It's three weeks after term at Hogwarts and Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape are sitting in Spinner's End awaiting a sign from the Dark Lord. Malfoy is pacing around the room, looking anxious about his first meeting with the Dark Lord since Dumbledore's death. It was Malfoy's duty to dispose of Dumbledore, but he wasn't do it.
"Like I told you earlier, I just couldn't do it. He was my headmaster and I froze up at the opportunity."
"But it was youir mission, your first mission, killing Dumbledore, and you couldn't even do it. How do you think the Dark Lord will take this?" Snape asked, looking furious. "No one has ever failed to complete one of the Dark Lord's missions, even your father finished his, mind you, it wasn't that difficult of a task. Even that dope Neville from the school could have done it."
"Are you saying my dad was worthless?" Malfoy asked, enraged, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Snape.
"Do you honestly think you can harm me? You couldn't even get rid of Dumbledore, and he had no wand!"
Malfoy was just about to respond to this when he suddenly gripped his left arm. There had been a serring pain near his shoulder and when he lifted up his robe sleeve, he saw that the Dark Mark etched into his skin had burned a violent shade of red. Malfoy looked over at Snape and saw that he too recieved a bit of a shock from his left arm, but other wise he seemed to not have noticed any thing. Snape had, however, stood up and walked over to Malfoy.
"It is time," he said and , grabbing Malfoy under his right arm, thought distinctly about meeting with Voldemort, spun on the spot and was wisked away, Malfoy at his. When they opened their eyes, they saw Lord Voldemort in front of them and around twenty Death Eaters behind him.
"So," Voldemort said, addressing Malfoy. "You showed up. Never thought to run, did you?"
"No, sir," Malfoy said, though he looked terified at being face-to-face with the Dark Lord at last.
"You lie. I know yopu were dreading coming here. You failed to complete the task I set forth for you to assist me with, seeing as how you are a student at Dumbledore's school. He would have expected you least of Snape commiting the crime, but in the end, it was Snape who did it." He looked at Snape. "I thank you for that, Snape, and will be rewarding you beyond all others"
Again, Voldemort turned his attention to Malfoy. "It has come to my attention that you had disarmed Dumbledore and had him at your mercy..."
"But he was talking and confusing me and saying that I was at his mercy and that..." Malfoy interupted.
"SILENCE, HOW DARE YOU INTERUPT ME!" Voldemort yelled angrily. "First you show up here after having someone else finish your task for you, but then you interrupt me, the Dark Lord, the Greatest Wizard this world has ever seen?"
"Actually..." Malfoy began.
"YES?" Voldemort said. "You weren't about to say 'Dumbledore was the Greatest Wizard this world has ever seen', were you?"
Malfoy looked down at the ground and muttered something that sounded to the surropunding crowd a lot like, "Well, he was." Voldemort had blown up at these words and pulled out his wand so fast you'd think it it reacted to his thoughts and not his movements. He pointed this at Malfioy and, without warning, cried, "Crucio!"
Malfoy was on the ground, wreathing in pain and agony. Snape looked over at Voldemort and asked him, "Are you sure this is a good idea, doing this here?" Snape said, putting an emphasis on the last word.
"No you're questioning me too?" Voldemort said, glaring at Snape.
"No, sir, I was merely expressing my concern that the Muggles of this village may over here Malfoy's cries and come to investigate further," Snape replied.
"The more the merrier, I say," a watching Death Eater said, and a few of them started to laugh. They stopped almost instantly for Voldemort had relinquished his curse upon Malfoy, who was laying on the ground, rolled uop into a ball.
"Exscuse me?" Voldemort said, sounding as though the idea wasn't worthy of him listening to.
"I was j-j-just s-saying that..." the Death Eater stammered.
"I know what you were saying!" Voldemort shouted, now advancing on the worrysome Death Eater. "You were saying that we could kill off more Muggles just for the fun of it. What were you thinking?
"This doesn't sound anything like you, sir"
"I will not tolerate this insolence following me around," Voldemort said, turning his wand on to the lone Death Eater now. "Avada Kedavra!" There was a flash of green light and the Death Eater fell to the ground, as stiff as a floor board.
"You see what happens when you undermine Lord Voldemort"
"Yes, sir!" the Death Eaters eyelled in unison.
"The reason we are unable to continue in our enjoyable game of Muggle Hunting is because the Ministry is already looking for us for the last few- for lack of a better word- crimes we hav commited, and what with Dumbledore's recent death, any slight relation to the Dark Arts will cause an uproar in the Ministry and they will send out even more Aurors to find us, even if they have to use there less experienced ones. They will over-welm us and we can't afford to give them the chance. Some dreadful news has come to my attention and I realize I only hav four Horcruxes left."
"Sir, what are Horcruxes?" Bellatrix Lestrange asked.
"They are a most prized possesion of mine," Voldemort said. "I am sure you all remember the steps I took to become immortal. Well, I had been searching the world for any information I could about these Horcruxes. I found out that a powerful Dark Wizard, like myself, can split his soul in half and place a part of it into any object tjhey desire. I, unable to live with just two peices, split my soul into seven pieces. It has come to my attention that two of my remaining six Horcuxes have been destroyed. I now rely on my reamainig four."
"But if you made seven, and two were destroyed, how come only four reamin?" Bellatrix asked.
"It's simple, really." Voldemort said. "When i was first thwarted by Harry Potter 15 years ago, one of my horcruxes was used up in order to keep me alive, even if I was lees then human. So I guess you can say three have been destroyed, leaving four unfound."
"But what do these Horcruxes look like, anyway?" Snape asked.
"The first one i decided to use was my very own diary," Voldemort said. "I spent half of my sixth year trying to find out as much as I could about Horcruxes. I found out that in order to depart with half of your soul, you must have to kill someone first. I killed a muggle girl that year when I found and opened the Chamber of Secrets. It was then that I departed with half my soul, sealing it away into my diary. I trusted Lucius with this diary, to hang onto until I should need it, but he failed. Like father like son, eh Draco?"
Malfoy looked both enraged and scared at the sound of his name.
"Lucius, it seems, gave my diary to the Weasley girl who discovered what the diary really was. I tricked this girl into opening the Chamber and setting Slytherin's monster loose again, but unfortionately, it was destroyed by Potter before another death could occur. The next one was my grandfather's ring. This ring was passed down from generation to generation in the Guant family line. I went back to my grandfather's house while in my sixth year of schooling and framed my uncle for the murder of my father. I stole the ring and, having just killed my father, departed with half of my soul again. I don't know yet how this one was found or who destroyed it, I just knoew it was. The remaining Horcruxes are destributed widely around the world."
"But, sir, what are the reaminig Horcruxes?" Bellatrix asked, looking frightened at her own nerve.
"The others," Voldemort continued, "were really hard to come by. You see, I searched the world looking for any artifacts I could of the four founders of Hogwarts. I found only two in my wide searches, but it doesn't matter now. I found Salazar Slytherin's locket in Borgin and Burkes while working there some years after leaving school. I killed the first Muggle I could find, eager to make more Horcruxes. Then, while on a task set to me by Mr. Borgin, I found a goblet that belonged to Helga Hufflepuff. I killed the old lady who owned the goblet and framed her house-elf."
"What are the reamaining two, sir?" Snape asked this time.
"I used my pet snake, Nagini, as a Horcrux. She is the most reliable one beacause she only listens to me, and it has never been attempted, putting part of your soul into a living creature. No one would ever suspect it."
"And the last one, sir?" a Death Eater near Snape asked.
"I thought that one would be obvious, at least now that you know what Horcruxes are," Voldemort said. "The last Horcrux is in fact Harry Potter."