Redivivus
Chapter 7: Patris est filius

Notes: This chapter is finally done... I'd like to express my thanks to people at FictionAlley for helping me out with this chapter. As always, I'd like to say thanks for everyone who has read and reviewed this story. :)

LittleZebra333: Not going to bog down the chapter with the translations for the titles here... so I've uploaded the translations at nowings3net/translations3txt (just replace 3 with a dot). It makes me happy that you're interested in knowing what they mean, I've put a lot of thought in them. :)

With all this said, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter! wanders off to write the next chapter because she is really excited about it

Lumos.

Nox.

Lumos.

Nox.

So there he was again, back in the cold and bare corridor, playing Lumos and Nox while waiting for Lord Voldemort to see him. Only this time Harry was desperately trying to use the same old game to keep himself from thinking rather than saving himself from boredom. The more he thought about things the more questions he got and the less answers he found.

Sighing, Harry put his wand aside on the bench and leaned his head back against the cold and rock hard wall. If he closed his eyes he knew that he would not drift off to sleep. The dark circles under his eyes constantly reminded him that in the past few days he had hardly slept at all. But if he closed his eyes, he knew that all he would see would be Luna's face. He would hear her words, her questions, her voice, even though she was no where near him.

It's just words, Harry tried to convince himself. Just words. They are of no importance. Words have no effect on me.

Perhaps if he repeated that enough times he would actually start to believe it.

A rumbling, echoing sound took Harry's attention away from his thoughts and instead it diverted him to the door that was forming on the wall in front of him. Picking up his wand, Harry got up and walked through the door after it swung open for him. Everything around him spun in a whirlwind of different colours, before fading away and revealing the familiar dark library. It took a moment or two for Harry to locate Lord Voldemort, who was standing by window for once and looking out. Silently, Harry walked a few steps closer to him and bowed.

"Rise, Harry," Voldemort spoke without taking his eyes off whatever he was looking at through the window.

"My lord."

Harry stood up straight and said nothing more. He waited in silence until Voldemort decided that he had spent enough time looking out the window and actually turned to face him. When he did, Harry saw that he was holding a small parcel in his hands. It looked completely normal, wrapped in brown paper and tied together with strings.

"I have something I would like you to do for me," Voldemort explained and offered Harry the parcel. "It's something special that I have prepared myself. Rodolphus will need to use it and someone needs to take it to him in France. I could send it or ask someone else but perhaps it would be safest to give this task to someone I trust."

Harry accepted the parcel with both hands without the slightest sign of wanting to know what was in it.

"As you wish, my lord."

"Good."

Voldemort smiled at him pleasingly first, but his expression changed shortly afterwards. It was after a few seconds that Harry realized that Voldemort was studying him closely. He lowered his eyes to avoid Voldemort's, something he otherwise rarely did.

"What is the matter?" Voldemort asked. "You seem troubled."

"Forgive me, I should not express my emotions so freely," Harry apologized immediately and lowered his face even more.

He suddenly felt like retreating into a defensive mode from being under his lord's watchful eyes. The thought of doing that, even though the thought was his own, angered him slightly. Why should he be defensive around his lord? There was nothing to fear, nothing to retreat from. Voldemort was his lord, his master and in ways even his father. What was there to doubt?

"Something is bothering you. I can tell. Talk to me, son."

Thoughts raced through Harry's mind so fast that he hardly had the time to acknowledge what he was thinking. But what stuck out most was anger at himself for acting so weirdly and a voice in his head shouting at him to not talk of Luna in front of anyone. It angered him more, that for some irrational reason he felt as if revealing her name, talking about her in front of Voldemort was wrong.

Voldemort looked at Harry closely, waiting eagerly for his answer.

"There is a mirror," Harry finally blurted out.

The dark lord simply gave him a curious look.

"A mirror?" he repeated.

"...I found it in the castle," Harry continued. "It does not seem to be an ordinary mirror. It shows things."

Upon hearing the last few words Harry sensed how Voldemort's curiosity grew and saw it by the slight widening of his eyes. Once again Harry avoided looking into them, fearing that the dark lord would sense what was hidden.

"What kind of things, Harry?"

Harry hesitated slightly before he answered.

"...things we want."

After all the silent debating he had done with himself it was not his but Luna's answer that came out of his mouth. How ironic that it came from the very person who had wanted Harry to question Voldemort and now he was using her words to answer to him.

