For a few brief moments it seemed he was happy, very happy. Whatever vision he had just had using the very ancient artefact must have been very good.
Then the Dark Lord's face slowly returned to its now near-permanent expression of anger and rage. In the background he could hear the sounds of battle. The sounds of powerful spells being cast roared and thundered. That and the sounds of muggle weapons and war machines. The muggles seemed to have brought their most powerful and advanced weapons to this battle. His hands clenched themselves into fists. He silently cursed Dumbledore for involving those filthy muggles! Muggles alone he could defeat with a single spell, no matter how advanced their weapons. But that muggle loving Dumbledore had to put his cursed battle spells on their muggle weapons and muggle armour.
The Dark Lord looked longingly at the ancient mask...mounted on its pedestal, longing to press his face there again and experience more visions that might reveal to him ancient knowledge and magical secrets of unimaginable power, long lost and forgotten by the world.
He was deciding between pressing his face to the mask for a few seconds again, or joining his Death Eaters right there and then in the battle outside, but his next action was decided for him.
Because at that very moment, Albus Dumbledore had just burst into the room.
In a roar of rage, the Dark Lord whirled violently to face the intruder, wand held high, pointed at the intruder's face.
"Tom. . ." Dumbledore said in his calmest voice. His wand held low, but pointed at the Dark Lord's heart.
"You. . ." said the Dark Lord with a very cold voice.
They stared at each other like that for what seemed like ages. . .one extremely calm, the other extremely angry. And then, as if they read each other's mind, both vanished at the same moment. The Dark Lord in a puff of green smoke, Dumbledore in a brilliant flash of blue light. And then the room with the ancient mask suddenly exploded. A giant green fireball now flared, expanding violently where the room used to be. . .
One Year Ago. . .
Lucius Malfoy clutched a muggle newspaper in his left hand, hesitating to bring to the Dark Lord. He knew he should, it contained potentially important information, but he also knew the Dark Lord bore a strong hatred of anything muggle. That and the simple fact that the Dark Lord was still in a very bad mood. After all, he had just lost the prophecy at the Ministry so very recently, and he was still recovering from his battle with Dumbledore and the failed attempt to possess Harry Potter. So he did the only thing he could, he made a deal with Bellatrix. The Dark Lord might be more receptive to it if it came from Bellatrix, whom the Dark Lord seemed to trust more than any other Death Eater. Bellatrix was also the only one who managed a small victory out of that mess in the Ministry by killing Sirius Black. That should at the very least cause a lot of trouble and pain for Harry Potter. The Dark Lord was certainly very pleased about that.
Bellatrix was to bring the muggle newspaper to the Dark Lord, but she was also to mention Lucius' name as the one who brought it to her attention. This way they shared the credit of whatever value the information might contain. Lucius made sure she would mention his name. He put a spell on the paper so that it would burst into flames should Bellatrix not mention his name when she gave it to the Dark Lord.
"Oh don't be such a paranoid Malfoy, I'm not to going to hog all the credit. Besides, what possible use is the information on a muggle paper anyway?" Bellatrix argued as she took the paper from him and noticed the Securus spell Malfoy cast on it.
"Just please give it to him and tell him to look in page three, at the bottom left section of the paper." Lucius pleaded. "It could mean the difference between victory and defeat!" he warned.
"Very well, very well. . ." a bored Bellatrix responded. Slowly making her way to the Dark Lord's private room.
"Muggles, useless animals . . ." Bellatrix muttered, shaking her head, as she was about the enter the Dark Lord's room.
Lucius waited outside and hoped the Dark Lord would at least read the article instead of just ignoring it. It was truly a stroke of luck that he got his hands on this muggle paper at all. He was off buying some magical contraband in Knockturn Alley, when he accidentally bumped into some wizarding family from Greece, who were tourists on vacation in London. They were going around Diagon Alley shopping, when they suddenly made a wrong turn into Knockturn Alley. The man leading them wasn't looking at where he was going, but instead had his eyes fixed on a muggle paper he was holding. He bumped into Lucius just as Lucius was on his way out of Knockturn Alley. Lucius was about to hex the man in anger for being a clumsy idiot, when he saw the back of the folded paper the man was holding. The words "mask", "gold and silver", "emerald tipped horn", and "very ancient" got his attention. He grabbed the man's paper without saying a word and ran. The poor man could only complain to his family and whoever was around them. He could be heard yelling in heavily accented English "Englishmen! They have no manners, these barbarians! Glitsis! Vlamenos! Fae ta arhidia mu!!!!!!!!!"
