MOONLIT HORIZONS CHAPTER 30
***
YEY! IM BAACK! Slowly it'll get back to the usual pace of long chapters, however, time is of the essence, and I have very little of it. J
***
"It means very little to me whether she remains alive in our capture or dead in a shallow grave outside some Muggle village."
"Black would be sure to plot some extravagant scheme for her escape if she were to remain alive, my Lord."
"Black can be dealt with. There is little that is easier in life than to bring a man down when he is already wounded."
"The Lady Snape requests an audience with you in the nearest possible future."
"Does she indeed?"
"She will wait as long as necessary, for I believe it is a mater of some importance that she sees you."
"Very well. I shall hear her at sundown."
Draezyc moved her ear away from the heavy wooden doors, and quickly walked away from the muffled voices in the room behind her. It had taken hours of pleading and persuasion on Sirius and Remus' behalf for her to brave the Death Eaters world again. If this attempt at a plot wasn't as transparent as a window, Draezyc wasn't sure what a window was anymore.
"You know, Snape…" Malfoy handed Draezyc her winter muffler, "I have been making due considerations and have come to a conclusion of sorts."
"Oh, really…" Draezyc had her doubts that it was mentally possible for Malfoy to come to any sort of conclusion. "Enlighten me…"
"My son."
"Yes, your son…" Draezyc gestured for him to continue impatiently.
"My son needs discipline, he has… turned wayward from the straight and narrow tracks that the Malfoy family has tread for centuries."
"Highly straight and narrow I'm sure. Teenage angst, it will pass."
"You think so? Simple the whims of a teenage wizard?" Malfoy tutted. "I think he is turning lazy, surrounded by idiots he has become complacent in his targets."
"Surrounded by idiots? He's in Slytherin."
"Crabbe and Goyle may be useful bodyguards, but they do not have the intellectual stimulation my son craves."
"So what do you suggest?" Draezyc ducked into a darkened tunnel, Malfoy following close behind
"I was considering sending him to Durmstrang."
"Karkaroff no longer heads it, its under the authority of the Bulgarian Wizarding Council now." Draezyc pulled her cloak tighter round her shoulders. "Do you think it wise to put him under the authority of a strictly anti- pureblood regime? Durmstrang has changed since Karkaroff disappeared from his position. Yes, a degree of the dark arts are still taught, but not even bordering on what it used to be."
"That remains to be seen. I cannot abide this Dumbledore fool for another moment." Malfoy snapped, then resumed his composure, took a deep breath and continued, "Your husband teaches and leads his House as well as it has ever been led, his loyalty to our Lord remains, although somewhat tarnished. Yet it is not enough for a son of mine."
"Why do you not have him schooled at home?"
Malfoy smiled a sickly grin, before turning to walk out of a side passage. "Because he would have nobody to sharpen his claws on."
Draezyc shrugged. It had been done to them all at some point, overbearing parents always used the same methods in such a close knit society. However much one might dream of rain, it never came and the harsh sands brought those together who had nowhere else to go.
*~*
"Do you think she's found her yet?"
"Sirius." Remus bowed his head in exhaustion. "You must give her time, she cannot possibly do everything at once."
"Just a word, to tell me she's alive, that there's hope in this godforsaken world." Sirius held his head in his hands. "Is that too much to ask? She's there, she knows her way around…"
"And she is also not a pea brained imbecile who jumps at the first sight of a squeaking toy…" Snape retorted. "Unlike your dear selves nicely tucked up in a safe castle, MY wife is risking her neck for you ungrateful creatures in a lion's den."
"And we appreciate it, Severus." Anna nodded, "Sirius cant' help it."
"Then he should perhaps learn to help it."
Sirius stood up with a crash, his chair falling over behind him. "WHAT are you suggesting!?" he seethed.
Snape merely raised an eyebrow in reply, before rising from his own seat and silently leaving the room, the door handle clicked behind his fading footsteps.
"Sirius, don't rise to it, he does it on purpose, surely you learnt that years ago?" Remus picked up the tipped over chair and Sirius sank back into it, deflated.
"Why is everything against me?" He sighed "Have I wronged the world in another life?"
"It just seems that way now, but soon it will be over." Anna smiled, half wishful.
*~*
Sundown approached much too soon for Draezyc's liking, she had spent the whole day wondering what to say, how to say it, whether the monster would fall for it. Had he forgotten what she used to be to him?
"You have requested an audience with me, Lady Snape?" Voldemort enquired with a questioning gaze from his chair at the head of the room.
Draezyc switched automatically to the manner that had been so familiar so many years before… "Yes, my Lord. I humble beg your forgiveness at the late hour but I believe I hold a matter of some importance that could lead you to the capture of Potter without significant losses to your troops."
"Intriguing." Voldemort rose from his chair and levelled his gaze with Draezyc's. "So… tell me."
"With your permission, I have formulated a plan that would allow you to capture Black, the Werewolf and Potter in one shot… Black has what you might call a safehouse in Hogsmeade where he regularly visits with Potter to have some strictly parent-child time… I have located the spell that reveals this house and the exact times they visit…"
Slowly an evil smile spread across Voldemort's twisted face. "Draezyc my child, welcome back to the fold."
TBC obviously J