But the answer seemed to be to Voldemort's liking. The dark lord let a smile surface to his lips, indicating that what he had heard was to his satisfaction. As a sign of affection he put his hands, always covered by dark gloves, on Harry's shoulders.

"Now that is interesting indeed... but I fear that I am delaying your leave, especially since you must see Rodolphus as soon as possible. We shall resume this conversation when you return from France."

"Yes, my lord."

Voldemort removed his hands from Harry and the latter bowed once again before taking a few step backwards. An open door magically appeared behind him and he stepped through it. There was the same whirlwind of light and spinning as before and after a few seconds he was back out in the quiet corridor again.

Allowing himself a few seconds to breathe, Harry closed his eyes.

"I'm a fool," he declared quietly.

Whether he was a fool for hiding Luna from Voldemort or revealing the mirror, he did not know.

By the time Cho and Cedric flooed into the Burrow the rest of the team were already gathered in the sitting room. Upon seeing that Hermione had her arms crossed, Luna drawing swirl patterns on her own hand with a quill and Parvati was looking rather impatient, Cedric smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, we're late," he apologized.

"You're not late," Hermione retorted, trying to not sound annoyed. "You're just..."

"Not twenty minutes early?" Ron finished for her and whistled innocently when Hermione shot him a glare.

"We're really sorry if we..." Cedric tried to apologize again.

"It's alright, Cedric." Hermione shook her head and got up from the sofa. "Let's go into the kitchen, the potion is done."

The others got up and followed her into the kitchen. The kitchen smelled like a potions dungeon, filled with fumes from the potion that was brewing on the stove. Hermione walked over to the cauldron, stirred lightly with a wooden spoon and then looked at the others over her shoulder.

"We're going to use Polyjuice Potion for this mission," she explained. "We can't risk anything. Everyone grab a glass or something to drink with."

Everyone looked around for a clean glass, although that task was difficult enough considering that most of the glasses were in the sink along with a pile of unwashed plates and bowls. Looking at the table, Neville spotted three clean coffee mugs. He reached out for one of them but Ron grabbed his arm and stopped him just before he managed to touch the mugs.

"Not those." Ron let go of Neville. "Those are portkeys."

"Oh... sorry."

After a few minutes everyone stood in a circle in the middle of the kitchen, each one with a glass full of yellowy thick liquid. Aside from Hermione and Luna, the rest of the group looked uncertain as they stared into their glasses as if silently debating the subject of adding this potion to the list of ways to commit suicide.

"So... whose hair are we going to use?" Cho asked after a while, breaking the silence.

Seeing it as his cue to act, Ron turned around and picked up a bag that was lying next to the pile of dishes. Setting down his glass for a while, he opened the bag and revealed seven small vials made of glass. Each of the vials contained a single hair, with colours varying from purple to ash blonde.

"Careful, we had a hard time getting these," he said as he handed out a vial to each member of the group.

"How did you get them in the first place?" Cho asked curiously, eyeing the hair strand in her vial. "Just grabbed them off random people?"

"We had one of our contacts in the States owl these to us," Ron explained. He dropped the hair into the glass of Polyjuice Potion Hermione had given to him. "They were taken from muggles."

"Why all the way from the States?" Cedric wondered. "Couldn't we just have picked them off muggles here?"

"We're going to assume their appearances," Hermione answered before Ron could open his mouth. "They will be on the lookout for the people these originally belonged to... a muggle in the States is in a far safer place than a muggle here."

Cedric shrugged, satisfied with the explanation Hermione gave. He dropped his hair into his glass and the others followed his example. As they all stood in a circle and ready to drink the potion, Neville flashed a nervous smile.

"I guess we should say cheers or something."

"Cheers," Ron muttered without any enthusiasm and raised his glass to his lips.

He emptied the contents of the glass in one sweep, nearly choking in the process. With tears almost forming in his eyes and gag reflexes almost kicking in because of the taste he forced himself to swallow.

Seven glasses were set down or dropped on the floor in unison.

None of them let a sound out, but they each felt the twisting and knotting sensations in their stomach as if their bodies were protesting wildly against the effects of the potions. Ron stumbled back against the kitchen counter, Cedric who happened to stand right next to a chair sat down while the others grabbed onto various objects to keep themselves standing. But then as suddenly as the nausea and weakness had come, it disappeared and their bodies grew, changed and transformed until it no longer resembled themselves.

Suddenly feeling the absence of her usual thick hair, Hermione reached up to her head to feel how long her hair was after the transformation. The discovery that it was of varied length came when her fingers made contact with a clean shaven head on one side with shoulder length blonde hair on the other side of her head.

