Lucius stood silent, his form blending with the robes into the shadows. Not far ahead the ministries pathetic excuse for a stronghold was in lockdown. He didn't flinch when the fur brushed him, didn't twitch as the tiger became man.
"…All is well my lord?" Voldemort smiled, "…that depends, you have my wand?" the piece of wood passed hands silently. "Well done Lucius. Casualties, missing, other?" Lucius cleared his throat. "Thirty five, twelve, two." Voldemort nodded, "Other being?" The grey eyes sharpened. "…we believe they have betrayed us." An angry hiss… something moved in the distance. Voldemort held out his arm, and the large serpent slithered into the clearing and pooled about his feet.
"…Nagini will handle the traitors. … on other matters, we have not escaped it." Lucius cursed. "What does it want! What have we done!" Voldemort looked at him quietly. "…we started a war. Now it wants to use the chaos to overrun all. They will not be spared either, have no doubt of that."
He turned away, form blurring back into fur. Lucius cursed once more, but bent and changed. Tiger and cobra disappeared into the tree line, and the wind whispered madness, hunger, and death.
"Well, what was all this about?" Hermione bent and picked a stick from the ground. Her eyes wandered over the clearing once more. This was the easy part. When the battle was over, and she could wander the enemies campsite to see what remnants they had left. It had yielded clues in the past. (They left in a hurry, their attack had seemed desperate….) The torn remnants of walls and cloth hinted at a grab and run. (…what would have been enough cause, to flee onto enemy lines? What scared them so badly?) There was a strange space, not far from the deeper tree lines, it seemed some battle had taken place, like strong forces being blasted back and forth. The trees had been shattered, and the cracked trunks indicated that the breaking blow came from behind, but the wood had been tossed back at some speeds.
(This is getting stranger… but they were thorough this time, no papers, no notes, no nothing!)
"Hermione! Hermione come quick! He's escaped Hermione! The Aurors are dead! Harry's missing! Hermione!" Ron swooped down on Buckbeak, the hipogriph tossed his head and shrieked. "Escaped? Harry? Move over and let me on! Talk as we go! Tell me everything!" Ron scooted backward as she pulled herself on. Then the ground was falling away under the pound of powerful wings.
"I don't know everything! Here, Harry went to interrogate HIM, and you went your way and I mine, and then all of a sudden we're in lockdown, and theirs blood in the hallways, and the Aurors are dead, and no one can find Harry, and someone screams a giant cat just jumped over their head. The spells go everywhere… he got away." Hermione nodded. "His anamangus is a tiger, which was the big cat. Where was Harry seen last? Think hard Ron!"