "Take Sirius to Bella's room then stay and make sure Bella doesn't do anything stupid."

"Dobby understands, sir. This way Black." Dobby darted out of the kitchen.

"Hey!" Sirius jumped to his feet and chased after the quick moving Dobby.

Narcissa, who had been silent for most of the dinner, raised an eyebrow. "That was...odd. Sirius has never shown any concern for our family except for maybe Andromeda."

"Azkaban changes people, dear." Lucius sipped his juice. "Maybe his time was well spent?"

Draven shrugged. "Come on Draco, we have some planning to do." He started to push his chair back then stopped. "Can we be excused?" He asked his mother.

"Of course, love." Narcissa smiled at her two children. "Another attack?" She asked.

"That's what we're trying to plan." Draco replied as he pushed his chair back and stood. He stopped at his mothers side and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"We're thinking muggle London this time, what do you think?" Draven asked as he moved around the table and placed a kiss on his mothers cheek as well.

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "That's a big step but one I'm sure we're ready for." He gave both boys an encouraging smile. "I do love a good muggle hunt." He rubbed his hands together.

Grinning, the boys rushed up the stairs to their room, where papers of all kind were scattered about. Plopping down on their respective beds, they began to gather information, plot and plan.