"Wonderful…" she muttered to herself.

She was not the only one who seemed dissatisfied with her transformation. Cedric was desperately trying to gain some control over his new and extremely curly hair that covered his head like a thick bush while Neville poked at his new mohawk curiously. Cho had just discovered a large tattoo of a dragon on her left arm, Ron's flaming red hair had been replaced by dyed blue hair and though Luna still had the same body build, her long blonde hair now had a peach pink colour. Parvati had been the luckiest, aside from lighter skin all she had gained was thick purple streaks in her hair. That and a long tattoo across her arm resembling stitches.

"Ron, where did your contact get these!" Hermione demanded to know. "We all look like we stepped out of a bad Goth makeover!"

"A bad what…?" Cedric repeated, pushing his hair away from his face in order for him to see.

One look exchanged between them told them that they were all thinking the same thing, how surreal it was to look at one face and not recognise it but at the same time knowing exactly who was who. On the other hand, with the distinctive looks they each had it was practically impossible for them to mistake one for the other.

"Look on the bright side," Cho said, half smiling. "Um… the most distinctive we look, the better right? That way they'll be looking for these faces and we look nothing like them."

"True," Hermione sighed. "All right, let's just get going. Remember that when we get there we have to…"

"…call each other by our codenames," Ron finished. "I think we got it by now. Is everyone ready?"

Hermione simply rolled her eyes at Ron and turned to the three coffee mugs that stood on the kitchen counter. The others did the same. Luna and Cedric grabbed one of the mugs, Neville, Parvati and Cho took the second and Ron and Hermione held the third. They all heard a clock strike twelve and with that seven people vanished from the Burrow.

As the clock struck twelve eleven, the front door opened to reveal Ginny.

"I'm home!" she called out.

Kicking her shoes off, she went into the kitchen where she expected to find her brother and his best friend. Instead, she was met by the strange but familiar smell of cabbage and a kitchen empty on people. Ginny eyed the mess in the kitchen suspiciously, counting all the empty glasses that still had traces of a strange liquid in them. Turning around, she promptly headed towards the living room. There she looked at the old grandfather clock for an answer.

The hand with Ron's name was pointing to "Mortal Peril".

"Left behind again," Ginny muttered resentfully to herself.

After all there was no one left to speak to.

One day, when everything was over and You-Know-Who was gone, Hermione was going to pour all her energy into inventing a better way fro multiple wizards to transport themselves over lengthy distances.

The disadvantages of floo powder were already well known and well complained about, but if there was anything that was just as bad it was travelling by portkey. Aside from the lack of ash and dust, it was every bit as uncomfortable. Hermione felt both torn apart and pulled together at the same time. She spun in circles with her hand practically attached to the mug she shared with Ron. Disregarding her own discomfort for a moment, Hermione glanced at him and came to the conclusion that he felt no better than she did.

Suddenly Hermione felt something hard against her back, the world went dark and the fact that she seemed to be cramped up next to Ron in a very small space told her that the portkey had worked perfectly fine.

"We're in," Ron murmured, awkwardly trying to back up as far against the wall as possible. Hermione paid no attention to his embarrassment and instead took out an Extendable Ear from her pocket. Getting down on her knees, she carefully poked the thin string through the small opening between the door and the floor. Once she was done she got up on her feet, stood completely still and listened closely for any sounds that came from the corridor.

She had someone talking although the unclearness of the voice indicated that it could be in another room as opposed to out in the corridor. There was the occasional footstep, but none that gave her any alarm.

"I think we're clear," she said, glancing at Ron.

"Let's go then... Queen."

Hermione nodded in agreement, at the same time she couldn't help smiling at his use of her codename. Ron put his hand on the door knob, twisted it open and opened the door quickly. They both squinted as the corridor they stepped into was well lit with walls painted in bright colours, a sharp contrast to the pitch dark broom closet that they had just emerged from.

But their eyes adjusted quickly to the light and Hermione took a quick look around them. There was no one in sight and from what they could hear no one was nearby. While Hermione gathered up the Extendable Ear from the floor, Ron took a look around the corners to see if anyone was coming. After a while he nodded at Hermione.

"We're clear, inform the others."

Pulling out what seemed like a normal fountain ink pen from her pocket, Hermione started to write on the back of her hand.

