Three Assignments

Him

As planned, Lucius met with Crabbe and Rookwood in a small wood near the beautiful old market town of Saffron Walden in Essex. It was already approaching dusk and it seemed that the two Death Eaters had been waiting for a while. Alvin Rookwood sat on a low tree stump, his shoulders hunched, and tossed acorns at a tree in front of him. Vincent Crabbe was causing a ruckus somewhere off to the side apparently caught up in some brambles, to judge by his choice use of swearwords.

Lucius called to them and saw Rookwood get up and approach him wearily. He obviously hadn't quite got over the assassination of his sister yet. Crabbe seemed to be able to free himself with a tearing noise of his robes and came stumbling over to them after a few moments. His Death Eater cloak showed a large rip.

"Ever heard of using magic instead of brute force," sneered the blond wizard. Crabbe merely grunted. Neither of the two men dared to criticize their leader for making them wait.

"So what do we have?" asked Lucius briskly. The sooner he got his chores out of the way the sooner he had time to concentrate on Andromeda. He patted the pocket of his coat where he could feel the slight bulge made by the slim red glass vial he had picked up from Severus Snape earlier that afternoon. It had been the cause of his delay.

Rookwood dug in his robes and produced a large roll of paper which he opened awkwardly. Lucius watched in curious amusement and lit his wand to help. He saw that his associate held a map – a muggle map apparently. A gaudy panel of magenta read 'Ordnance Survey.' The rest of the paper was pockmarked with abstract symbols for roads and little houses. Lucius shook his head. "What in the blazes do you want with that?" he asked.

"W-well, we needed to find the Mercator house for our surveillance," stammered Rookwood. "So?!" Crabbe decided to come to the rescue of his colleague. "Well, these are really useful. We found a whole lot during one of our recent raids. We thought…"

"You thought!" Lucius guffawed. "Vincent, you actually manage to amuse me tonight, very refreshing sense of humor." He turned back to Rookwood. "Pack that rubbish away, or even better, get rid of it." He flicked his wand at the map, which immediately caught on fire, so that the wizard dropped it with a soft cry of dismay. It flared up on the ground and dissolved in a pile of white ash.

"Now, let's do this properly," Lucius declared. "I assume the whole miserable family is home?" The two Death Eaters nodded. "In that case: invenio casam Mercatoris," Lucius pointed his wand, which immediately began twitching in his fingers like a dowsing rod and pointed them deeper into the wood. "Muggle maps," he sneered. "It is a sorry day for our master, now that his servants apparently need a muggle map to find their own asses. Be grateful I am not reporting you."

The two men hung their heads and followed the blond wizard's lead across some railway tracks and down a deserted unpaved farm road until they came to a small stone cottage surrounded by a large meadow with apple trees. The house seemed peaceful enough and felt quite magical nestled in its little orchard dell. One of the windows glowed with a soft golden light.

Lucius approached cautiously and finally stopped his companions to carefully hide them all with a few spells. Albertus Mercator was a wizard, after all, and might have taken precautions to protect his family. He motioned for the two Death Eaters to wait for his signal and then crept closer to the house.

Soon he felt the gossamer resistance of a ward and took his time to disable it with the care and concentration that would have done a muggle bomb expert proud. After all, Voldemort had not chosen him as chief Death Eater for his fashion sense. With the warning spells disabled, Lucius waved to his companions to join him. He flattened himself against the rough masonry of the wall next to the lit window and carefully peered around to catch a glimpse of the inhabitants.

The Mercators were sitting around the dinner table. Lucius caught a brief impression of a dark-haired man with a cropped beard, a short, squat woman in a flowery dress and a girl of about 15 in ugly, functional muggle clothes. He quickly pulled back and addressed the other Death Eaters. "We'll attack through the window," he instructed them. "There are three people, we use three spells. I will curse the man on the left, Rookwood, you take the woman in the center. Crabbe, you have the girl to the right. Think you can handle that?"

"What are we cursing them with," asked Crabbe excitedly. "No fancy stuff. A simple avada will suffice. The Dark Lord wants them dead, no confessions, no information. Just take them out, quick and effective." Lucius heard the Death Eater sigh with disappointment and immediately jabbed him under the chin with the silver handle of his cane. He wanted no delays just to satisfy the sadistic whims of his underlings.