Lucius overheard some of it and whispered under his breath that the man was lucky he didn't turn his entire family into a bunch of rats.
Lucius snapped out of his recollection, and was considering using a hearing enhancing spell to try and overhear the Dark Lord's reaction to the muggle paper.
Five Minutes Later. . .
"Malfoy!!!" called the Dark Lord.
Lucius hurried to the Dark Lord's room, not sure whether the Dark Lord was pleased or angry.
Malfoy entered and bowed low, "Yes my lord. . ." Malfoy said and kept himself bowed.
The Dark Lord's withered forefinger was pointing at a picture next to an article in page three of 'Ta Nea', a Greek daily. It was a rather small article, just a few paragraphs and one picture, located at the bottom part of the page. It was about some archaeological dig in Greece. The dig site along with the chief archeaologist was shown in the picture. Apparently somebody's found a bunch of old artefacts. Not unusual for a nation and people as old as Greece. The Dark Lord tapped the picture, and a small smile seemed to appear in his face, but very quickly disappeared. He gestured to Malfoy to arise from his bow.
Lucius was relieved and silently rejoiced that at the very least, the Dark Lord had not simply ignored the muggle paper.
"Bring him and the artefact to me....." the Dark Lord said in a cold, coarse voice.
Lucius immediately understood who and what the Dark Lord meant. Bellatrix, having never even looked at the article was a little confused. Not wanting to appear stupid though, she immediately bowed and said "As you wish my lord!" Malfoy bowed again as well.
Once both of them were outside the Dark Lord's room, Bellatrix immediately questioned Lucius.
"What was that about? Bring who and what to him? Why?" a confused Bellatrix said.
With a smug look of triumph on his face, Lucius opened up the muggle paper to page three and pointed at the article that had so intrigued the Dark Lord's attention.
"This Bellatrix, this. . ." he tapped the article to make his point.
Bellatrix, familiar with both Greek and Latin languages had no trouble reading the article.
"So someone found some old artefacts in Greece? So what?! With that nation as old as it is, it would be unusual if someone DIDN'T find an old artefact everyday!" exclaimed Bellatrix.
"Look again Bellatrix. It says the artefact might be older than anything ever found on Greece. It also says one of artefacts found was a mask made of silver and gold, with a single horn protruding in the center of the forehead of the mask."
Bellatrix' face was blank as a white board. It suddenly occurred to Lucius she wasn't as well versed in the old magical legends as he was. Well, no need to let her in on the whole thing then. Lucius figured it would be to his advantage to keep most of what he knew to himself. Obviously the Dark Lord knew of the legend about the mask. It was a very old legend, almost forgotten. Some say it dates back over 10,000 years. Some say even double that, long before the 5,000 to 7,000 B.C. date which was the officially recognized beginning of modern civilization. Lucius wasn't sure himself. But the muggle article was unmistakable in its description. Artefacts possibly older than any known existing Greek artefacts (subject to further tests of course), a mask of silver and gold, with a single silver horn in the forehead, the horn tipped with an emerald, perfectly merged with the silver body of the horn, serving as a glittering green horn's tip.
The muggle archaeologist Harrison D'Orfe might just have found what just might be the most significant, and most powerful, ancient artefact for the wizarding world. And he probably has absolutely no idea what he had just found. But the more he thought about it, the surer Lucius became, that Mr. D'Orfe had just found the mask of the Half-Blood Prince.
Lucius Malfoy suddenly burst into a run. He needed at least three other Death Eaters for this mission, in addition to Bellatrix. Bellatrix ran too to catch up.
Lucius had to do this fast and without attracting too much attention. He hoped like crazy that no one on Dumbledore's side had seen the article yet, or if they have, that they haven't seen its connection to the ancient legend yet. But he was absolutely sure that Dumbledore would see the connection immediately the moment someone brought that article to him. With this thought, he ran even faster, leaving Bellatrix desperately trying to catch up with his haste.