We're in. /Queen

The words on her hand glowed faintly, then the ink quickly disappeared and her hand was clean again. Hermione glanced at Ron, who was still on the lookout for any WWN employees or other people. When she looked at her hand again, words started to appear on her hand as if someone was writing on it. She quickly recognised Cedric's and Parvati's handwritings.

We're in. /Ace

In. /Club

Two seconds later the words disappeared and Hermione put the pencil back in her pocket. She walked up to Ron.

"We're heading this way," she explained and pointed to their left. "We need to get to the reception first."

Ron nodded. With his wand drawn he started to head to the left. Hermione trailed a little after him, constantly on the lookout in case someone would attack them from behind. It did not take long until they heard voices, as soon as he did Ron held out his arm to stop Hermione from going further. Bringing his index fingers to his lips, Ron backed and pushed Hermione and himself against the wall.

Leaning heavily against the wall, Hermione bent her neck just a little so that she could take a look around the corner without actually revealing herself. The lobby was just ahead and luckily things were not exactly bustling with activity. The receptionist, a young woman a few years older than her, was busy flirting with another employee by the desk. From her hiding place Hermione could see a small map of the WWN station on the wall next to the desk. It looked like any ordinary map, if not for the fact that it had small dots moving around on it.

"This looks like the map Fred and George have," Ron whispered. "The one we used to get out of Hogwarts when..."

He stopped himself in the middle of the sentence, preferring not finish it. Hermione could not blame him. Speaking those words meant remembering and thinking about that event. It was something that Hermione herself avoided doing if possible.

"We need to get it," Hermione whispered back. "I don't think she's seen us on the map, otherwise she'd alerted someone by now."

"What are we waiting for then?"

Ron raised his wand and stepped forward. Hermione followed his example just as the receptionist and her object of affection turned their heads to face them.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

Shouting the spell in unison, they aimed their wands at one each. The spells hit the receptionist and the other employee simultaneously, causing them both to drop to the floor at the same time. Ron and Hermione rushed forward, Ron to check the entrance and other side of the corridor while Hermione headed for the map. She tore it off the wall and observed it quickly. Not that far away from them, the dots named Luna Lovegood and Cedric Diggory were approaching the entrance from another part of the building. On the map of the third floor she saw the three dots of Neville, Cho and Parvati chasing dots representing WWN employees and leaving still and petrified dots in their aftermath. There were still a few walking around on the second floor, especially around the area of the broadcasting room.

"Wow, you guys are fast," Cedric said as he and Luna walked up to Ron and Hermione.

"We didn't end up that far from here," Ron answered. "Any trouble on your side?"

Luna shook her head.

"Nothing. Although we did run into sort of trouble when the portkey took us to the men's bathroom..."

Ron stifled a laughter and Hermione glared at him for finding something funny at a time like this.

"Club, Jack and Diamond are almost done securing the third floor," she informed, adapting to a more serious manner by using the codenames. "We should meet up with them and secure the second floor together, then head for the main broadcasting room..."

She took out her pen again and wrote a short message to Parvati telling her to meet up by the stairs once they were done. As she wrote, she took a quick glance at the map, only to discover a small dot moving towards the entrance from outside.

"Ace, someone's coming!"

Upon hearing Hermione shout, Cedric immediately raised his wand and turned around. At the same moment the front entrance opened to reveal a woman, another WWN employee, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a long memo in the other. She was so caught up in reading the memo that she did not notice the unusual crowd and two other petrified bodies in the lobby until she had entered.

"Who are..." she began.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Cedric called out.

At once the woman's body went rigid before she fell over. The coffee mug dropped to the floor and coffee spilled over the memo she had read.

"Let's go," Ron ordered.

The rest of the group followed him instantly. Hermione walked by his side, constantly looking at the map in order to see if anyone was coming. They met a few more employees on their way to the stairs but with Luna, Ron and Cedric ready to hex them they were taken care of in merely a few seconds. Once they reached the stairs Parvati, Neville and Cho were already there waiting for them. Judging by their looks Parvati had demanded that they keep up with her, since both Cho and Neville were breathing heavily and their cheeks had reddened.

"Third floor's clear," Neville told between all the huffing.

"Good, we have the map," Hermione said. "I don't think the receptionist saw us."

"Immob..."

Hermione turned around to see an elderly man pointing his wand right towards her.

"Protego!" she heard Parvati shout the next moment and with that the spell the man sent was deflected. Waving her wand again, Parvati shouted out another spell and sent the man frozen and still to the floor.

"I didn't even see him coming... I should have kept my eyes on the map," Hermione scolded herself and looked at it again. "There are ten others on this floor, we have to get through all of them to get to the broadcasting room."