"Avada, Vincent!" he hissed. "If I find you messing around, you will wish you had never met me. Do I make myself clear?" "What's wrong?" protested Crabbe. "No one has ever had a problem if we had ourselves a bit of fun with the muggles." Lucius brought his face close to his for emphasis, and the heavy-set man took an alarmed step back, as he caught the glint of fury in the blond wizard's eyes.

"I have no time tonight for your antics! If you have too much pent up energy, go kick your house elves around for an hour when you get home. But you will not interfere with my plans. Now are we understood? Are we ready?!" Both Death Eaters nodded, and a moment later Lucius had unsheathed his wand again and blasted the window.

Before the Mercators could even jump up from their meal in surprise, three wands pointed into the room, three flashes of green fire were released from their tips, and without a sound Albertus and his wife sank to the ground. Their daughter screamed and tried to bolt while Crabbe's killing curse caused a cupboard behind her to explode.

Lucius groaned in exasperation. The man was an incompetent fool. Quickly he whipped his wand around and hit the girl squarely in the back with a second avada. She fell before she could reach the door.

The blond wizard cuffed his companion around the head. "If I wasn't in a hurry tonight, I'd crucio you, you fool! How often have I told you: take aim, point your wand, then speak? One of these days you'll hit one of us!" Crabbe mumbled an apology, scrambling to get out of the way before his leader revised his decision not to torture him.

Lucius peered into the window one more time and with a quick flick of his wrist vanished the three corpses and the shards of glass and window frame that littered the floor. He straightened his robes, sheathed his wand and turned back to his companions, his face calm and devoid of emotion. No one would have believed he had just commanded the extermination of three human beings.

"Our next assignment is in Skipton, West Yorkshire. Rookwood, what can you tell me about the Myers family?" As Rookwood began his report the blond wizard strode back into the protection of the wood, his companions breathlessly following him and struggling to keep up with his pace.

The clock on the old belfry struck ten when Lucius finally apparated by himself on the small village green of Rottingdean. He had dismissed the other Death Eaters after they had finished their second job. Rookwood had been in bad shape and would probably need to go to St. Mungo's to get himself fixed up.

The assignment had been unpleasant. The family had been scattered throughout the house, and by the time they had finished with the muggle husband and the older two children, the mother, who was a witch, had tried to flee through the garden with the youngest child in her arms, a white-blond boy. It hadn't exactly helped that the young mudblood had reminded Lucius somewhat of Draco at the same age. Though he would never admit it, he didn't particularly like killing children, even if they were less than pureblood. On the whole it seemed rather unsporting.

They had followed the witch and had eventually cornered her. The woman had some skills and had managed to take out Rookwood during a brief confrontation behind the house. Left with the questionable abilities of Crabbe at his disposal and several lights coming up in neighboring houses Lucius had quickly petrified the woman and child so they couldn't cry for help and had to drag the bodies back into the house before employing the killing curse. The green fire of the spell would have betrayed them outside.

Eventually they had finished mopping up after a raid that had nearly turned into a failure. Lucius had made sure they bodies of their victims hadn't left any traces and then had abandoned Rookwood in the care of Crabbe, who looked overtaxed and unhappy with his latest task. It couldn't be helped. The evening was wearing on, and the blond wizard was impatient now to visit Andromeda and try Snape's elixir on her.

He looked around the square to get his bearings and quickly strode across the green. The dim glare of a streetlight showed him the street name he knew from the Dark Lord's list and he walked on as he silently counted out the house numbers. A muggle who was walking a dog gave him a doubtful, sidelong glance shaking his head at the long billowing black robes and the blond hair gathered by an elegant velvet bow. Lucius didn't even pause to take notice of him, much less obliviate him.

Number 35 was part of a row of terraced houses set a little back from the pavement atop a steep ascending front garden. The Tonks had planted lavender and sagebrush among honey-colored boulders. Lucius could smell the faint fragrance of the herbs above the sea air that blew in from the beach. He made his way up the steps that led to the front door and hesitated before he rang the bell.

