Prologue
March 1998, Malfoy Manor
Bellatrix Black read her nephew's hesitation right. The boy was far too soft, damn Narcissa for coddling him so. She pressed her wand into her Dark Mark with glee, summoning her Lord. They had caught Potter and his little band of friends! The boys were huddled together near Draco while the Mudblood lay sprawled in the middle of the drawing room where Scabior had dropped her.
Lucius was paling, a sure sign that the Dark Lord was about to arrive. Her brother-in-law had always been sensitive to magic, ley lines, the pressure of the Apparition of a powerful wizard.
With a thump her master arrived next to her, holding a twitching Antonin Dolohov by the sleeve of his robes. The Russian fell to the ground next to Potter's little girl friend. The Dark Lord was in a terrible mood.
"What is the meaning of this, Bellatrix? Why would you disturb me so?"
"My Lord! We have Potter!"
She pointed over to where the two boys were huddled together. Her Lord stalked over, shining a Lumos into the black-haired teens face.
"Indeed, Bella, indeed."
"My Lord!"
Voldemort whirled around to face Scabiour, "You are one moment from death, scum!"
"We found them, my Lord." The other snatchers were shuffling closer, murmuring their agreements. Fenrir Greyback at least had some sense of preservation, keeping to the background.
"Crucio!"
Bella knew better than anybody what unbelievable feats of magic her master could produce but putting the Crucio on four people simultaneously surprised even her. If he was in such a mood even she had to be on her toes to avoid any punishment. Narcissa's sharply indrawn breath brought the necessary focus. Draco needed to grow a spine, but if he drew the Dark Lord's ire right now the Malfoy and the Black line would be extinct.
"My Lord, this scum here brought the children, not knowing who they were. My nephew identified them."
"Ah. Draco. Yes, it is indeed the Potter boy. And his Weasley sidekick, no doubt. – Lucius, put them in the dungeon, I do not have the time right now."
The snatchers had crawled away and Narcissa had the good sense to usher Draco from the drawing room.
"As to you, Antonin. How could you? How could you, one of my most faithful follwers disappoint me so? The Russian Ministry has withdrawn its support because of you! Your own father pronounced you an oath-breaker because of your attack on him! I do not care what he does to your mother, your first and formost interests should lie with me! – Crucio!"
Dolohov started writhing again, now and then bumping against the still form of the Granger girl. The Dark Lord ended the curse when the Death Eater started to bleed from his nose and ears, then turned around, pacing furiously. Bellatrix expected an Avada any moment now. From the corner of her eyes she saw the Mudblood struggling to a sitting position. As Voldemort raised his wand towards Dolohov he stopped for a second, seeing the girl looking at him. Well, two Avadas then.
"It's the fealty. Dolohov can either be a faithful vassal or not. The first oath of fealty is always towards one's family, if he breaks that his vow to you is void, too. I did not come far into my studies about how the Dark Mark is working, Hogwarts' library is sadly lacking in that area, but all my research points to the fact that more than one oaths of fealty have to align. If Mr Dolohov senior disrespected his own responsibilty as head of an ancient family to the extent that his eldest son was forced to interfere he disqualified himself as a liege. If Mr Dolohov here had let his father kill his mother, as the situation seems to have been, his mark to you would have stopped working because he could no longer be a good vassal in any sense. If looking at the broader political picture from your point it might have been prudent to let things progress, then come to you and ask to be accepted again, but in such cases instinct often overrules rationality. Even more so as Mr Dolohov here would have felt a compulsion through the Dark Mark to act as he did."
Never in her life had Bellatrix seen the Dark Lord speechless. Such cheek!
"My lord, let me kill the Mudblood for you!"
He swatted her away.
"My, my, you certainly have done your homework, little girl! `Paying Hommage´ and `Sacred Traditions of the Sacred Families´?"
"Yes, those and `Faith, Fellowship and Fealty´, it's a Muggle book."
How dare she! Bellatrix wanted to strangle the impertinent chit with her bare hands. "My Lord!"
"Hush, Bella. She has no manners and no respect, but she safed me from a most grievous error. – Ennervate!"
Antonin twitched and came to himself with a groan, blood still trickling from his nose. The Dark Lord summoned a vial of Pepper-up towards the man on the ground.
"Can you stand, my old friend?"
With more groans the Russian staggered to stand.
"I apologize for over-reacting, you are not at fault here. Take the book-worm here home with you. She is not to escape but do not harm her." He turned to the girl who was still sitting, swaying slightly, "I can see that Potter survived as much due to your cleverness as through sheer blind luck. I will decide your fate later. For now make use of Dolohov's library and write an essay on the topic you expanded on right now, no less than two rolls of parchment!"
The girl blinked stupidly. Dolohov shuffled over to her and took her elbow. She seemed to come out of her stupor and tried to crawl away. Both were shaking with aftershocks of the Cruciatus. The Dark Lord rolled his eyes, an eerie sight on someone without eyelids, and flicked his wand.
"The Apparition wards are down. Go!"