Ron snuck a peak of the map over her shoulder.

"Okay, everyone... on three..." he began.

"On three!" Hermione repeated, resisting the urge to shriek his real name. "That's the best strategy you could come up with!"

"It's worked before," Ron shrugged. "Club, Ace, Jack, you take the ones to the left. The rest of us take the ones to the right."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the simple and clear strategy but followed along it anyway. Battle strategy was Ron's stronger side anyway.

The group ran through the corridor together, with Parvati, Cedric and Neville on one side and the rest on the other. Finally the door with the sign "BROADCASTING" was in sight. It happened to be right next a large open area with dozens of desks, where the ten employees they had seen on the map sat and worked.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Neville called out.

Upon hearing him and seeing their co-worker fall over, the rest quickly got up from their seats and either started to run or draw their wands. While Neville, Parvati and Cedric set off after those who had run, leaving Hermione and the others to take care of the rest.

"Protego!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Various objects flew around the office as the remaining WWN employees hid behind their desks and desperately tried to harm their attackers. The Protego spell used by both sides prevented the Petrificus Totalus from affecting. Finally, Ron stood up, took something from his pocket and hurled it towards the WWN employees.

"Get down!" he shouted, throwing himself to the floor.

Hermione, Cho and Luna crouched down immediately. Only moments later there was a burst of coloured light like fireworks, followed by shrieks and attempts to use spells to make it stop. Whatever the WWN employees were trying it did not work, the light and the explosions did not stop until five minutes later when everything had quieted down.

Peering up slowly, Hermione saw that their adversaries were lying on the floor, either unconscious or sleeping. From where she sat she couldn't exactly tell the difference. Nonetheless, she slapped Ron on his arm.

"What was that for!" Ron exclaimed.

"What was that!" she shouted in return. Two minutes later it dawned on her. "...the twins made it."

"At least it worked!"

Ron got up on his feet, extending a hand to Hermione to help her up. She accepted it grudgingly and pulled herself back up on her feet. The sudden sound of footsteps in the distance alerted them and they raised their wands again. But running around the corner were the others, returning from their chase of witnesses.

"We're clear," Parvati confirmed.

Turning to Cho, Hermione gave her a simple look that told her to go ahead. Cho walked over to the door to the broadcasting room and put her hand on the door knob. But its refusal to open confirmed the predictable fact that the door was locked. Rolling her eyes, Cho pointed her wand towards the lock.

"Alohomora!"

Although Cho performed the spell with accuracy and precision, the lock showed no sign of being affected by the spell. Hermione watched Cho frown for a moment, but then the change of expression on her face told her that it was time to step back. Instinctively she pulled Ron and Neville with her as she backed away from Cho and the door.

"Bombarda!" Cho called out, waving her wand with force.

The door suddenly flew open with a blast, the door knob and lock flying off in different directions before the door itself fell over. Hermione ducked the flying door knob, then once the danger was over walked up to Cho. She gave the older girl a thankful smile and then quickly headed inside the room.

The broadcasting room was spacious but lacking any decoration. The only thing that was in the broadcasting room was a large panel of buttons and measure bars. The panel stood against the wall, covering almost every inch of it as it was enormously wide. Sitting on a chair in front of the control panel was a man with dark skin and heavy dreadlocks hanging freely from his head. He was talking enthusiastically into a microphone that was attached to the panel before him.

"This is Lee Jordon from WWN, bring you the best of the today's music! I leave you now with the latest hit from the Weird Sisters!"

They all watched Lee push a few buttons and then the screeching sounds of the Weird Sisters began to play quietly in the background. Lee pushed the red button, ending his own transmission from the studio and spun around in his chair to face the group, not looking surprised at all that they were standing there.

"About time, I was wondering when you guys were coming..." Lee began but then he took a closer look at the group. Two seconds later he burst into hysterical laughter.

Ron slapped himself on the forehead.

"Yes, yes... we know we look ridiculous. And yes, I know you wish that Fred and George could be here so that they could make fun of me for the rest of my life. Now can we get on with what we're supposed to do?"

"The station has been cleared," Hermione informed. "All that's left to do now is to..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Lee cut off. "All for the sake of the cover, I get it." He stood up from the chair and straightened his jacket slightly. Smiling at everyone again, he put his hands in his pockets and waited. "Well, go head."

Cedric raised his wand and aimed it right towards Lee.