A polished brass plate by the door bore an inscription in plain Roman letters. "Ted Tonks M.D. and Andromeda Tonks. Holistic Medicine. Consultations by appointment." "Andromeda Tonks," he mumbled, feeling hot anger welling up inside him. "Not for much longer!" His earlier trepidation had disappeared. With a resolute punch he hit the bell button, gripping his cane with his other hand. He listened to the unpleasant, shrill noise of a muggle doorbell and then discerned a quick footfall. A shadow passed behind the dimly illuminated glass panes of the entrance and he found he held his breath as the front door opened.

A tall, slender woman appeared outlined before soft golden light that streamed out of the hallway behind her. She wore bottle-green slacks and a fitted white cotton shirt. Her thick, glossy, raven-black hair was pulled back into a pony-tail revealing a striking face with high cheekbones, a smooth forehead over arched brows and full expressive lips. Dark almond-shaped eyes regarded him intently, then he heard a soft crash to the side as the woman dropped a beaker with some cloudy liquid she had been holding and gasped his name. "Lucius, it's you!"

He stepped up to her. "Andromeda," he said. Warmth spread from his stomach down to his groin and up his throat. It felt so palpable he thought he might glow in the dark. She looked just like he remembered her, and despite the hurt and humiliation, he realized she still made him feel as she had when he had first seen her.

But the woman before him now barred his way. Her hands had gripped the wooden door frame, her chin jutted out at him defiantly. "I know what you are, Lucius. My daughter told me. You shall not come into this house. I will have nothing to do with you."

He stared at her uncomprehending. "What are you talking about, Andromeda? I am here to tell you about Bellatrix, and what she did to you." The woman regarded him. "Bellatrix? My sister? But you are a Death Eater! You are here to kill us." He sighed in annoyance. "Yes, yes," he admitted impatiently, "But not you, and not tonight. Now will you let me in and listen to me? I won't hurt you."

Andromeda looked at him for a moment, the same transfixing glance she had possessed as a girl, then she slowly lowered her hands from the door frame. "Come in," she said quietly. "Don't step on the glass." She closed the door behind him and as he turned he saw her pull a slender polished wand from the waistband of her pants and vanish the shards of the shattered beaker from the hallway tiles.

Now confronting him in the light she looked at him, appraising him. "My god, you guys really dress the part," she said shaking her head. "I had forgotten how pompous wizard clothes were. Anyway, I'm rambling. Come on in." She led him down the hallway and into a large cluttered kitchen that seemed to Lucius to be as close as a muggle could get to having an alchemist's workshop. She took his outer robes from him, pulled out a chair and invited him to sit.

"There's a teapot, a creamer and some mugs on the rack by the sink, help yourself." She bundled the robes over her arm and left the kitchen. Lucius looked around and noticed a second tea mug already half filled sitting on the table opposite him. It had to belong to Andromeda. She would be more amenable to his story if she had been cured of her infatuation with that muggle already. On impulse Lucius pulled out a slim red glass vial from his coat and hurriedly decanted about half its contents into his former lover's tea.

When Andromeda came back he was busy pouring himself a cup of tea. "Here," he said, pushing the other mug towards her. "I've given you a top-up, too." Andromeda regarded him critically as she slowly and reluctantly sat down. While he bore some resemblance to the young man she'd known, she also noticed changes about him. He still carried himself with pride, but what she had once taken to be youthful invincibility had matured into cold-blooded arrogance.

He had grown out his hair even longer and it now flowed halfway down his back, still full and impressive and now held back by an 18th century cloak-and-dagger velvet bow. His clothes just astonished her. She had lived among muggles so long, wizarding robes now seemed ridiculously old-fashioned to her. But despite the brocade, velvet and lace, the man before her looked nothing if not uncomfortably virile and threatening. There had only been one time before where she had felt him exude menace in that way – when he had caught her and Ted and had challenged her husband to a wizarding duel.