"Really sorry about this, mate... Petrificus Totalus!"

Lee's entire body suddenly stiffened, then fell straight to the floor with a loud thud. Cedric winced and lowered his wand.

"That's going to hurt for a week."

"We should have at least put a cushion behind him," Neville added.

He gave the petrified Lee an apologetic look as he dragged his body out of the way. In the mean time Cho walked over to the control panel. She looked over everything carefully, checking each setting before looking at Ron and Hermione with a nod.

"Everything is set. You're ready to go."

She left the control panel and like the others waited for Hermione to take her place. Pulling out a small notebook from her pocket, Hermione took a step forwards to the control panel. At the same time, and to almost everyone else's surprise, Luna suddenly mimicked her actions. Hermione stopped at stared at Luna with a puzzled look on her face. Luna, however, kept walking and once she was there she sat down comfortably in the chair where Lee had previously sat.

"Luna, what are you..." Hermione began.

But her voice faded as someone suddenly pulled at her arm, forcing her to step back and preventing her from going any further. Looking over her shoulder Hermione saw that it was Ron, who was now looking down towards the floor to avoid her gaze.

"Some people might recognize your voice… I… you… I don't want anything to happen to you."

Realizing what was about to happen, Hermione opened her mouth to protest but no words came out. In her mind she knew that Ron was right, but she wanted to protest. It was not right. It was absolutely not right to stand back and let someone else take the fall. But logic and reason sometimes won over fairness and as she was held back by Ron, she was forced to admit to herself that it was better to sacrifice someone who was already in danger, rather than bring another one into the equation. Even if it meant standing back and feeling like a coward.

And over by the control panel, Luna pressed the red button and began to speak.

Paris was anything but bad. The weather was absolutely wonderful, things were pretty quiet on the work front and there did not seem to be a night without a party or a ball to attend.

"No wonder you have been staying here for five months," Harry said, settling comfortably into the sofa. "I guess mother's suspicions are not that far off."

Rodolphus Lestrange smiled at Harry from behind the small bar in the corner of the living room. He finished pouring their drinks, and then returned to Harry with the two glasses in his hands. Handing one to Harry, he sipped at his own while he sat down next to him.

"I see Bellatrix has not hesitated to speak ill of me while I'm gone," he scoffed but Harry thought that he did not do that good of a job at looking like he cared. "But I must say, Harry... it is truly wonderful to have you here with me."

Harry crossed his arms but smiled at the middle aged man before him. As usual, he was not late in detecting his adoptive father's true meaning. Rodolphus had a way of charming everyone with his words and most of the time he was good at it, except when it was Harry or Bellatrix he was trying to charm.

"What you really mean is that now that I'm here, you want me to stay until it's time for you to return," Harry replied. "That way you won't have to face mother's wrath all by yourself when we go back."

Rodolphus' face lit up with a knowing smile.

"That's the boy I raised!"

Harry chuckled.

"Sorry, but I was only sent here to deliver that parcel, I have to go back in a week or so."

"That's the boy your mother raised," Rodolphus scoffed. "But it is too bad... you'll miss all the fun."

The parcel Lord Voldemort had given to him lay on the table. Rodolphus took one more sip, then set aside his drink and started to slowly untie the string that bound the parcel together. Harry raised one eyebrow, curious about the last words Rodolphus had said.

"What fun?" he asked.

Again, Rodolphus smiled knowingly. Rather than answering Harry's question he continued to untie the string. After that he started to remove the paper slowly and it did not take a genius to figure out that whatever was in that parcel was something of great importance. Harry leaned back, deciding to wait for the answer to his question. But instead Rodolphus kept unwrapping the parcel and shed the several layers of paper very carefully. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well?"

"It's no use telling you since you won't be here to see it anyway," Rodolphus answered casually. "It's a shame that I can't get my contact to come here earlier, but for the sake of discretion he won't be able to make it here until next Sunday... by then you'll be back in England."

He had finally unwrapped the parcel fully and Harry watched him pick up a small glass vial. Harry almost felt a tinge of disappointment. He had travelled all the way to France just to deliver a vial? But when Harry took a closer look he saw the strange purple liquid that was inside it and it only took him a split second to figure out what it was.

"Poison."

"You have a good eye," Rodolphus complimented. "But it's not just usual poison, you know."

"Then what is it?"

Rodolphus smiled again, something Harry noted that he had done many times during their conversation. Now he definitely knew that whatever Rodolphus had planned it had to be big.

"It's a fine gift fit for Sirius Black."