She picked up her tea mug and took a tentative sip. "So what do you want, Lucius?" she asked trying to sound more self-assured than she felt. "Are you alone?" he asked and she felt her muscles tense. She could lie, telling him that Ted and Tonks were around – and probably be found out in one second flat, after all it just took one location spell, or she could tell the truth. "I'm by myself," she said slowly. "Ted is on an emergency house-call to Telscombe. Nymphadora is in London."

He stretched his long legs under the table. Obviously he meant to take his time. "Nymphadora?" he asked. She squared her shoulders defensively. "My daughter," she said curtly. His lips twitched as if in pain. "A mudblood, bearing the name of her famed pureblood Black grandmother, how inappropriate." Andromeda sat up straight. "If you think you can insult me and my child in my own home, you are mistaken," she said, her own Black sense of pride asserting itself.

Lucius' mouth arched in a pained smile. "How could this happen? How could you betray your family like that? How could you betray us?" Andromeda took another sip of tea to buy time. "Lucius, this is ancient history. This happened about twenty years ago. Why come to see me now and talk about things only half remembered?" He looked at her out of clouded grey eyes. "Half-remembered," he mused. "The memory has been as a knife in my heart for twenty years. I don't half-remember." He gently laid Narcissa's diary on the table and watched Andromeda.

The woman before him stretched out a tentative hand to touch the tooled leather of the book and suddenly it seemed as if the planes of her face rearranged themselves. She blinked rapidly, her lips tightened and for all he knew she reminded Lucius of someone who was just awaking from a deep trance or dream. Surely Severus' potion was working.

Her

Malfoy Manor, January 20th 1976

I've just overheard a fight between Bella and Lucius. She's come to visit for a few days, and I'm glad I have someone to talk to.

On the whole I'm not quite as depressed as I was after my wedding. Obviously Lucius was right to say that I had a lot to learn. And as these things are not something you pick up on your own or that a decent husband would allow another man to teach you, Lucius had to concern himself with me if I was to make progress. So he has, and it's been certainly interesting, occasionally even quite enjoyable. He still won't stay with me the whole night, though I get him more exhausted these days, and that's still disappointing.

But as I am able to please him better, I feel more relaxed and he takes greater care to please me back in return. He's actually encouraged me to tell him what I like – though I find that rather difficult, particularly to put things in words, and he still gets impatient at times. If mother knew what we were doing, just like the other night when – but no, I'm even too ashamed to write about it.

Anyway, Bella was talking to Lucius in the drawing room, and they both thought I had gone out for a walk round the park with old Mr. Malfoy, as I have started to do, because he feels cooped up at times, but Mrs. Livilla won't accompany him in winter due to her weak lungs. However, he insisted the house elves had stolen his boots, which is rather ridiculous, but we really couldn't find them. So we gave up on the whole plan.

I got back and behind the door Bella was screaming at Lucius: "You know what he'll do when he finds out you're deliberately withholding her from him?" Lucius sounded just as angry. "I'm not withholding anything, Bellatrix, by Merlin, do you even know your sister? She would be nothing but an embarrassment and a hindrance. Her spell work is shoddy and her strength of will highly dubious. I so much as frown at her and she starts sobbing already. It drives me nuts!

The only thing I will still trust her with is to give me an heir, as I have not seen her mess that up yet. And I am very sure I do not want a pregnant wife of mine jeopardize her pregnancy by cavorting around with a bunch of Death Eaters." Bella snorted and started to reply, but Lucius' voice got really harsh and snide.

"Oh yes, of course you have gallantly refused to bear any children to your husband at all for the time being, so you can be a Death Eater. I don't know how the Lestranges feel about your deplorable lack of investment in your female duties. I for one know I wouldn't stand for it. My first duty is to my family and my house, and that means continuing the line."

I heard his steps traverse the room and his voice dropped. "Presume to interfere with that, and you will truly get to know me. You will not like what you find, Bellatrix. Now this discussion is closed, once and for all."

I was afraid they might find me overhearing their conversation, so I quickly left. I wonder what they were discussing, and what are Death Eaters? Perhaps the mysterious 'he' is the wizard who gave them all the mark of the skull and snake. I don't like that Lucius said my spell work is shoddy. And of course I get upset when he is upset with me. Why would that annoy him? I don't like Bella and Lucius fighting.